BACKGROUND Pulmonary rehabilitation is a well-recognized treatment option in chronic obstructive lung disease improving exercise performance, respiratory symptoms and quality of life. In occupational respiratory diseases, which can be rather cost-intensive due to the compensation needs, very little information is available. OBJECTIVES This study aims at the evaluation of the usefulness of pul...

BACKGROUND Bioreactance is a novel noninvasive method for cardiac output measurement that involves analysis of blood flow-dependent changes in phase shifts of electrical currents applied across the thorax. The present study evaluated the test-retest reliability of bioreactance for assessing haemodynamic variables at rest and during exercise. METHODS 22 healthy subjects (26 (4) yrs) performed ...

PURPOSE To examine the influence of a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) on the exercise-induced increase in circulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). METHODS In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, 11 young, healthy male subjects were treated with either placebo or reboxetine. On each occasion, they performed a 60-min cycling exercise at 55% of the...

Litter and soil play an important role in influencing hydrological processes the global water cycle. Artificial afforestation, as a part of vegetation restoration, was constructed gully erosion areas latosol with objective to prevent erosion. Variations properties soils that have undergone restoration from are not well understood. In this study, we examine variations litter thickness mass, stru...

This study analyses the feeding ecology of Brevortia aurea (Brazilian menhaden) larvae during a reproductive season in Río de la Plata estuary (RPE), and explores its changes along larval development. Data were obtained from stomach content 205 individuals collected with Bongo net spring 2001. Larvae discriminated into preflexion (PF), flexion (F) post-flexion (PsF) stages. Feeding was describe...

KEY POINTS The prevalence of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) non-response gradually declines in healthy individuals exercising 60, 120, 180, 240 or 300 min per week for 6 weeks. Following a successive identical 6-week training period but comprising 120 min of additional exercise per week, CRF non-response is universally abolished. The magnitude of CRF improvement is primarily attributed to chan...

INTRODUCTION In contrast with the frequency distribution of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) stages in the population, in which the majority of the patients is classified as GOLD 2, much less information is available on the prevalence and implications of systemic manifestations in less severe patients relative to GOLD 3 and 4. AIM To characterize local and systemic impairment in r...

BACKGROUND Borg developed scales for rating pain and perceived exertion in adults that have also been used in pediatric populations. Models describing functional relationships between perceived exertion and work capacity have not been studied in children. We compared different models and their fits to individual trajectories and assessed the variability in these trajectories. METHODS Ratings ...

The isometric and isotonic contractile properties of fast-twitch glycolytic fibres of the iliofibularis muscle (FG-IF) in the lizard Sceloporus occidentalis were measured in vitro at 5 degrees C intervals form 10 to 40 degrees C. The mean isometric parameters at 35 degrees C, the preferred body temperature of this species, were as follows: maximum isometric force (Po), 187 +/- 8 (S.E.M.) kNm-2;...

In this paper, we propose a fast distributed solver for linear equations given by symmetric diagonally dominant M-Matrices. Our approach is based on a distributed implementation of the parallel solver of Spielman and Peng by considering a specific approximated inverse chain which can be computed efficiently in a distributed fashion. Representing the system of equations by a graph G, the propose...