Through personal reflections on themes covering past experiences, the author considers selected experiences of disaster risk management (DRM) that span 30 years of DRM, and makes some speculations concerning the future, and ponders whether within the selected themes the future looks positive or negative. The observations begin with some memories of the Ocho Rios Conference: a multi disciplinary ex

True tendon regeneration in human patients remains a vision of musculoskeletal therapies. In comparison to other mesenchymal lineages the biology of tenogenic differentiation is barely understood. Specifically, easy and efficient protocols are lacking that might enable tendon cell and tissue differentiation based on adult (stem) cell sources. In the murine mesenchymal progenitor cell line C3H10T1/

Differential cross sections for the production of at least four jets have been measured in proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider using the ATLAS detector. Events are selected if the four anti-k(t) R = 0.4 jets with the largest transverse momentum (p(T)) within the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar < 2 : 8 are well separated (Delta R-4j(min) > 0.65), all h

In this paper we present a collection of a priori estimates of the electromagnetic field scattered by a general bounded domain. The constitutive relations of the scatterer are in general anisotropic. Surface averages are investigated and several results on the decay of these averages are presented. The norm of the exterior Calderón operator for a sphere is investigated and depicted as a function o

Associations with functional groups of natural organic matter (NOM) are of great importance for bioavailability, toxicity, and mobility of trace metals in soils and waters. In this study, the coordination chemistry of copper, Cu(II), in organic soils and dissolved organic matter (DOM) from soils and streams was investigated by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. In both

Pseudorapidity density and multiplicity distributions of charged particles produced in heavy-ion collisions at the BNL AGS have been studied. The multiplicity distributions and pseudorapidity distributions of shower particles in Au-induced interactions are presented and compared with model predictions from RQMD, FRITIOF and VENUS. It is shown that the widths of the pseudorapidity distributions of

The adsorption of pyridine on monolayers of well-ordered, flat-lying iron phthalocyanine molecules on Au(111) is investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and density functional theory. It is found that pyridine both coordinates to the iron site of iron phthalocyanine and binds weakly to other sites. The iron coordination causes significant changes in the ele

Calmodulin is an essential regulator of intracellular processes in response to extracellular stimuli mediated by a rise in Ca(2+) ion concentration. To profile protein-protein interactions of calmodulin in human brain, we probed a high content human protein array with fluorophore-labelled calmodulin in the presence of Ca(2+). This protein array contains 37,200 redundant proteins, incorporating ove

We present the first in Poland, and among the first in Europe, cases of transcatheter implantation of the biological Sapien Edwards valve in the pulmonary position. The valves were implanted successfully without periprocedural complications in 2 patients with postoperative right ventricular outflow tract dysfunction.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are an emerging threat to cystic fibrosis (CF) patients but their epidemiology is not well described.

We present an open source python based ray tracing tool that offers several useful features in graphical presentation, material properties, advanced calculations of synchrotron sources, implementation of diffractive and refractive elements, complex (also closed) surfaces and multiprocessing. The package has many usage examples which are supplied together with the code and visualized on its web pag

Low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH) Levels have been linked with depressive symptoms among adults in various clinical settings. Data in generally healthy, community-dwelling individuals remain inconclusive. We investigated whether depression was associated with 25(OH)D and/or PTH in a sample of middle-aged and older men (n = 3369; mean age 60 +/- 11) part

Background: The aim of this study is to estimate ovarian volume, number and volume of antral follicles, and ovarian power Doppler vascular indices as assessed by three-dimensional (3D) transvaginal grayscale and power Doppler ultrasound in women using combined oral contraceptives (COC). Study Design: Two hundred thirteen gynecologically asymptomatic women 20-39 years old using COC were examined wi

Product innovation in highly complex and technological areas, such as medical technology, puts high requirements on the innovation capability of an organisation. Previous research and publications have highlighted organisational issues and learning matters as important and necessary for the development of innovation capability. Action learning requires reflections of the ways things are carried ou

How does an individual decision maker update his or her beliefs in the light of others’ beliefs? We present an empirical investigation that varies decision makers’ access to other peoples’ beliefs: whether they know what course of action others have taken (in this case how a problem is solved) and whether they know why this course of action was taken (why a particular solution is preferred).We pro

Genetic susceptibility accounts for similar to 35% of all colorectal cancer (CRC). Ten common low-risk variants contributing to CRC risk have been identified through genome-wide association studies (GWASs). In our GWAS, 610 664 genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) passed the quality control filtering in 371 German familial CRC patients and 1263 controls, and replication studies were co