OBJECTIVES A matched case-control study was carried out to evaluate biological risk indicators for recurrent non-specific low back pain in adolescents. METHODS Adolescents with recurrent non-specific low back pain (symptomatic; n = 28; mean (SD) age 14.9 (0.7) years) and matched controls (asymptomatic; n = 28; age 14.9 (0.7) years) with no history of non-specific low back pain participated. M...

BACKGROUND Indoor air pollution (IAP) constitutes a major global public health problem requiring increasing efforts in research and policymaking that may have special significance for elderly that are likely to spend most of their day indoors and appear to be particularly susceptible to adverse effects of chemical pollutants and bio-contaminants. Yet, evidence existing on the effects of IAP in ...

Agricultural expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by different farm ages smallholder communities. This study investigated changes microbial indices broadly (i) at the reconnaissance survey level four agro-ecological zones and (ii) farms forest (Dompem) forest–savanna transition (Adansam) zones, as influenced duration of cultivation. Soils from one-year (first cultivation cleared for...

In vitro reconstitution assays are commonly used to study biological membrane fusion. However, to date, most ensemble and single-vesicle experiments involving SNARE proteins have been performed only with lipid-mixing, but not content-mixing indicators. Through simultaneous detection of lipid and small content-mixing indicators, we found that lipid mixing often occurs seconds prior to content mi...

There are many indicators used to assess the processes and outcomes of school health promotion and education programs and initiatives. This paper examines the development of such indicators, and the different foci on the biological, behavioral, social and contextual aspects of child and adolescent health measures. It then develops a framework for categorizing them. The variety of stakeholders w...

Biological monitoring of occupational exposure is characterized by important variability, due both to variability in the environment and to biological differences between workers. A quantitative description and understanding of this variability is important for a dependable application of biological monitoring. This work describes this variability, using a toxicokinetic model, for a large range...

Genetically encoded fluorescent indicators for bioimaging are powerful tools for visualizing biological phenomena in specified cell types or cellular compartments. However, available gene promoters or localization sequences are not applicable for visualizing all expression events. Furthermore, a visualization technique focusing on single cells or cellular compartments is required for characteri...

Nonlinear excitation of fluorophores through molecular absorption of two or three near-infra-red photons from the tightly focused femtosecond pulses of a mode-locked laser offers the cellular biologist an unprecedented panoply of biomolecular indicators for microscopic imaging and cellular analysis. Measurements of the two-photon excitation spectra of 25 ultra-violet and visible absorbing fluor...