Breast cancer statistics in the United States are staggering. As the number of women diagnosed grows, so does the number of women who are writing about their experiences. This thesis is a multi-textual work which includes both the stories of women with breast cancer as well as the thesis author's personal journal entries. Women's experiences are used to examine and critique current institutional and cultural responses to breast cancer. Experience literature reveals that efforts against breast cancer in the United States are emerging from two distinct ideologies which are identified as Cure and Prevention in this work. This thesis address the most prevalent issues within Cure and Prevention, and analyzes how these mindsets are shaped by definitions and expectations of femininity. The following pages elucidate how engendered values and socialization play out through the Cure and Prevention paradigms. Ultimately, the Prevention model will be shown as the one that most resolutely addresses the issue of breast cancer. Women's experiences and expertise are critical for understanding the ramifications of Cure and Prevention responses to breast cancer; women are informing and bridging misunderstandings between Cure and Prevention thinking. / Graduation date: 1997

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-229).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Clinical Nursing, 2003. / "March 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 340-350). Available in print format and electronically. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phw746.pdf Title page, contents and abstract only.

The Department of Health executed the contract with Tri-Service General Hospital on January 2, 2003, consigning the latter to render Penghu medical treatment services with the newly built ¡§Penghu Medical Care Building of Department of Health¡¨. Under the consignment, the Tri-Service General Hospital will launch an overall integration of the medical care resources of the current Penghu Hospital of Armed Forces and Penghu Hospital of Department of Health. Starting from July 1, 2006, Tri-Service General Hospital, Penghu Branch has officially come into being, bringing in human resources of the Tri-Service General Hospital, creating the medical treatment facitities in Penghu area easily accessible to upgrade the professional medical treatment services in Pengh area, enabling the local community people of Penghu area to enjoy diverse local welfare in medical services. In Penghu County, with limited medical care resources, other than the efforts to help patients release from suffering and reduce the rate of patients being arranged for medical treatment beyond Penghu area, the efforts to upgrade the quality of medical treatment services have gradually become the major goals in the consigned management. The present study aims at the concept mode of ¡§Service Quality Model, PZB¡¨ offered by Parasuraman, Zeithaml&Berry(1988) as the very ground, taking the two local service oriented public hospitals, i.e., ¡§Penghu Branch of Tri-Service General Hospital¡¨ and ¡§Penghu Hospital of Department of Health¡¨ as the target of survey, to probe into the levels of satisfaction on hospital quality of services felt by the hospital department heads, medical care service crew, patients and patients¡¦ families. The study further analizes to make sure whether the hospital department heads, medical care service crew, patients and patients¡¦ families show difference in the level of satisfaction. As indicated by the findings yielded by the present study, the two public hospitals show shortfalls in quality of services which call for immediate improvement. Penghu Hospital of Department of Health takes advantage of the geographical benefits, easy access to transportation, the close connection with the local patients and public praise and should team closely up with Penghu Branch of Tri-Service General Hospital. Penghu Branch of Tri-Service General Hospital attempts to localize the three messions in medical teratment, education and research. The doctors of the two hospitals should participate in various seminars to co-share the resources, strengthen the professional know-how to upgrade the quality of medical treatment services. The management administrator should make the department heads and medical service crew feel of how important the quality of services is. The present study may help better satisfy the needs of patients and their familities in the perspective of a consumer. The upgrade of quality of medical treatment services is a pivotal part of the public affairs on offshore island areas. The administrator should offer prominent systematic strategies in systematic services to take firm command of the quality of services and technological advantages. Only through such efforts can those hospitals create sound image and public praise in medical treatment in Penghu area to assure sustained survival and existence. On the grounds of the results yielded by the present study, the thesis, finally offers proposals for betterment to Penghu Branch of Tri-Service General Hospital and Penghu Hospital of Department of Health in terms of quality of services. Such proposals will function as handy reference to the government authorities and the subsequent researchers regarding medical treatment in Penghu area.

