This publication describes the methods used to measure the centrality of inelastic Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per colliding nucleon pair with ALICE. The centrality is a key parameter in the study of the properties of QCD matter at extreme temperature and energy density, because it is directly related to the initial overlap region of the colliding nuclei. Geometrical pr

Despite numerous challenges, since its independence, Uzbekistan, with the exception of the May 2005 Andijan events, has enjoyed extraordinary political stability and not recorded any considerable cases of interethnic or interfaith conflict, regime change or civil war, whereas neighboring Kyrgyzstan, labeled an “island of democracy” by the Western world, has experienced numerous conflicts and chaos

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that the joint distribution of x-ray transmission and dark-field signals obtained with a compact cone-beam preclinical scanner with a polychromatic source can be used to diagnose pulmonary emphysema in ex vivo murine lungs. Materials and Methods: The animal care committee approved this study. Three excised murine lungs with pulmonary emphysema and three excised muri

Menadione (Vitamin K3) has anti-tumoral effects against a wide range of cancer cells. Its potential toxicity to normal cells and narrow therapeutic range limit its use as single agent but in combination with radiation or other anti-neoplastic agents can be of therapeutic use. In this paper, we first evaluated the early (within 3 h) effect of menadione on ongoing DNA replication. In normal rat cere

Popular Abstract in English This study concerns the city of Damascus in the Syrian Arab Republic. Damascus is a city where the current urban form is characterized by wide streets and lack of shade as well as limited amount of green areas, which negatively affect the microclimate and thermal comfort. This study is mainly focused on residential streets and how the urban planning regulations affect tThis research is an attempt to develop further understanding of the relationship between microclimate, thermal comfort, urban design and outdoor space users in the hot dry city of Damascus. This is done by studying the impact of urban regulations on microclimate in different urban design patterns in Damascus. This study also aims to investigate the behaviour of different thermal comfort indices an

Accelerated pavement wear is one of the major environmental disadvantages of studded tyres in northern regions and results in increased levels of PM10. Measurements of PM10 in a road simulator hall have been used to study the influence of pavement properties, tyre type and vehicle speed on pavement wear. The test set-up included three different pavements (one granite and two quartzite with differe

Popular Abstract in Swedish Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning Ledgångsreumatism (Reumatoid Artrit, RA) leder hos många patienter till omfattande ledskador, vilket kan ge upphov till behov av operation. Med tillgång till nya och bättre läkemedel för behandling av RA förefaller behovet av reumakirurgiska operationer ha minskat, åtminstone för vissa typer av ingrepp. Det är dock tydligt att det finnOrthopedic surgery is used effectively in many patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis RA). The aim of modern pharmacologic treatment is to prevent joint destruction and reduce the need for orthopedic surgery. Patient reported outcomes (PROs) are important measures of the burden of RA. A large, community based RA cohort, established in 1997, was investigated. Patients were classified according t

Stochastic differential equations driven by standard Brownian motion(s) or Lévy processes are by far the most popular models in mathematical finance, but are also frequently used in engineering and science. A key feature of the class of models is that the parameters are easy to interpret for anyone working with ordinary differential equations, making connections between statistics and other scient

Background: The decreasing range of joint motion caused by insufficient muscle length is a common problem in children with cerebral palsy (CP), often worsening with age. In 1994 a CP register and health care programme for children with CP was initiated in southern Sweden. The aim of this study was to analyse the development of the passive range of motion (ROM) in the lower limbs during all the gro

In the first three years of the physics program at the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) a picture was established in which the suppression of hadrons at high transverse momenta (pT) in central Au+Au collisions is explained by energy loss of quark and gluon jets in a medium of high color-charge density. Measurements of single-particle spectra for a smaller nucleus (Cu), for different center-o

We present measurements of electrons and positrons from the semileptonic decays of heavy-flavor hadrons at midrapidity (vertical bar gamma vertical bar < 0.35) in Au + Au collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 62.4 GeV. The data were collected in 2010 by the PHENIX experiment that included the new hadron-blind detector. The invariant yield of electrons from heavy-flavor decays is measured as a function of t

Although Cloud Sourcing has been around for some time it could be questioned what actually is known about it. This paper presents a literature review on the specific question if Cloud Sourcing could be seen as the next generation of outsourcing. The reason for doing this is that from an initial sourcing study we found that the sourcing decisions seems to go in the direction of outsourcing as a ser

Data-driven studies on the dynamics of reconstructed protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks facilitate investigation and identification of proteins important for particular processes or diseases and reduces time and costs of experimental verification. Modeling the dynamics of very large PPI networks is computationally costly.

Background Leaf-cutting ants live in symbiosis with a fungus that they rear for food by providing it with live plant material. Until recently the fungus' main inferred function was to make otherwise inaccessible cell wall degradation products available to the ants, but new studies have shed doubt on this idea. To provide evidence for the cell wall degrading capacity of the attine ant symbiont, we

Glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD65) and autoantibodies specific for GAD65 (GADA) are associated with autoimmune diseases including Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) and Type 1 diabetes (T1D). GADA is recognized as a biomarker of value for clinical diagnosis and prognostication in these diseases. Nonetheless, it remains medically interesting to develop sensitive and specific assays to detect GAD65 pre