Submission Deadline Research Articles

Coronary stent edge segments as determinant of clinical outcomes: An OCTOBER Trial Substudy

Abstract Background Small lumen dimensions and high plaque burden in stent edge segments are known risk factors for subsequent clinical events after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The evidence using intravascular optical coherence tomography is scarce. Purpose This study aimed to characterize edge segments after PCI and the relation to clinical outcomes in the randomized OCTOBER trial on bifurcation PCI optimized using optical coherence tomography. Methods This is a predefined substudy of the OCTOBER Trial. Edge segments were analysed in detail for degree of stenosis and plaque composition using a dedicated software. Data was planned to be analysed using multi-level cox regression analysis, but descriptive statistics was applied due to very low event rates after OCT-guided PCI. Main endpoints were OCT-detected edge residual stenosis, lipid plaque, calcification, and dissections. Post PCI coronary angiography was analysed for diameter stenosis, edge segment length and minimal lumen diameter. Patients with cardiac events were diagnosed with angiography duringt the two-year follow-up period. Results A total of 597 patients were treated with OCT-guided PCI. Analysable final OCT scans with no additional treatment was available for 505 patients in the main vessel and for the side branch in 289 cases. At deadline for abstract submission 242 scans with 474 edges were analysed and included in preliminary results.Lesions with ≥30% diameter stenosis was found in 20% of proximal edges, 24% of distal edges and 37% of side branch (SB) edges. A plaque burdenOCT ≥180° was found in 74% of proximal edges, 48% of distal edges, and 52% of SB edges. A lipid plaque wafound in 35%, 11% and 14%, dissections in 15%, 6% and 12%, and ≥180° calcium was found in 7%, 4% and 4% of edges respectively. Six patients (1%) of the total OCT-guided population had an edge-related event during the median two-year follow-up. Only two of these 6 patients had post-procedural OCT-scans of the event-related edge, thus 4 of the cases were effectively angiographic guided. Conclusion Only a small fraction of edge segments in the OCTOBER Trial were left with residual edge disease exceeding protocol thresholds. This resulted in historically very low rate of edge related events. No evaluation of a stent edge by OCT in otherwise OCT guided patients appeared to be the main predictor of edge related events. Final results are presented at ESC 2024.

Low-value surgical innovation under peer-review: A sham study of abstracts on proximal humerus fractures submitted to scientific meetings.

Innovation has in common the promise of benefit for patients; however, past experience has shown that this promise is not always delivered. Instead, low-value innovation might encourage treatment variation and dilute the available body of evidence. This study aims to investigate (1) whether the peer-review process is capable of filtering out low-value innovation appropriately, and (2) whether low-value surgical innovation would be preferred more often than nonoperative innovation by peer-reviewers in the treatment of proximal humeral fractures in the elderly. Two duplicated sham scientific abstracts, respectively introducing a low-value surgical innovation and a valuable nonsurgical innovation, were submitted to nineteen peer-reviewed scientific meetings worldwide for orthopedic trauma surgery with submission deadlines between 01/01/2022 and 31/12/2022. Decision regarding abstract acceptance was compared. There was a high acceptance rate for the abstract introducing low-value surgical innovation (12 out of 19 (63.2 %)), which was higher than that of a nonoperative duplicate (10 out of 19 (52.6 %)), but this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.5). The majority of the ten meetings that accepted both abstracts placed both in equivalent programmatic tiers (oral presentation (4) and poster presentation (2)). In three meetings, the surgical abstract received superior program placement (oral presentation). In one case, it was the opposite. There is a high acceptance rate for low-value surgical innovation among peer-reviewed scientific meetings. However, we can not conclude that low-value surgical innovation is preferred more often than nonoperative innovation by peer-reviewers as the differences in acceptance rate were small and not statistically significant. The peer-review process may be suitable as value-based medicine emerges. Scientists should be encouraged to pursue value-based innovation.

Preference signaling in orthopaedic surgery: applicant perspectives and opinions.

