OBJECTIVE To assess whether a dose-response relation exists between the number of cigarette promotional items (CPIs) owned by an adolescent, and smoking behaviour. DESIGN AND SETTING Voluntary, self administered survey of 1265 sixth through to 12th grade students (ages 10-19 years), representing 79-95% of all students attending five rural New Hampshire and Vermont public (state funded) school...

This report attempts to clarify issues concerning the organization and functions of command post information systems (CPIS). The purpose of the report is to provide system designers with a better understanding of factors which influence the operation of a CPIS and which constrain system design alternatives. A CPIS is viewed as one of four systems making up a command post -the others being a com...

Abstract Background Suspicion and clinical criteria continue to serve as the foundation for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) diagnosis, however used diagnose VAP vary widely. Data from head-to-head comparisons of diagnostic algorithms is lacking, thus a prospective observational study was performed determine performance characteristics Johanson criteria, Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score ...

The most frequent infectious diseases in humans--and those with the highest potential for rapid pandemic spread--are usually transmitted via droplets during close proximity interactions (CPIs). Despite the importance of this transmission route, very little is known about the dynamic patterns of CPIs. Using wireless sensor network technology, we obtained high-resolution data of CPIs during a typ...

In this paper we investigate the empirical pass-through of the nominal exchange rates to the consumer price indexes (CPIs) for five Eurozone countries vis-à-vis the United States. There are significant structure changes in these countries during the European integration. The Eurozone CPIs have been insulated from the exchange rate shocks since that integration; on the other hand, we find that t...

INTRODUCTION De-escalation therapy is a strategy currently used for the management of nosocomial pneumonia. In this study, we evaluated clinical outcomes and risk factors related to de-escalation therapy in patients with intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired pneumonia. METHODS This was a retrospective observational cohort study of ICU patients who developed pneumonia more than 48 hours after adm...

Background: Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is the most common hospital acquired infection in the intensive care unit with high mortality rate. The role of the clinical symptoms for the VAP diagnosis is limited. Procalcitonin (PCT), currently interested biomarkers, plays an important role in the diagnosis and the outcome of the ventilator-associated pneumonia patients. Objective: To evalu...

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common and serious problem that develops after more than 48 hours of mechanical ventilation. Improving the activity of immune system with vitamin D, and its consequent impact on prognostic biomarkers of VAP was studied in the current study. A randomized double blind placebo controlled clinical trial was designed. A total of 46 patients with VAP, who w...

CONTEXT Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is a nosocomial infection prevalent among the intensive care unit (ICU) patients despite proper infection control practices. The diagnosis of VAP still remains controversial and hence the mortality rate is higher among this group of patients. AIM The aim of our study was to identify the antibiotic pattern and the appropriateness of treatment follo...