BACKGROUND Eosinophilic airway inflammation has successfully been used to tailor anti-inflammatory therapy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) by indirect challenges is associated with airway inflammation. We hypothesized that AHR to inhaled mannitol captures eosinophilia in induced sputum in COPD. METHODS Twenty-eight patients (age 58 ± 7.8 yr, p...

In order to demonstrate a possible complement activation during early bronchospastic reaction in asthma, we have measured plasmatic C3d (a split product of C3) and the C3d/C3 index, both of which are sensitive indices of complement activation. Twenty-nine allergenic bronchial challenge tests were accomplished, with an absence of response in six cases, an early reaction in sixteen cases and a du...

As transistor geometries are reduced, leakage current increases. Due to increased levels and process variation, IDDQ test faces difficult challenges for deep sub-micron technologies. Several solutions have been proposed in the literature. This paper provides an overview of some of the solutions. Some views on the future of IDDQ testing are also presented.

Epidemiological problems arising from the absence of an agreed definition of asthma have led to the use of bronchial reactivity tests in community surveys of asthma prevalence. Since only a minority of the general population will develop bronchoconstriction in response to the dose of histamine considered acceptable for use in the community it is important to make maximum use of the data availab...

This article presents the first collection of French Winograd Schemas. Winograd Schemas form anaphora resolution problems that can only be resolved with extensive world knowledge. For this reason the Winograd Schema Challenge has been proposed as an alternative to the Turing Test. A very important feature of Winograd Schemas is that it should be impossible to resolve them with statistical infor...

BACKGROUND The perception of bronchoconstriction varies among patients with asthma and this perception may be related to the covariation of sensory and affective aspects of dyspnoea. A study was performed to evaluate whether there are differences in the perception of histamine induced bronchoconstriction between anxious and non-anxious perceivers and whether anxious perception of bronchoconstri...

background: diagnosis of food allergy is difficult in children. food allergies are diagnosed using several methods that include medical histories, clinical examinations, skin prick and serum-specific immunoglobulin e (ige) tests, radio-allergosorbent test (rast), food challenge, and supervised elimination diets. in this study we evaluated allergies to cow's milk, egg, peanut, and fish in c...