Performance improvement

OBJECTIVES: Neurogenic cough is believed to result from a sensory neuropathy involving the internal branch of the superior laryngeal nerve (SLN). We present our outcomes for the treatment of neurogenic cough with localized blockade of the internal branch of the SLN. METHODS: A retrospective chart review of patients who underwent in-office percutaneous SLN block for treatment of neurogenic cough between 2015 and 2017 was conducted. Patient demographics, indications for injection, and response to treatment were recorded and analyzed...

The goal of this study was to determine the value of a certified child life specialist (CCLS) on the patient and staff experiences in an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU). We integrated a CCLS into the EMU for all children as well as adults with intellectual disability. We surveyed families to determine the impact of child life services on their stay. EMU staff completed questionnaires to determine perceived impact to their job performance from the integration of the CCLS. All of the families (pediatric and adult patients) who responded to the survey reported the presence of the CCLS improved their hospital experience...

OBJECTIVE: Motion artifact can reduce the diagnostic accuracy of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) for coronary artery disease (CAD). The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of an algorithm dedicated to correcting coronary motion artifact with the performance of standard reconstruction methods in a prospective international multicenter study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Patients referred for clinically indicated invasive coronary angiography (ICA) for suspected CAD prospectively underwent an investigational CCTA examination free from heart rate-lowering medications before they underwent ICA...

Due to cultural differences, ethnic minority construction workers are more difficult to manage and more vulnerable to accidents. This study aims to identify the major barriers faced by ethnic minority workers from their own perspectives and determine potential strategies to enhance safety climate of construction projects, thus ultimately improve their safety performance. A survey with modified Nordic safety climate questionnaire was conducted in a certain sub-contractor in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews, status quo description, major challenge investigation and safety knowledge tests were carried as well...

We aimed to investigate the different effects of low oxygen (5% O2 ) and atmospheric oxygen (20% O2 ) on in vitro fertilization for older poor ovarian responders (PORs). We selected 1080 older PORs who met two criteria: (i) advanced maternal age (≥40) and (ii) an abnormal ovarian reserve test. All the patients used the ultra-short term protocols with GnRH agonist and recombinant FSH for controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH). About 506 cycles were performed in the incubators with 5% O2 and 574 cycles were performed in the incubators with 20% O2 ...

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are recently revealed to be promising in gas sensor application due to compositional flexibility and unique 2D-interlayer channel for gas diffusion and adsorption. This work demonstrates a kind of highly porous hierarchical LDHs containing Mg2+ and Al3+ (MgAl-LDHs) for ethanol-sensing at room temperature. The MgAl-LDHs with unique flower-like hierarchical structure and mesoporous interlayer were synthesized hydrothermally using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as soft template as well as intercalating agent...

INTRODUCTION: The risk of prescribing errors and related adverse drug events (ADE) on the intensive care unit (ICU) is high. Based on studies carried out in North America or the UK, a clinical pharmacy service can reduce ADEs and lower overall costs. This study looks into the clinical and financial impact of interventions made by pharmacists during patient rounds in two ICU settings in the Netherlands. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A quality improvement study was performed in a general teaching hospital (GTH) and a university hospital (UH) in the Netherlands...

OBJECTIVE: In order to achieve a faster and more reliable anterior rhinomanometric evaluation, nasal skin was prepared using benzoin tincture solution, which provides simpler and better adhesion of the foam tape to the nasal skin. METHOD: Two consecutive anterior rhinomanometry measurements were made, one with and one without benzoin tincture application. RESULTS: The average time taken to perform classic foam tape anterior rhinomanometry without benzoin tincture application was 281...

OBJECTIVES: The purpose is to study the effect of inspiratory muscle training on aerobic capacity, respiratory muscle strength and rate of perceived exertion in paraplegics. STUDY DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTINGS: Rehabilitation department in Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, New Delhi. PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 30 paraplegics (T1-T12) were randomly allocated into two groups: inspiratory muscle training (IMT) group and control group...

It is proposed that experts are able to integrate prior contextual knowledge with emergent visual information to make complex predictive judgments about the world around them, often under heightened levels of uncertainty and extreme time constraints. However, limited knowledge exists about the impact of anxiety on the use of such contextual priors when forming our decisions. We provide a novel insight into the combined impact of contextual priors and anxiety on anticipation in soccer. Altogether, 12 expert soccer players were required to predict the actions of an oncoming opponent while viewing life-sized video simulations of 2-versus-2 defensive scenarios...

