Aims: HbA1c variability is targeted as a part of clinical risk assessment in type 2 diabetes. Psychological factors such as patient competence, adjustment to diabetes, and motivation, may influence glycemic control. The objective of the present study was to determine if perceived competence, diabetes appraisal, and motivation predicted HbA1c variability, and to examine differences regarding these

This article deals with an important question of legal justification: What reasons serve to justify a claim that a norm has the status of jus cogens. This question can be approached from two fundamentally different perspectives – in this article referred to as legal positivism and legal idealism. As earlier research has demonstrated, legal positivists have great difficulty justifying their jus cog

It has previously been demonstrated that the ratio of the degenerate four wave mixing signal from two hot water line groups near 3231 cm–1 can be used for seedless flame temperature measurements. This paper presents an investigation of the impact of saturation effects on the measured signal intensity from each line group, as well as an estimation of the accuracy of the method. The saturation effec

We use historical data on union density and new historical data on policies toward migrants to study the long-run relationship between the strength of trade unions and the social and economic rights of migrants in the Global North. In countries with strong trade unions, there was, for a long time, a widening distance between the rights of migrants and the rights of citizens, probably because the rWe use historical data on union density and new historical data on policies toward migrants to study the long-run relationship between the strength of trade unions and the social and economic rights of migrants in the Global North. In countries with strong trade unions, there was, for a long time, a widening distance between the rights of migrants and the rights of citizens, probably because the r

Numerous species use different forms of communication in order to successfully interact in their respective environment. This article seeks to elucidate limitations of the classical conduit metaphor by investigating communication from the perspectives of biology and artificial neural networks. First, communication is a biological natural phenomenon, found to be fruitfully grounded in an organism’s

Atherosclerosis is a systemic disease affecting the large arteries caused by the accumulation of lipids in the vessel wall. Cardiovascular disease due to atherosclerosis is today the most common cause of death globally through its end consequences: myocardial infarctions and stroke. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a network of structural fibrous proteins, proteoglycans and glycoproteins. ECM pro

Background: There is a need for refined risk stratification of sudden cardiac death and prediction of ventricular arrhythmias to correctly identify patients who are expected to benefit the most from implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy. Methods: We conducted a registry-based retrospective observational study on patients with either ischemic (ICMP) or nonischemic dilated cardiomyopa

Desludging is considered a key step in urban sanitation improvement. Nevertheless, in most urban unplanned settlements, desludging is performed in an unhygienic manner, risking public health. This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the underlying factors for unhygienic desludging in three urban unplanned settlements of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Factors for u

On August 7, 2020, the number 2 figure in al-Qaeda, Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah (known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri), was gunned down in Tehran. Al-Masri’s very presence in Iran exhibited the close relationship Tehran has with the Sunni terrorist organization, and his slaying shows the weakness of Iranian counterintelligence. The regime’s frustration at this intelligence failure will likely be expressed t

Background: Approximately 50% of all patients undergoing esophagectomy experience complications. This paper estimates the costs due to complications after esophagectomy in a Swedish context. Material and methods: The Swedish National Register for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer (NREV) and the Healthcare Consumption Register in Region Skåne (RSVD) were crossmatched for patients undergoing esophagecto

This study presents the results from a set of 11 large-scale open fire tests performed on flexible polyurethane foam slabs/mattresses. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of the ignition location on the fire behaviour of the foam slabs and to generate data on a highly characterised material that could be used for modelling work in the future. A method for obtaining spatially

This work investigated the combustion characteristics of single pulverized biomass-derived char particles. The char particles, in the size range 224-250 μm, were prepared in a drop tube furnace at pyrolysis temperatures of 1273 or 1473 K from four types of biomass particles - wheat straw, grape pomace, kiwi branches and rice husk. Subsequently, the char particles were injected upward into a confin

The use of virtual reality in human behavior in fire research has the advantage of being able to produce results comparable to more traditional laboratory or field experiments. This method relies not only on the technology employed but also on the participants' perception of realism when exposed to a virtual emergency scenario. A virtual scenario can be perceived as realistic based on the way it l

Platelets are the primary cellular mediators of hemostasis and this function firmly acquaints them with a variety of inflammatory processes. For example, platelets can act as circulating sentinels by expressing Toll-like receptors (TLR) that bind pathogens and this allows platelets to effectively kill them or present them to cells of the immune system. Furthermore, activated platelets secrete and

Aims: To observe and report population demography, comorbidities, risk factor levels and risk factor treatment in a sample of individuals treated for type 2 diabetes in primary care in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Methods: Retrospective observational cohort using extraction of data from electronic medical records linked with national health care registries. Results: Sixty primary care clinics parti

This paper examines the relationship between common owners and firm dividend policy. We find that dividend policies of firms newly added to an investor's portfolio evolve towards the dividend policies of the existing firms in this portfolio. This relationship is neither driven by owners targeting firms forecasted to change their dividend policies, nor by firms with a similar dividend strategy to t