OBJECTIVES Concurrent evaluation of data quality, internal consistency, test-retest reliability and validity of two patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for measuring functional impairment in hand OA (HOA); the Australian/Canadian Osteoarthritis Hand Index (AUSCAN; 15 items) and the Functional Index of HOA (FIHOA; 10 items). METHODS Patients from an HOA cohort [n=128, mean age 68.6 (s.d....

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between baseline serum adipokines levels-leptin, adiponectin and resistin-and long-term progression of hand osteoarthritis (HOA). METHODS Baseline and 6-year radiographs of 164 patients (mean age 60 years, 81% women) with HOA (defined as a Kellgren and Lawrence score ≥2 in at least two hand joints) were assessed for joint space narrowing (JSN) in 32 ha...

There is a strong push towards the ultra-realistic presentation of multimedia contents made possible by the latest advances in computational and signal processing technologies. Three-dimensional sound presentation is necessary to convey a natural and rich multimedia experience. Promising ways to achieve this include the sound field reproduction technique known as high-order Ambisonics (HOA). Wh...

The integration of Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is regarded as a promising access solution in realizing fixed mobile convergence (FMC) networks, which uses a single network infrastructure to provide both wired and wireless access services, and a good match of capacity hierarchy between EPON and WiMAX by using EPON as a backh...

The present study aimed at investigating how healthy older adults (HOA) and cognitively impaired patients (CIP) differ in a discrete Fitts' aiming task. Four levels of task difficulty were used, resulting from the simultaneous manipulation of the size of the target and its distance from home position. We found that movement times (MTs) followed Fitts' law in both HOA and CIP, with the latter be...

In pursuing policies of trade liberalisation and growth promotion within the framework of regional economic integration, WTO membership and globalisation, major Asian developing economies and China in particular had achieved economic ‘miracles’ in the past decades. Recently however, they face many challenges, economically and politically (Tran Van Hoa, 2002), compounded by a global (especially ...

In this paper we specifically address questions of polysemy with respect to verbs, and how regular extensions of meaning can be achieved through the adjunction of particular syntactic phrases. We see verb classes as the key to making generalizations about regular extensions of meaning. Current approaches to English classification, Levin classes and WordNet, have limitations in their applicabili...

BACKGROUND Hyaline cartilage calcification (CC) is associated with osteoarthritis (OA) in hip and knee joints. The first metatarsophalangeal joint (1stMTPJ) is frequently affected by OA, but it is unclear if CC occurs in the 1stMTPJ. The aim of the present study was to analyze the prevalence of CC of the 1stMTPJ in the general population by high-resolution digital contact radiography (DCR) and ...

PURPOSE To evaluate the changes of higher order aberrations (HOAs) before and after laser subepithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) and to analyze the influence of tear film instability on HOAs of the corneal surface after LASEK. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 31 patients who underwent LASEK were divided into dry eye (16 patients, 32 eyes) and non-dry eye groups (15 patients, 30 eyes). Unc...