We have assessed the laboratory specifications necessary for ensuring that cholesterol testing processes satisfy the quality required by the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). A model for setting process specifications has been developed to relate the NCEP guidelines for medical interpretation of a cholesterol test to the pre-analytical and analytical variables that can affect ...

OBJECTIVES Potential environmental risks caused by chemicals that could be released from a recycled plastic product were assessed using a screening risk assessment procedure for chemicals in recycled products. METHODS Plastic slope protection blocks manufactured from recycled plastics were chosen as model recycled products. Ecological risks caused by four model chemicals -di-(2-ethylhexyl) ph...

On separate days, 6 highly trained participants performed psychomotor tests while breathing for 60 min 3 carbon dioxide (CO(2)) mixtures (room air, 3% CO(2), or 4% CO(2)) prior to, between, and following two 15-min treadmill exercise bouts (70% VO(2)(max)). Each individual was extensively practiced (at least 4 days) before testing began, and both gas conditions and order of tasks were counterba...

Quartz is a human carcinogen and a causative agent of silicosis. Exposure levels often exceed exposure limits in the construction industry. The need for effective control measures is high, but the complex structure of the construction industry, the variability in sources of exposure and the frequent changes of worksite makes it difficult to implement even simple and potentially effective contro...

Artificial silk is made by the viscose process in Hungary. Systematic air analyses and medical surveys have been carried out in a viscose rayon factory for the purpose of studying the maximum allowable or toxic concentration ofcarbon disulphide. In view of the fact that widely varying concentrations may give misleading results, we have not drawn any conclusions from the investigation of persons...

The allowable imprecision for laboratory tests has been estimated from criteria based on clinical and analytical test outcome. The analytical outcome criteria studied are the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) criteria for proficiency testing. The clinical outcome criteria are estimates of medically significant changes in test results taken from a study in the literature. The est...

Kontsevich and Segal (K-S) have proposed a criterion to determine which complex metrics should be allowed, based on the requirement that quantum field theories may consistently defined these metrics, Witten has recently suggested their proposal also apply gravity. We explore this in context of gravitational path integrals, simple minisuperspace models, specifically considering de Sitter (dS), n...