Orthopaedic surgery has become increasingly competitive over the years, with the COVID-19 pandemic creating additional challenges for applicants and programs. To promote an equitable match experience, the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) introduced a formal preference signaling (PS) system into the 2022-2023 application cycle. PS allows applicants to indicate their heightened interest in specific programs, which improves the likelihood of receiving an interview and ultimately matching at their desired residency program. The objective of this anonymous survey is to assess applicants' opinions and perspectives toward PS in orthopaedic surgery prior to the 2022-2023 match results. Additionally, we sought to evaluate the signaling strategies being utilized by applicants. An anonymous 22-question survey was distributed to applicants of an orthopaedic surgery residency program (34.2 % response rate). Responses were collected after the application submission deadline but before the match lists and results were available. This survey included questions germane to demographics, signal utilization, signaling reasons and strategies, and opinions toward PS.Descriptive statistics were calculated utilizing R (version 4.2.1) and RStudio. Most respondents (96.1 %) participated in PS, and 96.7 % utilized all 30 signals. Signaling encouraged 24.2 % ofapplicants to apply to fewer programs. In accordance withguidelines, 83.2 % of respondents signaled each away rotation program; however, only 53 % signaled their home program. Applicants commonly signaled 1-10 "reach" and "safety" programs each. Proximity to Family and Perceived Operative Experience were the most important reasons forsignaling, whereas Program Prestige was the least. A program's social presence and virtual interview option did not influence many applicants' decisions for signaling. Most applicants believe that the COVID-19 pandemic and pass/fail licensure examinations influenced PS adoption. Sixty-seven of 149 respondents (45 %) claimed that applicants and programs benefit equally from PS, while 41 % believe programs benefit more. Nearly half (40.94 %) knew very littleor nothing about PS. During the inaugural introduction of PS in orthopaedic surgery, nearly every applicant utilized all 30 signals, prioritizing factors like family proximity and perceived operative experience over program prestige. Thisshift reflects the importance of geographic location andpresumed training quality. Despite unfamiliarity toward PS, personalized signaling strategies were implemented, accompanied by a slight decrease in application volumes. The30 allotted signals in orthopaedic surgery may serve as aninformal application cap due to the necessity of signaling aprogram for an interview invite. However, improved educational efforts are needed to enhance the understanding and maximize the benefits of PS for both applicants and programs.

Koli Calling 2024: Call for Participation

We warmly invite you to attend the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling 2024), to be held 14-17 November 2024 in the beautiful Koli National Forest in Eastern Finland. While the submission deadline for full papers and discussion papers has passed, you can still submit posters and demo papers by 20 September 2024.

Cultivating academic success and inclusion: Rethinking education for children with ADHD in Pakistan.

To the Editor, In Pakistan, 2.49% of children have ADHD, with a boy-to-girl ratio of 3:1(1). However, the challenge is exacerbated by a prevailing stigma surrounding mental health issues, which often compels potential individuals to shy away from seeking professional help. This predicament not only burdens these young minds but also gives rise to various complications as they transition into adulthood. (2) While some training sessions for teachers and parents have been conducted to address ADHD in Pakistan, the extent of these efforts remains limited. (3, 4) The merits of such initiatives are undeniable, as they empower caregivers to understand and adapt their behaviours to support affected individuals better. Moreover, educational institutions have an invaluable opportunity to evolve their teaching methodologies to cater to the unique mental constitution of children with ADHD. Once teachers are enlightened about the cognitive dynamics of their students, they can craft strategies to help these individuals maximise their academic potential. Guided by recommendations from the Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) (5), classroom settings can be tailored to assist atypical students facing academic challenges (refer to Table 1). Other practical suggestions include extending task submission deadlines for concerned students and rewarding those who meet them on time with extra credit. Similarly, allocating extra time during tests acknowledges the extra effort required by this population to accomplish tasks that come more easily to typical children. In this pursuit of curriculum adjustments, teachers must forge positive relationships with students dealing with ADHD. Creating an inclusive, nonjudgmental environment where students can freely express themselves without fear of criticism or reprimand is paramount. In summary, embracing innovative teaching methods that promote the inclusion of students with ADHD alongside their typical peers can yield profound benefits for their cognitive development, academic achievements, and social well-being. Providing these essential tools and fostering an inclusive learning environment empowers this young generation to navigate future challenges and lead fulfilling, independent lives.

