Predicting soil phosphorus (P) needs and P fertilizer requirements is important for plant nutrition and reducing environmental risk. The P requirement (PR) can be calculated from three components: the current status of soil P (P0), soil P buffer coefficient (PBC), and the soil P critical level (PCL). The PBC and PCL can be predicted from soil clay content using linear-plateau models. The PR, PB...

A 54-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of acute liver injury. Since she had a history of having used a diet product, drug-induced liver injury (DILI) was initially considered. However, the patient was subsequently diagnosed as suffering from primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) based on the findings of liver histology and serum anti-mitochondrial antibody positivity. Overlap syndro...

This paper examines selection and matching incentives of performance-based contracting (PBC) in a model of patient heterogeneity, provider horizontal differentiation and asymmetric information. Treatment effectiveness is affected by the match between a patient's illness severity and a provider's treatment intensity. Before PBC, a provider's revenue is unrelated to treatment effectiveness; there...

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an immune-mediated disorder characterized by acute polyneuropathy, ascending paralysis and post infectious polyneuritis. Two-thirds of patients present with a history of recent upper respiratory tract or gastrointestinal infection. The clinical history, neurologic examination and laboratory assessment allow for a straightforward diagnosis in the majority of case...

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease primarily affecting middle-aged women. Although little is known about the etiology of PBC, it may be induced by an autoimmune response. Here, we describe a rare case of appearance of PBC following chemotherapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Serum lysozyme activities and semiquantitative analysis of tissue lysozyme distribution were studied in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), chronic hepatitis (CH), miscellaneous liver diseases, and normal subjects. Serum lysozyme was significantly raised in PBC and CH. Portal venous blood has similar lysozyme activities to peripheral venous blood in a group of various liver diseases....

BACKGROUND Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a disease with genetic and environmental pathogenetic background. Chemicals, infectious agents, hormone therapy, reproductive history and surgical interventions have been implicated in the induction of PBC. Familial PBC has been documented in first degree relatives (FDR). Most cohort studies are genetically heterogeneous. Our study aimed to determin...

Approximately 5% to 10% of patients with features otherwise consistent with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) lack antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA). Most of these patients have other autoantibodies, a syndrome recently named "autoimmune cholangitis." We report our experience in patients with AMA-negative PBC treated with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and/or liver transplantation (OLT). The study ...

Background—Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is an autoimmune disease in which the pathogenesis of progressive liver injury is poorly understood. Aim—To provide novel insights into the pathogenesis of PBC related liver injury using cDNA array analysis, which simultaneously examines expression of many genes. Methods—Utilising cDNA arrays of 874 genes, PBC was compared with primary sclerosing chola...