Highly Luminescent Transparent Cs 2 Ag x Na 1– x Bi y In 1– y Cl 6 Perovskite Films Produced by Single-Source Vacuum Deposition

2023

Thermal deposition of halide perovskites as a universal and scalable route to transparent thin films becomes highly challenging in the case of lead-free double perovskites, requiring the evaporation dynamics of multiple metal halide sources to be balanced or a single-phase precursor preliminary synthesized to achieve a reliable control over the composition and the phase of the final films. In the present Letter, the feasibility of the single-source vacuum deposition of microcrystalline Cs2AgxNa1-xBiyIn1-yCl6 double perovskites into corresponding transparent nanocrystalline films while preserving the bulk spectral and structural properties is shown. The perovskite films produced from the mos…

Exploring the effects of weaning age on adult infectious disease mortality among 18th-19th century Italians

2023

Objectives: The developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis describes how early childhood stress affects morbidity and mortality later in life. The role of early childhood stress in mortality from infectious disease is understudied. Stressors in early childhood that weaken the immune system may result in increased susceptibility to infectious disease in adulthood. Weaning is one of the earliest potential periods of significant stress in early childhood. This research investigates the effect of weaning after ~6 months of age on cholera mortality among 18th-19th-century Italian populations by determining if earlier breastfeeding cessation is associated with earlier mortalit…

Somatic embryogenesis and flow cytometric assessment of nuclear genetic stability for Sansevieria spp.: an approach for in vitro regeneration of orna…

2023

Sansevieria Thunb. species are traditionally known as succulent ornamental plants worldwide. They are also cultivated for medicinal, fodder, soil conservation and fiber uses, and for their capacity to reduce environmental pollution. Sansevieria sexual propagation is limited by the lack of viable seeds, and reproduction is largely made via vegetative propagation by suckers or cuttings. For these reasons, genetic improvement by conventional breeding is limited. To overcome this problem and to address the increasing demand from customers for novel Sansevieria varieties, many commercial companies regularly use in vitro propagation, as is the case in the breeding process of several ornamental pl…

Structural and Dynamic Disturbances Revealed by Molecular Dynamics Simulations Predict the Impact on Function of CCT5 Chaperonin Mutations Associated…

2023

Mutations in genes encoding molecular chaperones, for instance the genes encoding the subunits of the chaperonin CCT (chaperonin containing TCP-1, also known as TRiC), are associated with rare neurodegenerative disorders. Using a classical molecular dynamics approach, we investigated the occurrence of conformational changes and differences in physicochemical properties of the CCT5 mutations His147Arg and Leu224Val associated with a sensory and a motor distal neuropathy, respectively. The apical domain of both variants was substantially but differently affected by the mutations, although these were in other domains. The distribution of hydrogen bonds and electrostatic potentials on the surfa…

Exogenous Growth Regulators and Water Stress Enhance Long-Term Storage Quality Characteristics of Onion

2023

Exogenous growth regulators (GRs) play a crucial role in alleviating water stress and sustaining crop yields in water-stressed areas. However, their effects on onions post-harvest quality, particularly post-monsoon onion—often preferred for long-term storage—were never studied. Therefore, this led us to investigate the interaction between water stress and GRs on the physiochemical and functional quality attributes of onions during long-term storage (9 months, at 25 ± 1 °C and 65 ± 5% RH). Onion crop was raised under four water stress levels i.e., 1.00–0.85, 0.84–0.70, 0.69–0.40, and 0.39–0.10 IW: CPE, designated as no, low, medium, and s…

Sexual Satisfaction and Quality of Life in Cardiovascular Patients: The Mediating Role of Anxiety

2023

Background: Cardiovascular diseases represent one of the most important problems for public health. Research indicates that elderly patients consider sexual satisfaction as a fundamental aspect of their quality of life and a better sexual function is related to higher general wellbeing. Objective: The main objective of this study was to investigate the mediating role of anxiety and depression in the relationship between quality of life and sexual satisfaction in cardiovascular (CVD) patients. Methods: The sample comprised 128 adult patients, males and females, hospitalized in a Cardiology Rehabilitation clinical center. To collect data, the following were used: a demographic information she…

