41 research outputs found
Verificación de las Fórmulas Polinómicas en cuatro Infraestructuras Educativas para optimizar los recursos del estado en Gobierno Regional de Lambayeque
El presente trabajo de investigación denominado: “Verificación de las Fórmulas
Polinómicas en cuatro Infraestructuras Educativas para optimizar los recursos del
estado en Gobierno Regional de Lambayeque” de proyectos ejecutados en el año
2015, El método de investigación es no experimental, el tipo de acuerdo con el fin
que persigue es aplicada, de acuerdo con la técnica de contrastación es
descriptiva, y por el régimen de investigación es libre;
no se pretende manipular las variables, si no realizar la descripción tal cual de los
resultados. Nuestra Población la conforman todos los proyectos de
Infraestructuras Educativas del Gobierno Regional de Lambayeque en el año
2015, y nuestra muestra está basada en 4 proyectos, los instrumentos usados son
el S10 y el Excel que facilitaron el procesamiento de la información.
A las conclusiones que se llegó son: Que existe una variación en los coeficientes
de incidencia entre la Fórmula Polinómica del Expediente Técnico y la que se está
planteando, en la del expediente técnico no consideran el índice N° 39 en los
cuatro proyectos analizados
IT and Agility in the Social Enterprise: A Case Study of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s “Cure4Kids” IT-Platform for International Outreach
The agility literature suggests a positive relationship between IT-investments, agility, and performance for firms operating in turbulent contexts. However, agility studies have primarily focused on conceptual concerns, leaving these relationships empirically unexplored. In addition, the literature has focused on for-profit firms operating in commercial markets, thereby leaving other important organizational types unexamined; one such type is the social enterprise (SE). SEs are entrepreneurial organizations with a mission to improve complex social challenges (i.e., healthcare, hunger, education, etc) rather than profit maximization. This void leaves SEs in the dark as to how they can leverage IT to become more agile and improve performance. We draw on the agility perspective to examine how one exemplary SE operating in the context of pediatric global health utilized IT to enhance its agility and improve performance. We identify how the SE’s IT-investment decisions resulted in an IT platform that facilitated increased agility in launching new products aimed at improving survival rates of children. Specifically, we analyze how the SE’s IT platform positively impacted customer, partnering, and operational agility, and demonstrate how this led to dramatic improvements in performance. Finally, we offer evidence to support positive relationships between IT, agility, and performance in social sector contexts
Evaluation of mobile apps for treatment of patients at risk of developing gestational diabetes
This study evaluates mobile apps using a theory-based evaluation framework to discover their applicability for patients at risk of gestational diabetes. This study assessed how well the existing mobile apps on the market meet the information and tracking needs of patients with gestational diabetes and evaluated the feasibility of how to integrate these apps into patient care. A search was conducted in the Apple iTunes and Google Play store for mobile apps that contained keywords related to the following concepts of nutrition: diet, tracking, diabetes, and pregnancy. Evaluation criteria were developed to assess the mobile apps on five dimensions. Overall, the apps scored well on education and information functions and scored poorly on engagement functions. There are few apps that provide comprehensive evidence-based educational content, tracking tools, and integration with electronic health records. This study demonstrates the need to develop apps that have comprehensive content, tracking tools, and ability to bidirectionally share data
Systematic Assessment of the Accuracy of Subunit Counting in Biomolecular Complexes Using Automated Single-Molecule Brightness Analysis.
Analysis of single-molecule brightness allows subunit counting of high-order oligomeric biomolecular complexes. Although the theory behind the method has been extensively assessed, systematic analysis of the experimental conditions required to accurately quantify the stoichiometry of biological complexes remains challenging. In this work, we develop a high-throughput, automated computational pipeline for single-molecule brightness analysis that requires minimal human input. We use this strategy to systematically quantify the accuracy of counting under a wide range of experimental conditions in simulated ground-truth data and then validate its use on experimentally obtained data. Our approach defines a set of conditions under which subunit counting by brightness analysis is designed to work optimally and helps in establishing the experimental limits in quantifying the number of subunits in a complex of interest. Finally, we combine these features into a powerful, yet simple, software that can be easily used for the analysis of the stoichiometry of such complexes
Perspectives of Cognitive Impairment and Behavioral Disturbances in Parkinson’s Disease Dementia
Parkinson’s disease dementia is a critical stage of the disease because that has a negative impact on the quality of life and functional independence in activities daily living. How the cognition progress to dementia is a key to be explored. The cognitive impairment shows two profiles: cortical (memory encoding, visuospatial abilities, and language) and subcortical, with a dysexecutive syndrome that includes deficits in recognition memory, attention processes, and visual perception as well as visual hallucinations and cognitive fluctuations. Behavioral problems such as apathy, anxiety, depression, and impulse control disorders take a significant part in the loss of autonomy and progression of the disease. To detect the risk of Parkinson’s disease dementia development, the integral evaluation of patients in all stages of the disease should consider the interplay of genetic and epigenetic factors, motor subtypes, and non-motor symptoms (NMS) in order to implement different therapeutics and supportive strategies when they are likely to have efficacy
Stakeholders' views and opinions on existing guidelines on “How to Choose Mental Health Apps”
