Banks (but not stock markets) promote economic growth by facilitating relationship-specific investment between buyers and suppliers of intermediate goods. Combined insights from literature on signaling role of banks and on relationship-specific investment motivate this economic channel: A supplier is reluctant to undertake relationship-specific investment as she cannot observe financial stability

Wass, M., Ibertsson, T., Lyxell, B., Sahlen, B., Hallgren, M., Larsby, B. & Maki-Torkko, E. (2008). Cognitive and linguistic skills in Swedish children with cochlear implants - measures of accuracy and latency as indicators of development. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. The purpose of the present study was to examine working memory (WM) capacity, lexical access and phonological skills in

Aqueous potassium chloride has been studied by synchrotron-radiation excited core-level photoelectron and Auger electron spectroscopy. In the Auger spectrum of the potassium ion, the main feature comprises the final states where two outer valence holes are localized on potassium. This spectrum exhibits also another feature at a higher kinetic energy which is related to final states where outer val

In the field of infectious diseases the multifaceted amino acid arginine has reached special attention as substrate for the hosts production of the antimicrobial agent nitric oxide (NO). A variety of infectious organisms interfere with this part of the host immune response by reducing the availability of arginine. This prompted us to further investigate additional roles of arginine during pathogen

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the only curative treatment available for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID); although, there is a high incidence of severe infections and an increased risk of graft-versus host-disease (GvHD) with HSCT. Early intervention is a crucial prognostic factor and a HLA-haploidentical parental donor is often available. Haploidentical HSCT

Objectives To assess the prevalence of HIV and related risk behaviours among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Iran. Methods We conducted a national cross-sectional bio-behavioural surveillance survey between March and July 2010, interviewing male PWID from a geographically dispersed sample through a facility-based sampling method. Results We recruited 2480, and tested 2290 PWID. The overall preva

Background and Aim Climate change models are limited by lack of baseline data, in particular carbon (C) allocation to - and dynamics within - soil microbial communities. We quantified seasonal C-assimilation and allocation by plants, and assessed how well this corresponds with intraradical arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) storage and structural lipids (16: 1 omega 5 NLFA and PLFA, respectively)

Rationale and Objectives: To compare the ability of normalized versus non-normalized metabolite ratios to differentiate recurrent brain tumor from radiation injury using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in previously treated patients. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five patients with previous diagnosis of primary intracranial neoplasm confirmed with biopsy/resection, previously treated with ra

The Arctic marine ecosystem contains multiple elements that present alternative states. The most obvious of which is an Arctic Ocean largely covered by an ice sheet in summer versus one largely devoid of such cover. Ecosystems under pressure typically shift between such alternative states in an abrupt, rather than smooth manner, with the level of forcing required for shifting this status termed th

Common genetic variants have been recently associated with fasting glucose and insulin levels in white populations. Whether these associations replicate in pre-diabetes is not known. We extended these findings to the Diabetes Prevention Program, a clinical trial in which participants at high risk for diabetes were randomized to placebo, lifestyle modification or metformin for diabetes prevention.

Recension av Bertil Wennerholm & Kent Zetterberg (red.), Militära ledare under kalla kriget.

Suppose that a circular fire spreads in the plane at unit speed. A fire fighter can build a barrier at speed v > 1. How large must v be to ensure that the fire can be contained, and how should the fire fighter proceed? We provide two results. First, we analyze the natural strategy where the fighter keeps building a barrier along the frontier of the expanding fire. We prove that this approach conta

This study uses a generalized linear model approach, i.e. negative binomial regression, to develop a predictive model for motorcycle fatal accidents on Malaysian primary roads. For the modeling process, a huge data inventory has been carried out, integrating the road geometry features, fatal accident records and traffic censuses from 3 selected states for the past 3-year period. The results show t

Alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) is a glycoprotein synthesised in the liver. Its main role is to protect lung tissue from destruction by neutrophil elastase. In severe (PiZZ) AAT deficiency, there is an increased risk of emphysema, especially in smokers. The deficiency is caused by the retention and aggregation by polymerization of the AAT molecules in the liver, which increases the risk of neonatal chol

Recent advances in high-intensity electron and X-ray pulsed sources now make it possible to directly observe atomic motions as they occur in barrier-crossing processes. These rare events require the structural dynamics to be triggered by femtosecond excitation pulses that prepare the system above the barrier or access new potential energy surfaces that drive the structural changes. In general, the

Physical models of NOx formation are becoming more and more interesting in the area of combustion feedback control. The fact that cylinder pressure sensors are made available on the market enables fast and accurate calculations of heat release, which is an essential part of every physical NOx formation model. This article describes such a zero-dimensional model for a diesel engine using crank angl

One third of the patients with estrogen receptor alpha (ER alpha)-positive breast cancer who are treated with the antiestrogen tamoxifen will either not respond to initial therapy or will develop drug resistance. Endocrine response involves crosstalk between ER alpha and TGF beta signaling, such that tamoxifen non-responsiveness or resistance in breast cancer might involve aberrant TGF beta signal

Previous studies on the extreme thermophile Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus revealed that the organism produces high yields of hydrogen on glucose and xylose, the major components of lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Preliminary experiments on mixed sugar substrates, however, indicated that xylose was preferred over glucose. The sugar preference of some other extreme thermophiles, including Caldi