BACKGROUND Anthroposophic therapies (counselling, special medication, art, eurythmy movement, and rhythmical massage) aim to stimulate long-term self-healing processes, which theoretically could lead to a reduction of healthcare use. In a prospective two-year cohort study, anthroposophic therapies were followed by a reduction of chronic disease symptoms and improvement of quality of life. The p...

PURPOSE To compare the efficacy of different types of solutions (Belzer or Euro-Collins) for the preservation of rat pancreas during cold ischemia. METHODS Thirty Wistar rats were divided into three groups according to the perfusion or storage solution: Group E (perfusion and storage in Euro-Collins solution); Group B (perfusion and storage in Belzer solution) and Group BE (Perfusion in Belze...

AIM AND BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in European women aged 15-44 years. The aim of this study was to estimate the direct cost of managing invasive cervical cancer in Italy. METHODS Data from the Italian Network of Cancer Registries were used to estimate the annual number of new cervical cancer cases. To assess the management costs, a typical management pathway ...

In this paper, a novel application of the backpropagation network using a self-organised layer inspired by immune algorithm is used for the prediction of financial time series. The simulations assess the data from two time series: Firstly the daily exchange rate between the US dollar and the Euro for the period from the 3rd January 2000 until the 4th November 2005, giving approximately 1525 dat...

OBJECTIVE To compare the costs and benefits of open versus endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). METHODS A consecutive series of 29 elective patients (open treatment, N = 20 and endovascular treatment, N = 9) were compared retrospectively. RESULTS Operating time was significantly shorter for endovascular treatment (mean 90 vs. 125 min, p = 0.026). No endovascular procedure...

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the Euro–US dollar exchange rate cointegrates with other major exchange rates since the introduction of the Euro. In order to evaluatewhether the introduction of a new currency, which has commonly replaced more and less established currencies, has generated common stochastic trends which are possibly linked to cross-inefficient markets, the result...

One of the major technological challenges for the transport sector is to cut emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) simultaneously from diesel vehicles to meet future emission standards and to reduce their contribution to the pollution of ambient air. Installation of particle filters in all existing diesel vehicles (for new vehicles, the feasibility is proven) is an effi...