Localització i control en temps real de PDA's basades en Windows Mobile mitjançant el sistema GPS

Desenvolupament d'un sistema consistent en un software per la recopilació de dades GPS per a Windows Mobile, un servidor de comunicacions, un server web i una plana web de consulta de les posicions en temps real de les PDA's.

Mobile or fixed bearing for total knee arthroplasty? Ambulatory gait analysis results

Background: Mobile-bearing knee replacements have some theoretical advantages over fixed-bearing devices. However, very few randomized controlled clinical trials have been published to date, and studies showed little clinical and subjective advantages for the mobile-bearing using traditional systems of scoring. The choice of the ideal outcome measure to assess total joint replacement remains a complex issue. However, gait analysis provides objective and quantifying evidences of treatment evaluation. Significant methodological advances are currently made in gait analysis laboratories and ambulatory gait devices are now available. The goal of this study was to provide gait parameters as a new objective method to assess total knee arthroplasty outcome between patients with fixed- and mobile-bearing, using an ambulatory device with minimal sensor configuration. This randomized controlled double-blind study included to date 14 patients: the gait signatures of four patients with mobile-bearing were compared to the gait signatures of nine patients with fixed-bearing pre-operatively and post-operatively at 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months. Each participant was asked to perform two walking trials of 30m long at his/her preferred speed and to complete a EQ-5D questionnaire, a WOMAC and Knee Society Score (KSS). Lower limbs rotations were measured by four miniature angular rate sensors mounted respectively, on each shank and thigh. A new method for a portable system for gait analysis has been developed with very encouraging results regarding the objective outcome of total knee arthroplasty using mobile- and fixed-bearings.

Effectiveness of career counseling and the impact of the working alliance.

This study analyzes the role of the working alliance on the life satisfaction and career decision difficulties of clients participating in career counseling in Switzerland. The study also compares these career counseling clients to a group of students who did not seek counseling, to explore the overall effectiveness of a face-to-face career counseling intervention, using a pre-post design. Results indicated that the working alliance was positively associated with clients' satisfaction with the intervention and with the final level of their life satisfaction. Working alliance was also negatively associated with the final levels of career decision difficulties. Moreover, clients' career decision difficulties significantly decreased and their life satisfaction increased throughout the intervention. These findings suggest that working alliance represents an important variable to better understand career interventions' underlying mechanisms. Moreover, face-to-face career counseling is effective considering career-specific as well as broader, life-related indicators.

Quantification of 4 antidepressants and a metabolite by LC-MS for therapeutic drug monitoring.

A liquid chromatography method coupled to mass spectrometry was developed for the quantification of bupropion, its metabolite hydroxy-bupropion, moclobemide, reboxetine and trazodone in human plasma. The validation of the analytical procedure was assessed according to Société Française des Sciences et Techniques Pharmaceutiques and the latest Food and Drug Administration guidelines. The sample preparation was performed with 0.5mL of plasma extracted on a cation-exchange solid phase 96-well plate. The separation was achieved in 14min on a C18 XBridge column (2.1mm×100mm, 3.5μm) using a 50mM ammonium acetate pH 9/acetonitrile mobile phase in gradient mode. The compounds of interest were analysed in the single ion monitoring mode on a single quadrupole mass spectrometer working in positive electrospray ionisation mode. Two ions were selected per molecule to increase the number of identification points and to avoid as much as possible any false positives. Since selectivity is always a critical point for routine therapeutic drug monitoring, more than sixty common comedications for the psychiatric population were tested. For each analyte, the analytical procedure was validated to cover the common range of concentrations measured in plasma samples: 1-400ng/mL for reboxetine and bupropion, 2-2000ng/mL for hydroxy-bupropion, moclobemide, and trazodone. For all investigated compounds, reliable performance in terms of accuracy, precision, trueness, recovery, selectivity and stability was obtained. One year after its implementation in a routine process, this method demonstrated a high robustness with accurate values over the wide concentration range commonly observed among a psychiatric population.

Endocarditis prophylaxis revisited: experimental evidence of efficacy and new Swiss recommendations. Swiss Working Group for Endocarditis Prophylaxis.

Because of its severity, it is agreed that infectious endocarditis should be prevented whenever possible. Determining adequate prophylactic measures involves establishing (a) the patients at risk, (b) the procedures that might provoke bacteraemia, (c) the most effective prophylactic regimen, and (d) a balance between the risks of side effects from prophylaxis and of developing infectious endocarditis. Patients at risk and procedures inducing bacteraemia have been identified by clinical studies. On the other hand, the efficacy of prophylactic antibiotics has been based on animal studies. Randomised, placebo-controlled studies do not exist in humans because they would require large patient numbers and would raise ethical issues due to the severity of the disease. Case-control studies have indicated that infectious endocarditis prophylaxis is effective, but prevents only a limited number of cases. Animal experiments have revealed several key issues for human application. First, antibiotics do not prevent the early stages of valve colonisation, but rather kill the microorganisms after their attachment to the cardiac lesions. Second, the duration of antibiotic presence in the serum is critical. Under experimental conditions, the drugs must remain above their minimal inhibitory concentration for the organisms for > or = 10 h, to allow time for bacterial clearance from the valves. Third, antibiotic-induced killing is not the only mechanism allowing bacterial clearance. Other factors, such as platelet microbicidal proteins, may act in concert with the drugs to sterilise the lesions. Recommendations for prophylaxis have recently been revised in Europe and the USA. New information has improved the definition of groups at risk. Since most cases of infectious endocarditis are not preceded by medical procedures, primary prevention of infectious endocarditis should target infected foci responsible for spontaneous bacteraemia (e.g. poor dental hygiene). The purpose of this article is to update the existing recommendations in Switzerland, under the perspective of changing epidemiology, the availability of new drugs, and harmonisation with recommendations in other countries.

