Ischaemic heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. The common denominator for plaques causing acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is lipid accumulation, either as a lipid core or lipid pools. An intracoronary imaging device to detect lipid-rich plaques (LRPs) could therefore identify most of the plaques causing ACS and sudden death. Near-infrared spectroscopy combined with intravascular ul

High-frequency ultrasound offers a potential for objective and quantitative assessment of skin thickness and skin echogenicity in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Few studies have however assessed the longitudinal changes of skin involvement using ultrasound. The aim of the study was to investigate changes in skin thickness in early SSc using high frequency ultrasound during one year of follow-up in comp

User-producer interactions have been recognized as important for innovation. With the rapid growth of emerging economies' markets, and an increasing degree of technological sophistication of both users and producers in those markets, user-producer interaction is becoming global. Using original firm-level data, this paper explores how collaboration with users in different income regions affects the

There is a worldwide emphasis to increase the share of renewable transportation fuels. When using agricultural land for production of renewable transportation fuels, the energy output per hectare for different crops and transportation fuels is a crucial factor. In this study, the gross methane energy yield per hectare from anaerobic digestion of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.), was determined

Silver pollution has gained attention in the last few years because silver is being massively used as a bactericide in self-care, medical and textile products. Difficulties of Ag determination are associated with the very low concentrations in which it is normally found (ng L-1) and the nature of the sample matrix. Standard methods such as liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) are regularly used. Alterna

Globalization discourse is deeply flawed in its very conception, expressing a gratuitous assumption of the emergence of a new era that is discontinuous with the past and whose conflicts are primarily the product of those who resist this development: nationalists, racists, localists. This discourse is itself an ideological product of a cosmopolitan elite identity that has emerged (again) in recent

Purpose: To investigate various sources of bias in MRI-based quantification of fat fraction (FF) and fatty acid composition (FAC) using chemical shift-encoded techniques. Methods: Signals from various FFs and FACs and individual relaxation rates of all signal components were simulated. From these signals, FF and FAC parameters were estimated with and without correction for differences in individua

Childhood and adolescence are critical periods of neural development and physical growth. The malnutrition and related medical complications resulting from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and eating disorder not otherwise specified may have more severe and potentially more protracted consequences during youth than during other age periods. The consensus opinion

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the knowledge of how manufacturer brands choose and can choose to defend themselves vis-à-vis introduction of private brands by retailers. The study adopts the same research approach as a Dutch empirical study (Verhoef, P. C., E. J. Nijssen, and L. M. Sloot. 2002. “Strategic Reactions of National Brand Manufacturers Towards Private Labels – An Empiric

A novel method for measuring particle multiplicity correlations is presented. The method takes reduced acceptance and detection efficiency into account, in a purely statistical manner. The method does therefore not require any information from simulations - only knowledge of the detectors capability. The method provides the ability to measure forward-backward particle multiplicity correlations wit

The care manager reform and the case manager reform are new reforms in the social care services in Sweden, which are evolving during the 2000s. Together they shape the social care services introducing a new way of decision-making where representatives for the organisation (care manager) and the users (case manager) negotiate. The reforms have been analysed in two studies with results presented in

he purpose of the present study was to empirically test the suggestion that experiential avoidance in an emotion regulation context is best understood as an emotion regulatory function of topographically distinct strategies. To do this we examined whether a measure of experiential avoidance could statistically account for the effects of emotion regulation strategies intervening at different points

Estimation-based iterative learning control (ILC) is applied to a parallel kinematic manipulator known as the Gantry-Tau parallel robot. The system represents a control problem where measurements of the controlled variables are not available. The main idea is to use estimates of the controlled variables in the ILC algorithm, and in the paper this approach is evaluated experimentally on the Gantry-

In this paper we present a model for describing the position distribution of the endocardium in the two-chamber apical long-axis view of the heart in clinical B-mode ultrasound cycles. We propose a novel Bayesian formulation, including priors for spatial and temporal smoothness, and preferred shapes and position. The shape model takes into account both endocardium, atrial region and apex. The like

Quality of life has become an increasingly important measurement in the substance use field. The main aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between non-medical use of prescription analgesics and sedatives and poor quality of life in the general population.

The limit of detection of low-molecular weight compounds in tissue sections, analyzed by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI), was significantly improved by employing sample washing using a pH-controlled buffer solution. The pH of the washing solutions were set at values whereby the target analytes would have low solubility. Washing the tissue sections

Objective: To examine clinical characteristics as possible predictors of long-term treatment continuation with adalimumab, etanercept, and infliximab in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients who had never taken biologics treated in clinical practice. Methods: Patients in southern Sweden with active AS starting biologic therapy for the first time between October 1999 and December 2008 (n = 243, 75%

OBJECTIVES: To determine wild-type minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) distributions for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as the background data for defining susceptibility breakpoints are limited. METHODS: We determined wild-type MIC distributions of M. tuberculosis using a 96-stick replicator in Middlebrook 7H10 (7H10) medium for ethionamide (ETH), prothionamide, thiacetazone, cycloserine, rifabut