We revisit the problem of why stars become red giants. We modify the physics of a standard stellar evolution code in order to determine what does and what does not contribute to a star becoming a red giant. In particular, we have run tests to try to separate the effects of changes in the mean molecular weight and in the energy generation. The implications for why stars become red giants are discus

We make a number of comments on Chebyshev polynomials for general compact subsets of the complex plane. We focus on two aspects: asymptotics of the zeros and explicit Totik–Widom upper bounds on their norms.

Cytotoxic drugs influence the expression of certain genes in cancer cells. Cisplatin has recently been shown to modulate interleukin (IL)-1 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α production in macrophages. In this study, we wanted to investigate whether cisplatin interferes with the IL-2, IL-2 receptor (IL-2R), interferon (IFN)-γ, and TNF-α expression in phytohemagglutin-stimulated human peripheral blo

Importance To our knowledge, there is no consensus regarding when individuals who repeatedly self-harm and are at risk of suicide should be hospitalized. To evaluate a new alternative, we examined the effects of brief admission (BA) to hospital by self-referral.Objectives To determine the effects of BA on inpatient service use and on secondary outcomes of daily life functioning, nonsuicidal self-i

Catchy slogans about tourism’s peace-promoting qualities abound—‘passport to peace’, ‘a vital force for peace’, and ‘the peace industry’, to name but a few. Yet, despite the critical scrutiny of the peace–tourism nexus in recent decades, its historical origins remain unexplored. This article traces the historical roots of the idea that tourism can help advance peace and international understanding

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) are rare diseases with a gradual decline in physical health. Adherence to treatment is crucial in these very symptomatic and life threatening diseases. Objective: To describe PAH and CTEPH patients experience of their self-reported medication adherence, beliefs about medicines and informatio

The barium overabundances observed at the surface of barium stars originate from accretion long ago from the wind of a companion AGB star. However, this scenario cannot explain their high eccentricities and short orbital periods that have remained a mystery for decades. We investigate how kicks imparted to the white-dwarf at its birth or the presence of a circumbinary disk can solve this problem.

The typical acoustical treatment in ordinary rooms such as classrooms, offices, conference rooms etc is an absorbing suspended ceiling. Due to the non-uniform distribution of the absorbing material the sound field at steady-state and during sound decay is far from the ideal conditions assumed in the diffuse field theory. Especially during the sound decay, the degeneration of the sound field emphas

The field of psychotherapy suffers from the lack of an integrative meta-perspective on the large variety of existing psychotherapies and on the therapeutic skills involved. In the present paper, it is suggested that the development of a more comprehensive view of this field may be facilitated if we differentiate between three modes of psychotherapy, which require different therapeutic core skills:

This paper examines whether social spending cushions the effect of globalization on within‐country inequality. Using information on disposable and market income inequality and data on overall social spending, and health and education spending from the ILO and the World Bank/WHO, we analyze whether social spending moderates the association between economic globalization and inequality. The results

Spotted fever group (SFG) Rickettsia species are inoculated into the mammalian bloodstream by hematophagous arthropods. Once in the bloodstream and during dissemination, the survival of these pathogens is dependent upon the ability of these bacteria to evade serum-borne host defenses until a proper cellular host is reached. Rickettsia conorii expresses an outer membrane protein, Adr1, which binds

Moraxella catarrhalis is part of the normal bacterial flora in the nasopharynx of children, although over the past two decades, it has emerged as a significant bacterial pathogen and not simply a commensal colonizer. Moraxella catarrhalis is a common bacterial species cultured from the nasopharynx of children during otitis media episodes, with the patterns of nasopharyngeal colonization by microor