Negative pressure wound therapy in cardiac surgery Rainer Petzina, M.D. Clinical Sciences, Lund, Lund University Poststernotomy mediastinitis is a devastating complication for patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Conventional treatment includes surgical revision, continuous irrigation with drainage and wound closure with the use of the greater omentum and muscle flaps. Widespread adoption of ne

Sjögren's syndrome is a systemic autoimmune disease that frequently presents concomitantly with other systemic connective tissue or organ-specific autoimmune diseases. This association is well described for systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. The presence of Sjögren's syndrome influences the expression of the other autoimmune disease to some degree, for instance by increasing fa

We consider the random normal matrix ensemble associated with a potential in the plane of sufficient growth near infinity. It is known that asymptotically as the order of the random matrix increases indefinitely, the eigenvalues approach a certain equilibrium density, given in terms of Frostman's solution to the minimum energy problem of weighted logarithmic potential theory. At a finer scale, we

Background. The question is debated on whether maternal hypothyroidism or use of thyroxin in early pregnancy affects the risk for infant congenital malformations. Objectives. To expand the previously published study on maternal thyroxin use in early pregnancy and the risk for congenital malformations. Methods. Data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register were used for the years 1996-2011 and infan

In this paper, we propose a practical and efficient method for finding the globally optimal solution to the problem of determining the pose of an object. We present a framework that allows us to use point-to-point, point-to-line, and point-to-plane correspondences for solving various types of pose and registration problems involving euclidean (or similarity) transformations. Traditional methods su

To validate whether Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV) serology correlates with MCV infection, we compared real-time polymerase chain reaction results for MCV DNA on fresh-frozen biopsy specimens from various skin lesions and healthy skin from 434 patients to MCV serology results using viruslike particles (VLPs) and MCV neutralization assays. Sixty-five percent of participants were MCV seropositive an

Telomeres are tandem repeats of TTAGGG at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomeres play a key role in chromosome stability and regulation of the cellular lifespan. Telomeres are shortened during cell division, and probably, by not yet well characterised factors in the environment. Short telomeres in peripheral blood have repeatedly been associated with increased risk of various types of cancer

Gaining reliable estimates of how long fish early life stages can survive without feeding and how starvation rate and time until death are influenced by body size, temperature and species is critical to understanding processes controlling mortality in the sea. The present study is an across-species analysis of starvation-induced changes in biochemical condition in early life stages of nine marine

Approximately 1 in 10 couples is infertile No definite cause can be found in about 25% of those cases Studies have indicated that seminal vesicle secretion functions as an optimizer of fertilization The Zn2+ binding protein semenogelin I (SgI) represents a major fraction of the proteins present in seminal vesicle fluid and it serves as a structural component of the coagulum that is formed after ej

We investigate, through osmotic pressure measurements, the validity of the single-parameter equation of state (EOS) for solutions of polyethylene glycols in water, by Cohen et al.(1,2) We show that it is physically meaningful and that a reasonable good correspondence between the osmotic pressures for PEG35 in large range of concentrations is obtained. We also take the chain length dependence into

Fundamental features of the arc stability in a dc arc furnace of 720 V/100 kA/72 MW have been investigated. The Cassie-Mayr arc model has been employed and applied for the target dc arc furnace. In order to characterize the parameters of the Cassie-Mayr arc model and the behavior of unstable arc dynamics, the advanced arc simulations of magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) have been performed. From the res

An evacuation experiment was performed in a road tunnel in order to investigate how motorists behave and emotionally respond when exposed to a fire emergency, how information and wayfinding systems are perceived and whether green flashing lights can influence exit choice. The participants believed that they were taking part in a study about driving behaviour. Approximately I kill inside the tunnel

The BIA method, based on assessment of patients in activities, was developed to enable reliable assessment of clients' occupational functioning. The method evaluates the patient's ego functions and capacity for activity and participation. The aims of this study were to examine inter-rater reliability for the BIA method and to compare the experiences of staff working with the BIA with those of staf

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by recurrent episodes of potentially life-threatening angioedema. The most widespread underlying genetic deficiency is a heterozygous deficiency of the serine protease inhibitor Cl esterase inhibitor (C1-Inh). In addition to low C4 levels, the most important laboratory parameter for correct diagnosis of HAE or angioedema du

It is difficult to overestimate Paul Meehl's influence on judgment and decision-making research. His 'disturbing little book' (Meehl, 1986, p. 370) Clinical versus Statistical Prediction: A Theoretical Analysis and a Review of the Evidence (1954) is known as an attack on human judgment and a call for replacing clinicians with actuarial methods. More than 40 years later, fast and frugal heuristics

The well known AGM framework for belief revision has recently been extended to include a model of the research agenda of the agent, i.e. a set of questions to which the agent wishes to find answers (Olsson & Westlund in Erkenntnis, 65, 165-183, 2006). The resulting model has later come to be called interrogative belief revision. While belief revision has been studied extensively from the point

The activites of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and ODC inhibitory protein (ODC-antizyme) were studied in Ehrlich ascites tumor cells, separated according to their position in the cell cycle by centrifugal elutriation. Release and/or synthesis of ODC-antizyme was induced by putrescine treatment. Each mouse received an intraperitoneal injection of 25 moles of putrescine at 0, 1, 2, and 3 hr after tu