170,628 research outputs found
Assessment of the healthcare managerial skills offered by the Italian post-graduate schools of public health
No full textBackground. The Italian National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, SSN) is facing relevant challenges due to decreased financing and increased healthcare costs (1). In this complex framework, most of the Italian Medical Doctors, after obtaining their Specialization degree in Public Health, develop their careers in organizational and managerial roles in public and private health organizations, i.e. hospitals, local health units, health districts or national and international agencies (1, 2). Public health technical competencies, in particular policy and management, are of crucial importance to develop, run and support healthcare services. However, some gaps exist between current public health needs and the extent to which Public Health Residents are trained in the above fields (3, 4). Study design. The study is a cross-sectional cognitive survey carried out through a questionnaire sent by e-mail to Residents and Directors of the Italian Schools of Public Health, from May to November 2018. The questionnaire was sent only to the accredited Schools which had all four years of the course running. Methods. The questionnaire investigated 35 managerial topics divided into 4 macro-areas. It was sent to both Directors of the SPHs and the Residents of 32 Schools. The latter were asked to provide a single collective answer per School. Respondents could assign a score from 1 (topic not addressed at all) to 4 (topic addressed extensively and linked to other related topics) to each item, also taking into account the skills acquired through internships, seminars, etc. that involved all the Residents. Results. Answers were received from the Residents of 30/32 (93.8%) SPHs and from 15/32 (46.9%) of the Directors. Scores given by the Directors were higher than the ones of the Residents for every topic, and for 17 out of 35 items (48.6%) a statistically significant difference has been obtained. In the overall score of 3 macro-areas out of 4 (General issues, Managerial tools and macro-organisational Models) there are statistically significant differences. In Soft skills macro-area, the single scores of all topics are generally low for both Directors and Residents. Conclusion. The study shows that the Residents declare a strong need for training improvement in the field pf healthcare organization and management: the median score is equal to or greater than 3 (topic addressed extensively) in only a few answers. The comparison between Directors’ and Residents’ scores highlights a different perception of the training offered in these areas. The study results could be pivotal for the improvement of the managerial skills provided to the Residents in Public Health of the Country
Thumb-pointing is humans after damage to somatic sensory cortex
No full textThree patients with a severe somatosensory deficit consequent on damage of the right somatosensory cortices were required, while blindfolded, to point with their insensate thumb to select positions on the other left fingers. Given the absence of feedback, the motor performance of the insensate thumb appeared grossly impaired in all patients. However, all patients attained end-points with an accuracy greater than chance. This result suggests that spatial accuracy may not rely entirely on sensory feedback. A good accuracy of pointing was evinced also in potentially facilitating conditions where somatosensory and motor cues coming from the intact side during simultaneous movement of both thumbs, vision of stimulated point and final thumb position, and visuomotor imagery were available. Furthermore, in one patient, the accuracy of the insensate thumb in cued conditions was higher than in a reference baseline condition, thus indicating that motor and cognitive cues can help the motor performance of patients with cortical somatosensory lesions
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Circadian clock as possible protective mechanism to pollution induced skin damage
No full textOzone is among the most toxic environmental stressors to which we are continuously exposed. Due to its critical location, skin is one of the most susceptible tissues to oxidative stress damaging effect of ozone. An increasing collection of data suggests a significant role of circadian system in regulation of cellular response to oxidative stress. However, the molecular mechanism linking circadian clock and antioxidant pathway it is not completely understood. Here we investigated a possible protective role of entrained circadian clock to ozone induced damage in keratinocytes, the main cellular component of human epidermis. Our results showed that, clock-synchronized keratinocytes compared to arrhythmic ones exhibited a more efficient antioxidant response, attested by a faster activation of the master antioxidant regulatory factor NRF2. Moreover, analysis of clock gene expression profiles reveals a more rapid induction of the cardinal clock gene Bmal1 in entrained cells. Based on these findings, we suppose that an adequate coordination of circadian system and antioxidant pathway might be essential to maintain homeostasis in the skin. Alteration of metabolic pathways occurred in neurological diseases or in irregular schedule of life activity could negatively influence tissue gene expression programs and associated organ physiology via its effect on the circadian system
Mitomycin C in highly myopic eyes - Author reply
No full textOphthalmology. 2005 Feb;112(2):208-18; discussion 219.
Mitomycin C modulation of corneal wound healing after photorefractive keratectomy in highly myopic eyes.
Gambato C, Ghirlando A, Moretto E, Busato F, Midena E.
SourceRefractive Surgery Service and Antimetabolite Therapy Research Unit, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of topical mitomycin C in corneal wound healing (CWH) after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in highly myopic eyes.
DESIGN: Prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.
PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two eyes of 36 patients affected by high (>7 diopters) myopia.
METHODS: In each patient, one eye was randomly assigned to PRK with intraoperative topical 0.02% mitomycin C application, and the fellow eye was treated with a placebo. Postoperatively, mitomycin C-treated eyes received artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months), whereas the fellow eye was treated with fluorometholone sodium 2% and artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity, manifest refraction, and biomicroscopy. Contrast sensitivity was determined using the Pelli-Robson chart. Corneal confocal microscopy documented CWH.
RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 18 months (range, 12-36). No side effects or toxic effects were documented. At 12-month follow-up examination, UCVAs (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution) were 0.4+/-0.48 and 0.5+/-0.53 (P = .03) in mitomycin C-treated eyes and corticosteroid-treated eyes, respectively. At 1 year, corneal haze developed in 20% of corticosteroid-treated eyes, versus 0% of mitomycin C-treated eyes. At 12, 24, and 36 months, corneal confocal microscopy showed activated keratocytes and extracellular matrix significantly more evident in untreated eyes (Ps = 0.004, 0.024, and 0.046, respectively).
CONCLUSION: Topical intraoperative application of 0.02% mitomycin C can reduce haze formation in highly myopic eyes undergoing PRK.
Comment in
Ophthalmology. 2006 Feb;113(2):357; author reply 357-8
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Magnetic resonance and single-photon emission tomography findings in a pair of twins discordant for Alzheimer's disease.
No full textA Multi-Language Comparison of Influences on Author Verification using Character N-Grams
No full textWe create a new multi-language corpus for author verification based on Wikipedia talkpages, and evaluate the influence that differences in topic and time have on character n-gram author profiles. Topic alignment between two texts is found to increase author verification precision, and an authors writing style is found to change over time, but not more significantly after 3 years than after 1 year.Information ArchitectureWISElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
A 0.12mm<sup>2</sup> Wien-Bridge Temperature Sensor with 0.1°C (3σ) Inaccuracy from -40°C to 180°C
No full text Resistor-based temperature sensors can achieve much higher resolution and energy efficiency than conventional BJT-based sensors [1], but they typically occupy more area (> 0.25 mm 2 ) and have lower operating temperatures (le 125 {circ} {C}) [2]-[4]. This work describes a 0.12mm 2 resistor-based sensor that uses a Wien-bridge (WB) filter to achieve 0.1 {circ} {C} (3 sigma) inaccuracy from - 40 {circ} {C} to 180 {circ} {C}. Compared to a state-of-the-art WB sensor [4], it occupies 6 × less area and achieves comparable relative accuracy over a 76% wider operating range. Session 10.3 Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Electronic InstrumentationMicroelectronic
- …
