The Driving to Learn project explored ways to help people with profound cognitive disabilities practice operating a joystick-operated powered wheelchair. The project used a grounded theory approach with constant comparative analysis and was carried out over 12 yr. The participants were 45 children and adults with profound cognitive disabilities. Reference groups included 17 typically developing in

This study documents the terrestrial palynological record at the John's Nose section, a new Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary site in North Dakota, USA. In addition to Mud Buttes and Pyramid Butte, John's Nose represents the third K-Pg section in southwestern North Dakota that preserves direct evidence of the Chicxulub asteroid impact, allowing for direct comparison over the timing and trends o

Polymeric beta-cyclodextrin (beta CD) films tunable with respect to thickness and beta CD content were prepared in order to develop a suitable platform, allowing for inclusion of nonpolar guest molecules in the beta CD cavity, while suppressing nonspecific protein adsorption. The beta CD films were synthesized from linear beta CD dextran polymers, and grafted onto silicon oxide surfaces by "click"

Selection can facilitate diversification by inducing character displacement in mate choice traits that reduce the probability of maladaptive mating between lineages. Although reproductive character displacement (RCD) has been demonstrated in two-taxa case studies, the frequency of this process in nature is still debated. Moreover, studies have focused primarily on visual and acoustic traits, despi

Absorption and impedance mismatch due to the proximity of a user as well as certain propagation channel characteristics can severely degrade the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) performance of multi-antenna terminals in real usage scenarios. In this context, we investigated the potential of adaptive impedance matching (AIM) to mitigate performance degradation from these effects based on chann

To explore the future clinical potential of improved soft-tissue visibility with grating-based X-ray phase contrast (PC), we have developed a first preclinical computed tomography (CT) scanner featuring a rotating gantry. The main challenge in the transition from previous bench-top systems to a preclinical scanner are phase artifacts that are caused by minimal changes in the grating alignment duri

Photoreceptor adaptation ensures appropriate visual responses during changing light conditions and contributes to colour constancy. We used behavioural tests to compare UV-sensitivity of budgerigars after adaptation to UV-rich and UV-poor backgrounds. In the latter case, we found lower UV-sensitivity than expected, which could be the result of photon-shot noise corrupting cone signal robustness or

Prenatal exposure to phthalates is suggested to negatively impact male reproductive function, but human data are lacking.

We consider a class of pseudodifferential evolution equations of the form u(t) + (n(u) + Lu)(x) = 0, in which L is a linear smoothing operator and n is at least quadratic near the origin; this class includes in particular the Whitham equation. A family of solitary-wave solutions is found using a constrained minimization principle and concentration-compactness methods for noncoercive functionals. T

ABSTRACT Background: Depression is a common comorbid disorder of dementia. This study explores the prevalence of and factors associated with depressive symptomatology, and antidepressant prescription rates in severe dementia across eight European countries. Methods: In total, 414 people with severe dementia completed measures of cognition and quality of life (QoL), whilst carers completed proxy me

Background/Aims: Cocaine-and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) is an anorexigenic regulatory peptide highly expressed in the brain's appetite control centers, but also in peripheral neurons and in endocrine cells in the adrenal medulla, thyroid, pancreatic islets, and in the gastrointestinal tract. Plasma levels of CART were recently shown to be elevated in patients with neuroendocrine tumor

The firefighter problem models the situation where an infection, a computer virus, an idea or fire etc. is spreading through a network and the goal is to save as many as possible nodes of the network through targeted vaccinations. The number of nodes that can be vaccinated at a single time-step is typically one, or more generally O(1). In a nonstandard model, the so called spreading model, the vac

We investigated insulin action (insulin sensitivity index, ISI) and insulin secretion (oral disposition indices, DIo) and studied metabolic, demographic and lifestyle-related risk factors for type 2 diabetes and insulin action, in the largest non-European immigrant group to Sweden, immigrants from Iraq and native Swedes.

Limited blood supply and the avascular nature of articular cartilage restricts its self repair capacity, frequently leading to osteoarthritis. This work focuses on scaffolds for tissue repair from natural polymers, for example gelatin, chitosan, and agarose in the form of composite. A novel way of fabrication, known as cryogelation, is presented, in which matrices are synthesized at sub-zero tempe

Due to the very limited availability of He-3, new kinds of neutron detectors, not based on 3He, are urgently needed. Here, we present a method to produce thin films of (B4C)-B-10, with maximized detection efficiency, intended to be part of a new generation of large area neutron detectors. B4C thin Films have been deposited onto Al-blade and Si wafer substrates by dc magnetron sputtering from (B4C)

An explicitly solvable model of the gated Aharonov-Bohm ring touching a quantum wire is constructed and investigated. The inverse spectral and scattering problems are discussed. It is shown that the Titchmarsh-Weyl matrix function associated with the boundary vertices determines a unique electric potential on the graph even though the graph contains a loop. This system gives another family of isos

Objective. To examine the help preferences of employees in the Danish police who had acknowledged that they wished to change health behaviors. In addition, we explored whether preferences varied with age, gender, chronic health concerns, positive expectations of good health, and past experiences of in-house health promotion services (i.e., wellness service). Methods. Respondents to an electronic q