Development of corn and flaxseed snacks with high-fibre content using response surface methodology (RSM)

With the increasing emphasis on health and well-being, nutrition aspects need to be incorporated as a dimension of product development. Thus, the production of a high-fibre content snack food from a mixture of corn and flaxseed flours was optimized by response surface methodology. The independent variables considered in this study were: feed moisture, process temperature and flaxseed flour addition, as they were found to significantly impact the resultant product. These variables were studied according to a rotatable composite design matrix (-1.68, -1, 0, 1, 1.68). Response variable was the expansion ratio since it has been highly correlated with acceptability. The optimum corn-flaxseed snack obtained presented a sevenfold increase in dietary fibre, almost 100% increase in protein content compared to the pure corn snack, and yielded an acceptability score of 6.93. This acceptability score was similar to those observed for corn snack brands in the market, indicating the potential commercial use of this new product, which can help to increase the daily consumption of dietary fibre.

Nursing care time in the Intensive Care Unit: evaluation of the parameters proposed in COFEN Resolution Nº 293/04

This study aimed to evaluate the parameters established in COFEN Resolution 293/04 concerning nursing staff dimensioning in adult intensive care units (AICU). The research was conducted in six hospitals in São Paulo City. The daily quantitative average of professionals needed for patient care was calculated according to the parameters established by COFEN. The obtained results were compared with the existing number of daily staff members in these units. It was observed that the proportions recommended by COFEN for the nurse category are superior to those used in the hospitals studied, which represents a challenge for Brazilian nursing. Mean care time values were found appropriate and represent important standards for dimensioning the minimum number of professionals in AICU. This study contributed to the validation of the parameters indicated in Resolution 293/04 for nursing staff dimensioning in the AICU.

Bioinformatic methods in applied genomic research

Here I will focus on three main topics that best address and include the projects I have been working in during my three year PhD period that I have spent in different research laboratories addressing both computationally and practically important problems all related to modern molecular genomics. The first topic is the use of livestock species (pigs) as a model of obesity, a complex human dysfunction. My efforts here concern the detection and annotation of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms. I developed a pipeline for mining human and porcine sequences. Starting from a set of human genes related with obesity the platform returns a list of annotated porcine SNPs extracted from a new set of potential obesity-genes. 565 of these SNPs were analyzed on an Illumina chip to test the involvement in obesity on a population composed by more than 500 pigs. Results will be discussed. All the computational analysis and experiments were done in collaboration with the Biocomputing group and Dr.Luca Fontanesi, respectively, under the direction of prof. Rita Casadio at the Bologna University, Italy. The second topic concerns developing a methodology, based on Factor Analysis, to simultaneously mine information from different levels of biological organization. With specific test cases we develop models of the complexity of the mRNA-miRNA molecular interaction in brain tumors measured indirectly by microarray and quantitative PCR. This work was done under the supervision of Prof. Christine Nardini, at the “CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology” of Shangai, China (co-founded by the Max Planck Society and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly) The third topic concerns the development of a new method to overcome the variety of PCR technologies routinely adopted to characterize unknown flanking DNA regions of a viral integration locus of the human genome after clinical gene therapy. This new method is entirely based on next generation sequencing and it reduces the time required to detect insertion sites, decreasing the complexity of the procedure. This work was done in collaboration with the group of Dr. Manfred Schmidt at the Nationales Centrum für Tumorerkrankungen (Heidelberg, Germany) supervised by Dr. Annette Deichmann and Dr. Ali Nowrouzi. Furthermore I add as an Appendix the description of a R package for gene network reconstruction that I helped to develop for scientific usage (http://www.bioconductor.org/help/bioc-views/release/bioc/html/BUS.html).

Sicurezza stradale: Proposta di traduzione di un estratto del research report "The Nature of Errors Made by Drivers"

The aim of this dissertation is to provide a translation from English into Italian of an extract from the research report “The Nature of Errors Made by Drivers”. The research was conducted by the MUARC (the Monash University Accident Research Centre) and published in June 2011 by Austroads, the association of Australasian road transport and traffic agencies. The excerpt chosen for translation is the third chapter, which provides an overview of the on-road pilot study conducted to analyse why drivers make mistakes during their everyday drive, including the methodology employed and the results obtained. This work is divided into six sections. It opens with an introduction on the topic and the formal structure of the report, followed by the first chapter, which provides an overview of the main features of the languages for special purposes and the specialised texts, an analysis of the text type and a presentation of the extract chosen for translation. In the second chapter the linguistic and extralinguistic resources available to specialised translators are presented, focussing on the ones used to translate the text. The third chapter is dedicated to the source text and its translation, while the fourth one provides an analysis of the strategies chosen to translate the text and a comment on the solutions to problematic passages. Finally, the last section – the conclusion – provides a comment on the entire work and on the professional activity of translators. The work closes with an appendix, which contains a glossary of the terms extracted from the translated text.

