monitoring the effective parameters of drying crops is necessary to evaluate and determine system performance under real conditions. hence, a monitoring system was constructed to determine the performance of a vegetation forced-convection solar dryer. digital temperature sensors were set up in the air inlet and outlet of the collector and the air outlet of the drying chamber. a program was writ...

A consistent but as yet unexplained association between baseline ventilatory function and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been reported from many prospective studies. Insulin-resistant states are associated with increased risk of CHD. Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and maximal mid-expiratory flow rate (MMEF) at study entry were examined as pr...

INTRODUCTION Depression is common in both young adults and elderly people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS We compared the prevalence of depressive symptomatology in elderly outpatients with stable disabling COPD with that in healthy controls and age-matched patients with other disabilities, and also assessed the relation between degree of disability, quality of life...

overcome. This result is especially intriguing since it could mean that flies drink despite an aversive reaction to the ethanol-containing solution. To test this possibility more directly, Devineni and Heberlein [6] presented flies with quinine, an aversive tasting compound. Flies avoid drinking quinine-containing food (Figure 1B), and the authors found that, indeed, when quinine was added to e...

BACKGROUND Breathing programs have been reported to have positive effects in alleviating symptoms and optimizing pulmonary function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, patients with stable disease may drop out of such programs if they are not modified to the individual's exercise tolerance level, or if they are not easy to perform in the home. Little is known...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate an entirely outpatient-based program of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD, using St.George's Respiratory questionnaire (SGRQ), the 6-minutes walking test (6-MWT) and BODE index as the primary outcome measures. METHODS A prospective, parallel-group controlled study of an outpatient rehabilitation program in 80 patients wi...

The most recent guidelines define COPD in a multidimensional way, nevertheless the diagnosis is still linked to the limitation of airflow, usually measured by the reduction in the FEV1/FVC ratio below 70%. However, the severity of obstruction is not directly correlated to symptoms or to invalidity determined by COPD. Thus, besides respiratory function, COPD should be evaluated based on symptoms...

Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) has been shown to improve lung function and exercise tolerance in patients with severe emphysema. Some predictors of poor outcome have been described but the role of alpha1-antitrypsin (alpha1-AT) deficiency is still not well known. The aim of this study was to analyze the results of unilateral LVRS in our center according to the alpha1-AT status. The result...