pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Extemporaneous Isoniazid Mixture: Stability Implications

Background: Isoniazid mixtures are compounded in Australia using commercially available isoniazid tablets.  Aim: To determine the stability of isoniazid 10 mg/mL mixture compounded from commercially available isoniazid tablets.  Method: The stability of the compounded isoniazid mixture stored at a range of temperatures (4-60 é was assessed with high performance liquid chromatography. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to investigate the compatibility of isoniazid with the excipient, lactose.  Results: The compounded isoniazid mixture exhibited significant degradation (= 10% after 3 days at 4 and 25 ꃩ, whereas the control (using isoniazid powder) retained desired stability (> 90% at 30 days) under identical conditions. A replicate control formulation, spiked with lactose, produced statistically similar degradation profiles to that of the compounded isoniazid mixture (p > 0.05), indicating lactose to be responsible for the degradation of isoniazid. The thermoanalytical studies demonstrated an incompatibility between isoniazid and lactose (broadening and shifting of melting endotherm of isoniazid at 171.46 ꃩ.  Conclusion: The British Pharmaceutical Codex specifies the use of isoniazid powder for compounding isoniazid mixture. This study highlights the importance for stability evaluations on all modified extemporaneous preparations in order to ensure that quality pharmaceuticals are delivered to patients.Griffith Health, School of PharmacyFull Tex
Stability Implications of Repackaging Paracetamol Tablets into Dose Administration Aids.

Background: Despite the widespread use of dose administration aids (DAAs) there is little available data on the stability of drugs during repackaging or storage in these devices.  Aim: To investigate the physicochemical stability of paracetamol tablets repackaged in DAAs.  Method: Physicochemical stability studies were performed on a commonly used paracetamol tablet directly after heat-sealing in a DAA frequently employed in practice, then at ambient (25ꃻ 60% relative humidity) and accelerated (40 ꃻ 75% relative humidity) conditions, over a 3-month period. Physical characteristics of the tablets (weight uniformity, physical appearance, thickness, hardness, friability, disintegration, dissolution rates) were evaluated at time = 0, directly after heatsealing, 1 month and 3 months. Chemical stability was confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results were compared to control samples stored in the original packaging at the various environmental conditions studied.  Results: All compendial requirements for physicochemical stability were met for both ambient and accelerated conditions over the 3-month period. Chemical stability of paracetamol content fell within the required range of 95-105% of the labelled amount, for all environmental conditions.  Conclusion: This study provides evidence on the stability of paracetamol tablets in a DAA, to support pharmacists in making sound clinical and operational decisions regarding the repackaging of paracetamol in these devices.Griffith Health, School of PharmacyFull Tex
Managing Extemporaneous Oral Liquids in Practice

Oral liquid preparations are often the dosage form of choice in paediatric and geriatric populations. Many drugs are not available in oral liquid dosage forms because of the complexity of formulating liquids and the small market size. Pharmacists are often challenged with the extemporaneous preparation of oral liquids from commercially available products. Most problems associated with the stability of these preparations have been attributed to interactions between the drug substance and excipients (tablet and formulation) rather than the degradation of the drug substance by standard routes. However, a review of 83 such dosage forms revealed that only 7.2% exhibited stability concerns. To address these challenges pharmacists may consider the management plan for oral liquid dosage forms presented in this paper to ensure the provision of safe, effective and quality drug products to patients.Griffith Health, School of PharmacyFull Tex
Regulation of the pharmacy profession throughout Australia

