The electronic gas-phase absorption spectrum of the bent carbon-chain radical, HC(4)CHC(6)H with C(s) symmetry, is recorded in the 595 nm region by cavity ring-down spectroscopy through an expanding hydrogen plasma. An unambiguous spectroscopic identification becomes possible from a systematic deuterium labeling experiment. A comparison of the results with recently reported ...

This study evaluated the life cycle of bioethanol produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw. Net energy consumption, CO(2) emission and production costs were estimated to determine whether environmentally preferable and economically viable bioethanol can be produced from rice straws. Two varieties of rice straw (Koshihikari and Leafstar), three energy ...

Ab initio electronic structure calculations were performed on a doubly charged polypeptide model H+-Lys(Ala)19-CO-CH(NH2)-CH2-SS-CH2-(NH2)CH-CO-(Ala)19-Lys-H+ consisting of a C-terminal protonated Lys followed by a 19-Ala α-helix with a 20th Ala-like unit whose side chain is linked by a disulfide bond to a corresponding Ala-like unit connected to a second 19-Ala α-helix ...

The self-assembled structure of alkoxy- and N-alkylcarbamoyl-substituted zinc-tetraphenylporphyrin at the liquid-highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) interface was observed by using scanning tunneling microscopy. The alkoxy porphyrin showed a phase transition from face-on to edge-on ordering. The phase transition requires the close-packed structure of alkoxy porphyrin. The chronological change of the ...

Background. Hand hygiene is a key measure in preventing infections. We evaluated healthcare worker (HCW) hand hygiene with the use of remote video auditing with and without feedback.Methods. The study was conducted in an 17-bed intensive care unit from June 2008 through June 2010. We placed cameras with views of every sink ...

Aim:  To evaluate the role of electronic faucets in a newborn intensive care unit during a Pseudomonas aeruginosa outbreak. Methods:  After three patients had P. aeruginosa bacteremia, environmental cultures including those from patient rooms, incubator, ventilators, total parenteral nutrition solutions, disinfection solutions, electronic and hand-operated faucet filters/water samples after removing filters ...

Male glandular organs characterized by porous surfaces with hair-like cuticular elaborations are known from several trichoniscid isopods. In the subterranean species Titanethes albus, males possess paired tubercles with numerous hairs and pores dorsally on the pleon. We analyzed the microscopic anatomy of these structures with scanning and transmission electron microscopy. ...

Persistence of gunshot residue (GSR) simultaneously collected from hands, face and hair, and clothing of the shooting person was examined. Samples were collected from five shooters in nine time intervals after a single shoot with a Luger 9 mm pistol, in the range of 0-4 h and examined with scanning ...

The experimental imaging of electronic orbitals has allowed one to gain a fascinating picture of quantum effects. We here show that the energetically high-lying orbitals that are accessible to experimental visualization in general differ, depending on which approach is used to calculate the orbitals. Therefore, orbital imaging faces the fundamental ...

Abstract Pediculus humanus capitis is an ancient human parasite, probably inherited from pre-hominid times. Infestation appears as a recurrent health problem throughout history, including pre-Columbian populations. We describe and discuss the occurrence of pre-Columbian pediculosis in the Andean region of the Atacama Desert. Using light microscope and scanning electron microscopy, ...

A scaling law which was used to classify photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) is now extended to photoelectron kinetic energy spectra. Both a theoretical proof and an independent verification are presented. Considering PADs are of photoelectron momentum spectra, this extension really extends the scaling law to the entire energy-momentum spectra. The ...

Scaphoideus titanus Ball (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha) is a leafhopper vector of a phytoplasma disease, the Flavescence dorée (FD), belonging to the vine yellows group. A scanning and transmission electron microscope study has been carried out to investigate the antennal sensory structures. The first two segments, the scape and the pedicel, are ...

Monitoring hand hygiene compliance and providing healthcare workers with feedback regarding their performance are considered integral parts of multidisciplinary hand hygiene improvement programs. Observational surveys conducted by trained personnel are currently considered the "gold standard" method for establishing compliance rates, but they are time-consuming and have a number of shortcomings. ...

We describe a 53-year-old man in good general health who presented with an 8-month history of progressive gray hyperpigmentation of the face. He denied using any prescription medications; however, he admitted to taking a herbal supplement. Clinically, the differential diagnosis included hemochromatosis, Wilson's disease and hyperpigmentation secondary to supplement use. ...

