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Early Assessment (early + assessment)
Selected AbstractsApplying the Systematic Screening and Assessment Method to childhood obesity preventionNEW DIRECTIONS FOR EVALUATION, Issue 125 2010Nicola Dawkins The authors describe application of the Systematic Screening and Assessment (SSA) Method to an initiative called the Early Assessment of Programs and Policies to Prevent Childhood Obesity. Over a 2-year period, a national network of practitioners, policy makers, and funders nominated programs and policies across five substantive areas: school district local wellness policies, school-based comprehensive physical activity programs, day care and after-school programs, access to healthy foods in low-income communities, and changes in the built environment to promote physical activity. The role of an expert panel in selecting innovations for evaluability assessment on the basis of the likelihood for a positive health impact is described. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association. [source] Training and support for evaluability assessment methodologyNEW DIRECTIONS FOR EVALUATION, Issue 125 2010Thearis A. Osuji The authors describe training of a network of professionals to conduct evaluability assessments for the Early Assessment of Programs and Policies on Childhood Obesity Initiative (Early Assessment Initiative). We learned that (1) the professionals trained had a diverse set of skills and expertise, (2) a training refresher session solidified methods and concepts, (3) evaluability assessments were improved when training included content on qualitative interviewing and development and application of logic models, and (4) comprehensive and consistent training methods helped to ensure consistency and methodological integrity. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association. [source] Neoadjuvant therapy of locally advanced gastric cancerJOURNAL OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY, Issue 4 2010James J. Mezhir MD Abstract Treatment of gastric cancer has evolved with the advent of randomized trials demonstrating chemotherapeutic agents with efficacy in advanced disease. Level I evidence supports delivering chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting; the data shows improvement in progression-free and overall survival. A clinical response to therapy is associated with improved R0 resection rates, pathologic response, and outcome in patients with locally advanced disease. Early assessment of metabolic response to therapy can potentially be utilized to tailor treatment. J. Surg. Oncol. 2010; 101:305,314. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Reply: To MELD or not to MELD: Early assessment of prognosis in fulminant hepatic failureLIVER TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 11 2007Silvina Yantorno M.D. [source] 2D and 3D radial multi-gradient-echo DCE MRI in murine tumor models with dynamic R*2 -corrected R1 mappingMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 1 2010Julien Vautier Abstract Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI is extensively studied to define and evaluate biomarkers for early assessment of vasculature-targeting therapies. In this study, two-dimensional and three-dimensional radial multi-gradient-echo techniques for dynamic R*2 -corrected R1 mapping based on the spoiled gradient recalled signal equation were implemented and validated at 4.7 T. The techniques were evaluated on phantoms and on a respiratory motion animated tumor model. R1 measurements were validated with respect to a standard inversion-recovery spin-echo sequence in a four-compartment phantom covering a range of relaxation rates typically found in tumor tissue. In the range of [0.4, 3] sec,1, R1 differences were less than 10% for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional experiments. A dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI pilot study was performed on a colorectal tumor model subcutaneously implanted in mice at the abdominal level. Low motion sensitivity of radial acquisition allowed image recording without respiratory triggering. Three-dimensional Ktrans maps and significantly different mean Ktrans values were obtained for two contrast agents with different molecular weights. The radial multi-gradient-echo approach should be most useful for preclinical experimental conditions where the tissue of interest experiences physiologic motion, like spontaneous extracerebral tumors developed by transgenic mice, and where dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI is performed with high-relaxivity contrast agents. Magn Reson Med, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The early assessment conundrum: Lessons from the past, implications for the futurePSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 7 2004Catherine M. Bordignon The early childhood educational field has garnered attention with initiatives to foster skill acquisition in young children prior to kindergarten entry. These initiatives, in conjunction with the rigorous demands of curricular reform and a burgeoning accountability movement, invoke questions regarding the adequacy of the instruments used to assess young children and the inherent difficulties in conducting such assessments. Because the effectiveness of education relies critically on the sound diagnoses of children's readiness for learning and the measurement of their subsequent progression throughout the schooling process, critical issues in early assessment must be addressed. An examination of past practices was synthesized with recent research to focus awareness on the insufficient content domain, restrictive context, adverse timing and questionable psychometric properties, specifically the inappropriate norms and low predictive validity, of many instruments. Both the implications of and compensatory strategies for each issue are considered. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 737,749, 2004. [source] Devolution and outsourcing of municipal services in Kampala city, Uganda: an early assessment,PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2003Frederick Golooba-Mutebi The late 1980s saw the beginning of wide-ranging economic and political reforms in Africa, prompted by both external and internal pressures. Demands for political reform pushed for democratisation, including decentralisation of power and resources to lower levels of government. Alongside pressures for democratisation were those for economic liberalisation, including the rolling back of the state characterised by, among other things, reducing its role in service provision. This article looks at aspects of political and economic liberalisation in Uganda, involving devolution and outsourcing of service provision in Kampala city. It focuses on the city's experience with devolution and outsourcing of solid waste management. It shows that, pockets of resistance notwithstanding, the reforms enjoyed widespread popularity and led to many positive changes. In addition, it shows that they begot problems and encountered others that rendered the process of change more problematic than its advocates had anticipated. Its major conclusion is that while devolution and outsourcing are useful tools for improving service delivery, they cannot ensure long-term success in the absence of financial, technical and managerial capacity on the part of contractors and contracting authorities. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Low- and high-level controlled processing in executive motor control tasks in 5,6-year-old children at risk of ADHDTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 7 2003Ariane C. Kalff Background: The scant research on the characteristics of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in kindergarten years curtails progress on early assessment of ADHD. Method: By screening a general population sample of 1317 five- to six-year-old children, four groups of children were selected. The performance of 30 children later diagnosed with ADHD was compared with 74 children later diagnosed with ,borderline ADHD' (children exhibiting all ADHD symptoms but without disruptions on two situations), 113 children later diagnosed with other psychopathology, and 126 healthy controls on computerised motor control tasks involving low- and high-level controlled processing. In addition, motor control was compared with movement speed. Results: The children at risk of ADHD were in general less accurate and more variable in their movements than the children with other psychopathology and healthy controls. Under conditions of high-level controlled processing, the children at risk of ADHD were disproportionately more inaccurate and had a more unstable performance with their preferred hand than the other children. In addition, linear effects were found, with the children at risk of ADHD having the worst performance, followed by the children with ,borderline ADHD', and then both groups of control children. No significant group differences were found in movement speed. Conclusions: The main findings are interpreted as evidence for a specific deficit in high-level controlled processing in young children at risk of ADHD, now found in a motor task, rather than a response task. Furthermore, the results support the notion that ADHD represents a dimensional trait. In addition, problems in movement control (the need to allocate attentional capacity) rather than problems in movement speed distinguish children at risk of ADHD from other children. The findings are interpreted as evidence that higher-order executive processes, such as self-control and self-regulation, are already affected early in the development of ADHD. [source] Declining medical decision-making capacity in mild AD: a two-year longitudinal study,BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 4 2006Justin S. Huthwaite Psy.D. This is a report of a two-year longitudinal study comparing healthy older adult subjects (n,=,15) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (n,=,20) using an objective performance measure of medical decision-making capacity (MDC). Capacity to consent to medical treatment was measured using the Capacity to Consent to Treatment Instrument (CCTI). The CCTI is a psychometric measure that tests MDC using a series of four core capacity standards: S1 (evidencing/communicating choice), S3 (appreciating consequences), S4 (providing rational reasons), and S5 (understanding treatment situation), and one experimental standard [S2] (making the reasonable treatment choice). For each standard, mild AD patients were assigned one of three capacity outcomes (capable, marginally capable, or incapable) based on cut-off scores derived from control group performance. At baseline, mild AD patients performed equivalently with controls on simple standards of evidencing a choice (S1) and making the reasonable choice ([S2]), but significantly below controls on complex standards of appreciation, reasoning, and understanding (S3, S4, and S5) (p,<,0.02). Control performance was stable over time on all capacity standards. At one-year follow-up, the mild AD group did not show significant decline from baseline on any capacity standard. However, at two-year follow-up the mild AD group showed significant declines from baseline on the three complex standards (S3, S4, and S5) (p,<,0.02), and a trend on one of the simple standards (S1). Over the two-year period, the proportion of marginally capable and incapable outcomes in the AD group increased substantially for four of the five standards (S1, S3, S4, and S5). Performance on [S2] remained stable over time in the AD group. We conclude that mild AD patients have impaired MDC at baseline, and demonstrate significant additional decline on complex consent abilities of appreciation, reasoning, and understanding over a two-year period. AD patients also show emerging impairment on the simple consent ability of evidencing choice at two-year follow-up. Capacity outcome data reflect similar declines over time for these four consent standards. The findings suggest the value of early assessment and regular monitoring at two-year intervals of MDC in patients with mild AD. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||