bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Air Pressure and Building Envelopes
Authors: Lstiburek Joseph , Pressnail Kim , Timusk John 
Published: May 2003

Control of airflow is essential to several important performance aspects of the building system. Air carries moisture which impacts a material’s longterm performance (serviceability) and structural integrity (durability), behavior in fire (smoke spread), indoor air quality (distribution of pollutants and microbial reservoirs) and thermal energy. Typical case studies are presented to illustrate how each of the above characteristics is affected when unintended airflow occurs as a result of poor construction. In some cases, there was simply a lack of understanding of the consequences of ignoring potential leakage paths and the interaction of the mechanical conditioning systems with the building structure. Rehabilitation of a troubled building requires that these interactions be understood. In general, the approach to developing that understanding is not involved.
Hygric Material Properties of Porous Building Materials
Authors: Häupl Peter , Fechner Heiko 
Published: May 2003

The erection of new buildings, the renovation and preservation of building structures and monuments requires the quantification of the temperature, moisture, salt and pollution distribution in porous materials. The thermophysical modeling leads to a coupled nonlinear differential equation system. The temperature T and the capillary pressure pc will be used as driving potentials in this transport system. The air and salt transport and the crystallization and ice forming have been neglected in this paper although this processes have been formulated, too. In order to solve the transport equation system with modern numerical methods the material functions thermal conductivity λ(w( pc),T ), capillary conductivity K(w( p c),T ) and vapor conductivity δ(w( pc), T ) and the moisture retention function w( pc,T ) are necessary. This paper will be focused on the determination of w( pc) and K(w( pc)) in the isothermic case. The results will be compared with measurement results of the capillary active insulation material ``calciumsilicate''.
The effect of zero-balanced ultrafiltration during cardiopulmonary bypass on S100b release and cognitive function
Authors: de Baar M , Diephuis J C , Moons K G M , Holtkamp J , Hijman R , Kalkman C J 
Published: May 2003

Zero-balanced ultrafiltration (ZBUF) might reduce the systemic inflammatory response (SIRS) during cardio-pulmonary bypass (CPB) by removing inflammatory mediators. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of ZBUF on postoperative serum S100b levels, a marker of neuronal injury. In addition, the possible effects of ZBUF on postoperative neurocognitive function were assessed. Sixty patients undergoing elective coronary bypass grafting were randomly assigned either to a control group or to a protocol group in which ZBUF was performed. Serum S100b levels were measured five minutes after intubation, at the end of bypass and eight and 20 hours after arrival at the intensive care unit (ICU). Cognitive function was assessed with neuropsychological tests on the day before the operation and the sixth day after surgery. The S100b level at 20 hours after arrival at the ICU was 0.27 g/L (SD 0.16) in the control and 0.25 g/L (SD 0.12) in the group with ZBUF. There were no statistical differences at any time between the two groups. S100b was not detectable in the ultrafiltrate, indicating that these results were not obscured by washout of S100b. Thirteen patients (52%) in the control group and 14 patients (56%) in the ZBUF group showed a cognitive deficit. In conclusion, ZBUF during CPB does not decrease the release of S100b. This result is not affected by washout. ZBUF did not reduce the incidence of early neurocognitive deficits. The role of SIRS in the development of cognitive dysfunction following CPB remains to be resolved.
A multicentre international study of sedation for uncontrolled symptoms in terminally ill patients
Authors: Fainsinger R L , Waller A , Bercovici M , Bengtson K , Landman W , Hosking M , Nunez-Olarte J M , deMoissac D 
Published: May 2003

The issue of symptom management at the end of life and the need to use sedation has become a controversial topic. This debate has been intensified by the suggestion that sedation may correlate with ‘slow euthanasia’. The need to have more facts and less anecdote was a motivating factor in this multicentre study. Four palliative care programmes in Israel, South Africa, and Spain agreed to participate. The target population was palliative care patients in an inpatient setting. Information was collected on demographics, major symptom distress, and intent and need to use sedatives in the last week of life. Further data on level of consciousness, adequacy of symptom control, and opioids and psychotropic agents used during the final week of life was recorded. As the final week of life can be difficult to predict, treating physicians were asked to complete the data at the time of death. The data available for analysis included 100 patients each from Israel and Madrid, 94 patients from Durban, and 93 patients from Cape Town. More than 90% of patients required medical management for pain, dyspnoea, delirium and/or nausea in the final week of life. The intent to sedate varied from 15% to 36%, with delirium being the most common problem requiring sedation. There were variations in the need to sedate patients for dyspnoea, and existential and family distress. Midazolam was the most common medication prescribed to achieve sedation. The diversity in symptom distress, intent to sedate and use of sedatives, provides further knowledge in characterizing and describing the use of deliberate pharmacological sedation for problematic symptoms at the end of life. The international nature of the patient population studied enhances our understanding of potential differences in definition of symptom issues, variation of clinical practice, and cultural and psychosocial influences.
Palliative day care: what do services do?
Authors: Higginson I J , Hearn J , Myers K , Naysmith A 
Published: May 2003

