[A new projection anomaloscope (technical data, diagnosis of color vision defects, new potentials for research)].
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Color Perception Tests↗
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Results for “PROJECTIVE TECHNICS”
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
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The 'Seamless Web': the development of the electronic patient record in Aarhus region, Denmark.
OBJECTIVES: The article surveys the organization of the current project to develop an electronic patient record in the Aarhus Region, Denmark. METHODS: The article is based on various policy documents and reports as well as a number of semi-structured interviews with project managers from the EPR organization in Aarhus County and with participants in the development process at local hospitals. This material is used to present and discuss the framing of the project in a 'discourse coalition'. RESULTS: The stabilization of a specific discourse coalition has been an important factor in ensuring the success of the development project up to the present moment. This coalition became relatively stable by integrating a diverse set of actors in a story-line about the relationships between co-operation, management and technology in the medial sector, and has influenced the modular organization of the project. CONCLUSIONS: The successful maintenance of the discourse coalition allows the project to appear 'seamless' from the outside. Conversely, the project is likely to be continually reviewed as successful only to the extent that it is able to flexibly keep the fluctuating set of relevant actors in alignment. If the practical work of keeping a coalition in place remains invisible it becomes easy to imagine an ideal way of planning large socio-technical projects, like developing an ECR. But practical success is more likely to be achieved if one takes seriously the thorough intertwining of discursive, organizational and technical aspects of development projects.
Cooperative Behavior↗
Making choices in hospital resources allocation. The use of an assessment tool to decide which new projects are financed.
We designed a scoring system to rank acute care hospital projects and allocate resources between them. The evaluation tool assessed projects on an ordinal scale; the criteria scored were medical interest, feasibility, interest for teaching and research, and compatibility with the hospital's strategy. Clinical and technical projects were ranked separately. In 1994, 25 new projects, representing a total cost of $1.4 million, were reviewed by two independent reviewers. The scores ranged from 30 to 18 over 36. Projects presented by clinical departments scored higher than projects presented by medicotechnical departments.
Budgets↗
[Technical in situ methods and their environmental hygiene control during the biological purification of soil and groundwaters polluted by organic halogens].
The contribution deals with the following topics: --A possible utilization of the biological soil remediation techniques. --Laboratory investigations for remediation projects. --Development of pilot treatments projects. --Technical treatments, monitoring, and the enhancement of microbial activities on a full scale.
Bacteria↗
Towards a virtual health record for mobile home care of elderly citizens.
Mobile work situations within home care of the elderly require immediate and ubiquitous access to patient-oriented data. The ongoing Swedish research project "Technical support for Mobile CloseCare" focuses on the development and evaluation of work-scenario oriented ICT support for enhanced home care of elderly citizens. The aim of the project is to provide a seamless and consistent information flow between different health care providers and to give intuitive access to information services for the elderly and their relatives. For that purpose, different independent software components are connected through a mobile communication platform. Flexible access to prioritized information for different users in different work situations will be given through a virtual health record. In order to obtain both usable and clinically relevant results, a user centered system development approach is followed. Evaluation of the project results will be based on usability tests and quasi-experimental studies on how system implementation influences quality of care and job- and life satisfaction for care providers, patients and relatives.
Aged↗
Handling technical reports in the medical library.
One of the most widely neglected sources of information in the medical library is the technical report. Often this bibliographic form is ignored because there is a general lack of information on the part of the librarian concerning its mysteries. In many cases the technical report provides the most recent and current information on a given subject, and to ignore it or wait for its appearance in the published literature could prove costly to a research project. Technical reports have reached flood proportions since World War II, and are issued from many diverse sources. Means of acquiring, processing, and using the tools which abstract and index this literature are discussed.
Cataloging↗
The quality management system as a tool for improving stakeholder confidence.
The Corps of Engineers works with local restoration advisory boards (RAB) to exchange information and develop plans for restoration of closed military bases for civilian reuse. Meetings of the RAB to discuss progress in environmental assessment and restoration of former defense sites can be contentious due to the complex technical nature of the information to be shared and the personal stake that the members of the community have in ensuring that contentious areas are restored for safe use. A prime concern of community representatives is often the quality of the data used to make environmental decisions. Laboratory case narratives and data flags may suggest laboratory errors and low data quality to those without an understanding of the information's full meaning. RAB members include representatives from local, state, and tribal governments, the Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the local community. The Corps of Engineers representatives usually include project technical and management personnel, but these individuals may not have sufficient expertise in the project quality assurance components and laboratory data quality procedures to completely satisfy community concerns about data quality. Communication of this information to the RAB by a quality assurance professional could serve to resolve some of the questions members have about the quality of acquired data and proper use of analytical results, and increase community trust that appropriate decisions are made regarding restoration. Details of the effectiveness of including a quality assurance professional in RAB discussions of laboratory data quality and project quality management are provided in this paper.
