120 research outputs found

    Butte High School Storm Water Rehabilitation

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    Objective: Improve the storm drainage system around Butte High School

    Learning from significant medical events: a systematic review

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    Rationale, aims and objectives: Learning from significant medical events is a core component of quality and safety practice in healthcare worldwide and is a key component of efforts to increase the person-centeredness of clinical service. However, the evidence that analysis of, or reflection on, significant events has a positive impact on subsequent doctor performance is relatively sparse. This review aims to explore the impact of undertaking significant event analysis on medical performance.Method: A systematic review using the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Collaboration Library. Citation searches were carried out on included studies. Impact was defined according to a modified adaptation of the Kirkpatrick evaluation model. The selection and quality appraisal of studies was conducted by 2 reviewers, independently and blinded. Data were extracted from included studies related to: study type and location, population, methodology and intervention type.Results: Six papers met the inclusion criteria for this review. Of these: one reported learners’ reaction (Kirkpatrick 1); 2 reported modified attitudes (modified Kirkpatrick 2a); 5 reported the acquisition of knowledge (modified Kirkpatrick level 2b) and all 6 identified reported changes in behaviour (modified Kirkpatrick level 3a). Significant event analysis is reported to identify gaps in knowledge, improve teamwork and communication and encourage reflection leading to improvements in practice. Time, resources and team dynamics were identified as factors that impacted on the effectiveness of significant event analysis. Significant event analysis may benefit from suspending existing hierarchies during the process itself and external facilitation.Conclusion: There is a lack of high quality evidence within the existing literature to ascertain the effectiveness of significant event analysis in the medical context. Existing studies are largely based on self-reported measures, which may reinforce the importance of the discursive process for practitioners. Future research could be directed at identifying the pedagogical processes that effect changes in performance as a result of engaging in significant event analysis, leading to substantial increase in the person-centeredness of clinical care

    Measuring Coverage in MNCH:A Validation Study Linking Population Survey Derived Coverage to Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Care Records in Rural China

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    Accurate data on coverage of key maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) interventions are crucial for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. Coverage estimates are primarily obtained from routine population surveys through self-reporting, the validity of which is not well understood. We aimed to examine the validity of the coverage of selected MNCH interventions in Gongcheng County, China.We conducted a validation study by comparing women's self-reported coverage of MNCH interventions relating to antenatal and postnatal care, mode of delivery, and child vaccinations in a community survey with their paper- and electronic-based health care records, treating the health care records as the reference standard. Of 936 women recruited, 914 (97.6%) completed the survey. Results show that self-reported coverage of these interventions had moderate to high sensitivity (0.57 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.50-0.63] to 0.99 [95% CI: 0.98-1.00]) and low to high specificity (0 to 0.83 [95% CI: 0.80-0.86]). Despite varying overall validity, with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) ranging between 0.49 [95% CI: 0.39-0.57] and 0.90 [95% CI: 0.88-0.92], bias in the coverage estimates at the population level was small to moderate, with the test to actual positive (TAP) ratio ranging between 0.8 and 1.5 for 24 of the 28 indicators examined. Our ability to accurately estimate validity was affected by several caveats associated with the reference standard. Caution should be exercised when generalizing the results to other settings.The overall validity of self-reported coverage was moderate across selected MNCH indicators. However, at the population level, self-reported coverage appears to have small to moderate degree of bias. Accuracy of the coverage was particularly high for indicators with high recorded coverage or low recorded coverage but high specificity. The study provides insights into the accuracy of self-reports based on a population survey in low- and middle-income countries. Similar studies applying an improved reference standard are warranted in the future

    Policy challenges for the pediatric rheumatology workforce: Part III. the international situation

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    Survival dominates current pediatric global health priorities. Diseases of poverty largely contribute to overall mortality in children under 5 years of age. Infectious diseases and injuries account for 75% of cause-specific mortality among children ages 5-14 years. Twenty percent of the world's population lives in extreme poverty (income below US $1.25/day). Within this population, essential services and basic needs are not met, including clean water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, shelter, access to health care, medicines and education. In this context, musculoskeletal disease comprises 0.1% of all-cause mortality in children ages 5-14 years. Worldwide morbidity from musculoskeletal disease remains generally unknown in the pediatric age group. This epidemiologic data is not routinely surveyed by international agencies, including the World Health Organization. The prevalence of pediatric rheumatic diseases based on data from developed nations is in the range of 2,500 - 3,000 cases per million children. Developing countries' needs for musculoskeletal morbidity are undergoing an epidemiologic shift to chronic conditions, as leading causes of pediatric mortality are slowly quelled

    Evaluation of cell-free DNA approaches for multi-cancer early detection

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    In the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (NCT02889978) substudy 1, we evaluate several approaches for a circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA)-based multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test by defining clinical limit of detection (LOD) based on circulating tumor allele fraction (cTAF), enabling performance comparisons. Among 10 machine-learning classifiers trained on the same samples and independently validated, when evaluated at 98% specificity, those using whole-genome (WG) methylation, single nucleotide variants with paired white blood cell background removal, and combined scores from classifiers evaluated in this study show the highest cancer signal detection sensitivities. Compared with clinical stage and tumor type, cTAF is a more significant predictor of classifier performance and may more closely reflect tumor biology. Clinical LODs mirror relative sensitivities for all approaches. The WG methylation feature best predicts cancer signal origin. WG methylation is the most promising technology for MCED and informs development of a targeted methylation MCED test

    Development of a multiplexed bead-based immunoassay for the simultaneous detection of antibodies to 17 pneumococcal proteins

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    Presently, several pneumococcal proteins are being evaluated as potential vaccine candidates. Here, we gather novel insights in the immunogenicity of PLY, PsaA, PspA, PspC, NanA, Hyl, PpmA, SlrA, Eno, IgA1-protease, PdBD, BVH-3, SP1003, SP1633, SP1651, SP0189 and SP0376. We developed a multiplex bead-based immunoassay (xMAP® Technology, Luminex Corporation) to simultaneously quantify antibodies against these 17 pneumococcal proteins in serum. The median fluorescence intensity (MFI) values obtained for human pooled serum with the multiplex assay were between 82% and 111% (median 94%) of those obtained with the singleplex assays. For IgG, the coefficient of variation (CV) in serum ranged from 2% to 9%, for IgA, the CV ranged from 3% to 14% and for IgM, the CV ranged from 11% to 15%. Using this immunoassay, we showed that anti-pneumococcal antibody levels exhibited extensive inter-individual variability in young children suffering from invasive pneumococcal disease. All proteins, including the proteins with, as yet, unknown function, were immunogenic. In conclusion, the multiplex Streptococcus pneumoniae immunoassay based on proteins is reproducible. This assay can be used to monitor anti-S. pneumoniae antibody responses in a material- and time-saving manner
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