Suosuo grape (the fruits of Vitis vinifera L) has been used for prevention and treatment of liver diseases in Uighur folk medicine in China besides its edible value. In this study, the hepatoprotective effects of total triterpenoids (VTT) and total flavonoids (VTF) from Suosuo grape were evaluated in Bacille-Calmette-Guerin- (BCG-) plus-lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced immunological liver inj...

We aimed to examine the long-term correlation between influenza vaccination coverage and the incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI) in the total and elderly populations of European countries for which data was available on at least six consecutive influenza seasons. We graphically visualised vaccination coverage and ILI incidence trends and calculated Spearman rank correlation coefficients. ...

OBJECTIVE Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) production by adipose tissue is increased in obesity, and its circulating levels are high in type 2 diabetes. PAI-1 increases cardiovascular risk by favoring clot stability, interfering with vascular remodeling, or both. We investigated in obese diabetic persons whether an intensive lifestyle intervention for weight loss (ILI) would decrease P...

The primary aims of this paper were (1) to evaluate the influence of intensive lifestyle weight loss and exercise intervention (ILI) compared with diabetes support and education (DSE) upon Heart Rate Recovery (HRR) from graded exercise testing (GXT) and (2) to determine the independent and combined effects of weight loss and fitness changes upon HRR. In 4503 participants (45-76 years) who compl...

BACKGROUND During the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic, antiviral prescribing was limited, vaccines were not available early, and the effectiveness of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) was uncertain. Our study examined whether use of face masks and hand hygiene reduced the incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI). METHODS A randomized intervention trial involving 1437 young adults living in u...

BACKGROUND During the 2009 influenza pandemic period, routine surveillance of influenza-like-illness (ILI) was conducted in The Netherlands by a network of sentinel general practitioners (GPs). In addition during the pandemic period, four other ILI/influenza surveillance systems existed. For pandemic preparedness, we evaluated the performance of the sentinel system and the others to assess whic...

BACKGROUND An internet-based survey of influenza-like illness (ILI)--the Great Influenza Survey or GIS--was launched in the Netherlands in the 2003-2004 influenza season. The aim of the present study was to validate the representativeness of the GIS population and to compare the GIS data with the official ILI data obtained by Dutch GPs participating in the Dutch Sentinel Practice Network. MET...

Much of today’s information is digitised. Representation of information is increasingly becoming digital. Yet, paper books remain popular, as many readers prefer the reading experience that paper books provide, which digital interfaces cannot. In this paper, our aim is to improve users’ reading experience by enhancing books with digital functionalities. We conducted a user survey study to ident...

has the pleasure of sending to you our Publications 2003. This publication, nineth in a series, has 194 entries and includes 181 articles in English or Finnish; summarized in English for your convenience. We hope that you will find the booklet useful. Should you want to make a request for any listed book or article, please contact the authors or our Library at the addresses below. The library a...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have shown that influenza is associated with significant disease burden in many countries in the tropics, but until recently national surveillance for influenza was not conducted in most countries in Africa. METHODS In 2007, the Kenyan Ministry of Health with technical support from the CDC-Kenya established a national sentinel surveillance system for influenza. At 11...