Pharmacy state and territory legislation provides for the regulation of the pharmacy profession throughout Australia by the pharmacy registering authorities.  The Council of Pharmacy Registering Authorities (COPRA) was formed to harmonise these regulatory requirements and facilitate communication amongst pharmacy registering authorities.  COPRA was recently renamed the Australian Pharmacy Council Inc.  Aim  To compare the regulatory requirements and identify regulatory consistencies and differences between jurisdictions.  Method  A qualitative approach encompassing a survey design and interview was used.  All eight pharmacy registering authorities were approached to participate via an invitation through the Australian Pharmacy Council in September 2006.  Results  Pharmacy registering authorities operate under diverse legislative frameworks and requirements.  Different definitions apply with regard to disciplinary processes and the extent to which the registering authorities are able to sanction practitioners.  The jurisdictions have different requirements with regard to pharmacy premises registration, the inspection of premises and the required equipment and resources to practise.  Differences with regard to pre-registration programmes, the assessment of pre-registration pharmacists and initial and ongoing registration specifications were also identified.  Conclusion  The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has made recommendations that will impact on the regulation of all health professionals in Australia.  The Australian Pharmacy Council and the pharmacy registering authorities have made significant progress towards the harmonisation of pharmacy regulation.  However, the regulation of the pharmacy profession throughout Australia remains varied.  COAG should therefore focus on early reforms such as a national pharmacy register before addressing the more complicated issues of consistency in disciplinary outcomes, pre-registration programmes and annual pharmacist registration requirements.Griffith Health, School of PharmacyFull Tex
Solid Medication Dosage Form Modification at the  Bedside and in the Pharmacy of Queensland Hospitals

Background: Solid medication dosage forms are regularly modified to aid medication delivery to patients that are unable to swallow them.    Aim: To identify medications that are commonly modified in Queensland hospitals at the bedside and in the pharmacy and to identify how these modifications are made.    Method: A self-report survey was sent to 97 hospitals of varying sizes in metropolitan and rural areas across Queensland.    Results: Most (n = 31; 79%) of the responding hospitals reported that medications were modified at the bedside. 73 different medications were modified at the bedside. Most of the tablets or capsules had standard-release characteristics. 8 hospitals crushed modified-release dosage forms and 11 hospitals crushed medications with a narrow therapeutic index. At the bedside, 88% of medications were modified for adult use, mostly by crushing multiple tablets together (84% of hospitals) using a pestle and mortar (87%) and mixing into jam (72%) or water (64%). Only 7 hospitals reported modifications in the pharmacy (many small hospitals do not employ a pharmacist). 17 medications modified in the pharmacy were all modified for children because of the lack of commercial preparations.Full Tex
Australian pharmacists' understanding of their continuing professional development obligations

Background\ud
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The adoption of continuing professional development (CPD) in Australia is still relatively new [expand]. There is limited information on how Australian pharmacists have engaged with the CPD requirements for registration.\ud
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Aim\ud
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To explore Australian registered pharmacists’ understanding and engagement with the requirement for CPD credits for registration.\ud
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Method\ud
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The Pharmacy Board of Australia’s CPD requirements for registration was used as a guide to design an online survey to ascertain Australian pharmacists understanding and engagement in the acquisition of CPD credits for registration.\ud
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Results\ud
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A total of 278 pharmacists responded to the survey – 66% were female and 30% were male (4% did not disclose their gender). 63% of respondents felt that it would not be difficult to acquire 40 CPD credits annually; with pharmacists identifying that Group 1 activities were a preferred way of acquiring CPD credits. The majority of pharmacists (91%) believed that they knew what the current CPD requirements for general registration are and 77% felt that there has been enough guidance provided to assist them. Despite this, 26% of participants had never used self directed learning plans and 38% did not know how to undertake self-directed learning. 76% of participants were under the common misconception that CPD is synonymous with continuing education. \ud
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Conclusion\ud
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The majority of registered pharmacists believe they understand and can engage in the acquisition of CPD\ud
credits for registration. However, some aspects of the process was not understood. The key link of how this process aims to develop individual practice needs to be further developed within the profession
Context and models for the analysis of individual and group needs

This article summarizes the papers presented in the discussion group focused on the theme 'Models for the Analysis of Individual and Group Needs' at the joint symposium of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Society for Vocational Psychology, and National Career Development Association held in Padua, Italy, in September 2007 titled Vocational Psychology and Career Guidance Practice: An International Partnership. The predominant theme that emerged from papers and discussion was that theory and practice need to be positioned within their proximal and distal contexts, ranging from personal to societal contexts
Positive Adolescent Career Development: The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Work Values

