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Dynamics of optically excited electronic states have been studied in solid films and solutions of semiconducting polymers and model compounds. Transient absorption, monitored in the spectral range from 0.9 eV to 2.5 eV with a time resolution of about 100 fs, was the main experimental technique. Transient anisotropy, obtained from different polarizations of light, was employed to trace the dipole m
The commercial feasibility of ethanol production from biomass is dependent on the availability of lignocellulose in large amounts at low cost. Various kinds of agricultural residues are of interest, due to the fact that these feedstocks have well-established cultivation procedures already in place, as well as technology for harvest and transportation. In the current work, the utilization of sugarc
Why is there hunger in sub-Saharan Africa? What forces drive the global food system? What is the global food system? To approach these questions, this study investigates power and politics in food, in its production and in its organization. Proceeding from a critical realist approach, focus of this study is on the challenge of African smallholder food insecurity and how it is presented as part of
Considering the growth in urbanization, leading to an increase in impervious surfaces, and the changing climate, enhancing the intensity and frequency of rainfall events, existing urban drainage networks—separate or combined sewer systems—are presumed to face substantially elevated hydraulic loads, causing pluvial floods in urban areas. There are several ways to address these challenges. Cities ca
‘Modern astronomy’ was introduced to Siam (present-day Thailand) (Siam officially changed its name to Thailand in 1939) when the Belgian Jesuit missionary-astronomer Father Antoine Thomas carried out stellar and lunar eclipse observations during 1681 and 1682 in order to determine the latitude and longitude of Ayutthaya. Three years later a contingent of French Jesuit missionary astronomers observ
Aim: Plant functional groups are widely used in community ecology and earth system modelling to describe trait variation within and across plant communities. However, this approach rests on the assumption that functional groups explain a large proportion of trait variation among species. We test whether four commonly used plant functional groups represent variation in six ecologically important pl
OBJECTIVE: Resistance to androgens has been suggested as a possible cause of male infertility. This hypothesis is based mainly on binding studies in genital skin fibroblasts but the molecular evidence is sparse. DESIGN: Molecular studies of the androgen receptor gene were performed in 10 azoo- or oligozoospermic men, precenting with clinical signs of low androgen activity - poor virilization and h
Methane emissions on the national scale in France in 2012 are inferred by assimilating continuous atmospheric mixing ratio measurements from nine stations of the European network ICOS located in France and surrounding countries. To assess the robustness of the fluxes deduced by our inversion system based on an objectified quantification of uncertainties, two complementary inversion set-ups are com
Continuous water-table (WT) measurements from peatlands are scarce and – if existing at all –very short. Consequently, proxy indicators are critically needed to simulate hydrological changes in peatlands over longer time periods. In this study, we demonstrate that tree-ring width (TRW) records of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing in the Čepkeliai peatland (southern Lithuania) can be used as
Constitutive activation of interferon signaling pathways has been reported in colorectal cancer (CRC), leading to a strong CD8+ T cell response through stimulation of NLRC5 expression. Primed CD8+ T cell expansion, however, may be negatively regulated by PD-L1 expression. Additionally, aberrant PD-L1 expression enables cancer cells to escape the immune attack. Our study aimed to select potential r
PURPOSE: The R2Pulm trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of busulfan-melphalan high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell rescue (BuMel) without whole-lung irradiation (WLI) on event-free survival (main end point) and overall survival, compared with standard chemotherapy with WLI in Ewing sarcoma (ES) presenting with pulmonary and/or pleural metastases. METHODS: From 2000 to 2015, we e
Microstructure and crystallographic texture are the key factors that determine the properties of sputtering target used in integrated circuit fabrication. Multi-pass clock-rolling has been used recently to produce Ta sputtering targets. However, the effect of strain per pass, or the number of passes to achieve desired thickness, in clock-rolling on the homogeneity of final microstructure has not b
Accurately quantifying soil base cation pool sizes is essential to interpreting the sustainability of forest harvests from element mass-balance studies. The soil-exchangeable pool is classically viewed as the bank of "available" base cations in the soil, withdrawn upon by plant uptake and leaching and refilled by litter decomposition, atmospheric deposition and mineral weathering. The operational
Background: Informed consent is a prerequisite for patients included in clinical trials. Trial design, inclusion criteria and legal requirements are increasingly complex. This complexity challenges design and delivery of written and oral trial information to ensure understandable information. To evaluate the level of concordance between patients' and informing physicians' assessments regarding pat
1. Measurements of membrane capacitance, as an indicator of exocytosis, and intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) were used to determine the Ca2+ dependence of secretion in single pancreatic B-cells. 2. Exocytosis was dependent on a rise in [Ca2+]i and could be evoked by activation of voltage-dependent Ca2+ currents. The threshold for depolarization-induced release was 0.5 microM [Ca2+]i. Onc
UNLABELLED: Here we show that a common polymorphism causing a valine to methionine amino acid substitution at codon 418 (V418M) in the CLCN7 gene is associated with femoral neck BMD in women. Our study adds to accumulating evidence that shows that common allelic variants in monogenic bone disease genes often contribute to BMD regulation in normal subjects.INTRODUCTION: The CLCN7 gene is a strong c
The immune system has evolved through thousands of years and its architecture has challenged the medical field since the first hieroglyphs and will likely continue do so. With our co-evolution with millions of other species, the complexity to treat infectious diseases has been a race in increasing speed ever since. The establishment of penicillin shortened the length of that battle against a broad
Phosphatocopids are a group of small extinct marine crustaceans, which occur widespread in Cambrian dysoxic benthic lithofacies. Whereas the anatomy of the earliest ontogenetic stages of phosphatocopids, from the head larva with four pairs of appendages onward, is well documented, that of more advanced or adult growth stages has remained almost unknown (except for the external shields). Here we de
