The concept of the so-called ‘vulnerable plaque’ has proved highly useful to guide research and thinking regarding the pathophysiology of the acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Yet, the time may have come to reconsider this construct, as knowledge has accumulated, the risk profile of the populace has shifted, and our current therapies have reshaped the disease. Over the last several decades, the q...

Various real-life planning problems require making upfront decisions before all parameters of the problem have been disclosed. An important special case of such problem especially arises in scheduling and staff rostering problems, where a set of tasks needs to be assigned to an available set of resources (personnel or machines), in a way that each task is assigned to one resource, while no task...

a City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, St Leonard’s Hospital, Nuttal St, London, England. b Tuberculosis Programme, Pan-American Health Organization, Washington, DC, United States of America. Correspondence to Jose Figueroa-Munoz (e-mail: [email protected]). doi:10.2471/BLT.06.038737 (Submitted: 12 November 2006 – Revised version received: 1 August 2007 – Accepted: 10 August 2007 – Pu...

High-risk plaques that are vulnerable to rupture demonstrate distinct morphological characteristics. They are differentiated from the lesions responsible for stable coronary artery disease by their large necrotic cores, thin-inflamed fibrous caps, and positive remodeling. Adiponectin is an adipocytokine that is reduced in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Hypoadiponectinemia has been associated with...

Our charge is to consider the causes of lack of insurance coverage for vulnerable populations. This is a daunting task for many reasons-not least because there are as many kinds of vulnerability as there are bad things that happen to human bodies or to human life. Although the term " vulnerable population " conjures images of a discrete and insular minority, every person's vulnerability to illn...

E arth’s average surface temperature is rising unusually fast. This global warming process is deemed by international scientific assessment to be predominantly due to human economic activities (1). Recent research indicates that, globally, the rate of emission of greenhouse gases is increasing (2), as is the rise in sea level and the loss of summer Arctic sea ice (3). Currently, the warming tre...