BACKGROUND Published methods for assessing remission in schizophrenia are variable and none have been definitively validated or standardized. Andreasen et al (2005) suggest systematic operational criteria using eight PANSS items for which patients must score < or = 3 (mild) for at least six months. METHODS Using data from a one year, multi-site clinical trial (n = 675) remission criteria were...

Physical fitness is considered a major factor contributing to the maintenance of independent living and everyday competence. In line with this notion, it has been shown that several years of amateur dancing experience can exert beneficial effects not only on balance and posture but also on tactile, motor, and cognitive functions in older people. This raises the question of whether an even more ...

Ambient assisted living technologies (AAL) are regarded as a promising solution to support aging in place. Yet, their efficacy has to be demonstrated in terms of benefits for independent living and for work conditions of caregivers. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the benefits of a multi-task AAL platform for both Frail older Individuals (FIs) and professional caregivers with res...

OBJECTIVES We aimed to assess the correlation between muscle strength and muscle mass based on sex and age, and their association with walking speed, which is a health predictor for independent living, in elderly Japanese individuals. METHODS The participants included 318 (111 men, 207 women) community-dwelling elderly Japanese individuals aged ≥65 years. Knee extension strength was assessed ...

Using a longitudinal dataset which followed 2195 individuals employed in 3379 separate job placements over a four-year period, this paper explores movement between the employment supports, [Transitional (TE), Supported (SE), and Independent Employment (IE)], offered by clubhouses. Sixty-four percent of employed members held only one job (N=1395) and 36% held multiple jobs during the study (N=79...

Independent living technologies have tremendous potential to facilitate the study of aging and chronic disease. By collecting medical and behavioral data continuously as people live their daily lives, we are able to form a much clearer picture of the changes in people’s health, and the efficacy of treatments over time, than is possible by using periodic clinical visits. However, deploying these...

One of the most important questions in studying quantum computation is: whether a quantum computer can solve NP-complete problems more efficiently than a classical computer? In 2000, Farhi, et al. (Science, 292(5516):472–476, 2001) proposed the adiabatic quantum optimization (AQO), a paradigm that directly attacks NP-hard optimization problems. How powerful is AQO? Early on, van Dam and Vaziran...

The goal of the standards is to “address what a voting system should reliably do, not how system components should be configured to meet these requirement” [5, Vol I §1.1]. The standards present a certification procedure involving testing by an Independent Testing Authority (ITA) and many jurisdictions cannot use systems that are uncertified. Virtually all vendors have this testing done. Nevert...

The present study was conducted to examine the rates of symptomatic remission, the level of community functioning; and to assess functional recovery in a sample of chronic schizophrenia out-patients; to compare recovered versus nonrecovered patients according to demographic and clinical variables; and to identify predictive factors for recovery. Results indicate that 48.4% (n=92) patients fulfi...

To answer this question it is first necessary to examine what is meant by living independently in the community and exercising independence in personal relationships and at home. This will provide a yardstick against which social services and health services can be evaluated, to determine the extent to which the support provided is, or is not, failing to enable disabled people to exercise indep...