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Formalizing Street Vendors: Regulating to improve well-being or to gain control?

Formalization, understood as gaining legal status to develop their businesses, is the mainstream policy to regulate the work of street vendors in most cities in the world. However, formalization policies are criticized by different scholars, and many vendors go back to the streets after formalization despite government efforts. To contribute to this long-standing debate, this chapter explores the

Interregional migration of business owners : who moves and how does moving affect firm performance?

Business owners play an important role in driving regional economic growth, and policy-makers seek to attract and retain such entrepreneurs by most means available. This paper analyses migration patterns, the factors that influence the propensity to move and assesses the relationship between firm performance and individual migration both before and after the move. The results show that (1) known e

Plasma concentration of Caspase-8 is associated with short sleep duration and the risk of incident diabetes mellitus

Context: The biological mechanism for the association between sleep duration and incident diabetes mellitus (DM) is unclear. Sleep duration and Caspase-8, a marker of apoptotic activity, have both been implicated in beta cell function.Objective: To investigate the associations between sleep duration and plasma Caspase-8, and incident DM, respectively.Design: Prospective cohort study.Setting: The M

Association measures of claims-based algorithms for common chronic conditions were assessed using regularly collected data in Japan

OBJECTIVE: Although claims data are widely used in medical research, their ability to identify persons' health-related conditions has not been fully justified. We assessed the validity of claims-based algorithms (CBAs) for identifying people with common chronic conditions in a large population using annual health screening results as the gold standard.STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Using a longitudinal

Direct neuronal reprogramming for disease modeling studies using patient-derived neurons : What have we learned?

Direct neuronal reprogramming, by which a neuron is formed via direct conversion from a somatic cell without going through a pluripotent intermediate stage, allows for the possibility of generating patient-derived neurons. A unique feature of these so-called induced neurons (iNs) is the potential to maintain aging and epigenetic signatures of the donor, which is critical given that many diseases o

Grass biomass as biofuel feedstock –sustainable or not?

Low carbon input due to increasing specialization, intensification and reduced use of bio-fertilizer, leads to soil organic carbon (SOC) decreases in arable land. This is an emerging problem in Europe in general, where 45% of the EU soils have low and declining SOC content. SOC losses from agricultural soils influence soil fertility, putting food security at risk, and contributes to greenhouse gas

Familial transmission of externalizing syndromes in extended Swedish families

Risk for criminal behavior (CB), alcohol use disorder (AUD), and drug abuse (DA) are known to be familial. We know less about their transmission across three generations. We examined 844,109 probands born in Sweden 1980–1990, their parents, aunts/uncles, and grandparents for registration in population-based registers for CB, AUD, and DA. Mean tetrachoric relative-proband correlations (95% CIs) wer

Controlling energy level positions in hole conducting molecular films by additives

Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) has been used to study the bulk electronic structure of thin molecular films of the organic compounds 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis (N,N’-di-p-methoxyphenyl-amine)-9,9’-spiro-bifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD), 4-(diethylamino)-benzaldehyde-1,1)-diphenyl-hydrazone (DEH) and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). Molecular layers of these compounds are hole conducting, a property

Drought legacy effects on the composition of soil fungal and prokaryote communities

It is increasingly acknowledged that climate change is influencing terrestrial ecosystems by increased drought and rainfall intensities. Soil microbes are key drivers of many processes in terrestrial systems and rely on water in soil pores to fulfill their life cycles and functions. However, little is known on how drought and rainfall fluctuations, which affect the composition and structure of mic

Antimicrobials in small-scale urban pig farming in a lower middle-income country - arbitrary use and high resistance levels

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Administration of antimicrobials to food-producing animals is regarded as a major contributor to the overall emergence of resistance in bacteria worldwide. However, few data are available on global antimicrobial use and resistance (AMR) in livestock, especially from low- and middle-income countries. Methods: We conducted a structured survey of 91 small-scale pig f

Dynamic Vegetation Simulations of the Mid-Holocene Green Sahara

The “Green Sahara” is a period when North Africa was characterized by vegetation cover and wetlands. To qualitatively identify the orbital-climatic causation of the Green Sahara regime, we performed dynamic vegetation model (LPJ-GUESS) simulations, driven by climate forcings from coupled general circulation model (EC-Earth) simulations for the mid-Holocene, in which the vegetation is prescribed to

Diagnosis and management of bone fragility in diabetes : an emerging challenge

Fragility fractures are increasingly recognized as a complication of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with fracture risk that increases with disease duration and poor glycemic control. Yet the identification and management of fracture risk in these patients remains challenging. This review explores the clinical characteristics of bone fragility in adults with diabetes and highlights recent studies

Health Economic Analysis of Open and Robot-assisted Laparoscopic Surgery for Prostate Cancer Within the Prospective Multicentre LAPPRO Trial

Background: The rapid adoption of robot-assisted laparoscopy in radical prostatectomy has preceded data regarding associated costs. Qualitative evidence regarding cost outcomes is lacking. Objective: This study assessed how costs were affected by robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) compared with open surgery. Design, setting, and participants: Cost analysis was based on the dataset of

Cultivating a sustainable society : attempts to change contemporary Sweden by urban gardening and theatre

In this presentation, we discuss how projects use theatre and urban gardening as tools to handle and promote cultural diversity in Sweden. Our presentation build on data collected during the last decade in Malmö, a city characterised by immigration, super-diversity and a post-industrial economy. The projects we have studied are often short term and dependent on uncertain, external funding. The tar

Development and Validation of a Questionnaire to Measure Patient's Experiences of Health Care in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Outpatient Clinics

Background: Measuring the patients’ experience of care at an outpatient clinic can provide feedback about the quality of health care and if needed, can be support for quality improvements. To date, there is no patient reported experience measurement (PREM) developed targeting patients at the pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) outpatient clinics. Therefore, the aim was to develop and evaluate th

Biodegradation of 17-β-estradiol in water

This study reports a potential biotechnical method of 17-β-estradiol removal in aquatic systems. The different bacterial strains isolated from sewage water samples were Bacillus sp., Enterobacter sp. I, Enterobacter sp. II, Klebsiella sp., Aeromonas veronii and Aeromonas punctate. These isolates were characterized on the basis of a single PCR reaction from the 5′ end of the PCR fragment to obtain

mHTT Seeding Activity : A Marker of Disease Progression and Neurotoxicity in Models of Huntington's Disease

Self-propagating, amyloidogenic mutant huntingtin (mHTT) aggregates may drive progression of Huntington's disease (HD). Here, we report the development of a FRET-based mHTT aggregate seeding (FRASE) assay that enables the quantification of mHTT seeding activity (HSA) in complex biosamples from HD patients and disease models. Application of the FRASE assay revealed HSA in brain homogenates of presy

Thermoelectric experiments on nanowire-based quantum dots

This thesis experimentally investigates the possibilities of using quantum effects in semiconductor nanostructures for engineering their thermoelectric properties. More specifically, heterostructured InAs/InP nanowires are used to create short InAs quantum dots (QDs) with electronic state structure resembling that found in atoms. Recently developed top-heater architecture is used to apply a temper