Palliative day care has expanded rapidly in the recent years, but the types of care available vary. To understand more about the different models of day care we conducted a questionnaire survey of the 43-day care centres in North and South Thames Regions in England (total population 13.75 million). The questionnaire covered: management, staffing and organizational policies; the numbers, types and reasons for referral; and the services and care provided. Forty (93%) centres responded. Centres had operated for between 1 and 16 years, mean 8 years. A total of 2268 day care places (mean per centre, 57) were available per week – with an estimated 1.77 places per 10 000 population. Twenty centres had never had a waiting list or had to prioritize patients; 30 had a discharge policy. The mean time the longest patient had been attending was 4.5 years, range 1–12 years. There were a total of 3627 new referrals per year or 3.06 per 10 000 population. Of the 2054 patients recorded by day care centres during a week of detailed monitoring, 1850 (90%) had cancer and 204 had other diseases – most commonly HIV or AIDS, motor neurone disease or stroke. Thirty-four centres were managed by nurses, two by social work or social service professionals, and the remainder by people with other backgrounds. Most units had doctors, nurses, chaplains, managers, aromatherapists and hairdressers, but occupational therapists, social workers, chiropodists, dietitians and music and art therapists were much more varied, as was whether these posts were paid. The most common activities were: review of patients– symptoms or needs, monitoring symptoms, bathing, wound care, physiotherapy, hairdressing and aromatherapy. Centres describing themselves as more or mostly social were less likely to undertake daily assessment of new symptoms and wound care (chi-squared 13.0, 10.1, respectively, df 4, P < 0.05). However, we found no signi'cant differences between centres describing themselves as more medical or more social in reported levels of staffing, who was in charge, funding or most activities. The findings suggest that there are core activities offered in palliative day care, but also variations in medical assessments, nurse-led clinics, trips, art and music therapy, and artistic activities.
The ‘right kind’ of pain: talking about symptoms in outpatient oncology consultations
Authors: Rogers M S , Todd C J 
Published: May 2003

Despite improvements in cancer management over the past 25 years, unrelieved symptoms continue to be reported. Little is known about how patients' problems and concerns are communicated to professionals during oncology treatment. This qualitative study investigates the process of communication between cancer patients and oncologists during consultations in outpatient clinics of a regional teaching hospital. Data were collected by nonparticipant observation and audiotaping consultations. Analyses were by qualitative content analysis and conversation analysis. An objectives, strategies and tactics model was applied to organize the findings. Seventy-four consultations between cancer patients and 15 doctors were observed and audiotaped. Pain talk is defined and identified as a substantial topic, occurring in 39 out of 74 consultations. Doctor-initiated questions are the predominant discourse feature and are prominent not only in initiating discussions but also in directing further talk (e.g. over three-quarters of doctor-initiated questions are in a closed form which focus narrowly on limited physical aspects of patients' pain). This limited information exchange is used alongside other communication tactics to identify the ‘right kind’ of pain that may benefit from cancer therapy and to truncate talk of problems perceived to be outside of this specialist remit. Although individualized, holistic care is the expressed philosophy of the clinic, our data show that doctors tightly control the agenda to focus narrowly on pain which was amenable to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery or hormone manipulation. Inadequate exploration of patients' pain is likely to be detrimental to symptom control.
The use of steroids in the management of inoperable intestinal obstruction in terminal cancer patients: do they remove the obstruction?
Authors: Laval G , Girardier J , Lassaunière J M , Leduc B , Haond C , Schaerer R 
Published: May 2003

