bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Tailoring quality improvement interventions to identified barriers: a multiple case analysis
Authors: Bosch Marije , Van Der Weijden Trudy , Wensing Michel , Grol Richard 
Published: December 2006

AbstractRationale, aims and objectives  The prevailing view on implementation interventions to improve the organization and management of health care is that the interventions should be tailored to potential barriers. Ideally, possible barriers are analysed before the quality improvement interventions are developed to influence both type and content of the implementation intervention. While tailoring educational improvement interventions generally requires the assessment of professional knowledge and skills, less is known about methods to tailor organizational interventions. In the present study, the results of previous studies on the development of educational and organizational interventions to improve the quality of health care are examined.Method  Qualitative analyses were conducted on a purposeful sample of 20 quality improvement studies reporting barrier analyses and covering both educational and organizational interventions.Results  Several methods were used to identify barriers, including focus group discussions, face‐to‐face interviews and telephone interviews. Attention to barriers prior to the development of the intervention did not always mean that the choice of a specific type of intervention was based on such, although identified barriers were often used to adjust the specific content of the intervention. A few methods to link improvement interventions to identified barriers were described, including theory‐based reasoning and iterative design processes. Results suggest there is often a mismatch between the level of identified barriers and the type of interventions selected for use. No differences in the tailoring of educational or organizational interventions could be identified.Conclusions  The design of quality improvement interventions appears to still be in its infancy. The translation of identified barriers into tailor‐made implementation interventions is still a black box for both educational and organizational interventions.
Dematiaceous fungi
Authors: Revankar Sanjay G. 
Published: December 2006

SummaryDematiaceous fungi are responsible for a wide variety of infectious syndromes. They are often found in soil and generally distributed worldwide. This suggests that most if not all individuals are exposed to them, presumably from inhalation or trauma. In recent years, these fungi have been increasingly recognised as important pathogens. The spectrum of diseases they are associated with has also broadened and includes superficial and deep local infections, allergic disease, pneumonia, brain abscess and disseminated infection. For some infections in immunocompetent individuals, such as allergic fungal sinusitis and brain abscess, they are among the most common aetiological agents. These fungi may have unique pathogenic mechanisms owing to the presence of melanin in their cell walls, which imparts the characteristic dark colour to their spores and hyphae. Diagnosis rests on careful microscopical and pathological examination, as there are no simple laboratory tests to reliably identify these fungi. Therapy depends upon the clinical syndrome. Local infection may be cured with excision alone, while systemic disease is often refractory to therapy. Azoles such as itraconazole and voriconazole have the most consistent in vitro activity, though there is more clinical experience with itraconazole. Further studies are needed to better understand the pathogenesis and optimal treatment of these uncommon infections.
Long‐term depression and associativity in rat primary motor cortex following thalamic stimulation
Authors: Eckert M. J. , Racine R. J. 
Published: December 2006

AbstractAssociativity is an attractive property of LTP in terms of its possible mechanism as a model for memory storage. In this study, we compare the effects of homosynaptic vs. associative stimulation on the induction of LTP and LTD in the neocortex of freely behaving rats. Using a callosal input to the motor cortex as a ‘strong’ input (one that potentiates reliably following homosynaptic stimulation), we paired activity of this pathway with a ‘weak’ thalamocortical pathway (one that does not potentiate when stimulated homosynaptically). Surprisingly, homosynaptic HFS caused a lasting depression of the field EPSP in the thalamocortical pathway. Analysis of this effect revealed that it was largely polysynaptic. Associative HFS (HFS applied to both pathways) not only failed to induce an LTP effect in the thalamocortical pathway, it increased the magnitude of the depression. Associative HFS did, however, facilitate LTP induction in the ‘strong’ callosal pathway. When comparing the effects of homosynaptic and associative LTD induction (HFS on one pathway anticorrelated with LFS on the other), we found that both protocols induced a similar magnitude of depression. These results show that HFS applied to the thalamocortical pathway causes a depression and this depression is enhanced, not reversed, by associative pairing with a strong input.
Influence of anesthesia on immune responses and its effect on vaccination in children: review of evidence
Authors: SIEBERT J.N. , POSFAY‐BARBE K.M. , HABRE W. , SIEGRIST C.‐A. 
Published: December 2006

