Thundermist Health Center: Extending Pharmaceutical Services To Underserved Patients

This paper describes a not-for-profit healthcare providers strategy to provide its economically disadvantaged patients with access to low cost pharmaceuticals. Initially, an in-house pharmacy was established, supported by a satellite distribution system using a telepharmacy solution to extend medications to its patients at remote sites. New federal legislation which provided access to low cost insurance through Medicare Part D to many of the providers disadvantaged patients, along with state licensing requirements forced the healthcare provider to reassess the economics of its pharmaceutical distribution system and seek other alternatives. Among the alternatives the healthcare provider considered was partnering with for-profit pharmaceutical companies in order to reach their patients

Maintaining Relationships With Supply Chain Partners: A Case Study

This case study describes efforts of a market leader in the communication infrastructure industry to assess the relationships they have developed with their global supply chain partners.  Changes in the industry have resulted in geographic shifts of existing and potential supply chain suppliers and customers.  In an effort to determine if commitment to customer service has resulted in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, research was conducted to assess their performance.  The results of this research were compared to previous research to determine if their service program has successfully differentiated them from their competitors

Effectiveness of the Zerofly storage bag fabric against stored-product insects

The ZeroFly Storage Bag is a woven polypropylene bag (PP) that has deltamethrin incorporated in its fibers, and represents a novel approach to reducing stored-product insect pest-related postharvest losses. Fabric samples from ZeroFly bags, polypropylene (PP) bags, jute bags, malathion-treated PP bags, malathion-treated jute bags and GrainPro bags were affixed to the bottom of 9-cm Petri dishes and 20 adults of either Sitophilus oryzae (L.) or Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) were introduced to determine contact sensitivity of insects exposed to ZeroFly bag fabric. Knockdown, mortality and number of progeny were recorded for different exposure periods (24, 48 or 72 h) and oviposition periods (7, 14 or 21 d). Additionally, mini bags were made from ZeroFly bags, PP bags, laminated PP bags and jute bags, and used to determine ability of adult S. oryzae, T. castaneum and Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) to chew through the bags and efficacy of ZeroFly bags at preventing insect infestations from outside and to contain infestations within bags. Knockdown assessment for ZeroFly bag fabric showed that time required to knockdown 99% of S. oryzae and T. castaneum was <3 h. For 72-h exposure to ZeroFly bag fabric, mortalities for S. oryzae and T. castaneum were 76.7 and 62.2%, respectively; mortality was </=6% in other fabrics. ZeroFly bag fabric also significantly suppressed progeny production by S. oryzae and T. castaneum for all exposure periods. No insects from the three species tested were able to chew through miniature ZeroFly bags, indicating the bag fabric will prevent entry or exit of insects.Peer reviewedEntomology and Plant Patholog

Successful Stepwise Development of Patient Research Partnership: 14 years’ experience of actions and consequences in Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT)

There is increasing interest in making patient participation an integral component of medical research. However, practical guidance on optimizing this engagement in healthcare is scarce. Since 2002, patient involvement has been one of the key features of the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) international consensus effort. Based on a review of cumulative data from qualitative studies and internal surveys among OMERACT participants, we explored the potential benefits and challenges of involving patient research partners in conferences and working group activities. We supplemented our review with personal experiences and reflections regarding patient participation in the OMERACT process. We found that between 2002 and 2016, 67 patients have attended OMERACT conferences, of whom 28 had sustained involvement; many other patients contributed to OMERACT working groups. Their participation provided face validity to the OMERACT process and expanded the research agenda. Essential facilitators have been the financial commitment to guarantee sustainable involvement of patients at these conferences, procedures for recruitment, selection and support, and dedicated time allocated in the program for patient issues. Current challenges include the representativeness of the patient panel, risk of pseudo-professionalization, and disparity in patients’ and researchers’ perception of involvement. In conclusion, OMERACT has embedded long-term patient involvement in the consensus-building process on the measurement of core health outcomes. This integrative process continues to evolve iteratively. We believe that the practical points raised here can improve participatory research implementation

Applied fault detection and diagnosis for industrial gas turbine systems

The paper presents readily implementable approaches for fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) based on measurements from multiple sensor groups, for industrial systems. Specifically, the use of hierarchical clustering (HC) and self-organizing map neural networks (SOMNNs) are shown to provide robust and user-friendly tools for application to industrial gas turbine (IGT) systems. HC fingerprints are found for normal operation, and FDD is achieved by monitoring cluster changes occurring in the resulting dendrograms. Similarly, fingerprints of operational behaviour are also obtained using SOMNN based classification maps (CMs) that are initially determined during normal operation, and FDD is performed by detecting changes in their CMs. The proposed methods are shown to be capable of FDD from a large group of sensors that measure a variety of physical quantities. A key feature of the paper is the development of techniques to accommodate transient system operation, which can often lead to false-alarms being triggered when using traditional techniques if the monitoring algorithms are not first desensitized. Case studies showing the efficacy of the techniques for detecting sensor faults, bearing tilt pad wear and early stage pre-chamber burnout, are included. The presented techniques are now being applied operationally and monitoring IGTs in various regions of the world

Regulation of MYCN expression in human neuroblastoma cells

Contains fulltext : 81722.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Amplification of the MYCN gene in neuroblastoma (NB) is associated with a poor prognosis. However, MYCN-amplification does not automatically result in higher expression of MYCN in children with NB. We hypothesized that the discrepancy between MYCN gene expression and prognosis in these children might be explained by the expression of either MYCN-opposite strand (MYCNOS) or the shortened MYCN-isoform (DeltaMYCN) that was recently identified in fetal tissues. Both MYCNOS and DeltaMYCN are potential inhibitors of MYCN either at the mRNA or at the protein level. METHODS: Expression of MYCN, MYCNOS and DeltaMYCN was measured in human NB tissues of different stages. Transcript levels were quantified using a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay (QPCR). In addition, relative expression of these three transcripts was compared to the number of MYCN copies, which was determined by genomic real-time PCR (gQPCR). RESULTS: Both DeltaMYCN and MYCNOS are expressed in all NBs examined. In NBs with MYCN-amplification, these transcripts are significantly higher expressed. The ratio of MYCN:DeltaMYCN expression was identical in all tested NBs. This indicates that DeltaMYCN and MYCN are co-regulated, which suggests that DeltaMYCN is not a regulator of MYCN in NB. However, the ratio of MYCNOS:MYCN expression is directly correlated with NB disease stage (p = 0.007). In the more advanced NB stages and NBs with MYCN-amplification, relatively more MYCNOS is present as compared to MYCN. Expression of the antisense gene MYCNOS might be relevant to the progression of NB, potentially by directly inhibiting MYCN transcription by transcriptional interference at the DNA level. CONCLUSION: The MYCNOS:MYCN-ratio in NBs is significantly correlated with both MYCN-amplification and NB-stage. Our data indicate that in NB, MYCN expression levels might be influenced by MYCNOS but not by DeltaMYCN