Objective: To study the prevalence of orthopaedic surgery and to evaluate possible predictive factors for large joint replacements in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Patients and methods: A cohort of 183 patients (116 (63.4%) female) with early RA was monitored for 16-20 years after recruitment during 1985-9. Mean (SD) age of patients 51.4 (12.4) years; mean (SD) duration of symptom

Local CNS inflammation takes place in many neurological disorders and is important for autoimmune neuroinflammation. Microglial activation is strain-dependent in rats and differential MHC class II expression is influenced by variations in the Mhc2ta gene. Despite sharing Mhc2ta and MHC class II alleles, BN and LEW.1N rats differ in MHC class II expression after ventral root avulsion (VRA). We stud

Different methods for treatment of leachate from a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill were tested in a pilot plant. Raw leachate was pre-treated with aeration and sedimentation, followed by several parallel individual steps such as bioremediation, chemical oxidation, ozonation, and geo-bed filters. The efficiency of different treatment steps was evaluated according to one previously developed pr

We conducted a multicentre, cross- sectional study of 1042 haemophilia subjects across Europe to compare various health outcomes associated with on-demand vs. prophylactic factor-substitution therapy. Demographic, medical history, and healthcare resource utilization data were analysed along with the number of bleeding events over the past 6 months. Treatment-cost data were also examined to provide

The number of copies of DNA in human cells can be measured using array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), which provides intensity ratios of sample to reference DNA at genomic locations corresponding to probes on a microarray. In the present paper, we devise a statistical model, based on a latent continuous-index Markov jump process, that is aimed to capture certain features of aCGH data, i

We present a fast vectorized implementation of a transform that maps points in the unit square to the surface of the sphere, while preserving fractional area. The mapping uses the octahedral map combined with an equal-area param- eterization and has many desirable features such as low distortion, straightforward interpolation, and fast inverse and forward transforms. Our SIMD implementation c

Coherent control of collective spontaneous emission in an extended atomic ensemble resonantly interacting with single-photon wave packets is analyzed. A scheme for coherent manipulation of collective atomic states is developed such that superradiant states of the atomic system can be converted into subradiant ones and vice versa. Possible applications of such a scheme for optical quantum-state sto

We use the results from a recent investigation of hard parton-parton gravitational scattering in the ADD scenario to make semi-quantitative predictions for a few standard high-E-perpendicular to jet observables at the LHC. By implementing these gravitational scattering results in the PYTHIA event generator and combining it with the CHARYBDIS generator for black holes, we investigate the effects of

Using a variety of dedicated surface sensitive techniques, we studied the interaction of hydrogen with bare and adsorbate modified RuO2(110) surfaces on the atomic scale. Hydrogen interacts strongly with the undercoordinated O atoms, thereby forming hydroxyl groups and passivating available oxygen species on the oxide surface, for instance, for the catalytic CO oxidation reaction. Temperature prog

We present exact algorithms with exponential running times for variants of n-element set cover problems, based on divide-and-conquer and on inclusion exclusion characterizations. We show that the Exact Satisfiability problem of size l with m clauses can be solved in time 2(m)l(O(1)) and polynomial space. The same bounds hold for counting the number of solutions. As a special case, we can count the

The paper addresses a certain nonlocal plasticity model, where the consistency condition may be rewritten from a Fredholm equation of the second kind into a second order differential equation. Hereby, a case of equivalence between a nonlocal model and a gradient model will be found. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Background: Among patients with ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction, those with terminal QRS distortion (grade 3 ischemia) have higher mortality and larger infarct size (IS) than patients without QRS distortion (grade 2 ischemia). Methods: We assessed the relation of baseline electrocardiographic ischemia grades to area at risk (AR) and myocardial salvage [100 (AR - IS)/AR] in 79 patients who

Bees and wasps perform systematic flight manoevres when they leave their nest or a foodplace, during which they acquire or update their visual memory of the goal location. In a typical learning flight, the insect backs away from the goal in a series of arcs that are roughly centred on the goal. The mean rate of turning is rather constant and tends to balance the angular speed at which the arc is d

Colour vision greatly enhances the discriminatory and cognitive capabilities of visual systems and is found in a great majority of vertebrates and many invertebrates. However, colour coding visual systems are confronted with the fact that the external stimuli are ambiguous because they are subject to constant variations of luminance and spectral composition. Furthermore, the transmittance of the o

We studied the functional role of two mutations, Pro55Ser and Pro55Leu, located in the N-terminal Epidermal Growth Factor-like domain (EGF1) of coagulation factor (F) IX. Both mutations cause mild hemophilia B with habitual FIX coagulant activities of 10-12% and FIX antigen levels of 50%. We found that activation by FVIIa/TF and FXIa was normal for FIXPro55Ser, but resulted in proteolysis of FIXPr

PURPOSE: To assess cardiac mortality, coronary artery disease, myocardial dysfunction, and valvular heart disease in women younger than 65 years of age, at least 10 years after adjuvant radiotherapy following mastectomy in early breast cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Ninety women (45-64 years old) with Stage II breast cancer without relapse, included in the South Sweden Breast Cancer Trial (premeno

The aim of the study was to investigate what factors the physiotherapy experts in psychiatric physiotherapy believed to be important in the interaction between the patient and the physiotherapist (PT). The objective was to obtain a deeper insight into their reasoning concerning interaction and treatment outcomes. Eleven nominated ''expert'' PTs were each interviewed twice. Triangulation of importa

Aim: To evaluate survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in relation to sex. Methods: All patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest included in the Swedish Cardiac Arrest Registry between 1990 and 2000 in whom cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was attempted and who did not have a crew witnessed arrest were included. The registry covers 85% of the inhabitants of Sweden (approximately 8 m

This article tests for existence of cointegration between health expenditure and GDP using data from 25 OECD countries for the period 1960-1997. The empirical modelling is based on a heterogeneous bivariate vector error correction panel model that allows for trending data as well as intercepts and trends in the cointegrating relations. Univariate country-by-country and panel unit root tests genera

An annotated list of the known vascular plants of Andros is provided, with notes on ecological preferences, altitudinal distributions and frequency. The total number of native and naturalized taxa of vascular plants listed is 1055. Exact localities are provided for the rarest species on the island. 74 maps are also provided for species with variously delimited distribution. For the species known t