Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Ongoing Activity (ongoing + activity)
Selected AbstractsStructured intervention utilizing state professional societies to foster quality improvement in practiceTHE JOURNAL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS, Issue 3 2008Suzanne Lazorick MD Abstract Introduction: Despite the existence of guidelines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), clinical practices vary substantially. Practitioners can apply quality improvement (QI) strategies to adapt office processes and clinical practice towards evidence-based care. We identified facilitators and barriers to participation in a professional society,led structured collaborative to learn QI methods and improve care. Methods: Ten chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics participated in the effort. Support to chapter leaders included conference calls, listserv, technical support, and data aggregation. Support from the chapters to participating pediatricians included online continuing medical education modules, a workshop, chart reviews, and QI coaching. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews of 22 project leaders and reviews of project progress reports. Quantitative results were obtained from surveys of 186 physician participants. Outcomes included facilitators/barriers to program implementation, evidence for sustained chapter QI infrastructure, and participant assessment of improvements in care. Results: Facilitators included physician opinion leaders, a workshop, conference calls, QI support, and opportunities for shared learning. Barriers included lack of time, competing clinical priorities, challenges of using the online module, and underutilization of listservs. Seven chapters planned ongoing activities around attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), eight had specific plans to use QI infrastructure for additional clinical topics, and three developed significant QI infrastructure. Physicians believed care improved. Discussion: As requirements grow for participation in QI for maintenance of certification, national and state-level professional societies are interested in and can develop infrastructure to support quality improvement. Coaching, tools, and support from the national organization and QI experts are helpful in facilitating efforts. [source] On the interaction of ongoing cognitive activity and the nature of an event-based intentionAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2000Richard L. Marsh Three experiments were conducted to explore the interaction between the nature of an event-based prospective intention and the ongoing activity in which it was embedded. Following the basic predictions of E. A. Maylor's (1996, 1998) task appropriate processing framework, we orthogonally crossed semantic and structural ongoing activities with intentions to respond to semantic and structural event-based cues. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found a cross-over interaction in which the match of the ongoing task and the nature of the intention resulted in better event-based performance than a mismatch between the two. Experiment 3 attempted to define boundary conditions for these effects by demonstrating that the task appropriate processing effect will not occur when event-based cues are particularly salient. The implications of the results and suggestions for further investigations are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] La formation des stratégies sous le microscopeCANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 1 2002Linda Rouleau Résumé La perspective structurationniste permet de mettre la stratégie d'entreprise sous le microscope afin de regarder comment elle se forme au quotidien. À travers différents jeux de langage, la stratégie est mise en acte dans les multiples interactions que les gens ont entre eux dans le cours de la vie ordinaire de l'entreprise afin de modifier les liens qu'ils entretiennent avec leur environnement. À partir d'une démarche d'ethnographie organisationnelle, sont reconstruits deux épisodes illustrant la transformation des systèmes stratégiques lors d'un changement d'orientation dans une entreprise de vêtements haut de gamme. Ces épisodes démontrent comment les acteurs utilisent les règles et les ressources de l'entreprise pour structurer de nouveaux liens avec la clientèle. Surcodage et traduction sont deux microdynamiques inhérentes à la compétence stratégique des acteurs. Abstract In this paper, a structurationist perspective is used to understand strategy making as an everyday practice. Through their ongoing activities, interactions and language games, people come to modify linkages with the organization's environment. An organizational ethnography approach is used to reconstruct two episodes that illustrate the transformation of strategic systems during a change in orientation of a top-of-the-line clothing company. These episodes demonstrate how people use the company's rules and resources to structure new links with their clientele. "Over-coding" and "translating" are two micro-dynamics that are inherent to actors' strategic competence. [source] Biofilm formation by algae as a mechanism for surviving on mine tailingsENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 3 2005J. Viridiana García-Meza Abstract Photosynthetic biofilms successfully colonize the sediments of a mine tailings reservoir (Guanajuato, Mexico) despite the high metal concentrations that