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PubMed1998

[Electrodiagnosis of focal neuropathies].

Electrodiagnostic techniques used in an EMG-Laboratory and the diagnostic value in focal mononeuropathies are presented. The electrodiagnostic techniques include nerve conduction studies and needle electrode examination. Measurement of distal latency, amplitude, conduction velocity and the finding of focal conduction block may localize the focal character of the mononeuropathy. The needle electrode examination gives further information about distribution, extent, activity, or chronicity of the disease, especially in cases with axonal injuries. Some normal electrodiagnostic patterns are presented, accompanied by some illustrative pathological cases.

Electrodes↗
PubMed1976

Management of haemophilia in Greece.

A short review is given on several aspects of the management of haemophilia in Greece. A total number of 429 patients with congenital haemorrhagic disorders has been registered. The incidence of F. VIII deficiency is 85.9% and that of F. IX 12.9%. Information concerning distribution throughout the country, age, social standard, financial position and education is given too. Haemophiliacs are systematically treated by Athens specialized Haemophilia Treatment Centres. The most widely therapeutic material still used, is fresh frozen plasma. Lyophilized cryoprecipitate and F. IX (prothrombincomplex) concentrate are also prepared but they are not for every day use. Imported concentrates are used only for very serious cases. Home therapy is attempted in limited scale and it is largely discussed. Consultation, out-patients treatment and hospitalization, if needed, are free of charge for haemophiliacs regardless of their financial position or their national insurance.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

[Topography of the gap junctions in human skin and their possible role in the nonneural transmission of information].

Localization and distribution of the gap junctions in the human epidermis have been studied. They are mainly concentrated in the area of biologically active (acupunctive) points and in so called meridians connecting these points. A supposition is made that the gap junction system performs certain integration of the information from the skin surface and its aneural transmission to remote areas. Discovery of a regulated gap junction system in relatively low organized animals (previously described by the authors), as well as revealing of such a system in mammals, makes it possible to suppose that the system is phylogenetically the most ancient one performing a directed transmission of an information simultaneously with and besides the neural system.

Cell Communication↗
PubMed1996

Performance differences as a function of stimulus-response compatibility with rapid serial visual presentation and spatially distributed presentation styles.

A means of presenting information temporally has been developed from the basic research on reading. Temporal displays allowed for faster processing speeds by reducing the number of saccades normally required to process spatially distributed information; however, a potential disadvantage to using temporal displays was an increased rate of error. Payne and Lang reported that a tradeoff between speed and accuracy is sometimes the result of using temporally distributed displays. As they used an alphabetic coding scheme which may not have facilitated the most optimal stimulus-response mapping, the current experiment tested the effects of a directional coding scheme on a temporally distributed display with 24 subjects. Analysis indicated the coding scheme did improve processing speed on the temporal display, but the error rate for the temporal display was higher than with the alphabetic coding scheme. Therefore, the limitation of temporal displays in a tradeoff between speed and accuracy persisted using the directional coding scheme.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Estimating the distribution of nonterminal event time in the presence of mortality or informative dropout.

We consider estimating the distribution of nonterminal event time that may be censored by a terminal event but not vice versa. This problem may arise in two scenarios: (1) clinical trials involving both terminal and nonterminal events, or (2) when the primary outcome of the trial is nonterminal but there exists informative dropout. Inference is complicated by the dependent censoring from mortality or informative dropout. In this paper, we show that the joint distribution of the events can be formulated such that only the association is parameterized, with the marginal distributions unspecified. A closed form estimator for the association parameter is obtained from a novel adaptation of Oakes' concordance estimating equation. Tests for independence and goodness-of-fit of the model are also developed. A computationally simple, consistent and asymptotically normal estimator for the marginal distribution of the nonterminal event is given. Simulations demonstrate that the methods work well with practical sample sizes. The proposals are illustrated with data from an AIDS clinical trial.

Anti-HIV Agents↗
PubMed2004

Does consumer satisfaction information matter? Evidence on member retention in FEHBP plans.

