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PubMedDate not supplied

[The structure of scientific knowledge. Science for knowledge and science for action].

Moving from the seminal contribution of Aristotele--according to whom science is not concerned with the what, neither with the how of reality, but with the why--the article emphasizes some characteristic features of a science: it must be rational, methodologically grounded, and it must have a specific object, depending on which many different sciences can be distinguished. An historical sketch of science is offered, as well as some recent contributions in the field of epistemology, in particular those of Carl R. Popper and of Thomas S. Kuhn. The case of Glottodidactics (Language Teaching)--which has been considered as a proper science only since a few years ago, and which has, since then, regular university courses--is very useful to study the difference between "sciences to know" and "sciences to do", and to outline the structure of an interdisciplinary science; this case--this is the author's claim--is quite similar to that of Nursing Science.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Kave: a tool for knowledge acquisition to support artificial ventilation.

A decision support system for artificial ventilation is being developed. One of the fundamental goals for this system is the application of the system when a domain expert is not present. Such a system requires a rich knowledge base. The knowledge acquisition process is often considered to be the bottleneck in acquiring such a complete knowledge base. Since no single available method, for example interviewing domain experts, is sufficient for removing this bottleneck, we have chosen a combination of different methods. The different backgrounds of knowledge engineers and domain experts could cause communication restrictions and difficulties between them, e.g. they might not understand each others knowledge domain and this will affect formulation of the knowledge. To solve this problem we needed a tool which supports both the knowledge engineer and the domain expert already from the initial phase of developing the knowledge base. We have developed a knowledge acquisition system called KAVE to elicit knowledge from domain experts and storing it in the knowledge base. KAVE is based on a domain specific conceptual model which is a result of cooperation between knowledge engineers and domain experts during identification, design and structuring of knowledge for this domain. KAVE includes a patient simulator to help validate knowledge in the knowledge base and a knowledge editor to facilitate refinement and maintenance of the knowledge base.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed1990

[Life style and right to clean air in public places (RCA) (Part 2). The relationship between life style and the aspect of knowledge level of the consciousness towards smoking regulations among employees].

The right to clean air in public places (RCA) is a useful indicator of health consciousness. We surveyed the life style and consciousness towards RCA among employees working at the head office of a major company in Osaka, and examined the relationship between life style and knowledge aspect of RCA, one of the three aspects of consciousness towards RCA. Knowledge on laws concerning smoking regulations in public places was classified into two categories. One was knowledge on laws concerning general matters and the other was knowledge on laws concerning concrete and specific matters. Therefore, there are two kinds of relationship; the relationship between life style and knowledge on laws concerning general matters and the relationship between life style and knowledge on laws concerning concrete matters. These two relationships were examined with statistical procedures. Mean scores of knowledge on laws of subgroups divided by HPI score (POOR, MODERATE and GOOD) within groups divided by age and sex ("M. smoker," "M. nonsmoker" and "F. nonsmoker") were compared by t-test. Life style related to knowledge score was checked by correlation coefficient. The following results were obtained. (1) Relationship between life style and knowledge on laws concerning general matters Knowledge scores and their age-adjusted scores of MODERATE groups were the lowest among the 3 groups ("M. smoker," "M. nonsmoker," "F. nonsmoker"). This set of questions was designed to measure the knowledge level on laws concerning general matters. One would have abundant knowledge if one is health-conscious. In other words, those who do many things beneficial to physical health and have a high HPI have a wealth of knowledge on laws concerning smoking regulations on general matters. In the case of the employees, MODERATE groups were less health-oriented than others ("POOR," "GOOD") within the 3 groups ("M. smoker," "M. nonsmoker," "F. nonsmoker"). (2) Relationship between life style and knowledge on laws concerning concrete matters This set of questions was designed to measure the knowledge on laws concerning concrete and specific matters. To attain high scores, it is necessary to have more smoking experiences in various types of indoor places. POOR group of "M. smoker" and MODERATE groups of "M. nonsmoker" and "F. nonsmoker" had high knowledge scores. They were considered to have greater opportunities to visit public places where smoking is permitted (for example, bars) irrespective of their smoking status.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Building knowledge for quality improvement in healthcare: an introductory glossary.

