Posterior laryngitis is a common cause of chronic cough, hoarseness, voice fatigue and throat pain. The aim of the present study was to examine how patients with posterior laryngitis have been examined, treated and followed up, and to assess their present health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Patients treated for posterior laryngitis at consultation at the ear-, nose- and throat clinic during 20

This article provides an account of post-communist civil society in Latvia. Based on original survey data, the structure of civil society is analysed on both individual and organisational levels and cultural aspects are examined. The weakness of post-communist civil society found in much previous research is confirmed when measured on the individual level and in relation to some organisational asp

A review of existing economic models in major depressive disorder (MDD) highlighted the need for models with longer time horizons that also account for heterogeneity in treatment pathways between patients. A core discrete event simulation model was developed to estimate health and cost outcomes associated with alternative treatment strategies.

Corrosion of steel structures in the marine environment is a major problem. The deterioration of this kind of structures is costly and difficult to predict both when designing new structures and when estimating the remaining service life time for existing structures. The aim of this investigation was to find indicative values for the corrosion rate of steel sheet piles on the Swedish west coast. S

Hypoxia is emerging as an important characteristic of the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche, but the molecular mechanisms contributing to quiescence, self-renewal, and survival remain elusive. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) is a key regulator of angiogenesis and hematopoiesis. Its expression is commonly regulated by hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF) that are functionally induced in l

China's natural wetlands occupy 3.77% of the land and provide 54.9% of China's ecosystem services. Healthy natural wetland ecosystems play an important role in the sustainable development of China, which was realized by the Chinese government in the early 1970s. In the past 5 years, China has made great efforts in wetlands conservation, which is signified by the funding of billions of dollars to r

To identify patients at risk for progressive joint damage there is a need for early diagnostic tools to detect molecular events leading to cartilage destruction. Isolation and characterization of distinct cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) fragments derived from cartilage and released into synovial fluid will allow discrimination between different pathological conditions and monitoring of

A framework for accurately modeling fatigue crack growth in ductile crystalline solids is necessarily multiscale The creation of new free surface occurs at the atomistic scale, where the material's cohesive strength is controlled by the local chemistry On the other hand, significant dissipation during fatigue crack growth takes place at a size scale that can be modeled appropriately by conventiona

The increasing demand for human egg cells has led to reproductive tourism and a transnational egg trade. The activity flourishes due to poverty and criminality, as well as medical needs (infertility) and cultural needs (the dream of parenthood). Other factors are fundamental concepts, such as the view of the body as an object of utility and value. This article aims to go behind the normative discu

Characterizing the sizes and interactions of macromolecules under native conditions is a challenging problem in many areas of molecular sciences, which fundamentally arises from the polydisperse nature of biomolecular mixtures. Here, we describe a microfluidic platform for diffusional sizing based on monitoring micron-scale mass transport simultaneously in space and time. We show that the global a

Abstract In 55 women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus, simultaneous capillary and venous plasma glucose concentrations were measured at 0, 30 and 120 min during a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The aims of the study were to examine the relationship between capillary and venous glucose measurements, and to establish equations for the conversion of capillary and venous glucose c

We study the radiation of a highly energetic partonic antenna in a colored state traversing a dense QCD medium. Resumming multiple scatterings of all involved constituents with the medium we derive the general gluon spectrum which encompasses both longitudinal color coherence between scattering centers in the medium, responsible for the well known Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect, and transv

New Phytologist (2010) Summary *Obligate mutualisms involving actively pollinating seed predators are among the most remarkable insect-plant relationships known, yet almost nothing is known about the chemistry of pollinator attraction in these systems. The extreme species specificity observed in these mutualisms may be maintained by specific chemical compounds through 'private channels'. Here, we

The local enhancement of few-cycle laser pulses by plasmonic nanostructures opens up for spatiotemporal control of optical interactions on a nanometer and few-femtosecond scale. However, spatially resolved characterization of few-cycle plasmon dynamics poses a major challenge due to the extreme length and time scales involved. In this letter, we experimentally demonstrate local variations in the d

The Amazon Basin provides an excellent environment for studying the sources, transformations, and properties of natural aerosol particles and the resulting links between biological processes and climate. With this framework in mind, the Amazonian Aerosol Characterization Experiment (AMAZE-08), carried out from 7 February to 14 March 2008 during the wet season in the central Amazon Basin, sought to

Biomass can be converted into liquid and gaseous biofuels with good efficiency. In this study, the conversion of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.), a biomass source that can be cultivated with a high biomass yield per hectare, was used. Steam pretreatment of dry and ensiled hemp was investigated prior to ethanol production. The pretreatment efficiency was evaluated in terms of sugar recovery an

The ellipsocephalid trilobite Strenuaeva spinosa occurs widely in Scandinavia in the lower part of the Ornamentaspis? linnarssoni Zone (Cambrian Series 2). Its first appearance is a readily recognisable, widespread biohorizon in Scandinavia. During ontogeny, intergenal spines are lost and the librigenae develop from a generative zone in the genal region. The palpebro-ocular ridges are distinct and

Metamorphic belts in Precambrian shields expose deep interiors of orogens and are often challenging to interpret in tectonic terms. The Eastern Segment of the 1.1-0.9 Ga Sveconorwegian orogen is a metamorphic belt, which was metamorphosed at high-pressure granulite and upper amphibolite facies at 35-40 km depth and shows highly complex fold patterns. We use detailed structural analysis in combinat

This paper addresses the problem of representing the impact of different emergency exit signs during the evacuation of a tunnel when using two different evacuation models (i.e. FDS+Evac and buildingEXODUS). Both models allow the user to represent the impact of smoke upon the evacuee. The models are calibrated (1) considering the nature of the models themselves, (2) by deriving assumptions from pre