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Spatial data are crucial in disaster planning. However, because of the dynamic, urgent and uncertain nature of disasters, certain data and functionalities may be inaccessible to decision makers when they are required. Web service composition offers a possible solution whereby disaster planners can integrate spatial web services to generate new spatial data and functionalities, quickly, from existi

To assess the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in patients with primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) and to study the association of COPD with cigarette smoking, radiographic features, respiratory symptoms, disease activity, and laboratory inflammatory and serological features in patients with pSS.

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most important modalities in a radiological department, which produces images with high diagnostic confidence, but in some cases contributes to a high radiation dose to the patient. The radiation dose can be reduced by the use of advanced image reconstruction algorithms. This study was done on a Philips Brilliance iCT with iterative reconstruction iDose(4) an

Cholecystokinin (CCK-) positive basket cells form a distinct class of inhibitory GABAergic interneurons, proposed to act as fine-tuning devices of hippocampal gamma-frequency (30-90 Hz) oscillations, which can convert into higher frequency seizure activity. Therefore, CCK-basket cells may play an important role in regulation of hyper-excitability and seizures in the hippocampus. In normal conditio

Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) is a potential efficacious and safe treatment option for patients with respiratory, IgE-mediated allergic diseases. A combined tolerability, dose finding study with a sublingual liquid birch pollen preparation (SB) was conducted.

Using a sample of dilepton top-quark pair ((tt) over bar) candidate events, a study is performed of the production of top-quark pairs together with heavy-flavor (HF) quarks, the sum of (tt) over bar + b + X and (tt) over bar + c + X, collectively referred to as (tt) over bar + HF. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mas

Twentieth-century massification of higher education and academic research led to mission diversification and structural diversification of national higher education systems (HESs), but also a tendency of non-university colleges to seek to develop into full-scale universities by the emulation of practices of established academic organizations, a tendency that has been called academic drift. The dri

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission provides multi-angular, dual-polarised brightness temperatures at 1.4 GHz, from which global soil moisture and vegetation optical depth (tau) products are retrieved. This paper presents a study of SMOS' tau product in 2010 and 2011 for crop zones of the USA. Retrieved tau values for 504 crop nodes were compared to optical/IR vegetation indices fr

A novel 2 pi detector geometry for small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) applications is presented and its theoretical performance evaluated. Such a novel geometry is ideally suited for a SANS instrument at the European Spallation Source (ESS). Motivated by the low availability and high price of 3 He, the new concept utilizes gaseous detectors with B-10 as the neutron converter. The shape of the d

Compression anastomotic ring-locking procedure (CARP) is a novel procedure for creating colonic anastomoses. The surgical procedure allows perioperative quantification of the compression pressure between the intestinal ends within the anastomosis and postoperative monitoring of the anastomotic integrity. We have recently shown that CARP is a safe and effective method for colonic anastomoses in pig

Decrease of the human brain temperature was induced by intranasal cooling. The main purpose of this study was to compare the two magnetic resonance methods for monitoring brain temperature changes during cooling: phase-difference and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) with high spatial resolution. Ten healthy volunteers were measured. Selective brain cooling was performed through nasa

Use of nutritional components from the milk and eventually from the solid feed relates to the growth and development of gastrointestinal tract (GIT). We studied the effect of pancreatic-like enzymes [porcine pancreatic enzymes (Creon) or microbial-derived amylase, protease, and lipase] on GIT morphology and lipid absorption in suckling piglets. Both enzyme preparations, in low or high dose, were f

The hyperfine interaction constants of the 2p(4)(P-3)3p D-2(3/2,5/2)o, D-4(1/2-7/2)o, and P-4(1/2-5/2)o levels in neutral fluorine are investigated theoretically. Large-scale calculations are carried out using the multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock (MCHF) and Dirac-Hartree-Fock (MCDHF) methods. In the framework of the MCHF approach, the relativistic effects are taken into account in the Breit-Pauli a

The concept of Mode 2 was developed in order to further our understanding of processes of knowledge production taking place between and beyond disciplinary structures (inter- and transdisciplinary processes) and “in a context of application”. The concept has often been seen as especially applicable to fields addressing grand challenges, such as cli- mate change, poverty eradication, and global hea

Parasites and infectious diseases represent ecological forces shaping animal social evolution. Although empirical studies supporting this link abound in various vertebrate orders, both the study of the dynamics and impact of parasite infections and infectious diseases in strepsirrhine primates have received little empirical attention. We conducted a longitudinal parasitological study on four group

Optimization models related to designing and operating complex systems are mainly focused on some efficiency metrics such as response time, queue length, throughput, and cost. However, in systems which serve many entities there is also a need for respecting fairness: each system entity ought to be provided with an adequate share of the system's services. Still, due to system operations-dependant c