[Basics for service in occupational medicine: strategy, structure, activities, resources].
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Seven structures from the genus Mytilus exist in the protein data bank (PDB) but > 1000 Mytilus protein sequences are known. Sequences (NCBI) were used as targets for on-line homology modeling with Geno3D as an alternative route to structure. Quality comparators include root mean square deviation (RMSD) of target from template, chain geometry and Ramachandran diagram analysis. We modeled 17 Mytilus structures for mainly stress-response proteins relevant to biomonitoring. These model files are available as a first step towards a structural resource for Mytilus. Analysis suggests that they are structurally plausible with low RMSDs relative to targets. Ramachandran analysis suggests a small percentage of disallowed dihedral angles (in the range 0-6.86% for 15 of 17 models).
This paper completes the 2004 national survey of Renal and Dialysis Units organised by the Italian Society of Nephrology (SIN), and presents data from the last three Italian Regions, Campania, Sicilia and Sardegna. The major purpose of this initiative was to obtain a benchmark reference on national and regional basis. Main findings in the 3 Regions, respectively: A) STRUCTURAL RESOURCES: Renal Units = 28, 30, 19; Private Dialysis Units = 126, 95, 4; total Renal and Dialysis Units 27, 26, 21 pmp (per million population); % of private facilities = 81, 74, 12%; hospitalization beds = 35, 40, 32 pmp; dialysis stations = 337, 356, 265 pmp. B) PERSONNEL RESOURCES: physicians = 88, 75, 67 pmp; dialysis nurses = 162, 136, 247 pmp; each physician treats 10, 12, 12 dialysis patients and each dialysis nurse treats 4.7, 4.0, 3.3 dialysis patients. C). ACTIVITY: hospitalizations = 1334, 1911, 1851 pmp; renal biopsies = 50, 66, 100 pmp. D). EPIDEMIOLOGY: prevalence of dialysis patients = 842, 915, 822 pmp; prevalence of transplanted patients = 269, 212, 327 pmp; incidence of dialysis patients = 187, 199, 150 pmp; gross mortality rate of dialysis patients = 12.9%, 12.1%, 12.5%; distribution of vascular accesses in prevalent dialysis patients: arteriovenous fistulas = 93%, 84%, 77%; central venous catheters = 6%, 12%, 15%,; vascular grafts = 1%, 3%, 8%. Compared to other Regions, Campania and Sicilia have an abnormal high rate of private Dialysis Units, resulting in difficulties in optimizing structural and economic resources. Furthermore, the independence of some of these structures from a Renal Unit interferes with an adequate treatment of dialysis patients.
A survey of 227 North York Public Health Department (NYPHD) staff provided their perspective on the organizational structure. They perceived that (a) the departmental and divisional organizational structures are effective for program delivery, (b) the Central Resources structure and divisional and departmental reporting structures are moderately effective for program delivery, (c) the decentralized office structure is an advantage for service delivery but less so for administration and intra-division and inter-division communication, (d) the mandatory program structure involves low to moderate interdisciplinary teamwork and moderately impacts service delivery, (e) intra-division and management-staff communication are fair but inter-division and office communication are between poor and fair, (f) education, research, and service are moderately integrated, and (g) the divisional and departmental work atmospheres are a little positive. Management perceived greater participation in program planning, more frequent communication with other divisions, a number of education and research opportunities from various divisions/units, and more management recognition than front line staff did.
A primary challenge for structural genomics is the automated functional characterization of protein structures. We have developed a sequence-independent method called S-BLEST (Structure-Based Local Environment Search Tool) for the annotation of previously uncharacterized protein structures. S-BLEST encodes the local environment of an amino acid as a vector of structural property values. It has been applied to all amino acids in a nonredundant database of protein structures to generate a searchable structural resource. Given a query amino acid from an experimentally determined or modeled structure, S-BLEST quickly identifies similar amino acid environments using a K-nearest neighbor search. In addition, the method gives an estimation of the statistical significance of each result. We validated S-BLEST on X-ray crystal structures from the ASTRAL 40 nonredundant dataset. We then applied it to 86 crystallographically determined proteins in the protein data bank (PDB) with unknown function and with no significant sequence neighbors in the PDB. S-BLEST was able to associate 20 proteins with at least one local structural neighbor and identify the amino acid environments that are most similar between those neighbors.
