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R Rae

Publications and source records attributed to R Rae.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Evaluation and further development of EASE model 2.0.

EASE (Estimation and Assessment of Substance Exposure) is a general model that may be used to predict workplace exposure to a wide range of substances hazardous to health. First developed in the early 1990s, it is now in its second Windows version. This paper provides a critical assessment of the utility and performance of the EASE model, and on the basis of this review, recommendations for the structure of a revised model are outlined. Twenty-seven stakeholders were interviewed about their previous use of EASE, perceived advantages and limitations of the model and suggestions for improvement. A subset of stakeholders was contacted on a second occasion to determine their views on the preferred outputs for an ideal exposure assessment model. Overall, stakeholders felt that the model should be updated to provide more accurate and precise exposure assessments. However, users also expressed the view that the simplicity and usability of the software model should not be compromised. Six studies investigating the validity of the inhalation exposure assessment section of EASE were identified. These showed that the model generally either predicted close to the measured exposures or overestimated exposure; though performance was highly variable. Two studies investigated the validity of the dermal exposure assessment and found that EASE produced considerable overestimates of actual dermal exposure (the amount of a substance that actually lands on the skin). A conceptual model of exposure was developed to investigate whether the structure of the EASE model is appropriate. Although EASE has a number of characteristics that describe exposure, it is a greatly simplified model and does not include all the important exposure determinants. More importantly, EASE can produce estimates of exposure that are ambiguous or incomplete. Our conceptual model may provide a rational basis for developing an improved version of EASE but further consultation is needed to decide the purpose and intended use of any successor to EASE.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMed1994

Chlamydial serologic studies and recurrent spontaneous abortion.

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to investigate the putative association between immunoglobulin G antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis and recurrent spontaneous abortions. STUDY DESIGN: Sera from 106 idiopathic recurrent aborters and 81 of their partners were tested for immunoglobulin G antichlamydial antibodies by whole inclusion immunofluorescence and compared with 3890 sera from a general antenatal population. Positive sera were further investigated by microimmunofluorescence to determine species (Chlamydia trachomatis, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Chlamydia psittaci) specificity. RESULTS: Twenty-six (24.5%) of women with recurrent spontaneous abortions had immunoglobulin G antichlamydial antibodies compared with 28 (34.6%) of their partners (chi 2 2.25, p < 0.05) and 788 (20.3%) of the general antenatal population (chi 2 1.16, p < 0.05), and the incidence of antibody positivity showed no trend with increasing number of previous abortions. Fourteen women with recurrent spontaneous abortions had antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis, 12 to Chlamydia pneumoniae. The prevalence of antibodies to C. trachomatis did not differ significantly between women with recurrent spontaneous abortions and their partners, but the male partners had a significantly (p = 0.005) higher prevalence of Chlamydia pneumoniae antibodies. Chlamydial antibody seropositivity did not correlate with subfertility or subsequent pregnancy outcome. CONCLUSION: There is no association between immunoglobulin G antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis and recurrent spontaneous abortion.

Abortion, Habitual↗
PubMed1992

Evaluation of the Pro-Lab ID ring system for the identification of medically important yeasts.

We evaluated 151 coded isolates of medically important yeast species belonging to the genera Candida, Cryptococcus, Geotrichum, Rhodoturula, Saccharomyces and Torulopsis using the newly developed rapid Pro-Lab Identification Ring, PL 960 system (PLID-Ring). All isolates were concurrently identified by the API 20C and conventional procedures comprising macro- and micromorphology, assimilation and fermentation of various carbon and nitrogen compounds. The PLID-Ring system identified isolates of Candida albicans, C. kefyr, C. krusei, C. lusitaniae, C. parapsilosis, Rhodotorula rubra, and Torulopsis glabrata with 100% accuracy in 24 h. This system identified C guilliermondii and S. cerevisiae isolates with an accuracy of 90% and 86%, respectively, while those belonging to Cr. neoformans, T. candida (= C. famata), C. rugosa and C. tropicalis were identified with 38.4%, 50%, 12.5% and 50% accuracy, respectively. Three isolates of Cr. laurentii were not identified by the PLID-Ring system. The overall accuracy of the PLID-Ring system was 81.45% (123 of 151 isolates). However, the system does not include species such as Cr. laurentii in its data base. When these three Cr. laurentii isolates were excluded from the evaluation, the accuracy of the PLID-Ring system increased from 81.45% to 83.1%.

Candida↗