OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to compare outcomes of cricopharyngeal myotomy (CPM) in patients with documented cricopharyngeal dysfunction (CPD) and those in whom the diagnosis is complex or in doubt. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective comparative study of all patients undergoing CPM between 2001 and 2010 at a single UK centre. Patients were classified as having either CPD (n = 15) or no...

purpose : the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of adjuvant treatments on contrast sensitivity in patients with clinically significant macular edema (csme) treated with macular photocoagulation (mpc). methods : forty eight eyes from 30 patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (npdr) and csme were included in a prospective randomized clinical trial between august 2008 and ...

objective: calpains are a family of ca 2+ dependent proteases. there is some evidence that calpains involved in fusion process that occurs between spermatozoa and the oocyte. the current study aimed to investigate the association of smoking with semen quality and µ-calpain level. materials and methods: this case-control study was conducted on 117 normospermia males  between june 2013 and march ...

background: the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of tobacco use and effect of lifestyle factors on cigarette and hookah use among adult re sidents of shiraz, iran. methods: in 2010, 1,000 participants were recruited in a multistage, random sampling cross-sectional population-based survey. results: response rate was 98%. prevalence of cigarette smoking was 9.7%. among cigarette ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the link between the quantity and quality of continuing professional development (CPD) activities completed by family physicians in Quebec and the quality of their practice. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of data collected during professional inspection visits (PIVs). SETTING Quebec. PARTICIPANTS Three groups were created from among Quebec family physicians who had be...

The cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD) is a major type of DNA damage induced by ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation. CPD photolyase, which absorbs blue/UVA light as an energy source to monomerize dimers, is a crucial factor for determining the sensitivity of rice (Oryza sativa) to UVB radiation. Here, we purified native class II CPD photolyase from rice leaves. As the final purification step, CPD pho...

BACKGROUND As innovations in the prevention and treatment of HIV and TB advance, continuing professional development (CPD) of health care workers (HCWs) remains a high priority, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where dual TB/HIV epidemics are compounded by severe HCW shortages. There is further need to examine CPD programs to identify challenges and effective solutions to strengthen HIV/TB-re...

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PAPER IS TO PERFORM PARAMETRIC AND NONPARAMETRIC ANALYSIS TO ADDRESS SOME VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS CONCERNING LUNG CANCER UTILIZING REAL LUNG CANCER DATA: What is the probabilistic nature of mortality time in ex-smoker lung cancer patients and non-smoker lung cancer patients, for female, male, and the totality of female and male patients? Is there significant difference of...

Abstract Black-box model structures are dominated by large multivariate functions. Usually a generic basis function expansion is used, e.g. polynomial basis, and the parameters of tuned given data. This pragmatic often necessary step considering black-box nature problem. However, having identified suitable function, there no need to stick original basis. So-called decoupling techniques aim at t...