Nanoelectromechanical Heat Engine Based on Electron-Electron Interaction

We theoretically show that a nanoelectromechanical system can be mechanically actuated by a heat flow through it via an electron-electron interaction. In contrast to most known actuation mechanisms in similar systems, this new mechanism does not involve an electronic current nor external ac fields. Instead, the mechanism relies on deflection-dependent tunneling rates and a heat flow which is mediated by an electron-electron interaction while an electronic current through the device is prohibited by, for instance, a spin-valve effect. Therefore, the system resembles a nanoelectromechanical heat engine. We derive a criterion for the mechanical instability and estimate the amplitude of the resulting self-sustained oscillations. Estimations show that the suggested phenomenon can be studied using available experimental techniques

Literature syntheses to inform marine ecosystem management: lessons learned from stakeholder participation

Systematic literature syntheses are a key element in the scientific realm, considering the steadily growing amount of available knowledge. Involving stakeholders in the research process brings a wide range of advantages, like broadening the perspectives on the problem in question, increasing the relevance of results for policy- and decision-making, the public and other end-users and thus enhancing the impact and acceptance of research. While participatory approaches are on the rise, reflections on stakeholder involvement in systematic syntheses on environmental management are scarce. We reflect on the process of involving stakeholders with expertise also from outside academia during three literature syntheses with different foci of marine and coastal ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea. Our analysis is based on notes, e-mails, minutes and recordings of internal project meetings, interviews and workshops involving both researchers and stakeholders. We discuss the challenges the participatory approach introduced and develop lessons learned to support the planning of stakeholder engagement for future literature syntheses. We conclude that stakeholder identification, communication, collaboration and knowledge translation are highly time- and resource-intensive processes. Furthermore, appropriate training and experience are necessary for the design, execution and evaluation of participatory methods tailored to each project stage. Therefore, we underline the importance of adequate consideration of the required resources during project planning and implementation. To encourage and support valuable stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange between the research community and actors of policy and practice, more appreciation of such efforts by funding institutions and within the wider scientific community is needed

Integrative concepts and practices of health in transdisciplinary social ecology

Increasing recognition of interdependencies of the health of humans, other organisms and ecosystems, and of their importance to socio-ecological systems, necessitates application of integrative concepts such as One Health and EcoHealth. These concepts open new perspectives for research and practice but also generate confusion and divergent opinion, prompting new theories, and call for empirical clarification and evaluation. Through a semi-systematic evaluation of knowledge generation in scientific publications (comprised of literature reviews, conceptual models and analyses of communities of practice), we show how integrative concepts and approaches to health evolve and are adopted. Our findings indicate that while their contexts, goals and rationales vary, integrative concepts of health essentially arise from shared interests in living systems. Despite recent increased attention to ecological and societal aspects of health including broader sustainability issues, the focus remains anthropocentric and oriented towards biomedicine. Practices reflect and in turn transform these concepts, which together with practices also influence ways of integration. Overarching narratives vary between optimism and pessimism towards integrated health and knowledge. We conclude that there is an urgent need for better, coherent and more deeply integrative health concepts, approaches and practices to foster the well-being of humans, other animals and ecosystems. Consideration of these concepts and practices has methodological and political importance, as it will transform thinking and action on both society and nature and specifically can enrich science and practice, expanding their scope and linking them better. Transdisciplinary efforts are crucial to developing such concepts and practices to properly address the multiple facets of health and to achieve their appropriate integration for the socio-ecological systems at stake. We propose the term “transdisciplinary health” to denote the new approaches needed

Chromosome 1p13 genetic variants antagonize the risk of myocardial infarction associated with high ApoB serum levels

PMCID: PMC3480949This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Mutagenesis-Based Characterization and Improvement of a Novel Inclusion Body Tag

Whereas, bacterial inclusion bodies (IBs) for long were regarded as undesirable aggregates emerging during recombinant protein production, they currently receive attention as promising nanoparticulate biomaterials with diverse applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. We previously identified ssTorA, a signal sequence that normally directs protein export via the Tat pathway in , as a tag that induces the accumulation of fused proteins into IBs under overexpression conditions. Here, we used targeted mutagenesis to identify features and motifs being either critical or dispensable for IB formation. We found that IB formation is neither related to the function of ssTorA as a Tat-signal sequence nor is it a general feature of this family of signal sequences. IB formation was inhibited by co-overexpression of ssTorA binding chaperones TorD and DnaK and by amino acid substitutions that affect the propensity of ssTorA to form an α-helix. Systematic deletion experiments identified a minimal region of ssTorA required for IB formation in the center of the signal sequence. Unbiased genetic screening of a library of randomly mutagenized ssTorA sequences for reduced aggregation properties allowed us to pinpoint residues that are critical to sustain insoluble expression. Together, the data point to possible mechanisms for the aggregation of ssTorA fusions. Additionally, they led to the design of a tag with superior IB-formation properties compared to the original ssTorA sequence

Coding of procedures documented by general practitioners in Swedish primary care-an explorative study using two procedure coding systems

