Search results for "improvement"

Goals and Principles of Providers Working with People Experiencing Homelessness: A Comparison Between Housing First and Traditional Staircase Service…

2019

Contains fulltext : 207157.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) The implementation and adaptation of the Housing First (HF) model represented profound changes the structure and delivery, goals, and principles of homeless services. These features of homeless services directly influence providers, their work performance and the clients' outcomes. The present research, conducted in eight European countries, investigated how social providers working in HF or TS (Traditional Staircase) describe and conceptualize the goals and the principles of their services. Data were collected through 29 focus group discussions involving 121 providers. The results showed that HF and TS had similar and diff…

Physicians' guideline adherence is associated with long-term heart failure mortality in outpatients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction…

2019

Background Physicians’ adherence to guideline-recommended therapy is associated with short-term clinical outcomes in heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, its impact on longer-term outcomes is poorly documented. In this analysis we assessed the longer-term association of physicians’ adherence with clinical outcomes, including mortality and unplanned hospitalisations, at 18-month follow-up of the QUALIFY registry (Clinical trial registration ISRCTN87465420) Method and results Data at 18 months were available for 6118 ambulatory HFrEF patients from this international prospective observational survey. Adherence was measured as a continuous variable, ranging from 0…

Effectiveness of a Psychosocial Care Quality Improvement Strategy to Address Quality of Life in Patients with Cancer: The HuCare2 Stepped-Wedge Clust…

2021

Key Points Question Does an implementation strategy integrating psychosocial care into cancer centers improve at least 1 of 2 domains (emotional or social function) of health-related quality of life? Findings This stepped-wedge cluster randomized clinical trial included 762 patients with cancer at high risk for reduced quality of life. Health-related quality of life score improved from baseline to 3 months among participants in the Humanization in Cancer Care Quality Improvement Strategy arm vs the usual care arm, showing a statistically significant difference for emotional function, but not for social function. Meaning This study suggests the use of an implementation strategy aiming to pro…

Identification of the Uric Acid Thresholds Predicting an Increased Total and Cardiovascular Mortality Over 20 Years

2020

Serum uric acid (SUA) levels discriminating across the different strata of cardiovascular risk is still unknown. By utilizing a large population-based database, we assessed the threshold of SUA that increases the risk of total mortality and cardiovascular mortality (CVM). The URRAH study (Uric Acid Right for Heart Health) is a multicentre retrospective, observational study, which collected data from several large population-based longitudinal studies in Italy and subjects recruited in the hypertension clinics of the Italian Society of Hypertension. Total mortality was defined as mortality for any cause, CVM as death due to fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden cardiac death, or heart…

Treatment of Severe Post-Prostatectomy Stress Urinary Incontinence Using Advance Sling

2010

Severe stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is usually treated by the implant of artificial sphincter positioned around bulbar urethra. AdVance sling is a functional, non-obstructive, anti-incontinence device that showed good results especially for mild and moderate SUI. We present our experience with AdVance sling in 7 patients with severe SUI unfit for artificial sphincter. Our results, after a follow-up of more than 6 months, showed a continence rate of 28% and an improvement rate of 43%, while 2 patients did not show any benefit. The success of AdVance sling depends on the integrity of urethral sphincter and can be applied also in selected cases for the treatment of severe post-prostatect…

Efficacy of switching between tumor necrosis factor-alfa inhibitors in psoriasis: results from the Italian Psocare registry

2014

Background: Some studies have shown that switching patients from one tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alfa inhibitor to another may be beneficial when they have an inadequate response or an adverse event. Objective: We sought to assess the variables predicting the efficacy of the second TNF-alfa inhibitor in patients discontinuing the first TNF-alfa inhibitor. Methods: Data from all 5423 consecutive patients starting TNF-alfa inhibitor therapy for psoriasis between September 2005 and September 2010 who were included in the Italian Psocare registry were analyzed. Results: In 105 patients who switched to a second TNF-alfa inhibitor who had complete follow-up data, 75% improvement in the Psoriasis …

Beyond robust design: an example of synergy between statistics and advanced engineering design

2002

Higher efficiency and effectiveness of Research & Development phases can be attained using advanced statistical methodologies. In this work statistical methodologies are combined with a deterministic approach to engineering design. In order to show the potentiality of such integration, a simple but effective example is presented. It concerns the problem of optimising the performance of a paper helicopter. The desgin of this simple device is not new in quality engineering literature and has been mainly used for educational purposes. Taking full advantage of fundamental engineering knowledge, an aerodynamic model is originally formulated in order to describe the fligh of the helicopter. S…

Il recupero parziale di opere in muratura di interesse storico in zona sismica

2011

Improvement of DSSC performance by voltage stress application

2016

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are promising third generation photovoltaic devices given their potential low cost and high efficiency. Some factors still affect DSSCs performance, such structure of electrodes, electrolyte compositions, nature of the sensitizers, power conversion efficiency, long-term stability, etc. In this work we discuss the effect of electrical stresses, which allow to improve DSSC performance. We have investigated the outcomes of forward and reverse DC bias stress as a function of time, voltage, and illumination level in the DSSCs sensitized with the N719, Ruthenium complex based dye. We demonstrate that all the major solar cell parameters, i.e., open circuit voltag…

Quasi-nash equilibria for non-convex distributed power allocation games in cognitive radios

2013

In this paper, we consider a sensing-based spectrum sharing scenario in cognitive radio networks where the overall objective is to maximize the sum-rate of each cognitive radio user by optimizing jointly both the detection operation based on sensing and the power allocation, taking into account the influence of the sensing accuracy and the interference limitation to the primary users. The resulting optimization problem for each cognitive user is non-convex, thus leading to a non-convex game, which presents a new challenge when analyzing the equilibria of this game where each cognitive user represents a player. In order to deal with the non-convexity of the game, we use a new relaxed equilib…