Protandry is a widespread life-history phenomenon describing how males precede females at the site or state of reproduction. In migratory birds, protandry has an important influence on individual fitness, the migratory syndrome, and phenological response to climate change. Despite its significance, accurate analyses on the dynamics of protandry using data sets collected at the breeding site, are l

Understanding the complexities of sexual relationships is essential to understand the risky sexual behaviours among young people in Ugandan universities. Nine focus group discussions conducted with 31 males and 33 female students in 2014 utilising the grounded theory approach explored the role of sexual relationships in their lives. 'Relationships in campus are situationships' emerged as the core

Firefighters are occupationally exposed to a large number of toxic compounds (IARC 2010). The occupational exposure of firefighters has been classified as potentially carcinogenic (class 2B, IARC; (Straif K. et al. 2007)). Poorly quantified emission factors and low understanding of when various aerosol emissions are likely to form during a fire event (initiation, combustion, extinguishing) inhibit

Emissions from biomass burning are highly variable and depend on combustion conditions as well as fuel properties. Simultaneous emissions from pyrolysis, smouldering, and combustion of the biomass material(s) burning leads to uncertainties in how these processes contribute to emissions of individual or groups of compounds as well as to total particle emissions. These uncertainties are difficult to

Objective: Midwives are often the first ones to make decisions when a neonate is unexpectedly born non-vigorous. This study aimed to understand how midwives reason and what they experience when deciding what to do when a non-vigorous neonate is born. In present practice, the decision to cut the umbilical cord early is strongly affected bythe decision that the neonate needs resuscitation. To better

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence suggests a survival benefit after curative oesophageal cancer surgery in women compared with men. The aim of this study was to explore sex disparities in survival after surgery with curative intent in patients with oesophageal cancer.METHODS: This was a population-based cohort study, including all patients with oesophageal or gastric cancer who underwent surgery w

BACKGROUND: We previously observed decreasing resection rates of non-metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma (GaC) in the US and some European countries. If and to what extent these trends affect the trends in overall survival (OS) of patients with non-metastatic GaC at the population level remain unclear. This large international population-based cohort study aimed to assess the impact of the previousl

Background: The globally dominant treatment with curative intent for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) with subsequent esophagectomy. This multimodal treatment leads to around 60% overall 5-year survival, yet with impaired post-surgical quality of life. Observational studies indicate that curatively intended chemoradiotherapy, so-cal

BACKGROUND: Recent research indicates long-term survival benefits of minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) compared with open esophagectomy (OE) for patients with esophageal and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers, but there is a need for more population-based studies.METHODS: We conducted a prospective population-based nationwide cohort study including all patients in Sweden diagnosed with e

We propose a generalisation of a behaviour tree and motiongenerator based robot arm policy representation for learning and solving tasks such as contact-rich tasks like peg insertion or pushing an object. We use planning to generate skill sequences needed to execute these tasks and rely on reinforcement learning to obtain parameters of the policy. We assume gaussian processes as a suitable method

We propose a pipeline to setup up robot systems for new tasks using symbolic planning, reasoning and reinforcement learning. Furthermore, we

Nickel (Ni)-promoted Molybdenum (Mo)-based catalysts are used for hydrotreatment processes in the chemical industry where the catalysts are exposed to high-pressure H2 at elevated temperature. In this environment, the catalyst transforms into the active phase, which involves the reduction of the oxide. Here, we report on the first in situ study on the reduction of alumina supported Ni- and Mo-base

In this paper we present some results on model based force estimation and how these estimates can be integrated in a common robot force control scheme. A generalization of the force estimation method proposed in [Hacksel and Salcudean, 1994] is done and a force observer able to follow ramp environmental forces is introduced. An extension of this method for robotic manipulators is also experimental

Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) are a crucial component of biosphere-atmosphere interactions. In northern latitudes, climate change is amplified by feedback processes in which BVOCs have a recognized, yet poorly quantified role, mainly due to a lack of measurements and concomitant modeling gaps. Hence, current Earth system models mostly rely on temperature responses measur