From December 1993 to January 1995 and from October 2009 to October 2010, a total of 320 and 365 daily samples of the PM2.5 were collected at a rural background site (National Atmospheric Observatory Košetice) in Central Europe. The PM2.5 samples were analyzed for 29 and 26 elements respectively by Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and water-soluble inorganic ions by Ion Chromatography (IC) i

PISA results show that a considerable number of 15-year-old pupils after 8 to 10 years of schooling have a low level of functional reading literacy, as defined in the PISA framework. While PISA results help identify the level of reading competency, they do not reveal what might be the reasons why some students fail to solve the tasks. One way to explore the difficulties students encounter while so

Obesity predisposes for atrial fibrillation, heart failure, sudden cardiac death, renal disease and ischemic stroke, which are the main causes of cardiovascular hospitalization and mortality. As obesity and the cardiovascular effects on the vessels and the heart start early in life, even from childhood, it is important for health policies to prevent obesity very early before the disease manifestat

Jakob's Square, solo show, Belenius/Nordenhake, Stockholm, Mar 21-Apr 19, 2015. (Opening reception Mar 21, 15-19). Gräsligt skönt, essay (in swedish) by Nils-Eric Sahlin

Obesity is a key factor for cardiovascular diseases and complications. Obesity is associated with hypertension, dyslipidemia and type II diabetes, which are the major predictors of cardiovascular disease in the future. It predisposes for atrial fibrillation, heart failure, sudden cardiac death, renal disease and ischemic stroke that are the main causes of cardiovascular hospitalization and mortali

Recent advances in whole lung bioengineering have opened new doors for studying lung repair and regeneration ex vivo using acellular human derived lung tissue scaffolds. Methods to decellularise whole human lungs, lobes or resected segments from normal and diseased human lungs have been developed using both perfusion and immersion based techniques. Immersion based techniques allow laboratories wit

BACKGROUND: Falls are the most common cause of injury for older people in the general population as well as among those with intellectual disability. There are many risk factors for falls, including a range of drugs which are considered to be fall-risk-increasing (FRIDs). The aim of the present study was to describe prescription patterns of FRIDs in itself as well as in relation to falls requiring

Forward–backward and Douglas–Rachford splitting are methods for structured nonsmooth optimization. With the aim to use smooth optimization techniques for nonsmooth problems, the forward–backward and Douglas–Rachford envelopes where recently proposed. Under specific problem assumptions, these envelope functions have favorable smoothness and convexity properties and their stationary points coincide

Recurrent use of the Housing Enabler instrument has highlighted methodological challenges of broader scientific interest, namely interactions between personal functional capacity (P) and exposures to features (here potential barriers) in the built housing environment (E). This study aimed to propose and illustrate an analytic approach, separating P × E interaction effects (here accessibility probl

Summary: In community dwelling, 75-year-old women followed 10 years, a frailty index was created at each of three visits. Frailty score increased by ~ 6–7% annually. A higher frailty score was equivalent to being 5–10 years chronologically older. Frailty was associated with low bone density and higher risk of dying. Introduction: To understand the distribution of frailty among a population-based s

The complexity and scales of the processes that shape communities of marine benthic macroinvertebrates has limited our understanding of their assembly mechanisms and the potential to make projections of their spatial and temporal dynamics. Individual-based models can shed light on community assembly mechanisms, by allowing observed spatiotemporal patterns to emerge from first principles about the

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects more than 33 million individuals worldwide1 and has a complex heritability2. We conducted the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for AF to date, consisting of more than half a million individuals, including 65,446 with AF. In total, we identified 97 loci significantly associated with AF, including 67 that were novel in a combined-ancest

Background: There is a need for providing sensory feedback for myoelectric prosthesis users. Providing tactile feedback can improve object manipulation abilities, enhance the perceptual embodiment of myoelectric prostheses and help reduce phantom limb pain. Many amputees have referred sensation from their missing hand on their residual limbs (phantom maps). This skin area can serve as a target for