BACKGROUND: In stroke and multiple sclerosis patients, gait is frequently hampered by a reduced ability to push-off with the ankle caused by weakness of the plantar-flexor muscles. To enhance ankle push-off and to decrease the high energy cost of walking, spring-like carbon-composite Ankle Foot Orthoses are frequently prescribed. However, it ...

Frequency pulling is a well-known phenomenon in standard laser physics, leading to a shift of the laser frequency when the cavity and maximum gain frequencies are detuned. In this letter we present the first experimental demonstration of frequency pulling in single-pass free-electron lasers. Measurements are performed using the single-pass free-electron ...

Zebrafish, Danio rerio, has been a prominent model vertebrate for the study of chemical toxicity and human disease. Zebrafish hair cells (HCs) show significant structural, functional and molecular similarities to the mammalian inner ear HCs. We examined the effects of cisplatin, an anti-cancer drug, on HCs of the inner ear ...

The influence of human hair bleaching agents with different bleaching strength on the ultrastructure of human hair was studied using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer equipped with TEM (EDS-TEM). Two kinds of bleaching agents were used: a lightener agent with a weak bleaching effect ...

We present exact calculations of the chromatic polynomial and resultant ground state entropy of the q-state Potts antiferromagnet on lattice strips that are homeomorphic expansions of a strip of the kagomé lattice. The dependence of the ground state entropy on the form of homeomorphic expansion is elucidated.

A 15-facility healthcare organization utilized organizational change management techniques to aid with the adoption of a clinical information system to accomplish desired cultural transformation. The aim of this article was to provide a description of team member and physician attitudes toward change during conversion to a new clinical information system ...

Hair is frequently exposed to environmental stresses and chemical insults that result in damage to its internal structure and its outer cuticular components. Spectrofluorescence is a useful tool to monitor the health of biological tissues as it can measure the level of tryptophan (Trp), which is representative of protein integrity. ...

Hair is preserved for millennia in permafrost; it enshrines a record of biologic rhythms and offers a glimpse at chronobiology as it was in extinct animals. Here we compare biologic rhythms gleaned from mammoth's hairs with those of modern human hair. Four mammoths' hairs came from varying locations in Siberia ...

Integrated electronic prescribing systems (IEPSs) are expected to improve efficiency and safety in the management of pharmaceuticals throughout the healthcare sector. In Sweden (population 9 million), more than 25 million e-prescriptions each year are processed in the National IEPS. We set out to examine the introduction of an IEPS into ...

Abstract Little is known about the influence of electronic media use on the academic and social lives of university students. Using time-diary and survey data, we explore the use of various types of electronic media among first-year students. Time-diary results suggest that the majority of students use electronic media to ...

Opportunities for improvement discovered through questionnaires. Use of e-tablets boosts patient satisfaction, say leaders. Color-coding of symptoms quickly alerts staff to any problems.

Electronic health records (EHR) enable transmission and tracking of referrals between primary-care practitioners (PCPs) and subspecialists. We used an EHR to examine follow-up actions on electronic referral communication in a large multispecialty VA facility. We retrieved outpatient referrals to five subspecialties between October 2006 and December 2007, and queried the ...

Adolescent dating violence and electronic aggression are significant public health problems. The purpose of this study was to (a) identify ways in which technology is used in dating violence and (b) present examples of dating violence in which electronic aggression played a salient role. The data set included the transcribed ...

BACKGROUND: A locum practitioner is an out-of-hours general practitioner who needs access to the electronic health record of visiting patients. The electronic locum record is a summary of the electronic health record available to the locum practitioner and includes the most significant health problems, the most recent records of the ...

OBJECTIVE: To estimate if using an electronic checklist improved the documentation of shoulder dystocias that occurred at our institution. METHODS: A standard checklist of key elements that should be included in the delivery note after a shoulder dystocia was added to the electronic delivery note at our institution. We identified ...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates are low despite confirmed benefits. The authors investigated the use of natural language processing (NLP) to identify previous colonoscopy screening in electronic records from a random sample of 200 patients at least 50 years old. The authors developed algorithms to recognize temporal expressions and 'status ...

BACKGROUND: Adverse drug reaction reports used in pharmacosurveillance often lack complete information on treatment indication that is important for benefit-risk analyses and clinical and regulatory decision making. A systematic documentation of treatment indication using electronic prescribing applications provides an opportunity to develop new pharmacosurveillance tools that will allow evaluation of ...

Facilities are turning to coding automation to help manage the volume of electronic documentation, streamlining workflow, boosting productivity, and increasing job satisfaction. As EHR adoption increases, computer-assisted coding may become a necessity, not an option.

