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At least 811 records · Page 45Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Iterative least-squares fitting programs in pharmacokinetics for a programmable handheld calculator.

Programs that perform a nonlinear least-squares fit to data conforming to one-compartment oral or two-compartment intravenous pharmacokinetic models are described. The programs are designed for use on a Hewlett-Packard HP-41 CV programmable calculator equipped with an extended-functions module and one or two extended-memory modules. Initial estimates of variables in the model are calculated by the method of residuals and then iteratively improved by the use of the Gauss-Newton algorithm as modified by Hartley. This modification minimizes convergence problems. The iterative-fitting procedure includes a routine for estimation of lag time for the one-compartment oral model. Clinical applications of the programs are illustrated using previously published data. Programming steps and user instructions are listed. The programs provide an efficient and inexpensive method of estimating pharmacokinetic variables.

Absorption↗
PubMed1981

Epidemiology of occupational noise-induced hearing loss in Poland throughout 1971--1979.

In Poland a uniform system for registering occupational diseases is mandatory. Special individual statistical cards of diagnosed cases are delivered from all over the country to the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Lodź, where the incidence of diseases is analysed using electronic data processing system; such procedure is aimed, among others, at specification of prophylactic needs. Due to this, epidemiological studies could be carried out of the prevalence of occupational noise -- induced hearing loss in the total national economy throughout 1971--1979. Of the 35 mln Polish population, approx. 5 mln. 240 thous. persons are employed in industry, in this about 600 000 workers exposed to noise levels posing a risk of the hearing impairment of (Leq greater than or equal to 90 dB-A). It was found that occupational noise -- induced hearing loss was most frequent among all occupational diseases and its incidence rate exceeded 16 new cases annually per 100 000 employees. The highest incidence rate concerned transport means industry, coal mining and textile industry. The data analysis, by age and exposure duration, showed that the disease mostly affects those aged 40 -- 49 and 50 -- 59, as well as those exposed to excessive noise levels for over 20 years. In addition, the distribution of occupational noise -- induced hearing loss in specific areas throughout the country, considering the degree of industrialization, was analysed. The highest incidence rate was found in the Southern and Western areas of Poland. The above information seems to be essential for setting up more efficient hearing conservation program in industry.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Opinion--genome testing and quality assurance.

Recent discoveries and innovations in DNA technology have provided scientists with the ability to rapidly identify complex organisms, or samples therefrom, by detailed study of their genes and genome. In various disciplines, most notably in human forensic identifications, parentage tests and disease diagnosis, these activities have moved to commercial practice. However the rigour of quality assurance in these and other areas has not, in general, kept pace with technological innovation in molecular diagnostics. Insufficient resources are given to objective and ongoing evaluation of the quality of molecular diagnostic services, yet sustained quality is the key to long term credibility of the industry. The rapidly expanding commercial prospects for this technology must be accompanied by a planned commitment of resources to cost efficient quality assurance programs which include both declared and undeclared trials.

Biotechnology↗
PubMed1994

[Seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus markers in pregnant women attending a public hospital in Navarra].

OBJECTIVE: To design efficient massive immunization programs for newborns it is essential to know the prevalence of HBV infection in pregnant women. As a contribution to this knowledge the prevalence of HBV markers was studied in pregnant women attended at a public hospital in Navarra. An assessment was also made of the relationship between prevalence of HBV markers and other epidemiological factors. METHODS: The gestational history was reviewed of 2,499 pregnant women aged 14-45 years attended at the hospital during 1991. The following factors were investigated: age, profession, job, and educational level of the woman and her partner, residence, Health Area, risk factors and serological markers (HbsAG, anti-HBs, anti-HBc, and, when appropriate, HBeAg/anti-Hbe. RESULTS: The screening rate of HBsAg in the group of pregnant women was 70%; the prevalence of positive HbsAg was 0.70%. The respective prevalence rates of anti-HBs, anti-HBc, and AMP were 6%, 7.5% and 8.6%. The type of residence, social class and risk exposure had influence on the prevalence of positive markers. CONCLUSIONS: The 70% of screening rate in the group of pregnant women is still far from reaching the goal of 95% intended in the Plan de Salud Infantil in Navarra for 1993. A prevalence of 0.70 for positive HBsAg was observed. No geographical differences were observed in the distribution of HBV markers, but its prevalence was influenced by the type of residence, social class and risk exposure. A discussion follows whether a massive immunization program form newborns in Navarra is warranted.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

How to help diabetic patients avoid amputation. Prevention and management of foot ulcers.

