Some Preliminary Results on the Early Holocene Shore Displacement in the Oskarshamn Area, South Eastern Sweden

In zwei 16 bzw. 26 m über Meeresspiegel gelegenen Seen sind Pollen- und Sedimentanalysen durchgeführt worden. Der Beginn der präborealen Chronozone ist hier durch eine Regression gekennzeichnet, die wahrscheinlich durch eine kurz dauernde Transgression unterbrochen gewesen ist. Eine rasche und recht bedeutsame Transgression, die mit der Ancylus-Transgression korreliert wird, setzte in beiden Lokalitäten um ca. 9000 v. h. ein. Zwischen ca. 9500 und 8500 v. h. wurden beide Seen vom Meer abgeschnürt, aber es ist bislang unbekannt, in welcher Höhenlage diese Regression ausgeklungen ist.researc

Increasing DG Capacity of Existing Networks through Reactive Power Control and Curtailment

Renewable energy sources (RES), especially wind turbines, have become more important during the last years. An increasing number of distributed generation (DG) units are connected to weak medium voltage distribution networks in rural areas where they have a large influence on the voltage and the line losses. Voltage rise is in this case often a limiting factor for the maximum amount of DG capacity. Already current wind turbines with a capacity of 2 MW can often not easily be connected to existing 10 kV feeders. To increase the DG capacity of existing networks without reinforcement DG units can be controlled. This paper proposes abandoning unity power factor used today and letting the converters used as network interface of many new wind turbine generators absorb reactive power to reduce the voltage level. Since reactive power has great influence on losses in the network the use of reactive power is limited. Line losses due to the transfer of reactive power are taken into account in this study. Furthermore the use of curtailment is analysed. Simulations of voltage change and line losses when using reactive power control by the connected wind turbines and curtailment in a simple test system are presented. Without reinforcement of the network it was possible to increase the DG capacity from 2;7MW to more than 4MW in the test network without violating voltage limits. Line losses increase but to a reasonable extent and lost energy due to curtailment is insignificant

Who Needs Agglomeration? Varying Agglomeration Externalities and the Industry Life Cycle

In this paper, the changing roles of agglomeration externalities during different stages of the industry life cycle are investigated. A central argument is that agglomeration externalities vary with mode of competition, innovation intensity, and characteristics of learning opportunities in industries. Following the Industry Life Cycle perspective, we distinguish between young and mature industries, and investigate how these benefit from MAR, Jacobs’ and Urbanization externalities. The empirical analysis builds on a Swedish plant level dataset that covers the period of 1974-2004.The outcomes of panel data regression models show that the benefits industries derive from their local environment are strongly associated with their stage in the industry life cycle. Whereas MAR externalities increase with the maturity of industries, Jacobs’ externalities decline when industries are more mature. This is in line with the hypothesis that young industries operate in an environment dominated by rapid product innovation and low levels of standardization. Hence, it pays off when knowledge can be sourced locally from many different sources, but there is still little scope for specialization benefits. Mature industries, in contrast, are associated with lower innovation intensities and a focus on cost saving process innovations. Therefore, there are major benefits to be derived from specialization, whereas knowledge spillovers from different industries are less relevant. The distinction between the product competition in young industries and price competition in mature industries is reflected in our finding that high regional factor costs are detrimental to mature industries, but not to young industries. This can also be related to the finding that high quality living environments, attractive for highly paid employees, are important to young industries. Overall, the outcomes stress that industrial life cycles have to be taken into account in the analysis of agglomeration externalities.agglomeration externalities, industry life cycle, urbanization, Sweden

Inhibition of MicroRNA-125a Promotes Human Endothelial Cell Proliferation and Viability through an Antiapoptotic Mechanism.