This longitudinal study of 268 Swiss adolescents, spanning across 8th grade, investigated the relation of intrinsic and extrinsic work values to positive career development in deciding, planning, and exploring. Results showed that girls reported more intrinsic and fewer extrinsic work values compared with boys. Students with an immigration background reported more extrinsic values than did students of Swiss nationality. When gender, nationality, and scholastic achievement were controlled, more general work value endorsement was a significant predictor of an above-average increase in career development over the course of the school year. Endorsement of more intrinsic but not extrinsic work values was related to positive career development
Decision Making in Voluntary Career Change: An Other-Than-Rational Perspective

The authors present a qualitative study of voluntary career change, which highlighted the importance of positive emotions, unplanned action, and building certainty and perceiving continuity in the realization of change. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to broaden theoretical understanding of real-life career decision making. The accounts of 8 women who had changed careers were explored, and the analysis supported other-than-rational perspectives of career decision making. An action-affect-cognition framework of decision making is proposed. The framework adds the role of emotion and the importance of self-regulation to existing theory of career decision making. Implications for career counseling are discussed
Career engagement: Investigating intraindividual predictors of weekly fluctuations in proactive career behaviors

The present study applies a micro‐level perspective on how within‐individual differenc motivational and social‐cognitive factors affect the weekly fluctuations of engageme proactive career behaviors among a group of 67 German university students.  Career efficacy beliefs, perceived career barriers, experienced social career support, positive negative emotions, and career engagement were assessed weekly for 13 consecutive w Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that above‐average levels of career engage within individuals were predicted by higher than average perceived social support and pos emotions during a given week. Conversely, within‐individual differences in self‐effi barriers, and negative emotions had no effect. The results suggest that career interven should provide boosts in social support and positive emotions
Self-funded leave and life role development

Self-funded leave is an employee benefit that provides a time resource to those who wish to develop interests and other life roles. Semistructured interviews were used for this qualitative study to explore the motivations for enrolling in the self-funded leave program, how the leave contributed to work-life balance through development of other life roles, and the difficulties that arose during the program. Adult transition theory is used to conceptualize the process of participating in self-funded leave programs and to suggest how employees who undertake self-funded leave can be best supported by career counselors
Needs-based assessment: a model for profiling, assisting, and empowering job seekers

Needs-based assessment (NBA) was developed in New Zealand to assess job seekers’ capacity, willingness, and opportunity to find work. This article outlines the development of NBA from its theoretical underpinnings, evidence from a longitudinal study and the development of an employment adviser–administered computerized profiling tool, and the provision of self-assessment and support tools. The authors argue that, with a rise in the number of unemployed job seekers and the long-term unemployed, demands for government resources with less resources available to satisfy those demands, and the widespread adoption of social and interactive media, it is timely to revisit an NBA approach to job seeker profiling and targeted intervention
Innovation and the "dark side" of personality: Dysfunctional traits and their relation to self-reported innovative characteristics

This paper explores the relationship between self-reported innovative characteristics and dysfunctional personality traits. Participants (N = 207) from a range of occupations completed the Innovation Potential Indicator (IPI) and the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). Those who reported innovative characteristics also reported the following dysfunctional traits: Arrogant, Manipulative, Dramatic, Eccentric; and lower levels of Cautious, Perfectionist and Dependent. A representative approximation of the higher order factor “moving against people” (Hogan & Hogan, 1997) was positively associated with innovative characteristics. It is concluded that innovation potential may be viewed as a positive effect of some otherwise dysfunctional traits, most notably those encompassed under the second-order HDS factor ‘moving against people’
Wide Field of View Compressive Light Field Display using a Multilayer Architecture and Tracked Viewers

In this paper, we discuss a simple extension to existing compressive multilayer light field displays that greatly extends their field of view and depth of field. Rather than optimizing these displays to create a moderately narrow field of view at the center of the display, we constrain optimization to create narrow view cones that are directed to the viewer's eyes, allowing the available display bandwidth to be utilized more efficiently. These narrow view cones follow the viewer, creating a wide apparent field of view. Imagery is also recalculated for the viewer's exact position, creating a greater depth of field. The view cones can be scaled to match the positional error and latency of the tracking system. Using more efficient optimization and commodity tracking hardware and software, we demonstrate a real-time, glasses-free 3D display that offers a 110times45 degree field of view.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Postdoctoral Fellowship
Conceptual and procedural approaches to mathematics in the engineering curriculum : student conceptions and performance

