To cite: Franklin BD. BMJ Qual Saf Published Online First: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/ bmjqs-2016-005302 Smart pumps, incorporating dose error reduction software, are widely promoted as a patient safety intervention. 2 This software checks programmed intravenous infusion rates against preset limits for each drug in the pump’s ‘drug library’ with the aim of reducing the risk of ...

Existing measures of statistical linkage keys (SLKs) have usually focussed on how well a key represents the source population and on the extent of duplication ie multiple keys for one individual as well as multiple individuals sharing the same key. We really need to know whether the analysis of data linked by deterministic matching of SLKs leads to signifi cantly different conclusions than woul...

Does the ability to develop numerical concepts depend on our ability to use language? We consider the role of the vocabulary of counting words in developing numerical concepts. We challenge the 'bootstrapping' theory which claims that children move from using something like an object-file - an attentional process for responding to small numerosities - to a truly arithmetic one as a result of th...

The technology of producing methane gas from cow-dung and other wastes and using it as fuel for various, purposes has received considerable attention in India during the last de-cade. In the light of the growing energy shortage that the country facesgobar gas is being cited as having great potential for answering the energy needs of rural areas. Ink this climate it is relevant to explore the de...

BACKGROUND: Support groups help their participants to cope with the emotional and practical impact of their illnesses. METHODS: The effectiveness of the Leukemia Society of America support groups in enhancing the quality of life for their participants is reviewed. The groundwork, purpose, and structure of such groups, as well as alternate sources of support, are presented. Evaluation and future...

Electoral continuity and discontinuity have been a staple of voting research for decades. Most researchers have employed Pearson’s r as a measure of congruence between two electoral outcomes across a set of geographic units. This paper argues that that practice should be abandoned. The correlation coefficient is a measure of linearity, not similarity, and is almost always the wrong measure. The...

Copyright: © 2012 Williamson JB, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Pancreatic cysts are being discovered with increasing frequency due to the expanding use of cross-sectional imaging. The ...

In a strict sense, the subject of dynamic simulation model validity can be treated thoroughly and quickly: there are no fully valid models because all models are something less than the object, or system, being modeled. For example, millions of people have a conceptual model of the President, but, like fingerprints, no two of these models is exactly the same. Further, none matches precisely eve...

miRNAs are non-coding RNAs that bind to mRNA targets and disturb their stability and/or translation, thus acting in gene posttranscriptional regulation. It is predicted that over 30% of mRNAs are regulated by miRNAs. Therefore these molecules are considered essential in the processing of many biological responses, such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, and stress responsiveness. As miRNAs parti...