Effect of air leak on the performance of auto-PAP devices: a bench study.

Automatic positive airway pressure (auto-PAP) devices, used in the treatment of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), may not function optimally in the presence of an air leak. We set out to determine the magnitude of air leak that prevents auto-PAP devices from responding to respiratory events of OSA in a bench model. We simulated apnea, flow limitation, obstructive hypopnea, nonobstructive hypopnea, and snoring events of OSA with an artificial airway and a loudspeaker in a bench model connected to a commercially available auto-PAP device.

The association between occupational lead exposure and serum cholesterol and lipoprotein levels.

Objectives: This study sought to clarify the possible associations between blood lead level and serum cholesterol and lipoprotein levels in subjects occupationally exposed to lead.

Methods: Levels of blood lead, serum total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides in 56 male industrial employees who were exposed to lead were compared with those in 87 unexposed employees.

Results: Mean blood lead levels were 42.

Joint custody: research, theory, and policy.

A majority of states have now enacted legislation addressing the issue of joint custody of children after divorce. This article examines current research on the subject, explores its implications for family theory, and attempts to draw some empirically based conclusions regarding policy. The literature would seem to support a structuralist view of the family and to undermine normative theories of the family life cycle.