Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) is the treatment proven to improve survival in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with chronic respiratory failure. It also appears to reduce the number of hospitalizations, increase effort capacity, and improve health-related quality of life. Standard LTOT criteria are related to COPD patients who have PaO2 < 60 mmHg, are in a clinical stable ...

About 10%-20% of students in Australian schools experience ongoing literacy problems. Many students exhibit average intelligence and ongoing reading and comprehension difficulties after year four. Their reading problems are not linked to factors such as sensory acuity deficits or socioeconomic disadvantage. Recent research suggests that many of these problems may be related to language difficul...

The ground-state energy, electron density, and related properties of ordinary matter can be computed efficiently when the exchange-correlation energy as a functional of the density is approximated semilocally. We propose the first meta-generalized-gradient approximation (meta-GGA) that is fully constrained, obeying all 17 known exact constraints that a meta-GGA can. It is also exact or nearly e...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction Calibrated integrated backscatter (cIBS) may be obtained from bidimensional (2D) strain echocardiography as a quantification measurement myocardial ultrasound reflectivity. Increased collagen content the myocardium modifies tissue reflectivity and cIBS is suggested marker left ventricular (LV) fibrosis. However, its d...

Collaborative abilities are integral to human society [1] and their evolutionary origins are of great interest. Chimpanzees are capable of determining appropriately when and with whom to collaborate in a rope-pull experiment [2]--the only non-human species known to possess both abilities. Chimpanzees are thought to share these abilities with humans as a result of common ancestry [2]. Here, we s...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A large proportion of all platelet components are given to haematology patients. As there are risks associated with their transfusion, costs associated with production, and shortages may occur, it is important that their use is appropriate. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS The study was split into two parts, a survey to assess local practice guidelines and an assessment of p...