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Renin from plasma, kidney, and recombinant sources was previously demonstrated to cleave C3 to C3a and C3b. C3a was generated at a similar rate to that by C3 convertase, and C3 cleavage was inhibited by the renin inhibitor aliskiren. Renin endogenously produced by Calu6 cells also led to C3 deposition on cells. These results have been challenged by another group suggesting that recombinant renin d
High latitude mires are key ecosystems in the context of climate change since they store large amounts of carbon while constituting an important natural source of methane (CH4). However, while a growing number of studies have investigated methane fluxes (FCH4) at the plot- (~1 m2) and ecosystem-scale (~0.1–0.5 km2) across the boreal biome, variations of FCH4 magnitudes and drivers at the mesoscale
In recent years, climate impact assessments of relevance to the agricultural and forestry sectors have received considerable attention. Current ecosystem models commonly capture the effect of a warmer climate on biomass production, but they rarely sufficiently capture potential losses caused by pests, pathogens and extreme weather events. In addition, alternative management regimes may not be inte
In many parts of the world regional economic integration has experienced a revival since the yearly 1990s. That is the reason that the African continent has been drawn and involved itself into this process. An imminent urge to diversify domestic economies has been coupled with the decision to move away from the import-substituting practices in favor of regional integration. West African region and
Boreal forests play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle and currently act as an important carbon sink. At the same time, these forests are increasingly affected by intensive forest management and a changing disturbance regime driven by climate change. Clear-cutting has been the dominant harvesting method in managed boreal forests, while wildfire, although rare over the last century in Sweden
In the ActivAbles and STARR projects we have developed interactive training tools for stroke survivors. A prototype system includes an interactive balance foam pad, feedback lamps and a step counting game app which all connect to a central server. The feedback is designed to be inclusive - designs are multimodal, and the setup is flexible and can easily be adapted. We describe the system and repor
Evacuation planning is an important activity in disaster management to reduce the effects of disasters on urban communities. It is regarded as a multi-objective optimization problem that involves conflicting spatial objectives and constraints in a decision-making process. Such problems are difficult to solve by traditional methods. However, metaheuristics methods have been shown to be proper solut
Non-healing wounds cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year, and result in large costs for society. A key reason for this is the prevalence of challenging bacterial infections, which may dramatically hinder wound healing. With resistance development among bacteria against antibiotics, this situation has deteriorated during the last couple of decades, pointing to an urgent need for new woun
Background: The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain unknown. Gene-searching efforts are well underway, but the identification of environmental risk factors is at least as important and should be a priority because some of them may be amenable to prevention or early intervention strategies. Genetically informative studies, particularly those employing the discordant monozygotic (MZ
Residential energy-related renovations have a high potential to reduce emissions. However, organizing such renovation is riddled with high transaction costs. In response, scholars and policymakers (e.g., European Commission) have advocated the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) concept to simplify house owners' access to complex renovation solution, but adoption of the concept remains slow. So far, research has
The future role of boreal forests in the global carbon cycle is uncertain given the rapid climate change in high latitudes. At the landscape scale, heterogeneity in stand age and land cover, contributions from terrestrial and aquatic fluxes, and harvest export may create complex carbon cycle-climate interactions. However, the integrated response of the net landscape carbon balance (NLCB) to inter-
Deposition of phosphorus (P) is important for the nutrient supply to forests and open land but also contributes to the eutrophication of surface waters. Deposition to open land can be measured as bulk deposition while deposition to forests cannot be measured directly, due to internal circulation of P within forest canopies. This study aimed to quantify the total deposition of P to open land and fo
Geomatics is a domain that has gained relevance and importance within the field of Architecture and the Built Environment. Typically, Geomatics education in Delft, Lund, Bochum, Leuven, and Zagreb was best characterised as lecture-based: traditional and relatively passive. This has changed fundamentally after March 2020. In this article, we analyse the development towards more active learning and
Background and objective Breathlessness is associated with higher rates of unplanned health service utilisation. We aimed to evaluate any associations between the severity of breathlessness limiting exertion (hereafter breathlessness), time between breathlessness recording and subsequent unplanned hospital admissions, and length of stay. Methods A retrospective cohort study of adults seen in gener
Background: Acute aortic syndrome (AAS) is a life-threatening condition reported as often misdiagnosed. Advancements in CT availability and diagnostic algorithms, including high-sensitivity troponin and D-dimer for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and pulmonary embolism (PE), may reduce AAS misdiagnosis, but the impact remains unclear. This study evaluated the incidence, characteristics, and clinical
Effective environmental policies for the tropics depend on accurate, representative scientific data. However, there is strong evidence from particular disciplines and regions that existing research is patchily distributed. Here, we show that poor representation of sampling and citation in some biomes and across key environmental gradients from all disciplines for the entire tropics may lead to fla
Soil erosion poses a significant environmental challenge in Dehradun due to its complex, steep terrain, heavy rainfall, and rapid urbanization. This study employed a Google Earth Engine-based approach to assess the average soil loss annually using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). The analysis used various factors, including rainfall-runoff erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K), slop
