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This dissertation explores the socioeconomic impacts of mine closures in Canada, focusing on the vulnerabilities that arise within local economies and the political economy implications of industrial changes. Through a combination of historical, quantitative, and qualitative analyses, the research provides a comprehensive understanding of the effects of mine closures on employment, municipal finan
The breakdown of relations between China and the US has prompted Beijing to shore up existing friendships, and seek new ones.
Roughness is a perceptual characteristic of sound that was first applied to musical consonance and dissonance, but it is increasingly recognized as a central aspect of voice quality in human and animal communication. It may be particularly important for asserting social dominance or attracting attention in urgent signals such as screams. To ensure that the results of roughness research are valid a
Low vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is a public health concern. The aim of this study was to identify barriers and motivators associated with COVID-19 vaccination and develop a vaccine acceptance scoring system. From the overall population residing in Skåne county Sweden in 2022 (n = 1 384 531), 3600 randomly selected individuals (aged ≥18 years) received a survey. Questions wer
In the plant-based beverage industry, a residue called okara, is generated in large quantities in the liquid-solid separation step. Despite the high nutritional value of okara from soy and oat beverages with respect to fiber and protein content, these residues are generally discarded or used as animal feed or compost. It would be more sustainable to utilize okara for human consumption, however, th
This work addresses the design of multi-agent coordination through high-order consensus protocols. While first-order consensus strategies are well-studied—with known robustness to uncertainties such as time delays, time-varying weights, and nonlinearities like saturations—the theoretical guarantees for high-order consensus are comparatively limited. We propose a compositional control framework tha
This thesis investigates scalable control design for networked dynamical systems, which are of great importance due to their wide range of practical applications, including large-scale formation control. A central challenge in such systems is enabling agents to coordinate effectively based only on local and relative information, particularly as the system size increases. To address this, the thesi
Speckle metrology is a powerful optical sensing tool for non-destructive testing (NDT) and advanced surface characterization, enabling ultra-precise measurements of surface deformations and displacements. These capabilities are critical for material analysis and surface assessment in sensing-driven applications. However, traditional correlation methods often struggle to balance resolution and robu
Background: Respiratory symptoms are common in the general adult population. Increased burden of respiratory symptoms may increase the risk of mortality. We assessed the association between respiratory symptom clusters and mortality. Methods: Participants were derived from two population-based Swedish adult cohorts (N = 63,060). Cluster analysis was performed with Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH)-
BACKGROUND: Recent advances now allow detection of brain-specific proteins in blood, including neurofilament light chain (NfL), a marker of axonal pathology, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), indicative of astrocytic activation. Given the evidence of astroglial pathology and neuronal dysfunction in bipolar disorder, and ongoing debates on neuroprogression, we investigated plasma NfL and
Defaulter tracing policies for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) services are vital for achieving the global goal of zero new HIV infections. However, little is known about their implementation. This qualitative study explores the role of tracers—community volunteers, retention workers, and mentor mothers—in implementing such policy across six facilities in Western Kenya. It usesDefaulter tracing policies for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) services are vital for achieving the global goal of zero new HIV infections. However, little is known about their implementation. This qualitative study explores the role of tracers—community volunteers, retention workers, and mentor mothers—in implementing such policy across six facilities in Western Kenya. It uses
Renin from plasma, kidney, and recombinant sources was previously demonstrated to cleave C3 to C3a and C3b. C3a was generated at a similar rate to that by C3 convertase, and C3 cleavage was inhibited by the renin inhibitor aliskiren. Renin endogenously produced by Calu6 cells also led to C3 deposition on cells. These results have been challenged by another group suggesting that recombinant renin d
