OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationships of two main physical activity domains (during leisure and at work) with cardiovascular risk factors and eating habits. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Preventive medicine centre. SUBJECTS In 5478 adults (32% women, aged 20-80 years) who consecutively underwent a standardised health examination, leisure-time physical activity (LTPA; i.e. non...

BACKGROUND Limited information exists about the nature of and factors associated with oropharyngeal aspiration (OPA) and silent aspiration (SA) in children. A prospective study was undertaken to determine the factors associated with fluoroscopically identified OPA and SA. METHODS Three hundred children presenting with feeding difficulties underwent a videofluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS) for...

Neisserial Opa proteins function as a family of adhesins that bind heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) or carcinoembryonic antigen family (CEACAM) receptors on human host cells. In order to define the CEACAM binding domain on Opa proteins, we tested the binding properties of a series of gonococcal (strain MS11) recombinants producing mutant and chimeric Opa proteins with alterations in one or m...

Although it is well known that pneumococcal conjugate vaccines provide cross-protection against some vaccine-related serotypes, these mechanisms are still unclear. This study was performed to investigate the role of cross-protective IgM antibodies against vaccine-related serotypes 6A, 6C, and 19A induced in children aged 12-23 months after immunization with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vacci...

Accurate measurements of particles masses, couplings and widths are possible by measuring production cross sections near threshold. We discuss the prospects for performing such measurements at a high luminosity muon collider.

Results on the cross section measurement of Z boson pair–production at LEP 1,2 are presented. The more general case of neutral–current four–fermion production and the particular case of ZZ events enriched in b quarks are also discussed. All the results agree with the Standard Model predictions.

OBJECTIVE To determine possible differences in the intraocular pressure (IOP) and ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) lowering capacity of the fixed drug combinations dorzolamide/timolol and brinzolamide/timolol. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, one of the eyes of 25 healthy subjects was randomly assigned to treatment with dorzolamide/timolol and the other eye with brinzolamide/timolol. After ...

A simple and robust ultrafast, high-peak-power 5-μm laser source for pumping a dielectric photonic structure for high-gradient electron acceleration has been designed and is being constructed. The 5-μm laser source consists of two components: (1) a type-II-BBO-based 2.05-μm optical parametric amplifier (OPA) as a pump source, and (2) a type-I-ZGP-based 5-μm OPA to produce mJ-class, <100 fs puls...

The generation of fourto five-cycle mid-infrared pulses using a single-stage potassium niobate optical parametric amplifier ~OPA! is demonstrated. The OPA is pumped by a gain-switched Ti:Sapphire regenerative amplifier and is seeded with the near-infrared portion of a white light continuum. The OPA is continuously tunable from 2700 to 4700 nm, and maintains sub-65 fs pulses that are fully chara...

Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing awareness regarding the potential impact of indoor air pollution on human health. People working in an indoor environment often experience symptoms such as eye, nose, and throat irritation. Investigations into these complaints have ascribed the effects, in part, to compounds emitted from building materials, cleaning/consumer products, and ...