Information and Communications Technology in Chronic Disease Care: Why is Adoption So Slow and Is Slower Better?

Unlike the widespread adoption of information and communications technology (ICT) in much of the economy, adoption of ICT in clinical care is limited. We examine how a number of not previously emphasized features of the health care and ICT markets interact and exacerbate each other to create barriers for adoption. We also examine how standards can address these barriers and the key issues to consider before investing in ICT. We conclude that the ICT market exhibits a number of unique features that may delay or completely prevent adoption, including low product differentiation, high switching costs, and lack of technical compatibility. These barriers are compounded by the many interlinked markets in health care, which substantially blunt the use of market forces to influence adoption. Patient heterogeneity also exacerbates the barriers by wide variation in needs and ability for using ICT, by high demands for interoperability, and by higher replacement costs. Technical standards are critical for ensuring optimal use of the technology. Careful consideration of the socially optimal time to invest is needed. The value of waiting in health care is likely to be so much greater than in other sectors because the costs of adopting the wrong type of ICT are so much higher.

Brain asymmetry and facial attractiveness: Facial beauty is not simply in the eye of the beholder.

We recently reported finding asymmetry in the appearance of beauty on the face [39]. Here we investigated whether facial beauty is a stable characteristic (on the owner's very face) or is in the perceptual space of the observer. We call the question 'the owner versus observer hypothesis'. We compared identity judgements and attractiveness ratings of observers. Subjects viewed left-left and right-right composites of faces and decided which most resembled the normal face (Experiment 1). Identity judgements (resemblance) are known to be associated with perceptual factors in the observer. Another group viewed the same normal faces and rated them on attractiveness (Experiment 2). In each experiment there were two separate viewing conditions, original and reversed (mirror-image). Lateral reversal did affect the results of Experiment 1 (confirming previous findings [3,18]) but did not affect the results of Experiment 2. The fact that lateral reversal did not affect the results of Experiment 2 suggests that facial attractiveness is more dependent on physiognomy (of the owner) and less dependent on an asymmetrical perceptual process (in the observer) than is facial identity. The results are discussed in the context of beauty’s biological significance and facial processing in the brain

LITERATURE STUDY: TEACHING FACTORY IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS IN THE WORLD OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN INDONESIA AS AN EFFORT TO FACE FUTURE CHALLENGES

Vocational High School is a vocational education unit at the secondary education level which aims to prepare students to be able to work, either independently or fill existing job vacancies as middle-level workers in accordance with their competencies. One of what makes Vocational High School independent is the teaching factory in it. Destination this research is to analyze implementation of the teaching factory in the world of vocational education using the literature study method. The results show that the teaching factory able to improve the competence of graduates, the implementation of Teaching Factory in Vocational High School can be measured based on the 7x7 Parameter Assessment for Implementation of Teaching Factory. Teaching Factory is a combination of competency-based learning and -based learning production and applied based on actual work procedures and standards for produce products according to the market

A novel high-content phenotypic screen to identify inhibitors of mitochondrial DNA maintenance in trypanosomes

Kinetoplastid parasites cause diverse neglected diseases in humans and livestock, with an urgent need for new treatments. The survival of kinetoplastids depends on their uniquely structured mitochondrial genome (kDNA), the eponymous kinetoplast. Here, we report the development of a high-content screen for pharmacologically induced kDNA loss, based on specific staining of parasites and automated image analysis. As proof of concept, we screened a diverse set of ∼14,000 small molecules and exemplify a validated hit as a novel kDNA-targeting compound

Efficacy and Safety of 0.1% Cyclosporine a Cationic Emulsion in the Treatment of Severe Dry Eye Disease: A Multicenter Randomized Trial:

PurposeThe SANSIKA study was conducted to assess the treatment effect of 0.1% cyclosporine A cationic emulsion (CsA CE) eye drops on signs and symptoms of patients with severe dry eye disease (DED)..