The Role of Physical Exercise and Rehabilitative Implications in the Process of Nerve Repair in Peripheral Neuropathies: A Systematic Review

2023

Background: The various mechanisms involved in peripheral nerve regeneration, induced by exercise and electrical nerve stimulation, are still unclear. Objective: The aim of this review was to summarize the influence of physical exercise and/or electrical stimulation on peripheral nerve repair and regeneration and the variation of impact of intervention depending on timing, as well as kind and dosage of the intervention. A literature survey was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, between February 2021 to July 2021, with an update in September 2022. Methodology: The literature search identified 101,386 articles with the keywords: “peripheral nerve” OR “neuropathy” AND “sprouting”…

Varying chiral ratio of Pinic acid enantiomers above the Amazon rainforest

2023

Chiral chemodiversity plays a crucial role in biochemical processes such as insect and plant communication. However, the vast majority of organic aerosol studies do not distinguish between enantiomeric compounds in the particle phase. Here we report chirally specified measurements of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) at the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) at different altitudes during three measurement campaigns at different seasons. Analysis of filter samples by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has shown that the chiral ratio of pinic acid (C9H14O4) varies with increasing height above the canopy. A similar trend was recently observed for the gas-phase precursor…

The cephalic vein catheterization: maybe yes, but when there is no alternative

2023

Monitoring agricultural ecosystems

2023

The world’s population is predicted to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, and at the same time, economic growth and improving living standards in developing countries are driving up food consumption. To accommodate these increasing demands for food, the agricultural sector will need to produce at least 50% more food by 2050. The increasing food production will need to be accomplished not only on degrading soils, with depleting freshwater resources and while experiencing climate change but also sustainably to ensure long-term food and water security. With little existing space to expand current agricultural extents, the increased food production needs to be realized within existing farms throu…

The new European regulation on Health Technology Assessment: what changes for Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products ?

2023

Poster presented at the 2022 European Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Congress in Edinburgh.

Barriers to breast cancer-screening adherence in vulnerable populations

2023

Breast cancer screening through periodic mammography has been effective in decreasing mortality and reducing the impact of this disease. However, adherence to screening does not meet the desired expectations from all populations. The main objective of this review is to explore the barriers that affect adherence to breast cancer–screening programs in vulnerable populations according to race and/or ethnicity in order to propose measures to reduce the lack of adherence. We conducted a search of publications in the PubMed Central and Scopus databases. The eligible criteria for the articles were as follows: original quantitative studies appearing in SJR- and/or JCR-indexed journals from 2016 to …

Barns skjermbruk som tema i samarbeidet mellom barnehage og hjem – et forsømt område?

2023

Artikkelen utforsker barns skjermbruk som tema i samarbeidet mellom barnehagen og barnets hjem. På bakgrunn av en kartlegging av foreldres holdninger til barnehagens rolle når det gjelder 4–6-åringers skjermbruk, diskuteres samarbeidet mellom barnehage og hjem, i lys av danningsoppdraget og med mediepedagogikk som ramme. Studien synliggjør at barnehagen må være tettere på barns skjermbruk, som integrert del av samarbeidet med foreldrene. Ved å se barns skjermbruk som et felles anliggende, kan temaet være et moment som styrker dette samarbeidet, til barnets beste. Med forankring i danning som en kjerneoppgave i barnehagens virksomhet, synes dette å være en tematikk som bør få økt oppmerksomh…

Anti-inflammatory properties of an aldehydes-enriched fraction of grapefruit essential oil

2023

Chronic inflammation is linked to the development of numerous diseases and is accompanied by increased cytokine secretion. Macrophages provide a first line of defense against pathogens that under inflammatory stimuli release pro-inflammatory cytokines. The essential oil (EO) fractions obtained from Citrus spp. rich in different compounds have gained the attention of both researchers and users during the last decades. In particular, grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) peel is rich in phenolics and flavonoids with several health benefits, including anti-inflammatory actions. Additionally, its EO consists of a large number of compounds such as monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, alcohols, aldehydes, esters…

Two‐year effect of semaglutide 2.4 mg on control of eating in adults with overweight/obesity: STEP 5

