Seventy-four addictive alcoholic subjects were investigated shortly after a period of excessive drinking and were compared with 18 alcoholic subjects who had not been drinking for at least six months. No difference was observed in total white cell count or number of circulating granulocytes. Lymphocyte count was significantly lower in alcoholics whose last alcoholic bout had been three months or m

Testosterone is a hormone that plays a key role in carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. Testosterone deficiency is associated with multiple comorbidities, e.g., metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Despite its importance in many metabolic pathways, the mechanisms by which it controls metabolism are not fully understood. The present study investigated the short-term metabolic changes of ph

Temporariness of refugee protection has started to emerge as a new standard in the policies of European countries. Given this development, the article focuses on one specific issue related to this temporariness: how refugee status intertwines with the conditions for the granting, revocation and prolongation of national residence permits. What are the interconnections between refugee status, includ

Parkinson´s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurological diseases with both motor and non-motor symptoms that can be perceived as difficult to control despite medical treatment. This leads to several consequences in everyday life for example difficulties in activities of daily living (ADL), sometimes already at diagnosis. Therefore, rehabilitation is important to manage the consequences of

There is a long history of avian studies investigating the impacts of urbanization. While differences in several life-history traits have been documented, either between urban and rural populations or across generalized urbanization gradients, a detailed understanding of which specific environmental variables cause these phenotypic differences is still lacking. Here, we quantified several local en

Food security assessment in sub-Saharan Africa requires simultaneous consideration of multiple socio-economic and environmental variables. Early identification of populations at risk enables timely and appropriate action. Since large and widely dispersed populations depend on rainfed agriculture and pastoralism, climate monitoring and forecasting are important inputs to food security analysis. Sat

Food insecurity early warning can provide time to mitigate unfolding crises; however, drought remains a large source of uncertainty. The challenge is to filter unclear or conflicting signals from various climatic and socio-economic variables and link them to food security outcomes. Integrating lag-1 autocorrelation diagnostics into remotely sensed observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive

The atomic layer deposition of HfO2on a TiO2(101) surface from tetrakis(dimethylamido)hafnium and water is investigated using a combination of in situ vacuum X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-resolved ambient pressure XPS. Precursor pressures and surface temperature are tuned as to map the space state of the deposition. In the initial stages of ALD, a reaction mechanism based on diss

Social and environmental issues associated with US military presence in Okinawa have adversely affected island residents for years and requires urgent attention. However, with actors with different beliefs and values involved, the search for sustainable solutions is elusive. An ecolinguistic analysis is conducted on digital newspaper articles published in four ‘societies’ – the US, US military, Ja

This thesis develops a general formalism for continuous feedback control in quantum systems. The main result is a quantum Fokker-Planck master equation describing the joint dynamics of a quantum system and a detector with finite bandwidth. For a fast detector, this equation can be reduced to a Markovian master equation for the system dynamics. In particular, the formalism is amenable to analyticalThis thesis devolops a general formalism for continuous feedback control in quantum systems. The main result is a quantum Fokker-Planck master equation describing the joint dynamics of a quantum system and a detector with finite bandwidth. For a fast detector, this equation can be reduced to a Markovian master equation for the system dynamics. In particular, the formalism is amenable to analytical