BACKGROUND Smoking is reported to affect the risk of a number of chronic disorders, including rheumatic diseases. Previous cross-sectional studies have shown a lower frequency of smoking in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of smoking and socioeconomic status on the risk of subsequent diagnosis of pSS in a nested case-control stu...

To clarify the relation between systemic and cutaneous vascular endothelial injury in progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS), we examined thrombomodulin (TM) expression in PSS skin lesions immuno-histopathologically and compared it with plasma soluble TM levels measured by specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The plasma soluble TM level in PSS patients was significantly higher than that of...

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the French versions of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and to compare the appropriateness of the three versions of this scale (14 items, 10 items, or 4 items) in a sample of workers. MATERIALS AND METHODS Five hundred and one workers were randomly selected in several occupational health care centers of the North of...

BACKGROUND The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measures general stress and the Swedish version, although used in several studies, has not been extensively evaluated for psychometric properties. AIMS This study aimed to investigate psychometric properties and the factor solution of the Swedish 14-item version when used with two samples, namely a mixed Internet sample of women and men (n = 171) an...

Offering a Product-Service System (PSS) is a well-accepted strategy that companies may adopt to provide a set of systemic solutions to customers. PSSs were initially provided in a simple form but now take diversified and complex forms involving multiple services, products and technologies. With the growing interest in the PSS, frameworks for the PSS development have been introduced by many rese...

Radiographically, the hepatic sizes of portosystemic shunt (PSS) cases were evaluated. In this study the hepatic area was compared in PSS and non-PSS dogs by utilizing the right lateral radiography. The top three breeds of PSS dogs of Maltese, Shih Tzu and Yorkshire Terrier, were included and these dogs had a significantly smaller hepatic area ratio of 46.37 +/- 0.63%, 61.76 +/- 0.78% and 41.59...

Portosystemic shunt (PSS) without a definable cause is a rare condition, and most of the studies on this topic are small series or based on case reports. Moreover, no firm agreement has been reached on the definition and classification of various forms of PSS, which makes it difficult to compare and analyze the management. The blood flow can be seen very similar to an electric current, governed...

A Power System Stabilizer (PSS) is the most cost effective approach of increase the system positive damping, improve the steady-state stability margin, and suppress the low-frequency oscillation of the power system. A PSS has to perform well under operating point variations. Some of the major issues in the application of PSS are the choice of the input signal, the location of the PSS, the contr...

Research on Product-Service Systems (PSS) has been carried out for many years and in various disciplines. Nevertheless, design guidelines and standards for industrial application are hardly available. Even a standardized terminology has not yet been developed. Consolidation of PSS approaches among research projects and industrial branches is rudimentary. This is an obstacle for companies to inc...