Measuring the profitability of a hospital pulmonary function laboratory: a case study.

The primary purpose of this article is to evaluate a proposal for a regional hospital to create a second Pulmonary Function Test laboratory (PFT lab) for outpatients. We separated the PFT lab from its departmental budget, thereby allowing a unique determination of the lab's profitability. The lab's separate financial analysis helped us to gain an understanding of the revenues and expenses of the PFT lab, providing information needed to comment on the proposed second lab. Additionally, we recommend a means for maintaining separate control over the PFT lab's revenues and costs and ascertain the efficacy of instituting a separate budget for the PFT lab.

A facile and patternable method for the surface modification of carbon nanotube forests using perfluoroarylazides.

A facile patterning method for the functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes is described. Modification of the surface of nanotube forests with hydrophilic, hydrophobic, or polymerizable small molecules was achieved via UV-triggered attachment of perfluoroarylazides. Multiple functionalizations of the tube surface can be achieved. Macro- and micropatterning of forest substrates were demonstrated. Superhydrophobic surfaces containing superhydrophilic regions were prepared.

Observation of excitons in one-dimensional metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Excitons are generally believed not to exist in metals because of strong screening by free carriers. Here we demonstrate that excitonic states can in fact be produced in metallic systems of a one-dimensional character. Using metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes as a model system, we show both experimentally and theoretically that electron-hole pairs form tightly bound excitons. The exciton binding energy of 50 meV, deduced from optical absorption spectra of individual metallic nanotubes, significantly exceeds that of excitons in most bulk semiconductors and agrees well with ab initio theoretical predictions.

The natural history of prostate cancer.

Predicting the long-term outcome of patients who choose watchful waiting as initial therapy for prostate cancer is difficult. The wide variation in disease progression, the impact of competing medical hazards, and the potential impact of early hormonal therapy that is characteristic of contemporary patients all conspire to compromise survival estimates dating from the pre-PSA era. The survival analysis figure developed by Albertsen et al (Fig. 1) estimates a 15-year survival rate based on patient age and Gleason score at diagnosis from patients diagnosed in the pre-PSA era. Although no effort was made to adjustfor competing medical hazards, patients and clinicians can adjust a patient's chronological age to match his "physiological" age. The advent of widespread PSA testing appears to have advanced the date of diagnosis by approximately 5 years and the onset of secondary treatment by at least as many years. Therefore, the figure describing the natural history of prostate cancer most likely underestimates rather than overestimates survival among men with newly diagnosed, localized prostate cancer who select watchful waiting as their treatment choice. As contemporary databases of men with localized prostate cancer mature, more data on the natural history of this disease will become available. Only time will tell how the use of PSA has altered the precision of historic case-series data.