Costs of an Alcohol Measurement Intervention in Three Latin American Countries

Alcohol measurement in health care settings is an effective intervention for reducing alcohol-related harm. However, in many countries, costs related to alcohol measurement have not yet been transparently assessed, which may hinder its adoption and implementation. Costs of an alcohol measurement programme in three upper-middle-income Latin American countries were assessed via questionnaires and compared, as part of the quasi-experimental SCALA study. Additional to the intervention costs, the costs of three implementation strategies: standard training and clinical package, intensive training and clinical package, and community support, were assessed and subsequently translated into costs per additional alcohol measurement session. Results demonstrated that costs for one alcohol measurement session ranged between Int$ 0.67 and Int$ 1.23 in Colombia, Int$ 1.19 and Int$ 2.57 in Mexico, and Int$ 1.11 and Int$ 2.14 in Peru. Costs were mainly driven by the salaries of the health professionals. Implementation strategies costs per additional alcohol measurement session ranged between Int$ 1.24 and Int$ 6.17. In all three countries, standard training and a clinical package may be a promising implementation strategy with a relatively low cost per additional alcohol measurement session.

Can use of pictograms reduce liquid medication administration errors by mothers? An interventional study

Background Liquid medication dosing errors (LMDE) made by caregivers affect treatment in children, but this is not a well-studied topic in many low-and middle-income countries including in India. Methods An intervention study was conducted among mothers attending a pediatric outpatient clinic of a tertiary care setting in Ujjain, India. The mothers randomly measured 12 volumes of a paracetamol liquid preparation by using a dropper (0.5 and 1 mL), measuring cup (2.5 and 5 mL), and calibrated spoon (2.5 and 5 mL) each with two instructions—oral-only measurement session (OMS) and oral plus pictogram measurement session (OPMS, the intervention). The main outcome was dosing error prevalence. The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed by measuring effect size. Risk factors for maximum LMDE were explored using backward multivariate logistic regression models. A P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results In total, 310 mothers [mean (± SD) age, 30.2 (± 4.18) years] were included. LMDE prevalence in the OMS versus OPMS for dropper 0.5 mL was 60% versus 48%; for l mL dropper was 63% versus 54%; for 2.5 mL cup 62% versus 54%; for 2.5 calibrated spoon 66% versus 59%; 5 mL cup 69% versus 57%; and 5 mL calibrated spoon 68% versus 55%. Comparing OMS with OPMS, underdosing was minimum with the calibrated spoon for 2.5 mL (OR 4.39) and maximum with the dropper for 1 mL (OR 9.40), and overdosing was minimum with the dropper for 0.5 mL (OR 7.12) and maximum with the calibrated spoon for 2.5 mL (OR 13.24). The effect size (dCohen) of the intervention OPMS was 1.86–6.4. Risk factors for the most prevalent dosing error, that is, with the calibrated spoon for 2.5 mL, were increasing age of the mother (aOR 1.08; P = 0.026) and nuclear family (aOR 2.83; P = 0.002). The risk of dosing errors decreased with higher education of the mothers. Conclusions Pictograms can effectively minimize LMDE even in less educated mothers.

One-year long common view measurements with continuous gravimeters

&lt;p&gt;Since a few years, several laboratories, institutes or organizations through the world have acquired marketed quantum absolute gravimeters AQG developed by Muquans. Among their potentialities, these new generations of instruments are expected to complement the existing capabilities of long term monitoring of the Earth gravity field. A metrological evaluation of their performances for long-term measurements is thus a first step.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The LNE-SYRTE gravimetry laboratory in the suburb of Paris, has been designed to accommodate other gravimeters for metrological comparisons, tests and calibrations. Instruments of different classes operate in this well characterized laboratory: a laboratory-based absolute cold atom gravimeter (CAG) and a relative superconducting gravimeter iGrav. Both instruments allow for continuous measurements, Accuracy is guaranteed by the CAG and long-term stability by the iGrav.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We there have performed a more than one-year long measurement session with the initial version of the marketed quantum gravimeter AQG (AQG-A01).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An improved version of this AQG (AQG-B01) designed for outdoor measurement and recently acquired by RESIF (the French Seismologic and Geodetic Network) has been also implemented to close this session with a last month of simultaneous data recording involving all the instruments. Finally, we also performed supplementary accuracy tests, in particular to evaluate the Coriolis bias of the two AQG commercial sensors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The talk will briefly present the different instruments to rapidly focus on the performances of the AQGs and results of the comparisons.&lt;/p&gt;

Reliability of 3D measurement of pelvic and lower limb kinematics during two single leg landing tasks

