Minimum Knowledge Research Articles

Do citizens have minimum medical knowledge? A survey

BackgroundExperts defined a "minimum medical knowledge" (MMK) that people need for understanding typical signs and/or risk factors of four relevant clinical conditions: myocardial infarction, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and HIV/AIDS. We tested to what degree Swiss adult citizens satisfy this criterion for MMK and whether people with medical experience have acquired better knowledge than those without.MethodsQuestionnaire interview in a Swiss urban area with 185 Swiss citizens (median age 29 years, interquartile range 23 to 49, 52% male). We obtained context information on age, gender, highest educational level, (para)medical background and specific health experience with one of the conditions in the social surrounding. We calculated the proportion of MMK and examined whether citizens with medical background (personal or professional) would perform better compared to other groups.ResultsNo single citizen reached the full MMK (100%). The mean MMK was as low as 32% and the range was 0 -72%. Surprisingly, multivariable analysis showed that participants with a university degree (n = 84; β (95% CI) +3.7% MMK (0.4–7.1) p = 0.03), (para)medical background (n = 34; +6.2% MMK (2.0–10.4), p = 0.004) and personal illness experience (n = 96; +4.9% MMK (1.5–8.2), p = 0.004) had only a moderately higher MMK than those without, while age and sex had no effect on the level of MMK. Interaction between university degree and clinical experience (personal or professional) showed no effect suggesting that higher education lacks synergistic effect.ConclusionThis sample of Swiss citizens did not know more than a third of the MMK. We found little difference within groups with medical experience (personal or professional), suggesting that there is a consistent and dramatic lack of knowledge in the general public about the typical signs and risk factors of relevant clinical conditions.

Cancer Genetics

To provide a basic overview of genetics, focusing on breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility mutations on BRCA1 and BRCA2. Research and review articles and government internet sites. The advances in molecular biology has enabled health care providers to be proactive rather than reactive in predicting some cancers and offering prevention strategies to greatly reduce the risk of developing cancer. Our expanding knowledge base of genetics may one day provide tailored treatment, and predict recurrence rates for all cancers. The science of genetics will impact every aspect of health care, from primary care to specialized care. Nurses are on the front line and will be expected to recognize patterns of disease that may indicate a possible genetic link, educate the family about the implications of a potential genetic susceptibility and refer the family for counseling. To accomplish this, each nurse should have a minimum basic knowledge of genetics, and formal education for those who educate and counsel.

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Let Us Learn about Urinary Protein Quantification-creatinine Clearance

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Let Us Learn about Urinary Protein Quantification-creatinine Clearance

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Characteristics of Acute Myocardial Infarction Seen at a Practitioner's - Few Cases Report Chest Pain as the Major Complaint

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Characteristics of Acute Myocardial Infarction Seen at a Practitioner's - Few Cases Report Chest Pain as the Major Complaint

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Communication Techniques; The Art of Presenting Dismal News to the Patient

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Communication Techniques; The Art of Presenting Dismal News to the Patient

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Pitfalls in Radiological Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis- for Not Miss the Symptoms of Tuberculosis

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Pitfalls in Radiological Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis- for Not Miss the Symptoms of Tuberculosis

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians Pitfalls of Medical Care for Adult Disease; Critical to Include Anti-smoking Education

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians Pitfalls of Medical Care for Adult Disease; Critical to Include Anti-smoking Education

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Policy of Medical Care for the Common Cold Syndrome; Proper Applicaton of Antibiotics

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Policy of Medical Care for the Common Cold Syndrome; Proper Applicaton of Antibiotics

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Anaphylactic Shock

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Anaphylactic Shock

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Required Targets to Attain in the Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease by a General Phsician

"Minimum Knowledge" Essential for Primary Care Physicians - Required Targets to Attain in the Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease by a General Phsician

Real-Time Optimal Control of Flexible Structures Using Subspace Techniques

In this paper, a novel real-time optimal control is designed for a class of embedded flexible structures such as a cantilever beam. The proposed strategy is based on a new recursive subspace identification and receeding horizon optimal control. The proposed recursive strategy can be parameterized in terms of recursive approximation of subspace intersections and adaptive estimation of state sequences. The proposed integrated modeling-control strategy can be implemented, in real-time, with minimum knowledge of the controlled system. Actual hardware experiments using a DSP have been carried out in order to verify the performance of the proposed methodology

Bias annealing: A method for obtaining transition paths de novo

Computational studies of dynamics in complex systems require means for generating reactive trajectories with minimum knowledge about the processes of interest. Here, we introduce a method for generating transition paths when an existing one is not already available. Starting from biased paths obtained from steered molecular dynamics, we use a Monte Carlo procedure in the space of whole trajectories to shift gradually to sampling an ensemble of unbiased paths. Application to basin-to-basin hopping in a two-dimensional model system and nucleotide-flipping by a DNA repair protein demonstrates that the method can efficiently yield unbiased reactive trajectories even when the initial steered dynamics differ significantly. The relation of the method to others and the physical basis for its success are discussed.

