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The article examines the ways in which the slowly evolving and invisible processes of the ongoing ecological crisis can be represented in the format of a contemporary serial television drama. The author argues that despite heavy reliance on spectacular and captivating character-born plots, the long-form storytelling of new television narratives can be well suited to representing the complex and un

BACKGROUND: Berry pomace is a valuable but little used by-product of juice manufacturing. When processed to a stable fruit powder, the composition differs from that of the whole fruit. To facilitate application in foods, a detailed knowledge of its composition and physicochemical properties is essential. RESULTS: Blackcurrant, redcurrant, chokeberry, rowanberry and gooseberry were selected for ana

Noise is a common exposure in the occupational work environment. Earlier studies of occupational noise and pregnancy outcome are few and show mixed results. To investigate if objectively assessed exposure to occupational noise during pregnancy is associated with reduced intrauterine growth and/or preterm birth a nationwide cohort study of 857,010 single births was initiated. Individual information

Image segmentation among overlapping land cover areas in satellite images is a very crucial task. Detection of belongingness is the important problem for classifying mixed pixels. This paper proposes an approach for pixel classification using a hybrid approach of Fuzzy C-Means and Cellular automata methods. This new unsupervised method is able to detect clusters using 2-Dimensional Cellular Automa

OBJECTIVE: To develop a new chronic RA model which is driven by the innate immune system.METHOD: The injection of a cocktail of four monoclonal antibodies against collagen type II followed by intra-peritoneal injections of mannan (from Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on days 5 and 60 led to the development of chronic arthritis in B10.Q mice. The role of the innate versus the adaptive immune system in th

A computer simulated microworld was used to study risk management in a critical infrastructure context. 36 students assumed the role of an electric distribution company Chief Executive Officer (CEO) making decision on how to spend resources between investments in risk reduction and other investments. We studied the effect of differences in terms of the incentives to invest in risk reduction and th

Performing risk assessments for hierarchical, multi-functional systems, such as a municipality, is an activity that requires input from a multitude of actors. In such systems risk assessments can be performed at many system levels and support different types of decisions. For issues that are constrained to a specific sub-system, such as a municipal department, decisions can be preferably taken at

Critical technical infrastructures constitute the backbone of society by providing essential services to vital societal functions and the community at large, hence it is of essence that these are resilient. Critical infrastructures, e.g. power systems, telecommunication systems and railway systems, are designed and operated based on different philosophies of where to put the resilience emphasis, r

BACKGROUND AND AIM Non-stop stair ascending at maximum speed is required to reach a safe refuge level from deep underground structures, such as subways and in high-rise buildings in an emergency evacuation situation. Endurance of stair climbing and identifying the time of the onset of leg’s local muscle fatigue (LMF) are interests in evacuation research. The objective of this laboratory study was

This paper summarizes and elaborates on some new results on the optimal absorption in small spherical suspensions based on electrophoretic (plasmonic) resonances and lossy surrounding media. The main application here is to study the physical limitations for radio frequency absorption in gold nanoparticle (GNP) suspensions and its potential to achieve GNP targeted hyperthermia in cancer therapy. Nu

Background: The absence of interleukin-25 (IL-25) favors the induction of Th1 and Th17 immune responses in mice. Th1 immune responses have been associated with the pathology of atherosclerosis, a lipid and inflammation driven disease of the arterial wall. Purpose of research: To evaluate the effect of IL-25 on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMCs) in the presence and absence of oxidize

It has become increasingly clear that the individual genetic background influences susceptibility to metal toxicity. Genetic variation in genes that regulate metal toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics influence the degree of metal accumulation and retention in the body, as well as toxic effects. Moreover, factors that regulate gene expression, so-called epigenetic factors, have been identified as tar

The University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Vermont Lung Center, in collaboration with the NHLBI, Alpha-1 Foundation, American Thoracic Society, European Respiratory Society, International Society for Cell Therapy, and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, convened a workshop, "Stem Cells and Cell Therapies in Lung Biology and Lung Diseases, " held July 29 to August 1, 2013 at the Universit

Context: Lynch syndrome (LS) is a cancer-predisposing syndrome caused by germline mutations in genes involved in DNA mismatch repair (MMR). Patients are at high risk for several types of cancer, but pituitary tumors have not previously been reported.Case: A 51-year-old man with LS (MSH2 mutation) and a history of colon carcinoma presented with severe Cushing disease and a locally aggressive pituit

Multiconfigurational second order perturbation theory was employed in order to describe the ground and excited states of negatively charged fullerenes C60 and fullerene dimers C120. The calculations were performed for all possible spin states. The obtained results can be used to understand the electronic structure of fullerides.

BACKGROUND: It is still not clear whether anastomotic leakage after anterior resection for rectal cancer affects long-term functional outcome. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate how anastomotic leakage following anterior resection for rectal cancer influences defecatory, urinary, and sexual function. DESIGN: In this retrospective population-based cohort study, patients were identified through

The β-catenin/Wnt signaling pathway plays an important role in all stages of T cell development. Nemo-like kinase (NLK) is an evolutionary conserved serine/threonine kinase and a negative regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway. NLK can directly phosphorylate histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), as well as T cell factor/lymphoid enhancer-binding factor (TCF/LEF), causing subsequent repression of target g

Imaging the spray formation region of atomizing sprays is particularly challenging due to the presence of a variety of irregular liquid structures such as ligaments, liquid blobs, droplets, liquid sheets and a possible liquid core. The number and concentration of those liquid bodies dictate the presence of liquid/air interfaces, which are responsible to undesired scattering effects. The resulting

Although the use of location-based data (location coupled with semantic information) within Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and from Earth Observation (e.g. satellite) sources has been long established for decision makers, this has only recently been reflected in the construction sector with a more recent move from Computer Aided Design (CAD) to Building Information Modelling. BIM has opene