Foot ulcers are a weighty complication of diabetes whose significance is often underestimated. They are associated with a high degree of morbidity and mortality, and treatment is laborious and costly. The problem of susceptibility to foot ulceration is best addressed through a prevention program emphasizing patient education, pedal hygiene, regular follow-up visits, and lifestyle modification. Such programs are most efficiently administered by a healthcare team. When ulcers do occur, it is important to take a systematic approach to management, stressing infection control, metabolic stabilization, thorough debridement, and meticulous wound care.

Amputation, Surgical↗
PubMed1994

[The battle against smoking in different population groups].

The article describes the measures against smoking in the former USSR. The authors stress an actual upgrade of antitobacco propaganda in many cities. Besides lectures and discussions different modern forms and methods of medical and educational influence are engaged: exhibition of children drawings on this theme, non-smoking days, antitobacco weeks, etc. A questioning of 5087 citizens of Moscow was carried out in order to study the spreading of smoking among the population. For example the number of smoking pupils of the 9-10th form is 22.7% among schoolboys, and 12.0% among schoolgirls. As for adult population: 64.5% of men and 21.6 of woman are smokers. The data which were obtained could be used for studying the efficiency of state program on prophylaxis and struggle against smoking.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

A comparison of patient teaching outcomes among postoperative coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients.

Shortened hospitalizations following cardiac surgery necessitate re-evaluation of how pertinent information for self-care management and reduction of coronary artery disease risk factors can be incorporated into an effective inpatient cardiac patient teaching program. This study investigated the effect of three different teaching approaches (i.e., an inpatient teaching program, a postdischarge telephone follow-up program, and a postdischarge group teaching program) among 90 patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Teaching outcomes were evaluated in this study by use of the Heart Disease Management Questionnaire and Cardiac Surgical Patient Teaching Satisfaction Inventory. Analyses of the data revealed similar patient teaching outcomes regardless of the type of teaching intervention the participant received. Findings supported the effectiveness of the inpatient teaching protocol which focused on "survival skills" for self-care management postdischarge. The findings are important in the redesign of teaching programs which are efficient yet meaningful to the patient within today's health care environment. Additional findings indicated that patients who had longer lengths of stay and those with more vessels bypassed were the least satisfied with their teaching. Further implications for nurses involved in patient teaching are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Teaching cancer pain management: durability of educational effects of a role model program.

BACKGROUND: Inadequate management of cancer related pain has resulted primarily from attitudinal barriers and a lack of knowledge about clinical assessment, the administration of analgesics, and therapeutic interventions. METHODS: Fifty health-care providers (13 physicians, 21 nurses, and 16 pharmacists), working as a team, participated in a Role Model Program that presented principles of cancer pain management. A questionnaire that evaluated the fund of knowledge and attitudes regarding cancer pain management was administered prior to the 1-day workshop, at the end of the workshop, and at 4 and 12 months follow-up. The workshop consisted of lectures and discussion groups; in the discussion groups, concepts were clarified, cases presented, and barriers to optimal cancer pain management identified. RESULTS: Significant improvements in attitudes (P < 0.01), knowledge (P < 0.01), and total scores (P < 0.002) were observed when the preworkshop responses were compared with those obtained immediately after instruction. Scores on the questionnaire were the same or slightly better at both 4 and 12 months in follow-up, demonstrating no loss in acquired knowledge or attitude. Comparison of the postworkshop scores with those at 12 months follow-up were significantly better in attitude (P < 0.03), and in total score (P < 0.01); improvements in knowledge also approached significance (p < 0.06). These represented continuing improvements because significant differences in the attitude scores (P < 0.05) and the total score (P < 0.05) were observed when the 4-month and 12-month follow-up responses were evaluated. The effectiveness of the program in the transference of knowledge was also measured; in the first year of the program, more than 4500 health-care professionals were subsequently informed about cancer pain management from the Role Model Participants. CONCLUSIONS: Significant improvements were observed immediately in both attitude and knowledge of cancer pain management principles after the 1-day Role Model Workshop. These improvements continued, as determined at 4 and 12 months follow-up. The Role Model Participants were highly motivated to share the learned principles of cancer pain management with other health-care professionals. These results are consistent with other Role Model Programs that both instruct and involve the participants. The Role Model Program is an efficient and effective means of educating health-care professionals in the concepts of cancer pain management.

