6,667 research outputs found
Management of Tuberculosis in Taiwan:A Look into the Shared Responsibilities of the Government, General Public and Medical Students
Tuberculosis (TB) is a deadly infectious disease worldwide due to its high incidenceand mortality rate. Its impact on Taiwan is no exception. This paper aims to examineeffectiveness of national policies on TB control, assess public awareness, and evaluatewhether involvement of medical students would have a positive effect towards TBcontrol in Taiwan.Literatures were first reviewed to assess effectiveness of Directly Observed Treatment,Short-course (DOTS). Although there is limited improvement in treatment success inTaiwan, there is an overall positive effect.Questionnaires designed to assess public knowledge and behaviors revealedinadequate public knowledge about DOTS, which could have led to the lack ofdistinct success in the national policy. Healthcare workshops were conducted by medical students, with survey resultsshowing a significant improvement in participants’ knowledge. Thus, medicalstudents are recommended to engage in healthcare activities to effectively aid TBcontrol.
Taipei's Use of a Multi-Channel Mass Risk Communication Program to Rapidly Reverse an Epidemic of Highly Communicable Disease
BACKGROUND: In September 2007, an outbreak of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) occurred in Keelung City and spread to Taipei City. In response to the epidemic, a new crisis management program was implemented and tested in Taipei. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Having noticed that transmission surged on weekends during the Keelung epidemic, Taipei City launched a multi-channel mass risk communications program that included short message service (SMS) messages sent directly to approximately 2.2 million Taipei residents on Friday, October 12th, 2007. The public was told to keep symptomatic students from schools and was provided guidelines for preventing the spread of the disease at home. Epidemiological characteristics of Taipei's outbreak were analyzed from 461 sampled AHC cases. Median time from exposure to onset of the disease was 1 day. This was significantly shorter for cases occurring in family clusters than in class clusters (mean+/-SD: 2.6+/-3.2 vs. 4.39+/-4.82 days, p = 0.03), as well as for cases occurring in larger family clusters as opposed to smaller ones (1.2+/-1.7 days vs. 3.9+/-4.0 days, p<0.01). Taipei's program had a significant impact on patient compliance. Home confinement of symptomatic children increased from 10% to 60% (p<0.05) and helped curb the spread of AHC. Taipei experienced a rapid decrease in AHC cases between the Friday of the SMS announcement and the following Monday, October 15, (0.70% vs. 0.36%). By October 26, AHC cases reduced to 0.01%. The success of this risk communication program in Taipei (as compared to Keelung) is further reflected through rapid improvements in three epidemic indicators: (1) significantly lower crude attack rates (1.95% vs. 14.92%, p<0.001), (2) a short epidemic period of AHC (13 vs. 34 days), and (3) a quick drop in risk level (1 approximately 2 weeks) in Taipei districts that border Keelung (the original domestic epicenter). CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: The timely launch of this systematic, communication-based intervention proved effective at preventing a dangerous spike in AHC and was able to bring this high-risk disease under control. We recommend that public health officials incorporate similar methods into existing guidelines for preventing pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases
Hidden Cost in the Global Economy: Human Trafficking of Philippine Males in Maritime, Construction and Agriculture
This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.Verit%C3%A9_TIP_Report_Male_Trafficking.pdf: 1162 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020
What guidance are researchers given on how to present network meta-analyses to end-users such as policymakers and clinicians? A systematic review
© 2014 Sullivan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Introduction: Network meta-analyses (NMAs) are complex methodological approaches that may be challenging for non-technical end-users, such as policymakers and clinicians, to understand. Consideration should be given to identifying optimal approaches to presenting NMAs that help clarify analyses. It is unclear what guidance researchers currently have on how to present and tailor NMAs to different end-users. Methods: A systematic review of NMA guidelines was conducted to identify guidance on how to present NMAs. Electronic databases and supplementary sources were searched for NMA guidelines. Presentation format details related to sample formats, target audiences, data sources, analysis methods and results were extracted and frequencies tabulated. Guideline quality was assessed following criteria developed for clinical practice guidelines. Results: Seven guidelines were included. Current guidelines focus on how to conduct NMAs but provide limited guidance to researchers on how to best present analyses to different end-users. None of the guidelines provided reporting templates. Few guidelines provided advice on tailoring presentations to different end-users, such