Current Environment Research Articles

Roadmap for Research and Scholarship in General Surgery Residency Training: Report of The Research Subcommittee of Blue Ribbon Committee II on Surgical Education and Training.

To review the current state of research training during surgical residency and make recommendations commensurate with current surgical training and academic environment. Research training has been a mainstay of academic surgical programs, yet the scientific disciplines have evolved significantly from the traditional years of bench research. It is time to reconsider how research training should prepare surgeons for future academic practice and ensure the foundational knowledge of research evidence. As part of the Blue Ribbon Committee II, a research subcommittee was tasked to make recommendations on research training during surgical residency. Our eight-member panel brought diverse perspectives of the roles and goals of research training. We also sought input from a convenience sample of current and recent surgical residents on impact of research training during their residency. We identified a lack of a common framework and foundational research training for all surgical residents. Participation in dedicated years of scholarly activity helped trainees meet several professional and personal goals. The lack of an integrated, dedicated research track may dissuade some medical school graduates from pursuing surgery. We recommend incorporating a minimum standard for all trainees and flexibility in dedicated scholarly training to meet the needs of future academic surgeons.

The Possibilities of Using Artificial Intelligence as a Key Technology in the Current Employee Recruitment Process

The current business environment faces numerous new challenges closely linked to the rapid development of information and communication technologies, which influence the corporate landscape. This article focuses on exploring the possibilities of integrating artificial intelligence, as one of the key technologies of today, into the recruitment process. Its aim is to examine the potential applications of artificial intelligence across various stages of employee recruitment. To achieve this goal, the authors employed various methods and techniques, including the PICOS framework, scientific mapping, and case study analysis. The outcome of this study identifies opportunities for leveraging artificial intelligence in the employee recruitment process within corporate settings. The results reflect the current research gaps concerning the analysis of the personnel processes and conceptualizing the implementation possibilities of artificial intelligence in these processes. The contribution of this article to the academic community lies in its conceptualization, providing a foundation for further research focused on analyzing the impacts of integrating AI into recruitment processes.

We Need a Combination of Approaches to Evaluate Health System Resilience Comment on "Re-evaluating Our Knowledge of Health System Resilience During COVID-19: Lessons From the First Two Years of the Pandemic".

Health system resilience has become a desirable health system attribute in the current permacrisis environment. The article by Saulnier and colleagues reviews the literature on health system resilience and refines the concept, pinpointing dimensions of resilience governance that have not reached consensus, or that are missing from the literature. In this commentary we complement the findings by discussing different conceptual frameworks for understanding resilience and introducing resilience testing, a method to assess health system resilience using a hypothetical shock scenario. Resilience testing is a mixed-methods approach that combines a review of existing data with a structured workshop, where health system experts collaboratively assess the resilience of their health system. The new method is proposed as a tool for policy-making, as the results can identify attributes of the current health system that may hinder or boost a resilient response to the next crisis.

Mapping global value chain, production network, and commodity chain literature using scientometrics: an integrative resilient value chains model based on a review of the literature

PurposeGlobal value chains (GVCs) are facing unprecedented pressures arising from structural changes in the global economy and exogenous shocks including military conflicts and the aftermath of COVID-19. Considering the importance of value chain analysis in the current environment, the purpose of the study is to provide an up-to-date overarching global value chain literature review study that offers suggestions for research and practice to ensure resilient value and supply chains.Design/methodology/approachThe authors provide a comprehensive review of literature of the value chain, commodity chain and production network research based on a systems overview of 5,628 publications to identify the extent of research on vulnerabilities and resilience of value chains globally and gaps therein. To provide the systems overview, the authors use scientometric content co-occurrence analysis methods to analyze and identify gaps within the existing literature.FindingsBased on this overarching review of the literature, the authors identify gaps in the literature primarily related to the issue of unpreparedness of value chains to exogenous shocks. The authors suggest future research directions and propose an integrative model along with recommendations for restructuring value chains for resilience amidst exogenous shocks.Originality/valueThis study carries out an overarching study of interdisciplinary GVC literature in the age of geopolitical and societal challenges and is thus able to offer holistic insights and propositions for future research.

