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Database Project (database + project)
Selected AbstractsCharacteristics of Australia's community pharmacies: National Pharmacy Database ProjectINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACY PRACTICE, Issue 4 2007Mr Constantine G Berbatis lecturer Objective To report the characteristics of community pharmacies in Australia and analyse them for their association with pharmacists' consultation time. Setting A large representative sample of community pharmacies in Australia in 2002. Method Questionnaires were mailed by an independent survey group to managers and owners in a national sample of pharmacies stratified into six zones. Questionnaires were returned by 1131 of 1532 pharmacies contacted (73.8%). The data were analysed using the general linear model (GLM) for univariate analysis. Key findings: Male pharmacists comprised 76.3% of pharmacy owners and 39.5% were aged = 51 years. Most pharmacies (81.1%) had one or two pharmacist owners, and 51.3% of pharmacies were members of marketing groups. Medicines accounted for approximately 75% of annual sales and occupied a minority of the average total area of 187.2 m2. Pharmacies opened for an average of 55.5 h per week. Pharmacists spent 18.8% of their time on patient consultation. This was significantly related to pharmacies with forward pharmacy dispensing areas (P < 0.001), which were owner or partner operated (P < 0.002) and had high numbers of customers (P < 0.004). Holding national accreditation status and belonging to a banner group may be additional factors. Conclusions Ownership of community pharmacies in Australia is dominated by pharmacists in contrast to the minority pharmacist ownership in the USA and England. Owners and managers of pharmacies were mainly male and older than other staff. Pharmacists working in pharmacies with a forward dispensing area, designed to facilitate patient consultation, were significantly more likely to provide increased consultation time for patients. Owner- or partner-operated pharmacies, and pharmacies with high numbers of customers were also significantly associated with patient consultation time. The strength of association between membership of marketing groups and national accreditation with consultation time requires more evidence. [source] Appropriate probe search method to specify groups in higher taxonomic ranksJOURNAL OF BASIC MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Masahiro Nakano Abstract A new method for procedures using a computer to find out useful candidates for probes discriminating a certain group in higher ranks of bacteria is presented. In order to make the search of the probes systematic, two indices are proposed, i.e., Coincidence Ratio Inside Group (CRIG) and Coincidence Number Outside Group (CNOG), which indicate the rate of matching of probes inside or outside group respectively. Using two indices, allowance grades indicating usefulness of arbitrary sequence as a probe are defined from 9 (5 in species) to 0. Its application to the 16S rRNA gene of 2206 bacterial species selected from the Ribosomal Database Project (RDP-II) (J.R. Cole et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 31: 442,443, 2003) is shown. Small nucleotide sequences of the length L (L = 15, 19, 23) were searched from about 550 bases. As a result of computer calculations, appropriate probes are found in all taxonomic ranks, in addition, it is found that 95% of genera can be identified uniquely. The method is useful for DNA chips or targeted PCR which can select a desirable bacteria set in any taxonomic rank. The method is in principle deterministic, and widely applied to any type of nucleotide sequences. (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Marital status and non-small cell lung cancer survival: the Lung Cancer Database Project in JapanPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 9 2008Kumi Saito-Nakaya Abstract Objective: Previous studies have suggested that marital status is associated with survival from lung cancer; however, its association is not conclusive. The association between marital status and survival in Japanese patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was prospectively investigated. Methods: Between July 1999 and July 2004, a total of 1230 NSCLC patients were enrolled. The baseline survey consisted of the collection of clinical information and various demographic data, including marital status. A Cox regression model was used to estimate the hazards ratio (HR) of all-cause mortality adjustments for age, BMI, education level, performance status, histology type, clinical stage, smoking status, choice of definitive treatment, and depression. Results: The multivariable adjusted HR of male widowed patients versus male married patients was 1.7 (95% confidence interval=1.2,2.5, p=0.005). However, no significant increased risk of death in female widowed patients compared with female married patients was observed (HR=0.7, 95% confidence interval=0.5,1.1, p=0.15). With regard to separated/divorced and single patients no significant increased risk of death in male and/or female compared with married patients was observed. Conclusions: The present data suggest that male widowed patients with NSCLC have a higher mortality rate than male married patients with NSCLC, after controlling for various factors. