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Crucial Area (crucial + area)
Selected AbstractsDeveloping Good Practice in the Clinical Assessment of People With Profound Intellectual Disabilities and Multiple ImpairmentJOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 2 2007Steve Carnaby Abstract, The task of assessing people with profound intellectual disabilities and multiple impairments can be a daunting one, for experienced and newly qualified clinicians and practitioners alike. Difficulties with definitions in the context of challenging, excluding service delivery models can sometimes lead to incoherent and inconsistent approaches. The author examines a number of issues, including the paucity of adequately sensitive, standardized assessment tools, the importance of collaborative working, and the acknowledgment that services can be ill-equipped to face the challenges presented by people with such complex and chronic support needs. The role of an overly generic service philosophy in potentially limiting the work of clinicians is noted, and the author notes that evaluating development is a crucial factor in any overall assessment. The author concludes with a number of recommendations for developing good practice in this crucial area of the support process, including: agree on terminology and inclusion criteria; take a transdisciplinary approach; use a developmental model; consider the impact of neurological conditions; select measures and informants carefully; and consider the assessment as an intervention. [source] RT08 Population PK and PK/PD investigations and Monte Carlo simulations for a rational dosage regimenJOURNAL OF VETERINARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 2006P. L. TOUTAIN Objective There are several means whereby dosage schedules for clinical use may be set, some more appropriate and scientific than others! The challenge of the 21st century must be for colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry, those serving registration bodies and academic colleagues to pool their expertise with the objective of designing dosage schedules for clinical use, which are based on the application of sound scientific principles appropriate for each drug class. In this Roundtable Session colleagues of international standing will review (a) pharmacological and other sources of variability in the responses to drugs; (b) the advantages and limitations of pre-clinical studies for dose selection; (c) the roles of population PK and population PK/PD together with Monte Carlo simulations in dosage regimen selection; (d) Bayesian approaches to dosage selection and (e) regulatory guidelines on the type and extent of studies required for selecting dosages. There is no unanimity amongst stakeholders on either the principles or the methods underlying dosage schedule design. Dose titration studies have long been the principal means of fixing doses but PK-PD and population PK-PD studies are now challenging more traditional approaches. The papers and discussion in this Roundtable Session will provide a critical basis for future advances in this crucial area of therapeutic drug usage. Getting the doses right means that the patient will receive maximum benefit, in terms of optimal efficacy with minimal toxicity, and hence correct dosing will contribute enormously to animal welfare. [source] RT09 Bayesian approaches in dosage selectionJOURNAL OF VETERINARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 2006D. CONCORDET Objective There are several means whereby dosage schedules for clinical use may be set, some more appropriate and scientific than others! The challenge of the 21st century must be for colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry, those serving registration bodies and academic colleagues to pool their expertise with the objective of designing dosage schedules for clinical use, which are based on the application of sound scientific principles appropriate for each drug class. In this Roundtable Session colleagues of international standing will review (a) pharmacological and other sources of variability in the responses to drugs; (b) the advantages and limitations of pre-clinical studies for dose selection; (c) the roles of population PK and population PK/PD together with Monte Carlo simulations in dosage regimen selection; (d) Bayesian approaches to dosage selection and (e) regulatory guidelines on the type and extent of studies required for selecting dosages. There is no unanimity amongst stakeholders on either the principles or the methods underlying dosage schedule design. Dose titration studies have long been the principal means of fixing doses but PK-PD and population PK-PD studies are now challenging more traditional approaches. The papers and discussion in this Roundtable Session will provide a critical basis for future advances in this crucial area of therapeutic drug usage. Getting the doses right means that the patient will receive maximum benefit, in terms of optimal efficacy with minimal toxicity, and hence correct dosing will contribute enormously to animal welfare. [source] Bioengineering nitrogen acquisition in rice: can novel initiatives in rice genomics and physiology contribute to global food security?BIOESSAYS, Issue 6 2004Dev T. Britto Rice is the most important crop species on earth, providing staple food for 70% of the world's human population. Over the past four decades, successes in classical breeding, fertilization, pest control, irrigation and expansion of arable land have massively increased global rice production, enabling crop scientists and farmers to stave off anticipated famines. If current projections for human population growth are correct, however, present rice yields will be insufficient within a few years. Rice yields will have to increase by an estimated 60% in the next 30 years, or global food security will be in danger. The classical methods of previous green revolutions alone will probably not be able to meet this challenge, without being coupled to recombinant DNA technology. Here, we focus on the promise of these modern technologies in the area of nitrogen acquisition in rice, recognizing that nitrogen deficiency compromises the realization of rice yield potential in the field more than any other single factor. We summarize rice-specific advances in four key areas of research: (1) nitrogen fixation, (2) primary nitrogen acquisition, (3) manipulations of internal nitrogen metabolism, and (4) interactions between nitrogen and photosynthesis. We develop a model for future plant breeding possibilities, pointing out the importance of coming to terms with the complex interactions among the physiological components under manipulation, in the context of ensuring proper targeting of intellectual and financial resources in this crucial area of research. BioEssays 26:683,692, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] A new cytochrome b phylogroup of the common vole (Microtus arvalis) endemic to the Balkans and its implications for the evolutionary history of the speciesBIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 4 2010ELENA V. BU The phylogeographic architecture of the common vole, Microtus arvalis, has been well-studied using mitochondrial DNA and used to test hypotheses relating to glacial refugia. The distribution of the five described cytochrome b (cyt b) lineages in Europe west of Russia has been interpreted as a consequence of postglacial expansion from both southern and central European refugia. A recently proposed competing model suggests that the ,cradle' of the M. arvalis lineages is in western central Europe from where they dispersed in different directions after the Last Glacial Maximum. In the present study, we report a new cyt b lineage of the common vole from the Balkans that is not closely related to any other lineage and whose presence might help resolve these issues of glacial refugia. The Balkan phylogroup occurs along the southern distributional border of M. arvalis in central and eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and eastern Serbia. Further north and west in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, common voles belong to the previously-described Eastern lineage, whereas both lineages are sympatric in one site in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Balkan phylogroup most reasonably occupied a glacial refugium already known for various Balkan endemic species, in contrast to the recently proposed model. South-east Europe is an absolutely crucial area for understanding the postglacial colonization history of small mammals in Europe and the present study adds to the very few previous detailed phylogeographic studies of this region. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 100, 788,796. [source] | |||||||||||||