Knowledge Conversion Processes and Transient Competitive Advantage in International Non-Governmental Organizations in Kenya

The current business and natural environment is characterized by turbulence resulting in an erosion of traditional competitive advantages. The resulting volatility has ushered in an era of temporary advantages collectively termed as transient competitive advantages. This study aimed to explore the relationship between knowledge conversion processes and transient competitive advantage among International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOS) in Kenya. The study was driven by positivism philosophy and used a descriptive correlational research design. The target population was 1784 programs, MEAL (monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning) and knowledge management managers in INGOs registered with the NGO Coordination Board, from which a sample of 392 respondents was obtained using simple random sampling. To gather data, a standardized questionnaire was administered online using google forms. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (means, percentages, frequencies and standard deviations) and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS – SEM). The findings from the study indicated that knowledge conversion processes have a significant and positive effect on transient competitive advantage among INGOs in Kenya (t = 13.088, p < 0.05). The recommendation from the study findings for INGOs to ensure that knowledge acquired is appropriately converted for use through putting in place measures that ensure it is continuously integrated with what is already known and it is validated by stakeholders involved in the operations of the organization.

Research on the Marketing Strategy of Hainan Tourism Cultural and Creative Products from the Perspective of Brand Culture

With the rapid development of tourism and the diversification of consumer demand, cultural and creative products, as an important part of the tourism market, and their marketing strategies are increasingly attracting attention. Based on the perspective of brand culture, this paper studies the marketing strategy of Hainan tourism cultural and creative products. Firstly, it analyzes the current situation and market environment of the tourism cultural and creative products in Hainan; secondly, the marketing strategy of cultural and creative products is discussed from the perspective of brand culture; finally, the specific marketing strategy suggestions and the future development trend are discussed.

Phytogenic aqueous extract mediated fabrication of Ag-Fe2O3 nanohybrids for detoxification of carcinogenic Congo Red dye: An Environmental Remediation approach

<p>In current study environment benign silver-iron oxide (Ag-Fe2O3) nanohybrid structures are fabricated as catalyst for CR dye decolorization. Industrial wastewater stream possesses several toxic dyes which are toxic carcinogen pollutants cause severe environmental disorders. Detoxification of Congo Red dye is carried out by silver-iron oxide nanohybrid structures having latent catalytic efficiency for dye decolorization. Silver iron oxide nanohybrid materials are fabricated from AgNO3, FeSO4/ FeCl3 and Citrus limon aqueous extract by doping AgNPs on Fe2O3 materials. For characterization of Ag-Fe2O3 nanostructures, UV-Visible, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques are used. The crystallite size is measured from Debye Scherer equation and average size calculated is 54.3 nm. Furthermore, UV-Visible spectrophotometer is used to study the catalytic efficiency of Ag-Fe2O3 nanohybrid material which is observed to be >80% within 10 minutes. Moreover, parameters like contact time, dosage of catalyst, temperature and pH are measured to optimize reaction conditions for the dye degradation by adding prepared nanohybrids. The kinetic studies were performed for the degradation reaction and were originate to follow first order kinetics. Reusability test is also applied to check the stability of nanohybrid catalyst that affirmed it to be as highly stable nanomaterial.</p>

Invited commentary: A future of data-rich pharmacoepidemiology studies- transitioning to large-scale linked EHR+claims data.

Electronic health record (EHR) data are seen as an important source for Pharmacoepidemiology studies. In the US healthcare system, EHR systems often only identify fragments of patients' health information across the care continuum, including primary care, specialist care, hospitalizations, and pharmacy dispensing. This leads to unobservable information in longitudinal evaluations of medication effects causing unmeasured confounding, misclassification, and truncated follow-up times. A remedy is to link EHR data with longitudinal claims data which record all encounters during a defined enrollment period across all care settings. We evaluate EHR and claims data sources in three aspects relevant to etiologic studies of medical products: data continuity, data granularity, and data chronology. Reflecting on the strengths and limitations of EHR and insurance claims data, it becomes obvious that they complement each other. The combination of both will improve the validity of etiologic studies and expand the range of questions that can be answered. As the research community transitions towards a future state with access to large-scale combined EHR+claims data, we outline analytic templates to improve the validity and broaden the scope of pharmacoepidemiology studies in the current environment where EHR data are available only for a subset of patients with claims data.

Computational analysis of electromagnetic field exposure in passengers near high- current contact wire environments.

