OBJECTIVE In December 2001, an expert consultation convened by WHO identified strengthening national and global chemical incident preparedness and response as a priority. WHO is working towards this objective by developing a surveillance and response system for chemical incidents. This report describes the frequency, nature and geographical location of acute chemical incidents of potential inte...

Recent studies have revealed that not only fish but also rice consumption may significantly contribute to human exposure to mercury (Hg) in Asian countries. It is therefore essential to assess dietary exposure to Hg in rice and its associated health risk. However, risk assessments of Hg in rice in non-contaminated areas are generally lacking in Asian countries. In the present study, Hg concentr...

BACKGROUND A number of significant chemical incidents occur in the UK each year and may require Emergency Departments (EDs) to receive and manage contaminated casualties. Previously UK EDs have been found to be under-prepared for this, but since October 2005 acute hospital Trusts have had a statutory responsibility to maintain decontamination capacity. We aimed to evaluate the level of prepared...

We use metal-assisted chemical etching (MCE) method to fabricate nanostructured black silicon on the surface of C-Si. The Si-PIN photoelectronic detector based on this type of black silicon shows excellent device performance with a responsivity of 0.57 A/W at 1060 nm. Silicon nanocone arrays can be created using MCE treatment. These modified surfaces show higher light absorptance in the near-in...

BACKGROUND Asthma is a heterogeneous disorder with different phenotypes, and age at onset may define part of them. Little is known about possible association between prenatal stress and asthma phenotypes according to age at onset. We aim to investigate whether there is an association between prenatal stress and asthma, and if so, whether such an association differs according to age at asthma on...

BACKGROUND Tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are common in the National Football League (NFL). The impact of these injuries on the careers of NFL linemen is unknown. PURPOSE To define the percentage of NFL linemen who return to sport (RTS) after ACL reconstruction, the mean time to RTS, and the impact on performance compared with matched controls. STUDY DESIGN Cohort study; Leve...

BACKGROUND Risk assessment and early warning (RAEW) are essential components of any infectious disease surveillance system. In light of the International Health Regulations (IHR)(2005), this study compares the organisation of RAEW in China and the Netherlands. The respective approaches towards surveillance of arboviral disease and unexplained pneumonia were analysed to gain a better understandi...

The location of a wind turbine is critical to its power output, which is strongly affected by the local wind field. Turbine operators typically seek locations with the best wind at the lowest level above ground since turbine height affects installation costs. In many urban applications, such as small-scale turbines owned by local communities or organizations, turbine placement is challenging be...

In this paper I propose to estimate distributions on the unit interval semi-nonparametrically using orthonormal Legendre polynomials. This approach will be applied to the interval censored mixed proportional hazard (ICMPH) model, where the distribution of the unobserved heterogeneity is modeled semi-nonparametrically. Various conditions for the nonparametric identification of the ICMPH model ar...

BACKGROUND There is a demonstrated association between asthma and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In this study, we examined the bidirectional association between asthma and IBS using a nationwide database. METHODS We conducted two retrospective cohort studies using data obtained from the National Health Insurance of Taiwan. Study 1 included 29,648 asthma patients newly diagnosed between 2000...