The measurement of attribution of blame in the self-service technology context

It is argued that attribution of blame (AoB) will differ in the Self-Service Technology (SST) context versus the interpersonal services context, due to the inherent elements of the SST environment, thereby making it a construct worthy of further research in the SST setting. This paper presents a first step in this pursuit by validating a multiple-item instrument of AoB in the SST context, which, to the researchers’ knowledge, has not been done previously. The paper comments on the surprising lack of valid, unidimensional instruments to measure each of the dimensions of AoB (locus, controllability and stability), even in the interpersonal services context. Preliminary results of a pre-test and pilot study support a three-dimensional measurement model of attribution of blame, in the SST setting.

Views from the executive suite : lessons from the introduction of performance management

Performance management introduced to the senior health executive levels in the New South Wales public health care system included the senior executive service in 1989 and, as a key element of that service, performance agreements in 1990. This is the first qualitative study examining senior health executives' personal experiences of these changes. In consideration of what has been learnt from the most relevant literature and this study, this paper concludes that the introduction and implementation performance management is a continuous process. This process includes the key steps of planning, measuring, monitoring and evaluating. It can be used as a means to achieve overall effective organisation performance by bringing in a two way management process for the organisation and its senior health executives.

The measurement of socio-economic status: investigation of gender-and age-specific indicators in Australia: national health survey 1995

Objective: To investigate thecorrelations between age- and gender-specificmeasures of socio-economic status versus healthstatus as measured by the SF-36.

Design: Population based study.

Participants: 38187 people aged between18 to 79 years who participated in the NationalHealth Survey in 1995.

Results: Factor analysis producedconsistent results that were interpreted interms of five conceptually meaningful domains(employment, housing, migration, family unitand education). The relative rank of thefactors differs between groups and in somecases factor composition requires items to beadded or deleted from the conceptual domains.

Conclusions: Age- and gender-specific SESscores based on these factors had strongerassociations with the physical and mentalcomponents of SF-36 than either an area basedindex or scores derived from males aged 40–44years. Overall the results supported thehypothesis that SES measures composed of socialand demographic items exhibit important age-and gender-specific differences which arerelevant for health.

Clinical measurement of muscle tone using a velocity-corrected modified ashworth scale

Objective: To develop a new form of the modified Ashworth scale (MAS) for muscle-tone assessment that combines the MAS score with the passive muscle-stretching velocity during the assessment of muscle tone, resulting in a measure that has higher intertester reliability than the MAS.

Design: Twanty-two volunteer subjects with spinal cord injuries at a tertiary care outpatient and inpatient spinal cord injury rehabilitation center affiliated with a university were recruited for this study.

Results: A decision tree in which V-MAS scores were obtained was developed. The data obtained from three independent raters, when adjusted by means of the V-MAS, showed an excellent interrater reliability.

Conclusions: Results indicated that the V-MAS is a more reliable measure. In addition, the resulting units of the V-MAS, ranging from 0 to 1, are of the same form as pendulum test data. The V-MAS method is quite simple to use because the rater need only measure the angular range and duration of the passive movement to calculate average velocity during the MAS assessment in addition to the normal MAS rating of muscle tone.

Measurement of the economic impact of visual impairment from age-related macular degeneration in Australia

The purpose of this report was to: (i) outline the potential value of health economic studies into age-related macular degeneration (AMD); (ii) provide an overview of health economic studies pertinent to AMD; and (iii) outline the basic frame work of cost-of-illness studies (a useful first step in applying economic methods). The detection and management of sensory loss in the elderly plays a key role in the Australian Government's Healthy Ageing Strategy. Age-related macular degeneration is currently the leading cause of blindness in elderly Australians. Although a large proportion of AMD cases remain untreatable, the introduction of photo­dynamic therapy provides a relatively expensive and possibly cost-effective innovation for others. Antioxidant therapy has also been proven effective in reducing progression of early to late disease. The discipline of economics can contribute to an understanding of AMD prevention and treatment through: (i) describing the current burden of disease; (ii) predicting the changes in the burden of disease over time, and (iii) evaluating the efficiency of different interventions. Cost-of-illness studies have been performed in many fields of medicine. Little work, however, has been done on describing the economic impact from AMD. A number of different economic evaluation methods can be used in judging the efficiency of possible interventions to reduce the disease burden of AMD. Although complementary in nature, each has specific uses and limitations. Studies of the economic impact of eye diseases are both feasible and necessary for informed health care decision-making.

The reliability of performance of healthy adults on three visual perception tests

Problems with visual perceptual skills have been shown to have a negative impact on the daily living skills of individuals and are, therefore, commonly assessed by occupational therapists. The purpose of this study was to examine two types of reliability (internal consistency and test-retest reliability) of three newly revised or developed adult visual perception tests. The participants were 50 healthy adults, aged 18 to 55 years, from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The participants completed the Developmental Test of Visual Perception - Adolescent and Adult (DTVP-A), the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test - Third Edition (MVPT-3) and the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (non-motor) - Third Edition (TVPS-3). Internal consistency was examined using Cronbach's alpha calculations and test-retest reliability was analysed using Spearman rho non-parametric correlation coefficients.

