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At least 811 records · Page 45Linked to original sources

PubMed2006

Evaluation of an intuitive writing interface in robot-aided laser laparoscopic surgery.

OBJECTIVE: The feasibility of the conceptual Intuitive Writing Interface (IWI) in robot-aided laser laparoscopic surgery has been demonstrated previously. This paper investigates the potential improvement of IWI by comparing conventional manipulation (CM) and IWI manipulation (IM) and conducting an animal experiment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three tasks were designed that were considered to be representative of laser laparoscopic surgical procedures. All test participants used both CM and IM in all tasks. Completion time and error level of each task were taken as comparative indices and were integrated into a self-defined Index of Time and Error (ITE). Six sequential in vitro trials were carried out to investigate learning curves. In addition, nephrectomy was performed on a rabbit by employing IWI in robot-aided laser laparoscopic surgery. RESULTS: The results showed significant advantages for IM, with shorter completion time, more successful shots, and smaller error length in the three tasks, as compared to CM. The learning curve showed a promising trend for IM. More than half of the participants performed better with IM. The animal model experiment demonstrated the clinical feasibility of IM, but at the same time revealed some limitations. CONCLUSIONS: The new IWI interface definitely improved laser laparoscopic procedures by taking advantage of familiar writing skills. With its flexibility of implementation and ease of use, IWI has clear potential for use in laser laparoscopic procedures.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Choosing to write the paper format thesis.

Graduate students today may be faced with the option of writing either a traditional format thesis or a paper format thesis. In contrast to the traditional format in which the text body consists of four or five chapters, the body of the paper format thesis can be comprised of an introductory chapter, two or more papers written as publishable manuscripts, and a conclusion. In this article, an overview of the paper format thesis is presented and contrasted with the traditional format thesis. The description of the paper format thesis is followed by its advantages and disadvantages for writers and readers. It is by weighing all possible pros and cons, as well as considering one's individual situation, that the graduate student will be able to decide which format of thesis to write.

Academic Dissertations as Topic↗

PubMed2001

Doctoral students' responses to writing critique: messages for teachers.

Writing is a major part of learning scholarship in a discipline. Therefore, it is important to understand what promotes and what hinders this learning. In transcribed interviews, 15 doctoral students in nursing at a large university described to us what they saw as helpful or not helpful about responses to their writing. The themes take the form of messages for teachers that, when reported in the context of the composition literature, provide helpful suggestions for teachers.

Authorship↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Pencil grasp and children's handwriting legibility during different-length writing tasks.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the influence ofpencil grasp on handwriting legibility during both short and long writing tasks in 46fourth-grade students who were typically developing. Matched samples were used to controlfor variability. METHOD: Regular classroom writing assignments were scoredfor word and letter legibility, and scores were compared using a mixed repeated-measures analysis of variance design. The two independent variables were pencil grasp (dynamic tripod grasp vs. atypical grasp) and task length (short vs. long). RESULTS: A significant difference was found between the letter legibility scores on the short task and the letter legibility scores on the long task. Students' legibility was greater on the short task than on the long task across both grasp conditions. No significant difference was found in scores between students who used dynamic tripod grasps and those who used atypical grasps, nor was there a significant interaction between grasp and task length. No significant differences were found between word legibility scores. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that although the students in this study wrote more legibly on the short task than on the long task, the type of grasp they used did not affect their legibility. Because of the limited sample size, the results of this study should be interpreted cautiously. More research in handwriting performance and pencil grasp is needed to provide clear expectations and treatment options for students.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Pencil grips, legibility, and speed of fourth-graders' writing in cursive.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research was to study how the speed and legibility of fourth-graders handwriting was affected by type of pencil grip on the Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting-Cursive. METHOD: Ninety-five typically developing students and 6 students receiving special education services completed the Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting-Cursive (ETCH-C). Photographs were taken of their pencil grips while they wrote the alphabet. One-way ANOVAs were calculated to compare legibility rates and writing speeds by type of pencil grip. RESULTS: Ninety-nine of the students used one of four pencil grips including the dynamic tripod (38 students), the dynamic quadrupod (18), the lateral tripod (22), and the lateral quadrupod (21). One student used the four-finger pencil grip and one used the interdigital pencil grip. Mean cursive writing speeds were similar for all pencil grips except for the interdigital grasp. Speeds obtained were slower than recently published fourth-grade speeds ranging from a mean of 29.45 to 34.75 letters per minute. CONCLUSION. This study found the lateral quadrupod and four-finger pencil grips to be as functional as the dynamic tripod, lateral tripod, and dynamic quadrupod pencil grips. This study provides average handwriting speeds for fourth-grade students on the ETCH-C.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Public juridic person offers flexibility. Structuring and writing statutes for this model is simple in theory, complex in practice.

