Background: Severe alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), phenotype PiZZ, was associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE) in a case-control study. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the genetic variation in the SERPINA1 gene and a possible thrombotic risk of these variants in a population-based cohort study. Patients/Methods: The coding sequence of SERPINA1 was analyzed for the Z (rs289294

Given a directed graph as input, we show how to efficiently find a shortest (directed, simple) cycle on an even number of vertices. As far as we know, no polynomial-time algorithm was previously known for this problem. In fact, finding any even cycle in a directed graph in polynomial time was open for more than two decades until Robertson, Seymour, and Thomas (Ann. of Math. (2) 1999) and, independ

In this work we propose and analyze an HDG method for the Stokes equation whose domain is discretized by two independent polygonal subdomains with different meshsizes. This causes a non-conformity at the intersection of the subdomains or leaves a gap (unmeshed region) between them. In order to appropriately couple these two different discretizations, we propose suitable transmission conditions to

Integrating fast pyrolysis into existing biomass-based combined heat and power (CHP) plants offers an innovative opportunity for plant operators to acquire an additional heat sink and produce a renewable transport fuels feedstock. This technology is particularly interesting in Sweden, where biobased heat and power constitute an important part of the energy system. It is important to establish the

Recent work of the authors and their collaborators has uncovered fundamental connections between the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, the spectral flow of a certain family of self-adjoint operators, and the nodal deficiency of a Laplacian eigenfunction (or an analogous deficiency associated to a non-bipartite equipartition). Using a refined construction of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, we strengthen all

While Raman spectroscopy provides opportunities for simultaneous detection and quantitative analysis of multiple species, it also suffers from certain limitations, such as low signal strength, which often makes it unsuitable for the study of minor species. The present work employs a high-repetition-rate and high-power laser and re-introduces an amplification technique to improve the detection limi

The impact of interface defect states on the recombination and transport properties of charges in asymmetric modulation-doped InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells(QWs) is investigated. Three sets of high-mobility InGaAs QW structures are systematically designed and grown by the metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy technique to probe the effect of carrier localization on the electro-optical processes. In these s

Many bumblebee species are declining due to a loss of semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes resulting in diminished forage and nest sites. Anecdotal experience indicates that bumblebees nest in straw bales, but scientific evidence is lacking. We spent 250 h screening for bumblebee nests in 1255 straw bales and ten straw stacks belonging to 58 farms in two intensively farmed Swedish regi

Due to its range-dependent target response, frequency diverse array multiple-input multiple-output (FDA-MIMO) radar systems enable superior detection capabilities as compared with conventional phased-array radars. This paper proposes an incoherent detector for airborne FDA-MIMO radar to detect independent but possibly non-identically distributed fluctuating targets. For FDA-MIMO, variations in the

Bat ultrasound analysis has been around for several decades and it is one of the most important tools in studies of bat ecology. Discrimination between species is based on intra-specific features of echolocation calls. Identification of species and genera in audio files can be attempted either manually or through software which performs a fully automated discrimination between species. However, si

The performance of structural timber connections is of utmost importance since they control the global response of the building. A ductile failure mechanism on the global scale is desirable, especially in the design of structures in seismic areas, where dissipative components in which ductile failure modes need to be ensured are considered. Therefore, the knowledge of possible brittle failure mode

Background: Hypoxia and large tumor volumes are negative prognostic factors for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated with radiation therapy (RT). PET-scanning with specific hypoxia-tracers (hypoxia-PET) can be used to non-invasively assess hypoxic tumor volume. Primary tumor volume is readily available for patients undergoing RT. However, the relationship between hyp

The Pulsed Wire (PW) method offers a promising solution for performing local magnetic field measurements in undulators that have limited access that restricts traditional Hall-Probe (HP) measurements. With this technology, undulators can be designed with a closed frame structure, becoming more compact and cost effective. At the same time, the PW method suffers from intrinsic error sources which ca

The aim was to investigate associations between health locus of control (HLC) and all-cause, cardiovascular (CVD), cancer and other cause mortality. A public health postal questionnaire was distributed in the autumn of 2008 to a stratified random sample of the 18–80 year old adult population in Scania in southernmost Sweden. The participation rate was 54.1%, and 25,517 participants were included i

Experimental and numerical studies were performed to understand the flame characteristics and cooling effect of jet-cooled wall flameholders in a simplified augmented combustor. The time-averaged flame structure and wall temperature were investigated employing an instantaneous flame capturing system with image processing technology and a wall temperature measurement system, respectively. Flow and

We consider a model for the propagation of electrical impulses or activity in a neuronal network. The vertices of a square lattice represent neurons, and the edges of the lattice represent the synaptic connections. Each vertex v is assigned a type: inhibitory or excitatory. The dynamics of propagation of the initial activity captures features of the “integrate-and-fire” model. We study the spread

We study a class of graphs that represent local independence structures in stochastic processes allowing for correlated noise processes. Several graphs may encode the same local independencies and we characterize such equivalence classes of graphs. In the worst case, the number of conditions in our characterizations grows superpolyno-mially as a function of the size of the node set in the graph. W