PURPOSE: To describe and analyze how women with breast cancer experience breathing adapted radiation therapy (BART) and to explore how women manage daily radiation therapy. METHOD: Individual interviews were conducted with 20 women treated with BART for breast cancer concerning their perception of radiation therapy. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESUL

In hot dry climates, it is estimated that almost half the urban peak load of energy consumption is used to satisfy air-conditioning cooling demands in summer time. Since the urbanization rate in developing countries – like the case in Egypt – is rising rapidly, the pressure placed on energy resources to satisfy inhabitants’ indoor comfort requirements is consequently increasing too. This paper int

Iron (Fe) is a key element, strongly influencing the biogeochemistry of soils, sediments and waters, but the knowledge about the variety of Fe species present in these systems is still limited. In this work we have used X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to study the speciation of Fe in soils and waters from a boreal catchment in northern Sweden. The aim was to better understand the controls of F

Delayed asymmetric Coulomb fission in size-selected molecular dication clusters has been recorded for the first time. Observations on (NH(3))(n) (2+) clusters show that fragmentation accompanied by charge separation can occur on a microsecond time scale, exhibits considerable asymmetry, and involves a kinetic energy release of ∼0.9 eV. The fission process has been modeled by representing the fragm

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) during reperfusion (rVF) in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is an infrequent but serious event that complicates coronary interventions. The aim of this study was to analyze clinical predictors of rVF in an unselected population of patients with STEMI treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Consecutive patients with STEMI admitted to a

The centrality dependence of the charged-particle multiplicity density at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2: 76 TeV is presented. The charged-particle density normalized per participating nucleon pair increases by about a factor of 2 from peripheral (70%-80%) to central (0%-5%) collisions. The centrality dependence is found to be similar to that observed at lower collision energies

Raised blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have identified 47 distinct genetic variants robustly associated with BP, but collectively these explain only a few percent of the heritability for BP phenotypes. To find additional BP loci, we used a bespoke gene-centric array to genotype an independent discovery sample of 25,118 individuals that combin

Infections in cystic fibrosis (CF), often involving Pseudomonas aeruginosa, result from a dysregulated airway immunity where one hallmark is the accumulation of necrotic and apoptotic immune cells, in particular neutrophils. In addition, neutrophils actively release DNA, forming neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that contain antimicrobial proteins. Altogether, free DNA in complex with actin ac

Platelets have been reported to contribute to inflammation and inflammatory disorders. In the present study, we demonstrate that platelets contribute to the acute response to bacterial infection in a mouse model of invasive Streptococcus pyogenes infection. Thrombocytopenia occurred rapidly in infected animals and this was associated with platelet activation, formation of platelet-neutrophil compl

Background: Alloreactive memory T cells are a major obstacle to transplantation acceptance due to their capacity for accelerated rejection. Methods: C57BL/6 mice that had rejected BALB/c skin grafts 4 weeks earlier were used as recipients. The recipient mice were treated with anti-CD154/LFA-1 with or without anti-CD70 during the primary skin transplantation and anti-CD154/LFA-1 or not during the s

This article seeks to advance existing research on conditional cash transfers (CCTs) by centring the analysis of their long-term impact on the reproduc- tion of poverty and exclusion. To date, most analyses and assessments of CCTs’ long-term impact have been based on simulations focused on specific parameters such as income changes and educational attainment. This study takes as its starting point

Abstract Objective. Previous studies have identified a significant volume-outcome relationship for hospitals performing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). However, scant information exists concerning the effects of increased caseload of PD within the same hospital. Here, we describe the effects of becoming a high-volume provider of PD. Material and methods. The study group comprised 221 patients who un

This paper presents a general criterion to classify a channel as micro-channel or macro-channel. Experimental results of saturated-flow boiling heat transfer in micro/mini-channels for both multi- and single-channel configurations were obtained from the literature. The collected database contains 4228 data points, covering a wide range of working fluids, operational conditions, and different micro

AimTo assess which factors are associated with change in quality of life of people with dementia who have recently been admitted to long-term care facilities. BackgroundMany people with dementia will be admitted to long-term care facilities at some point during their disease. It is currently unknown which factors are associated with improvement and/or deterioration of quality of life immediately f

Co-adsorption reactions between metal ions and anionic ligands play important roles in controlling availability and transport of chemical species in natural aquatic environments as well as in industrial processes. A molecular understanding of the properties of the surface species formed provides means to model these reactions in a predictive manner and to exploit them in synthetic routes of modifi