Call for Papers: 10th Anniversary Issue

The second issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies (IJPS) in 2024 celebrates the 10th anniversary of the journal. We honor the past by looking to the future. The theme of this issue is Building a Partnership World. For the anniversary issue we invite authors to imagine the partnership-based future that we are co-designing. We especially invite previous IJPS authors to describe the future that their cultural transformation work is helping to create. What will this future mean for education, agriculture, our cities, our governance? What will a partnership-based future mean for our children, for elders, for currently marginalized peoples, and for the rest of Nature? The submission deadline is September 15th, 2024. See the PDF for complete information.

PACMMOD Volume 2 Issue 3: Editorial

Welcome to Issue 3 of Volume 2 of the Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data. This issue has papers submitted to the SIGMOD research track of PACMMOD, whose submission deadline was October 15, 2023. Out of 287 submissions in this round, a total of 70 articles were accepted and are presented in this issue. We provide statistics of paper submissions and acceptance, by primary subject area, across all submissions to the SIGMOD research track of PACMMOD in 2023. Accepted papers from this pool have been invited for presentation at the ACM SIGMOD 2024 conference to be held from 9th to 14th June 2024, in Santiago, Chile.

Peer assessment to promote self-regulated learning with technology in higher education: systematic review for improving course design

Peer assessment is one of the approaches to develop self-regulation of learning. When evaluating the work of peers, metacognitive strategies of critical reflection are employed. They improve their own learning especially if evaluative feedback and/or suggestions for modification are provided. The aim of this systematic review is to learn how technology can facilitate self-regulation of learning, using peer assessment activities. We focus on higher education. To achieve the objective, we searched WoS and Scopus, obtaining 15 publications that concatenate the four search terms: self-regulated learning, peer assessment, higher education, and technology. These four terms must appear in the title, abstract or keywords. In this way, we ensure that the topic to be reviewed is central to the publication. The results are analyzed using the model for systematic review, which has three phases: description, synthesis, and critique. A proposal has been made to improve the design of courses in virtual classrooms, focusing on Moodle, and to include peer evaluation to improve self-regulated learning. It highlights the possibility of virtual classrooms to configure a rubric to guide the evaluation, together with the request for mandatory comments to justify the evaluation. This helps the student reflect on what is wrong and why, and how to improve. It also highlights the facility to randomly assign a specific number of tasks per reviewer or per task, and to make the whole process completely anonymous. The technology allows short deadlines for submission and review times to be maintained for instant feedback, as it can be configured with a single click. Finally, and related to this, Moodle can reopen the submission phase, to send an improved version based on feedback, and the evaluation phase, to check that the proposed improvements have been made. This helps to a greater extent to apply metacognitive strategies.

PACMMOD Volume 2 Issue 1: Editorial

Welcome to Issue 1 of Volume 2 of the Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data, which has papers from the third round of submissions to the SIGMOD research track. Out of 230 submissions in this round, whose submission deadline was July 15, 2023, a total of 71 articles were accepted and are presented in this issue.

Optimize The Authority To Judicial Review By The Supreme Court

Determined of Supreme Court Regulation Number 1 of 2011 about the Right to Test Material, where one of the substances remove strained period the submission deadline Applications for approval were previously limited to 180 days after regulation laws and regulations determined as previously regulated in the Regulations Supreme Court Number 1 of 2004 should be welcomed as a positive step in in order to make the authority to review statutory regulations effective by Supreme Court. In the future, in order to further optimize authority Therefore, the Supreme Court Regulations Concerning the Right to Judicial Review need to be revised through the establishment of Supreme Court Regulations regarding regulatory review regulations that include the right to material review and the right to formal review, because However, the Supreme Court does not only have the authority to carry out material tests also formal testing where the two understanding authorities are better known as the term judicial review authority.

