BACKGROUND The format or frame in which the results of randomized trials are presented has been shown to influence health professional's self-reported practice. We sought to investigate the effect of framing cardiovascular risk as two different formats in a randomized trial. METHODS We recruited 457 patients aged between 60 and 79 years with high blood pressure from 20 family practices in Avo...

INTRODUCTION Scientific evidence supports the synergy between biomedical and behavioral interventions aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV as a strategy to eradicate AIDS. OBJECTIVE To characterize comparatively the benefits from biomedical and behavioral interventions to prevent HIV transmission. METHODS Narrative review. We performed a comparative analysis of the benefits of studie...

Synonymous codon usage bias (SCUB) is a common event that a non-uniform usage of codons often occurs in nearly all organisms. We previously found that SCUB is correlated with both intron number and exon position in the plant nuclear genome but not in the plastid genome; SCUB in both nuclear and plastid genome can mirror the evolutionary specialization. However, how about the rules in the mitoch...

The 'Number Needed to Treat' (NNT) is a useful measure for estimating the number of patients that would need to receive a therapeutic intervention to avoid one of the adverse events that the treatment is designed to prevent. We explored the possibility of an adaption of NNT to estimate the 'Number Needed to $ave' (NN$) as a new, conceptual systems metric to estimate potential cost-savings to th...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether gentamicin-impregnated collagen sponges (gentamicin-collagen implants) decrease the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI). BACKGROUND SSIs cause substantial morbidity and increase the costs of healthcare. Antibiotic prophylaxis is a cornerstone of SSI reduction. Prophylactic local delivery of antibiotics with novel biodegradable drug carrier systems, such a...

BACKGROUND There is debate concerning methods for calculating numbers needed to treat (NNT) from results of systematic reviews. METHODS We investigate the susceptibility to bias for alternative methods for calculating NNTs through illustrative examples and mathematical theory. RESULTS Two competing methods have been recommended: one method involves calculating the NNT from meta-analytical e...

Non-expresser of pathogenesis-related genes 1 (NPR1) is the master regulator of salicylic acid-mediated systemic acquired resistance. Over-expression of Arabidopsis NPR1 and rice NH1 (NPR1 homolog1)/OsNPR1 in rice results in enhanced resistance. While there are four rice NPR1 paralogs in the rice genome, none have been demonstrated to function in disease resistance. To study rice NPR1 paralog 3...

Mazkur maqolada inson huquqlarining ustuvorligi asosida yoshlarda ijtimoiy faollikni oshirish masalalarini o‘rganishni maqsad qildik. NNT faoliyati orqali omillari tizimli tahlil, qiyoslash, umulashtirish, deduksiya kabi metodlar yordamida o‘rganildi. Maqolada NNTning muvaffaqiyatli jamiyatda demokratik tamoyillar amal qilishi, fuqarolar faolligi ortib borishiga olib kelishi asoslandi.

In this paper a discrete competitive neural network is introduced to calculate the optimal robot arm movements for processing a considered commitment of tasks, using the branch and bound methodology. A special method based on the branch and bound methodology, modified with a travelling path for adapting in the neural network, is introduced. The main neural network of the system consists of diff...