In 1938, A. V. Hill demonstrated that the inverse relationship between the force generated and the velocity of shortening constitutes one of the most fundamental mechanical properties of skeletal muscle (1). More recently it has been shown that a similar reciprocal relationship between force and velocity also exists in the isolated cat papillary muscle (2-5). Moreover, at any given muscle lengt...

Graph labellings form an important graph theory model for the channel assignment problem. An optimum labelling usually depends on one or more parameters that ensure minimum separations between frequencies assigned to nearby transmitters. The study of spans and of the structure of optimum labellings as functions of such parameters has attracted substantial attention from researchers, leading to ...

This 1-day workshop was organized by Olivier Benveniste and David Hilton-Jones and assembled 20 clinicians, pathologists and researchers (see the list of participants) from four countries (UK, USA, Austria, France). This workshop followed one held in London 1 year earlier with some common participants [1] in order to reinforce a collaborative interface between several international groups activ...

Dear Editor, We read with interest the recent article of Yavas on the tracheostomy in the intensive care unit.1 The authors treated 205 patients needing tracheostomy, 65.4% with surgical tracheostomy (ST) and 34.6% with percutaneous tracheostomy (PT). The authors, while performing PT, used two procedures: the Ciaglia percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy technique using multiple dilators and t...

GNSS RO utilizes the various navigation satellite systems as signal sources for atmospheric remote sensing. The frequency stability of the signals emitted by GNSS satellites is tied to the stability of the atomic frequency standards (AFS) they carry onboard and is thus critical to the quality of the atmospheric profiles derived from the occultation measurements. Because of the variety of AFS us...

These notes describe what might be a Markov chain method for choosing a random Steiner triple system. Many things are not known, including whether or not the Markov chain is connected! I include a positive result of Grannell and Griggs according to which any two isomorphic Steiner triple systems lie in the same connected component. 1 Choosing at random Suppose I have a fair coin. How can I choo...

OBJECTIVE The current pathological diagnostic criteria for sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM) lack sensitivity. Using immunohistochemical techniques abnormal protein aggregates have been identified in IBM, including some associated with neurodegenerative disorders. Our objective was to investigate the diagnostic utility of a number of markers of protein aggregates together with mitochondria...

Methionine is the first limiting amino acid in most commercial feeds for laying hens SCHUTTE et al. (1994), in addition to its main role as a component of proteins it also acts in various metabolic pathways. There are several factors (e.g. feed energy and protein content, age, genotype, sex and various environmental factors) to take into account when balancing the feed formulation EMMANS and FI...

How Does Obesity Affect Health— and Health Spending? Extensive research has shown that obesity increases the risk—or worsens the prognosis— for a variety of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. Indeed, in 2002, RAND research showed that the health consequences of obesity are worse than those of smoking and problem drinking (Sturm, 2002). Obesity increases health c...

In the middle of the nineteenth century, there was fierce confrontation between British herbalists, under the influence of Thomsonian medical botany, and the orthodox medical profession which was then in the throes of ordering its own ranks.' Towards the end of the century, this excitement had diminished and herbalists became less conspicuous, but a small group continued to struggle to improve ...