Background: Life's Simple 7 (LS7) aims to promote ideal cardiovascular health (CVH). Its association with different cognitive states in the older old is unclear. Objectives: To assess the associations of LS7 with transitions across normal cognition, cognitive impairment, no dementia (CIND), and dementia and evaluate cognitive impairment-free years of life by LS7-defined CVH levels in older adults.

The critical role of hematological stem cells, concentrated in bone marrow, in disease diagnosis makes the detection of these cells an imperative task. The current process, however, is slow and heavily reliant on expert interpretation, underscoring the need for automation. In this thesis, we collected a 20x microscopy dataset of real and fake bone marrow particles and fine-tuned several CNNs and T

Ecologists are now widely utilising video data to quantify the behaviours and interactions of animals in the wild. This process can be facilitated by collecting videos in stereo, which can provide information about animals' positions, movements and behaviours in three-dimensions (3D). However, there are no published designs that can collect underwater 3D stereo data at high spatial and temporal re

In 2018, the International Organization for Migration stated that ‘migration has nearly become synonymous with urbanization, given the dominance of the city as the destination of most migrants’. The geopolitical dimension of migration governance is especially important in Mediterranean cities where the European Union’s (EU) efforts to push border management onto external actors has occurred alongs

Rationale: Amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology is one of the earliest detectable brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. In clinical practice, trained readers will visually categorise positron emission tomography (PET) scans as either Aβ positive or negative. However, adjunct quantitative analysis is becoming more widely available, where regulatory approved software can currently generate metrics

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify high-functioning anterior cruciate ligament-deficient patients and assess the effects of reconstruction on their self-reported functionality, muscle activations and biomechanical properties. Methods: Twenty young and active patients participated pre- (11.5 ± 14.3 months post-injury) and again 10.5 ± 1.7 months post-reconstruction and were individu

It has been suggested that the occurrence rate of hot Jupiters (HJs) in open clusters might reach several per cent, significantly higher than that of the field (~a per cent). In a stellar cluster, when a planetary system scatters with a stellar binary, it may acquire a companion star, which may excite large-amplitude von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai oscillations in the planet's orbital eccentricity, trigger

Background: A dysregulated postprandial metabolic response is a risk factor for chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The plasma protein N-glycome is implicated in both lipid metabolism and T2DM risk. Hence, we first investigate the relationship between the N-glycome and postprandial metabolism and then explore the mediatory role of the plasma N-glycome in the relationship b

This interpretive focused-ethnographic study was conducted to illuminate and gain deeper understanding on managers’ everyday cooperative work practices using artefacts. In the dissertation, artefacts refer to digital technologies and information. The doctoral research specifically examines how artefacts in the workplace of an academic library are used in academic library managers’ everyday coopera

Background The authors sought to clarify the impact of spousal psychiatric disorders of differing severity [major depression or anxiety disorders (DAD) v. bipolar disorder or nonaffective psychosis (BPN)] on proband risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD) during marriage. Methods In a Swedish cohort (N = 744 628), associations between spousal DAD and BPN and proband AUD were estimated with Cox proport

Bonus relations (such as step-grandparents, step-grandchildren, and families of choice) can be chosen, or they can be forced up on you, they can be regarded as very important to extremely peripheral. Bonus relations negotiate familiarity and can vary from inclusion to exclusion. Common to bonus-relations are their non-biological aspect: they are not blood-line relations, and to many families and fBonus relations (such as step-grandparents, step-grandchildren, and families of choice) can be chosen, or they can be forced up on you, they can be regarded as very important to extremely peripheral. Bonus relations negotiate familiarity and can vary from inclusion to exclusion. Common to bonus-relations are their non-biological aspect: they are not blood-line relations, and to many families and f

This article examines the idea of degrowth, a concept in political ecology used to envision a democratically planned downscaling of production and consumption in affluent regions of the world as a means to avoid ecological breakdown, decrease inequality, and improve quality of life. Since its inception at the beginning of the 2000s in France, the idea of degrowth has sparked a worldwide social mov

Identifying operational losses in irrigation canals can be difficult due to inaccurate simplification in designing and operating national guidelines. However, this study aims to provide a practical solution to this problem by identifying operational losses, which are the primary cause of off-farm irrigation water losses. The method involves simulating the daily delivered water to individual Irriga

Background: The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain unknown. Gene-searching efforts are well underway, but the identification of environmental risk factors is at least as important and should be a priority because some of them may be amenable to prevention or early intervention strategies. Genetically informative studies, particularly those employing the discordant monozygotic (MZ

As the world gears up for the Net Zero carbon emissions, demand for raw materials is set to skyrocket as they are key elements of global economy and they have essential roles in improvement of life quality and the performance of manufacturing productivity. The various conventional treatment methods, including physical, chemical, and biological processes, may become outdated and may generally be re

Turbulators, such as ribs, dimples, and pin-fins, play a vital role in the internal cooling efficiency of turbine blades. As a typical turbulator, various rib configurations using a uniform arrangement scheme have indicated high heat transfer enhancement but the friction loss is simultaneously subject to a great increase. In this work, a novel hierarchical arrangement scheme of ribs is developed a

The commercial production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass such as wheat straw requires utilizing a microorganism that can withstand all the stressors encountered in the process while fermenting all the sugars in the biomass. Therefore, it is essential to develop tools for monitoring and controlling the cellular fitness during both cell propagation and sugar fermentation to ethanol. In t

Objective High vitreous levels of soluble (s)CD163 have been demonstrated in severe diabetic retinopathy (DR). The aim of this study was to explore the predictive values of plasma sCD163 and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) for DR progression in adults with type 1 diabetes. Methods and analyses The study design was prospective. Fundus photography performed in 2009 and at follow-up (≤12 years later) we

We propose studying the structure of the χc1(3872) axial vector meson through its γL∗γ→χc1(3872) transition form factor. We derive a light-front wave function representation of the form factor for the lowest cc¯ Fock state. We found that the reduced width of the state is well within the current experimental bound recently published by the Belle Collaboration. This strongly suggests a crucial role