The neuroendocrine immune (NEI) system is regarded as a fundamental network for the maintenance of health status (homeostasis), and it plays an important role in several systemic diseases, including autoimmune disorders. Among the major players of NEI pathways are steroid hormones of the adrenal (cortisol) and gonadal glands (sex hormones), neurohormones such as melatonin, and more recently the...

Marine birds are sensitive indicators of the condition of marine ecosystems in the Arctic, partly because they feed at the top of the arctic food chain. The Northern Ecosystem Initiative (NEI) recently supported four separate studies that investigated aspects of Arctic marine bird science which simultaneously addressed goals of the NEI to better understand northern ecosystems and their response...

PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to assess vision-related quality of life (QoL) in patients with visual field loss (VFL) after lesions of the postchiasmatic visual pathway and to investigate the influence of VFL and reduced visual acuity (VA) on vision-related QoL. METHODS In 312 patients with postchiasmatic damage, VFL was measured by automated computer campimetry, and vision-related QoL...

PURPOSE To determine the psychometric validity of the National Eye Institute-Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) and its subscale structure for use in people with low vision. METHODS Two hundred thirty-two participants completed the NEI VFQ-25. Rasch analysis was used to test the psychometric performance of the questionnaire and each subscale. Factor models were hypothesized and tested...

PURPOSE Patient-reported measures of visual function are increasingly incorporated into clinical trials of new treatments for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Limited information is available regarding the associations between distance visual acuity (VA), reading speed, or contrast sensitivity and the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25) subscales judged r...

Data collected during the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ field campaign in the Baltimore Washington region were used to evaluate CO and NOx emissions in the National Emissions Inventory (NEI). The average emissions ratio for the region was seen to be 11.2 ± 1.2 mol CO/mol NOx, 21% higher than that predicted by the NEI. Comparisons between in situ and remote observations and CMAQ model output show agreement i...

BACKGROUND The prognosis of acute lung injury (ALI) after pneumonectomy is poor, with reported mortality rates of 30-100%. Neutrophil elastase inhibitor (NEI) is known to prevent lung injury caused by neutrophil elastase and improve lung function in ALI. We evaluated the effect of NEI on ALI after pneumonectomy. METHODS We analyzed nine patients who required ventilator care due to ALI after p...

Innate immunity and immunological biomarkers are believed to be interrelated with sex hormones and other neuroendocrine factors. Sexual dimorphism mechanisms may be operating in certain rheumatic and inflammatory diseases which occur more frequently in women than men, as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Less data have been available on altered interrelations of the combined neuroendocrine and immune ...