Many e-prescribing systems allow for both structured and free-text fields in prescriptions, making possible internal discrepancies. This study reviewed 2914 electronic prescriptions that contained free-text fields. Internal discrepancies were found in 16.1% of the prescriptions. Most (83.8%) of the discrepancies could potentially lead to adverse events and many (16.8%) to ...

The ability to embed interactive three-dimensional (3D) models into electronic publications in portable document format (PDF) greatly enhances the accessibility of molecular structures. Here, we report advances in this procedure and discuss what is needed to develop this format into a truly useful tool for the structural biology community as ...

PURPOSE: Patients are increasingly interested in using Internet-based technologies to communicate with their providers, schedule clinic visits, request medication refills, and view their medical records electronically. However, healthcare organizations face significant challenges in providing such highly personal and sensitive communication in an effective and user-friendly manner. METHODS: Based on the ...

As with any fundamental change, the transition to computerized physician order entry [CPOE] is not a risk-free endeavor, major questions hover around this facet of the arduous and controversial paper-to-electronic conversion currently preoccupying the healthcare industry: Could physician over-reliance on electronic prompts actually lead to an increase in some types ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Electronic prescribing is one of the components of the Patient-centered Medical Home and is one of the "meaningful use" criteria to qualify electronic medical records for financial incentives. While there are many potential benefits of electronic prescribing, documentation of these is currently sparse. The purpose of this ...

Plastic electronics is an enabling technology for obtaining active (transistor based) electronic circuits on flexible and/or nonplanar surfaces. For these reasons, it appears as a perfect candidate to promote future developments of wearable electronics toward the concept of fabrics and garments made by functional (in this case, active electronic) yarns. ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate: (1) the feasibility of establishing active paediatric surveillance for adverse drug reactions (ADRs), (2) whether electronic reporting is effective and (3) whether such a system could complement the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) yellow card system. DESIGN: Between January 2006 and February 2007 ADRs in ...

The major purpose of this study was to evaluate alternative automated methods of collecting data on health related quality of life (HR-QoL). In order to achieve this, we developed a study with the following objectives: (1) to evaluated the feasibility of electronic version in patients with different chronic pathologies of ...

Although Biological Resource Centers (BRCs) traditionally have open catalogs of their holdings, it is quite cumbersome to access meta-information about microorganisms electronically due to the variety of access methods used by those catalogs. Therefore, we propose Microbiological Common Language (MCL), aimed at standardizing the electronic exchange of meta-information about microorganisms. ...

Electronic learning has become an important tool in today's changing healthcare environment. Institutions confronted with limited resources, in the face of increased demands for education and a shortage of educators, have found electronically based education a significant resource. This study compares electronic-blended instruction technique with instructor-led delivery of the same ...

UPMC engaged people, processes, and technology to move its A/P function from a highly manual, paper-based operation to a completely automated process. UPMC's CFO hired a chief supply chain officer to develop a strategic plan, and UPMC named a value analysis team to gain clinician buy-in. UPMC automated A/P by ...

Richard Feynman postulated in 1948 that the path of an electron can be best described by the sum or functional integral of all possible trajectories rather than by the notion of a single, unique trajectory. As a consequence, the position of an electron does not harbor any information about the ...

This is a personal view of how chromatographic peak measurement and analyte quantification for bioanalysis have evolved from the manual methods of 1970 to the electronic working possible in 2010. In four decades there have been major changes from a simple chart recorder output (that was interpreted and quantified manually) ...

In this study, the aim was to investigate if an electronic prescribing system designed specifically to reduce errors would lead to fewer errors in prescribing medicines in a secondary care setting. The electronic system was compared with paper prescription charts on 16 intensive care patients to assess any change in ...

Although electronic notes have advantages compared to handwritten notes, they take longer to write and promote information redundancy in electronic health records (EHRs). We sought to quantify redundancy in clinical documentation by studying collections of physician notes in an EHR. We implemented a retrospective design to gather all electronic admission, ...

The Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) coordinates national improvements in a range of complex health system problems including clinical handover, and has funded a range of handover improvement projects in Australia. One of these, the SafeTECH project in South Australia has developed guidelines for safe ...

In her Presidential address, Dr. Recupero shows us how the Internet and changes in electronic communications have affected the forensic evaluation process in multiple ways. These developments provide the forensic psychiatrist with new tools and new sources of information, and their novelty brings about new challenges and opportunities. This commentary ...

The gradual conversion of a prosthetic specialty office to digital format is described. Electronic format and equipment does not create effective office systems; it reflects the existing systems and makes improvement possible. An incremental approach is favored because it is possible to ensure the success and integration of each step ...