In this study, 1,833 systemic sclerosis (SSc) cases and 3,466 controls were genotyped with the Immunochip array. Classical alleles, amino acid residues, and SNPs across the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region were imputed and tested. These analyses resulted in a model composed of six polymorphic amino acid positions and seven SNPs that explained the observed significant associations in the region

Steric stabilization of colloids forms a robust mechanism to obtain colloids that are stable in a variety of environments, and that can be used to study the phase behavior of hard or soft spheres. We report the synthesis of sterically stabilized colloids in an aqueous environment using readily dissolvable surfactants, with an unsaturated hydrophobic tail. We synthesized a new surfactant by esterif

The climate effects downwind of an urban area resulting from gaseous and particulate emissions within the city are as yet inadequately quantified. The aim of this work was to estimate these effects for Malmo city in southern Sweden (population 280 000). The chemical and physical particle properties were simulated with a model for Aerosol Dynamics, gas phase CHEMistry and radiative transfer calcula

Unique measurements of vertical size-resolved aerosol particle concentrations, trace gas concentrations and meteorological data were obtained during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS, www.ascos.se), an International Polar Year project aimed at establishing the processes responsible for formation and evolution of low-level clouds over the high Arctic summer pack ice. The experiment was con

The O-arm system is a mobile intraoperative imaging system that is comprised of fluoroscopy and cone beam CT. The configuration of the O-arm system with absence of patient table and a broad beam width (165 mm in isocenter) brings new practical and physical requirements on how to perform dose measurements. The purpose of this study was to describe a method that overcomes this and makes it possible

Grid adaptation in two-point boundary value problems is usually based on mapping a uniform auxiliary grid to the desired nonuniform grid. Here we combine this approach with a new control system for constructing a grid density function I center dot(x). The local mesh width Delta x (j + 1/2) = x (j + 1) -aEuro parts per thousand x (j) with 0 = x (0) < x (1) < ... < x (N) = 1 is computed as Delta x (

BackgroundStandardised mortality ratio (SMR) is a common quality indicator in critical care and is the ratio between observed mortality and expected mortality. Typically, in-hospital mortality is used to derive SMR, but the use of a time-fixed, more objective, end-point has been advocated. This study aimed to determine the relationship between in-hospital mortality and 30-day mortality on a compre

This work compares the extent of linear response regimes from standard time-resolving optical detectors for phosphor thermometry. Different types of Photomultipliers (ordinary and time-gated) as well as an Avalanche Photodiode are tested and compared using the phosphorescent time decay of CdWO4 that ranges from 10 mu s down to a few ns within a temperature span of 290 to 580 K. Effects originating

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) employs various strategies to modulate host immune responses to facilitate its persistence in macrophages. The Mtb cell wall contains numerous glycoproteins with unknown role in pathogenesis. Here, by using concavalinA and LC-MS analysis we identified a novel mannosylated glycoprotein phosphoribosyl- transferase, encoded by the Rv3242c, from Mtb cell walls. Homolog

Protein stabilization was achieved through in vivo screening based on the thermodynamic linkage between protein folding and fragment complementation. The split GFP system was found suitable to derive protein variants with enhanced stability due to the correlation between effects of mutations on the stability of the intact chain and the effects of the same mutations on the affinity between fragment

A process for the production of high bioethanol titre was established through fed-batch and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (FB-SSF) of wild, non-edible cassava Manihot glaziovii. FB-SSF allowed fermentation of up to 390g/L of starch-derived glucose achieving high bioethanol concentration of up to 190g/L (24% v/v) with yields of around 94% of the theoretical value. The wild cassava

We have post-compressed 25 fs (Fourier limit) amplified pulses in an argon-filled hollow-core fiber. The output pulses were compressed using a pair of wedges and chirped mirrors down to 4.5 fs (Fourier limit of 4.1 fs), which corresponds to less than two optical cycles. We then performed the characterization of the pulses by combining the d-scan and the STARFISH techniques. The temporal (and spect

While steric crowders tend to stabilize globular proteins, it has been found that protein crowders can have an either stabilizing or destabilizing effect, where a destabilization may arise from nonspecific attractive interactions between the test protein and the crowders. Here, we use Monte Carlo replica-exchange methods to explore the equilibrium behavior of the miniprotein trp-cage in the presen

This paper analyzes the relationship between three dimensions (economic, social, and political) of globalization and life expectancy using a panel of 92 countries covering the 1970–2005 period. Using different estimation techniques and sample groupings, we find that economic globalization has a robust positive effect on life expectancy, even when controlling for income, nutritional intake, literac