bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Impact of a Household Environmental Intervention Delivered by Lay Health Workers on Asthma Symptom Control in Urban, Disadvantaged Children With Asthma
Authors: Bryant-Stephens Tyra , Kurian Cizely , Guo Rong , Zhao Hauqing 
Published: November 2009

Objectives. We examined whether a home-based educational and environmental intervention delivered by lay health educators would improve asthma symptom control in inner-city children with asthma. Methods. Children 2 to 16 years of age with diagnosed asthma and at least 1 asthma-related hospitalization or 2 emergency visits in the prior year were randomly assigned into 2 groups (immediate and delayed intervention) in a crossover study. Each group participated in the active phase (intervention) and the inactive phase. Outcomes included asthma symptoms, albuterol use, emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and trigger reduction. Results. A total of 264 primarily Black (94%) children were enrolled. The mean number of emergency visits decreased by 30% and inpatient visits decreased by 53% (P < .001) after the intervention. Reductions were seen in pests, presence of carpets in bedrooms, and dust. Nighttime wheezing was significantly reduced after the intervention in both groups (P < .001). Conclusions. Lay health educators effectively reduced asthma triggers and increased caregiver asthma knowledge, which resulted in reduced emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and asthma symptoms. The relationships formed between the caregivers and the lay health educators appeared to positively impact asthma outcomes in this disadvantaged population.
An Efficient Weak-Constraint Gradient-Based Parameter-Estimation Algorithm Using Representer Expansions
Authors: Rommelse J.R.. R. , Jansen J.D.. D. , Heemink A.W.. W. 
Published: November 2009

Summary
The discrepancy between observed measurements and model predictions can be used to improve either the model output alone or both the model output and the parameters that underlie the model. In the case of parameter estimation, methods exist that can efficiently calculate the gradient of the discrepancy to changes in the parameters, assuming that there are no uncertainties in addition to the unknown parameters. In the case of general nonlinear parameter estimation, many different parameter sets exist that locally minimize the discrepancy. In this case, the gradient must be regularized before it can be used by gradient-based minimization algorithms. This article proposes a method for calculating a gradient in the presence of additional model errors through the use of representer expansions. The representers are data-driven basis functions that perform the regularization. All available data can be used during every iteration of the minimization scheme, as is the case in the classical representer method (RM). However, the method proposed here also allows adaptive selection of different portions of the data during different iterations to reduce computation time; the user now has the freedom to choose the number of basis functions and revise this choice at every iteration. The method also differs from the classic RM by the introduction of measurement representers in addition to state, adjoint, and parameter representers and by the fact that no correction terms are calculated. Unlike the classic RM, where the minimization scheme is prescribed, the RM proposed here provides a gradient that can be used in any minimization algorithm.
The applicability of the modified method is illustrated with a synthetic example to estimate permeability values in an inverted- five-spot waterflooding problem.
Pursuit and Implementation of Hospital-Based Outpatient Direct Access to Physical Therapy Services: An Administrative Case Report
Authors: Boissonnault William G. , Badke Mary Beth , Powers Jane Megan 
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose
Despite legislative approval of direct access to physical therapy, other regulatory barriers and internal institutional policies often must be overcome before this practice model can be fully adopted. Few institutional initiatives have been published describing strategies designed to change policies restricting direct patient access. This case report describes steps and strategies associated with successful implementation of a direct access physical therapy model at a large academic medical center.

Case Description
The process of obtaining institutional medical board and hospital authority board approval and implementing a pilot program is described. Program details, including therapist qualifications and scope of practice, the required internal training program, and program outcome assessment, are provided. The therapist scope of practice includes the ability to refer patients directly to a radiologist for plain film radiography. Early pilot program findings, including challenges faced and subsequent actions, are described.

Outcomes
Reviewed patient care decisions by therapists participating in the pilot program were deemed appropriate 100% of the time by physician chart reviewers. Approximately 10% of the patients seen were referred to a radiologist for plain film imaging, and 4% and 16% of the patients were referred to physicians for pain medications or medical consultation, respectively. The pilot program's success led to institutional adoption of the direct access model in all physical therapy outpatient clinics.

