Although the etiological agent of Lyme disease has been known since 1980s, diagnosis of Lyme disease is still a controversial topic because of the wide range of clinical manifestations and the limited diagnostic tools available to assess Borrelia in humans. The most used diagnostic tool for Lyme disease is currently serology, but also Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and other methods are often ...

In the assessment of the adverse effects pollutants can produce on exposed ecosystems, different approaches can be followed depending on the quality and quantity of information available, whose advantages and limits are discussed with reference to the aquatic compartment. When experimental data are lacking, a predictive approach can be pursued by making use of validated quantitative structure-a...

The technology behind information systems evolves at an exponential rate, while at the same time becoming more and more ubiquitous. This brings with it an implicit rise in the average complexity of systems as well as the number of external interactions. In order to allow a proper assessment of the security of such (sub)systems, a whole arsenal of methodologies, methods and tools have been devel...

OBJECTIVE To compare the Women's Experience with Battering Scale (WEB) with the Index of Spouse Abuse-Physical Scale (ISA-P) as screening tools to identify intimate partner violence (IPV). METHODS We conducted a large cross-sectional survey of women age 18 to 65 attending one of two family practice clinics from 1997 to 1998. All women completed both the WEB and the ISA-P and a telephone inter...

When confronted with the question “Should validated dementia self-assessment and screening tools be made widely available in electronic format and on the internet?”, a cascade of associated questions follows, often starting with “What if ?”. What if the population targeted is not internet savvy? What if individuals cannot understand the implications of the results? What if, after finding out th...

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder mainly involving joints. It is a lifelong process &its etiology is poorly understood.It is the result of interaction between the environmental factors with the genetics of persons which is likely to associated with the disease. Many assessment tools have been used for assessing the disease with each having its own merits & demerits. For it...

OBJECTIVE To identify all published papers on risk factors and risk assessment tools for falls in hospital inpatients. To identify clinical risk assessment tools or individual clinical risk factors predictive of falls, with the ultimate aim of informing the design of effective fall prevention strategies. DESIGN Systematic literature review (Cochrane methodology). Independent assessment of qua...

background: this study aimed to determine neonatal nurses’ perceptions of knowledge and practice in pain management in nicus & neonatal units. methods: a cross-sectional descriptive study design was used. a total of 120 neonatal nurses who working in nicus & neonatal units in ardebil province, iran were selected using the convenience sampling technique. a questionnaire of nurses’ perceptions of...

OBJECTIVE to conduct a systematic review of published studies that test the validity and reliability of fall-risk assessment tools for use among older adults in community, home-support, long-term and acute care settings. METHODS searches were conducted in EbscoHost and MEDLINE for published studies in the English language between January 1980 and July 2004, where the primary or secondary purp...