Impact of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Professional Decision-Making Among Urology Applicants

The effect of the Dobbs decision on 2023 Urology match applicants: 88% disapproved, and 1/5 eliminated programs from their rank list.[MeSH = “urology”, “abortion, induced”, “reproductive health”/ “reproductive health services”, “workforce”/ “health workforce”, “internship and residency”/ “medical residency”] ObjectiveTo examine the impact of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which declared there is no constitutional right to abortion, on professional decision-making in residency selection and ranking. Materials and MethodsAn IRB-exempt REDCap survey was distributed through the Society of Academic Urologists to all 508 applicants registered for the 2023 Urology Match following the rank list submission deadline on January 10, 2023. The survey closed on February 1, 2023. Responses were anonymized, aggregated, and characterized using descriptive statistics. Thematic mapping of open text comments was performed by two reviewers. ResultsThe response rate was 42% (215/508). 88% of respondents disapproved of the Dobbs ruling. Twenty percent of respondents (15% male/24% female) eliminated programs in states where abortion is illegal. Fifty nine percent (51% male/70% female) would be concerned for their or their partner’s health if they matched in a state where abortion was illegal, and 66% (55% male/82% female) would want their program to assist them or their partner if they required abortion care during residency. Due to the competitive nature of Urology, 68% of applicants reported feeling at least somewhat obligated to apply in states where abortion legislation conflicts with their beliefs. Of the 65 comments provided by respondents, four common themes emerged: 1) Avoidance of states with restrictive abortion laws; 2) Inability to limit applications because of the competitiveness of urology; 3) Impacts on personal healthcare; and 4) Desire for advocacy from professional urology organizations. ConclusionsThe Dobbs ruling will impact the urology workforce by affecting urology applicants’ decision-making regarding residency selection and ranking. Although the competitiveness of the Urology Match pressures applicants to apply broadly, many are taking reproductive healthcare access into consideration.

HUBUNGAN JOB DEMAND, JOB CONTROL, DUKUNGAN SOSIAL DAN FAKTOR INDIVIDU TERHADAP STRES KERJA PADA PENDAMPING SOSIAL PKH KOTA BEKASI

Stress can be described when there is a gap between individual needs and capabilities which resulted in individual stress. Work stress can be caused by high workload. The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between job control, job demand, sosial support, and individual factors on work stress in the Sosial Assistance Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) in Bekasi The method of this research is descriptive observational with a cross-sectional study design. The dependant variable is work stress, whereas the independent variables are age, marital status, self-efficacy, number of children, job demand, job control, and sosial support. The population of this study is 117 workers and the number of samples is 60 women. Measurement of work stress used the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The statistical analysis used the Chi-Square test. he results indicate that there are variables related to work stress, namely the number of children (p = 0.006), self-efficacy (p = 0.003), job demand (p = 0.006), and job control (p = 0.047). However, age (p-value = 0.366), marital status (p = 0.260), and sosial support (p = 0.156) are not related to work stress. Based on the result of the study, the institution should do applicable and impactful efforts to deal with work stress events, for example the institution can arrange a special event for sharing between institution, coordinators, and workers regarding the number of work demands and submission deadlines.

First-in-human phase 1/2 trial evaluating TAC01-CLDN18.2 autologous T cells in CLDN18.2-positive solid tumors.

