OBJECTIVE Previous studies have evaluated the associations of TNF-α, IL-10 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to pSS, but the results remained controversial. To assess the associations between TNF-α-308, IL-10-1082, -819, -592 polymorphisms and pSS risk, a meta-analysis was conducted. METHOD The available articles were searched in PubMed, EMBASE and MEDLINE. ORs with 95% CIs were calculate...

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) in a population-based sample of early postmenopausal Chinese women in Hong Kong. Methods: 509 postmenopausal women, 50 to 64 years, recruited from the community through random telephone dialing were interviewed. The interview included the PSS, the Center of the Epidemiological S...

Manufacturers are moving more and more towards the business approach of Product/Service Systems (PSS) in order to achieve greater revenue. PSS have many benefits such as achieving closer customer connection and generating increased profit from manufactured products. However, in order to achieve a PSS which is adapted for this business approach, the products and services used need to consider a ...

The activated NF-κB signaling pathway plays an important role in pathogenesis of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). The inhibitor of κB (IκB) kinase (IKK) family such as IKKα, IKKβ, IKKγ, and IKKε, is required for this signaling. Our aim was to investigate the role of IKKα/β/γ/ε in patients with untreated pSS. In minor salivary glands from pSS patients, phosphorylated IKKε (pIKKε), pIκBα, and pN...

Polyclonal B cell activation might be related to pathogenic over-expression of B-cell-activating factor (BAFF) in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and other autoimmune diseases. We therefore investigated whether BAFF over-expression in pSS could be a primary, genetically determined event that leads to the disease. The complete BAFF gene was sequenced in Caucasian pSS patients and control indivi...

OBJECTIVES In Primary Sjögren's Syndrome (PSS), there is an apparent lack of data concerning the perspectives of patients, their needs, preferences and difficulties of daily life. This qualitative study was conducted to explore perspectives and needs of patients with PSS that influence health related quality of life (HRQL). METHODS We recruited 20 PSS patients fulfilling the American-European...

Product Service Systems (PSS) – a combination of software, hardware and service elements – are an emerging trend on the market. Their development encounters different difficulties, amongst them the existence of dynamic cyclic interdependencies. These cycles make the challenging requirements engineering (RE) for PSS even more complicated. Up to now there is no integrated RE approach for PSS. An ...

The dynamics in single machine been connected to an infinite power system bus is analyzed in this paper. This analysis requires certain amount of system modeling level. The main components of the system models are excitation system, synchronous machine and the Power System Stabilizer. The Simulink /Matlab are used as the programming tool for analyzing this system performance. Design optimizatio...

Product Service Systems (PSS) and Prognostic Health Management (PHM) have so far been researched individually in different domains and as unrelated research theme. However, to guarantee the availability of the asset, which is a typical demand in some PSS contracts, it is fundamental for PSS providers to be able to properly manage the asset's lifetime variability in order to avoid unscheduled do...