Civilians under fire: evacuation behaviour in north Israel during the Second Lebanon War.

This paper seeks to understand evacuation behaviour in a case of spontaneous evacuation. During the Second Lebanon War of 2006, more than one-third of residents in north Israel spontaneously evacuated--the remainder stayed in situ. Using a telephone survey of 665 respondents residing in north Israel, we were able to characterise the behaviour of evacuees and non-evacuees.

Variability in pesticide deposition and source contributions to snowpack in Western U.S. national parks.

Fifty-six seasonal snowpack samples were collected at remote alpine, subarctic, and arctic sites in eight Western U.S. national parks during three consecutive years (2003-2005).

Lack of a discriminatory function for endoscopy skills on a computer-based simulator.

Background: Computer-based endoscopy simulators have been developed to enable trainees to learn and gain technical endoscopic skills before operating on patients. However, these simulators have not been validated as models of patient-based endoscopy. This study aimed to determine whether a computer-based simulator can accurately represent an actual esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy and to evaluate its ability to discriminate between varying levels of expertise in performing endoscopic procedures based on objective parameters.

Evidence for a novel blood RNA diagnostic for pediatric appendicitis: the riboleukogram.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that gene expression analysis of circulating white blood cells and/or plasma cytokines could be used to improve diagnostic accuracy in children being evaluated for appendicitis.

Methods: We recruited 28 children being evaluated for abdominal pain from a tertiary pediatric emergency department. Twenty patients were used as a training cohort and 8 patients as a validation cohort.

Search for muon-neutrino to electron-neutrino transitions in MINOS.

This Letter reports on a search for nu(mu) --> nu(e) transitions by the MINOS experiment based on a 3.14x10(20) protons-on-target exposure in the Fermilab NuMI beam. We observe 35 events in the Far Detector with a background of 27+/-5(stat)+/-2(syst) events predicted by the measurements in the Near Detector.

The effect of parity on cause-specific mortality among married men and women.

The objective of this study was to examine mortality differentials among men and women by parity for deaths from cardio-vascular disease (CVD), cancer and other causes. The census-based Israel Longitudinal Mortality Study II (1995-2004) was used to identify 71,733 married men and 62,822 married women (45-89 years). During the 9-year follow-up period, 19,347 deaths were reported.

Management of patients with traumatic intracranial injury in hospitals without neurosurgical service.

Background: Many patients with intracranial bleeding (ICB) are being evaluated in hospitals with no neurosurgical service. Some of the patients may be safely managed in the primary hospital without transferring them to a designated neurosurgical center. In Israel, there are three approaches to alert patients with ICB: mandatory transfer, remote telemedicine neurosurgical consultation, and clinical-radiologic guidelines.

Reducing the uncertainty in measurement and understanding of mercury in the atmosphere.

Elucidating the extent of mercury in the atmosphere requires deployment of robust and sensitive instruments.

Astrocyte-mediated hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor supplementation restores GABAergic interneurons and corrects reversal learning deficits in mice.

Many psychiatric and neurological disorders present persistent neuroanatomical abnormalities in multiple brain regions that may reflect a common origin for a developmental disturbance. In mammals, many of the local GABAergic inhibitory interneurons arise from a single subcortical source. Perturbations in the ontogeny of the GABAergic interneurons may be reflected in the adult by interneuron deficits in both frontal cerebral cortical and striatal regions.

Integrative analysis of the melanoma transcriptome.

Global studies of transcript structure and abundance in cancer cells enable the systematic discovery of aberrations that contribute to carcinogenesis, including gene fusions, alternative splice isoforms, and somatic mutations. We developed a systematic approach to characterize the spectrum of cancer-associated mRNA alterations through integration of transcriptomic and structural genomic data, and we applied this approach to generate new insights into melanoma biology. Using paired-end massively parallel sequencing of cDNA (RNA-seq) together with analyses of high-resolution chromosomal copy number data, we identified 11 novel melanoma gene fusions produced by underlying genomic rearrangements, as well as 12 novel readthrough transcripts.

Alcohol and driver fatalities in Israel: an examination of the current problem.

Background: The role of alcohol in driver fatalities in Israel is unknown, and monitoring blood alcohol concentration among drivers is not routine. Moreover, over the past decade, self-reported access to and consumption of alcohol in Israel has been on the rise.

Objectives: To use available data to characterize alcohol-related driver fatalities.

A scalable, fully automated process for construction of sequence-ready barcoded libraries for 454.

