To describe the design and implementation of an evaluation system to facilitate continuous quality improvement (CQI) and scientific evaluation in a statewide home visiting program, and to provide a summary of the system's progress in meeting intended outputs and short-term outcomes. Help Us Grow Successfully (HUGS) is a statewide home ...

INTRODUCTION: Remote-facilitated simulation-based learning was developed for team training with low-cost, preexisting, and easy-access resources to disseminate training with limited number of the faculty. This study was performed to examine the technical feasibility and to describe its characteristics compared with an on-site simulation system. METHOD: We performed 2 pilot remote-facilitated ...

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can significantly reduce the amount of CO(2) emitted from coal-fired power plants but its operation significantly reduces the plant's net electrical output and decreases profits, especially during times of high electricity prices. An amine-based CCS system can be modified adding amine-storage to allow postponing 92% ...

Objectives: Virtual reality (VR) simulation has the potential to standardize surgical training for robotic surgery. We sought to evaluate all commercially available VR robotic simulators. Methods and materials: A MEDLINE® literature search was performed of all applicable keywords. Available VR simulators were evaluated with regard to face, content, and construct ...

OBJECTIVES: Current robotic training approaches lack the criteria for automatically assessing and tracking (over time) technical skills separately from clinical proficiency. We describe the development and validation of a novel automated and objective framework for the assessment of training. METHODS: We are able to record all system variables (stereo instrument ...

Objective: To assess the present waste management system of healthcare facilities (HCFs) attached with Shalamar Hospital, Lahore by applying the 7-S technique of Total Quality Management (TQM) and to find out the outcome after imparting training. Study Design: Interventional quasi-experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: The Shalamar Hospital, Lahore, ...

Dr. Verna Gibbs describes the "NoThing Left Behind" Program designed to eliminate retained devices from surgical procedures. She explains the genesis of the program along with adjuncts to counting including computer-assisted sponge count, radiofrequency detection system, radiofrequency identification system, and the Sponge ACCOUNTing system. She provides comments on the use ...

SUMMARY: The BDTcomparator facilitates the selection of the best performing binary classification model or binary diagnostic procedure from the many possible alternatives by comparing their predictions with a known output, measured with the use of a system recognized as the gold standard. The program calculates the estimates of accuracy, sensitivity, ...

Kidgell, DJ and Pearce, AJ. What has transcranial magnetic stimulation taught us about neural adaptations to strength training? A brief review. J Strength Cond Res 25(11): 3208-3217, 2011-The evidence for neural mechanisms underpinning rapid strength increases has been investigated and discussed for over 30 years using indirect methods, such as ...

BACKGROUND: The Scrub Practitioners' List of Intraoperative Non-Technical Skills (SPLINTS) system is a new tool for training and assessing scrub practitioner (nurse, technician) behaviours during surgical operations. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to test the psychometric properties including inter-rater reliability of the prototype SPLINTS behavioural rating system. METHODS: ...

The present study examines the relationship between system-justifying ideologies and academic outcomes among 78 first-year Latino college students (21 men, 57 women, mean age = 18.1 years) attending a moderately selective West Coast university. Endorsement of system-justifying ideologies was negatively associated with grade point average (GPA); however it was positively ...

Academic Emergency Medicine 2011; 18:S54-S58 © 2011 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine ABSTRACT: Objectives:  The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of an automated procedure logging (APL) system on the number of procedures logged by emergency medicine (EM) residents. Secondary objectives were to assess the ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Since the shift from a radiographic film-based system to that of a filmless system, the change in radiographic examination costs and costs structure have been undetermined. The activity-based costing (ABC) method measures the cost and performance of activities, resources, and cost objects. The purpose of this study is ...

A stochastic linear fractional programming (SLFP) approach is developed for supporting sustainable municipal solid waste management under uncertainty. The SLFP method can solve ratio optimization problems associated with random information, where chance-constrained programming is integrated into a linear fractional programming framework. It has advantages in: (1) comparing objectives of two ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Few existing interactive rehabilitation systems can effectively communicate multiple aspects of movement performance simultaneously, in a manner that appropriately adapts across various training scenarios. In order to address the need for such systems within stroke rehabilitation training, a unified approach for designing interactive systems for upper limb rehabilitation ...

Because of the complexity inherent in biological systems, many researchers frequently rely on a combination of global analysis and computational approaches to gain insight into both (i) how interacting components can produce complex system behaviors, and (ii) how changes in conditions may alter these behaviors. Because the biological details of ...

After school is a critical period in the physical activity and sedentary behaviour patterns of young people. Interventions to promote physical activity during these hours should be informed by existing evidence. The present study provides a systematic review of interventions to promote physical activity in young people conducted in the ...

Physical activity can prevent or delay the onset of physical functional limitations in older adults. There are limited data that evidence-based physical activity interventions can be successfully translated into community programs and result in similar benefits for physical functioning. The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of ...

Purpose: A survey study of program directors in Advanced Education Programs in Prosthodontics (AEPPs) was conducted to determine the barriers to and factors that can lead to an enhanced patient-centered recall system. Material and Methods: Surveys were sent to AEPP directors across the United States to assess their program's recall ...

Myoelectric prostheses aim to restore the functionality of amputated limbs and improve the quality of life of amputees. Myoelectric training systems are used to train and assess the ability of amputees in how to use myoelectric technology in advance of receiving their actual myoelectric prostheses. This article describes the myoelectric ...

There is no unified national training system for orthopaedic surgeons in China. With such rapid progress in many aspects of life in China, there is an imminent need for improvement in the training of orthopaedic specialists. Since 2003 the orthopaedic community in Hong Kong has been working in collaboration with ...

This pilot study analyzed the adoption of the Nurse Practitioner Student Tracking (NPST) system by a public university's family nurse practitioner graduate program. Using the diffusion-of-innovations research framework, the ease of transition, acceptance, and perceived advantage of the system were studied in a unique group of students (n = 9) ...

A psychoanalytic model of preschool consultation is presented, born of the conviction that psychoanalysis has powerful tools with which to tackle some of our most difficult and entrenched community problems. Since trauma is known to impact our ability to think reflectively and symbolically (Fonagy, Moran, and Target 1993), the clinical ...

To enforce material recycling of household waste at high levels, separate collection schemes often under a producer's responsibility regime were implemented in Germany since the 1970s and 1990s, respectively. The separate collection of recyclables (Sorting-Transportation-Sorting-Recovery' system) is assumed, guaranteeing higher purities of the collected material streams but also causing higher ...

BACKGROUND: Although lack of time, trained personnel, and reimbursement have been identified as barriers to pharmacists providing cognitive pharmaceutical services (CPS) in community pharmacies, the underlying contributing factors of these barriers have not been explored. One approach to better understand barriers and facilitators to providing CPS is to use a ...

This paper presents an electrocardiogram acquisition system course design project for an upper year bioinstrumentation course. The objective of this design project is to provide students an opportunity for an integrative learning, enhancing their educational experience. Unlike similar electrocardiogram instrumentation projects, this project is based on a commercially available instrumentation ...

This paper discusses how interactive neurorehabilitation systems can increase their effectiveness through systematic integration of media arts principles and practice. Media arts expertise can foster the development of complex yet intuitive extrinsic feedback displays that match the inherent complexity and intuitive nature of motor learning. Abstract, arts-based feedback displays can ...

Trans-femoral amputees must regain moving pattern by refined rehabilitation program using loads applied on a prosthetic limb. On the other hand, understanding those loads is indispensable for biomechanical consideration of trans-femoral amputees. However, conventional prosthetic gait training systems cannot measure long continuous walking motions. In this paper, loads applied on ...

This paper presents a novel, low-cost, real-time adaptive multimedia environment for home-based upper extremity rehabilitation of stroke survivors. The primary goal of this system is to provide an interactive tool with which the stroke survivor can sustain gains achieved within the clinical phase of therapy and increase the opportunity for ...

Emerging technologies such as rehabilitation robots (RehaBot) for retraining upper and lower limb functions have shown to carry tremendous potential to improve rehabilitation outcomes. Hstar Technologies is developing a revolutionary rehabilitation robot system enhancing healthcare quality for patients with neurological and muscular injuries or functional impairments. The design of RehaBot ...

Computer-based training systems have been widely studied in the field of human rehabilitation. In health applications, Virtual Reality presents itself as an appropriate tool to simulate training environments without exposing the patients to risks. In particular, virtual prosthetic devices have been used to reduce the great mental effort needed by ...

Intensive computer use has been associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Although the underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood, muscle fatigue is thought to be a contributing factor. Previous studies have shown that keystroke durations are related to muscle twitch durations and may be used as a surrogate measure of ...

