Increasing awareness of atrial fibrillation (AF) and its impact on public health revives interest in identification of noninvasive markers of predisposition to AF and ECG-based risk stratification. P-wave duration is generally accepted as the most reliable noninvasive marker of atrial conduction, and its prolongation has been associated with history of AF. However, patients with paroxysmal AF with

PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine if there are any associations between serum levels of inflammatory markers and proliferative retinopathy (PDR) in type 1 diabetic patients. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design was utilized for this study. METHODS: One hundred twenty-eight type 1 diabetic patients underwent stereo fundus photography according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study and

Abstract Objectives. Glucometabolic disturbances are associated with myocardial dysfunction. Brain natriuretic peptides (BNP) are used for detecting myocardial dysfunction in clinical practice. However, studies on elderly subjects and gender-specific analyses are sparse. Design. We examined cross-sectional associations between Nt-proBNP and 1) fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and 2) categories of glu

Adolescents with immigrant or ethnic minority background suffering from asthma receive on average less appropriate anti-asthmatic medication (AAM) than the majority population. However, those findings are based on analyses of differences between group averages which prevents our understanding of individual heterogeneity around the averages. Taking into account individual socioeconomic factors and

In the course of a few months in 1997, about 20 per cent of Stockholm Stock Exchange's primary-list firms transferred to the Exchange's secondary list due to a new tax policy. Drawing on a theory of social influence, we suggest that the transfer decisions depended both on the firms' social embeddedness with other firms in the population at risk and their economic predisposition to make such transf

PURPOSE To improve the poor prognosis of patients with primary disseminated multifocal Ewing sarcomas (PDMES) with a dose-intense treatment concept. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 1999 to 2005, 281 patients with PDMES were enrolled onto the Euro-EWING 99 R3 study. Median age was 16.2 years (range, 0.4 to 49 years). Recommended treatment consisted of six cycles of vincristine, ifosfamide, doxorubicin, a

Time-lapse imaging of Streptomyces hyphae revealed foci of the essential protein DivIVA at sites where lateral branches will emerge. Overexpression experiments showed that DivIVA foci can trigger establishment of new zones of cell wall assembly, suggesting a key role of DivIVA in directing peptidoglycan synthesis and cell shape in Streptomyces.

The TM0 surface mode in an infinitely long parallel-plate waveguide filled with a double-positive (DPS) and epsilon-negative (ENG) metamaterial bi-layer is studied. With proper constitutive parameters and thicknesses of the two layers, the slow-wave factor (SWF) for such a parallel-plate waveguide can tend to infinity as the frequency decreases. A 2-D cavity based on the DPS-ENG bi-layer waveguide

Objective: To evaluate the long-term benefits of constraint-induced movement therapy in chronic stroke.Design: A four-year follow-up after constraint-induced group therapy assessing arm and hand function and self-reported daily hand use.Subjects: Fourteen post-stroke individuals (six women and eight men; mean age 59.6 +/- 12.7 years, range 23-75 years) with mild to moderate impairments of hand fun

OBJECTIVE: The composition of clinical department managers in Swedish hospitals is changing; more non-doctors and women are entering managerial positions. In parallel, most hospitals face increased pressure to contain costs. This article presents a study of managers' perceptions of tightness of budgetary control and how their views vary systematically with personal characteristics and organization

Triazines comprise an important pollutant class owing to continued use in certain countries, and owing to strong environmental persistence that leads to problems even in countries like Sweden where the use of triazines has been prohibited for some years. We investigated mass-selective detection for analysis of triazines. More specifically, we studied the background reduction and sensitivity enhanc

Swedish conjunctions differ from subjunctions by being able to combine main clauses with each other. At the beginning of the literary period (13th century) Swedish had conjinctions meaning 'and', 'or', 'but', all of them with a Proto-Germanic origin. During the following centuries a few causal/explanatory and consecutive/conclusive conjunctioms were added: ty, for, so. In this article it s argued

In recent decades, the effects of religious pluralism on religious participation has been a much debated topic among sociologists of religion. During most of the 20th century, the traditional view among sociologists was that pluralism undermines religion because competition between religious organizations was assumed to impair the credibility of religion as such. In the 1980s, however, this view w