Low-Cost Carbon Fibre Derived from Sustainable Coal Tar Pitch and Polyacrylonitrile: Fabrication and Characterisation.

Preparation of high-value pitch-based carbon fibres (CFs) from mesophase pitch precursor is of great importance towards low-cost CFs. Herein, we developed a method to reduce the cost of CFs precursor through incorporating high loading of coal tar pitch (CTP) into polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymer solution. The CTP with a loading of 25% and 50% was blended with PAN and their spinnability was examined by electrospinning process.

The Employment Experience of Recent Graduates From US Radiation Oncology Training Programs: The Practice Entry Survey Results From 2012 to 2017.

Purpose: The Practice Entry Survey presentation is a highly anticipated session for the radiation oncology (RO) resident at the American Society for Radiation Oncology annual meeting. Each year the senior author reports the employment outcomes and job market experiences for the most recently graduated RO residents.

Methods: The Practice Entry Survey has been continuously administered annually to graduated RO residents since 1984 via the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology directory.

Improving Inpatient Asthma Management: The Implementation and Evaluation of a Pediatric Asthma Clinical Pathway.

Introduction: Asthma exacerbations are a leading cause of pediatric hospitalizations. Despite national guidelines, variability exists in the use and dosing of bronchodilators, oxygen management, and respiratory assessments of patients. We aimed to implement an inpatient Asthma Clinical Pathway (Pathway) to standardize care and reduce length of stay (LOS).

Dataset for the estimation of costs for direct contact condenser.

The dataset on equations and procedures for the estimation of detailed capital and annual costs for direct contact condenser are presented. Full dataset on four design cases relevant to the comparisons on the costs of air and oxy-fuel direct contact condenser is given. The data are presented in this format to allow the comparison with those from other researchers in this field.

Ethics in the Legal and Business Practices of Radiation Oncology.

Ethical issues arise when a professional endeavor such as medicine, which seeks to place the well-being of others over the self-interest of the practitioner, meets granular business and legal decisions involved in making a livelihood out of a professional calling. The use of restrictive covenants, involvement in self-referral patterns, and maintaining appropriate comity among physicians while engaged in the marketplace are common challenges in radiation oncology practice. A paradigm of analysis is presented to help navigate these management challenges.

International outreach: what is the responsibility of ASTRO and the major international radiation oncology societies?

In this era of globalization and rapid advances in radiation oncology worldwide, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is committed to help decrease profound regional disparities through the work of the International Education Subcommittee (IES). The IES has expanded its base, reach, and activities to foster educational advances through a variety of educational methods with broad scope, in addition to committing to the advancement of radiation oncology care for cancer patients around the world, through close collaboration with our sister radiation oncology societies and other educational, governmental, and organizational groups.

Relevance of chest radiography in pediatric inpatients with asthma.

Introduction: The goals of this study are to identify factors associated with ordering of chest radiographs (CXR's) in children hospitalized with acute asthma exacerbations and determine the overall clinical impact of these CXR's.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed with children ≥ 2 years of age admitted from our emergency department (ED) between 6/1/2011 and 5/31/2012 with a primary diagnosis of acute asthma exacerbation or status asthmaticus. Patients were excluded if they had been on antibiotics prior to the emergency visit, received continuous albuterol or intravenous magnesium during the hospitalization, or had another chronic disease affecting lung function.

Practice-based evidence to evidence-based practice: building the National Radiation Oncology Registry.

The National Radiation Oncology Registry (NROR), sponsored by the Radiation Oncology Institute and the American Society for Radiation Oncology, is designed to collect standardized information on cancer care delivery among patients treated with radiotherapy in the United States and will focus on patients with prostate cancer. Stakeholders were engaged through a forum that emphasized the need for patient-centered outcomes, minimal data burden, and maximal connectivity to existing registries and databases. An electronic infrastructure is under development to provide connectivity across radiation oncology and hospital information systems.

Exploring pre-school vision screening in primary care offices in Alabama.

Purpose: To investigate practices, barriers, and facilitators of universal pre-school vision screening (PVS) at pediatric primary care offices.

Methods: Focus group sessions (FGS) were moderated on-site at nine pediatric practices. A semi-structured topic guide was used to standardize and facilitate FGS.

Use of ecological momentary assessment to guide curricular change in graduate medical education.

Purpose: To assess whether a novel evaluation tool could guide curricular change in an internal medicine residency program.

Method: The authors developed an 8-item Ecological Momentary Assessment tool and collected daily evaluations from residents of the relative educational value of 3 differing ambulatory morning report formats (scale: 8  =  best, 0  =  worst). From the evaluations, they made a targeted curricular change and used the tool to assess its impact.

Efficacy of a web-based intervention to improve and sustain knowledge and screening for amblyopia in primary care settings.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of a physician-targeted website to improve knowledge and self-reported behavior relevant to strabismus and amblyopia ("vision") in primary care settings.

Methods: Eligible providers (filing Medicaid claims for at least eight well-child checks at ages 3 or 4 years, 1 year before study enrollment), randomly assigned to control (chlamydia and blood pressure) or vision groups, accessed four web-based educational modules, programmed to present interactive case vignettes with embedded questions and feedback. Each correct response, assigned a value of +1 to a maximum of +7, was used to calculate a summary score per provider.

Design of a randomized clinical trial to improve rates of amblyopia detection in preschool aged children in primary care settings.

