Aqua- and Mariculture Management: A Holistic Perspective on Best Practices

To propose a framework for good practice to promote improved access, equity and quality of care in service delivery for newly arrived refugee children. Development of a framework based on national and international literature and current service models in Australian paediatric refugee health. Ten elements of a framework for good practice were identified: comprehensive health screening; coordination of initial and ongoing health care; integration of physical, developmental and psychological health care; consumer participation; culturally and linguistically appropriate service provision; intersectoral collaboration; accessible and affordable services and treatments; data collection and evaluation to inform evidence-based practice; capacity building and sustainability; and advocacy. High-quality care can be achieved through a range of service models. The elements identified provide a framework for evaluating current services and for planning future service development. The framework for good practice can be applied to facilitate improvements in refugee health care and to reduce the gap between health needs and currently available services.

Best-practice frameworks provide guidance for organizing work in business. They enable reuse of experience within a domain. However, best practice frameworks are general and usually cover broad domains. Their guidance thus is often offered at an abstract level rather than as details of actionable tasks and processes to accomplish work. This paper presents an approach to bridge the gap between the abstractions available in best practice framework and actions that have to be performed by people or systems in a repeatable manner. We identify knowledge from best practices frameworks, categorize it and represent it in the form of reusable, interpretable templates. Template interpretation guides the refinement process from general concepts of best practices frameworks into actionable concepts such as specific tasks to be performed by assigned roles. A prototype implemented to validate the approach is also described.

Mapping or matching the items in a clinical outcome assessment (COA) to concepts that define a condition is a common method for evaluating a COA's concept coverage. The purpose of this research was to address the lack of formal guidance for conducting this task by developing a framework for best practices in COA concept mapping and applying it to a case study. To develop the framework, we examined the literature and created a draft set of best practices which was then reviewed by experienced researchers through focus groups before being finalized. To conduct the case study, we extracted data from a systematic review of knee osteoarthritis (KO) symptoms and impacts and used the framework to map relevant concepts to items in the SF-36v2® Health Survey (SF-36v2). The framework guides researchers in defining the purpose of and data sources for the mapping, establishing guiding principles and decision-making thresholds, and conducting the mapping exercise. The results of the case study demonstrate the usefulness of the framework in identifying 27/36 items (75%) in the SF-36v2 that addressed concepts that define KO. This case study illustrates how the framework for best practices in COA concept mapping may be used, highlighting how establishing clear concept definitions and guiding principles and following a structured process throughout can help produce consistent, reliable, and reproducible results. The results from this rigorous approach can provide valuable evidence to support decisions about the appropriateness of a COA for the intended patient population.

The invention, growth and popularity of autonomous vehicles (AVs) represents evolution of transportation, offering significant potential to enhance road safety, optimize efficiency, and reduce environmental impact. While many developed nations have embraced AV technology through well defined regulatory frameworks, India's AV sector is still in its nascent stages, with substantial challenges in policy and infrastructure impeding its development. This paper conducts a critical analysis of India's existing regulatory landscape for autonomous vehicles, examining key socio political, economic, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) factors that influence the feasibility and adoption of AVs. Through a comparative benchmarking study, we evaluate the regulatory frameworks of leading countries Singapore, the Netherlands, and Norway each renowned for its progressive AV policies and high readiness for autonomous technology. Using the World Bank Handbook model on Infrastructure Regulatory Systems, this paper identifies key regulatory parameters such as autonomy, transparency, stakeholder representation, and financial independence to assess regulatory effectiveness. The analysis reveals a huge contrast between India's current regulatory readiness and the advanced policies in countries leading the AV space. While these global frameworks prioritize structured testing, licensing, liability guidelines, data protection, and public safety, India lacks a unified approach to address these important aspects. This study proposes a series of actionable recommendations tailored to India's unique context, including the establishment of a dedicated AV regulatory authority, promotion of AV technology through public awareness and educational initiatives, and the formulation of liability and insurance guidelines specific to autonomous operations. Additionally, policy suggestions to strengthen data protection, ensure public safety, and facilitate structured AV testing in designated zones are provided to guide India's AV adoption. This paper aims to bridge the regulatory gap by offering a framework of best practices that combines India’s specific needs with international insights, providing policymakers and engineers with strategic guidelines to advance India’s preparedness for autonomous transportation and engineering. By adopting these recommendations, India can better harness the potential of AVs to transform its transportation ecosystem, promoting sustainable, safe, smart and efficient mobility solutions for the next decade. This paper aims to bridge the regulatory gap by offering a framework of best practices that combines India's specific needs with international insights, providing policymakers and engineers with strategic guidelines to advance India's preparedness This paper aims to bridge the regulatory gap by offering a framework of best practices that combines India's specific needs with international insights, providing policymakers and engineers with strategic guidelines to advance India's preparedness for autonomous transportation and engineering. By adopting these recommendations, India can better harness the potential of AVs to transform its transportation ecosystem, promoting sustainable, safe, smart and efficient mobility solutions for the next decade.

