Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Major Benefit (major + benefit)
Selected AbstractsFrom east to west: Nepalese women's experiencesINTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 3 2004C. Rolls rn Abstract Background:, Nepal is a small mountainous South Asian country located between the nations of India and China. Forty-two per cent of the 22 million Nepalese people live in poverty. As a result, immigration to a developed country is the dream of many but available to few. Some immigrants from Nepal have arrived in Australia in recent years entering the ,Skill' stream of eligibility categories. Nepalese immigrants to Australia are predominantly young married couples with professional education qualifications. Aim:, To generate knowledge of the childbirth and early experiences of Nepalese women in their mother country and in Australia. The aspect presented here is the immigration experiences of Nepalese women to Australia. Method:, An ethnographic, grounded theory approach was used to observe and analyse the experiences of 11 Nepalese participants. Findings:, Analysis of data suggests that Nepalese female immigrants with the ability to comprehend and speak English and a level of education and skill required by Australia can successfully negotiate the change of culture and adapt to their new society. Major benefits of immigration for the women were the opportunities to work, become independent and to share in decision making for their family. Conclusion and implications for nursing practice:, Severance from the Nepalese joint family, a male dominant hierarchical society, and a new way of life allow a Nepalese woman to become an individual rather than a member of a collective. This study has produced transcultural information from the perspective of the educated professional Nepalese female immigrant that will assist in the provision of midwifery and nursing care. [source] European best practice in blood transfusion: improvement of quality-related processes in blood establishmentsISBT SCIENCE SERIES: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTRACELLULAR TRANSPORT, Issue 1 2007Christian Seidl Transfusion medicine is an expanding field comprising the interaction between several medical disciplines. Looking at the ,vein to vein process' covering the donation of blood by the voluntary donor up to the application of blood components to patients, modern blood transfusion services comprise a large variety of sociomedical functions. The production of standard cellular blood components, such as erythrocyte and thrombocyte concentrates, plasmatic blood components as well as special cellular components such as blood stem cells, mesenchymal cells or granulocytes will require an extensive laboratory testing repertoire to monitor product quality and safety. The European blood legislation has defined several key quality elements to achieve good manufacturing practice in the field of blood transfusion. In addition, GMP/GLP and ISO standards are used inter alia by blood establishments. Following the call for proposal in the field of public health by the European Commission, a consortium of blood establishments from 16 European member, acceding and EFTA states has been established in order to survey the individual quality management systems used by the participants and to developed guidelines for quality systems. These guidelines are aimed at assisting blood establishments in preparing for government inspections as required by Directive 2002/98/EC. They could also be used to adapt existing procedures to comply with current EU requirements and/or to prepare for accreditation and certification of these institutions. Major benefits from those quality management systems are (1) the definition of an overall quality policy, (2) improved personnel responsibility, qualification and training, (3) error and risk assessment system, (4) continuous improvement, (5) improved resource management, (6) performance improvement. The definition of cost,benefit relation between certification and accreditation of blood establishments will depend on the individual institution itself and the amount of processes covered. With the release of the new EU Directive 2005/62/EC, there are currently EU requirements available that describe in detail relevant processes to be covered by quality system following good practice used in blood establishments. A future challenge for transfusion medicine would be optimizing the synergetic effects expressed by the EU directive, GMP and ISO standards. [source] Review of the functional surgical treatment of dystoniaEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 5 2001Paul Krack A review of functional surgery for dystonia is presented. Recently renewed interest in stereotaxy for dystonia has followed the resurgence of pallidotomy and the introduction of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) in the early 1990s. However, even since the 1950s, small series of patients treated with ablative surgery have been carefully studied, providing useful information, notably regarding the tolerability of surgery. In the setting of dystonia, thalamotomy was first performed with substantial benefits, but some authors outlined the great variability in outcome, and the high incidence of operative side-effects. In the ,modern' era of functional surgery for movement