Public juridic person is an alternative sponsorship arrangement that allows various Church entities to share resources, thus strengthening their competitive position. Creating a public juridic person is simple in theory but can be complicated in practice. The 1983 Code of Canon Law states that public juridic persons are ¿aggregates of persons or things¿ constituted by the ¿competent ecclesiastical authority¿ to ¿fulfill a proper function given them in view of the common good.¿ The canon law further indicates that public juridic persons require statutes. The code provides a list of items to be included in the statutes, such as a purpose, constitution, governance, operations, and conditions of membership. Writing these items can be complex, depending on the makeup of the public juridic person. After writing the statutes, the entities' leaders take them to the competent ecclesiastical authority, who approves them and thereby founds the public juridic person. But it is not always easy to determine who the competent authority is. Statutes can be tricky to formulate and therefore should contain provisions for modifications. They should be written as simply as possible. Bylaws should be used as much as possible for detailed provisions. Still, the most important safeguards of Catholic identity will be the makeup of the board, provisions for monitoring its activities, and the implementation of ethical directives issued by Church authority.

Catholicism↗

PubMed1999

[Writing disorder using a word processor: role of the left hand].

A young female secretary developed a writing disorder, exclusively expressed when using a word processor, following an ischemic vascular event involving the insula and the right posterior parietal region. There was no disturbance of laterality. The neurological examination, completed by neuropsychological tests eliminated any persistent phasic or gnostic disorders. The analysis of the text produced revealed abnormalities leading to the conclusion that the left hand was responsible for all the errors observed. A sensorimotor integration disorder produced a melokinetic apraxia which appeared to be the cause of the writing disorder which would have most likely remained unknown had the subject not been a secretary.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Writing projects: lessening undergraduates' unique suicidal bereavement.

To assess if writing projects lessen undergraduates' grief following a loved one's suicide, 40 students whose loved one died by suicide in the past 2 years wrote on four occasions over 2 weeks about profound topics (e.g., events and emotions surrounding the death) or trivial topics (e.g., description of the previous meal). All participants completed pre- and posttest measures of grief and self-reported health visits, and 75% completed the same measures at 6-week mailed follow-up. As expected, individuals in the profound condition reported less grief associated with suicide at follow-up than those in the trivial condition. However, the trivial and profound groups were not significantly different in general grief or health visits. Writing about grief associated with the suicide of a loved one appeared to reduce suicidal grief associated with this event. However, this benefit did not extend to general grief or physical health.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Development of differentiation between writing and drawing systems.

When does a writing system emerge out of children's drawing to separate (a) script processing and production from (b) picture processing and production? And does one system's activation help or hinder the other system's operation? Children 4-12 years of age wrote repeated Os and Vs and drew matching shapes, in the contexts of script and of pictures. The technique elicits matching products in order to identify differences between production kinematics in different contexts. A transition occurred around age 6 in which (a) production was more fluent for writing than drawing and (b) activation of one system interfered with the other. Modeling the consolidation of both phenomena generated testable parameters for the slow approach to the adult steady state, involving increasing specialization and the waning of the need for suppression of the two systems' interference.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2001

[How do physicians actually write guardianship certificates for elderly patients?].

