The efforts to develop sustainability indicators have strongly increased since the beginning of the 1990s, often led by intergovernmental processes. More recently, a number of sustainability indicator development processes have been initiated within large research projects that aim to design tools for sustainability assessments, funded by the European Union. The development of sustainability indic

Electroactive polymers (EAP) deform under electric fields. This effect in fact generates various new fields of engineering applications of high technological interest. As an advantage, EAP may undergo deformations much larger than those capable by electroactive ceramics-however, to the price of acting at comparatively low forces. As common for polymers, EAP exhibit time-dependent material behaviou

Biosynthetic nerve grafts are developed in order to complement or replace autologous nerve grafts for peripheral nerve reconstruction. Artificial nerve guides currently approved for clinical use are not widely applied in reconstructive surgery as they still have limitations especially when it comes to critical distance repair. Here we report a comprehensive analysis of fine-tuned chitosan nerve gu

Objective. While the prevalence of radiographic thumb carpometacarpal (CMC1) osteoarthritis (OA) is well-described, little is known about clinically symptomatic disease presenting to physicians for care. We sought to determine the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed CMC1 OA. Methods. Using health care data from Skane in southern Sweden (population 1.24 million), we identified all adults ages >= 20 year

The vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) propagation channel has significant implications on the design and performance of novel communication protocols for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Extensive research efforts have been made to develop V2V channel models to be implemented in advanced VANET system simulators for performance evaluation. The impact of shadowing caused by other vehicles has, however, la

Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy has become a widespread technique despite a lack of randomised trials showing its superiority over open radical prostatectomy.

Bone mineral density (BMD) and geometric bone measures are individually associated with prevalent osteoporotic fractures. Whether an aggregate of these measures would better associate with fractures has not been examined. We examined relationships between self-reported fractures and selected bone measures acquired by quantitative computerized tomography (QCT), a composite bone score, and QCT-acqui

The M-shell x-ray emission of highly charged tungsten ions has been investigated at the Livermore electron beam ion trap facility. Using the SuperEBIT electron beam ion trap and a NASA x-ray calorimeter array, transitions connecting to levels of the ground configurations in the 1500–3600 eV spectral range of zinc-like W44+ through cobalt-like W47+ have been measured. The measured spectra are compa

Abstract in UndeterminedUsing a sample of 7,260 university employees, we investigate how legitimacy, social and human capital influence the employees’ start-up propensity. We find that scientific legitimacy, as measured by the number of recently published peer reviewed scientific articles, and conference papers accepted had no significant effect. Scientific legitimacy measured as publications in n

Dyskinesias represent a major complication of dopamine replacement therapy in Parkinson's disease (PD) and have prompted a search for alternative treatments. The most radical advances in this field have been provided by surgical manipulations of the deep basal ganglia nuclei, and particularly by deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Although being very effective, high-freq

Some patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) show increased airway inflammation and bacterial colonization during stable phase. The aim of this study was to follow COPD patients and investigate chronic colonization with pathogenic bacteria during stable disease phase, and relate these findings to clinical parameters, inflammatory pattern, lung function, and exacerbations.

Environmentally responsive materials (i.e., materials that respond to changes in their environment with a change in their properties or structure) are attracting increasing amounts of interest. We recently designed and synthesized a series of cleavable multivalent lipids (CMVLn, with n = 2-5 being the number of positive headgroup charges at full protonation) with a disulfide bond in the linker bet

This paper reports on the geochemistry of the mid-Silurian Grotlingbo Bentonite, a ca. 0.10.4-m-thick and regionally important bentonite bed in Sweden and the East Baltic area. A series of eight samples, spaced by 5cm, were taken from the Hunninge-1 drillcore in Gotland, Sweden, and were analysed in order to establish the vertical element composition and variation in the bentonite. The results sho

A central question in evolutionary biology concerns the accumulation of reproductive barriers during speciation. However, separating the reproductive barriers that have led to speciation from those that have secondarily accumulated (i.e. after initial divergence) is a widely recognized problem. Ideal candidate species for overcoming this problem are young species, where time for additional barrier

Objective: GH deficiency (GHD) in adults is characterized by a tendency toward obesity and an adverse body composition with visceral fat deposit and may thus predispose to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to assess the observed prevalence proportion (PP) and observed PP over expected PP ratio (standardized prevalence proportion ratio, SPR) of diabetes accordin

We reformulate the theory of strong electrostatic coupling in order to describe an asymmetric electrolyte solution of monovalent salt ions and polyvalent counterions using field-theoretical techniques and Monte Carlo simulations. The theory is based on an asymmetric treatment of the different components of the electrolyte solution. The weak coupling Debye-Huumlckel approach is used in order to des

The changes of cancer incidence upon immigration have been used as an estimator of environmental influence on cancer risk. The previous immigrant studies have indicated that the origins of testicular cancer are at an early age in life, probably in the intrauterine period. We wanted to reexamine the critical periods on histology-specific testicular cancer in sons of immigrants to Sweden. We used th