2023

Background: The STEP 5 trial (NCT03693430) investigated once-weekly (OW) subcutaneous semaglutide 2.4 mg vs placebo for the treatment of overweight/obesity in adults over 2 years. Methods: Adults w ith B MI ≥ 3 0 k g/m2, or ≥27 kg/m2 and ≥ 1 weight-related comorbidity, without diabetes, were randomized 1:1 to semaglutide 2.4 mg OW or placebo for 104 weeks. Co-primary endpoints related to body weight (BW) changes. Control of eating questionnaire (CoEQ) was assessed in a subgroup from Canada/USA, with scores from 19 individual items grouped into 4 domains: craving control, craving for savory, craving for sweet, or positive mood. P values for exploratory CoEQ data are unadjusted for multiplici…

cglasso: An R Package for Conditional Graphical Lasso Inference with Censored and Missing Values

2023

Sparse graphical models have revolutionized multivariate inference. With the advent of high-dimensional multivariate data in many applied fields, these methods are able to detect a much lower-dimensional structure, often represented via a sparse conditional independence graph. There have been numerous extensions of such methods in the past decade. Many practical applications have additional covariates or suffer from missing or censored data. Despite the development of these extensions of sparse inference methods for graphical models, there have been so far no implementations for, e.g., conditional graphical models. Here we present the general-purpose package cglasso for estimating sparse co…

Improving access to innovative medicines: proposals from national authorities to revise the European legislation

2023

Poster presented at the 2022 European Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Congress in Edinburgh.

Protocols for UAS-based observation

2023

In Chapter 1 the terms and the characteristics of an unmanned spatial data collection system were defined along with the fields of application, advantages, and disadvantages of different solutions and sensors. This chapter will present an overview of existing protocols and broad guidelines on environmental unmanned aerial system (UAS)-based monitoring, including study design with the general and possible use of the platform and sensor/camera settings, comprising quality assurance (QA) with all necessary steps (i.e., georeferencing, radiometric calibration for optical and thermal sensors, programming the flight mission, and data processing) to fulfill a complete survey mission for a given en…

Battery- and Petrol-Powered Chainsaws: An Investigation of Productivity in Conifer Thinning

2023

In recent years, battery technology has been greatly improved and some types of battery chainsaws are currently comparable with light-type petrol machines, suggesting their possible introduction into forest operations. In this context, the aim of this study was to test and compare the performance, in a Douglas-fir thinning, of two chainsaws similar in terms of weight and power, the Stihl MS 220 CB battery-powered saw and the Stihl MS 201 CM petrol-powered saw, measuring the working times and calculating the productivities. The results showed that, within a working day (about 6 h gross time), an average of 15 trees of 0.56 m3 was felled in each area. No statistically significant differences …

Examining the structure of credibility evaluation when sixth graders read online texts

2023

Background Previous research indicates that students lack sufficient online credibility evaluation skills. However, the results are fragmented and difficult to compare as they are based on different types of measures and indicators. Consequently, there is no clear understanding of the structure of credibility evaluation. Objectives The present study sought to establish the structure of credibility evaluation of online texts among 265 sixth graders. Methods Students' credibility evaluation skills were measured with a task in which they read four online texts, two more credible (a popular science text and a newspaper article) and two less credible (a layperson's blog text and a commercial tex…

Evoluzione storico-giuridica del lavoro carcerario: da obbligo ad opportunità

2023

Il saggio ripercorre in chiave storico-evolutiva la disciplina del lavoro carcerario al fine di verificare se a seguito della riforma del 2018 il lavoro sia effettivamente inteso come un’opportunità e non più come un obbligo. The essay offers a historical and evolutionary reconstruction of the discipline of prison labour in order to verify whether - following the 2018 reform - work is actually understood as an opportunity and no longer as an obligation.

Differentiating Multiple Sclerosis From AQP4-Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder and MOG-Antibody Disease With Imaging.