are present. To elucidate the mechanisms of biofilm survival despite metal ores, experiments were performed to evaluate the response of seminatural biofilms to Cu, Zn, and a combination of both metals at concentrations observed in the field. The biofilms were composed mostly of the chlorophyte Chlorococcum sp. and the cyanobacterium Phormidium sp., and their response to the two added metals was described by measurements of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and in vivo fluorescence. The photosynthetic efficiency and the minimal chlorophyll fluorescence of dark-adapted cells were measured by multiwavelength pulse amplitude,modulated fluorometry. The photosynthetic efficiency of light-adapted cells (,PSII) also was measured. Metal exposure increased the EPS production of biofilms, as visualized with confocal laser-scanning microscopy. Extracellular polymeric substances enhanced the extracellular metal accumulation from the first day of metal exposure. Metals provoked changes in the relative abundance of the dominant taxa because of a species-specific response to the metals when added individually. Metals affected the ,psii less than the total biomass, suggesting ongoing activity of the surviving biofilms. Survival of individual biofilm photosynthetic cells was found to resume from the embedding in the mucilaginous structure, which immobilizes the metals extracellularly. The survival of biofilms under mixed-metal exposure has practical applications in the remediation of mine tailings. [source] Sensitization of meningeal nociceptors: inhibition by naproxenEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 4 2008Dan Levy Abstract Migraine attacks associated with throbbing (manifestation of peripheral sensitization) and cutaneous allodynia (manifestation of central sensitization) are readily terminated by intravenous administration of a non-selective cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor. Evidence that sensitization of rat central trigeminovascular neurons was also terminated in vivo by non-selective COX inhibition has led us to propose that COX inhibitors may act centrally in the dorsal horn. In the present study, we examined whether COX inhibition can also suppress peripheral sensitization in meningeal nociceptors. Using single-unit recording in the trigeminal ganglion in vivo, we found that intravenous infusion of naproxen, a non-selective COX inhibitor, reversed measures of sensitization induced in meningeal nociceptors by prior exposure of the dura to inflammatory soup (IS): ongoing activity of A,- and C-units and their response magnitude to mechanical stimulation of the dura, which were enhanced after IS, returned to baseline after naproxen infusion. Topical application of naproxen or the selective COX-2 inhibitor N -[2-(cyclohexyloxy)-4-nitrophenyl]-methanesulfonamide (NS-398) onto the dural receptive field of A,- and C-unit nociceptors also reversed the neuronal hyper-responsiveness to mechanical stimulation of the dura. The findings suggest that local COX activity in the dura could mediate the peripheral sensitization that underlies migraine headache. [source] Response Characteristics Of Cutaneous Mechanoreceptors In Neuropathic RatsJOURNAL OF THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, Issue 3 2002A Bulka The activity of single myelinated afferents was recorded from dorsal roots L4-5 in normal Sprague-Dawley rats and animals that developed mechanical hypersensitivity following ischemic injury to the sciatic nerve. The mechanical response properties and conduction velocity of afferents conducting through the injury site (about 50% of units) were similar to controls. However, the majority of afferents not conducting through the injury site exhibited ongoing activity. The results suggest that mechanical allodynia may be at least partly due to the central integration of activity arising from these two populations of afferents in neuropathic rats. [source] Cannabinoid receptor 1 signalling dampens activity and mitochondrial transport in networks of enteric neuronesNEUROGASTROENTEROLOGY & MOTILITY, Issue 9 2009W. Boesmans Abstract, Cannabinoid (CB) receptors are expressed in the enteric nervous system (ENS) and CB1 receptor activity slows down motility and delays gastric emptying. This receptor system has become an important target for GI-related drug development such as in obesity treatment. The aim of the study was to investigate how CB1 ligands and antagonists affect ongoing activity in enteric neurone networks, modulate synaptic vesicle cycling and influence mitochondrial transport in nerve processes. Primary cultures of guinea-pig myenteric neurones were loaded with different fluorescent markers: Fluo-4 to measure network activity, FM1-43 to image synaptic vesicles and Mitotracker green to label mitochondria. Synaptic vesicle cluster density was assessed by immunohistochemistry and expression of CB1 receptors was confirmed by RT-PCR. Spontaneous network activity, displayed by both excitatory and inhibitory neurones, was significantly increased by CB1 receptor antagonists (AM-251 and SR141716), abolished by CB1 activation (methanandamide, mAEA) and reduced by two different inhibitors (arachidonylamide serotonin, AA-5HT and URB597) of fatty acid amide hydrolase. Antagonists reduced the number of synaptic vesicles that were recycled during an electrical stimulus. CB1 agonists (mAEA and WIN55,212) reduced and antagonists enhanced the fraction of transported mitochondria in enteric