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Background Late blight (caused by Phytophthora infestans) is a devastating potato disease that has been found to occur earlier in the season over the last decades in Fennoscandia. Up until now the reasons for this change have not been investigated. Possible explanations for this change are climate alterations, changes in potato production or changes in pathogen biology, such as increased fitness o

Purpose: Nationwide data have been lacking on drug abuse (DA)-associated mortality. We do not know the degree to which this excess mortality results from the characteristics of drug-abusing individuals or from the effects of DA itself. Method: DA was assessed from medical, criminal, and prescribed drug registries. Relative pairs discordant for DA were obtained from the Multi-Generation and Twin Re

Healthcare databases are unique tools in public health research to evaluate the healthcareperformance and treatment compliance. Knowledge about the data quality is required toenable interpreting the results from statistical analyses. We summarize different samplingmethods suitable for the validation of healthcare databases and discuss their advantages anddisadvantages.You will learn from the prese

Migratory connectivity describes to which degree different breeding populations have distinct (non-overlapping) non-breeding sites. Uncovering the level of migratory connectivity is crucial for effective conservation actions and for understanding of the evolution of local adaptations and migratory routes. Here we investigate migration patterns in a passerine bird, the great reed warbler Acrocephal

BACKGROUND: It is estimated that global dementia rates will more than triple by 2050 and result in a staggering economic burden on families and societies. Dementia carries significant physical, psychological and social challenges for individuals and caregivers. Informal caregiving is common and increasing as more people with dementia are being cared for at home instead of in nursing homes. Caregiv

This article examines the contours of how sex-selective abortion (SSA) and ‘gendercide’ have been problematically combined within contemporary debates on abortion in Europe. Analysing the development of policies on the topic, we identify three ‘turns’ which have become integral to the biopolitics of SSA in Europe: the biomedical turn, the ‘gendercide’ turn, and the Asian demographic turn. Recent a

Background: Nonmedical prescription drug use (NMPDU) refers to the self-treatment of a medical condition using medication without a prescriber's authorization as well as use to achieve euphoric states. This article reports data from a cross-national investigation of NMPDU in five European Countries, with the aim to understand the prevalence and characteristics of those engaging in NMPDU across the

BACKGROUND: As recently pinpointed by a genome-wide association study the serine/threonine kinase 39 (STK39) is a candidate gene for hypertension. This kinase is strongly implicated in sodium reabsorption by the kidney through its modulating effect on furosemide-sensitive and thiazide-sensitive channels. The aim of our study was to test the effects of the STK39 rs35929607A>G polymorphism on blood

Our aim with this report is to discuss vehicle fuels from a wide perspective of sustainability. Biofuels and electricity are analyzed and compared to fossil vehicle fuels. Our goal is to try to point out the circumstances under which vehicle fuels can be reasonably perceived as sustainable, and which systems we should develop and which we should avoid. The all-embracing conclusion of this study is

Previous reports have shown ambiguous findings regarding the possible associations between ischaemic stroke (IS) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) gene region. The SNP rs12188950 (or SNP45) has often been studied in this context. We performed a multi-centre study involving a large sample of 2599 IS patients and 2093 control subjects from the south and w