PURPOSE To assess red blood cell transfusion practices among Canadian anesthesiologists. METHODS A survey depicting three realistic clinical scenarios of elective surgical procedures with different risks of bleeding was administered to all Canadian practicing members (n = 2,100) of the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society. Respondents were requested to choose hemoglobin thresholds for which th...

BACKGROUND TOPALS is a new relational model for smoothing and projecting age schedules. The model is operationally simple, flexible, and transparent. OBJECTIVE This article demonstrates how TOPALS can be used for both smoothing and projecting age-specific mortality for 26 European countries and compares the results of TOPALS with those of other smoothing and projection methods. METHODS TOPALS u...

OBJECTIVES Mortality in patients starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) is higher in Malawi and Zambia than in South Africa. We examined whether different monitoring of ART (viral load [VL] in South Africa and CD4 count in Malawi and Zambia) could explain this mortality difference. DESIGN Mathematical modelling study based on data from ART programmes. METHODS We used a stochastic simulation ...

due to the nature of the sediment data, selection of appropriate methods for processing the data before entering them to the artificial intelligence models can enhance the reliability of simulations results. in this study, the effects of sediment data processing procedures on ann and anfis models outputs in 7 dez basin stations were evaluated. accordingly, three scenarios were considered: in th...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this investigation was to perform a cost-effectiveness analysis of adjunctive oral and intravenous proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapies for patients with acute peptic ulcer-related bleeding of sufficient severity to warrant hospitalization. DESIGN Cost-effectiveness investigation. Four clinical scenarios were considered: scenario 1, diagnostic endoscopy with oral PPI...

Welfare trade-offs between intellectual property (IP) protections provided by patents and by plant variety protection (PVP) are explored. PVP breeders’ exemption weakens IP protection, but may speed the transfer of research gains across firms. A model is developed assuming firms optimise research given existing IP protection. A baseline scenario supporting each system is used to perform welfare...

(1) Laboratory for Hydrogeology, Department of Geology-Geography, Faculty of Exact Science, Catholic University of Leuven, Redingenstraat 16, 3000 Leuven, Belgium (2) Department of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary (3) Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Department of Georesources, Geotechnologies and Building Materials (GEOMAC), University of Liè...

Nonpoint source pollution from cultivated croplands has often been associated with downstream water quality impairment in various watersheds. Given projected changes global climate patterns, this study contributes to the existing literature by elucidating impacts of projections on edge-of-field surface runoff and sediment nutrient losses. We apply a well-tested ecohydrological model, Agricultur...

Background: Extraterrestrial Encounter To date, humanity has not made any form of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). But we cannot rule out the possibility that one or more ETI exist in our galaxy, or that we could detect, communicate with, or in other ways have contact with them in the future. There have been many analyses of how contact would proceed, but these tend to focus na...

Illicit drug use creates significant burden at societal, family and personal levels. Every year substantial resources are allocated for treatment and the consequences of illicit drug use in Australia and around the world. Heroin is one of the major forms of illicit drugs. Several independent heroin treatment strategies or interventions exist and state-of-the art research demonstrates their effi...