Since 1993, the conduct of monetary policy in Australia has been based on an inflation target. Under this framework, the aim of policy is for underlying inflation to average 2 to 3 per cent per annum in the medium term. Underlying inflation can be measured in a number of ways but each of these measures shows that the target has been achieved so far in the 1990s (see Table 1). The concept of und...

OBJECTIVES To describe a new, rigorous, comprehensive practice-based evidence for clinical practice improvement (PBE-CPI) study methodology, and compare its features, advantages, and disadvantages to those of randomized controlled trials and sophisticated statistical methods for comparative effectiveness research. RESEARCH DESIGN PBE-CPI incorporates natural variation within data from routine...

Prais (1958) showed that the standard CPI computed by most statistical agencies can be interpreted as a weighted average of household price indexes, where the weight of each household is determined by its total expenditures. In this paper, we decompose the difference between the standard CPI and a democratically weighted index (i.e., the CPI plutocratic gap) as the product of expenditure inequa...

Improved non-invasive localization of the epileptogenic foci prior to epilepsy surgery would improve surgical outcome in patients with partial seizure disorders. A critical component for the identification of the epileptogenic brain is the analysis of electrophysiological data obtained during ictal activity from prolonged intracranial recordings. The development of a noninvasive means to identi...

BACKGROUND Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) has been shown to play an important role in pneumocyte proliferation and lung development. We hypothesized that exogenous KGF would enhance postpneumonectomy compensatory lung growth through alveolar proliferation. METHODS AND RESULTS Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Left pneumonectomy was performed in group P, sham thoracotomy in group S, and l...

Blood coagulation starts immediately after damage to the vascular endothelium. This system is essential for minimizing blood loss from an injured blood vessel but also contributes to vascular thrombosis. Although it has long been thought that the intrinsic coagulation pathway is not important for clotting in vivo, recent data obtained with genetically altered mice indicate that contact phase pr...

The composite physiologic index (CPI) was derived to represent the extent of fibrosis on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), adjusting for emphysema in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We hypothesised that longitudinal change in CPI would better predict mortality than forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)), forced vital capacity (FVC) or diffusing capacity of the lun...

The gene (cpo) encoding the extracellular protease CPI produced by the moderately halophilic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas ruthenica CP76 was cloned, and its nucleotide sequence was analyzed. The cpo gene encodes a 733-residue protein showing sequence similarity to metalloproteases of the M4 family. The type II secretion apparatus was shown to be responsible for secretion of the haloprotease CPI.