In the last few decades, Western governments have spent huge sums of money to promote democracy abroad. We do not know which, if any, of these programs actually work. If we cannot measure democracy in sufficient detail and with the necessary nuance, we cannot mark its progress and setbacks or affect its future course. While distinguishing the most democratic countries from the least democratic one

We present a study of tail-bias-current 1/f noise upconversion into 1/f(3) phase noise for both CMOS Colpitts and differential-pair LC oscillators. We focus on the incremental Groszkowski effect, i.e., the modulation of the shift in oscillation frequency induced by the higher current harmonics flowing into the LC tank of a harmonic oscillator induced by bias instabilities, as we show that there is

The loss of aroma components after drying the fruit of Vangueria infausta L. was studied by means of convective air drying and gas chromatography techniques. The samples were dried at 80 degrees C, with an air flow of 3m/s at different drying times in the range of 60 up to 420min. Aroma composition, dry matter, and water activity were measured for each sample throughout the drying time. The study

Great expectations have been raised about neuroprotection of therapeutic hypothermia in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) by analogy with its effects after heart arrest, neonatal asphyxia, and drowning in cold water. The aim of this study is to review our present knowledge of the effect of therapeutic hypothermia on outcome in children and adults with severe TBI. A literature search for r

We appraised the methodology, execution and quality of the five published meta-analyses that are based on the five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which compared cardiotocography (CTG) +ST analysis to CTG. The meta-analyses contained errors, either created de novo in handling of original data, or from a failure to recognize essential differences among the RCTs, particularly in their inclusion

Background: Although post-stroke depression is widely recognized, less is known about depressive symptoms in the acute stage of stroke and especially in young stroke patients. We thus investigated depressive symptoms and their determinants in such a cohort. Methods:The Stroke in Young Fabry Patients study (sifap1) prospectively recruited a large multinational European cohort (n = 5,023) of patient

Background: Recent evidence suggests that stroke is increasing as a cause of morbidity and mortality in younger adults, where it carries particular significance for working individuals. Accurate and up-to-date estimates of stroke burden are important for planning stroke prevention and management in younger adults. Objectives: This study aims to estimate prevalence, mortality and disability-adjuste

BackgroundLittle data exist on real-world treatment patterns in psoriasis, especially from European settings. ObjectiveTo estimate, for topicals, systemics and biologics, the time to non-persistency, switching, augmentation and insufficient treatment result (only for biologics), as well as to estimate the time to restart, in patients treated with each treatment class in Sweden based on registry da

To explore coping with the perceived psychosocial consequences of a false-positive screening mammography.

The effects of ionic substances in seven industrial filtrates from kraft pulping, mechanical pulping, and sulfite pulping on the activity of oxalate oxidase from barley were investigated by pre-treatment of the filtrates with ion-exchange resins prior to enzymatic degradation of the oxalic acid in the filtrates. The pre-treatment resulted in increased oxalic acid degradation rates in all filtrates

Although hypothesized for many years, the involvement of ectomycorrhizal fungi in decomposition of soil organic matter remains controversial and has not yet been fully acknowledged as an important factor in the regulation of soil carbon (C) storage. Here, we review recent findings, which support the view that some ectomycorrhizal fungi have the capacity to oxidize organic matter, either by brown-r

The European Landscape Convention encourages everyone to be part of the management and perception of the landscape. In Swedish forestry today, however, it is experts in biodiversity who are responsible for the management policies used when planning tree retention as a biodiversity conservation strategy. This gives the forest a certain structure, but it is uncertain whether this structure is felt t

Ca2+-sensor proteins regulate a variety of intracellular processes by adopting specific conformations in response to finely tuned changes in Ca2+-concentration. Here we present a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based approach, which allows for simultaneous detection of conformational dynamics of four Ca2+-sensor proteins (calmodulin, recoverin, GCAP1, and GCAP2) operating in the vertebrate phototr

Designing multiple antennas in small terminals at frequency bands below 1 GHz is challenging due to severe mutual coupling among antenna elements. The severe coupling is often the result of simultaneous excitation of the fundamental characteristic mode of the terminal chassis by more than one antenna element. In this work, we propose to solve the coupling problem by manipulating the chassis struct

Aims: During recent years, two strategies of incretin-based therapy [glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonism and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibition] have entered the market for pharmacological management of type 2 diabetes. A main indication for this therapy is as add-on to on-going metformin therapy in subjects with type 2 diabetes who have insufficient glycaemic control with metf

We report on a monotonic reduction of Curie temperature in dilute ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn) As upon a well controlled chemical-etching/oxidizing thinning from 15 nm down to complete removal of the ferromagnetic response. The effect already starts at the very beginning of the thinning process and is accompanied by the spin reorientation transition of the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy. We p

The In 3d(5/2) photoelectron spectroscopy peak has been widely used to determine the interface structures of In-containing III-V device materials (e.g., oxidation states). However, an unclear parameter affecting the determination of the energy shifts and number of the core-level components, and therefore, the interpreted interface structure and composition, is still the intrinsic In 3d(5/2) peak l