Since high sensitivity is essential for an effective screening programme, a photographic method should be considered as preferred option in national, community based screening programmes. Even in the hands of an experienced ophthalmologist, direct ophthalmoscopy is limited by weaknesses inherent to the instrument.

We prove a Schwarz lemma for a domain E in C 3 that arises in connection with a problem in H ∞ control theory. We describe a class of automorphisms of E and determine the distinguished boundary of E. We apply our Schwarz lemma to a special case of the µ-synthesis problem.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. 30C80, 32F45, 93D21.

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Over the past two decades, several new perspectives have emerged in the physical and natural sciences and are collectively referred to as the complexity sciences. Insights from these emerging perspectives have implications that merit consideration for developments and extensions of existing work at the metatheoretical, theoretical, and methodological levels in organization theory. The purpose of this manuscript is to: (a) provide an overview of the complexity sciences, (b) provide a justification and rationale for their inclusion into the social sciences, and (c) review the current organizational literature which utilizes and applies concepts from the complexity sciences to organizational phenomena.

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Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and muscle strength in 419 healthy men and women over a broad age range (20-76 years of age). Methods Isometric and isokinetic strength of the arms and legs was measured using computerized dynamometry and its relation to vitamin D was tested in multivariate models controlling for age, gender, resting heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), body mass index (BMI), maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max,), physical activity counts, and season of vitamin D measurement. Results Vitamin D was significantly associated with arm and leg muscle strength when controlling for age and gender. When controlling for other covariates listed above, vitamin D remained directly related to both isometric and isokinetic arm strength but only to isometric leg strength. Conclusion These data suggests that there may be a differential effect of vitamin D on upper and lower body strength. The mechanism for this difference remains unclear but could be related to differences in androgenic effects or to differences in vitamin D receptor expression. Our study supports a direct relationship between vitamin D and muscle strength and suggests that vitamin D supplementation be evaluated to determine if it is an effective therapy to preserve muscle strength in adults.

The presence of mRNA transcripts for cytokines in normal and neoplastic human breast tissue has been investigated. Using reverse transcriptase‐linked polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), we have specifically screened for the following cytokines: interleukin (IL)‐1α, IL‐1β, IL‐2, IL‐3, IL‐4, IL‐5, IL‐6, IL‐7, IL‐8, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, TNF‐β and interferon (IFN)‐γ. No significant differences in expression of IL‐1α, IL‐1β, IL‐4, IL‐6, TNF‐α or TNF‐β were observed between the 2 groups of tissues. However, there was a significant difference in expression of IL‐8 transcripts (p = 0.0017) which was higher in the neoplastic population. Transcripts for IL‐2, IL‐3, IL‐5, IL‐7 and IFN‐γ were not detected in either group. There was no evidence of associations between cytokine expression and tumour histological grade, patient age or lymph node metastases. Correlating tumour types with specific cytokine transcripts revealed high expression of IL‐8, and to a lesser extent, IL‐8 and TNF‐β irrespective of tumour origin. Analysis of primary epithelial and stromal cultures derived from both types of tissue showed that increased levels of IL‐8, but not IL‐6, were secreted by cells obtained from tumours. Thus, breast tissue of both normal and neoplastic origin expresses a wide range of cytokines. Increased or aberrant expression of cytokines, in particular IL‐8, may be involved in the development/progression of breast cancer. Int. J. Cancer 72:937–941, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

First-line supervisors from five textile mills located in the southeast completed the eight-scale Downs-Hazen measure of satisfaction in communication. These data were examined to determine the dimensional stability and the intrascale internal consistency of the measure. The results indicate that, although an eight-factor solution is reasonable, only in a few instances is the generated subscale structure as originally hypothesized. Further, the subscales do not appear orthogonal.