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The last years have been characterized by tremendous institutional change in the university sector induced by far-reaching Higher Education Reforms (e.g. Bologna). Building on loose-coupling theory, we hypothesize that smaller universities were better able to adapt to the Higher Education Reforms of the recent years, triggering a decline in the optimal size of universities in the reform period. Us
What explains the gender gap in ideology, i.e. the observation that women tend to be more leftist than men? We provide new evidence showing that personality traits play a key role. Using a novel high-quality data set, we show that the mediating (i.e. indirect) effects of gender operating through personality traits by far dominate the direct effects of gender. They also dominate other potential dif
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have placed great emphasis on the need for much greater social inclusion, and on making deliberate efforts to reach marginalized groups. People with disabilities are often marginalized through their lack of access to a range of services and opportunities. Assistive products can help people overcome impairments and barriers enabling them to be active, partic
Background: Breathlessness is a cardinal symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) is given to improve survival time in people with COPD and severe chronic hypoxaemia at rest. The efficacy of oxygen therapy for breathlessness and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in people with COPD and mild or no hypoxaemia who do not meet the criteria for LTOT
Glycogen metabolism in β-cells may affect downstream metabolic pathways controlling insulin release. We examined glycogen metabolism in human islets and in the rodent-derived INS-1 832/13 β-cells and found them to express the same isoforms of key enzymes required for glycogen metabolism. Our findings indicate that glycogenesis is insulin-independent but influenced by extracellular glucose concentr
Although the United States and Sweden are different in their government and legal structure, both countries have attempted to deter an increasing problem of bullying and degrading behaviour at schools. An unintended consequence in one country is to designate more youth as in need of special help and remove them from the classroom. In the other country we see an increased use of criminalisation and
Biomass burning impacts vegetation dynamics, biogeochemical cycling, atmospheric chemistry, and climate, with sometimes deleterious socio-economic impacts. Under future climate projections it is often expected that the risk of wildfires will increase. Our ability to predict the magnitude and geographic pattern of future fire impacts rests on our ability to model fire regimes, using either well-fou
The major aim of this paper is to analyze energy use and particularly energy productivity in some of the major manufacturing processes, such as iron and steel or paper production. Energy, as one of factors of production and substitute to labor, has often been neglected in various productivity benchmark studies. It is the aim of this paper to further investigate this relationship between energy and
Theoretical investigations of the structure and function of the blue copper proteins and the dimeric CuA site are described. We have studied the optimum vacuum geometry of oxidised and reduced copper sites, the relative stability of trigonal and tetragonal Cu(II) structures, the relation between the structure and electronic spectra, the reorganisation energy, and reduction potentials. We also comp
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a highly pathogenic bacterial strain capable of causing watery or bloody diarrhea, the latter termed hemorrhagic colitis, and hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS is defined as the simultaneous development of non-immune hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute renal failure. The mechanism by which EHEC bacteria colonize and cause severe colitis, fo
Using a standard model where the individual consumption path is computed solving an optimal control problem, we investigate central claims of Piketty (2014) Rather than r>g (confirmed in the data) r-s>g - with s being the rate of time preference - matters. If this condition holds and the elasticity of substitution in the production function is larger than one, the capital share converges to one in
The integration of scheduling and control has been discussed in the past. While constructing an integrated plant model that may still seem out of reach, scheduling and control systems are increasingly more intertwined. We argue that they are in fact already integrated and give the example of two key performance indicators (KPIs) that are defined in the recent international standard ISO 22400. The
The first significant buildup in atmospheric oxygen, the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), began in the early Paleoproterozoic in association with global glaciations and continued until the end of the Lomagundi carbon isotope excursion ca. 2,060 Ma. The exact timing of and relationships among these events are debated because of poor age constraints and contradictory stratigraphic correlations. Here, we
