911 research outputs found
Maximising response to postal questionnaires â A systematic review of randomised trials in health research
Background
Postal self-completion questionnaires offer one of the least expensive modes of collecting patient based outcomes in health care research. The purpose of this review is to assess the efficacy of methods of increasing response to postal questionnaires in health care studies on patient populations.
Methods
The following databases were searched: Medline, Embase, CENTRAL, CDSR, PsycINFO, NRR and ZETOC. Reference lists of relevant reviews and relevant journals were hand searched. Inclusion criteria were randomised trials of strategies to improve questionnaire response in health care research on patient populations. Response rate was defined as the percentage of questionnaires returned after all follow-up efforts. Study quality was assessed by two independent reviewers. The Mantel-Haenszel method was used to calculate the pooled odds ratios.
Results
Thirteen studies reporting fifteen trials were included. Implementation of reminder letters and telephone contact had the most significant effect on response rates (odds ratio 3.7, 95% confidence interval 2.30 to 5.97 p = <0.00001). Shorter questionnaires also improved response rates to a lesser degree (odds ratio 1.4, 95% confidence interval 1.19 to 1.54). No evidence was found that incentives, re-ordering of questions or including an information brochure with the questionnaire confer any additional advantage.
Conclusion
Implementing repeat mailing strategies and/or telephone reminders may improve response to postal questionnaires in health care research. Making the questionnaire shorter may also improve response rates. There is a lack of evidence to suggest that incentives are useful. In the context of health care research all strategies to improve response to postal questionnaires require further evaluation
Neuromuscular Blockade with Rocuronium Bromide Increases the Tolerance of Acute Normovolemic Anemia in Anesthetized Pigs
Background: The patient's individual anemia tolerance is pivotal when blood transfusions become necessary, but are not feasible for some reason. To date, the effects of neuromuscular blockade (NMB) on anemia tolerance have not been investigated. Methods: 14 anesthetized and mechanically ventilated pigs were randomly assigned to the Roc group (3.78 mg/kg rocuronium bromide followed by continuous infusion of 1 mg/kg/min, n = 7) or to the Sal group (administration of the corresponding volume of normal saline, n = 7). Subsequently, acute normovolemic anemia was induced by simultaneous exchange of whole blood for a 6% hydroxyethyl starch solution (130/0.4) until a sudden decrease of total body O-2 consumption (VO2) indicated a critical limitation of O-2 transport capacity. The Hb concentration quantified at this time point (Hb(crit)) was the primary end-point of the protocol. Secondary endpoints were parameters of hemodynamics, O-2 transport and tissue oxygenation. Results: Hb(crit) was significantly lower in the Roc group (2.4 +/- 0.5 vs. 3.2 +/- 0.7 g/dl) reflecting increased anemia tolerance. NMB with rocuronium bromide reduced skeletal muscular VO2 and total body O-2 extraction rate. As the cardiac index increased simultaneously, total body VO2 only decreased marginally in the Roc group (change of VO2 relative to baseline -1.7 +/- 0.8 vs. 3.2 +/- 1.9% in the Sal group, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Deep NMB with rocuronium bromide increases the tolerance of acute normovolemic anemia. The underlying mechanism most likely involves a reduction of skeletal muscular VO2. During acellular treatment of an acute blood loss, NMB might play an adjuvant role in situations where profound stages of normovolemic anemia have to be tolerated (e.g. bridging an unexpected blood loss until blood products become available for transfusion). Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base
Universal switching of plasmonic signals using optical resonator modes
We propose and investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, a novel mechanism for switching and modulating plasmonic
signals based on a Fano interference process, which arises from the coupling between a narrow-band optical FabryâPĂŠrot cavity
and a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) source. The SPP wave emitted from the cavity is actively modulated in the vicinity of the
cavity resonances by altering the cavity Q-factor and/or resonant frequencies. We experimentally demonstrate dynamic SPP modulation
both by mechanical control of the cavity length and all-optically by harnessing the ultrafast nonlinearity of the Au mirrors
that form the cavity. An electro-optical modulation scheme is also proposed and numerically illustrated. Dynamic operation of
the switch via mechanical means yields a modulation in the SPP coupling efficiency of ~ 80%, while the all-optical control provides
an ultrafast modulation with an efficiency of 30% at a rate of ~ 0.6 THz. The experimental observations are supported by
both analytical and numerical calculations of the mechanical, all-optical and electro-optical modulation methods
Distribution and diel vertical movements of mesopelagic scattering layers in the Red Sea
Š The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Marine Biology 159 (2012): 1833-1841, doi:10.1007/s00227-012-1973-y.The mesopelagic zone of the Red Sea represents
an extreme environment due to low food concentrations,
high temperatures and low oxygen waters. Nevertheless, a
38 kHz echosounder identified at least four distinct scattering
layers during the daytime, of which the 2 deepest
layers resided entirely within the mesopelagic zone. Two of
the acoustic layers were found above a mesopelagic oxygen
minimum zone (OMZ), one layer overlapped with the
OMZ, and one layer was found below the OMZ. Almost all
organisms in the deep layers migrated to the near-surface
waters during the night. Backscatter from a 300 kHz lowered
Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler indicated a layer of
zooplankton within the OMZ. They carried out DVM, yet a
portion remained at mesopelagic depths during the night.
