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PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of Ontario's Geriatric Preventive Dentistry Program.

Ontario's Geriatric Preventive Dentistry Program (mandated under the Health Protection and Promotion Act) is assessed using the rational comprehensive approach. Policy options are examined, taking into account population characteristics, the nature of the health problem, current service delivery policy and resources, and barriers to access. Examining the 1974 Task Force recommendations, sets of draft guidelines issued in 1982, 1983, and 1984, and the revised 1985 guidelines as implemented, one can note changes in the benefits offered and in eligibility for coverage. The final program appears to be largely a symbolic policy response, which is unlikely to have major implications for either efficiency or community effectiveness. Implications of the current program, including the possibility it may be a precursor to more effective policies, are noted.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

A high-throughput microfluidic real-time gene expression living cell array.

The dynamics of gene expression are fundamental to the coordination of cellular responses. Measurement of temporal gene expression patterns is currently limited to destructive low-throughput techniques such as northern blotting, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and DNA microarrays. We report a scalable experimental platform that combines microfluidic addressability with quantitative live cell imaging of fluorescent protein transcriptional reporters to achieve real-time characterization of gene expression programs in living cells. Integrated microvalve arrays control row-seeding and column-stimulation of 256 nanoliter-scale bioreactors to create a high density matrix of stimulus-response experiments. We demonstrate the approach in the context of hepatic inflammation by acquiring approximately 5000 single-time-point measurements in each automated and unattended experiment. Experiments can be assembled in hours and perform the equivalent of months of conventional experiments. By enabling efficient investigation of dynamic gene expression programs, this technology has the potential to make significant impacts in basic science, drug development, and clinical medicine.

Cell Culture Techniques↗
PubMed2000

Principles of community psychiatry.

Our primary goal in community psychiatry is to satisfy the service needs of a bounded population for whose mental health we have accepted responsibility and accountability. We base our programs on public health practice models: These direct us to focus on segments of our population which are currently exposed to harmful biopsycho-social factors that increase their risk of becoming mentally ill. We focus on preventing psychosocial problems or their consequences by reducing their population rates: either the incidence of new cases (primary prevention), the prevalence of all existing cases (secondary prevention), and the rates of residual disability (tertiary prevention). We increase our efficiency and effectiveness by organizing our program on the basis of crisis theory which demands that we reach out to people in crisis and provide them with immediate guidance and help to master their current difficulties during the short period when they are open to influence and amenable to change in ways that have long term mental health consequences. We spread our own influence by organizing support groups and we multiply many-fold our impact on the huge problems involved in covering the needs of our population by recruiting the collaboration of other professional caregivers and non-professional helpers. We enhance the mental health component in the daily work of all caregiving agencies and institutions and individual professionals in the community through education and mental health consultation and collaboration. We also reach out to assist non-professional caregiving individuals and organizations, especially those who provide mutual help to fellow sufferers. In our latest work we are currently identifying harmful practices in our caregiving systems that actually harm those people whom we are trying to help. We are in the process of developing methods for reducing this system-generated damage.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An improved method to evaluate the precision of computer ECG measurement programs.

We present a new graphical evaluation method aimed at displaying the main characteristics of computer ECG measurement program results. The proposed graphs provide information on the number of rejected measurements and gross program errors, and on the precision of the results, i.e. the scatter of the differences between fiducial point estimates given by the programs and the reference. 'Scatter-graphs' concerning P, QRS and T wave boundary recognition from the programs participating in the European Concerted Action on 'Common Standards for Quantitative Electrocardiography (C.S.E.)' are analysed and discussed (10 standard 12-lead ECG programs and 9 Vectorcardiographic (VCG) programs from 10 European, 5 American and 1 Japanese Centers). The method proved to be a powerful tool for a direct and global qualitative comparison of the efficiency of the algorithms elaborated by the program developers, and allowed some of the strategies adopted in these programs to be highlighted.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2006

Genetic Parallel Programming: design and implementation.

This paper presents a novel Genetic Parallel Programming (GPP) paradigm for evolving parallel programs running on a Multi-Arithmetic-Logic-Unit (Multi-ALU) Processor (MAP). The MAP is a Multiple Instruction-streams, Multiple Data-streams (MIMD), general-purpose register machine that can be implemented on modern Very Large-Scale Integrated Circuits (VLSIs) in order to evaluate genetic programs at high speed. For human programmers, writing parallel programs is more difficult than writing sequential programs. However, experimental results show that GPP evolves parallel programs with less computational effort than that of their sequential counterparts. It creates a new approach to evolving a feasible problem solution in parallel program form and then serializes it into a sequential program if required. The effectiveness and efficiency of GPP are investigated using a suite of 14 well-studied benchmark problems. Experimental results show that GPP speeds up evolution substantially.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1984

The role of OSHA violations in serious workplace accidents.

