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Direct-writing recorder of the dose-response curves of the airway to methacholine. Clinical application.

We report a new device for examining the bronchial hyperresponsiveness by directly writing the dose-response curve of respiratory resistance (Rrs) during the continuous inhalation of the methacholine in stepwise incremental concentrations. Respiratory resistance was measured by the forced oscillation method. We found that the Rrs began to increase at a certain threshold concentration of methacholine (bronchial sensitivity) and that it has a curvilinear slope (bronchial reactivity). Subsequent inhalation of the bronchodilator drug returned the Rrs to the control level. Thus, we were able to examine bronchohyperresponsiveness in the patterns of the cumulative dose-response curves of methacholine. All normal subjects were nonresponders; while all of the asthmatic subjects, 63 percent (10) of the 16 patients with chronic bronchitis and 50 percent (7) of the 14 patients with acute bronchitis were responders. The dose-response curves were reproducible. Our device may be clinically applicable for examinations of bronchial hyperresponsiveness and for screening tests.

Adult↗

[Writing tremor: report of a case].

Primary writing tremor is induced by a specific motor activity, generally the handwriting. The case is analyzed under clinic and therapeutic points of view. The patient had a tremor elicited by handwriting without any other concurrent neurologic alteration. He neither presented familiar antecedents nor metabolic, endocrine, iatrogenic, toxic and traumatic ones. As to the therapeutic approach, the tremor did not respond satisfactorily neither to propranolol nor to primidone. But with anticholinergics improvement of the tremor was verified.

Aged↗

Machado de Assis's own writings about his epilepsy: a brief clinical note.

Machado de Assis's own writings about his epilepsy are here given. They come from his correspondence with his friend Mario de Alencar during the last 8 months of Machado de Assis's life. These are the only places where Machado de Assis dealt clearly with his epilepsy during his entire life.

Correspondence as Topic↗

[Electronic medical prescription at a university hospital: writing failures and users' opinions].

This study analyzed the writing failure of the computerized physician order entry system and its advantages and disadvantages according to users. At a university hospital 1,351 physician orders were analyzed and 84 nursing and medical professionals were interviewed. The results showed that 17.7% of the orders presented measures, medication had been suspended in 16.8%, in 28.2% there was dubious or misleading information and in 25% medication had been prescribed manually. The professionals indicated advantages such as: ease of data reading and the quickness with which the order is entered and released, among others. They also reported disadvantages such as the repetition of orders from previous days without a review and incorrectly typed information. Therefore, it is concluded that, despite representing an important strategy for error reduction, this system must be overhauled and professionals must be trained to use it.

Brazil↗

Terminology in early pregnancy loss: what women hear and what clinicians write.

OBJECTIVE: The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that patient-focused terminology be used in early pregnancy care. The objective of the study was to evaluate whether inappropriate terminology is continuing to be used in Scottish gynaecology services. METHODS: A case note review (1259 records) and a patient survey (648 replies) assessed usage of four inappropriate terms ('abortion', 'blighted ovum', 'incompetent cervix' and 'pregnancy failure') in 18 Scottish hospitals providing secondary care to women with early pregnancy loss. RESULTS: Women reported hearing 'abortion' in 4.2% of hospital episodes (95% CI 2.9-6.0), but the term was used in 9.9% (95% CI 8.4-11.7) of hospital records. CONCLUSION: In order to meet national recommendations on terminology for early pregnancy loss, clinicians should not only say 'miscarriage' but also write it.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗

The effects of access to a playroom on the rate and quality of printing and writing of first and second-grade students.

The major dependent variable was the rate at which first and second-grade students printed or wrote daily copying assignments. Data were also taken on the percentage of letters scored as errors according to a set of scoring criteria. Initially, these data were collected during a baseline condition in which each child returned to his seat as soon as his completed work had been scored, to wait for the rest of the class to finish their assignments. When the children were allowed to go to a playroom after their papers had been scored, there was a reliable increase in the mean printing or writing rates. Subsequent introductions of the baseline and playroom conditions replicated the relative effectiveness of access to the playroom to produce higher work rates. Finally, the total amount of time allowed for children to complete their assignments and then play was progressively reduced from 50 to 35 minutes. A progressive increase in work rates was correlated with these changes. Throughout the experiment, there was considerable variability in the mean number of letters scored as errors but there was a clear trend towards fewer errors.

Journal Article↗

The modification of sentence structure and its relationship to subjective judgements of creativity in writing.

