Background: The rising prevalence of obesity represents an important public health issue. An assessment of its costs may be useful in providing recommendations for policy and decision makers. This systematic review aimed to assess the economic burden of obesity and to identify, measure and describe the different obesity-related diseases included in the selected studies. Methods: A systematic liter

Objectives: We have observed clinical cases where bone is formed in the overlaying muscle covering surgically created bone defects treated with a hydroxyapatite/calcium sulphate biomaterial. Our objective was to investigate the osteoinductive potential of the biomaterial and to determine if growth factors secreted from local bone cells induce osteoblastic differentiation of muscle cells. Materials

Dolphin sonar has been extensively studied over several decades, and much of its basic characteristics are well known (Au 1993). However, most of these studies have been based on an experimental setup where the dolphin has been trained to be voluntarily fixed, so its directional sonar beam could be recorded with fixed hydrophones. Although this allows for very exact measurements, it most likely ha

OBJECTIVES: To examine costs and effects of care based on comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) provided by an ambulatory geriatric care unit (AGU) in addition to usual care.DESIGN: Assessor-blinded, single-center randomized controlled trial.SETTING: AGU in an acute hospital in southeastern Sweden.PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling individuals aged 75 years or older who had received inpatient hos

Non-contact acoustic field measurements are performed on a newly built highway to characterize the real part of the dynamic modulus of the asphalt concrete (AC) top layer. The in situ measurements are performed using an array of 48 micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensors. Cores extracted from the field measurement positions are then examined in a laboratory using seismic modal testing for co

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Currently, there is no treatment that can promote recovery in the chronic phase. It has been shown that neurogenesis occurs in ischemic striatum in rodents and probably also in humans. Moreover, blood-borne macrophages have been found to enhance spontaneous post- stroke recovery in mice. These findings have suggested potential n

In pump-probe experiments employing a free-electron laser (FEL) in combination with a synchronized optical femtosecond laser, the arrival-time jitter between the FEL pulse and the optical laser pulse often severely limits the temporal resolution that can be achieved. Here, we present a pump-probe experiment on the UV-induced dissociation of 2,6-difluoroiodobenzene (C6H3F2I) molecules performed at

The Entangled Media Geographies of the Nordics: Contemporary Scandinavian Production Practices through the Prism of Audio-visual Nordic Noir.Olof Hedling, Lund UniversityAlthough predominantly contemporary in its outlook, this paper attempts to grabble with a particular development in media history, namely the gradual de-nationalization, or, perhaps more accurately, the increasingly transnational

This doctoral thesis in biomedical engineering deals with cardiac monitoring using the built-in extracorporeal blood pressure sensors of a hemodialysis machine. Patients treated with hemodialysis often suffer from cardiovascular disease. Despite this, cardiac monitoring is not routinely performed during dialysis treatment, since external devises required for such monitoring causes patient discomfo

Misplacement of electrodes during the recording of an electrocardiogram (ECG) can cause an incorrect interpretation, misdiagnosis, and subsequent lack of proper treatment. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to develop artificial neural networks that yield peak sensitivity for the recognition of right/left arm lead reversal at a very high specificity; and (2) to compare the performances of

From a finite-size scaling (FSS) theory of cumulants of the order parameter at phase-coexistence points, we reconstruct the scaling of the moments. Assuming that the cumulants allow a reconstruction of the free energy density no better than as an asymptotic expansion, we find that FSS for moments of low order is still complete. We suggest ways of using this theory for the analysis of numerical sim

The deformable templates method for track finding in high energy physics is reviewed and extended to handle multiple and secondary vertex positions. An automatized minimization method that handles different types of parametrizations is derived. It is based on the gradient descent method but modified with an explicit calculation of the natural metric. Also a simplified and more intuitive derivation