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Adjustable maintenance dosing with either budesonide/formoterol or budesonide was compared in asthma patients. This double-blind trial randomized 133 patients (mean forced expiratory volume in 1s 66% predicted) to receive 2 inhalations twice daily of budesonide/formoterol 160/4.5 microg (640/18 microg/day) or budesonide 320 microg (1280 microg/day) for 4 weeks. The study drug was adjusted in both groups according to symptoms to 2-4 inhalations daily during Weeks 5-8 and 1-4 inhalations daily during Weeks 9-20. Asthma was well controlled in both groups, with minimal levels of treatment failure (5 budesonide/formoterol vs. 2 budesonide patients; P=NS) and minimal use of reliever therapy. Clinically important improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQL) occurred in the physical functioning and emotional role functioning domains (both P

Analysis of shape began to emerge as a useful method in medical image computing with the potential to improve the accuracy of medical diagnosis as well as the understanding of processes behind growth and disease. Our work aims at investigating the suitability of the medial representation method (m-reps) to model and analyze shape and shape differences between healthy and diseased hearts. For this experimental study we used MRI short axis scans of 16 male subjects, 11 healthy volunteers (age: 50 ± 10) and 5 patients (age: 57 ± 11) with dilatative cardiomyopathy (CMP, EF: 22 ± 10%). Controlled semi-automated segmentation using the level set method provided labels, which were used for the modeling process. To evaluate the model to image quality the similarity index (SI) was calculated. The SI for the left ventricle was 0.93, and for the right ventricle SI = 0.9. Applying extended Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on all 16 subjects revealed the distribution of the individual shapes, showing discrimination between healthy and diseased ventricles. The first two main components of the PCA, mainly responsible for discrimination, cover more than 40% of the whole shape space. Applying the medial based approach and using shape statistics using component analysis for the left and right ventricle is feasible. This preliminary work promises to discriminate at least globally based on shape differences between healthy and diseased hearts. The resulting question however is, if this approach is good enough to detect early structural changes leading to diseased hearts.

death plays a pathogenic role in a rat model of heart failure. Int J Cardiol 2009;134:82–90. [6] Matsui Y, Takagi H, Qu X, et al. Distinct roles of autophagy in the heart during ischemia and reperfusion: roles of AMP-activated protein kinase and Beclin 1 in mediating autophagy. Circ Res 2007;100:914–22. [7] Asanuma K, Tanida I, Shirato I, et al. MAP-LC3, a promising autophagosomal marker, is processed during the differentiation and recovery of podocytes from PAN nephrosis. FASEB J 2003;17:1165–7. [8] Shewan LG, Coats AJ. Ethics in the authorship and publishing of scientific articles. Int J Cardiol 2010;144:1–2.

In this work the operation of an industrial semi-batch reactor is optimized. In the reactor a strongly exothermic polymerization reaction takes place and the objective is to minimize the duration of the batch time. Various operational as well as quality and safety related constraints have to be met during the batch and at its final time. In particular, a cooling system failure is taken into account explicitly since the temperature rise in this case must not exceed a corresponding limit. The optimization is based on a detailed process model derived from first principles. A reduced model is developed for optimization and trajectories for the operational variables feed flowrate and reactor temperature are calculated. The results show that significant reductions of the batch time are possible and that their extent depend on the formulated safety constraints. For a selected case the obtained optimal trajectories are verified experimentally in laboratory and production scale.

Bronchoalveolar lavage lymphocytes from 15 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis and 8 healthy controls were investigated for nucleolar silver staining patterns and lymphocyte subpopulations. Patients with sarcoidosis had increased numbers of silver stained dots versus controls (2.20 +/- 0.24 versus 1.78 +/- 0.07; p less than 0.001). The number of silver stained dots showed the strongest positive correlation to helper cells (OKT 4+) (r = 0.781; p less than 0.0001). These results may be interpreted as further evidence of lymphocytic activation, especially of helper cells (OKT 4+) in pulmonary sarcoidosis.

The electrodynamically expanded distinct element method (DEM) has been used to simulate isostatic, transverse and longitudinal magnetic field powder compaction. The particle shape (aspect ratio up to 2) increases the maximum gradient in magnetisation from 10% to 30%, the total magnetisation up to 10%. An improvement up to 10% in magnetisation has been calculated for isostatic compaction as compared to uniaxial compaction.

Thresholds for spectral lights were measured in the turtle, Pseudemys, during dark adaptation and chromatic adaptation using a behavioral avoidance paradigm. The turtles were conditioned to withdraw their heads in response to a light stimulus in order to avoid shock. Dark adaptation was complete by 60–90 sec in the dark measured with “white” light. Longwavelength light showed the same time course as “white” light, but dark adaptation for shortwavelengths was more prolonged. Not until 45 min in the dark did threshold functions to short-wavelength light intercept the more swiftly adapting, long-wavelength, threshold functions. Spectral sensitivity curves derived from the dark adaptation functions showed that in early dark adaptation Pseudemys is maximally sensitive to long-wavelength light. After prolonged dark adaptation, a sensitivity to short-wavelength light emerged and increased as a function of time in the dark. Chromatic adaptation selectively decreased sensitivity in particular regions of the spectrum suggesting the existence of multiple receptor mechanisms. The results were compared to electrophysiological data and to other behavioral studies.

Summary Thymectomy in the rat and thymectomy with appendectomy in the rabbit did not prolong allogeneic skin graft survival beyond that produced by total body irradiation alone. There was complete recovery of lymphoid elements in the spleen at six weeks in all animals whether or not thymectomy or thymectomy and appendectomy preceded irradiation. Bone marrow shielding with excision of lymph nodes in the shielded area did not delay the return of the ability to reject allogeneic skin grafts after irradiation in thymectomized and appendectomized rabbits.

A brief review of the pertinent history, site of rupture, mechanism of rupture, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and therapy of spontaneous rupture of the esophageal is presented. A case of spontaneous esophageal rupture successfully treated by drainage of the pleural cavity followed by decortication of the lung and chest wall is prescribed.