Assessment of the techniques of blood pressure measurement by health professionals

OBJECTIVE: To assess blood pressure measurement by health professionals of a public hospital in São Paulo State. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews and direct observation were performed with a verification list according to the criteria reported by Perloff et al. One hundred and five health professionals took part in the study. After measuring blood pressure, the level of concordance between the way the procedure was performed and the recommended one was assessed. RESULTS: Nurses and nurse's aides abided by 40% of the recommended procedures for adequate blood pressure measurement. The other categories of health professionals (nursing and medicine teachers, physicians, residents, and nursing students) abided by approximately 70%. CONCLUSION: Permanent educational activities aiming at standardizing blood pressure measurement should be implemented among the different categories of health professionals.

SMPI model : a stepwise process model to facilitate software measurement process improvement along the measurement paradigms

Software engineering, software measurement, software process engineering, capability, maturity

Theory and measurement of social intelligence as a cognitive performance construct

Social intelligence

Framework for a service-oriented measurement infrastructure

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2009

Framework of quality measurement in CASE tool based software development

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2010

Disposable, micro-fluidic biosensor array for online analysis of adherent cells activity combining quartz crystal resonators and impedance measurement techniques

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Diss., 2011

Model-based measurement and control of fluidised bed spray granulation processes

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Verfahrens- und Systemtechnik, Diss., 2012

Evaluation of process concepts for liquid-liquid systems exemplified for the indirect hydration of cyclohexene to cyclohexanol

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Verfahrens- und Systemtechnik, Diss., 2014

Single period Markowitz portfolio selection, performance gauging and duality: a variation on Luenberger's shortage function

Markowitz portfolio theory (1952) has induced research into the efficiency of portfolio management. This paper studies existing nonparametric efficiency measurement approaches for single period portfolio selection from a theoretical perspective and generalises currently used efficiency measures into the full mean-variance space. Therefore, we introduce the efficiency improvement possibility function (a variation on the shortage function), study its axiomatic properties in the context of Markowitz efficient frontier, and establish a link to the indirect mean-variance utility function. This framework allows distinguishing between portfolio efficiency and allocative efficiency. Furthermore, it permits retrieving information about the revealed risk aversion of investors. The efficiency improvement possibility function thus provides a more general framework for gauging the efficiency of portfolio management using nonparametric frontier envelopment methods based on quadratic optimisation.

Absolute and relative deprivation and the measurement of poverty

This paper develops the link between poverty and inequality by focussing on a class of poverty indices (some of them well-known) which aggregate normative concerns for absolute and relative deprivation. The indices are distinguished by a parameter that captures the ethical sensitivity of poverty measurement to ``exclusion'' or ``relative-deprivation'' aversion. We also show how the indices can be readily used to predict the impact of growth on poverty. An illustration using LIS data finds that he United States show more relative deprivation than Denmark and Belgium whatever the percentiles considered, but that overall deprivation comparisons of the four countries considered will generally necessarily depend on the intensity of the ethical concern for relative deprivation. The impact of growth on poverty is also seen to depend on the presence of and on the attention granted to concerns over relative deprivation. }

Regional income inequalities in Europe: an updated measurement and some decomposition results

In this paper well-known summary inequality indexes are used to explore interregional income inequalities in Europe. In particular, we mainly employ Theils’population-weighted index because of its appealing properties. Two decomposition analysis are applied. First, regional inequalities are decomposed by regional subgroups (countries). Second, intertemporal inequality changes are separated into income and population changes. The main results can be summarized as follows. First, data confirm a reduction in crossregional inequality during 1982-97. Second, this reduction is basically due to real convergence among countries. Third, currently the greater part of European interregional disparities is within-country by nature, which introduce an important challenge for the European policy. Fourth, inequality changes are due mainly to income variations, population changes playing a minor role.

Indirect immunofluorescence(IgG and IgM) tests for toxoplasmosis on 203 persons, with no symptomatology suggesting the disease, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Serological follow up one to two years later.

