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Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate genetic outcomes, analyze the family experience, and describe the process of implementing genetic sequencing for children with profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) at a tertial audiological center in southern Sweden. Design: This is a prospective pilot study including eleven children with profound bilateral SNHL who underwent cochlear impl
The nitrogen (N) cycle is a familiar concept. As is the much simplified, often diagrammatic, representation commonly used to illustrate the scale, importance and interconnectedness of this global cycle that links air, water, rocks and living beings. However, in this representation, humans are often presented as a seemingly minor entity or not explicitly shown at all. This can obscure the idea that
Agricultural extension, or advisory services, have a key role to play in supporting farmers’ learning and adoption of new practices and technologies. This paper analyses gaps and needs which require addressing in order for extension systems to more effectively contribute to the upscaling of ecological intensification approaches in East African smallholder agriculture. Our starting point is the pus
The current study investigates attitudes toward one form of sex for resources: the so-called sugar relationships, which often involve exchanges of resources for sex and/or companionship. The present study examined associations among attitudes toward sugar relationships and relevant variables (e.g., sex, sociosexuality, gender inequality, parasitic exposure) in 69,924 participants across 87 countri
Landscape-scale land use is important in driving species communities and interactions. However, despite increasing concerns regarding the ecological consequences of insect declines, our understanding of how the relative proportions of different land cover types influence insect herbivory in species-rich semi-natural habitats remains limited. This study assessed leaf, stem, and flower herbivory acr
Agricultural intensification and extreme weather events can represent considerable stress to soil microorganisms and their functions by influencing the key players behind the degradation of soil organic matter. A better understanding of the diversity and abundance of microbial functional genes that predict the functional potential of soils, can link the microbial communities to their key ecosystem
Background and aims – Agricultural intensification and loss of farmland heterogeneity have contributed to population declines of wild bees and other pollinators, which may have caused subsequent declines in insect-pollinated wild plants. Material and methods – Using data from 37 studies on 22 pollinator-dependent wild plant species across Europe, we investigated whether flower visitation and seed
Globally, biodiversity offsetting is used to balance negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services caused by exploitation. In Sweden, there is an increasing interest in biodiversity offsetting in urban planning. However, there is limited understanding about the use of the concept in a municipal context. This study aims to examine and critically reflect on the uptake and use of biodiversi
Land-use practices and their intensity along with climatic conditions alter amounts of soil organic carbon content and consequently influence soil microorganisms. However, land-use management, such as crop residue incorporation to soils has a potential to mitigate losses of soil organic carbon and thereafter promote the diversity of soil microorganisms. To gain insight of microbial functional dive
Freezing is a widely used method of preserving food products. Efforts are currently being directed towards improving the quality of the sensitive tissues of plant foods such as leaves, after freezing and thawing. One of the methods under investigation is the combination of vacuum impregnation (VI) with cryoprotectants and the application of a pulsed electric field (PEF) to the plant tissue prior t
Effective governance and management of ecosystem functions to promote human well-being and social equity require a clear understanding of supply and demand dynamics. While this is widely acknowledged in assessments of ecosystem services, it remains largely neglected for ecosystem disservices, despite many ecosystem functions generating both services (benefits) and disservices (costs) depending on
Current advancements in molecular techniques for identifying multiple species from bulked soil samples have expanded our capacity for large-scale soil biodiversity assessments. However, these methods often lack validation and contextualization. Recent cross-European studies based on environmental DNA (eDNA) have reported unexpectedly high biodiversity in intensively managed agricultural soils comp
Human–nature relationships are often framed positively, but research rarely addresses biophobia, the aversion to nature. However, negative relationships with nature are likely to become more widespread following societal and environmental changes, with serious implications for public health and conservation efforts. Here, we performed a systematic review of 196 studies on biophobia, revealing a fr
This study looks at the investment decision-making process of institutional Venture Capitalists. Prior research has shown that general criteria for the valuation of new ventures have not significantly changed over time. Studies looking at the stage-specific criteria however consider different factors important. Using the verbal protocol method in the screening phase with two venture capitalists, w
This thesis aimed to explore the binding pocket of galectin-8N and galectin-3C. Both structure-based drug design and fragment-based drug discovery were utilized in this project, exemplifying the benefits of the different approaches. Structural determination of the proteins in complex with both high affinity ligands, and small fragments was achieved through x-ray crystallography. The structures of
It is sometimes said that modern politics has lost track of ideology and vision - that personal charisma and expertise is rewarded more than firm beliefs and connections with an organised movement. In their book Technopopulism: the New Logic of Democratic Politics, Christopher J. Bickerton and Carlo Invernizzi Accetti go beyond such suspicions. Their main argument is that the organisational politi