At the heart of organization-wide quality improvement in healthcare is the need to build knowledge for improvement that complements the subject matter knowledge of healthcare. Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the quality improvement pioneer, has suggested that "profound knowledge," or knowledge required for improvement, consists of four basic dimensions: Knowledge of the organization as a system. At its heart this knowledge is an understanding of the methods of production, the methods of improvement, and the aim of the entire enterprise. This concept was first presented by Deming at Mount Hakone, Japan, in 1950. In his book Out of the Crisis (1986), Deming illustrates the organization as a system. Knowledge of variation. This understanding comes from the awareness that a system of causes is at work producing any result. These sources of the variation, which can be observed in any process, are what must be acted upon to improve the results of the process. Studying the variation in a process can provide clues to the most economical actions that managers can take for improvement. It involves knowledge of the difference between common and special cause variation. Knowledge of psychology. The focus is on an awareness of the power of intrinsic motivation, a sense of self-worth and pride in what is done in the workplace. Theory of knowledge. How is new knowledge built? What is the purpose of knowledge? What is the nature of knowledge? Unless these issues are clear, it will not be easy to build useful knowledge. Deming has provided further insight into this framework in a recent unpublished essay and is currently working to further expand these concepts in additional publications in preparation. This framework helps build the knowledge necessary for the improvement of healthcare. As you work to build that knowledge, however, you will confront a wide variety of terms and a language that may in some ways be unfamiliar. In recognition of that, an introductory glossary is offered for your use and reference. With time, it can, should, and will be replaced by an expanded lexicon. Other sources that interested readers may wish to consult include the references listed at the end of the glossary.

Quality Assurance, Health Care↗
PubMed1995

Experiential health knowledge from the perspective of Finnish adults.

The article describes how Finnish adults understand health. The data were collected by means of free-form thematic interviews and analyzed on the basis of an interpretive approach, representing the phenomenological research tradition. From the interviewees' responses, there emerged two different types of experiential health knowledge, namely institutional and individual health knowledge. Institutional health knowledge found expression in the following themes: knowledge about health as normalcy, knowledge about proper health care, knowledge about factors that may cause illness, knowledge about diseases observed in oneself, and knowledge about obtaining help. Individual health knowledge found expression in the following themes: knowledge about being healthy and feeling well, knowledge about how to produce well-being and how to deal with not feeling well, and knowledge about being ill and not feeling well. The results of the study provide conceptual tools for the further analysis of health knowledge from the perspective of people themselves and at the same time deeper knowledge about the ways in which people perceive health and in which they seek to maintain good health.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Outpatients' knowledge about and attitude towards clinical research and randomized clinical trials. The INFO Trial Group.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the knowledge about randomized clinical trials and the attitude towards clinical research among Danish outpatients and to examine the relationships between outpatient demographic variables and knowledge and attitude. SETTING: Outpatients (n = 415) were recruited from four departments at a university hospital in Copenhagen. METHODS: The participants answered an 18 item multiple choice test evaluating knowledge about randomized clinical trials and a 32 item Likert format questionnaire evaluating attitudes towards clinical research in general and randomized clinical trials. Assessment of scales for knowledge and attitudes was performed using Rasch analysis and Cronbach's alpha. Associations between demographic variables, knowledge score and attitude score were examined using analysis of variance. RESULTS: Mean age for all outpatients was 46 years (range 18-88 years); 251 (60%) were females. A total of 27 outpatients (7%) had previously participated in a randomized clinical trial. Mean knowledge score (number of correct answers out of a maximum of 17) was 7.9 (SD 3.1). Patients in the younger age groups and patients with longer education had significantly higher knowledge scores (p < 0.001). The effect of age group (estimated increase in knowledge score relative to the group 60-89 years) was: 18-29 years 1.2 (SE 0.4); 30-39 years 2.0 (SE 0.4); and 40-59 years 1.6 (SE 0.4). The effect of education (estimated decrease in knowledge score relative to patients with > 12 years of education) was: < 7 years 3.4 (SE 0.4); and 8-11 years 2.0 (SE 0.3). Mean total attitude score was 74.8 (SD 14.8) on a scale from 0-128. Compared to female patients, male patients had an estimated 5.1 points (SE 1.5) higher attitude score (p < 0.001). There was a weak but significant positive association (r = 0.38; p < 0.001) between the knowledge score and the total attitude score. CONCLUSION: Among Danish outpatients knowledge about randomized clinical trials is better in the younger age groups and in individuals with longer education. Overall, better knowledge was associated with a more positive attitude towards clinical research. The question is whether it is possible by simple means to increase knowledge about clinical research and whether an increase in knowledge may positively affect the attitude towards clinical research in individual patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Dimensions of knowledge sharing and reuse.