disorders, the globus pallidus internus (GPi) has emerged to be currently the best target for dystonia, based on small series of patients published in the last few years. Both bilateral posteroventral pallidotomy (PVP) and bilateral pallidal stimulation, performed by several teams, have benefited a variety of patients with severe dystonia, the most dramatic improvements being seen in primary dystonia with a mutation in the DYT1 gene. Whereas patients with secondary dystonia have often shown a lesser degree of improvement, some publications have nevertheless reported major benefit. There is today a strong need for carefully controlled studies comparing secondary and primary dystonia, DYT1 and non-DYT1 dystonia, ablative surgery and DBS, with additional assessment of neuropsychological changes, especially in children treated with bilateral pallidal procedures. [source] Plant and fungal identity determines pathogen protection of plant roots by arbuscular mycorrhizasJOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2009Benjamin A. Sikes Summary 1.,A major benefit of the mycorrhizal symbiosis is that it can protect plants from below-ground enemies, such as pathogens. Previous studies have indicated that plant identity (particularly plants that differ in root system architecture) or fungal identity (fungi from different families within the Glomeromycota) can determine the degree of protection from infection by pathogens. Here, we test the combined effects of plant and fungal identity to assess if there is a strong interaction between these two factors. 2.,We paired one of two plants (Setaria glauca, a plant with a finely branched root system and Allium cepa, which has a simple root system) with one of six different fungal species from two families within the Glomeromycota. We assessed the degree to which plant identity, fungal identity and their interaction determined infection by Fusarium oxysporum, a common plant pathogen. 3.,Our results show that the interaction between plant and fungal identity can be an important determinant of root infection by the pathogen. Infection by Fusarium was less severe in Allium (simple root system) or when Setaria (complex root system) was associated with a fungus from the family Glomeraceae. We also detected significant plant growth responses to the treatments; the fine-rooted Setaria benefited more from associating with a member of the family Glomeraceae, while Allium benefited more from associating with a member of the family Gigasporaceae. 4.,Synthesis. This study supports previous claims that plants with complex root systems are more susceptible to infection by pathogens, and that the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis can reduce infection in such plants , provided that the plant is colonized by a mycorrhizal fungus that can offer protection, such as the isolates of Glomus used here. [source] The search for meaning,Symptoms and transvaginal sonography screening for ovarian cancer,CANCER, Issue 16 2009Predicting malignancy Abstract BACKGROUND: The mortality rate of ovarian cancer is greater than that of all other major gynecologic malignancies. Detecting ovarian cancer at an early and curable stage long has been an objective of oncologists. Recently, it was reported that certain symptom patterns are informative for the presence of ovarian malignancy. In this article, the authors report on how symptoms and ultrasound predict ovarian malignancy. METHODS: Two hundred seventy-two women who were participating in annual transvaginal sonography (TVS) screening were selected from among 31,748 women who were enrolled. Symptom results were correlated with ultrasound and surgical pathology findings. RESULTS: TVS performed better than symptoms analysis for detecting malignancies (sensitivity, 73.3% vs 20%), and symptoms analysis performed better for distinguishing benign tumors (specificity, 91.3% vs 74.4%). The use of TVS and symptoms analysis in series resulted in poorer identification of malignancy (sensitivity, 16.7%) but improved the ability to distinguish benign tumors (specificity, 97.9%). Decisions using either symptoms or TVS combined in parallel had small increases in sensitivity (+3.3%) and had coordinated, small decreases in specificity (,5.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Symptoms did identify ovarian malignancies, but not as well as TVS. The current findings indicated that: 1) tumors that are negative by both ultrasound and a symptoms index are likely to be benign (specificity, >97%), and 2) adding symptoms information that has weight equal to the weight of ultrasound only slightly improves the discrimination of malignancy (sensitivity increase, +3.3%). Thus, a major benefit in discriminating malignancy was achieved through ultrasound, whereas the absence of symptoms in conjunction with an abnormal ultrasound (characterized by a low morphology index) indicated that the mass was benign and that surgery may not be required. Finally, informative symptoms can be expected to be absent in 80% of patients with ovarian malignancies. Cancer 2009. © 2009 American Cancer Society. [source] Routine mammography is associated with earlier stage disease and greater eligibility for breast conservation in breast carcinoma patients age 40 years and older,CANCER, Issue 5 2003Gary M. Freedman M.D. Abstract BACKGROUND Reduction in breast carcinoma