OBJECTIVE To perform a cost comparison of a weight gain restriction programme for obese pregnant women with standard antenatal care, and to identify if there were differences in healthcare costs within the intervention group related to degree of gestational weight gain or degree of obesity at programme entry. STUDY DESIGN A comparison of mean healthcare costs for participants of an interventi...

Escherichia coli strains are classified into four main phylogenetic groups (A, B1, B2, and D) and strains of these phylogroups differ in a number of characteristics. This study tested whether human fecal E. coli isolates belonging to different phylogroups differ in prevalence of bacteriocinogenic isolates and prevalence of individual bacteriocinogenic determinants. A set of 1283 fecal E. coli i...

AIMS To determine whether perceived muscular tension, job strain, or physical exposure are associated with increased risk of developing neck pain among VDU users. METHODS A baseline questionnaire was answered by 1283 respondents, of whom 671 were free from neck pain at baseline. Perceived muscular tension, job strain, and physical exposure were assessed at baseline. Information about newly de...

The type I insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR) is known to send two seemingly contradictory signals inducing either cell proliferation or cell differentiation, depending on cell type and/or conditions. H19-7 cells are rat hippocampal neuronal cells immortalized by a temperature-sensitive SV40 large T antigen that grow at 34 degrees C in epidermal growth factor or serum but differentiat...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of initial aggressive decongestion (Phase 1) on the maintenance phase of complex physical therapy (CPT). MATERIALS AND METHODS We reviewed 27 patients with unilateral and 3 patients with bilateral lower extremity lymphedema who started CPT between April, 2009 and October, 2010. Twelve patients elected to undergo in-hospital Phase 1 (Group I), while the other ...

systems, especially when the time needed to implement the algorithm is included, the scaling of time and memory with system size becomes crucial for larger simulations. In our studies of hysteresis and avalanches in the zerotemperature random-field Ising model, a simple model of magnetism, we often have had to do very large simulations. Previous simulations were usually limited to relatively sm...

OBJECTIVE High-risk HPV (hrHPV) and cytology co-testing is utilized for primary cervical cancer screening and for enhanced follow-up of women who are hrHPV-positive, cytology negative. However, data are lacking on the utility of this method to detect pre-cancer or cancer in community-based clinical practice. This study describes cytology and hrHPV results preceding high-grade cervical intraepit...

The Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (ART) reconstructs a 2D or 3D object from its projections. It has, in certain scenarios, many advantages over the more popular Filtered Backprojection approaches and has also recently been shown to perform well for 3D cone-beam reconstruction. However, so far, ART’s slow speed has prohibited its routine use in clinical applications. Currently, a software i...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is highly endemic in many Asian countries. OBJECTIVES We examined whether prior contraceptive methods and sexual behavioral factors impact maternal HBV carriage in an obstetric population. PATIENTS AND METHODS For this study, pregnant women were considered to be representative of the sexually active and fertile female population. Contraceptive me...