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OBJECTIVES: Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is classified as a human carcinogen. Occupational Cr(VI) exposure can occur during different work processes, but the current exposure to Cr(VI) at Swedish workplaces is unknown.METHODS: This cross-sectional study (SafeChrom) recruited non-smoking men and women from 14 companies with potential Cr(VI) exposure (n = 113) and controls from 6 companies without C

Osmotic forces are important in regulating a number of physiological membrane processes. The effect of osmotic pressure on lipid phase behavior is of utmost importance for the extracellular lipids in stratum corneum (the outer part of human skin), due to the large gradient in water chemical potential between the water-rich tissue on the inside, and the relative dry environment on the outside of th

The photoactivity of rutile TiO2(110) renders its surfaces of particular interest for the study of surface reactions. In particular, rutile TiO2(110) surfaces are active for hydrogen production, both via the water splitting process and via ethanol degradation under ultraviolet illumination. The selective photocatalytic dehydrogenation of rutile TiO2(110) is not fully understood yet, and an importa

Optical properties of soot have been investigated with and without potassium chloride (KCl) salt added to the soot formation process in a premixed ethylene/air flame. A strong decrease in optical absorption efficiency of the soot was observed with increasing amounts of KCl added to the fuel based on the method of fluence curve analysis using laser-induced incandescence (LII). To understand the rea

The purpose of this work is to establish the critical surface conditions leading to the initiation of stress-corrosion cracks on the assupplied surfaces of three unidirectional E-glass/polymer composites with modified polyester, epoxy and vinyl ester resins subjected to a nitric acid solution without mechanical loads. The composite materials considered in this study are commonly used in composite

Supersonic gas turbulence is a ubiquitous property of the interstellar medium. The level of turbulence, quantified by the gas velocity dispersion (σg), is observed to increase with the star formation rate (SFR) of a galaxy, but it is yet not established whether this trend is driven by stellar feedback or gravitational instabilities. In this work, we carry out hydrodynamical simulations of entire d

Substructure coupling and model order reduction using Component Mode Synthesis (CMS) have, over recent years, gained considerable attention in the vibroacoustic analysis of complex structures. In the CMS methodology, the interior dynamics of each subcomponent in a substructured system are represented by a truncated set of normal modes within the lower frequency range, while all physical degrees of

In most non-fullerene organic solar cells comprising bulk-heterojunction active layers, the inter-domain connectivity of small-molecule acceptors is generally inferior to those of polymeric donors due to their intrinsic short-range ordering. This issue is even exacerbated by the physiochemical mismatch between acceptor-phases and metal-oxide electron transport layers in most inverted n-i-p devices

Oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP) are neurohypophyseal hormones with potent stimulatory actions on the uterus. In order to determine whether these hormones may have a paracrine action on the uterus, OT and VP gene expression was studied in myometrium from pregnant rats at gestational ages of 14 and 20 days, and from ovariectomized animals treated with oestradiol and progesterone. OT and VP mRNA c

Large-scale protein conformational motions on nanosecond – microsecond time scales are important for many biological processes, but remain largely unexplored because of methodological limitations. NMR relaxation methods can access these time scales if protein tumbling is prevented, but the isotropy required for high-resolution solution NMR is then lost. However, if the immobilized protein molecule

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has become widely adopted over the last 15 years and over 1000 peer reviewed publications are available describing its use. Despite this, there remains uncertainty regarding several aspects of usage. In order to respond to this gap a global expert panel was convened to develop evidence-based recommendations describing the use of NPWT. In this paper the result

High-energy proton- and deuteron-nucleus collisions provide an excellent tool for studying a wide array of physics effects, including modifications of parton distribution functions in nuclei, gluon saturation, and color neutralization and hadronization in a nuclear environment, among others. All of these effects are expected to have a significant dependence on the size of the nuclear target and th

Readouts that define the physiological distributions of drugs in tissues are an unmet challenge and at best imprecise, but are needed in order to understand both the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties associated with efficacy. Here we demonstrate that it is feasible to follow the in vivo transport of unlabeled drugs within specific organ and tissue compartments on a platform that appli

Background: Intolerance of uncertainly (IU), cognitive avoidance (CA) and positive beliefs about worry (PB) independently predict worry frequency in older adolescents and adults, and when targeted together in treatment produce significant reductions in both worry and anxiety in this age range. The present study addresses a gap in the literature by testing whether a cognitive model of excessive wor

In dynamic flexgrid optical networks, the usage of capacity may not be optimal due to the permanent process of setting up and tearing down connections, which, if not controlled, leads to spectrum fragmentation and, as a result, to increase of connection blocking. On top of this, a restoration mechanism that is launched in reaction to a link failure (cable cut) restores the affected lightpaths. Eve

The outcomes of the Fourth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction show that making cities and rural areas safe from disasters and climate change impacts and enhancing citizens' resilience is everybody's business and part of the larger sustainability challenge. Under the theme Resilient People, Resilient Planet', the session took place on 19-23 May 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. T

Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) has been genetically engineered to ferment the pentose sugar xylose present in lignocellulose biomass. One of the reactions controlling the rate of xylose utilization is catalyzed by xylose reductase (XR). In particular, the cofactor specificity of XR is not optimized with respect to the downstream pathway, and the reaction rate is insufficient for high xyl