The evaluation of the cleaning and sanitation service involved the head nurses of 7 different wards and 7 health services. The completion of 368 forms allowed to have a clear picture of the performance of the cleaning service. Better results were obtained for the structure, resource and performance criteria than for the outcome criteria. In fact the structure and process criteria were fulfilled in the 75% of the observations whilst the outcome criteria for the ward room were fulfilled in 56% of the observations. The overall agreement between observed performance and adopted standard is satisfactory. The evaluation method identified and the forms used allowed an objective assessment assess the performance of the cleaning services and to the identification of areas for improvement.
To describe the dynamics of a resource-dependent age structured population, a general non-linear Leslie type model is derived. The dependence on the resources is introduced through the death rates of the reproductive age classes. The conditions assumed in the derivation of the model are regularity and plausible limiting behaviors of the functions in the model. It is shown that the model dynamics restricted to its omega-limit sets is a diffeomorphism of a compact set, and the period-1 fixed points of the model are structurally stable. The loss of stability of the non-zero steady state occurs by a discrete Hopf bifurcation. Under general conditions, and after the loss of stability of the structurally stable steady states, the time evolution of population numbers is periodic or quasi-periodic. Numerical analysis with prototype functions has been performed, and the conditions leading to chaotic behavior in time are discussed.
The validation, enrichment and organization of the data stored in PDB files is essential for those data to be used accurately and efficiently for modelling, experimental design and the determination of molecular interactions. The Iditis protein structure database has been designed to allow the widest possible range of queries to be performed across all available protein structures. The Iditis database is the most comprehensive protein structure resource currently available, and contains over 500 fields of information describing all publicly deposited protein structures. A custom-written database engine and graphical user interface provide a natural and simple environment for the construction of searches for complex sequence- and structure-based motifs. Extensions and specialized interfaces allow the data generated by the database to used in conjunction with a wide range of applications.
Functional autonomy is a core condition of successful ageing. To maximize autonomous functioning is not only a claim of social policy but also primarily an individual need. Part of the challenge of preventing unnecessary dependence in old age is to recognize the diversity among the elderly and the different availability of their physical, psychological and social resources. The aim of this study is to examine the age- and time-related changes in functional autonomy (activities of daily living, ADL, and instrumental activities of daily living, IADL) and the psychophysical resources correlated with these changes in a sample of 441 healthy elderly persons aged 65-95. Furthermore, we are interested in the long-term predictive power of physical resources (objective and subjective health, physical strength) and psychological resources (memory) on functional autonomy. Results show significant age- and time-related deteriorations in functional autonomy and in most psychophysical resources. Structural equation model analyses were performed to test the long-term predictive power of these resources. Results suggest that ADL is better predicted by physical resources than by psychological ones, but for IADL the reverse is the case; here memory variables play a dominant role. Physical and psychological variables are thus specifically related to different components of functional autonomy. This has to be taken into account in the development of preventive and intervention programmes.
These guidelines reveal a consence of the presidency of the "German Society for Trauma Surgery" (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie) concerning: structure of prehospital and hospital care for trauma patients, principles, structure, resources and organisation of prehospital trauma care, criteria qualifying a hospital for trauma care and reconstructive surgery, qualifications of trauma care personnel, structure and necessary for emergency rooms and intensive care units, documentation and quality evaluation in trauma patient care.
PURPOSE: A means for integrating subjective experience in the operationalization of community boundaries is described and examined, and a community typology incorporating both psychosocial and structural resources is developed and applied. DESIGN: Small-area sense of belonging was used to delineate broader community boundaries, which were compared with administrative boundaries. Community differences on participation and health were analyzed by using analysis of variance and post hoc tests. SETTING: Data were from face-to-face interviews with residents of a relatively disadvantaged area of a medium-sized Canadian city. SUBJECTS: A sample of 910 individuals was drawn from a population listing of those aged 35 to 65 years in the project area (44% response rate). MEASURES: Measures include sense of belonging; income; community participation; and mental, physical, and perceived health. RESULTS: Data revealed the similarity of community boundaries based on sense of belonging with administrative boundaries. The communities differed significantly in income, community activities attended, and two health measures. The typology indicated the community rich in both income and sense of belonging had higher participation and health than did communities low in both or with mixed resources. CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial indicators can be used to delineate community boundaries, which may be similar to administrative boundaries. A typology including both psychosocial and structural components can be a helpful preliminary step in interpreting area differences.
