INTRODUCTION Patient and public involvement in healthcare planning, service development and health-related research has received significant attention. However, evidence about the role of patient involvement in quality improvement work is more limited. We aimed to characterize patient involvement in three improvement projects and to identify strengths and weaknesses of contrasting approaches. ...

We propose a general framework for analyzing structural limited dependent variable models where an endogenous regressor is also limited in range. A copula-based modeling of structural joint distributions permits us to implement a full information maximum likelihood estimation of parameters. We apply this modeling strategy to the March 1992 and 2002 CPS data for estimating the average partial ef...

BACKGROUND Programmes have had limited success in improving guideline adherence for chronic disease. Use of theory is recommended but is often absent in programmes conducted in 'real-world' rather than research settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS This mixed-methods study tested a retrospective theory-based approach to evaluate a 'real-world' programme in primary care to improve adherence to natio...

Background. Today, technology is becoming one of the most critical factors that have led to the internationalization of competition in the sports industry. Nowadays, the sports industry is increasingly in need of technology to facilitate proper performance. Objectives. The present study aimed to identify the outcomes of using new technologies in the development of recreational sports. Methods...

We present a collaborative team of two under-actuated autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) that performs a cooperative navigation task while satisfying a communication constraint. Our approach is based on the use of a hierarchical control structure where a supervisory module commands each vessel to perform prioritized elementary tasks, a behavior-based controller generates motion directives to ach...

Background and Objective: Children with Autism spectrum Disorder (ASD) are limited in participation in everyday activities due to the nature of their disorder. Participation means involvement in life situations. The aim of this study was to evaluate psychometric properties of “the Children Participation Assessment Scale-Parent Version” (CPAS-P) in activities outside of school in Iranian childre...

The new techniques in seismic design of structures are usually attributed to high damping ratios. In such systems, the assumption of classical (i.e. proportional) damping is not valid and in most cases they should be considered as Non-classical systems. Since the analytical tools for studying the behavior of such structures are not easily available, the present work attempts to find the limits,...