Use of Censored Multiple Regression to Interpret Temporal Environmental Data and Assess Remedy Progress.

Many methods to evaluate temporal trends in monitoring data focus on univariate techniques that account for changes in the response variable (e.g., concentration) by means of a single variable, namely time.

Ignorance is not probability.

The distinction between ignorance about a parameter and knowing only a probability distribution for that parameter is of fundamental importance in risk assessment. Brief dialogs between a hypothetical decisionmaker and a risk assessor illustrate this point, showing that the distinction has real consequences. These dialogs are followed by a short exposition that places risk analysis in a decision-theoretic framework, describes the important elements of that framework, and uses these to shed light on Terje Aven's criticism of nonprobabilistic purely "objective" methods.

Does spatial accessibility of pharmacy services predict compliance with long-term control medications?

Background: Disadvantaged urban children with asthma are at high risk for undermanagement of their disease and poor compliance with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS).

Objective: To determine whether spatial accessibility (SA) of retail pharmacy services is associated with ICS compliance.

Methods: Caregivers of 137 urban high-morbidity asthmatic children attended a comprehensive intervention to improve asthma care and outcomes.

Symmetry, identifiability, and prediction uncertainties in multistage clonal expansion (MSCE) models of carcinogenesis.

Many models of exposure-related carcinogenesis, including traditional linearized multistage models and more recent two-stage clonal expansion (TSCE) models, belong to a family of models in which cells progress between successive stages-possibly undergoing proliferation at some stages-at rates that may depend (usually linearly) on biologically effective doses. Biologically effective doses, in turn, may depend nonlinearly on administered doses, due to PBPK nonlinearities. This article provides an exact mathematical analysis of the expected number of cells in the last ("malignant") stage of such a "multistage clonal expansion" (MSCE) model as a function of dose rate and age.

Practical advance in obtaining an emergency airway via cricothyroidotomy.

By the time a cricothyroidotomy is deemed necessary, the patient is in critical need of an emergency airway before anoxic damage ensues. Two things are necessary for the delivery of the requisite oxygen. First, an airway must be rapidly established.

Some limitations of qualitative risk rating systems.

Qualitative systems for rating animal antimicrobial risks using ordered categorical labels such as "high,""medium," and "low" can potentially simplify risk assessment input requirements used to inform risk management decisions. But do they improve decisions? This article compares the results of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment systems and establishes some theoretical limitations on the extent to which they are compatible. In general, qualitative risk rating systems satisfying conditions found in real-world rating systems and guidance documents and proposed as reasonable make two types of errors: (1) Reversed rankings, i.