Analgesia↗
PubMed1996

P53 and induction of apoptosis as a target for anticancer therapy.

p53 is the most frequently mutated gone in human cancer cells. Its wild-type gone encodes for a protein with pivotal functions: (i) interaction with key players in the cell cycle leading to cell cycle arrest; (ii) induction of programmed call death, or apoptosis. P53 may be seen as another member of the family of proteins involved in resistance to anticancer therapy, since mutations/deletions involving the p53 gene lead frequently to resistance of radiation/cytotoxic drug treatment. Consequently, patients with p53-mutated tumors may harbor a worse prognosis. On the other hand, reintroducing wild-type P53 may lead to an adequate function of the cellular cell cycle and/or apoptosis program, thus enabling efficient anti-cancer therapy even in the presence of mutated P53. Two options are being discussed: (i) gene therapy approaches; (ii) modulating mutated P53 with yet unknown molecules.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Head nurse to nurse manager. Easing the transition.

At a large, teaching healthcare facility, a nursing leadership task force designed an expanded role for head nurses, broadening their organizational responsibilities to enhance the quality of care, quality of work life, and operations. Acknowledging the limited educational background in management skills, the nurses needed additional instruction to perform competently and efficiently. An educational program was developed to facilitate the transition from head nurse to nurse manager.

Career Mobility↗
PubMed1995

Technical report. Optimizing probe selection in directed heteroduplex analysis using HDprobe 1.1.

Directed heteroduplex analysis (DHDA) has proven to be a powerful technique for rapid geotyping in human populations. This strategy should also have widespread utility in differentiating closely related organisms of medical and public health importance through identification of DNA sequence polymorphisms. Identifying an optimal probe sequence for use in DHDA has required empirical testing of both the positive and negative strands of a number of potential probes. To identify optimal probes more efficiently, a computer program has been developed that predicts the number of potential stable and unstable mismatches between a probe and its target sequences in DHDA. This information can then be used to predict--from among a group of potential probes--which one will be the most successful in differentiating closely related homologues of a targeted gene sequence. This approach was tested on a number of probe and target sequences derived from the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 gene of the West African black fly, Simulium damnosum sensu lato. The number of unstable mismatches predicted to occur in a given heteroduplex by the computer program was found to be important in differentiating closely related species. Therefore, this strategy is useful in identifying informative probes in the development of new DHDA-based assays.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

A library of efficient bioinformatics algorithms.

In this paper we review some of the existing projects available in the bioinformatics field for facilitating the development of programs, but for which minimising the running time is not of primary importance. We point out the advantages of open source libraries for such tasks and we discuss some of the open source licenses available. Finally, we present the project ALiBio, which is aimed at facilitating the development of efficient programs in bioinformatics.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1992

A Health Belief Model-Social Learning Theory approach to adolescents' fertility control: findings from a controlled field trial.

