This thesis consists of four self-contained papers in the economics of education. The first chapter examines the importance of instruction time for student achievement on international assessments. The second chapter identifies the effect of sibling gender on education and how this effect varies according to traditional inheritance customs. The third chapter studies the effect of more informative

Estimating the gaze direction with a digital video-based pupil and corneal reflection (P-CR) eye tracker is challenging partly since a video camera is limited in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, and because the captured eye images contain noise. Through computer simulation, we evaluated the localization accuracy of pupil-, and CR centers in the eye image for small eye rotations (≪ 1 deg).

The role of patient participation in forensic psychiatric care is unclear, but has been emphasised as important in recent research. This study aims to describe patients’ lived experiences of participation in high-security, forensic psychiatric settings. Sixteen patient interviews were performed in this phenomenological study and analysed with a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach (RLR). Results

This paper aims to develop a model for calculating the hydraulic and water quality parameters of wastewater within sewers. Information from the wastewater collection network and the transmission line in Birjand were used to verify the model performance. The parameters used for modelling quality changes include the yield constant for biomass (YH), the maximum specific growth rate (μH), the saturati

The crises that cities face—such as climate change, pandemics, economic downturn, and racism—are tightly interlinked and cannot be addressed in isolation. This paper addresses compound urban crises as a unique type of problem, in which discrete solutions that tackle each crisis independently are insufficient. Few scholarly debates address compound urban crises and there is, to date, a lack of inte

We analyze a frequent but undertheorized form of structural injustice, one that arises due to the difficulty of reaching numerically equitable representation of underrepresented subgroups within a larger group. This form of structural injustice is significant because it could occur even if it were possible to completely eliminate bias and overt discrimination from hiring and recruitment practices.

The selection of basis sets is very important for multiconfigurational wave function calculation, due to a balance between a desired accuracy and computational costs. Recently, the atomic natural orbital-relativistic (ANO-R) basis set was published as a suggested replacement for the ANO-RCC basis set for scalar-relativistic correlated calculations Zobel et al (2021 J. Chem. Theory Comput. 16 278-2

Marine ecosystems are currently facing a variety of anthropogenic perturbations, including climate change. Trophic differences in response to climate change may disrupt ecological interactions and thereby threaten marine ecosystem function. Yet, we still do not have a comprehensive understanding of how different trophic levels respond to climate change stressors in marine ecosystems. By including

This article introduces a special issue on the contribution of social science to addressing transformations to sustainability. Articles underline the importance of embracing theoretically rooted, empirically informed, and collaboratively generated knowledge to address sustainability challenges and transformative change. Emphasis is placed on the role of the social sciences in elaborating on the po

Diabetes is the result of dysregulation of both insulin and glucagon. Still, insulin has attracted much more attention than glucagon. Glucagon is released from alpha cells in the islets of Langerhans in response to low glucose and certain amino acids. Drugs with the primary aim of targeting glucagon signalling are scarce. However, glucagon is often administered to counteract severe hypoglycaemia,

Ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced (UF-DCE) MRI is a new approach to capture kinetic information in the very early post-contrast period with high temporal resolution while keeping reasonable spatial resolution. The detailed timing and shape of the upslope in the time-intensity curve are analyzed. New kinetic parameters obtained from UF-DCE MRI are useful in differentiating malignant from benign l

Purpose: Nitrogen (N2) is an indispensable metabolite required for the synthesis of protein. In animals, gut bacteria and, to a certain extent, even hepatocytes, are able to assimilate nitrogen from ammonium (NH4+), which is essentially derived from the amine group (-NH2) and which is at the same time a very toxic metabolite. Initially, NH4+ is coupled to alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG), a reaction whic

FLASH radiotherapy is a novel technique that has been shown in numerous preclinical in vivo studies to have the potential to be the next important improvement in cancer treatment. However, the biological mechanisms responsible for the selective FLASH sparing effect of normal tissues are not yet known. An optimal translation of FLASH radiotherapy into the clinic would require a good understanding o

Sepsis manifests due to the host's dysregulated immune response to infection. High-dose ascorbic acid (AA) has emerged as a potential treatment of sepsis, yet little is known regarding how AA influences the immune system in sepsis, such as monocytes. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of high-dose AA on monocyte polarization and cytokine production in vitro. Monocytes isolat

Reports and studies repeatedly indicate that foreign languages other than English are facing major challenges in European educational systems (European Commission, 2012). While young learners’ motivation to learn a second foreign language (SFL) is often reported to be low (Tholin & Lindqvist, 2009), studies have only recently started to take emotional factors into account in order to better un

In the Renaissance, the arts and the sciences were considered an inseparable whole – and open-minded cooperation between distinguished artists was common. The majority of the contemporary scientific community is similarly attuned by collectively splicing together countless individual threads of knowledge, paving the way for new methods and applications. This paper argues that a likeminded modus op

Otitis media (OM) is an inflammatory disorder in the middle ear. It is mainly caused by viruses or bacteria associated with the airways. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis are the three main pathogens in infection-related OM, especially in younger children. In this review, we will focus upon the multifaceted gene regulation mechanisms that are well-orchestra

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a major impact not only on public health and daily living, but also on clinical trials worldwide. To investigate the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the initiation of clinical trials, we have descriptively analyzed the longitudinal change in phase II and III interventional clinical trials initiated in Europe and in the United States