The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has put the Islamic regime of Iran in a difficult position. While the government is trying to be neutral, other regime elements have openly taken sides in the conflict.

PURPOSE: It has been suggested that a high intake of sugar or sweeteners may result in an unfavorable microbiota composition; however, evidence is lacking. Hence, in this exploratory epidemiological study, we aim to examine if intake of added sugar, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) or artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) associate with the gut microbiota composition.METHODS: Participants (18-70

From an early age, humans intuitively expect physical objects to obey core principles, includingcontinuity (objects follow spatiotemporally continuous paths) and solidity (two solid objects cannotoccupy the same space at the same time). These 2 principles are sometimes viewed as deriving from asingle overarching “persistence” principle. Indeed, violations of solidity where one solid object seem-in

Using observational data to assess the treatment effects on outcomes of kidney transplantation relative to dialysis for patients on renal replacement therapy is challenging due to the non-random selection into treatment. This study applied the propensity score weighting approach in order to address the treatment selection bias of kidney transplantation on survival time compared with dialysis for p

AIM: While the scientific evidence in favour of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) dressings on sutured incisions in the prevention of surgical site infections (SSIs) has increased, the cost-effectiveness after vascular surgery has not been evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of NPWT compared to standard dressings for the prevention of SSIs after open inguin

The public unemployment insurance program in Sweden has retrenched in terms of its benefit generosity in the last three decades. As a response to this trend in which an ever-smaller proportion of the previous income of unemployed persons is compensated by public unemployment insurance benefit, complementary income insurance schemes provided by unions have expanded rapidly in the last 15 years and

Scholarship on media and politics presumes a ‘mediatization’ of politics over time, which overlooks the evolution of a mediatized public sphere that shaped people’s understandings of what actually constituted politics. This article investigates the public sphere to demonstrate how it created expectations for politicians and journalists within the process of the mediatization of politics. To unders

As a civil servant in the East India Company and witness to government expansion and reorganization in the mid-nineteenth century, John Stuart Mill developed an interest in civil service reform. In an essay supporting the 1854 Northcote-Trevelyan Report and his later political treatises, Mill argued for competitive civil service recruitment. These writings have been relatively neglected by Mill sc

Multicultural theory pays surprisingly little attention to the plurality of identity. In addition, there is still dissatisfaction with Will Kymlicka's distinction between polyethnic groups and national minorities and the rights they deserve, as well as continued criticism of liberal multiculturalism more broadly. I revisit this distinction based on Amartya Sen's recent effort to introduce the noti

5d iridium oxides are of huge interest due to the potential for new quantum states driven by strong spin-orbit coupling. The strontium iridate Sr_{2}IrO_{4} is particularly in the spotlight because of the so-called j_{eff}=1/2 state consisting of a quantum superposition of the three local t_{2g} orbitals with, in its simplest version, nearly equal populations, which stabilizes an unconventional Mo

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) remains a leading cause of transfusionrelated deaths. In most cases, anti-leukocyte antibodies in the transfusion product trigger TRALI, but not all anti-leukocyte antibodies cause TRALI. It has been shown that the anti-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antibody 34-1-2S (anti-H-2Kd) causes TRALI in BALB/c mice (MHC class I haplotype H-2Kd)

This paper reports on the spray structure of the biofuels, ethanol, and butanol generated by a multihole direct-injection spark-ignition injector, which is studied in a constant volume chamber. The spray shape and structure are analyzed using two-phase structured laser illumination planar imaging where both laser-induced fluorescence and Mie-scattering light are recorded simultaneously for the ext

Background: There is growing evidence that the neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders depression, ataxia and dystonia share common biological pathways. We therefore aimed to increase our understanding of their shared pathophysiology by investigating their shared biological pathways and molecular networks. Methods: We constructed gene sets for depression, ataxia, and dystonia using the Human P

In this paper, we analyse community energy (CE) projects in urban settings. Building on insights from the literature on the geography of sustainability transitions, we examine how contextual conditions promote or hinder the development of CE. Furthermore, reflecting on calls for greater attention to agency in transitions, we investigated how actors engaged in urban CE projects exploit beneficial c

The accurate surface reconstruction of 3D liquid structures is an important aspect for the understanding ofspray formation and liquid breakups. In this article, an approach to image in 3D the surface of liquid structuresin sprays (such as ligaments, liquid sheets/cores and liquid blobs) is presented. The technique is named FringeProjection - Laser Induced Fluorescence (FP-LIF) which is used by ill