| 1. |
- Rosén, Tomas, 1985-, et al.
(author)
-
Cross-Sections of Nanocellulose from Wood Analyzed by Quantized Polydispersity of Elementary Microfibrils
- 2020
-
In: ACS Nano. - : American Chemical Society. - 1936-0851 .- 1936-086X. ; 14:12, s. 16743-16754
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bio-based nanocellulose has been shown to possess impressive mechanical properties and simplicity for chemical modifications. The chemical properties are largely influenced by the surface area and functionality of the nanoscale materials. However, finding the typical cross-sections of nanocellulose, such as cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), has been a long-standing puzzle, where subtle changes in extraction methods seem to yield different shapes and dimensions. Here, we extracted CNFs from wood with two different oxidation methods and variations in degree of oxidation and high-pressure homogenization. The cross-sections of CNFs were characterized by small-angle X-ray scattering and wide-angle X-ray diffraction in dispersed and freeze-dried states, respectively, where the results were analyzed by assuming that the cross-sectional distribution was quantized with an 18-chain elementary microfibril, the building block of the cell wall. We find that the results agree well with a pseudosquare unit having a size of about 2.4 nm regardless of sample, while the aggregate level strongly depends on the extraction conditions. Furthermore, we find that aggregates have a preferred cohesion of phase boundaries parallel to the (110)-plane of the cellulose fibril, leading to a ribbon shape on average.
|
|
| 2. |
- Bülow Anderberg, Sara, et al.
(author)
-
Increased levels of plasma cytokines and correlations to organ failure and 30-day mortality in critically ill Covid-19 patients
- 2021
-
In: Cytokine. - : Springer Nature. - 1043-4666 .- 1096-0023. ; 138
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The infection caused by SARS CoV-2 has been postulated to induce a cytokine storm syndrome that results in organ failure and even death in a considerable number of patients. However, the inflammatory response in Corona virus disease-19 (Covid-19) and its potential to cause collateral organ damage has not been fully elucidated to date. This study aims to characterize the acute cytokine response in a cohort of critically ill Covid-19 patients.METHOD: 24 adults with PCR-confirmed Covid-19 were included at time of admission to intensive care a median of eleven days after initial symptoms. Eleven adult patients admitted for elective abdominal surgery with preoperative plasma samples served as controls. All patients were included after informed consent was obtained. 27 cytokines were quantified in plasma. The expression of inflammatory mediators was then related to routine inflammatory markers, SAPS3, SOFA score, organ failure and 30-day mortality.RESULTS: A general increase in cytokine expression was observed in all Covid-19 patients. A strong correlation between respiratory failure and IL-1ra, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8 and IP-10 expression was observed. Acute kidney injury development correlated well with increased levels of IL-1ra, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17a, IP-10 and MCP-1. Generally, the cohort demonstrated weaker correlations between cytokine expression and 30-day mortality out of which IL-8 showed the strongest signal in terms of mortality.CONCLUSION: The present study found that respiratory failure, acute kidney injury and 30-day mortality in critically ill Covid-19 patients are associated with moderate increases of a broad range of inflammatory mediators at time of admission.
|
|
| 3. |
- Görür, Yunus Can, et al.
(author)
-
Advanced Characterization of Self-Fibrillating Cellulose Fibers and Their Use in Tunable Filters
- 2021
-
In: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. - : American Chemical Society. - 1944-8244 .- 1944-8252. ; 13:27, s. 32467-32478
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Thorough characterization and fundamental understanding of cellulose fibers can help us develop new, sustainable material streams and advanced functional materials. As an emerging nanomaterial, cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) have high specific surface area and good mechanical properties; however, handling and processing challenges have limited their widespread use. This work reports an in-depth characterization of self-fibrillating cellulose fibers (SFFs) and their use in smart, responsive filters capable of regulating flow and retaining nanoscale particles. By combining direct and indirect characterization methods with polyelectrolyte swelling theories, it was shown that introduction of charges and decreased supramolecular order in the fiber wall were responsible for the exceptional swelling and nanofibrillation of SFFs. Different microscopy techniques were used to visualize the swelling of SFFs before, during, and after nanofibrillation. Through filtration and pH adjustment, smart filters prepared via in situ nanofibrillation showed an ability to regulate the flow rate through the filter and a capacity of retaining 95% of 300 nm (diameter) silica nanoparticles. This exceptionally rapid and efficient approach for making smart filters directly addresses the challenges associated with dewatering of CNFs and bridges the gap between science and technology, making the widespread use of CNFs in high-performance materials a not-so-distant reality.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
- Abitbol, Tiffany, et al.
