The impact of climate change on the deterioration of reinforced concrete elements have been frequently highlighted as worthy of investigation. This article addresses this important issue by presenting a time-variant reliability analysis to assess the effect of climate change on four limit states; the probabilities of corrosion initiation, crack initiation, severe cracking, and failure of a simply

Background: Hypertension remains a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We hypothesize that appropriate mechanotransduction and contractile function in vascular smooth muscle cells are crucial to maintain vascular wall integrity. The Hippo pathway effectors YAP (yes-associated protein 1) and TAZ (WW domain containing transcription re

Objective. Experimental determination of beam quality k Q factors for two types of Farmer ionization chambers, NE2571 and IBA FC65-G, in a scanned proton beam for three nominal energies (140 MeV, 180 MeV and 220 MeV) based on water calorimetry. Approach. Beam quality correction factors were determined comparing the results obtained with water calorimetry and ionometry. Water calorimetry was perfor

Neurotensin (NT) is a small peptide with pleiotropic functions, exerting its primary actions by controlling food intake and energy balance. The first evidence of an involvement of NT in metabolism came from studies on the central nervous system and brain circuits, where NT acts as a neurotransmitter, producing different effects in relation to the specific region involved. Moreover, newer interesti

Pharmaceutical companies regularly fund patient organisations. It is important for patient organisations’ credibility that there should be transparency regarding this financial support. In Europe, the pharmaceutical industry promises to deliver transparency through self-regulation, as opposed to legally binding provisions, but self-regulation’s effectiveness is contested. We compared the industry’

Parent-of-origin effects (POE) and sex-specific parental effects have been reported for plasma lipid levels, and a strong relationship exists between dyslipidemia and obesity. We aim to explore whether genetic variants previously reported to have an association to lipid traits also show POE on blood lipid levels and obesity. Families from the Botnia cohort and the Hungarian Transdanubian Biobank (

Background and Purpose: Clinicians will increasingly encounter adult patients who were born preterm and will need to understand their long-term sequelae. Adult survivors of preterm birth have been reported to have increased risks of hypertension and other stroke risk factors. However, their stroke risks have seldom been examined and the findings are discrepant, possibly due to small sample sizes,

Antibiotics are considered to be among the most frequent causes of drug-related acute liver injury (ALI). Although many ALIs have mild and reversible clinical outcomes, there is substantial risk of severe reactions leading to acute liver failure, need for liver transplant, and death. Recent studies have raised concerns of hepatotoxic potential related to the use of fluoroquinolones.MethodsThis stu

The composition of enclosure materials used in many TV sets sold on the European market has changed significantly since the early 1990s. To determine the potential impact of this change on TV fire safety, a review of European and US TV set fire statistics has been carried out. TV set fires can have internal electrical causes due to faults not apparent at the time of manufacture, simple wear and te

BACKGROUND: The literature on how to communicate reform in organizations has mainly focused on levels of hierarchy and has largely ignored the variety of professions that may be found within an organization. In this study, we focus on the relationship between media type and professional responses.OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate whether and how belonging to a profession in

This article contributes to ongoing discussions about frailty and vulnerability in critical gerontology by asserting that possibilities to engage and enact influence in everyday life situations is a crucial dimension of democracy in later life. We discuss how democracy in this sense can be threatened for older persons for whom health and social care services are needed, following from the labellin

Olanzapine and quetiapine are routinely used off-label at lower doses, though it remains unclear whether treatment is associated with mortality. Here, we examined the associations between low-dose olanzapine/quetiapine, defined as 5 mg/day of olanzapine equivalents (OE) with cardiometabolic mortality in a population-based, longitudinal cohort of individuals who sought specialized psychiatric servi

Activatable fluorescent probes have been successfully used as molecular tools for biomedical research in the last decades. Fluorescent probes allow the detection of molecular events, providing an extraordinary platform for protein and cellular research. Nevertheless, most of the fluorescent probes reported are susceptible to interferences from endogenous fluorescence (background signal) and limite

Long-term studies of birds play an important role in the understanding of quantitative traits in natural populations. The relative ease by which individual birds can be monitored and caught in the wild enable us collect detailed information from individuals throughout their life time, sometimes from several generations in a population. In this thesis I describe the utilization of a great reed warb

There is a persisting controversy concerning the definition, etiology and pathogenesis of Barrett's esophagus. The dramatic and parallel increase in the incidence of esophageal and junctional adenocarcinoma over the past decades justifies an evaluation of the pathophysiology of premalignant metaplastic changes of the esophagus and the gastroesophageal junction. Patients were evaluated with upper G