Disparities in occupational health services: an international comparative study.

Background: Occupational Health Services (OHS) are comprehensive, multidisciplinary services supplied by various trained workers, including occupational physicians (OP), whose specialty is focused on workers' health.

Aims: Our study questions are whether the OP/worker ratio may reflect the scope and availability of OHS.

Methods: This comparative study, conducted on globally different OHS, was based on literature analysis of peer-reviewed articles published in journals covering topics of occupational medicine and public health that addressed parameters on the type and scope of OHS provision.

Outcomes of Congenital Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction Surgery Converted into Balloon Dilation and Silicone Intubation due to Probing Difficulty.

Background: To report the outcomes of balloon catheter dilatation and silicone intubation as a sequential secondary surgery under the same anesthesia, a stepwise approach for congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO) when probing and irrigation as primary procedure fails.

Methods: A retrospective study included children with NLDO who underwent probing and irrigation only, and those who underwent in the same surgery under anesthesia, adjunct balloon catheter dilation and silicone intubation due to difficulty of the probe passage or fluid regurgitation from the punctum. The primary outcome was surgical success defined as resolution of preoperative symptoms and signs at 1 month.

Correcting for spatial-resolution degradation mechanisms in OFDR via inline auxiliary points.

The spatial resolution of OFDR is normally degraded by the laser phase noise, deviations from linear frequency scan and acoustic noise in the fibers. A method for mitigating these degradation mechanisms, without using an auxiliary interferometer, via inline auxiliary points, is presented and demonstrated experimentally. Auxiliary points are points that are a priori known to have (spatial) impulse reflectivities.