economic times, states often legislate tax increases to create additional revenues, even though standard macroeconomic theory suggests that doing so dampens economic activity. Over the last decade or so, state governments have taken on more responsibility for administering social welfare programs. Thanks to abundant federal aid, a robust national economy, and a decline in the number of particip...

OBJECTIVE To estimate worldwide iodine nutrition and monitor country progress towards sustained elimination of iodine deficiency disorders. METHODS Cross-sectional data on urinary iodine (UI) and total goitre prevalence (TGP) in school-age children from 1993-2003 compiled in the WHO Global Database on Iodine Deficiency were analysed. The median UI was used to classify countries according to t...

Southern Ocean abyssal waters, in contact with the atmosphere at their formation sites around Antarctica, not only bring signals of a changing climate with them as they move around the globe but also contribute to that change through heat uptake and sea level rise. A repeat hydrographic line in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean, occupied three times in the last two decades (1994, 2007, an...

Zhang et al. (1) report that the green-up dates in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) have continuously advanced from 1982 to 2011. They retrieved green-up dates from the multiannual time-series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using the method proposed by Piao et al. (2). This method assumes that the nongrowing season NDVI values remain constant among the different years and thus require...

BACKGROUND Hip fracture is a major public health problem in Asia and the UK. The objectives of this study were to describe the trends of hip fracture in Hong Kong over the last decade, and to compare the incidence in Hong Kong with that from the Wessex Health Region of the UK in 1995. METHODS The number of hip fractures was calculated using hospital discharge records for all public hospitals ...

Antivirals play an important role in the prevention and treatment of influenza infections, particularly in high-risk or severely ill patients. Two classes of influenza antivirals have been available in many countries over the last decade (2004-2013), the adamantanes and the neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs). During this period, widespread adamantane resistance has developed in circulating influen...

Developing a vision for an economically competitive fusion energy system remains the grand challenge for fusion researchers. Meeting this challenge requires advances in plasma physics and in fusion technology, a key element of which is Fusion Power Technology (FPT), also called Fusion Nuclear Technology (FNT). FPT is concerned with all reactor components in the immediate exterior of the plasma,...

BACKGROUND There is a global trend of large increases in the prevalence and incidence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This study aimed to address potential causes of these major changes. METHODS The authors used a large cohort to analyze data employing patients' electronic medical records, with physicians' diagnosis of ADHD, including records of medication purchases. RES...