Background: Nocturnal ventilatory support by nasal positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) is an established treatment method in patients with chronic alveolar hypoventilation (CAH). The knowledge about its long-term effects on health-related quality of life (HRQL) is limited. Methods: In a prospective, longitudinal, single-strand study, patients with CAH caused by non-COPD conditions, consecutively

This article examines differences in health among immigrants in Sweden from 1990 to 2001. Controlling for demographic characteristics, most immigrant groups display higher rates of hospitalisation than native Swedes, but when socio-economic factors are introduced, only Nordic immigrants display rates that are significantly higher than for Swedish-born individuals. High rates of hospitalisation amo

Different screening models in quantum cascade lasers are compared by calculating the contribution of intrasubband impurity scattering to the optical linewidth as a function of temperature. We find a strong impact of impurity scattering, which increases substantially with temperature. A simple isotropic bulk screening model works well if the screening length is of the order of or longer than the pe

Background: The incidence of arm lymphoedema after treatment for breast cancer ranges from 1 to 49 percent. Although most women can be treated by non-operative means with satisfying results, end-stage lymphoedema is often non-responsive to compression, where hypertrophy of adipose tissue limits the outcome value of compression or massage. Methods: This was a prospective study of 37 women with unil

Dawkins in his The Selfish Gene(1) quite aptly applies the term "selfish" to parasitic repetitive DNA sequences endemic to eukaryotic genomes, especially vertebrates. Doolittle and Sapienza (2) as well as Orgel and Crick (3) enlivened this notion of selfish DNA with the identification of such repetitive sequences as remnants of mobile elements such as transposons. In addition, Orgel and Crick (3)

Metasedimentary granulites from the central portion of the Belarus-Podlyasie granulite belt were studied with the purpose to reproduce the Paleoproterozoic tectono-thermal evolution in the western part of the East European craton. The regularities identified in the compositional variations in minerals (particularly, garnet), textural relations between minerals, and thermobarometric data point to t

A series of CCK2 receptor ligands were analysed with respect to their interaction with binding sites in the membranes of COS-7 cells and SK-N-MC cells transiently expressing the human CCK2 receptor (short isoform). The ligands were YF476, YM022, AG041R, L-740,093, JB93182, PD134308, and PD136450. Their binding was analysed by radioligand competition using [H-3]L-365,260 as the labelled ligand. Sat

The lidar technique is an efficient tool for remote monitoring of the distribution of a number of atmospheric species. We study measurements of sulphur dioxide emitted from the Italian volcano Mt. Etna. This study is focused on the treatment of data and on the procedure to evaluate range-resolved concentrations. In order to make an in-depth analysis, the lidar system was prepared to store measurem

The phase behavior and phase structure of the mixed lecithin/DDAB system in water are studied by SAXS, H-2 NMR, cryo-TEM, and optical polarization microscopy methods. Macroscopically, the triangular phase diagram is dominated by one lamellar liquid crystalline region. SAXS data in combination with 2H NMR detect the presence of two different lamellar phases. The collapsed lamellar phase originated

Protein C inhibitor (PCI) is a serine protease inhibitor, displaying broad protease specificity, found in blood and other tissues. In blood, it is capable of inhibiting both procoagulant and anticoagulant proteases. Mechanisms that provide specificity to PCI remain largely unrevealed. In this study we have for the first time provided a full explanation for the marked size heterogeneity of blood-de

To define fibre type grouping in terms of random and non-random arrangements of the two fibre types, type 1 (ST) and type 2 (FT), we adopted the measure of counting the number of "enclosed fibres". The statistical properties of the number of enclosed fibres, and the number and size of groups of enclosed fibres were studied in computer-simulated muscle cross-sections, using a model based upon hexag

Development of kindling and mossy fiber sprouting, and changes of gene expression were studied after 40 seizures produced during about 3 h by electrical stimulation every 5 min in the ventral hippocampus. As assessed by 5 test stimulations, enhanced responsiveness was present already after 6-24 h but from 1 week post-seizure increased gradually up to 4 weeks without additional stimuli. Sprouting o

OBJECTIVE: An increased mortality due to cardiovascular disease has been reported in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT). An association between urate and cardiovascular disease has been suggested. Metabolic abnormalities in pHPT may include urate. We therefore evaluated the metabolic arteriosclerotic risk profile in pHPT with special focus on the role of urate. DESIGN: Retrospective

Time-resolved and spatially resolved measurements of the diffuse reflectance from biological tissue are two well-established techniques for extracting the reduced scattering and absorption coefficients. We have performed a comparison study of the performance of a spatially resolved and a time-resolved instrument at wavelengths 660 and 785 nm and also of an integrating-sphere setup at 550-800 nm. T

We present faster overlap tests between spheres and either axis-aligned or oriented boxes. By utilizing quick rejection tests, faster execution times are observed compared to previous techniques. In addition, we present alternative vectorized overlap tests, which are compared to the sequential algorithms. Source code is available online.

The kinetics and mechanism of the aromatic nucleophilic substitution reaction of 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) with OH- in nonionic sugar-derived micelles were investigated and compared with those for reaction in polyoxyethylene glycol surfactants. Hydroxyl groups on the sugar headgroups of micellized n-nonyl beta-D-glucopyranoside (C(9)G(1)), n-dodecyl beta-D-maltoside (C(12)G(2)), and n-dodecy

The aim of the present study was to examine autonomic function in response to negatively and positively valenced pictures under different levels of conscious recognition. Heart period variability (HPV) and heart rate (HR) reactivity were studied in 53 males and females who were being shown pictures of angry and happy faces. The pictures, which were backwardly masked, were presented once every 30 s