The socio-economic values of fertile and carbon-rich Dark Earth soils are well described from the Amazon region. Very recently, Dark Earth soils were also identified in tropical West Africa, with comparable beneficial soil properties and plant growth-promoting effects. The impact of this management technique on soil microbial communities, however, is less well understood, especially with respect t

The chapter will give an overview of the history and actual status of three pertinent aspects of mental illness stigma: public stigma, discrimination and self-stigma, and the evidence for interventions to diminish stigma and discrimination. Stigma and discrimination are still important aspects of the lives of people with mental illness with negative consequences in a number of life domains. The st

Using a comparative case study on the closure of the research and development facilities of a pharmaceutical company in two regions in Sweden, this paper investigates the emergence of regional economic resilience from an agency perspective. Findings include a networked region engendering agency from non-state actors whilst substantial state intervention is needed to facilitate agency from a less n

A recently developed vertical borehole ground heat exchanger model that accounts for transit time effects and time-varying short-circuiting heat transfer has been validated against two multi-flow-rate thermal response tests (MFR-TRT). The MFR-TRT, when performed with a wide range of flow rates, results in significant changes in the borehole thermal resistance, the borehole internal thermal resista

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly can be treated with surgery, medical therapy and/or radiation therapy. For the patients not being cured with surgery, treatment with somatostatin analogues (SSAs) is the primary therapy. SSA can be taken by self- or partner-administered injections in addition to being given by a nurse at a clinic. The aim was to assess if patients with acromegaly prefer self-

Background: Periampullary adenocarcinomas, including pancreatic cancer, are a heterogeneous group of tumors with poor prognosis, where classification into intestinal type (I-type) or pancreatobiliary type (PB-type) is a relevant prognostic factor. The clinical significance of deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) in periampullary adenocarcinoma is comparatively unexplored. Herein, we examined the assoc

BACKGROUND/AIM: Consequences of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury include worse patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and a decrease in activity level. Muscle function can be improved by targeted exercise. Our aims were to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations among lower extremity muscle function and PROs after ACL injury.METHODS: Fifty-four participants (15 women, mean 30

Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, results from the specific autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic islet beta cells. The subsequent lack of insulin leads to increased blood and urine glucose. The classical symptoms are polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst), polyphagia (increased hunger), and weight loss. The disease may be

When doped into solid state transparent crystals, rare-earth ions can have optically excited states with milliseconds coherence time and up to six hours coherence time for hyperfine levels after being cooled down to liquid helium temperature. This long coherence property makes them unique as solid state material and attractive for quantum information applications.The rare-earth ions have narrow ho

This article explores the issue of morphogenesis and metamorphosis in socio-spatial formations. The specific key is what we propose to call the ‘animistic moment’ in form-taking processes. We believe that a conceptualisation of animistic moments might help us to focus better not simply on the coming about of new forms, but also on the power forms are endowed with. The general social-theoretical ho

Scattering of electromagnetic waves by discrete, randomly distributed objects inside a (finite or semi-infinite) slab is addressed. In general, the non-intersecting scattering objects can be of arbitrary form, material and shape with number density n0 (number of scatterers per volume). The main aim of this paper is to calculate the coherent reflection and transmission characteristics for this conf

Background: Consumption of polyphenol-rich fruits and vegetables may improve postprandial glucose and insulin levels and hence promote well-being. Previously it has been observed that consumption of bilberry decreases the postprandial insulin demand. The intention with the present study was to compare the impact of different supplements with various polyphenol profiles, on the postprandial glucose

This paper deals with the exterior Calderón operator for not necessarily spherical domains. We present a new approach of finding the norm of the exterior Calderón operator for a wide class of surfaces. The basic tool in the treatment is the set of eigenfunctions and eigenvalues to the Laplace–Beltrami operator for the surface. The norm is obtained in view of an eigenvalue problem of a quadratic fo

Germline mutations in the SAMD9 and SAMD9L genes, located in tandem on chromosome 7, are associated with a clinical spectrum of disorders including the MIRAGE syndrome, ataxia–pancytopenia syndrome and myelodysplasia and leukemia syndrome with monosomy 7 syndrome. Germline gain-of-function mutations increase SAMD9 or SAMD9L’s normal antiproliferative effect. This causes pancytopenia and generally

The tight junction protein claudin-4 has been reported to be overexpressed in advanced ovarian cancer. We investigated the prognostic significance of claudin-4 overexpression and whether claudin-4 expression could predict platinum response in primary ovarian carcinoma (OC). Claudin-4 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray of 140 OCs. Multivariable Cox-regression mo

Few prospective studies have examined the factor V paradox: factor V Leiden (FVL) is a stronger risk factor for deep venous thrombosis (DVT) than for pulmonary embolism (PE). The present study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first population-based study aimed to examine the relationship between FVL and incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), DVT and PE in a prospective cohort study of mid

The burden of depression and anxiety disorders is greater in women, and female sex hormones have been shown to affect mood. Psychological side effects of hormonal contraception (HC) are also a common complaint in the clinic, but few previous studies have investigated this subject. We therefore wanted to investigate whether use of HC was associated with adverse psychological health outcomes, and wh

Alkaline sphingomyelinase cleaves phosphocholine from sphingomyelin, platelet-activating factor, lysophosphatidylcholine, and less effectively phosphatidylcholine The enzyme shares no structure similarities with acid or neutral sphingomyelinase but belongs to ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase (NPP) family and therefore is also called NPP7 nowadays. The enzyme is expressed in the int