The spleen is generally not considered a challenge to the radiologist. Most often it poses a problem by anomalies or an irregular but normal contrast enhancement; however, a variety of inflammatory, infectious and neoplastic diseases may involve the spleen. CT and ultrasonography are screening modalities for the spleen. For problem solving, MR imaging can be helpful, especially due to its free cho

Objective. To compare choice of actions and justifying reasons among the general public, GPs and oncologists. Design. A postal questionnaire using four vignettes: a healthy patient reluctant to quit smoking and one demanding an X-ray, a pulmonary cancer patient reluctant to quit smoking and one demanding immunotherapy. Subjects. A random sample of the general public (n=1000), GPs (n=200), and onco

A refined formulation of an existing polymer density functional theory is presented, wherein an intrachain stiffness is introduced via a bending potential. Comparisons with Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations in a slit geometry shows that this leads to a considerable improvement of the predicted density profile for a hard sphere polymer melt, at low density. We also show how the corresponding surfa

Two randomized controlled trials (RCT) on intrapartum fetal monitoring with cardiotocography (CTG) only versus CTG combined with automatic ST segment waveform analysis of the fetal ECG have been performed. In altogether 6826 randomized cases, the odds ratio for operative delivery for fetal distress (ODFD) was 0.65 (95% confidence interval 0.53-0.78) and for metabolic acidosis at birth 0.39 (0.21-0

Level-set G-equation and stationary flamelet chemistry are used in large eddy simulation of a propane/air premixed turbulent flame stabilized by a bluff body. The aim was to study the interaction between the flame front and turbulent eddies, and in particular to examine the effect of sub-grid scale (SGS) eddies on the wrinkling of the flame surface. The results indicated that the two types of turb

Surveys of prescribing patterns in both hospitals and primary care have usually shown delays in translating the evidence from clinical trials of pharmacological agents into clinical practice, thereby denying patients with heart failure (HF) the benefits of drug treatments proven to improve well-being and prolong life. This may be due to unfamiliarity with the evidence-base for these therapies, the

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of two different fresh gas flows on inspired and end-tidal sevoflurane concentration for a given vaporizer setting in a low-flow anesthesia system.DESIGN: Prospective clinical study.SETTING: Department of Anesthesiology of a university teaching hospital.PATIENTS: 56 ASA physical status I and II patients without systemic diseases, having elective surgery w

Objective: Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) is a recently introduced method for the treatment of poststernotomy mediastinitis. The aim was to examine the effects of VAC negative pressure on peristernal soft tissue, blood flow after internal mammary artery harvesting. Methods: Microvascular blood flow was measured using laser Doppler velocimetry in a porcine sternotomy wound model. The effect of VAC n

In an attempt to enhance the quality of internal medicine practice and to reform the education of internists across Europe, the European Board of Internal Medicine (formed by the European Federation of Internal Medicine and the European Union of Medical Specialists Section of Internal Medicine) has launched a project aimed at defining core competencies that are common to all internists. The compil

Objective To describe the outcome, assessed as the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA), of a mature (more than half the events recorded) prospective randomized study with a median follow-up of 82 months of neoadjuvant hormonal therapy before radical prostatectomy, as this has been suggested to decrease the rate of positive surgical margins (i.e. provide greater potential to completely excise

The production cost of cellulolytic enzymes is a major contributor to the high cost of ethanol production from lignocellulosics using enzymatic hydrolysis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the cellulolytic enzyme production of Trichoderma reesei Rut C 30, which is known as a good cellulase secreting micro-organism, using willow as the carbon source. The willow, which is a fast-growi

Continuous spray deposition (CSD) of aqueous solutions of partially depolymerised methyl cellulose was found to improve matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation (MALDI) sample preparation. One feature was that the sensitivity in MALDI time-of-flight mass spectrometry increased up to an order of magnitude compared with the standard sample preparation method. Another feature was that CSD provided

Although predation is thought to affect species divergence, the effects of predator-mediated natural selection on species divergence and in nonadaptive radiations have seldom been studied. Wing melanization in Calopteryx damselflies has important functions in sexual selection and interspecific interactions and in species recognition. The genus Calopteryx and other damselfly genera have also been p

In population-based studies, a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors comprising the metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been documented as predictive of cardiovascular disease events and type 2 diabetes. Currently, there are several proposed definitions of the MetS, although data support some advantages of using the 2005 National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III definition, which

Hartwig, Larsson and Silvestrov in [J.T. Hartwig, D. Larsson, S.D. Silvestrov, Deformations of Lie algebras using σ-derivations, J. Algebra 295 (2) (2006) 314–361] defined a bracket on σ-derivations of a commutative algebra. We show that this bracket preserves inner derivations, and based on this obtain structural results providing new insights into σ-derivations on Laurent polynomials in one vari

Objectives: To compare in an in vitro kinetic model the pharmacodynamics of moxifloxacin and levofloxacin with a concentration-time profile simulating the human free non-protein bound concentrations of 400 mg moxifloxacin intravenous (iv) once daily, 500 mg levofloxacin iv once daily and 750 mg levofloxacin iv once daily against strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiell