Reducing hospital associated infection : a role for social marketing

Purpose: Although hand hygiene is seen as the most important method to prevent the transmission of hospital associated infection in the UK, hand hygiene compliance rates appear to remain poor. This research aims to assess the degree to which social marketing methodology can be adopted by a particular organization to promote hand hygiene compliance. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research design is based on a conceptual framework developed from analysis of social marketing literature. Data collection involved taped interviews given by nursing staff working within a specific Hospital Directorate in Manchester, England. Supplementary data was obtained from archival records of the hand hygiene compliance rates. Findings: Findings highlighted gaps in the Directorate’s approach to the promotion of hand hygiene compared to what could be using social marketing methodology. Respondents highlighted how the Directorate failed to fully optimise resources required to endorse hand hygiene practice and this resulted in poorer compliance. Originality/Value: From the experiences and events documented, the study suggests how the emergent phenomena could be utilized by the Directorate to apply a social marketing approach which could positively influence hand hygiene compliance

Erythema nodosum as a result of estrogen patch therapy for prostate cancer: a case report.

© 2015 Coyle et al.Introduction: Erythema nodosum is often associated with a distressing symptomatology, including painful subcutaneous nodules, polyarthropathy, and significant fatigue. Whilst it is a well-documented side-effect of estrogen therapy in females, we describe what we believe to be the first report in the literature of erythema nodosum as a result of estrogen therapy in a male. Case presentation: A 64-year-old Afro-Caribbean man with locally advanced carcinoma of the prostate agreed to participate in a randomized controlled trial comparing estrogen patches with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogs to achieve androgen deprivation, and was allocated to the group receiving estrogen patches. One month later he presented with tender lesions on his shins and painful swelling of his ankles, wrists, and left shoulder. This was followed by progressive severe fatigue that required hospital admission, where he was diagnosed with erythema nodosum by a rheumatologist. Two months after discontinuing the estrogen patches the erythema nodosum, and associated symptoms, had fully resolved, and to date he remains well with no further recurrence. Conclusion: Trial results may establish transdermal estrogen as an alternative to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogs in the management of prostate cancer, and has already been established as a therapy for male to female transsexuals. It is essential to record the toxicity profile of transdermal estrogen in men to ensure accurate safety information. This case report highlights a previously undocumented toxicity of estrogen therapy in men, of which oncologists, urologists, and endocrinologists need to be aware. Rheumatologists and dermatologists should add estrogen therapy to their differential diagnosis of men presenting with erythema nodosum

Resonances, radiation pressure and optical scattering phenomena of drops and bubbles

Acoustic levitation and the response of fluid spheres to spherical harmonic projections of the radiation pressure are described. Simplified discussions of the projections are given. A relationship between the tangential radiation stress and the Konstantinov effect is introduced and fundamental streaming patterns for drops are predicted. Experiments on the forced shape oscillation of drops are described and photographs of drop fission are displayed. Photographs of critical angle and glory scattering by bubbles and rainbow scattering by drops are displayed

Kings and Heirs: A Characterization of the (2,2)-domination Graphs of Tournaments

In 1980, Maurer coined the phrase king when describing any vertex of a tournament that could reach every other vertex in two or fewer steps. A (2,2)-domination graph of a digraph D, dom2,2(D), has vertex set V(D), the vertices of D, and edge uv whenever u and v each reach all other vertices of D in two or fewer steps. In this special case of the (i,j)-domination graph, we see that Maurer’s theorem plays an important role in establishing which vertices form the kings that create some of the edges in dom2,2(D). But of even more interest is that we are able to use the theorem to determine which other vertices, when paired with a king, form an edge in dom2,2(D). These vertices are referred to as heirs. Using kings and heirs, we are able to completely characterize the (2,2)-domination graphs of tournaments

Digraphs with Isomorphic Underlying and Domination Graphs: Pairs of Paths

A domination graph of a digraph D, dom (D), is created using thc vertex set of D and edge uv ϵ E (dom (D)) whenever (u, z) ϵ A (D) or (v, z) ϵ A (D) for any other vertex z ϵ A (D). Here, we consider directed graphs whose underlying graphs are isomorphic to their domination graphs. Specifically, digraphs are completely characterized where UGc (D) is the union of two disjoint paths

A Characterization of Connected (1,2)-Domination Graphs of Tournaments

Recently. Hedetniemi et aI. introduced (1,2)-domination in graphs, and the authors extended that concept to (1, 2)-domination graphs of digraphs. Given vertices x and y in a digraph D, x and y form a (1,2)-dominating pair if and only if for every other vertex z in D, z is one step away from x or y and at most two steps away from the other. The (1,2)-dominating graph of D, dom1,2 (D), is defined to be the graph G = (V, E ) , where V (G) = V (D), and xy is an edge of G whenever x and y form a (1,2)-dominating pair in D. In this paper, we characterize all connected graphs that can be (I, 2)-dominating graphs of tournaments

Effective constructions in plethysms and Weintraub's conjecture

We give a short proof of Weintraub's conjecture by constructing explicit highest weight vectors in the symmetric power of an even exterior power

Investigation to develop a multistage forest sampling inventory system using ERTS-1 imagery

The author has identified the following significant results. The annotation system produced a RMSE of about 200 m ground distance in the MSS data system with the control data used. All the analytical MSS interpretation models tried were highly significant. However, the gains in forest sampling efficiency that can be achieved by using the models vary from zero to over 50 percent depending on the area to which they are applied and the sampling method used. Among the sampling methods tried, regression sampling yielded substantial and the most consistent gains. The single most significant variable in the interpretation model was the difference between bands 5 and 7. The contrast variable, computed by the Hadamard transform was significant but did not contribute much to the interpretation model. Forest areas containing very large timber volumes because of large tree sizes were not separable from areas of similar crown cover but containing smaller trees using ERTS image interpretation only. All correlations between space derived timber volume predictions and estimates obtained from aerial and ground sampling were relatively low but significant and stable. There was a much stronger relationship between variables derived from MSS and U2 data than between U2 and ground data