Skill mix change between physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurses in nursing homes: A qualitative study

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Hollow carbon spheres in microwaves: Bio inspired absorbing coating

This is the final version of the article. Available from American Institute of Physics (AIP)] via the DOI in this record.The electromagnetic response of a heterostructure based on a monolayer of hollow glassy carbon spheres packed in 2D was experimentally surveyed with respect to its response to microwaves, namely, the Ka-band (26-37 GHz) frequency range. Such an ordered monolayer of spheres mimics the well-known "moth-eye"-like coating structures, which are widely used for designing anti-reflective surfaces, and was modelled with the long-wave approximation. Based on the experimental and modelling results, we demonstrate that carbon hollow spheres may be used for building an extremely lightweight, almost perfectly absorbing, coating for Ka-band applications.This work was supported in part by FP7-PEOPLE-2013- IRSES-610875 NAmiceMC, FP7 Twinning Grant Inconet EaP_004

Middleborns disadvantaged? testing birth-order effects on fitness in pre-industrial finns

Parental investment is a limited resource for which offspring compete in order to increase their own survival and reproductive success. However, parents might be selected to influence the outcome of sibling competition through differential investment. While evidence for this is widespread in egg-laying species, whether or not this may also be the case in viviparous species is more difficult to determine. We use pre-industrial Finns as our model system and an equal investment model as our null hypothesis, which predicts that (all else being equal) middleborns should be disadvantaged through competition. We found no overall evidence to suggest that middleborns in a family are disadvantaged in terms of their survival, age at first reproduction or lifetime reproductive success. However, when considering birth-order only among same-sexed siblings, first-, middle-and lastborn sons significantly differed in the number of offspring they were able to rear to adulthood, although there was no similar effect among females. Middleborn sons appeared to produce significantly less offspring than first-or lastborn sons, but they did not significantly differ from lastborn sons in the number of offspring reared to adulthood. Our results thus show that taking sex differences into account is important when modelling birth-order effects. We found clear evidence of firstborn sons being advantaged over other sons in the family, and over firstborn daughters. Therefore, our results suggest that parents invest differentially in their offspring in order to both preferentially favour particular offspring or reduce offspring inequalities arising from sibling competition

Gene expression profiling in pbMEC – in search of molecular biomarkers to predict immunoglobulin production in bovine milk

Abstract Background Optimization of the immunoglobulin (Ig) yield in bovine milk used as therapeutic immune milk or whey for the prevention of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea in humans is of great importance to improve the economic efficiency of production. Individual dairy cows have diverse immune responses upon vaccination, resulting in a variable Ig yield in blood and milk. Therefore, it is advisable to pre-select cows with the best ability to produce and secrete high yields of specific Igs. Results The gene expression profile of pbMEC (primary bovine mammary epithelial cells), challenged with the gram-positive, non-mastitis, pathogen Clostridium difficile showed distinct and significant differences in the gene expression of effector molecules of the innate immune system. A number of genes were identified that could possibly serve as molecular biomarkers to differentiate high responder cows from low responder cows. These identified genes play key roles in the promotion of innate immunity. Conclusion Using a gene expression profiling approach, we showed that upon others, especially the gene expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines was altered between the high and low responder cows. Those genes are indicated as potential molecular biomarkers in the pre-selection of cows that are able to secrete high immunoglobulin yields in milk

Floating hollow carbon spheres for improved solar evaporation

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Additional file 2: of Gene expression profiling in pbMEC – in search of molecular biomarkers to predict immunoglobulin production in bovine milk

Table S2. Fold changes in gene expression upon C. diff. Treatment - statistical evaluation of the treatment and time-effect with a paired t-test. High responder (n = 5), low responder (n = 4). (DOCX 40 kb