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Deeper winter snow is hypothesized to favor shrub growth and may partly explain the shrub expansion observed in many parts of the arctic during the last decades, potentially triggering biophysical feedbacks including regional warming and permafrost thawing. We experimentally tested the effects of winter snow depth on shrub growth and ecophysiology by measuring stem length and stem hydrogen (δ2H),
Objective: To investigate whether pT1 renal cell carcinoma (RCC) should be followed differently after partial (PN) or radical nephrectomy (RN) based on a retrospective analysis of a multicentre database (RECUR). Subjects: A retrospective study was conducted in 3380 patients treated for nonmetastatic RCC between January 2006 and December 2011 across 15 centres from 10 countries, as part of the RECU
The carbon cycle of tropical terrestrial vegetation plays a vital role in the storage and exchange of atmospheric CO2. But large uncertainties surround the impacts of land-use change emissions, climate warming, the frequency of droughts, and CO2 fertilization. This culminates in poorly quantified carbon stocks and carbon fluxes even for the major ecosystems of Africa (savannas and tropical evergre
Atmospheric inversions are used to derive constraints on the net sources and sinks of CO2 and other stable atmospheric tracers from their observed concentrations. The resolution and accuracy that the fluxes can be estimated with depends, among other factors, on the quality and density of the observational coverage, on the precision and accuracy of the transport model used by the inversion to relat
The forest floor provides an important interface of soil-atmosphere CO2 exchanges but their controls and contributions to the ecosystem-scale carbon budget are uncertain due to measurement limitations. In this study, we deployed eddy covariance systems below- and above-canopy to measure the spatially integrated net forest floor CO2 exchange (NFFE) and the entire net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) at
Objectives To identify the genetic determinants of fracture risk and assess the role of 15 clinical risk factors on osteoporotic fracture risk. Design Meta-analysis of genome wide association studies (GWAS) and a two-sample mendelian randomisation approach. Setting 25 cohorts from Europe, United States, east Asia, and Australia with genome wide genotyping and fracture data. Participants A discover
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
Previous studies in the rat have shown that a serotonergic depletion greatly potentiates the learning and memory impairments produced by pharmacological or lesion-induced cholinergic blockade in the forebrain. The impairment produced by combined serotonergic-cholinergic lesions is reminiscent of that seen in memory-impaired aged rats. In the present experiment, we investigated whether grafts of ch
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
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
As climate change and unsustainable waste practices present major global challenges, effective waste management in developing countries becomes critically important. In South Africa, organic waste constitutes a significant share of general waste and is often landfilled, contributing to methane emissions and serious health risks for the population. In response, the Western Cape province has introdu
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a heterogenous cancer with poor prognosis, especially for patients with advanced or recurrent disease. The complex tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in mediating immune evasion and therapy resistance. To improve preclinical testing, advanced 3D in vitro and ex vivo models such as spheroids, organoids, and tumor slice cultures have
