BACKGROUND: Recent studies have suggested that artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) may reduce certain biochemical blood factors but the efficacy of this plant on blood pressure (BP) has not yet been investigated. In this study, we determined the clinical efficacy of C. scolymus on BP and body mass index (BMI) in hypertensive patients as an adjunctive to captopril for the first time.METHODS: The total p

Background: In a European study on contact allergy in the general population, it has been hypothesized that the combination of contact allergy to a fragrance together with a history indicating dermatitis at exposure and thereafter subsequent avoidance of scented products implied a diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis. Objectives: The primary aim of this study was to validate this hypothesis/al

This study investigates the form of deictic gestures used by speakers of the Quiahije variety of Eastern Chatino (Otomangean, Zapotecan) spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. An analysis of over six hours of interviews about local landmarks reveals that Quiahije Chatino speakers consistently use the far-is-up strategy to convey target distance in their deictic gestures—the farther the target, the higher and m

Objective: To compare the real-life effectiveness of biologic therapy (a biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug plus methotrexate [MTX]) versus triple therapy (MTX plus sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine) for sustained remission of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: RA patients who were registered in the nationwide Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register between 2000 and 2012

Faults in district heating (DH) customer installations cause high return temperatures, which have a negative impact on both current and future district heating systems. Thus, there is a need to detect and correct these faults soon after they occur to minimize their impact on the system. This paper, therefore, suggests a fault handling process for the detection and elimination of faults in DH custo

In many IoT applications, sensor data is sent remotely to be processed, but only the freshest result is of interest. In this paper we investigate a feedback mechanism that aborts the processing of stale data at the remote end to reduce the load and save costs. The process is approximated by an M/M/$\infty$ queueing system with a feedback loop. We find the exact expression of the average computatioIn many IoT applications, sensor data is sent remotely to be processed, but only the freshest result is of interest. In this paper we investigate a feedback mechanism that aborts the processing of stale data at the remote end to reduce the load and save costs. The process is approximated by an M/M/∞ queueing system with a feedback loop. We find the exact expression of the average computational tim

Background: Continuous monitoring of seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness (SIVE) is needed due to the changing nature of influenza viruses and it supports the decision on the annual update of vaccine composition. Age-specific SIVE was evaluated against different influenza sub-types in the hospitalized population in Lithuania during four influenza seasons. Methods: A test-negative case-control

Foot measurement is necessary for personalized customization. Nowadays, people usually obtain their foot size by using a ruler or foot scanner. However, there are some disadvantages to this, namely, large measurement error and variance when using rulers, and high price and poor convenience when using a foot scanner. To tackle these problems, we obtain foot parameters by 3D foot reconstruction base

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), an important mediator of lipid transportation in plasma and the nervous system, plays a large role in diseases such as atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's. The major allele variants ApoE3 and ApoE4 differ only by one amino acid. However, this difference has major consequences for the physiological behaviour of each variant. In this paper, we follow (i) the initial interaction

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pancreatic fistula is the leading cause of morbidity after distal pancreatectomy. Strategies investigated to reduce the incidence have been disappointing. Recent data showed a reduction in postoperative pancreatic fistula with the use of synthetic mesh reinforcement of the staple line. METHODS: An RCT was conducted between May 2014 and February 2016 at four tertiary refer

Increasingly fine-grained cloud billing creates incentives to review the software execution footprint in virtual environments. For example, virtual execution environments move towards lower overhead: from virtual machines to containers, unikernels, and serverless cloud computing. However, the execution footprint of security components in virtualized environments has either remained the same or eve

Background: A majority of individuals with osteoarthritis (OA) are insufficiently physically active. Self-monitoring with wearable activity trackers (WAT) could promote physical activity (PA), and increased knowledge of PA patterns and adherence to using a WAT is needed. The aim of this study was to describe PA patterns and adherence to WAT-use during an intervention among participants of working

The idea of ‘Sustainability as a Real Utopia’ elaborated on here adapts sociologist Erik Olin Wright’s emancipatory social science and is a heuristic informed by critical realism and social theory for interdisciplinary research on viable alternatives that move society towards achieving sustainability. Starting from the proposition that many environmental problems are rooted in how social structure

Background: Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), the most common congenital cardiac anomaly, has been associated with an aortopathy, increased aortic stiffness and diastolic dysfunction. The involved mechanisms and impact of age remain unclear. It was the aim of this study to characterize arterial and cardiac function, their correlation, and the effect of age in children and adults with a history of BAV.

Background: After decades of ubiquitous oxygen therapy in all patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI), recent guidelines are more restrictive based on lack of efficacy in contemporary trials evaluating hard clinical outcomes in patients without hypoxemia at baseline. However, no evidence regarding treatment effects on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) exists. In this study, we investig

Non-responders to checkpoint inhibitors generally have low tumor T cell infiltration and could benefit from immunotherapy that activates dendritic cells, with priming of tumor-reactive T cells as a result. Such therapies may be augmented by providing tumor antigen in the form of cancer vaccines. Our aim was to study the effects of mitazalimab (ADC-1013; JNJ-64457107), a human anti-CD40 agonist IgG

Did the different public-health policies that Sweden and Denmark pursued in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic result in different levels of public trust in governments’ and health authorities’ ability to guide the two countries safely through the pandemic? How did the level of trust change as the pandemic unfolded? And were there any cross-country differences in the correlates of trust? Using