Study aim: Three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis is one of the available methods used to evaluate body kinematics. The aim of this study was to assess the intrarater reliability of measurement of pelvic and lower limb kinematics during two single leg landing tasks using 3D motion analysis. Material and methods: 19 healthy volunteers (8 women, 11 men, age 23.1 ± 2.8 years, weight 70.7 ± 9.2 kg, height 174.8 ± 6.7 cm) performed five repeated single leg hurdle hops (SLHH) (30 cm height) and five single leg drop landings (SLDL) from a box (40 cm height) in one measurement session with a 15-minute break and after marker replacement with 3D assessment. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), and the smallest detectable differences (SDD) were used to examine the reliability of kinematic parameters during the landing phase. Results: The average intrarater ICC for SLHH was 0.92 (SEM = 1.69°, SDD 4.68°) and for SLDL was 0.96 (SEM = 0.81°, SDD = 2.26°). After marker replacement ICC decreased to an average value of 0.81 (SEM = 2.05°, SDD 5.68°) for SLHH and 0.82 (SEM = 2.36°, SDD 6.53°) for SLDL. Conclusions: Using the 3D method to evaluate pelvis and lower limb kinematics during single leg landing in one measurement session is a high reliability method for most parameters. Marker replacement is one of the factors that reduce the reliability of measures. When applying the SEM and SDD values, which the present paper contains, it is worth mentioning that the obtained results are caused by measurement error or they are due to individual issues.

Statistical Distribution Analysis of Navigation Positioning System Errors—Issue of the Empirical Sample Size

Positioning systems are used to determine position coordinates in navigation (air, land, and marine). Statistical analysis of their accuracy assumes that the position errors (latitude—δφ and longitude—δλ) are random and that their distributions are consistent with the normal distribution. However, in practice, these errors do not appear in a random way, since the position determination in navigation systems is done with an iterative method. It causes so-called “Position Random Walk”, similar to the term “Random Walk” known from statistics. It results in the empirical distribution of δφ and δλ being inconsistent with the normal distribution, even for samples of up to several thousand measurements. This phenomenon results in a significant overestimation of the accuracy of position determination calculated from such a short series of measurements, causing these tests to lose their representativeness. This paper attempts to determine the length of a measurement session (number of measurements) that is representative of the positioning system. This will be a measurement session of such a length that the position error statistics (δφ and δλ) represented by the standard deviation values are close to the real values and the calculated mean values (φ¯ and λ¯) are also close to the real values. Special attention will also be paid to the selection of an appropriate (statistically reliable) number of measurements to be tested statistically to verify the hypothesis that the δφ and δλ distributions are consistent with the normal distribution. Empirical measurement data are taken from different positioning systems: Global Positioning System (GPS) (168′286 fixes), Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) (864′000 fixes), European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) (928′492 fixes), and Decca Navigator system (4052 fixes). The analyses showed that all researched positioning systems (GPS, DGPS, EGNOS and Decca Navigator) are characterized by the Position Random Walk (PRW), which resulted in that the empirical distribution of δφ and δλ being inconsistent with the normal distribution. The size of the PRW depends on the nominal accuracy of position determination by the system. It was found that measurement sessions consisting of 1000 fixes (for the GPS system) overestimate the accuracy analysis results by 109.1% and cannot be considered representative. Furthermore, when analyzing the results of long measurement campaigns (GPS and DGPS), it was found that the representative length of the measurement session differs for each positioning system and should be determined for each of them individually.

Multi-Instance Inertial Navigation System for Radar Terrain Imaging

Navigation systems used for the motion correction (MOCO) of radar terrain images have several limitations, including the maximum duration of the measurement session, the time duration of the synthetic aperture, and only focusing on minimizing long-term positioning errors of the radar host. To overcome these limitations, a novel, multi-instance inertial navigation system (MINS) has been proposed by the authors. In this approach, the classic inertial navigation system (INS), which works from the beginning to the end of the measurement session, was replaced by short INS instances. The initialization of each INS instance is performed using an INS/GPS system and is triggered by exceeding the positioning error of the currently operating instance. According to this procedure, both INS instances operate simultaneously. The parallel work of the instances is performed until the image line can be calculated using navigation data originating only from the new instance. The described mechanism aims to perform instance switching in a manner that does not disturb the initial phases of echo signals processed in a single aperture. The obtained results indicate that the proposed method improves the imaging quality compared to the methods using the classic INS or the INS/GPS system.

An Acoustic Survey of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris before and after the Fire of 2019

The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is amongst the most well-known worship spaces in the world. Its large volume, in combination with a relatively bare stone construction and marble floor, leads to rather long reverberation times. The cathedral suffered from a significant fire in 2019, resulting in damage primarily to the roof and vaulted ceiling. Despite the notoriety of this space, there are few examples of published data on the acoustical parameters of this space, and these data do not agree. Archived measurement recordings from 1987 were recovered and found to include several balloon bursts. In 2015, a measurement session was carried out for a virtual reality project. Comparisons between results from these two sessions show a slight but significant decrease in reverberation time (8%) in the pre-fire state. Measurements were recently carried out on the construction site, 1 year since the fire. Compared to 2015 data, the reverberation time significantly decreased (20%). This paper presents the preliminary results of these measurements, providing a documentation of the acoustics of this historic worship space both prior to and since the 2019 fire.

