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Biomedical subjects

D Ferguson

Publications and source records attributed to D Ferguson.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

Ergonomics and the quality of living.

The purpose of this paper (which is based on the presidential address to the Annual Meeting of the Ergonomics Society of Australia and New Zealand, at Melbourne University on 19 August 1971) is to consider ways in which ergonomics could contribute to the quality, even maintenance, of life, and to consider the need and justification for ergonomics to adopt this role. The author discusses society unhealth, environmental degradation, drug abuse and death as examples of social issues in which ergonomics could be applied with advantage. He concludes that ergonomics has much to contribute, and responsibility to contribute, to the quality of living, particularly in bringing and interdisciplinary and scientific approach to such issues, whose improvement is presently hindered by uninformed enthusiasm, prejudice, sectional interests and apathy.

Journal Article↗

Costs and outcomes of PAPNET secondary screening technology for cervical cytologic evaluation. A community hospital's experience.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of and costs associated with semiautomated rescreening of Papanicolaou smears with negative findings at a community hospital. DESIGN: A prospective study of 1200 Papanicolaou smear slides with negative findings using the PAPNET screening system (Neuromedical Systems, Incorporated, Suffern, NY). SETTING: Community hospital laboratory. PATIENTS: Patients with negative findings on Papanicolaou smears who agreed to have their smears reviewed using PAPNET. INTERVENTIONS: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Results of rescreening and resources involved in processing the PAPNET review. RESULTS: Screening with PAPNET identified 8 patients with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) that were not diagnosed on initial screening, yielding a false-negative rate in our laboratory of 0.7% for ASCUS. No low- or high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions were identified. Based on our laboratory processing 6000 Papanicolaou smears a year, at $19 per slide, it would cost our laboratory $102,600 for PAPNET review of all smears with negative findings. In contrast, the estimated cost to have another cytotechnologist review all such smears manually would cost $11,977. The rate of changed diagnoses in the PAPNET group was similar to the rate in our standard rescreening of 10% of all smears with negative findings. Mean turnaround time for a PAPNET screen was 13.9 days, compared with 3.9 days for manual review. CONCLUSIONS: For a laboratory with a low percentage of smears with abnormal findings, a quality cytotechnologist and pathologist, and required quality assurance standards in place, PAPNET may not improve appreciably the pick-up rate for missed cervical lesions, and may add significantly to the cost and turnaround time of cytologic evaluation of cervical smears.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell↗

Inhibitors of HIV protease: unique non-peptide active site templates.

New templates were designed and prepared which straddle the active site of HIV-1 protease. These templates were designed to be "flexible scaffolds' upon which substituents could be appended to fill the pockets of HIV protease. The new templates prepared and analysed were 4-hydroxy-5H-furan-2-ones, 4-hydroxy-5,6-dihydropyrones, 3-hydroxy-cyclohex-2-enones, and 4-hydroxy-2(1H)-pyridinones, of which the 4-hydroxy-5,6-dihydropyrones were found to be the most potent inhibitors of HIV-1 protease.

Binding Sites↗