Measurements of water content profiles are of great interest in hydrology and soil science. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is a well-established method for water content measurements; however, most TDR probe designs are suitable for measurements in only a small soil volume. In this article, a 1-m long TDR profiling probe with five measurement sections is described. Unlike most other previous prof

The hype of robots as companions and caregivers for seniors raises questions concerning not only the technology but also its impact on practice, values and norms among seniors. This article focuses on how seniors adopt, utilise and make sense of robotic vacuum cleaners in their lives. Qualitative interviews and observations were conducted with ten seniors over a 13-month period, between July 2013

We present a straightforward method for accurate and precise U/Pb dating of baddeleyite using quadrupole LA-ICP-MS. To establish the validity of our ICP-MS data we used FC-4b baddeleyite from the Duluth complex as external standard, whereas baddeleyite from the Phalaborwa (South Africa) and the Sorkka (SW Finland) intrusions were treated as unknowns. The analytical protocol includes the use of a m

Studies of medium-induced QCD radiation usually rely on the calculation of single-gluon radiation spectrum off an energetic part on traversing an extended colored medium. Recently, the importance of interference effects between emitters in the medium has been explored. In this work we extend previous studies by calculating the single-gluon coherent spectrum off an antenna consisting of a massive q

Structural failure and collapse of thoracic stent grafts may cause fatal complications that are easily overlooked on follow-up imaging. A young man with multiple injuries from a motorcycle crash was treated with endografting for an aortic transection. The clinical course was initially satisfactory but deteriorated one week after the injury and the patient died two weeks later. Autopsy and retrospe

In this study, the total heatfunction equation which includes diffusion and convection transport is divided into the corresponding heatfunction equations. The superposition rule is used to obtain the mathematical definitions of diffusion and convection heatfunctions and corresponding boundary conditions. It is observed that the separate visualization of diffusion and convection heatlines provides

α-Synuclein is a key protein in Parkinson disease. Not only is it the major protein component of Lewy bodies, but it is implicated in several cellular processes that are disrupted in Parkinson disease. Misfolded α-synuclein has also been shown to spread from cell-to-cell and, in a prion-like fashion, trigger aggregation of α-synuclein in the recipient cell. In this mini-review we explore the evide

A Panel of International Experts was convened by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in collaboration with the European Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) to update the 1999 Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infection Guidelines by the IDSA. Co-sponsoring organizations include the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Urological Association,

We propose a hierarchical neural architecture able to recognise observed human actions. Each layer in the architecture represents increasingly complex human activity features. The first layer consists of a SOM which performs dimensionality reduction and clustering of the feature space. It represents the dynamics of the stream of posture frames in action sequences as activity trajectories over time

Late primary palatal repair is a common phenomenon, and many patients across the world will be operated on at a far later age than is suggested for normal speech development. Nevertheless, little is known about the speech outcomes after these procedures and conflicting results exist among the few studies performed. In this study, blinded preoperative and postoperative speech recordings from 31 pat

Donor-reactive memory T cells mediated accelerated rejection is known as a barrier to the survival of transplanted organs. We investigated the combination of different monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and donor-specific transfusion (DST) in memory T cells-based adoptive mice model. In the presence of donor reactive memory T cells, the mean survival time (MST) of grafts in the anti-CD40L/LFA-1/DST grou

We report the association of an inherited variant located upstream of the poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) gene (rs2249844), with survival in 11 BioGenoMEL melanoma cohorts. The gene encodes a protein involved in a number of cellular processes including single-strand DNA repair. Survival analysis was conducted for each cohort using proportional hazards regression adjusting f

Several prospective studies have shown a moderate positive association between increasing circulating insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels and colorectal cancer risk. However, the associations were often statistically nonsignificant, and the relationship of cancer risk with IGF-I's major binding protein, IGFBP-3, showed major discrepancies between studies. We investigated the association of

During the last decades regional income divergence seems to have reappeared in both developed and developing countries. In Taiwan – a renowned case of growth with equity – regional per capita income was converging until the early 1990s after which it began to diverge. With the help of modeled annual household survey data from 1976 to 2005 we indicate the magnitude of a regional bonus and discuss r

The objective of this paper is to apply the Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning (VRFT) to Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) control strategies in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Using the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 1 (BSM1) as a case study, the proposed data-driven approach provides reduced-order controllers only using a batch of input-output data points (i.e. manipulated variable-contr

This article discusses the potential consequences of implementing bibliometrics as an institutionalized practice in academic libraries. Results are reported from a survey distributed among academic libraries in Sweden with organized bibliometric activities. Incorporating bibliometric activities is seen as a way of redefining and widening of the role of the library. Implementation of bibliometric p

We examine the effects from the Trading At Settlement (TAS) introduction on VIX futures market quality. We find that the VIX futures market exhibits higher trading activity and better liquidity after the TAS introduction. VIX futures traders use the TAS limit order book to execute large transactions, and TAS helps limit order traders from being picked off by informed traders when the VIX futures p

We have employed time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to study the impact of HfO2 surface capping by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the optical properties of InP nanowires (NWs). The deposition of high-kappa dielectrics acting as a gate oxide is of particular interest in view of possible applications of semiconductor NWs in future wrap-gated field effect transistors (FETs). A high n