BACKGROUND Strategies for initial drug therapy of hypertension are a thiazide diuretic for all or drug selection based on age/race criteria or on plasma renin activity (PRA). It is uncertain which of these strategies will achieve the highest control rate among patients with stage 1 essential hypertension. We sought to compare control rates among 3 drug selection strategies: (i) thiazide diureti...

Patellar tendinopathy is prevalent among athletes, and most likely associated with a high jumping load. If methods for estimating jump frequency were available, this could potentially assist in understanding and preventing this condition. The objective of this study was to explore the possibility of using peak vertical acceleration (PVA) or peak resultant acceleration (PRA) measured by an accel...

BACKGROUND Cha-hua (Camellia reticulata) is one of China's traditional ornamental flowers developed by the local people of Yunnan Province. Today, more than 500 cultivars and hybrids are recognized. Many ancient camellia trees still survive and are managed by local peopl. A few records on cha-hua culture exist, but no studies expound the interaction between C. reticulata and traditional culture...

A path learning algorithm (PRA) has been recently proposed that addresses link prediction tasks on heterogenous graphs using learned combinations of labeled paths. Unlike most statistical relational learning methods, this approach scales to large data sets. In this paper, we extend PRA is terms of expressive power, while maintaining its high scalability. Mainly, we propose to compute backward r...

OBJECTIVE The rapid differentiation between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria is fundamental for patients co-infected with tuberculosis and HIV. To that end, we use two methods in our laboratory: detection of cord factor and PCR-restriction enzyme analysis (PRA). The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of a screening test on solid medium as a rapid meth...

OBJECTIVE Although many methods for pain assessment in newborns are available, none of them are widely accepted. Our aim was to answer the question: do newborns respond similarly to different painful procedures? METHODS Sixty term newborns were involved in non-randomized prospective study. They were classified into 2 groups: Group A (n=30) who needed intubation and Group B (n=30) who necessit...

This paper considers the use of participatory methods in international development research, and asks what contribution these can make to the definition and measurement of well-being. It draws on general lessons arising from the project level, two larger-scale policy research processes sponsored by the World Bank, and the experience of quality of life studies. It also considers emerging experim...

This paper considers the use of participatory methods in international development research, and asks what contribution these can make to the definition and measurement of well-being. It draws on general lessons arising from the project level, two larger-scale policy research processes sponsored by the World Bank, and the experience of quality of life studies. It also considers emerging experim...

OBJECTIVES Age-related changes in the expression of hormonal receptors have not been well examined in the fallopian tube (FT). We herein report the effect of menopause on the hormone receptors in ampullae of the FTs (AFTs), in comparison with cortical inclusion cysts (CICs) of the ovary. METHODS A total of 84 AFTs and 16 fimbriae of FTs, which were obtained from 26 premenopausal and 58 postme...