INTRODUCTION Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) data collected in HIV+ patients could be used as indicator of risky sexual behaviour possibly linked to HIV transmission. We described the STDs incidence over time and identified higher incidence factors. METHODOLOGY All patients in the ICONA Foundation Study enrolled after 1998 were included. STDs considered: any-stage syphilis, human papillo...

OBJECTIVES A recent study demonstrated the efficacy of the SafERteens intervention in reducing peer violence among adolescents presenting to the emergency department (ED). The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of this ED-based brief intervention (BI) on dating violence 1 year following the ED visit among the subsample of adolescents in the original randomized controlled tria...

A robust structural damage detection method that can handle noisy frequency response function information is discussed. The inherent unstructured nature of damage detection problems is exploited by applying an implicit redundant representation (IRR) genetic algorithm. The unbraced frame structure results obtained show that the IRR GA is less sensitive to noise than a SGA. 1 Unstructured Problem...

BACKGROUND In Canada, surveillance systems have highlighted the increasing trend of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) human infections. Our study objectives were to evaluate the epidemiology of S. Enteritidis infections in Ontario using surveillance data from January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2009. METHODS Annual age-and-sex-adjusted incidence rates (IRs), annual and...

IMPORTANCE Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has converted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection into a chronic condition, and patients now undergo a variety of surgical procedures, but current surgical outcomes are inadequately characterized. OBJECTIVE To compare 30-day postoperative mortality in patients with HIV infection receiving ART with the rates in uninfected individuals. DESIGN, ...

We previously identified a five-member family of hemin-binding proteins (Hbp's) of Bartonella quintana that bind hemin on the outer surface but share no homology with known bacterial heme receptors. Subsequently, we demonstrated that expression of the hbp family is significantly influenced by oxygen, heme, and temperature conditions encountered by the pathogen in the human host and the body lou...

PURPOSE A duodenal bypass after a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass operation for obesity can ameliorate the development of diabetes mellitus (DM). We attempted to determine the subsequent risk of developing DM after subtotal gastrectomy with Billroth II anastomosis (SGBIIA) for peptic ulcer disease (PUD). METHODS We identified 662 patients undergoing SGBIIA for PUD between 2000 and 2011 from the Long...

Let G be a finite group and let Irr(G) the set of all irreducible complex characters G. For character χ∈Irr(G), number cod(χ):=|G:ker(χ)|/χ(1) is called co-degree χ. The co-degrees denoted by cod(G). In this paper, we show that for nontrivial G, |Irr(G)|=|cod(G)| if only isomorphic to Z2 or S3.

College-bound students in Japan undergo a process of intense preparation known as examination hell. An extreme manifestation of examination hell is the ronin phenomenon. Typically thirty percent of students choose the ronin option under which they spend years in addition to high school preparing for the next year’s college entrance examinations. Using the mean scores of the entrance examination...