Immunization information systems: a decade of progress in law and policy.

This article reports on a study of laws, regulations, and policies governing Immunization Information Systems (IIS, also known as "immunization registries") in states and selected urban areas of the United States. The study included a search of relevant statutes, administrative codes and published attorney general opinions/findings, an online questionnaire completed by immunization program managers and/or their staff, and follow-up telephone interviews.The legal/regulatory framework for IIS has changed considerably since 2000, largely in ways that improve IIS' ability to perform their public health functions while continuing to maintain strict confidentiality and privacy controls.

Delivering new vaccines to adolescents: the role of school-entry laws.

In the United States, state-based school-entry vaccination laws have been used effectively to rapidly increase vaccination rates among adolescents, in particular, for hepatitis B vaccine. New vaccines for adolescents raise the question of whether and under what circumstances school-entry laws may be used to increase coverage rates with these vaccines. The new vaccines differ somewhat from their predecessors and raise policy and legal issues.

Assessing state immunization requirements for healthcare workers and patients.

Background: Laws requiring vaccination for school entry have resulted in high coverage and reduced disease incidence; however, few data exist on the use of similar laws in other settings. This study reviews laws regulating vaccination of healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients in selected healthcare delivery settings.

Methods: From September 2004 to June 2005, Lexis-Nexis and other web-based databases were searched for laws pertaining to HCW and patient vaccination in 50 states and Washington DC.

A review of state legislation related to immunization registries.

Background: Since the early 1990s, a concerted effort has been made to develop community- and state-based immunization registries. A 1995 survey showed that nine states had laws specifically authorizing immunization registries. This survey was conducted to describe the current status of legislation and policies addressing immunization registries and the sharing of immunization information.

Smart backplanes-II The IBM PC.

A comprehensive account is given of the characteristics of the IBM PC personal computer and of the range of hardware and software available for it from various manufacturers, together with a list of books, magazines and journals of interest to the user.

Smart backplanes-I The apple II.

A comprehensive account is given of the characteristics of the Apple II family of personal computers, and the wide range of hardware and software available for it from various manufacturers. Pertinent books, magazines and journals are also listed.

Backplane bus structures and systems.

A general survey is given of developments in the design of personal computers and implementation of their use in laboratory instrumentation and data handling etc. An extensive guide to commercial sources of hardware and software is given.

Use of added random noise to improve bit-resolution in digital signal averaging.

A simple equation is presented that can be used to predict the improvement in bit-resolution that can be obtained by digital signal averaging in the presence of added random noise.

Data-logging system based on the Intel 8748 single-chip microprocessor.

A simple microprocessor-based data-acquisition system is presented that is capable of acquiring replicate integrated signal values and logging them to a serial data terminal.

Microprocessor-controlled integrating read-out systems for photomultiplier tubes.

Two types of wide dynamic range integrating read-out systems for photomultiplier tubes have been developed. One system is based on a voltage-to-frequency converter-counter system and the second is based on summing a large number of analogue-to-digital converter values. Both systems operate under microprocessor control.

Laboratory data-acquisition capabilities of microcomputers.

Some microcomputers have been evaluated in terms of their features and capabilities for basic laboratory data-acquisition tasks. The systems studied include the SDK-80 (8080), SDK-85 (8085), and KIM-1 (6502) single-board microcomputers, and the PET consumer/hobby-market microcomputer. Data-acquisition software benchmarks were tested on all the systems, and inexpensive analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue hardware subsystems were developed for the PET.

Spectral emittance and reflectance of powders.

The emittance of well-sized corundum powders in the range between 1-30 micro has been measured by ir interferometry in the 7.5-25 micro region of the spectrum (400-1300 cm(-1)). The spectral features persist for all particle sizes with some interesting relative intensity variations.