A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Edit

A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal. References 1. Ivatury RR, Rohman M, Nallathambi M, Rao PM, Gunduz Y, Stahl WM: The morbidity of injuries of the extra-hepatic biliary system. J Trauma 1985, 25:967–973.PubMedCrossRef 2. Wainwright T: Letter. Med Phys J 1799, 362. GW3965 research buy 3. Simstein N: Isolated blunt trauma Barasertib in vitro injury to the hepatic duct. Int Surg

2000, 85:55–56.PubMed 4. Bourque MD, Spigland N, Bensoussan AL, Garel L, Blanchard H: Isolated complete transection of the common bile duct due to trauma in a child, and review of the literature. J Pediatr Surg 1989, 24:1068–1070.PubMedCrossRef 5. Dawson DL, Johansen KH, Jurkovich GJ: Injuries to the portal triad. Am J Surg 1991, 161:545–551.PubMedCrossRef 6. Posner MC, Moore EE: Extrahepatic biliary tract injury: operative management plan. J Trauma 1985, 25:833–837.PubMedCrossRef 7. Krishna A, Kaul PB, Murali MV: Isolated extrahepatic bile duct injury: Ro 61-8048 cell line Diagnosis and surgical management. Pediatr Surg Int 1992, 7:143–145.CrossRef 8. Nikishin IF: Rupture of the extrahepatic ducts following a nonpenetrating injury

to the abdomen. J Int Coll Surg 1961, 36:573–580.PubMed 9. Plewes B, McKnee JA: Rupture of the common bile duct by blunt trauma. Canad Med Ass J 1968, 98:170–171.PubMed 10. Turney WH, Lee JP, Raju S: Complete transection of the common bile duct due to blunt trauma. Ann Surg 1974, 179:440–444.PubMedCrossRef 11. Shorthouse AJ, Singh MP, Treasure T, Franklin RH: Isolated complete transection of the common bile duct by blunt abdominal trauma. Br J Surg 1978, 65:543–545.PubMedCrossRef 12. Janss G, Freimark L: Isolated transection of the common duct. JACEP 1979, 8:161–163.PubMedCrossRef 13. Rohatgi M, Gupta DK: Isolated complete transection of common bile duct following blunt bicycle handlebar injury. J Pediatr Surg 1987, 22:1029–1030.PubMedCrossRef 14. Kim PCW, Gilas T, Exoribonuclease Brule MFM: Unusual isolated common bile duct injury after blunt trauma. Can J Surg 1993, 36:533–536.PubMed 15. Drabble EH, Gani JS, Davidson P, Wright JE: Partial laceration

of the distal bile duct and wedge fracture of L1 caused by blunt trauma: A new perspective on treatment. Br J Surg 1994, 81:120.PubMedCrossRef 16. Gerndt SJ, Seidel SP, Taheri PA, Rodriguez JL: Biliary tract injury following blunt abdominal trauma: case reports. J Trauma 1995, 39:612–615.PubMedCrossRef 17. Krishnamurthy B, Jagdish S, Pai D, Babu P: Transection of common bile duct following blunt injury to abdomen. Indian J Gastroenterol 1997, 16:109–110.PubMed 18. Ramia JM, Gutiérrez G, Garrote D, Mansilla A, Villar J, Ferron JA: Isolated extrahepatic bile duct rupture in blunt abdominal trauma. Am J Emerg Med 2005, 23:231–232.PubMedCrossRef 19. D’Amata G, Rahili A, Habre J, Karimdjee B, Sanchez Bueno F, Bourgeon A: Traumatic avulsion of the intrapancreatic common bile duct: case report. G Chir 2006, 27:27–30.PubMed 20.