2023

Background and ObjectivesRelapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), aquaporin-4 antibody–positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (AQP4-NMOSD), and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody–associated disease (MOGAD) may have overlapping clinical features. There is an unmet need for imaging markers that differentiate between them when serologic testing is unavailable or ambiguous. We assessed whether imaging characteristics typical of MS discriminate RRMS from AQP4-NMOSD and MOGAD, alone and in combination.MethodsAdult, nonacute patients with RRMS, APQ4-NMOSD, and MOGAD and healthy controls were prospectively recruited at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (L…

Complications Associated with Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICC) in People Undergoing Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation …

2023

Introduction: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic generated the need to keep immunosuppressed patients away from hospital institutions for as long as possible. This in turn stimulated the implementation of a home hospitalization model for autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT). Purpose: To analyze whether there are significant differences in post-transplantation complications related to catheters observed in patients treated in the home-transplant care modality compared to patients treated in the hospital. Methodology: Observational, analytical, longitudinal, and retrospective study of cases and controls. A convenience sample was chosen, in which the cases comprised 20 patients inclu…

Writing in German as a foreign language in Norwegian upper sec-ondary school: An investigation of patterns of language choices for meaning-making

2023

The main objective of this article is to identify and describe characteristic patterns of language choices in texts written by Norwegian upper secondary school students of German as a foreign language (GFL) (age 16/17, school year 12, 5th year of FL learning). The study maps language choices in a set of 12 learner responses to a writing prompt about interpreting a film title. The aim of the study is to describe these choices in terms of how the learners use ideational meaning-making resources to arrive at meaningful content. The study takes a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach and analyses the responses in terms of the following lexicogrammatical and discourse semantic systems o…

Design and construction of the Tracking Written Learner Language (TRAWL) Corpus: A longitudinal and multilingual young learner corpus

2023

This article describes the design and construction of the Tracking Written Learner Language (TRAWL) Corpus. The corpus combines several features that are all rare for learner corpora: it is longitudinal, following individual pupils over several years; it has data from young learners from school years 5 to 13 (ages 10–18); it is multilingual, containing learners’ texts in several L3s (French, German and Spanish), L2 English and L1 Norwegian; and it includes teacher comments on a number of the texts. In addition, some of the texts exist in both a first and a second revised version, all tied to a rich set of meta-data. Not only does such a corpus offer new possibilities for research on languag…

Superradiant Quantum Phase Transition for an Exactly Solvable Two-Qubit Spin-Boson Model

2023

A spin-boson-like model with two interacting qubits is analysed. The model turns out to be exactly solvable since it is characterized by the exchange symmetry between the two spins. The explicit expressions of eigenstates and eigenenergies make it possible to analytically unveil the occurrence of first-order quantum phase transitions. The latter are physically relevant since they are characterized by abrupt changes in the two-spin subsystem concurrence, in the net spin magnetization and in the mean photon number.

The Quality of Life among Siblings of Autistic Individuals: A Scoping Review

2023

Autism spectrum disorders are a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders presenting at a tender age, defined by qualitative deficits in social interactions and communication, thus having a substantial influence on the subject’s family unit. Quality of life (QoL) refers to a person’s perspective of their life situation, cultural and value background, objectives, expectations, and standards. When focusing on childhood and adolescence, age-related changes should be considered. For this scoping review, the authors used three peer-review literature database sources (PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and ERIC) to delve deeper into components of the QoL of non-autistic siblings of autistic indivi…

A Green Approach for Recycling Compact Discs

2023

Compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs) are mainly made by polycarbonate disc, a thin layer of aluminum or silver, a thin layer of a coating and a thin layer of a label of paper or PET. The recycling of these discs is difficult due to the removal of these non-polymeric layers and to our best knowledge, no industrial plants have been resent for their recycling. In this work, we propose a facile way to remove the non-polymeric layers and investigate the effect of the repetitive extrusion process on the processability and on the mechanical properties of the recycled polycarbonate. A few works have been published dealing with both the removal of the non-polymeric layers and the m…

Genres in young learner L2 English writing: A genre typology for the TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language) corpus

2023

In learner corpus research, it is well known that one should control for genre when collecting and analysing written L2 (second language) English data, as genre is one factor that has been shown to account for language variation. This article presents a genre typology for annotating learner texts from the lower secondary level in Norway (ages 13-15, school years 8-10). The data are drawn from TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language), a new learner corpus currently under compilation. As the TRAWL corpus will be openly available for research, it is important that the typology is clearly described, which is the primary aim of the present study.
 Little research has been carried out on yo…

Examining bedtime procrastination, study engagement, and studyholism in undergraduate students, and their association with insomnia