Discussion
Autonomy is described, in part, as self-determined professional judgment and action. This case report describes such an effort at a large academic medical center. The interdependent, collaborative relationship among physical therapists, physicians, and hospital administrators has resulted in the implementation of a patient-centered practice model based on the premise of patient choice.
The origin and foot condition of horses slaughtered in Australia for the human consumption market
Authors: Doughty A. , Cross N. , Robins A. , Phillips C. J. C. 
Published: November 2009

SummaryReasons for performing study: There are ethical concerns regarding the loss of horses from various equine industries and their corresponding slaughter. However, to date, no empirical evidence regarding the extent of this loss, nor of the condition of horses involved, exists within Australia.Objectives: To determine the approximate ages, brand type and condition of feet of horses relinquished to an export abattoir in Australia.Method: Data were collected from 340 horses processed at an Australian abattoir from November 2007‐January 2008. Foot abnormalities, injuries and hoof indicators of overgrown and untrimmed hooves were assessed together with a dental inspection. Observations of brand were used to determine horse origin.Results: The dental age of 60% of horses was ≤7 years, and 53% originated from the racing industry (40% Thoroughbred and 13% Standardbred). A total of 81% of the horses had overgrown or untrimmed hooves. Standardbred horses had fewer grass cracks and more injuries to the coronary band than Thoroughbreds, probably due to pacing and trotting activities.Conclusions: Just over half of the horses slaughtered at an Australian abattoir on 3 working days were aged ≤7 years and emanated from the racing industry. Foot problems were common.Potential relevance: Future research should identify means of reducing the number of horses slaughtered and preventative measures for foot disorders.
Implementation of an Emergency Medical Card and a Continuity of Care
Authors: Rowan B. , Narus S. , Smith M. , Hastings T. , Poynton M. , Nebeker J. , Hales J. , Evans R. S. , Olola C. H. O. 
Published: November 2009

Summary
Objectives: To describe the design and implementation procedures for an emergency medical card (EMC) and a continuity of care (CoC) report using the continuity of care record (CCR) standard. We also describe studies to evaluate the effectiveness of these documents in Co C.
Methods: We convened weekly planning, design, development, implementation, and evaluation meetings, involving 25 outpatient clinics at Intermountain Healthcare. The CCR standard schema and documentation from American Society for Testing and Materials were used to develop the data model. An outside consultant provided further advice on committee-approved designs. We then developed a functional design document for the CCR application implementation. Healthcare professionals (medical doctors and physician assistants) and fourth-year medical students will simulate the will simulate the EMC and CoC report use and assess their usefulness in Co C. The reviewers will review three randomly selected patient cases, using patient information in the electronic medical record, EMC and CoC report. A structured questionnaire with Likert scale will assess the reviewers’ perceptions of the documents’ usefulness in medical decision making. Other studies will compare patient- and HCP-entered data to evaluate the effect of patient-entered data on the quality of HCP-entered data and assess user-satisfaction with the documents’ usefulness in Co C.
Results: An automated CCR application compliant with the CCR standard was developed and integrated in an already implemented patient portal at the Intermountain Healthcare clinics. Patients use the application to view, add, modify their information and use the data plus EMR data to create EMC and CoC report.
Conclusions: The CCR standard can be used to implement an application to enable patients to not only view but add or modify personal health records, and create, print and share paper EMC and CoC report with HCPs. The documents can be created using HCP-maintained EMR data, in addition to patient-entered data as is currently the norm.
Comparing a Japanese and a German Hospital Information System
Authors: Ißler L. , Winter A. , Takabayashi K. , Jahn F. 
Published: November 2009

Summary
Objectives: To examine the architectural differences and similarities of a Japanese and German hospital information system (HIS) in a case study. This cross-cultural comparison, which focuses on structural quality characteristics, offers the chance to get new insights into different HIS architectures, which possibly cannot be obtained by inner-country comparisons.
Methods: A reference model for the domain layer of hospital information systems containing the typical enterprise functions of a hospital provides the basis of comparison for the two different hospital information systems. 3LGM2 models, which describe the two HISs and which are based on that reference model, are used to assess several structural quality criteria. Four of these criteria are introduced in detail.
Results: The two examined HISs are different in terms of the four structural quality criteria examined. Whereas the centralized architecture of the hospital information system at Chiba University Hospital causes only few functional redundancies and leads to a low implementation of communication standards, the hospital information system at the University Hospital of Leipzig, having a decentralized architecture, exhibits more functional redundancies and a higher use of communication standards.
Conclusions: Using a model-based comparison, it was possible to detect remarkable differences between the observed hospital information systems of completely different cultural areas. However, the usability of 3LGM2 models for comparisons has to be improved in order to apply key figures and to assess or benchmark the structural quality of health information systems architectures more thoroughly.
Alert System for Inappropriate Prescriptions Relating to Patients’ Clinical Condition
Authors: Yamaguchi T. , Hasegawa H. , Yoshihara K. , Zhang Q. , Mineno T. , Takeda H. , Matsumura Y. 
Published: November 2009

