Electroacupuncture (EA) is widely used in clinical practice and research, as well as in experimental investigations into the mechanisms of acupuncture. This study explores publication trends in clinical and experimental studies of EA (1975-2011) for pain and non-pain research; EA use for different clinical conditions (1974-2012); and the relation of EA research, including stimulation frequency,...

A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at the IL12RB2 locus showed a suggestive association signal in a previously published genome-wide association study (GWAS) in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Aiming to reveal the possible implication of the IL12RB2 gene in SSc, we conducted a follow-up study of this locus in different Caucasian cohorts. We analyzed 10 GWAS-genotyped SNPs in the IL12RB2 region (2...

We tested the hypothesis that large areas of small hard drusen (diameter <63 μm) and intermediate drusen (diameter 63-124 μm) are associated with the incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Eyes of 3344 older adults with at least 2 consecutive visits spaced 5 years apart over a 20-year period were included. A 6-level severity scale including no drusen, 4 levels of increasing area (...

[1] The marine production, cycling, and air-sea gas exchange of nitrous oxide (N2O) are simulated in a coupled climate-biogeochemical model of reduced complexity. The model gives a good representation of the large-scale features of the observed oceanic N2O distribution and emissions to the atmosphere. The transient behavior of the model is tested for the Younger Dryas (Y-D) cold period (12,700–...

INTRODUCTION In 2008 the radiofrequency ablation procedures (RFA) registry of the Hellenic Cardiological Society (HCS) was created. This is a dynamic, web-based application, which acts as the interface for storing and retrieving patients' demographic data and ablation procedures. Access to the site is permitted only to registered users. The purpose of this study is to report the results of RFA ...

Substrate activities of various linear polyamines to human spermine oxidase (hSMO) were investigated. The activities were evaluated by monitoring the amount of H2O2 released from sample polyamines by hSMO. H2O2 was measured by a HPLC method that analyzed fluorescent dimers derived from the oxidation of homovanillic acid in the presence of horseradish peroxidase. Six triamines were tested and we...

In this paper, we present a fast and efficient Iterative Improvement Partitioning (IIP) technique for VLSI circuits and hybrid bucket structures on its implementation. Due to their time efficiency, IIP algorithms are widely used in VLSI circuit partition. As the performance of these algorithms depends on choices of moving cells, various such methods have been proposed. In particular, the Cluste...

To further increase our understanding of responses in potato to abiotic stress and the potato transcriptome in general, we generated 20 756 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a cDNA library constructed by pooling mRNA from heat-, cold-, salt-, and drought-stressed potato leaves and roots. These ESTs were clustered and assembled into a collection of 5240 unique sequences with 3344 contigs and 1...

Type 1 von Willebrand disease (VWD) is characterized by a partial quantitative deficiency of von Willebrand factor (VWF). Few VWF gene mutations have been identified that cause dominant type 1 VWD. The decreased survival of VWF in plasma has recently been identified as a novel mechanism for type 1 VWD. We report 4 families with moderately severe type 1 VWD characterized by low plasma VWF:Ag and...

Boron (B) toxicity is an important abiotic stress that drastically damages agricultural production worldwide, mostly in arid regions. Several studies have reported large losses wheat due to high B arable land. The identification of different B-toxicity-tolerant germplasm and using them breeding programs develop tolerant cultivars a potential solution toxicity. However, tolerance such largely re...