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Specific Settings (specific + setting)
Selected AbstractsScabies and pyodermas , diagnosis and treatmentDERMATOLOGIC THERAPY, Issue 6 2009R.J. Hay ABSTRACT Scabies and pyodermas are two of the commonest skin infections in tropical settings. They affect large numbers of people, particularly children, and account for a large burden of disease for peripheral health care teams. Despite this there have been significant advances in our knowledge of these diseases, their impact and their management. However there is a need to evaluate these developments in this specific setting, tropical health and in the context of communities with limited resources. This section will describe these advances and the challenges that remain. [source] Examining learning in relation to the contexts of use of ICTJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 3 2001A. Tolmie Abstract Although ICT resources are commonly expected to produce uniform benefits, they are necessarily employed within pre-existing contexts of educational and social activity, and the outcome in terms of both pattern of use and learning depends on how they fit in with these. As a result, the same technology or software may have unexpectedly diverse effects, according to specific setting. If the object is to exercise control over outcome, then the conditions of use need to be planned for within the design and implementation of the technology. In order to do this, it is crucial that research gathers data on how outcomes are affected by the interplay between technology and context. This raises questions about the methods that would be appropriate for the conduct and dissemination of such research. These points are discussed in relation to three studies, one each at primary, secondary and university levels of education. [source] Partially Irreversible Investment Decisions and Taxation under Uncertainty: A Real Option ApproachGERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Caren Sureth The paper applies contingent claims analysis in a real option investment model in order to investigate taxation's influence on investor's decisions under uncertainty. The results show the distortion from realistic-type tax systems, allow to identify a tax-induced paradox in option valuation for specific settings and acknowledge the property of investment neutrality of well-known ,ideal' tax systems in the context of different degrees of irreversibility. Furthermore, it is clarified that the idea of risk-neutral valuation cannot be adopted by the real option approach in general. [source] Effects of myostatin deletion in aging miceAGING CELL, Issue 5 2009Michael R. Morissette Summary Inhibitors of myostatin, a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass, are being developed to mitigate aging-related muscle loss. Knock-out (KO) mouse studies suggest myostatin also affects adiposity, glucose handling and cardiac growth. However, the cardiac consequences of inhibiting myostatin remain unclear. Myostatin inhibition can potentiate cardiac growth in specific settings (Morissette et al., 2006), a concern because of cardiac hypertrophy is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Therefore, we examined the systemic and cardiac effects of myostatin deletion in aged mice (27,30 months old). Heart mass increased comparably in both wild-type (WT) and KO mice. Aged KO mice maintained twice as much quadriceps mass as aged WT; however, both groups lost the same percentage (36%) of adult muscle mass. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry revealed increased bone density, mineral content, and area in aged KO vs. aged WT mice. Serum insulin and glucose levels were lower in KO mice. Echocardiography showed preserved cardiac function with better fractional shortening (58.1% vs. 49.4%, P = 0.002) and smaller left ventricular diastolic diameters (3.41 vs. 2.71, P = 0.012) in KO vs. WT mice. Phospholamban phosphorylation was increased 3.3-fold in KO hearts (P < 0.05), without changes in total phospholamban, sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum calcium ATPase 2a or calsequestrin. Aged KO hearts showed less fibrosis by Masson's Trichrome staining. Thus, myostatin deletion does not affect aging-related increases in cardiac mass and appears beneficial for bone density, insulin sensitivity and heart function in senescent mice. These results suggest that clinical interventions designed to inhibit skeletal muscle mass loss with aging could have beneficial effects on other organ systems as well. [source] Optimal acquisition schemes for in vivo quantitative magnetization transfer MRIMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 4 2006Mara Cercignani Abstract This paper uses the theory of Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLB) to obtain optimal acquisition schemes for in vivo quantitative magnetization transfer (MT) imaging, although the method is generally applicable to any multiparametric MRI technique. Quantitative MT fits a two-pool model to data collected at different sampling points or settings of amplitude and offset frequency in the MT saturation pulses. Here we use simple objective functions based on the CRLB to optimize sampling strategies for multiple parameters simultaneously, and use simulated annealing to minimize these objective functions with respect to the sampling configuration. Experiments compare optimal schemes derived for quantitative MT in the human white matter (WM) at 1.5T with previously published schemes using both synthetic and human-brain data. Results show large reductions in error of the fitted parameters with the new schemes, which greatly increases the clinical potential of in vivo quantitative MT. Since the sampling-scheme optimization requires specific settings of the MT parameters, we also show that the optimum schemes are robust to these settings within the range of MT parameters observed in the brain. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Cation/proton antiporter complements of bacteria: why so large and diverse?MOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Terry A. Krulwich Summary Most bacterial genomes have five to nine distinct genes predicted to encode transporters that exchange cytoplasmic Na+ and/or K+ for H+ from outside the cell, i.e. monovalent cation/proton antiporters. By contrast, pathogens that live primarily inside host cells usually possess zero to one such antiporter while other stress-exposed bacteria exhibit even higher numbers. The monovalent cation/proton antiporters encoded by these diverse genes fall into at least eight different transporter protein families based on sequence similarity. They enable bacteria to meet challenges of high or fluctuating pH, salt, temperature or osmolarity, but we lack explanations for why so many antiporters are needed and for the value added by specific antiporter types in specific settings. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, analyses of the pH dependence of cytoplasmic [Na+], [K+], pH and transmembrane electrical potential in the ,poly extremophile'Natranaerobius thermophilus are the context for assessment of the catalytic properties of 12 predicted monovalent cation/proton antiporters in the genome of this thermophilic haloalkaliphile. The results provide a profile of adaptations of the poly extremophilic anaerobe, including a proposed role of cytoplasmic buffering capacity. They also provide new perspectives on two large monovalent cation/proton antiporter families, the NhaC and the cation/proton antiporter-3 antiporter families. [source] Social capital and health in rural and urban communities in South AustraliaAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2009Anna M. Ziersch Abstract Objective: This paper seeks to compare the relationships between social capital and health for rural and urban residents of South Australia. Methods: Using data from a South Australian telephone survey of 2,013 respondents (1,402 urban and 611 rural), separate path analyses for the rural and urban samples were used to compare the relationships between six social capital measures, six demographic variables, and mental and physical health (measured by the SF-12). Results: Higher levels of networks, civic participation and cohesion were reported in rural areas. Education and income were consistently linked with social capital variables for both rural and urban participants, with those on higher incomes and with higher educational achievement having higher levels of social capital. However, there were also differences between the rural and urban groups in some of the other predictors of social capital variables. Mental health was better among rural participants, but there was no significant difference for physical health. Social capital was associated with good mental health for both urban and rural participants, but with physical health only for urban participants. Higher levels of social capital were significantly associated with better mental health for both urban and rural participants, but with better physical health only for urban participants. Conclusions and implications: The study found that social capital and its relationship to health differed for participants in rural and urban areas, and that there were also differences between the areas in associations with socioeconomic variables. Policies aiming to strengthen social capital in order to promote health need to be designed for specific settings and particular communities within these. [source] A Survey of Model Evaluation Approaches With a Tutorial on Hierarchical Bayesian MethodsCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 8 2008Richard M. Shiffrin Abstract This article reviews current methods for evaluating models in the cognitive sciences, including theoretically based approaches, such as Bayes factors and minimum description length measures; simulation approaches, including model mimicry evaluations; and practical approaches, such as validation and generalization measures. This article argues that, although often useful in specific settings, most of these approaches are limited in their ability to give a general assessment of models. This article argues that hierarchical methods, generally, and hierarchical Bayesian methods, specifically, can provide a more thorough evaluation of models in the cognitive sciences. This article presents two worked examples of hierarchical Bayesian analyses to demonstrate how the approach addresses key questions of descriptive adequacy, parameter interference, prediction, and generalization in principled and coherent ways. [source] | |||||||||||||