Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is a prevalent condition that covaries with cardiovascular complications and most likely with arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Objective: The present paper is a review of the current status of OSAS. Results: Definitions and diagnostic criteria as well as known risk factors, prevalence, symptoms, covariance with other diseases and c

Using 10.7 m and 3 m normal-incidence vacuum ultraviolet spectrographs, we investigated the spectrum of singly ionized potassium in the regions 495 - 612 angstrom and 1247 - 2150 angstrom. More than 120 new K II lines were identified. The previous study on this spectrum was revised and extended. All levels of the 3p(5)4f and 5f configurations as well as the levels of 3p(5)6f based on the 3p(5) P-2

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: It has been suggested that the uterine environment may influence metabolic disease occurring later in adult life, and that adult stress may promote disease outcome. Using a mouse model, we tested whether in utero exposure to Ljungan virus (LV) followed by adult exposure to stress produces diabetes. The influence of the timing of viral exposure over the course of pregnancy was also

The viscoelastic properties of several multicomponent materials (including both particulate multipolymeric materials and multilayer polymer blends) were investigated in relation to their microstructures and phase-property dependencies. Theoretical considerations based on mechanical modeling were used to explore the origin of additional mechanical transitions in experimental viscoelastic spectra. T

The presence of hypertension aggravates the high cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetic patients. Pulse pressure is a marker of arterial stiffness and constitutes a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality. This study examines the relationship between different blood pressure indices and mortality in a cohort of type 2 diabetic patients. A total of 1294 type 2 diabetic patients with a median age o

We present a stochastic path integral method to calculate the full-counting statistics of conductors with energy conserving dephasing probes and dissipative voltage probes. The approach is explained for the experimentally important case of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, but is easily generalized to more complicated setups. For all geometries where dephasing may be modeled by a single one-channel d

Carbon dating of basal peat deposits in Cumberland Bay and Stromness Bay and sediments from a lake in Stromness Bay, South Georgia indicates deglaciation at the very beginning of the Holocene before c. 9500 C-14 yr BP. This post-dates the deglaciation of one local lake which has been ice-free since at least 15 700 C-14 yr BP on account of its atypical geomorphological location. The latter indicate

Resistance to the anticoagulant action of activated protein C, APC resistance, is a highly prevalent risk factor for venous thrombosis among individuals of Caucasian origin. In most cases, APC resistance is associated with a single missense mutation in the gene for coagulation factor V (FVLeiden), which predicts the replacement of Arg506 with a Gln at one of the cleavage sites for APC in factor V.

A brief introduction to high throughput technologies for measuring and analyzing gene expression is given. Various supervised and unsupervised data mining methods for analyzing the produced high-dimensional data are discussed. The main emphasis is on supervised machine learning methods for classification and prediction of tumor gene expression profiles. Furthermore, methods to rank the genes accor

There are accelerating trends for the implementation of electronic commerce(e-commerce) as an extra marketing channel for selling products globally via the access of the Internet. This is expected to in¯uence the shape of future cities and the conservation of natural resources. This paper critically reviews the current research work to date regarding the environmental implications of e-commerce. T

BACKGROUND: Consumption of soluble dietary fibre is correlated with decreased postprandial glucose and insulin responses and hence has beneficial effects on the metabolic syndrome. AIM OF THE STUDY: To investigate the effects on postprandial glucose, insulin and triglyceride concentrations of meals enriched with soluble dietary fibres from oats, rye bran, sugar beet fibre or a mixture of these thr

The recognition of a strong etiological relationship between infection with high-risk human papillomavirusses and cervical cancer has prompted research to develop and evaluate prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. One prophylactic quadrivalent vaccine using L1 virus-like particles (VLP) of HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 is available on the European market since the end of 2006 and it is expected that a sec

In policy debates about reducing environmental and social harms, political consumerism is often called for by actors from a broad political spectrum. This paper examines traits of deliberative democracy in cases where instruments of political consumerism (eco-labelling, certificates and standards) are developed. The empirical cases are processes surrounding eco-labelled, standardised forestry, foo

Many case-control studies have suggested that higher consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with a lower risk or pancreatic cancer, whereas cohort studies do not support such an association. We examined the associations of the consumption of. fruits and vegetables and their main subgroups with pancreatic cancer risk within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition