BACKGROUND Surgical site infections are not uncommon following spinal operations, and they can be associated with serious morbidity, mortality, and increased resource utilization. The accurate identification of risk factors is essential to develop strategies to prevent these potentially devastating infections. We conducted a case-control study to determine independent risk factors for surgical ...

AIMS AND BACKGROUND Patients with cancer of an unknown primary site (CUP) usually have a poor outcome. The identification of prognostic factors that affect survival can help clinicians find a better approach to such cases in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic management. METHODS We conducted a retrospective study including the cases of CUP recorded at the University Hospital 12 de Octubre Tu...

In the research-in-progress reported here, we adapted the classic Mason and Mitroff characterization of an information system to a web environment. The resulting definition was used to design a set of pilot experiments to examine the relationship between quality dimensions and the variables of the modified Mason and Mitroff definition. The experiments were intended as feasibility tests whose pu...

There has been tremendous growth in electronic commerce over the past few years. This growth is expected to sustain momentum in the future. Hence, the Internet has become an essential tool for business and customers. However, unlike traditional retailers, it lacks key aspects of a shopping experience like interacting with customer sales people and being physically in a store. A well-designed us...

The protein-coding regions of most vertebrate genes are split, giving rise to primary transcripts containing introns and exons; the latter must be spliced in the nucleus to form the mature mRNA, which then moves to the cytoplasm for translation. Pre-mRNA splicing, the process of intron removal and exon joining, represents an important function within the nucleus, and elucidation of the mechanis...

BACKGROUND Surgical site infections can follow clean orthopaedic operations and can cause serious morbidity, mortality and increased resource utilization. Despite this, there are few studies on risk factors for surgical site infections in the Nigerian orthopaedic literature. We conducted a prospective study to determine the host and environmental risk factors for surgical site infections follow...

BACKGROUND Surgical site infection (SSI) is a well-known complication of general surgery. Although overall SSI rate is relatively low, it is the most common nosocomial infection. SSI adversely affects patient outcomes and healthcare costs. METHODS Patients who underwent general surgical procedures between 2003 and 2009 were included in the study. SSI diagnosed based on the National Nosocomial...