Tympanic Versus Rectal Thermometry in Pregnant Women

To assess the accuracy of the tympanic membrane thermometer for use with pregnant women. Design : Cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting : A major medical center in the midwestern United States. Participants : Thirty-three hospitalized, afebrile pregnant women. Main outcome measures : Tympanic membrane thermometers and glass mercury thermometers were used to measure body temperature at the ear and rectum, respectively. The results were compared using two statistical methods: the Pearson correlation coefficient and a new technique suggested by Bland and Altman (1986). Results : Auditory canal temperature measured by a tympanic membrane thermometer correlated with rectal temperature as measured by a glass mercury thermometer ( r = 0.38, p = 0.01). Thus, the tympanic membrane thermometer is acceptable for monitoring the body temperature of pregnant women. However, the device's estimation of rectal temperature is not clinically reliable. Conclusions : Tympanic membrane thermometers, when applied with direct measures, are acceptable for use with pregnant women. It is not recommended that the rectal estimate mode be used with pregnant women.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72991/1/j.1552-6909.1995.tb02556.x.pd

Crimes against Humanity in the 21st Century

In Crimes Against Humanity in the 21st Century, Dr Robert Dubler SC and Matthew Kalyk provide a comprehensive analysis of crimes against humanity in international criminal law. The text tracks the crime from its conceptual origins in antiquity, to its emergence in customary international law at Nuremberg, to the establishment of the ?modern definition? at the Hague with the ICTY, ICTR and ICC, and finally to recent state practice and jurisprudence. The text sets out conclusions about the legal elements of the crime and contends that the raison d'être of the crime is located not in the inhumanity of its authors? actions but in the extent to which its authors threaten international peace and security so as to justify international intervention. With a foreword by Geoffrey Robertson QC

Accuracy of prehospital diagnosis and triage of a Swiss helicopter emergency medical service

Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMSs) have become a standard element of modern prehospital emergency medicine. This study determines the percentage of injured HEMS patients whose injuries were correctly recognized by HEMS physicians

Contractual Freedom and Family Business

This chapter argues for a conception of contractual freedom that places renewed emphasis on the importance of default rules and background equitable principles as tools for facilitating the parties’ business relationship. In other words, contractarianism should not be seen as synonymous with contract; a meaningful freedom of contract is broader and more complex than the proverbial blank sheet of paper on which to draft and a deferential court willing to enforce the results, however nonsensical. Declaring contract king does not establish that it is actually capable of governing its realm. Rather, to facilitate the underlying contractual values of personal autonomy and welfare maximization, it may be better to guide the parties’ relationship with well-crafted default rules and reasonable equitable constraints. In a family business, for instance, a contractarian framework is typically insufficient to support the expectations of family participants. As is true of any closely held business, contracts in family businesses establish relationships rather than the terms of specific, bargained-for exchanges, and the parties cannot be expected to anticipate and adequately address all eventualities that may occur over time. For family businesses, relational aspects are particularly significant: the time horizon stretches across generations, objectives often include more than simple profit maximization, and business dealings involve emotional consequences for the participants that also need to be acknowledged. Instead of adhering to a false assumption that the parties to a business venture are capable of negotiating adequate protections for themselves and likely to do so, contract law should offer a resource — a set of principles that credit the parties’ negotiated bargain in full context but that also compensate for what they cannot anticipate or adequately address