Background: Totally implantable venous access devices (TIVADs) have improved the quality of life for seriously ill and cancer patients. These devices represent a convenient option when long-term venous access is indicated. The Subclavian and Internal Jugular Veins are the vessels of choice for catheterization [1]. However, if it is not possible to catheterize them, an alternative vein should be so

Background: The HYPO-RT-PC trial compared conventionally fractionated radiotherapy with ultra-hypofractionated radiotherapy in patients with localised prostate cancer. Ultra-hypofractionation was non-inferior to conventional fractionation regarding 5-year failure-free survival and toxicity. We aimed to assess whether patient-reported quality of life (QOL) differs between conventional fractionation

In most cases, antiretroviral therapy (ART) results in undetectable plasma HIV viral load (VL). Still, up to 25% of ART recipients may have detectable low-level viremia (LLV) of different amplitude and persistence. This thesis explores the impact of LLV during ART on virologic and clinical outcomes. Paper I–III are retrospective analyses based on InfCare HIV, a national quality register for people

The Complement system is a main effector mechanism of the innate immune system, acting to enhance clearance of pathogens, but also aids removal of biological debris from the body, including immunocomplexes, apoptotic/necrotic cells and protein aggregates. Complement regulators serve to prevent excessive inflammation and their interaction with the same materials targeted by the complement system re

The NEWCOMERS project aims to explore how new clean energy communities (ECs) develop, under which polycentric settings ECs evolve and under what conditions such initiatives are suppressed. At a national level, the project will assess socio-economic, technical, institutional characteristics and actors supporting the emergence of new clean energy communities. In Deliverable 3.1. and 3.2. the nationa

Background: Mental health problems are prevalent among adolescents with severe obesity, but long-term mental health outcomes after adolescent bariatric surgery are not well known. We aimed to assess mental health outcomes over 5 years of follow-up after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery in adolescents who participated in the Adolescent Morbid Obesity Surgery (AMOS) study. Methods: This was a non-ra

BACKGROUND: The New Public Management movement strove for transparency so that policy makers and citizens could gain insight into the work and performance of health care. As the use of the electronic health record (EHR) started to diffuse, a foundation was laid for enhanced transparency within and between health care organizations. Now we appear to be experiencing a new kind of transparency in the

In the age of museomics, the ability to sequence the genetic material from old museum specimens provides an invaluable and often untapped molecular resource. The application of the latest Next-Generation sequencing (NGS) technologies to such specimens allows us to utilise the diverse biobank that is natural history museums. These approaches provide the opportunity to study both extinct or difficul

Popular Abstract in Icelandic Landnám á jökulskerjum Plöntur hafa lengi verið taldar nauðsynlegar til að dýr geti numið land en þessi sýn er að breytast því rannsóknir hafa sýnt að smádýr nema oft land á undan plöntum. Landnám bæði plantna og dýra getur hafist um leið og nýtt land myndast en til að landnám takist þurfa nokkrir þættir að fara saman. Þau verða að komast á staðinn og þegar þangað erThe classical view of primary community assembly is that colonisation by plants is essential before invertebrates can establish. It has been recognised, however, that invertebrates can establish before plants, and that they may be important in the first steps of community assembly. Plant succession is well studied but assembly of invertebrates and how their dispersal abilities affect the community

Background: Seasonal variation in glucose metabolism might be driven by changes in daylight. Melatonin entrains circadian regulation and is directly associated with daylight. The relationship between melatonin receptor 1B gene variants with glycemic traits and type 2 diabetes is well established. We studied if daylight length was associated with glycemic traits and if it modified the relationship

Background: The duration of protection provided by varicella vaccines is unclear. We assessed the 10-year vaccine efficacy of two doses of a combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine (MMRV), one live attenuated varicella vaccine (V) dose given after one measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) dose (MMR + V), versus two MMR doses (control vaccine) for the prevention of confirmed varicella. Metho

Importance To our knowledge, there is no consensus regarding when individuals who repeatedly self-harm and are at risk of suicide should be hospitalized. To evaluate a new alternative, we examined the effects of brief admission (BA) to hospital by self-referral.Objectives To determine the effects of BA on inpatient service use and on secondary outcomes of daily life functioning, nonsuicidal self-i

Green packaging development (GPD) involves the process of developing packaging with minimized environmental impact. Over the last decade, the GPD perspective has evolved from a traditionally packaging material-focused one to a holistic one. A holistic perspective on GPD means that the different environmental requirements on packaging have to be combined so that the overall environmental impact of

Aims/hypothesis: Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily. Circulating levels of GDF-15 are associated with hyperglycaemia among people with obesity or diabetes, but longitudinal evidence on the association between GDF-15 levels and diabetes risk is scarce. Our aim was to explore whether circulating levels of GDF-15

INDEPENDENCE DAY is a furious and poetic performance that dissolves, destroys and liberates the theatre and the music, the chronology and the linear narratives, letting the world unfold by carefully cutting it apart without putting it together again. October 9, 2002: Aileen Wuornos’s last words before her execution: I'd just like to say I'm sailing with the Rock, and I'll be back like Independence

Importance: Low academic achievement (AA) in childhood and adolescence is associated with increased substance use. Empirical evidence, using longitudinal epidemiologic data, may provide support for interventions to improve AA as a means to reduce risk of drug abuse (DA). Objective: To clarify the nature of the association between adolescent AA and risk of DA by using instrumental variable and co-r

Amphibian larvae are plastic in many traits. Can plasticity buffer population divergence, so that local adaptation is more common in non-plastic traits? I argue that this may be the case for adaptive plastic responses. Tadpoles of Rana arvalis are shown to alter their tail depth plastically as a response to predation risk; this is a truly adaptive response. Tail depths in the field (population and