Our acoustic measurements showed that the bulk of the
acoustic backscatter was restricted to waters shallower than
800 m, suggesting that most of the biomass in the Red Sea
resides above this depth.This research is based in part on work
supported by Award Nos. USA 00002, KSA 00011 and KSA 00011/02
made by KAUST to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Morphological characterization of the blood cells in the endangered Sicilian endemic pond turtle,Emys trinacris(Testudines: Emydidae)
In this study, measurements of morphological parameters, sizes and frequencies of peripheral blood cells (erythrocytes,
leukocytes, thrombocytes) on blood smear preparation devices stained with May-GrĂźnwald stain were evaluated for both
sexes in 20 Emys trinacris (Testudines: Emydidae) specimens. Erythrocytes were higher in male than in female specimens.
The leukocyte of E. trinacris contains eosinophil, basophil, monocyte, heterophil and lymphocyte. The eosinophil was higher
in males than in females whereas lymphocytes were higher in females than in males. The erythrocyte morphological
parameters (EL [erythrocyte length], EW [erythrocyte width], L/W [length/width], ES [erythrocyte size]) were compared
with the same data from Emys orbicularis s.l, and from species belonging to other chelonian genera. The erythrocyte size did
not vary within the studied Palearctic Emys taxa, whereas it proved to differ from that observed in other chelonians
A physical, genetic and functional sequence assembly of the barley genome
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is among the world's earliest domesticated and most important crop plants. It is diploid with a large haploid genome of 5.1 gigabases (Gb). Here we present an integrated and ordered physical, genetic and functional sequence resource that describes the barley gene-space in a structured whole-genome context. We developed a physical map of 4.98 Gb, with more than 3.90 Gb anchored to a high-resolution genetic map. Projecting a deep whole-genome shotgun assembly, complementary DNA and deep RNA sequence data onto this framework supports 79,379 transcript clusters, including 26,159 'high-confidence' genes with homology support from other plant genomes. Abundant alternative splicing, premature termination codons and novel transcriptionally active regions suggest that post-transcriptional processing forms an important regulatory layer. Survey sequences from diverse accessions reveal a landscape of extensive single-nucleotide variation. Our data provide a platform for both genome-assisted research and enabling contemporary crop improvement
Reply to J.J. MuĂąoz-Perez et al. Comments on âConfirmation of beach accretion by grain-size trend analysis: Camposoto beach, CĂĄdiz, SWSpainâ by E. Poizot et al. (2013) Geo-Marine Letters 33(4)
In a novel finding for a beach environment, Poizot
et al. (2013) identified an FB+ trend (sediments becoming
finer, better sorted and more positively skewed upshore) on a
well-developed swash bar on the upper foreshore of the
Camposoto beach of CĂĄdiz in SW Spain. In their Discussion
of that paper, MuĂąoz-Perez et al. (2014) provide some
supporting arguments and also report grain-size, beach profile
and other data from nearby beaches which differ from those of
Poizot and colleagues for Camposoto beach, pointing out that
a trend observed on one beach may not apply to a
neighbouring beach. However, even though the absolute
values differ, the overall trends actually do show the same
general behaviour. In our Reply to their comments, we also
address some difficulties in comparing granulometric datasets
generated by different analytical techniques
Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS
has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions
at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection
criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined.
For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a
muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the
whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4,
while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The
efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than
90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall
momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The
transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity
for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be
better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions
of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
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