BACKGROUND Debate exists regarding to whether thiopurine therapy is as effective in ulcerative colitis (UC) as it is in Crohn's disease. AIM To review systematically the efficacy of azathioprine (AZA) and mercaptopurine (MP) in UC, and to conduct a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of AZA/MP for the induction or maintenance of UC clinical remission. METHODS...

Two luminous marine bacteria, strains LC2-065(T) and LC2-102, were isolated from seawater at Sagami Bay in Japan. These bacteria were Gram-negative, oxidase-negative, catalase-positive, motile and coccoid-rods. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) using six loci (ftsZ, gapA, gyrB, mreB, pyrH and topA) and sequence analysis of the alpha subunit of luciferase (l...

Methylprednisolone (MP) has been widely used as a standard therapeutic agent for the treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). Because of its controversial useful effects, the combination of MP and other pharmacological agents to enhance neuroprotective effects is desirable. Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) has been shown to have neuroprotective and antihyperalgesic effects. In the present study, we soug...

PURPOSE Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection is a major cause of respiratory infection in school-aged children. Extrapulmonary manifestations of MP infection are common, but liver involvement has been rarely reported. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical characteristics of MP-associated hepatitis. METHODS This prospective study included 1,044 pediatric patients with MP infectio...

We assessed the bronchodilating effect of glycopyrrolate (GP) and compared it with that of metaproterenol (MP), alone and in combination (GP+MP), in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a double-blind study, 11 patients (aged (mean +/- SD) 69 +/- 6 yrs; forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 1.2 +/- 0.4 L) with stable COPD inhaled nebulized GP 1.0 mg, MP 15 mg, ...

The pharmacokinetics and tolerability of nebulized MP-376 (levofloxacin inhalation solution [Aeroquin]) were determined in cystic fibrosis (CF) subjects. Ten CF subjects received single 180-mg doses of two formulations of MP-376, followed by a multiple-dose phase of 240 mg once daily for 7 days. Serum and expectorated-sputum samples were assayed for levofloxacin content. Safety was evaluated fo...

We connect shift-invariant characteristic kernels to infinitely divisible distributions on R. Characteristic kernels play an important role in machine learning applications with their kernel means to distinguish any two probability measures. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we show, using the Lévy–Khintchine formula, that any shift-invariant kernel given by a bounded, continuou...

PURPOSE The three carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin, and meso-zeaxanthin, are found at the macula and referred to as macular pigment (MP). This study was undertaken to investigate determinants of MP in a large randomly selected sample from the Republic of Ireland (as part of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing [TILDA]). METHODS MP optical density (MPOD) was measured using customized heterochr...

PURPOSE Macular pigment (MP) may protect against age-related macular degeneration. This study was conducted to determine the extent of changes in the macular pigment density as a consequence of oral supplementation with lutein. A second purpose was to compare two objective measurement techniques. METHODS In the first technique, reflectance maps were made with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. ...

Articular eminence inclination (AEI) of the temporomandibular joint leads the mandible in its movements. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine AEI values in medieval (MP) and recent (RP) Croatian population. The study was carried out on two groups of specimens: first group with 30 MP human dry skulls, while the other, serving as control group consisted of 137 dry skulls. The ...