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Orchids differ from other plants in their extremely small and partly air-filled seeds that can be transported long distances by wind. Seed dispersal in orchids is expected to contribute strongly to overall gene flow, and orchids generally express low levels of genetic differentiation between populations and low pollen to seed flow ratios. However, studies in orchids distributed in northern Europe

Background: Left ventricular longitudinal strain (LVLS) may be a sensitive indicator of left ventricular (LV) systolic function in patients with sepsis, but is dependent on high image quality and analysis software. Mitral annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE) and the novel left ventricular longitudinal wall fractional shortening (LV-LWFS) are bedside echocardiographic indicators of LV systolic

Contributions in this thematic issue focus explicitly on citizens and their online engagement with European politics. For social media research in the European Union, citizens remain an understudied actor type in comparison with political elites or news organizations. The reason, we argue, is four key challenges facing social media research in the European Union: legal, ethical, technical, and cul

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is emitted by phytoplankton species in the oceans and constitutes the largest source of naturally emitted sulfur to the atmosphere. The climate impact of secondary particles, formed through the oxidation of DMS by hydroxyl radicals, is still elusive. This study investigates the hygroscopicity and cloud condensation nuclei activity of such particles and discusses the results

The term frailty denotes a multi-dimensional syndrome characterised by reduced physiological reserves and increased vulnerability. Frailty may be used as a marker of biological age, distinct from chronological age. There are several instruments for frailty assessment. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is probably the most commonly used in the acute care context. It is a 9-level scale, derived from

Lignin, the most abundant aromatic biopolymer on Earth, is often considered a biorefinery by-product, despite its potential to be valorized into high-added-value chemicals and fuels. In this work, an integrated superstructure-based optimization model was set up and optimized using mixed-integer non-linear programming for the conversion of technical lignin to three main biobased products: aromatic

Introduction: Ixekizumab, a selective interleukin-17A antagonist, was compared with adalimumab in the SPIRIT-H2H study (NCT03151551) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and concomitant psoriasis. This post hoc analysis reports outcomes to week 52 in patients from SPIRIT-H2H, stratified by baseline psoriasis severity. Methods: SPIRIT-H2H was a 52-week, multicenter, randomized, open-label, ra

Status Epilepticus (SE) is often a neurological emergency characterized by abnormally sustained, longer than habitual seizures. The new ILAE classification reports that SE “…can have long-term consequences including neuronal death, neuronal injury…depending on the type and duration of seizures”. While it is accepted that generalized convulsive SE exerts detrimental effects on the brain, it is not

Specific features of white matter microstructure can be investigated by using biophysical models to interpret relaxation-diffusion MRI brain data. Although more intricate models have the potential to reveal more details of the tissue, they also incur time-consuming parameter estimation that may converge to inaccurate solutions due to a prevalence of local minima in a degenerate fitting landscape.

A person's lipid profile is influenced by genetic variants and alcohol consumption, but the contribution of interactions between these exposures has not been studied. We therefore incorporated gene-alcohol interactions into a multiancestry genome-wide association study of levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. We included 45 studies

Human milk fat is a concentrated source of energy and provides essential and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. According to previous experiments, human milk fat is partially lost during continuous enteral nutrition. However, these experiments were done over relatively short infusion times, and a complete profile of the lost fatty acids was never measured. Whether this loss happens considerin

The main objective of the study was to investigate the thermal performance of five (open and closed) bicycle helmets for convective and evaporative heat transfer using a nine-zone thermal manikin. The shape of the thermal manikin was obtained by averaging the 3D-point coordinates of the head over a sample of 85 head scans of human subjects, obtained through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 3D-

Loss and damage is the “third pillar” of international climate governance alongside mitigation and adaptation. When mitigation and adaptation fail, losses and damages occur. Scholars have been reacting to international political discourse centred around governing actual or potential severe losses and damages from climate change. Large gaps exist in relation to understanding the underlying power di

Objective. The aim was to theoretically and experimentally investigate recovery in SPECT images with objects of different shapes. Furthermore, the accuracy of volume estimation by thresholding was studied for those shapes. Approach. Nine spheres, nine oblate spheroids, and nine prolate spheroids phantom inserts were used, of which the six smaller spheres were part of the NEMA IEC body phantom and

Conflicting results have been reported of the long-term effects of treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) on bone. The objective of this study was to compare ICS users and non-users regarding bone mineral density (BMD) in a large population. A total of 65 225 adults participated in a cross-sectional study in the Nord-Trondelag Health Study 1995-1997. Those reporting asthma or asthma-related

Phagocytosis is measured as a functional outcome in many research fields, but accurate quantification can be challenging, with no robust method available for cross-laboratory reproducibility. In this study, we identified a simple, measurable parameter, persistent prey-phagocyte association, to use for normalization and dose-response analysis. We apply this in a straightforward analytical method, p

Purpose: To meet the rising global needs, the humanitarian community has signed off on making a strategic change toward more localisation, which commonly refers to the empowerment of national and local actors in humanitarian assistance. However, to this date, actual initiatives for localisation are rare. To enhance understanding of the phenomenon, the authors explore localisation of logistics prep