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BACKGROUND:  We investigated differences in clinical presentation, microbiology, and short- and long-term results according to the affected valve in patients who underwent surgery for left-sided native valve infective endocarditis (IE).METHODS:  This was a single-center retrospective study of 117 patients with isolated mitral valve IE (group M) and 140 patients with isolated aortic valve IE (group

62 former patients, who had been treated at our department for tibial shaft fracture (n 38) or knee ligament injury (n 24) 15-38 years earlier, were re-evaluated for post-traumatic osteopenia. 62 age- and sex-matched subjects without fracture served as controls. By means of a Lunar DEXA apparatus we measured the bone mineral density (BMD) in the total body, the hips and special regions of interest

Scaling attosecond sources to higher pulse energy and/or repetition rate can benefit many applications. We present a scaling framework for nonlinear light-matter interactions, applicable to attosecond pulse generation and other nonlinear phenomena as e.g. filamentation.

This paper focuses on the event-based distributed robust leaderless synchronization control for multiple Euler-Lagrange systems with directed communication topology that contains a directed spanning tree. Update frequency of the system is reduced by taking advantages of the event-triggered approach, which can help extend the service life of the controller. Robust control theory is employed to guar

Many highly developed Monte Carlo tools for the evaluation of cross sections based on tree matrix elements exist and are used by experimental collaborations in high energy physics. As the evaluation of one-loop matrix elements has recently been undergoing enormous progress, the combination of one-loop matrix elements with existing Monte Carlo tools is on the horizon. This would lead to phenomenolo

Electrocardiographic (ECG) criteria for the diagnosis of inferior myocardial infarction (IMI) have high specificity but low sensitivity. Vectorcardiographic IMI criteria attain higher sensitivity without sacrificing specificity. One approach to improving ECG interpretation is to synthesize VCG loops from the 12-lead ECG. The performance of synthesized VCG (SVCG) was assessed, using the Frank VCG c

Various applications of the mean field theory (MFT) technique for obtaining solutions close to optimal minima in feedback networks are reviewed. Using this method in the context of the Boltzmann machine gives rise to a fast deterministic learning algorithm with a performance comparable with that of the backpropagation algorithm (BP) in feature recognition applications. Since MFT learning is bidire

This special issue brings together scholars of media, sociology, and political science to examine the discursive opportunities for radical-right populist politics across Eastern Europe. The articles concentrate on such soft factors as the role of media, the radicalization of public discourse, and the communication repertoires of radical-right populist actors across the region. The contributions em

Some years ago it was decided that a European curriculum should be developed for medical physicists professionally engaged in the support of clinical diagnostic imaging departments. With this in mind, EFOMP (European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics) in association with ESR (European Society of Radiology) nominated an expert working group. This curriculum is now to hand. The curricu

Mycosis fungoides is a disease with manifestation of the skin that has traditionally been treated with electron therapy. In this paper, we present a method of treating the entire skin with megavoltage photons using helical tomotherapy (HT), verified through a phantom study and clinical dosimetric data from our first two treated patients. A whole body phantom was fitted with a wetsuit as bolus, and

The Natura 2000 network of protected sites is one of the means to enable biodiversity conservation in Europe. EU member states have to undertake surveillance of habitats and species of community interest protected under the Habitat Directive. Remote sensing techniques have been applied successfully to monitor biodiversity aspects according to Natura 2000, but many challenges remain in assessing dy

The burdens of resource constraints in publicly funded healthcare systems urge decision makers in countries like Sweden, Norway and the UK to find new financial solutions. One proposal that has been put forward is co-payment—a financial model where some treatment or care is made available to patients who are willing and able to pay the costs that exceed the available alternatives fully covered by