2023

IntroductionCompulsive overstudying, known as studyholism, is an emerging behavioral addiction. In this study, we examine the prevalence of, and the relationships between, insomnia, study engagement, studyholism, bedtime procrastination among undergraduate students.MethodsThe Studyholism (SI-10), Athens Insomnia (AIS), and bedtime procrastination scales were administered to a convenience sample of 495 university students.ResultsOur findings indicate that the prevalence of insomnia was 75.31%, high studyholism was found in 15.31% of the sample, and increased study engagement was detected in 16.94%. Gender differences analysis revealed that females reported higher studyholism and bedtime proc…

The development of sentence complexity in the writing of young learners of L3 Spanish in Norway

2023

This article explores the development of sentence complexity in the writing of young learners of Spanish as the third language (L3) learned in Norwegian schools. Learning to write in a foreign language is a complex process, and a novice learner will start to write simple sentences that develop over time. To track this development, the present study investigates texts written by learners of Spanish from the first and second year of upper secondary school (school years 11-12, ages 16-17) as their ordinary schoolwork. The texts are collected as part of the TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language) corpus and show how learners write in an authentic school context. To address sentence developmen…

Hybrid Propulsion Efficiency Increment through Exhaust Energy Recovery—Part 1: Radial Turbine Modelling and Design

2023

The efficiency of Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) may be substantially increased if the energy of the exhaust gases, which do not complete the expansion inside the cylinder of the internal combustion engine, is efficiently recovered by means of a properly designed turbogenerator and employed for vehicle propulsion; previous studies, carried out by the same authors of this work, showed a potential hybrid vehicle fuel efficiency increment up to 15% by employing a 20 kW turbine on a 100 HP rated power thermal unit. The innovative thermal unit here proposed is composed of a supercharged engine endowed with a properly designed turbogenerator, which comprises two fundamental elements: an exhaust …

Some Features of Modeling Ultrasound Propagation in Non-Destructive Control of Metal Structures Based on the Magnetostrictive Effect

2023

A method and mathematical models of direct and inverse problems of ultrasonic testing and diagnostics of complex metal structures for defects were developed and tested. A prototype of a system for magnetostrictive control of elements of the objects under study was manufactured and experimentally tested. Mathematical simulation of ultrasonic testing processes using MATLAB and the COMSOL Multiphysics software environment was carried out. The adequacy of the mathematical models was verified by the results of their comparison with real physical experiments. Information support and a methodology that implements it was developed, which ensure the functioning of the control facilities for these ob…

Written corrective feedback in the lower secondary EFL classroom: exploring questions of what, how and why in observed and self-reported teacher prac…

2023

For decades, scholarly debates have been concerned with the effect of corrective feedback (CF), both written and oral, on L2 language development. Much of the research that supports written corrective feedback (WCF) comes from short-term focused feedback studies, representing a type of feedback practice not necessarily applicable in classroom contexts. This has pointed to a need for more classroom research of authentic WCF and its effect on written learner language. Attempting to explore authentic classroom data longitudinally, this article presents a Norwegian case study of two English teachers’ WCF provided to three students during three years of lower secondary EFL instruction. The stude…

Ethnic differences in utilization of online health information sources : A test of the social inequality hypotheses

2023

The goal of the current study was to understand ethnic differences in use of online health information sources. Social stratification and social diversification hypotheses were used as study’s theoretical framework. The data were obtained from the 2017 Israel Social Survey (N = 2166). Multinomial and logistic regression techniques were used for the multivariate analysis. The results suggest that Israeli Arab respondents were less likely than Israeli-born Jewish respondents to seek health information using the Health Funds’ call centers or websites, other websites, and to utilize any number of the online health information sources. The findings provide a strong support for the social strati…

Engagement in entrepreneurship after business failure. Do formal institutions and culture matter?

2023

AbstractDespite the extensive literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship and institutions, there is limited knowledge of the relationship between institutions and engagement after failure. This study compares the entrepreneurial engagement of entrepreneurs who have recently experienced failure and individuals without entrepreneurial experience, emphasizing the interaction of government policies and programmes (formal institutions) and individualistic/collectivist cultures (informal institutions) with business failure and its impact on entrepreneurial engagement. We test our hypotheses using multilevel analysis on a large cross-sectional sample that combines individual-level dat…