The microRNA-125a (miR-125a) is highly expressed in endothelial cells, but its role in vascular biology is not known. Endothelial cell proliferation and viability play an important role in endothelial healing, and we hypothesize that miR-125a regulates this process. The aim of the present study was to investigate if miR-125a controls human endothelial cell proliferation, viability and endothelial healing, and to assess the mechanisms involved. We showed that overexpression of miR-125a by transfection with miR-125a mimic reduced human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) proliferation and viability, and stimulated apoptosis as demonstrated by a miR-125a-induced increase of the proportion of annexin V-positive cells monitored by flow cytometry. Moreover, we showed that the miR-125a mimic downregulated the antiapoptotic Bcl2 protein and upregulated caspase 3, suggesting that these two proteins represent molecular targets for miR-125a. Accordingly, transfection with miR-125a inhibitor, downregulating miR-125a expression, promoted HUVEC proliferation and viability, and reduced apoptosis. Importantly, transfection with miR-125a inhibitor promoted HUVEC tube formation in Matrigel, suggesting that reduction of miR-125a has a proangiogenic effect. In conclusion, downregulation of miR-125a through local transfection with miR-125a inhibitor might be a new way to enhance endothelial cell proliferation and viability, thereby promoting the reendothelialization observed in response to intimal injury. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel

Dynamics in an innovation boundary context: exploring a living lab process from a community of practice perspective

Introduction The research interest in this paper relates to innovation and learning and the intertwining of these during an innovation process. Generally, innovation activities could be understood as all scientific, technological, organizational, financial and commercial steps which actually lead to, or are intended to, the implementation of innovations In this paper we apply a community of practice perspective on a living lab process, which is a user-centric innovation process, where several actors from industry, user groups and academia are involved. We will present findings from an ICT innovation process where an organization (the ICT developers) collaborate with a user group consisting of people not belonging to an organization, but driven by an interest: caretaking of a demented person, such as wife, husband, father or mother (the next of kins), and researchers from Halmstad Living Lab. From a community of practice perspective, we can see how different community groups engage in a heterogeneous interaction where a mix of different world views is to be handled The research question in the paper is: How can a boundary context, such as a living lab process, be understood and facilitated from a community of practice perspective? The empirical findings result from a project called The Find Project (TFP). The aim of the TFP was to customize an ICT product based on the needs of a user group. The ICT product that should be customized consisted of a sender and a receiver that worked together in a mission to find missing objects. There were about fifteen people involved in TFP: three researchers from Halmstad Living Lab (HLL); three ICT developers (ICTD) and the group of eight next of kin's to demented elderly persons (NOKD). The contribution of our research to innovation theory is a process model describing several implications for how dynamic activities in an innovation boundary context (such as a living lab process) can be understood as well as facilitated by different support mechanisms. From our findings we have found that essential mechanisms of the boundary context are vital important for facilitating interaction and learnin

LL-37-induced host cell cytotoxicity depends on cellular expression of the globular C1q receptor (p33).

The human host-defense peptide LL-37 not only displays antimicrobial activity but also immune modulating properties that trigger intracellular signaling events in host cells. Since the cytolytic activity of high LL-37 concentrations affects cell viability, the function of LL-37 requires tight regulation. Eukaryotic cells therefore benefit from protective measures to prevent harmful effects of LL-37. p33, also known as globular C1q receptor, is reported to act as an LL-37 antagonist by binding the peptide thereby reducing its cytotoxic activity. In this report, we show that high levels of endogenous p33 correlate with an increased viability in human cells treated with LL-37. Sub-cellular localization analysis showed p33 distribution at the mitochondria, the plasma membrane and in the cytosol. Strikingly, cytosolic over-expression of p33 significantly antagonized detrimental effects of LL-37 on cell fitness, while the reverse effect was observed by siRNA-induced down-regulation of p33. However, modulation of p33 expression had no effect on LL-37-induced plasma membrane pore forming capacity pointing to an intracellular mechanism. A scavenging function of intracellular p33 is further supported by co-immunoprecipitation experiments, showing a direct interaction between intracellular p33 and LL-37. Thus, our findings support an important role of intracellular p33 in maintaining cell viability by counteracting LL-37-induced cytotoxicity