BACKGROUND Current end-of-life hospital care can be of poor quality and high cost. High volume and/or specialist care, and standardized care with clinical practice guidelines, has improved outcomes and costs in other areas of cancer care. METHODS The objective of this study was to measure the impact of the palliative care unit (PCU) on the cost of care. The PCU is a dedicated 11-bed inpatient...

A highly aligned pattern of carbon nanofibers (CNF) on polycarbonate urethane (PCU) for tissue engineering applications was created by placing a CNF-ethanol solution in 30 microm width copper grid grooves on top of PCU. In vitro results provided the first evidence that fibroblasts and vascular smooth muscle cells selectively adhered to the PCU regions. However, endothelial cells did not display...

A new type of controlled release fertilizers coated with polyurea was prepared. The granulated urea was firstly changed into a liquid urea by heating as the coating liquid. By spraying uniformly the urea was coated with the polyurea synthesized by the reaction of isocyanates with a liquid urea. The effects of different modifiers on N release characteristics of polyurea-coated urea (PCU) were st...

We investigated the effects of hyperthermia on the healing process of experimental Pseudomonas corneal ulceration (PCU). Hartley guinea pigs were used to develop animal models of PCU. As a heat source, disposable chemical pocket warmers were applied. The healing process of PCU was compared between the heat-treated corneas and the control corneas. The severity of infection and the degree of angi...

Polymer coated urea (PCU) is a N fertilizer which, when added to moist soil, uses temperature-controlled diffusion to regulate N release in matching plant demand and mitigate environmental losses. Uncoated urea and PCU were compared for their effects on gaseous (N2O and NH3) and aqueous (NO3(-)) N environmental losses in cool season turfgrass over the entire PCU N-release period. Field studies ...

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of polyurethane coated urea on in vitro ruminal fermentation, ammonia release dynamics and lactating performance of Holstein dairy cows fed a steam-flaked corn-based diet. In Exp. 1, a dual-flow continuous culture was run to investigate the effect of polyurethane coated urea on nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation parameters and ...

Poorly drained claypan soils can increase the importance of tillage and N management for corn (Zea mays L.) production. Field research in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (high rainfall years) near Novelty, MO (40° 1' N, 92° 11' W) sought to determine the effect of polymer-coated urea (PCU) placement [strip-tillage (ST) deep banded and no-till (NT) broadcast] and application timing (fall, early preplant...

BACKGROUND Maternal social deprivation is associated with an increased risk of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. Inadequate prenatal care utilization (PCU) is likely to be an important intermediate factor. The health care system in France provides essential health services to all pregnant women irrespective of their socioeconomic status. Our aim was to assess the association between mate...

To investigate the interacting effects of polymer coated urea (PCU) and polymer coated potassium chloride (PCPC) on cotton growth, an experiment was conducted with containerized plants in 2014 and 2015. There were two kinds of nitrogen fertilizer, PCU and urea, which were combined with PCPC at three application rates (40, 80 and 120 kg ha-1). The kinds of nitrogen fertilizer formed the main plo...