BackgroundMental health Applications (Mhealth Apps) can change how healthcare is delivered. However, very little is known about the efficacy of Mhealth Apps. Currently, only minimum guidance is available in Assessment and Evaluation Tools (AETs). Therefore, this project aims to understand AET developers' perspectives and end users' experiences and opinions on “how to choose a Mhealth App”.ObjectiveThe primary objectives were: (1) obtaining stakeholder's opinions and experiences of development and use of AETs for Mhealth Apps, their weaknesses and strengths, and barriers in their implementation of Mhealth Apps; (2) the experiences of App users, their analyzation and, obstacles in the use of apps; and (3) to quantify themes related to choosing a Mhealth App.MethodsThis qualitative study, used a sampling method to recruit six stakeholders (one App developer, two AET developers, an individual with lived experience of mental health illness, and two physicians) who were interviewed using a topic guide. These were examined by researchers (CT, WK, & FN) using thematic content analysis. Additionally, an anonymous online survey of 107 individuals was conducted.FindingsOur analyses revealed six main themes: (a) needs and opportunities; (b) views on Mhealth apps; (c) views & opinions on AETs; (d) implementation barriers; (e) system of evaluation and; (f) future directions. The first key concept was, all stakeholders agreed that Apps could significantly impact mental health and that end-users were unaware of mental health AETs and Apps. Secondly, due to commercial interests, end-users reliability of App evaluations requires clear conflict-free guidelines. Thirdly, AETs should be evaluated and developed through a rigorous methodology. Finally, stakeholders shared insights into future developments for AETs and Mhealth Apps. Additionally, online survey respondents chose a “health professional” as their preferred source of guidance in selecting a Mhealth app (84%) and best suited to develop guidelines (70%).ConclusionThe interviews and survey highlight the need for Mhealth Apps to be regulated and the importance of health professionals' engagement in the implementation process. Similarly, without well-defined roles for App evaluations within the health care system, it is unlikely that AETs will have wider spread use and impact without risk
The Problem of Colliding Networks and its Relation to Cancer
Complex systems, ranging from living cells to human societies, can be
represented as attractor networks, whose basic property is to exist in one of
allowed states, or attractors. We noted that merging two systems that are in
distinct attractors creates uncertainty, as the hybrid system cannot assume two
attractors at once. As a prototype of this problem, we explore cell fusion,
whose ability to combine distinct cells into hybrids was proposed to cause
cancer. By simulating cell types as attractors, we find that hybrids are prone
to assume spurious attractors, which are emergent and sporadic states of
networks, and propose that cell fusion can make a cell cancerous by placing it
into normally inaccessible spurious states. We define basic features of hybrid
networks and suggest that the problem of colliding networks has general
significance in processes represented by attractor networks, including
biological, social, and political phenomena
Prediction of Associations between microRNAs and Gene Expression in Glioma Biology
Despite progress in the determination of miR interactions, their regulatory role in cancer is only beginning to be unraveled. Utilizing gene expression data from 27 glioblastoma samples we found that the mere knowledge of physical interactions between specific mRNAs and miRs can be used to determine associated regulatory interactions, allowing us to identify 626 associated interactions, involving 128 miRs that putatively modulate the expression of 246 mRNAs. Experimentally determining the expression of miRs, we found an over-representation of over(under)-expressed miRs with various predicted mRNA target sequences. Such significantly associated miRs that putatively bind over-expressed genes strongly tend to have binding sites nearby the 3′UTR of the corresponding mRNAs, suggesting that the presence of the miRs near the translation stop site may be a factor in their regulatory ability. Our analysis predicted a significant association between miR-128 and the protein kinase WEE1, which we subsequently validated experimentally by showing that the over-expression of the naturally under-expressed miR-128 in glioma cells resulted in the inhibition of WEE1 in glioblastoma cells
Effective Project Management of a Pan-African Cancer Research Network : Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP)
CITATION: Odiaka, E. 2018. Effective Project Management of a Pan-African Cancer Research Network : Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP). Journal of Global Oncology, 4:1-12, doi:10.1200/JGO.18.00062.The original publication is available at https://ascopubs.orgPurpose Health research in low- and middle-income countries can generate novel scientific knowledge
and improve clinical care, fostering population health improvements to prevent premature
death. Project management is a critical part of the success of this research, applying knowledge,
skills, tools, and techniques to accomplish required goals. Here, we describe the development
and implementation of tools to support a multifaceted study of prostate cancer in Africa, focusing
on building strategic and operational capacity.
Methods Applying a learning organizational framework, we developed and implemented a project
management toolkit (PMT) that includes a management process flowchart, a cyclical centerspecific
schedule of activities, periodic reporting and communication, and center-specific monitoring
and evaluation metrics.
Results The PMT was successfully deployed during year one of the project with effective component
implementation occurring through periodic cycles of dissemination and feedback to local
center project managers. A specific evaluation was conducted 1 year after study initiation to
obtain enrollment data, evaluate individual quality control management plans, and undertake risk
log assessments and follow-up. Pilot data obtained identified areas in which centers required
mentoring, strengthening, and capacity development. Strategies were implemented to improve
project goals and operational capacity through local problem solving, conducting quality control
checks and following compliancy with study aims. Moving forward, centers will perform quarterly
evaluations and initiate strengthening measures as required. Conclusion The PMT has fostered the development of both strategic and operational capacity
across project centers. Investment in project management resources is essential to ensuring
high-quality, impactful health research in low- and middle-income countries.https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JGO.18.00062Publisher's versio