0001 a, b, c, d, e, f, identify cohorts from the same experiment

0001 a, b, c, d, e, f, identify cohorts from the same experiment. Within each cohort data were Proteases inhibitor subjected to One-Way ANOVA analyses with Fisher’s test at a significance of 0.05. (p-values are compared to the condition in bold text for a given cohort). Worms fed GD1 are more thermotolerant and resistant to juglone treatment Mutants of C. elegans with life span extension often show enhanced resistance to thermal and oxidative stress

[10], suggesting that worms fed the GD1 diet would also demonstrate stress resistance. Juglone is a quinone that imposes both oxidative and electrophilic stress [27, 28]. Juglone penetrates the worm cuticle and has been used to select for oxidative stress-resistant mutants [29]. As shown in Figure 4A, worms fed GD1 from the hatchling stage display improved survival following exposure to 250 μM juglone, as compared to similarly treated worms fed OP50. It is unlikely that the improved worm survival is due to hypersensitivity MK2206 of GD1 E. coli to juglone treatment because the GD1 E. coli were actually more resistant to juglone treatment than OP50 E. coli (Additional file 1). Similarly, worms fed GD1 are more thermotolerant at the L4 stage

compared to worms fed OP50 (Figure 4B). Figure 4 GD1-fed worms are more resistant to juglone treatment and show enhanced thermotolerance. (A) Wild-type N2 worms were fed OP50 or GD1 from the hatchling stage. L4 larval worms were placed in a drop of S-media containing either Carnitine dehydrogenase 250 μM juglone or an equal amount of ethanol vehicle control for 20 min. Worms were washed onto OP50 selleck chemical plates to recover and assayed for survival 18 h later. Black bar: OP50, grey bar: GD1; Asterisk indicates p-value = 0.0003 determined with Student’s t-test when compared to the OP50 + juglone condition. (B) Wild-type N2 worms were fed OP50 or GD1 from the hatchling stage. L4 larval worms were incubated at 35°C and survival was assessed at each indicated time point. Black line: OP50, grey line: GD1. Asterisks indicate p-values determined with Student’s t-test for comparisons between GD1 and OP50 at the designated time

points: (7 h) 0.003; (9 h) 0.0013; (10 h) 0.0001; (11 h) 0.017. Excreted components present in GD1 E. coli spent media are not responsible for life span extension Previous studies have shown that E. coli mutants with defects in the ubiA gene, required for Q biosynthesis, excrete large amounts of D-lactic acid in the spent media [30]. We found that the spent media of both GD1 and GD1:pBSK E. coli contain millimolar quantities of D-lactic acid (Figure 5A). In contrast, the spent media collected from cultures of OP50 contain only 10–20 μM D-lactic acid, similar to the concentration observed in LB media alone. Similarly, rescued GD1 cells containing a wild-type copy of ubiG produce very low levels of D-lactic acid, indicating that excretion of D-lactic acid by the GD1 E. coli is due to the loss of Q biosynthesis.

β-actin, its primer sequence was 5′-GTTGCGTTACACCCTTTCTTG-3′ (sen

β-actin, its primer sequence was 5′-GTTGCGTTACACCCTTTCTTG-3′ (sense), 5′-TGCTGTCACCTTCACCGT AZD5363 order TC-3′ (anti-sense), amplification fragment was 133 bp, and renaturation temperature was 55°C (cycling 40 times). Amplification condition was below: pre-denaturized for 3 min at 95°C, denaturized for 30s at 95°C, renaturated for 30s at 55°C and extended for 30s at 72°C. PCR product was detected on agarose

gel electrophoresis and ethidium bromide imaging system was used to make density index analysis. The expression intensity of HIF-1α mRNA was denoted with the ratio of the photodensity of the RT-PCR products of HIF-1α and β-actin. Western blot analysis As previously described [12], cells were washed with ice-cold PBS twice and lysed with

lysis buffer containing 1% NP40, 137 mM NaCL, 20 mM Tris base(pH7.4), 1 mM DTT, 10% glycerol, 10 mg/mL Aprotinin, 2 mM sodium vanadate and 100 μM PMSF. Protein concentrations were determined using the PIERCE BCA protein assay kit. Protein was separated by MI-503 molecular weight 10% SDS-PAGE under denaturing conditions and transferred to nitrocellulose membranes. Membranes were incubated with an mouse HIF-1α monoclonal antibody (1:1000; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), followed by incubation in goat antimouse secondary antibody conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (1:1000; Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Immunoreactive proteins were visualized using enhanced chemiluminescence

