Phthalates are ubiquitous in indoor environments, which raises concern about their endocrine disrupting properties. However, studies of human uptake from airborne exposure are limited. We studied the inhalation uptake and dermal uptake by air-to-skin transfer with clean clothing as a barrier of two deuterium-labelled airborne phthalates: particle-phase D4-DEHP (di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate) and gas-

In many vertebrates, acoustic cues to body size are encoded in resonance frequencies of the vocal tract (“formants”), rather than in the rate of tissue vibration in the sound source (“pitch”). Anatomical constraints on the vocal tract’s size render formants honest cues to size in many bird and mammal species, but it is not clear whether this correlation evolved convergently in these two clades, or

The spontaneous crafting of hook-tools from bendable material to lift a basket out of a vertical tube in corvids has widely been used as one of the prime examples of animal tool innovation. However, it was recently suggested that the animals' solution was hardly innovative but strongly influenced by predispositions from habitual tool use and nest building. We tested Goffin's cockatoo, which is nei

The Bit Flipping algorithm is a hard decision decoding algorithm originally designed by Gallager in 1962 to decode Low Density Parity Check Codes (LDPC). It has recently proved to be much more versatile, for Moderate Parity Check Codes (MDPC) or Euclidean metric. We further demonstrate its power by proposing a noisy Euclidean version of it. This tweak allows to construct a lattice based key exchan

We look at the link between the volatility in the Bitcoin market and the volatility in other related traditional markets, i.e. the gold, currency and stock market. We also try to answer if the volatility in the Bitcoin market can be explained by retail investor-driven internet search volumes or, perhaps, by the general level of risk in the financial system, as measured by two market-wide risk indi

We study the intergenerational social mobility of women by looking at how migration was associated with socioeconomic marriage mobility using complete-count census data for Sweden. The censuses 1880–1900 have been linked at the individual level, enabling us to follow almost 100,000 women from their parental home to their new marital household. Marriage market imbalances were not an important push

Abstract: A side-by-side comparison of updated guidelines regarding contrast medium-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) from the Swedish Society of Uroradiology (SSUR) and the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) is presented. The major discrepancies include a higher glomerular filtration rate (GFR) threshold as a risk factor for CI-AKI and for discontinuation of metformin by SSUR, i.e

Scope: Several dietary fiber properties are suggested to be important for the profiling of the microbiota composition, but those characteristics are rather unclear. Whether different physico-chemical properties of barley dietary fiber influence the gut microbiota composition is investigated. Methods and results: Seven diets containing equal amounts of dietary fiber from barley malts, brewer's spen

Background: Data suggests that the plasma levels of the liver-specific miR-122-5p might both be a marker of cardiogenic shock and a prognostic marker of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Our aim was to characterize plasma miR-122-5p at admission after OHCA and to assess the association between miR-122-5p and relevant clinical factors such all-cause mortality and shock at admission after OHCA.

Background: Lung transplant patients experience a high risk of airway infections and microbial colonization of the lung due to constant exposure to the environment through inhaled microorganisms, denervation, reduced ciliary transport, and decreased cough. Methods: In this nationwide prospective study on Swedish lung transplant patients, we evaluated the microbiological panorama of bacteria, fungi

We examine trends in innovation output for two highly ranked innovative countries: Finland and Sweden (1970-2013). Our novel dataset, collected using the LBIO (literature-based innovation output) method, suggests that the innovation trends are positive for both countries, despite an extended downturn in the 1980s. The findings cast some doubt on the proposition that the current stagnation of many

Understanding how ecosystem services interact to support crop yield is essential for achieving food security. Here we evaluate the interactions among biotic pest regulation, pollination, and nutrient cycling. We found only 16 studies providing 20 analyses of two-way interactions. These studies show that multiple services limit crop yield simultaneously. Complementary effects (no interactions) betw

Several countries have carried out surveys of managed honeybee colonies, the results of which suggest high loss rates all over the world. Although Latin America is an important apicultural region, estimates of honeybee colony losses are lacking. This study quantified colony losses in Argentina during the 2015-16 season. Overall, the survey included 28,204 honeybee colonies, of which 15.5% were rec

In an era defined by insecurity, uncertainty, and increasing anxieties, ontological security has proven to be a fruitful lens for analyzing world politics. This Special Issue joins other recent compilations, contributing to the growing research agenda on ontological security and insecurity in world politics. The articles herein conceptualize and apply ontological security at the international, tra

We formulate and prove finite dimensional analogs for the classical Balian–Low theorem, and for a quantitative Balian–Low type theorem that, in the case of the real line, we obtained in a previous work. Moreover, we show that these results imply their counter-parts on the real line.

Climate change increases the risks of heat stress, especially in urban areas where urban heat islands can develop. This literature review aims to describe how severe heat can occur and be identified in urban indoor environments, and what actions can be taken on the local scale. There is a connection between the outdoor and the indoor climate in buildings without air conditioning, but the pathways