Several studies report a substantial rise in plasma catecholamines after caffeine. Epinephrine infusion induces a pressor response after nonselective beta-blockade. We studied the hemodynamic and humoral effects of drinking coffee after placebo and after both nonselective (propranolol) and beta 1-selective (metoprolol) blockade in 12 normotensive subjects. After placebo, coffee induced a rise in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and a fall in heart rate, whereas forearm blood flow did not change. Plasma catecholamines, especially epinephrine (+150%), rose and plasma renin activity, fell after drinking coffee. The effects of coffee on blood pressure, forearm blood flow, and all humoral parameters were not altered by pretreatment with propranolol or metoprolol. The fall in heart rate after coffee, however, seemed to be greater during propranolol. We conclude that the rise in plasma epinephrine after coffee was too small to reveal differences in reaction in propranolol- and metoprolol-pretreated subjects.

Background: Lung sequestration is a rare congenital pulmonary disorder and is usually diagnosed in children with recurrent pulmonary infections. Lung sequestrations are not commonly found to be a cause of respiratory symptoms in adults. Objectives: It was the aim of this study to show that pulmonary sequestration is rare in advanced age and can be accompanied by severe pulmonary symptoms. Methods: We conducted a case series analysis of patient characteristics, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of 11 adults with a lung sequestration at the Thoraxklinik Heidelberg between 2001 and 2009. Results: From 2001 to 2009, intralobar lung sequestration was diagnosed and treated in 11 adults aged 19 to 58 years with an average age of 39.9 ± 11.3 years and a male:female distribution of 5:6. In 3 patients (27.3%), the predominant symptom was hemoptysis. Recurrent pulmonary infections occurred in 1 patient (9.1%); pneumonia and lung abscess were detected in 2 patients (18.2%). In 3 cases (27.3%), dry cough was the predominant symptom, and in only 2 cases (18.2%), lung sequestration was asymptomatic. Eight patients (72.7%) were diagnosed by imaging techniques prior to surgery. In 3 cases (27.3%), diagnosis was made intraoperatively and by pathological examination. Surgical intervention included 7 lobectomies (63.6%), 3 wedge resections (27.3%) and 1 (9.1%) segmentectomy. Conclusion: Lung sequestration in adults is rare, but it can cause severe pulmonary symptoms. In cases of recurrent pulmonary infections of identical localization or recurrent hemoptysis, lung sequestration should be considered in order for the diagnosis to be made rapidly. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice.

Abstract-This paper considers the potential for an HDTV delivery format with 1920 1080 pixels progressive scanning and 50 frames per second in broadcast applications. The paper discusses the difficulties in characterizing the display to be assumed for reception. It elaborates on the required bit rate of the 1080p/50 format when critical content is coded in MPEG-4 H.264 AVC Part 10 and subjectively viewed on a large, flat panel display with 1920 1080 pixel resolution. The paper describes the initial subjective quality evaluations that have been made in these conditions. The results of these initial tests suggest that the required bit-rate for a 1080p/50 HDTV signal in emission could be kept equal or lower than that of 2nd generation HDTV formats, to achieve equal or better image quality.Index Terms-Compression in broadcasting, flat panel displays, high-definition television, progressive scanning.

Abstract-This paper proposes a novel method for the assessment of picture quality, called Triple Stimulus Continuous Evaluation Scale (TSCES), to allow the direct comparison of different HDTV formats. The method uses an upper picture quality anchor and a lower picture quality anchor with defined impairments. The HDTV format under test is evaluated in a subjective comparison with the upper and lower anchors. The method utilizes three displays in a particular vertical arrangement. In an initial series of tests with the novel method, the HDTV formats 1080p/50, 1080i/25, and 720p/50 were compared at various bit-rates and with seven different content types on three identical 1920 1080 pixel displays. It was found that the new method provided stable and consistent results. The method was tested with 1080p/50, 1080i/25, and 720p/50 HDTV images that had been coded with H.264/AVC High profile. The result of the assessment was that the progressive HDTV formats found higher appreciation by the assessors than the interlaced HDTV format. A system chain proposal is given for future media production and delivery to take advantage of this outcome. Recommendations for future research conclude the paper.Index Terms-Compression in broadcasting, flat panel displays, high-definition television, subjective testing of image quality.

Ciclesonide is an inhaled corticosteroid, administered as a prodrug via a metereddose inhaler. Following deposition in the lung, ciclesonide is hydrolysed by esterases to form the pharmacologically active metabolite desisobutyryl-ciclesonide (des-CIC). Formation of des-CIC, as well as reversible esterification of des-CIC with fatty acids, has been demonstrated in vitro. The aim of this study was to investigate the in vivo metabolism of ciclesonide in the human lung.This single-dose, open-label, nonrandomised study was performed in 20 patients undergoing planned lung surgery for treatment of malignant pulmonary lesions. Patients inhaled a single dose of 1,280 mg ciclesonide at various time-points between 2 and 24 h prior to lung tissue resection. The concentration of ciclesonide, des-CIC and fatty acid conjugates of des-CIC in tissue samples was determined. Serum samples for pharmacokinetic analysis were taken at several time-points after inhalation.The pharmacokinetics in serum indicated that the inhalation by the patients was adequate. Metabolites (des-CIC, des-CIC oleate and des-CIC palmitate) were detected in the resected central and peripheral lung tissues. A substantial portion of ciclesonide was already activated to des-CIC at the first time-point of tissue analysis.Activation of ciclesonide and formation of des-CIC fatty acid conjugates was confirmed in vivo in the human lung.

In acute myocardial infarction, the administration of a heparin bolus before thrombolytic therapy with saruplase is associated with a significantly higher patency at angiography 6 to 12 h after the start of thrombolysis without any appreciable increase in risk of bleeding.

The main objective of this paper is to verify test methodologies for assessment high dynamic range (HDR) video. To achieve this, a next generation HDR monitor by Dolby Laboratories was used to display professionally produced HDR content, including some scenes from recently released movies. Two complementary approaches for subjective assessment of HDR video were then designed and carried out at the EBU and EPFL premises. Results obtained from both evaluations were highly correlated which show they offer a good degree of reliability and reproducibility in different situations. Analysis of the scores in both cases also show good confidence intervals for each point under test. Finally, they could demonstrate that an increase in terms of quality of experience can be expected from the conventional level of 100 nits to HDR/high brightness at 4'000 nits, with intermediate improvements at 400 and 1'000 nits.

With a new enzymatic method, the dietary influence of oxalate, glycine, protein, and ascorbic acid on serum and urinary oxalate has been examined. Healthy and oxalate stone-forming subjects were compared. Two doses of sodium oxalate (130 and 400 mg daily) were administered. The high dose induced significant hyperoxaluria. No changes of serum oxalate were seen. Neither glycine (4.5 g daily) nor protein (50 g daily, 50% animal protein) had any effect on serum or urinary oxalate. Urinary oxalate excretion did not increase upon ingestion of large amounts of ascorbic acid (1–6 g daily), but serum oxalate levels were significantly elevated. The value of severe dietary restrictions concerning the compounds examined here seems to be questionable, as a significant increase of urinary oxalate excretion is lacking.