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Procedures documented by general practitioners in primary care have not been studied in relation to procedure coding systems. We aimed to describe procedures documented by Swedish general practitioners in electronic patient records and to compare them to the Swedish Classification of Health Interventions (KVÅ) and SNOMED CT.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Procedures in 200 record entries were identified, coded, assessed in relation to two procedure coding systems and analysed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>417 procedures found in the 200 electronic patient record entries were coded with 36 different Classification of Health Interventions categories and 148 different SNOMED CT concepts. 22.8% of the procedures could not be coded with any Classification of Health Interventions category and 4.3% could not be coded with any SNOMED CT concept. 206 procedure-concept/category pairs were assessed as a complete match in SNOMED CT compared to 10 in the Classification of Health Interventions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Procedures documented by general practitioners were present in nearly all electronic patient record entries. Almost all procedures could be coded using SNOMED CT.</p> <p>Classification of Health Interventions covered the procedures to a lesser extent and with a much lower degree of concordance. SNOMED CT is a more flexible terminology system that can be used for different purposes for procedure coding in primary care.</p

Mapping the categories of the Swedish primary health care version of ICD-10 to SNOMED CT concepts: Rule development and intercoder reliability in a mapping trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Terminologies and classifications are used for different purposes and have different structures and content. Linking or mapping terminologies and classifications has been pointed out as a possible way to achieve various aims as well as to attain additional advantages in describing and documenting health care data.</p> <p>The objectives of this study were:</p> <p>• to explore and develop rules to be used in a mapping process</p> <p>• to evaluate intercoder reliability and the assessed degree of concordance when the 'Swedish primary health care version of the International Classification of Diseases version 10' (ICD-10) is matched to the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT)</p> <p>• to describe characteristics in the coding systems that are related to obstacles to high quality mapping.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Mapping (interpretation, matching, assessment and rule development) was done by two coders. The Swedish primary health care version of ICD-10 with 972 codes was randomly divided into an allotment of three sets of categories, used in three mapping sequences, A, B and C. Mapping was done independently by the coders and new rules were developed between the sequences. Intercoder reliability was measured by comparing the results after each set. The extent of matching was assessed as either 'partly' or 'completely concordant'</p> <p>Results</p> <p>General principles for mapping were outlined before the first sequence, A. New mapping rules had significant impact on the results between sequences A - B (p < 0.01) and A - C (p < 0.001). The intercoder reliability in our study reached 83%. Obstacles to high quality mapping were mainly a lack of agreement by the coders due to structural and content factors in SNOMED CT and in the current ICD-10 version. The predominant reasons for this were difficulties in interpreting the meaning of the categories in the current ICD-10 version, and the presence of many related concepts in SNOMED CT.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Mapping from ICD-10-categories to SNOMED CT needs clear and extensive rules. It is possible to reach high intercoder reliability in mapping from ICD-10-categories to SNOMED CT. However, several obstacles to high quality mapping remain due to structure and content characteristics in both coding systems.</p

Associations of Polymorphisms in the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Coactivator-1 Alpha Gene With Subsequent Coronary Heart Disease: An Individual-Level Meta-Analysis

Background: The knowledge of factors influencing disease progression in patients with established coronary heart disease (CHD) is still relatively limited. One potential pathway is related to peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PPARGC1A), a transcription factor linked to energy metabolism which may play a role in the heart function. Thus, its associations with subsequent CHD events remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the effect of three different SNPs in the PPARGC1A gene on the risk of subsequent CHD in a population with established CHD. Methods: We employed an individual-level meta-analysis using 23 studies from the GENetIcs of sUbSequent Coronary Heart Disease (GENIUS-CHD) consortium, which included participants (n = 80,900) with either acute coronary syndrome, stable CHD, or a mixture of both at baseline. Three variants in the PPARGC1A gene (rs8192678, G482S; rs7672915, intron 2; and rs3755863, T528T) were tested for their associations with subsequent events during the follow-up using a Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for age and sex. The primary outcome was subsequent CHD death or myocardial infarction (CHD death/myocardial infarction). Stratified analyses of the participant or study characteristics as well as additional analyses for secondary outcomes of specific cardiovascular disease diagnoses and all-cause death were also performed. Results: Meta-analysis revealed no significant association between any of the three variants in the PPARGC1A gene and the primary outcome of CHD death/myocardial infarction among those with established CHD at baseline: rs8192678, hazard ratio (HR): 1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.98–1.05 and rs7672915, HR: 0.97, 95% CI 0.94–1.00; rs3755863, HR: 1.02, 95% CI 0.99–1.06. Similarly, no significant associations were observed for any of the secondary outcomes. The results from stratified analyses showed null results, except for significant inverse associations between rs7672915 (intron 2) and the primary outcome among 1) individuals aged ≥65, 2) individuals with renal impairment, and 3) antiplatelet users. Conclusion: We found no clear associations between polymorphisms in the PPARGC1A gene and subsequent CHD events in patients with established CHD at baseline