Paraffin and other fuels as sources of indoor air pollution in a poor urban settlement in Cape Town, South Africa

R S Bailie, L S Pilotto, R I Ehrlich, S Mbuli, R Truter, P Terblanch

Unsupervised detection of fibrosis in microscopy images using fractals and fuzzy c-means clustering

The advances in improved fluorescent probes and better cameras in collaboration with the advent of computers in imaging and image analysis, assist the task of diagnosis in many fields of biologic and medical research. In this paper, we introduce a computer-assisted image characterization tool based on a Fuzzy clustering method for the quantification of degree of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) in medical images. The implementation of this algorithmic strategy is very promising concerning the issue of the automated assessment of microscopic images of lung fibrotic regions. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

Passive smoking at work: the short-term cost

STUDY OBJECTIVE—To estimate the impact of passive smoking at work on use of health care services and absenteeism.
DESIGN—Cross sectional survey.
SETTING—A workforce in Hong Kong.
PARTICIPANTS—5142 never-smoking police officers in a total sample of 9926.
MAIN RESULTS—A consistently strong association was found among men between length of time exposed to passive smoking at work and self reported consultations with a doctor, use of medicines and time off work. Results for women were similar but most were not statistically significant.
CONCLUSIONS—The exposure of healthy adults to passive smoking at work is related to utilisation of health care services and extra time off work. This results in costs to the health services, to employers and to those exposed.


Keywords: passive smoking; absenteeis