Clinical and serological follow up examinations were performed on 203 persons, from three to twenty years of age, from the otolaryngology department of a hospital in the city of Rio de Janeiro, with no symptomatology suggesting toxoplasmosis, but suffering from chronic tonsillitis. According to results obtained during the first indirect immunofluorescence tests, the patients were divided into following groups: Group I (non-reactive IgG and IgM), 98 persons (48.3%); Group II (1:16 ≤ IgG ≤ 1:256 and non-reactive IgM), 74 persons (36.5%); Group III (IgM ≥ 1:1024 and non-reactive IgM), 18 persons (8.8%), and Group IV (IgG and IgM reactive), 13 persons (6.4%). One to two years later, 131 (64.5%) of the 203 persons were reexamined by a second indirect immunofluorescence test. In the case of 66 persons (Group I) whose serum was non-reactive in the IgG and IgM classes during the first indirect immunofluorescence test, serum conversion was observed in aproximately 21.2%. in 65 individuals (49.6%), (Groups II, III and IV),with reactive serum in the IgG classes during the first indirect immunofluorescence test, the second reaction showed an increase in titres in 20% of the cases, a decrease in 67.7% of the cases, or no alterations in 12.3 of the cases. In the IgM class, all 131 sera were non-reactive at 116 dilution the second immunofluorescence test, including the 13 cases that had previously been reactive in the immunoglobulin class, Symptomatology suggesting toxoplasmosis was only observed in one case during the second testing, this patient's principal physical sign being hypertrophied lymph nodes. during this period, the Toxoplasma antibodies showed titres of IgG 1:32000 and non-reactive IgM, whilst one year previously, during the first test, these titres were IgG 1:1024 and IgM 1:64. Differences in the age, sex and skin coloring of patients were not statistically significant as regards alterations in the indirect immunofluorescence test titres.

The Total fiscal cost of indirect taxation: an approximation using Catalonia's recent input-output table

In this note we quantify to what extent indirect taxation influences and distorts prices. To do so we use the networked accounting structure of the most recent input-output table of Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain, to model price formation. The role of indirect taxation is considered both from a classical value perspective and a more neoclassical flavoured one. We show that they would yield equivalent results under some basic premises. The neoclassical perspective, however, offers a bit more flexibility to distinguish among different tax figures and hence provide a clearer disaggregate picture of how an indirect tax ends up affecting, and by how much, the cost structure.

Diagnosing pulmonary embolism in outpatients with clinical assessment, D-dimer measurement, venous ultrasound, and helical computed tomography: a multicenter management study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate a diagnostic strategy for pulmonary embolism that combined clinical assessment, plasma D-dimer measurement, lower limb venous ultrasonography, and helical computed tomography (CT). METHODS: A cohort of 965 consecutive patients presenting to the emergency departments of three general and teaching hospitals with clinically suspected pulmonary embolism underwent sequential noninvasive testing. Clinical probability was assessed by a prediction rule combined with implicit judgment. All patients were followed for 3 months. RESULTS: A normal D-dimer level (<500 microg/L by a rapid enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) ruled out venous thromboembolism in 280 patients (29%), and finding a deep vein thrombosis by ultrasonography established the diagnosis in 92 patients (9.5%). Helical CT was required in only 593 patients (61%) and showed pulmonary embolism in 124 patients (12.8%). Pulmonary embolism was considered ruled out in the 450 patients (46.6%) with a negative ultrasound and CT scan and a low-to-intermediate clinical probability. The 8 patients with a negative ultrasound and CT scan despite a high clinical probability proceeded to pulmonary angiography (positive: 2; negative: 6). Helical CT was inconclusive in 11 patients (pulmonary embolism: 4; no pulmonary embolism: 7). The overall prevalence of pulmonary embolism was 23%. Patients classified as not having pulmonary embolism were not anticoagulated during follow-up and had a 3-month thromboembolic risk of 1.0% (95% confidence interval: 0.5% to 2.1%). CONCLUSION: A noninvasive diagnostic strategy combining clinical assessment, D-dimer measurement, ultrasonography, and helical CT yielded a diagnosis in 99% of outpatients suspected of pulmonary embolism, and appeared to be safe, provided that CT was combined with ultrasonography to rule out the disease.

The Measurement of social polarization in a multi-group context

Polarization indices presented up to now have only focused their attention on the distribution of income/wealth. However, in many circumstances income is not the only relevant dimension that might be the cause of social conflict, so it is very important to have a social polarization index able to cope with alternative dimensions. In this paper we present an axiomatic characterization of one of such indices: it has been obtained as an extension of the (income) polarization measure introduced in Duclos, Esteban and Ray (2004) to a wider domain. It turns out that the axiomatic structure introduced in that paper alone is not appropriate to obtain a fully satisfactory characterization of our measure, so additional axioms are proposed. As a byproduct, we present an alternative axiomatization of the aforementioned income polarization measure.