This multicentre, randomized double-blind study was undertaken to assess the efficacy of corticosteroids as a palliative treatment of intestinal obstruction due to advanced and incurable cancer. Thirty-one French palliative care units agreed to participate in the study and 12 actually recruited at least one patient. To be included, patients had to have an advanced cancer with a surgically inoperable bowel obstruction and to have received no specific anticancer therapy within the preceding 28 days. They had to fulfil at least three of the following criteria: vomiting at least twice a day; colicky abdominal pain; no flatus for 12 h or more; no stool for at least 4 days, faecal impaction being excluded; intestinal distension; air–fluid levels or absence of gas in the colon on an abdominal radiograph. Patients were randomized in three groups to receive either a placebo for 3 days (group A), or methylprednisolone 240 mg daily for 3 days (group B) or methylprednisolone 40 mg daily for 3 days (group C). Symptoms were assessed daily but success or failure of the treatment was assessed on day 4, according to the disappearance or persistence of symptoms. Fifty-eight patients were randomized, of whom 52 were able to be evaluated. Details of symptoms and associated treatments are described below. Of 40 patients without a nasogastric tube, symptoms were relieved in 68% of cases versus 33% among placebo-treated patients (P = 0.047). In 12 patients who had a nasogastric tube already in place, the results are less significant (60% versus 33% with P = 0.080). Because of the small sample size, no conclusions can be reached about the relative efficacy of low versus high-dose treatment regimes.
Constipation and the use of laxatives: a comparison between transdermal fentanyl and oral morphine
Authors: Radbruch Lukas , Sabatowski Rainer , Loick Georg , Kulbe Carsten , Kasper Mario , Grond Stefan , Lehmann Klaus A 
Published: May 2003

Constipation and the use of laxatives were investigated in patients with chronic cancer pain treated with oral morphine and transdermal fentanyl in an open sequential trial. Forty-six patients were treated with slow-release morphine 30–1000 mg/day for 6 days and 39 of these patients were switched to transdermal fentanyl 0.6–9.6 mg/day with a conversion ratio of 100:1. Median fentanyl doses increased from 1.2 to 3.0 mg/day throughout the 30-day transdermal treatment period. Twenty-three patients completed the study. Two patients died from the basic disease while treated with transdermal fentanyl, 12 patients were excluded for various reasons, and not enough data for evaluation were available for two patients. Mean pain intensity decreased slightly after conversion although the number of patients with breakthrough pain or requiring immediate-release morphine as a rescue medication was higher with transdermal fentanyl. The number of patients with bowel movements did not change after the opioid switch but the number of patients taking laxatives was reduced significantly from 78–87% of the patients per treatment day (morphine) to 22–48% (fentanyl). Lactulose was used mainly and was reduced most drastically, but other laxatives were also used less frequently. In this study transdermal fentanyl was associated with a significantly lower use of laxatives compared to oral morphine. The difference in the degree of constipation between the two analgesic regimens should be confirmed in a randomized double-blind study that takes into account both constipation and use of laxatives.
A survey of education and research facilities for palliative medicine trainees in the United Kingdom
Authors: Stirling L Caroline , Pegrum Helen , George Rob 
Published: May 2003

In June 1997 a postal questionnaire was sent to all palliative medicine trainees in the United Kingdom to ascertain the resources available to facilitate education and research, and the experiences of trainees who had undertaken research. Questions posed related to protected study time, library facilities, information technology (IT) support, postgraduate educational activities, details of research projects undertaken, level of senior supervision and overall impressions. The response rate was 85%. Thirty-six per cent of respondents were undertaking postgraduate educational courses and 30% of those remaining planned to do so. Protected time for study was allocated to almost all trainees, but access to educational resources was more variable. The availability of several journals and of information technology support was lower than their perceived importance. Satisfaction scores for the availability of books covering areas related to clinical practice were high, but were lower for availability of the Internet and of books covering specific training issues. Ninety-one per cent of respondents had been involved in research/audit projects, twothirds had published at least one article and half had presented an oral or written paper. Details of 162 projects were received, together with problems encountered. The results indicate that many of the foundations for specialist education in palliative medicine are in place and that trainees are highly motivated towards conducting research. The aspects in need of improvement on the educational side include IT facilities and the availability of specific speciality related journals. There is a need for more accessible supervision from senior colleagues and training in research methodology.
Cognitive impairment and its influence on pain and symptom assessment in a palliative care unit: development of a Minimal Documentation System
Authors: Radbruch Lukas , Sabatowski Rainer , Loick Georg , Jonen-Thielemann Ingeborg , Kasper Mario , Gondek Barbara , Lehmann Klaus A , Thielemann Ingeborg 
Published: May 2003