TPS419 Background: CLDN18.2 is a tight junction protein expressed in differentiated gastric epithelial cells and is abnormally expressed in various solid tumor types, serving as a promising target for therapy. To date, there are no approved therapies directed against this target, but compelling data exist using monoclonal antibodies and conventional CAR T therapy. The T Cell Antigen Coupler (TAC) technology is an approach to modifying T cells ex vivo, which allows recognition and cytotoxicity of tumor cells by co-opting the natural T cell receptor. The TAC technology has a safer profile than conventional CAR T therapies and is used to create an autologous TAC01-CLDN18.2 T cell product targeting CLDN18.2. Methods: This first in-human trial (NCT05862324) is designed to assess both the safety profile and preliminary antitumor activity of TAC01-CLDN18.2 in patients with CLDN18.2+/HER2- solid tumors after ≥ 2 lines of therapy. The phase 1 dose escalation segment employs a traditional 3+3 dose-escalation design to evaluate increasing doses of TAC01-CLDN18.2 with estimated enrollment numbers of 9 to 24 subjects. The subsequent phase 2 will further evaluate the efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of the optimal TAC01-CLDN18.2 dose. With 3 cohorts, Group A will enroll up to 57 subjects with gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma, Group B aims to enroll 10 subjects with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) while Group C will examine up to 22 subjects with ovarian and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Groups A and C will leverage a Simon 2-stage design to assess whether the treatment achieves efficacy, while Group B will be exploratory with an opportunity for cohort enrichment based on clinical data. Prior to TAC01-CLDN18.2 infusion, subjects will undergo leukapheresis and may receive bridging anticancer therapy as appropriate during cell manufacturing. CLDN18.2 expression levels will be determined centrally using a clinical trial assay validated across relevant indications. Subjects will then undergo low intensity lymphodepletion chemotherapy. A second dose of TAC01-CLDN18.2 may be administered based on prespecified safety and clinical criteria. Evaluation of DLTs will take place within a 28-day window following the first infusion. In both phases, CLDN18.2+/HER2- solid tumor patients must have completed at least two prior therapy lines except for PDAC patients who may qualify after one prior antineoplastic regimen. For phase 2, up to four prior treatment lines is permissible and definitions of eligible CLDN18.2 expression levels will be based on retrospective analysis of data from Phase 1 in association with clinical efficacy. The trial is currently in the open-enrollment stage, awaiting the inclusion of the inaugural patient. No data analysis is available as of the submission deadline. Clinical trial information: NCT05862324 .

ПРАВО ВІДПОВІДАЧА НА ПЕРЕГЛЯДАННЯ ЗАОЧНОГО РІШЕННЯ: ЛЕГАЛІЗАЦІЯ ПРОЦЕСУАЛЬНОЇ ДИВЕРСІЇ ЗІ СТОРОНИ ВІДПОВІДАЧА ЧИ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЯ ПРАВА БУТИ ВИСЛУХАНИМ

Background. The article addresses the doctrinal study of the defendant's right to review the decision in absentia through the prism of the time limit of the legal construction of the implementation of the said right. Results. The legal consequences of the defendant's submission of an application for review of a decision in absentia in violation of the term established by the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine are highlighted, and in the absence of legal grounds for renewing the specified term, the discretionary powers of the court to review a decision in absentia in civil proceedings are modeled. Emphasis is placed on the active application in judicial practice until November 9, 2021 of a single, scientifically substantiated and justified in practical aspect approach in solving the issue of the defendant missing the deadline for submitting an application for review of the decision in absentia and in the absence of grounds for its renewal. Taking into account the conducted detailed and thorough study of the motivational part of the resolution of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court dated by November 9, 2021, the main circumstances that became the basis for the formation of the panel of judges of the Grand Chamber with regard to the legal consequences and, accordingly, actions of the court in the event of submitting an application for review of the decision in absentia are highlighted with a missed deadline and in the absence of grounds for its renewal. Relying on the legal position formed by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in case No. 214/5505/16 on November 9, 2021, according to which the court leaves an application for review of a decision in absentia submitted outside the time limit established by law and in the absence of grounds for its renewal, without satisfaction, a legal assessment was made of the legal nature of the deadline for submitting the specified application and, taking into account the provisions of Article 120 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, it was classified as procedural deadlines. Examining the requirements for the application for the review of a decision in absentia legally established in the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, the criteria of a "properly executed" application for the review of a decision in absentia, which, pursuant to Article 286 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, is subject to acceptance by the court for review on its merits, have been formulated. Conclusions. In view of the legal nature of the institution of absentee hearing, which is a kind of procedural sanction for the defendant and, accordingly, provides for the defendant certain limitations in the procedure of appealing such a decision, in particular in terms of the legislative establishment of the deadline for submitting an application for review of the absentee decision, expressed the opinion that the failure to consider the application for review of the decision in absentia on the grounds of missing the statutory deadline for submission cannot be qualified as a violation of the defendant's rights and deprivation of his right to appeal the decision in general. It is emphasized that it is impossible to pass a resolution on leaving the application for the review of the decision in absentia without satisfaction on the grounds of missing the deadline set by the law and in the absence of grounds for its renewal, since this would contradict both the provisions of Article 126 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine and the grounds for issuing a court decision based on the results of consideration of the application for review of the decision in absentia on the merits.

