Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive, neurodegenerative disease involving both motor and non-motor symptoms (NMS). In the late stage of the disease, Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stages IV-V, the symptomatology is often severe and patients become increasingly dependent on help in their daily life, resulting in an increased burden for the informal caregivers. To assess the implications of the c

Introduction: The emergence of durable and potentially curative cell and gene therapies (also known as advanced therapy medicinal products) with high price tags is challenging conventional health care payment systems. Among these are gene therapies in various phases of development for haemophilia A and B. The emergence of these therapies comes with clinical and economic uncertainties for payers, p

In January 2020, infections with a novel coronavirus were confirmed in China. Two years into the pandemic, countries continue to struggle with fifth and sixth waves, new virus variants, and varying degrees of success in vaccinating national populations. Travel restrictions continue to persist, and the global tourism industry looks into a third year of uncertainty. There is a consensus that the COV

Objective: Increased soluble levels of complement effectors have been demonstrated in active anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV), but the timing of complement activation in the autoimmune inflammation remains elusive. This study investigated whether the complement system is activated before onset of symptoms in AAV. Method: The Swedish National Patient Register

Despite the relatively uncontested importance of promoting school attendance in the policy arena, little evidence exists on the causal effect of school absence on long-run outcomes. We address this question by combining historical and administrative records for cohorts of Swedish individuals born in the 1930s. We find that elementary school absence significantly reduces contemporaneous academic pe

Disease progression is slower in HIV-2, as compared with HIV-1 infection, in accordance with low or undetectable plasma viremia at viral setpoint. However, it is unclear why most HIV-2 infected individuals are still at risk of developing AIDS. To explore if specific host responses are linked to HIV disease severity, we have compared blood gene expression profiles between HIV seronegative and HIV-1

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major medical and public health problem throughout the world, especially in developing countries including Ethiopia. Its control program is currently being challenged by the spread of drug-resistant TB, which is the result of poor treatment outcomes. Hence, this study assessed poor adult TB treatment outcomes and associated factors in Gibe Woreda, Southern Ethiopia. An

Industrial development poses significant challenges to water resource management, both in terms of quality and quantity. In response to these challenges, the concept of sustainable water use has been proposed as a means of addressing these issues. However, this concept is not yet widely adopted in developing countries, particularly in Kazakhstan. This paper examines the extent to which water use i

The aim of this study was to reveal how professionals involved in food aid think about the dignity of visitors while maintaining their own. Ten food aid professionals participated in individual open semi-structured interviews. The theoretical concepts of dignity, discretion, self-presentation, and stigma were used in the analysis. In the professionals’ reasoning, four partly overlapping approaches

Nano-LEDs, with sizes smaller than 1 μm and close to sub-wavelengths, have received increasing attention because of their potential applications in next-generation self-emissive displays, visible light communication, optogenetics, maskless lithography, on-chip super-resolution microscopy, etc. In contrast to the top-down fabrication of nano-LEDs, where the efficiency drop caused by dry-etching rel

On-chip optical communication between individual nano optoelectronic components is important to reduce the footprint and improve energy efficiency of photonic neuromorphic solutions. Although nanoscale photon emitters and receivers have been reported separately, communication between them remains largely unexplored. We demonstrate direct on-chip directional broadcasting of light between individual

This article explores the expanded indexicality of documentary image and audio in the digital era. It analyzes the awarded Chinese documentary The Memo (2022) responding to the Shanghai COVID lockdown. The documentary reconstructs a digital xianchang (lit. the present and the site of happening, being there) of personal witnessing, collective testimony, trauma healing, and conceptual thinking durin

Meeting the food demand of a growing global population with limited agricultural resources is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Crop yield is highly sensitive to weather variability and climate extremes, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Accurate regional yield prediction is essential for helping farmers adapt, ensuring food security, and strengthening the r

During brain embryogenesis, transcription factors drive stem cells towards neuronal fate. Here we show that the transcription factor Pax6 increased in vitro generation of neurons from striatal but not cortical neural stem cells (NSCs), derived from 6 to 9 weeks old human fetuses, without affecting survival and proliferation. Overexpression of mouse Pax6 produced increased numbers of GABA+ and DARP

Increased hematocrit (Hct) attributable to splenic contraction accompanies human apneic diving or apnea with face immersion. Apnea also causes heart rate reduction and peripheral vasoconstriction, i.e., a cardiovascular diving response, which is augmented by face immersion. The aim was to study the role of apnea and facial immersion in the initiation of the hematological response and to relate thi

The study aims were to estimate the radiation dose in patients examined with low dose spine CT and to compare it with that received by patients undergoing standard CT for trauma of the same region, as well as to evaluate the impact of dose reduction on image quality. Radiation doses in 113 consecutive low dose spine CTs were compared with those in 127 CTs for trauma. The inter- and intraobserver a