California accident investigations for 1976 show that violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's safety standards were a contributing factor in 13% to 19% of the 645 deaths reported to the workers' compensation program during that year. However, a panel of safety engineers judged that only about 50% of these violations could have been detected if an inspector had visited the day before the accident. These findings indicate that the potential gains from stronger enforcement of current standards are limited but not insignificant. The likelihood that a violation contributed to a serious accident varied considerably among accident types, industries, and size classes of plants. These findings can be used to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the OSHA program by means of better targeting of inspections and accident investigations, more intelligent assessment of which violations should be penalized most heavily, and the provision of information to employers and workers about which violations are most consequential.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2004

A memory-efficient algorithm for multiple sequence alignment with constraints.

MOTIVATION: Recently, the concept of the constrained sequence alignment was proposed to incorporate the knowledge of biologists about structures/functionalities/consensuses of their datasets into sequence alignment such that the user-specified residues/nucleotides are aligned together in the computed alignment. The currently developed programs use the so-called progressive approach to efficiently obtain a constrained alignment of several sequences. However, the kernels of these programs, the dynamic programming algorithms for computing an optimal constrained alignment between two sequences, run in (gamman2) memory, where gamma is the number of the constraints and n is the maximum of the lengths of sequences. As a result, such a high memory requirement limits the overall programs to align short sequences only. RESULTS: We adopt the divide-and-conquer approach to design a memory-efficient algorithm for computing an optimal constrained alignment between two sequences, which greatly reduces the memory requirement of the dynamic programming approaches at the expense of a small constant factor in CPU time. This new algorithm consumes only O(alphan) space, where alpha is the sum of the lengths of constraints and usually alpha << n in practical applications. Based on this algorithm, we have developed a memory-efficient tool for multiple sequence alignment with constraints. AVAILABILITY: http://genome.life.nctu.edu.tw/MUSICME.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1983

Medicaid program; Medicaid Management Information System proposed system requirements--HCFA. Proposed notice.

In this notice, we are proposing five new system requirements for Medicaid Management Information Systems. We propose that the systems be required to accept and use exclusively: (a) A uniform diagnostic coding system (the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM)), wherever diagnostic coding is used; (b) A common claim form for hospital billing (HCFA-1450); (c) A uniform electronic billing format for institutional billing; (d) A common claim form for noninstitutional providers (the revised version of the Health Insurance Claim Form, HCFA-1500); and (e) A uniform procedure coding system (HCFA Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS)). These requirements would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Medicaid program.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗
PubMed2006

Use of Web-based materials to enhance anatomy instruction in the health sciences.

Teaching anatomy by dissection is under considerable pressure to evolve and/or even be eliminated, and curricular hours in the dissection laboratory are decreasing. As a possible means of easing this pressure, an online interactive anatomy program has been created to enhance the dissection experience, observational learning, and three-dimensional comprehension of human anatomy. An assessment was made of the utility of the program in preparing students for dissection laboratories and for examinations. The efficacy of the application was evaluated by first-year students and faculty with pre- and post-use surveys in anatomy courses at three medical schools. It was found that students felt better prepared if they utilized the Web site prior to their dissection laboratory, and faculty reported spending less time explaining basic concepts or techniques. It is concluded that a comprehensive online program significantly enhances the quality and efficiency of instruction in human anatomy in the dissection laboratory and could prove to be a useful tool at other institutions.

Anatomy↗
PubMed1996

[Improvement of transfusion safety in a health care service through the implementation of a quality program].

The quality policy brings with it an efficient method as well as relevant tools to improve transfusion safety in health care services. This article illustrates the details of the approach through the presentation of a project developed in the East Picardie region throughout several hospitals. It underlines the importance of the choice of a good reference system, of a pertinent method and the necessity of a real project management. Furthermore, the follow-up of the project has enabled us to identify a certain number of success criteria in the steering of the changing process.

France↗
PubMed1990

A space-efficient algorithm for local similarities.

Existing dynamic-programming algorithms for identifying similar regions of two sequences require time and space proportional to the product of the sequence lengths. Often this space requirement is more limiting than the time requirement. We describe a dynamic-programming local-similarity algorithm that needs only space proportional to the sum of the sequence lengths. The method can also find repeats within a single long sequence. To illustrate the algorithm's potential, we discuss comparison of a 73,360 nucleotide sequence containing the human beta-like globin gene cluster and a corresponding 44,594 nucleotide sequence for rabbit, a problem well beyond the capabilities of other dynamic-programming software.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1998

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices on hypertension in a country in epidemiological transition.

Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) is a crucial element of hypertension control, but little information is available from developing countries where hypertension has lately been recognized as a major health problem. Therefore, we examined KAP on hypertension in a random sample of 1067 adults aged 25 to 64 years from the Seychelles Islands (Indian Ocean). KAP were assessed from an administered structured questionnaire. The age-standardized prevalence of hypertension (screening blood pressure [BP] > or = 160/95 mm Hg or taking antihypertensive medication) was 36% in men and 25% in women aged 25 to 64 years. Among hypertensive persons, 50% were aware of the condition, 34% were treated, and 10% had controlled BP (ie, BP <160/95 mm Hg). Most persons, whether nonhypertensive, unaware hypertensive, or aware hypertensive, had good basic knowledge related to hypertension determinants and consequences, possibly an effect of a nationwide cardiovascular disease prevention program over the last years. However, favorable outcome expectation, positive attitudes, and appropriate practices for hypertension and relevant healthy lifestyles were found in smaller proportions of participants, with little difference between aware hypertensives, unaware hypertensives, and nonhypertensives. Furthermore, hypertensive persons with other concurrent cardiovascular risk factors affecting the overall heart risk knew well the detrimental effects of these other factors but reported making little actual change to control them (particularly regarding overweight and sedentary habits). These data point to the need to maximize the efficiency of hypertension prevention and control programs so that delay in achieving effective hypertension control is minimized in countries experiencing recent emergence of hypertension as a major public health problem.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Personal computers: Rx for improving productivity.

The purpose of this article is to guide the computer-shy hospital pharmacy manager through the various choices concerning personal computer technology. The author discusses available computer programs that are easy to learn and can help pharmacists manage time and resources more efficiently. The Tandy 1000SX computer with the Deskmate integrated software program has been selected as one system that contains all basic computer systems. It is inexpensive and requires minimal learning time. Mastery of the computer and an integrated software program can facilitate improved productivity for interested pharmacists.

Computers↗
PubMed1992

[A computer program to retrieve and record ISTAT codes related to pediatric diagnosis].

The paper describes a computer program that retrieves ISTAT codes increasing the efficiency of the retrieving time spent with traditional methods storing the obtained information in a suitable data-base, which may be lately explored by means of commercial programs. To increase the detail of the stored data, many of the official codes have been expanded with an extra character. Some results obtained from an experience conducted at the Pediatric Division of Crema Hospital are also reported.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1996

The 'destruction box' of cyclin A allows B-type cyclins to be ubiquitinated, but not efficiently destroyed.

The destruction of mitotic cyclins by programmed proteolysis at the end of mitosis is an important element in cell cycle control. This proteolysis depends on a conserved motif of nine residues known as the 'destruction box', which is located 40-50 residues from the N-terminus. The sequences of the A- and B-type destruction boxes are slightly different, which might account for the differences in timing of their destruction. When the cyclin A-type destruction box was substituted for the normal one in cyclin B1 or B2, however, the resulting constructs were unexpectedly stable, although the converse substitution of B-type destruction boxes in cyclin A permitted normal degradation. We compared the ubiquitination of various cyclin constructs, and found that whereas mutation of the highly conserved residues in the destruction box strongly reduced the level of ubiquitinated intermediates, the stable destruction box 'swap' constructs did form such adducts. Thus, while ubiquitination is probably necessary for cyclin destruction, it is not sufficient. We also found that poly-ubiquitinated cyclin derivatives are still bound to p34cdc2, which is not detectably ubiquitinated itself, raising the questions of how cyclin and cdc2 dissociate from one another, and at what stage, in the process of degradation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2002

Testing mediating variables in a school-based nutrition intervention program.

This study identified mediators of a school-based nutrition intervention for 4th graders and their parents. Nine variables were tested for satisfying 4 conclusions necessary to establish mediation of intervention effects on changes in fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) in 4th graders (N = 1,676). FVC was measured in children by the use of 24-hr dietary recalls. Mediators were assessed by the use of questionnaires completed by children and parents. All 4 conclusions were met for positive outcome expectancies. Knowledge, self-efficacy, and parent consumption satisfied the first 3 conclusions for mediation but the mediating effects were not statistically significant (Conclusion 4). Future mediational analyses and the creation of a national database of mediators are crucial for increasing strength and efficiency of school-based nutrition programs.

Child↗
PubMed1999

[Prevention of doping in sport in adolescents: evaluation of a health education based intervention].

BACKGROUND: The extent of sport doping and its potential risks for health is to be considered as a problem of public health. Until now, only a very few number of prevention programs have been shown to be efficient. The aim of this prospective study was to test the benefit of a specific educational intervention to reduce the intent of adolescent athletes to use drugs. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The participants were 476 adolescent athletes involved into high-level events, 238 were included in the experimental group and 238 as control group. The intervention was divided in four stages: information on epidemiology of doping in sport, discussions about nutritional supplement and other authorized products, a drug simulating role play, and information on self-medication. The program was evaluated by a self-administrated questionnaire before, just after the intervention, and three months later. RESULTS: A significant decrease in the intention to use doping drugs, and an increase in the perception of being able to refuse doping was found in the experimental group three months after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: This work suggests that health education based interventions are effective in preventing drug use among adolescent athletes.

Adolescent↗