bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Integration of colour and textural information in multivariate image analysis: defect detection and classification issues
Authors: Prats‐Montalbán J. M. , Ferrer A. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn industrial processes, the detection and visualisation of defects and the development of efficient automated classification tools are strategic issues, especially when dealing with random colour textures (RCTs). This paper discusses the benefits of integrating colour and spatial (i.e. textural) information of digital RGB colour images in multivariate image analysis (MIA) to deal with these topics. Regarding the first one, a simple and computational cost‐effective monitoring procedure based on colour‐textural MIA merged with multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) ideas is outlined. Two novel computed images: T2and RSS Images are proposed. The procedure is applied on digital RGB colour images from artificial stone plates. With respect to the second issue, when colour‐textural MIA is used for image classification a lot of factors (e.g. pre‐processing, modelling, …) likely affecting the success rate in the classification (SRC) show up. This paper presents a methodology based on the combination of experimental design and logistic regression for choosing the best combination of factors to maximise the SRC of different types of images. Digital RGB colour images from ceramic tiles and orange fruits are used to illustrate the potential of the proposed methodology. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The impact of temperature variations on spectroscopic calibration modelling: a comparative study
Authors: Chen Tao , Martin Elaine 
Published: May 2007

AbstractTemperature fluctuations can have a significant impact on the repeatability of spectral measurements and as a consequence can adversely affect the resulting calibration model. More specifically, when test samples measured at temperatures unseen in the training dataset are presented to the model, degraded predictive performance can materialise. Current methods for addressing the temperature variations in a calibration model can be categorised into two classes—calibration model based approaches, and spectra standardisation methodologies. This paper presents a comparative study on a number of strategies reported in the literature including partial least squares (PLS), continuous piecewise direct standardisation (CPDS) and loading space standardisation (LSS), in terms of the practical applicability of the algorithms, their implementation complexity, and their predictive performance. It was observed from the study that the global modelling approach, where latent variables are initially extracted from the spectra using PLS, and then augmented with temperature as the independent variable, achieved the best predictive performance. In addition, the two spectra standardisation methods, CPDS and LSS, did not provide consistently enhanced performance over the conventional global modelling approach, despite the additional effort in terms of standardising the spectra across different temperatures. Considering the algorithmic complexity and resulting calibration accuracy, it is concluded that the global modelling (with temperature) approach should be first considered for the development of a calibration model where temperature variations are known to affect the fundamental data, prior to investigating the more powerful spectra standardisation approaches. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Drosophila CLASP homologue, Mast/Orbit regulates the dynamic behaviour of interphase microtubules by promoting the pause state
Authors: Sousa Aureliana , Reis Rita , Sampaio Paula , Sunkel Claudio E. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAn important group of microtubule associated proteins are the plus‐end tracking proteins which includes the Mast/Orbit/CLASPs family amongst others. Several of these proteins have important functions during interphase and mitosis in the modulation of the dynamic properties of microtubules, however, the precise mechanism remains to be elucidated. To investigate the role of Mast in the regulation of microtubule behaviour during interphase, we used RNAi in Drosophila S2 culture cells stably expressing GFP‐α‐tubulin and followed the behaviour of microtubules in vivo. Mast depleted cells show a significant reduction of microtubule density and an abnormal interphase microtubule array that rarely reaches the cell cortex. Analysis of the dynamic parameters revealed that in the absence of Mast, microtubules are highly dynamic, constantly growing or shrinking. These alterations are characterized by a severe reduction in the transition frequencies to and from the pause state. Moreover, analysis of de novo microtubule polymerization after cold treatment showed that Mast is not required for nucleation since Mast depleted cells nucleate microtubules soon after return to normal temperature. Taken together these results suggest that Mast plays an essential role in reducing the dynamic behaviour of microtubules by specifically promoting the pause state. Cell Motil. Cytoskeleton 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mono‐ and Heterodimetallic FeII and RuII Complexes Based on a Novel Heteroditopic 4′‐{Bis(phosphanyl)aryl}‐2,2′:6′,2″‐terpyridine Ligand (Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 15/2007)
Authors: Gagliardo Marcella , Perelaer Jolke , Hartl František , van Klink Gerard P. M. , van Koten Gerard 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe cover picture shows, with the help of a heteroditopic tpy‐pincer building block, the preparation of heterodimetallic complexes through the “complex as ligand” approach. Even with such small building blocks the construction of large molecular assemblies will eventually be possible. A beautiful example of small building blocks leading to large constructions is the Aquaduct Segovia, a masterpiece of classical Roman architecture. Details of the synthesis and structures of the heterodimetallic complexes are described in the article by G. van Koten et al. on p. 2111 ff.
