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OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect, on miscarriages and stillbirths, of persistent organochlorine compounds (POC) through dietary intake of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea. METHODS: Information on miscarriages and stillbirths was collected retrospectively by a self-administered questionnaire in a cohort of fishermen's wives from the Swedish east coast (by the Balt

An HbA1c threshold of ≥42 mmol/mol has been proposed to diagnose prediabetes. The sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of the proposed threshold for detection of individuals with prediabetes was examined in a study of 573 randomly selected individuals from Vara and Skövde. In addition, the utility of the FINDRISC questionnaire and of a fasting glucose test in combination with thr

Why are some states more corrupt than others? Drawing on the literature on governance in parliamentary democracies, we suggest that the degree of corruption depends on the ability of key political actors to control ministers who have been delegated power. We argue that the Prime Minister has incentives to limit corruption within the cabinet and has the ability to do so when there are certain “cont

In phase-change memory devices, a material is cycled between glassy and crystalline states. The highly temperature-dependent kinetics of its crystallization process enables application in memory technology, but the transition has not been resolved on an atomic scale. Using femtosecond x-ray diffraction and ab initio computer simulations, we determined the time-dependent pair-correlation function o

The haptoglobin phenotypes of Sudanese patients with complicated and uncomplicated falciparum malaria, and those of uninfected randomly selected individuals, were determined by electrophoresis of sera on polyacrylamide gels followed by benzidine staining of the gels. Among 273 malaria patients, the proportions with haptoglobin phenotypes (1-1), (2-1) and (2-2) were 60.8%, 29.7% and 9.5%, respectiv

As one of the successful approaches to GaAs surface passivation, wet-chemical nitridation is applied here to relate the effect of surface passivation to carrier recombination processes in bulk GaAs. By combining time-resolved photoluminescence and optical pump-THz probe measurements, we found that surface hole trapping dominates the decay of photoluminescence, while photoconductivity dynamics is l

Relentless CMOS scaling coupled with lower design tolerances is making ICs increasingly susceptible to wear-out related permanent faults and transient faults, necessitating on-chip fault tolerance in future chip microprocessors (CMPs). In this paper we introduce a new energy-efficient fault-tolerant CMP architecture known as Redundant Execution using Critical Value Forwarding (RECVF). RECVF is bas

Massive MIMO has been shown, both in theory and through experiments, to offer very promising properties. These include the possibility to decrease output power by at least an order of magnitude while still achieving large gains in spectral efficiency, as compared to today’s access schemes. To efficiently design communication algorithms and evaluate massive MIMO schemes, channel models that capture

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolutio

Lubrication has been proven to be an effective approach to drastically improve the efficiency of ultrasonic motors without losing the output torque. This phenomenon is attributed to the effective modulation of the friction force by lubricant, according to the theory described in the Stribeck curve. Previous findings even show a potential to increase the motor output torque with lubrication. Here,

Temperature and coagulant types have an important impact on the quantity and quality of the residue (sludge) in water and wastewater treatment processes. Temperature influences water viscosity and the distribution of the coagulant in water. Coagulants can promote the agglomeration of fine particles into larger flocs so that they can be more easily separated from the water. Experiments have been co

Itch is a common symptom, but there is limited evidence on the prevalence of itch in children. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of itch in schoolchildren. A questionnaire was developed by experts in the field and based on a literature search. The questionnaire was applied in a pilot study of 25 consecutively selected paediatric patients and their parents. It confirmed the high co

Poly(oxindole biphenylene) was functionalized with tetrazole pendants and evaluated as base material for alkaline ion-solvating membranes for water electrolysis. The poly(oxindole biphenylene) parent polymer was obtained by superacid catalyzed polyhydroxyalkylation and subsequently functionalized by cyanoalkylation. The cyanoalkyl groups were thereafter converted to tetrazole pendants by a click t

Samverkan har sedan lång tid tillbaka varit viktigt inom både regionala ochkommunala verksamheter och det finns mycket som talar för attsamverkansbehoven kommer att öka än mer. Inom hälso- och sjukvården finns en kontinuerlig utveckling mot ny och mera specialiserad kunskap som även fårorganisatoriska konsekvenser. Teamarbete i vården har blivit allt viktigare, liksom nivåstrukturering och koncentCooperation has long been important within both regional andmunicipal activities and there is much to suggest thatcollaboration needs will increase even more. Within health care there is onecontinuous development towards new and more specialized knowledge that also gains organizational consequences. Teamwork in healthcare has become increasingly important, as well level structuring and concentrati

This paper has two purposes. The first purpose is methodological and aims to extend previous work on efficiency analysis by implementing a multiple-output stochastic ray frontier production function model. This model generalizes the single-output stochastic frontier model to multiple-input, multiple-output technologies and allows simultaneous estimation of technical efficiency and analysis of infl