At the turn of the nineteenth century, most men wore suits. One easily gets the impression that all these men look more or less identical; the suits seem to resemble uniforms. Furthermore, compared to the women’s clothing of the period, the suit seems restrained and even drab in its shape and colour. The dissertation takes up this point and examines the claim that all men look alike in a suit. The

In combination with other spectroscopy, microscopy, and scattering techniques, neutron reflectivity is a powerful tool to characterize biological systems. Specular reflection of neutrons provides structural information at the nanometer and subnanometer length scales, probing the composition and organization of layered materials. Currently, analysis of neutron reflectivity data involves several sim

We study the problem of estimating the fundamental frequencies of a signal containing multiple harmonically related sinusoidal components using a novel block sparse signal representation. An efficient algorithm for solving the resulting optimization problem is devised exploiting a novel variable step-size alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The resulting algorithm has guaranteed co

We used the Aerosol Dynamics gas- and particle-phase chemistry model for laboratory CHAMber studies (ADCHAM) to simulate the contribution of BVOC plant emissions to the observed new particle formation during photooxidation experiments performed in the Julich Plant-Atmosphere Chamber and to evaluate how well smog chamber experiments can mimic the atmospheric conditions during new particle formation

Increasing obesity rates and corresponding public health problems are well-known, and disparities across socioeconomic groups are frequently reported. However, the literature is less clear on whether the increasing trends are specific to certain socioeconomic groups and whether disparities in obesity are increasing or decreasing over time. This knowledge sheds light on the understanding of the dri

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of mammography screening for women ages 40 to 49 years still is questioned, and few studies of the effectiveness of service screening for this age group have been conducted. METHODS: Breast cancer mortality was compared between women who were invited to service screening at ages 40 to 49 years (study group) and women in the same age group who were not invited during 1

OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportion of persons with poststroke shoulder pain 4 months after onset of the stroke in whom long-lasting shoulder pain develops and to assess the extent to which age, side of paresis at stroke onset, pain frequency and pain intensity, passive shoulder range of motion, resistance to passive movements, motor function, and subluxation at 4 months after stroke predict s

In Landspitali University Hospital, magnetic resonance imaging is used non-selectively in addition to mammogram and ultrasound in the preoperative assessment of breast cancer patients. The aim of this study was to assess invasive tumor size on imaging, compare with pathological size and evaluate the impact of magnetic resonance imaging on the type of surgery performed.

This study deals with the historian Jan T Gross’ book Fear, published in 2006 in the United States and in 2008 in Poland. The book deserves special attention because it became one of the most discussed historical works in post-Communist Poland. In Fear, just as in his previous book Neighbors (2000), Gross challenged the Poles’ view of themselves as solely innocent victims of German Nazism and argu

The facultative intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) may cause severe infection in humans and livestock. Control of acute listeriosis is primarily dependent on innate immune responses, which are strongly regulated by NF-kappa B, and tissue protective factors including fibrin. However, molecular pathways connecting NF-kappa B and fibrin production are poorly described. Here, we inves

The financial crisis starting in 2008 made many European countries opt for a change of exchange rate regime. The choice of price measure as an entry requirement to the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and as input in the monetary policy decision process re‐appeared as an important political and research issue. This paper aims to argue that, considering the importance of producer prices i

Autoimmunity against pancreatic islet beta cells is strongly associated with proinsulin, insulin, or both. The insulin autoreactivity is particularly pronounced in children with young age at onset of type 1 diabetes. Possible mechanisms for (pro)insulin autoimmunity may involve beta-cell destruction resulting in proinsulin peptide presentation on HLA-DR-DQ Class II molecules in pancreatic draining

In 2005, methylisothiazolinone (MI) on its own came into use as a preservative. Prior to that, MI was always present together with methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCI). Can the pattern of reactivity to the separate active ingredients in allergic patients tell us something about the primary sensitizer?

Radioactive beams of B-14,B-15 produced by fragmentation of a primary Ar-40 beam were directed onto a Pb target to investigate the neutron breakup within the Coulomb field. The experiment was performed at the LAND/(RB)-B-3 setup. Preliminary results for the Coulomb dissociation cross sections as well as for the astrophysically interesting inverse reactions, B-13,B-14(n,gamma), are presented.

Specially tailored polyelectrolytes are becoming important as energy-related materials. Here we explore a synthetic strategy to prepare fully aromatic polymers containing single phenylene rings in the backbone functionalized with four sulfonic acid groups. Thioether bridges of semifluorinated poly(arylene thioether)s were oxidized to sulfone bridges, followed by substitution of all fluorines by Na

RDW is a new and easily available risk marker for adverse cardiovascular outcomes and we agree that this may encourage a wider use in clinical practice. As pointed out by Balta et al [2], the underlying causal links are unclear. The causal links could hypothetically involve some of the factors mentioned by Balta et al [2], but also properties of the red cells per se. This article is protected by c

Despite the vast amount of research over the past fifteen years, there is still lively debate surrounding the role of social capital on individual health outcomes. This seems to stem from a lack of consistency regarding the definition, measurement and plausible theories linking this contextual phenomenon to health. We have further identified a knowledge gap within this field - a distinct lack of r

High-latitude peatlands contain about one third of the world's soil organic carbon, most of which is derived from partly decomposed Sphagnum (peat moss) plants. We conducted a meta-analysis based on a global data set of Sphagnum growth measurements collected from published literature to investigate the effects of bioclimatic variables on Sphagnum growth. Analysis of variance and general linear mod