This intervention seeks to revivify democratic thinking in political geography, through foregrounding and pluralising its material and temporal dimensions. At the same time, it speaks to a renewed centrality and relevance of infrastructure and infrastructural projects in political discourse. The contributions included here demonstrate how an infrastructural lens can offer new insights into democra

Individuals may vary in their sensitivity to noise and this may affect how they relate to their surroundings. As part of an intervention project about the psychosocial effects of informational sound masking, we examined the occurrence of self-labeled noise sensitive individuals as well as the association between three indicators of noise sensitivity and one indicator for the perceived enjoyment of

Agricultural intensification and expansion are regarded as main drivers of biodiversity loss. This conclusion is mainly based on observed declines of local diversity (α-diversity), while effects on community composition homogenization (decrease of β-diversity) at a larger spatial scale are less well understood. Carabid beetles and spiders represent two widespread guilds and are important predators

Background: Mental health problems among adolescents is a global challenge. During the transition to adolescence, physiological, psychological, and social changes occur, leading to increased vulnerability. Thus, adolescent boys are less likely to seek help for mental health problems, which makes them an undetected group. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of adolescent boys’

Microplastic (MP) contamination is a topic of growing global concern; these particles are ubiquitous in environmental ecosystems and have been found in aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric mediums. However, the protocols to quantify MPs in environmental samples have limitations and may lead to overestimation and/or underestimation of the plastic debris. Therefore, the aim of this research was to

We survey the current state of the art in the use of nonparametric methods to test separability. We focus on three tests: Swofford and Whitney's (1994) joint test of the necessary and sufficient conditions for weak separability; Fleissig and Whitney's (2003) sequential test of those conditions; and Jones and Stracca's (2006) test of the necessary and sufficient conditions for additive separability

The ubiquitous presence of microplastics in the aquatic environment has raised concern about their potential impacts on and risks to the biota. While the presence of microplastics in a marine environment has been well studied, the impact of microplastic contamination in freshwater bodies is understudied. In the present study, baseline data about contamination with microplastics in Lake Guaíba in s

Microplastics of polyamide are commonly found in aquatic environments and might act as vectors of different contaminants such as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC). Therefore, sorption of 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), 17β-estradiol (E2), and estriol (E3) on polyamide microplastics was studied under different simulated environments. The results suggest that the sorption process was affected by the

PURPOSE: To compare agreement of corneal epithelium thickness (ET) between AS-OCT system (RTVue, Optovue) and AS-OCT/Placido topographer (MS-39, CSO) in eyes with different stages of keratoconus (KC), and to assess the repeatability of RTVue AS-OCT. DESIGN: Prospective reliability analysis. METHODS: KC eyes were classified into forme fruste KC (FFKC), mild, moderate, and severe KC. Agreement was e

In 1935, Schrödinger noted that if one of two entangled particles is subjected to a suitable measurement, it appears as if the state of the other particle is instantaneously influenced at a distance. This phenomenon, which Schrödinger referred to as quantum steering, exhibits properties favorable for quantum information theory. Therefore, much research has been put into developing criteria to dete

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many countries with significant health system and economic challenges. The role of civil-military cooperation in a health crisis of the magnitude presented by COVID-19 remains virtually unexplored. This review aims to detect and identify typologies, if any, of associations between security or military systems and the national response measures during

BACKGROUND: Neck pain remains a persistent challenge in modern society and is frequently encountered across a wide range of occupations, particularly those involving repetitive and monotonous tasks. It might be expected that patterns of trapezius muscle activity at work, characterized by few breaks and prolonged periods of sustained muscle activity, are linked to neck pain. However, previous cross

Objectives: Evidence-informed priority setting, in particular cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), can help target resources better to achieve universal health coverage. Central to the application of CEA is the use of a cost-effectiveness threshold. We add to the literature by looking at what thresholds have been used in published CEA and the proportion of interventions found to be cost-effective, b

Each year, approximately 5000 tons of extraterrestrial material reaches the Earth's surface as micrometeorites, cosmic dust particles ranging from 10 to 2000 μm in size. These micrometeorites, collected from diverse environments, mainly deep-sea sediments, Antarctic ice, snow and loose sediments, and hot deserts, are crucial in understanding our Solar System's evolution. Chrome-rich spinel (Cr-spi

Agricultural biomass to energy holds promise for the sustainability of energy production and positive reduction of CO2 emission. This thesis explores the potential of rice husk as a sustainable energy source for electricity and process heat generation focusing on a rice mill in Sri Lanka. It utilizes advanced thermochemical conversion technologies specifically separate reactors for pyrolysis and g