Energy-transfer efficiency in the Er/Yb-codoped waveguide ring laser under sinusoidally modulated pump.

The response of an Er/Yb-codoped waveguide ring laser to a sinusoidally modulated pump power is studied. Experimentally, resonance peaks are observed and their dependences on the average pump power and the modulation index are analyzed. For high modulation indexes bistable behaviour is found. Numerically, a good agreement is obtained for the resonance peak frequencies by using a straightforward approximate model and assuming a dependence on the average pump power of the macroscopic Yb ? Er energy-transfer coefficient. This dependence can be related to these mechanisms' performance for high doping and pump levels when examined in a microscopic statistical formalism.

[Acceptance of generic prescribing in general practice: effect of patient education and reference prices]. / Aceptación de los fármacos genéricos en equipos de atención primaria: efecto de una intervención educativa y de los precios de referencia.

AIMS: To assess patient acceptance of the substitution of brand-name drugs for generic equivalents in the context of repeat prescriptions for chronic diseases. METHODS: A prospective multicenter study of drug use was performed. Of the 31 centers included in the study, 8 were randomized to the intervention group and 23 to the control group. For 1 year, patients in the intervention group who visited the center to collect repeat prescriptions received verbal and written information on the advantages and disadvantages of generic and brand name drugs. Data on the number of patients taking brand-name drugs for which generic equivalents were available, as well as the reasons and variables related to refusal of generic drugs (age, gender, education, primary care centre, general practitioner, type of drug and total number of repeat prescriptions) were collected. The percentage of generic drugs among the total number of drugs prescribed was calculated at 2-monthly intervals. RESULTS: A total of 98.9% of the 4620 patients in the intervention group agreed to change to a generic formulation. The percentage of patients accepting generic drugs was significantly associated with the primary care centre, the class of drug, doctors' influence, and patient satisfaction with the drug. Generic prescriptions represented 5.9% in the intervention practices compared with 2.8% in controls. After the intervention, and before the application of reference prices, the percentages were 6.7% and 3.9%, respectively. Immediately after application of the reference prices, the percentages were 8.6% and 6.3%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Direct patient education is an effective strategy in increasing the prescription of generic equivalents. General practitioners' motivation and knowledge of generic drugs influenced their use. The application of reference prices increased the use of generic equivalents.

[Survey on the needs expressed by primary care doctors for continuing education in drug therapy]. / Encuesta sobre las necesidades sentidas por médicos de atención primaria sobre la formación continuada en terapéutica farmacológica.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the aspects of continuing education in pharmacological therapeutics considered as most relevant by the primary health care physicians. DESIGN: Observational study.Setting. Physicians filled-up the questionnaires during 45 minutes at their primary health care centres. PARTICIPANTS: Primary health care physicians involved in the Fundation Institut Català de Farmacologia continuing education activities since 1997 were selected. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: A specific questionnaire was designed to collect the physicians' opinion on different topics regarding continuing education in pharmacological therapeutics. RESULTS: 180 physicians from 21 primary health care centres answered the questionnaire. 68% of the responding physicians considered that continuing education has to be useful to improve routine clinical practice. Regular seminars and methods stimulating active participation administered by primary health care professionels are preferred. Continuing education in pharmacological therapeutics should be focused to health problems rather than being drug-oriented. They referred being more interested in drug selection issues and in the role of new drug in comparison with the existing alternatives rather than in regulation and drug consumption issues. 66,3% of the responding physicians considered that continuing education in pharmacological therapeutics should be compulsory. Public health authorities and primary health care physicians should share the responsibility in setting-up continuing education in pharmacological therapeutics programs, according to the opinion of almost 70% of the physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Primary health care physicians are interested in continuing education in pharmacological therapeutics as far as it is practical and useful to solve problems of their routine clinical practice.

Multicentre hospital drug utilization study on the prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism. The Venous Thromboembolism Study Group of the Spanish Society of Clinical Pharmacology.

1. Thromboembolic disease (TED) is an important cause of in-hospital morbidity and mortality. Although different prophylactic approaches have been shown to be effective and cost-effective, surveys have suggested that they are underused. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of use of TED prophylaxis in our hospitals. 2. All patients admitted on a specified day to the Internal Medicine and General Surgery wards of seven Spanish university hospitals were included in the study. They were identified cross-sectionally and followed up until discharge or for 15 days. Information about the following variables was collected: risk factors for venous thromboembolism, prophylactic measures used (if any), contraindications to the use of each specific drug or other prophylactic measure, and dosage schedule of the drug used, if any. 3. Nine hundred and thirty-nine patients (53% men) were studied. The most common risk factors for venous thromboembolism were: age > or = 40 years (802; 85%), major surgery (298; 32%), immobilization > or = 6 days (285; 30%), obesity (241; 26%), and cancer (202; 22%). 4. Prophylactic measures were used in 320 patients (34%). Of these, 297 (93%) received heparin, mainly as low molecular weight heparins (248, 78%); physical measures were rarely used. 5. Five hundred and eighty-three patients (62%) fulfilled criteria for moderate or high risk of venous thromboembolism; only 275 (47%) of them received any form of prophylaxis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Research on drug utilization in primary health care in national journals]. / La investigación sobre la utilización de medicamentos en atención primaria en revistas nacionales.

In order to discover the present state of research into the use of medication (UM) in primary care, articles published in the "Original Articles" sections of Medicina Clínica (MC) (Clinical Medicine) and Atención Primaria (AP) (Primary Care) between 1983 and 1990, were studied. A total of 130 articles that meet the definition of the WHO for studies into the use of Medications (SUM) were identified. The instigator and organiser of the research, the drugs included, the kind of study, the source of the data, the main variables used and the qualitative analysis made, were all studied. In conclusion we were able to point out that the characteristics of UM were met in the majority of the studies; although they are the main objective of the study in only a minority of cases. The people who undertook most of the research were those who themselves prescribed the drugs or dealt with very common pathologies. In general, the studies are only descriptive and have a poor level of assessment of the results.

Determination of a Fabry-Perot multipass interferometer instrumental function.

Theoretical determination of the instrumental function of a Fabry-Perot multipass interferometer as a function of the single pass instrumental function is studied. The polynomial dependences between the respective parameters characterizing the instrumental functions are given. An experimental check of the theoretical predictions is also presented.