OBJECTIVE To review cost-of-illness studies (COI) and economic evaluations (EE) conducted for medically unexplained symptoms and to analyze their methods and results. METHODS We searched the databases PubMed, PsycINFO and National Health Service Economic Evaluations Database of the University of York. Cost data were inflated to 2006 using country-specific gross domestic product inflators and ...

Living in a mentally and physically stimulating environment has been suggested to have a beneficial effect on the immune response. This study investigates these effects, utilizing a 2-week program of environmental enrichment (EE) and 2 models of acute inflammation: zymosan-induced peritonitis (ZIP) and the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model of sepsis. Our results revealed that following ex...

Excessive erythrocytosis (EE) is the hallmark of chronic mountain sickness (CMS), a prevalent syndrome in high-altitude Andean populations. Although hypoxemia represents its underlying stimulus, why some individuals develop EE despite having altitude-normal blood erythropoietin (Epo) concentration is still unclear. A soluble form of the Epo receptor (sEpoR) has been identified in human blood an...

Abstract Energy efficiency (EE), which is defined as a ratio of spectrum efficiency (SE) to power consumption, is a key performance metric in mobile communication system. The signal waveform has little influence on energy consumption of analog circuit and baseband unit. On the other hand, the energy consumption of power amplifier (PA) highly depends on signal waveform. The power amplifier effic...

PURPOSE Silexan is an oral Lavender oil preparation with proven anxiolytic efficacy. Given the high prevalence of anxiety and restlessness in younger women, oral contraceptives and Silexan will likely be co-administered. METHODS A double-blind, randomised, 2-period crossover study was performed to investigate the effects of Silexan on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of Microgynon(®)...

AIM to compare long term follow-up between end-to-end urethroplasty and bucal mucosal graft for the management of patients with short bulbar urethral stricture. METHODS we conducted a meta-analysis of cohort studies. Literature research was performed on the MEDLINE, Science Direct, and EMBASE database including studies from 1980 through 2014. The inclusion criteria were patients with short bu...

Perhaps the most intriguing result of Planck’s dust-polarization measurements is the observation that the power in the E-mode polarization is twice that in the B mode, as opposed to pre-Planck expectations of roughly equal dust powers in E and B modes. Here we show how the Eand Bmode powers depend on the detailed properties of the fluctuations in the magnetized interstellar medium. These fluctu...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this research was to study the effect of dobutamine on left ventricular (LV) filling in ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) and to determine whether restrictive filling pattern (RFP) at peak stress has prognostic value. BACKGROUND The prognostic value of RFP at peak stress in ICM is unknown. METHODS A total of 69 patients with ICM were studied by Doppler echocardiography...

In the partial sublimation of three enantiomerically enriched amino acids, the ee of the sublimates can be explained by the ratio between the saturated vapor pressures of the racemate and the pure enantiomers.

OBJECTIVE The primary objective of the study was to clarify whether the use of the oral contraceptive 2 mg dienogest/30 microg ethinylestradiol (DNG/EE) is associated with a higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) than the use of other combined oral low-dose contraceptives (i.e. containing < or =30 microg EE), particularly oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel (LNG). The secondary o...