Password compliance for PACS work stations: Implications for emergency-driven medical environments

Background. The effectiveness of password usage in data security remains an area of high scrutiny. Literature findings do not inspire confidence in the use of passwords. Human factors such as the acceptance of and compliance with minimum standards of data security are considered significant determinants of effective data-security practices. However, human and technical factors alone do not provide solutions if they exclude the context in which the technology is applied.Objectives. To reflect on the outcome of a dissertation which argues that the minimum standards of effective password use prescribed by the information security sector are not suitable to the emergency-driven medical environment, and that their application as required by law raises new and unforeseen ethical dilemmas.Method. A close-ended questionnaire, the Picture Archiving and Communication System Confidentiality Scale (PAC-CS) was used to collect quantitative data from 115 health professionals employed in both a private radiology and a hospital setting. The PACS-CS sought to explore the extent of compliance with accepted minimum standards of effective password usage.Results. The percentage compliance with minimum standards was calculated. A significant statistical difference (p<0.05) between the expected and observed data-security practices was recorded.Conclusion. The study interrogates the suitability of adherence to minimum standards of effective password usage in an emergency-driven medical environment and calls for much-needed debate in this area

Ultrasound comparison of the effects of prehabilitation exercises and the scapular assistance test on the acromiohumeral distance

Abstract: Background: Prolonged participation in overhead sports creates shoulder muscle imbalances which eventually alter the efficacy of the shoulder stabiliser muscles and heighten injury risk, such as subacromial impingement syndrome. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine if ultrasound is effective to measure the acromiohumeral distance (AHD) to compare the effect of the scapular assistance test (SAT) on the AHD with a prehabilitative exercise intervention programme in asymptomatic cricket players. Methods: Baseline testing on cricket players from the North- West University cricket squad (N=34) included AHD measurements performed by a sonographer at 0°, 30° and 60° humeral abduction angles respectively, with and without the SAT application. Players were then randomly assigned to an intervention and control group..

Ultrasound comparison of the effects of prehabilitation exercises and the scapular assistance test on the acromiohumeral distance

Abstract: Background: Prolonged participation in overhead sports creates shoulder muscle imbalances which eventually alter the efficacy of the shoulder stabiliser muscles and heighten injury risk, such as subacromial impingement syndrome. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine if ultrasound is effective to measure the acromiohumeral distance (AHD) to compare the effect of the scapular assistance test (SAT) on the AHD with a prehabilitative exercise intervention programme in asymptomatic cricket players. Methods: Baseline testing on cricket players from the North- West University cricket squad (N=34) included AHD measurements performed by a sonographer at 0°, 30° and 60° humeral abduction angles respectively, with and without the SAT application. Players were then randomly assigned to an intervention and control group..

Barriers to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) participation for radiographers in Kenya

Abstract: Updating knowledge and skills on an ongoing basis is an important requirement if one is to remain professionally relevant. Formalized CPD is, therefore, essential in order to stay current in a dynamic work environment. The majority of radiographers in Kenya work in remote rural health facilities where CPD activities are limited. The question thus arose: “To what extent are radiographers participating in CPD activities and what constitute barriers to participation?” Objective: The aim of this article is to describe the challenges which affect diagnostic radiographers’ participation in CPD activities in Kenya. Methods: The study targeted radiographers who were registered with the Society of Radiographers in Kenya (SORK). Two hundred and fifty prospective participants were recruited from the SORK data base, using the fish bowl sampling method. Questionnaires with self-addressed stamped envelopes were posted by ordinary mail to facilitate ease of return, while telephone follow-ups improved the response rate. Results: The study revealed that 69% of diagnostic radiographers in Kenya were effectively participating in CPD activities. Barriers to CPD participation included time constraints (62%); financial constraints (66%); lack of information (54%); organizational culture (47%); paucity of resources (58%); and difficulty in being selected by their organisation to attend CPD activities (42%)

Short-period line profile and light variations in the Beta Cephei star 19 Monocerotis

We present an analysis of 555 high-dispersion echelle spectra of 19 Mon obtained from two sites as well as 115 Strömgren uvby observations. We show that three periodicities are present at 5.229 94, 0.170 19 and 4.889 56 cycle d−1. The first periodicity has by far the largest amplitude. Photometric amplitude ratios and phase differences indicate an ℓ=2 mode, while the line profile variations unequivocally point to ℓ=2,m=-2. Because of the low amplitudes of the other two modes, very little can be said concerning them. Although 19 Mon was originally selected on the basis of its classification as a marginal Be star, the Be nature of the star is not supported by our observation

Standardizing type Ia supernovae optical brightness using near-infrared rebrightening time

Accurate standardization of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) is instrumental to the usage of SNIa as distance indicators. We analyse a homogeneous sample of 22 low-z SNIa, observed by the Carnegie Supernova Project in the optical and near-infrared (NIR). We study the time of the second peak in the J band, t2, as an alternative standardization parameter of SNIa peak optical brightness, as measured by the standard SALT2 parameter mB. We use BAHAMAS, a Bayesian hierarchical model for SNIa cosmology, to estimate the residual scatter in the Hubble diagram. We find that in the absence of a colour correction, t2 is a better standardization parameter compared to stretch: t2 has a 1\u3c3 posterior interval for the Hubble residual scatter of \u3c3\u394\u3bc = (0.250, 0.257) mag, compared to \u3c3\u394\u3bc = (0.280, 0.287) mag when stretch (x1) alone is used. We demonstrate that when employed together with a colour correction, t2 and stretch lead to similar residual scatter. Using colour, stretch and t2 jointly as standardization parameters does not result in any further reduction in scatter, suggesting that t2 carries redundant information with respect to stretch and colour. With a much larger SNIa NIR sample at higher redshift in the future, t2 could be a useful quantity to perform robustness checks of the standardization procedure