The electromagnetic environment of a railway station is composed of electrical, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields, which are generated by various sources such as traction current, voltage, pantograph-catenary arc, locomotive braking, wheel-rail rolling arc, and communication systems. However, there is public growing concern among the public about the potential negative human health effects of this electromagnetic environment. To analyze the distribution of electromagnetic fields in human tissues, electromagnetic simulation software is used to create a model that includes six track contact wires and four waiting passengers on three platforms. This model is used to analyze the magnetic field environment created by high currents in the contact wires of a multi-track high-speed railway station. By varying the loads on different contact wires, the distribution of electric field and magnetic flux density within human tissues of waiting passengers on different platforms is studied using this model. When the track is unoccupied, the calculation results show that the maximum values of the electric field and magnetic flux density of the passenger's human body tissue at the blind way on the platform and 1m of the blind way are 17.6mVm-1 and 52.7 μT, respectively. These values increase by 9.28mVm-1 and 16.4 μT compared to when the track is occupied. When more contact wires are loaded with currents, the electric field mode and magnetic flux density mode of human tissues increase at the same position on the platform. Specifically, when the contact wires of six tracks are loaded with current at the same time, the maximum values of the electric field mode and magnetic flux density mode of the waiting passengers' human tissues at the blind way on different platforms are 29.6mVm-1 and 88.1 μT, respectively. These maximum values are lower than the public electromagnetic exposure limits that are designated by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines. The research results demonstrate that the magnetic field environment generated by the current in the contact wires of a railway station with six tracks does not pose a health risk to human tissues of passengers waiting at the blind way and 1m of the blind way on the platform. These findings can provide valuable data reference for the formulation of relevant standards for the design of electrified rail transit, as well as the suppression of electromagnetic interference and protection of human bioelectromagnetism.

Business model innovations amidst adverse economic conditions: the role of CEO values

Purpose The current business environment is characterized by high levels of uncertainty that affect the global economic system and have the greatest impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With an elevated degree of perceived uncertainty, Chief executive officers' (CEOs) of SMEs find themselves in a situation where the old approaches to decision-making are irrelevant and the time to create new ones is limited. The purpose of this study is to examine whether appealing to personal values helps CEOs cope with a high level of perceived uncertainty and make decisions about the further development of the firm by undertaking business model innovations (BMI). Design/methodology/approach This study follows a multiple case study research design drawing on data collected from 10 Russian SMEs. Findings The authors show that CEOs’ communion values lead to innovations in the revenue model and value architecture dimensions of the business model. CEOs who are inclined to agentic values introduce innovations in the revenue model and value offering dimensions. Those executives who balance between the two types of values tend to also balance between different types of innovations in the elements of the business model. Originality/value The results indicate that personal values of CEOs play an important role in managerial processes and the strategic choice of a BMI type. Moreover, personal temporal focus orientation serves as a translation mechanism in the relationship between CEO values and BMI in SME settings.

How neurosurgeons maintain and update their professional knowledge in a self-directed learning context

BackgroundGiven the changes in the current learning environment health professionals are facing major challenges to keep up with current and updated information with the rapidly growing clinical and scientific knowledge base. Being able to identify relevant, high-quality articles, adapt or adopt to new learning strategies with an already intense workload are just a few of the main challenges. Self-directed learning is a key skill of competent health professionals and describes the process by which individuals evaluate their learning needs, goals and the resources needed for learning, however the emerging problems for professionals practicing SDL are manifold.DesignA qualitative, exploratory approach based on four research questions was used to understand how skilled neurosurgeons maintain and update their professional knowledge. Twenty-six neurosurgeons within the University Hospital of Bern completed a semi-structured interview.ResultsOne of the main findings concerns the differences between neurosurgeons regarding the SDL strategies they employ, which is compounded by their level of experience. All participants recognized that new or alternative learning approaches are necessary to manage the learning landscape, and for many this concerned their use of learning digital tools. Many, however, were unsure how to change their current behavior.ConclusionThe results highlight that positive factors influencing SDL in the workplace include learning leadership and support in identifying new or alternative strategies, an internal culture committed to learning as well as digital learning tools and networks. All are vital in managing the continuously evolving learning environment.

