Relevant Parts (relevant + part)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Enhanced healing of diabetic foot ulcers using local heat and electrical stimulation for 30 min three times per week

JOURNAL OF DIABETES, Issue 1 2010
Jerrold Scott PETROFSKY
Abstract Background:, Electrical stimulation (ES) with heating is effective in healing chronic wounds. However, it this effect due to ES alone or both heating and ES? The aim of the present study was to deduce the individual roles of heat and ES in the healing of chronic wounds. Methods:, The study was performed on 20 patients (mean age 48.4 ± 14.6 years) with non-healing diabetic foot ulcers (mean duration 38.9 ± 23.7 months) who received local dry heat (37°C; n = 10) or local dry heat + ES (n = 10) three times a week for 4 weeks. Patients were given ES using biphasic sine wave stimulation (30 Hz, pulse width 250 ,s, current approximately 20 mA). Results:, Skin blood flow in and around the wound was measured with a laser Doppler flow imager. In the ES + heat group, the average wound area and volume decreased significantly by 68.4 ± 28.6% and 69.3 ± 27.1%, respectively (both P < 0.05), over the 1-month period. During the average session, blood flow increased to 102.3 ± 25.3% with local heat and to 152.3 ± 23.4% with ES + heat. In the group receiving treatment with local heat only, wounds that had not healed for at least 2 months showed 30.1 ± 22.6% healing (i.e. a decrease in wound area) after 1 month. Although this level of healing was significant, it was less than that observed in the ES + heat group (P < 0.05). Conclusions:, Local dry heat and ES work well together to heal chronic diabetic foot wounds; however, local heat would appear to be a relevant part of this therapy because ES alone has produced little healing in previous studies. [source]


A comparative study of corporate social responsibility in Bangladesh and Pakistan

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009
Malik Asghar Naeem
Abstract Making a contribution to sustainable development through good corporate social responsibility presents businesses with a challenge, particularly in developing countries. This paper measures the sensitivity to corporate social responsibility amongst businesses operating in Bangladesh and Pakistan through a review of written policies of both listed local firms and multinational corporations operating there. We use the Global Compact supplemented by relevant parts of the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines to benchmark companies and countries. Significant differences are found between local listed companies and multinational corporations. However, all companies are seen to be failing to engage with many aspects of corporate social responsibility related to sustainable development. Specific deficiencies relate to anti-corruption, gender equality, child labor, community giving and the formal representation of workers. Few differences are found between the approaches taken by companies in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Given the development needs of the region we point to businesses being unwilling or unable to adopt sufficiently robust corporate social responsibility and point to a role for both government and civil society. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Resource consumption and costs in Dutch patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

DIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 3 2002
Results from 29 general practices
Abstract Aims The aims of this study were to estimate the costs incurred by Dutch patients with Type 2 diabetes, examine which patient and/or treatment characteristics are associated with costs, and estimate the medical and non-medical costs of patients with Type 2 diabetes in The Netherlands. Methods Twenty-nine Dutch general practitioners provided information on all Type 2 diabetes patients in their practice (n = 1371), information on demography, clinical characteristics, treatment type, the presence of complications and the type and amount of medical consumption during the previous 6 months. Medical costs were analysed using multivariate linear regression. Estimates of costs seen in The Netherlands were based on these results plus information from other sources regarding costs of end-stage renal disease, appliances, travel and productivity loss. Results Although only 9% of patients were hospitalized within the previous 6 months, hospitalization costs represented one-third of the medical costs, drug costs 40% and ambulatory costs 26%. Patients using insulin, patients with macrovascular complications only or in combination with microvascular complications incurred higher medical costs than other patients. Age and hyperlipidaemia were also positively related to medical costs. When these results were combined with other data sources, we estimated that patients with Type 2 diabetes are responsible for £365 500 000 (1 271 000 000 guilders) or 3.4% of the relevant parts of health care costs in 1998. The non-medical costs (travel costs, productivity costs) are limited: 52 500 000 (183 000 000 guilders). Conclusions Independent determinants of the medical costs of Type 2 diabetes in The Netherlands include age, complications, insulin use and hyperlipidaemia. Diabet. Med. 19, 246,253 (2002) [source]


PM 7/98 (1): Specific requirements for laboratories preparing accreditation for a plant pest diagnostic activity

EPPO BULLETIN, Issue 1 2010
Article first published online: 9 MAR 2010
Specific scope This guideline includes specific quality management requirements for laboratories preparing for accreditation according to the ISO/IEC Standard 17025 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories (references to relevant parts of ISO/IEC Standard 17025 are included). It should be noted that in EPPO standards the verb ,should' carries the highest level of obligation. Specific approval and amendment First approved in 2009,09. [source]


An advanced methodology for steady-state security assessment of power systems

EUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL POWER, Issue 4 2001
D. P. Popovic
The basic objective of this paper is to present the relevant aspects of an advanced methodology for steady-state security assessment of power systems. This methodology consists of the following relevant parts: procedure for forming the unified external network equivalents, with adaptive buffer system selection, procedure for fast contingency selection and simple method for the fast and sufficiently accurate assessment of dynamic variation of power system frequency during the time of its primary control. For the potentially critical contingency, the continuation of iterative procedure is performed. Full contingency analysis is based on specially developed method, which enables successive solution of the load-flow problem for a set of characteristic post-dynamic quasi-stationary states. The characteristics of the developed methodology are tested on the example of the existing electric power interconnection in the Balkans. [source]


