To evaluate efficacy of a problem-based learning (PBL) pedagogy in preclinical and clinical teaching, test scores of 234 undergraduate dental students from the conventionally taught classes of 2003 and 2004 were compared with scores of 274 dental students from the PBL classes of 2005 and 2006. Although the groups' means were close together, t-test analysis of scores revealed that PBL students p...

A healthful eating pattern, regular physical activity, and often pharmacotherapy are key components of diabetes management. For many individuals with diabetes, the most challenging part of the treatment plan is determining what to eat. It is the position of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” eating pattern for individuals with diabetes. The ADA also ...

Targeting Stroke Awareness Public Campaigns To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Mosley et al1 as well as the letter by Chiti et al2 on the role of information campaigns in improving people awareness about stroke, and we wish to enter the debate by briefly reporting some of our unpublished data. In order to evaluate whether having experienced a stroke improves the recogniti...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE During the last decade, many hospitals have implemented fast-track protocols for total knee arthroplasty (TKA). These protocols reduce the length of hospital stay, but there is no literature on the first period after hospital discharge. We determined how patients experienced the first 6 weeks after hospital discharge after fast-track TKA surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS 34...

We have read with great interest the article entitled “Efficacy and safety of high dose versus low dose furosemide with or without dopamine infusion: The Dopamine in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure II (DAD-HF II) Trial” [1]. First, we would like to commend the authors for their effort in carrying out this investigator-initiated clinical trial by testing the prognostic effect of three deconges...

This paper reports a prospective study of 72 consecutive patients with fractures or fracture-dislocations of the upper end of the humerus, treated during 1981. Most were elderly and treatment was conservative. Of the 72 patients 64 were followed up for a period of six months. Observations were made on the type of fracture, the speed and pattern of recovery of shoulder movements, on the time of ...

Functional constipation is a common healthcare problem among children worldwide and accounts for high healthcare usage and costs. Functional constipation is a clinical diagnosis; the evaluation primarily consists of a thorough medical history and a complete physical examination. Additional investigations are not necessary in most cases. Treatment consists of non-pharmacological and pharmacologi...

Cryogenic treatment (CT) is the supplementary process to conventional heat treatment process in steels, by deep–freezing materials at cryogenic temperatures to enhance the mechanical and physical properties of materials being treated. Cryogenic treatment (CT) of materials has shown significant improvement in their properties .Various advantages like increase in hardness, increase in wear resist...

In 2008 a phantom study indicated that there is a potential for reducing the CT doses when using a new postprocessing filter. The purpose of this study was to test this new postprocessing filter clinically for low-dose chest CT examinations, to assess whether the diagnostic performance is the same or improved. A standardized clinical chest CT protocol was used on patients with colorectal cancer...

In this paper, a level set algorithm is employed for shape reconstruction of conducting objects in two-dimensions. Minimum a priori information is required about the unknown objects, which is a main advantage of the level set method. Therefore several objects can be retrieved from one single initial guess. As a preliminary attempt, the breast shape is reconstructed using the proposed method. Th...