Large artery wall viscosity reduces the efficiency of heart/vessel coupling. The aim of the present study was to assess pulmonary artery wall viscosity through comparison of the static (Dst) and dynamic distensibility (Ddyn) of the vessel wall. Right pulmonary artery pressure and diameter was measured in 13 patients and eight healthy volunteers. Ddyn was calculated as the relative change in end...

BACKGROUND Reports in the literature suggest that the season of birth might constitute a risk factor for the development of a major psychiatric disorder, possibly because of the effect environmental factors have during the second trimester of gestation. The aim of the current paper was to study the possible relationship of the season of birth and current clinical symptoms in unipolar major depr...

Liquid media such as the mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT) are widely used for antitubercular drug susceptibility testing (DST) but may cause discordant or invalid results due to ordinary bacterial contamination or mixed mycobacterial colonies. To overcome the drawbacks of DST with MGIT (DSTMGIT), an experiment with a modified method that incorporated a subculture step on the Löwenstein...

BACKGROUND The swallowing mechanism changes significantly as people age, even in the absence of chronic diseases. Presbyphagia, a term that refers to aging-related changes in the swallowing mechanism, may be linked to many health conditions and presents itself in distinct ways. Swallowing disorders are also identified as a major problem amongst the elderly population living in nursing homes. ...

The concept of sectorization of the transformed images for CBIR is an innovative idea. This paper introduces the concept of Wavelet generation for Discrete sine transform (DST).The sectorization of the DST transformed images and the DST wavelet transforms has been done into various sector sizes i.e.4,8,12, and 16. The transformation of the images is tried and tested threefold i.e. row wise tran...

Donor-specific allograft tolerance can be induced in the adult rat by pregraft donor-specific blood transfusion (DST). This tolerance appeared to be mediated by regulatory cells and to the production of the suppressive cytokine TGF-beta1. A potential immunoregulatory CD8+ clone bearing a Vbeta18-Dbeta1-Jbeta2.7 TCR gene rearrangement was previously identified in DST-treated recipients. To asses...

OBJECTIVES Pyrazinamide is a key first-line tuberculosis drug. Reliable drug susceptibility testing (DST) data are of clinical importance, but in vitro testing is challenging since the activity of pyrazinamide is pH sensitive. The BACTEC MGIT 960 is considered the principal reference technique, but Wayne's test is an alternative, although it may be difficult to interpret. A further alternative ...

The development of LSI technology makes it possible to partition a system into replaceable modules, and the advent of low-cost microprocessors makes possible networks of hundreds (or more) of interconnected modules. The problem of repairing such a system is becoming a matter of major importance in digital systems. In this paper a new procedure for defining an optimal design with respect to cost...

In 2004, routine use of culture and drug-susceptibility testing (DST) was implemented for persons in 5 Thailand provinces with a diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). To determine if DST results were being used to guide treatment, we conducted a retrospective chart review for patients with rifampin-resistant or multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB during 2004-2008. A total of 208 patients were identified. Me...

BACKGROUND Drug susceptibility testing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) is especially required in difficult cases of tuberculosis (TB) chemotherapy and in cases of multidrug resistance (MDR-TB; combined resistance to isonizid and rifampicin with or without resistance to any other drug). The methods for in vitro cultivation and drug susceptibility testing (DST) of M. tuberculosis...