The effects of walking while working on productivity and health: a field experiment

Lack of physical activity can cause health problems and diminish organizational productivity. We conducted a 12-months long field experiment in a financial services company to study the effects of slow-moving treadmills outfitted for office work on employee productivity and health. 43 sedentary volunteers were assigned randomly to two groups to receive treadmill workstations 7 months apart. Employees could opt at will for standard chair-desk arrangement. Biometric measurements were taken quarterly and weekly online performance surveys were administered to study participants and to more than 200 non-participants and their supervisors.In this study we explore three questions concerning the effects of the introduction of treadmills in the workplace. (1) Does it improve overall physical activity? (2) Does it improve health measures? (3) Does it improve performance? The answers are as follows. (1) Yes (net effect of almost half an hour a day). (2) Yes (small gains, one minor decline). (3) No and yes (initial decline followed by increase to recover to initial level within one year) – based on weekly employee self reports.

A qualitative study about immigrant workers’ perceptions of their working conditions in Spain

Background: Spain has recently become an inward migration country. Little is known about the occupational health of immigrant workers. This study aimed to explore the perceptions that immigrant workers in Spain had of their working conditions.Methods: Qualitative, exploratory, descriptive study. Criterion sampling. Data collected between September 2006 and May 2007 through semi-structured focus groups and individual interviews, with a topic guide. One hundred and fifty-eight immigrant workers (90 men/68 women) from Colombia (n = 21), Morocco (n = 39), sub-Saharan Africa (n = 29), Romania (n = 44) and Ecuador (n = 25), who were authorised (documented) or unauthorised (undocumented) residents in five medium to large cities in Spain.Results: Participants described poor working conditions, low pay and health hazards. Perception of hazards appeared to be related to gender and job sector. Informants were highly segregated into jobs by sex, however, so this issue will need further exploration. Undocumented workers described poorer conditions than documented workers, which they attributed to their documentation status. Documented participants also felt vulnerable because of their immigrant status. Informants believed that deficient language skills, non-transferability of their education and training and, most of all, their immigrant status and economic need left them with little choice but to work under poor conditions.Conclusions: The occupational health needs of immigrant workers must be addressed at the job level, while improving the enforcement of existing health and safety regulations. The roles that documentation status and economic need played in these informants' work experiences should be considered and how these may influence health outcomes.

Discovering the campus together: a mobile and computer-based learning experience

One of the most relevant difficulties faced by first-year undergraduate students is to settle into the educational environment of universities. This paper presents a case study that proposes a computer-assisted collaborative experience designed to help students in their transition from high school to university. This is done by facilitating their first contact with the campus and its services, the university community, methodologies and activities. The experience combines individual and collaborative activities, conducted in and out of the classroom, structured following the Jigsaw Collaborative Learning Flow Pattern. A specific environment including portable technologies with network and computer applications has been developed to support and facilitate the orchestration of a flow of learning activities into a single integrated learning setting. The result is a Computer-Supported Collaborative Blended Learning scenario, which has been evaluated with first-year university students of the degrees of Software and Audiovisual Engineering within the subject Introduction to Information and Communications Technologies. The findings reveal that the scenario improves significantly students’ interest in their studies and their understanding about the campus and services provided. The environment is also an innovative approach to successfully support the heterogeneous activities conducted by both teachers and students during the scenario. This paper introduces the goals and context of the case study, describes how the technology was employed to conduct the learning scenario, the evaluation methods and the main results of the experience.

Use of mobile devices to answer online surveys: implications for research.

BACKGROUND: There is a growing use of mobile devices to access the Internet. We examined whether participants who used a mobile device to access a brief online survey were quicker to respond to the survey but also, less likely to complete it than participants using a traditional web browser. FINDINGS: Using data from a recently completed online intervention trial, we found that participants using mobile devices were quicker to access the survey but less likely to complete it compared to participants using a traditional web browser. More concerning, mobile device users were also less likely to respond to a request to complete a six week follow-up survey compared to those using traditional web browsers. CONCLUSIONS: With roughly a third of participants using mobile devices to answer an online survey in this study, the impact of mobile device usage on survey completion rates is a concern. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01521078.

The Conservation Reserve Program in the Presence of a Working Land Alternative: Implications for Environmental Quality, Program Participation, and Income Transfer, August 2005

The United States has invested large sums of resources in multiple conservation programs for agriculture over the past century. In this paper we focus on the impacts of program interactions. Specifically, using an integrated economic and bio-physical modeling framework, we consider the impacts of the presence of working land programs on a land retirement for an important agricultural region—the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Compared to a land retirement only program, we find that the presence of a working land program for conservation tillage results in significantly lower predicted signups for land retirement at a given rental rate. We also find that the presence of both a large working land and land retirement program can result in more environmental benefits and income transfers than a land retirement only program can achieve.