Randomization in clinical trials in orthodontics: its significance in research design and methods to achieve it

Randomization is a key step in reducing selection bias during the treatment allocation phase in randomized clinical trials. The process of randomization follows specific steps, which include generation of the randomization list, allocation concealment, and implementation of randomization. The phenomenon in the dental and orthodontic literature of characterizing treatment allocation as random is frequent; however, often the randomization procedures followed are not appropriate. Randomization methods assign, at random, treatment to the trial arms without foreknowledge of allocation by either the participants or the investigators thus reducing selection bias. Randomization entails generation of random allocation, allocation concealment, and the actual methodology of implementing treatment allocation randomly and unpredictably. Most popular randomization methods include some form of restricted and/or stratified randomization. This article introduces the reasons, which make randomization an integral part of solid clinical trial methodology, and presents the main randomization schemes applicable to clinical trials in orthodontics.

Learning My Lessons: Research, Rehearsal, and Reflection on the Greats

A successful actor often requires a specific acting method or style to enhance their performance. Through theatrical research, rehearsal and performance, an actor can narrow down their seemingly endless search for the most productive methodology. By researching, studying, and applying the methods of Constantin Stanislavski, Stella Adler,and Tadashi Suzuki to my rehearsal process, I have found my most effective acting style: Stella Adler?s method. I utilize this acting method during the performance period of my early professional acting career. Experimental research for this thesis was completed inthe studio. I applied each of the three aforementioned methods to a dramatic/classical monologue. The results I gathered helped me to decide upon Adler?s methodology to carry with me through my upcoming professional auditions and career. From casting resulting from the auditions, I will employ the methodology to my professional work asan actress. Each acting teacher has provided the performance world with a new way to experience their stage time. The methods are unique and enable the actor to find the most dynamic performance through engaging technical skill.

The Swiss cohort of elderly patients with venous thromboembolism (SWITCO65+): rationale and methodology

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is common and has a high impact on morbidity, mortality, and costs of care. Although most of the patients with VTE are aged ≥65 years, there is little data about the medical outcomes in the elderly with VTE. The Swiss Cohort of Elderly Patients with VTE (SWITCO65+) is a prospective multicenter cohort study of in- and outpatients aged ≥65 years with acute VTE from all five Swiss university and four high-volume non-university hospitals. The goal is to examine which clinical and biological factors and processes of care drive short- and long-term medical outcomes, health-related quality of life, and medical resource utilization in elderly patients with acute VTE. The cohort also includes a large biobank with biological material from each participant. From September 2009 to March 2012, 1,863 elderly patients with VTE were screened and 1003 (53.8 %) were enrolled in the cohort. Overall, 51.7 % of patients were aged ≥75 years and 52.7 % were men. By October 16, 2012, after an average follow-up time of 512 days, 799 (79.7 %) patients were still actively participating. SWITCO65+ is a unique opportunity to study short- and long-term outcomes in elderly patients with VTE. The Steering Committee encourages national and international collaborative research projects related to SWITCO65+, including sharing anonymized data and biological samples.

Clinical endpoint adjudication in a contemporary all-comers coronary stent investigation: methodology and external validation

Globalisation in coronary stent research calls for harmonization of clinical endpoint definitions and event adjudication. Little has been published about the various processes used for event adjudication or their impact on outcome reporting.

Improving Nursing Home Care Through Training amd Job Redesign

Nursing assistants have the primary contact with older residents of nursing homes. The Penn State Nursing Home Intervention Project's short-term longitudinal study assessed the single and combined effects of two interventions designed to affect nursing assistants' performance by increasing their knowledge and motivation: skills training and job redesign. Statistically significant differences in nursing assistants' knowledge were evident in comparisons between intervention and control sites, but performance was not improved. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.

