BACKGROUND Nebulized drug delivery is a cornerstone of therapy for obstructive lung disease, but the ideal nebulizer design is uncertain. The breath-actuated nebulizer (BAN) may be superior to conventional nebulizers. This study compared the BAN to standard nebulizer with regard to efficacy, safety, and patient and respiratory therapist (RT) satisfaction. METHODS Adults admitted to the hospi...

At the University of Twente we have been researching mobile healthcare applications since 1999. Since 2002 the University of Twente and partners have been developing health Body Area Networks (BANs) and a BAN service platform. We define a BAN as a network of communicating devices worn on, around or in the body which provides mobile services to the user. The BAN may also communicate to remote us...

Like any self-respecting public health official, it was my lifelong dream to be sued by a tobacco company. I got my wish in 2008. At that time I was the Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and we became the first locality to ban the sale of tobacco at pharmacies. Phillip Morris USA, Inc. promptly filed suit in the United States District Court to overturn the ban. Their la...

Food system regulators often decide whether to ban existing practices or approve new technologies without conclusive scientific evidence on possible damage and knowing that resolution is likely in the future. In a model with three decision points and stochastic resolution of uncertainty, we study interactions between expected losses due to regulation and information availability when a regulato...

Wireless sensor network has undergone tremendous development in the last one decade. The reduced size of the sensors coupled with enhanced capability made the dream of unobtrusive monitoring closer to reality. Sensors are cheaper and readily available in the market in these days. These sensors, when deployed on the human body, forms a Body Area Network (BAN) that can detect and forward various ...

How does the CITES trade ban on international trade in elephant ivory affect the incentives to poach African elephants? In this commentary, the major effects of a trade ban on poaching incentives are captured in a simple static model of world ivory supply and demand. It is shown that a trade ban has ambiguous effects on poaching incentives. Although the ban reduces international ivory demand, o...