BACKGROUND The COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) assessment test (CAT) is a recently introduced, simple to use patient-completed quality of life instrument that contains eight questions covering the impact of symptoms in COPD. It is not known how the CAT score performs in the context of clinical pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) programmes or what the minimum clinically important differe...

Background: There are studies that indicated dyshomeostasis of oxidant/antioxidant and trace elements in breast cancer patients, but the data regarding the status of these parameters in various stages of breast cancer are limited. The aim of this study was to highlight the status of these biochemical factors in various stages of breast cancer. Methods: Fifty-eight breast cancers patients par...

Urban domestic cat (Felis catus) populations can attain exceedingly high densities and are not limited by natural prey availability. This has generated concerns that they may negatively affect prey populations, leading to calls for management. We enlisted cat-owners to record prey returned home to estimate patterns of predation by free-roaming pets in different localities within the town of Rea...

Regardless of toxicity of nanoparticles, cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeNPs) are emerging as a multi-functional agent for biomedical purposes. On the other hand, Organophosphorus pesticides, like malathion, are inevitably found in the environment. The common involving pathway CeNPs and malathion share is oxidative stress. Therefore, we conducted this study to find the possible neutralizing or sy...

A short, easy-to-use health status questionnaire is needed in the multidimensional assessment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in routine practice. The performance of the eight-item COPD assessment test (CAT) was analysed in 1,817 patients from primary care in seven European countries. The CAT has a scoring range of 0-40 (high score representing poor health status). Mean CAT scor...

The uncoupling protein-1 gene is uniquely expressed in brown adipose tissue (BAT) and is positively regulated by cold exposure of animals and the sympathetic nervous system. To analyse the importance of a previously identified 211-bp enhancer [Cassard-Doulcier, Gelly, Fox, Schrementi, Raimbault, Klaus, Forest, Bouillaud and Ricquier (1993) Mol. Endocrinol. 7, 497-506] in the tissue-specific exp...

This study aimed to elucidate the influence of environment pH on survival, growth, energy allocation and oxidative damage of juvenile Scophthalmus maximus (19.89±0.25 g). Six pH treatments (6.3±0.2、6.8±0.2、7.3±0.2、7.8±0.2、8.3±0.2、8.8±0.2) lasting for eight weeks were included. Measurements of survival (SR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), weight gain rate (WGR), energy ...

We monitored by blood culture and immunofluorescence assay (IFA) bartonella infection in one dog and eight cats in a household to determine the prevalence and persistence of the infection as well as its transmissibility to humans. Ectoparasite control was rigorously exercised. During a 3-year period, Bartonella clarridgeiae was recovered from one cat on two occasions, and B. henselae was isolat...