OBJECTIVE To determine the utility of inhaled hypertonic saline solution to treat ambulatory infants with viral bronchiolitis. DESIGN Randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. Sixty-five ambulatory infants (mean +/- SD age, 12.5 +/- 6 months) with viral bronchiolitis received either of the following: inhalation of 0.5 mL (5 mg) terbutaline added to 2 mL of 0.9% saline solution as a wet nebu...

BACKGROUND It is an inherent assumption in randomised controlled trials that the drug effect can be estimated by subtracting the response during placebo from the response during active drug treatment. OBJECTIVE To test the assumption of additivity. The primary hypothesis was that the total treatment effect is smaller than the sum of the drug effect and the placebo effect. The secondary hypoth...

We describe a new method of formalizing commonsense reasoning : Instead of minimizing extensions of predicates we formalize common sense as "truth in intended models", and we give a mathematical formulation of the proposed method by defining a class of intended models based on preferences in interpretations. We propose to use problem independent natural language constraints to exclude interpret...

The methodological underpinnings of AI are slowly changing. Benchmarks, testbeds, and controlled experimentation are becoming more common. While we are optimistic that this change can solidify the science of AI, we also recognize a set of di cult issues concerning the appropriate use of this methodology. We discuss these issues as they relate to research on agent design. We survey existing test...

j3-Glucuronidase inhibitor extracted and purified from culture filtrate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv significantly reduced the microbicidal activity of guinea pig peritoneal macrophages against Candida parapsilosis. It did not have any effect on the antimicrobial action of polymorphonuclear cells against Staphylococcus aureus 209P. A lot of studies have been made on biologically active s...

As Merry Wiesner-Hanks writes in her series preface, the Cambridge World History is authoritative and comprehensive, but not exhaustive. World history must limit its ambitions precisely because its scope is so vast, so an exhaustive history of humanity, like a map the same size as the landscape it charts, would be of little use because it would have avoided the hard work of distillation. This i...

T hanks to miaoendoscopic research and technology innovations, patients could be in for a new set of dose-ups. Several groups of investigators are working to implement optical biopsies, in which the traditional methods will be replaced by an in situ microscopic examination. The result could be a better handle on disease while patient discomfort and risk are diminished. A look at various efforts...

Those who have seen the movie Forrest Gump witnessed former U.S. President J.F. Kennedy shaking the hand of Tom Hanks. Nevertheless, they have never met. Though this image seems real, how can we be certain it is not? How long can we still believe the images? This paper presents an efficient system guaranteeing to detect whether the images of an original video sequence have been modified between...

When you need to combine multiple, error-filled data feeds into a single, highly accurate database, the hardest problem is matching corresponding records. How do you match, for instance, "Thomas J. Hanks" with "Tom Hank" or “International Business Machines” with “Intl. Bus. Mach.”? We present an innovative, accurate system that employs a powerful, patentpending, machine learning technique to de...