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Results for “Utility Theory”

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PubMed2005

A longitudinal study of the effects of dual-earner couples' utilization of family-friendly workplace supports on work and family outcomes.

Little research exists on the effects of the utilization of workplace supports on work-family conflict and job satisfaction. With family systems theory as a framework, 2 waves of national survey data were collected from 234 couples (N = 468) caring for children and for aging parents. Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling techniques. Longitudinal results indicate that individuals' use of workplace supports was related to work-family conflict in the direction opposite to expectations and was related to job satisfaction in the direction consistent with expectations. Differential effects for wives versus husbands were found. In addition, couples' use of workplace supports was only minimally related to wives' outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of gender differences, family systems theory, and methodological and measurement issues related to the longitudinal study of utilization of workplace supports.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Beyond adoption to sustained use: telemedicine for rural communities.

The objective of this paper is to identify factors that affect the sustained use of telemedicine in rural communities and to suggest possible ways to improve such utilization. We draw on innovation and network theory to develop hypotheses about conditions that will hinder or facilitate sustained use of telemedicine. Telemedicine systems are expected to achieve sustained use in communities with higher physician-to-population ratios, greater availability of nonphysician providers, and greater consumer knowledge of and support for telemedicine. Additionally, telemedicine is more likely to be used in settings where hospital medical staff structures use contractual arrangements that encourage the use of telemedicine or reimburse through capitated systems. Rural physicians are more likely to use telemedicine if they have previous experience in facilities that serve as telemedicine hubs and if they have strong relationships with physicians in a hub location or with local physicians who are supportive of telemedicine. Physicians whose primary offices are geographically closer to the remote telemedicine installation are more likely to order telemedicine consultations for their patients than are their counterparts further away. Also, telemedicine systems that are well managed and easy to use are more likely to achieve sustained utilization by rural physicians. These hypotheses should be considered by supporters, providers, and managers of telemedicine. A proactive approach to managing telemedicine networks, with an emphasis on the issues raised here, should help telemedicine achieve its potential, namely, improved access and enhanced quality and efficiency of health services in rural communities.

Hospitals, Rural↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Patterns of preventive dental behavior.

Preventive dental behavior was examined using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1971-75 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. Most research to date has dealt with the use of all types of dental services, with relatively few studies focusing on utilization of dental services for preventive purposes or on preventive dental behavior. Economic theory on the demand for health services and the Andersen model of health services utilization were applied to examine predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics which may influence use of preventive dental health services and preventive dental behavior. The associations between each of three measures of preventive dental behavior and the three sets of characteristics from Andersen's model were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The enabling factors (income and a regular source of care) were the most important determinants of use of preventive dental services. Need characteristics, measured by self-evaluated condition of teeth, were also significant determinants of use, while the predisposing variables were the least important of the three types. In contrast, for the home care measure, frequency of brushing, the predisposing variables were the most important, with gender and education ranking highest. Consideration of these results may be useful to health educators and to those who formulate policies affecting the distribution of preventive dental services and dental insurance coverage.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Emotion processes in normal and abnormal development and preventive intervention.

We present an analysis of the role of emotions in normal and abnormal development and preventive intervention. The conceptual framework stems from three tenets of differential emotions theory (DET). These principles concern the constructs of emotion utilization; intersystem connections among modular emotion systems, cognition, and action; and the organizational and motivational functions of discrete emotions. Particular emotions and patterns of emotions function differentially in different periods of development and in influencing the cognition and behavior associated with different forms of psychopathology. Established prevention programs have not emphasized the concept of emotion as motivation. It is even more critical that they have generally neglected the idea of modulating emotions, not simply to achieve self-regulation, but also to utilize their inherently adaptive functions as a means of facilitating the development of social competence and preventing psychopathology. The paper includes a brief description of a theory-based prevention program and suggestions for complementary targeted interventions to address specific externalizing and internalizing problems. In the final section, we describe ways in which emotion-centered preventions can provide excellent opportunities for research on the development of normal and abnormal behavior.

Affect↗

PubMed1996

Loneliness in elderly people: an important area for nursing research.

The phenomenon of loneliness occurs in people of all ages but may be a particular problem in the elderly. It is acknowledged that loneliness is not a necessary accompaniment to ageing and that ageing is not solely responsible for the development of loneliness in elderly people. However, there is a relationship between ageing and loneliness. Four major theories of loneliness are reviewed and their utility for application to research in the elderly is examined along with a consideration of the ways in which loneliness can be measured. While causal relationships are difficult to determine, there is evidence that loneliness is associated with a number of physical and psychological pathologies and the relevance of these to nursing is discussed. There is a growing awareness of the phenomenon of loneliness in elderly people in the nursing literature and some evidence that nursing intervention can be beneficial in this regard both at alleviating loneliness and reducing some of the adverse effects of loneliness. Finally some directions for nursing research are presented which are aimed at improving the assessment and nursing intervention for loneliness in elderly people.

Aged↗

PubMed1984

Antecedents, subjective expected utility, and behavior: a panel study of adolescent cigarette smoking.