Community Participation↗
[Epidemiology and heterogeny].
The innovation of epidemiology plays a crucial role in the development of the health sciences. The authors emphasize the importance of epistemological analysis related to scientific and technical production. They focus on the theoretical and methodological contributions of the principal Latin American groups in the field of epidemiology, stating their main accomplishments, issues and potentials. When reviewing those conceptual and practical innovations, the authors analyse the effects of broader historical conditions on scientific work. To them, Latin American contemporary innovative epidemiological research and production have developed clearly differentiated principles, methods and technical projections which have led to a movement of critical or 'social' epidemiology. The functionalist approach of conventional epidemiology, characterized by an empiricist viewpoint, is being overcome by a more rigorous and analytical approach. This new epidemiological approach, in which the authors as members of CEAS (Health Research and Advisory Center) are working, has selectively incorporated some of the technical instruments of conventional epidemiology, subordinating them to a different theoretical and logical paradigm. The new framework of this group explains the need to consider the people's objective situation and necessities, when constructing scientific interpretations and planning technical action. In order to accomplish this goal, epidemiological reasoning has to reflect the unity of external epidemiological facts and associations, the so-called phenomenological aspect of health, with the underlying determinants and conditioning processes or internal relations, which are the essence of the health-disease production and distribution process. Epidemiological analysis is considered not only as a problem of empirical observation but as a process of theoretical construction, in which there is a dynamic fusion of deductive and inductive reasoning.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Delivery of Health Care↗
[European perspectives of health telematics].
The European perspectives of the present German developments in the field of health telematics are discussed critically. It is pointed out that technical projects have been financed with considerable means in the EU, however with out having any lasting effect on the value of health telematics in the health systems of Europe. A decisive cause is that the "health" topic was not codified in the Roman contracts. The international, global market is a crucial factor for international development and thus also for the orientation of the German projects and their economical and political success. The USA plays a dominant role on the global market. Caused by different reasons a corresponding market potential in the EU cannot be expected in the foreseeable future. With regard to the new options provided by telematics, it is therefore recommended that the national health services be reorganized, thus increasing quality and efficiency. With regard to progressively individualized medical care, the subject of "health" should afterwards be included in the European contracts. In the long run, an adjustment of the systems and uniform use of telematics could be achieved. Till then the coordination between the national governments in the area of health politics is seen as the most effective means for European integration.
Computer Communication Networks↗
Life support systems for Mars transit.
The long-held human dream of travel to the stars and planets will probably be realized within the next quarter century. Preliminary analyses by U.S. scientists and engineers suggests that a first trip to Mars could begin as early as 2016. A proposal by U.S.S.R. space planners has suggested that an effort involving the cooperation and collaboration of many nations could begin by 2011. Among the major considerations that must be made in preparation for such an excursion are solidification of the scientific, economic and philosophical rationales for such a trip made by humans, and realistic evaluations of current and projected technical capabilities. Issues in the latter category include launch and propulsion systems, long term system stability and reliability, the psychological and physiological consequences of long term exposure to the space environment, the development and use of countermeasures to deleterious human physiological responses to the space environment, and life support systems that are both capable of the immense journey and reliable enough to assure their continued operation for the duration of the voyage. Many of the issues important in the design of a life support system for a Mars trip are based on reasonably well understood data: the human requirements for food, oxygen and water. However, other issues are less well-defined, such as the demands that will be made on the system for personal cleanliness and hygiene, environmental cleanliness, prevention or reduction of environmental toxins, and psychological responses to the environment and to the diet. It is much too early to make final decisions about the characteristics of the long-duration life support system needed for travel to Mars, or for use on its surface. However, it is clear that life support systems will evolve during the next few decades form the relatively straightforward systems that are used on Shuttle and Soyuz, to increasingly more complex and regenerative systems. The Soviet Union has an operating life support system on Mir that can apparently evolve, and the United States is currently planning the one for Space Station Freedom that will use partial regeneration. It is essential to develop concepts now for life support systems on an advanced Space Station, the lunar outpost (to be launched in about 2004) and the lunar base. Such concepts will build on current technology and capabilities. But because of the variety of different technologies that can be developed, and the potential for coordinating the functions of very diverse sub-systems within the same life support system, the possibility of developing an efficient, reliable mixed process system is high. It is likely that a life support system for Mars transit and base will use a composite of physical, chemical, and biological processes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potentially useful structural elements of a life support system for use on a Mars trip, and to identify the features that, at this time, appear to be most appropriate for inclusion in the system.