Application of the multiensemble sampling to the hydration free energy

JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 10 2001
Kyu-Kwang Han
Abstract We demonstrate the feasibility of using multiensemble sampling method (MESM) to determine the free energy difference between two far states for which the configurational distributions do not overlap at all. The MESM is a recently developed non-Boltzmann sampling technique. The free energy of charging a sodium ion in water is accurately calculated in a single simulation, introducing nine intermediate ionic states. This is due to the ability of the method to explore the relevant parts of configuration space equally for every state, and this ability comes from the universality of weighting function W and the simplicity in adjusting its parameters. Detailed procedures of adjusting the parameters are presented. The comparison with a free energy perturbation method (FEPM) shows that the MESM is more reliable and efficient. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 22: 1004,1009, 2001 [source]


The sexual and relationship needs of people who experience psychosis: quantitative findings of a UK study

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2010
E. MCCANN phd rmn msc dippi pgdip academic practice fhea
Accessible summary ,,Distinct lack of studies exist that explore sexual and relationship issues. ,,Captures important experiences of people who use mental health services. ,,Reveals potential obstacles to the expression of sexuality. ,,Identifies a diversity of needs. ,,Presents issues that may guide mental health practice, education and research. Abstract Few studies have investigated the experiences of people regarding sexual and relationship issues in the area of mental health. This study presents the quantitative findings of a larger study that was conducted in London, UK. The aims of the study were to establish client's sexual and relationship experiences and perceived needs. A total of 30 people with a medical diagnosis of schizophrenia, living in the community, were interviewed using three questionnaires. The first related to demographics, the second used relevant parts of the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN) and the third looked at possible determinants of sexual behaviour. The CAN also captured keyworker responses to issues related to their clients sexual and relationship requirements. The results showed that 83% of the clients were currently experiencing sexual feelings. Some 90% of clients felt some need in relation to sexual expression and 83% for needs related to intimate relationships. Only 10% of staff recognized sexual expression as a need in clients in their care and 43% perceived a need for intimate relationships. Furthermore, most clients interviewed thought that their psychotropic medication caused sexual problems. Contrasts are made with other studies to help highlight the important issues that emerged for service users. [source]


Photoreflectance investigations of energy level structure of InAs quantum dashes embedded in InGaAs/InGaAlAs quantum well grown on InP substrate

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (C) - CURRENT TOPICS IN SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 11 2006
W. Rudno-Rudzi
Abstract Photoreflectance (PR) and photoluminescence measurements have been performed on molecular beam epitaxy grown InAs quantum dashes (QDash) of various sizes, embedded in In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.53Ga0.23Al0.24As quantum well (QW), grown on InP substrate. PR response from all relevant parts of the structure, i.e InAs/In0.53Ga0.47As QDashes, InAs/In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.53Ga0.23Al0.24As QW, and In0.53Ga0.23Al0.24As barriers, has been obtained. The lowest energy transition related to the ground state transition in QDashes shifts towards red with the increase in QDash sizes (amount of deposited InAs material) reaching wavelengths longer than for structures without the intermediate QW. The experimental data on the energies of optical transitions combined with the numerical calculation within the effective mass approximation has allowed determining the energy level structure of the entire system, including the values of conduction band offset between InGaAs and InGaAlAs layers. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


On the representation of gravity waves in numerical models of the shallow-water equations

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 563 2000
A. R. Mohebalhojeh
Abstract Gravity waves, or imbalanced motions, that develop during the evolution of vortical flows in numerical models of the shallow water (SW) equations are examined in detail. The focus here is on nearly-balanced flows, with small but non-zero gravity-wave activity. For properly initialized flows, it is reasonable to expect small GW activity when Froude numbers Fr < 1 and Rossby numbers Ro , 1. The guiding principle in the present study is that an accurate representation of potential vorticity (PV) is the pre-requisite to a fair assessment of the generation of gravity waves. The contour-advective semi-Lagrangian (CASL) algorithm for the SW equations is applied, as it shows a remarkable improvement in the simulation of PV. However, it is shown that the standard CASL algorithm for SW leads to a noticeable numerical generation of gravity waves. The false generation of gravity waves can equivalently be thought of as the false, or numerical, breakdown of balance. In order to understand the maintenance of balance in the SW equations, a hierarchy of CASL algorithms is introduced. The main idea behind the new hierarchy is to implement PV inversion partially, balancing algorithms directly within the SW algorithm, while still permitting imbalanced motions. The results of the first three members of the hierarchy, CA0 (standard CASL), CA1, and CA2, are described and are compared with the results of two other SW algorithms, a pseudo-spectral and a semi-Lagrangian one. The main body of results is obtained for a highly ageostrophic regime of flow, with|Ro|max , 1 and Frmax , 0.5, where sub-index 'max' denotes maximum over the domain. Other flow regimes in the relevant parts of the Ro-Fr parameter space are also explored. It is found that, for a given resolution and Froude number, there is an optimal CASL algorithm, i.e. one which gives rise to the least numerical generation of gravity waves. [source]