(author)
-
Cellulose nanocrystal/low methoxyl pectin gels produced by internal ionotropic gelation.
- 2021
-
In: Carbohydrate Polymers. - : Elsevier BV. - 0144-8617 .- 1879-1344. ; 260
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The biotechnological applications of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) continue to grow due to their sustainable nature, impressive mechanical, rheological, and emulsifying properties, upscaled production capacity, and compatibility with other materials, such as protein and polysaccharides. In this study, hydrogels from CNCs and pectin, a plant cell wall polysaccharide broadly used in food and pharma, were produced by calcium ion-mediated internal ionotropic gelation (IG). In the absence of pectin, a minimum of 4 wt% CNC was needed to produce self-supporting gels by internal IG, whereas the addition of pectin at 0.5 wt% enabled hydrogel formation at CNC contents as low as 0.5 wt%. Experimental data indicate that CNCs and pectin interact to give robust and self-supporting hydrogels at solid contents below 2.5 %. Potential applications of these gels could be as carriers for controlled release, scaffolds for cell growth, or wherever else distinct and porous network morphologies are required.
|
|
| 7. |
- Adrian-Kalchhauser, I., et al.
(author)
-
The round goby genome provides insights into mechanisms that may facilitate biological invasions
- 2020
-
In: BMC Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1741-7007. ; 18:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background The invasive benthic round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) is the most successful temperate invasive fish and has spread in aquatic ecosystems on both sides of the Atlantic. Invasive species constitute powerful in situ experimental systems to study fast adaptation and directional selection on short ecological timescales and present promising case studies to understand factors involved the impressive ability of some species to colonize novel environments. We seize the unique opportunity presented by the round goby invasion to study genomic substrates potentially involved in colonization success. Results We report a highly contiguous long-read-based genome and analyze gene families that we hypothesize to relate to the ability of these fish to deal with novel environments. The analyses provide novel insights from the large evolutionary scale to the small species-specific scale. We describe expansions in specific cytochrome P450 enzymes, a remarkably diverse innate immune system, an ancient duplication in red light vision accompanied by red skin fluorescence, evolutionary patterns of epigenetic regulators, and the presence of osmoregulatory genes that may have contributed to the round goby's capacity to invade cold and salty waters. A recurring theme across all analyzed gene families is gene expansions. Conclusions The expanded innate immune system of round goby may potentially contribute to its ability to colonize novel areas. Since other gene families also feature copy number expansions in the round goby, and since other Gobiidae also feature fascinating environmental adaptations and are excellent colonizers, further long-read genome approaches across the goby family may reveal whether gene copy number expansions are more generally related to the ability to conquer new habitats in Gobiidae or in fish.
|
|
| 8. |
- Al Mukhtar, Ali, et al.