Many workers in medical informatics are seeking to reuse knowledge in new applications and to share encoded knowledge across software environments. Knowledge reuse involves many dimensions, including the reapplication of lexicons, ontologies, inference syntax, tasks, and problem-solving methods. Principal obstacles to all current work in knowledge sharing involve the difficulties of achieving consensus regarding what knowledge representations mean, of enumerating the context features and background knowledge required to ascribe meaning to a particular knowledge representation, and of describing knowledge independent of specific interpreters or inference engines. Progress in the area of knowledge sharing will necessitate more practical experience with attempts to interchange knowledge as well as better tools for viewing and editing knowledge representations at appropriate levels of abstraction. The PROTEGE-II project is one attempt to provide a knowledge-base authoring environment in which developers can experiment with the reuse of knowledge-level problem-solving methods, task models, and domain ontologies.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed1997

Children's religious knowledge: implications for understanding satanic ritual abuse allegations.

OBJECTIVES: The goals of the present study were to examine the extent of children's religious, especially satanic, knowledge and to understand the influence of children's age, religious training, family, and media exposure on that knowledge. METHODS: Using a structured interview, 48 3- to 16-year-old children were questioned about their knowledge of: (a) religion and religious worship; (b) religion-related symbols and pictures; and (c) movies, music, and television shows with religious and horror themes. RESULTS: Although few children evinced direct knowledge of ritual abuse, many revealed general knowledge of satanism and satanic worship. With age, children's religious knowledge increased and became more sophisticated. Increased exposure to nonsatanic horror media was associated with more nonreligious knowledge that could be considered precursory to satanic knowledge, and increased exposure to satanic media was associated with more knowledge related to satanism. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that children do not generally possess sufficient knowledge of satanic ritual abuse to make up false allegations on their own. However, many children have knowledge of satanism as well as nonreligious knowledge of violence, death, and illegal activities. It is possible that such knowledge could prompt an investigation of satanic ritual abuse or possibly serve as a starting point from which an allegation is erected.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

EMS knowledge and skills in rural North Carolina: a comparison with the National EMS Education and Practice Blueprint.

INTRODUCTION: Many state and local emergency medical services (EMS) systems may wish to modify provider levels and their scope of practice to align their systems with the recommendations of the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint. To determine any changes that may be needed in a typical EMS system, the knowledge and skills of EMS providers in one rural area of North Carolina were compared with the knowledge and skills recommended in the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint. METHODS: A survey listing 175 items of patient care-oriented knowledge and skills described in the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint was developed. EMS providers from five rural eastern North Carolina counties were asked to identify on the survey those items of knowledge and skills they believed they possessed. The skills and knowledge selected by the respondents at the five different North Carolina levels of certification were compared with the knowledge and skills listed for comparable provider levels delineated by the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint. The proportions of the recommended skills reported to be possessed by the respondents were compared to determine which North Carolina certification levels best correlate with the Blueprint. RESULTS: One hundred forty-five EMS providers completed the survey. The proportion of recommended skills and knowledge reported to be possessed by Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) ranked significantly lower than did the skills and knowledge reported to be possessed by respondents at other levels in five of the 10 Blueprint elements. The proportion of recommended skills and knowledge reported to be possessed by EMT-Defibrillator-level personnel ranked lower than did those reported to be possessed by respondents at other levels in seven of the 10 Blueprint elements. The proportion of recommended skills and knowledge reported to be possessed by EMT-Intermediates ranked lower than did those reported to be possessed by respondents at other levels in nine of the 10 Blueprint elements. The proportion of recommended skills and knowledge reported to be possessed by EMT-Advanced Intermediates ranked lower than were the skills and knowledge reported to be possessed by respondents at other levels in two of the 10 Blueprint elements. Finally, the proportion of recommended skills and knowledge reported to be possessed by EMT-Paramedics ranked lower than were those reported to be possessed by respondents at other levels in one of the 10 Blueprint elements. CONCLUSION: In North Carolina, combining the EMT and EMT-Defibrillator levels and eliminating the EMT-Intermediate level would create three levels of certification, which would be more consistent with levels recommended by the Blueprint. The results of this study should be considered in any effort to revise the levels of EMS certification in North Carolina and in planning the training curricula for bridging those levels. Other states may require similar action to align with the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint.

Certification↗