Symptom assessment in the palliative care unit must consider the reduced physical and mental status of the patients. Standardized instruments are often not completed by patients with cognitive impairment. We tried to combine minimal burden for patients and staff with sufficient information content in a Minimal Documentation System (MIDOS) for pain and symptom assessment in palliative care patients. From January to July 1998, 108 patients (123 consecutive admissions) with a mean age of 63 years (range 32–87 years) were admitted to the palliative care unit. Pain was reported as the reason for admission in 70% of the patients, and 71% were treated with opioids. Using a cut-off point of 20/21, 35% of the patients were impaired in the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). The number of missing values in the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the quality-of-life questionnaire SF-12 correlated highly with each other and with the MMSE sum score, but not with the summary scores of BPI or SF-12. Only 31 patients completed the SF-12 quality-of-life questionnaire. Age was not correlated to MMSE scores, and neither were opioid doses for 26 patients with slow-release oral morphine or for 20 patients with transdermal fentanyl. Only a minority of patients was able to use the numerical scale for symptoms other than pain, though most patients were able to score symptom intensity on the verbal categorical scale. Pain and symptom assessments were performed by the physician for 17% of the patients at admission, and for 16% of the follow-up controls because self-assessment was not possible. In this study, cognitive impairment prevented symptom assessment with longer and more complicated instruments such as the SF-12 in a large number of the patients admitted to the palliative care unit. Assessment instruments for patients with advanced disease must provide simple categorical scales and the possibility of being administered by interview.
Attitudes and beliefs of palliative care physicians regarding communication with terminally ill cancer patients
Authors: Bruera Eduardo , Neumann Catherine M , Mazzocato Claudia , Stiefel Fritz , Sala Raul 
Published: May 2003

The subject of communication between palliative care physicians and their patients regarding their diagnosis and prognosis has not been extensively researched. The purpose of this survey was to compare the attitudes and beliefs of palliative care specialists regarding communication with the terminally ill in Europe, South America, and Canada. A sample of palliative care physicians from South America (Argentina and Brazil), French-speaking Europe, and Canada were identified, and posted a questionnaire. Physicians who stated that they practised palliative care at least 30% of their time were considered evaluable as palliative care specialists. Of a total of 272 questionnaires, 228 were returned (84%); and 182/228 (81%) respondents were considered to be palliative care specialists. Palliative care physicians in all three regions believed that cancer patients should be informed of their diagnosis and the terminal nature of their illness. Physicians reported that at least 60% of their patients knew their diagnosis and the terminal stage of their illness in 52% and 24% of cases in South America, and 69% and 38% of cases in Europe, respectively. All physicians agreed that ‘do not resuscitate’ orders should be present, and should be discussed with the patient in all cases. While 93% of Canadian physicians stated that at least 60% of their patients wanted to know about the terminal stage of their illness, only 18% of South American, and 26% of European physicians said this (P < 0.001). Similar results were found when the physicians were asked the percentage of families who want patients to know the terminal stage of their illness. However, almost all of the physicians agreed that if they had terminal cancer they would like to know. There was a significant association between patient based decision-making and female sex (P = 0.007), older age (P = 0.04), and physicians from Canada and South America (P < 0.001). Finally, in their daily decision making, South American physicians were significantly more likely to support beneficence and justice as compared with autonomy. Canadian physicians were more likely to support autonomy as compared with beneficence. In summary, our findings suggest that there are major regional differences in the attitudes and beliefs of physicians regarding communication at the end of life. More research is badly needed on the attitudes and beliefs of patients, families, and health care professionals in different regions of the world.
Minimum dataset activity for hospice and hospital palliative care services in the UK 1997/98
Authors: Eve Ann , Higginson Irene J 
Published: May 2003

This study reports on the third in an annual series of surveys covering England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on the activity of palliative care services. This report concentrates on inpatient (hospice and hospital) services. All 640 known UK palliative services were sent a standardized questionnaire asking about the characteristics and numbers of patients cared for. Results were analysed for those services primarily for adults. From the 189 inpatient units (2955 beds) there was an 84% response rate in total, but the response to many of the questions was lower than this. Sixty per cent of services recorded 24 362 new patients, and about 50% provided details showing that 96.7% patients had cancer, and one-third were aged under 65 years. This is higher than the national distribution of cancer deaths where 24% are under 65 years. Conversely, only 7% were in the over 84 age group, which has 14% of cancer deaths. Most patients (73%) were admitted from their own home. Half of the admissions ended in death, and the majority of discharges were to the patient's own home. The mean length of stay was 13.1 days, with larger units tending to have a longer length of stay. Forty per cent of admissions were for one week or less (2.3% of patients died on the day of admission) and 15% were for more than three weeks. Bed occupancy varied between 99.7 and 48.9%. Responses were received from 74% of the 326 hospital support services, although again many questions were answered by less than half of those eligible to do so. Details of 37 194 new patients were reported (5.9% did not have cancer, although there was a wide range between services). Patients typically had four contacts with the service, although almost a quarter were single contacts. Three-quarters of the contacts were by a clinical nurse specialist. National estimates suggest that of the 155 000 patients dying of cancer in the UK each year 27 600 (18%) die in a hospice. There are 39 000 new hospice admissions each year and about 100 000 patients have contact with a hospital support service. Overall, the national provision of palliative care is increasing but there are groups who still appear to be missing out on palliative care, especially older people. Increasingly, patients appear to be admitted to a hospice earlier in care and are discharged home.