Taking advantage of a natural experiment, this study explores the crucial link between consumer satisfaction, distribution of consumer satisfaction information, and member retention at open enrollment. Multiple data sources, panel data regression analysis, and instrumental variable techniques inform how retention is affected by consumer satisfaction, before and after free distribution of report card information, controlling for market structure, consumer characteristics, premiums, benefits, and other plan attributes in about 250 Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) plans nationwide. Study results suggest that consumer satisfaction boosts member retention. Free distribution of consumer satisfaction information to federal employees during open enrollment is associated with lower member retention, which may suggest that consumers might have used this newly distributed information and then decided to withdraw from their previous plans.

Consumer Behavior↗
PubMed1981

Blood distribution systems and the exchange of information between hospital blood banks and regional blood centers.

The advantages and disadvantages of centralized or decentralized reactive or predictive blood distribution systems are presented. A decentralized, predictive distribution system, being used by the Long Island Blood Service Division of the Greater New York Blood Program is described and its applicability to most regional blood supply organizations is emphasized.

Blood Banks↗
PubMed1994

The relationship between immediate outcome after cardiac surgery, homogeneous cardioplegia delivery, and ejection fraction.

BACKGROUND: Optimal myocardial protection during cardiac surgery with ischemic arrest is predicated on among other variables, homogeneous cardioplegia distribution. Contrast echocardiography has been shown to provide information regarding the intramyocardial distribution of cardioplegia solution. To test the hypothesis that information regarding cardioplegia distribution derived from contrast echocardiography may be associated with immediate clinical outcome after cardiac surgery, data from 21 patients were examined retrospectively. METHODS: Contrast-enhanced cardioplegia distribution patterns of the left ventricle short axis view obtained with transesophageal echocardiography were examined off-line by four observers blinded to clinical outcome. Contrast effect was scored for eight equally divided myocardial segments (0 = no contrast, 1 = nonuniform contrast, 2 = uniform contrast, 3 = excessive contrast). The scores were then averaged between segments and between observers to generate an antegrade, a retrograde, and a combined global contrast score for each patient. RESULTS: Seventeen patients were separated from bypass without difficulty (group A) and 4 patients required sustained inotropic therapy or an intra-aortic balloon pump to facilitate separation from bypass (group B). As would be expected, group A patients had a higher average preoperative ejection fraction than did group B patients (60 percent +/- 14 vs 31 percent +/- 7, p < 0.01). In group A, however, for 4 of 17 patients (23 percent), low preoperative ejection fraction was not predictive of postoperative exogenous circulatory support requirements. Group A patients also had significantly higher antegrade (1.6 vs 1.2, p < 0.02), retrograde (1.7 vs 1.1, p < 0.02), and combined global contrast scores (1.7 vs 1.1, p < 0.01) than did group B patients. All patients with low preoperative ejection fraction and low intraoperative contrast scores required exogenous support to separate from cardiopulmonary bypass. CONCLUSION: Contrast echocardiography makes possible an evaluation of the intensity and distribution of contrast-enhanced cardioplegia delivery and we believe the efficacy of intraoperative myocardial protection. Although low preoperative ejection fraction is a known predictor of poor immediate postoperative outcome following cardiac surgery, not all patients with low preoperative ejection fractions require inotropic support postoperatively. Our results suggest that monitoring cardioplegia distribution with contrast echocardiography may offer insight for better patient stratification based on intraoperative myocardial protection in patients with low ejection fraction. We believe a more extensive evaluation of this relationship should be pursued in a prospective manner.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Balancing breastfeeding and paid employment: a project targeting employers, women and workplaces.

