BACKGROUND Although multiple language versions of health-related quality of life instruments are often used interchangeably in clinical research, the measurement equivalence of these versions (especially using alphabet vs pictogram-based languages) has rarely been assessed. We therefore investigated the measurement equivalence of English and Chinese versions of the EQ-5D, a widely used utility-...

The role of plasma glutamine concentration and glutamine supplementation on immunosuppression was investigated in combat athletes. Twenty-three male athletes were randomly assigned to receive glutamine (21 g/day, n=12) or placebo (ovalbumin, n=11) for 10 days. Six athletes who did not lose weight served as controls. Athletes were assessed 21 days before (-21d), 1 day before (-1d) and 5 days aft...

OBJECTIVE To estimate quality weights of EQ-5D health states with the time trade-off (TTO) method in the general population of South Korea. METHODS A total of 500 respondents valued 42 hypothetical EQ-5D health states using the TTO and visual analog scale. The quality weights for all EQ-5D health states were estimated by a random effects model and compared with those from studies in other cou...

Following publication of our recent article [1], an error in Figure 5d was noticed. In Figure 5d, the β-actin blot corres ponding to α-SMA blot was captured on the chemi luminescence imaging system in an inverted orientation. Since this imager does not capture the protein marker, an error in the orientation of the membrane while capturing the picture of the blot occurred. During preparation of ...

Much consideration has been given to the role of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in 5d oxides, particularly on the formation of novel electronic states and manifested metal-insulator transitions (MITs). SOC plays a dominant role in 5d(5) iridates (Ir(4+)), undergoing MITs both concurrent (pyrochlores) and separated (perovskites) from the onset of magnetic order. However, the role of SOC for other 5d ...

Acknowledgements: We thank Aki Tsuchiya, John Brazier and Ben van Hout for helpful comments and advice and Jenny Dunn for formatting the report. The content of this report is the responsibility of the authors alone. 2 SUMMARY Economic evaluation is an important component for decision making, underpinning much of the guidance issued by NICE. Typically these economic evaluations have taken the fo...

drought stress is one of the phenomena that adversely affects growth and quality of plants, with turfgrass being no exception. for a study of the responses of poa pratensis l. cv. ’barimpala‘ to time periods of drought stress, turfgrass seeds were cultivated at 60cm depths in cylindrical pots of 15cm diameters and placed outdoors. plants were daily irrigated to the point until drainage occurred...

The " small " black ring in 5D obtained by giving angular momentum to the D1-D5 system compactified on S 1 ×K3 is a very interesting object in the sense that it does not have an event horizon in the supergravity limit whereas it microscopically has a finite entropy. The microscopic origin of this small black ring can be analyzed in detail since it is constructed by adding angular momentum to th...