Oral Mucosal Microcirculation in the Context of Endotracheal Tube-Related Pressure Ulcer Development.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Urine culture doubtful in determining etiology of diffuse symptoms among elderly individuals: a cross-sectional study of 32 nursing homes

Background: The high prevalence of bacteriuria in elderly individuals makes it difficult to know if a new symptom is related to bacteria in the urine. There are different views concerning this relationship and bacteriuria often leads to antibiotic treatments. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between bacteria in the urine and new or increased restlessness, fatigue, confusion, aggressiveness, not being herself/himself, dysuria, urgency and fever in individuals at nursing homes for elderly when statistically considering the high prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in this population.\ud \ud Methods: In this cross-sectional study symptoms were registered and voided urine specimens were collected for urinary cultures from 651 elderly individuals. Logistic regressions were performed to evaluate the statistical correlation between bacteriuria and presence of a symptom at group level. To estimate the clinical relevance of statistical correlations at group level positive and negative etiological predictive values (EPV) were calculated.\ud \ud Results: Logistic regression indicated some correlations at group level. Aside from Escherichia coli in the urine and not being herself/himself existing at least one month, but less than three months, EPV indicated no clinically useful correlation between any symptoms in this study and findings of bacteriuria.\ud \ud Conclusions: Urinary cultures provide little or no useful information when evaluating diffuse symptoms among elderly residents of nursing homes. Either common urinary tract pathogens are irrelevant, or urine culture is an inappropriate test

Employable knowledge: benchmarking education about standardization in the UK

For academics and students in the United Kingdom the main source of standards is via British Standards Institution (BSI). The research demonstrates that British, European and International Standards play a key role in many areas of education. In some disciplines their inclusion in the course is mandatory, e.g. in building construction and performing risk assessments of equipment. Where not a requirement, other courses successfully encourage students to understand and apply specific standards and principles from them, to their design and project work, in topic areas such as quality management and user-computer interface design. Assessment practice is a key part of learning and academics have indicated how this fitted into the learning activity, e.g. by expecting students to develop an understanding of standards and reference them in all assessed work. Likewise, students taking part in the survey also suggest that they were actively engaged with one or more standards and that their understanding was measured through an assessed activity. However, students also emphasised the importance of additional support, e.g. introduction to standards in the workplace or as part of work placements, by library staff as an information resource, and by presentations from BSI experts. Employers have also indicated the importance of students’ knowledge, understanding and appreciation of relevant standards in the right context, emphasising their desire for standards to be included more widely in the curriculum. The draft recommendations from this study were subject to International review and comment, the results from this review served to strengthen the recommendations of this work. This research was commissioned by British Standards Institution (BSI). This research was produced in association with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as part of its ongoing programme of support for standardization. Grateful thanks are due to all those who filled in the questionnaire or who attended the workshops

Updating of user requirements of elderly and disabled drivers and travellers

The user requirements have been reassessed in the light of the results from the collaborative evaluations with other Transport Telematics Projects, as well as data and expertise gathered from the literature and other experts in the field. The user requirements identified are also the fundamental base for the development of different parts of the TELSCAN project. User requirements cover, of course, a multitude of different aspects, and to demonstrate how they have been integrated into the project’s output, they have been grouped into the following categories: • System function requirements • Interface requirements • Information requirements • Protocol requirements

A critical literature review of barriers to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS in South Africa

HIV/AIDS is one of the most encompassing and highly recognized infectious pandemics in our world today. It contributes significantly to total overall deaths and to economic hardship in societies, particularly in underdeveloped and developing countries. Access to effective treatments for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) during pregnancy and birth remain challenging, especially in resources poor settings. South Africa has one of the highest prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS in the world, with 5.7 million people currently infected. The prevalence rate of South African women of childbearing age is almost 30%, and it is estimated that 40,000 children are born with HIV every year. PMTCT in South Africa could be nearly 100% because of ARV treatments like nevirapine; however, social, behavioral, and governmental factors inhibit access to preventative medication and adherence to medication schedules. This paper used a critical review of the literature on PMTCT in South Africa, specifically searching for barriers associated with specific interventions. The literature review found barriers to the PMTCT at various levels of the Social Ecologic Model: individual, interpersonal, community, institutional, and policy. The Individual level barriers included knowledge about HIV and PMTCT, knowledge of the HIV status of mother and infant, and knowledge, beliefs, and fear. The Interpersonal level barriers encompassed male involvement, the role of traditional health practitioners, and social support. The Organization level, few barriers were found in the literature review of the databases, but barriers were found through the review of history findings from the background sections. The Community level barriers were internalized AIDS stigma and infrastructure. At the Policy level, the only current barrier was CD4 count level for eligibility of government treatment. Adherence factors were multilevel barriers. The public health significance of MTCT is that 40,000 infants in South Africa are infected each year with HIV, a largely preventable disease, resulting in an unnecessary added burden to an already resource poor country

Conceptual and procedural encoding in relevance theory : a study with reference to English and Kiswahili.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN007956 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo