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Jon Elster worries about the explanatory power of the social sciences. His main concern is that they have so few well-established laws. Elster (2007) develops an interesting substitute: a special kind of mechanism designed to fill the explanatory gap between laws and mere description. However, his mechanisms suffer from a characteristic problem which I will explore in this article. As our causal k

In a world with imperfectly integrated national capital markets the cost of funds is, in general, different across markets. If individual countries, by mutual agreement, or forced by factors outside their control, embark on a process of deregulation and financial integration, the spread in the cost of funds across markets will narrow. Some types of impediments, such as explicit capital controls, w

Maturity models are widely used in process improvement. The users of a maturity model should be confident that the weak points of the assessed processes can be found, and that the most valuable changes are introduced. Therefore, the evaluation of maturity models is an important activity. In this paper, a mapping study of the literature on the evaluation of maturity models is presented. Two databas

We report herein the coronary flow (CF) pattern determined by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE) in two children with biventricular endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF). Endomyocardial biopsy showed various degrees of cardiac fibrosis in both patients as well as signs of chronic inflammation in one of the patients. TTDE showed a significant increase in CF in both the left anterior descending c

Delli AJ, Lindblad B, Carlsson A, Forsander G, Ivarsson S-A, Ludvigsson J, Marcus C, Lernmark A; for the Better Diabetes Diagnosis (BDD) Study Group. Type 1 diabetes patients born to immigrants to Sweden increase their native diabetes risk and differ from Swedish patients in HLA types and islet autoantibodies. Aim: To determine whether type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients, having parents who i

The article starts with a general reflection on the social relevance of theory, and moves on to develop four arguments in this regard. We discuss theory’s ability to produce conceptual frameworks and to provide semi-autonomous reflective moments. The text also conceptualises theory as an opportunity to reflect on illegitimate imbalances of power relations, set against the normative visions of demo

Computed tomography (CT) for evaluation of occult and suspect hip fractures has been proposed as a good second-line investigation. The diagnostic precision compared to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate parents' expectations, experiences and reactions, sense of coherence and anxiety before and after a second-trimester routine ultrasound examination, with normal findings. METHODS: Before and after ultrasound questionnaires including the scales parents' expectations, experiences and reactions to routine ultrasound examination (PEER-U state of mind index), sense of coherenc

The strict orthology of mitochondrial (mt) coding sequences has promoted their use in phylogenetic analyses at different levels. Here we present the results of a mitogenomic study (i.e., analysis based on the set of protein-coding genes from complete mt genomes) of 60 mammalian species. This number includes 11 new mt genomes. The sampling comprises all but one of the traditional eutherian orders.

Objectives: To study the prevalence of comorbid conditions at diagnosis and during follow-up in a cohort of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) followed prospectively over 20 years, and to identify possible early predictive factors for future comorbidities. Methods: A community-based cohort of 183 patients (mean age 52 years, 63% female) with early RA was recruited between 1985 and 1989.

The hypotheses were based on conceiving of automatic mimicking as involved in emotional empathy. Mimicry reactions (EMG) in high- and low-empathy subjects were studied when subjects were exposed to pictures of angry or happy faces. The degree of correspondence between subjects’ facial EMG reactions and their self-reported feelings was compared. The comparisons were made at different stimulus expos

The respiratory pathogen Moraxella catarrhalis has a high affinity for human IgD and is mitogenic for peripheral blood B lymphocytes. Moraxella IgD-binding protein, which is a multifunctional outer membrane protein with adhesive properties, is responsible for the interaction. Previous experiments with the Ig-binding B cell superantigens protein A and protein L from Staphylococcus aureus and Peptos

The purpose of the present research was to examine if anxiety is linked to a memory-based attentional bias, in which attention to threat is thought to depend on implicit learning. Memory-based attentional biases were defined and also demonstrated in two experiments. A total of 168 university students were shown a pair of faces that varied in their emotional content (angry, neutral, and happy), wit

In this report we show that Tyr568 and Tyr570 are phosphorylated in vivo in the Kit/stem cell factor receptor (Kit/SCFR) following ligand-stimulation. By mutation of Tyr568 and Tyr570 to phenylalanine residues and expression of the mutated receptors in porcine aortic endothelial (PAE) cells, we could demonstrate a loss of activation of members of the Src family of tyrosine kinases when Tyr568 was

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the significance and pathogenic potential of a highly conserved major type II collagen triple-helical epitope-specific antibody (U1; amino acids 494-504) in vivo and in vitro in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in experimental animal models of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). METHODS: U1-specific antibodies in sera from patients with early RA (with or wi

We have studied the electrical properties of cement mortars in the frequency range 10-4-107 Hz, for different water contents. The admittance scales as a power law with an exponent of about 0.7 in a wide frequency range. This behaviour is interpreted in terms of polarization and diffusion at fractal pore surfaces. We obtain a fractal dimension of 2.4, which is in good agreement with adsorption isot