To confirm the positive results of a preliminary trial, 26 patients with mixed cryoglobulinaemia were enrolled in a controlled, randomised, crossover trial with interferon alfa-2b. A significant improvement was seen in the purpura score and alanine aminotransferase activities during six months' treatment, and was associated with a significant decrease in cryocrit and a returning to normal of th...

The aims of this study were to: (1) determine whether replacement of cow's milk protein with soy resolves Chronic Functional Constipation (CFC); and (2) investigate the effects of cow's milk β casein A1 and cow's milk β casein A2 on CFC. Children diagnosed with CFC were recruited to one of two crossover trials: Trial 1 compared the effects of cow's milk and soy milk; Trial 2 compared the effect...

BACKGROUND Maintenance of central blood volume (CBV) is essential for hemodynamic stability during hemodialysis (HD), though preservation of CBV is poorly understood. Pneumatic compression devices (PCDs) during HD may help maintain CBV. METHODS We performed a randomized, crossover trial to determine the effect of PCDs on CBV during HD. Patients underwent two consecutive mid-week HD sessions, ...

BACKGROUND Despite evidence implicating dietary sodium in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in chronic kidney disease (CKD), quality intervention trials in CKD patients are lacking. This study aims to investigate the effect of reducing sodium intake on blood pressure, risk factors for progression of CKD and other cardiovascular risk factors in CKD. METHODS/DESIGN The LowSALT CK...

Differential evolution (DE) is an efficient and robust evolutionary algorithm and has wide application in various science and engineering fields. DE is sensitive to the selection of mutation and crossover strategies and their associated control parameters. However, the structure and implementation of DEs are becoming more complex because of the diverse mutation and crossover strategies that use...

Crossover operator plays a crucial role in the efficiency of genetic algorithm (GA). Several crossover operators have been proposed for solving the travelling salesman problem (TSP) in the literature. These operators have paid less attention to the characteristics of the traveling salesman problem, and majority of these operators can only generate feasible solutions. In this paper, a crossover ...

BACKGROUND Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been investigated as a new tool in neurological rehabilitation of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). However, due to the inconsistent results regarding the effects of rTMS in people with SCI, a randomized controlled double-blind crossover trial is needed to clarify the clinical utility and to assess the effect size of rT...

Aim: To investigate the effects of ingesting amino acids simultaneously with glucose and fat on postchallenge glycemia lipidemia. Methods: The subjects were eleven healthy young Japanese women (age 21.1 ± 0.1 y). In each session, ingested one three beverages in a randomized crossover design. Materials used an acid mixture (Amizet B™, 0.6 g/kg body weight, 60 mg/kg as acids), (1 weight), cream (...