When the civil war in Lebanon was ended by the signing of the Taif Agreement in 1989, the consociational democracy was reintroduced to mitigate inter-sectarian tension. Although there has been more than 30 years since the war ended, Lebanon is still a deeply divided society, and the current peace is characterized by reoccurring eruptions of violence and inter-sectarian tension. While the sectarian

PURPOSE Remote symptom monitoring shows promise in promoting postdischarge contact between patients and clinicians. Unique strategies may be needed to tailor reach and engagement to specific patient populations. We aimed to assess implementation and effectiveness outcomes of a patient-reported symptom assessment tool (Recovery Tracker [RT]) after major urologic operations.MATERIALS AND METHODS Pat

Quantifications of phytoplankton biomass and species composition are crucial for monitoring biodiversity and population dynamics in aquatic environments, and both direct microscopic counts and fluorescence-based methods have been widely used for monitoring. Recent advancements in DNA metabarcoding offer an alternative way of easily assessing diversity and species composition. However, a comprehens

Interconnected societal challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security demand immediate and coordinated action across local to global scales, guided by coherent policies and management mechanisms. Reflecting on the critical need to address societal challenges, Nature-based Solutions in marine and coastal environments, known as blue NBS, have emerged as an important part of

We investigate the impact of employment protection regulation on firms’ reluctance to apply for bank finance (loans and overdrafts). Our findings reveal that longer notice periods reduce the likelihood that firms are discouraged from applying for bank finance in the case of blue-collar workers, but they increase it in the case of white-collar workers. Our interpretation is that, in the case of blu

The maintenance of variation (i.e., different phenotypes) for heritable traits that are under selection, despite expectations of selection eroding variation and favouring only the fittest phenotype, represents an evolutionary paradox. Here, we studied variation in life-history traits in five populations of colour polymorphic tawny owls (Strix aluco) across Europe that have been individually studie

Globally, thousands of apheresis procedures are performed on a daily basis. Besides, these are relatively short and easy-to-perform preparative procedures in healthy volunteers like plasmapheresis or platelet donation; other procedures like hematopoietic cell donation are more complicated and of longer duration. Therapeutic apheresis is somewhat more challenging, especially in critically ill patie

We study the Higgs boson decay into dark matter (DM) in the framework of freeze-in at stronger coupling. Even though the Higgs-DM coupling is significant, up to order one, DM does not thermalize due to the Boltzmann suppression of its production at low temperatures. We find that this mechanism leads to observable Higgs decay into invisible final states with the branching fraction of 10% and below,

High-speed vertical In–Ga–As nanowire MOS field-effect transistor (MOSFET) measurements were analyzed through parametric layout models. Measurements from small and large transistors were used to fit dependencies on the number of gate fingers and the number of wires per finger. Extrapolations via intrinsic and parasitic elements reveal the optimal layout for peak frequency performance. To achieve a

Our viewpoint highlights the challenges faced by women in the Induced Polarization (IP) community (and elsewhere), particularly the persistent gender imbalance in scientific workshops. This underrepresentation in leadership roles, presentations and discussions reflects broader systemic biases in academia. By sharing the experience of the 7th IP workshop, where the organizing team made deliberate eff

Characterizing ore deposits or mining dumps in terms of mineral content and grain size remains a challenge. Since the 1950s the induced polarization (IP) method has been successfully applied in ore prospecting. However, reliably interpreting field survey data requires comprehensive laboratory studies to establish a link between the IP parameters from empirical or phenomenological models and the typ

In Sweden, the national security objective to establish a total defence, which has been pending since the end of the Cold War, has been reintroduced. This has increasingly shifted the attention from civil crisis management to military defence, with subsequent increased resources for defence mobilization. A key threat representation in the current Swedish security narrative is the grey zone, which

The “nutmeg lung pattern” on fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indicates pulmonary lymphangiectasia. This is associated with adverse outcomes, particularly in fetuses with congenital heart defects and impaired pulmonary venous return. Whereas lymphedema is common in fetuses with Turner syndrome, pulmonary lymphangiectasia is not. A 26-year-old woman presented with a fetus with hypoplastic lef

Developmental language disorder (DLD) affects around 7.5 percent of students. The risks of DLD for reduced educational progress are well documented but teachers often do not feel adequately prepared to support this student group. This study aims to broaden the understanding of teachers’ experiences of working with students with DLD in Swedish mainstream secondary schools. Five focus group intervie

In this paper, we propose an approach that combines Vision Language Models (VLMs) and Behavior Trees (BTs) to address failures in robotics. Current robotic systems can handle known failures with pre-existing recovery strategies, but they are often ill-equipped to manage unknown failures or anomalies. We introduce VLMs as a monitoring tool to detect and identify failures during task execution. Addi

Deposition of phosphorus (P) is important for the nutrient supply to forests and open land but also contributes to the eutrophication of surface waters. Deposition to open land can be measured as bulk deposition while deposition to forests cannot be measured directly, due to internal circulation of P within forest canopies. This study aimed to quantify the total deposition of P to open land and fo

This chapter by Emily Silva and Oksana Mont examines the role of libraries of things (LoTs) in reducing consumption through socially sustainable practices. It highlights LoTs' potential to address sustainability and service challenges in circular and sharing business models. The study, based on data from 90 LoTs across North America, Europe and Australia, explores motivations and business model co

Background: The carba mix is used to screen rubber chemical allergy and consists of three rubber sensitising chemicals: 1% (w/w) zinc diethyldithiocarbamate (ZDEC), 1% (w/w) zinc dibutyldithiocarbamate (ZDBC) and 1% (w/w) 1,3-diphenylguanidine (DPG), all in petrolatum. However, carba mix patch test results can be difficult to interpret, which may be linked to so-called ‘cocktail’ effects. Objectiv

We evaluated the association between cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time during surgery for acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) and mid-term survival. Data of 1122 patients who underwent surgery for ATAAD in eight Nordic centers from January 2005 to December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. An adjusted logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association of incremental 30