The proliferation of body worn autometric devices has been enabled by advances in low-power electronics and fueled by the quantified-self movement. These devices range in complexity from pedometers to clinical vital sign measurement. They all share the same drawback, typically the most expensive and heaviest component, the battery. The future of autometric devices lies in wireless power. This work explores what is required from autometric devices and presents the results of testing both an embedded version and an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) version of a wirelessly powered autometric device. / Graduation date: 2013

This study was conducted in order to test the hypothesis derived from the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS) that the existence of extended families in developing countries contributes to the more favorable course and outcome of schizophrenia in these countries in comparison with industrial countries. For this purpose, we compared data from the 5- and 10-year follow-up obtained within the IPSS at Cali, Colombia with data from two 5 to 8-year follow-up studies of former schizophrenic inpatients of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPIP) in Munich, FRG. Although, in Cali, schizophrenics are hospitalized and treated with drugs only during acute episodes of the psychosis and no facilities exist for long-term treatment, the psychopathological outcome was, on the whole, not worse than in Munich. Furthermore, the duration of hospitalization during the follow-up period was much lower at Cali and a significantly lower number of Colombian than of German patients was not separated from their families. However, contrary to the hypothesis, family size did not predict course and outcome at both centers.

In Taiwan, the nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and chronic renal failure are occupied the eighth of compatriot's ten major causes of the death; Due to medical improvement in recent years, end stage renal disease with long term hemodialysis patients were increasing day by day, the dialysis cost also go up year by year. According to the statesment of Bureau of National Health Insurance, the whole Taiwan dialysis patients were about 50,000 persons, expensed 28,100 million dollars in one year , each dialysis patient expense 600,000 dollars every year on average, it is the first of clinical expenses . In recent years, the dialysis suppliers get involved in the business of the dialysis clinics, they already were not only the large international factory for selling dialysis material, but also get involved in dialysis clinics about dealing , buying and combining resources, so the dialysis clinics form the two kinds of different manageable type :dialysis supplier and independent operator. This research was cross- sectional study and divided dialysis clinics into dialysis supplier and independent operator, the study choose the different kinds of dialysis clinic patients as samples from Kaohsiung and Pingtung area and carry on the interview of questionnaire by the bedside. Through analyzing the patient¡¦s idiosyncrasy, affect patients in choosing health care providers, patient's satisfaction, life quality, life impact after kidney disease and paying medical care quality indicator of dialysis clinics (average serum albumin with the whole people's clinic of health insurance, dialysis efficiency equally to life), probe into the difference between two kinds of different manageable type of dialysis clinics. The descriptive statistical analysis, explored factor analysis, dependent sample analysis of variance, independent sample analysis of variance and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis, etc. method were employed as statistical analysis. The result of study found, the top five expected satisfaction level of hemodialysis patient were avablility to the peritoneum dialysis service, avablility to consultation of kidney transplantation , medicine safe to value , nutritionist for diets consultation , the availability of nephrology specialists , the expected satisfaction level relatively lean to the professional service , but patient satisfaction relatively lean to the hardware service actually. The whole satisfaction of independent operator in the operation service , professional service , extra service , public relations , geographical position are all superior to dialysis suppliers. The dialysis supplier was superior to the independent operator only in the hardware service. Through this research, hope to make the officer in dialysis center, realize the demand of patients,and offer better service as improving direction in medical quality.

Patients of stoma caused by the colorectal disease or trauma are increasing and most of the patients are keen to have their stoma closed as early as possible to lower the burdens in their life. However, stoma often associated with complications such as wound. The interval between constructing and closing of stoma is still controversial. This study will figure out a way to predict an appropriate timing of stoma closure to get better outcome by using NHI database, from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2008, in Taiwan. In 463 stoma closure patients, mean age: 65.94 years, ratio of male to female: 1.66, 70.19% Colostomy, 29.81% Ileostomy, mean timing: 156.73 days, mean length of stay: 10.81 days, mean fees: 57,698.06 TWD, only one death in hospital, 35 readmission within 30 days after discharged; with £\ = 0.05 level, the timing is significant in comorbidity, primary diagnosis; the outcomes are associated with the timing of stoma closure, comorbidity, patients¡¦ age and gender, hospital ownership and physician annual volume. Through this study, a perfect timing of stoma closure should be determined by the characteristics of patient and physician. Physicians could predict the timing through the stratified analysis and well organize the resource of hospital to improve the quality of medical care.

