OBJECTIVES: The presentation of sarcoidosis can involve symptoms from all organs and the diagnosis is therefore often difficult. A raised serum level of serum angiotensin-converting enzyme (sACE) can be detected in 41-58% of patients. However, whether the sACE level per se reflects the severity of the sarcoid inflammation at the onset of the disease is not well described. The purpose of this study

INTRODUCTION: People with neurodegenerative disorders (ND) frequently face diagnostic delay and misdiagnosis. We investigated blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light chain (NfL) to distinguish ND from primary psychiatric disorders (PPD), a common challenge in clinical settings. METHODS: Plasma and CSF NfL levels were measured and compared between groups, adjusting for age, sex, and

This thesis investigates superfluidity in exotic phases of ultracold bosonic gases, namely self-bound droplets, mixed bubbles, and dipolar supersolids. We investigated these systems analytically and numerically using an extended Gross-Pitaevskii and Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism. The dissertation offers six chapters, providing the necessary derivations to build the required background and underst

Order-picking is one of the costliest processes in warehouses and we investigate how it can be optimized using Software as a Service (SaaS). First, we describe three specific order-picking optimization problems: The Picker Routing Problem (PRP), the Order Batching Problem (OBP) and the Storage Location Assignment Problem (SLAP). The PRP is a type of Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) where we find a

We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the Ciompi Revolt, for signs of elite factional conflict, in the context of self-proclaimed unity. We employ three statistical analyses of these speeches in Latin: namely, scatterplots of word frequencies, Wordfish scaling, and regressions on speech-similarities. Plus we employ two qualitative analyses: a

The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discussion by political elites in European history, over one hundred and fifty years in length. This article is the first of an extended two-article sequence on political discussion in the Consulte e Pratiche, during the 1376–1378 period of the War of Eight Saints, which led up to the famous Ciompi Revolt.

African intellectual traditions have much to offer social analysis, yet many historical African intellectuals remain obscured by history and peripheral to contemporary academic work. This paper turns to the writings of the prolific amaXhosa intellectual S.E.K. Mqhayi, exploring his social and political thought, and considering how his work can be taken as part of an African sociological tradition.

This article offers an overview of the IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions Digital Archive, which hosts digitized texts and images of early isiXhosa newspapers and books from 1870-1914. The archive offers new opportunities for a range of research across multiple fields, and responds to debates around the importance of African intellectual traditions and their indigenous language sources in generating

This paper showcases new research avenues made possible by applying computational methods to historical isiXhosa text. I outline a method for isiXhosa computational text analysis which adapts word frequency analysis to be applied to isiXhosa texts focusing on root words. The paper showcases the value of the approach in a study of emerging political identities in early African nationalism, examinin

Secondary lymphedema (LE) following breast cancer-related surgery is a life-long complication, which currently has no cure. LE induces significant regional adipose tissue deposition, requiring liposuction as a treatment. Here, we aimed to elucidate the transcriptional, metabolomic, and lipidomic signature of the adipose tissue developed due to the surgery-induced LE in short- and long-term LE pati

ALADDIN is a proposed fixed-target experiment at the LHC for the direct measurement of charm baryon dipole moments. The detector features a spectrometer and a Cherenkov detector, while the experimental technique is based on the phenomena of particle channelling and spin precession in bent crystals. TWOCRYST, a proof-of-principle test at the LHC for the proposed experiment, is planned during the LH

Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) exhibit a suite of stone handling behaviours (SHB, e.g. rolling, pounding, etc.) that lack an obvious instrumental function. As SHBs appear to be socially transmitted, previous research has focused on evolutionary theories of tool use and cumulative culture. It has been assumed that SHBs in general represent a form of solitary play whose function is to hone and m

Purpose Pain in conjunction with surgery for ulnar nerve entrapment at the elbow is seldom highlighted in the literature. This study aimed to explore patients' experiences of living with chronic pain (≥3 months duration) in conjunction with surgery for ulnar nerve entrapment at the elbow, the consequences and the coping strategies applied. Material and methods In-depth interviews were conducted wi