I. Background Concern about the environmental costs of economic development is now both widespread and intense. At one extreme, environmental deterioration, as through air and water pollution and deforestation, is seen as an unavoidable cost of industrialization, urbanization, and the growth of consumption (and the change in its composition) that are at the heart of “development” in the common ...

PURPOSE This study investigated the pharmacokinetics of tinidazole in subjects of five different Chinese nationalities (Han, Mongolian, Korean, Hui, and Uighur). METHODS Fifty healthy subjects (five male and five female of each nationality) were recruited for the study, and each received 1 g tinidazole. A total of 14 blood samples were collected over a 72-hour period after administration. R...

A fully automated and computationally efficient Pearson's correlation change classification (APC3) approach is proposed and shown to have overall comparable performance with both an average accuracy and an average AUC of 0.89 ± 0.08 but is 3.9 to 7 times faster, easier to use and have low outlier susceptibility in contrast to other dimensional reduction and classification combinations using onl...

We propose a method that uses off-the-shelf binary classifiers and combines them in real-time to achieve quality, time, and cost characteristics that satisfy user-provided constraints; moreover, it shares intermediate computation (e.g., features, classifiers, kernels) between classes to reduce time and cost. An important distinction between this approach and others is that the primary focus of ...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have revealed conflicting results for the Breastfeeding Assessment Score (BAS) in predicting early breastfeeding cessation. Our objective was to externally validate the BAS and provide summary accuracy estimates for this clinical prediction model. METHODS We used the original data from a prospective cohort study. Additional studies were identified by searching elec...

BACKGROUND Early identification of children <5 yrs with acute malnutrition is a priority. Acute malnutrition is defined by the World Health Organization as a mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) <12.5 cm or a weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) <-2. MUAC is a simple and low-cost indicator to screen for acute malnutrition in communities, but MUAC cut-offs currently recommended by WHO do not identify t...

BACKGROUND An efficacious, reliable, and non-invasive route of administration for midazolam, a drug used for sedation and pre-anaesthetic medication, would have obvious advantages. This study compares two potential methods of administering midazolam by the nasal and nebulized routes. METHODS Midazolam (0.2 mg kg(-1)) was given by both nebulizer and nasally by liquid instillation to 10 healthy...

Relationships between cortisol responses to laboratory stress and cortisol output over the day have not been studied extensively. We tested associations between cortisol responses to a set of laboratory challenges (colour/word interference and mirror tracing) and three aspects of cortisol output over the day, namely total area under the curve (AUCday), the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and ...

Scaly-sided Merganser is a globally endangered species restricted to eastern Asia. Estimating its population is difficult and considerable gap exists between populations at its breeding grounds and wintering sites. In this study, we built a species distribution model (SDM) using Maxent with presence-only data to predict the potential wintering habitat for Scaly-sided Merganser in China. Area un...

PURPOSE To evaluate cancer detection with targeted biopsy of the prostate performed on the basis of high-frequency Doppler ultrasonographic (US) imaging findings versus cancer detection with a modified sextant biopsy approach with laterally directed cores. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-two patients were prospectively evaluated with gray-scale, color, and power Doppler transrectal US performed w...