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It is still not fully elucidated which pretransplant donor-specific HLA antibodies (DSA) are harmful after kidney transplantation. In particular, it needs to be clarified whether cumulative mean fluorescence intensities (MFI) against multiple HLA specificities have a predictive value for allograft function. Our retrospective single centre study analyzed preformed HLA antibodies determined by Luminex™ Single Antigen Bead (SAB) assay, including C1q addition, in relation to rejection and clinical outcome in 255 cross match negative kidney allograft recipients. Only 33 recipients (13%) of the total cohort showed early AMR during the first year posttransplant, but in patients with pre-transplant DSA the rate was increased to 15 out of 40 (38%). Three year graft survival was significantly shorter in patients with histological signs of AMR compared with patients without AMR or with no biopsy (74%, 92%, and 97%, respectively, p

Policy signals are often conceived of as positions on an ideological scale. However, apart from the position – considered here as the policy objective – the policy instrument and the concreteness of the instrument must also be taken into consideration. In the article, a new conceptualisation of policy signals is developed, which integrates policy objectives, policy instruments and how concrete these are. Drawing on issue competition research, a set of expectations is advanced about the importance of actors’ control over outcomes for positional concreteness. Then, policy signals are looked at in the unmediated context of Danish parties’ Facebook posts ahead of the 2019 national election. Based on all textual and audio-visual posts in the year before the election, it is found that the levels of positional concreteness are generally high. Yet – in line with expectations – positional concreteness depends on parties’ incumbency status and the policy field. published

Introduction: Non-traumatic Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for 2 million strokes annually worldwide. This stroke burden disproportionately impacts minorities, and results in severe neurological deficits. Sex differences in brain structure and function, such as a larger mean length of frontal horn in males and increased global cerebral blood flow in women, can contribute to hematoma volume and expansion of ICH into nearby structures. No studies have yet to investigate sex differences in the incidence of Intraventricular Hemorrhage (IVH) and hydrocephalus as sequelae of ICH, both or which correlate with poor long-term outcomes. Methods: A retrospective review of a comprehensive stroke center spontaneous ICH database from 2019-2022 was performed, including patient characteristics such as history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, tobacco use, and anticoagulant use in addition to ICH characteristics such as hematoma location volume, expansion, incidence of IVH and hydrocephalus. A logistic regression model controlling for these covariates was built to investigate sex differences in incidence of IVH and hydrocephalus. Results: This cohort had 100 patients with spontaneous, non-traumatic ICH, of which 39% were female. Overall, 52/100 (52%) patients had IVH and 21/100 (21%) patients developed hydrocephalus. Among males, 29/61(48%) had IVH as opposed to 23/39 (59%) in females, p = 0.264. There was similar development of hydrocephalus in both males 13/61(21%) and females 8/39 (21%). Logistic regression showed females had higher odds of IVH. Higher diastolic blood pressure and anticoagulant use on admission also had higher odds of IVH. Conclusion: This pilot study demonstrates a trend towards higher incidence of IVH among females when controlling for history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, tobacco use, and anticoagulant use. Higher odds of IVH in patients with higher diastolic blood pressure on admission adds to the previously investigated association between systolic blood pressure and ICH hematoma volume. Our sample validated the higher odds of IVH in patients with anticoagulant use on admission.

The hot stamping of tailored properties is widely established in the automotive industry. However, unlike conventional press hardening, this technique is designed to generate varying mechanical properties by controlling the cooling rate locally. Current material models cannot accurately represent the locally very different thermomechanical paths. This research aims to address this problem by developing a new phase transformation model capable of handling complicated thermal histories and the effects of deformation. A ’unified JMAK‘ model is proposed to capture various thermal-mechanical loading conditions. These conditions include the deformation effect and cooling paths where isothermal conditions range from 450° to 725°C and non-isothermal conditions range from 5° to 40°C/s. Furthermore, for the extension to linear and non-linear cooling paths, correction factors for the phase transformations are introduced into the model. Finally, the model's performance is compared to well-known transformation models, such as the non-isothermal JMAK and the K-V (Kirkaldy and Venugopalan), by comparing the results obtained from isothermal and non-isothermal dilatometer tests and a scaled-down b-pillar experiment. The results from the comparison are classified into 3 cases, isothermal, continuous cooling and non-linear cooling (b-pillar). Case 1 shows that the non-isothermal and K-V models provide low accuracy, while the proposed model yields an error below 2 %. For Case 2, the proposed models and non-iso JMAK are agreeable with the experiment, and the K-V model shows a maximum error of 15 %. Finally, in the b-pillar case study mean absolute errors of hardness predictions are 33.06 HV (mean relative error is 9 %), 43.92 HV (13 %), and 67.70 HV (20 %) for the unified JMAK, non-iso JMAK, and K-V model, respectively., Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 313, ISSN:0924-0136

Macrolactonisation of a suitable heptapeptide precursor provides the cyclic depsipeptide core of callipeltin A in excellent yield.