SummaryAnesthesia and surgery exert immunomodulatory effects and some authors argue that they may exert additive or synergistic influences on vaccine efficacy and safety. Alternatively, inflammatory responses and fever elicited by vaccines may interfere with the postoperative course. There is a lack of consensus approach among anesthesiologists to the theoretical risk of anesthesia and vaccination. Few studies have assessed the influence of anesthesia and surgery on pediatric vaccine responses. We have undertaken an extensive review of articles published in English between 1970 and 2006 meeting the criteria: measurement of immune parameters following general anesthesia in children. By searching the major medical databases (OVID Medline, PubMed, ISI Web of Science) and references cited in the articles themselves, among 277 articles obtained none examined directly the influence of anesthesia/surgery on vaccine responses. Only 16 original reports assessed the influence of several anesthetic agents on various markers of immunity including lymphocyte numbers and functions. These results are reinterpreted here in view of our current understanding of the immune mechanisms underlying vaccine efficacy and adverse events. We conclude that the immunomodulatory influence of anesthesia during elective surgery is both minor and transient (around 48 h) and that the current evidence does not provide any contraindication to the immunization of healthy children scheduled for elective surgery. However, respecting a minimal delay of 2 days (inactivated vaccines) or 14–21 days (live attenuated viral vaccines) between immunization and anesthesia may be useful to avoid the risk of misinterpretation of vaccine‐driven adverse events as postoperative complications.
Magnetic resonance colonography vs computed tomography colonography for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer: an indirect comparison
Authors: Purkayastha S. , Athanasiou T. , Tekkis P. P. , Constantinides V. , Teare J. , Darzi A. W. 
Published: December 2006

AbstractObjective  The primary aim of this study was to use meta‐regression techniques to compare the diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography colonography (CTC) and magnetic resonance colonography (MRC), compared with conventional colonoscopy for patients presenting with colorectal cancer (CRC).Method  Quantitative meta‐analysis was performed using prospective studies reporting comparative data between CTC and MRC individually to conventional colonoscopy. Study quality was assessed and sensitivities, specificities, diagnostic odds ratios (DOR) were calculated. Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves and sensitivity analysis were utilized. Meta‐regression was used to indirectly compare the two modalities following adjustment for patient and study characteristics.Results  Overall sensitivity and specificity for CTC (0.96, 95% CI 0.92–0.99; 1.00, 95% CI 0.99–1.00 respectively) and MRC (0.91, 95% CI 0.79–0.97; 0.98, 95% CI 0.96–0.99 respectively) for the detection of CRC was similar. Meta‐regression analysis showed no significant difference in the diagnostic accuracy of both modalities (β = −0.64, P = 0.37 and 95% CI of 0.12–2.39). Both tests showed high area under the SROC curve (CTC = 0.99; MRC =0.98), with high DORs (CTC = 1461.90, 95% CI 544.89–3922.30; MRC = 576.41, 95% CI 135.00–2448.56). Factors that enhanced the overall accuracy of MRC were the use intravenous contrast, faecal tagging and exclusion of low‐quality studies. No factors improved diagnostic accuracy from CTC except studies with more than 100 patients (AUC = 1.00, DOR = 2938.35, 95%CI 701.84–12 302.91).Conclusion  This meta‐analysis suggested that CTC and MRC have similar diagnostic accuracy for detecting CRC. Study quality, size and intravenous/intra‐luminal contrast agents affect diagnostic accuracies. For an exact comparison to be made, studies evaluating CTC, MRC and colonoscopy in the same patient cohort would be necessary.
WHAT IS IT TO BE A DAUGHTER? IDENTITIES UNDER PRESSURE IN DEMENTIA CARE
Authors: GOLDSTEEN MINKE , ABMA TINEKE , OESEBURG BARTH , VERKERK MARIAN , VERHEY FRANS , WIDDERSHOVEN GUY 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTThis article concentrates on the care for people who suffer from progressive dementia. Dementia has a great impact on a person’s well‐being as well as on his or her social environment. Dealing with dementia raises moral issues and challenges for participants, especially for family members. One of the moral issues in the care for people with dementia is centred on responsibilities; how do people conceive and determine their responsibilities towards one another?To investigate this issue we use the theoretical perspective of Margaret Walker. She states that ideas about identity play a crucial role in patterns of normative expectations with regard to the distribution of responsibilities in daily practices of care.The results of this study show how the identity of a family‐member is put under pressure and changes during her loved one’s illness that leads to difficulties and misunderstandings concerning the issue of responsibility. These results offer an insight into the complexities of actual practices of responsibility and highlight the importance for those caring for people with dementia of attending carefully to how they see themselves and how they see other people involved (Who am I? Who do I want to be for the other?). Answers to such questions show what people expect from themselves and from one another, and how they, at any rate, are distributing responsibilities in a given situation. Professional caregivers should take into account that family members might have different ideas about who they are and consequently about what their responsibilities are.
Data Preparation for Real‐time High Quality Rendering of Complex Models
Authors: Klein Reinhard 
Published: December 2006