Misconceptions About the Greenhouse Effect

Studies have shown that both students and the general public possess many misconceptions about the processes involved in the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion. This study, conducted in a mock summit class on global climate change, explored the level of understanding and the nature of students' misconceptions about climate. Several times throughout the class, students responded to a set of questions about the greenhouse effect. Through analysis of their responses, we were able to track changes in students' mental models, evaluate the degree to which they were able to overcome misconceptions, and assess the permanence of the newly achieved understanding. Based on these results, we comment on the potential role of these students in public decision making related to global climate change, and discuss ways in which misconceptions could impede sound judgment on issues related to climate policy. Based on previous experiences with both teaching and assessing student learning about global climate change, we propose key principles that we consider minimum knowledge for an undergraduate student in Earth Science. We suggest that Earth science educators should focus on identification of key principles in all areas of the discipline and use those as the basis for curriculum development.

ATLAS: a framework to provide multiuser and distributed t‐learning services over MHP

AbstractThe increasing need of the developed countries to carry out effective distance learning strategies has led to a great development of Internet‐based learning technologies (e‐learning). Despite its evident advantages, the expansion of e‐learning has been limited by the difficulty in reaching important social sectors, and also by the absence of mechanisms to fight the feeling of isolation of the users, which often leads them to abandoning the distance learning activities. This paper tackles these problems by introducing ATLAS, a framework for the development and deployment of multiuser t‐learning services (i.e. learning services over Interactive Digital TV). This framework is built around three major features: an architecture for the services that exploits the multimedia capabilities of the television, a communications infrastructure that promotes the establishment of virtual learning communities, and a development tool that allows services to be created with minimum programming knowledge. ATLAS has been designed by considering several features that make Interactive Digital TV quite different from the PC, advising against the direct translation of the models developed for the Internet. In particular, ATLAS adheres to the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) standard, which is gaining worldwide acceptance as one of the technical solutions that will shape the future of Interactive Digital TV. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Guidelines for Management of Home Parenteral Support in Adult Chronic Intestinal Failure Patients

Management of home parenteral support in adult benign but chronic intestinal failure patients requires a nutrition support team using disease-specific pathways. Education of patients to ensure they self manage home parenteral nutrition (HPN) is cornerstone to obtain minimal rate of technical complications and improvement in quality of life. Nutritive mixtures, compounded by pharmacists in single "all-in-one" bags, must be tailored according to the nutritional and intestinal status of individual patients with definition of macronutrients and water-electrolyte needs, respectively. Each PN cycle should be complete in essential nutrients to be nutritionally efficient and should have sufficient amounts of amino acids, dextrose, water, minerals, and micronutrients to avoid deficiency. When the nutritional goal is achieved, a minimum number of PN cycles per week should be implemented, guided ideally by digestive balance(s) (In-Out) of macronutrients and minerals of individual patients. Indeed, HPN is, in most cases, a complementary nonexclusive mode of nutritional support. In short gut patients--who represent 75% of chronic intestinal failure patients--encouraging enteral feeding decrease PN delivery and the risk of metabolic liver disease associated with HPN. In short gut patients with no severe renal impairment, blood citrulline dosage, in association with the remnant anatomy, is a tool to delineate transient from permanent intestinal failure. The latter group includes candidates for trophic gut factors and rehabilitative or reconstructive surgery, including intestinal transplantation. Thus, outcome improvement for intestinal failure patients needs intestinal failure teams having expertise in all medical and surgical aspects of this field.

Reasoning of abstract motion of a target object through task order with natural language — pre-knowledge of object-handling-task programming for a service robot

In this paper, an attempt is made to reason an abstract motion of a target object when the object is manipulated through a task order. The reasoning algorithm is used as a function in the system that navigates layman's robot programming. The task order consists of two words: Task and Target (e.g., 'switch on' and 'light'). There are three kinds of motions: Linear, Circular and Point-To-Point motion. The system chooses a suitable motion. In the reasoning, it is important to be able to reason from various input words using a limited knowledge base. Therefore, a knowledge base is proposed that consists of a thesaurus and minimum knowledge. The knowledge defines only words that directly stand for the motions (e.g., 'turn' means Circular motion). The knowledge is propagated through hypernyms and hyponyms in the thesaurus. A motion is reasoned using the propagated knowledge in Task and Target. Moreover, learning, which results from on-site updating of the knowledge from the user, achieves reinforcement/customization of the knowledge base. The system successfully reasoned motions from various task orders. Moreover, for the robot programming of a door-opening task, a robot with the reasoning system reasoned a motion of the door and realized the task.

