Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has undergone a radical change in recent years by optimization not only of classical treatments with disease modifying drugs and the introduction of new biological therapies,1–8 but also of the objectives (treat to target) in the shortand long-terms in monitoring and standardization of patients and procedures.9 It is increasingly evident that there is a wi...

Understanding user’s attitudes represents one of the major objectives in IS adoption research. However, in some IS adoption models, as the most famous representative the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the relationship between user’s attitude and behavioral intention was found to be insignificant and was therefore excluded from later modifications of the respective models (e.g. TAM II and th...

One of the major objectives in systems biology is to understand the relation between the topological structures and the dynamics of biological regulatory networks. In this context, various mathematical tools have been developed to deduct structures of regulatory networks from microarray expression data. In general, from a single data set, one cannot deduct the whole network structure; additiona...

BACKGROUND The causes of health inequalities are complex. For the reduction of health inequalities, intersectoral collaboration between the public health sector and both social policy sectors (e.g. youth affairs, education) and physical policy sectors (e.g. housing, spatial planning) is essential, but in local practice difficult to realize. The aim of this study was to examine the collaboration...

OBJECTIVES Primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) that affects predominantly young and productive people is a progressive fatal disease of unknown cause. The objectives of this study were to characterize mortality in patients with PPH and to investigate the factors associated with their survival. METHODS Thirteen patients with PPH were enrolled between 1988 and 1996 and followed-up through July...

Evidence is lacking on whether the duration and timing of low socioeconomic position (SEP) across a person's life course may be associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). The authors' objectives were to investigate associations between cumulative SEP and the incidence of T2D in the Framingham Offspring Study (n = 1,893; 52% women; mean baseline age = 34 years). Pooled logistic...

Sunflower rust, caused by Puccinia helianthi Schw., can result in significant yield losses in cultivated sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. var. macrocarpus Ckll.). HAR6 is a germplasm population resistant to most predominant rust races. The objectives of this study were to map the resistance factor present in HAR6 (R HAR6 ), and to provide and validate molecular tools for the identification of th...

Patents and other forms of intellectual property protection play essential roles in encouraging innovation in biopharmaceuticals. As part of the "21st Century Cures" initiative, Congress is reviewing the policy mechanisms designed to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new treatments. Debate continues about how best to balance patent and intellectual property incentives to en...

It is essential that any system to be introduced to the cockpit for use by the flight crew be thoroughly evaluated. This evaluation must include a comprehensive range of human factors measures designed to provide a multi-dimensional assessment of the system in use. Additionally, the evaluation must be carried out within its unique operational environment. A rigorous assessment methodology is ne...

Biologic monitoring (i.e., biomonitoring) is used to assess human exposures to environmental and workplace chemicals. Urinary biomonitoring data typically are adjusted to a constant creatinine concentration to correct for variable dilutions among spot samples. Traditionally, this approach has been used in population groups without much diversity. The inclusion of multiple demographic groups in ...