The amount of plastics released to the environment in modern days has increased substantially since the development of modern plastics in the early 1900s. As a result, concerns have been raised by the public about the impact of plastics on nature and on, specifically, aquatic wildlife. Lately, much attention has been paid to macro- and micro-sized plastics and their impact on aquatic organisms. Ho

To elucidate the molecular requirements for cancer cell internalization of the extracellular cysteine protease inhibitor cystatin C, 12 variants of the protein were produced and used for uptake experiments in MCF-7 cells. Variants with alterations in the cysteine cathepsin binding region ((Δ1-10)-, K5A-, R8G-, (R8G,L9G,V10G)-, (R8G,L9G,V10G, W106G)-, and W106G-cystatin C) were internalized to a ve

Spatial and temporal temperature variations in a concrete structure due to variations in the surrounding climate will produce movements which, if restrained, may induce stresses in the structure. To get a better understanding of transverse thermal stresses due to climatic effects in concrete box cross-sections, the FE simulations in this study have been performed using extensive climatic input dat

In this paper various methods for finding Calabi-Yau differential equations are discussed. They are formalized versions of the differential equations satisfied by the periods of Calabi-Yau manifolds in String Theory but occur as well in other parts of physics.

The Cambrian–Ordovician boundary interval in Scandinavia is characterized by largely endemic trilobite species and fossil-meager intervals within the Alum Shale Formation. Previous investigations of this interval in Scandinavia, based on drill cores, are rather sketchy. In order to characterize the faunal signature in a largely dysoxic setting during this time interval, as well as providing biostr

New research guidelines for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) include biomarker evidence of amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau pathology. The aim of this study was to investigate what proportion of AD patients diagnosed in clinical routine in Sweden that had an AD-indicative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker profile.

BACKGROUND: The availability of a suitable matrix reference material is essential for standardization of the immunoassays used to measure serum proteins. The earlier serum protein reference material ERM-DA470 (previously called CRM470), certified in 1993, has led to a high degree of harmonization of the measurement results. A new serum protein material has now been prepared and its suitability in

The evolution of surfaces exposed to an aggressive environment and mechanical load is studied. This is a process of stress corrosion that leads to pitting, crack initiation and growing cracks. In conventional fracture analyses a known or a postulated crack is required. A serious complication is that a large part of the lifetime of a crack or a surface flaw is spent during the initiation of the cra

Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of the clinical pharmacy service in a Swedish hospital according to the Lund Integrated Medicine Management (LIMM) model, in terms of the acceptance and clinical significance of the recommendations made by clinical pharmacists. Method The clinical significance of the recommendations made by clinical pharmacists was assessed for a ra

Copper, zinc superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) is a ubiquitous homodimeric enzyme, whose misfolding and aggregation play a potentially key role in the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). SOD1 aggregation is thought to be preceded by dimer dissociation and metal loss, but the mechanisms by which the metal-free monomer aggregates remain incompletely understood. Here we use imp

OBJECTIVE: To compare EuroQol 5-Dimensions (EQ-5D) utility and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) in patients with early, methotrexate (MTX) refractory rheumatoid arthritis (RA), randomised to addition of infliximab (IFX) or sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine (SSZ+HCQ). METHODS: RA-patients with symptoms 3.2 were randomised to addition of IFX or SSZ+HCQ and followed for 21 months. EQ-5D profile

Objective: The objective of this study was to perform a critical and systematic literature review of studies on societal costs due to hearing disorders. Design: We used predefined search terms and inclusion/exclusion criteria. Systematic searches were conducted in Medline, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and other relevant websites. The review included studies written in English or Swedish b

All cancers carry somatic mutations. The patterns of mutation in cancer genomes reflect the DNA damage and repair processes to which cancer cells and their precursors have been exposed. To explore these mechanisms further, we generated catalogs of somatic mutation from 21 breast cancers and applied mathematical methods to extract mutational signatures of the underlying processes. Multiple distinct

Today, the majority of prostate tumours are detected at early stages with uncertain prognosis. Therefore, we set out to identify early predictive markers of prostate cancer with aggressive progression characteristics. We measured the expression of microRNAs (miRNA) using qRT-PCR in FFPE prostatic tissue samples from a Swedish cohort of 49 patients with prostate cancer and 25 without cancer and fou

A constitutive model for polycrystalline metals is established within a micromechanical framework. The inelastic deformation is defined by the formation and annihilation of dislocations together with grain refinement due to continuous dynamic recrystallization. The recrystallization studied here occurs due to plastic deformation without the aid of elevated temperatures. The grain refinement also i

We derive a prediction of dynamical tunneling rates from regular to chaotic phase-space regions combining the direct regular-to-chaotic tunneling mechanism in the quantum regime with an improved resonance-assisted tunneling theory in the semiclassical regime. We give a qualitative recipe for identifying the relevance of nonlinear resonances in a given h regime. For systems with one or multiple dom

The Tibetan Plateau plays an important role in the global water cycle and is strongly influenced by climate change. While energy and matter fluxes have been more intensely studied over land surfaces, a large proportion of lakes have either been neglected or parameterised with simple bulk approaches. Therefore, turbulent fluxes were measured over wet grassland and a shallow lake with a single eddy-

The time required for the design of a new delivery device can be sensibly reduced if the release mechanism is understood and an appropriate mathematical model is used to characterize the system. Once all the model parameters are obtained, in silico experiments can be performed, to provide estimates of the release from devices with different geometries and compositions. In this review coated and ma

The success rate of diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis is lowered by inhibitory substances present in the samples. Recently, we showed that tolerance to PCR inhibitors in crime scene saliva stains can be improved by replacing the standard DNA polymerase AmpliTaq Gold with alternative DNA polymerase-buffer systems (Hedman et al., BioTechniques 47 (2009) 951-958). Here we show that