Although it is known that lead is a neurotoxin that negatively impacts cognitive functions at low blood concentrations (B-Pb), little is known about the impact of early exposure on later cognitive functions.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reside and self-renew in the bone marrow (BM) niche. Overall, the signaling that regulates stem cell dormancy in the HSC niche remains controversial. Here, we demonstrate that TGF-beta type II receptor-deficient HSCs show low-level Smad activation and impaired long-term repopulating activity, underlining the critical role of TGF-beta/Smad signaling in HSC maintenanc

In experiments investigating dynamic tasks, it is often useful to examine eye movement scan patterns. We can present trials repeatedly and compute within-subjects/conditions similarity in order to distinguish between signal and noise in gaze data. To avoid obvious repetitions of trials, filler trials must be added to the experimental protocol, resulting in long experiments. Alternatively, trials c

Two years of harmonized aerosol number size distribution data from 24 European field monitoring sites have been analysed. The results give a comprehensive overview of the European near surface aerosol particle number concentrations and number size distributions between 30 and 500 nm of dry particle diameter. Spatial and temporal distribution of aerosols in the particle sizes most important for cli

The aim of this study was to examine potential risk factors for GCA in a nested case-control study based on two prospective health surveys.

A search for the pair production of heavy leptons (N-0, L-+/-) predicted by the type-III seesaw theory formulated to explain the origin of small neutrino masses is presented. The decay channels N-0 -> W(+/-)l(+/-) (l = e, mu, tau) and L-+/- -> W(+/-)v (v = v(e), v(mu), v(tau)) are considered. The analysis is performed using the final state that contains two leptons (electrons or muons), two jets f

Families of generalized spatially-coupled low-density parity-check (GSC-LDPC) code ensembles can be formed by terminating protograph-based generalized LDPC convolutional (GLDPCC) codes. It has previously been shown that ensembles of GSC-LDPC codes constructed from a protograph have better iterative decoding thresholds than their block code counterparts, and that, for large termination lengths, the

PURPOSE: Filter exchange imaging (FEXI) is sensitive to the rate of diffusional water exchange, which depends, eg, on the cell membrane permeability. The aim was to optimize and analyze the ability of FEXI to infer differences in the apparent exchange rate (AXR) in the brain between two populations.METHODS: A FEXI protocol was optimized for minimal measurement variance in the AXR. The AXR variance

Using a simple model of strong-field ionization of atoms that generalizes the well-known 3-step model from 1D to 3D, we show that the experimental photoelectron angular distributions resulting from laser ionization of xenon and argon display prominent structures that correspond to electrons that pass by their parent ion more than once before strongly scattering. The shape of these structures can b

We hypothesize that because fast-growing young companies must raise money in private capital markets that contain significant financing frictions, the CEOs of such firms will be compensated for successful fundraising. Using a sample of 1585 private venture-backed U.S. firms, we find that the cash pay of entrepreneur-CEOs is increasing in both the quantity and quality of financing secured and is mo

Fast electron transport in Si, driven by ultraintense laser pulses, is investigated experimentally and via 3D hybrid particle-in-cell simulations. A transition from a Gaussian-like to an annular fast electron beam profile is demonstrated and explained by resistively generated magnetic fields. The results highlight the potential to completely transform the beam transport pattern by tailoring the re

The aims of this study were to investigate (1) perceived stress as felt by the nursing staff working in psychiatric inpatient care, (2) possible differences between nurses and nurse assistants, and (3) associations among individual characteristics, the ward atmosphere, the psychosocial work environment, and perceived stress. Ninety-three members of the nursing staff completed three instruments-one

Nano-scale alloy systems with at least one dimension below 100 nm have different phase stabilities than those observed in the macro-scale systems due to a large surface to volume ratio. We have used the semi-empirical thermodynamic modelling, i.e. the CALPHAD method, to predict the phase equilibria of the In-Sb nano-scale systems as a function of size and shape. To calculate the size- and shape-de

Methods: A randomized, double-blind, active-comparator study of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus inadequately controlled (HbA1c 6.5-8.5%) by metformin monotherapy. Patients received vildagliptin (50 mg twice daily) or glimepiride (up to 6 mg/day) added to metformin. Results: In all, 3118 patients were randomized (vildagliptin, n = 1562; glimepiride, n = 1556). From similar baseline values (7

In this work, we present a method for estimating the parameters detailing an unknown number of linear, possibly harmonically related, chirp signals, using an iterative sparse reconstruction framework. The proposed method is initiated by a re-weighted group-sparsity approach, followed by an iterative relaxation-based refining step, to allow for high resolution estimates. Numerical simulations illus

A transglycosylation reaction between an alkyl polyglycoside and α-cyclodextrin catalysed by cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase) from Bacillus macerans was investigated. The reaction products were identified by comparison with standards generated by CGTase catalysed modification of pure alkyl glycosides using HPLC-ELSD and -MS analysis. The main products were alkyl glucopyranosides (substrat

The phase diagram of the redox active ionic liquid 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide (PMII) is examined as a function of temperature and iodine concentration. Beyond a threshold concentration of 3.9 M, the formation of higher polyiodides gives rise to a viscoelastic phase upon cooling. Despite of the very high viscosity of such polyiodide-containing PMII melts a strikingly high conductivity is m

Sepsis is a systemic host response to invasive infection by bacteria. Despite treatment with antibiotics, current mortality rates are in the range of 20%-25%, which makes sepsis the most important cause of death in intensive care. Gram-negative bacteria are a prominent cause of sepsis. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), one of the major constituents of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, plays a

The association between marital status and generalized trust in other people was investigated. The public health survey in Skane 2008 is a cross-sectional study including 28,198 persons (55% participation rate) aged 18-80 in southern Sweden. Logistic regression models investigated associations between marital status and trust, adjusting for age, country of birth, education, emotional support, inst

There is no a priori reason to suppose that price-setting behaviour is homogeneous across sectors and countries. Aggregate data are, however, commonly used to estimate the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC), which may very well yield erroneous results if price-setting behaviour is heterogeneous. In this paper, we therefore estimate the hybrid NKPC for the Euro Area using a novel sectoral data set