Papers by Deborah Isbell Parker
Presidential Studies Quarterly
John F. Kennedy was a voracious reader and he put his reading to work in his speeches. His favori... more John F. Kennedy was a voracious reader and he put his reading to work in his speeches. His favorite quotation was from Dante: " The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis preserve their neutrality. " Throughout his career, he cited Dante more than 25 times. This essay traces Kennedy's deployment of two Dante quotations and analyzes their sources and the rhetoric surrounding them. Kennedy employed famous authors like Dante in a campaign of persuasion. Kennedy's allusions to Dante attest to his belief that poetry and politics could enhance one another.
Review of Scientific Instruments, Jul 1, 1998
The problem of controlling the temperature, pressure, and atmosphere around a solid sample for x-... more The problem of controlling the temperature, pressure, and atmosphere around a solid sample for x-ray absorption spectroscopy, while accurately positioning it in the x-ray beam, has given rise to a wide range of designs. We describe here a new versatile design that provides excellent temperature control, and good hydrodynamics and corrosion resistance. Briefly, the cell comprises a stainless steel tube beam path, with a wafer sample positioned across the tube. Heat is supplied from an aluminum block that surrounds the tube. Gases for in situ sample treatment are flowed between fittings at the ends of the tube, and the dead volume is less than 0.3 cm 3 .
New England Journal of Medicine, 2006
International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 2008
Objectives The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of interventions that as... more Objectives The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of interventions that assist caregivers to provide support for people living with dementia in the community. Inclusion criteria Types of participants Adult caregivers who provide support for people with dementia living in the community (non-institutional care). Types of interventions Interventions designed to support caregivers in their role such as skills training, education to assist in caring for a person living with dementia and support groups/programs. Interventions of formal approaches to care designed to support caregivers in their role, care planning, case management and specially designated members of the healthcare team - for example dementia nurse specialist or volunteers trained in caring for someone with dementia. Types of studies This review considered any meta-analyses, systematic reviews, randomised control trials, quasi-experimental studies, cohort studies, case control studies and observational studies without control groups that addressed the effectiveness of interventions that assist caregivers to provide support for people living with dementia in the community. Search strategy The search sought to identify published studies from 2000 to 2005 through the use of electronic databases. Only studies in English were considered for inclusion. The initial search was conducted of the databases, CINAHL, MEDLINE and PsychINFO using search strategies adapted from the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group. A second more extensive search was then conducted using the appropriate Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and keywords for other available databases. Finally, hand searching of reference lists of articles retrieved and of core dementia, geriatric and psycho geriatric journals was undertaken. Assessment of quality Methodological quality of each of the articles was assessed by two independent reviewers using appraisal checklist developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute and based on the work of the Cochrane Collaboration and Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. Data collection and analysis Standardised mean differences or weighted mean differences and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated for each included study reported in the meta-analysis. Results from comparable groups of studies were pooled in statistical meta-analysis using Review Manager Software from the Cochrane Collaboration. Heterogeneity between combined studies was tested using standard chi-square test. Where statistical pooling was not appropriate or possible, the findings are summarised in narrative form. Results A comprehensive search of relevant databases, hand searching and cross referencing found 685 articles that were assessed for relevance to the review. Eighty-five papers appeared to meet the inclusion criteria based on title and abstract, and the full paper was retrieved. Of the 85 full papers reviewed, 40 were accepted for inclusion, three were systematic reviews, three were meta-analysis, and the remaining 34 were randomised controlled trials. For the randomised controlled trials that were able to be included in a meta-analysis, standardised mean differences or weighted mean differences and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated for each. Results from comparable groups of studies were pooled in statistical meta-analysis using Review Manager Software and heterogeneity between combined studies was assessed by using the chi-square test. Where statistical pooling was not appropriate or possible, the findings are summarised in narrative form. The results are discussed in two main sections. Firstly it was possible to assess the effectiveness of different types of caregiver interventions on the outcome categories of depression, health, subjective well-being, self-efficacy and burden. Secondly, results are reported by main outcome category. For each of these sections, meta-analysis was conducted where it was possible; otherwise, a narrative summary describes the findings. Effectiveness of intervention type Four categories of intervention were included in the review - psycho-educational, support, multi-component and other. Psycho-educational Thirteen studies used psycho-educational interventions, and all but one showed positive results across a range of outcomes. Eight studies were entered in a meta-analysis. No significant impact of psycho-educational interventions was found for the outcome categories of subjective well-being, self-efficacy or health. However, small but significant results were found for the categories of depression and burden. Support Seven studies discussed support only interventions and two of these showed significant results. These two studies were suitable for meta-analysis and demonstrated a small but significant improvement on caregiver burden. Multi-component Twelve of the studies report multi-component interventions and 10 of these report significant outcomes across a broad range of outcome measures…
Clinical Otolaryngology, 2000
Antibiotics for reduction of posttonsillectomy morbidity: a meta-analysis. Laryngoscope 115, 997-... more Antibiotics for reduction of posttonsillectomy morbidity: a meta-analysis. Laryngoscope 115, 997-1002 3 Iyer S., Defoor W., Grocela J. et al. (2006) The use of perioperative antibiotics in tonsillectomy: does it decrease morbidity? Int. J. Paediatr. Otorhinolaryngol. 70, 853-861 4 Grandis J., Johnson J., Vickers R. et al. (1992) The efficacy of perioperative antibiotic therapy on recovery following tonsillec-tomy in adults: randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2004
Previous studies have shown evidence of airway inflammation in patients with chronic cough and ha... more Previous studies have shown evidence of airway inflammation in patients with chronic cough and have suggested that the cough may be due to release of tussive mediators and activation of afferent sensory nerve endings. We measured the concentration of various proinflammatory and tussive mediators in induced sputum supernatants from 20 patients with cough variant asthma or eosinophilic bronchitis, 20 patients with nonasthmatic chronic cough, 22 patients with idiopathic chronic cough, and 18 healthy control subjects. We measured histamine, cysteinyl-leukotrienes, prostanoids (prostaglandin D2 and prostaglandin E2), and interleukin-8 by enzyme immunoassay. The median sputum histamine concentrations were significantly higher in patients with idiopathic chronic cough (8.0 ng/ml) and cough variant asthma/eosinophilic bronchitis (10.2 ng/ml) than in normal subjects (2.6 ng/ml; 95% confidence interval of difference from idiopathic chronic cough, 0.8 to 25.8 [p = 0.009] and 95% confidence interval of difference from cough variant asthma/eosinophilic bronchitis, 1.1 to 20.1 [p = 0.01]). Median sputum prostaglandin D2 and prostaglandin E2 concentrations were significantly higher in all categories of chronic cough. Our findings support the view that there is release of inflammatory and tussive mediators in patients with chronic cough and suggest that there might be similarities in the mechanism of cough in a diverse range of conditions.
Renaissance Quarterly, 2006
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Papers by Deborah Isbell Parker