Due to the unavailability of culture-appropriate measurements of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in China, knowledge about the HRQOL of women with cervical cancer, particularly in Mainland China, is poor. Such knowledge is greatly needed to inform nursing practice. Thus the main aim of this thesis was to investigate longitudinally the HRQOL trajectory in Chinese women from when cervical can

Increased snow depth already observed, and that predicted for the future are of critical importance to many geophysical and biological processes as well as human activities. The future characteristics of sub-arctic landscapes where permafrost is particularly vulnerable will depend on complex interactions between snow cover, vegetation and permafrost. An experimental manipulation was, therefore, se

A key to successful chronic neural interfacing is to achieve minimal glial scarring surrounding the implants, as the astrocytes and microglia may functionally insulate the interface. A possible explanation for the development of these reactions is mechanical forces arising between the implants and the brain. Here, we show that the difference between the density of neural probes and that of the tis

Objective-To evaluate the use of CT and MRI for guidance of osteochondral sample collection for histologic detection of early osteoarthritic lesions in centrodistal (distal intertarsal) joints of horses. Sample-Right tarsal joints from the cadavers of 24 Icelandic horses aged 29 to 31 months. Procedures-CT and MRI were used to evaluate the extent of suspected osteoarthritic changes in centrodistal

Research on management consultancy usually emphasizes the rote and perspective of the consultants. Whilst important, consultants are only one element in a dynamic relationship involving both consultants and their clients. In much of the literature, the client is neglected, or is assumed to represent a distinct, immutable entity. In this paper, we argue that the client organisation is not uniform b

By catalyzing hydrolysis of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases are critical regulators of their intracellular concentrations and their biological effects. As these intracellular second messengers control many cellular homeostatic processes, dysregulation of their signals and signaling pathways initiate or modulate p

This contribution highlights recent results from the PHENIX Collaboration at RHIC with emphasis on those obtained through lepton and photon measurements in PHENIX.

Dynamics of laser-induced plasma plume studied by cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) was simulated by a numerical model. Velocity distribution and anisotropy of the plume with temporal and geometrical characteristics of CRDS were included. Behavior of spectral lineshapes was studied in respect to various experimental parameters.

In Frisch grid ionization chambers special attention must be paid to the operating voltages in order to avoid unwanted collection of electrons on the Frisch grid. Collection of electrons on the grid will lead to a decreased signal to noise ratio and consequently a deteriorated energy resolution. Furthermore, systematic errors in the determination of the angular distribution will be introduced. The

We consider 4-dimensional Lie groups with left-invariant Riemannian metrics. For such groups we classify left-invariant conformal foliations with minimal leaves of codimension 2. These foliations produce local complex-valued harmonic morphisms.

For the classical space of functions with bounded mean oscillation, it is well known that and there are many characterizations of the distance from a function f in to . When considering the Bloch space, results in the same vein are available with respect to the little Bloch space. In this paper such duality results and distance formulas are obtained by pure functional analysis. Applications includ

Early research on business angels recognized a couple of methodological obstacles that significantly have hindered knowledge accumulation about the phenomenon. In this article we will reflect upon these methodological obstacles with focus on definitional issues and sampling techniques. The purpose is to provide a framework that systemizes and inter-relates the variety of definitions within the fie

Disparate ecological datasets are often organized into databases post hoc and then analyzed and interpreted in ways that may diverge from the purposes of the original data collections. Few studies, however, have attempted to quantify how biases inherent in these data (for example, species richness, replication, climate) affect their suitability for addressing broad scientific questions, especially

More than ever before, the world's increasing need for new infrastructure demands the construction of efficient, sustainable and durable buildings, requiring minimal climate-changing gas-generation in their production. Maintenance-free "greener" building materials made from blended cements have advantages over ordinary Portland cements, as they are cheaper, generate less carbon dioxide and are mor

Early childhood education in Sweden has long had an international reputation for being a systemic and integrated approach to children’s needs, a family model of preschool centers and an interest in the holistic development and well-being of children. Recent changes occurring in Europe and elsewhere in education along with the reforms implemented by the Conservative government that has been in powe

In the present paper we deal with integrators relying on Finite Elements in time for general hyperelastic models which guarantee the conservation of the momentum maps as well as of the total energy within the calculation accuracy. In the isotropic case, eigenvalue-based constitutive laws are, on the one hand, very significant to model the behaviour of various materials. On the other hand, it will

The aim of this study was to examine breast density in relation to breast cancer specific survival and to assess if this potential association was modified by mode of detection. An additional aim was to study whether the established association between mode of detection and survival is modified by breast density.