The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the legal issues relating to cruise ship passenger contracts, their nature and salient features, parties to the contract and their rights and obligations. Claims arising out of passenger carriage subject to applicable law and contracts containing standard terms and conditions are addressed. It is rare for passengers to examine the terms and conditions of t

Progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a complex interstitial lung disease that impacts substantially on patients’ daily lives, requiring personalised and integrated care. We summarise the main needs of patients with PF and their caregivers, and suggest a supportive care approach. Individualised care, education, emotional and psychological support, specialised treatments, and better access to info

Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), putatively via inflammasome activation. We pursued an inflammatory gene modifier scan for CHIP-associated CVD risk among 424,651 UK Biobank participants. We identified CHIP using whole-exome sequencing data of blood DNA and modeled as a composite, considering all driver ge

Background: A new cystatin C based European Kidney Function Consortium (EKFCCysC) equation was recently developed for adults, using the same mathematical form as the previously published full age spectrum creatinine based EKFC-equation (EKFCCrea). In the present study the cystatin C based EKFC-equation is extended to children, by defining the appropriate cystatin C rescaling factor QCysC. Methods:

Three twig-growing lichen species belonging to the family Teloschistaceae from southern Patagonia are described as new to science: Marchantiana pyramus sp. nov., with minute apothecia, orange due to dominant content of emodin, M. ramulicola sp. nov., with minute olive apothecia with dominant parietin and Austroplaca thisbe sp. nov., with clear yellow apothecia also with dominant parietin. Marchant

Background The prevalence of self-reported suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) remains unclear among adults with autism unrecognised in childhood who attend psychiatric services. Aims We aimed to estimate the prevalence of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and NSSI; identify factors associated with suicide attempts and NSSI; and describe NSSI in this group. Me

The catalytic oxidation of HCl by molecular oxygen (Deacon process) over ceria allows the recovery of molecular chlorine from the omnipresent HCl waste produced in various industrial processes. In previous density functional theory (DFT) model-calculations by Amrute et al. [ J. Catal. 2012, 286, 287−297.], it was proposed that the most critical reaction step in this process is the displacement of

Observations suggested that the occurrence rate of hot Jupiters (HJs) in open clusters is largely consistent with the field (∼ 1 per cent) but in the binary-rich cluster M67, the rate is ∼ 5 per cent. How does the cluster environment boost HJ formation via the high-eccentricity tidal migration initiated by the extreme-amplitude von Zeipel–Lidov–Kozai (XZKL) mechanism forced by a companion star? Ou

Brain organoid technology has transformed both basic and applied biomedical research and paved the way for novel insights into developmental processes and disease states of the human brain. While the use of brain organoids has been rapidly growing in the past decade, the accompanying bioengineering and biofabrication solutions have remained scarce. As a result, most brain organoid protocols still

Aims: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of bimekizumab, an inhibitor of IL-17F and IL-17A, against biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) from the Swedish healthcare system perspective. Materials and methods: A Markov model was developed to simulate the clinical pathway of biologic [b] DMARD-naïve or tumor necrosis factor inhibi

The Grande de Tárcoles River in Costa Rica is one of the most polluted and degraded river basins in Central America. At the same time Costa Rica is a country internationally recognized for progressive environmental management. At least on paper, the country fosters sustainable river management in the form of integrated water resources management (IWRM). In the specific case of the Grande de Tárcol

Telomere length and telomere shortening are thought to be critical cellular attributes and processes that are related to an individual's life span and fitness. The general pattern across most taxa is that after birth telomere length gradually decreases with age. Telomere protection and restoration mechanisms are usually assumed to reduce the rate of shortening or at most keep telomere length const

INTRODUCTION: Cranial computed tomography (CT) is an affordable and widely available imaging modality that is used to assess structural abnormalities, but not to quantify neurodegeneration. Previously we developed a deep-learning–based model that produced accurate and robust cranial CT tissue classification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed 917 CT and 744 magnetic resonance (MR) scans from the G

Automated fault diagnosis can facilitate diagnostics assistance, speedier troubleshooting, and better-organised logistics. Currently, most AI-based prognostics and health management in the automotive industry ignore textual descriptions of the experienced problems or symptoms. With this study, however, we propose an ML-assisted workflow for automotive fault nowcasting that improves on current indu

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an age-related chronic neurological disorder, mainly characterized by the pathological feature of α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregation, with the exact disease pathogenesis unclear. During the onset and progression of PD, synaptic dysfunction, including dysregulation of axonal transport, impaired exocytosis, and endocytosis are identified as crucial events of PD pathogenesis.

To make glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimating equations applicable across populations with different creatinine generation by using rescaled serum creatinine (sCr/Q) where sCr represents the individual creatinine level and Q the average creatinine value in healthy persons of the same population. GFR measurements (mGFR, plasma clearance of 51Cr-EDTA) were conducted in 964 adult Black European

Introduction: Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless and odorless gas that is a leading cause of environmental poisoning in the USA with substantial mortality and morbidity. The mechanism of CO poisoning is complex and includes hypoxia, inflammation, and leukocyte sequestration in brain microvessel segments leading to increased reactive oxygen species. Another important pathway is the effects of CO o

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) can have negative effects on cognitive, social and emotion regulation abilities, which can threaten the child’s school integration and capacity to learn. While steady relations to sensitive, understanding adults may moderate these negative outcomes, the difficulties of children with ACEs pose a major challenge for teachers, whose insufficient prepara