1. Disturbance is assumed to be a major driver of plant community composition, but whether similar processes operate on associated soil microbial communities is less known. Based on the assumed trade-off between disturbance tolerance and competiveness, we hypothesize that a severe disturbance applied within a semi-natural grassland would shift the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal community towar

In his commentary on our article on phenomenological subtypes of highly suggestible individuals (Terhune & Cardeña, in press), Kumar (in press) argues that methodological differences between our studies and previous research on highly suggestible subtypes temper our ability to link the two and that it is unclear whether the existence of phenomenological subtypes has implications for hypnothera

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The Coronary Artery Disease Genome-Wide Replication and Meta-Analysis Study (CARDIoGRAM) reported 25 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on 15 chromosomes to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. Because common vascular risk factors are shared between CAD and ischaemic stroke (IS), these SNPs may also be related to IS overall or one or more of its pathog

Objective: Twin studies offer opportunities to investigate mechanisms underlying sex-associated differences in perinatal outcomes. The objective of the study was to investigate sex-related differences in perinatal complications. Study design: A cohort of 16,045 twin pregnancies 32,090 twins - was explored for obstetric complications, perinatal and infant mortality, and neonatal morbidities. Result

Fennoscandia has a strong tradition in dendrochronology, and its large tracts of boreal forest make the region well suited for the development of tree-ring chronologies that extend back several thousands of years. Two of the world's longest continuous (most tree-ring chronologies are annually resolved) tree-ring width chronologies are found in northern Fennoscandia, with records from Tornetrask an

Children diagnosed with noncentral nervous system solid cancers (NCNSSC) experience several adverse late effects, including second malignant neoplasm. The aim of our study was to assess the risk of specific second malignancies after a childhood NCNSSC. Diagnosis and follow-up data on 10,988 cases of NCNSSC in children (0-14 years) were obtained from 13 registries. Standardized incidence ratios (SI

The water sorption properties of Kraft lignin before and after treatment with the enzyme laccase, and its composites with branched polyethylenimine and chitosan, respectively, have been studied. The experimental sorption isotherms were obtained by dynamic vapour sorption (DVS) method. The data were analysed using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer (GAB) models. Monola

Background: Hypertension is a major risk factor of Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, controlled studies on the effect of antihypertensive treatment on the risk of dementia are inconclusive. Therefore, a biological marker that predicts individual response to antihypertensive treatment would be of high clinical relevance. Midregional proatrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), an inactive surrogate

All seals and cetaceans have lost at least one of two ancestral cone classes and should therefore be colour-blind. Nevertheless, earlier studies showed that these marine mammals can discriminate colours and a colour vision mechanism has been proposed which contrasts signals from cones and rods. However, these earlier studies underestimated the brightness discrimination abilities of these animals,

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of thermal conductivity on gas turbine blades, and to investigate the contribution of different rib configurations to the heat flux and the film cooling effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach - The Renormalization Group (RNG) model with enhanced wall treatment was used for the turbulence modeling, and the SIMPLE algorithm was used to

A coarse-graining approach has been developed to replace the effect of explicit ions with an effective pair potential between charged sites in anisotropic colloidal particles by optimizing a potential of mean force against the results of simulations of two such colloidal particles with all ions in a cell model. More specifically, effective pair potentials were obtained for charged platelets in ele

The aim of this study was to describe the experiences of undergoing a presymptomatic genetic test for the hereditary and fatal Huntington's disease, using a case study approach. The study was based on 18 interviews with a young woman and her husband from the decision to undergo the test, to receiving the results and trying to adapt to them, which were analysed using a life history approach. The fi

The spectral coverage of a light-harvesting polymer largely determines the maximum achievable photocurrent in organic photovoltaics, and therefore constitutes a crucial parameter for improving their performance. The D-A1-D-A2 copolymer motif is a new and promising design strategy for extending the absorption range by incorporating two acceptor units with complementary photoresponses. The fundament

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and its receptor are widely distributed within the circulation and the mechanism behind its vasodilation not only differs from one animal species to another but is also dependent on the type and size of vessel. The present study examines the nature of CGRP-induced vasodilation, characteristics of the CGRP receptor antagonist telcagepant and localization of th

The atomic layer deposition (ALD) of TiO2 on a RuO2(110) surface from tetrakis(dimethylamido) titanium and water at 110 degrees C was investigated using near ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) at precursor pressures up to 0.1 mbar. In addition to the expected cyclic surface species, evidence for side reactions was found. Dimethylamine adsorbs on the surface during the TDMA

Objective: To identify biomarker patterns typical for Alzheimer disease (AD) in an independent, unsupervised way, without using information on the clinical diagnosis. Design: Mixture modeling approach. Setting: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database. Patients or Other Participants: Cognitively normal persons, patients with AD, and individuals with mild cognitive impairment. Main Outc

We consider a purchase/inventory control problem in which the purchase price and demand are stochastic, a common situation encountered by firms that replenish in a foreign currency or from commodity markets. More specifically, we assume that the demand follows a Poisson arrival process and that the log-price evolves according to a general Wiener process. Under these circumstances, the optimal poli