High‐throughput CZE‐UV determination of arginine and dimethylated arginines in human plasma
Authors: Zinellu Angelo , Sotgia Salvatore , Zinellu Elisabetta , Pinna Antonio , Carta Francesco , Gaspa Leonardo , Deiana Luca , Carru Ciriaco 
Published: May 2007

AbstractExperimental studies document that increased asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) blood levels inhibit NOS significantly, reducing NO generation. ADMA measurement often needs sample cleanup by SPE prior to chromatography and precolumn derivatization that cannot be easily employed in a routine clinical setting. We set up a new reliable CE method to measure ADMA, symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA), and arginine without sample extraction or precolumn derivatization in order to examine their concentrations in human plasma. Sample was concentrated prior to CE injection and analytes were monitored by UV detection. CE analysis was performed in an uncoated fused‐silica capillary, 75 μm id and 60.2 cm length (50 cm to the detection window), injecting 1 s water plug (0.5 psi) followed by 10 s of the sample (0.5 psi). Separation was carried out in a 50 mmol/L Tris‐phosphate run buffer at pH 2.30, 15°C and 15 kV (75 μA) at normal polarity. Recovery of plasma ADMA was 101–104% and inter‐day CV was less than 3%. Assay performance was evaluated measuring the levels of arginine and its dimethyl derivatives in 77 subjects. Passing–Bablok regression and Bland–Altman test for methods comparison suggest that the data obtained by our method and by a reference CE–LIF assay are similar.
Genetic random effects model for family data with long‐term survivors: analysis of diabetic nephropathy in type 1 diabetes
Authors: Pitkäniemi Janne , Moltchanova Elena , Haapala Laura , Harjutsalo Valma , Tuomilehto Jaakko , Hakulinen Timo 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA shared and additive genetic variance component‐long‐term survivor (LTS) model for familial aggregation studies of complex diseases with variable age‐at‐onset phenotype and non‐susceptible subjects in the study cohort is proposed. LTS has been used from the early 1970s, especially in epidemiological studies of cancer. The LTS model utilizes information on the age at onset (survival) distribution to make inference on partially latent susceptibility. Bayesian modeling with uninformative priors is used and estimates of the posterior distribution of age at onset and susceptibility parameters of interest have been obtained using Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods with OpenBugs program. A simulation study confirms that we obtain posterior estimates of the model parameters on shared and genetic variance components of age at onset and susceptibility with good coverage rates. Further, we analyze familial aggregation of diabetic nephropathy (DN) in large Finnish cohort of 528 sibships with type 1 diabetes (T1D). According to the variance components estimated a substantial familial variation in the susceptibility to DN exist among families, while time to DN is less influenced by shared familial factors.Genet. Epidemiol. 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Designing standardized clinical protocols: Some organizational and behavioral issues
Authors: Saltman Richard 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn the present environment, the clinical ordering patterns of hospital‐based physicians can be expected to come under increasing scrutiny. This paper considers three major aspects of the case for inpatient clinical ordering protocols. First, it reviews the argument that hospitals do not, at present, exercise adequate management over physician‐triggered resource consumption. Subsequently, the paper examines existing but partial protocol models in the United States and Scandinavia that could provide a basis for an adequate physician management system. In its third section, the paper explores the fundamental characteristics of a full‐fledged Standardized Clinical Protocol (SCP) system, developing two alternative ‘ideal‐type’ models for further discussion. The paper concludes with the argument that physicians, rather than economists or politicians, should control the design of future protocol systems.
Performance indicators and performance assessment in the UK national health service: Implications for management and planning
Authors: Birch Stephen , Maynard Alan 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThroughout the Western world policy makers are seeking to control the use of health care resources. Often the primary motive for these policies is to control costs or the total level of public expenditure on health care. One manifestation of such policies in the USA is the use of diagnostic related groups (DRGs), and this instrument is now being adopted in Europe (for example, in France as from January 1986). In Britain, a similar management tool is that of performance indicators, which are basically measures of input and activity. In this article it is argued that management responses to these measures may not lead to greater efficiency in resource utilization. Whilst the use of input and process measures to control resource allocation are better than no controls at all, the achievement of efficiency requires that such measures are supplemented with the assessment of outcomes and analyses of input‐output relationships. Such supplementation, for example by using quality‐adjusted life years (QALYs), is urgently required if policy makers are not to become disenchanted with the usefulness of existing performance indicators.