The present study objectively defined and manipulated some compositional variables in 10-sentence stories written by fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students, and related these operationally defined variables to subjective judgements of creativity. Points, exchangeable for candy and extra recess, were given to members of two teams contingent upon their using different adjectives, different action verbs, and different sentence beginnings. The students' use of these selected parts of speech was modified and the independent subjective ratings indicated that stories written during contingency conditions were generally rated as more creative than those written during baseline conditions. Operational definitions that specify non-repetition or variety of responses, and contingencies that require response diversity may provide a beginning basis for defining writing creativity and the conditions that maximize its occurrence.

Journal Article↗

A classroom program teaching disadvantaged youths to write biographic information.

Little attention has been given to how formal classroom instruction can be adapted to teach youths everyday skills such as the correct writing of biographic information frequently requested in transactions like applying for a job or a social security number and cashing a check. In this study, six youths in a special education classroom were taught to complete job application forms with the date, their name, signature, address, telephone number, date of birth, and a reference's name, address, and occupation. Each youth was trained on one item of biographic information at a time, after which he was tested on four application forms, including one on which he had not been trained. The tests show that after an item had been taught, it was correctly used in completing application forms on which the youths had been trained and forms on which they had never been trained. The study demonstrates the feasibility of teaching community-living, vocation-related skills to special-education youths in a classroom setting.

Journal Article↗

Contingency contracting with delinquents: effects of a brief training manual on staff contract negotiation and writing skills.

A brief training manual was developed for the purpose of teaching child-care workers to contingency contract with delinquent youths living in residential care facilities. The manual was designed to require minimal supplementary training by a professional. In Experiment 1 a multiple baseline design was used to assess the effect of the manual on 4 child-care workers' contract negotiation and writing behaviors. Experiment 2 consisted of four A-B systematic replications. Behaviors were assessed within the context of analogue training simulations and generalization tests with delinquent youths. Results from the analogue simulations indicated that the manual was successful in increasing both types of behaviors to a level of proficiency that equaled or surpassed that of behaviorally trained graduate students, and results from the generalization tests indicated that the child-care workers were able to apply their newly acquired contracting skills with delinquent youths. Procedural reliability varied across child-care workers, but was usually high.

Adolescent↗

Writing man-machine dialogues for a MUMPS system using the Application Controller Language (ACL).

The Application Controller Language (ACL) was designed to facilitate the development of man-machine dialogues. An exact specification of such a dialogue before programming begins is unlikely to be implemented without many changes. Immediately a dialogue is used, the 'hands-on' experience suggests many improvements. ACL was designed to serve as a flexible tool to enable easy re-shaping of this dialogue. For this reason, ACL is structured, allows documentary comments, and may be easily edited. ACL complements MUMPS and encourages the writing of small modular MUMPS programs to carry out well-defined tasks. For this purpose, ACL serves as the 'top' of a top-down written structure, with calls to MUMPS programs being made from ACL statements. A smooth dialogue is made easier to achieve by having all ACL statements use a single I/O processor giving a uniform terminal behaviour and appearance to the display. The programmer is encouraged to call this same I/O processor from his MUMPS application programs. ACL was used extensively for the development of a data management systems for hospital critical care.

Computers↗

How much gin in the tonic? The problems of writing a provincial medical history,.

This paper describes the problems and resources involved in writing a Canadian provincial medical history, (Manitoba Medicine: A Brief History). The first decision was whether it should be a scholarly or a popular history; The authors' background, and the realities of publishing dictated the latter. Resources available were local and easily accessible: archives and records, the Manitoba medical journals, a series of local medical journals (almost continuous for a century), and the Manitoba medical biographies, books variable in length, and content, but relating to a wide variety of physicians. Such a paper leads to a question- "Is local history merely trivial?" The answer to such a question is "no."

Canada↗

A survey of reading, writing, and oral communication skills in North American veterinary medical colleges.

In the 1989 report by the Pew National Veterinary Education Program (PNVEP), communication skills topped the list of characteristics the veterinary graduate should possess in order to function effectively in the twenty-first century. To determine the reading, writing, and oral communication requirements and opportunities in veterinary curricula in the US and Canada, and to determine the perceived communication tasks that might be commonly required of practicing veterinarians in the next century, we sent a 15-item communications skills questionnaire to the academic deans of the 31 veterinary curricula in the US and Canada. The results reinforce the importance of communication skills in veterinary medicine, as detailed by the PNVEP over 10 years ago. Based on the responses to our questionnaire and on our own experiences with veterinary medical students, we make several recommendations to enhance communication instruction in veterinary medical curricula.

Canada↗

Using NetCloak to develop server-side Web-based experiments without writing CGI programs.

Server-side experiments use the Web server, rather than the participant's browser, to handle tasks such as random assignment, eliminating inconsistencies with JAVA and other client-side applications. Heretofore, experimenters wishing to create server-side experiments have had to write programs to create common gateway interface (CGI) scripts in programming languages such as Perl and C++. NetCloak uses simple, HTML-like commands to create CGIs. We used NetCloak to implement an experiment on probability estimation. Measurements of time on task and participants' IP addresses assisted quality control. Without prior training, in less than 1 month, we were able to use NetCloak to design and create a Web-based experiment and to help graduate students create three Web-based experiments of their own.

