Greater Demand (greater + demand)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


An fMRI study of canonical and noncanonical word order in German

HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 10 2007
Jörg Bahlmann
Abstract Understanding a complex sentence requires the processing of information at different (e.g., phonological, semantic, and syntactic) levels, the intermediate storage of this information and the unification of this information to compute the meaning of the sentence information. The present investigation homed in on two aspects of sentence processing: working memory and reanalysis. Event-related functional MRI was used in 12 healthy native speakers of German, while they read sentences. Half of the sentences had unambiguous initial noun-phrases (masculine nominative, masculine accusative) and thus signaled subject-first (canonical) or object-first (noncanonical) sentences. Noncanonical unambiguous sentences were supposed to entail greater demand on working memory, because of their more complex syntactic structure. The other half of the sentences had case-ambiguous initial noun-phrases (feminine gender). Only the second unambiguous noun-phrase (eighth position in the sentences) revealed, whether a canonical or noncanonical word order was present. Based on previous data it was hypothesized that ambiguous noncanonical sentences required a recomputation of the sentence, as subjects would initially commit to a subject first reading. In the respective contrasts two main areas of brain activation were observed. Unambiguous noncanonical sentences elicited more activation in left inferior frontal cortex relative unambiguous canonical sentences. This was interpreted in conjunction with the greater demands on working memory in the former condition. For noncanonical ambiguous relative to canonical ambiguous sentences, an activation of the left supramarginal gyrus was revealed, which was interpreted as a reflection of the reanalysis-requirements induced by this condition. Hum Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Community mental health nursing: Keeping pace with care delivery?

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 3 2008
Julie Henderson
ABSTRACT:, The National Mental Health Strategy has been associated with the movement of service delivery into the community, creating greater demand for community services. The literature suggests that the closure of psychiatric beds and earlier discharge from inpatient services, have contributed to an intensification of the workload of community mental health nurses. This paper reports findings from the first stage of an action research project to develop a workload equalization tool for community mental health nurses. The study presents data from focus groups conducted with South Australian community mental health nurses to identify issues that impact upon their workload. Four themes were identified, relating to staffing and workforce issues, clients' characteristics or needs, regional issues, and the impact of the health-care system. The data show that the workload of community mental health nurses is increased by the greater complexity of needs of community mental health clients. Service change has also resulted in poor integration between inpatient and community services and tension between generic case management and specialist roles resulting in nurses undertaking tasks for other case managers. These issues, along with difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, have led to the intensification of community mental health work and a crisis response to care with less time for targeted interventions. [source]


Characterization of InGaN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN superlattices by X-ray diffraction and X-ray reflectivity measurements

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (C) - CURRENT TOPICS IN SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 7-8 2010
S. Sintonen
Abstract The commercial significance of superlattice structures is increasing due to greater demand of optoelectronic devices, such as the light emitting diode (LED). In order to optimize these devices, an accurate and reliable characterization method is needed. This paper describes in detail the characterization of superlattices with X-ray scattering techniques. The thicknesses of the individual layers are determined by X-ray reflectivity (XRR) measurements and the state of strain, the lattice constants and the compositions of ternary compounds by X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The method is non-destructive, and yields unique results, unlike characterizations based on simulation of symmetric XRD scans. These simulations were used for verification of results. The method was tested on InGaN and AlGaN superlattice structures. The measured and simulated parameter values agreed very well. (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


Who Compares to Whom?

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 544 2010
The Anatomy of Income Comparisons in Europe
This article provides unprecedented direct evidence from large-scale survey data on both the intensity (how much?) and direction (to whom?) of income comparisons. Income comparisons are considered to be at least somewhat important by three-quarters of Europeans. They are associated with both lower levels of subjective well-being and a greater demand for income redistribution. The rich compare less and are happier than average when they do, which latter is consistent with relative income theory. With respect to the direction of comparisons, colleagues are the most frequently-cited reference group. Those who compare to colleagues are happier than those who compare to other benchmarks. [source]


Allergic contact dermatitis in dentistry

AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 2 2000
Diana M Rubel
SUMMARY Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) in dentistry may affect dentists and orthodontists, technicians, nurses and patients. Changes to dental practice in recent years have altered the reported frequencies of allergens causing ACD in both dental personnel and patients. Allergic contact dermatitis to medicaments, metals and glutaraldehyde were previously common allergens in dentistry; however, widespread adoption of rubber gloves by staff has resulted in a significant increase in ACD to glove allergens in both dental staff and their patients, while affording protection against the traditional allergens. Both public concerns about potential toxicity of metals in oral restorations and a greater demand for cosmetic dentistry, have resulted in greater use of acrylics and resins by dental personnel, exposing them to highly allergenic materials. Dermatologists need to be aware of the newer allergenic materials used in dentistry in order to correctly manage skin diseases in this high-risk group. [source]


Outcomes from NHMRC public health research project grants awarded in 1993

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 6 2001
Sangeeta Shah
Aims: In 1987, the Public Health Research and Development Committee (PHRDC) was established by the NHMRC as one mechanism to fund public health research in Australia. In 1993, it awarded 32 new and 31 continuing project grants. Given increasing interest in research accountability in Australia, we designed an audit to determine outcomes from this investment. We also explored grant recipients' views about sources of research funding and strategies to enhance research dissemination. Method: Self-administered survey, July 1999. Main results: We obtained a 69% response fraction. The majority of projects already had been completed with peer-reviewed articles the most common outputs. More than half (58%) of respondents ,strongly agreed' or 'agreed' that their research had influenced policy to improve public health and 69% that it had influenced practice. Study design was significantly associated with peer-reviewed output, whether self-reported (p=0.002) or corroborated by us (p=0.004). With respect to research funding, significantly more agreed that the NHMRC should enhance program grants for public health research than mechanisms through the Strategic Research Development Committee (p=0.013). The most highly rated strategy to enhance dissemination was greater demand for research results among policy makers. Conclusion: A pleasing proportion of projects funded by PHRDC in 1993 generated peer-reviewed publications and provided research training. Recipients perceive their research has influenced policy and practice. Recipients' views about strategies to increase funding for public health research are consistent with current reforms within the NHMRC. Policy makers emerge as a key target for training in research transfer. [source]


Effect of fixation tasks on multifocal visual evoked potentials

CLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL OPHTHALMOLOGY, Issue 5 2005
Alessandra Martins MB BS
Abstract Purpose:, This study investigated the effects of cognitive influence on the multifocal visual evoked potential (mVEP) at different levels of eccentricity. Three different foveal fixation conditions were utilized involving varying levels of task complexity. A more complex visual fixation task has been known to suppress peripheral signals in subjective testing. Methods:, Twenty normal subjects had monocular mVEPs recorded using the AccuMap objective perimeter. This allowed simultaneous stimulation of 58 segments of the visual field to an eccentricity of 24°. The mVEP was recorded using three different fixation conditions in random order. During task 1 the subject passively viewed the central fixation area. For task 2 alternating numbers were displayed within the fixation area; the subject on viewing the number ,3' in the central fixation area indicated recognition by pressing a button. Throughout task 3, numbers were displayed as in task 2. The subject had the cognitive task of summating all the numbers. Results:, Analysis revealed that the increased attention and concentration demanded by tasks 2 and 3 in comparison with task 1 resulted in significantly enhanced central amplitudes of 9.41% (Mann,Whitney P = 0.0002) and 13.45% (P = 0.0002), respectively. These amplitudes became reduced in the periphery and approached those of task 1, resulting in no significant difference between the three tasks. Latencies demonstrated no significant difference between each task nor at any eccentricity (P > 0.05). As the complexity of each task increased the amount of alpha rhythm was significantly reduced. Conclusions:, Our findings indicate that task 1 required a minimal demand of cognition and was associated with the greatest amount of alpha rhythm. It was also the most difficult to perform because of loss of interest. The other two tasks required a greater demand of higher order cognitive skills resulting in significantly enhanced amplitudes centrally and the attenuation of alpha rhythm. Therefore, amplitudes are increased around the area of attention. [source]


