Influence of quality of care and individual patient characteristics on quality of life and return to work in survivors of the acute respiratory distress syndrome: protocol for a prospective, observational, multi-centre patient cohort study (DACAPO).

Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and return to work are important outcomes in critical care medicine, reaching beyond mortality. Little is known on factors predictive of HRQoL and return to work in critical illness, including the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and no evidence exists on the role of quality of care (QoC) for outcomes in survivors of ARDS. It is the aim of the DACAPO study ("Surviving ARDS: the influence of QoC and individual patient characteristics on quality of life") to investigate the role of QoC and individual patient characteristics on quality of life and return to work.

Multinuclear NMR and molecular modelling investigations on the structure and equilibria of complexes that form in aqueous solutions of Ca(2+) and gluconate.

Complexation of d-gluconate (Gluc(-)) with Ca(2+) has been investigated via (1)H, (13)C and (43)Ca NMR spectroscopy in aqueous solutions in the presence of high concentration background electrolytes (1MI4M (NaCl) ionic strength). From the ionic strength dependence of its formation constant, the stability constant at 6pH11 and at I-->0M has been derived (logK(1,1)(0)=1.8+/-0.

[The presence of t(14;18) chromosome translocation in various types of diseases].

Chromosome translocation of t(14;18) can be detected in most cases of centroblastic/centrocytic follicular lymphomas. They are causative factors of lymphomas but the translocation is present in different other types of diseases although the translocation does not belong to the features of these illnesses. Our present work shows the appearance of t(14;18) translocation in lymphocytes of two patients of Sjögren's syndrome, one that of Whipple disease as well as one of healthy donors' lymphocytes using polymerase chain reaction technique presented in one of our previous publication.

Effects of precocene analogs on the nematode Caenorhabditis remanei (var. Bangaloreiensis). I. Structure/activity relations.

Precocenes (PI and PII) and 114 of their analogs (PAs) were synthetized and tested on C. remanei embryos for their precocene-like (P-like) activities resulting in unusual development at sublethal doses. The P-like activity was quantitated by plotting the probit of the percentage of the developmentally affected survivors against the (log) dose to obtain the EC plot and the half effective concentration (EC50).