The aim of this double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study was to investigate possible improvement in physical performance at an ambient temperature of -15 degrees C by an inhaled dose of 50 micrograms salmeterol in 8 highly trained nonasthmatic cross-country skiers. FEV1 was measured before, during and after the treadmill exercise protocol, which consisted of a warm-up run, runs of 10 min

Aims To describe atrial fibrillation (AF) management in member countries of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and to verify cardiology practices against guidelines. Methods and results Among 182 hospitals in 35 countries, 5333 ambulant and hospitalized AF patients were enrolled, in 2003 and 2004. AF was primary or secondary diagnosis, and was confirmed on ECG in the preceding 12 months. Cli

Background: To evaluate and describe the cone function in the normal and lesioned rabbit retina using the multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG). Methods: Twelve animals underwent a two-port vitrectomy with subsequent retinectomy in one eye. The area of removed retina was located in the nasal part of the visual streak, and measured approximately 1-2 disc diameters. Both eyes were investigated with m

Ring species, which consist of two reproductively isolated forms connected by a chain of intergrading populations, have often been described as examples of speciation despite gene flow between populations, but this has never been demonstrated. We used amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers to study gene flow in greenish warblers (Phylloscopus trochiloides). These genetic markers sho

Background - Although effective coverage of challenging coronary lesions has warranted the use of overlapping drug-eluting stents, the histopathological response to stent overlap is unknown. Methods and Results - The arterial reaction to overlapping Cypher or Taxus drug-eluting stents was examined in rabbits with bare metal stents, BxVelocity or Express, serving as controls. Single iliac artery ba

A search for pair-produced doubly charged Higgs bosons has been performed using the data collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV. No excess is observed in the data with respect to the Standard Model background. A lower limit for the mass of 97.3 GeV/c(2) at the 95% confidence level has been set for doubly charged Higgs bosons in left-right symmetr

Objective To describe the gray-scale and color Doppler ultrasound findings of metastatic tumors in the ovary according to the origin of the primary tumor. Methods Information was retrieved retrospectively from 67 patients who had undergone preoperative transvaginal gray-scale and color Doppler ultrasound examination and who were found subsequently to have metastatic tumors in their ovaries. In all

Patterns of polyploid evolution in the taxonomically controversial Dactylorhiza incarnata/maculata groups were inferred genetically by analyzing 399 individuals from 177 localities for (1) four polymorphic plastid regions yielding aggregate haplotypes and (2) nuclear ribosomal ITS allele frequencies. Concordance between patterns observed in distributions of plastid haplotypes and ITS alleles rende

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is known to have a higher risk of revision than tricompartmental arthroplasty (TKA), while UKA implants are generally less expensive than TKA implants. We estimated the costs of implants and hospital stay of both procedures and related the cost difference at primary operation to the difference in number of revisions to be expected. We compared 15,437 primar

A detailed analysis is presented of the diffractive deep-inelastic scattering process ep -> eXY, where Y is a proton or a low mass proton excitation carrying a fraction 1 - x(IP) > 0.95 of the incident proton longitudinal momentum and the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex satisfies |t| < 1 GeV2. Using data taken by the H1 experiment, the cross section is measured for photon virtu

Chronic itch is a common and distressing symptom that arises from a variety of skin conditions and systemic diseases. Despite this, there is no clinically based classification of pruritic diseases to assist in the diagnosis and cost-effective medical care of patients with pruritus. The proposed classification focuses on clinical signs and distinguishes between diseases with and without primary or

Numerical simulations are performed for multiphase jets in crossflow. The flow solver uses an Eulerian/Lagrangian approach. Turbulence in the gas phase is modeled in the framework of large eddy simulation. The dispersed phase is handled using Lagrangian particle tracking. The model assumptions of solvers for Lagrangian particle tracking are critically assessed for typical flow conditions of spray

Reviews and practice guidelines for paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) recommend cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) as the psychological treatment of choice, but note that it has not been sufficiently evaluated for children and adolescents and that more randomized controlled trials are needed. The aim of this trial was to evaluate effectiveness and optimal delivery of CBT, emphasizing c

We describe JastAdd, a Java-based system for specifying and implementing the parts of compiler front ends that follow parsing. The system is built on top of a traditional Java parser generator which is used for parsing and tree building. JastAdd adds facilities for specifying and generating object-oriented abstract syntax trees with both declarative behavior (using Reference Attributed Grammars (R