Since breastfeeding is acknowledged as the best nutrition for young babies, it needs to be protected, supported and promoted. This includes enabling mothers to continue breastfeeding even when they return to work. This paper describes a project that promotes balancing breastfeeding and paid work through the development, distribution, promotion and evaluation of suitable materials to workplaces, employers and women in Australia. Information provided in a workplace kit was based on previous successful strategies from published works in refereed journals and in consultation with employers, employees and other key people. Information for employees was further summarized and translated into Arabic, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish and Vietnamese. Over 50,000 information kits were distributed Australia-wide using a database that comprised contact details of medium to large workplaces plus employee and employer organizations, with preference given to workplaces that employed women of childbearing age and women from diverse cultural backgrounds. The translated material was also distributed to migrant resource centres and working women's centres around Australia. Promotion of the project was extensive, resulting in 20 newspaper articles, 17 radio interviews or news items, and articles in 18 newsletters and professional journals and three magazines. The project was also promoted at three conferences and one seminar. Evaluation (directed at employers) focused primarily on the distribution and content of the information kit, since the evaluation was conducted soon after distribution. The evaluation survey was sent to 1571 valid contacts (808 e-mail addresses, 1360 fax numbers). The response rate was 12.8% (n = 202). Seventy per cent of responding businesses rated the information kit as excellent. Over half anticipated the kit would be useful in their organization, while over two-thirds agreed that the kit provided sufficient information and suitable solutions to support balancing breastfeeding and work in their organization. While this project has achieved its objectives, further work is required to assist organizations to develop and implement policies and procedures for balancing breastfeeding and work, so that breastfeeding mothers who are returning to work can continue to breastfeed as long as they and their baby require it.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1999

[Analysis for spatial distribution of Oncomelania snail in mainland China by geographic information system(GIS) database].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze spatial distribution of Oncomelania snail populations in mainland China by geographic information system (GIS) database. METHODS: Genetic variation experiment data and experimental data of susceptibility of 34 snail populations were collected from nine provinces in China, to set up a database. A world digital map was linked with the database in a software ArcView Release 3.0 a to be used to divide zones with ArcView spatial analyze function and GIS overlaying function. AVHRR NDVI satellite images were collected to form a new one for prevalent season, which were overlaid with distribution maps of heterozygous indices of snail populations, polymorphic locus percentage and infection rates of snail population with schistosome for classifying the images. RESULTS: Spatial analysis showed that distribution maps of genetic heterozygous indices of snail, percentage of polymophic loci and infection rate of snail can be divided into two large zones, i.e., east zone and west zone, both with varied pictures. Analysis for overlaying three-stratum distribution map with AVHRR NDVI satellite image showed four distinctly different spatial zones, including west Sichuan zone, west Yunnan zone, middle zone of river, lake and marshland, and southeast coastal zone. CONCLUSION: It is the first time using GIS to analyze data of Oncomelania population genetics and confirmed the population structure of Oncomelania snails presented discrete sub-population model, which supports the theory of sub-species of Oncomelania spp. Exited in mainland China.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Distributed population coding of multisensory spatial information in the associative cortex.

This study describes a possible mechanism of coding of multisensory information in the anterior ectosylvian visual area of the feline cortex. Extracellular microelectrode recordings on 168 cells were carried out in the anterior ectosylvian sulcal region of halothane-anaesthetized, immobilized, artificially ventilated cats. Ninety-five neurons were found to respond to visual stimuli, 96 responded to auditory stimuli and 45 were bimodal, reacting to both visual and auditory modalities. A large proportion of the neurons exhibited significantly different responses to stimuli appearing in different regions of their huge receptive field. These neurons have the ability to provide information via their discharge rate on the site of the stimulus within their receptive field. This suggests that they may serve as panoramic localizers. The ability of the bimodal neurons to localize bimodal stimulus sources is better than any of the unimodal localizing functions. Further, the sites of maximal responsivity of the visual, auditory and bimodal neurons are distributed over the whole extent of the large receptive fields. Thus, a large population of such panoramic visual, auditory and multisensory neurons could accurately code the locations of the sensory stimuli. Our findings support the notion that there is a distributed population code of multisensory information in the feline associative cortex.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Sources of contraceptive commodities for users in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the sources of contraceptive commodities is an important aspect of the delivery of family planning services and is required by planning programme managers for strategic planning purposes. Findings from the 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey have previously showed that the private sector was the most frequently reported source of contraceptive supply, providing contraception to two and a half times as many women as the public sector. We conducted a community-based study to examine further the sources of contraceptive commodity for users in Nigeria with a view to identifying their preferences for distribution centres. This information would be useful to improve commodity distribution and to build the necessary capacity for satisfactory delivery of contraceptives. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A multi-stage random sampling technique was used. A state was randomly selected to represent each of the four health zones in Nigeria. Two local government areas (LGAs) were then selected representing both urban and rural areas. Ten enumeration areas were subsequently selected from each LGA. Of the 2,001 respondents aged 15-49 years, 1,647 (82.3%) were sexually active, out of which 244 were found to be using contraceptive methods at the time of the study, giving a contraceptive prevalence of 14.8%. The commonest source of information on contraceptives was through friends (34%), followed by the radio (11.5%) and husbands (10.2%). Most respondents procured their contraceptives from chemist/patent medicine shops (19.7%), while only 0.8% obtained them from designated family planning clinics. The younger groups in this study (15-24 years), single people, Catholics, and Muslims, showed a greater preference for chemist/patent medicine shops for their sources of contraceptives. The older groups and married respondents, however, made use of government and private hospitals to obtain their contraceptives. CONCLUSION: Strategies to increase contraceptive use must take into consideration these identified sources of contraceptives with a view to enhancing the quality, quantity, and variety of methods available, and to building capacity for effective service delivery. There is also a need to encourage the establishment of adolescent-friendly clinics where young people can go for counselling and obtain contraceptives of their choice, including emergency contraceptive pills.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Developing TODAM: three models for serial-order information.

