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Breaking Point (breaking + point)
Selected AbstractsGeriatric Emergency Medicine and the 2006 Institute of Medicine Reports from the Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. Health SystemACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 12 2006Scott T. Wilber MD Abstract Three recently published Institute of Medicine reports, Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At the Breaking Point, Emergency Medical Services: At the Crossroads, and Emergency Care for Children: Growing Pains, examined the current state of emergency care in the United States. They concluded that the emergency medicine system as a whole is overburdened, underfunded, and highly fragmented. These reports did not specifically discuss the effect the aging population has on emergency care now and in the future and did not discuss special needs of older patients. This report focuses on the emergency care of older patients, with the intent to provide information that will help shape discussions on this issue. [source] Roger Kennedy, Psychotherapists as Expert Witnesses: Families at Breaking PointJOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 1 2006Colin Luger No abstract is available for this article. [source] Tuneable Control of Interfacial Rheology and Emulsion CoalescenceCHEMPHYSCHEM, Issue 5 2009Andrew S. Malcolm Abstract Breaking point: Switchable peptide surfactants are used to demonstrate that the extent of cross-linking in an interfacial surfactant layer can control the rate of emulsion coalescence. Pictured is the rupture of an aqueous thin film where the peptide layer lacks sufficient strength to prevent hole formation, but nonetheless dramatically slows the rate of hole expansion. [source] Unpacking the concept of patient satisfaction: a feminist analysisJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 3 2005Sheila A. Turris MSN RN Aim., The aim of this paper is to present a feminist critique of the concept of patient satisfaction. Background., Fiscal restraint, health care restructuring, shifting demographics, biomedical technological advances, and a significant shortage of health care professionals are stretching health care systems across North America to the breaking point. A simultaneous focus on consumerism and health service accountability is placing additional pressure on the system. The concept of patient satisfaction, with roots in the consumer movement of the 1960s, has both practical and political relevance in the current health care system and is commonly used to guide research related to consumer experiences of health care. Because the quality of health care encounters may lead to treatment-seeking delays, patient satisfaction research may be an effective vehicle for addressing this public health issue. However, there is wide agreement that patient satisfaction is an under-theorized concept. Using current conceptualizations of patient satisfaction, we end up all too often producing a checklist approach to ,achieving' patient satisfaction, rather than developing an understanding of the larger issues underlying individual experiences of health care. We focus on the symptoms rather than the problems. Discussion., Without further theoretical refinement, the results of research into patient satisfaction are of limited use. To push forward theoretical development we might apply a variety of theoretical lenses to the analysis of both the concept and the results of patient satisfaction research. Feminism, in particular, offers a perspective that may provoke further refinement of patient satisfaction as a concept. Conclusions., Without a deeper understanding of the values and beliefs (or the worldview) that informs our approaches to researching patient satisfaction, researchers will be reacting to the most obvious indicators and failing to address the underlying issues related to individual experiences of health care. [source] LAVICHÈ: HAITI'S VULNERABILITY TO THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISISANNALS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009John Mazzeo In April 2008, the global rise in food prices reached a breaking point in Haiti where a series of food riots swept across the country. The majority of Haitians depend on the marketplace for food, especially imported rice. The dependence on the marketplace for food and the rise in prices has caused households to reduce purchases leading to growing hunger especially among the rural poor. Haiti's vulnerability to the food crisis is not a problem of supply; it's because of the high cost of living, lavichè in Haitian Creole. This article poses the question, why is Haiti, a country rooted in peasant agricultural production, vulnerable to the rise in global food prices. I propose that answers to the current crisis come from an understanding of rural livelihoods, strategies for accessing food, and global food policies. Rural households are not subsistence producers. Ironically, they have suffered most from the rise in prices because of their dependence on the marketplace. Changing consumption patterns relying on imported rather than domestic staples have increased vulnerability to rising prices. Additionally, economic policies surrounding the import and marketing of food have further increased Haiti's dependence on imports. Understanding the trends leading to Haiti's current food crisis will help to inform policies and programs aimed at providing temporary food assistance and hopefully lead to more effective development programs. This article is based on research conducted in rural Haiti during the summer of 2008, part of which was for World Vision International as it prepared to mitigate the crisis through food assistance programs. [source] Combined Wavelet Transform with Curve-fitting for Objective Optimization of the Parameters in Fourier Self-deconvolutionCHINESE JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY, Issue 10 2001Xiu-Qi Zhang Abstract Fourier self-deconvolution was the most effective technique in resolving overlapping bands, in which deconvolution function results in deconvolution and apodization smoothes the magnified noise. Yet, the choice of the original half-width of each component and breaking point for truncation is often very subjective. In this paper, the method of combined wavelet transform with curve fitting was described with the advantages of an enhancement of signal to noise ratio as well as the improved fitting condition, and was applied to objective optimization of the original half-widths of components in unresolved bands for Fourier self-deconvolution. Again, a noise was separated from a noisy signal by wavelet transform, therefore, the breaking point of apodization function can be determined directly in frequency domain. Accordingly, some artifacts in Fourier self-deconvolution were minimized significantly. [source] The Cultural Burden of ArchitectureJOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION, Issue 4 2004GÜLSÜM BAYDAR Contemporary architectural discourse mostly assumes an unmediated link between architecture and culture. This is a historical assumption, however, rooted in colonial encounters when the notion of cultural difference first entered the architectural scene. In the first part of my article, I focus on a statement by Vitruvius that provides ways of thinking about architecture outside cultural identity categories. In the second part, I analyze two nineteenth-century texts to show both the cultural inscriptions of architectural discourse and their breaking points. Finally, I argue that recognizing the historicity of the relationship between architecture and culture involves problematizing architecture as an identity category as much as questioning culture as an architectural category. [source] | ||||||||||||||||