It has often been suggested that the period of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) has a tendency to synchronize with the Semi-Annual Oscillation (SAO). Using 45 years of ERA-40 data of the equatorial stratosphere up to the stratopause, we demonstrate that this synchronization is not just a tendency but indeed holds quite well in the upper stratosphere. A QBO period starts when a SAO westerly ...

Computer-synthesized speech is emerging as a mainstream human-computer interface in post-PC devices. However, there is limited research on its effect on the user experience. We contribute to this emerging stream by focusing on online review persuasiveness. The current presentation standard is the text review accompanied by images and numeric ratings. We review the limited theory on the effect o...

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) provides global analyses of atmospheric humidity from the ground to the lower mesosphere. Unlike in the troposphere, in the stratosphere no humidity observations are assimilated. Humidity analyses here are essentially the results of a free-running model constrained by the ECMWF’s analysed wind fields. So far only the broad-scale fea...

The incidence of non–AIDS-defi ning cancers (NADCs) has increased by greater than 3-fold over the past 10 years and has now surpassed that of AIDS-defi ning cancers (ADCs) in HIVinfected patients. Some of this increase is associated with the longer survival and aging of patients in the potent antiretroviral therapy era, but some also appears to be associated with direct effects of HIV that incr...

BACKGROUND Tobacco use became an ingrained habit in the United States (US) following the First World War and a large proportion of physicians, similar to the general population, were smokers. The period from 1949 to 1984 was a pivotal era of change however, as the medical profession, like the society it served, became increasingly aware of the dangers that tobacco incurred for health. METHODS...

Aim To examine the trajectory of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) using data from European Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Society Patient Registry collected 2008 to 2016, hence era before highly effective modulator therapy (HEMT). We evaluated risk factors for FEV1 decline. Methods The study population included patients with a confirmed diagnosis CF recorded ECFPR (2008–2016). evolution FEV1% predi...

Direct interaction with touchscreens has become a primary way of using a device. This work seeks to devise interaction methods for editing textual source code on touch-enabled devices. With the advent of the “Post-PC Era”, touch-centric interaction has received considerable attention in both research and development. However, various limitations have impeded widespread adoption of programming e...

This paper proposes the hypothesis that the low-frequency variability of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) arises as a result of variations in the occurrence of upper-level Rossby wave–breaking events over the North Atlantic. These events lead to synoptic situations similar to midlatitude blocking that are referred to as high-latitude blocking episodes. A positive NAO is envisaged as being a...

CD4 + cell counts are used to determine risk for HIV disease progression, eligibility for antiretroviral therapy (ART), and immunologic response to ART. A recent Brazilian study suggested that CD4 cell counts are declining more rapidly among recently infected patients than in the pre-combination ART era. Rates of CD4 cell decline were compared in a well-characterized clinical cohort from the Ho...

Introduction: Glucocorticoids are considered the cornerstone of the induction phase in all treatment protocols of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Among the adverse effects of high-dose glucocorticoid treatment, adrenal insufficiency is secondary to suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This drawback of exogenous steroid therapy gains a contemporary particular relevan...