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This article draws attention to storytelling in public diplomacy. Based on interviews with officials in the European External Action Service (EEAS) and a campaign on social media, it explores storytelling in EU public diplomacy. It treats storytell-ing as narrative strategies that tap into the power of dramaturgy and visual elements to mediate emotions and identity in international politics. This
Large-scale land acquisitions are a critical driver of global socio-environmental change, in particular in the Global South. This study aims to investigate drivers, impacts and feedbacks of environmental change in Kilombero Valley, Tanzania, a region in rapid societal and environmental transformation. We use land cover classifications to map and quantify land cover changes from 1990 to 2016, and c
Background: Block-sequential regularized expectation maximization (BSREM), commercially Q. Clear (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI, USA), is a reconstruction algorithm that allows for a fully convergent iterative reconstruction leading to higher image contrast compared to conventional reconstruction algorithms, while also limiting noise. The noise penalization factor β controls the trade-off between n
Background: The Deauville score (DS) is a clinical tool, based on the comparison between lesion and reference organ uptake of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), used to stratify patients with lymphoma into categories reflecting their disease status. With a plethora of positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET-CT) hard- and software algorithms, standard uptake value (SUV) in lesions and
This pilot study uses a Landau-Lifshitz phase field model to study the growth of a precipitate originating from a crack tip. A boundary layer giving a remote square root singular elastic stress field is applied. The materials are assumed to be elastic-plastic with linear strain hardening. The precipitate is assumed to expand in a simplified anisotropic manner, meaning that the hydride is assumed t
CD47, also known as integrin-associated protein (IAP), is a transmembrane protein with multiple biological functions including regulation of efferocytosis and leukocyte trafficking. In this study we investigated the effect of CD47-deficiency on atherosclerosis using a model of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-induced hypercholesterolemia. We observed increased plaque formation in CD47 null mice compar
Purpose: After resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), renal injury and hemodynamic instability are common. We aimed to assess the association between low cardiac output during targeted temperature management (TTM) and acute kidney injury (AKI) after OHCA. Materials and methods: Single-center substudy of 171 patients included in the prospective, randomized TTM-trial. Hemodynamic
DNA methylation contributes to the maintenance of genomic integrity in somatic cells, in part through the silencing of transposable elements. In this study, we use CRISPR-Cas9 technology to delete DNMT1, the DNA methyltransferase key for DNA methylation maintenance, in human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs). We observe that inactivation of DNMT1 in hNPCs results in viable, proliferating cells despi
Knowledge of key drivers and therapeutic targets in mucosal melanoma is limited due to the paucity of comprehensive mutation data on this rare tumor type. To better understand the genomic landscape of mucosal melanoma, here we describe whole genome sequencing analysis of 67 tumors and validation of driver gene mutations by exome sequencing of 45 tumors. Tumors have a low point mutation burden and
Neuroanatomy suggests that adjacent neocortical neurons share a similar set of afferent synaptic inputs, as opposed to neurons localized to different areas of the neocortex. In the present study, we made simultaneous single-electrode patch clamp recordings from two or three adjacent neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) of the ketamine-xylazine anesthetized rat in vivo to study the corr
Biological responses to climate change have been widely documented across taxa and regions, but it remains unclear whether species are maintaining a good match between phenotype and environment, i.e. whether observed trait changes are adaptive. Here we reviewed 10,090 abstracts and extracted data from 71 studies reported in 58 relevant publications, to assess quantitatively whether phenotypic trai
This paper proposes a theory of gazelle growth in which gazelles can grow either organically or through acquisitions. The model includes three types of firms: incumbent, target, and gazelle. We show that the lower cost of organic growth can increase the incentives for acquisition growth because the incumbent understands that if it acquires the target firm, the gazelle will then invest organically
The need for energy in water provision and use is obvious, however the drivers are often complex, difficult to assess, and often inconsistently presented. Here we build a clearer definition and conceptual framework of “water-related energy”. We apply this framework to harmonise data and results across disparate studies so that regional estimates of water-related energy can be compared in a consist
Both numerical simulations and experiments were conducted in a heavy-duty DICI engine, with PRF81 as a gasoline surrogate, to investigate how the fuel stratification, auto-ignition and combustion are affected by the start of injection (SOI). The intake air temperature was adjusted to keep the combustion phasing constant when the SOI was swept from −100 to −20 oCA ATDC, covering different regimes o
In the present study, we investigate degradable anionic dendritic nanogels (DNG) as carriers for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). In such systems, the dendritic part contains carboxylic acid-based anionic binding sites for cationic AMPs, whereas linear poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains form a shell for promotion of biological stealth. In order to clarify factors influencing membrane interactions of
Pathogens that invade the human host are confronted by a multitude of defence mechanisms aimed at preventing colonization, dissemination and proliferation. The most frequent outcome of this interaction is microbial elimination, in which the complement system plays a major role. Complement, an essential feature of the innate immune machinery, rapidly identifies and marks pathogens for efficient rem
Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the dose-response and pharmacology of a range of single doses of nebulised ensifentrine (RPL554), an inhaled dual phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3/4 inhibitor in patients with asthma. Methods: In this randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study, patients received single nebulised doses of ensifentrine 0.4, 1.5, 6 and 24 mg, salbutamol 2.5 and
Super-Earths - planets with sizes between the Earth and Neptune - are found in tighter orbits than that of the Earth around more than one third of main sequence stars. It has been proposed that super-Earths are scaled-up terrestrial planets that also formed similarly, through mutual accretion of planetary embryos, but in discs much denser than the solar protoplanetary disc. We argue instead that t
We consider the problem of grid-forming control of power converters in low-inertia power systems. Starting from an average-switch three-phase power converter model, we draw parallels to a synchronous machine (SM) model and propose a novel converter control strategy which dwells upon the main characteristic of a SM: the presence of an internal rotating magnetic field. In particular, we augment the
