Administrative Tribunals Using ADR

This document provides a sampling of administrative tribunals available in Canada, many of which use some form of ADR. The primary focus areas of the tribunals are Health, Environment, Labour and Human Rights

OPERATING SYSTEM AND METHOD PROVIDING FOR VIRTUAL DESKS

A system and method include an operating system (OS) that provides for the creation, saving and restoration of multiple virtual desks associated with a user. Related resources, applications, windows, tabs, files and the like can be assigned to each virtual desk, thus improving organization and efficiency, and facilitating user focus. The OS stores the multiple virtual desks at the end of a session, including, for example at logout, shutdown, in the event of a system crash, and the like. The multiple virtual desks are restored to a configuration corresponding to the state at the end of the session and/or at the state in which the virtual desk was last accessed when the user accesses the virtual desks in a subsequent session, including restoration of each of the resources associated with the virtual desk, restoration of content within each of the resources, restoration of an arrangement, relative size and placement of the resources, and the like. The OS synchronizes the multiple virtual desks across multiple user devices and provides tools to streamline the creation, population and management of the virtual desks

A comparative study of sertraline dosages, plasma concentrations, efficacy and adverse reactions in Chinese versus Caucasian patients

This prospective 6-week study examined the differences in dosage and steady state plasma concentrations of sertraline in Chinese versus Caucasian depressed patients. Two groups of Chinese patients from different geographical sites and a group of Caucasian patients were evaluated with clinical measures during an initial dose of 50 mg/day, with subsequent doses adjusted clinically. The results of 17 Australian Chinese (ACHI), 13 Malaysian Chinese (MCHI) and 15 Australian Caucasians (AC) were analysed. Despite controlling for weight, the AC subjects received a significantly higher dose than both the ACHI (P=0.002) and the MCHI groups (P=0.012). However, the mean sertraline concentration to dose ratios at weeks 1 and 6 were not significantly different between the three groups. Sertraline was effective and well tolerated in both ethnic groups with few adverse events. Although there was a lack of difference between groups in the pharmacokinetic results, Chinese depressed patients appeared to require lower dosages with consequently lower plasma concentrations of sertraline compared to Caucasian patients to achieve clinical efficacy. Further studies of the dosages, kinetics and adverse effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors linked with genotyping are necessary

Type and dose of radiotherapy used for initial treatment of non-metastatic prostate cancer

BACKGROUND: We sought to describe patterns of initial radiotherapy among non-metastatic prostate cancer (PC) patients by recurrence risk groups. METHODS: Medical records were abstracted for a sample of 9017 PC cases diagnosed in 2004 as a part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention\u27s Prostate and Breast Patterns of Care Study in seven states. Non-metastatic PC cases are categorized as low-risk (LR), intermediate-risk (IR) or high-risk (HR) groups based on pretreatment PSA, tumor stage, and Gleason score per 2002 NCCN guidelines. Univariate and multivariate analyses were employed to determine factors associated with the type and dose of radiotherapy by the risk groups. RESULTS: Of the 9,017 patients, 3153 who received definitive radiotherapy either alone or in combination with hormone therapy (HT) were selected for in-depth analysis. Multivariate models showed that LR patients were more likely to receive seed implant brachytherapy (BT) than those in higher risk groups. Those in the IR group were most likely to receive external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) combined with BT or high-dose radiotherapy. Use of HT in combination with radiotherapy was more common in the IR and HR groups than for LR patients. Intensity modulated radiation treatment (IMRT) was used to treat 32.6% of PC patients treated with EBRT, with the majority (60.6%) treated with high-dose radiotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Radiotherapy types and dosage utilization varied by PC risk groups. Patients in IR were more likely than those in LR or HR to receive high-dose radiotherapy. IMRT was used in about one third of patients to deliver high-dose radiotherapy

