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Pilot Evaluation (pilot + evaluation)
Selected AbstractsTreating Chronic Tension-type Headache Not Responding to Amitriptyline Hydrochloride With Paroxetine Hydrochloride: A Pilot EvaluationHEADACHE, Issue 9 2003Kenneth A. Holroyd PhD Context.,In some individuals, chronic tension-type headache fails to respond to tricyclic antidepressant medications that often serve as first-line therapy. Objective.,To evaluate the clinical efficacy of paroxetine hydrochloride for chronic tension-type headache not responding to amitriptyline hydrochloride. Design and Setting.,Open-label trial of paroxetine conducted at 2 outpatient sites in Ohio. Participants and Intervention.,Thirty-one adults (mean age, 37 years; 20 women) with chronic tension-type headache (mean, 25 headache days per month) who had failed to respond (less than 30% improvement) to treatment with either amitriptyline (n = 13) or matched placebo (n = 18). All participants were treated with paroxetine (up to 40 mg per day) in a 9-month protocol. Outcome Measures.,Monthly headache index calculated as the mean of pain ratings (0 to 10 scale) recorded by participants in a diary 4 times per day, number of days per month with at least moderate pain (pain rating of 5 or greater), and analgesic medication use. Results.,In patients who had not responded to amitriptyline, paroxetine failed to reduce chronic tension-type headaches or analgesic medication use. In patients who had not responded to placebo, paroxetine produced modest reductions in chronic tension-type headaches and analgesic use. Conclusions.,We found no evidence that chronic tension-type headaches that failed to respond to tricyclic antidepressant therapy with amitriptyline improved when subsequently treated with paroxetine. More support was found for the efficacy of paroxetine in patients with chronic tension-type headaches who had failed to respond to placebo. [source] Opportunities for independent living using direct payments in mental healthHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 2 2006Helen Spandler PhD Abstract Mental health service users have yet to reap the benefits of greater choice, control and independent living, which direct payments have facilitated in other groups of community care users, particularly people with physical disabilities. To redress this imbalance a national pilot to promote direct payments to people with mental health needs in five local authority sites across England was set up and evaluated. The evaluation used a multi-method approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data, including individual semi-structured interviews and group discussions with key stakeholders across the pilot sites. This article draws on findings from the pilot evaluation to provide a preliminary understanding of how applicable the independent living philosophy is to mental health and what opportunities direct payments offer for service users. When given the opportunity, service users were able to use direct payments creatively to meet a range of needs in ways which increased their choice, control and independence. This suggests that the benefits of greater independent living through direct payments may be realisable in mental health. However, a number of ways in which the principles of direct payments in mental health could be ,downgraded' were identified. The evaluation results indicate that a thorough understanding of the independent living philosophy needs to be developed in the context of mental health. [source] A pilot evaluation of pulse itraconazole vs. terbinafine for treatment of Candida toenail onychomycosis,INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2005Erin M. Warshaw MD First page of article [source] The development and pilot evaluation of a nutrition education intervention programme for pregnant teenage women (food for life)JOURNAL OF HUMAN NUTRITION & DIETETICS, Issue 2 2003W. L. Wrieden Abstract Background A healthy diet in pregnancy is important for both maternal and infant health but this may be difficult to achieve particularly for groups such as teenage pregnant women, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds. To our knowledge this is the first report of a practical nutrition education programme for this group in the UK. Method An intervention was designed incorporating seven informal food preparation sessions, which allowed opportunities for discussion of nutritional, and other topics (e.g. food safety and well-being in pregnancy). Midwives in a community centre setting led the sessions. The acceptability of the package to participants and midwives was recorded and pre- and post-intervention data collected on sociodemographic details, dietary intake (using an eating-habits questionnaire and a 24-h dietary recall) and cooking skills. Results The midwives found the package easy to follow and use. The 16 (of the 120 invited) women who attended found the courses helpful but objective evaluation of dietary intake was not possible because of poor compliance. Conclusions The nutrition education programme was favourably received by midwives and the women who participated. However recruitment was problematic and alternative methods of delivering and evaluating such a package should be investigated. [source] A model for quantitative evaluation of an end-to-end question-answering systemJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 8 2007Nina Wacholder We describe a procedure for quantitative evaluation of interactive question-answering systems and illustrate it with application to the High-Quality Interactive Question-Answering (HITIQA) system. Our objectives were (a) to design a method to realistically and reliably assess interactive question-answering systems by comparing the quality of reports produced using different systems, (b) to conduct a pilot test of this method, and (c) to perform a formative evaluation of the HITIQA system. Far more important than the specific information gathered from this pilot evaluation is the development of (a) a protocol for evaluating an emerging technology, (b) reusable assessment instruments, and (c) the knowledge gained in conducting the evaluation. We conclude that this method, which uses a surprisingly small number of subjects and does not rely on predetermined relevance judgments, measures the impact of system change on work produced by users. Therefore this method can be used to compare the product of interactive systems that use different underlying technologies. [source] Introducing an early warning scoring system in a district general hospitalNURSING IN CRITICAL CARE, Issue 3 2004Julie T Sharpley Summary ,,One of the critical care outreach service's aims in this local hospital was to develop an assessment tool to help identify patients in danger of deterioration ,,This paper describes the introduction of an early warning scoring system between April 2001 and March 2002 to the surgical unit of a district general hospital ,,The informal and gradual approach used to optimize the effectiveness of introducing the early warning scoring system is highlighted ,,Explanations are given of the training processes undertaken, the pilot evaluation and lessons learned from the process ,,Using the experiences of the outreach service in introducing the early warning scoring system, this paper aims to provide thought for others considering a similar initiative in their area [source] A pilot evaluation of tibia lead concentrations in TaiwanAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 2 2001Andrew C. Todd Abstract Background The aims of this study were to examine some of the factors that influence tibia lead concentrations, tibia lead x-ray fluorescence measurement uncertainty and blood lead concentrations, and to compare tibia lead concentrations in Taiwanese lead workers to those observed in lead workers from other countries. Methods A pilot evaluation of 43 adult lead workers who underwent measurements of tibia lead and blood lead concentrations. Results Mean and maximum tibia lead concentrations were 54 ,g of Pb per g of bone mineral(,g/g) and 193 ,g/g, respectively. Mean and maximum blood lead concentrations were 44 ,g/dl and 92 ,g/dl, respectively. Conclusion Past occupational control of lead exposure in Taiwan, ROC, did not prevent these workers from accumulating tibia lead concentrations greater than those in similar workers elsewhere in the world. Am. J. Ind. Med. 40:127,132, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Semantic visual features in content-based video retrievalPROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2006Xiangming Mu A new semantic visual features (e.g., car, mountain, and fire) navigation technology is proposed to improve the effectiveness of video retrieval. Traditional temporal neighbor browsing technology allows users to navigate temporal neighbors of a selected sample frame to find additional matches, while semantic visual feature browsing enables users to navigate keyframes that have similar features to the selected sample frame. A pilot evaluation was conducted to compare the effectiveness of three video retrieval designs that support 1) temporal neighbor browsing; 2) semantic visual feature browsing; and 3) fused browsing which is a combination of both temporal neighbor and semantic visual feature browsing. Two types of searching tasks: visual centric and non-visual centric tasks were applied. Initial results indicated that the semantic visual feature browsing system was more efficient for non-visual centric tasks. [source] | ||||||||||