[Purpose] Eye-hand coordination declines with age, but physical activity is known to slow down the degeneration. Playing mahjong involves lots of eye-hand coordination. The objective was to investigate the relationship between playing mahjong and eye-hand coordination in older adults using a fast finger-pointing paradigm. [Subjects and Methods] Forty-one community dwelling older adults aged six...

Whereas the feasibility and effectiveness of Internet-based epidemiologic research have been established, methodological support for the quality of such data is still accumulating. We aimed to identify sociodemographic differences among members of a French cohort according to willingness to provide part of one's 15-digit national identification number (personal Social Security number (PSSN)) an...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess the content validity of a questionnaire to measure melanoma risk, knowledge and protective behaviour in a convenience sample of Scots and Australians. Australia has the highest melanoma incidence worldwide but has developed a culture of skin cancer avoidance with a long history of skin cancer primary prevention campaigns of proven effectiveness. Sc...

We survey contributions of Robert MacPherson to the theory of arithmetic groups. There are two main areas we discuss: (i) explicit reduction theory for Siegel modular threefolds, and (ii) constructions of compactifications of locally symmetric spaces. The former is joint work with Mark McConnell, the latter with Lizhen Ji.

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to obtain patients' experiences in making the transition from an acute care hospital to their homes in the community. METHOD Data were gathered through group and telephone interviews with a volunteer sample of 27 discharged patients. Analysis involved two stages: categorization of shared themes and interpretation of individual occupational experiences. RE...

OBJECTIVES An influenza pandemic, as with any disaster involving contagion or contamination, has the potential to influence the number of health care employees who will report for duty. Our project assessed the uptake of proposed interventions to mitigate absenteeism in hospital workers during a pandemic. METHODS Focus groups were followed by an Internet-based survey of a convenience sample f...

OBJECTIVES To identify the reasons why some people do not participate in bowel cancer screening so that steps can be taken to improve informed decision-making. DESIGN Qualitative study, using focus groups with thematic analysis of data to identify, analyse and report patterns. Transcripts were repeatedly read and inductively coded using a phenomenological perspective, and organised into key t...

Although several states have implemented programs providing boxes for infant sleep, safe sleep experts express concern regarding the paucity of safety and efficacy research on boxes. The purpose of this study was to assess pregnant women's perceptions regarding use of baby sleep boxes. A convenience sample was recruited from a community prenatal education program. Twenty-eight women were admini...

Reagent pre-storage in a microfluidic chip can enhance operator convenience, simplify the system design, reduce the cost of storage and shipment, and avoid the risk of cross-contamination. Although dry reagents have long been used in lateral flow immunoassays, they have rarely been used for nucleic acid-based point-of-care (POC) assays due to the lack of reliable techniques to dehydrate and sto...

Zanzibar has transitioned from malaria control to the pre-elimination phase, and the continued need for intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy (IPTp) has been questioned. We conducted a prospective observational study to estimate placental malaria positivity rate among women who did not receive IPTp with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. A convenience sample of pregnant women was enrolled ...