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Medical Sciences	40%

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Internet forums: a self-help approach for individuals with schizophrenia?

ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 6 2005
H. Haker
Objective:, To study if and how online self-help forums for individuals with schizophrenia are used. Method:, We analysed 1200 postings of 576 users in 12 international schizophrenia forums regarding communicative skills [fields of interest and self-help mechanisms (SHM)]. Results:, The forums were predominantly used by affected individuals, few relatives or friends. The fields of interest of the users concern daily problems of the illness like symptoms and emotional involvement with the illness. Self-help mechanisms mostly used are disclosure and providing information. Emotional interaction e.g. empathy or gratitude were comparatively rare. Conclusion:, Individuals suffering from schizophrenia participate in online self-help forums using the same SHM, discussing similar topics as do individuals with other psychiatric disorders as well as not affected relatives and caregivers. Therefore, this tool seems to be a useful approach to cope with alienation and isolation, albeit only a small number of schizophrenia forums are found in the Internet. [source]

Improvement of information filtering by independent components selection

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING IN JAPAN, Issue 2 2008
Takeru Yokoi
Abstract We propose an improvement of an information filtering process with independent components selection. The independent components are obtained by Independent Components Analysis and considered as topics. Selection of independent components is an efficient method of improving the accuracy of the information filtering for the purpose of extraction of similar topics by focusing on their meanings. To achieve this, we select the topics by Maximum Distance Algorithm with Jensen-Shannon divergence. In addition, document vectors are represented by the selected topics. We create a user profile from transformed data with a relevance feedback. Finally, we sort documents by the user profile and evaluate the accuracy by imputation precision. We carried out an evaluation experiment to confirm the validity of the proposed method considering meanings of components used in this experiment. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 163(2): 49,56, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20519 [source]

The quality of treatment of eating disorders: A comparison of the therapists' and the patients' perspective

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, Issue 4 2008
Simone de la Rie MA
Abstract Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the quality of treatment of eating disorders (EDs) from the therapists' and patients' perspective and to compare their views. Method: The Questionnaire for Eating Problems and Treatment (QEPT) was administered to 73 therapists working with patients with ED, to 156 current ED and 148 former ED patients. The QEPT addresses the quality of treatment of EDs. ED diagnosis was assessed by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire. Answers were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: Both therapists and patients most often mentioned focus of treatment, therapeutic alliance, and communicational skills as important aspects of the quality of treatment. However, they valued similar topics differently. Therapists valued the focus on ED symptoms and behavioral change more highly, whereas patients underscored the importance of the therapeutic relationship and addressing underlying problems. Most therapists work from a cognitive behavioral orientation, but protocol-based treatment was not found important. Conclusion: There is an avid need for dissemination of evidence-based treatment. Therapists' and patients' views supplement current evidence-based knowledge on treatment quality of EDs. Optimal treatment of EDs will be facilitated when these three bodies of knowledge,the available evidence and the therapists' and patients' views,are integrated. © 2007 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord, 2008 [source]

Environmental Impacts of Products: A Detailed Review of Studies

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
Arnold Tukker
Summary Environmental effects of economic activities are ultimately driven by consumption, via impacts of the production, use, and waste management phases of products and services ultimately consumed. Integrated product policy (IPP) addressing the life-cycle impacts of products forms an innovative new generation of environmental policy. Yet this policy requires insight into the final consumption expenditures and related products that have the greatest life-cycle environmental impacts. This review article brings together the conclusions of 11 studies that analyze the life-cycle impacts of total societal consumption and the relative importance of different final consumption categories. This review addresses in general studies that were included in the project Environmental Impacts of Products (EIPRO) of the European Union (EU), which form the basis of this special issue. Unlike most studies done in the past 25 years on similar topics, the studies reviewed here covered a broad set of environmental impacts beyond just energy use or carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The studies differed greatly in basic approach (extrapolating LCA data to impacts of consumption categories versus approaches based on environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) tables), geographical region, disaggregation of final demand, data inventory used, and method of impact assessment. Nevertheless, across all studies a limited number of priorities emerged. The three main priorities, housing, transport, and food, are responsible for 70% of the environmental impacts in most categories, although covering only 55% of the final expenditure in the 25 countries that currently make up the EU. At a more detailed level, priorities are car and most probably air travel within transport, meat and dairy within food, and building structures, heating, and (electrical) energy-using products within housing. Expenditures on clothing, communication, health care, and education are considerably less important. Given the very different approaches followed in each of the sources reviewed, this result hence must be regarded as extremely robust. Recommendations are given to harmonize and improve the methodological approaches of such analyses, for instance, with regard to modeling of imports, inclusion of capital goods, and making an explicit distinction between household and government expenditure. [source]

National Guideline Clearinghouse Guideline Synthses and Comparisons

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS, Issue 3 2003
ANP-C, FAANP, Mabry Jo Goolsby EdD
As the number of clinical practice guidelines relevant to clinical practice continues to grow, nurse practitioners may find it confusing to choose from two or more guidelines on the same or similar topics. The National Guideline Clearinghouse provides two resources to assist clinicians in comparing multiple guidelines on similar topics: guideline syntheses and guideline comparisons. This column describes the features of these two resources, using examples from guidelines on acute pharyngitis. [source]