The results indicated that the DTVP-A, the MVPT-3 and the TVPS-3 had total scale internal consistency correlation scores of 0.60 or higher (0.60, 0.69 and 0.63 respectively). The majority of the subscales of each test had lower correlation coefficients than the overall scores (ranging from 0.22 to 0.49). For the DTVP-A, MVPT-3 and TVPS-3 total scale scores, the test-retest reliability correlation coefficients were statistically significant (rho = 0.46, p<0.05; rho = 0.62, p<0.01; and rho = 0.59, p<0.01, respectively). Overall, the three visual perceptual tests exhibited low to moderate levels of internal consistency and test-retest reliability.

The measurement of subjective wellbeing in people with intellectual disability in Australia

The importance of measuring quality of life, and most particularly the personal wellbeing of people with intellectual disabilities (ID), is now recognized. The measurement of wellbeing is an important component of program evaluation and can assist in the identification and planning of individualized support needs. There remains, however, a need for further research in this area. This paper describes a new scale, the Personal Wellbeing Index Intellectual Disability Scales (PWI-ID), which has been shown to be valid and reliable. Data is presented regarding its use in the measurement of wellbeing in people with ID and the focus of discussion is on its advantages and limitations.

The measurement of the number, uniqueness, and valence of brand associations across three product categories

The research reported in this paper investigated the measurement of brand associations across three product categories. Brand associations had not been tested previously across all three categories of fast-moving consumer good, service, and durable in the one study. A free association method was used to generate brand associations for a fast-moving consumer good (shampoo), a service (banks) and a durable good (cars). The findings indicate that the first brand a respondent recalled has the greatest number of positive, unique and total brand associations. In addition, the findings indicated that durable goods have the highest number of associations, and the greatest number of unique and favourable brand associations. Further, banks and financial services had the fewest positive associations, which may have reflected attitudes to banks at the time of the research. These findings have implications for the manner in which respondents use information to recall brands, and how they process brand information when faced with a cue. Respondents use a depth and breadth of brand associations to generate brand information.

Immunostimulatory polysaccharides from Chlorella pyrenoidosa. A new galactofuranan. Measurement of molecular weight and molecular weight dispersion by DOSY NMR.

Fractionation of the hot water extract of Chlorella pyrenoidosa was performed using a combination of ethanol precipitation, size exclusion chromatography, and anion exchange chromatography. One fraction contained a new polysaccharide, and this compound was shown to be a 1→2-linked β-d-galactofuranan from its 1D and 2D 1H and 13C NMR spectra, with a molecular weight of 15 kDa from DOSY NMR measurements. A number of other fractions were shown to have the same repeating unit as the previously identified arabinogalactan. However, arabinogalactans from different fractions were shown by DOSY NMR to have different molecular weights, which ranged from 27 to 1020 kDa. Agreement with molecular weights measured for some of these fractions by SEC-MALS was very good, further confirming the relationship established by Viel et al. between molecular weights of neutral polysaccharides and self-diffusion coefficients. The smaller molecular weight polysaccharides, the galactofuranan and the 27 and 50 kDa arabinogalactans, were shown to be close to monodisperse by analysis of the distributions of the self-diffusion coefficients for the polymers. The larger arabinogalactans had considerable variation in their molecular weights (188 ± 109 kDa and 1020 ± 370 kDa). Only the two larger arabinogalactans showed immunostimulatory activity.

The measurement of GLUT4 translocation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is one of the fastest growing threats to human health in westernised and developing countries and is associated with central obesity, atherosclerosis, dyslipidaemia, hyperinsulinaemia and  hypertension. Insulin resistance, defined as a diminished response to ordinary levels of circulating insulin in one or more peripheral tissues, is an integral feature of T2D pathophysiology. This includes an impairment of insulin to inhibit hepatic glucose output and to stimulate glucose disposal into muscle and fat. While insulin is responsible for a number of specific biological responses, stimulation of glucose transport is critical for the maintenance of glucose homeostasis. The primary mechanism for insulin stimulation of glucose uptake into muscle and fat is the translocation of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) to the cell surface from intracellular storage vesicles within the cell. A major advantage in focussing on insulin regulation of glucose transport is that this represents the endpoint of multiple upstream signalling pathways. This chapter describes the measurement of GLUT4 translocation in cultured cells and its potential application for both  mechanistic and therapeutic studies.

The validation of an Australian sign language instrument for outcome measurement of adults in mental health settings

Objective: There are currently no adult mental health outcome measures that have been translated into Australian sign language (Auslan). Without a valid and reliable Auslan outcome measure, empirical research into the efficacy of mental health interventions for sign language users is unattainable. To address this research problem the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS), a measure of general functioning, was translated into Auslan and recorded on to digital video disk for use in clinical settings. The purpose of the present study was therefore to examine the reliability, validity and acceptability of an Auslan version of the ORS (ORS-Auslan).
Method: The ORS-Auslan was administered to 44 deaf people who use Auslan as their first language and who identify as members of a deaf community (termed ‘Deaf’ people) on their first presentation to a mental health or counselling facility and to 55 Deaf people in the general community. The community sample also completed an Auslan version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21).
Results: t-Tests indicated significant differences between the mean scores for the clinical and community sample. Internal consistency was acceptable given the low number of items in the ORS-Auslan. Construct validity was established by significant correlations between total scores on the DASS-21-Auslan and ORS-Auslan. Acceptability of ORS-Auslan was evident in the completion rate of 93% compared with 63% for DASS-21-Auslan.
Conclusions: This is the only Auslan outcome measure available that can be used across a wide variety of mental health and clinical settings. The ORS-Auslan provides mental health clinicians with a reliable and valid, brief measure of general functioning that can significantly distinguish between clinical and non-clinical presentations for members of the Deaf community.