Care for Canada's frail elderly population: fragmentation or integration?

Budget constraints, technological advances and a growing elderly population have resulted in major reforms in health care systems across Canada. This has led to fewer and smaller acute care hospitals and increasing pressure on the primary care and continuing care networks. The present system of care for the frail elderly, who are particularly vulnerable, is characterized by fragmentation of services, negative incentives and the absence of accountability. This is turn leads to the inappropriate and costly use of health and social services, particularly in acute care hospitals and long-term care institutions. Canada needs to develop a publicly managed community-based system of primary care to provide integrated care for the frail elderly. The authors describe such a model, which would have clinical and financial responsibility for the full range of health and social services required by this population. This model would represent a major challenge and change for the existing system. Demonstration projects are needed to evaluate its cost-effectiveness and address issues raised by its introduction.     

Try again, Dr. Albee.

Comments on G. W. Albee's (1980) article on the value of the IQ concept and notes that the sentence attributed to H. H. Goddard (1913) on excessive retardation in the IQs of immigrants was actually L. Kamin's (1974) sentence. The statement was probably based not on IQ scores but on a test known to overestimate adult retardation even in native English-speaking populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A design for integration

For nearly two decades, the development of computerized information systems has struggled for acceptable compromises between the unattainable "total system" and the unacceptable separate applications. Integration of related applications is essential if the computer is to be exploited fully, yet relative simplicity is necessary for systems to be implemented in a reasonable time-scale. This paper discusses a system being progressively developed from minimal beginnings but which, from the outset, had a highly flexible and fully integrated system basis. The system is for batch processing, but can accommodate on-line data input; it is similar in its approach to many transaction-processing real-time systems.     

Research integration: Approaches, problems, and recommendations for research reporting.

Social scientists have generally failed to integrate the results of their research into a coherent body of knowledge. A principal reason for this failure is the inadequacy of traditional methods of research integration. Meta-analysis provides a greatly improved approach for integrating accumulations of research findings. Data needed for conducting a meta-analysis are described, and recommendations for research reporting in accordance with these requirements are offered. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

轴承钢端面碎裂原因分析与改进

通过对轴承钢端面碎裂进行分析,认为钢材端部的异常组织是导致矫直后端部碎裂的主要原因。由于轴承钢采用摩擦锯进行定尺锯切,使端部受热,并且端部组织发生了组织转变而产生碎裂。针对分析结果,采取了使用进口锯片锯切的补救措施,解决了钢材矫直过程中的碎裂问题。     

Hallucinations, sleep fragmentation, and altered dream phenomena in Parkinson''s disease

Middle ear effusion has been considered the most common cause of vestibular disturbance in children. However, there have been only a few studies on vestibular disturbance in children with otitis media with effusion. We studied the vestibular systems of 30 children with otitis media with effusion aged 8 to 13 years and compared the results with 15 age- and sex-matched controls. A questionnaire relating to vestibular disturbance was given to patients and their parents. Spontaneous nystagmus and positional nystagmus were recorded by electronystagmography as diagnostic tests of the vestibular system. Romberg's and past-pointing tests were performed on children with otitis media with effusion and controls. After vestibular tests were completed, myringotomy was performed, and a ventilation tube was inserted. The questionnaire and the vestibular tests were repeated after the operation and during the first month after surgery. Our study showed that there was a history of vestibular disturbance in 33% of children with otitis media with effusion. Electronystagmography and Romberg's test findings demonstrated that 33% of the children had vestibular dysfunction (p < 0.05). After myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion, vestibular test results returned to normal, and symptoms related to vestibular disturbance improved. These findings confirm the assumption that middle ear effusion may affect the vestibular system, which can be resolved after myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion.     

Publication, specialization, and fragmentation: Psychology in the academy.

Argues that W. Thorngate's (see record 1991-03036-001) proposals to alter the academic reward system to reduce production of psychological literature are based on a rationalist-constructivist conception of the social orders of science and academia. A radical rethinking of psychologists' views on the science of psychology will be necessary for avoiding fragmentation of the discipline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

People choose nursing for love, not money

This study looks at the occupational values of nursing students in the mid-1990s and compares the findings with a similar survey carried out in 1980 and published in Nursing Times. Both sets of respondents were particularly motivated by working with, and helping people. Extrinsic motivators, such as earning good money and having status and prestige, were not rated so highly.     

Controlled, forced collapse of cavitation bubbles for improved stone fragmentation during shock wave lithotripsy

The feasibility of using controlled, forced collapse of cavitation bubbles for improved stone fragmentation during shock wave lithotripsy was demonstrated using microsecond tandem shockwave pulses. High-speed photography revealed that a secondary shock wave, released in less than 500 microseconds (microsec.) following a lithotripter-generated shock wave, can be used to control and force the collapse of cavitation bubbles toward target concretions. This timely enforced shockwave-bubble interaction was found to greatly enhance the cavitational activity near the stone surface, with a resultant up to 43% increment in stone fragmentation. Since most of the cavitation energy is directed and concentrated toward the target stones and fewer shock waves are needed for successful stone comminution, tissue injury associated with this new lithotripsy procedure may also be reduced. This novel concept of shock wave lithotripsy may be used to improve the treatment efficiency and safety of existing clinical lithotripters, as well as in the design of new shock wave lithotripters.     

Treisman's search model does not require feature integration: Rejoinder to Treisman (1990).

A. Treisman's (1985) model does not entail integration in a sense that can be tested by her search paradigm. Models that do are incompatible with her data. Accordingly, the data do not support the notion of attentional feature integration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, selective attention, and feature integration.

This study used feature-integration theory as a means of determining the point in processing at which selective attention deficits originate. The theory posits an initial stage of processing in which features are registered in parallel and then a serial process in which features are conjoined to form complex stimuli. Performance of young and older adults on feature versus conjunction search is compared. Analyses of reaction times and error rates suggest that elderly adults, in addition to young adults, can capitalize on the early parallel processing stage of visual information processing, and that age decrements in visual search arise as a result of the later, serial stage of processing. Analyses of a third, unconfounded, conjunction search condition reveal qualitatively similar modes of conjunction search in young and older adults. The contribution of age-related data limitations is found to be secondary to the contribution of age decrements in selective attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)