Due to the development of society, the rise of living standards, the increase of population, the availability of information, and the establishment of health care systems, the medical industry is not as prestigious as it was in the past. Under the economy where the market is changing from supplier-oriented to consumer-oriented, competitions between various medical facilities and patients¡¦ demands for better medical care quality grow, which then result in the rise of medical risks. Medical institutions no longer just focus on the treatment effects, but must also fully understand the conditions of the patients and effectively manage and utilize the resources at hand in order to raise the treatment quality and to stand above other competitors. The purpose of this research is to identify the various factors that prompt patients to seek medical treatments, and to raise patients¡¦ satisfaction and faithfulness towards medical institutions. The research was carried out using a survey/questionnaire approach. Patients that have been to two or more dental clinics were asked to participate in the survey, and those who were interested were chosen. The PZB service quality SERVQUAL scale was used. Out of the 150 questionnaires distributed, 123 were retrieved (82%), and 111 of those retrieved were valid for consideration (74%). The survey showed that (1) a gap exists between patients¡¦ expected treatment service and the actual service received; (2) patients hold high expectation towards the service quality; (3) patients decision to switch clinics partially depends on the received service; (4) the main factor that prompt patients to switch clinics is their concerns towards the ability of their doctors/physicians; (5) Instead of the actual service, assurance and reliability are more essential to the patients; and (6) clinics showing sincerity and making sure the patients feel secure are most important towards the patients. The research concludes that patients choose their medical institutions base on the received services. The five aspects of service all have almost equal importance, and all are influential towards patients¡¦ choices of medical institutions.

The Medical Care Network Plan was implemented by the DOH since July 1985. Taiwan area was divided into 17 medical regions. The objective of this plan was to shrink the gap of medical resources between medical regions in order to avoid the resources being repeatedly invested and wasted. Now, the unequally distributed medical resources have been improved. What is more, checking the efficiency of the use of medical resources has become an important task. Therefore, the purpose for this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the use of medical resources in Taiwan area's 17 medical regions. The results of this study can provide the government for reference in making decision of the medical resources policy. This study analyses a secondary data of the medical care network in 2003 to evaluate the efficiency of Taiwan area's 17 medical regions by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Further, it uses the inferential statistics to identify the relationships about the efficiency and geographical locations, medical resource indicators, the ratio of public hospitals, and medical quality indicators. The results of this study are as follows: 1. Keelung, Ilan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, and Pingtung medical regions were relatively efficient in the overall efficiency. In the overall efficiency, Taipei, Taichung, Yunlin, Chiayi, and Kaohsiung medical regions were inefficient because of the scale inefficiency. 2. There was significant difference in overall efficiency in the 4 geographical regions (north, central, south and east regions) which the 17 medical regions belong to. Furthermore, the north region was more efficient than south and east region. 3. The relatively inefficient medical regions invested more inputs of medical resources, but they produced fewer outputs. The relatively efficient medical regions provided higher medical quality and productivity. 4. The medical region which had higher overall efficiency score showed the better medical quality, and lower ratio of public hospitals. On the contrary, the ratio of public hospitals was higher, the medical quality was lower. 5. The ways to improve the input variables of those inefficient medical regions were as follow: Taipei, Taichung, Yunlin, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung,Taitung, and Hualian medical regions needed to reduce the input variable in ¡§the ratio of physician to population¡¨. Taoyuan, Nantou, and Chiayi medical regions needed to reduce the input variable in ¡§medical benefit payments¡¨. According to the results of this study, it is highly suggested that the government should probe the distribution and utilization of medical resources of the inefficient medical regions in order to know the reasons why these regions were inefficient. That can provide the government for reference in making decision of the policy. We wish the utilization of medical resources in each medical region would be more economical and more efficient.