Summary
Objectives: Because information of contraindication and careful indication of medication is vast, there have been numerous cases of prescribing medication inappropriately. Our goal is to have a clinical decision support system (CDSS) combined with a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) to aid physicians in prescribing medication appropriately. In this study we developed an alert system for evaluating renal function and checking doses of medication according to the patient’s renal function. In addition, we developed functions of extracting target problems from the raw data and verifying if contraindicated medication has being prescribed.
Methods: This system scrutinizes data handled in the CPOE system. It picks up the data needed to ascertain problems and the data of medication entered from the order entry system. First we made an alert system for renal dysfunction. Creatinine clearance (Ccr) of a patient was calculated by the estimate equation of Cockcroft and Gault. If a patient data fulfills the condition of impaired renal function, the alert message is sent to the database. The alert system also checks the dosage of each medication according to a patient’s renal function. When the dosage is over-prescribed, an alert is sent. Next, we made an alert system targeting contraindication for liver diseases, renal diseases and diabetes mellitus. The criteria of these problems were set in the knowledge base. If a patient’s data meets the criteria, that fact is stored in the problem database. The system also keeps a prescription check master and checks whether the patient has a problem which is a contraindication of the prescribed medication. If a problem exists, an alert is sent to the alert message database. The alert-presenting module is a web system. After accepting patients’ ID indicated by a user, the system searches the alerts concerning the patients from the database and constructs pages presenting the alert message.
Results: We compared the period during which the contraindicated medication was prescribed before and after the alert system was put into operation. Of the patients with renal dysfunction who were prescribed the contraindicated medication, 24% had their medication discontinued before the alert system was put into operation. In contrast, the rate significantly increased to 54% after the alert system began to function.
Conclusion: We developed an alert system for inappropriate prescriptions for each patient’s clinical condition. The alerts generated by this system were effective for discontinuing contraindicated medication.
Drinking Water and Public Health Protection
Authors: Okun Daniel A. 
Published: November 2009

AbstractThe provision of drinking water for communities is an urban utility, but a utility with a difference. As with other urban utilities, such as electricity and gas, water for household use is a necessity that cannot readily be obtained by urban householders for themselves. The difference is that, while water may satisfy many household needs, including drinking, it has the potential of spreading disease, often without the knowledge of the consumer. As a result, water supplies have become subject to regulations for assuring adequate quality, regulations that are not faced by other municipal public utilities.Beginning with the water supply for Rome some 2000 years ago, the responsibility for water supply and its quality rested with the community. During the nineteenth century, with the beginning of the industrial era and the rapid growth of cities, public water supplies began to be provided by private entrepreneurs who sought profit in providing an essential service, frequently in competition with others. In the interest of getting a larger share of the market, they might provide a water of better quality than a competitor.
Self‐Purification Capacity of Natural Waters
Authors: Jjemba Patrick K. 
Published: November 2009

AbstractA majority of the world's population is constantly challenged by a lack of proper sanitary conditions. In developing countries, poor sewage disposal infrastructure, displacement of populations by wars and famine, a lack of the knowledge about the hidden dangers posed by excreted wastes to human health, or a blatant adherence to cultural practices that de‐emphasize the proper disposal of human excreta still prevail. On the other hand, it is common to find homesteads, villages, and small towns that are dependent on wells that are within the same vicinity of on‐site pit latrines or their modification for their water supply. The resultant contamination to both groundwater and surface water in such settings directly affects many people worldwide. Groundwater contamination is also of interest for the developed and the newly industrialized countries as a sizeable proportion of the population in those countries use on‐site septic tanks, some of which leak fecal material into the groundwater. To that effect, approximately 40% of the U.S. population uses groundwater for their domestic needs, whereas approximately 98% of the drinking water in Denmark is obtained from groundwater. Groundwater is not typically treated prior to domestic use; the consumers rely almost entirely on the water's ability to purify itself prior to reaching the point of consumption. Likewise, the fecal material can, if deposited on the surface, or in instances of flooding, become part of the runoff into waterways. Furthermore, in a number of places on the globe, rivers are the principle disposal pathways for waste materials making the interest in the processes that facilitate the self‐purification process of natural water applicable to both groundwater and surface water.
Differential Staining of Bacteria: Endospore Stain
Authors: Reynolds Jackie , Moyes Rita , Breakwell Donald P. 
Published: November 2009