That the weighing of positive and negative consequences expected from behavior is fundamental to understanding behavior is central to many theories. We consider this in the context of subjective expected utility (SEU) and cigarette smoking in a panel study of 1,334 adolescents. There were reciprocal relationships between SEU and behavior, and SEU accounted for the association between some social and psychological variables and smoking behavior. We conclude that SEU contributes to the explanation of adolescent smoking behavior.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Health values and prospect theory: a comment.

In a recent volume of Medical Decision Making, Treadwell and Lenert stated that under prospect theory, community members compared with patients underestimate the utility of health improvements. In this comment, the authors show that this statement holds only for a subset of possible preference functions. Furthermore, the authors provide arguments that, in general, the rater's current health state is not the appropriate reference level if applying prospect theory to health valuations.

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed1988

Confirmation of the utility of fine needle aspiration biopsy of the renal allograft.

Allograft immunobiologic theory would predict that analysis of immunocompetent cells infiltrating the renal transplant would be most instructive. Recently a new aspiration biopsy technique has been developed to permit such analysis in patients which can be safely and repetitively performed. The clinical utility of such a technique has been tested utilizing a randomized prospective trial in which an aspirate was obtained every other day from the third post-operative day until discharge. Analysis included examination of adequacy criteria and the capacity of pathologic diagnosis to corroborate clinical diagnosis from coded specimens. Ninety-six aspirates from 21 consenting transplant recipients were obtained and analyzed. In 94 instances a clinical diagnosis could be made; 80 aspirates fulfilled adequacy criteria. We found the technique to be highly sensitive (greater than or equal to 90%) and highly specific (greater than or equal to 90%) for the clinical diagnoses of acute allograft rejection, post-operative acute renal failure, cyclosporine toxicity, and normal function. We conclude that the fine needle aspiration technique is an important adjunct to analysis of clinical renal transplantation and offers a major advantage to the clinical scholar in understanding transplant biology.

Acute Kidney Injury↗

PubMed2000

Calculation and verification of the ages of retroprocessed pseudogenes.

To verify the existence of processed pseudogenes in different primates and their correlation with the estimated age of divergence, selected regions of processed pseudogenes of alpha-enolase, calmodulin II (CALMII), and argininosuccinate synthetase (AS) were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using DNA of blood samples. Published primate divergence times from the accepted paleontological records and the age of the pseudogenes based on molecular clock calculations were compared to data obtained by detection of PCR products exhibiting the expected amplicon size of the pseudogene region. For the alpha-enolase and the CALMII pseudogenes Psi(2), and Psi(3), calculated divergence times were 11, 19, and 36 Myr, respectively. For the AS pseudogenes Psi(1), Psi(3), and Psi(7), the divergence times were calculated to be 21, 25, and 16 Myr, respectively. Primer design and the annealing temperature are critical factors in the detection of pseudogenes in different species and impact greatly on the interpretation of the PCR analysis. The estimated divergence times of the selected pseudogenes utilizing calculations based on the molecular clock theory correlated well with experimental PCR detection of the selected pseudogenes represented in this study.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Information network topologies for enhanced local adaptive management.

We examined the principal effects of different information network topologies for local adaptive management of natural resources. We used computerized agents with adaptive decision algorithms with the following three fundamental constraints: (1) Complete understanding of the processes maintaining the natural resource can never be achieved, (2) agents can only learn by experimentation and information sharing, and (3) memory is limited. The agents were given the task to manage a system that had two states: one that provided high utility returns (desired) and one that provided low returns (undesired). In addition, the threshold between the states was close to the optimal return of the desired state. We found that networks of low to moderate link densities significantly increased the resilience of the utility returns. Networks of high link densities contributed to highly synchronized behavior among the agents, which caused occasional large-scale ecological crises between periods of stable and high utility returns. A constructed network involving a small set of experimenting agents was capable of combining high utility returns with high resilience, conforming to theories underlying the concept of adaptive comanagement. We conclude that (1) the ability to manage for resilience (i.e., to stay clear of the threshold leading to the undesired state as well as the ability to re-enter the desired state following a collapse) resides in the network structure and (2) in a coupled social-ecological system, the system-wide state transition occurs not because the ecological system flips into the undesired state, but because managers lose their capacity to reorganize back to the desired state.

Communication↗

PubMed1986

Accident risk and risk-taking behaviour among young drivers.

This paper reviews the evidence relevant to the hypotheses that young (16-25) drivers are at greater risk of being involved in a casualty accident than older drivers and this greater risk is primarily a function of their propensity to take risks while driving. The first hypothesis is clearly supported by epidemiological research even when controlling for differences in the quantity and quality of road travel and driving experience. The second hypothesis is also supported by observational and self-report surveys of driving behaviour. Some of the research and theory bearing on risk perception and risk utility, possible mediators of risk-taking, is also reviewed.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed1991

Enzyme-amplified rate conductimetric immunoassay.