“Four of my Lecturers Including my HOD Took Sexual Interest in Me”: Factors Facilitating Sexual Harassment and Exploitation in Nigerian Higher Education Institutions

For decades, Nigerian higher education institutions (HEIs) have featured as places where sex is used to determine who gets decent marks and who gets the opposite in what is popularly known as “sex-for-marks” in the country. It is common knowledge to Nigerians that many female students have been prevented from passing their coursework or completing their programmes of study for refusing to engage in sexual activities with their lecturers when demanded. Many male lecturers, including professors, have been dismissed, suspended, put on probation, or prosecuted for sexually harassing or exploiting female students. Available evidence suggests that this phenomenon cuts across both public and private institutions across the country although it is more common in public institutions. This current study explored this phenomenon. The qualitative approach was adopted. Both primary and secondary data were utilised. Primary data were gathered through semi-structured interviews of 22 female graduates and undergraduates of 11 HEIs. Secondary data came from 8 media outlets. The data were thematically analysed. Nine themes were developed from the data, which denoted the primary factors contributing to this menace, and these are (i) project supervision, (ii) being unique, (iii) being a fresher, (iv) tuition fee debt, (v) failed assessment, (vi) exam malpractice, (vii) missed submission deadline, (viii) failing to purchase handout, and (ix) sexual obsession. These themes were analysed in depth and supported with excerpts containing the original words of the victims while pseudonyms or fictitious names were used to replace the real names of the participants. Recommendations were made on how the authorities of HEIs can effectively address this social problem.

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACTS OF METFORMIN ON AGING AND LIFESPAN IN DIVERSITY OUTBRED MICE

Abstract Metformin, a type 2 diabetes treatment, has profound effects on regulating development, metabolism, and aging acting via the mTOR/autophagy pathway. Nevertheless, its potential to extend lifespan and counteract aging remains an open question. Previous research highlighted the intricate interplay between genetic background, gender, and treatment commencement age in shaping outcomes. To examine the long-term effect of metformin on aging and lifespan, this project utilizes the diversity outbred (DO) mice, initially derived from the interbreeding of eight inbred strains, effectively emulating the intricate genetic complexity found in humans. Initiated at 2 months old, DO mice were subjected to metformin-infused food [0.1%, w/w] (n=15 and 14, females and males respectively) or a metformin-free counterpart (n=10 for both sexes). Starting from 12 months of age, a statistically significant increase in male body weight was observed within the metformin-treated group, while no significant effect was found in females. Indirect calorimetry assays revealed a significantly elevated respiratory ratio in both sexes of metformin-treated mice. Surprisingly, at the age of 12 months, metformin treatment significantly impaired glucose tolerance in females, whereas in males, pyruvate and insulin tolerance exhibited significant reductions. After the first submission deadline, by 16 months of age, two females died in each of the treatment and control groups. Notably, the metformin-treated male cohort lost four individuals, but no mortality in the control male cohort (P=0.07, log-rank test). These preliminary findings underscore a potential deleterious impact of metformin on metabolic traits and lifespan when initiated from a young age, particularly in male mice.

Mental Health America is seeking proposals for its Policy Institute Day on Sept. 19–21, 2024 in Washington, D.C.

