Detecting trends on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the domain of environmental sciences is important to foresee new frontiers of modelling and software research. Here we analyze the impact of ICT in scientific papers published from 1990 to 2007 in all ISI journals and in those belonging to the Environmental Sciences category only. We thus determine some expanding...

BACKGROUND Group B Streptococcus (GBS), traditionally considered to be a neonatal pathogen, is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among older adults and among those with underlying medical conditions. We used population-based surveillance to examine trends in adult GBS disease during the period 1990-2007 and to describe the epidemiology of adult GBS disease to guide prevention effort...

INTRODUCTION This study assesses the trends and predictors of mortality and morbidity in infants of gestational age (GA) <27 weeks from 1990 to 2007. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective cross-sectional cohort study of infant deliveries between 1990 and 2007 in the largest perinatal centre in Singapore. This is a study of infants born at <27 weeks in 2 Epochs (Epoch 1 (E1):1990 to 19...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the survival of patients with cystic fibrosis whose lung function has deteriorated to a forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)) below 30% predicted in the recent treatment era and to explore factors associated with any change in survival. Design Cohort study. SETTING Adult cystic fibrosis unit in London. PARTICIPANTS 276 patients (147 (53%) male) whose FEV(1) ...

We report analyses of regional trends in overall and cause-specific mortality in Belarus for the period 1990-2007. We explore the respective spatial patterns and attempt to determine the factors responsible for the regional mortality variation. The results show that inter-regional mortality differentials tend to rise, mainly because of the growing advantage of the capital over other regions. Th...

Financial crises in emerging market economies induce diverging patterns of ownership stakes and subsequent divestiture rates among domestic foreign acquirers. We rationalize these empirical findings a tractable model where acquirers are subject to borrowing constraints. In contrast standard fire-sale effects operating for acquisitions by acquirers, acquisition firms shaped novel counteracting s...

Zusammenfassung Mit der Urban Challenge hat die DARPA Ende 2007 ihr erklärtes Ziel erreicht, nachzuweisen, dass autonomes Fahren prinzipiell möglich ist. In diesem Ar-tikel wird skizziert, welcher Stand tatsächlich erreicht wurde und welche Herausforderungen nun bearbeitet werden wollen. Summary Late in 2007, DARPA has conducted the Urban Challenge and achieved its declared goal, that autonomou...

INTRODUCTION Khon Kaen Cancer Registry (KKCR) was established in 1984. KKCR aims to collect all cancer cases in Khon Kaen Province. The poorly qualified data may lead to distort the cancer burden and misinterpretation of policy maker. OBJECTIVE To assess data quality in childhood cancer between 1990 and 2007 in Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data of childhood cancer cas...

BACKGROUND It is not clear whether recent increases in life expectancy are accompanied by a concurrent postponement of activity limitations. The objective of this study was to give best estimates of the trend in the prevalence of activity limitations among the non-institutionalized population aged 55-84 years over the period 1990-2007 in The Netherlands. METHODS We examined self-reports on 12...

Sea turtles interact with a variety of fishing gears across their broad geographic distributions and ontogenetic habitat shifts. Cumulative assessments of multi-gear bycatch impacts on sea turtle populations are critical for coherent fisheries bycatch management, but such estimates are difficult to achieve, due to low fisheries observer effort, and a single-species, single-fishery management fo...