682 research outputs found
Conflict of Interest Policies for Organizations Producing a Large Number of Clinical Practice Guidelines
Conflict of interest (COI) of clinical practice guideline (CPG) sponsors and authors is an important potential source of bias in CPG development. The objectives of this study were to describe the COI policies for organizations currently producing a significant number of CPGs, and to determine if these policies meet 2011 Institute of Medicine (IOM) standards.We identified organizations with five or more guidelines listed in the National Guideline Clearinghouse between January 1, 2009 and November 5, 2010. We obtained the COI policy for each organization from publicly accessible sources, most often the organization's website, and compared those polices to IOM standards related to COI. 37 organizations fulfilled our inclusion criteria, of which 17 (46%) had a COI policy directly related to CPGs. These COI policies varied widely with respect to types of COI addressed, from whom disclosures were collected, monetary thresholds for disclosure, approaches to management, and updating requirements. Not one organization's policy adhered to all seven of the IOM standards that were examined, and nine organizations did not meet a single one of the standards.COI policies among organizations producing a large number of CPGs currently do not measure up to IOM standards related to COI disclosure and management. CPG developers need to make significant improvements in these policies and their implementation in order to optimize the quality and credibility of their guidelines
Wave operator bounds for 1-dimensional Schr\"odinger operators with singular potentials and applications
Boundedness of wave operators for Schr\"odinger operators in one space
dimension for a class of singular potentials, admitting finitely many Dirac
delta distributions, is proved. Applications are presented to, for example,
dispersive estimates and commutator bounds.Comment: 16 pages, 0 figure
On the nonlinear stability of mKdV breathers
A mathematical proof for the stability of mKdV breathers is announced. This
proof involves the existence of a nonlinear equation satisfied by all breather
profiles, and a new Lyapunov functional which controls the dynamics of small
perturbations and instability modes. In order to construct such a functional,
we work in a subspace of the energy one. However, our proof introduces new
ideas in order to attack the corresponding stability problem in the energy
space. Some remarks about the sine-Gordon case are also considered.Comment: 7 p
Mussel production and Water Framework Directive targets in the Limfjord, Denmark: an integrated assessment for use in system-based management
Growth of human activities often conflict with nature conservation requirements and integrated assessments are necessary to build reliable scenarios for management. In the Limfjord, Denmark's largest estuary, nutrient loading reductions are necessary to fulfill EU regulations criteria, such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Cuts in nutrient loadings do not necessarily result in corresponding reductions in eutrophication impacts or in improving primary and higher trophic-level production. Similarly, the socioeconomic consequences of a mussel fishery and aquaculture production are complex and hard to predict. This study focuses on the usefulness of a System Approach Framework (SAF) implementation for stakeholder understanding of complex systems and development of sustainable management. Ecological-social-economic (ESE) model simulations clearly demonstrated the potential problems of WFD implementation for mussel fishers and mussel farmers. Simulation of mussel fishery closures resulted in a tenfold increase in the hitherto fishable mussel biomass and a similar decrease in the biomass of shallow-water mussels and medium-sized ones in deep water. A total closure of the mussel fishery could result in an annual profit loss of ~6.2 million. Scenario simulation of the introduction of one, two, three, and four mussel culture farms of ~19 ha showed that the introduction of line-mussels would decrease the biomass of wild mussels both in shallow and deep waters, affecting the catch and profit of fishers. The SAF, which included consultation with stakeholders at all stages, differs from the traditional public consultation process in that (1) communication was verbal and multilateral, (2) discussion among stakeholders was facilitated, and (3) stakeholder opinions and priorities formed the focus of the ESE assessment
A Global Analysis of the Proportion of Surgical Specialists in Relation to Overall Human Resources for Health
A sharp condition for scattering of the radial 3d cubic nonlinear Schroedinger equation
We consider the problem of identifying sharp criteria under which radial
(finite energy) solutions to the focusing 3d cubic nonlinear
Schr\"odinger equation (NLS) scatter,
i.e. approach the solution to a linear Schr\"odinger equation as . The criteria is expressed in terms of the scale-invariant quantities
and , where denotes the
initial data, and and denote the (conserved in time) mass and
energy of the corresponding solution . The focusing NLS possesses a
soliton solution , where is the ground-state solution to a
nonlinear elliptic equation, and we prove that if and
, then the
solution is globally well-posed and scatters. This condition is sharp in
the sense that the soliton solution , for which equality in these
conditions is obtained, is global but does not scatter. We further show that if
, then the solution blows-up in finite time. The
technique employed is parallel to that employed by Kenig-Merle \cite{KM06a} in
their study of the energy-critical NLS
Present and projected future mean radiant temperature for three European cities
Present-day and projected future changes in mean radiant temperature, T mrt in one northern, one mid-, and one southern European city (represented by Gothenburg, Frankfurt, and Porto), are presented, and the concept of hot spots is adopted. Air temperature, T a , increased in all cities by 2100, but changes in solar radiation due to changes in cloudiness counterbalanced or exacerbated the effects on T mrt. The number of days with high T mrt in Gothenburg was relatively unchanged at the end of the century (+1 day), whereas it more than doubled in Frankfurt and tripled in Porto. The use of street trees to reduce daytime radiant heat load was analyzed using hot spots to identify where trees could be most beneficial. Hot spots, although varying in intensity and frequency, were generally confined to near sunlit southeast-southwest facing walls, in northeast corner of courtyards, and in open spaces in all three cities. By adding trees in these spaces, the radiant heat load can be reduced, especially in spaces with no or few trees. A set of design principles for reducing the radiant heat load is outlined based on these findings and existing literature
Periodontal conditions and incident dementia: a nationwide Swedish cohort study
Background Periodontal disease has been proposed as a putative etiological factor for dementia. The aim of this investigation was to compare the incidence of dementia in individuals with or without deep probing pocket depths (DPPD), serving as a proxy for periodontitis. Methods In this cohort study, conducted in Sweden, we identified 7992 individuals with DPPD and 29,182 matched individuals without DPPD (non-DPPD), using the Swedish Quality Registry for Caries and Periodontal Diseases (SKaPa). The two groups were followed for incident dementia (mean follow-up time was 7.6 years) based on data from the Swedish Dementia Registry (SveDem). The exposure-outcome relationship was explored by applying the Royston-Parmar (RP) flexible parametric survival model. Results The incidence of dementia in the two groups was similar. In the DPPD group 137 (1.7%) developed dementia and 470 (1.6%) in the non-DPPD group. The incidence rate of dementia was estimated to be 2.3 per 1000 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.9 to 2.7) in the DPPD group and 2.1 per 1000 person-years (95% CI 1.9 to 2.3) in the non-DPPD group. The RP model disclosed no association between DPPD and dementia incidence after controlling for potential confounders (the exponentiated coefficient was estimated to 1.13 [95% CI = 0.39 to 3.24]). Conclusion In this sample, no association was revealed between deep probing pocket depths and the incidence of dementia.Peer reviewe
Evaluating Literacy Sensitive Client Education Materials for the SMMART Clinic
This master’s project was completed in collaboration with the St. Mary’s Medical and Rehabilitative Therapies (SMMART) Clinic, located on the campus of St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Through the completion of literature reviews, a needs assessment, and project activities, nine graduate occupational therapy students analyzed the needs of this clinic and aimed to improve client care. The SMMART clinic serves primarily Spanish-speaking clients who are low-income, uninsured, or underinsured. This population often faces obstacles in accessing primary health care and rehabilitation, including language and literacy-related barriers. Occupational therapy can play an important role in addressing these barriers and providing high quality care and education that is sensitive to clients’ literacy and language preferences
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