Aviation noise in the United States: The current state of FAA research on community response

While today's civilian aircraft fleet is quieter than at any time in the history of jet-powered flight, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to receive complaints about aircraft noise affecting communities across the United States. Additionally, the FAA's Neighborhood Environmental Survey (NES) has shown that community response to aviation noise in the United States has changed and the dose-response relationship between noise and annoyance such as the one represented by the Shultz Curve is no longer representative of communities' lived experiences. This paper will examine the current aviation noise environment in the United States and how the nature of aviation noise and the characteristics of communities that raise significant noise concerns in the United States have changed since the start of widespread use of commercial jet-powered aircraft in the 1960s. This paper will also explore the changing nature of community response to aviation noise based on the FAA's latest research findings on aviation noise and annoyance as detailed in follow-on analyses to the NES.

The evolution of sensitive periods beyond early ontogeny: Bridging theory and data

Abstract Sensitive periods, in which experiences have a large impact on phenotypic development, are most common early in ontogeny. Yet, they may also occur at later ontogenetic stages, such as adolescence. At present, however, we know little about why natural selection favours sensitive periods for some traits early in ontogeny and for others later in ontogeny. This article synthesizes recent mathematical models and empirical studies that explore sensitive periods beyond early ontogeny. Across mathematical models, we observe two general patterns. First, sensitive periods emerge beyond early ontogeny when an organism's uncertainty about the environment‐phenotype fit increases at later developmental stages. Second, sensitive periods emerge beyond early ontogeny when cues at later stages reduce this uncertainty more than earlier cues do. In the empirical literature, we observe that traits showing sensitive periods beyond early ontogeny tend to be social traits, particularly among mammals. Connecting theory to data, we hypothesize that mammals have evolved to expect reliable information from peers in adolescence to reduce uncertainty about the current and future social environment (e.g. social dominance, mate value). Finally, we highlight current gaps in our understanding and suggest future directions for strengthening bridges between empirical and theoretical studies of sensitive periods. Ultimately, we hope our synthesis will contribute towards an integrative science of sensitive periods across the biological and the social sciences. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Design and Implementation of a Land-Air Omnidirectional Mobile Robot

This paper proposes a new type of omnidirectional mobile robot for land and air, which has three motion modes, combines the motion characteristics of land motion and air flight, has the ability to climb walls, and can be actively deformed to adapt to the working conditions according to the current working environment. The robot incorporates an innovative “rotor blade–single row omnidirectional wheel” composite structure, which is mainly characterized by a single row of continuous switching wheels covering the outside of each rotor blade, and does not need to provide additional power when moving on the ground and walls, relying on the driving force generated by the rotor blades to drive the continuous switching wheels driven by the rotor blades. This structure can effectively combine the land movement mode, wall crawling mode, and air flight mode, which reduces the energy consumption of the robot without increasing the weight, and we design a deformation device that can realize the transformation of the three modes into each other. This paper mainly focuses on the design of the robot structure and the analysis of the movement method, and the land omnidirectional movement experiments, wall crawling experiments, and air flight experiments were, respectively, carried out, and the results show that the proposed land and air omnidirectional mobile robot has the ability to adapt to the movement of each scene, and improves the upper limit of the robot’s operation.

Escherichia coli grown in inexpensive conical flat-bottom polypropylene tubes produce a high level of pUC vector

The pUC-derived plasmid yield from E. coli using polypropylene tubes (PP) was compared among round and conical tubes. The yield from cells grown in a cheaper conical-PP with flat-bottom was 1.5-fold higher (p < 0.001) than other PP. The use of the conical-PP can save research budgets in the current inflationary environment.

Illegal Online Gambling Site Detection using Multiple Resource-Oriented Machine Learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to faster digitalization and illegal online gambling has become popular. As illegal online gambling brings not only financial threats but also breaches in overall cyber security, this study defines the concept of absolute illegal online gambling (AIOG) using a machine-learning-driven approach with information gathered from public webpages. By analysing 11,172 sites to detect illegal online gambling, the proposed model classifies key features such as URLs (Uniform Resource Locator), WHOIS, INDEX, and landing page information. With a combination of text and image analyses with machine learning-driven approach, the proposed model offers the ensemble combination of attributes for high detection performance with the verification of common attributes from metadata in online gambling. This study suggests a strategy for dynamic resource utilization to increase the classification accuracy of the current environment. As a result, this research expands the scope of hybrid web mining through constant updating of data to achieve content-based filtering.

