In this paper, NaCl pellets are produced in-house from ordinary household salt using simple and accessible methods, for the purpose of suggesting a cost-effective and available tool for various optically stimulated luminescence dosimetry applications. First, the pellets are investigated in terms of optimal configuration by varying combinations of grain sizes and compression forces. Then, the pelle

Register-based studies have indicated that men with impaired fertility are at higher risk for developing various adult-onset diseases than fertile men. The majority of men undergoing ICSI treatment are sub-fertile and since they are in contact with the health care system, these men are well suited as target for preventive measures. Our study included all men (N = 459 766) who had fathered children

Inflammation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). We here investigate levels of inflammatory biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in PD and atypical parkinsonian disorders (APD) compared with neurologically healthy controls. We included 131 patients with PD and 27 PD with dementia (PDD), 24 with multiple system atrophy (MSA), 14 with progressive supranuclear pals

Alpha 2-macroglobulin (A2M) is a protease inhibitor that has been reported to neutralize thrombin, which may decrease the risk of thrombosis. A 5-base pairs (bp) insertion/deletion polymorphism (rs3832852) at the splice acceptor site of exon 18 has been shown to affect the binding of A2M with proteases. However, the role of this important variant in A2M in recurrent VTE is unknown. We investigated

A flamelet tabulation method for partially premixed flames is proposed, in which partially premixed flamelets are incorporated as the archetypal flamelet elements. This method considers triple flame structures with both the partial premixing of fuel in the oxidizer side and the partial premixing of oxidizer in the fuel side, by replacing the pure-air and pure-fuel in the counterflow diffusion flam

Programming robots for tasks involving force interaction is difficult, since both the knowledge of the task and the dynamics of the robots are necessary. An immersive haptic interface for task demonstration is proposed, where theoperator can sense and act through the robot. This is achieved by coupling two robotic systems with virtual constraints such that they have the same coordinates in the ope

To compare clonal evolution in tumors arising through different mechanisms, we selected three types of sarcoma—amplicon-driven well-differentiated liposarcoma (WDLS), gene fusion-driven myxoid liposarcoma (MLS), and sarcomas with complex genomes (CXS)—and assessed the dynamics of chromosome and nucleotide level mutations by cytogenetics, SNP array analysis and whole-exome sequencing. Here we show

The Chinese government has launched a guideline to lead power plants to more suitable technological pathways for meeting the strict “ultra-low emission” (“ULE”) standards to reduce air pollution emissions of the coal-fired power industry. Considering the complex interrelations between water, energy and emission, a quantifiable method of choosing the feasible technology sets for 6 multi-objective o

Multilayer graphene has exhibited distinct electronic properties such as the tunable bandgap for optoelectronic applications. Among all graphene growth techniques, thermal decomposition of SiC is regarded as a promising method for production of device-quality graphene. However, it is still very challenging to grow uniform graphene over a large-area, especially multilayer graphene. One of the main

The hydration and ion pair structure of Cl− ion in aqueous cesium chloride solutions at 0.5, 6 and 11 mol/kg (H2O) has been studied using Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) at the Cl K-edge. The co-refinement of multiple EXAFS datasets shows that the hydration structure of the free Cl− ion is consistent with previously reported studies. In concentrated solution the Cl− ion is strongl

The plant shoot apical meristem holds a stem cell niche from which all aerial organs originate. Using a computational approach we show that a mixture of monomers and heterodimers of the transcription factors WUSCHEL and HAIRY MERISTEM is sufficient to pattern the stem cell niche, and predict that immobile heterodimers form a regulatory “pocket” surrounding the stem cells. The model achieves to rep

Groucho related gene 5 (GRG5) is a multifunctional protein that has been implicated in late embryonic and postnatal mouse development. Here, we describe a previously unknown role of GRG5 in early developmental stages by analyzing its function in stem cell fate decisions. By both loss and gain of function approaches we demonstrate that ablation of GRG5 deregulates the Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) plur

Hydrophobic pervaporation has been shown to be a promising, alternative process for the recovery of volatile organic components from their aqueous solutions, such as the recovery of aroma compounds in the food industry. Until now most of the research on the influence of operating parameters on aroma recovery by pervaporation has been conducted on the laboratory scale. The number of studies dealing

In the context of future climate change, the flush of CO2 emissions from soils after drying-rewetting events could have a strong impact on the terrestrial carbon balance. Mixed forests may be more resistant and resilient to drought events compared to monocultures, and as such may modulate the effects of drought on soil functioning belowground. We investigated the influence of mixed planting and dr

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by a low-grade inflammation; however, mechanisms leading to this inflammation in specific tissues are not well understood. The eye can be affected by diabetes; thus, we hypothesized that inflammatory changes in the eye may parallel the inflammation that develops with diabetes. Here, we developed a non-invasive means to monitor the status of inflammatory de