A new immunoassay technique based on measurement of conductance changes in solutions is described. The assay employs an immobilized monoclonal antibody to capture a protein analyte along with a second antibody to the same analyte, conjugated to an enzyme capable of producing ions which are measured conductimetrically. Urease was selected as the enzyme, because it produces, from urea, four ions for each catalytic event. The analyte studied was human chorionic gonadotropin in serum. Higher concentrations of analyte during incubation with immobilized antibody and antibody-urease conjugate led to increased binding of the latter. After removal of unbound conjugate, urea solution was added and the rate of conductance change measured in the bulk substrate solution. Experiments, performed in polystyrene microtiter wells using a specially designed electrode, demonstrated the ability to measure 30 picomolar concentrations of human chorionic gonadotropin with a 30-s rate measurement. Urease proved to be an excellent labeling enzyme, retaining its activity under the nonionic conditions necessary to maintain low background conductance. Good agreement was obtained between observed rates and those expected from conductimetric theory and known physical parameters. The potential utility of the conductimetric immunoassay lies in the fabrication of biosensor devices for simplification and cost reduction of immunochemical-based instrumentation. Further improvements to the technique are proposed to achieve lower detection limits.

Chorionic Gonadotropin↗

PubMed1989

Role of flow dispersion in the computation of microvascular flows by the dual-slit method.

Microvascular blood flow is commonly calculated from a "centerline" velocity derived from the dual-slit method. This is done by relating the computed centerline velocity to an average velocity through an empirically derived conversion factor. To determine the physical basis of the conversion factor, we utilized a Fourier transform and indicator dilution theory to model the parameters governing the conversion factor. We assumed Poiseuille flow from slit 1 to 2 and that the signals from the two slits were sinusoidal functions. Under these conditions, the conversion factor was found to depend primarily on a dimensionless time which is the product of the frequency of the sinusoidal signals and their time delay. Theory shows that if this dimensionless time is in the range of 3 to 7, the conversion factor lies within 1.5 to 1.7. Analysis of original dual-slit samples showed the conversion factor, obtained from the data of five arterioles and three venules, to be 1.58 +/- 0.03, and independent of the microvessel diameter.

Animals↗

PubMed1984

A study of an infected bone tissue (osteomyelitis) by small-angle X-ray scattering.

The small-angle X-ray scattering method has been applied to evaluate various macromolecular parameters such as the specific inner surface, the transversal lengths, the length of crystallinity, the range of amorphous zone and the percentage of porosity in pure human bone and osteomyelitis, an infection of bone tissue. The hydroxyapatite crystals of bone being uniformly dispersed throughout the hydrated collagenous matrix creating a large mineral matrix interface, we found the bone samples to behave as a densely packed two phase system. The theories of Kratky and Porod have been utilized to evaluate the macromolecular parameters. These findings may shed light on tertiary structural deformation of human bone when it is infected.

Bone and Bones↗

PubMed1994

Development of an instrument to measure postmortem lividity and its preliminary application to estimate the time since death.

A degree of postmortem lividity was related to a subcutaneous hemoglobin concentration, which can be measured by using light absorption. On the basis of this theory, the authors have developed an instrument utilizing a light to measure the degree of postmortem lividity. By using 42 corpses whose postmortem intervals were known, the authors examined the relationship between the actual postmortem intervals and the measurements, and found that there was significant correlation between them.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

The role of electrostatics in protein-membrane interactions.

Many experimental, structural and computational studies have established the importance of nonspecific electrostatics as a driving force for peripheral membrane association. Here we focus on this component of protein/membrane interactions by using examples ranging from phosphoinositide signaling to retroviral assembly. We stress the utility of the collaboration of experiment and theory in identifying and quantifying the role of electrostatics not only in contributing to membrane association, but also in affecting subcellular targeting, in the control of membrane binding, and in the organization of proteins and lipids at membrane surfaces.

Animals↗

PubMed1999

Role and evaluation of mammography and other imaging methods for breast cancer detection, diagnosis, and staging.

Mammographic screening of women age 40 and older can reduce breast cancer deaths by at least 30% to 40%. However, not all cancers are detected by mammography. Although a new supplementary modality for screening could, in theory, fill in this detection gap, such utilization must be based on rigorous demonstration of its ability to consistently and frequently find early cancers missed by mammography, such as those occurring in dense breasts or rapidly growing interval cancers that surface clinically between mammographic screens. After an abnormality is found at mammographic screening, supplementary mammographic views and/or ultrasound are now used to match the finding with an ACR BIRADS final diagnostic assessment category to indicate the relative likelihood of a normal, benign, or malignant diagnosis so that routine screening, short interval follow-up, or biopsy can then be advised. Appropriate categorization will maximize early cancer detection and minimize false-positive biopsies. Application of a new imaging method to this type of diagnostic evaluation requires well-designed studies to determine its effectiveness for this purpose.

American Cancer Society↗

PubMed2002

Microstructural characterization using diffuse backscatter: theory and experiment.

A microstructure characterization technique is presented which utilizes the azimuthal moments of backscattered intensity to determine the Legendre moments of the microstructure's phase function. The technique is based on a late-time, diffuse approximate solution to the radiative transfer equation. Monte Carlo simulations are presented indicating that the technique is robust for the first azimuthal moment but less so for higher-order moments.

Journal Article↗