OBJECTIVES To examine reasons behind the failure of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to preserve puff count information from standard cigarette testing and to elucidate the importance of puff count to overall tar yields. METHODS We reviewed industry documents on origins of the FTC test and datasets provided by the Tobacco Institute Testing Laboratory to the tobacco industry and FTC for repo...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE ADC as a marker of tumor cellularity has been promising for evaluating the response to therapy in patients with glioblastoma but does not successfully stratify patients according to outcomes, especially in the upfront setting. Here we investigate whether restriction spectrum imaging, an advanced diffusion imaging model, performed after an operation but before radiation th...

Abstract Background Sleep difficulties are associated with impaired executive functions (EFs) in school-aged children. However, much less is known about how sleep during infancy relates to EF infants and toddlers. The aim of this study was investigate whether parent-reported patterns at 6 12 months were their inhibitory control (IC) working memory (WM) performances 30 months. Methods This inclu...

BACKGROUND Non-equivalence in serum creatinine (SCr) measurements across Dutch laboratories and the consequences hereof on chronic kidney disease (CKD) staging were examined. METHODS National data from the Dutch annual external quality organization of 2009 were used. 144 participating laboratories examined 11 pairs of commutable, value-assigned SCr specimens in the range 52-262 μmol/L, using ...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of surface height and load weight on upper limb movements and electromyographic (EMG) recordings during manual handling performed by both experienced and inexperienced lifter subjects. METHODS Sixteen experienced and sixteen inexperienced lifters handled a box (both 7 and 15 kg) from an intermediate height (waist level) to either a high or low surface. Electr...

OBJECTIVE To investigate, in pregnant women without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), the relation among obstetric/demographic characteristics; fasting, 1-h, and 2-h plasma glucose values resulting from a 75-g glucose load; and the risk of abnormal neonatal anthropometric features and then to verify the presence of a threshold glucose value for a 75-g glucose load above which there is an inc...

To determine regional percentile values and compare them with currently used national and international curves, we determined the birth weight, height and head and chest circumference of 3688 term neonates born in a state hospital in the Anatolian part of Istanbul, Turkey. Mean birth weight, height and head and chest circumference were 3334 (SD 494) g, 48.3 (SD 2.2) cm, 34.4 (SD 1.3) cm and 32....

Abstract Introduction Contradictory data have been reported about the association between testosterone levels and of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL). Objective The aim this study was to elucidate LDL levels. Methods A cross-sectional conducted that included 7,268 men who had participated in a health examination. Men took agents influence serum lipid profiles within previous 6 months w...

We use slave voyage data from 18th century Great Britain and France to answer two questions: 1) How important was the managerial quality of owners and captains in slave trading? and 2) What explains the substantial variation in managerial quality? Utilizing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, in which we observe the performance of owners and captains in each of their voyages, we follow the...

The empirical relationship between income and longevity has been addressed by a large number of studies, but most were confined to men. For the first time we analyze a large data set from the German public pension scheme on women who died between 1994 and 2005, employing both non-parametric and parametric methods. We find that the relationship between earnings and life expectancy is similar for...