UNLABELLED: Physicians participate in the legal process of appointing guardianship by writing medical certificates concerning guardianship. There are no instructions or clear-cut methods to examine how to determine a person's ability to handle his own affairs (estate and body), or to evaluate his ability to express his opinion concerning guardianship. There are, however, a number of ways to examine and analyze the subject. Our paper presents findings from 16 randomly collected medical certificates from diverse sources (13 different institutions, physicians from various specialties), for which the courts decision is known. We checked to see if the medical certificates relate to and fulfill basic medico-legal and clinical points referred to in the professional literature. RESULTS: We found that full demographic details were recorded in only one certificate (6.2%), the identity of the solicitor of the certificate was mentioned in 3 cases (18.7%) and the source/s of information in 6 cases (37.5%). Results of complete cognitive/mental examination (mental status) were mentioned in 4 cases (25%), psychiatric diagnoses in 12 cases (75%), level of severity in 9 cases (56.2%), reference to a temporary phenomenon in one case, and evaluation of basic daily functioning in 2 cases (12.5%). None of the cases included more complex daily functioning evaluations (instrumental). Similarly, none of the certificates mentioned whether or not legal criteria were used to evaluate the subjects ability to handle his estate or body or his ability to express his opinion concerning guardianship. On the other hand, formal reference to the ability to handle affairs (in 7 cases [43.7%] distinction between estate and body) and to express an opinion concerning guardianship was noted in 15 cases (93.75%). The length of the medical certificate averaged 13.8 lines (standard deviation 10.1, range 4-41); 13 of the certificates were written in public forums with an average length of 9.9 lines (standard deviation 4.6, range 4-20 lines), as opposed to 31 lines (standard deviation 9.5, range 22-41) for the private sector. Our findings suggest that the medical certificates were lacking in clinical facets examined, especially the medico-legal aspects. Despite these shortcomings, the courts accepted the overwhelming majority of the documents (15/16, 93.7%), perhaps because most of the certificates included formal reference to specific legal questions raised in the court (ability to handle affairs, ability to express opinion concerning guardianship). In our opinion, these findings, if validated in larger groups and in more courts, require multi-system re-evaluation of the subject of writing medical certificates for legal guardianship of the elderly.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2001

[Acceptability of computerized prescription writing in the hospital. Survey of 44 drug-prescribing physicians].

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this work was to assess the acceptability of computerized prescriptions delivered by hospital prescribers. METHODS: The study was conducted in four clinical units of the Grenoble University Hospital that have a computerized prescription system. Forty-four physicians using the system responded to a questionnaire concerning the act of prescribing and the benefits or drawbacks of the system. RESULTS: Generally, the computerized prescription system was well accepted. The first drawback mentioned was the time spent manipulating the software. Safe prescription was noted as one of the advantages. Overall, organizational rather than technical factors appeared to condition the development of computerized prescription writing. CONCLUSION: Optimization of computerized prescription writing requires a reorganization of the care unit. Consultation schedules and working relations between the prescriber and other healthcares and hospital pharmacies will have to be adapted.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2003

Writing the prescription and informing the patient.

BACKGROUND: Having decided on the generic drug to prescribe the prescription needs to be written and the patient informed regarding the treatment. OBJECTIVE: This article discusses some regulatory requirements for writing a legal prescription, but predominantly discusses important aspects of informing patients regarding drug therapy. DISCUSSION: The actual writing of a prescription is a small part of the prescribing process and needs to comply with local regulations. Including patients in the decision to embark on a treatment and informing them of drug treatment is a very important part of the prescribing process. There is no simple formula, but patients need to be informed on what they want to know, when they want to know it, and in the way that is most acceptable to them. It is important to use both verbal and written forms of communication and to allow patients to reflect over the information, ask questions, and be further informed over subsequent consultations. Consumer medicine information leaflets can be a useful aid, but require that the clinician understand and be prepared to answer questions raised by them.

