The southern Peruvian coastal desert around Palpa, southern Peru (14.5 degrees S) is currently characterized by hyper-arid conditions. However, the presence of two species of molluscs (Scutalus, Pupoides) and desert-loess deposits indicates the past development of semi-desert and grassland ecosystems caused by a displacement of the eastern desert margin due to hydrological changes. Radiocarbon dat

Background: Approximately 20% of patients with bipolar disorder experience mixed states. Mixed states are associated with more comorbidity, poorer treatment response and prognosis, increased relapse rate, and decreased functioning. This study aimed to produce in-depth knowledge about bipolar patients' quality of life (QoL) and functioning related to mixed states. Sampling and Methods: This study u

This thesis explores the impact of past and present landscape and habitat structure on present levels of vascular plant species diversity within fragmented semi-natural grasslands. Within the Jordtorp-area, a mosaic agricultural landscape on the island of Öland (Sweden), historical land-use changes and the development of semi-natural grasslands was characterized, over a time-period of almost 300 y

We applied a hybrid approach to estimate the benchmark dose (BMD) and the lower 95% confidence limit (BMDL) for cadmium-induced bone effects in a population with low environmental exposure. Morning urine samples were collected by 794 Swedish women, aged 53-64 years, participating in a population-based study We measured urinary cadmium (U-Cd), a marker of long-term exposure, and bone mineral densit

We establish a sufficient condition ensuring strong Hellinger consistency of posterior distributions. We also prove a strong Hellinger consistency theorem for the pseudoposterior distributions based on the likelihood ratio with power 0 < alpha < 1, which are introduced by Walker and Hjort [2001 'On Bayesian Consistency', J. R. Statist. Soc., B 63, 811-821]. Our result is an extension of their theo

I antologin får du ta del av sju olika analyser av det utmanande arbetet med att åstadkomma inriktning och samordning av samhällets resurser i samband med skogsbranden. Publikationen är ett utvecklingsbidrag och är tänkt att ge vägledning till förbättrad förmåga att hantera framtidens samhällsstörningar. Bakom texterna står sju olika författare som utgått från ambitionen att publicera ett transp

N. antarctica occurs in the widest range of habitat types among all South American Nothofagus. The aim of this Study is to investigate adaptive responses by variation in morphological (tree form and leaf characters), and environmental traits (soils) of the polymorphic N. antarctica. Also we analyze the effect of genetic drift and limited gene flow in such predominantly apomict by means of neutral

Enriching the surface density of immobilized capture antibodies enhances the detection signal of antibody sandwich microarrays. In this study, we improved the detection sensitivity of our previously developed P-Si (porous silicon) antibody microarray by optimizing concentrations of the capturing antibody. We investigated immunoassays using a P-Si microarray at three different capture antibody (PSA

Riternas förändring i det moderna Sverige inleder ett temanummer i Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift där olika forskare vill diskutera hur olika religiösa traditioner genomgår rituell förändring på grund av migration, sekularisering och modernitet i dagens Sverige.

ABSTRACT: Genomic regions with altered gene expression are a characteristic feature of cancer cells. We present a novel method for identifying such regions in gene expression maps. This method is based on total variation (TV) minimization, a classical signal restoration technique. In systematic evaluations, we show that our method combines top-notch detection performance with an ability to delinea

We show that the dynamical screening of the Coulomb interaction among Cu-d electrons in high-Tc cuprates is strong and that a proper treatment of this effect is essential for a consistent description of the electronic structure. In particular, we find that ab initio calculations for undoped La2CuO4 in the paramagnetic phase yield an insulator only if the frequency dependence of the Coulomb interac

Structured follow-up after revascularisation for chronic critical limb ischaemia (CLI) aims at sustained treatment success and continued best patient care. Thereby, efforts need to address three fundamental domains: (A) best medical therapy, both to protect the arterial reconstruction locally and to reduce atherosclerotic burden systemically; (B) surveillance of the arterial reconstruction; and (C

In this paper, we present a new approach to conservative bounding of displaced Bézier patches. These surfaces are expected to be a common use case for tessellation in interactive and real-time rendering. Our algorithm combines efficient normal bounding techniques, min-max mipmap hierarchies and oriented bounding boxes. This results in substantially faster convergence for the bounding volumes of di

Aims: TCF7L2 variants have been associated with type 2 diabetes, body mass index (BMI), and deficits in proinsulin processing and insulin secretion. Here we sought to test whether these effects were apparent in high-risk individuals and modify treatment responses. Methods: We examined the potential role of the TCF7L2 rs7903146 variant in predicting resistance to weight loss or a lack of improvemen

The aim is to review a patented method and apparatus for treating tumor diseases (cancer) with a combination of ionizing radiation and pulsed electric fields that might open a new regime of radiation therapy fractionation with a short intensive treatment with high radiation dose fractions combined with pulsed electric fields. Sub-optimal radiation treatment was administered separately or in combin

When the immigrant printer from Germany, Johan Christopher Frenckell (1719-1779), became co-owner and principal of the academic printing house in Åbo in 1765, the old competition with the Royal Finnish Printing Office in Stockholm became obvious. The privileges to print catechisms and hymnbooks in Finnish now belonged again to the university of Åbo, but the Carlbohms continued to print these best-

The hygroscopic properties play a vital role for the direct and indirect effects of aerosols on climate, as well as the health effects of particulate matter (PM) by modifying the deposition pattern of inhaled particles in the humid human respiratory tract. Hygroscopic Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (H-TDMA) instruments have been used in field campaigns in various environments globally over

Five laboratory experiments were conducted to study solute transport in the capillary fringe in a sand filled glass tank containing an artificial groundwater zone, an unsaturated zone, and a capillary fringe in between. Dye stained water, applied at the soil surface, moved downwards through the unsaturated zone and then horizontally in the capillary fringe. The horizontal velocity of the dye plume