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This article outlines a numerical study on the benefit of using High-Performance/Strength Concrete for fabrication of concrete elements. For this purpose a comparison is done between the cost of existing beams with normal strength concrete and optimized beams made of High-Performance/Strength Concrete. A background is given concerning the most essential properties of High-Performance/Strength Conc
Objective. Most methods for measurements of the regional cerebral blood flow are unable to provide absolute blood flow values. Until now interest has been focused on measurement of the gray matter blood flow, while the white matter blood flow has been rather neglected. The aim of the present project was to develop and evaluate an improved method for reliable tomographic measurements of absolute wh
Leptospirosis is a worldwide spread zoonotic and neglected infectious disease of human and veterinary concern that is caused by pathogenic Leptospira species. In severe infections, hemostatic impairments such as coagulation/fibrinolysis dysfunction are frequently observed. These complications often occur when the host response is controlled and/or modulated by the bacterial pathogen. In the presen
This paper addresses the effects of the deterioration on the value of damage detection information. The quantification of the value of damage detection information for deteriorated structures is based on Bayesian pre-posterior decision analysis, comprising structural system performance models, consequence, benefit and costs models and damage detection information models throughout the service life
Since the nineteenth century, the notion of heritage in Tunisia has experienced a number of different identities and political and cultural reorientations which have gradually made it primarily an instrument of tourism-related economic development. The notion of heritage in the country has evolved from one that has been historically stigmatised to a vision of much more mature preservation movement
Analysis of antibody repertoire development and specific antibody responses important for e.g. autoimmune conditions, allergy, and protection against disease is supported by high throughput sequencing and associated bioinformatics pipelines that describe the diversity of the encoded antibody variable domains. Proper assignment of sequences to germline genes are important for many such processes, f
Objective: Regulation of immune-like cell properties of periodontal ligament (PDL) cells is not understood. We investigate the importance of secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) for production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in human PDL cells. Materials and methods: PDL cells were isolated from teeth extracted for orthodontic reasons. Cellular location of SLPI was investigated by immunocyt
Motivated by experimental findings on one-dimensional nano-materials, this contribution focusses on the elaboration of a fibre curvature based higher-order gradient contribution to the stored energy function in a finite deformation setting. The presented approach is based on the fundamental theoretical developments for fibre-reinforced composites presented by Spencer and Soldatos (2007), which tak
Encapsulated Haemophilus influenzae strains belong to type-specific genetic lineages. Reliable capsule typing requires PCR, but a more efficient method would be useful. We evaluated capsule typing by using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. Isolates of all capsule types (a–f and nontypeable; n = 258) and isogenic capsule transformants (types a
From an evolutionary point of view a pathogen might benefit from regulating the inflammatory response, both in order to facilitate establishment of colonization and to avoid life-threatening host manifestations, such as septic shock. In agreement with this notion Streptococcus pyogenes exploits type I IFN-signaling to limit detrimental inflammation in infected mice, but the host-pathogen interacti
The HIV-1 envelope mutates rapidly to evade recognition and killing, and is a major target of humoral immune responses and vaccine development. Identification of common epitopes for vaccine development have been complicated by genetic variation on both virus and host levels. We studied HIV-1 envelope gp120 evolution in 12 Chinese former plasma donors infected with a purportedly single founder viru
Thrombin-derived C-terminal peptides (TCPs), including a major 11-kDa fragment (TCP96), are produced through cleavage by human neutrophil elastase and aggregate lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. However, the physiological roles of TCP96 in controlling bacterial infections and reducing LPS-induced inflammation are unclear. Here, using various biophysical met
Closed-loop controlled drug dosing has the potential of revolutionizing clinical anesthesia. However, interpatient variability in drug sensitivity poses a central challenge to the synthesis of safe controllers. Identifying a full individual pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic (PKPD) model for this synthesis is clinically infeasible due to limited excitation of PKPD dynamics and presence of unmodeled d
Immune cell-derived cytotoxic pathways have been implicated in antitumor immune responses. The goal of this study is to characterize how these cytotoxic pathways influence ovarian cancer development. We have utilized the TgMISIIR-TAg transgenic mouse model which expresses the transforming SV40 TAg in the ovary, leading to spontaneous development of ovarian tumors that closely mimic human epithelia
In almost all countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, power sectors are characterized by a high degree of vertical integration and state control. However, several countries have undertaken reforms in order to open up the power market for private sector involvement particularly in relation to renewable energy (RE) sourced electricity generation. The majority of the MENA countri
Background: C. pseudotuberculosis is an important animal pathogen that causes substantial economical loss in sheep and goat farming. Zoonotic infections in humans are rare, but when they occur they are often severe and difficult to treat. One of the most studied proteins from this bacterium, the secreted protein CP40 is being developed as a promising vaccine candidate and has been characterized as
Amplification of the HER-2/neu (HER-2) proto-oncogene occurs in 10%–15% of primary breast cancer, leading to an activated HER-2 receptor, augmenting growth of cancer cells. Tumor classification is determined in primary tumor tissue and metastatic biopsies. However, malignant cells tend to alter their phenotype during disease progression. Circulating tumor cell (CTC) analysis may serve as an altern
In this paper, we investigate the annotation projection of semantic units in a practical setting. Previous approaches have focused on using parallel corpora for semantic transfer. We evaluate an alternative approach using loosely parallel corpora that does not require the corpora to be exact translations of each other. We developed a method that transfers semantic annotations from one language to
Critical technical infrastructures constitute the backbone of society by providing essential services to vital societal functions and the community at large, hence it is of essence that these are resilient. Critical infrastructures, e.g. power systems, telecommunication systems and railway systems, are designed and operated based on different philosophies of where to put the resilience emphasis, r
