Woody biomass production is a critical indicator in evaluation of land use management and the dynamics of the global carbon cycle (sequestration/emission) in terrestrial ecosystems. The objective of the present study was to develop, through a case study in Sudan, an operational multiscale remote-sensing-based methodology for large-scale estimation of woody biomass in tropical savannahs. Woody biom

This study investigated the impact of building orientations, typical layouts and positions at facades on daylight and sunlight availability in high-density residential areas in North-east China. Vertical daylight factor (including sky component and reflected component) and sunlight hours along the centre building facades in three typical models were calculated using Radiance and Autodesk Ecotect A

Common diseases such as type 2 diabetes are phenotypically heterogeneous. Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, but patients vary appreciably in body mass index. We hypothesized that the genetic predisposition to the disease may be different in lean (BMI= 30 Kg/m(2)). We performed two case-control genome-wide studies using two accepted cut-offs for defining individuals as overweight

Objective: To describe non-lymphoma hematological malignancies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: A large SLE cohort was linked to cancer registries. We examined the types of non-lymphoma hematological cancers. Results: In 16,409 patients, 115 hematological cancers [including myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)] occurred. Among these, 33 were non-lymphoma. Of the 33 non-lymphoma cases, 13

There is limited information about whether time from recognition of decreased perfusion to revascularization affects the probability of healing in a patient with a diabetic foot ulcer. The aim of the present study was to examine whether time to revascularization after referral to a multidisciplinary foot center was related to the outcome of foot ulcers in patients with diabetes and severe peripher

Soil nutrient supply is likely to change in the Arctic due to altered process rates associated with climate change. Here, we compare the responses of herbaceous tundra and birch forest understory to fertilization, considering both above-and below-ground responses. We added nitrogen and phosphorus to plots in both vegetation types for three years near Abisko, northern Sweden, and measured the effec

BACKGROUND: Work ability and work ability assessments have become important both in health care and in relation to granting sick leave. There are different interpretations of work ability among the different professionals involved, and there is no consensus on how work ability should be assessed. Aim The aim was to analyse how a group of experienced and specially trained physiotherapists (PTs) in

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have found insomnia and long sleep duration to be independently associated with subsequent disability pension (DP). However, the issue of a possible gender-based pattern in this context has received little attention. PURPOSE: This study aims to assess the impact of insomnia symptoms and sleep duration on the DP rates among Swedish women and men during a 12-year follow-

Amyloid diseases are defined by tissue deposition of insoluble, fibrillar beta-sheet polymers of specific proteins, but it appears that toxic oligomeric species rather than the fibrils are the main cause of tissue degeneration. Many proteins can form amyloid-like fibrils in vitro, but only similar to 30 proteins have been found to cause mammalian amyloid disease, suggesting that physiological mech

Multimeric lactosides based on carbohydrate scaffolds with valencies ranging from 1 to 4 and different linker lengths were synthesized by a copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). The binding affinities and crosslinking abilities of the new "click clusters" toward biologically relevant galectins (gal-1, gal-3) and peanut lectin were evaluated by fluorescent polarization assay (FPA) an

In the framework of quantum field theory, a graviton interacts locally with a quantum state having definite mass, that is, the gravitational mass eigenstate, while a weak boson interacts with a state having definite flavor, that is, the flavor eigenstate. An interaction of a neutrino with an energetic graviton may trigger the collapse of the neutrino to a definite mass eigenstate with probability

This paper explores leadership and governance arrangements in seven developed health systems: Australia, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. It presents a cybernetic model of leadership and governance comprising three fundamental functions: priority setting, performance monitoring and accountability arrangements. The paper uses a structured survey to examine critical

The nuclear receptor, NR1C2 or peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-delta, is ubiquitously expressed and important for placental development, fatty acid metabolism, wound healing, inflammation, and tumour development. PPAR delta has been hypothesized to function as both a ligand activated transcription factor and a repressor of transcription in the absence of agonist. In this paper, t

Several bacterial species recruit the complement regulators C4b binding protein, Factor H and vitronectin resulting in resistance against the bactericidal activity of human serum. It has recently been demonstrated that bacteria also bind plasminogen, which is converted to plasmin that degrades C3b and C5. In this study, we found that a series of clinical isolates (n=58) of the respiratory pathogen

The van der Waals interaction free energy Aint between two spherical bodies of Stockmayer fluid across a vacuum is calculated using molecular simulations and classical perturbation theory. The results are decomposed into their electrostatic and Lennard-Jones parts, and the former is shown to agree excellently with predictions from dielectric continuum theory. Aint is decomposed into its energetic

The aim was to study a broader phenotype of language-related diagnoses and problems in three generations of relatives of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Our study is based on a family history interview of the parents of 59 children with SLI and of 100 matched control children, exploring the prevalence of problems related to language, reading, attention, school achievement and soc

A search for events containing an isolated electron or muon and missing trans verse momentum produced in e(+/-)p collisions is performed with the H1 and ZEUS detectors at HERA. The data were taken in the period 1994-2007 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 0.98 fb(-1). The observed event yields are in good overall agreement with the Standard Model prediction, which is dominated by single

Genome-wide association studies have revealed numerous risk loci associated with diverse diseases. However, identification of disease-causing variants within association loci remains a major challenge. Divergence in gene expression due to cis-regulatory variants in noncoding regions is central to disease susceptibility. We show that integrative computational analysis of phylogenetic conservation w