OBJECTIVES To assess the effect that infant to staff ratios, in the first three days of life, have on the survival to hospital discharge of very low birthweight infants (<1500 g), having adjusted for initial risk and unit workload. DESIGN In a retrospective analysis of a cohort of patients, the number of infants per nurse per shift were averaged for the first three days after admission and re...

The effects on speech intelligibility of three different noise reduction algorithms (spectral subtraction, minimal mean squared error spectral estimation, and subspace analysis) were evaluated in two types of noise (car and babble) over a 12 dB range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Results from these listening experiments showed that most algorithms deteriorated intelligibility scores. Modeli...

ZnO nanorod arrays are prepared on a silicon wafer through a multi-step hydrothermal process. The aspect ratios and densities of the ZnO nanorod arrays are controlled by adjusting the reaction times and concentrations of solution. The investigation of field emission properties of ZnO nanorod arrays revealed a strong dependency on the aspect ratio and their density. The aspect ratio and spacing ...

The aim of this study was to estimate the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on the aetiology of asthma. The classic twin study design was used to analyse data on self-reported asthma obtained by a questionnaire mailed to 34,076 individuals, aged 12-41 yrs and originating from the Danish Twin Register. The cumulative incidence of asthma was 6.2% in the pooled sample. The da...

PURPOSE There is still controversy about the association between admission blood glucose concentration and outcome of acute stroke. We studied the association between admission blood glucose and in-hospital death / dependency among acute stroke patients in Inner Mongolia, China. METHODS 2,178 acute ischemic and 1,760 hemorrhagic stroke patients in six hospitals were included in the study. Blo...

AIM This paper reports an investigation of the diagnostic accuracy of the Care Dependency Scale (CDS). BACKGROUND Assessment tools can be described in terms of diagnostic accuracy, or the ability to correctly classify subjects into clinically relevant subgroups. Diagnostic accuracy can be determined by several techniques as sensitivity, specificity, receiver operating curve analysis and likel...

IMPORTANCE A persistent dilemma when performing meta-analyses is whether all available trials should be included in the meta-analysis. OBJECTIVES To compare treatment outcomes estimated by meta-analysis of all trials and several alternative analytic strategies: single most precise trial (ie, trial with the narrowest confidence interval), meta-analysis restricted to the 25% largest trials, lim...