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Kobe, Japan is recovering rapidly from the January 1995 earthquake that killed 5,500 of its citizens and cost $147 billion in damages. A disaster recovery approach that prioritizes the renovation of Kobe's infrastructure and its commercial and transportation industries has the city on track to recover much business and by January, 1997. A more troublesome issue is the displacement of Kobe's citizens, most of whom had no earthquake insurance. An analysis of Japanese recovery planning techniques and discussion of earthquake insurance finances are included., On January 17, 1995, the Hyogo-ken Nambu earthquake shook Kobe, Japan, causing a tremendous loss of life and property, including extensive damage to the city's transportation and port infrastructure. The [...]

In your most recent editor's letter ('Oppenheimer's Ghost,' November/December 2007), you state, incorrectly, that Oppenheimer 'was chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.' He was never AEC chair. He was […]

Sir.—I recently reviewed the article by Naqvi et al,1 "Vancomycin Pharmacokinetics in Small, Seriously Ill Infants." In their analysis of serum vancomycin levels, the authors employed a one-compartment model using the equations of Sawchuk and Zaske.2 This technique of calculating the elimination rate constant, volume of distribution, and clearance will be in error when the drug exhibits multicompartment characteristics.3Vancomycin has been shown to follow a biexponential decline in serum concentrations following intravenous administration in both adults and children.4,5 Naqvi et al sampled peak vancomycin concentrations immediately following a 60-minute infusion. Based on data reported by Schaad et al,5 which indicated distribution half-lives in infants of 0.05 to 0.5 hours, a significant amount of vancomycin may be in the central compartment at the end of the infusion.5 At this time point, serum concentrations are rapidly falling in the central compartment due to both

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in the November/December 2007 issue including "The Blow-Up," "Oppenheimer's Ghost," and "The Talk of the Town: You."