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Predictive Properties (predictive + property)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Predicting needs for nursing home admission , does sense of coherence delay nursing home admission in care dependent older people?

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 1 2009
A longitudinal study
Objectives., This study examined predisposing, enabling and need variables (Andersen's Behavioral Model) influencing the need for nursing home admission (NHA) in older people receiving home nursing care. In particular, the potential role of coping ability, measured as ,sense of coherence' (SOC), was studied. Design, sample, and measurements., A survey with baseline- and follow-up data after a 2-year period was undertaken with 208 patients aged 75+. The measures used were: gender, education, age, social visits, SOC, social provision scale (SPS), self-rated health (SRH), general health questionnaire (GHQ), clinical dementia rating (CDR), Barthel activities of daily living (ADL) index, and registered illnesses (RI). A Cox proportional model was used to examine factors that could explain risk of NHA. Results., Measures with predictive properties were Barthel ADL index, SPS, SRH, and gender. SOC, along with subjective health complaints, general health questionnaire, RI and social visits did not predict NHA. Conclusions., It is concluded that the patients' subjective evaluations of both their health and perceived social support were important predictors of future NHA needs, and should be seriously taken into consideration, along with the more commonly used objective measures of ADL and CDR. [source]

Discriminant analysis as a tool to identify compounds with potential as transdermal enhancers

JOURNAL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACOLOGY: AN INTERNATI ONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE, Issue 11 2005
W. J. Pugh
Structure-activity relationships were sought for 73 enhancers of hydrocortisone permeation from propylene glycol across hairless mouse skin. Enhancers had chain lengths (CC) from 0 to 16 carbon atoms, 1 to 8 H-bonding atoms (HB), molecular weight 60 to 450, log P (calculated) ,1.7 to 9.7 and log S (calculated) ,7.8 to 0.7. These predictive properties were chosen because of their ready availability. Enhancement ratio (ER) was defined as hydrocortisone transferred after 24 h relative to control. Values for the ER ranged from 0.2 to 25.3. Multiple regression analysis failed to predict activity; ER values for the ,good' enhancers (ER>10) were underestimated. Simple guidelines suggested that high ER was associated with CC>12 and HB 2,5. This was refined by multivariate analysis to identify significant predictors. Discriminant analysis using CC, HB, and molecular weight correctly assigned 11 of the 12 ,good' enhancers (92%). The incorrectly assigned compound was a known, idiosyncratic Br compound. Seventeen of the 61 ,poor' enhancers (28%) were incorrectly assigned but four could be considered marginal (ER>8). The success of this simple approach in identifying potent enhancers suggested its potential in predicting novel enhancer activity. [source]

On the validity of habitat as a predictor of genetic structure in aquatic systems: a comparative study using California water beetles

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
A. E. Z SHORT
Abstract Among freshwater organisms, water flow is frequently considered to be one of the most important environmental variables affecting life-history traits such as dispersal abilities and therefore genetic structure. Recent studies have suggested that habitat type alone as defined by water flow is predictive of genetic population differentiation, while others have advocated against broad generalizations in favour of more conservative, species-specific conclusions. If aquatic habitat type is predictive of population differentiation, then one would expect sympatric taxa that occupy the same aquatic habitat to converge on a similar genetic structure. We tested this prediction by examining the haplotype diversity, phylogeographical concordance, population connectivity and population isolation of three lotic water beetle species in southern California: Anacaena signaticollis, Eubrianax edwardsii and Stictotarsus striatellus. In addition to coarse habitat and geography, we also controlled for the potentially confounding factors of range size, method of dispersal and clade independence. Together, the species spanned extremes of genetic and phylogeographical structure in all measures examined, suggesting that a coarse dichotomy of aquatic habitat type is not predictive of genetic structure. While there is little question that water flow plays a major role in shaping the life-history traits of freshwater organisms, it is perilous to confer predictive properties to an artificially simplistic dichotomy or use it as a surrogate for other unmeasured variables. [source]

Inorganic structures in space group P31m; coordinate analysis and systematic prediction of new ferroelectrics

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION B, Issue 2 2010
S. C. Abrahams
The 62 entries listed in ICSD release 2009/1 under polar space group P31m correspond to 31 families of inorganic crystal structures, some with only one member. Coordinate analysis reveals, over a wide confidence range, 11 of these families as ferroelectric candidates. One includes the well known improper ferroelectric GASH (guanidinium aluminum sulfate hexahydrate), [(C(NH2)3)Al(SO4)2(H2O)6], another the previously predicted ferroelectric CsNO3 phase II. Those remaining include K3Nb3B2O12, the minerals schairerite, galeite and lizardite 1T, LaNi5D6 and ,-CaNi5D6.1, Ca(OCl)2Ca(OH)2, [N(CH3)4]2Mo3S13, Li17Ag3Sn6 and Cs3As5O9. Candidate selection is based upon detecting an approach by the reported atomic arrangement to the symmetry of a corresponding nonpolar supergroup. A further 13 families are typified by their reduced predictive properties, with four others likely to remain polar at higher temperatures and the remaining three noted as having a unit cell larger than reported or a misassigned space group. The primary sources of uncertainty in structurally based predictions of ferroelectricity are the reliability of the underlying structural determination and the upper limit assigned to the cationic displacement magnitudes required to achieve supergroup symmetry. [source]