Instability of the technology strategy and building of the first strategic capabilities in a large Mexican firm

The transition process from building a minimum knowledge base to deploying the first strategic capabilities is a neglected issue in the literature on technological accumulation in Latin American firms. This paper analyses three organisational processes that may affect this stage and discusses the role of an unstable firm's technology strategy in influencing such processes. Based on a detailed case study of Vitro S.A., one of the largest and most successful Mexican industrial groups, this paper argues that a context characterised by macroeconomic instability and distortions, and the lack of vision of the firm's top management about the role of technology in competitiveness, contribute to explaining the instability of the firm's technology strategy. This, in turn, is a major factor that negatively influences the conversion of individual into organisational learning, the coordination of different learning strategies, and the steadiness of the knowledge-creation process. The weaknesses in these processes make the deployment of strategic capabilities and the completion of the transition process more difficult.

Adaptation of the Ion Exchange Method for the Determination of the Free Ionic Fraction of Cadmium in Solution

The understanding of the availability of a metal in soil necessitates a minimum knowledge about its speciation in the soil solution. Here, we evaluated an alternative to the use of ion exchangers for estimating the free ionic fraction of cadmium (FCd) in solution. It is based on the exchange selectivity coefficient (VK) rather than the distribution coefficient (DK) to estimate FCd. Because VK for the Cd-Ca exchange for the used Amberlite resin was independent of the solution Ca concentration (0.5-7.5 mM) and pH (range: 4.5-6), the experiment on a solution mimicking the analyzed solution to estimate VK was not necessary. The influence of variable Ca and Mg concentrations in solution on FCd was assessed in synthetic solutions containing either citrate or malate. The best way to estimate FCd seemed to treat the exchange data as if Ca was solely present. However, neither the proposed approach nor those applying DK prevent the overestimation of FCd when Ca is partly complexed in the analyzed solution. A method intending to estimate two replicates of FCd for a given, unique solution was also studied on solutions issued from sorption-desorption experiments performed on a humic podzol. It consists of two successive supplies of a known resin mass to a unique sample. Both estimates were close and not significantly different.

Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitudes of Advanced Practice Nursing Students Regarding Medical Genetics

To describe the current medical genetic knowledge and perceptions of graduate advanced practice nursing (advanced practice nurse [APN]/nurse practitioner and nurse anesthetist) students using survey data for future integration of genetic topics, principles, and healthcare issues into curriculum. Survey data of APNs' perceived knowledge of genetics and a review of the literature from past research studies of students and current articles from professional journals and organizations. Web sites were those of the National Coalition of Health Professions for Education in Genetics and National Institutes of Health, Human Genome Research Institute; professional organizations; and the authors' professional, clinical, and educational experiences. Most APN students perceived they had minimum knowledge and prior training regarding medical genetics. There is a need to integrate genetic concepts, principles, and medical conditions into advanced practice nursing curriculum and to provide clinical experiences in genetic conditions across the life span and throughout the health and illness spectrum. APN students have positive attitudes toward integrating genetics into graduate curricula. Potential methods for program integration include readings, small group discussion, standardized patients, and role-play as measures to increase information. The National Coalition for Health Profession Education in Genetics, the American Nursing Association, and the American College of Nursing Education have recommended integration of genetics knowledge and skills into routine health care to provide effective interventions for individuals and families. However, previous research and data from this study have revealed that many nurses have minimal training in genetics. Advanced practice nurses must be knowledgeable on genetic principles, topics, and the ethical, legal, and social implications related to medical genetics to increase the ability to diagnose, prevent, and treat diseases and to provide effective care for individuals and families.

Perimeter-based defense against high bandwidth DDoS attacks

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) is a major threat to the availability of Internet services. The anonymity allowed by IP networking, together with the distributed, large scale nature of the Internet, makes DDoS attacks stealthy and difficult to counter. To make the problem worse, attack traffic is often indistinguishable from normal traffic. As various attack tools become widely available and require minimum knowledge to operate, automated antiDDoS systems become increasingly important. Many current solutions are either excessively expensive or require universal deployment across many administrative domains. This paper proposes two perimeter-based defense mechanisms for Internet service providers (ISPs) to provide the antiDDoS service to their customers. These mechanisms rely completely on the edge routers to cooperatively identify the flooding sources and establish rate-limit filters to block the attack traffic. The system does not require any support from routers outside or inside of the ISP, which not only makes it locally deployable, but also avoids the stress on the ISP core routers. We also study a new problem of perimeter-based IP traceback and provide three solutions. We demonstrate analytically and by simulations that the proposed defense mechanisms react quickly in blocking attack traffic while achieving high survival ratio for legitimate traffic. Even when 40 percent of all customer networks attack, the survival ratio for traffic from the other customer networks is still close to 100 percent.