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Theory predicts democracy should reduce corruption. Yet, scholars have found that while corruption is low at high levels of democracy, it is high at modest levels, as well as low when democracy is absent. A weakness of studies that aim to explain this inverted curvilinear relationship is that they do not disaggregate the complex concepts of democracy and corruption. By contrast, this paper disaggr
Purpose: Traumatic brain injury causes morbidity and mortality worldwide. S100B is the most documented emergency brain biomarker and its urine-assay might be advantageous because of easier sampling. The primary aim was to evaluate urine S100B’s ability to rule out intracranial hemorrhage. Secondary aims included S100B temporal pattern for 48 h post-trauma and chemical properties of urine that affe
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain the “evaluation deadlock” or “stasis” diagnosed by many authors. The explanation relies on a thought experiment. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is conceptual and builds on a thought experiment inspired by qualitative research such as interviews with communication consultants in Sweden. It makes use of principal–agent theory and Akerlof’s the
Introduction Intimate partner violence (IPV) is regarded an important public health and human rights issue, characterized by physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Globally more than one in three women report physical or sexual violence by their intimate partners. Though the association between IPV and depression is known, we found no study investigating depression as a risk factor for IPV and very
Lack of water resources is a common issue in many countries, especially in the Middle East. Flood spreading project (FSP) is an artificial recharge technique, which is generally suggested for arid and semi-arid areas with two major aims including (1) flood mitigation and (2) artificial recharge of groundwater. This study implemented three state-of-the-art popular models including frequency ratio (
Each year, fungal storage diseases destroy large amounts of apple, especially in organic orchards. In the present study, antifungal activity of a rye bran-based remedy with 5-n-alkylresorcinols (ARs) was investigated. In 2014 and 2015, ‘Amorosa’ apple trees in an organic orchard were sprayed with a 0.025% AR emulsion pre-harvest, once or twice at different points in time. In addition, emulsions wi
We present the first study to examine the year-round distribution, activity patterns, and habitat use of one of New Zealand’s most common seabirds, the fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia). Seven adults from Burgess Island, in the Hauraki Gulf, and one individual from Long Island, in the Marlborough Sounds, were successfully tracked with combined light-saltwater immersion loggers for one to thre
The effect of mineral fertilization and its application pattern on microbial activity and the subsequent CO2 and CH4 emissions arising from soil organic matter (SOM) or added substrate remains unclear. We quantified the decomposition of 13C-labeled straw and the priming effect (PE) governed by the N and P fertilizer application pattern during a 100-day experiment in a flooded soil. Straw addition
Identifying cellular programs that drive cancers to be stem-like and treatment resistant is critical to improving outcomes in patients. Here, we demonstrate that constitutive extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) activation sustains a stem-like state in glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary malignant brain tumor. Pharmacological inhibition of ERK1/2 activation restores neurogene
Background: Strenous exercise stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary (HP) axis in order to ensure homeostasis and promote anabolism. Furthermore, exercise stimulates a transient increase in the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) suggested to mediate the anxiolytic effects of exercise. Athletes with secondary functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA) have been reported to have lowe
Humoral immunity is important in limiting clinical disease in malaria, yet the longitudinal B cell response to infection remains unclear. We performed a 1-year prospective study in patients treated for acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria for the first time or with previous exposure to the disease. Using an unbiased exploratory approach with mass cytometry, followed by targeted flow cytometry, we f
The interaction of antikaons (K) with nucleons and nuclei in the low-energy regime represents a very active research field in hadron physics. A unique and rather direct experimental access to the antikaon-nucleon scattering lengths is provided by precision X-ray spectroscopy of transitions in low-lying states in the lightest kaonic atoms (i.e. kaonic hydrogen and deuterium). In the SIDDHARTA exper
Gender assignment in languages with a gender system is a complex issue, as this can be influenced by both semantic, morphological, and phonological factors (Corbett, 1991, 2013; Corbett & Fraser, 2000). Many Indo-European languages possess a three-gender system, which distinguishes masculine, feminine, and neuter gender. Whereas this system is preserved in several Indo-European branches, it ha
Exome sequencing has recently identified mutations in the gene TANGO2 (transport and Golgi organization 2) as a cause of developmental delay associated with recurrent crises involving rhabdomyolysis, cardiac arrhythmias, and metabolic derangements. The disease is not well understood, in part as the cellular function and subcellular localization of the TANGO2 protein remain unknown. Furthermore, th
Most studies on eco-evolutionary feedbacks concern the influence of abiotic factors, or predator–prey and host–parasite interactions, while studies involving sexual interactions are lagging behind. This is at odds with the potential of these interactions to engage in such processes. Indeed, there is now ample evidence that sexual selection is affected by ecological change and that sexually selecte
This paper presents results of large-scale experiments with varying levels of fire severity on lateral force-resisting systems commonly used in cold-formed steel framed buildings. Gypsum-sheet steel composite panel sheathed walls, oriented strand board sheathed walls, and steel strap-braced walls are examined. Postflashover fire conditions of two different intensities as well as 1 hour of fire exp