We evaluated an 8- to 12-hour Health Belief Model-Social Learning Theory (HBM-SLT)-based sex education program against several community- and school-based interventions in a controlled field experiment. Data on sexual and contraceptive behavior were collected from 1,444 adolescents unselected for gender, race/ethnicity, or virginity status in a pretest-posttest design. Over 60% completed the one-year follow-up. Multivariate analyses were conducted separately for each preintervention virginity status by gender grouping. The results revealed differential program impacts. First, for preintervention virgins, there were no gender or intervention differences in abstinence maintenance over the follow-up year. Second, female preintervention Comparison program virgins used effective contraceptive methods more consistently than those who attended the HBM-SLT program (p less than 0.01); among males, the intervention programs were equally effective. Third, both interventions significantly increased contraceptive efficiency for teenagers who were sexually active before attending the programs. For males, the HBM-SLT program led to significantly greater follow-up contraceptive efficiency than the Comparison program with preintervention contraceptive efficiency controlled (p less than 0.05); for females, the programs produced equivalent improvement. Implications for program planning and evaluation are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

LFP: A PC-program for ligand-field analysis of 3d(n) ions in Oh and lower symmetries

A modular and efficient version of PC program for calculating ligand-field parameters, i.e. crystal-field model (CFM) and angular overlap model (AOM) is presented. The LFP program is designed to calculate the ligand-field parameters of low symmetry transition metal complexes. It is based on the general method for the analysis of central ion states distortion using group theory. The program has not closed form. It will be extended, according to spectroscopic studies in our laboratory. It is written in FORTRAN language.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Poverty among elderly women: assessing SSI options to strengthen Social Security reform.

OBJECTIVES: We explore the potential of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program to reduce poverty among elderly women. We develop a methodological framework that compares how well various reform proposals are targeted to reducing poverty among elderly women. METHODS: Using a microsimulation model and survey data matched to SSI administrative records, we model the effects of eight alternative policies on current and potential SSI recipients. We develop an evaluation methodology that systematically compares poverty outcomes, using multiple measures of effectiveness, at given levels of program expansion. RESULTS: All but two of the SSI reforms are clearly more target efficient at various degrees of simulated program expansion than popular proposals to reform Social Security. For a given cost increase, modifying the SSI asset test is the most effective option for reducing severe poverty among elderly women, but several reforms of the SSI income test are also highly effective. DISCUSSION: The SSI program is target efficient in providing a broad safety net to economically vulnerable elderly women. The relationship between SSI and Social Security and the relationship between the SSI asset and income tests have to be reevaluated to make the program more effective and appropriate to changing household structure and work patterns among the elderly population.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

The Bioinformatics Template Library--generic components for biocomputing.

MOTIVATION: The efficiency of bioinformatics programmers can be greatly increased through the provision of ready-made software components that can be rapidly combined, with additional bespoke components where necessary, to create finished programs. The new standard for C++ includes an efficient and easy to use library of generic algorithms and data-structures, designed to facilitate low-level component programming. The extension of this library to include functionality that is specifically useful in compute-intensive tasks in bioinformatics and molecular modelling could provide an effective standard for the design of reusable software components within the biocomputing community. RESULTS: A novel application of generic programming techniques in the form of a library of C++ components called the Bioinformatics Template Library (BTL) is presented. This library will facilitate the rapid development of efficient programs by providing efficient code for many algorithms and data-structures that are commonly used in biocomputing, in a generic form that allows them to be flexibly combined with application specific object-oriented class libraries. AVAILABILITY: The BTL is available free of charge from our web site http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/~classlib/ and the EMBL file server http://www.embl-ebi.ac.uk/FTP/index.html

Algorithms↗
PubMed1982

A clinical pharmacy program for cardiac patients.

Through efficient staff scheduling our 481-bed community teaching hospital has been able to expand its pharmacy services. This paper describes how a clinical pharmacy service program for cardiology and cardiac surgery patients was developed and defines the service components. After over two years of experience with the cardiology program, we have found this pharmacy service area to be very successful and well received. Various forms and proposals are provided to assist other pharmacists interested in expanding into this area of practice.

Cardiology↗