as policymakers. Available guidance on presentation formats focused on evidence networks, characteristics of individual trials, comparisons between direct and indirect estimates and assumptions of heterogeneity and/or inconsistency. Some guidelines also provided examples of figures and tables that could be used to present information. Conclusions: Limited guidance exists for researchers on how best to present NMAs in an accessible format, especially for non-technical end-users such as policymakers and clinicians. NMA guidelines may require further integration with end-users' needs, when NMAs are used to support healthcare policy and practice decisions. Developing presentation formats that enhance understanding and accessibility of NMAs could also enhance the transparency and legitimacy of decisions informed by NMAs.The Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network (Funding reference number – 116573)
Fast parallel volume visualization on cuda technology
In the medical diagnosis and treatment planning, radiologists and surgeons rely
heavily on the slices produced by medical imaging scanners. Unfortunately, most of
these scanners can only produce two dimensional images because the machines that
can produce three dimensional are very expensive. The two dimensional images from
these devices are difficult to interpret because they only show cross-sectional views
of the human structure. Consequently, such circumstances require highly qualified
doctors to use their expertise in the interpretation of the possible location, size or
shape of the abnormalities especially for large datasets of enormous amount of slices.
Previously, the concept of reconstructing two dimensional images to three
dimensional was introduced. However, such reconstruction model requires high
performance computation, may either be time-consuming or costly. Furthermore,
detecting the internal features of human anatomical structure, such as the imaging of
the blood vessels, is still an open topic in the computer-aided diagnosis of disorders
and pathologies. This study proposed, designed and implemented a visualization
framework named SurLens with high performance computing using Compute
Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), augmenting the widely proven ray casting
technique in terms of superior qualities of images but with slow speed. Considering
the rapid development of technology in the medical community, our framework is
implemented on Microsoft .NET environment for easy interoperability with other
emerging revolutionary tools. The Visualization System was evaluated with brain
datasets from the department of Surgery, University of North Carolina, United
States, containing 109 datasets of MRA, T1-FLASH, T2-Weighted, DTI and
T1-MPRAGE. Significantly, at a reasonably cheaper cost, SurLens Visualization
System achieves immediate reconstruction and obvious mappings of the internal
features of the human brain, reliable enough for instantaneously locate possible
blockages in the brain blood vessels without any prior segmentation of the datasets
Adopting An Extended UTAUT2 To Predict Consumer Adoption Of M-Technologies In Saudi Arabia
Mobile Data Services (MDS) such as the Mobile Internet and Mobile Government influence various life aspects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA); yet, few empirical studies have been considered in order to expand these applications in the KSA context. This study targets and then analyses the existing knowledge in M-Internet and M-Government fields, then the study will provide future suggestions for adopting factors that will radically increase the use of the aforementioned services. Through detecting the most relevant 57 empirical studies out of 287 relevant researches, various relations are impeded in different IT models and they have been examined in order to investigate theoretical gaps that may require further research. The author’s research shows that adopting an extended model of UTAUT2 with two new variables, i.e. Risk and Trust will arouse and substantially spread M-Internet and M-Government. Moreover, this paper will assert on the importance of the interrelationship among the main variables of UTAUT2, i.e. the influence of Effort Expectancy (EE) over Performance Expectancy (PE)
The Technology Gap and the Growth of the Firm: A Case Study of China's Mobile-phone Handset Industry
We have examined the way in which local Chinese firms confronted with a
technology gap have achieved growth, using the Chinese handset industry as a
case study. Chinese local firms have lacked technology, and have therefore turned
to outside firms for development, design, and manufacturing, while they
themselves have focused on sales and marketing, using their advantage of
familiarity with the Chinese market. Consequently, by establishing a growth
condition in which their selection of boundaries counterbalances the technology
gap they have been able to expand their market share in comparison with foreign
firms.Technology gap, Boundaries of the firm, Mobile-phone handset industry, China, Telephone
Universal basic education : an overall strategy of investment priorities for economic growth
Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-28)
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