Carbon Dioxide↗
Shallow layer simulation of heavy gas released on a slope in a calm ambient. Part I. Continuous releases.
Although much research considers heavy gas dispersion over flat ground, less is known about the physics of dense gas dispersion on a slope. Here, the appropriateness of shallow layer models for the simple case of releases over a slope in a calm ambient is assessed. This two-part paper assesses the value of shallow layer modelling using the established shallow layer model TWODEE [J. Hazard. Mater. 66 (3) (1999) 211; J. Hazard. Mater. 66 (3) (1999) 227; J. Hazard. Mater. 66 (3) (1999) 239] and the experimental results of Schatzmann et al. [M. Schatzmann, K. Marotzke, J. Donat, Research on continuous and instantaneous heavy gas clouds, contribution of sub-project EV 4T-0021-D to the final report of the joint CEC project, Technical Report, Meteorological Institute, University of Hamburg, February 1991]. Part I considers continuous releases, and part II considers instantaneous releases; both use the same model with the same entrainment coefficients. For continuous releases, cloud arrival times are generally well predicted, and cloud concentrations are generally correct to within a factor of two. Shallow layer models thus appear to be capable of physically accurate simulation of continuous releases over a slope in a calm ambient.
Diffusion↗
Shallow layer simulation of heavy gas released on a slope in a calm ambient. Part II. Instantaneous releases.
This paper assesses the value of shallow layer modelling for instantaneous releases of heavy gas over a slope using the established computer model TWODEE [R.K.S. Hankin, Heavy gas dispersion over complex terrain, Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1997; J. Hazard. Mater. 66 (1999) 211; J. Hazard. Mater. 66 (1999) 227; J. Hazard. Mater. 66 (1999) 239] and the experimental results of Schatzmann et al. [M. Schatzmann, K. Marotzke, J. Donat, Research on continuous and instantaneous heavy gas clouds, Contribution of sub-project EV 4T-0021-D to the final report of the joint CEC project, Technical report, Meteorological Institute, University of Hamburg, February 1991]. This is the second of a two-part paper; part I considered continuous releases using the same model, using the same entrainment parameters. Schatzmann et al. carried out instantaneous releases of heavy gas over three slopes; each experiment was repeated five times under nominally identical conditions. The goodness-of-fit measures (GFMs) of Hanna et al. [Atmos. Environ. 27A (15) (1993) 2265] are generalized to account for the multiple releases carried out by Schatzmann et al. Using these statistical GFMs, predicted peak concentrations are generally correct to within a factor of two; and cloud arrival times are generally late.
Air Pollutants↗
Protocols, practices, and the reproduction of technique in molecular biology.
Protocols are one of the main organizational resources in molecular biology. They are written instructions that specify ingredients, equipment, and sequences of steps for making technical preparations. Some protocols are published in widely used manuals, while others are hand-written variants used by particular laboratories and individual technicians. It is widely understood, both in molecular biology and in social studies of science, that protocols do not describe exactly what practitioners do in the laboratory workplace. In social studies of science, the difference between protocols and the actual practices of doing them often is used to set up ironic contrasts between 'messy' laboratory practices and the appearance of technical order. Alternatively, in ethnomethodological studies of work, the difference is examined as a constitutive feature, both of the lived-work of doing technical projects, and of the administrative work of regulating and evaluating such projects. The present article takes its point of departure from ethnomethodology, and begins with a discussion of local problems with performing molecular biology protocols on specific occasions. The discussion then moves to particular cases in criminal law in which defense attorneys cross-examine forensic technicians and lab administrators. In these interrogations, the distinction between protocols and actual practices animates the dialogue and becomes consequential for judgments in the case at hand. The article concludes with a discussion of administrative science: the work of treating protocols and paper trails as proxies for actual 'scientific' practices.
Expert Testimony↗
Organizing safety: conditions for successful information assurance programs.