AbstractEndospore production is a very important characteristic of some bacteria, allowing them to resist adverse environmental conditions such as desiccation, chemical exposure, extreme heat, radiation, etc. The identification of endospores is also very important for the clinical microbiologist who is analyzing a patient's body fluid or tissue—there are not that many spore‐forming genera. In fact, there are two major pathogenic spore‐forming genera, Bacillus and Clostridium, together causing a number of lethal diseases—botulism, gangrene, tetanus, and anthrax, to name a few. Curr. Protoc. Microbiol. 15:A.3J.1‐A.3J.5. © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
It's effective and somewhat deceptive: The Competitive/Problem‐Solving style
Authors: Craver Charles B. 
Published: November 2009

AbstractWe know that a combination of personality and circumstantial factors affects how people handle a negotiation. Now, Charles B. Craver, of Washington, D.C., explains how the iconic Cooperative/Problem Solving style has been giving way to a new definition of high effectiveness: negotiators who are ready to solve problems, but also are competitive.
Properties of parameter‐dependent open‐loop MPC for uncertain systems with polytopic description
Authors: Ding Baocang 
Published: November 2009

AbstractThis paper investigates the parameter‐dependent open‐loop model predictive control (PDOLMPC) scheme for systems with a polytopic uncertainty description. PDOLMPC parameterizes the infinite horizon control moves into a number of free control moves followed by a single state feedback law. The free control moves (excluding the first one) are parameter dependent and constructed upon all of the extreme realizations of the uncertainty before the switching horizon N. Our primary contribution is to point out that this PDOLMPC is a relaxed version of the feedback MPC. Thus, some properties of nominal MPC, such as enhancement of optimality and enlargement of region of attraction by increasing the switching horizon, can be inherited in PDOLMPC. These properties are theoretically important for robust MPC and a simulation example is given for demonstration. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society
A new tracking controller for discrete‐time SISO non minimum phase systems
Authors: Ruzbehani Mohsen 
Published: November 2009

AbstractA new tracking controller for discrete‐time Single Input Single Output (SISO) non‐minimum phase (NMP) systems is presented. In the proposed method, after cancelation of poles and cancelable zeros of the system, the controller adds some NMP zeros to compensate the effect of NMP zero (zeros) of the system. As a result, the phase of the overall transfer function will be almost linear and its magnitude approaches unity for all frequencies. The method can be applied even to the systems with complex conjugate NMP zeros. As well, it is applicable to the systems for which the conventional methods cannot properly be used. Furthermore, a generalization of method to continuous‐time systems is another given result. Several examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society
Capturing of cell culture‐derived modified Vaccinia Ankara virus by ion exchange and pseudo‐affinity membrane adsorbers
Authors: Wolff Michael W. , Siewert Corina , Lehmann Sylvia , Hansen Sara Post , Djurup Rene , Faber Rene , Reichl Udo 
Published: November 2009

AbstractSmallpox is an acute, highly infectious viral disease unique to humans, and responsible for an estimated 300–500 million deaths in the 20th century. Following successful vaccination campaigns through the 19th and 20th centuries, smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1980. However, the threat of using smallpox as a biological weapon prompted efforts of some governments to produce smallpox vaccines for emergency preparedness. An additional aspect for the interest in smallpox virus is its potential use as a platform technology for vector vaccines. In particular, the latter requires a high safety level for routine applications. IMVAMUNE®, a third generation smallpox vaccine based on the attenuated Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) virus, demonstrates superior safety compared to earlier generations and represents therefore an interesting choice as viral vector. Current downstream production processes of Vaccinia virus and MVA are mainly based on labor‐intensive centrifugation and filtration methods, requiring expensive nuclease treatment in order to achieve sufficient low host‐cell DNA levels for human vaccines. This study compares different ion exchange and pseudo‐affinity membrane adsorbers (MA) to capture chicken embryo fibroblast cell‐derived MVA‐BN® after cell homogenization and clarification. In parallel, the overall performance of classical bead‐based resin chromatography (Cellufine® sulfate and Toyopearl® AF‐Heparin) was investigated. The two tested pseudo‐affinity MA (i.e., sulfated cellulose and heparin) were superior over the applied ion exchange MA in terms of virus yield and contaminant depletion. Furthermore, studies confirmed an expected increase in productivity resulting from the increased volume throughput of MA compared to classical bead‐based column chromatography methods. Overall virus recovery was ∼60% for both pseudo‐affinity MA and the Cellufine® sulfate resin. Depletion of total protein ranged between 86% and 102% for all tested matrices. Remaining dsDNA in the product fraction varied between 24% and 7% for the pseudo‐affinity chromatography materials. Cellufine® sulfate and the reinforced sulfated cellulose MA achieved the lowest dsDNA product contamination. Finally, by a combination of pseudo‐affinity with anion exchange MA a further reduction of host‐cell DNA was achieved. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010. 105: 761–769. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.