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The compelling images and promises attached to autonomous drive vehicles can easily create an impression that one can speak of a radical distinction between a self-driving future and a manual-driving present. Yet today’s drivers can already refer to their everyday driving as being experienced as though on ‘auto-pilot’, in which they are able to drive their cars while lost in things such as daydrea
Water resources are under increasing pressure, and there are tensions between increasing demand and the natural limits to potable water supply. Authorities must find solutions that fulfil societal demands without compromising environmental integrity. As one way to counteract water deficits, desalination has evolved as an attractive solution. This technology is contested and associated with a varie
Background: Data commentary, in-text comments on the visual presentation of data, is acknowledged as a central aspect of academic writing in many engineering disciplines. At the same time, it is a feature that it has been shown to be challenging for students. One of the genres in which data commentary plays a significant role in many engineering disciplines is the master’s thesis. Comparatively li
The impact of sample crushing on the detected porosity of hardened cement pastes by low temperature calorimetry (LTC) was studied using powder and cylinder samples. Two types of cements, CEM I and CEM III were used to prepare the pastes. A model porous material, MCM-41, was also used in order to investigate some aspects of the measurement and the evaluation approach. The powder and cylinder sample
Basidiomycota fungi in the order Polyporales are specified to decomposition of dead wood and woody debris and thereby are crucial players in the degradation of organic matter and cycling of carbon in the forest ecosystems. Polyporales wood-decaying species comprise both white rot and brown rot fungi, based on their mode of wood decay. While the white rot fungi are able to attack and decompose all
It has been proven that partially premixed combustion (PPC) has the capability of high combustion efficiency with low soot and NOx emissions, which meet the requirements of increasingly restricted emission regulations. In order to obtain more homogenous combustion and longer ignition delay in PPC, different fuel injection strategies were employed which could affect the fuel air mixing and control
The kinetics of oxygen reduction by Desulfovibrio salexigens Mast1 and the role of polyglucose in this activity were examined and compared with those of strains of D. desulfuricans and D. gigas. Oxidation rates were highest at air saturation (up to 40 nmol of O2min−1 mg of protein−1) and declined with decreasing oxygen concentrations. Studies with cell extracts (CE) indicated that NADH oxidase was
Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) can achieve zero exhaust emission and zero pollution. In order to make FCEV reach a farther travel distance, greater demands are put on its pressure reducing system. In this paper, a two-step high pressure reducing system for FCEV is proposed. The system is made up of two parts, a new high multi-stage pressure reducing valve (HMSPRV) and a multi-stage muf
Ocean thermal energy refers to the thermal potential energy produced by the temperature difference between the warm surface seawater and the cold deep seawater. In this paper, a siphon flash evaporation desalination system using ocean thermal energy is proposed. Because it can utilize the ocean thermal energy directly for desalination, siphon flash evaporation desalination system has relatively hi
From experience, it has been well known that the performance of IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks significantly drops in dense settings, largely driven by poor capacity of the medium access control (MAC) layer. The current 802.11 MAC mechanism utilizes a contention window (CW) for random access, and the CW size is dictated to take discrete values from a bounded finite set. In this paper, wi
Frataxin is a highly conserved protein found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It is involved in several central functions in cells, which include iron delivery to biochemical processes, such as heme synthesis, assembly of iron-sulfur clusters (ISC), storage of surplus iron in conditions of iron overload, and repair of ISC in aconitase. Frataxin from different organisms has been shown to undergo
The effects of fuel properties on the performance and emissions of an engine running in partially premixed combustion mode were investigated using nine test fuels developed in the gasoline boiling point range. The fuels covered a broad range of ignition quality and fuel chemistry.The fuels were characterized by performing a load sweep between 1 and 12 bar gross IMEP at 1000 and 1300 rpm. A heavy d
Background: Research suggests that humans have the tendency to increase the valence of events when these are imagined to happen in the future, but to decrease the valence when the same events are imagined to happen in the past. This line of research, however, has mostly been conducted by asking participants to value imagined, yet probable, events. Our aim was to re-examine this time-valence asymme
The aim of this study was an in-depth investigation of the change process experienced by patients undergoing bariatric surgery. A prospective interview study was performed prior to as well as 1 and 2 years after surgery. Data analyses of the transcribed interviews were performed by means of the Grounded Theory method. A core category was identified: Wishing for deburdening through a sustainable co
The cellular mechanisms underlying hereditary photoreceptor degeneration are still poorly understood, a problem that is exacerbated by the enormous genetic heterogeneity of this disease group. However, the last decade has yielded a wealth of new knowledge on degenerative pathways and their diversity. Notably, a central role of cGMP-signalling has surfaced for photoreceptor cell death triggered by
In this work, we investigate production of Drell-Yan (DY) pairs in proton-nucleus collisions in kinematic regions where the corresponding coherence length does not exceed the nuclear radius, RA, and the quantum coherence effects should be treated with special care. The results for the nucleus-to-nucleon production ratio available in the literature so far are usually based on the assumption of a ve
A reliable phylogenetic reconstruction of the evolutionary history of contemporary species depends on a robust identification of the universal common ancestor (UCA) at the root of the Tree of Life (ToL). That root polarizes the tree so that the evolutionary succession of ancestors to descendants is discernable. In effect, the root determines the branching order and the direction of character evolu
Background: Effective digestive enzymes are crucial for successful islet isolation. Supplemental proteases are essential because they synergize with collagenase for effective pancreatic digestion. The activity of these enzymes is critically dependent on the presence of Ca2+ ions at a concentration of 5–10 mM. The present study aimed to determine the Ca2+ concentration during human islet isolation
Wind power is seen by many observers as an important part of the transition to a sustainable energy system, since it does not contribute to the environmental problems connected with dominating energy forms such as fossil fuel, nuclear power and large-scale hydro power. At the same time wind power has some characteristics that makes it a special challenge for land use planning. In Sweden, where win
