User needs elicitation via analytic hierarchy process (AHP). A case study on a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner

Background: The rigorous elicitation of user needs is a crucial step for both medical device design and purchasing. However, user needs elicitation is often based on qualitative methods whose findings can be difficult to integrate into medical decision-making. This paper describes the application of AHP to elicit user needs for a new CT scanner for use in a public hospital. Methods: AHP was used to design a hierarchy of 12 needs for a new CT scanner, grouped into 4 homogenous categories, and to prepare a paper questionnaire to investigate the relative priorities of these. The questionnaire was completed by 5 senior clinicians working in a variety of clinical specialisations and departments in the same Italian public hospital. Results: Although safety and performance were considered the most important issues, user needs changed according to clinical scenario. For elective surgery, the five most important needs were: spatial resolution, processing software, radiation dose, patient monitoring, and contrast medium. For emergency, the top five most important needs were: patient monitoring, radiation dose, contrast medium control, speed run, spatial resolution. Conclusions: AHP effectively supported user need elicitation, helping to develop an analytic and intelligible framework of decision-making. User needs varied according to working scenario (elective versus emergency medicine) more than clinical specialization. This method should be considered by practitioners involved in decisions about new medical technology, whether that be during device design or before deciding whether to allocate budgets for new medical devices according to clinical functions or according to hospital department

Mental health and behaviour of students of public health and their correlation with social support: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Future public health professionals are especially important among students partly because their credibility in light of their professional messages and activities will be tested daily by their clients; and partly because health professionals' own lifestyle habits influence their attitudes and professional activities. A better understanding of public health students' health and its determinants is necessary for improving counselling services and tailoring them to demand. Our aim was to survey public health students' health status and behaviour with a focus on mental health.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was carried out among public health students at 1-5-years (<it>N </it>= 194) with a self-administered questionnaire that included standardized items on demographic data, mental wellbeing characterized by sense of coherence (SoC) and psychological morbidity, as well as health behaviour and social support. Correlations between social support and the variables for mental health, health status and health behaviour were characterized by pairwise correlation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The response rate was 75% and represented students by study year, sex and age in the Faculty. Nearly half of the students were non-smokers, more than one quarter smoked daily. Almost one-fifth of the students suffered from notable psychological distress. The proportion of these students decreased from year 1 to 5. The mean score for SoC was 60.1 and showed an increasing trend during the academic years. 29% of the students lacked social support from their student peers. Significant positive correlation was revealed between social support and variables for mental health. Psychological distress was greater among female public health students than in the same age female group of the general population; whereas the lack of social support was a more prevalent problem among male students.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Health status and behaviour of public health students is similar to their non-students peers except for their worse mental health. Future public health professionals should be better prepared for coping with the challenges they face during their studies. Universities must facilitate this process by providing helping services targeted at those with highest risk, and developing training to improve coping skills. Social support is also a potentially amenable determinant of mental health during higher education.</p

A new IAEA Technical Report Series Handbook on Radionuclide Transfer to Wildlife

The IAEA Technical Report Series (TRS) handbook on transfer of radionuclides to human foodstuffs from terrestrial and freshwater systems has recently been revised during the EMRAS I programme [1]. The document updates the previous handbook (TRS 364) and constitutes an important source of information for transfer parameters for the human foodchain. Quantification of the rates of transfer of radionuclides through foodchains to humans has long been a key focus of radiation protection. More recently, there has been a move away from radiation protection being solely anthropogenic to one which also considers protection of the environment as recognised by both the IAEA [2] and the ICRP [3] in their Fundamental Safety Principles and revised Recommendations, respectively, both of which now include the need to protect the environment. To address these recommendations and safety principles, the consequences of radiological releases need to be considered in part by estimating an internal dose. To do this, the transfer of radionuclides to wildlife of interest needs to be quantified. In response to the need for a reference source of information on radionuclide transfer to wildlife, the IAEA initiated the development of a TRS handbook, which has been supported by interaction with the EMRAS II Working Group 5, (http://www-ns.iaea.org/projects/emras/emras2/working-groups/working-group-five.asp). The TRS handbook has been finalised and is currently going through the IAEA approval process. The TRS handbook provides equilibrium concentration ratio values for wildlife groups in terrestrial, freshwater, marine and estuarine environments. Wildlife is considered to include all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms including feral species (i.e. non-native self-sustaining populations). The TRS handbook provides IAEA Member States with transfer data for use in the radiological assessment of wildlife as a consequence of planned and existing exposure situations [3]. As an equilibrium approach is presented, these data are not directly applicable to emergency situations

Analysis of the 5\u27 untranslated region (5\u27UTR) of the alcohol oxidase 1 (AOX1) gene in recombinant protein expression in Pichia pastoris

Pichia pastoris is a methylotrophic yeast that has been genetically engineered to express over one thousand heterologous proteins valued for industrial, pharmaceutical and basic research purposes. In most cases, the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of the alcohol oxidase 1 (AOX1) gene is fused to the coding sequence of the recombinant gene for protein expression in this yeast. Because the effect of the AOX1 5′UTR on protein expression is not known, site-directed mutagenesis was performed in order to decrease or increase the length of this region. Both of these types of changes were shown to affect translational efficiency, not transcript stability. While increasing the length of the 5′UTR clearly decreased expression of a β-galactosidase reporter in a proportional manner, a deletion analysis demonstrated that the AOX1 5′UTR contains a complex mixture of both positive and negative cis-acting elements, suggesting that the construction of a synthetic 5′UTR optimized for a higher level of expression may be challenging