A: Not really. When we design, we need tools such as use cases to let us piece together the parts divided by encapsulation. When we code, we routinely violate encapsulation when we send messages to values returned from method calls. Experimentally , we see that the systems we are building seem to have move inter-object behaviour than intra-object behaviour. Our knowledge engineering experience ...

Blood platelets play a major role in the occurrence of thrombotic complications after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). Introduction of the thienopyridine drug ticlopidine as an adjunctive antiplatelet therapy has considerably improved the outcome of patients who undergo PCI. Thienopyridines act via blockade of one (P2Y12) of the three adenosine 50-diphosphate (ADP) receptors, reducing...

Predicting someone’s chances of experiencing a cardiovascular event is a medical challenge that has yet to be resolved.1 Large-scale epidemiologic observation studies enable us to identify variables associated with greater probability of presenting cardiovascular disease. The INTERHEART study has recently corroborated these, comparing the circumstances that differentiated patients with myocardi...

Could the next big change in cancer treatment actually be tiny? There are many reasons that cancer is such a difficult disease to treat. Scientists can either try to come up with new and better cancer medicines or they can find better ways for cancer patients to receive their medicines. This paper describes a possible new way to deliver cancer medicines using something called nanoparticles – ti...

BACKGROUND Indwelling urinary catheters are the main cause of healthcare-associated urinary tract infections. It can be expected that reduction of the use of urinary catheters will lead to decreased numbers of urinary tract infection. METHODS The efficacy of an intervention programme to improve adherence to recommendations to reduce the use of urethral catheters was studied in a before-after ...

The first decade of experience with case-crossover studies has shown that the design applies best if the exposure is intermittent, the effect on risk is immediate and transient, and the outcome is abrupt. However, this design has been used to study single changes in exposure level, gradual effects on risk, and outcomes with insidious onsets. To estimate relative risk, the exposure frequency dur...