The Changing University: Meeting a Need and Needing to Change

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2000
Peter Jarvis
This paper returns to the logic of industrialisation thesis of the 1960s and asks whether higher education can respond to the new infrastructures of global society. Its thesis is that capitalism has generated new global infrastructures (the control of capital empowered by information technology) and that these driving forces have generated changes in knowledge, higher education, research and learning. Higher education is a typical superstructural institution, functional to the infrastructure , but it is finding problems in responding rapidly to the greater demands of the knowledge-based society of advanced capitalism. It has to change but perhaps it is unable to change sufficiently rapidly, and so the infrastructure is beginning to generate its own educational institutions. More significantly, it would have to be non-functional to the infrastructure if it were to meet some of the human needs. [source]


An fMRI study of canonical and noncanonical word order in German

HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 10 2007
Jörg Bahlmann
Abstract Understanding a complex sentence requires the processing of information at different (e.g., phonological, semantic, and syntactic) levels, the intermediate storage of this information and the unification of this information to compute the meaning of the sentence information. The present investigation homed in on two aspects of sentence processing: working memory and reanalysis. Event-related functional MRI was used in 12 healthy native speakers of German, while they read sentences. Half of the sentences had unambiguous initial noun-phrases (masculine nominative, masculine accusative) and thus signaled subject-first (canonical) or object-first (noncanonical) sentences. Noncanonical unambiguous sentences were supposed to entail greater demand on working memory, because of their more complex syntactic structure. The other half of the sentences had case-ambiguous initial noun-phrases (feminine gender). Only the second unambiguous noun-phrase (eighth position in the sentences) revealed, whether a canonical or noncanonical word order was present. Based on previous data it was hypothesized that ambiguous noncanonical sentences required a recomputation of the sentence, as subjects would initially commit to a subject first reading. In the respective contrasts two main areas of brain activation were observed. Unambiguous noncanonical sentences elicited more activation in left inferior frontal cortex relative unambiguous canonical sentences. This was interpreted in conjunction with the greater demands on working memory in the former condition. For noncanonical ambiguous relative to canonical ambiguous sentences, an activation of the left supramarginal gyrus was revealed, which was interpreted as a reflection of the reanalysis-requirements induced by this condition. Hum Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


,Hitting you over the head': Oncologists' disclosure of prognosis to advanced cancer patients

BIOETHICS, Issue 2 2003
Elisa J. Gordon
The disclosure of prognosis to terminally ill patients has emerged as a recent concern given greater demands for patient involvement in medical decision-making in the United States. As part of the informed consent process, American physicians are legally and ethically obligated to provide information to such patients about the risks, benefits, and alternatives of all available treatment options including the use of experimental therapies. Although not legally required, the disclosure of a terminal prognosis is ethically justified because it upholds the principle of self-determination and enables patients to make treatment decisions consistent with their life goals. To understand oncologists' attitudes about disclosing prognostic information to cancer patients with advanced disease, we interviewed fourteen oncologists and conducted one focus group of medical fellows. Although oncologists reported to disclose prognosis in terms of cancer not being curable, they tend to avoid using percentages to convey prognosis. Oncologists' reported reluctance to disclosing prognosis was conveyed through the use of metaphors depicting the perceived violent impact of such information on patients. Oncologists' reluctance to disclose prognosis and preserve patient hope are held in check by their need to ensure that patients have ,realistic expectations' about therapy. We discuss these data in light of the cultural, ethical, and legal dimensions of prognosis disclosure, patient hope and the doctor,patient relationship, and recommend ways to enhance the communication process. [source]