Lime-hemp concrete (LHC) is a building material consisting of a lime-based binder combined with hemp shiv that is suitable for various building applications. This thesis aimed to elucidate the possibilities for using LHC for exterior walls in a cold, wet climate through investigating mechanical, thermal and moisture-related properties of the material. The mechanical properties of LHC containing bo

Splatting photons onto primary view samples, rather than gathering from a photon acceleration structure, can be a more efficient approach to evaluating the photon-density estimate in interactive applications, where the number of photons is often low compared to the number of view samples. Most photon splatting approaches struggle with large photon radii or high resolutions due to overdraw and insu

Preparedness and resilience planning for critical infrastructure networks requires evaluating the impact to the network when its components are disrupted. We extend the well-studied problem of component importance measures in single-commodity networks to multi-commodity networks by integrating a flow based multi-commodity optimization model with a multi-criteria decision analysis tool. A three-sta

Modern society is becoming increasingly dependent on a continuous supply of electricity. In order to maintain the safety and security of society and its citizens, it is therefore necessary that electricity networks are resilient toward disruptions whether caused by natural disasters, sinister attacks, or other. Margin and sensitivity are two crucial aspects of the resilience concept which have so

Catalytic processes have tremendous importance in our everyday life. Most chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics etc. are, in fact, produced with the help of catalysts. What is probably even more important is that the toxic wastes produced in great amounts by modern factories and plants are recycled or transformed into less poisonous substances by means of catalytic units. One example from our everyThe present work is devoted to atomic scale structural studies of the surfaces of model heterogeneous catalysts relevant to oxidation reactions. A novel approach using high-energy surface X-ray diffraction combined with mass-spectrometry measurements is employed to perform in situ structural characterization of Pd(100) and Pd(553) single crystal surfaces acting as catalysts in the process of CO ox

BACKGROUND: MIF is a critical mediator of the host defense, and is involved in both acute and chronic responses in the lung. Neutralization of MIF reduces neutrophil accumulation into the lung in animal models. We hypothesized that MIF, in the alveolar space, promotes neutrophil accumulation via activation of the CD74 receptor on macrophages.METHODS: To determine whether macrophage CD74 surface ex

A method and a model are presented aiming at enabling collection, structuring and analyzes of data concerning interdependencies between critical infrastructures and societal functions. A key distinction of the approach is the separation of actors and flows, where dependencies between actors, ranging from small municipal authorities to international private companies, are mediated through flows. Fl

Pulmonary infection is a major cause of mortality and morbidity, and the magnitude of the lung inflammatory response correlates with patient survival. Previously, we have shown that neutrophil migration into joints is regulated by arthritis severity quantitative trait loci (QTLs). However, it is unclear whether these QTLs contribute to the regulation of lung inflammation in pneumonias. Therefore,

BACKGROUND: Acute lung injury (ALI) is a significant source of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Age is a major determinant of clinical outcome in ALI. The increased ALI-associated mortality in the older population suggests that there are age-dependent alterations in the responses to pulmonary challenge. The objective of this observational study was to evaluate age-dependent diff

The aging lung is increasingly susceptible to infectious disease. Changes in pulmonary physiology and function are common in older populations, and in those older than 60 years, pneumonia is the major cause of infectious death. Understanding age-related changes in the innate and adaptive immune systems, and how they affect both pulmonary and systemic responses to pulmonary challenge are critical t

Societal functions constitute of public and private organisations and companies that provide commodities and services that are vi-tal for the functioning of the modern society. The public are highly dependent on these vital societal services and commodities, such as power supply, health care and education. In this paper we present an application of a method for collecting and structuring data and

BACKGROUND: The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), remains a significant source of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Pneumonia and sepsis are leading causes of ARDS, the pathophysiology of which includes increased pulmonary microvascular permeability and hemodynamic instability resulting in organ dysfunction. We hypothesized that N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor (NSF) r

INTRODUCTION: Sepsis is characterized by dysregulated systemic inflammation and cytokine storm. Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) is known to closely correlate with severity of sepsis-related acute lung injury and mortality. The aim of this study was to clarify the mechanisms involved in Ang-2 secretion to better understand the pathophysiology of sepsis.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The concentration of Ang-2 was a

The review presented in this paper aims to describe the state-of-the art concerning methods for measuring societal resilience. A literature search is conducted where 36 recently published methods are selected. Then, various questions are explored concerning the methods, such as how resilience is operationalized, how data is collected, and about their normative foundation. Several methods exist wit

A new, integrated, diagnosis tool in the field of industrial sustainability management named the ‘Initial Review for Sustainable Consumption and Production.’ was developed and tested. Most of the existing tools for an initial diagnosis and for identification of suitable interventions in this area have some of the following drawbacks: a. they are incomplete because they do not address all levels of

New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) rely heavily on a range of tools to extract prey. They manufacture novel tools, save tools for later use, and have morphological features that facilitate tool use. We report six observations, in two individuals, of a novel tool-use mode not previously reported in non-human animals. Insert-and-transport tool use involves inserting a stick into an object an