Background: In the Millennium Villages Project site of Bonsaaso, Ghana, the Health Team is using a mobile phone closed user group to place calls amongst one another at no cost.
Methods: In order to determine the utilization and acceptability of the closed user group amongst users, social network analysis and qualitative methods were used. Key informants were identified and interviewed. The key informants also kept prospective call journals. Billing statements and de-identified call data from the closed user group were used to generate data for analyzing the social structure revealed by the network traffic.
Results: The majority of communication within the closed user group was personal and not for professional purposes. The members of the CUG felt that the group improved their efficiency at work.
Conclusions: The methods used present an interesting way to investigate the social structure surrounding communication via mobile phones. In addition, the benefits identified from the exploration of this closed user group make a case for supporting mobile phone closed user groups amongst professional groups.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-13-100 | DOI Listing |
BMC Musculoskelet Disord
January 2025
Department of Operating Room Technology, Community based psychiatric care research center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz-Iran, Nemazee Square, Shiraz, 71936-13119, Iran.
Objective: Timely and complete surgical wound healing substantially affects the patient's performance and satisfaction with surgery outcomes. Sutures and staples are two common wound closure methods in total knee arthroplasty; however, their role in reducing the rate of surgical wound infections and dehiscence in diabetic patients is unclear. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the rate of infection and post-closure dehiscence in wounds closed with either nylon sutures or skin staples in diabetic patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Prev Alzheimers Dis
January 2025
Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92037, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92037, USA. Electronic address:
Background: Healthy Actions and Lifestyles to Avoid Dementia Program (HALT-AD) or Hispanos y el ALTo a la Demencia is a recently-developed online educational platform to help individuals identify and modify their own dementia modifiable risk factors (MRF). In light of known challenges in recruiting and retaining diverse participants in research studies, there is a need to identify data-informed strategies that will contribute to effective outreach and tailored implementation of HALT-AD among its intended users of Hispanic and non-Hispanic midlife and older adults in the US.
Objectives: To identify factors (i.
Biotechnol Bioeng
January 2025
Bioprinting Laboratories Inc., Dallas, Texas, USA.
Recent advancements in three-dimensional (3D) cell culture technologies, such as cell spheroids, organoids, and 3D bioprinted tissue constructs, have significantly improved the physiological relevance of in vitro models. These models better mimic tissue structure and function, closely emulating in vivo characteristics and enhancing phenotypic analysis, critical for basic research and drug screening in personalized cancer therapy. Despite their potential, current 3D cell culture platforms face technical challenges, which include user-unfriendliness in long-term dynamic cell culture, incompatibility with rapid cell encapsulation in biomimetic hydrogels, and low throughput for compound screening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLab Chip
January 2025
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, 20 Kirkwood Avenue, Ilam, Christchurch, New Zealand.
New flow control elements in capillaric circuits are key to achieving ever more complex lab-on-a-chip functionality while maintaining their autonomous and easy-to-use nature. Capillary field effect transistors valves allow for flow in channels to be restricted and cut off utilising a high pressure triggering channel and occluding air bubble. The reversible capillary field effect transistor presented here provides a new element that can restore fluid flow in closed microchannels autonomous circuit feedback.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Open
January 2025
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Diabetology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Objective: As an emerging technology, Android-based open-source closed-loop system also called Android Artificial Pancreas System (AAPS), has been increasingly validated by evidence for its effectiveness in improving glycaemic outcomes, positioning it as a crucial option for managing type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, there are still only a few studies examining the experiences of using AAPS, and relevant qualitative studies have not been conducted in Asia so far. This study aimed to explore the experiences and opinions of adult patients with T1D on the AAPS.
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