detection system (Amersham Biosciences) Apoptosis detection by FCM Apoptotic cells were differentiated from viable or necrotic ones by combined application of annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide (PI) (BD Biosciences find more Clontech, USA) [13]. The samples were washed twice and adjusted to a concentration of 1 × 106 cells/mL with 4°C PBS. The Falcon tubes (12 mm × 75 mm, polystyrene round-bottom) MTMR9 were used in this experiment, 100 μL of suspensions was added to each labeled tube, 10 μL of annexin V-FITC and 10 μL PI(20 μg/mL) were added into the labeled tube, incubated for at least 20 min at room temperature in the dark, then 400 μL of PBS binding buffer was added to each tube without washing and analyzed using FCM analysis (BD Biosciences Clontech, USA) as soon as possible (within 30 min). This assay was done quintuplicate. Statistical analysis All data were expressed by mean ± S.E.M. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 11.0 for Windows software. ANOVA (one-way analysis of variance) and Student’s t-test were used to analyze statistical differences between groups under different conditions. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The influence of hypoxia on PC-2 cells proliferation We studied the proliferation of PC-2 cells under hypoxia simulated by CoCl2 using MTT assay.

1) Fig  1 Proportion of threatening processes affecting declinin

1). Fig. 1 Proportion of threatening processes affecting declining and Selleckchem JNK-IN-8 improving mammals Site management, protected area creation and harvest restriction were the most frequently proposed conservation actions for threatened mammals (Fig. 2a). Species that improved in status had more conservation actions proposed for them, and there was a significant difference between the proposed conservation measures for improving and declining species (χ2 = 282.3, df = 11, P < 0.001) with restoration and reintroduction relatively more frequently recommended for improving species, while protected area creation and management were most frequently proposed for both (Fig. 2a). Fig. 2 Proportion of a proposed and b implemented conservation

Milciclib nmr actions for declining and improving species based

on the 2009 IUCN Red List Conservation actions were more frequently implemented for improving than declining species (χ2 = 83.1, df = 6, P < 0.001) (Fig. 2b). Hunting restriction (33%), research (20%), protected area creation (19%) and reintroductions (16%) were most frequently implemented for conserving threatened mammals (Fig. 2b). Proposed conservation actions for species threatened by residential/commercial developments were correlated with hunting restrictions (R = 0.19, n = 184, P < 0.05 for all) and livelihood/economic incentives (R = 0.26), whereas those species threatened by agricultural development had protected area RGFP966 cell line creation (R = 0.23) and site management (R = 0.22) proposed. Species threatened

by energy and mining developments had restoration (R = 0.16) and livelihood/economic incentives proposed (R = 0.21). For the majority of threats however, there was no correspondence with conservation actions. There was a significant difference between proposed and implemented conservation actions (χ2 = 127.19, df = 11, P < 0.001; Fig. 3). Site management, harvest management, training and livelihood/economic incentives were frequently proposed but never implemented, while invasive species control, captive breeding and hunting restrictions were more frequently implemented than proposed (Fig. 3). Fig. 3 The Dapagliflozin proportion of conservation actions proposed and implemented for mammals based on the 2009 IUCN Red List One GLM exhibited substantial support (Model 2), with species improving in status because of reintroductions, captive breeding, and hunting restriction (Table 1). Model 1 included these variables as well as an additional one (protected area creation) however this was excluded because the additional parameter did not improve the model deviance sufficiently (following Arnold 2010). The Akaike’s weights for these two models sum to 0.66 suggesting there was a 66% likelihood that these models are the best fit for the data (Table 1). Reintroduction (θ = 99.9), captive breeding (98.5) and hunting restriction (92.0) had model averages almost double that of site creation (57.2) and over three times greater than invasive species control (27.6).

Canc Genet Cytogenet 2007, 173:107–113 CrossRef 15 Wei MH, Latif

Canc Genet Cytogenet 2007, 173:107–113.CrossRef 15. Wei MH, Latif F, Bader S, Kashuba V, Chen JY, Duh FM, Sekido Y, Lee CC, Geil L, Kuzmin I, Zabarovsky E, Klein G, Zbar B, Minna see more JD, Lerman MI: Construction of a 600-kilobase cosmid clone contig and generation of a transcriptional map surrounding the lung cancer tumor suppressor gene (TSG) locus on human chromosome 3p21.3: progress toward the isolation of a lung cancer TSG.