Godfather Marketing: offering favors before products

AbstractDisruptive shifts in the current environment are engendering uncertainty, radically changing market relationships and consumers’ priorities. This challenging-the-boundaries article introduces a new marketing paradigm, Godfather Marketing, according to which firms evolve into organizations reminiscent of ‘mafia families,’ yet completely devoid of criminal connotations. Their aim is to deeply fulfill customer needs and desires through favors, not just product sales. This approach requires customers to adhere to a mutual ‘code of honor,’ where merit is rewarded and wrongdoing punished, participating in the firm’s favor exchange network. Through a theoretical approach grounded in historical cultural factors, this article explores firm credibility, favor conditions, reciprocation methods, customer traits, and organizational dynamics. In an era where the quality of information will supersede its quantity, Godfather Marketing offers a distinct perspective, giving marketers a competitive edge for fostering consumer loyalty and local policymakers a potential tool for community governance, within a shared framework of careful controls ensuring the protection of individual freedoms.

Information and Logic Model Development Natural Engineering System Environmental Monitoring

Environmental monitoring is the main source of information on the current environment state and its changes associated with man-made and anthropogenic impact. The system of environmental monitoring of increased danger technogenic objects includes state observations of air and water environments, soil snow cover, as well as monitoring of flora and fauna, including biotesting and bioindication. An example of an integrated approach to organizing the environment conditionobserving system is environmental monitoring in the zone of chemical weapons destruction facilities. The results of monitoring activities are numerical arrays of quantitative indicators of the environment state related to specific monitoring objects: concentrations of pollutants in natural environments (air, water, and soil); indicators of the state of flora and fauna; bioindication results. The complexity of the monitoring result integrated analysis is primarily associated with the diversity of the structure and number of indicators for individual natural environments, different dimensions of indicators, as well as the sparseness of the matrices of data arrays. Taking into account the above-mentioned information, it is relevant to develop methods for storing and updating environmental monitoring data arrays, as well as algorithms for operational analysis of the results of monitoring studies. The paper presents an information and logical model that allows to form databases for storing and replenishing data on the state of the natural engineering system. The developed information and logic model is focused on building OLAP cubes for subsequent analysis of environmental monitoring data. The presented information and logical model is the main stage of developing a system for storing, updating and analyzing the results of environmental monitoring of the TCP. Systematization and structuring of indicators of natural environments and ecosystems makes it possible to formulate a number of practical tasks for assessing and predicting the state of the environment in the presence of technogenic impact.

Objective Neighborhood-Level Disorder Versus Subjective Safety as Predictors of HIV Transmission Risk and Momentary Well-Being

Mental health and HIV risk behavior have been studied with ecological momentary assessment (EMA), but this approach has not been combined with tracking of activity space (where people go and what they encounter there) in people with HIV and their social relations, who may be HIV+ or HIV−. Activity space represents a modifiable risk or protective factor for behavior related to health status and quality of life, in both clinical and nonclinical populations. We conducted an observational study with 286 participants (243 HIV+ and 43 HIV−), roughly matched for socioeconomic status and neighborhood of residence via three waves of snowball sampling. Each participant carried a smartphone for up to 4 weeks, making 5 randomly prompted entries and 1 end-of-day entry each day, plus self-initiated event-contingent entries for sexual activity and drug use. Responses to randomly prompted items provided subjective evaluations of the safety of the participant’s current social and physical environment (the place they were and the people they were with). GPS-based location tracking—coupled with publicly available statistic indicating neighborhood-level physical disorder and socioeconomic disadvantage—provided an indicator of each participant’s exposure to objective psychosocial hazard. We examined possible relationships of these objective and subjective environmental exposures with risky sexual and intravenous drug-use behavior, knowledge and utilization of antiretroviral treatment and prophylaxis, and momentary mental health (mood and stress, which relate to risky behavior and overall well-being). We found that both risky behavior and mental health were more related to participants’ subjective evaluations of their activity space than to objective measures of neighborhood-level disorder, suggesting that, even within an objectively hazardous neighborhood, people who find a niche they perceive as socially and physically safe may engage in less risky behavior and have better well-being.Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT01571752.

Research on the Construction of Teachers in Vocational Undergraduate Colleges based on the Integration of Industry and Education

In the current environment of vocational education reform, the construction of teachers in vocational undergraduate colleges has encountered various challenges, and actively promoting the integration of industry and education has become a key way to enhance the strength of teachers in undergraduate vocational education. By analyzing the shortcomings in the construction of teacher team in vocational undergraduate colleges, this paper expounds the strategy of teacher team construction under the framework of the integration of industry and education.