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Between 1980 and 2000, a number of Sub-Saharan African countries entered into conditional structural adjustment lending arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in response to economic crisis and decline. Despite the fact that the crises had been due in part to long-term overdependence on primary sector activities, such as cash crop agriculture and natural resource extraction, many

A novel SPECT/MRI scanner has been modelled and tested here using Monte Carlo simulation software, SIMIND. The INSERT SPECT/MRI system faces challenges with event reconstruction due to photon depth of interaction. The novel SPECT system is subject to parallax errors due to its crystal size and slit aperture collimator. We present a simple measure of the DOI errors through SIMIND experiments; by mo

The swelling behavior of a hydrophobic poly(2diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate (PDPA) brush immersed in aqueous solutions of single and mixed salts has been investigated using ellipsometry and numerical self-consistent field (nSCF) theory. As a function of solution ionic strength, the osmotic and salted brush regimes of weak polyelectrolyte brushes as well as substantial specific anion effects i

The swelling behavior of poly(2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDEA) brushes in response to changes in solution pH and ionic strength has been investigated. The brushes were synthesized by ARGET ATRP methodology at the silica–aqueous solution interface via two different surface-bound initiator approaches: electrostatically adsorbed cationic macroinitiator and covalently anchored silane-ba

We present and compare the existing methods of heteroepitaxy of III-Vs on silicon and their trends. We focus on the epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG) method as a means of achieving good quality III-Vs on silicon. Initially conducted primarily by near-equilibrium epitaxial methods such as liquid phase epitaxy and hydride vapour phase epitaxy, nowadays ELOG is being carried out even by non-equilib

The production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays was measured as a function of transverse momentum (pT) in minimum-bias p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC. The measurement covers the pT interval 0.5

We report the first results of elliptic (v2), triangular (v3), and quadrangular (v4) flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of √sNN=5.02  TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are performed in the central pseudorapidity region |η|<0.8 and for the transverse momentum range 0.2

BACKGROUND/AIM: Inflammation is a hallmark of cancer, and the role of neutrophils and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in cancer and cancer-associated thrombosis has attracted a lot of interest. The NET-specific marker H3Cit has been found to be elevated in the plasma of patients with malignancies, suggesting NETs markers as novel cancer biomarkers. This study aimed to determine the levels of

We exploit a large historical shock to the Danish labour market to provide evidence of how restrictions on labour mobility increase monopsony power and thereby reduce wages. By severely limiting the possibility of the rural population to work beyond their place of birth, the reintroduction of serfdom in 1733 aimed to increase monopsony power and secure cheaper labour in the countryside. Using a un

Jet production rates are measured in p+p and d+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV recorded in 2008 with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Jets are reconstructed using the R=0.3 anti-kt algorithm from energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter and charged tracks in multiwire proportional chambers, and the jet transverse momentum (pT) spectra are corrected for the detecto

In the last two decades, the retail sector has experienced unprecedented upheaval, having severe implications for economic development and sustenance of traditional inner-city retail dis-tricts. In the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, this effect has been exacerbated by a series of earthquakes in 2010/2011 which destroyed much of the traditional retail precinct of the city. After exten-sive rebu

Objectives: we aim to present an in-depth report of the incidence and prevalence of systemic sclerosis (SSc) in Sweden in a nation-wide register-based study covering the entire Swedish population Methods: each individual residing in Sweden is given a unique personal identity number. We linked the National Patient Register and the Total Population Register to identify 1) patients with prevalent SSc

BACKGROUND: Five classic thrombophilias have been recognized: factor V Leiden (rs6025), the prothrombin G20210A variant (rs1799963), and protein C, protein S, and antithrombin deficiencies. This study aimed to determine the thrombotic risk of classic thrombophilias in a cohort of middle-aged and older adults. METHODS AND RESULTS: Factor V Leiden, prothrombin G20210A and protein-coding variants in

Background: Host–microbe interactions may influence dermatitis pathogenesis in the nasomaxillary folds of French bulldogs, which is often complicated by secondary bacterial and fungal infections. Objective: To assess the skin-fold microbiome in systemically healthy French bulldogs and to determine the influence of topical medications on this microbiome. Animals: Nineteen healthy French bulldogs. M

Background: Cernitin™ pollen extracts (brand name Cernilton®) alleviates symptoms related to common lower uro-genital tract disorders in men. The underlying mechanisms are ill-defined but the inflammatory pathway could be one of them. In a previous in vitro study it was shown that Cernitin™ induce a regulatory effect on inflammatory parameters. Methods: In this study, male Sprague Dawley rats were

The notion of disproportionate impacts of climate change on certain groups and regions has long been a part of policy debates and scientific inquiry, and was instrumental to the emergence of the “Loss and Damage” (L&D) policy agenda in international negotiations on climate change. Yet, ‘disproportionality’ remains relatively undefined and implicit in science on loss and damage from climate cha

INTRODUCTION: Prevalence of endometriosis is commonly reported based on surgery findings and varies widely depending on study population and indication for surgery. Symptoms such as dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, dyspareunia, dysuria, and dyschezia can be associated with endometriosis and adenomyosis. Transvaginal ultrasound examination is proposed to be the first-line diagnostic method, nevertheless

The particle matter of wine is mainly composed of wine colloids and macromolecules. The present work develops a methodology using asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation coupled with multi-angle light scattering, differential refractive index detector, and ultraviolet detector (AsFlFFF−MALS−dRI−UV) for the fractionation and determination of the molar mass, the hydrodynamic radius, and the appar