Objective: To describe the demographics and clinical findings in patients with otorrhoea in Angola. Methods: A total of 411 patients with otorrhoea presenting in the ear, nose and throat clinic in Luanda and healthcare centres in other Angolan provinces underwent interview and clinical examination. We describe the demographics and clinical characteristics of the patients. Results: The majority (64

The evolution of orchids and bats is an example of DNA’s own evolution which has resulted in structures and functions which are not necessarily related to any obvious advantage to the organism. The flowers of orchids resemble: humans, apes, lizards, frogs and even shoes. The faces of bats resemble plant leaves but also horseshoes. These similarities are not accidental because they emerge repeatedl

Objective: To investigate the statistical power of plasma, imaging, and cognition biomarkers as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) clinical trial outcome measures. Methods: Plasma neurofilament light, structural magnetic resonance imaging, and cognition were measured longitudinally in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) in control (amyloid PET or CSF Aβ42 negative [Aβ-] with Clinical Deme

This article examines the role of national parliaments in policy processes related to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, adopted in the UN General Assembly in 2015. We outline three main roles of parliaments in the case of national policy-making based on intergovernmental agreements: legislative and policy approval, citizen representation, and accountability. The cases

Credit expansion is the trend of households gaining access to more credit. It is correlated with increasing socio-economic heterogeneity of indebted homeowners. Increasing heterogeneity implies that a more diverse span of homeowners is put at risk of foreclosure. This empirical study explores socio-economic heterogeneity in the case of Swedish debtors in foreclosure between 2000 and 2014. Employin

We characterize a class of systems for which the H-infinity optimal control problem can be simplified in a way that enables sparse solutions and efficient computation. For a subclass of the systems, an optimal controller can be explicitly expressed in terms of the matrices of the system's state-space representation. In many applications, the controller given by this formula, which is st

This work presents the results of a virtual reality (VR) experiment aiming at investigating how individual driving behaviour is affected by the presence of wildfire smoke. The experiment included a driving simulation task to study the chosen driving speed at different smoke densities and the lateral position of the driven car on the road cross section. During the VR experiment, participants were p

In the attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from steel production, several large industry decarbonization projects have emerged in Europe. The commercialization of low-emission steel technology, however, faces systemic barriers such as a lack of infrastructure and unclear demand for greener steel. As part of its new commitment to climate-neutrality, the European Commission has announced plan

Mate choice in plants is poorly understood, in particular its indirect genetic benefits, but also the direct benefits of avoiding harmful matings. In the herb Collinsia heterophylla, delayed stigma receptivity has been suggested to enhance pollen competition, potentially functioning as a female mate choice trait. Previous studies show that this trait can mitigate the cost of early fertilization ca

Importance: There are limitations in current diagnostic testing approaches for Alzheimer disease (AD). Objective: To examine plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 217 (P-tau217) as a diagnostic biomarker for AD. Design, Setting, and Participants: Three cross-sectional cohorts: an Arizona-based neuropathology cohort (cohort 1), including 34 participants with AD and 47 without AD (dates of enrollme

Individuals with severe self-harm and experiences of lengthy psychiatric admissions often have complex mental health conditions and are at risk of suicide. In this qualitative study, self-harming individuals with >180 days of psychiatric admission over 12 months shared their experiences of Brief Admission (BA), a standardized crisis-management intervention encouraging self-admission and autonomy.

Context:: Software-intensive organizations’ rationale for sharing Open Source Software (OSS) may be driven by both idealistic, strategic and commercial objectives, and include both monetary as well as non-monetary benefits. To gain the potential benefits, an organization may need to consider what they share and how, while taking into account risks, costs and other complexities. Objective:: This st

Given a Boolean formula, the problem of counting seeks to estimate the number of solutions of F while the problem of uniform sampling seeks to sample solutions uniformly at random. Counting and uniform sampling are fundamental problems in computer science with a wide range of applications ranging from constrained random simulation, probabilistic inference to network reliability and beyond. The pas

AIM: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) has recently been implicated in thirst in rodent models. The mechanisms for this are currently uncertain, and it is unclear whether hydration status can alter FGF21 concentrations, potentially providing an additional mechanism by which hypohydration induces thirst. The aim of this study is therefore to understand whether hydration status can alter circulati

Purpose: Grounded in paradox theory, and with the objective of structuring and extending existing knowledge of conflicts of interest (e.g. trade-offs) in packaging logistics, the purpose of this paper is to identify categories of paradoxical tensions in packaging systems used in supply chains, and to develop a conceptual framework that describes these categories. Design/methodology/approach: This

Aim: To explore the experience of pain in 10- to 12-year-old children. Methods: This interview study included students (n = 42) in grade 4-6 in focus groups (n = 10) in southern Sweden (52% girls); mean age, 11.3 years (range 10-12 years). The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and analysed with qualitative content analysis. Results: The analysis resulted in one theme: Pain as

One important question concerning a risk description is to what extent it should contain information about the uncertainty surrounding an estimated probability for an event, for example, by using some form of probability range. Presenting a point estimate together with a range can inform the decision-maker about both the best judgement as well as the strength of knowledge regarding the probability

Do the misty mountains, fast-flowing rivers, and sandy beaches leave you in awe and fill you with insatiable wonder? Does nature bring you a jubilant feeling? Nature contributes to our quality of life in multiple ways. Some of these gifts are easily visible, like the clothes you wear, the food you eat, and the water your drink. However, some contributions, such as flood protection and pollination

In many financial applications, it is important to classify time-series data without any latency while maintaining persistence in the identified states. The authors propose a greedy online classifier that contemporaneously determines which hidden state a new observation belongs to without the need to parse historical observations and without compromising persistence. Their classifier is based on tIn many financial applications, it is important to classify time-series data without any latency while maintaining persistence in the identified states. The authors propose a greedy online classifier that contemporaneously determines which hidden state a new observation belongs to without the need to parse historical observations and without compromising persistence. Their classifier is based on t

OBJECTIVE: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is rising rapidly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), but the factors driving this rapid increase are not well understood. Adult height, in particular shorter height, has been suggested to contribute to the pathophysiology and epidemiology of diabetes and may inform how adverse environmental conditions in early life affect diabetes risk.