A best evidence topic in cardiothoracic surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was whether manual closure of the bronchial stump is safer with lower failure rates than mechanical closure using a stapling device following anatomical lung resection. One hundred and twenty-nine papers were identified using the search below. Eight papers presented the best ev...

BACKGROUND Increasing concern over bisphenol A (BPA) as an endocrine-disrupting chemical and its possible effects on human health have prompted the removal of BPA from consumer products, often labeled "BPA-free." Some of the chemical replacements, however, are also bisphenols and may have similar physiological effects in organisms. Bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) are two such BPA substi...

Although the increasing prevalence of thyroid nodular disease (TND) has been partially attributed to the more frequent usage of improved diagnostics, environmental factors, such as exposures to thyroid-disrupting chemicals may contribute to TND and altered thyroid function. We investigated the association between exposures to bisphenol A (BPA), its chlorinated derivatives (ClxBPA), and bispheno...

PURPOSE We tested the validity of a freely available segmentation pipeline to measure compartmental brain volumes from 3T MRI in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Our primary focus was methodological to explore the effect of segmentation corrections on the clinical relevance of the output metrics. METHODS Three-dimensional T1-weighted images were acquired to compare 61 MS patients to 30 ...

Bergamot juice produces hypolipemic activity in rats though the mechanism remains unclear. Here we investigated on the effect of bergamot extract (BPF) in diet-induced hyperlipemia in Wistar rats and in 237 patients suffering from hyperlipemia either associated or not with hyperglycaemia. BPF, given orally for 30 days to both rats and patients, reduces total and LDL cholesterol levels (an effec...

— In this paper, the ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter (BPF) with a wide stopband is presented. The prototype of proposed UWB BPF is by bending the five short-circuited stubs and coupling the I/O feed lines. In order to have a wide stopband, an bandstop structure embedded in input/output (I/O) lines without degrading the passband performances is used. The measured results verified that by us...

Even though neuroimaging and clinical studies indicate that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) manifests with distinct clinical phenotypes, no objective test exists to assess upper motor degeneration in ALS. There is great interest in identifying biomarkers of ALS to allow earlier diagnosis and to recognize disease subtypes. Current quantitative neuroimaging techniques such as T2 relaxometry a...

In this paper, a compact and high isolation microstrip diplexer is designed for broadband and wireless local area network (WLAN) application, simultaneously. The bandpass filter (BPF) for broadband channel is formed by three-coupled-line structure and two short stubs with different size loaded in 50 Ω feed lines, and the BPF for WLAN channel consists of two coupling quarter-wavelength resonator...

BACKGROUND Postoperative bronchopleural fistula (BPF) and empyema are not uncommon after lung cancer surgery. Some patients require reconstructive surgery to achieve wound healing. In this report, we describe a novel method of reconstructive surgery for BPF and empyema. METHODS From 1996 through 2014, we performed reconstructive surgery for the treatment of BPF and empyema in 13 cases. BPF or...

In this study, bio-oil from the fast pyrolysis of renewable biomass was used as the raw material to synthesize bio-oil phenol formaldehyde (BPF) resin-a desirable resin for fabricating phenolic-based material. During the synthesis process, paraformaldehyde was used to achieve the requirement of high solid content and low viscosity. The properties of BPF resins were tested. Results indicated tha...