We examined the spatial distribution, occurrence, and socioecological predictors of woody invasive plants (WIP) in two subtropical, coastal urban ecosystems: San Juan, Puerto Rico and Miami-Dade, United States. These two cities have similar climates and ecosystems typical of subtropical regions but differ in socioeconomics, topography, and urbanization processes. Using permanent plot data, avai...

OBJECTIVE To derive formulae to predict the likely 12-month health-related quality of life outcome following different treatments for intermittent claudication (IC). DESIGN A prospective, randomized, controlled study. MATERIALS One hundred and seventy-one unselected patients with stable IC were sequentially randomized to invasive therapy, supervised physical training or observation. Hierarc...

OBJECTIVE To explore predictors of the 6-month clinical outcome of thalamic hemorrhage, and evaluate if minimally invasive thalamic hematoma drainage (THD) could improve its prognosis. METHODS A total of 54 patients with spontaneous thalamic hemorrhage were evaluated retrospectively. Clinical data, including demographics, stroke risk factors, neuroimaging variables, Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) o...

STUDY DESIGN A pooled patient-level analysis of two multicenter randomized controlled trials and one multicenter single-arm prospective trial. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify predictors of outcome of conservative and minimally invasive surgical management of pain originating from the sacroiliac joint (SIJ). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Three recently published prospective tria...

BACKGROUND Overcoming boundaries is crucial for incursion of alien plant species and their successful naturalization and invasion within protected areas. Previous work showed that in Kruger National Park, South Africa, this process can be quantified and that factors determining the incursion of invasive species can be identified and predicted confidently. Here we explore the similarity between ...

perform bag mask ventilation on a daily basis, prior to laryngeal mask airway (LMA) insertion and tracheal intubation? It is a common criticism that (over)use of the LMA means trainees perform less intubations and I welcome the recommendation that trainees should be preferentially attached to lists where facemask anaesthesia and intubations occur. Trainees moving between theatres will also incr...

The healthcare industry is increasingly focusing on reducing preventable complications. Iatrogenic complications such as pressure wounds, central line infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are not only costly, but can lead to potentially life threatening sequelae. It is estimated that each CAUTI costs anywhere from $749-1007, and CAUTIs were among the first select...

There is a need to identify patients with an increased risk of dying after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), because sudden cardiac death (SCD) and potentially fatal ventricular tachyarrhythmias can be prevented by an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or in some cases, with aggressively optimized drug or revascularization therapy. The present study was designed to study the predictive po...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to analyze and validate the prognostic impact of the new lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) classification proposed by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, American Thoracic Society, and European Respiratory Society and invasive tumor size in stage I lung ADC of Japanese patients. METHODS We reclassified 191 stage I ADCs according to the...