Matteson homologations of chiral boronic esters proved to be an excellent tool for the synthesis of highly functionalized amino and hydroxy acid residues. This method provides straightforward stereoselective access to the side chain of callipeltin A, a natural marine product with interesting biological activities. Furthermore, this protocol should allow for variations in the substitution pattern in future SAR studies, simply by choosing suitable nucleophiles during the homologation steps.

To what extent, and under what conditions, have workfare reforms shaped public opinion towards the unemployed? This article unpacks the punitive and enabling dimensions of the workfare turn and examines how changes to the rights and obligations of the unemployed have influenced related policy preferences. To do so, it presents a novel dataset on these reforms across a diverse set of welfare states and investigates potential feedback effects by combining our data with four waves of survey data from Europe and North America. Results suggest that while enabling measures generate more lenient attitudes towards the unemployed, punitive measures have no clear effect on public opinion – but they do accentuate the gap between the preferences of high- and low-income individuals. This leads us to conclude that the trend towards punitive and enabling measures since the 1980s has not broadly undermined solidarity with the unemployed, though it has increased income-based polarization.

Excitons dominate the light absorption and re-emission spectra of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMD). Microscopic investigations of the excitonic response in TMD almost invariably extract information from the radiative recombination step, which only constitutes one part of the picture. Here, by exploiting imaging spectroscopic ellipsometry (ISE), we investigate the spatial dependence of the dielectric function of chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown WS2 flakes with a microscopic lateral resolution, thus providing information about the spatially varying, exciton-induced light absorption in the monolayer WS2. Comparing the ISE results with imaging photoluminescence spectroscopy data, the presence of several correlated features was observed, along with the unexpected existence of a few uncorrelated characteristics. The latter demonstrates that the exciton-induced absorption and emission features are not always proportional at the microscopic scale. Microstructural modulations across the flakes, having a different influence on the absorption and re-emission of light, are deemed responsible for the effect.

The Scandinavian welfare states stand out when it comes to future-oriented social investment policies and the associated social and economic performance (e.g., human capital formation, equality, inclusive growth). This chapter first explains how the inclusive social investment approach in Scandinavia came about. In the second part, it asks, is Scandinavia able to politically maintain this historical path and uphold its widely praised qualities and inclusive social investment approach? To answer this question, the authors offer an overview of the political conditions under which social investment had emerged as a political and policy paradigm and how this policy legacy structures the contemporary politics of social investment. Universalism/inclusiveness and social investment are two components of the same political-normative sequence that has generated unusually broad cross-class and cross-gender support for the social investment state. An empirical analysis of party manifestos shows that the different parts of the entire political spectrum are connected to form an unusually broad support structure for universalism and social investment. The authors assess if this coalition can be upheld and adjusted so as to be able to cope with new political challenges.

This article discusses the linear vibrational and nonlinear electronic excitation of the organic material P3HT during processing by ultrafast laser radiation in the mid-IR spectral range. Therefore...

One of the major challenges in modern car body construction is the reduction of component weight while still maintaining passenger safety. In terms of these requirements, the substitution of conventional steel grades by ultra-high strength materials is the most promising approach. Hot stamping of these steels has developed to a state of the art process for manufacturing safety-relevant car body parts such as B-pillars or front bumpers. By locally adjusting the mechanical properties, for example, increasing the ductility, passive safety can be further improved. For this purpose, the hot stamping process is adapted in different ways. Varying from these established methods, tailored carburization is an alternative approach for manufacturing functional optimized components by combining hot stamping with prior local carburization. Within this work, the potential of local carburization is analyzed by a fundamental investigation of the influence of the process parameters on the mechanical properties as well as the transition zones between carburized and non-carburized areas. Besides the mechanical properties, the heat transfer between carburized sheets and tools is studied. The process suitability is validated by a demonstrator.