Internet↗

Writing multiple-choice test items that promote and measure critical thinking.

Faculties are concerned about measurement of critical thinking especially since the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission cited such measurement as a requirement for accreditation (NLNAC, 1997). Some writers and researchers (Alfaro-LeFevre, 1995; Blat, 1989; McPeck, 1981, 1990) describe the need to measure critical thinking within the context of a specific discipline. Based on McPeck's position that critical thinking is discipline-specific, guidelines for developing multiple-choice test items as a means of measuring critical thinking within the discipline of nursing are discussed. Specifically, criteria described by Morrison, Smith, and Britt (1996) for writing critical-thinking multiple-choice test items are reviewed and explained for promoting and measuring critical thinking.

Cognition↗

Comparison of pencil-grip patterns in first graders with good and poor writing skills.

The purpose of this study was to compare nondysfunctional children with and without handwriting difficulties for an examination of grip and hand preference. Additionally, in the group of children with handwriting difficulties, the children with decreased proprioceptive-kinesthetic finger awareness were compared with the children without such a decrease. The results suggest that children with handwriting difficulties may demonstrate a lower grip score than children without handwriting problems. In addition, among children with poor handwriting, those with decreased proprioceptive-kinesthetic finger awareness may demonstrate a lower grip score than those with good proprioceptive-kinesthetic awareness. Children with poor hand-writing also show less hand preference than those with good handwriting.

Child↗

Assessing prescription writing skills of pre-clerkship medical students in a problem-based learning curriculum.

OBJECTIVE: To audit the acquisition of prescribing skills of pre-clerkship medical students in a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum that incorporates a prescribing program. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Student performance in pharmacotherapy stations included in six out of eight end-of-unit-objective structured practical examinations (OSPE) was evaluated using a rating checklist. RESULTS: Prescription writing skills of 539 students (66.2% female and 33.8% male) were appraised. With the exception of refill element, the other physician-related components including prescriber's identity, date of prescription order, patient's identity, the symbol Rx "Take Thou", and prescriber's signature were written by 96.1% of the students (95% confidence interval (CI) 94.1 - 97.5). However, the drug-related components such as the appropriateness of drug(s) selected, strength, dosage form, quantity to be dispensed and directions for use were written satisfactorily by 50.2% of the students (95% CI 46.0 - 54.4). With respect to prescribing skills, the mean total score of Year 4 students did not significantly differ from that of Year 2 (69.4 (CI 65.7 - 73.1) vs. 66.3 (CI 62.7 to 69.9); p = 0.237). However, the mean scores of individual drug-related components such as appropriateness of drug(s) selected, dosage form, and direction for use were significantly higher in Year 4 than that of Year 2 students (p < 0.05). Of 381 rationally prescribed drugs, 81.1% were written with generic names. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that the students acquire prescribing skills to a limited extent during the pre-clerkship phase in a PBL program. Prescribing errors and deficits were found to be mainly associated with drug-related components. Further training and assessment of prescribing skills during the clerkship and internship period are needed to achieve mastery of this skill as a terminal competency of graduating physicians.

Bahrain↗

Recent writing on health care history in Canada.

These are halcyon days for health care history in Canada. One routinely sees articles pertaining to health in leading Canadian and international history journals. The Canadian Bulletin of Medical History is a vibrant and important vehicle and there are a growing number of monographs. This essay reviews several of the maturing content areas that now characterize the writing of health history in Canada, including hospital history, nursing history, the history of mental health, and health and medicine in aboriginal settings. This essay seeks to highlight the accomplishments of the field, while reviewing some of the gaps.

Canada↗

Writing to patients: a randomised controlled trial.

It has been suggested that consultants should consider writing directly to patients with a summary of their outpatient consultation. In a controlled trial involving consecutive new referrals to a haematology outpatient clinic, we randomised patients to receive either a personal letter from their consultant summarising their consultation (n = 77) or a brief note thanking them for attending the clinic (n = 73). Patients were assessed for recall of and satisfaction with the consultation by a single independent observer, using standardised methods. At the second visit to outpatients, the patients' median percentage recall of items discussed during the consultation was 67% (IQ range 50-80%) in the intervention group, versus 57% (IQ range 43-76%) in the control group (p = 0.3). Strongly positive views on the personal letter were expressed by patients and referring clinicians. The findings suggest that although personal letters do not substantially improve recall of the clinical encounter, they are feasible, highly valued by patients and acceptable to referring clinicians.

Adolescent↗