Developing and Validating a Novel Tool to Enhance Functional Status Assessment: The Tennessee Functional Status Questionnaire (TFSQ).

Purpose: Functional status is a major contributor to overall health and reflects both daily activity level (performance) and maximum attainable activity level (capacity). Existing assessment tools evaluate only 1 domain of function and do not provide insight into contributors to functional decline. We addressed these deficiencies by developing the Tennessee Functional Status Questionnaire (TFSQ), which reports activity levels in metabolic equivalents (METs) and evaluates 5 key areas: performance, capacity, activity, pain, and acute care.

Multi-Sensor Spectral Imaging of Geological Samples: A Data Fusion Approach Using Spatio-Spectral Feature Extraction.

Rapid, efficient and reproducible drillcore logging is fundamental in mineral exploration. Drillcore mapping has evolved rapidly in the recent decade, especially with the advances in hyperspectral spectral imaging. A wide range of imaging sensors is now available, providing rapidly increasing spectral as well as spatial resolution and coverage.

Factors associated with inhaled corticosteroids prescription in primary care patients with COPD: A cross-sectional study in the Balearic Islands (Spain).

Background: There is a worldwide over-prescription of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), off-label prescribing, and unnecessary prescription of high doses.

Objectives: Our aim was to assess the prescription rate of ICS and to identify sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with ICS prescription among patients with COPD, treated in Balearic primary healthcare.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included all patients with a clinical COPD diagnosis, who attended a primary care centre of the Balearic Islands (Spain) during 2012.

[Detection of Salmonella and Mycobacterium species in seagulls captured in Talcahuano, Chile].

Background: Salmonella can be isolated from the feces of seagulls. Therefore these birds can be a vector for dissemination of this pathogen.

Aim: To evaluate the possible role of gulls as vectors of two important human and animal pathogens (My-cobacteria and Salmonella).