Purpose: To present the design of a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based intervention for improving provider knowledge about strabismus and amblyopia (S/A) and preschool vision screening (PVS), increase PVS rates, and improve rates of S/A diagnoses made by eye specialists. This is the first cRCT targeting amblyopia prevention.

Methods: Participants were Medicaid providers in AL, SC, or IL who had Internet access and had filed at least 8 claims for well child visits (WCV) for children ages 3 or 4 years old during a 12-month period before enrollment.

Effect of revised IOM weight gain guidelines on perinatal outcomes.

Objective: We sought to examine perinatal outcomes in women with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 kg/m(2) comparing those whose weight gain met 2009 IOM guidelines to women meeting 1990 IOM guidelines.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study utilizing birth records linked to hospital discharge data for all term, singleton infants born to overweight, Missouri residents (2000-2006) with a BMI of 25 kg/m(2). We excluded congenital anomalies, mothers with diabetes, hypertension, or previous cesarean delivery.

Knowledge, attitudes, and environment: what primary care providers say about pre-school vision screening.

Purpose: To evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and environment of primary care providers, and to develop a conceptual framework showing their impact on self-reported pre-school vision screening (PVS) behaviors.

Methods: Eligible primary care providers were individuals who filed claims with Medicaid agencies in Alabama, South Carolina, or Illinois, for at least eight well child checks for children aged 3 or 4 years during 1 year. Responses were obtained on-line from providers who enrolled in the intervention arm of a randomized trial to improve PVS.

Can residents accurately abstract their own charts?

Purpose: To assess the accuracy of residents' record review, using trained abstractors as a gold standard comparison.

Method: In 2005, the authors asked 74 residents to review their own charts (n = 392) after they received brief instruction on both how to locate data on the medical record and how to use a data abstraction form. Trained abstractors then re-reviewed these charts to assess performance of preventive health care measures in medicine (smoking screening, smoking cessation advice, mammography, colon cancer screening, lipid screening, and pneumonia vaccination) and pediatrics (parent smoking screening, parent smoking cessation advice, car seat safety, car restraint use, eye alignment, and immunizations up to date).

Validity of pure-tone hearing screening at well-child visits.

Objective: To estimate the sensitivity and specificity of pure-tone audiometry hearing screening in the primary care setting.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Eight academic and private pediatric practices.

Experimental study on drying and moisture re-adsorption kinetics of an Indonesian low rank coal.

The drying kinetics of an Indonesian low rank coal and moisture re-adsorption of the dried coal using a thermobalance and a climatic chamber were investigated. Results show that the drying kinetics is best represented by two stages, as a constatnt rate stage followed by a rate decay stage. The water removal rate is dependent mainly on drying temperature and coal sample size.

Quantitative pediatric vision screening in primary care settings in Alabama.

Purpose: Alabama Medicaid reimburses "objective" vision screening (VS), i.e., by acuity or similar quantitative method, and well child checks (WCCs) separately.

Hearing screening practices among a national sample of primary care pediatricians.

The objective of this study was to describe variations in hearing screening using a survey mailed to a national sample of primary care pediatricians prior to the 2003 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) hearing screening guidelines. Of the 390 primary care respondents, only 303 (78%) performed audiometry, routinely beginning at age 3 (32%), 4 (44%), or 5 (17%); 81% defined abnormal audiometry primarily as failure to hear at a specified decibel level: 15 dB hearing level (HL) (<1%), 16 to 20 dB HL (10%), 21 to 25 dB HL (23%), 26 to 30 dB HL (44%), 31 to 40 dB HL (16%), and more than 40 dB HL (6%). This study serves as a baseline for comparison with postguideline practices.

Implementing achievable benchmarks in preventive health: a controlled trial in residency education.

Purpose: To evaluate the Preventive Health Achievable Benchmarks Curriculum, a multifaceted improvement intervention that included an objective, practice-based performance evaluation of internal medicine and pediatric residents' delivery of preventive services.

Method: The authors conducted a nonrandomized experiment of intervention versus control group residents with baseline and follow-up of performance audited for 2001-2004. All 130 internal medicine and 78 pediatric residents at two continuity clinics at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, participated.

Measuring resident physicians' performance of preventive care. Comparing chart review with patient survey.

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has suggested various methods for evaluation of practice-based learning and improvement competency, but data on implementation of these methods are limited.

Objective: To compare medical record review and patient surveys on evaluating physician performance in preventive services in an outpatient resident clinic.

Design: Within an ongoing quality improvement project, we collected baseline performance data on preventive services provided for patients at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Internal Medicine Residents' ambulatory clinic.

Improving physician performance through Internet-based interventions: who will participate?

Background: The availability of Internet-based continuing medical education is rapidly increasing, but little is known about recruitment of physicians to these interventions.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of physician participation in an Internet intervention designed to increase screening of young women at risk for chlamydiosis.

Methods: Eligibility was based on administrative claims data, and eligible physicians received recruitment letters via fax and/or courier.

Hearing screening at well-child visits.

Objectives: To determine hearing screening failure rates in primary care settings and to examine the referral practices in response to an abnormal screening test.

Methods: We enrolled a convenience sample of children between 3 and 19 years of age who were undergoing hearing screening during a well-child visit. A failure was defined as missing any frequency (1000, 2000, or 4000 Hz) in either ear at 20-dB hearing level.