Time trends in survival and readmission following coronary artery bypass grafting in Scotland, 1981-96: retrospective observational study

Improvements in coronary revascularisation techniques and an increase in the use of percutaneous interventions1 have led to a rise in the number of coronary artery bypass grafting operations in older patients with more severe cardiac disease and worse comorbidity and who have previously undergone revascularisation procedures. 2 3 Advances in surgical and anaesthetic techniques have prevented a worsening risk profile from being translated into an increase in perioperative deaths. 2 3 The aim of our study was to examine time trends in major outcomes up to two years after coronary artery bypass grafting

Death in the sun: the bioarchaeology of an early post-medieval hospital in Gibraltar

In 2014, during construction work at the ex-Civil Hospital in Gibraltar, excavations led by the Gibraltar Museum revealed a major, previously unknown burial ground containing more than 200 skeletons. We present the historical, archaeological and radiometric dating evidence from the site alongside the results of initial osteological analyses. The data indicate that the burials pertain to an earlier 16th-century Spanish hospice, and therefore stand to offer new insights into the functioning of this early modern hospital and the health and movements of people at a time of incipient globalization

Chromagenic filter design

ABSTRACT A chromagenic camera captures a pair of RGB images of a scene. Both images are captured as in a conventional digital imaging device but one of the pair is optically pre-filtered using a socalled chromagenic filter. It has been shown that the information in such a pair of images makes it easier to solve certain problems in colour vision. For example it can help to solve the illuminant estimation problem, provided that the chromagenic filter used when capturing the image pair is chosen carefully. In this paper we investigate two schemes for deriving the "optimal" filter for a chromagenic device in the context of the illuminant estimation problem and we show that the choice of filter does indeed have a significant effect on algorithm performance

Furrow application of insecticide as a method of controlling wireworms in potato land

Three methods of applying insecticides for the control of the wireworm, <i>Agriotes obscurus</i> L.. were tested using fonofos and terbufos. Most treatments gave significantly more marketable tubers than the control. The furrow treatment gave more consistent results than broadcast or side-dress and, at 1.1 or 2.2 kg a.i/ha, gave control equal to, or better than, the broadcast treatment at 5.6 kg a.i./ha. Analyses by gas chromatography using a flame photometric detector for residues in potatoes grown in treated soil showed residues to be less than 0.02 ppm

Constituting monetary conservatives via the 'savings habit': New Labour and the British housing market bubble

The ongoing world credit crunch might well kill off the most recent bubble dynamics in the British housing market by driving prices systematically downwards from their 2007 peak. Nonetheless, the experience of that bubble still warrants analytical attention. The Labour Government might not have been responsible for consciously creating it, but it has certainly grasped the opportunities the bubble has provided in an attempt to enforce a process of agential change at the heart of the British economy. The key issue in this respect is the way in which the Government has challenged the legitimacy of passive welfare receipts in favour of establishing a welfare system based on incorporating the individual into an active asset-holding society. The housing market has taken on new political significance as a means for individuals first to acquire assets and then to accumulate wealth on the back of asset ownership. The ensuing integration of the housing market into an increasingly reconfigured welfare system has permeated into the politics of everyday life. It has been consistent with individuals remaking their political subjectivities in line with preferences for the type of conservative monetary policies that typically keep house price bubbles inflated

Controlling the European wireworm, Agriotes obscurus L., in corn in British Columbia

Six insecticides at various rates and formulations, applied by three methods over three seasons, were evaluated for controlling the European wireworm. Agriotes obscurus L. in corn planted in silt loam. The insecticides were in granular form, applied as a broadcast, in a band, or in the seed furrow. Most of the materials, rates and methods gave good protection. Insecticide applied in the furrow was placed either in contact with the seed, or just ahead of it and mixed with soil. When it was in contact with the seed the yield was slightly lower, indicating some phytotoxicity. The furrow methods were the most economical in material and labour

Efficacy of insecticides against tuber flea beetles, wireworms and aphids in potatoes

Soil-incorporated and foliar-applied insecticides, alone and in combination, were tested in silt loam to control tuber flea beetle, Epitrix tuberis Gent., the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulz.) and the wireworm Agriotes obscurus (L.) Most soil-incorporated band treatments did not give adequate protection from tuber flea beetles. However, supplemental foliar applications, July 15 and 30 and August 15, reduced the percentage unmarketable tubers to 13% under a heavy infestation in 1977 and to 0% in a lighter infestation in 1978. Fonofos, broadcast and soil-incorporated, gave the best control of wireworms and of a light infestation of tuber flea beetles. Methamidophos was the best aphicid