Background Measuring health-related quality of life (QoL) after surgery is essential for decision making by patients, surgeons, and payers. The aim of this consensus conference was twofold. First, it was to determine for which diseases endoscopic surgery results in better postoperative QoL than open surgery. Second, it was to recommend QoL instruments for clinical research. Methods An expert panel

This study investigates what makes parents of hospitalized children feel secure and factors influencing their level of participation. It also studies, whether the degree to which parents participate affects their child's pain and sleep during hospitalization. Questionnaires were distributed to a series of parents whose children were discharged from two paediatric surgical wards and one paediatric

In this study the authors assessed the possible relationship between high dietary exposure to persistent organohalogens (OHS) through fatty fish from the Baltic Sea and hormone levels in adult men. Blood samples were drawn from 110 men who consumed varying amounts of fish (i.e., 0-32 meals per month) for analysis of plasma levels of 18 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, 5 hydroxy-PCBs, 1,1,

Using a general 3-D finite-volume code, the development of buoyancy force driven secondary flow and its effects on developing laminar flow and heat transfer have been numerically simulated for a horizontal fuel cell duct with a rectangular cross section. The constant thermal-properties assumption except for linear density variation with temperature in the body force term is applied, and a constant

The perforated patch whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique was applied to superficial cells in intact mouse pancreatic islets. Three types of electrical activity were observed corresponding to alpha-, beta- and delta-cells. The delta-cells were electrically active in the presence of glucose but lacked the oscillatory pattern seen in the beta-cells. By contrast, the alpha-cells were

Fetal antigen 1 (FA1) is a circulating glycoprotein containing six epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like repeats. FA1's larger membrane-bound precursor is defined by the cDNAs referred to as either human delta-like (dlk) or human adrenal specific cDNA, pG2. In rodents FA1 has also been studied under the names of preadipocyte factor 1 (Pref-1), and zona glomerulosa-specific factor (ZOG). FA1 is abunda

Bülow B, Ahrén B (Lund University, Lund, Sweden) on behalf of the Swedish Research Council Study Group of Endocrine Abdominal Tumours. Adrenal incidentaloma - experience of a standardized diagnostic programme in the Swedish prospective study. J Intern Med 2002; 252: 239-246. OBJECTIVE: To report the 5-year experience of a diagnostic programme for adrenal incidentaloma with special emphasis to diag

The hepatic extraction ratio or propionate and the net hepatic flux of methylmalonate (MMA) were investigated in six Suffolk lambs (32.7 +/- 1.7 kg BW) implanted with catheters in a mesenteric artery and in the portal, hepatic, and ruminal veins and a cannula in the rumen. The lambs were fed a pelleted barley-based diet (1.1 kg DM per day) and subjected to three intravenous infusion protocols sepa

Popular Abstract in Swedish För drygt ett decennium sedan beslutade EU:s dåvarande tolv medlemsstater att upprätta ett gemensamt europeiskt medborgarskap för unionens invånare. Alltsedan dess har det europeiska medborgarskapet varit en omdiskuterad och kontroversiell, men för den breda allmänheten tämligen okänd, innovation i den europeiska integrationen. I Medborgarskap efter nationalstaten ? ettThis thesis is an attempt to formulate a constructive proposal for the ongoing establishment of a post-national European citizenship in the European Union. To the extent that the proposal is post-national, the ambition is to re-conceptualise the idea and ideal of citizenship in a new historical setting. To the extent that the proposal is constructive, the ambition is to develop and employ a method

Popular Abstract in Swedish I många utvecklingsländer i tropiska klimat leder den snabba urbaniseringen till många problem, bl a försämrad termisk komfort i utemiljön. Detta har negativa följder för människors hälsa och välbefinnande och påverkar sociala och kommersiella aktiviteter utomhus negativt. Följaktligen är det mycket viktigt att åstadkomma komfortabla mikroklimat i urban miljö. Den huvuIn many developing tropical countries, rapid urban growth leads to several problems, including increased thermal stress. This has negative consequences for people's health and well-being, and affects social and commercial outdoor activities negatively. Consequently, the creation of thermally comfortable microclimates in urban environments is highly important. The main aim of this thesis is to dee

Dark-grown tigrina-d(12) mutants of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) accumulate abnormally high amounts of the chlorophyll intermediate protochlorophyllide. In light dark cycles this leads to necrotic segments of the seedling leaves and lethality due to photodynamic damage by the excessive protochlorophyllide accumulated in the dark period. Upon inhibition of the early chlorophyll biosynthetic enzyme,

The use of bio-fuels is becoming more important because of the environmental benefits associated with these fuels. Deactivation of SCR catalysts applied in bio-fuel plants is a major problem due to the high potassium content of bio-fuels and therefore, great potential lies in finding regeneration processes that can be used commercially. Exposing the catalyst surface to sulphate groups generated by

Background: Polymorphisms in and around the CTLA-4 gene have previously been associated to TiD and AITD in several populations. One such single nucleotide polymorphism ( SNP), CT60, has been reported to affect the expression level ratio of the soluble ( sCTLA- 4) to full length CTLA- 4 ( flCTLA- 4) isoforms. The aims of our study were to replicate the association previously published by Ueda et al