This REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes regional study provides a synthesis of the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in East Asia, a region comprised of China, Japan, North and South Korea, and Mongolia. We estimate the current terrestrial carbon balance of East Asia and its driving mechanisms during 1990-2009 using three different approaches: inventories combined with satellite

Surface plasmons, the quanta of the collective oscillations of free electrons at metal surface, can be easily tuned by changing the surrounding dielectric materials, which is well known for metal nanoparticles and metal surfaces, but less is known for one-dimensional metal nanowires. Here, we find an extremely large tunability of surface plasmons on Ag nanowires with a beat period of the near-fiel

Objectives: To explore reasons for institutionalization of people with dementia according to informal caregivers as well as variation in reasons between countries. Design: An explorative cross-sectional study was conducted in 8 European countries. Setting: Per country, a minimum of 3 long term care facilities, offering care and accommodation as a package, participated in this study. Participating

The presence of Muslim populations in Western European societies is a relatively new phenomenon which begs the question how these societies treat religious minorities. This article on the Swedish case begins with a brief history of the historical development of Sweden from a religious state based on the Lutheran faith to today’s secular state in which state and religion are officially separated. T

This paper presents a flow that is suitable to estimate energy dissipation of digital standard-cell based designs which are determined to be operated in the sub-threshold regime. The flow is applicable on gate-level netlists, where back-annotated toggle information is used to find the minimum energy operation point, corresponding maximum clock frequency, as well as the dissipated energy per clock

In lumbar disc herniation surgery, dural lesions seem to be the most common complication today. Studies on incidence of and outcome after a dural lesion are mainly based on retrospective studies. In a prospective study within the framework of the Swedish Spine Register, 4,173 patients operated on for lumbar disc herniation were evaluated using pre- and 1-year postoperative protocols and complicati

Background: The spectrum of disorders of the brain is large, covering hundreds of disorders that are listed in either the mental or neurological disorder chapters of the established international diagnostic classification systems. These disorders have a high prevalence as well as short- and long-term impairments and disabilities. Therefore they are an emotional, financial and social burden to the

Large parity-violating longitudinal single-spin asymmetries A(L)(e+) = 0.86(-0.14)(+0.30) and Ae(L)(e-) = 0.88(-0.71)(+0.12) are observed for inclusive high transverse momentum electrons and positrons in polarized p + p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 500 GeV with the PHENIX detector at RHIC. These e(+/-) come mainly from the decay of W-+/- and Z(0) bosons, and their asymmetries

Accumulating evidence suggest that platelets play an important role in regulating neutrophil recruitment in septic lung injury. Herein, we hypothesized that platelet-derived CCL5 might facilitate sepsis-induced neutrophil accumulation in the lung. Abdominal sepsis was induced by CLP in C57BL/6 mice. CLP increased plasma levels of CCL5. Platelet depletion and treatment with the Rac1 inhibitor NSC23

Recently, within a tunneling project, a method for reinjecting discharged groundwater at tunnel level has been investigated. The method was performed by pressurizing a long section of the lining With ungrouted pea gravel as backfill, in a rock mass with low hydraulic conductivity. Water was reinjected through watertight lining into a section where un-grouted pea gravel was used as backfill. The pr

For the last years, automation is widely used to relieve humans from repetitive tasks, primarily and firstly within manufacturing. However, for products with less ideal (or hard to model) properties, and when forces depends on human interaction, automated testing has not been explored until now. This work presents the analysis of the (human-dependent) motions/forces based on a fully implemented te

To assess an impact of vascular risk factors on ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM) in the elderly, we followed up a population-based cohort of men from 68 until 82 years, when 104 survivors underwent ABPM. Results. At age 68, hypertension and high clinic blood pressure (CBP) did not predict ABPM level. Smoking and low ankle-brachial index (ABI) predicted higher ABPM variability and pulse

Objective Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Our aim was to investigate whether alcohol consumption is associated with risk of latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA), an autoimmune form of diabetes with features of type 2 diabetes. Design Population-based case-control study Methods We used data from ESTRID case-control study carried out between

The sequestration of calcium phosphate by unfolded proteins is fundamental to the stabilization of biofluids supersaturated with respect to hydroxyapatite, such as milk, blood or urine. The unfolded state of osteopontin (OPN) is thought to be a prerequisite for this activity, which leads to the formation of core-shell calcium phosphate nanoclusters. We report on the structures and dynamics of a na

With the arrival of X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs), 2D area detectors with a large dynamic range for detection of hard X-rays with fast readout rates are required for many types of experiments. Extracting the desired information from these detectors has been challenging due to unpredicted fluctuations in the measured images. For techniques such as time-resolved X-ray Diffuse Scattering (XDS),

OBJECTIVE: Recordings of blood flow velocity waveform in the ductus venosus (DV) and the umbilical vein (UV) are routinely used in order to predict the fetal condition in high-risk pregnancies. This study investigates the relationship between pathological blood flow in the two vessels and perinatal outcome. METHODS: High-risk pregnancies (n=11865) admitted during 1993-2011 for blood flow examinati

To create normative data in children from binocular multifocal ERG (mfERG) recordings and compare results with the macular thickness.

The stratum corneum (SC) is an effective permeability barrier. One strategy to increase drug delivery across skin is to increase the hydration. A detailed description of how hydration affects skin permeability requires characterization of both macroscopic and molecular properties and how they respond to hydration. We explore this issue by performing impedance experiments on excised skin membranes

The composition of the gut microbiota can vary widely between individual mice of the same batch and thereby affect the resulting outcome in experimental studies. Therefore, an efficient method is needed to equalize the gut microbiota prior to the start of critical experiments. In order to minimize variations in gut microbiota between animals and provide the animals with a Gram-negative flora expos