There are few longitudinal studies on sick building syndrome (SBS), which include ocular, nasal, throat, and dermal symptoms, headache, and fatigue. We studied the associations between selected microbial components, fungal DNA, furry pet allergens, and incidence and remission of SBS symptoms in schools in Taiyuan, China. The study was based on a two-year prospective analysis in pupils (N = 1143) i

Inventory control in a spare parts distribution system with emergency stocks and pipeline information

Molecularly imprinted nanomaterials are gaining substantial importance. As a simple and efficient synthetic method, precipitation polymerization has been used to prepare uniform molecularly imprinted microspheres for numerous template compounds. Despite of its general applicability, the difficulty of obtaining uniform particles for some difficult templates by precipitation polymerization has been

We evaluated the diagnostic potential of 24S-hydroxycholesterol (24OHC) in cerebrospinal fluid. At a memory clinic, we investigated subjects with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI, n = 33), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients (n = 27), MCI patients with later progression into Alzheimer dementia at follow up (n = 10), and patients with AD (n = 24). We also had a control group of healthy vol

When Octavian in 27 BC was given the title of Augustus, a shield was set up in the senate inscribed with four virtues; virtus, clementia, iustitia, and pietas. Aeneas, the great ancestor of Octavian, is frequently praised for pietas, virtus, and iustitia in the Aeneid. Regarding clementia, however, Vergil is conspicuously silent. Indeed, in the battle scenes of books 10 and 12, Aeneas refuses to s

Malignant gliomas bear the most dismal prognosis of all human cancers despite the progress in therapy of many other tumors. The search for alternative and complementary treatments has therefore a high priority. Emerging knowledge of the dual and diverging role of nitric oxide in glioma biology has focused on possibilities to achieve anti-glioma effects by modulation of nitric oxide (NO) release an

Studies from the public health and epidemiologic fields consider self-assessment of health as a solid measure of general health due to its predictive ability in relation to mortality. Empirical evidence in this direction have justified the generalized use of this measure in health surveys as well as its application to the general population. However, it is important to evaluate whether these findi

The aim of this study is to explore whether administration timing affects glycaemic control by lixisenatide once-daily in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

This study proposes a method for the characterization of respiratory patterns in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients with periodic breathing (PB) and nonperiodic breathing (nPB), using the flow signal. Autoregressive modeling of the envelope of the respiratory flow signal is the starting point for the pattern characterization. Spectral parameters extracted from the discriminant frequency band (DB

Background and objective: Previous studies have reported immunoreactive opioid nerve fibers in the detrusor and lower urinary tract sphincters. However, there is a paucity of in vivo studies demonstrating the direct effect of endogenous opioids in these structures. In the present study, we investigated the contractile actions of intra-arterially administered exogenous Dynorphin-A, Met-enkephalin,

Heterodyne light scattering is employed to probe the electrophoretic flow behavior of a concentrated, deionized model colloidal suspension. Both for the fluid and crystalline regime, the power spectra are well described as velocity distributions, which let assume that the power spectra are dominated by the self-dynamic structure factor. Furthermore, all measured power spectra show an increase of t

This study compares two approaches to the estimation of social welfare intervention costs: one "top-down" and the other "bottom-up" for a group of social welfare clients with severe problem behavior participating in a randomized trial. Intervention costs ranging over a two-year period were compared by intervention category (foster care placement, institutional placement, mentorship services, indiv

An outstanding feature of the early modern Indian Ocean World is the large number of women who exercised formal sovereign political power. Based on a systematic survey of 277 queens regnant in the Indian Ocean World from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, this article discusses four possible explanations for the relative frequency of female rule: religion, trade, political stability, and ge

By measuring 1/f-noise in wrap-gated InAs nanowire metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors with transport dominating, controllably, in either an inner, core channel, or an outer, surface channel, it is possible to accurately evaluate the material quality related Hooge-parameter, alpha(H), with reduced interference from the surface properties. The devices show low values of alpha(H) simi

BACKGROUND The association between aging-related testosterone deficiency and late-onset hypogonadism in men remains a controversial concept. We sought evidence-based criteria for identifying late-onset hypogonadism in the general population on the basis of an association between symptoms and a low testosterone level. METHODS We surveyed a random population sample of 3369 men between the ages of 40

Purpose of review Obesity has significant impact on asthma incidence and manifestations. The purpose of the review is to discuss recent observations regarding the association between obesity and asthma focusing on underlying mechanisms, clinical presentation, response to therapy and effect of weight reduction. Recent findings Clinical and epidemiological studies indicate that obese patients with a

An accurate molecular diagnosis of diabetes subtype confers clinical benefits; however, many individuals with monogenic diabetes remain undiagnosed. Biomarkers could help to prioritise patients for genetic investigation. We recently demonstrated that high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels are lower in UK patients with hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 alpha (HNF1A)-MODY than in other diabete

There is an ongoing debate about the value of virtual friendship. In contrast to previous authorships, this paper argues that virtual friendship can have independent value. It is argued that within an Aristotelian framework, some friendships that are prehaps impossible offline can exist online, i.e. some offline unequals can be online equals and thus form friendships of independent value.