A "kneeling" ultralight wheelchair prototype has been developed that allows users to adjust seat position "on the fly" for different activities throughout the day. The wheelchair includes independent adjustment functions for rear seat height, front seat height ("kneeling") and backrest angle.  Aim: This work aimed to gather feedback about the wheelchair's functionality and performance through end user evaluation trials.  Methods: Eight manual wheelchair users evaluated the prototype Kneeling Wheelchair for a range of activities...

OBJECTIVES: In the setting of surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) detection, the use of serum biomarkers in addition to ultrasonography (US) is still a matter of debate. Hence, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) alone or in combination for HCC detection in patients at risk of tumor development. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a systematic search in PubMed and Scopus database for original articles published in English from 2011 to 2017, investigating the accuracy of PIVKA-II alone or in combination with AFP (reported as area under the curve [AUC]) for HCC detection among patients at risk of tumor development...

CONTEXT:   Interactions among muscle strength, pain, and self-reported outcomes in patients with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) are not well understood. Clarifying these interactions is of clinical importance because improving physical and psychological function is thought to optimize outcomes after ACLR. OBJECTIVE:   To examine the relationships among neuromuscular quadriceps function, pain, self-reported knee function, readiness to return to activity, and emotional response to injury both before and after ACLR...

INTRODUCTION: Dietary supplements (DS) are dietary products aiming only at diet complementation. Nevertheless, they are frequently used in treatment of various conditions since they are safer substitutes for medication. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study was to analyze the frequency of dietary supplements using by young people, their knowledge about the used substances, and the assessment of the effectiveness of DS by those who consumed these products. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was conducted by the means of an anonymous questionnaire assessed the DS intake among subjects aged between 15 and 54...

Genomic developments have empowered the investigation of heritability in wild populations directly from genome wide relatedness matrices (GRM). Such GRM based approaches can in particular be used to improve or substitute approaches based on social pedigree (PED-social). However, measuring heritability from GRM in the wild has not been widely applied yet, especially using small samples and in non-model species. Here, we estimated heritability for four quantitative traits (tarsus length, wing length, bill length and body mass), using PED-social, a pedigree corrected by genetic data (PED-corrected) and a GRM from a small sample (n = 494) of blue tits from natural populations in Corsica genotyped at nearly 50,000 filtered SNPs derived from RAD-seq...

To further increase the energy and power densities of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), monoclinic Li3 V2 (PO4 )3 attracts much attention. However, the intrinsic low electrical conductivity (2.4 × 10-7 S cm-1 ) and sluggish kinetics become major drawbacks that keep Li3 V2 (PO4 )3 away from meeting its full potential in high rate performance. Recently, significant breakthroughs in electrochemical performance (e.g., rate capability and cycling stability) have been achieved by utilizing advanced nanotechnologies...

New applications of DNA and RNA sequencing are expanding the field of biodiversity discovery and ecological monitoring, yet questions remain regarding precision and efficiency. Due to primer bias, the ability of metabarcoding to accurately depict biomass of different taxa from bulk communities remains unclear, while PCR-free whole mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequencing may provide a more reliable alternative. Here we used a set of documented mock communities comprising 13 species of freshwater macroinvertebrates of estimated individual biomass, to compare the detection efficiency of COI metabarcoding (3 different amplicons) and shotgun mitogenome sequencing...

PURPOSE: Real-world data for observational research commonly require formatting and cleaning prior to analysis. Data preparation steps are rarely reported adequately and are likely to vary between research groups. Variation in methodology could potentially affect study outcomes. This study aimed to develop a framework to define and document drug data preparation and to examine the impact of different assumptions on results. METHODS: An algorithm for processing prescription data was developed and tested using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)...

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a growing financial burden on the healthcare system. Cardiac computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) is needed for pulmonary vein mapping before AF ablation (AFA). CCTA has shown to be an alternative to transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) to rule-out left atrial appendage thrombus (LAAT) pre-AFA. We aim to examine the safety, cost-effectiveness, and time-efficiency of utilizing CCTA alone to rule out LAAT before AFA. METHODS: We prospectively screened patients with paroxysmal AF undergoing cryoablation...

BACKGROUND: Impairments in dynamic balance have a detrimental effect in older adults at risk of falls (OARF). Gait initiation (GI) is a challenging transitional movement. Centre of pressure (COP) excursions using force plates have been used to measure GI performance. The Nintendo Wii Balance Board (WBB) offers an alternative to a standard force plate for the measurement of CoP excursion. AIMS: To determine the reliability of COP excursions using the WBB, and its feasibility within a 4-week strength and balance intervention (SBI) treating OARF...