Cancer Res 1996, 56:1487–1492.PubMed 16. Oh JJ, Razfar A, Delgado I, Reed RA, Malkina A, Boctor B, Slamon DJ: 3p21.3 tumor suppressor gene H37/Luca15/RBM5 inhibits growth of human lung cancer cells through cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Cancer Res 2006, 66:3419–3427.PubMedCrossRef 17. Ji L, Minna JD, Roth JA: 3p21.3 tumor suppressor cluster: prospects for translational applications. Future Oncol 2005,1(1):79–92.PubMedCrossRef 18. Sutherland LC, Wang K, Robinson AG: RBM5 as a SC79 mw Putative Tumor Suppressor Gene for Lung Cancer. J Thorac Oncol 2010, 5:294.PubMedCrossRef 19. Rintala-Maki ND, Goard CA, Langdon CE, Wall VE, Traulsen KE, Morin CD, Bonin M, Sutherland LC: Expression of RBM5-related factors in primary breast tissue. J Cell

Biochem 2007, 100:1440–1458.PubMedCrossRef 20. Edamatsu H, Kaziro Y, Itoh H: LUCA15, a putative tumour suppressor Quisinostat order gene encoding an RNA-bindingnuclear protein, is down-regulated in ras-transformedRat-1 cells. Genes Cells 2000, 5:849–858.PubMedCrossRef 21.

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Archer C, Levy AR, McGregor M (2003) Value of routine preoperativ

Archer C, Levy AR, McGregor M (2003) Value of routine preoperative chest x-rays: a meta-analysis. Can J Anaesth 40:1022–1027CrossRef 68. Joo HS,

Wong J, Naik VN, Savoldelli GL (2005) The value of screening preoperative chest x-rays: a systematic review. Can J Anaesth 52:568–574CrossRefPubMed 69. Williams-Russo P, Charlson ME, MacKenzie CR, Gold JP, Shires GT (1992) Predicting postoperative pulmonary complications: is it a real problem? Arch Intern Med 152:1209–1213CrossRefPubMed 70. Lawrence VA, Dhanda R, Hilsenbeck SG, Page CP (1996) Risk of pulmonary complications after elective abdominal surgery. Chest 110:744–750CrossRefPubMed 71. Milledge JS, Nunn JF (1975) Criteria of fitness for anaesthesia in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease. BMJ 3:670–AMN-107 mw 673CrossRefPubMed 72. Stein M, Koota GM, Simon M, Frank HA (1962) Pulmonary C646 mouse evaluation of surgical patients. JAMA 181:765–770PubMed 73. Kearney DJ, Lee TH, Reilly JJ, DeCamp MM, Sugarbaker DJ (1994) Assessment of operative risk in patients undergoing lung resection: importance of predicted pulmonary function.

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The European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study [7] found an overall si

The European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study [7] found an overall similar frequency of vertebral deformities in their study in 19 European countries, but their sample did not include subjects older

than 75 years of age, whereas the substantial increments of vertebral fractures are found in other studies. A higher incidence of vertebral fracture in men was reported in the Rotterdam study, and the incidence increased with age [20]. Similar results were found in the OSI-906 EPOS study where the rate of incidence of morphometric fracture was 9.9 in 1,000 women aged 50-79 per year, with a rate approximately one-half which is 5.7 in 1,000 men per year [21]. Differences in the prevalence between genders have also been reported in the United States (14% in men and 19% in women [22] In

Asia, the prevalence in women 65 years and over was 20% (18–22%) and in men, 12.5% (11–14%) [23]. We conclude that vertebral fractures are more frequent in older age Mexican men, and these figures have to be taken into consideration by Mexican health authorities as they plan future programs oriented to prevent and treat fragility fractures in men. Included in our questionnaire were several clinical risk factors known to be check details associated with osteoporosis and fractures, but we were not able to demonstrate differences between the fracture and nonfracture group. The fracture group had a higher frequency of self-reported height loss, however, only selleck screening library a tendency of this was shown in the bivariate and multivariate analysis. This study has several strengths. The results were based on a random community sample and there was a high rate of participation. This study followed the standardized approaches for recruiting participants, obtaining X-rays, and assessing potential

risk factors, and all of the films were assessed centrally using the same methods that have been employed in international studies and in the LAVOS study [6]. Our study also had limitations. It was not specifically designed to characterize the risk factors for vertebral fracture in men; therefore, the sample size was not large enough to find significant association ID-8 with the risk. As it was a cross-sectional study, we could not assess the association of pain or symptoms with vertebral fractures. In conclusion, vertebral fractures in Mexican men over 50 years are frequent, it increases with age, and the rise stops after the age of 70 years. Compared with Mexican women, the prevalence of men with vertebral fractures is half that reported for Mexican women using the same methodology (9.7 vs. 19.2, respectively). This pattern of presentation is similar to that reported for other countries. These figures should alert clinicians and health authorities to this health problem in older Mexican men.

