OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the addition of intravenous (i.v.) dexamethasone to standard emergency department (ED) benign headache therapy would reduce the incidence of headache recurrence at 48-72 hours. METHODS This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of adult patients presenting with the chief complaint of headache was conducted in the ED of 2 academic, urban Leve...

Introduction: Intensive care (ICU) survivors have poor quality of life (QoL) and physical outcomes compared to people of the same age and sex [1]. Although rehabilitation of patients in ICU is now advocated as routine clinical practice [2] there are few randomised controlled trials (RCTs) examining patient outcomes. The primary aim of this single blind randomised controlled trial is to investig...

The development of a handheld single and triple chamber atmospheric pressure coaxial dielectric barrier discharge driven by Flyback circuitry for helium and argon discharges is described. The Flyback uses external metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor power switching technology and the transformer operates in the continuous current mode to convert a continuous dc power of 10-33 W to...

The discharge and stage measurements in a river system are characterized by a number of sources of uncertainty, which affects the accuracy of a rating curve established from measurements. This paper presents a fuzzy set theory based methodology for consideration of different sources of uncertainty in the stage and discharge measurements and their aggregation into a combined uncertainty. The unc...

Previous work has shown in Paramecium tetraurelia that recessive genie mutants with the phenotype N, non-discharge of trichocysts from intact cells in response to a standard test (exposure to tannic or picric acid), are in some mutants due to lesions in trichocyst development and in others due to lesions in the cytoplasm; and that in stock di /J the same homozygous germinal genotype can yield b...

OBJECTIVES Readmission and death are frequent after a hospitalisation and difficult to predict. While many predictors have been identified, few studies have focused on functional status. We assessed whether performance-based functional impairment at discharge is associated with readmission and death after an acute medical hospitalisation. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS We prospectively incl...

Ballast water discharges are a major source of species introductions into marine and estuarine ecosystems. To mitigate the introduction of new invaders into these ecosystems, many agencies are proposing standards that establish upper concentration limits for organisms in ballast discharge. Ideally, ballast discharge standards will be biologically defensible and adequately protective of the mari...

Objectives: The aim of this research has been to evaluate: (a) the frequency of the use of non-standard terms in medical prescriptions; (b) the proportion of “new drugs of irrelevant therapeutic value” or medication of low therapeutic utility (LTU); and (c) the use of Generic Pharmaceutical Specialties (GPS). Materials and methods: Descriptive transversal observational study with analytical com...