mortality is a major benefit of screening mammography and has been demonstrated in multiple randomized clinical trials and service screening programs. Another benefit from screening is that it allows the patient a wider choice of treatment options, particularly the possibility of conservation surgery. The current study analyzed the impact of mammography in the staging and treatment of breast carcinoma. METHODS A total of 1591 women aged , 40 years were treated for breast carcinoma between July 1995 and October 2001. Three subgroups were defined and compared. Group 1 had 192 patients with no previous mammography, Group 2 was comprised of 695 patients who underwent mammography on average less often than once yearly, and Group 3 was comprised of 704 patients who on average underwent mammography once yearly or more often. RESULTS The difference in tumor stage was found to be statistically significant between the groups (P < 0.0001). In Group 1, 15% of the patients had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) compared with 21% of patients in Group 2 and 26% of patients in Group 3. In addition, 32% of patients in Group 1 had T1 tumors, whereas 50% of patients in Group 2 and 56% of patients in Group 3 had T1 tumors. The tumor size was , 1 cm in 8% of the patients in Group 1 compared with 20,23% of patients in Groups 2 and 3 (P = 0.0092). Breast conservation was an option for 41% of the patients in Group 1 but mastectomy was recommended in another 41% of patients. However, in Groups 2 and 3, 61% of patients were offered breast conservation and mastectomy was recommended to 28% (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS In the current study, women age , 40 years with breast carcinoma who underwent mammography at least once yearly were diagnosed with DCIS more often compared with patients who underwent mammography less frequently or those who had no prior mammography. Women who underwent mammo-graphic screening were found to have smaller tumors, which resulted in a majority of these patients being able to consider breast conservation as an alternative to mastectomy. Cancer 2003;98:918,25. © 2003 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.11605 [source] Towards a distinctive body of knowledge for Information Systems experts: coding ISD process knowledge in two IS journalsINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2004Juhani Iivari Abstract., This paper introduces the idea of coding a practically relevant body of knowledge (BoK) in Information Systems (IS) that could have major benefits for the field. In its main part, the paper focuses on the question if and how an underlying body of action-oriented knowledge for IS experts could be distilled from the IS research literature. For this purpose the paper identifies five knowledge areas as the most important parts for an IS expert's BoK. Two of these are claimed as distinct areas of competence for IS experts: IS application knowledge and IS development (ISD) process knowledge. The paper focuses particularly on ISD process knowledge because it allows the organizing of practically relevant IS knowledge in an action-oriented way. The paper presents some evidence for the claim that a considerable body of practically relevant IS process knowledge might, indeed, exist, but also notes that it is highly dispersed in the IS literature. It then argues that the IS research community should take stock of this knowledge and organize it in an action-oriented way. Based on results from prior work it proposes a four-level hierarchical coding scheme for this purpose. In order to test the idea of coding action-oriented knowledge for IS experts, the paper reports the results of a coded literature analysis of ISD research articles published from 1996 to 2000 in two leading IS journals , Information Systems Journal and MIS Quarterly. The results suggest that ISD approaches form a useful framework for organizing practically relevant IS knowledge. [source] Landmarks in the understanding and treatment of reflux diseaseJOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY, Issue 2009John Dent Abstract The last 50 years have seen a transformation in the understanding and treatment of reflux disease. The development and wide use of flexible endoscopy and progressively more sophisticated approaches to measurement of pathophysiological factors have been major drivers of advances. The recognition and progressive elucidation of the mechanical events that comprise the transient lower esophageal sphincter relaxation and how they lead to reflux provide a novel and firm foundation for tailoring therapies that act directly to reduce occurrence of reflux episodes, either surgically or pharmacologically. Novel GABAB agonist drugs have been shown to inhibit transient relaxations and are currently being evaluated in clinical trials on patients with reflux disease. Better understanding has extended to recognition of the extraordinarily high prevalence of reflux disease and of the ability of proton pump inhibitor drugs to deliver major benefits to a high proportion of patients with reflux disease. The life of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia has spanned the period of these major advances. A large number of the members of the Society and their associates have contributed substantially to these advances. [source] | ||||||||||