All except 1 ONT:H30/[H30] isolate was sorbitol-positive Fourtee

All except 1 ONT:H30/[H30] isolate was sorbitol-positive. Fourteen isolates displayed apparent β-hemolytic activity on sheep blood agar including 9 of the 11 O2:H32/[H32] isolates and 2 of the 11 O86:H11 isolates, and the single O76:H25, O87:H10 and O116:H11 isolates, the majority of which (11 isolates) were recovered from swine feces in Chongqing city. The 2 hemolytic O86:H11 isolates were isolated from colon contents in a slaughter house in Beijing city and the single STA-9090 manufacturer O87:H10 isolate was isolated from a small intestine content in a slaughter house in Guizhou

province. Shiga toxin genes, adhesin genes and putative virulence genes The 93 STEC isolates were tested positive for stx 2 only. All except 1 isolate was stx 2e subtype by PCR subtyping. The exception was an O159:H16

isolate which was found to carry a new variant of stx 2e by selleck chemicals llc sequencing. The new variant differs from the closest stx 2e (GenBank: AM904726) by 4.51% at nucleotide level. Three virulence-related genes (astA, ehxA and hlyA) and 2 markers for HPI (irp2 and fyuA) were screened. 53.76% (50/93) BAY 80-6946 order STEC isolates carried astA, 15.05% (14/93) isolates contained hemolysin gene hlyA and only 2.15% (2/93) isolates contained enterohemolysin gene ehxA. All hlyA positive STEC isolates showed hemolytic activity on standard sheep blood agar. Hemolysis was not observed in the 2 ehxA-positve STEC isolates. The

irp2 and fyuA genes were identified in 4 STEC isolates, all of which were ONT:H19/[H19] serotypes (Table 2). Among the 15 adherence-associated genes, 13 (eae, efa1, iha, lpfA O113, lpfA O157/OI-154, lpfA O157/OI-141, toxB, saa, F4, F5, F6, F17 or F41) were not detected in the 93 STEC isolates. paa was present in 7 STEC isolates. Two O86:H11 isolates, 1 O87:H10 isolate and 1 O116:H11 isolate carried F18. Eighty-two STEC isolates did not carry any of the adherence-associated genes tested (Table 2). Antibiotic resistance in the swine STEC isolates Antimicrobial resistance Nintedanib (BIBF 1120) was determined against 23 antibiotics. The highest prevalence was tetracycline resistance with a rate of 79.57%. Most isolates were resistant to nalidixic acid and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, followed by resistance to kanamycin with a rate of 78.49%, 73.12% and 55.91% respectively. Resistance rate to streptomycin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin and piperacillin was 48.39%, 37.63%, 25.81% and 20.43%, respectively. Lower resistance was observed for cephalothin, nitrofurantoin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, aztreonam, cefotaxime, cefuroxime, gentamicin, norfloxacin, levofloxacin, ampicillin-sulbactam with a rate ranging from 2.15% to 17.20%. All isolates were susceptible to imipenem and meropenem (Additional file 1: Table S1). Four isolates (4.3%) were susceptible to all 23 antimicrobial agents tested.