Abstract The capability of current 3D acquisition systems to digitize the geometry reflection behaviour of objects as well as the sophisticated application of CAD techniques lead to rapidly growing digital models which pose new challenges for interaction and visualization. Due to the sheer size of the geometry as well as the texture and reflection data which are often in the range of several gigabytes, efficient techniques for analyzing, compressing and rendering are needed. In this talk I will present some of the research we did in our graphics group over the past years motivated by industrial partners in order to automate the data preparation step and allow for real‐time high quality rendering e.g. in the context of VR‐applications. Strength and limitations of the different techniques will be discussed and future challenges will be identified. The presentation will go along with live demonstrations.
Tuning Subdivision by Minimising Gaussian Curvature Variation Near Extraordinary Vertices
Authors: Augsdörfer U.H. , Dodgson N.A. , Sabin M.A. 
Published: December 2006

Abstract We present a method for tuning primal stationary subdivision schemes to give the best possible behaviour near extraordinary vertices with respect to curvature variation. Current schemes lead to a limit surface around extraordinary vertices for which the Gaussian curvature diverges, as demonstrated by Karčiauskas et al. [

KPR04

]. Even when coefficients are chosen such that the subsubdominant eigenvalues,
μ
, equal the square of the subdominant eigenvalue,
λ
, of the subdivision matrix [

DS78

] there is still variation in the curvature of the subdivision surface around the extraordinary vertex as shown in recent work by Peters and Reif [

PR04

] illustrated by Karčiauskas et al. [

KPR04

]. In our tuning method we optimise within the space of subdivision schemes with bounded curvature to minimise this variation in curvature around the extraordinary vertex. To demonstrate our method we present results for the Catmull‐Clark [

CC78

], 4‐8 [

Vel01

,

VZ01

] and 4‐3 [

PS03

] subdivision schemes. We compare our results to previous work on the tuning of these schemes and show that the coefficients derived with this method give a significantly smaller curvature variation around extraordinary vertices. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling, I.3.6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques
Silhouette Extraction in Hough Space
Authors: Olson Matt , Zhang Hao 
Published: December 2006

Abstract Object‐space silhouette extraction is an important problem in fields ranging from non‐photorealistic computer graphics to medical robotics. We present an efficient silhouette extractor for triangle meshes under perspective projection and make three contributions. First, we describe a novel application of 3D Hough transforms, which allows us to organize mesh data more effectively for silhouette computations than the traditional dual transform. Next, we introduce an incremental silhouette update algorithm which operates on an octree augmented with neighbour information and optimized for efficient low‐level traversal. Finally, we present a method for initial extraction of silhouette, using the same data structure, whose performance is linear in the size of the extracted silhouette. We demonstrate significant performance improvements given by our approach over the current state of the art.Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.7 [Three‐Dimensional Graphics and Realism]: Visible line/surface algorithms
Beyond Tone Mapping: Enhanced Depiction of Tone Mapped HDR Images
Authors: Smith Kaleigh , Krawczyk Grzegorz , Myszkowski Karol , Seidel Hans‐Peter 
Published: December 2006

Abstract High Dynamic Range (HDR) images capture the full range of luminance present in real world scenes, and unlike Low Dynamic Range (LDR) images, can simultaneously contain detailed information in the deepest of shadows and the brightest of light sources. For display or aesthetic purposes, it is often necessary to perform tone mapping, which creates LDR depictions of HDR images at the cost of contrast information loss. The purpose of this work is two‐fold: to analyze a displayed LDR image against its original HDR counterpart in terms of perceived contrast distortion, and to enhance the LDR depiction with perceptually driven colour adjustments to restore the original HDR contrast information. For analysis, we present a novel algorithm for the characterization of tone mapping distortion in terms of observed loss of global contrast, and loss of contour and texture details. We classify existing tone mapping operators accordingly. We measure both distortions with perceptual metrics that enable the automatic and meaningful enhancement of LDR depictions. For image enhancement, we identify artistic and photographic colour techniques from which we derive adjustments that create contrast with colour. The enhanced LDR image is an improved depiction of the original HDR image with restored contrast information. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation I.4.0 [Image Processing and Computer Vision]: GeneralImage processing software
Splicing Upper‐Body Actions with Locomotion
Authors: Heck Rachel , Kovar Lucas , Gleicher Michael 
Published: December 2006

