BACKGROUND The hemoglobin threshold for transfusion of red cells in patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding is controversial. We compared the efficacy and safety of a restrictive transfusion strategy with those of a liberal transfusion strategy. METHODS We enrolled 921 patients with severe acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding and randomly assigned 461 of them to a restrictive strategy ...

BACKGROUND The hemoglobin threshold at which postoperative red-cell transfusion is warranted is controversial. We conducted a randomized trial to determine whether a higher threshold for blood transfusion would improve recovery in patients who had undergone surgery for hip fracture. METHODS We enrolled 2016 patients who were 50 years of age or older, who had either a history of or risk factor...

OBJECTIVE To compare patient outcomes of restrictive versus liberal blood transfusion strategies in patients with cardiovascular disease not undergoing cardiac surgery. DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES Randomised controlled trials involving a threshold for red blood cell transfusion in hospital. We searched (to 2 November 2015) CENTRAL, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PubMe...

BACKGROUND The optimal hemoglobin threshold for erythrocyte transfusions in critically ill children is unknown. We hypothesized that a restrictive transfusion strategy of using packed red cells that were leukocyte-reduced before storage would be as safe as a liberal transfusion strategy, as judged by the outcome of multiple-organ dysfunction. METHODS In this noninferiority trial, we enrolled ...

The most important limitation associated with the clinical use of cyclosporine is the narrow therapeutic range between its efficacy and toxicity. Effective treatment is further complicated by significant variation in intrapatient and interpatient pharmacokinetics of the drug. We describe a practical approach to pharmacokinetic analysis that does not interfere with the cyclosporine dosage regime...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to validate self-reported colorectal cancer (CRC) screening using the National Cancer Institute Colorectal Cancer Screening questionnaire. MATERIALS AND METHODS 890 patients, ages 50 to 75 years, from the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center were surveyed by mail. Phone administration was attempted with mail nonresponders. VA and non-VA records w...

How do minorities, defined as non-ruling communities, use as well as evade using state law, legal ideology and communal law for achievement of their political aims in democracies? What relations hold between violent, and non-violent means as hermeneutics, litigation, and legal mobilization? What is a communal legal culture, and what is its relevance for relations between state and society in th...

Abstract In the model of group identification, or qualification problems, Samet and Schmeidler (2003) provide two axiomatic characterizations of the ``liberal'''' decision rule (a person is socially qualified as a member of a collective if and only if he qualifies himself). They impose monotonicity, non-degeneracy, and independence axioms, which are standard in this model, together with either ...

The Blogosphere has more influence on both the general public’s opinions and mainstream media nowadays. As vast political blogs representing grassroots voices go online, it is both interesting and useful to find them and determine their political leanings as either liberal or conservative. In this paper, we address both problems by using front pages of blogs in a corpus we built to create two c...

This paper seeks to contribute our understanding of the variegated ties established across national borders by non-state actors offering an account field international mission agencies. Noting agencies’ specific goal promote gospel, we ask how agencies shape where missionaries go, whom they are trying reach and what activities engage in. Based on in-depth interviews with managers, discuss histo...