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Reliable and cost-effective operation of structural systems over their service life depends on the implementation of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and maintenance activities, which influence operational costs, the expected costs of failure and downtime. Decision Value Analysis (DVA) provides a framework to quantify the value of such activities by evaluating their effect on total expected life
BACKGROUND: The filaggrin protein is important for skin barrier structure and function. Loss-of-function (null) mutations in the filaggrin gene FLG may increase dermal absorption of chemicals. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to clarify if dermal absorption of chemicals differs depending on FLG genotype. METHOD: We performed a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based
Background: Left ventricular longitudinal strain (LVLS) may be a sensitive indicator of left ventricular (LV) systolic function in patients with sepsis, but is dependent on high image quality and analysis software. Mitral annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE) and the novel left ventricular longitudinal wall fractional shortening (LV-LWFS) are bedside echocardiographic indicators of LV systolic
Many bacteria can interfere with how antibodies bind to their surfaces. This bacterial antibody targeting makes it challenging to predict the immunological function of bacteria-associated antibodies. The M and M-like proteins of group A streptococci (GAS) exhibit IgGFc-binding regions, which they use to reverse IgG binding orientation depending on the host environment. Unraveling the mechanism beh
Within-plant variation in seed size may merely reflect developmental instability, or it may be adaptive in facilitating diversifying bet-hedging, that is, production of phenotypically diverse offspring when future environments are unpredictable. To test the latter hypothesis, we analyzed patterns of variation in seed size in 11 populations of the perennial vine Dalechampia scandens grown in a comm
Objective: The study aim was to cross-culturally adapt the Self-reported Foot and Ankle Score (SEFAS) into Spanish and French-language versions, to validate them and to evaluate their psychometric properties. Methods: The cross-cultural translation from the original SEFAS into French and Spanish was performed in accordance with the guidelines of the ISPOR. The participants were recruited from some
Phagocytosis is measured as a functional outcome in many research fields, but accurate quantification can be challenging, with no robust method available for cross-laboratory reproducibility. In this study, we identified a simple, measurable parameter, persistent prey-phagocyte association, to use for normalization and dose-response analysis. We apply this in a straightforward analytical method, p
Purpose: To meet the rising global needs, the humanitarian community has signed off on making a strategic change toward more localisation, which commonly refers to the empowerment of national and local actors in humanitarian assistance. However, to this date, actual initiatives for localisation are rare. To enhance understanding of the phenomenon, the authors explore localisation of logistics prep
Grasslands are a prerequisite for rearing livestock, and livestock is the mainstay of people’s existence in drylands. As one Kenyan woman put it, “without grass there is no livestock, without livestock there is no life.” Based in the lowlands of Baringo County in Kenya’s Rift Valley, RAE (Rehabilitating Arid Environments) Ltd. has worked for 38 years to develop a successful socio-ecological model
Childhood obesity is a serious public health problem in Mexico. In this study, childhoodspecific dietary patterns and their relationship with overweight-obesity prevalence, nutrient profiles and types of foods consumed were studied. A descriptive cross-sectional study of 724 randomly selected schoolchildren between 9 to 12 years old from Nayarit State, Mexico was performed. Data on anthropometric
The reduction of public expenditure and investments in health care provisioning calls for new, sustainable models to transform the increasing aging population and dementia-related diseases incidence from global challenges into new opportunities. In this context, Information and Communication Technologies play a vital role, to both promote aging in place and home management of Patients with Dementi
The main objective of the study was to investigate the thermal performance of five (open and closed) bicycle helmets for convective and evaporative heat transfer using a nine-zone thermal manikin. The shape of the thermal manikin was obtained by averaging the 3D-point coordinates of the head over a sample of 85 head scans of human subjects, obtained through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 3D-
Human milk fat is a concentrated source of energy and provides essential and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. According to previous experiments, human milk fat is partially lost during continuous enteral nutrition. However, these experiments were done over relatively short infusion times, and a complete profile of the lost fatty acids was never measured. Whether this loss happens considerin
This dissertation looks into surrogate safety measures and behavioural indicators that are collected through site-based observations. Surrogate safety measures are defined as measurements that are used to describe the relationship between two road users in a traffic event for the purpose of quantifying the crash probability and/or the potential crash severity in a meaningful way. The main goal of
Social interactions are rarely random. In some instances, animals exhibit homophily or heterophily, the tendency to interact with similar or dissimilar conspecifics, respectively. Genetic homophily and heterophily influence the evolutionary dynamics of populations, because they potentially affect sexual and social selection. Here, we investigate the link between social interactions and allele freq
Satb1 and the closely related Satb2 proteins regulate gene expression and higher-order chromatin structure of multigene clusters in vivo. In examining the role of Satb proteins in murine embryonic stem (ES) cells, we find that Satb1-/- cells display an impaired differentiation potential and augmented expression of the pluripotency determinants Nanog, Klf4, and Tbx3. Metastable states of self-renew
Zinc (Zn) is an essential micronutrient but may become toxic when present in excess. In Zn-contaminated environments, trees can be protected from Zn toxicity by their root-associated micro-organisms, in particular ectomycorrhizal fungi. The mechanisms of cellular Zn homeostasis in ectomycorrhizal fungi and their contribution to the host tree's Zn status are however not yet fully understood. The ai
During the communist dictatorship, police and detectivistic literature was an amphibious species, and had to hide rather than to embrace courageous assumptions. In the multilateral developed socialism (for communism has never been reached), criminals and criminals were urgently annihilated and then exposed to public atrocities. All the strategy based on the propaganda for the ideological success,
Background: There is conflicting observational data on the survival benefit cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) in patients with LVADs. Methods: Patients in whom an LVAD was implanted between January 2008 and April 2017 in the multinational Trans-Atlantic Registry on VAD and Transplant (TRAViATA) registry were separated into four groups based on the presence of CIED prior to LVAD implant
Specific features of white matter microstructure can be investigated by using biophysical models to interpret relaxation-diffusion MRI brain data. Although more intricate models have the potential to reveal more details of the tissue, they also incur time-consuming parameter estimation that may converge to inaccurate solutions due to a prevalence of local minima in a degenerate fitting landscape.
