1,721,009 research outputs found
Hospital admission decision for patients with community-acquired pneumonia
No full textWhere to treat patients is probably the single most important decision in the management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), with a substantial impact on both patients' outcomes and health-care costs. Several factors can contribute to the decision of the site of care for CAP patients, including physicians' experience and clinical judgment and severity scores developed to predict mortality, as well as social and health-care-related issues. The recognition, both in the community and in the emergency department, of the presence of severe sepsis and acute respiratory failure and the coexistence with unstable comorbidities other than CAP are indications for hospital admission. In all the other cases, physician's choice to admit CAP patients should be validated against at least one objective tool of risk assessment, with a clear understanding of each score's limitations
Using Critical Factors for Assessing Critical Activities in ERP Implementation within SMEs
No full textEarly outcomes in CAP: Clinical stability, clinical failure and nonresolving pneumonia
No full textClinical stability is the first step of clinical improvement in patients with pneumonia. Clinical stability has been proven to be useful in guiding the switch of antibiotic therapy from intravenous to oral formulations. Given its importance in patient management, several sets of criteria have been created to standardise its definition. However, a single set of criteria cannot fit everybody; therefore, a personalised approach based on the resolution of the patient's most prominent clinical features should be considered. Moreover, it is important to choose the set of criteria that best fits the standard of care at each site of practice. Clinical failure is considered a predictive factor of adverse clinical outcomes. The identification of the aetiology of clinical failure is important to determine the subsequent patient management. The term 'nonresolving pneumonia' is used to indicate a failure to improve without clinical deterioration. Few epidemiological data have been published on this condition. Therefore, future studies should specifically address this topic
The Application of a Process Based Model for IS Check-Up within SMEs
No full textThe focus on production activities, together with their limited investment budget, often make SME entrepreneurs exclude Information Systems (IS) issues when planning organizational development. It is questionable whether anyone in a small company considers IS efficiency, effectiveness and strategic alignment as issues. As a consequence, SMEs could greatly benefit from an IS check-up tool supporting the monitoring of IS adequacy and the decision making process about IS development. In order to pursue these aims, the literature suggests considering determinants such as the strategic importance of business processes as well as the extent to which information and communication technologies (ICT) support them. This paper proposes a new check-up model specifically designed according to SME requirements. It aims at evaluating the alignment between the company strategy and the ICT support, highlighting possibile weaknesses on the IS management process. The model has been tested on a sample of 366 companies through direct invterviews with the entrepreneurial MD, the CIO and/or the process managers. The paper reports the main results of the analysis of collected data
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
The management of community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly
No full textPneumonia is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. The elderly population has exponentially increased in the last decades and the current epidemiological trends indicate that it is expected to further increase. Therefore, recognizing the special needs of older people is of paramount importance. In this review we address the main differences between elderly and adult patients with pneumonia. We focus on several aspects, including the atypical clinical presentation of pneumonia in the elderly, the methods to assess severity of illness, the appropriate setting of care, and the management of comorbidities. We also discuss how to approach the common complications of severe pneumonia, including acute respiratory failure and severe sepsis. Moreover, we debate whether or not elderly patients are at higher risk of infection due to multi-drug resistant pathogens and which risk factors should be considered when choosing the antibiotic therapy. We highlight the differences in the definition of clinical stability and treatment failure between adults and elderly patients. Finally, we review the main outcomes, preventive and supportive measures to be considered in elderly patients with pneumoni
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