TODAM2, a theory of distributed associative memory, shows how item and associative information can be considered special cases of serial-order information. Consequently, it is important to get the right model for serial-order information. Here, we analyze and compare three distributed-memory models for serial-order information that use TODAM's convolution-correlation formalism. These models are the chaining model, the chunking model, and a new model, the power-set model. The chaining model associates each item with its predecessor; the chunking model uses multiple convolutions and n-grams to form chunks; and the power-set model interassociates all items in a set in a particular way to form a chunk. The models are compared in terms of their performance on seven basic tests of serial-order information--namely, serial recall, backward recall, recall of missing items, sequential probe tests, positional probe tests, serial-to-paired-associate transfer, and item recognition. The strengths and weaknesses of each model are discussed.

Association Learning↗
PubMed1999

Distributed representation of spectral and temporal information in rat primary auditory cortex.

Modulations of amplitude and frequency are common features of natural sounds, and are prominent in behaviorally important communication sounds. The mammalian auditory cortex is known to contain representations of these important stimulus parameters. This study describes the distributed representations of tone frequency and modulation rate in the rat primary auditory cortex (A1). Detailed maps of auditory cortex responses to single tones and tone trains were constructed from recordings from 50-60 microelectrode penetrations introduced into each hemisphere. Recorded data demonstrated that the cortex uses a distributed coding strategy to represent both spectral and temporal information in the rat, as in other species. Just as spectral information is encoded in the firing patterns of neurons tuned to different frequencies, temporal information appears to be encoded using a set of filters covering a range of behaviorally important repetition rates. Although the average A1 repetition rate transfer function (RRTF) was low-pass with a sharp drop-off in evoked spikes per tone above 9 pulses per second (pps), individual RRTFs exhibited significant structure between 4 and 10 pps, including substantial facilitation or depression to tones presented at specific rates. No organized topography of these temporal filters could be determined.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2002

Selection and use of SNP markers for animal identification and paternity analysis in U.S. beef cattle.

DNA marker technology represents a promising means for determining the genetic identity and kinship of an animal. Compared with other types of DNA markers, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are attractive because they are abundant, genetically stable, and amenable to high-throughput automated analysis. In cattle, the challenge has been to identify a minimal set of SNPs with sufficient power for use in a variety of popular breeds and crossbred populations. This report describes a set of 32 highly informative SNP markers distributed among 18 autosomes and both sex chromosomes. Informativity of these SNPs in U.S. beef cattle populations was estimated from the distribution of allele and genotype frequencies in two panels: one consisting of 96 purebred sires representing 17 popular breeds, and another with 154 purebred American Angus from six herds in four Midwestern states. Based on frequency data from these panels, the estimated probability that two randomly selected, unrelated individuals will possess identical genotypes for all 32 loci was 2.0 x 10(-13) for multi-breed composite populations and 1.9 x 10(-10) for purebred Angus populations. The probability that a randomly chosen candidate sire will be excluded from paternity was estimated to be 99.9% and 99.4% for the same respective populations. The DNA immediately surrounding the 32 target SNPs was sequenced in the 96 sires of the multi-breed panel and found to contain an additional 183 polymorphic sites. Knowledge of these additional sites, together with the 32 target SNPs, allows the design of robust, accurate genotype assays on a variety of high-throughput SNP genotyping platforms.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Characterization of the spatial distribution of late ventricular potentials by body surface mapping in patients with ventricular tachycardia.