Organizations must continuously seek safety. When considering computerized health information systems, "safety" includes protecting the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information assets such as patient information, key components of the technical information system, and critical personnel. "High Reliability Theory" (HRT) argues that organizations with strong leadership support, continuous training, redundant safety mechanisms, and "cultures of high reliability" can deploy and safely manage complex, risky technologies such as nuclear weapons systems or computerized health information systems. In preparation for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs), the Offices of the Surgeons General of the United States Army, Navy and Air Force, and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command sponsored organizational, doctrinal, and technical projects that individually and collectively promote conditions for a "culture of information assurance." These efforts include sponsoring the "P3 Working Group" (P3WG), an interdisciplinary, tri-service taskforce that reviewed all relevant Department of Defense (DoD), Miliary Health System (MHS), Army, Navy and Air Force policies for compliance with the HIPAA medical privacy and data security regulations; supporting development, training, and deployment of OCTAVE(sm), a self-directed information security risk assessment process; and sponsoring development of the Risk Information Management Resource (RIMR), a Web-enabled enterprise portal about health information assurance.
Communication↗
Nuclear and isotopic techniques for addressing nutritional problems, with special reference to current applications in developing countries.
Nuclear and isotopic techniques are valuable tools in human nutritional research studies. Isotopes, both radioactive and nonradioactive, enable detailed evaluations of nutrient intake, body composition, energy expenditure, status of micronutrients, and nutrient bioavailability. In recent times, isotopic methods have been widely used in a number of coordinated research projects and technical cooperation projects of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Nutrition Programme. The doubly labeled water technique combines the use of the stable isotopes oxygen-18 and hydrogen-2 (deuterium) to measure total energy expenditure in free-living human subjects, and to investigate the magnitude and causes of both undernutrition and the emergence of obesity in developing countries. The deuterium dilution technique is a reliable tool to measure breastmilk intake and thereby infant growth and development. In collaboration with the World Health Organization's Growth Monitoring Program, this technique is being used to generate new data on growth standards for children in developing countries. This technique is also used in the measurement of body composition by the estimation of lean body mass and fat mass in individuals. Stable isotopes of iron and zinc have been successfully used to assess the nutritional impact of several nationwide food supplementation-programs conducted on pregnant and lactating women and children in both industrialized and developing countries. Isotopic techniques are especially suitable for monitoring changes in body composition, energy metabolism, and mineral status (with particular reference to osteoporosis) in the elderly. Nuclear methods have also served to develop models for a physiological reference man in Asia in support of radiological health and safety issues, for establishing elemental composition of foods, and for measurement of pollutants in the environment.
Adolescent↗
Catheter-based intraluminal sonography.
With the development of interventional and minimally invasive surgical techniques in the last decade, a strong interest in intraluminal sonography has arisen because of the need for better imaging information and management of the interventional procedure. High-resolution intraluminal sonography is a unique approach for the evaluation of a wide range of abnormalities within the luminal structures throughout the body. This imaging technique has been able to obtain information not available with even the most sophisticated percutaneous sonography, CT, or MRI. The uniqueness of this approach has led to extensive research, establishing a variety of clinical applications. These miniature catheter-based transducers have become important supplemental tools in the evaluation of the urinary and gastrointestinal tracts. Other areas need to be evaluated more thoroughly before efficacy is established, but the concept of using miniature transducers has shown promise in many areas of the body. This should lead to the provision of important information for decision making relative to patient care and surgical intervention. In the future, with projected technical progress, intraluminal sonography should substantially improve its diagnostic capabilities.
Catheterization↗
Organizing for better medical school management.
Growth, increasing organizational diversification and specialization, and public demands for accountability make it mandatory that medical school managers begin to move beyond simple administration and into true management. This article describes an organizational structure that is designed to help medical schools deal with critical management problems. Within this structure, newly appointed "department managers" work with an independent manager in the central administration office, provide staff assistance to their department chairmen, and participate in a problem-solving group that provides assistance on specific technical projects anywhere in the organization.
Academic Medical Centers↗
Product development studies for stabilization of oral liquid enzyme preparations containing diastase and papain.
A product development study was undertaken with a view to stabilize acid sensitive amylolytic enzyme diastase and alkali sensitive proteolytic enzyme papain. An unique high technology method was adopted for both enzymes with enteric coating and non-enteric film forming materials respectively to achieve site specificity of action, better stability and to protect diastase from the adverse acid pH of the stomach. Feasibility of incorporating various excipients like thickening agents, surfactants, preservatives, etc., to produce stable elegant oral liquid suspension was also studied. Release studies of the enzymes both in simulated gastric and simulated intestinal juices showed steady and consistent release. The proteolytic and amylolytic activities were assessed by standard pharmacopoeial methods. The stability of the product during the studies was satisfactory. Reduction in addition of overages of costly enzymes met the project technically feasible and economically viable.
Amylases↗