nerve fibres. We found immunohistochemical evidence for an enhancement of synaptophysin-positive release sites with SR141716, while WIN55,212 caused a reduction. The opposite effects of agonists and antagonists suggest that enteric nerve signalling is under the permanent control of CB1 receptor activity. Using inhibitors of the endocannabinoid degrading enzyme, we were able to show there is endogenous production of a CB ligand in the ENS. [source] The effects of ongoing activity on time estimation in prospective rememberingAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2010Miranda Occhionero Two experiments examined whether time-based prospective memory performance is influenced by the continuous or discontinuous nature of an ongoing activity. The first experiment demonstrated that prospective memory performance was not influenced by the engagement in continuous or discontinuous ongoing activity. The second experiment demonstrated that a discontinuous ongoing activity negatively affected prospective memory performance when participants had to execute two time-based tasks for which the retention intervals partially overlapped. The results suggest that when individuals are engaged in multiple time-based tasks, a general timing disruption occurs, with a proactive interference effect resulting in costs that are detrimental to prospective timing. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Delaying execution of intentions: overcoming the costs of interruptionsAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2004Mark A. McDaniel In real-world settings, execution of retrieved intentions must often be briefly delayed until an ongoing activity is completed (delayed-execute prospective memory tasks). Further, in demanding work settings, the ongoing activity itself can be interrupted. Experiment 1 examined the effects of the delay length (5, 15, 40,s), the presence of an interruption within that delay, and the length of the interruption on prospective memory performance. Delay length did not significantly affect performance, but interruptions produced significant decrements in performance relative to a delay alone. The length of the interruptions (10 vs. 20,s) did not significantly affect performance. Experiment 2 replicated the negative effects of interruptions, and found that these effects could be overcome with a simple external mnemonic. We suggest that in demanding work environments where interruptions are likely, external cues are advisable, especially where prospective memory failures have critical consequences. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] On the interaction of ongoing cognitive activity and the nature of an event-based intentionAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2000Richard L. Marsh Three experiments were conducted to explore the interaction between the nature of an event-based prospective intention and the ongoing activity in which it was embedded. Following the basic predictions of E. A. Maylor's (1996, 1998) task appropriate processing framework, we orthogonally crossed semantic and structural ongoing activities with intentions to respond to semantic and structural event-based cues. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found a cross-over interaction in which the match of the ongoing task and the nature of the intention resulted in better event-based performance than a mismatch between the two. Experiment 3 attempted to define boundary conditions for these effects by demonstrating that the task appropriate processing effect will not occur when event-based cues are particularly salient. The implications of the results and suggestions for further investigations are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Inhibitory Effects Of Angiotensin Ii On Barosensitive Rostral Ventrolateral Medulla Neurons Of The RatCLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 12 2001Delphine Bertram SUMMARY 1. The brain renin,angiotensin system can influence arterial baroreceptor reflex control of blood pressure (BP) through both direct and indirect effects on sympathetic premotor neurons of the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM). The present study examined the direct effect of angiotensin (Ang) II applied by microiontophoresis on the ongoing activity of single RVLM neurons. 2. In 26 urethane-anaesthetized Wistar rats, recordings of single unit activities of barosensitive RVLM neurons were made from one barrel of a six-barrel micropipette assembly. The other five barrels were filled with either L -glutamate, AngII, valsartan (an AT1 receptor antagonist), PD 123177 (an AT2 receptor antagonist) and saline. All drugs were applied by microiontophoresis. 3. Mean BP was 83 ± 3 mmHg. Application of AngII inhibited the ongoing activity of RVLM neurons, identified as barosensitive because their activity was inhibited by a phenylephrine- induced increase in BP, from 12.6 ± 1.5 to 5.4 ± 1.1 Hz (n = 24; P < 0.001). Angiotensin II also inhibited the glutamate-evoked excitation of barosensitive RVLM neurons from 15 ± 3 to 5.8 ± 2.0 Hz (n = 6; P < 0.001). Valsartan significantly increased neuronal activity from 9.5 ± 2.3 to 13.5 ± 3.2 Hz (n = 7, P < 0.01), whereas PD 123177 significantly decreased neuronal activity from 13.5 ± 3.5 to 9.9 ± 2.8 Hz (n = 13; P < 0.01). 4. The results suggest that AngII exerts a tonic inhibitory effect on barosensitive RVLM neurons, which is presumably mediated through AT1 receptor stimulation. [source] | |||||||||||||