Examining food insecurity in a regional New Zealand emergency department: A cross-sectional study.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of food insecurity (FI) among patients in a regional New Zealand ED, factors associated with FI and feasibility of an ED-based FI screening programme with voluntary social work (SW) follow up.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of patients presenting to the Whangarei Hospital ED, using the validated two-item Hunger Vital Sign screening tool to assess for FI. Participants were offered SW follow up to discuss community food resources.

Using Embase as a supplement to PubMed in Cochrane reviews differed across fields.

Objective: Medline/PubMed is often first choice for health science researchers when doing literature searches. However, Medline/PubMed does not cover the health science research literature equally well across specialties. Embase is often considered an important supplement to Medline/PubMed in health sciences.

Disparities in Objective Sleep Quality as Assessed Through Wrist Actigraphy in Minority Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with a reduced quality of life. Minority patients with IBD specifically report more impairing symptoms compared with nonminority patients. Sleep quality, a key component of quality of life, is significantly compromised in minority patients compared with nonminority patients.

PubMed coverage varied across specialties and over time: a large-scale study of included studies in Cochrane reviews.

Objective: PubMed is one of the most commonly used search tools in biomedical and life sciences. Existing studies of database coverage generally conclude that searching PubMed may not be sufficient although some find that the contributions from other databases are modest at best. However, generalizability of the studies of the coverage of PubMed is typically restricted.

Time-resolved and multiple-angle Thomson scattering on gas-puff Z-Pinch plasmas at pinch time.

A 526.5 nm Thomson scattering diagnostic laser enables probing of the plasma conditions of neon gas-puff z-pinch implosions with temporal resolution. Splitting the laser into two 2.

Teaching Assistant Attention and Responsiveness to Student Reasoning in Written Work.

Instructors communicate what they value about students' written work through their comments and feedback, and this feedback has the potential to direct how students approach writing assignments. In this study, we examined how graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) attended and responded to students' written lab reports in an introductory biology course. We collected and analyzed marked lab reports from five TAs and interviewed them about their marking decisions.

Quantifying patient bacterial exposure risk from reusable phlebotomy tourniquets in a New Zealand secondary level hospital.

Aim: This study aimed to assess for the presence of multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) on tourniquets and quantify the number of bacteria to which patients might be exposed with each blood collection episode.

Methods: Tourniquets were randomly sampled in a 246-bed, secondary level, New Zealand hospital, which is currently non-endemic for MDROs. A 6-cm length of each tourniquet sampled was applied to the surface of an agar plate and the colony forming units (CFUs) were enumerated.

A doubly curved elliptical crystal spectrometer for the study of localized x-ray absorption in hot plasmas.

X-ray absorption spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the diagnosis of plasmas over a wide range of both temperature and density. However, such a measurement is often limited to probing plasmas with temperatures well below that of the x-ray source in order to avoid object plasma emission lines from obscuring important features of the absorption spectrum. This has excluded many plasmas from being investigated by this technique.

SIRT1 knockdown promotes neural differentiation and attenuates the heat shock response.

Neurons have a limited capacity for heat shock protein (HSP) induction and are vulnerable to the pathogenic consequence of protein misfolding and aggregation as seen in age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), an NAD(+) -dependent lysine deacetylase with important biological functions, has been shown to sustain the DNA-binding state of HSF1 for HSP induction. Here we show that differentiation and maturation of embryonic cortical neurons and N2a neuroprogenitor cells is associated with decreases in SIRT1 expression and heat shock-dependent induction of HSP70 protein.

The intended-and unintended-consequences of healthcare reform.

Healthcare reform will affect providers by: Changing employer-sponsored health plans. Cutting Medicare payment. Expanding Medicaid coverage.

Study of nanosecond pulsed magnetic fields using temporally resolved Faraday rotation through a magneto-optical waveguide.

We have measured magnetic fields up to 17.7 T with a rise time of 75 ns using temporally resolved Faraday rotation of a single longitudinal mode laser beam through a magneto-optically active bulk waveguide. We believe this to be the first time that such large, rapidly varying magnetic fields have been measured with this class of materials (multicomponent terbium borate glass).

Don't panic: how CFOs are facing the new economic reality.

CFOs at hospitals throughout the country are implementing strategic initiatives that can help their organizations succeed in challenging times: Revising strategic plans, Reassessing capital capacity, Leveraging IT to enhance revenue management.

Murine typhus and febrile illness, Nepal.

Murine typhus was diagnosed by PCR in 50 (7%) of 756 adults with febrile illness seeking treatment at Patan Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Of patients with murine typhus, 64% were women, 86% were residents of Kathmandu, and 90% were unwell during the winter. No characteristics clearly distinguished typhus patients from those with blood culture-positive enteric fever.

Beyond bolt-ons breakthroughs in revenue cycle information systems.

To help healthcare providers surmount today's payment challenges, next-generation revenue cycle information systems will need to include: Built-in "bolt-on" capability. Adaptability and flexibility. Workflow rules-driven capability.

UPMC's metric-driven revenue cycle.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's revenue cycle reengineering effort has consisted of eight steps: 1. Identify responsibility. 2.

The next generation of revenue cycle management.

The revenue cycle management environment is dynamic. Revenue cycle leaders are now responsible for additional functional areas and have to deal with new financing arrangements that expose the organization to greater financial risk. Financial managers can use key performance indicators and the suggested practice processes checklist to determine whether their revenue cycle operations are in good shape or need shaping up.

Incidence of nontuberculous mycobacterial disease in New Zealand, 2004.

Aim: To record the incidence and clinical significance of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infection in New Zealand (NZ) in 2004.

Method: In 2004 each of NZ's mycobacterium reference laboratories collected data on NTM isolates. The clinical significance of isolates was decided by contacting the requesting clinician.

Black space versus white space: the new revenue cycle battleground.

To increase revenue from out-of-network claims, there are several things providers can do, including: Identify and track all out-of-network claims. Require all networks to be identified in the contract. Eliminate contracts that include silent PPOs.