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The biogeography of seaweeds in Southeast AlaskaJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2009Sandra C. Lindstrom Abstract Aim, This article reviews the history of seaweed collections in Southeast Alaska from the early Russian explorers to contemporary efforts. It summarizes other studies of Southeast Alaskan seaweeds from a biogeographical perspective, and compares the known seaweed flora near three population centres (Ketchikan, Sitka and Juneau) with those of other regions within Alaska, and with nearby regions. Location, For this article, Southeast Alaska includes all inside and outside waters of the Alexander Archipelago from Dixon Entrance (54°40, N, 133°00, W) to Icy Point (58°23,10, N, 137°04,20, W). Methods, The literature on seaweeds occurring in Southeast Alaska is reviewed from a biogeographical perspective, and herbarium records for Southeast Alaska from the Alaska Seaweed Database project are used to provide an overview of the biogeography of the area. Records for the population centres of Ketchikan, Sitka and Juneau are compared with records from other areas within Alaska and with nearby regions to determine floristic similarities. Results, Southeast Alaska has the most diverse seaweed flora of any region of Alaska. A list of species known to occur in Southeast Alaska is appended (in Supplementary Material) and includes their reported occurrences in three population centres (Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka). Recognition of at least three distinct biogeographical areas associated with these three centres is supported by a comparison of their floras with those of other regions in the North Pacific. A close relationship of some species with conspecifics in the north-west Atlantic is also noted. In contrast, ecological, physiological and genetic differentiation of Southeast Alaskan seaweeds from conspecifics in Washington State or even from different areas of Southeast Alaska are documented. A ShoreZone coastal habitat system, which is being implemented to inventory and map the entire shoreline of Southeast Alaska, is defining new biogeographical units called ,bioareas' on the basis of the distribution of canopy kelps and lower intertidal algal assemblages. Main conclusions, Southeast Alaska has the most diverse seaweed flora of any region of Alaska. This is a reflection of its extensive coastline, with varied past and present environmental conditions. Different parts of Southeast Alaska show similarities to different areas outside Southeast Alaska. Despite this, much remains to be learned about the biogeography of seaweeds in Southeast Alaska, and many questions remain to be answered. [source] Intrauterine growth standards in a developing country: a study of singleton livebirths at 28,42 weeks' gestationPAEDIATRIC & PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 5 2007Khalid A. Yunis Summary This study aimed to develop fetal growth charts for the population of Greater Beirut, Lebanon, and compare them with previously established references. A survey of consecutive singleton livebirths admitted to normal nurseries and neonatal intensive care units of major hospitals, through the database project of the National Collaborative Perinatal Neonatal Network was used as a design. The study was conducted in nine major healthcare institutions serving the population of Beirut and its suburbs. A total of 24 767 singleton livebirths delivered between 28 and 42 weeks' gestation, with known data on gender, gestational age and anthropometric characteristics were recorded between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2002. Growth charts were developed by plotting birthweight, length and head circumference percentiles against gestational age for male and female infants separately. Overall, 1348 (5.4%) pregnancies were delivered before 37 weeks' gestation and 1227 (4.9%) were low birthweight. Male infants were delivered slightly earlier than their female counterparts and the mean birthweight, length and head circumference were consistently higher in males. A total of 2247 (9.1%) infants were small-for-gestational-age, with a male-to-female sex ratio of 1.03. Using previously established growth references that overestimated small-for-gestational-age prevalence resulted in a greater proportion of false positives. The opposite was true for growth references that underestimated small-for-gestational-age prevalence. The current growth charts present useful tools for assessing the general health status of newborn infants delivered at sea level in the urban areas of Lebanon and other East Mediterranean countries. [source] | ||||||||||