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Background: Despite newer treatments with immunosuppressive agents, there still exists a considerable morbidity and mortality risk among patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). Since 1994 the European Vasculitis Society (EUVAS) has aimed for an improved outcome for patients with AAV, conducting several prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Earth's life support systems depend on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. Without radical transformations, staying within safe planetary boundaries becomes impossible. While the inequalities between Global North and Global South are increasingly acknowledged, the agency and rights of people often placed in the category of 'vulnerable' -women, youth, indigenous peoples and local communities- are
This paper discusses Netsourcing strategies for vendors, a little explored area of outsourcing research, using both a resource-based (RBV) perspective and a transaction cost economics (TCE) perspective. Using both theories and an infrastructural view of Information Technology service, we present a conceptual model of vendor sourcing decisions. We then present a number of propositions based on case
Petrochemical producers both rely upon and generate some of the most problematic substances in the current age of socioecological crisis: fossil fuels and plastics. With mounting calls to cap fossil fuel extraction as well as plastics production, the industry appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Nonetheless, betting on continuously increasing global plastic demand, petrochemical p
We present a method to produce small pitch gratings for X-ray interferometric imaging applications, allowing the phase sensitivity to be increased and/or the length of the laboratory setup to be minimized. The method is based on fabrication of high aspect ratio silicon microstructures using deep reactive ion etching (Bosch technique) of dense grating arrays and followed by conformal electroplating
X-ray computed micro-tomography typically involves a trade-off between sample size and resolution, complicating the study at a micrometer scale of representative volumes of materials with broad feature size distributions (e.g. natural stones). X-ray dark-field tomography exploits scattering to probe sub-resolution features, promising to overcome this trade-off. In this work, we present a quantific
Metal microstructured optical elements for grating-based X-ray phase-contrast interferometry were fabricated by using an innovative approach of microcasting: hot embossing technology with low melting temperature (280 °C) metal alloy foils and silicon etched templates. A gold-tin alloy (80 wt% Au/20 wt% Sn) was used to cast micro-gratings with pitch sizes in the range of 2 to20 μm and depth of the
Digital practices in later life are not yet well understood. Therefore, this paper discusses the framework for a research design project that aims at tracing differences and similarities in how older adults use their smartphones in circumstances in and outside their homes in Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada. The research questions of this international research project focus on the exten
Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist exenatide (exendin-4) has potential protective capabilities against diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated. The expression of thioredoxin-interacting protein (Txnip) is upregulated during DKD progression by histone acetylation. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a deacetylase and is decreased in DKD, which indicates
Importance: Despite some promising preclinical and clinical data, it remains uncertain whether remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) with transient cycles of limb ischemia and reperfusion is an effective treatment for acute stroke. Objective: To evaluate the effect of RIC when initiated in the prehospital setting and continued in the hospital on functional outcome in patients with acute stroke. Desig
Background: Despite improvements in hemophilia care, challenges remain, including treatment burden and impaired quality of life. Gene therapy may overcome these. However, its introduction presents a challenge. Objectives: To outline a function-based gene therapy working model describing critical milestones associated with gene therapy handling, administration, and follow-up to facilitate and imple
In a pulsed UWB system, either coherent receivers or transmit-reference (TR) receivers can be used to demodulate the signals. For coherent receivers, which are typically based on a Rake Structure, the large number of resolvable multipaths is a major challenge for channel estimation and receiver complexity. TR receivers can effectively collect energy from all the received multipath components with
This paper addresses design space exploration for streaming applications (such as MPEG) running on multi-processor platforms with guaranteed service interconnects. In particular, we solve mapping, path selection and router configuration problems. Given the complexity of these problems, state of the art approaches in this area largely rely on greedy heuristics, which do not guarantee optimality. Ou
Biomass gasification is one of the alternatives to producing liquid fuels and chemicals from biomass residues. The gas produced in gasification contains CO, H2, H2O, CO2, light hydrocarbons and tars. Depending on the gasifier type, operating conditions and fuel, the light hydrocarbons can contain as much as 50 % of the total energy contents in the gas. The gas also contains catalyst poisons such a
The last ten years have seen a sharp increase in externally supported capacity development initiatives for disaster risk management. However, not all of them have generated sustainable results. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the current focus on training as the main tool for capacity development in the context of disaster risk management, and to argue for the necessity to address capac
We propose an integrated framework for the design of SOC test solutions, which includes a set of algorithms for early design space exploration as well as extensive optimization for the final solution. The framework deals with test scheduling, test access mechanism design, test sets selection, and test resource placement. Our approach minimizes the test application time and the cost of the test acc
