Silicon-based. light-emitting devices (LED's) should find numerous uses in optoelectronics. For example, the integration of silicon LED's with silicon microelectronics could lead to reliable and inexpensive optical displays and optical interconnects. Until recently, however, it had not been possible to obtain efficient room-temperature luminescence from silicon. The demonstration in 1990 that a...

BACKGROUND Cash-based transfer programmes are an emerging strategy in the prevention of wasting in children, especially targeted at vulnerable households during periods of food insecurity or during emergencies. However, the evidence surrounding the use of either cash or voucher transfer programmes in the humanitarian context and on nutritional outcomes is elusive. More evidence is needed not on...

OBJECTIVE To assess the geographic distribution and trends of AIDS deaths for the 1988-1997 period in Mexico. MATERIAL AND METHODS Crude and adjusted mortality rates were estimated for the 1988-1997 period. A trend test was performed using the simple linear regression method. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) and years of potential life lost (YPLL) were calculated for each Mexican state. ...

Recent years have witnessed the tremendous growth of the online social media. In China, Weibo, a Twitter-like service, has attracted more than 500 million users in less than five years. Connected by online social ties, different users might share similar affective states. We find that the correlation of anger among users is significantly higher than that of joy. While the correlation of sadness...

BACKGROUND Adequate nutrition is needed to ensure optimum growth and development of infants and young children. Understanding of the risk factors for stunting and severe stunting among children aged less than five years in North Maluku province is important to guide Indonesian government public health planners to develop nutrition programs and interventions in a post conflict area. The purpose ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the smoking attributable medical expenditures and productivity loss of people aged 35 and over in Taiwan in 2001 from a societal viewpoint. METHODS A prevalence based approach was used to estimate smoking attributable costs. Epidemiological parameters were obtained from two follow up studies and government statistics. Data on medical care utilisation and expenditure were...

BACKGROUND This study was designed to assess the prevalence of smoking at time of lung cancer diagnosis in a surgical patient cohort referred for cardiothoracic surgery. METHODS Retrospective study of lung cancer patients (n = 626) referred to three cardiothoracic surgeons at a tertiary care medical center in Southern California from January 2006 to December 2008. Relationships among years of...

OBJECTIVES The main objective of this study was to explore differences in mortality patterns among two large immigrant groups in Germany: one from Turkey and the other from the former Soviet Union (FSU). To this end, we investigated indicators of premature mortality. DESIGN This study was conducted as a retrospective population-based study based on mortality register linkage. Using mortality ...

AIMS AND BACKGROUND There are several barriers to smoking cessation that are unique to women. Compared to men, women report lower levels of motivation to quit and greater perceived difficulty with cessation. However, recent studies might favor commitment by women to quit through higher risk perception related e.g. to the development of premature facial wrinkling or the decrease in mammographic ...

BACKGROUND The study of mortality differentials by class or socio-economic group is underdeveloped in Ireland in comparison to other countries. The work that has been done has used a standardized mortality ratio (SMR) methodology to measure deaths. There has been no previous work exploring the social gradient in years of potential life lost (YPLL) in Ireland. METHODS The aim is to investigate...