The water vapor transport and moisture budget over eastern China remotely forced by the cold-tongue (CT) and warm-pool (WP) El Nino show striking differences throughout their lifetime. The water vapor transport response is weak in the developing summer but strong in the remaining phases of CT El Nino, whereas the opposite occurs duringWP El Nino. WP El Nino causes a moisture deficit over the Yangt

Studies on iterative reconstruction techniques on computed tomographic (CT) scanners show reduced noise and changed image texture. The purpose of this study was to address the possibility of dose reduction and improved conspicuity of lesions in a liver phantom for different iterative reconstruction algorithms. An anthropomorphic upper abdomen phantom, specially designed for receiver operating char

Managers who select projects have a moral responsibility. The purpose of this paper is to present a template to assess this responsibility so that it can be put into practice. Responsibility is here defined as a combination of attributability—what choices the project manager can ultimately be praised or blamed for, and of accountability—what choices the project manager has to be prepared to answer

AIM/HYPOTHESIS: Individuals at risk of developing type 2 diabetes show a progressive decline in insulin secretion and increased insulin resistance over time. However, inability of the beta cells to compensate for the increased insulin resistance represents a key defect leading to overt type 2 diabetes. The aims of the present study were to replicate the association between genetic variants of the

BACKGROUND: The transit of blood through the beating heart is a basic aspect of cardiovascular physiology which remains incompletely studied. Quantification of the components of multidirectional flow in the normal left ventricle (LV) is lacking, making it difficult to put the changes observed with LV dysfunction and cardiac surgery into context. METHODS: Three dimensional, three directional, time

Lymphangiogenesis, the generation of new lymphatic vessels, plays important roles in cancer metastasis. Outstanding progress during the past decade has dramatically increased the novel knowledge and insights of the mechanisms underlying the generation of new lymphatic vessels, the roles of transcription factors and lymphangiogenic growth factors during physiological development and pathological pr

Segmentation of human brain using structural MRI is a key step of processing in imaging neuroscience. The methods have undergone a rapid development in the past two decades and are now widely available. This non-technical review aims at providing an overview and basic understanding of the most common software. Starting with the basis of structural MRI contrast in brain and imaging protocols, the

Summary: Long-term, continuous prophylaxis for haemophilia began at a modest scale during the 1950s and 1960s in Sweden and The Netherlands. In the face of high cost and impediments to the performance of longitudinal, well-designed studies, it was decades before prophylaxis was considered to be the best practice in countries that could afford the cost. In 2007 and 2011, the only prospective random

Self-reported data on smoking during pregnancy from the Medical Birth Register of Sweden (MBR) are widely used. However, underreporting of such behaviour may occur, leading to biases. It is of importance to validate the smoking data in the MBR. The main objective was to investigate the agreement between self-reported smoking data from the MBR and cotinine levels in maternal serum among women from

Stem cell factor (SCF) binds the receptor tyrosine kinase c-Kit and is critical for normal hematopoiesis. Substitution of valine for aspartic acid 816 (D816V) constitutively actives human c-Kit, and this mutation is found in patients with mastocytosis, leukemia, and germ cell tumors. Immortalized murine progenitor cells (MIHCs) transduced with wild-type c-Kit proliferate in response to SCF, wherea

A procedure to obtain future local precipitation characteristics focused on extreme conditions has been developed based on a weather generator. The method involves six major steps: (1) the weather generator was calibrated using observed daily precipitation at 220 Swedish stations during 1961–2004; (2) present and future daily precipitation characteristics for the Swedish stations from two global c

The psychometric properties of the three-item Minimal Insomnia Symptom Scale (MISS) were evaluated using the classical test theory. Different cut-offs for identifying insomnia were suggested in two age groups (≥6 and ≥7 among adult and elderly people, respectively). The aim of the present study was to test the measurement properties of the MISS using the Rasch measurement model, with special empha

A mouse platelet-derived growth factor A chain (PDGF-A) null allele is shown to be homozygous lethal, with two distinct restriction points, one prenatally before E10 and one postnatally. Postnatally surviving PDGF-A-deficient mice develop lung emphysema secondary to the failure of alveolar septation. This is apparently caused by the loss of alveolar myofibroblasts and associated elastin fiber depo

Objective: To explain a clinical observation: a notch in the stimulus spectrum during transient evoked otoacoustic emission measurement in ears with secretory otitis media. Methods: The effects of tympanic under-pressure were investigated using a pressure chamber. A model of the ear canal was also studied. Results: Tympanic membrane reflectance increased as a consequence of increased stiffn

A 73-year-old man presented with a thunderclap headache (TCH), suggesting a subarachnoid haemorrhage. Neurological examination, computer tomography of the head, and cerebrospinal fluid examination were normal. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed a supratentorial cerebral infarct. No cerebral aneurysm could be detected. A TCH can be the presenting feature of many conditions. A formula

The objective of this study was to compare early and 1 year outcome of needle fasciotomy and collagenase injection for Dupuytren's disease. Inclusion criteria were primary Dupuytren's contracture excluding the thumb with a palpable cord and a total extension deficit, i.e. a fixed flexion from 30° to 135° with less than 60° in the proximal interphalangeal joint. The most affected ray was randomized

A devastating complication associated with negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) after cardiac surgical intervention is heart rupture resulting in serious bleeding. The benefit of a rigid barrier between the underlying organs and the sharp sternal edges has been demonstrated in pigs. In the present article, we present our first 6 patients with deep sternal wound infection treated with NPWT in com