This article investigates the extent to which merger and acquisition (M&A) activity contributed to the spatial clustering of the Dutch banking industry in Amsterdam. This analysis is based on a unique database of all banks in the Netherlands that existed in the period 1850-1993. We found that spatial clustering of the Dutch banking industry was not driven by the fact that banks performed bette

We show that, if a groupoid graded ring has a grading satisfying a certain nondegeneracy property, then the commutant of the center of the principal component of the ring has the ideal intersection property, that is it intersects nontrivially every nonzero ideal of the ring. Furthermore, we show that for skew groupoid algebras with commutative principal component, the principal component is maxima

The purpose of this investigation was to describe the clinical spectrum of invasive Fusobacterium necrophorum infections and Lemièrre's syndrome, to examine the role of underlying thrombophilia and concomitant mononucleosis in Lemièrre's syndrome, and to describe thromboembolic complications. Patients with invasive F. necrophorum infections were identified either prospectively or retrospectively t

The purpose of this paper is to provide a research outlook on the concept of decentralized freight intelligence, i.e. autonomous freight making localized routing decisions. A review of research literature on decentralized intelligence in freight transport serves as the foundation of the analysis. The analysis reveals a scarcity of scientific evidence to suggest a successful introduction of decentr

Data on allergic conditions as risk or protective factors for cancer are controversial probably because most studies have used self-reported data on mixed groups of allergies in a case-control setting. We define cancer risks in medically diagnosed hay fever/allergic rhinitis patients in a nationwide cohort study. A total of 138,723 hay fever/allergic rhinitis patients were identified from three Sw

Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) improves the survival time in hypoxemic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Despite warnings about potential dangers, a considerable number of patients continue to smoke while on LTOT. The incidence of burn injuries related to LTOT is unknown. The aim of this study was to estimate the rate of burn injury requiring health care contact during LTOT.

The aim of the study was to determine whether genetically raised fasting glucose (FG) levels are associated with blood pressure (BP) in healthy children and adolescents. We used 11 common genetic variants of FG discovered in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), including the rs560887 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located in the G6PC2 locus found to be robustly associated with FG in child

Zoonotic pathogens often infect several animal species, and gene flow among populations infecting different host species may affect the biological traits of the pathogen including host specificity, transmissibility and virulence. The bacterium Campylobacter jejuni is a widespread zoonotic multihost pathogen, which frequently causes gastroenteritis in humans. Poultry products are important transmis

The auditory brain-stem response (ABR) waveform comprises a set of waves (labeled I-VII) recorded with scalp electrodes over 10 ms after an auditory stimulation with a brief click sound. Quite often, the waves are fused (confluent) and baseline-irregular and sloped, making wave latencies and wave amplitudes difficult to establish. In the present paper, we describe a method, labeled moving-minimum

This article is an attempt to provide a very rough outline of the historical interaction between punk rock and the Muslim world. For the most part, the antino- mian youth culture of punk rock was relatively slow to reach Muslims outside of Europe and North America. When it did reach Muslim youth (from Europe to Asia to the Middle East), it tended to initially manifest in secular and antireligious

Novel formaldehyde-sensitive conductometric biosensors have been developed that are based on commercial bacterial formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FDH) from Pseudomonas putida and recombinant formaldehyde dehydrogenase (rFDH) from the yeast Hansenula polymorpha as the bio-recognition elements. The bio-recognition membranes have mono-layer architecture and consist of enzyme cross-linked with albumin and

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficiency of different methods of reading breast tomosynthesis (BT) image volumes. METHODS: All viewing procedures consisted of free scroll volume browsing and three were combined with initial cine loops at three different frame rates (9, 14 and 25 fps). The presentation modes consisted of vertically and horizontally orientated BT image volumes. Fifty-five normal BT im

Objectives: The correlation between subjective and objective outcomes of nasal obstruction is still a matter of controversy. The aim of this study was to determine the minimal level of side difference in nasal airway resistance (NAR measured by Broms' v2) between the two nasal cavities, which could be discerned subjectively by the patient on a visual analogue scale (VAS). Nasal airway resistance w

Payments to compensate landowners for carrying out costly land-use measures that benefit endangered biodiversity have become an important policy instrument. When designing such payments, it is important to take into account that spatially connected habitats are more valuable for many species than isolated ones. One way to incentivize provision of connected habitats is to offer landowners an agglom

P>1. The Amazon region may experience increasing moisture limitation over this century. Leaf dark respiration (R) is a key component of the Amazon rain forest carbon (C) cycle, but relatively little is known about its sensitivity to drought. 2. Here, we present measurements of R standardized to 25 degrees C and leaf morphology from different canopy heights over 5 years at a rain forest subject to

PURPOSEThe LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance has conducted a meta-analysis of individual patient data from prospective neoadjuvant chemotherapy osteosarcoma studies and registries to examine the relationships of sex, age, and toxicity on survival. PATIENTS AND METHODSSuitable data sets were identified by a survey of published data reported in PubMed. The final pooled data set comprised 4,838 patient

Mutation or epigenetic silencing of the transcription factor C/EBP alpha is observed in similar to 10% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In both cases, a common global gene expression profile is observed, but downstream targets relevant for leukemogenesis are not known. Here, we identify Sox4 as a direct target of C/EBP alpha whereby its expression is inversely correlated with C/EBP a

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Introduction: previous research has suggested that pregnant women prefer a person-centred approach for smoking cessation interventions. However few studies have illustrated the mechanism through which such an approach has an influence on quitting or reduction rates among pregnant women in resource poor settings. Purpose: to explore the role of different components included in a smoking cessation i