Aged↗

PubMed2004

Comparison of near infrared light photography and middle infrared light photography for deciphering obliterated writings.

There are obliterated writings that are undecipherable by conventional visible and near infrared monochromatic light photography. Some of them could be deciphered undestructively by middle infrared light photography. Characters were written on paper with 101 kinds of pens. Middle infrared light photographs and near infrared light photographs of them were taken and compared to recognize what kinds of inks is transparent at examined wavelength regions. Based on the results obtained, the combination of ink for drawing and obliterating (which is not deciphered by visible and near infrared light photography, but expected to be deciphered with middle infrared light photography) is selected. From the examined photographs, it is demonstrated that there exist obliterated writings which are undecipherable by conventional near infrared light photography, but decipherable by middle infrared light photography.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

Writing it up: a step-by-step guide to publication for beginning investigators.

OBJECTIVE: Writing scientific manuscripts can be unnecessarily daunting, if not paralyzing. This paralysis is usually the result of one of two reasons: either researchers do not know how to start, or they do not know what to put where. However, most radiology manuscripts follow a definable blueprint. In this article, I attempt to lay out the paragraph-by-paragraph development of a typical radiology paper. CONCLUSION: If authors can accomplish the writing of the 18 paragraphs of text described in this article, they will produce a manuscript that is properly organized, correct in its essentials, and ready for the finishing hand of a seasoned writer and mentor.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

[The scientific writing about the therapeutic accompaniment in Brazil from 1960 to 2003: critical analysis].

This is a bibliographic research that analyses the scientific writing about the theme therapeutic accompaniment from 1960 until 2003. The objective of this study to identify the emerging themes in this writing and establish what the therapeutic accompaniment means for the agents of such practice. Five thematic categories have been selected: objectives, functions and definitions of therapeutic accompaniment, at whom the therapeutic accompaniment is aimed, the therapeutic accompanist characteristics as a professional, the characteristics and ways the therapeutic accompaniment clinic is undergone and the theoretical background for the therapeutic accompaniment. It has been verified that the therapeutic accompaniment is marked by setting larger and may be related to different theoretical perspectives.

Brazil↗

PubMed1985

Brain function and writing with the unaccustomed left hand.

Twenty right-handed subjects were asked to handprint a passage containing all the letters of the alphabet once with each hand. The purpose was to describe the changes a document examiner can expect to find in handprinting done with the unaccustomed left hand and to offer a hypothesis as to why these changes occur. It was found that many of the writers displayed persistent differences between their right- and left-hand writings. It is suggested that these differences were due to both a lack of manual dexterity when writing with the unaccustomed left hand and to the fact that different neurophysiological processes are involved.

Brain↗

PubMed1984

Evaluating the medical history: observation versus write-up review.

The ability to develop a medical history data base relevant to the total care of a patient is a requisite skill for clinical problem-solving. Assessment of this skill by faculty members in medical students has been based on direct observation of the student-patient encounter as well as on evaluation of the student's written patient history. In the study reported here, both methods were compared by the authors for the same student-patient interview. Preceptor ratings of the students' data-elicitation skills were correlated with their ratings of the students' interview-process skills and the time spent by the preceptor observing the interview. A criterion-based, checklist scoring of the student's write-up was not correlated with preceptor ratings. In this study, the authors suggest that a criterion-based evaluation of the student's patient write-up is a less faculty-intensive and more reliable method of evaluating medical student data-collection skills than direct observation of the student-patient encounter.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed1978

[Mirror reading and writing].

The case of a left handed patient, a woman 59 years old, who some days after the onset of a right hemiplegia with slight motoric and sensoric aphasic disorders, presented reverse (en miroir) reading and writing is described. Difficulties in the recognition of the right and left side could be revealed during the examination. No hemianopia was noted but an "unwillingness" to turn the eyes to the right side, without paresis, was noted. This could be, in relation with the disorder of the orientation in the space and the reanimation of primitive phasic functions, the basic mechanism that explains the above described symptom of reverse reading and writing.

Aphasia↗