The Effectiveness of Australian Medical Portals: Are They Meeting the Health Consumers’ Needs?

The move to using portals to distribute medical information is supported by Australian Governments and government agencies. The recent success of ‘telemedicine’ is promising for patients and governments alike as it could provide quality care and convenience for patients and reduces the burden on the health budget for governments. The Australian Government is taking a proactive role in developing medical portals to encourage the general use of the web for the dissemination of medical information (NHIMAC, 2000). Government portals such as HealthInsite (Australian) and BetterHealth (Australian Victorian Government) encourage users to access the sites (NHIMAC, 2000).. Despite the support by governments, usability tests examining portal effectiveness indicate that many portals are not effective for users. This paper presents the results of usability testing conducted on current Australian medical portals and discusses the portals’ effectiveness from the users’ perspective. The paper also discusses current technology that could improve medical portals’ effectiveness thereby better serving the needs of the health consumer

Tell Khaiber: An administrative centre of the Sealand period

Excavations at Tell Khaiber in southern Iraq by the Ur Region Archaeological Project have revealed a substantial building (hereafter the Public Building) dating to the mid-second millennium b.c. The results are significant for the light they shed on Babylonian provincial administration, particularly of food production, for revealing a previously unknown type of fortified monumental building, and for producing a dated archive, in context, of the little-understood Sealand Dynasty. The project also represents a return of British field archaeology to long-neglected Babylonia, in collaboration with Iraq's State Board for Antiquities and Heritage. Comments on the historical background and physical location of Tell Khaiber are followed by discussion of the form and function of the Public Building. Preliminary analysis of the associated archive provides insights into the social milieu of the time. Aspects of the material culture, including pottery, are also discussed

Medication nonadherence: health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions

Nonadherence to medicines is a global problem compromising health and economic outcomes for individuals and society. This article outlines how adherence is defined and measured, and examines the impact, prevalence and determinants of nonadherence. It also discusses how a psychosocial perspective can inform the development of interventions to optimise adherence and presents a series of recommendations for future research to overcome common limitations associated with the medication nonadherence literature. Nonadherence is best understood in terms of the interactions between an individual and a specific disease/treatment, within a social and environmental context. Adherence is a product of motivation and ability. Motivation comprises conscious decision-making processes but also from more 'instinctive', intuitive and habitual processes. Ability comprises the physical and psychological skills needed to adhere. Both motivation and ability are influenced by environmental and social factors which influence the opportunity to adhere as well as triggers or cues to actions which may be internal (e.g. experiencing symptoms) or external (e.g. receiving a reminder). Systematic reviews of adherence interventions show that effective solutions are elusive, partly because few have a strong theoretical basis. Adherence support targeted at the level of individuals will be more effective if it is tailored to address the specific perceptions (e.g. beliefs about illness and treatment) and practicalities (e.g. capability and resources) influencing individuals' motivation and ability to adhere

The effects of self efficacy and feedback upon performance in groups

A study was undertaken to investigate firstly, how individual levels of perceived self efficacy affect individual performance in groups and secondly, the influence of self efficacy beliefs and feedback upon social loafing in groups. The perceived self efficacy of 132 Stage One Psychology students for an anagram solving task, was assessed by questionnaire. Subjects were placed in either high or low self efficacy groups, or by themselves, in order to complete an anagram solving test. Subjects were set a moderately difficult goal and received individual and/or group feedback half way through the task. They then completed the test, whereupon their percentage performance change across both halves of the experiment was measured. In accordance with the hypotheses, perceived self efficacy contributed to variations in motivation, depending on whether positive or negative feedback was received. The effects noted within individual subjects were considerably stronger for individuals performing within the context of a group. Social loafing only occurred in low self efficacy grouped condition subjects, who received negative feedback. Therefore low self efficacy may be considered a potential moderator of the social loafing effect. The implications of these findings are discussed

Surface Versus Substantive News Coverage of Oklahoma's 1986 Gubernatorial Race by Three Daily Newspapers

Mass Communication

Glycogen Synthase Isoforms in Synechocystis sp. PCC6803: Identification of Different Roles to Produce Glycogen by Targeted Mutagenesis.

Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 belongs to cyanobacteria which carry out photosynthesis and has recently become of interest due to the evolutionary link between bacteria and plant species. Similar to other bacteria, the primary carbohydrate storage source of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 is glycogen. While most bacteria are not known to have any isoforms of glycogen synthase, analysis of the genomic DNA sequence of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 predicts that this strain encodes two isoforms of glycogen synthase (GS) for synthesizing glycogen structure. To examine the functions of the putative GS genes, each gene (sll1393 or sll0945) was disrupted by double cross-over homologous recombination. Zymogram analysis of the two GS disruption mutants allowed the identification of a protein band corresponding to each GS isoform. Results showed that two GS isoforms (GSI and GSII) are present in Synechocystis sp. PCC6803, and both are involved in glycogen biosynthesis with different elongation properties: GSI is processive and GSII is distributive. Total GS activities in the mutant strains were not affected and were compensated by the remaining isoform. Analysis of the branch-structure of glycogen revealed that the sll1393− mutant (GSI−) produced glycogen containing more intermediate-length chains (DP 8–18) at the expense of shorter and longer chains compared with the wild-type strain. The sll0945− mutant (GSII−) produced glycogen similar to the wild-type, with only a slightly higher proportion of short chains (DP 4–11). The current study suggests that GS isoforms in Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 have different elongation specificities in the biosynthesis of glycogen, combined with ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase and glycogen branching enzyme

London‐Bahrain Archaeological Expedition excavations at Saar: 1993 season

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139973/1/aae199563139.pd