Abstract This paper presents a simple and efficient technique for synthesizing high‐fidelity motions by attaching, or splicing, the upper‐body action of one motion example to the lower‐body locomotion of another. Existing splicing algorithms do little more than copy degrees of freedom (DOFs) from one motion onto another. This naïve DOF replacement can produce unrealistic results because it ignores both physical and stylistic correlations between various joints in the body. Our approach uses spatial and temporal relationships found within the example motions to retain the overall posture of the upper‐body action while adding secondary motion details appropriate to the timing and configuration of the lower body. By decoupling upper‐body action from lower‐body locomotion, our motion synthesis technique allows example motions to be captured independently and later combined to create new natural looking motions.Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Animation
Latent Doodle Space
Authors: Baxter William , Anjyo Ken‐ichi 
Published: December 2006

Abstract We propose the concept of a latent doodle space, a low‐dimensional space derived from a set of input doodles, or simple line drawings. The latent space provides a foundation for generating new drawings that are similar, but not identical to, the input examples. The two key components of this technique are 1) a heuristic algorithm for finding stroke correspondences between the drawings, and 2) the use of latent variable methods to automatically extract a low‐dimensional latent doodle space from the inputs. We present two practical applications that demonstrate the utility of this idea: first, a randomized stamp tool that creates a different image on every usage; and second, “personalized probabilistic fonts,” a handwriting synthesis technique that mimics the idiosyncrasies of one's own handwriting. Keywords: sketch, by‐example, style learning, scattered data interpolation, principal component analysis, radial basis functions, Gaussian processes, digital in‐betweening, handwriting synthesis
Projective Alpha Colour
Authors: Willis Philip 
Published: December 2006

Abstract Alpha colours were introduced for image compositing, using a pixel coverage model. Algebraically they resemble homogeneous coordinates, widely used in projective geometry calculations. We show why this is the case. This allows us to extend alpha beyond compositing, to all colour calculations regardless of whether pixels are involved and without the need for a coverage model. Our approach includes multi‐channel spectral calculations and removes the need for 7 channel and 6 channel alpha colour operations. It provides a unified explanation of pre‐multiplied and non pre‐multiplied colours, including negative coordinates and infinite points in colour space. It permits filter and illumination operations. It unifies the three existing significant compositing models in a single framework. It achieves this with a physically‐plausible energy basis. Keywords: projective geometry, homogeneous coordinates, image compositing, alpha blending, alpha compositing, colour representation, filtering, spectral colour, projective alpha colour
Enhancing the Interactive Visualization of Procedurally Encoded Multifield Data with Ellipsoidal Basis Functions
Authors: Jang Yun , Botchen Ralf P. , Lauser Andreas , Ebert David S. , Gaither Kelly P. , Ertl Thomas 
Published: December 2006

Abstract Functional approximation of scattered data is a popular technique for compactly representing various types of datasets in computer graphics, including surface, volume, and vector datasets. Typically, sums of Gaussians or similar radial basis functions are used in the functional approximation and PC graphics hardware is used to quickly evaluate and render these datasets. Previously, researchers presented techniques for spatially‐limited spherical Gaussian radial basis function encoding and visualization of volumetric scalar, vector, and multifield datasets. While truncated radially symmetric basis functions are quick to evaluate and simple for encoding optimization, they are not the most appropriate choice for data that is not radially symmetric and are especially problematic for representing linear, planar, and many non‐spherical structures. Therefore, we have developed a volumetric approximation and visualization system using ellipsoidal Gaussian functions which provides greater compression, and visually more accurate encodings of volumetric scattered datasets. In this paper, we extend previous work to use ellipsoidal Gaussians as basis functions, create a rendering system to adapt these basis functions to graphics hardware rendering, and evaluate the encoding effectiveness and performance for both spherical Gaussians and ellipsoidal Gaussians. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACMCCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Scientific Visualization, Ellipsoidal Basis Functions, Functional Approximation, Texture Advection
Topological Structures in Two‐Parameter‐Dependent 2D Vector Fields
Authors: Weinkauf T. , Theisel H. , Hege H.‐C. , Seidel H.‐P. 
Published: December 2006

Abstract In this paper we extract and visualize the topological skeleton of two‐parameter‐dependent vector fields. This kind of vector data depends on two parameter dimensions, for instance physical time and a scale parameter. We show that two important classes of local bifurcations – fold and Hopf bifurcations – build line structures for which we present an approach to extract them. Furthermore we show that new kinds of structurally stable local bifurcations exist for this data, namely fold‐fold and Hopf‐fold bifurcations. We present a complete classification of them. We apply our topological extraction method to analyze a number of two‐parameter‐dependent vector fields with different physical interpretations of the two additional dimensions. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Line and Curve Generation I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation