Search

Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Ciguatera poisoning is presently estimated to afflict approximately 16 000 people in the United States each year. Ciguatera toxicity is due to the ingestion of warm-water reef fish that are known to consume dinoflagellates that contain ciguatoxins (CTXs). Historically, the diagnosis of ciguatera poisoning is confirmed in the emergency department when this ingestion is followed by manifestations of neurologic and gastrointestinal organ symptoms. Some individuals also manifest cardiac symptoms. These symptoms can vary within each organ system in type and duration. Case Report: In this report, 2 patients (husband and wife) are presented that consumed the same barracuda, resulting in severe ciguatera poisoning diagnosed in the emergency department. One had the complete triad of symptoms of gastrointestinal (GI), neurologic, and cardiac involvement. The other patient lacked neurological symptoms but did experience severe gastrointestinal and cardiac symptoms. It was assumed by the inpatient team, the consulted infectious disease specialist, and, initially, the in-house toxicologist that the lack of neurologic symptoms excluded the diagnosis of ciguatera. Conclusions: If these patients had presented separately, only the former would have been considered to have ciguatera poisoning. These 2 cases demonstrate the misunderstanding among healthcare practitioners of the literature on the diagnostic criteria. Therefore, this article aims to analyze ciguatera diagnosis in the emergency department, which will ultimately guide prognostics and management, particularly for severe cardiac symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Internet-panel surveys are emerging as a means to quickly and cost-effectively collect health data, and because of their large memberships, they could be used for community-level surveys. To determine the feasibility of using an internet-panel survey to quickly provide community-level data, we conducted a pilot test of a health survey in 3 US metropolitan areas. Methods: We conducted internet-panel surveys in Cleveland, Ohio; New York, New York; and Seattle, Washington, in 2015. Slightly more than 500 people responded to the survey in each city. We compared weighted unadjusted prevalence estimates from the internet-panel data with estimates from the 2014 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) for the following question in each survey: "Compared to smoking cigarettes, would you say that electronic cigarettes are ... much less harmful, less harmful, just as harmful, more harmful, much more harmful, or I've never heard of electronic cigarettes." We used multivariable logistic regression to compare associations of respondents' demographic and health characteristics with perceived harm from e-cigarettes. Results: The prevalence of the perception that e-cigarettes are less harmful than smoking cigarettes ranged from 35.9% to 39.9% in the internet-panel sites and was 43.0% in HINTS. Most patterns of beliefs and respondent characteristics in the internet-panel data were consistent with patterns in HINTS. We found inconsistent patterns between internet-panel sites and HINTS by race/ethnicity and education. Conclusions: This feasibility study found that internet-panel surveys could quickly produce community-level data for targeted public health interventions and evaluation, but they may be limited in producing estimates among subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a multi-factor pricing model with time-varying risk exposures and premia to examine whether the 2003-2006 period has been characterized, as often claimed by a number of commentators and policymakers, by a substantial mispricing of publicly traded real estate assets (REITs). The estimation approach relies on Bayesian methods to model the latent process followed by risk exposures and idiosynchratic volatility. Our application to monthly, 1979-2009 U.S. data for stock, bond, and REIT returns shows that both market and real consumption growth risks are priced throughout the sample by the cross-section of asset returns. There is weak evidence at best of structural mispricing of REIT valuations during the 2003-2006 sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the admissibility of the prior bad acts evidence under the standards of admission. It discusses the witness preparation and its risk of prejudice that leads to creation of false memories under the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Huddleston v. United States. It informs that the state courts have rejected the federal courts' approach to prior bad acts admissibility.

Reports the establishment of an Office of Scientific and Public Affairs by the American Statistical Association (ASA) for public visibility. Proposals for the office; List of activities for the Committee on Developing an ASA office; Formation of the proposed organization and staffing plans.

Changes in apparel and household textiles used by American consumers from 1921 to 1996 as they relate to significant events in the textile industry and in the broader society are reviewed and illustrated. Important events singled out for attention include major pieces of legislation regulating textiles; technological advances in the textile industry, the home, and the workplace; and national and international events such as the Depression and World War II. The effect on textile use of changes in social customs and mores are noted. Changes in fashion and in the fashion industry that have had a major impact on consumer textile use are highlighted. Lastly, factors that cause change in consumer use of textiles are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the evolution of United States' license plates design for automobiles. History of taxed registration tags; Plate decoration; Functions of license plates; Economic implication of using specialized and customized license tags.

Abstract: Agents that prevent cancer, delay its onset, or revert premalignant conditions could have dramatic beneficial impacts on human health. Although there is an urgent need to develop cancer chemopreventive agents, researchers in the field suspect that this area of scientific endeavour in Europe leads a Cinderella existence, both in terms of perception of importance and research funding. In order to review current activities in this prevention field and to seek a consensus position, an exploratory workshop was held in September 2005 at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, sponsored mainly by the European Science Foundation (ESF), and also supported by the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) and the German Cancer Society (DKG). The 35 experts from European countries and the United States of America assessed state-of-the-art cancer chemoprevention research in Europe. The aims that the workshop organizers had pre-defined were: i) assessment of the usefulness of animal models for agent identification; ii) review of ongoing preclinical and clinical work on novel agents; iii) discussion of potential biomarkers predictive for cancer preventive efficacy; and finally iv) the potential role that European pharmaceutical industries could play in furthering chemopreventive agent development. Overall the workshop aimed at raising awareness among European clinical and laboratory researchers of the importance of the development of novel, efficacious and safe cancer preventive agents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]