The Costa Concordia disaster represents one of the most dramatic ship evacuations of recent years. This thesis constitutes a case study of the Costa Concordia disaster, in an attempt to identify behaviors among the evacuees that may have contributed in reducing the effectiveness of the evacuation procedures. Publicly available material – such as reports from the media, survivor accounts and scient

We report a case of a patient who suffered generalized urticaria, chest tightness, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, hypotension, and loss of consciousness. Two hours earlier she had taken Eulitop Retard following lunch. She had tolerated all the implicated food after the reaction. Allergy evaluation revealed intense positive responses to intradermal tests with bezafibrate active component and Eulitop R

INTRODUCTION: Sympathomimetic (alpha-adrenergic) drugs are mainly used because of their vasoconstrictor properties, for nasal congestion, or as mydriatics. Although sympathomimetic drugs are used often, allergic reactions are rare, especially when the drugs are administered systemically. Cross-reactivity may exist among catecholamine derivatives, although reported data on this are contradictory. I

Background: The tuberculin skin test is used for tracing of tuberculosis transmission and identifying individuals in need of prophylactic treatment. Methods: Using a case-control study design, we recruited 220 smear-positive tuberculosis cases and 223 randomly selected healthy community controls in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, during 1999-2000. Tuberculin skin tests were performed on family members of c

Taking advantage of the unconventional reactivity of twisted mono- and bis-amides of Tröger's base (TB), rac-6 and rac-7, respectively, the first synthesis of a 6-endo-monosubstituted TB analogue, rac-9, and the first rational synthesis of a 6,12-endo,endo-disubstituted TB analogue, rac-11, have been achieved. The bis-TB crown ether, meso-13, was prepared starting from rac-7. Meso-13 constitutes a

The slope is an important distance parameter for a convolutional code. It can be used to obtain a lower bound on the active burst distance and in this respect essentially determines the error-correcting capability of the code. An upper bound on the slope of rate R = b/c convolutional codes is derived. A new family of convolutional codes, called the maximum slope (MS) code family, is introduced. Ta

The ensemble of regular Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes introduced by Gallager is considered. Using probabilistic arguments a lower bound on the normalized minimum distance is derived. A new code construction, called Chained Gallager codes, is introduced as the combination of two Gallager codes and its error correcting capabilities are studied.

This paper investigates expanding properties of ensembles of random bipartite graphs whose adjacency matrices are Gallager's low-density parity-check matrices. Two methods for calculating the expansion coefficient are demonstrated. It is shown that in the ensemble of the considered bipartite graphs, there exist graphs which have better expanding properties than the previously known expanders.

Hummingbirds are specialized hoverers for which the vortex wake has been described as a series of single vortex rings shed primarily during the downstroke. Recent findings in bats and birds, as well as in a recent study on Anna's hummingbirds, suggest that each wing may shed a discrete vortex ring, yielding a bilaterally paired wake. Here, we describe the presence of two discrete rings in the wake

Background: Embryonic stem cells (ESC) have the capacity to self-renew and remain pluripotent, while continuously providing a source of a variety of differentiated cell types. Understanding what governs these properties at the molecular level is crucial for stem cell biology and its application to regenerative medicine. Of particular relevance is to elucidate those molecular interactions which gov

Comparative studies of corruption focus on the selection and incentives of policymakers. With few exceptions, actors who are in charge of implementing policies have been neglected. This article analyzes an original data set on the bureaucratic features and its effects on corruption in fifty-two countries. Two empirical findings challenge the conventional wisdom in literature. First, certain bureau

Arbetet diskuterar olika aspekter av problemorsaker i företags interna och externa miljö. Vidare presenteras en modell som syftar till att vara ett hjälpmedel vid diagnostiseringsprocessen genom att kartlägga de huvudområden där förändringar som kan leda till nedgång inträffar.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur priset på utsläppsrätter påverkar priset på el. Det teoretiska huvudperspektivet utgörs av hur elprisets marginalkostnadsprissättning påverkas av utsläppsrätter. Vår undersökning visar att utsläppsrätterna har en signifikant påverkan på elpriset under den period vi har valt att undersöka. Vår slutsats är att handeln med utsläppsrätter ökar elpriset

Lately there has been an increasing focus on saving peak power in heating systems as a way to lower the environmental load past just saving energy. At the same time, active cooling is becoming increasingly interesting. Sweden has more and more cooling systems with an increase in cooling also in residential buildings. The cooling power is much more expensive than the heating power. Therefore, there

Radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer is a complex procedure with an inherent risk of complications and even postoperative mortality. Historically, RC was performed in 44 hospitals in Sweden, which gradually decreased over time, and since a formal regional centralisation of these operations in 2017, cystectomy care is currently provided by nine hospitals. In the Swedish national urinary bladd

Background: Omission of prescheduled chemotherapy following surgery for gastric cancer is a frequent clinical problem. This study examined whether laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) had a positive impact on compliance with adjuvant chemotherapy compared with open (OG). Methods: Patients with cT2-4aN0-3M0 adenocarcinoma treated with gastrectomy and perioperative chemotherapy between 2015 and 2020 were i

Using the pentadentate ligand (N-bis(1-methyl-2-benzimidazolyl)methyl-N-(bis-2-pyridylmethyl)amine, 2pyN2B), presenting two pyridyl and two (N-methyl)benzimidazolyl donor moieties in addition to a central tertiary amine, new Mn II and Mn IV -oxo complexes were generated and characterized. The [Mn IV (O)(2pyN2B)] 2+ complex showed spectroscopic signatures (i.e., electronic absorption band maxi

When including relativistic effects in quantum chemical calculations, basis sets optimized for relativistic Hamiltonians such as the atomic natural orbital-relativistic core-correlated (ANO-RCC) basis set have to be used to avoid large errors that appear upon contraction of the basis set. While the large size of the ANO-RCC basis set in terms of primitive basis functions allows for highly accurate