There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a major public health problem. It is the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality in the United States, and is projected to rank fifth in 2020 in burden of disease worldwide, according to a study published by the World Bank/World Health Organization. Yet, COPD remains relatively unknown or ignored by the public as well as public health and government officials. In 1998, in an effort to bring more attention to COPD, its management, and its prevention, a committed group of scientists encouraged the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the World Health Organization to form the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Among the important objectives of GOLD are to increase awareness of COPD and to help the millions of people who suffer from this disease and die prematurely of it or its complications. The first step in the GOLD program was to prepare a consensus report, Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of COPD, published in 2001. The present, newly revised document follows the same format as the original consensus report, but has been updated to reflect the many publications on COPD that have appeared. GOLD national leaders, a network of international experts, have initiated investigations of the causes and prevalence of COPD in their countries, and developed innovative approaches for the dissemination and implementation of COPD management guidelines. We appreciate the enormous amount of work the GOLD national leaders have done on behalf of their patients with COPD. Despite the achievements in the 5 years since the GOLD report was originally published, considerable additional work is ahead of us if we are to control this major public health problem. The GOLD initiative will continue to bring COPD to the attention of governments, public health officials, health care workers, and the general public, but a concerted effort by all involved in health care will be necessary.

https://www.who.int/respiratory/copd/GOLD_WR_06.pdf

Global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: GOLD executive summary.

Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(12)61728-0.pdf

Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(12)61766-8.pdf

A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Coronary heart disease is a major health priority area in Australia. Cholesterol-lowering agents are generally considered to be cost effective for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. There is growing evidence, however, that the effectiveness of statins varies from one individual to another. The Taq1B polymorphism is an example of a genetic polymorphism that is thought to influence the effectiveness of statins. The aim of the current analysis is to estimate the cost–effectiveness of genetically screening coronary heart disease and stroke patients for the Taq1B polymorphism, and prescribing statin treatment to those with the B1B2 or B2B2 forms of the gene. A health sector perspective was adopted with a maximum acceptable cost–effectiveness ratio set at AUS$50,000/disability-adjusted life year. There is an 89% probability that screening and prescribing statins to those with the B1B2 and B2B2 alleles is more cost effective than prescribing statins to all patients. Modeling the cost–effectiveness of pharmacogenetics in major areas of medicine provides useful information to help in resource allocation and decision making. Economic evaluations similar to this one will be required in the future as the results of further clinical trials to establish the effectiveness of statins based on genotype become available.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of genetic screening for the Taq1B polymorphism in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.

Introduction and AimsThis study aimed to investigate whether there were changes from 2001 to 2010 in the characteristics of young adults who used party drugs or other illicit drugs and to determine if the prevalence of tobacco smoking differed depending on the type of drugs used.

/pdf/patterns-of-tobacco-smoking-among-illicit-drug-users-in-3v652odpc6.pdf

Patterns of tobacco smoking among illicit drug users in Australia 2001–2010

Okaneku and colleagues have shown that the proportion of Americans who perceived occasional and regular use of cannabis to be risky declined between 2002 and 2010 Younger people, males and those w

Wayne Hall

Papers

Cost-effectiveness analysis of genetic screening for the Taq1B polymorphism in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.

Patterns of tobacco smoking among illicit drug users in Australia 2001–2010

Possible causes and consequences of reduced perceptions of the risks of using cannabis.

Mental and behavioural disorders due to cannabis

Ambulance calls to suspected drug overdoses: Analysis of New South Wales patterns