Low-level activity at the end of the QRS complex was analyzed from 63 thoracic leads in 15 normal subjects and in 21 patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT). The latter had old myocardial infarction and no conduction disturbances and had not been receiving antiarrhythmic drugs. In both normal subjects and patients with VT, isopotential maps of the time-averaged and filtered (25 Hz high-pass) electrocardiograms during the terminal portion of the QRS were dipolar, i.e., they showed single positive and negative regions. For patients with VT, the extrema were either distant, with one over the precordial area and the other over the back, or close together in the precordial region. In 10 patients, maps recorded after administration of antiarrhythmic drugs remained the same while QRS duration was prolonged. In six patients, maps recorded before antiarrhythmic surgery showed distant extrema for septal or posterobasal VT sites of origin and close extrema for anterior or posteroapical sites. Generally, QRS duration was reduced and maps were modified after surgery. Late potentials can be well detected with only three orthogonal leads because their distributions are dipolar, but maps provide additional information about their distribution, which may be related to conduction delay sites and possibly to VT sites of origin. Sources near the torso surface would produce close extrema, whereas deeper sources would produce distant extrema.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Lothian general practitioners, HIV infection and drug misuse: epidemiology, experience and confidence 1988-1993.

BACKGROUND: Lothian has a high prevalence rate of HIV infection associated particularly with injecting drug use in the mid-1980s. During the late 1980s a number of services were introduced to support general practitioners to care for drug users and people with HIV infection. AIM: To ascertain the practice distribution of patients with HIV infection and drug users, and the experience and confidence of Lothian GPs in a number of HIV and drug related tasks, and to see how these changed over a five year period after the introduction of support services. METHOD: Information about practice distribution of patients with HIV infection and drug users and information about GP experience and confidence was obtained from a survey of individual GPs in 1988. Two practice surveys in 1991 and 1993, using a chosen GP for each practice, gave information about practice distribution of people with HIV infection and drug users, while a second survey of individual GPs in 1993, concentrating on GP experience and confidence, acted as a follow up to the 1988 survey. RESULTS: GPs are in touch with an increasing number of people with symptomatic HIV infection. They are increasingly involved and confident in caring for drug users. Offering support and training to GPs appears to have encouraged their involvement. There are a significant number of people with HIV infection in Lothian who are not known to GPs or to hospital services. A combination of practice and individual GP surveys was found to provide the most reliable information. It is planned to repeat the practice survey in 1995.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2000

Information and communication technology needs for distributed communication and coordination during expedition-class spaceflight.

AO-lU. Expedition-class missions are distinct from historical human presence in space in ways that significantly affect information flow and information technology designs for such missions. The centrality of Mission Control in these missions is challenged by the distances, associated communication delays, and durations of expeditions, all of which require crews to have more local resources available to manage on-board situations. The author's current research investigates how ground controllers effectively allocate communications bandwidth, cognitive resources, and knowledge sharing skills during time critical routine and non-routine situations. The research focus is on team-based information and communication technology (ICT) use to provide recommendations for improvements to support adaptive bandwidth allocations and improved sharing of data and knowledge in Mission Control contexts. In order to further improve communication and coordination between controllers and crew, additional ICT support resources will be needed to provide shared context knowledge and dynamic assessment of costs and benefits for accessing local information vs. remote expertise. Crew members will have critical needs to understand the goals, intentions, and situational constraints associated with mission information resources in order to use them most effectively in conditions where ground-based expertise is insufficient or requires more time to access and coordinate than local task demands permit. Results of this research will serve to improve the design and implementation of ICT systems to improve human performance capabilities and system operating tolerances for exploration missions. (Specific research data were not available at the time of publication.)

Communication↗