Mental Health America is seeking proposals for its Policy Institute Day on Sept. 19–21, 2024 in Washington, D.C. All events will be offered in hybrid format on MHA's custom platform and will include in‐person, live‐streamed, and virtual sessions with closed captioning. The deadline for submission is Feb. 12, 2024. For more information, visit https://www.abstractscorecard.com/cfp/submit/login.asp?EventKey=RQGLLOVR.

PACMMOD Volume 1 Issue 4: Editorial

Welcome to this issue of the Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data (Volume 1, Issue 4 (SIGMOD)). While this issue has papers from the SIGMOD track, PACMMOD will soon also have issues with papers from the newly created PODS track. Out of 189 submissions to the round of reviewing for the PACMMOD SIGMOD track whose submission deadline was April 15, 2023, a total of 49 articles were accepted, and are presented in this issue.

Longitudinal qualitative study of paired mentor-mentee perspectives on the abstract submission process

BackgroundSubmitting research abstracts to scientific societies is expected in academic medicine and requires dedicated time and effort. The authors queried mentors and mentees to ascertain what topics and proposed strategies should be included in a new curriculum to enhance the abstract submission process.MethodsBetween May 2019 and March 2020, the authors enrolled 14 senior-rank mentors from diverse disciplines at a tertiary musculoskeletal center and their 14-paired mentees (mostly residents and fellows) into a several-component qualitative study consisting of in-depth interviews several months before abstract submission addressing prior experiences, and longitudinal follow-up interviews 1 month before, 1 week before, and 1 week after submission to uncover challenges faced during the actual process and strategies that were effective in overcoming these challenges. Additional contacts occurred through November 2020 to ascertain outcomes of submissions. Mentors and mentees were unaware of each other’s responses. Responses were grouped into categories using grounded theory and a comparative analytic strategy.ResultsAt enrollment participants recounted details from prior abstracts that included experiences with the submission process such as format, content, and online requirements, and experiences with interpersonal interactions such as managing coinvestigators’ competing priories and consulting with statisticians in a timely manner. Benefits of submitting abstracts included advancing mentees’ careers and increasing research methodology rigor. Challenges encountered during the submission process included meeting deadlines before all data were acquired, time away from other responsibilities, and uncertainty about handling changing conclusions as more data accrued. Delayed feedback from coinvestigators and broadening the scope or changing the focus of the abstract compounded the time crunch to meet the submission deadline. At the time of abstract submission mentor-mentee pairs agreed that major challenges were dealing with collaborators, incomplete data/limited results, and different work styles. The authors developed a proposal for a comprehensive curriculum to include organizational, technical and interpersonal topics.ConclusionsThis longitudinal qualitative study involving mentor-mentee pairs revealed multiple benefits and challenges associated with submitting research abstracts. These findings provide the foundation for a comprehensive curriculum to enhance this recurring labor-intensive undertaking and cornerstone of academic medicine.

Adaptive device sampling and deadline determination for cloud-based heterogeneous federated learning

As a new approach to machine learning, Federated learning enables distributned traiing on edge devices and aggregates local models into a global model. The edge devices that participate in federated learning are highly heterogeneous in terms of computing power, device state, and data distribution, making it challenging to converge models efficiently. In this paper, we propose FedState, which is an adaptive device sampling and deadline determination technique for cloud-based heterogeneous federated learning. Specifically, we consider the cloud as a central server that orchestrates federated learning on a large pool of edge devices. To improve the efficiency of model convergence in heterogeneous federated learning, our approach adaptively samples devices to join each round of training and determines the deadline for result submission based on device state. We analyze existing device usage traces to build device state models in different scenarios and design a dynamic importance measurement mechanism based on device availability, data utility, and computing power. We also propose a deadline determination module that dynamically sets the deadline according to the availability of all sampled devices, local training time, and communication time, enabling more clients to submit local models more efficiently. Due to the variability of device state, we design an experience-driven algorithm based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) that can dynamically adjust our sampling and deadline policies according to the current environment state. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through a series of experiments with the FMNIST dataset and show that our method outperforms current state-of-the-art approaches in terms of model accuracy and convergence speed.