The X-ray Spectrum and Light Curve of Supernova 1995N

We report on multi-epoch X-ray observations of the Type IIn (narrow emission line) supernova SN 1995N with the ROSAT and ASCA satellites. The January 1998 ASCA X-ray spectrum is well fitted by a thermal bremsstrahlung (kT~10 keV, N_H~6e20 cm^-2) or power-law (alpha~1.7, N_H~1e21 cm^-2) model. The X-ray light curve shows evidence for significant flux evolution between August 1996 and January 1998: the count rate from the source decreased by 30% between our August 1996 and August 1997 ROSAT observations, and the X-ray luminosity most likely increased by a factor of ~2 between our August 1997 ROSAT and January 1998 ASCA observations, although evolution of the spectral shape over this interval is not ruled out. The high X-ray luminosity, L_X~1e41 erg/sec, places SN 1995N in a small group of Type IIn supernovae with strong circumstellar interaction, and the evolving X-ray luminosity suggests that the circumstellar medium is distributed inhomogeneously.Comment: MNRAS accepted. 6 pages, 2 figures; uses mn.sty and psfi

MSX, 2MASS, and the LMC: A Combined Near and Mid Infrared View

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has been observed by both the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) in the mid-infrared and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) in the near-infrared. We have performed a cross-correlation of the 1806 MSX catalog sources and nearly 1.4 million 2MASS catalogued point and extended sources and find 1664 matches. Using the available color information, we identify a number of stellar populations and nebulae, including main sequence stars, giant stars, red supergiants, carbon- and oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, planetary nebulae, H II regions, and other dusty objects likely associated with early-type stars. 731 of these sources have no previous identification. We compile a listing of all objects, which includes photometry and astrometry. The 8.3 micron MSX sensitivity is the limiting factor for object detection: only the brighter red objects, specifically the red supergiants, AGB stars, planetary nebulae and HII regions, are detected in the LMC. The remaining objects are likely in the Galactic foreground. The spatial distribution of the infrared LMC sources may contribute to understanding stellar formation and evolution and the overall galactic evolution. We demonstrate that a combined mid- and near-infrared photometric baseline provides a powerful means of identifying new objects in the LMC for future ground-based and space-based follow-up observations.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, to appear in the AJ (2001 Oct issue). N.B: Tables 2 & 3 corrected and available as html file

Djinn Lite: a tool for customised gene transcript modelling, annotation-data enrichment and exploration

BACKGROUND: There is an ever increasing rate of data made available on genetic variation, transcriptomes and proteomes. Similarly, a growing variety of bioinformatic programs are becoming available from many diverse sources, designed to identify a myriad of sequence patterns considered to have potential biological importance within inter-genic regions, genes, transcripts, and proteins. However, biologists require easy to use, uncomplicated tools to integrate this information, visualise and print gene annotations. Integrating this information usually requires considerable informatics skills, and comprehensive knowledge of the data format to make full use of this information. Tools are needed to explore gene model variants by allowing users the ability to create alternative transcript models using novel combinations of exons not necessarily represented in current database deposits of mRNA/cDNA sequences. RESULTS: Djinn Lite is designed to be an intuitive program for storing and visually exploring of custom annotations relating to a eukaryotic gene sequence and its modelled gene products. In particular, it is helpful in developing hypothesis regarding alternate splicing of transcripts by allowing the construction of model transcripts and inspection of their resulting translations. It facilitates the ability to view a gene and its gene products in one synchronised graphical view, allowing one to drill down into sequence related data. Colour highlighting of selected sequences and added annotations further supports exploration, visualisation of sequence regions and motifs known or predicted to be biologically significant. CONCLUSION: Gene annotating remains an ongoing and challengingtask that will continue as gene structures, gene transcription repertoires, disease loci, protein products and their interactions become moreprecisely defined. Djinn Lite offers an accessible interface to help accumulate, enrich, and individualise sequence annotations relating to a gene, its transcripts and translations. The mechanism of transcript definition and creation, and subsequent navigation and exploration of features, are very intuitive and demand only a short learning curve. Ultimately, Djinn Lite can form the basis for providing valuable clues to plan new experiments, providing storage of sequences and annotations for dedication to customised projects. The application is appropriate for Windows 98-ME-2000-XP-2003 operating systems

Angular analysis of B --> V (--> P_1 P_2) l^+ l^- decays

The angular analysis of exclusive rare B-meson decays via intermediate vector mesons V into 4-body final states of two pseudo-scalars P_1, P_2 and a pair of light leptons l = e, mu offers a large set of observables. They can be used to test the electroweak short-distance couplings in the Standard Model and to search for New Physics. The two kinematic regions of low and high dilepton mass depend on short-distance physics in complementary ways and can be expanded in powers of Lambda_QCD/m_b. These expansions guide towards suitable combinations of observables allowing to i) reduce the hadronic uncertainties in the extraction of the short-distance couplings or ii) test the lattice QCD (B -> V) form factors in short-distance independent combinations. Several such possibilities of CP-averaged and CP-asymmetric (T-even and T-odd) quantities are presented for B_d^0 --> K^*0 (-> K pi) l^+ l^- and time-integrated CP-asymmetries without tagging for (anti-B_s, B_s) --> phi (--> K^- K^+) l^+ l^- decays in view of the latest B-factory and CDF results and the forthcoming LHCb measurements.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; Talk given at Discrete '10: Symposium on Prospects in the Physics of Discrete Symmetries, Rome, Italy, 6-11 Dec 201