(author)
-
The epidemiology of and management of pediatric patients with head trauma : a hospital-based study from Southern Sweden
- 2022
-
In: Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1757-7241. ; 30:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. In Scandinavia, the epidemiology of pediatric head trauma is poorly documented. This study aimed to investigate and compare the epidemiology and management of pediatric patients with isolated head trauma (IHT) and head trauma in connection with multitrauma (MHT). Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of medical records of patients < 18 years of age who attended any of the five emergency departments (ED) in Scania County in Sweden in 2016 due to head trauma. Clinical data of patients with IHT were analyzed and compared with those of patients with MHT. Results: We identified 5046 pediatric patients with head trauma, 4874 with IHT and 186 with MHT, yielding an incidence of ED visits due to head trauma of 1815/100,000 children/year. There was male predominance, and the median age was four years. Falls were the dominating trauma mechanism in IHT patients, while motor vehicle accidents dominated in MHT patients. The frequencies of CT head-scans, ward admissions and intracranial injuries (ICI) were 5.4%, 11.1% and 0.7%, respectively. Four patients (0.08%) required neurosurgical intervention. The relative risks for CT-scans and admissions to a hospital ward and ICI were 10, 4.5 and 19 times higher for MHT compared with IHT patients. Conclusion: Head trauma is a common cause of ED visits in our study. Head-CTs and ICIs were less frequent than in previous studies. MHT patients had higher rates of CT-scans, admissions, and ICIs than IHT patients, suggesting that they are separate entities that should ideally be managed using different guidelines to optimize the use of CT-scans of the head.
|
|
| 9. |
- Albl, Cenek, et al.
(author)
-
Rolling Shutter Camera Absolute Pose
- 2020
-
In: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. - 0162-8828. ; 42:6, s. 1439-1452
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present minimal, non-iterative solutions to the absolute pose problem for images from rolling shutter cameras. The absolute pose problem is a key problem in computer vision and rolling shutter is present in a vast majority of today's digital cameras. We discuss several camera motion models and propose two feasible rolling shutter camera models for a polynomial solver. In previous work a linearized camera model was used that required an initial estimate of the camera orientation. We show how to simplify the system of equations and make this solver faster. Furthermore, we present a first solution of the non-linearized camera orientation model using the Cayley parameterization. The new solver does not require any initial camera orientation estimate and therefore serves as a standalone solution to the rolling shutter camera pose problem from six 2D-to-3D correspondences. We show that our algorithms outperform P3P followed by a non-linear refinement using a rolling shutter model.
|
|
| 10. |
- Alehagen, Urban, 1951-, et al.
(author)
-
Dietary Supplementation with Selenium and Coenzyme Q10 Prevents Increase in Plasma D-Dimer While Lowering Cardiovascular Mortality in an Elderly Swedish Population.
- 2021
-
In: Nutrients. - Basel : MDPI. - 2072-6643. ; 13:4, s. 43-56
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A low intake of selenium is associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. This could be reduced by supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10. D-dimer, a fragment of fibrin mirroring fibrinolysis, is a biomarker of thromboembolism, increased inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and is associated with cardiovascular mortality in ischemic heart disease. The objective was to examine the impact of selenium and coenzyme Q10 on the level of D-dimer, and its relationship to cardiovascular mortality. D-dimer was measured in 213 individuals at the start and after 48 months of a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial with selenium yeast (200 µg/day) and coenzyme Q10 (200 mg/day) (n = 106) or placebo (n = 107). The follow-up time was 4.9 years. All included individuals were low in selenium (mean 67 μg/L, SD 16.8). The differences in D-dimer concentration were evaluated by the use of T-tests, repeated measures of variance and ANCOVA analyses. At the end, a significantly lower D-dimer concentration was observed in the active treatment group in comparison with those on placebo (p = 0.006). Although D-dimer values at baseline were weakly associated with high-sensitive CRP, while being more strongly associated with soluble tumour necrosis factor receptor 1 and sP-selectin, controlling for these in the analysis there was an independent effect on D-dimer. In participants with a D-dimer level above median at baseline, the supplementation resulted in significantly lower cardiovascular mortality compared to those on placebo (p = 0.014). All results were validated with a persisting significant difference between the two groups. Therefore, supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10 in a group of elderly low in selenium and coenzyme Q10 prevented an increase in D-dimer and reduced the risk of cardiovascular mortality in comparison with the placebo group. The obtained results also illustrate important associations between inflammation, endothelial function and cardiovascular risk.
|
|
