1. This was an 18-week prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebocontrolled clinical study on a Chinese herbal medicine— MaZiRenWan (MZRW)—for the treatment of functional constipation. 2. 120 subjects with functional constipation (Rome III criteria) were randomised (60 per arm) into the MZRW and placebo groups. Respective responder rates for the two groups were 43.3% and 8.3% during treatme...

OBJECTIVES To verify whether abdominal pressure during urination represents an important factor in the postoperative development of inguinal hernia after radical retropubic prostatectomy. METHODS Participants comprised 228 patients who underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy without prophylaxis for inguinal herniation between 2002 and 2007. Development of inguinal hernia was assessed from ...

Stiffness matrix of the four-node quadrilateral plane stress element is decomposed into normal and shear components. A computer program is developed to obtain the straining modes using adequate and reduced integration. Then a solution for the problem of mixing straining modes is found. Accuracy of the computer program is validated by a closed-form stiffness matrix, derived for the plane rectang...

Microstructural evolutions of twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steel during tensile straining were investigated by in situ SEM observations. The results indicated that slip lines and mechanical twins as well as surface relief were increased with increasing strain, resulting in a stepped surface. Additionally, these deformation mechanisms could change the shape of each grain via shear and rota...

background during the four steps of the valsalva maneuver (vm), opposite changes can be observed in some physiologic parameters. manifestations of the vm in the electrocardiogram (ecg) have been studied in detail, but there have been few reports comparing vm-related biochemical and hemodynamic changes with a focus on the strain phase of the vm. objectives we studied strain-related ecg changes d...

The external and internal oblique, transverse abdominis and the rectus abdominis muscles constitute the anterolateral abdominal wall muscles. They are striated and contract voluntarily. We investigated the hypothesis that contraction of these muscles by coughing or straining, can also occur as a reflex. Effect of straining on muscles was tested in 19 healthy volunteers. The intra-abdominal pres...