STUDY OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of heliox on airflow obstruction and dyspnea in patients with acute severe asthma. DESIGN A prospective, randomized, controlled study. SETTING A university hospital. PATIENTS Twenty-three patients presenting to the emergency department with acute severe asthma were randomized to receive 70%/30% heliox or 30% oxygen. MEASUREMENTS Peak expiratory fl...

This study evaluated structural modification and thermal properties of whey protein isolate (WPI) treated by pulsed electric fields (PEF). Structural modification and thermal properties of WPI were evaluated by using fluorescence spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The effect of PEF treatments (electric field intensity ranging from 12, 16 and 20 kV cm and pulses...

We have investigated probing breast tumor in a lumpectomy sample using a newly developed piezoelectric finger (PEF). PEF is a piezoelectric cantilever that consists of a top driving piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) layer and a bottom sensing PZT layer sandwiched to a middle stainless steel layer. A PEF can both apply a force and detect the corresponding displacement in one single dev...

The dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) and the perifornical area (DMH/PeF) is one of the key regions of central autonomic processing. Previous studies have established that this region contains neurons that may be involved in respiratory processing; however, this has never been tested in conscious animals. The aim of our study was to investigate the involvement of the DMH/PeF area in mediating resp...

In real-world extraction of signal from data we are not given the needed signal prediction-error filter (PEF). Claerbout has taken S, the PEF of the signal, to be that of the data, S ≈ D. Spitz takes it to be S ≈ D/N . Where noises are highly predictable in time or space, Spitz gets significantly better results. Theoretically, a reason is that the essential character of a PEF is contained where...

Methods We used SMS to collect symptoms and peak flow (PEF) meter readings from children with asthma. Digital PEF meters enabled data download to confirm validity of PEF data sent by SMS. Parents responded to 5 SMS messages daily for 7 days during baseline and for 14 days during a cold. Parents provided written feedback about the SMS-based data collection at the beginning (Q1) and at the end (Q...

BACKGROUND Recent evidence suggests that the frequency response requirements for peak expiratory flow (PEF) meters are higher than was first thought and that the American Thoracic Society (ATS) waveforms to test PEF meters may not be adequate for the purpose. METHODS The dynamic response of mini-Wright (MW), Vitalograph (V), TruZone (TZ), MultiSpiro (MS) and pneumotachograph (PT) flow meters ...

The effect of thermal and pulsed electric field (PEF) processing on the shelf life of an orange juice-milk beverage (OJMB) was studied. The intensities of the treatments were selected to produce similar inactivation of pectin methyl esterase (PME), an enzyme responsible for the jellification and loss of fresh juice cloudiness. Physical properties (pH, degrees Brix, and color), microbial populat...

BACKGROUND Bronchial reactivity measurements are widely used in epidemiological studies to provide an objective marker of asthma. There are, however, several potential advantages of measuring peak expiratory flow (PEF) variability instead, particularly in large studies. PEF variability and bronchial reactivity were compared in a population sample to assess the relationships of the two measureme...

A group of selected enzymes were subjected to continuous pulsed electric field (PEF) treatments to evaluate the inactivation effect of PEF. For a treatment time of 126 s, 51.7% and 83.8% of pepsin was inactivated at 37.0 kV/cm and 41.8 kV/cm, respectively. Enzyme activity of polyphenol oxidase decreased 38.2% when treated at 33.6 kV/cm for 126 s. Enzyme activity decreased 18.1% and 4.0% for per...