Data on respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function were obtained for 2736 Portland cement plant workers and 755 controls. Personal dust samples contained a geometric mean concentration of 0.57 mg/m3 for respirable dust and 2.90 mg/m3 for total dust. Cement workers and controls had similar prevalences of symptoms, except that 5.4% of the cement workers had dyspnoea compared with 2.7% of the con...

Spontaneously occurring, parallel fluctuations in arterial pressure and heart period are frequently used as indices of baroreflex function. Despite the convenience of spontaneous indices, their relation to the arterial baroreflex remains unclear. Therefore, in 97 volunteers, we derived 5 proposed indices (sequence method, alpha-index, transfer function, low-frequency transfer function, and impu...

Forty patients with classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis in a stage of active disease were treated for two weeks at a spa hotel. The patients were divided into four groups of 10. Group I was treated with daily mud packs, group II with daily hot sulphur baths, group III with a combination of mud packs and hot sulphur baths, and group IV served as a control group. The patients were assessed...

Molecular motors are found throughout the cells of the human body and have many different and important roles. These micromachines move along filament tracks and have the ability to convert chemical energy into mechanical work that powers cellular motility. Different types of motors are characterized by different duty ratios, which is the fraction of time that a motor is attached to its filamen...

The paper covers state of the art and latest development of piezoelectric motors at Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), that are related to the R&D of laser scanning and deflecting devices, measuring systems, nano-resolution positioning devices on the plane, various applications including teaching aids for Mechatronics studies and even “intelligent” toys. All presented motors are oneor...

The biological trait analysis (BTA) is regarded as a promising approach to unravel how ecosystem functions respond human-induced disturbances. This study considered the four sampling locations associated with different human activities in Daya Bay, that is, domestic and industrial sewage discharge area (SED), mariculture (MRC), nuclear power plants thermal (NTD), an relatively low disturbance r...