OBJECTIVE The World Health Organization has led the development of a Decision-Making Tool for Family Planning Clients and Providers (DMT) to improve the quality of family planning counseling. This study investigates the DMT's impact on health communication in Nicaragua. METHODS Fifty nine service providers in Nicaragua were videotaped with 426 family planning clients 3 months before and 4 mon...

BACKGROUND Differences in Multiple sclerosis (MS) disease-modifying therapy (DMT) prescribing patterns between different groups of neurologists have not been explored. OBJECTIVE To examine concentrations of prescribing patterns and to assess if MS-specialists use a broader range of DMTs relative to general neurologists. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study using administrative claim...

OBJECTIVE Comorbidities are common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and adversely affect health outcomes. However, the effect of comorbidity on treatment decisions in MS remains unknown. We aimed to examine the effects of comorbidity on initiation of injectable disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) and on the choice of the initial DMT in MS. METHODS We conducted a retrospective observational analysis ...

In this dissertation, advanced modulation schemes and digital signal processing techniques are proposed and investigated through both numerical simulations as well as experiments, in order to overcome the limitations of multimode step index plastic optical fibers (SI-POF) to support data rates in the order of Gbps. In particular, novel multi-carrier modulation techniques with the inherent prope...

This study was designed to compare the efficacy of double-modality therapy, phonophoresis and cryotherapy in the management of pain among subjects who suffered from musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs).Sixty (60) subjects were assigned randomly to one of three groups: DMT group (n=20) received cryotherapy and 15% methyl salicylate phonophoresis, PHONO group (n=20) received 15% methyl salicylate phon...

Neurotoxicity due to excessive brain manganese (Mn) accumulation can occur via occupational exposure to aerosols or dusts that contain extremely high levels (>1-5 mg Mn/m(3)) of Mn, or metabolic aberrations (decreased biliary excretion). Given the putative role of astrocytes in regulating the movement of metals across the blood-brain barrier, we sought to examine the relationship between iron (...

In this two-part paper, we consider the multiantenna multihop relay channels in which the source signal arrives at the destination through N independent relaying hops in series. The main concern of this work is to design relaying strategies that utilize efficiently the relays in such a way that the diversity is maximized. In part I, we focus on the amplify-and-forward (AF) strategy with which t...

Simple one-pot methods for preparation of 2-oxazolines have been developed using 4-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-4-methylmorpholinium chloride (DMT-MM). Treatment of a mixture of carboxylic acids and 2-haloethylammonium salts with DMT-MM in methanol followed by refluxing in the presence of KOH gives oxazolines.

PURPOSE To compare adherence and persistence among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) initiated on disease-modifying therapy (DMTs), including intramuscular (IM) interferon beta-1a (IFNβ-1a), subcutaneous (SC) IFNβ-1a, IFNβ-1b, or glatiramer acetate (GA). METHODS MS patients initiated on IM-IFNβ-1a, SC-IFNβ-1a, IFNβ-1b, or GA between January 1, 2000 and January 2, 2008 were identified from...

Dialogue Macrogame Theory is designed to enable analysis of particular natural dialogues. Some dialogues can be analyzed with DMT; some cannot. Where it fits, DMT gives a partial technical characterization of the classes of dialogues represented in the analyses. This paper is focused on presenting the elements of the theory. Other presentations are expected to describe its application and valid...