Fracture Liaison Services are the best model to prevent secondary fractures. The International Osteoporosis Foundation developed a Best Practice Framework to provide a quality benchmark. After a year of implementation, we confirmed that a single framework with set criteria is able to benchmark services across healthcare systems worldwide. Despite evidence for the clinical effectiveness of secondary fracture prevention, translation in the real-world setting remains disappointing. Where implemented, a wide variety of service models are used to deliver effective secondary fracture prevention. To support use of effective models of care across the globe, the International Osteoporosis Foundation's Capture the Fracture® programme developed a Best Practice Framework (BPF) tool of criteria and standards to provide a quality benchmark. We now report findings after the first 12 months of implementation. A questionnaire for the BPF was created and made available to institutions on the Capture the Fracture website. Responses from institutions were used to assign gold, silver, bronze or black (insufficient) level of achievements mapped across five domains. Through an interactive process with the institution, a final score was determined and published on the Capture the Fracture website Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) map. Sixty hospitals across six continents submitted their questionnaires. The hospitals served populations from 20,000 to 15 million and were a mix of private and publicly funded. Each FLS managed 146 to 6200 fragility fracture patients per year with a total of 55,160 patients across all sites. Overall, 27 hospitals scored gold, 23 silver and 10 bronze. The pathway for the hip fracture patients had the highest proportion of gold grading while vertebral fracture the lowest. In the first 12 months, we have successfully tested the BPF tool in a range of health settings across the globe. Initial findings confirm a significant heterogeneity in service provision and highlight the importance of a global approach to ensure high quality secondary fracture prevention services.

SummaryThe coordination of Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) with Primary Care (PC) is necessary for the continuity of care of patients with fragility fractures. This study proposes a Best Practice Framework (BPF) and performance indicators for the implementation and follow-up of FLS-PC coordination in clinical practice in Spain.PurposeTo develop a BPF for the coordination of FLS with PC in Spain and to improve the continuity of care for patients with fragility fractures.MethodsA Steering Committee selected experts from seven Spanish FLS and related PC doctors and nurses to participate in a best practice workshop. Selection criteria were an active FLS with an identified champion and prior contact with PC centres linked to the hospital. The main aim of the workshop was to review current FLS practices in Spain and their integration with PC. A BPF document with processes, tools, roles, and metrics was then generated.ResultsSpanish FLS consists of a multidisciplinary team of physicians/nurses but with low participation of other professionals and PC staff. Evaluation and treatment strategies are widely variable. Four desired standards were agreed upon: (1) Effective channels for FLS-PC communication; (2) minimum contents of an FLS clinical report and its delivery to PC; (3) adherence monitoring 3 months after FLS baseline visit; and (4) follow-up by PC. Proposed key performance indicators are (a) number of FLS-PC communications, including consensus protocols; (b) confirmation FLS report received by PC; (c) medical/nursing PC appointment after FLS report received; and (d) number of training sessions in PC.ConclusionsThe BPF provides a comprehensive approach for FLS-PC coordination in Spain, to promote the continuity of care in patients with fragility fractures and improve secondary prevention. The implementation of BPF recommendations and performance indicator tracking will benchmark best FLS practices in the future.

SummaryThe International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Capture the Fracture Campaign aims to support implementation of Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) throughout the world.IntroductionFLS have been shown to close the ubiquitous secondary fracture prevention care gap, ensuring that fragility fracture sufferers receive appropriate assessment and intervention to reduce future fracture risk.MethodsCapture the Fracture has developed internationally endorsed standards for best practice, will facilitate change at the national level to drive adoption of FLS and increase awareness of the challenges and opportunities presented by secondary fracture prevention to key stakeholders. The Best Practice Framework (BPF) sets an international benchmark for FLS, which defines essential and aspirational elements of service delivery.ResultsThe BPF has been reviewed by leading experts from many countries and subject to beta-testing to ensure that it is internationally relevant and fit-for-purpose. The BPF will also serve as a measurement tool for IOF to award ‘Capture the Fracture Best Practice Recognition’ to celebrate successful FLS worldwide and drive service development in areas of unmet need. The Capture the Fracture website will provide a suite of resources related to FLS and secondary fracture prevention, which will be updated as new materials become available. A mentoring programme will enable those in the early stages of development of FLS to learn from colleagues elsewhere that have achieved Best Practice Recognition. A grant programme is in development to aid clinical systems which require financial assistance to establish FLS in their localities.ConclusionNearly half a billion people will reach retirement age during the next 20 years. IOF has developed Capture the Fracture because this is the single most important thing that can be done to directly improve patient care, of both women and men, and reduce the spiralling fracture-related care costs worldwide.