Physiological and biomechanical comparison of overground, treadmill, and ergometer handrim wheelchair propulsion in able-bodied subjects under standardized conditions

Background Handrim wheelchair propulsion is often assessed in the laboratory on treadmills (TM) or ergometers (WE), under the assumption that they relate to regular overground (OG) propulsion. However, little is known about the agreement of data obtained from TM, WE, and OG propulsion under standardized conditions. The current study aimed to standardize velocity and power output among these three modalities to consequently compare obtained physiological and biomechanical outcome parameters. Methods Seventeen able-bodied participants performed two submaximal practice sessions before taking part in a measurement session consisting of 3 × 4 min of submaximal wheelchair propulsion in each of the different modalities. Power output and speed for TM and WE propulsion were matched with OG propulsion, making them (mechanically) as equal as possible. Physiological data and propulsion kinetics were recorded with a spirometer and a 3D measurement wheel, respectively. Results Agreement among conditions was moderate to good for most outcome variables. However, heart rate was significantly higher in OG propulsion than in the TM condition. Push time and contact angle were smaller and fraction of effective force was higher on the WE when compared to OG/TM propulsion. Participants used a larger cycle time and more negative work per cycle in the OG condition. A continuous analysis using statistical parametric mapping showed a lower torque profile in the start of the push phase for TM propulsion versus OG/WE propulsion. Total force was higher during the start of the push phase for the OG conditions when compared to TM/WE propulsion. Conclusions Physiological and biomechanical outcomes in general are similar, but possible differences between modalities exist, even after controlling for power output using conventional techniques. Further efforts towards increasing the ecological validity of lab-based equipment is advised and the possible impact of these differences -if at all- in (clinical) practice should be evaluated.

Genesis, Procedures, Attrition Rate and Major Reasons for Missing Measurement Session by the Study Participants in the Ellisras Longitudinal Study

The noncommunicable diseases’ (NCDs) profile is changing rapidly from one country to another. A well-formulated cohort study in Africa could answer major questions relating to the changing profile of NCDs risk in Africa. The aim of the present study was to outline the genesis, procedures, attrition rate and major reasons for study participants to miss measurement sessions in the Ellisras Longitudinal Study (ELS). Method: The ELS followed multiple longitudinal designs comprising repeated measurements in more than one cohort with overlapping ages. Age cohort and time of measurement effects could be identified. A cluster random sampling method was used to sample 2255 participants (1201 males and 1054 females), aged 2 to 10.9 years at baseline (November 1996). Information on lifestyle (tobacco and smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and socioeconomic status) and biological risk factors for NCD and educational achievements were collected over time. The participants were followed 17 times over the past 25 years with measurements (blood pressure and anthropometry) collected twice during the first consecutive 8 years to account for growth dynamics and other health-related variables. The attrition rate for ELS sample for boys (14%–27.3%) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than girls (7.9%–18.6%) from May 1999 to November 2003. There was a significant (p < 0.05) increase (25.3%–70.3%) in attrition rate from November 2009 to December 2015. The ELS participant migration to urban areas provided a unique opportunity to investigate the effect of urban life on these rural young adults given the previous data collected on the same subjects at a younger age (3–10 years at baseline in 1996). Conclusion: A well-formulated ELS study in Africa could answer major questions relating to the changing magnitude of NCDs risk factor profiles in Africa.

Effects of Tinnitus Sound Therapy depending on Air- and Bone-Conduction Transducers

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine to compare the effects of sound therapy depending on air- and bone-conduction transducers (ACT and BCT). Methods: Participants were twenty adults who have diagnosed as subjective tinnitus in this study. All participants conducted a sound therapy using the level of mixing point for three months. Participants were randomly assigned to different groups, such as the ACT group, or BCT group. To identify the effects of sound therapy, Korean tinnitus primary function questionnaire (K-TPFQ) and visual analogue scale (VAS) were administered at pre- and post-treatment (3 months) sessions. Results: In a result of mixed model analysis of variance, all subcategories for VAS showed significant decrements of scores to the measurement session (pre- vs. post-session), but there was no different between groups. Also, the overall and all subcategories for K-TPFQ showed significant decrements of scores to the measurement session (prevs. post-session), but there was no different between groups. Conclusion: As a result of this study, the sound therapy using portable hearing devices with transducers is effective for subjective tinnitus sufferers. Because the transducer type does not significantly affect effectiveness of the sound therapy, therefore, audiologists or hearing professionals may recommend transducers, which the tinnitus sufferer prefers when they consider sound therapy.