BACKGROUND :  Demands by engineering faculties of mathematics departments have traditionally been for teaching computational skills while also expecting analytic and creative knowledge-based skills. We report on a project between two institutions, one in South Africa and one in Sweden, that investigated whether the emphasis in undergraduate mathematics courses for engineering students would benefit from being more conceptually oriented than the traditional more procedurally oriented way of teaching. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS) : We focus on how second-year engineering students respond to the conceptual-procedural distinction, comparing performance and confidence between Swedish and South African groups of students in answering conceptual and procedural mathematics problems. We also compare these students’ conceptions on the role of conceptual and procedural mathematics problems within and outside their mathematics studies. DESIGN/METHOD :  An instrument consisting of procedural and conceptual items as well as items on student opinions on the roles of the different types of knowledge in their studies was conducted with groups of second-year engineering students at two universities, one in each country. RESULTS : Although differences between the two countries are small, Swedish students see procedural items to be more common in their mathematics studies while the South African students find both conceptual and procedural items common; the latter group see the conceptually oriented items as more common in their studies outside the mathematics courses. CONCLUSIONS :  Students view mathematics as procedural. Conceptual mathematics is seen as relevant outside mathematics. The use of mathematics in other subjects within engineering education can be experienced differently by students from different institutions, indicating that the same type of education can handle the application of mathematics in different ways in different institutions.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2168-9830hb201
Developing And Evaluating A Machine‐Scorable, Constrained Constructed‐Response Item

The use of constructed response items in large scale standardized testing has been hampered by the costs and difficulties associated with obtaining reliable scores. The advent of expert systems may signal the eventual removal of this impediment. This study investigated the accuracy with which expert systems could score a new, non‐multiple choice item type. The item type presents a faulty solution to a computer programming problem and asks the student to correct the solution. This item type was administered to a sample of high school seniors enrolled in an Advanced Placement course in Computer Science who also took the Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) Test. Results indicated that the expert systems were able to produce scores for between 82% and 97% of the solutions encountered and to display high agreement with a human reader on which solutions were and were not correct. Diagnoses of the specific errors produced by students were less accurate. Correlations with scores on the objective and free‐response sections of the APCS examination were moderate. Implications for additional research and for testing practice are offered
The Relationship Of Constrained Free‐Response To Multiple‐Choice And Open‐Ended Items

This study examined the relationship of a machine‐scorable, constrained free‐response computer science item that required the student to debug a faulty program to two other types of items: (1) multiple‐choice and (2) free response requiring production of a computer program. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the fit of a three‐factor model to these data and to compare the fit of this model to three alternatives. These models were fit using two random‐half samples, one given a faulty program containing one bug and the other a program with three bugs. A single‐factor model best fit the data for the sample taking the 1‐bug constrained free response and a two‐factor model fit the data for the second sample. In addition, the factor intercorrelations showed this item type to be significantly related to both the free‐response items and the multiple‐choice measures
On The Standard Length Of A Test *

A new concept, that of the standard length of a test, seems useful in simplifying formulas for reliability and validity coefficients for tests of altered length. The usefulness of the concept is a consequence of the fact that it is possible to define a unit of test information, this being, in fact, the amount of information in a test of standard length. The amount of information in a test is its length L in terms of its standard length as a unit. From this one computes the reliability r of the test by the formula r = L/(L + 1). For small amounts of information, the reliability and the information are approximately equal. It is readily seen that the standard length of a test is that length which would make its reliability one half. The length of a test in terms of its standard length as a unit required to produce a given reliability is given by L = r/(1 ‐ r). Both formulas reduce to (1 + L) (1 ‐ r) = 1.  The correlation between two tests of length L 1  and L 2  in terms of their standard lengths as units is r 12  = R 12  L 1 L 2 /(L 1  + 1)(L 2  + 1) 1/2 , where R 12  is the correlation corrected for attenuation. For the case of correlation with a criterion this becomes r 1c  = R 1c  L 1 /L 1  + 1 1/2  where R 1c  is the validity coefficient corrected for attenuation