Lead is a multi-organ toxicant implicated in various cancers, diseases of the hepatic, renal, and reproductive systems etc. In search of cheap and readily available antidote this study has investigated the role of activated charcoal in chronic lead exposure in albino rats. Eighteen mature male albino rats were used, divided into three groups of six rats per group. Group 1 (control rats) receive...

BACKGROUND In the era of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is under-evaluated. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of NAC plus IMRT and concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) plus adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) on locoregionally advanced NPC. METHODS Between January 2004 and Dec...

BACKGROUND Chronic cough is the only symptom of cough variant asthma (CVA) and atopic cough (AC). Cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonists have been shown to be effective in CVA, but there are no reports on their effectiveness in AC. To evaluate the antitussive effect of montelukast, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, in CVA and AC. METHODS Seventy-five patients with chronic cough received ...

Solid-state transformer (SST); Medium frequency transformer; AC/AC converter; Matrix converter Abstract This paper presents a novel topology of solid-state transformer (SST). In the design process, the AC/DC, DC/AC and AC/AC converters have been integrated to achieve higher efficiency. To obtain higher efficiency from other SST with DC-link topologies, the AC/DC and DC/AC converters have been i...

INTRODUCTION The aim of the study was to examine the direct and indirect costs of COPD exacerbations under usual clinical practice in primary and secondary care from a societal perspective in Poland. MATERIAL AND METHODS An observational, prospective study was conducted among patients with exacerbation of moderate or severe COPD. Seventy-three patients were included in the study - 39 treated ...

BACKGROUND Docetaxel has yielded promising response rates as a component of doxorubicin-based combination schedules in patients with metastatic breast cancer, including docetaxel/doxorubicin and docetaxel/doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (AC). This randomized two-stage phase II study was conducted to evaluate sequential treatment with docetaxel and AC as first-line treatment in patients with recurr...

Background: Reconstructions of acute acromioclavicular (AC) dislocations have been thought to result in superioroutcomes than chronic dislocations. The use of tendon graft in reconstructions has demonstrated favorablebiomechanical properties. To determine whether utilizing tendon graft during repair of acute AC dislocations results insuperior outcomes and lower complication ra...

The researches on direct AC-AC converters have been an important field. The DC-modulated method, which was used in DC-DC converters before, is used in AC-AC converters to realize a direct AC-AC converting now. The traditional control method regulates the output by adjusting the duty ratio. Its’ core is the PWM technology. In this paper, the variable structure control (VSC) strategy was utilized...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acupuncture is effective at treating dry eye disease among postmenopausal women and to identify the possible mechanisms. METHODS Twenty-eight postmenopausal women with dry eye disease were randomly divided into two groups: an acupuncture plus artificial tears (AC + AT) group and an artificial tears (AT) only group. After baseline...

Task and group comparisons in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies are often accomplished through the creation of intersubject average activation maps. Compared with traditional volume-based intersubject averages, averages made using computational models of the cortical surface have the potential to increase statistical power because they reduce intersubject variability in corti...