INTRODUCTION Patients' socioeconomic status is rarely assessed during medical consultations. OBJECTIVE To correlate patients' socioeconomic conditions with symptoms of heartburn. METHODS 1184 patients who answered a questionnaire in three cities on the coast of the State of Sä Paulo, Brazil, were evaluated prospectively. Socioeconomic status was assessed using several criteria: number of ba...

In this paper, the main problem and countermeasure of fruit production quality and safety were studied in Yanshan Mountain. The subjective factor was fruit farmer quality and safety consciousness faint, and the objective factors were: severe orchard environmental pollution, faint fruit postharvest handling, lag in process technology, fruit quality determination and market inspection system is n...

This paper sheds light on Maritime Education and Competence Development which has been investigated in various studies, both within and outside Europe. However, the topic is under-researched and stil l in need of attention, in order to ensure that competences are aligned with technological advancements and the needs that exist in a contemporary maritime industry. It is furthermore paramount tha...

This paper investigates the sources of the extremely high level of owner occupation in Ireland. After using census data to explore the evolution of this phenomenon, the paper makes a cross-country comparison of owner occupation within the EU-15. Explanations are found for the high level of owner occupation that go beyond fiscal privilege to include wider microeconomic factors, as well as histor...

The paper explores the critical factors of the implementation of e-learning in higher institutions from the EU perspective, by comparing e-learning in two cultural contexts: the UK and Taiwan. The study employs qualitative methods to illustrate the e-learning implementation panorama, by interviewing top management groups, leaders and strategic planners, hardware and software experts, instructio...

Balanced cross-sections across the Zagros fold–thrust belt in Iran are used to analyze the geometry of deformation within the sedimentary cover rocks, and to test the hypothesis of basement involved thrusting throughout the fold–thrust belt. Although the Zagros deformation front is a relatively rectilinear feature, the sinuous map-view morphology of the mountain front is a result of a 6 km stru...

Studies have shown that complex institutional structures often impede democratic accountability by obscuring 'clarity of responsibility'. As an emerging federal system, the European Union (EU) divides decision-making powers between multiple levels of government. Yet little is known about whether European citizens attribute responsibility accordingly. In other words, do they hold the European Un...

Following Easton’s conceptual framework discussed in the introductory chapter, a hierarchical relationship exists between three objects of support: output support, support for institutions, and support for the community. The latter two objects of support are examined in turn in two subsequent chapters on trust in European political institutions and the relationship between citizenship and ident...

Mountains provide as much as 90-100% of the freshwater to surrounding basins in arid and semiarid regions because of their distinctive and complex topography, and the consequent effects on precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ET). One of the primary objectives of this dissertation is to estimate mountain-block recharge (MBR), an important component of the mountain contribution to groundwat...

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND Several risk factors have been identified in type B aortic dissection (TBAD), namely tear size, location, patency and number, and false lumen (FL) location. However, the individual impact of each of these factors is poorly understood. The impact of these factors was investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). METHODS Fourteen idealized models of chronic TBAD we...