We present an automated, high throughput library construction process for 454 technology. Sample handling errors and cross-contamination are minimized via end-to-end barcoding of plasticware, along with molecular DNA barcoding of constructs. Automation-friendly magnetic bead-based size selection and cleanup steps have been devised, eliminating major bottlenecks and significant sources of error.

Increasing springtime ozone mixing ratios in the free troposphere over western North America.

In the lowermost layer of the atmosphere-the troposphere-ozone is an important source of the hydroxyl radical, an oxidant that breaks down most pollutants and some greenhouse gases. High concentrations of tropospheric ozone are toxic, however, and have a detrimental effect on human health and ecosystem productivity. Moreover, tropospheric ozone itself acts as an effective greenhouse gas.

Consensus report of the national cancer institute clinical trials planning meeting on pancreas cancer treatment.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality, despite significant improvements in diagnostic imaging and operative mortality rates. The 5-year survival rate remains less than 5% because of microscopic or gross metastatic disease at time of diagnosis. The Clinical Trials Planning Meeting in pancreatic cancer was convened by the National Cancer Institute's Gastrointestinal Cancer Steering Committee to discuss the integration of basic and clinical knowledge in the design of clinical trials in PDAC.

Development and first results of an aircraft-based, high time resolution technique for gaseous elemental and reactive (oxidized) gaseous mercury.

We developed a high time resolution (2.5 min) aircraft instrument for gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) and reactive gaseous mercury (RGM). The system measures RGM with complementary denuder and difference techniques, which can be compared to check for consistency.

Terror explosive injuries: a comparison of children, adolescents, and adults.

Objective: We sought to characterize injuries and outcomes from terror explosions with specific attention to children (0-10 years) and adolescents (11-15 years) compared to adults (16-45 years).

Summary Background Data: Terror explosions target vulnerable populations and result in multidimensional injuries that may vary according to age group. The relative dearth of information regarding terror-related injuries among children inhibits proper preparedness and optimum management during such an event.

ALLPATHS 2: small genomes assembled accurately and with high continuity from short paired reads.

We demonstrate that genome sequences approaching finished quality can be generated from short paired reads. Using 36 base (fragment) and 26 base (jumping) reads from five microbial genomes of varied GC composition and sizes up to 40 Mb, ALLPATHS2 generated assemblies with long, accurate contigs and scaffolds. Velvet and EULER-SR were less accurate.

Intercontinental impacts of ozone pollution on human mortality.

Ozone exposure is associated with negative health impacts, including premature mortality. Observations and modeling studies demonstrate that emissions from one continent influence ozone air quality over other continents. We estimate the premature mortalities avoided from surface ozone decreases obtained via combined 20% reductions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide, nonmethane volatile organic compound, and carbon monoxide emissions in North America (NA), EastAsia (EA), South Asia (SA), and Europe (EU).

Assisted assembly: how to improve a de novo genome assembly by using related species.

We describe a new assembly algorithm, where a genome assembly with low sequence coverage, either throughout the genome or locally, due to cloning bias, is considerably improved through an assisting process via a related genome. We show that the information provided by aligning the whole-genome shotgun reads of the target against a reference genome can be used to substantially improve the quality of the resulting assembly.

Impact of capsule endoscopy findings on patient outcomes.

Background And Aims: There is limited data on the impact of capsule endoscopy (CE) findings on patient outcomes. The aim of our study is to evaluate the impact of CE findings on further diagnostic work-up, treatment, and symptom resolution.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients who underwent CE at a single tertiary care center over a 3-year period was performed.

Final evaluation of the 2005 to 2007 National Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellows' Conferences.

Objective: Evaluate the effectiveness of the 2005 to 2007 National Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) Fellows Conference series in achieving predefined objectives in the domains of scholarship, leadership, and partnership.

Methods: Conference attendees included fellows in the existing PEM fellowship programs. Self-administered preconference and postconference questionnaires measured knowledge, research-related confidence, beliefs about institutional support for Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) research, and intentions to engage in 7 specific behaviors relating to scholarship, leadership, and partnership.

Developmental trajectories in siblings of children with autism: cognition and language from 4 months to 7 years.

We compared the cognitive and language development at 4, 14, 24, 36, 54 months, and 7 years of siblings of children with autism (SIBS-A) to that of siblings of children with typical development (SIBS-TD) using growth curve analyses. At 7 years, 40% of the SIBS-A, compared to 16% of SIBS-TD, were identified with cognitive, language and/or academic difficulties, identified using direct tests and/or parental reports. This sub-group was identified as SIBS-A-broad phenotype (BP).