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems control the user's environment via his/her brain signals. Brain signals related to motor imagery (MI) have become a widespread method employed by the BCI community. Despite the large number of references describing the MI signal treatment, there is not enough information related to the available ...

Recent work in cognitive psychology has shown that repeatedly testing one's knowledge is a powerful learning aid and provides substantial benefits for retention of the material. To apply this in a human anatomy course for medical students, 39 fill-in-the-blank quizzes of about 50 questions each, one for each region of ...

Abstract It is widely documented that laparoscopic surgeons require training, and an objective evaluation of the training that they receive. The most advanced evaluation systems integrate the digitization of the movement of laparoscopic tools. A great number of these systems, however, do not permit the use of real tools and ...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper was to identify the factors that program developers perceived as important to the successful collaboration between the mental health and justice sectors in seven Ontario, Canada, post-booking programs. METHODS: Semi-structured telephone interviews with developers of the programs in each region were conducted. Key informants ...

Adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) is a promising research field for design of intelligent controllers, which can both learn on-the-fly and exhibit optimal behavior. Over the past decades, several generations of ADP design have been proposed in the literature, which have demonstrated many successful applications in various benchmarks and industrial applications. ...

Many children have significant mathematical learning disabilities (MLD, or dyscalculia) despite adequate schooling. The current study hypothesizes that MLD partly results from a deficiency in the Approximate Number System (ANS) that supports nonverbal numerical representations across species and throughout development. In this study of 71 ninth graders, it is shown ...

To construct and evaluate a novel wheelchair system that can be freely controlled via electroencephalogram signals in order to allow people paralyzed from the neck down to interact with society more freely. A brain-machine interface (BMI) wheelchair control system was constructed by effective signal processing methods, and subjects were trained ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Programmatic assessment that looks across a whole year may contribute to better decisions compared with those made from isolated assessments alone. The aim of this study is to describe and evaluate a programmatic system to handle student assessment results that is aligned not only with learning and remediation, ...

Hospital executives were eager to sign up for Medicare's proposed ACO program--until they saw the proposed rule spelling out how the CMS wants to structure it. They see too many risks, with too little chance of rewards. Stephen Mansfield, left, of Methodist Health System, describes the rule as "cold water" ...

It has been proposed that students' use of an audience response system, commonly called clickers, may promote comprehension and retention of didactic material. Whether this method actually improves students' grades, however, is still not determined. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a lecture format utilizing multiple-choice PowerPoint ...

Less than half of youth engage in sufficient physical activity to achieve health benefits. Key environmental factors of park and recreation spaces may influence youth physical activity. We sought to ascertain youth characteristics and behaviors that attract youth to parks with specific amenities and encourage physical activity while at the ...

This opinion statement points out some of the considerations and pitfalls in using virtual reality computer programs in the teaching of life sciences. Emphasis is placed on the possibility of such programs leading to reductionist thinking including how reductionist thinking could foster the formation of misconceptions. Negative feedback is used ...

Numerous training and education programs have evolved to address culturally competent health care delivery. This article describes an exemplar educational approach used to teach cultural competency to beginning graduate psychiatric mental health nursing students. Using interactive strategies delivered within the 4 phases of the curriculum, the approach has been shown ...

This study investigated the educational benefits of system-based lecture notes and interactive learning objects in a peripheral nervous system component of a traditional first-year medical school human anatomy course. The impetus for the investigation was anecdotal evidence suggesting enhanced learner satisfaction with the learning resources. Retrospective review of existing data ...

Abstract Objective: This article presents a system that implements a cognitive training program in users' homes. The system comprises various applications designed to create a daily brain-fitness regime. Materials and Methods: The proposed mental training system uses television and a remote control specially designed for the elderly. This system integrates ...

Purpose: A qualitative study of Advanced Education Programs in Prosthodontics (AEPPs) students was conducted to identify best practices to effectively promote ongoing health and student learning within the context of a patient-centered recall system. Materials and Methods: Ten students from seven AEPPs nationwide were invited to participate in a focus ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: This article describes an evaluation of a school-based peer education intervention for HIV prevention among students in twenty seven high schools in Aden, Yemen. The intervention was developed after a survey among the same population in 2005, which revealed a high level of stigma towards people living with ...

Prologue This is an account mostly of what I have seen and worked on in physical chemistry, from my time in graduate school six decades ago to the present. It is a personal story about kinetics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics-in which subjects I continue to be educated, thanks to patient ...