In the past decade, there has been an increase in genomic research and biobanking activities in Africa. Research initiatives such as the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium are contributing to the development of scientific capacity and infrastructure to support these studies on the continent. Despite this growth, genomic research and biobanking have raised important ethical challenges for key research stakeholders, including members of research ethics committees. One of these is the limited ethical and regulatory frameworks to guide the review and conduct of genomic studies, particularly in Africa. This paper is a reflection on a series of consultative activities with research ethics committees in Africa which informed the development of an ethics and governance framework for best practices in genomic research and biobanking in Africa. The paper highlights the engagement process and the lessoned learned.

The practice of physicians seeking second opinions (SO) from colleagues is consistent with professional guidance on good medical practice.1 Despite an emphasis on shared decision-making,2 and better communication techniques,1 3...

Towards adaptive coastal management: Lessons from a “legal storm” in Byron Shire, Australia

Ethicolegal aspects of organ donation

This chapter is a brief contribution to a very long discussion in the history and philosophy of science, the holism/reductionism debate. My aim is not to adhere to the commonly perceived view of ecology as being straightforwardly divided in two competing camps, a holistic ecosystem approach and a reductionistic population ecology. Rather I suggest that ecological research has never mapped comfortably onto this dualism. Hence, I turn to the discipline’s formative years, roughly up to the mid- 1960s, and follow the contributions that gave the debate its special flavour. It soon becomes evident that, at least during the first decades of the twentieth century, the holistic perspective was influenced by Frederic Clements’ organismic approach, while reductionism was attached to Henry Gleason’s individualistic concept. The works of Arthur Tansley, Raymond Lindeman, Eugene and Howard Odum were fundamental in the development of a vigorous systemic-holistic approach. Population ecology, on the other hand, appears much less reductionistic than often considered as the holistic current deeply affected most of its forerunners like Alfred Lotka, Raymond Pearl and Alexander Nicholson. The proposed distinction becomes blurrier when one considers the ecosystem studies methodology. As it is often implied the Odumian approach to ecosystems, despite its holistic parlance, was actually a form of large-scale reductionism. More to the point, I suggest that a mechanistic view of nature, the search for a fundamental methodological level and physics-envy are characteristics of both the holistic and reductionistic perspective in ecology. However, the existence of these dominant schools of thought is, nowadays, a caricature since most ecologists work in one frame or the other without adhering to extreme metaphysical claims. Nevertheless, the discomfort with accepting mere eclecticism has led me to consider Richad Levins and Richard Lewontin’s dialectical approach. Their writings offer deep insight concerning the relation between parts and wholes, properties of parts in respect to their contextual whole, and the causal relation between contextually defined parts and the contextual whole of which they are parts. What I consider of paramount importance for the actual concerns and practices of ecologists is the conscious, pragmatic pluralism stemming out of their view.

The TEASI model is presented in Leung etal. (2012; TEASIng apart alien species risk assessments: a framework for best practices. Ecol. Lett., 15, 1475) as a framework for best practice in alien species risk assessment. This is not supported by the paper's review as it does not define good, bad or best practice and therefore cannot logically make this claim.

The release of ChatGPT in 2022 marked a pivotal shift in postsecondary education, highlighting the urgent need for pedagogical guidance on integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI) into immersive learning environments. This study extended an existing framework of best practices for choosing, using, and designing extended reality (XR) learning experiences by incorporating insights from recent literature on AI-enhanced immersive learning. A systematic review of peer-reviewed studies published between 2022 and 2024 was conducted using Scopus, Google Scholar, and IEEE Xplore. Studies were included if they focused on integrating generative AI into XR learning experiences designed for higher education. Eight studies were identified across disciplines, including health, education, and language learning. Of eighteen recommendations extracted, sixteen aligned with the existing framework, while two introduced ethical concerns regarding AI’s persuasive capabilities. These findings informed the extension of the framework to include recommendations related to ethics, transparency, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Limitations include restricted database coverage, a single investigator review process, and the inclusion of a small number of non-journal sources. To mitigate bias introduced by the single-investigator process, a structured and transparent methodology was employed, including systematic application of inclusion criteria and cross-referencing findings with existing literature. Due to the qualitative nature of the review, which focused on thematic synthesis rather than statistical analysis, no formal risk of bias assessment was conducted. The extended framework was applied in the development of Assessing Your EntreComp Competencies (AYEC), an AI-enhanced VR learning activity for entrepreneurship education, which will be piloted to evaluate its effectiveness and inform iterative refinement.

SUMMARY Government commitment to the care and education of children from birth to three years in England led to the commissioning in 2001 of ‘a framework of best practice’ (DfEE, 2001:24) to support children in their earliest years. The resulting framework of ‘effective’ practice, together with supporting materials, was developed by a team based at Manchester Metropolitan University and led by Professor Lesley Abbott. Published as ‘Birth to Three Matters’ (DfES, 2002) the materials were distributed and disseminated nationally during 2003/2003. The project was underpinned by extensive research and consultation which both informed the framework development and raised important issues for future debate, policy and practice. An overview of the process is presented together with key issues raised by a national focus on our youngest children.