Improvement in accuracy of the predicted results from numerical simulation results into a reduction of cost and time involved in tool design and experimental trials. However, the predicted results from finite element simulations are significantly affected by the chosen yield criterion and work hardening law. The selection of yield criterion and work hardening law depends on the characterization methods used for defining the material behavior. In this work, the mechanical behavior of AA5083-O aluminum alloy sheet is modeled by performing biaxial tensile tests using cruciform specimen and hydraulic bulging experiments in addition to uniaxial tensile tests. Biaxial to uniaxial yield stress ratios are determined using the equal plastic work principle from the flow curves obtained from these tests. The obtained ratios are used to find the coefficients of Yld2000-2d and Hill48 yield criteria which is then used in the numerical simulations of cylindrical cup deep drawing. Numerical simulations are also carried out using uniaxial and biaxial flow curves fitted with different isotropic hardening laws. Thickness distributions and the load-displacement curves are predicted and validated by performing cylindrical cup deep drawing experiments.

This article contributes to the literature on party appeals to social groups by introducing a new dataset on group and policy appeals in Scandinavia (2009–2015). In addition to coding to what social groups parties appeal, we collected information on what policies parties offer for the groups they mention and what goals and instruments they specify for such policies. The latter advance makes it possible to present new insights on the extent to which group appeals are actually substantial and meaningful. We find that left, centre and right parties appeal to broad demographic categories rather than class. There are almost no appeals to the middle class, although the frequent reference to a category ‘all’ can be interpreted as a functional equivalent for middle-class appeals. Finally, parties clearly still make substantial policy proposals and address concrete policy problems, but with only small differences in such appeals across the left–right spectrum.

The interaction of ultrashort pulsed laser radiation with intensities of 1013 W cm−2 and above with materials often results in an unexpected high X-ray photon flux. It has been shown so far, on the one hand, that X-ray photon emissions increase proportionally with higher laser power and the accumulated X-ray dose rates can cause serious health risks for the laser operators. On the other hand, there is clear evidence that little variations of the operational conditions can considerably affect the spectral X-ray photon flux and X-ray emissions dose. In order to enhance the knowledge in this field, four ultrashort pulse laser systems for providing different complementary beam characteristics were employed in this study on laser-induced X-ray emissions, including peak intensities between 8 × 1012 W∙cm−2 &lt, I0 &lt, 5.2 × 1016 W∙cm−2, up to 72.2 W average laser power as well as burst/bi-burst processing mode. By the example of AISI 304 stainless steel, it was verified that X-ray emission dose rates as high as H˙′&nbsp, (0.07) &gt, 45 mSv h−1 can be produced when low-intensity ultrashort pulses irradiate at a small 1 µm intra-line pulse distance during laser beam scanning and megahertz pulse repetition frequencies. For burst and bi-burst pulses, the second intra-burst pulse was found to significantly enhance the X-ray emission potentially induced by laser pulse and plasma interaction.

Excitons dominate the light absorption and re-emission spectra of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMD). Microscopic investigations of the excitonic response in TMD almost invariably extract information from the radiative recombination step, which only constitutes one part of the picture. Here, by exploiting imaging spectroscopic ellipsometry (ISE), we investigate the spatial dependence of the dielectric function of chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown WS2 flakes with a microscopic lateral resolution, thus providing information about the spatially varying, exciton-induced light absorption in the monolayer WS2. Comparing the ISE results with imaging photoluminescence spectroscopy data, the presence of several correlated features was observed, along with the unexpected existence of a few uncorrelated characteristics. The latter demonstrates that the exciton-induced absorption and emission features are not always proportional at the microscopic scale. Microstructural modulations across the flakes, having a different influence on the absorption and re-emission of light, are deemed responsible for the effect.

Optimizing the processing of organic photovoltaic devices by laser radiation requires a fundamental understanding of the excitation processes during laser radiation–matter interaction. Spatially an...

N-(α-Hydroxyacyl)-glycinesters can be used as excellent nucleophiles in Pd-catalyzed allylic alkylation. The method allows for the stereoselective introduction of a wide range of side chains, including highly functionalized ones. Both diastereomers can be accessed through variation of the reaction conditions. Furthermore, the use of stannylated carbonates introduces vinylstannane motifs, which are eligible for subsequent C-C coupling reactions.