Minimum primary health care interventions for child survival: Setting the research agenda
Authors: Gish Oscar 
Published: May 2007

AbstractWith the purpose of exposing some of the underlying issues, the first part of the article discusses the background and assumptions inherent to the idea of minimum primary health care interventions for child survival. The second part puts forward some areas for study, based upon their potential importance to child health and survival. International and national approaches to ‘minimum interventions’ are seen as being rooted in their political contexts, including the wider debate over the relationships between economic growth, development and the meeting of basic needs.To have relevance for health planning and management, it is argued that research agendas concerned with the impact of primary health care (PHC) interventions upon child survival must be: country‐specific; start with ‘what is’; and take entire national frameworks into account, including the respective roles and effects of the private and public sectors. Potentially useful research activities are discussed in the areas of coverage and resource allocation, and with regard to the development of minimum norms and standards. Proposals are made for setting a research agenda for PHC programmes in Mexico.
Planning and management for health in periods of economic stringency and instability: A contingency approach
Authors: Werff Albert Van Der 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe mid‐1970s marked the end of the longest period of uninterrupted economic growth in history, and initiated in Europe — and other parts of the world — a period of economic stagnation and instability. Along with the prosperity explosion of the past, the pattern of health problems has changed and is still changing. Moreover, the demand for health care has kept on rising, without much improvement of health status in general. Thus, there is a critical need to rethink policies, and to ensure that future changes occur within the limits of shrinking resources and the allotted time‐span. In particular, the change in priorities envisaged by the Health for All 2000 (HFA 2000) strategies will need to take place against the background of an ageing population, social instability, and continuing development of new lifestyles and persistent economic scarcity. It is by analysing that background, that this article seeks to make recommendations as to how health planning and management might successfully cope with the policy reorientation of the HFA 2000 strategy.The structure of this article is as follows. Firstly, the changes taking place in planning conditions will be reviewed, and form the basis of a framework for subsequent analysis of the ‘planning environment’. Following this framework, some of the conflicts likely to be faced in planning and management will be discussed, many of which are the consequence of economic stringency and instability. Also the requirements for an improvement of the effectiveness and efficiency of planning will be identified. Finally, a limited number of approaches to planning will be considered, for their appropriateness to the present‐day economic circumstances.The point of view elucidated throughout is that there is no single solution which is ‘best’ under all circumstances. The conclusion, rather, is that the selection of a particular theory or method of planning and management should depend both on the objectives of the decision maker and on the determinants of the planning environment. General prescriptions should not be made. At the same time, some elements have to be stressed in all types of planning, namely: the orientation towards outcomes or outputs or problems; the attention to long‐term strategic thinking; and, the application of more efficient, flexible and less bureaucratic approaches.
Consequences for hospitals resulting from demographic, social and morbidity changes: A European perspective
Authors: Pfaff Martin , Nagel Frieder 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe last 40 years has been a time of rapid demographic, social and economic change in most countries of the world. In Europe, the ageing of the population, a decrease in household size, and the reduced importance of parasitic and infectious diseases along with an increase in chronic and degenerative diseases are some of the most notable results of industrialization, urbanization and medical progress. These developments lead to changing demands not only for the services of hospitals but upon the health care system at large. Most recently, and in addition, these changes have had to be faced under resource constraints resulting from decreased economic growth.This article focuses on the similarities and differences within and across the health care systems of European countries, and on their efforts to respond to the changes which have taken place and are likely to continue in the near future. In so doing, it relates the various demographic, social and economic changes taking place in these countries to the structural changes noticeable in the hospital sector.The results obtained by statistical analyses of empirical evidence lead us to conclude that demographic and social variables may better explain the differences in hospital use within a given country over longer stretches of time than across countries at a given point in time. In the latter case, economic variables—differences in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita—serve as major explanations of the cross‐country differences found. Changes in demographic, social and morbidity factors are also mirrored in the relative importance of hospital departments, at a given point in time and also in changes over time.Major changes have taken place within the health care systems. Hospitals are losing ground to other forms of health care: for instance, to institutions providing pre‐hospital and post‐hospital treatment. The need for more caring patterns of service, rather than for more curing, accounts for yet another overall trend. Hospitals have started to respond to this need by offering more ‘semi‐stationary’ and part‐time health care facilities. These developments go hand in hand with the establishment of closer relations between hospitals and other facilities within the health care system, and with improved non‐stationary health care services.
