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One of the central tenets in life-history theory is that there is a trade-off between current and future reproduction (i.e. a cost of reproduction). The mechanism for this cost of reproduction is, however, largely unknown. One hypothesis is that the high workload during reproduction compromises resistance to parasites and that the resulting increase in parasitaemia has negative effects on the pros

Mass, heat and momentum transport processes are coupled with catalytic chemical reactions in a methane steam reforming duct. it is often found that endothermic and exothermic reactions in the ducts are strongly integrated by heat transfer from adjacent catalytic combustion ducts. In this paper, a three-dimensional calculation method is developed to simulate and analyze reforming reactions of metha

In this work, we present a ridged, microfabricated, force sensor that can be used to investigate mechanical interactions between cells exhibiting contact guidance and the underlying cell culture substrate, and a proof-of-function evaluation of the force sensor performance. The substrates contain arrays of vertical pillars between solid ridges that were microfabricated in silicon wafers using photo

This article by the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition summarizes available information on the effects of adding prebiotic oligosaccharides to infant and follow-on formulae. Currently there are only limited studies evaluating prebiotic substances in dietetic products for infants. Although administration of prebiotic oligosaccharides has the potential to increase the total number of bifidobacteria in f

The aim of this study was to optimize the use of BMD measurements in case finding strategies. The use of clinical risk factors with and without BMD was explored in a random sample of the Sheffield female population greater than or equal to75 years of age. The use of clinical risk factors alone could identify women well above or well below a threshold of fracture risk. BMD assessment can be confine

Objectives Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent form of arthritis and accounts for substantial morbidity and disability, particularly in older people. It is characterised by changes in joint structure, including degeneration of the articular cartilage, and its aetiology is multifactorial with a strong postulated genetic component. Methods A meta-analysis was performed of four genome-wide asso

The ideal free distribution (IFD) model predicts that consumers match the distribution of resources across habitat patches and that this association should lead to equal individual fitness among individuals in a population. Here we studied to what extent predators utilize different prey groups and if the resulting spatial patterns relate to the reproductive success of individuals in a population o

Background: Laboratory evolution is an important tool for developing robust yeast strains for bioethanol production since the biological basis behind combined tolerance requires complex alterations whose proper regulation is difficult to achieve by rational metabolic engineering. Previously, we reported on the evolved industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain ISO12 that had acquired improved tole

Community screening to guide preventive interventions for acute aortic disease has been recommended in high-risk individuals. We sought to prospectively assess risk factors in the general population for aortic dissection (AD) and severe aneurysmal disease in the thoracic and abdominal aorta.

A novel method for lactose determination in milk is proposed. It is based on oxidation of lactose by cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) from the basidiomycete Phanerochaete chrysosporium, immobilised in an enzyme reactor. The reactor was prepared by cross-linking CDH onto aminopropyl-silanised controlled pore glass (CPG) beads using glutaraldehyde. The combined biosensor worked in flow injection analy

Background and Aim Climate change models are limited by lack of baseline data, in particular carbon (C) allocation to - and dynamics within - soil microbial communities. We quantified seasonal C-assimilation and allocation by plants, and assessed how well this corresponds with intraradical arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) storage and structural lipids (16: 1 omega 5 NLFA and PLFA, respectively)

Background To evaluate the effects of a case management intervention for frail older people (aged 65+ years) by cost and utility. Materials and methods One hundred and fifty-three frail older people living at home were randomly assigned to either an intervention (n = 80) or a control group (n = 73). The 1-year intervention was carried out by nurses and physiotherapists working as case managers, w

In recent years, smog has become one of greatest challenges in China and many other countries. However, there are limited attentions of measuring public environment awareness of air pollution and the relations between public environmental awareness and smog prevention in a Chinese context. This study was designed to investigate the facts of public environmental awareness in a typical city of China

A dye-binding method using Acid Orange 12 was investigated regarding its suitability for the quantification of available lysine, as a means of monitoring the Maillard reaction in skim milk powders. The method was evaluated by analyzing a wide range of milk powders produced by three different drying methods and stored under various conditions. A pilot-scale freeze-dryer, spray-dryer and drum-dryer

We present a Bayesian ideal observer model that estimates observer translation and rotation from optic flow and an extra-retinal eye movement signal. The model assumes a rigid environment and noise in velocity measurements, and that eye movement provides a probabilistic cue for rotation. The model can simulate human heading perception across a range of conditions, including: translation with simul

A search for a fermiophobic Higgs boson using diphoton events produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV is performed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb(-1) collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. A specific benchmark model is considered where all the fermion couplings to the Higgs boson are set to zero and

The presence of different time scales in a dynamic model significantly hampers the efficiency of its simulation. In multibody systems the fact is particularly relevant, as the mentioned time scales may be very different, due for example to the coexistence of mechanical components controlled by electronic drive units, and may also appear in conjunction with significant nonlinearities. This paper pr

Most distributed optimization methods used for distributed model predictive control (DMPC) are gradient based. Gradient based optimization algorithms are known to have iterations of low complexity. However, the number of iterations needed to achieve satisfactory accuracy might be significant. This is not a desirable characteristic for distributed optimization in distributed model predictive contro