These data are consistent with the previous observation that CRP

These data are consistent with the previous observation that CRP has a differential effect on sialometabolism genes, having a preferential role in activating uptake rather than catabolic genes [12]. HI0148, the gene downstream of siaQ/M encodes a protein that contains six Kelch motifs that are often associated with sialic acid binding proteins

such as neuraminidase enzymes [30]. A RdHI0148 mutant strain showed some loss of the lowest molecular Selleck CUDC-907 weight glycoforms (Figure 2), but no difference in serum sensitivity (Figure 3), when compared to the wild type. No significant change in sialometabolism gene expression was observed following mutation of HI0148 (data not shown). Discussion Sialic acids are a diverse family of sugars and are components of bacterial surface macromolecules such as capsular polysaccharides and glycolipids that are of major biological importance in pathogenesis. In H. influenzae, Neu5Ac is a potential carbon and energy source [8, 12] as well as a component of the LPS of almost SGC-CBP30 all NTHi strains where detailed structure has been determined to date [26, 31–33]. H. influenzae lacks the genes required for the synthesis of Neu5Ac and in nature must acquire it from humans, its only natural host. It has been

shown that H. influenzae acquires Neu5Ac selleck products during experimental infection of chinchillas and that its incorporation into selleck compound LPS is critical for virulence [3]. It has been estimated that the concentration of Neu5Ac potentially available in human tissues and fluids is 0.5 mg/ml [8] making it a potential major nutrient for the bacterium in vivo. In the present study we have investigated genes involved in the dynamic interplay between utilisation of Neu5Ac in the biosynthesis of LPS (sialylation) or its potential as a catabolite. Microarray [25] and bioinformatic [8, 12] analyses had identified a set of 9 contiguous genes that played a significant role

in sialometabolism. We reasoned that an investigation of the transcription of H. influenzae sialometabolism genes would provide further insights into the genetic regulation relating to sialometabolism. Our study presents a number of novel or different findings from the study of Johnston and colleagues [12], including the effect of Neu5Ac in modulating transcription of sialometabolism genes, the conserved organisation of the sialometabolism genes, and the effects of mutation of the regulatory genes, siaR and crp, on experimental infection in a chinchilla animal model of OM. The sialometabolism locus consists of nine genes, organized such that divergently transcribed catabolism and transport genes, are separated by an intergenic, non-coding region of 353 bp. This intergenic region contains a consensus CRP binding site and an overlapping site to which SiaR binds [12].

Employees who were sick-listed in January 1st 2002 were excluded

Employees who were sick-listed in January 1st 2002 were excluded from the analysis. SB202190 sickness absence days were counted until December 31st 2004, even if the employee remained on sick-leave thereafter. The number of sickness selleckchem absence episodes between January 1st 2002 and December 31st 2004 was

also counted for each employee, distinguishing between short episodes (1–21 days) of uncertified absence, and long episodes (>21 days) of mostly certified sickness absence. Earlier, the sick-leave was assessed on the individual level by the total number of sickness absence days in the period January 2000 through December 2001. Statistical analyses The number of absence days was skewed ABT-737 to the right [mean 48.9 days, standard deviation (SD) 82.8 days; median 18.0 days]. Normal distribution was approximated after logarithmic transformation: mean 2.9 (SD = 1.5) and median 2.9. The prospective associations between psychosocial work conditions and the log-transformed number of sickness absence days were analyzed with multiple linear regression (SPSS for Windows, version 15) controlling for earlier sick-leave and psychological distress. The linear regression models fitted the number of sickness absence days in men and women well

but explained little (12–14%) of the variance in the number of sickness absence days. To examine the prospective associations between psychosocial work conditions and sickness absence episodes, a Poisson regression model was computed using GENLOG for general log-linear analysis in SPSS

for Windows version 15. The Poisson distribution implies that the variance is equal to the mean (μ). The Poisson model showed a good fit for the number of long episodes. The variance in the number of short episodes of absence, however, was greater than the mean resulting in overdispersion. Therefore, a zero-inflated negative binomial distribution was estimated for short absences using Transition Data Analysis version 6.4f (Blossfeld 3-oxoacyl-(acyl-carrier-protein) reductase and Rohwer 2002). The negative binomial distribution proved to be a better fit for the number of short sickness absence episodes. In the negative binomial model and the Poisson regression model earlier sick-leave and psychological distress were adjusted for. Results Of the distributed 395 questionnaires, 265 (67%) were returned to the occupational health service. Twenty-one questionnaires were excluded because they were not complete. Thus, a total of 151 employees (64 men and 87 women) were not eligible for analysis. These non-participants were 39.2 [standard deviation (SD) = 7.1] years of age, had 6,271 sickness absence days and a total of 732 sickness absence episodes, of which 686 short episodes and 46 long episodes, during follow-up. 244 participants (103 men and 141 women) were 39.0 (SD = 8.