The Sun provides the principal energy input into the Earth system and solar variability represents a significant external climate forcing. Although observations of solar activity (sunspots) cover only the last about 400 years, radionuclides produced by cosmic rays and stored in tree rings or ice cores serve as proxies for solar activity extending back thousands of years. However, the presence of w

Selenium is an essential trace element involved in the body’s redox reactions. Low selenium intake during pregnancy has been associated with low birth weight and an increased risk of children being born small for gestational age (SGA). Based on data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN), we studied the association of materna

Therapeutic advances using targeted biologicals and small-molecule drugs have achieved significant success in the treatment of chronic allergic, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases particularly for some patients with severe, treatment-resistant forms. This has been aided by improved identification of disease phenotypes. Despite these achievements, not all severe forms of chronic inflammatory and

Using different measures of how the Covid-19 pandemic progresses we find that the level of credit risk among US blue chip companies increases in tandem with the Covid-19 virus spreading. The credit risk increases dramatically during the pandemic, but we find it to be short of the levels seen during the 2008–2009 financial crisis. Furthermore, we find weekly ups and downs in credit risk and virus i

The lichen family Teloschistaceae from the Galapagos is revised. Most of the species belong to the Caloplacoideae, two to Teloschistoideae and a few to Xanthorioideae, three subfamilies not validly published, which is remedied here. Four different datasets were analyzed using Bayesian inference. For the bulk of the species, a combined dataset of nrITS, nrLSU and mrSSU was analyzed. Additionally, t

Objective:The relationship between fatigue and cognition has not been fully elucidated in children and adolescent survivors of brain tumours. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential relationship between fatigue and cognitive impairments in these survivors, as this group is at risk for both types of deficits.Methods:Survivors of paediatric brain tumours (n = 45) underwent a ne

Based on molecular data, the austral lichen genus Austroplaca is shown to be represented in the Northern Hemisphere by the species Caloplaca sibirica. Accordingly, we make the combination Austroplaca sibirica. It grows on detritus and lignum in Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Scandinavia, Svalbard and Siberia and its southern range includes Patagonia (Argentina, Chile) and Kerguelen Islands.

This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork and applies theories of crafting and performance to explore how living heritage practices are rethought, reframed, and refashioned when traditional dress and individual garments are moved, reorganized, and transformed into a collection following rationales derived from both family tradition and museum standards. By following one woman’s emerging coll

BACKGROUND The results of a recent meta-analysis aroused concern about an increased risk of death associated with the use of paclitaxel-coated angioplasty balloons and stents in lower-limb endovascular interventions for symptomatic peripheral artery disease. METHODS We conducted an unplanned interim analysis of data from a multicenter, randomized, open-label, registry-based clinical trial. At the

We inventoried lichens in Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska, USA We assembledthe known information on occurrence and ecology of lichens in this park by combiningfield, herbarium, and literature studies. Our results provide baseline data on lichenoccurrence that may be used in resource condition assessments, vulnerability assessments, long-term ecological monitoring, and resource management. We

Introduction: understanding motorcyclists’ on-the-road behaviour is critical for developing and evaluating interventions specifically targeting them. Risky on-the-road behaviours have historically been subdivided into errors and violations of the rules of road use. Police records could be used to record cyclists’ behaviours, however these documents do not necessarily capture all errors and violati

This theoretical paper defines and explores the concepts of transductive links and transductive chains, as part of the theoretical framework of social semiotics. Social semiotics stems from the multimodal framework, which provides a theoretical perspective, constructs, and a language to describe a shift of semiotic material within or between semiotic systems, such as rewriting a text or moving fro

Molecular analyses of the recently described Xanthoria polessica collected fromthe type locality and of the Australian species X. coomae were used to determine whether these taxa are distinct species or fall within the wide phenotypic variation of the wellknown and cosmopolitan X. parietina. Our results clearly indicate that both taxa should be considered as synonyms of X. parietina since the infr

Streptococcus pyogenes is a major human pathogen that causes a variety of diseases ranging from mild skin and throat infections to fatal septicemia. In severe invasive infections, S. pyogenes encounters and interacts with components of the extracellular matrix (ECM), including small leucine rich-proteoglycans (SLRPs). In this study, we report a novel antimicrobial role played by SLRPs biglycan, de

Excited states in Re174 have been populated in fusion-evaporation reactions at the Australian National University, and γ-ray spectroscopy has been used to determine the level structure and to deduce the underlying nucleon configurations. The half-life of the bandhead of the Kπ=8- band has been measured to be 2.7(4) ns. A band built on an isomeric state of spin-parity (14-) and a half-life of 53(5)

Objectives The aim of the study was to investigate therapeutic efficacy of single-or two-fraction radiotherapy in conjunction with IDO1-inhibition in a syngeneic rat glioblastoma model. IDO is known to cause immunosuppression through breakdown of tryptophan in the tumor microenvironment. Methods Gene expression analyses of IDO in glioblastoma were performed with data from publicly available datase

Data analysis of the Coulomb excitation experiment of the exotic 206Hg nucleus, recently performed at CERN's HIE-ISOLDE facility, needs to account for the contribution to target excitation due to the strongly-present beam contaminant 130Xe. In this paper, the contamination subtraction procedure is presented.

The development of biomaterials for wound healing applications requires providing a number of properties, such as antimicrobial action, facilitation of cell proliferation, biocompatibility and biodegradability. The aim of the present study was to investigate morphological and mechanical properties of zein-based microfibers, ultimately aimed at creating an environment suitable for wound healing. Th

BACKGROUND: Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have been proposed as an alternative source for cell replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD) and they provide the option of using the patient's own cells. A few studies have investigated transplantation of patient-derived dopaminergic (DA) neurons in preclinical models; however, little is known about the long-term integrity and fun

The neutron rich carbon isotope 15C is the only known case of an almost "pure"2s1/2 single-neutron halo ground state configuration. At collision energies around the Coulomb barrier the reaction dynamics is expected to be dominated by single neutron transfer and breakup. To investigate these effects, we have measured the scattering of 15C with a 208Pb target at 65 MeV at the HIE-ISOLDE facility in