Developments in surgical technology and procedure have accelerated and altered the work carried out in the operating theatre/room, but team modelling and training have not co-evolved. Evidence suggests that team structure and role allocation are sometimes unclear and contentious, and coordination and communication are not fully effective. To improve teamwork, clinicians need models that specify team resources, structure, process and tasks. They also need measures to assess performance and methods to train teamwork strategically. An effective training strategy might be to incorporate teamwork with other technical skills training in simulation. However, the measures employed for enhancing teamwork in training and practice will need to vary in their object of analysis, level of technical specificity, and system scope.
Drawing on the family process literature, child health models, and recent studies of macro-level effects on health, we examine the effects of household structure, resources, care-giving, reproduction, and communication on child nutritional status and infant mortality. Using Demographic and Health Surveys, we analyze the influence of these factors across 42 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. We also consider country-level including nontraditional family structure, level of economic development and expenditures on health care. Our results underscore the importance of family resources, decision-making, and health and feeding practices on child well-being in less developed countries. Although there is cross-national variability, the size of the variability was small relative to the overall effect. The country-level measures had modest effects on infant mortality and child nutritional status.
We analyse the effect of harvesting in a resource dependent age structured population model, deriving the conditions for the existence of a stable steady state as a function of fertility coefficients, harvesting mortality and carrying capacity of the resources. Under the effect of proportional harvest, we give a sufficient condition for a population to extinguish, and we show that the magnitude of proportional harvest depends on the resources available to the population. We show that the harvesting yield can be periodic, quasi-periodic or chaotic, depending on the dynamics of the harvested population. For populations with large fertility numbers, small harvesting mortality leads to abrupt extinction, but larger harvesting mortality leads to controlled population numbers by avoiding over consumption of resources. Harvesting can be a strategy in order to stabilise periodic or quasi-periodic oscillations in the number of individuals of a population.
This is a qualitative study, which aims at analyzing the organization of Epidemiological Vigilance (EV) in the local health system of Feira de Santana-BA, from 1997 to 2001 > in this study the following aspects were considered: organizational structure, resources available (human and material ones), planning, execution, intra and interinstitutional and intersectional articulations, considering the insertion of the city in the "Basic assistance Program". The collection of data was carried out in 3 stages: documental analysis, semi-structured interviews and direct observation with the VE. team. Results revealed that there are frequent changes in the management positions of VE. The structure, centralized in the SMS, prioritizes programmatic actions which are not articulated to the network of services offered. Advances can be noticed in the infrastructure, despite the lack of equipment and the deficiency in the qualification the human resources. The transformation of the model of health assistance is possible if health professionals, managers and users have political interest in changing it the practices in health services.
Whether it is called a nursing lab, clinical resource center, or something else, the need to have a place where students can observe and practice clinical skills before entering the actual clinical setting is critical. Surprisingly, nothing could be found in the literature that describes the physical structure, resources, budget, or administration of these centers. To better understand the "state of the art" of clinical resource centers in schools and colleges in the United States, a national survey was developed and administered. The findings are useful for evaluation and planning purposes by clinical resource center directors and nursing program administrators.
CONTEXT: By 2030, 20% of the US population will be older than 65 years compared with 12.4% in 2000. The development of geriatric medicine research and training programs to prepare for this increasing number of older individuals is largely dependent on the successful establishment of academic geriatric medicine programs in medical schools. OBJECTIVE: To assess the structure, resources, and activities of academic geriatric medicine programs in US allopathic and osteopathic schools of medicine. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Survey distributed to the academic geriatric medicine leaders of the 144 US allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in March 2001. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Organizational structure, program information, curriculum, budgetary issues, and characteristics of academic geriatric medicine leaders. RESULTS: A total of 121 program directors (84%) responded. Most schools (87%) had an identifiable academic geriatric program structure, with 67% established after 1984. The greatest proportion of faculty and staff time (40%) was spent in clinical practice, followed by research and scholarship (12%), residency and fellowship education (10% each), and medical student education (7.8%). Clinical practice accounted for the greatest portion (27%) of revenue, and 25.7% of the programs had total annual budgets of less than $250,000, while 11% had budgets of greater than $5 million. The largest obstacles to achieving the goals of an academic geriatric medicine program were a lack of research faculty and fellows and poor clinical reimbursement. CONCLUSIONS: Most US medical schools have an identifiable academic geriatric medicine program; most have been established within the last 15 years. Resources are needed to train faculty for roles as teachers and researchers and to develop medical school geriatric programs of the size and scope equivalent to other academic disciplines.