PURPOSE The values of Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph (HRT; Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) stereometric parameters depend on the reference plane (RP), the instability of which results in parameter variability. Identification of change depends on RP stability. This study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of various RPs on rim areas (RAs) in a longitudinal image series. METHOD...

Few studies have addressed the relation between serum vitamin A level and HIV disease progression. Thirty HIV-infected women in Rwanda were studied over a time span of 26 to 99 months. Fourteen subjects seroconverted and died of HIV-related disease at a mean of 44 months (range, 26-69 months) after their first HIV-positive test and were termed "rapid progressors," (RPs). A comparison group of 1...

BACKGROUND Retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS) are heterogeneous. No previous study has investigated the impact of specialized surgery, evaluated locoregional relapse (LRR), abdominal sarcomatosis and distant metastatic relapse as separate events, or considered histological subtypes separately. This study addresses these specific points in a homogeneous cohort of patients with completely resected pr...

Paper production and recycling result in large amounts of recycled paper sludge (RPS) that is currently being disposed very costly unsustainable practices, raising the importance developing green solutions for waste management. The use nanocellulose (NC) as next generation materials has gained much attention due to its economic potential. However, there are substantial challenges NC extraction,...

AIMS Retained placenta (RP) is a major cause of obstetric haemorrhage. The aim of the study was to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms that cause some placentas to become retained, while most are not. METHODS 23 RPs clinically diagnosed as placenta adhesiva and 10 control placentas (CPs) were examined for differences in trophoblast fusion into multinucleated trophoblastic giant ce...

We investigated the temporal dynamics of brain activity related to speech and motor preparation. Previous electroencephalography (EEG) studies of speech production have identified a slow wave negativity that occurs as early as 2 seconds prior to articulation, known as the readiness potential (RP). This EEG potential is commonly described as having two phases, an early slow component and a late ...

Vehicle users are facing a number of health problems, which create complicated situations. Some cases are very serious in which the road accidents create fetal or long term disabilities. Risk prediction systems (RPS) and health monitoring systems (HMS) have been used for a number of e-Health applications, which are basics to some serious diseases. In this paper, tiredness while driving (TWD) is...

BACKGROUND Currently no prospective randomized trial has measured the efficacy of radiation therapy for resected retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS). Our objective was to determine the effect of radiation therapy on disease-specific and overall survival between propensity score-matched surgically resected RPS patients using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. PATIENTS ...

Partial sequences of farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) synthase genes derived from the Rhodobacter-Rhodovulum group and from the Rhodopseudomonas palustris-Bradyrhizobium japonicum group of the alpha-Proteobacteria were subjected to phylogenetic analysis to investigate the relationships of phototrophic and non-phototrophic bacteria in the alpha-Proteobacteria . The four Rhodovulum species formed a mon...

One challenging issue in sensor networks is to determine where a given sensor node is physically located. This problem is especially crucial for very small sensor nodes. This paper presents a GPS-less, outdoor, self-positioning method for wireless sensor networks. In our method, a set of nodes, called reference points (RPs), are deployed in the sensor network with overlapping regions of coverag...