Accuracy of Recognition and Diagnosis of Comorbid Depression in the Nursing Home

A variety of research has documented high levels of depression among older adults in the health care setting. Additional research has shown that care providers in health care settings are not very effective at diagnosing comorbid depression.This is a troublesome finding since comorbid depression has been linked to a number of negative outcomes in older adults. Early results have indicated that comorbid depression may be associated with a number of unfavorable consequences ranging from impairments in physical functioning to increased mortality.The health care setting with arguably the highest rate of physical impairment is the nursing home and it is the nursing home where the effects of comorbid depression may be most costly. Therefore, the current analysis uses data from the Institutional Population Component of the NationalMedical Expenditure Survey (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1990) to explore rates of both recognized and unrecognized comorbid depression in the nursing home setting. Using a constructed proxy variable representative of the DSM-III-R diagnosis of depression, results indicate that approximately 8.1% of nursing home residents have an unrecognized potential comorbid depression.

Depicting community perspectives: repeat photography and participatory research as tools for assessing environmental services in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal

Efforts have been made to provide a scientific basis for using environmental services as a conceptual tool to enhance conservation and improve livelihoods in protected mountain areas (MtPAS). Little attention has been paid to participatory research or locals’ concerns as environmental service (ES) users and providers. Such perspectives can illuminate the complex interplay between mountain ecosystems, environmental services and the determinants of human well-being. Repeat photography, long used in geographical fieldwork, is new as a qualitative research tool. This study uses a novel application of repeat photography as a diachronic photo-diary to examine local perceptions of change in ES in Sagarmatha National Park. Results show a consensus among locals on adverse changes to ES, particularly protection against natural hazards, such as landslides and floods, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. We argue that our methodology could complement biophysical ecosystem assessments in MtPAS, especially since assessing ES, and acting on that, requires integrating diverse stakeholders’ knowledge, recognizing power imbalances and grappling with complex social-ecological systems.

A nurse is a nurse? A systematic review of the effectiveness of specialised nursing in breast cancer

The effectiveness of specialised nursing in breast cancer has received limited attention. This systematic literature review aims at (i) presenting and discussing role models of specialised nursing in the area of breast cancer and (ii) suggesting avenues for future research in this field. The ten studies included in the review differ with respect to the roles of specialised nurses as well as the measured outcome variables; thus, the comparability and generalisability of results are limited. Nevertheless, the review indicates that specialised nursing in breast cancer may contribute to improved physical and psycho-social well-being. In view of the limited comparability, the authors call for (i) a more uniform definition of models of specialised nursing in breast cancer care, as well as (ii) rigorous confirmatory studies to evaluate their effectiveness. These two aspects are pivotal in providing a reliable basis for future health care strategies.

Point Process Methodology for On-line Spatio-temporal Disease Surveillance

The AEGISS (Ascertainment and Enhancement of Gastrointestinal Infection Surveillance and Statistics) project aims to use spatio-temporal statistical methods to identify anomalies in the space-time distribution of non-specific, gastrointestinal infections in the UK, using the Southampton area in southern England as a test-case. In this paper, we use the AEGISS project to illustrate how spatio-temporal point process methodology can be used in the development of a rapid-response, spatial surveillance system. Current surveillance of gastroenteric disease in the UK relies on general practitioners reporting cases of suspected food-poisoning through a statutory notification scheme, voluntary laboratory reports of the isolation of gastrointestinal pathogens and standard reports of general outbreaks of infectious intestinal disease by public health and environmental health authorities. However, most statutory notifications are made only after a laboratory reports the isolation of a gastrointestinal pathogen. As a result, detection is delayed and the ability to react to an emerging outbreak is reduced. For more detailed discussion, see Diggle et al. (2003). A new and potentially valuable source of data on the incidence of non-specific gastro-enteric infections in the UK is NHS Direct, a 24-hour phone-in clinical advice service. NHS Direct data are less likely than reports by general practitioners to suffer from spatially and temporally localized inconsistencies in reporting rates. Also, reporting delays by patients are likely to be reduced, as no appointments are needed. Against this, NHS Direct data sacrifice specificity. Each call to NHS Direct is classified only according to the general pattern of reported symptoms (Cooper et al, 2003). The current paper focuses on the use of spatio-temporal statistical analysis for early detection of unexplained variation in the spatio-temporal incidence of non-specific gastroenteric symptoms, as reported to NHS Direct. Section 2 describes our statistical formulation of this problem, the nature of the available data and our approach to predictive inference. Section 3 describes the stochastic model. Section 4 gives the results of fitting the model to NHS Direct data. Section 5 shows how the model is used for spatio-temporal prediction. The paper concludes with a short discussion.