OBJECTIVES Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has emerged in the last two decades with worldwide prevalence of 25.24%. Due to its increasing frequency in Pakistan, it was aimed to identify disease predisposing metabolic risks and their association with NAFLD. METHODS Anthropometric and biochemical investigations were collected from 1366 subjects with minor metabolic disturbances. Compa...

BACKGROUND Due to the increase in the elderly population in different societies, their primary needs, physical and mental health, and quality of life, is important. This study aimed to estimate the overall mean score of the QOL based on the Qol-Brief questionnaire in the elderly population of Iran. METHODS The international and national databases, including; Medline, Scopus, Science Direct, M...

BACKGROUND Mortality among patients with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is high. Because of high age and multiple underlying diseases, CDI-related mortality is difficult to estimate. We estimated CDI-related mortality in an endemic situation, not influenced by outbreaks and consequently certain patients and C. difficile strains. METHODS Between 2006 and 2009, 13 Dutch hospitals include...

OBJECTIVES The emergence of decreased susceptibility to third-generation, extended-spectrum cephalosporins in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and associated treatment failures highlights the need to consider alternatives for future therapeutic use, such as gentamicin. METHODS The three laboratories surveying gonococcal antimicrobial susceptibility as part of the European Network for Sexually Transmitte...

Plasma proadrenomedullin (ProADM) is a blood biomarker that may aid in multidimensional risk assessment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Co-secreted 1:1 with adrenomedullin (ADM), ProADM is a less biologically active, more chemically stable surrogate for this pluripotent regulatory peptide, which due to biological and ex vivo physical characteristics is difficult t...

Like all other Salmonella typhimurium strains examined, the smooth variants SF1397 (LT2) and 1366 and also their semi-rough and rough derivatives are non-haemolytic. Nevertheless, two haemolysin (Hly) plasmids of E. coli belonging to the inc groups incFIII,IV (pSU316) and incI2 (pHly152) were able to be introduced into these strains by conjugation and stably maintained. A considerable percentag...

OBJECTIVE To describe HIV-infected people's experience of the HIV test procedure in Europe. METHODS Between August 1996 and September 1997, anonymous self-administered questionnaires were distributed to HIV-infected people in 11 European countries. RESULTS A total of 1366 people completed the questionnaire (50% response rate). Of these, 194 (16%) had more than five negative HIV tests before...

PURPOSE The present study explored the effect of various lifestyle patterns and sleep-related factors on the sleep-related road risk. Sleep-related factors included daytime sleepiness, drowsy driving and quality/quantify of sleep. METHODS A sample of 1366 non-professional drivers aged 19-65 was selected from the broader Athens area of Greece, using stratified random sampling. The questionnair...

BACKGROUND In May 2009, the Chinese government raised cigarette excise tax rates and adjusted standards for Grade A cigarettes and Grade B cigarettes. The present study aimed to examine the effects of the tax adjustments in 2009 on smoking behaviors and health outcomes among smokers aged above 45. METHODS Data from the 2008 and 2012 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study of Zhejiang a...

A new methodology for formal logic verification of combinational circuits is presented. Specifically, a structural approach is used, based on indirect implications derived by recursive learning. It is shown that implications can be used to capture similarity between designs. This is extended to formulate a hybrid approach, this structural information is used to reduce the complexity of a subseq...