Mechanisms of cell uptake and toxicity of the anticancer drug cisplatin

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Two major issues which hamper the use of the anticancer drug cisplatin are the development of cancer cell resistance and its nephrotoxicity. One possible mechanism by which resistance is reported to develop is a reduction in drug uptake across the cell membrane. While the passive uptake of cisplatin has long been cited as an important contribution, far greater attention has been given to active modes of uptake, particularly in recent research. Using unilamellar lipid vesicles together with the stopped-flow kinetic method we show here that the permeability coefficient of cisplatin increases significantly with the chloride concentration of the medium. This supports the hypothesis that cisplatin can enter cells via passive permeation through the lipid phase of the membrane, but becomes trapped within the cytoplasm because dissociation of chloride ligands yields a membrane-impermeant positively-charged aqua derivative. This is important evidence for a major role of passive membrane diffusion in the uptake of cisplatin, and suggests that reduced cell uptake is unlikely to be a significant mechanism leading to the development of drug resistance. Studies of rubidium ion uptake into the cytoplasm of Xenopus oocytes via the Na+,K+-ATPase show significant inhibition of this ion pump when cisplatin is present in the cytoplasm. Because Na+,K+-ATPase activity is essential to the survival of all animal cells, e.g. via maintenance of cell volume, and the Na+,K+-ATPase is expressed at particularly high levels within the membranes of kidney tubules where it plays a crucial role in nutrient reabsorption, these results suggest that cisplatin-induced inhibition of the Na+,K+-ATPase is a likely contributing cause for the nephrotoxicity of cisplatin.DFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in Catalysi

Robotic Testing of Proximal Tibio-Fibular Joint Kinematics for Measuring Instability Following Total Knee Arthroplasty

Pain secondary to instability in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has been shown to be major cause of early failure. In this study, we focused on the effect of instability in TKA on the proximal tibio-fibular joint (PTFJ). We used a robotics model to compare the biomechanics of the PTFJ in the native knee, an appropriately balanced TKA, and an unbalanced TKA. The tibia (n = 5) was mounted to a six-degree-of-freedom force/torque sensor and the femur was moved by a robotic manipulator. Motion at the PTFJ was recorded with a high-resolution digital camera system. After establishing a neutral position, loading conditions were applied at varying flexion angles (0°, 30°, and 60°). These included: internal/external rotation (0 Nm, ±5 Nm), varus/valgus (0 Nm, ±10 Nm), compression (100 N, 700 N), and posterior drawer (0 N, 100 N). With respect to anterior displacement, external rotation had the largest effect (coefficient = 0.650; p \u3c 0.0001). Polyethylene size as well as the interaction between polyethylene size and flexion consistently showed substantial anterior motion. Flexion and mid-flexion instability in TKA have been difficult to quantify. While tibio-femoral kinematics is the main aspect of TKA performance, the effects on adjacent tissues should not be overlooked. Our data show that PTFJ kinematics are affected by the balancing of the TKA. © 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 29:47–52, 201

Visual based Tomato Size Measurement System for an Indoor Farming Environment

As technology progresses, smart automated systems will serve an increasingly important role in the agricultural industry. Current existing vision systems for yield estimation face difficulties in occlusion and scalability as they utilize a camera system that is large and expensive, which are unsuitable for orchard environments. To overcome these problems, this paper presents a size measurement method combining a machine learning model and depth images captured from three low cost RGBD cameras to detect and measure the height and width of tomatoes. The performance of the presented system is evaluated on a lab environment with real tomato fruits and fake leaves to simulate occlusion in the real farm environment. To improve accuracy by addressing fruit occlusion, our three-camera system was able to achieve a height measurement accuracy of 0.9114 and a width accuracy of 0.9443.Comment: 10 Pages, 12 Figure

Forty-Year Analysis of Colonoscopic Surveillance Program for Neoplasia in Ulcerative Colitis: An Updated Overview

C.R.C. was funded by the Derek Willoughby Fund for Inflammatory Research. A.L.H. and T.A.G. were funded by Higher Education Funding Council of England