Grasslands are a prerequisite for rearing livestock, and livestock is the mainstay of people’s existence in drylands. As one Kenyan woman put it, “without grass there is no livestock, without livestock there is no life.” Based in the lowlands of Baringo County in Kenya’s Rift Valley, RAE (Rehabilitating Arid Environments) Ltd. has worked for 38 years to develop a successful socio-ecological model

This article reports work-in-progress of a parallel kinematic robot development for construction with main focus on the concept phase. We suppose the weight distribution of the proposed structure enables integration of robotic components into construction equipment while enabling tailoring of important characteristics such as accuracy, stiffness and workspace toward application needs.We describe c

The beneficial effects of protons are primarily based on reduction of low to intermediate radiation dose bath to normal tissue surrounding the radiotherapy target volume. Despite promise for reduced long-term toxicity, the percentage of cancer patients treated with proton therapy remains low. This is probably caused by technical improvements in planning and delivery of photon therapy, and by high

Investigating the Galactic center offers unique insights into the buildup and history of our Galaxy and is a stepping stone to understand galaxies in a larger context. It is reasonable to expect that the stars found in the Galactic center might have a different composition compared to stars found in the local neighborhood around the Sun. It is therefore quite exciting when recently there were repo

Sex chromosomes were discovered more than 100 years ago. They have been studied intensely from a theoretical perspective since then, giving rise to a large body of testable predictions about their evolution from autosomes. A common feature of sex chromosomes is recombination suppression between the sex chromosome copies (X and Y in male heterogametic systems, or Z and W in female heterogametic sys

Background/Aim: Cervical cancer incidence and mortality has decreased after introduction of national screening in Sweden, but women with drug use disorders (DUD) are less likely to participate in screening programs. We aimed to investigate cervical cancer incidence and mortality among women with DUD compared to the general female population in Sweden. Methods: We conducted a cohort study based on

The European Union (EU) faces many crises and risks to its security and existence. While few of them threaten the lives of EU citizens, they all create a sense of anxiety and insecurity about the future for many ordinary Europeans. Amongst these crises are the more obvious challenges of sovereign debt and fiscal austerity; refugees from conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria; and the rise of po

Background: Newborns, admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), are exposed to a large number of medications, the majority of which are not labeled for use in infants, especially in preterm newborns, because clinical trials on their benefits and harms are lacking. There is a huge gap in knowledge on pharmacokinetic (PK) data in sick preterm infants, including that of drug penetration to

The tunable electronic structure of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) has attracted much attention due to the great potential in nanoscale electronic applications. Most methods to produce GNRs rely on the lithographic process, which suffers from the process-induced disorder in the graphene and scalability issues. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to directly grow free-standing GNRs on step-bunched f

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) increases the risk of delayed neurodegenerative processes, including Parkinson’s disease (PD). Interleukin-1beta (IL-1β), a key pro-inflammatory cytokine, may promote secondary injury development after TBI. Conversely, neutralizing IL-1β was found to improve functional recovery following experimental TBI. However, the mechanisms underlying the behavioral improvements o

The gap between theoretically predicted trade patterns and actual trade suggests that our understanding of what shapes trade patterns is incomplete. Institutional barriers may be one factor behind this gap, and recent research suggests that institutions are a greater obstacle to trade than tariffs. Using detailed firm-level data, we analyze how institutional quality in recipient countries affects