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Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are highly prevalent complex diseases that result from lifestyle and genetic factors. Gene-lifestyle interactions are also believed to contribute to the etiology of these diseases. The aim of this thesis was to investigate gene-lifestyle interactions using the strongest T2D and CVD susceptibility genetic loci and to understand the causal natur
Chromosomal instability is a known hallmark of many cancers. DNA polymerases represent a group of enzymes that are involved in the mechanism of chromosomal instability as they have a central function in DNA metabolism. We hypothesized that genetic variation in the polymerase genes may affect gene expression or protein configuration and by that cancer risk and clinical outcome. We selected four gen
This paper presents a 1MHz bandwidth, ΔƩ fractional-N PLL as the frequency synthesizer for LTE. A noise cancellation path composed of a novel hybrid ΔƩ DAC with 9 output bits is incorporated into the PLL in order to cancel the out-of-band phase noise caused by the quantization error. Further, a re-timing circuit is proposed to reduce the nonlinearity in the Charge Pump and provide pulse shaping si
Most wastewater treatment plants contain an activated sludge process, which consists of a biological reactor and a sedimentation tank. The purpose is to reduce the incoming organic material and dissolved nutrients (the substrate). This is done in the biological reactor where micro-organisms (the biomass) decompose the substrate. The biomass is then separated from the water in the sedimentation tan
BACKGROUND: Optimal treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma requires multidisciplinary management at a sarcoma center. However, these rare tumors are often misinterpreted as benign and many are inadequately treated outside a sarcoma center, with an increased risk of local recurrence that often requires further extensive surgical treatment. To improve referral and centralization of soft-tissue sarcoma man
The brown tail moth (BTM) Euproctis chrysorrhoea (Linnaeus 1758) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) is a forest and ornamental pest in Europe and the United States. Its extreme polyphagy, and documented phenological shift associated with host use suggest the presence of distinct host-races. To test this hypothesis, we sampled BTM infesting different host species in several locations along its distribution, a
We carried out a trans-ancestry genome-wide association and replication study of blood pressure phenotypes among up to 320,251 individuals of East Asian, European and South Asian ancestry. We find genetic variants at 12 new loci to be associated with blood pressure (P = 3.9 × 10(-11) to 5.0 × 10(-21)). The sentinel blood pressure SNPs are enriched for association with DNA methylation at multiple n
An economically sustainable process was developed for propionic acid production by fermentation of glycerol using Propionibacterium acidipropionici and potato juice, a by-product of starch processing, as a nitrogen/vitamin source. The fermentation was done as high-cell-density sequential batches with cell recycle. Propionic acid production and glycerol consumption rates were dependent on initial b
This study aims to evaluate the direct effects of anthropogenic deforestation on simulated climate at two contrasting periods in the Holocene, similar to 6 and similar to 0.2 k BP in Europe. We apply We apply the Rossby Centre regional climate model RCA3, a regional climate model with 50 km spatial resolution, for both time periods, considering three alternative descriptions of the past vegetation
Budburst models have mainly been developed to capture the processes of individual trees, and vary in their complexity and plant physiological realism. We evaluated how well eleven models capture the variation in budburst of birch and Norway spruce in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Finland. The comparison was based on the models performance in relation to their underlying physiological as
This study examines whether neighbourhood deprivation increases the risk of hospitalization for childhood asthma, after accounting for individual-level maternal socio-demographic characteristics.
Mass and angular distributions of dijets produced in LHC proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy root s = 7TeV have been studied with the ATLAS detector using the full 2011 data set with an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb(-1). Dijet masses up to similar to 4.0TeV have been probed. No resonance-like features have been observed in the dijet mass spectrum, and all angular distributions ar
The purpose of this study was to determine long-term risk factors for substance-induced and primary psychosis after release from prison.
The genes encoding human manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) and Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) were fused inframe to generate a bifunctional enzyme that possessed MnSOD and peroxidase-like activities. At neutral pH, the coupling of the SOD and peroxidase reactions revealed that the bifunctional enzyme exhibited a 2.5 times shorter transient period and a 1.67 times higher reaction rate at steady
A detailed study has been made of soot growth in two premixed flat ethylene/air flames, at I broken vertical bar = 2.1 and I broken vertical bar = 2.3, where focus has been on following the change in optical properties from nascent to more mature soot, and the importance of these properties for laser-induced incandescence (LII). A combination of two-color LII (2C-LII) and elastic light scattering
During the last 20 years, several regions in Central America and Mexico have seen a dramatic increase of a rapidly progressive chronic kidney disease, unexplained by diabetes and hypertension.(1-3) This regional epidemic of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu) is also being referred to as the Mesoamerican nephropathy or MeN.(4) It has been estimated that this largely unknown epidemic ha
A combined two-cell reaction system containing Gluconobacter oxydans and Ralstonia eutropha was evaluated with regard to asymmetric ketone reduction using H(2) as the reductant. Whole cells permeabilized by EDTA/toluene were used, and synthesis was performed in a biphasic aqueous/organic reaction medium. The two-cell system was compared with a system in which G. oxydans alone was used for both ket
