Throughout history empires facilitated trade within their territories by building and securing trade and migration routes, and by imposing common norms, languages, religions, and legal systems, all of which led to the accumulation of imperial capital. In this paper, we collect novel data on the rise and fall of empires over the last 5000 years, construct a measure of accumulated imperial capital b

Background: Vaccination coverage for infant vaccinations in the Swedish National Immunization Program (NIP) has been high for more than a decade, with approximately 97% of 2-year-old children fully immunized. Vaccination coverage against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) has been around 80% since introduction for girls in 2012. This indicates high parental confidence in the NIP, but as seen in other Eur

Matching habitat choice is a habitat preference mechanism based on self-assessment of local performance, such that individuals settle in the habitats that are best suited to their phenotypes, promoting local adaptation. Despite the important evolutionary implications of matching habitat choice, examples from natural populations are rare. One possible reason for this apparent rarity is that phenoty

White or clear (“whitish”) wings are a distinct feature in about 30 species of tropical insectivorous bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) belonging to three families (Emballonuridae, Molossidae, and Vespertilionidae). Such wings may provide camouflage against the sky at dusk and dawn, when bats commute to and from the roost and are vulnerable to aerial predation from birds. We tested this hypothesis by co

In order to observe a patent application at the firm level, two conditions need to be met: new products need to be of patentable quality, which depends both on the degree of novelty of innovations and on the total number (portfolio) of innovations; and the benefits of patents need to be higher than the costs of owning them. Analyzing the patent propensity of small and large UK firms using a novel

Background/Objective: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients commonly have concomitant white matter lesions (WML) which may be associated with poor outcome. We studied if WML affects hematoma expansion (HE) and post-stroke functional outcome in a post hoc analysis of patients from randomized controlled trials. Methods: In ICH patients from the clinical trials MISTIE II and CLEAR III, WML grade on

To evaluate the association between mild acute cellular rejection (ACR) and the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) after heart transplantation (HTx). Substudy of the SCHEDULE trial (n = 115), where de novo HTx recipients were randomized to (i) everolimus with early CNI elimination or (ii) CNI-based immunosuppression. Seventy-six patients (66%) were included based on matched intrav

The substantial role of food sharing in human evolution has been widely recognized, and food-soliciting tactics may have been critical in facilitating these transfers. Great apes, our closest living relatives, also use different food-soliciting tactics to obtain food from both kin and non-kin. However, the individual and social factors involved in requests for and subsequent transfers of food have

BACKGROUND: Recurrent ischemic stroke (IS) increases the risk of cognitive decline. To lower the risk of recurrent IS, secondary prevention is essential. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to compare post-discharge secondary IS prevention and its maintenance up to 3 years after first IS in patients with and without Alzheimer's disease and other dementia disorders. METHODS: Prospective open-cohort study 2007-2

Problem: There is a knowledge gap regarding women's experiences of coping with labour pain when not soliciting or not having access to pharmacological pain relief. Background: How women manage labour pain is complex, multifaceted and only the woman giving birth can assess the experienced pain. Women in the Nordic countries planning for a homebirth have little or no access to pharmacologic pain rel

Semi-natural grasslands are characterized by high fine-scale plant species richness. The richest grassland communities, with many habitat-specialist species, are found in ancient grassland sites that have a long continuity of grazing management and low levels of soil nutrients. Grazed grasslands were widespread in the historical landscape. Agricultural intensification over the last two centuries h

Background: Improved short-term outcomes have been demonstrated with higher surgical volume in shoulder arthroplasty. There is however, little data regarding long-term outcomes. Method: Revision data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry from 2004-2017 was analyzed according to 3 selected surgeon volume thresholds: 20 shoulder arthroplasty cases per surgeo

Objective: To discover whether tobacco smoking and intake of different types of alcoholic drinks are associated with small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA). Methods: A population-based European multi-center case-control study was conducted from 1995 to 1997. Results: After a histological review using uniform diagnostic criteria, 47 (33%) of the 142 identified cases of SBA were excluded due to reclassifi

Objectives - Because of the rarity of small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA), little is known about the aetiology of this disease. This study aimed to identify occupational clustering of cases SBA as a systematic approach to new hypotheses on the aetiology of this disease. Methods - A European multicentre case-control study was conducted in 1995-7, inclusive. Incident cases aged 35-69 years with SBA (n=