British and American health policy: Recent lessons from one system to the other
Authors: Paton Calum 
Published: May 2007

AbstractArguably, US and British health‐care policies have shown some convergence in recent years, despite vast differences in the two health‐care systems. In part, this reflects the incentives common to all systems which must be mobilized to improve efficiency and effectiveness; in part, this reflects the (two‐way) trans‐Atlantic ‘trendiness’ of ideas. This article seeks to examine the main context of policy affecting the two health‐care systems, the means now used to achieve the systems' goals, and the validity of claims of convergence. The focus is conceptual, although a significant aim is to assess recent policies in a comparative framework.
Competition and survival of health service organizations: A population ecology approach
Authors: Kaluzny Arnold , Alexander Jeffrey , Hurley Robert , Galloway Robert 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe survival of health care organizations is viewed, in this article, from a population ecology perspective. This perspective provides insight into how organizational forms are differentiated on the basis of resource availability under different environmental conditions. Selected hypotheses and a rationale are presented to illustrate the applicability of the perspective to health services.
Health system financing by social security
Authors: Roemer Milton I. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe article reviews, through a historical perspective, the development world‐wide in social security systems for financing health care, considers the various patterns of health care funded by such systems, and identifies a number of the strengths and alleged weaknesses of the health insurance concept especially in the developing world. Though a range of options exists for mobilizing additional resources to the health sector, the adoption of statutory health insurance stands out as the single most practical strategy for increasing expenditures in health systems—especially expenditures on organized patterns of delivering primary health care.
The effect of centralized hospital administration on financial control and hospital service delivery: The case of Hong Kong
Authors: Chu David K. W. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAdministration, financial control and service delivery are three mutually influential dimensions of a hospital system. The centralized hospital system of Hong Kong is a case‐in‐point that illustrates such influence. By spending only a small fraction of the Gross Domestic Product each year, the government has been able to provide limited modern health care services at nominal financial cost to the public. At the same time, hospitals are subject to a strict system of administrative and financial controls. Consequently, Hong Kong hospitals must utilize their limited facilities effectively to provide modern health services to the public. However, the trade‐off between low‐cost health services and limited facilities is the incurrence, by the public, of non‐monetary costs in obtaining hospital admission.
Coping with regional variations: The case of surgery in Denmark
Authors: Andersen Tavs Folmer , Blais Regis , Bredesen Jesper , Jørgensen Torben , Loft Anne , Madsen Mette , Mooney Gavin , Sejr Torben 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis article examines some of the key research and policy issues that are emerging as a result of recent analyses of regional variations in health care. The article presents a historical background to this important new field of health services' research, and indicates, using some Danish examples of research on hysterectomy, cholecystectomy, and prostatectomy, the revelance of this research to management and policy planning. Regional variations are not yet fully explained in terms of what causes them. What is clear and what is the primary focus of this article is that their very existence, whatever their explanation, creates a major challenge for the management and planning of future health services.
Monitoring regional performance in general hospital psychiatry: England, Wales and Czechoslovakia
Authors: Frost C. E. B. , Forster D. P. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to consider how the regional performance of general hospital psychiatry may be adequately monitored using routine information. Limitations on the types of information available for monitoring regional performance are discussed, in the context of the main functions which a routine information service may be expected to fulfill. English and Welsh routine data are used in a study of the utilisation of general hospital psychiatric beds, and then compared with similar data for Czechoslovakia. The findings suggest that regional equity in the provision of beds: as measured by the coefficient of variation of the bed supply rate, and national performance, as measured by the ‘marginal throughput’ of these beds; is superior in Czechoslovakia despite recent additions to such beds in England and Wales. The model of utilisation, which was used to assess national performance, may be used to identify the regions whose performance is substandard when compared to other regions or countries. Finally, the relevance of these proposals for monitoring Health Service performance generally is discussed.
Management support for provinces: A programme for developing provincial health management capabilities in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Newbrander William C. , Thomason Jane A. , Kolehmainen‐Aitken Riitta‐Liisa , Campos‐Outcalt Douglas , Afo George , Davidson Warwick 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe decentralization of key health functions in Papua New Guinea in 1983, after a lengthy period of centralized control, highlighted the need to develop and strengthen planning and management capabilities at the intermediate level. This article describes the development of an interactive management support programme, combining regular on‐site consultation with in‐service training, to improve health planning, supervision and information system development at the provincial level in Papua New Guinea.