E-mail Address Research Articles

How Physicians and Nursing Staff Perceive Effectiveness and Tolerability of Bryophyllum Preparations: An Online Survey in an Anthroposophic Hospital

Background: Bryophyllum preparations are widely used in anthroposophic medicine, most often for mental and behavioural disorders. Three prospective studies have revealed positive effects of Bryophyllum pinnatum on sleep quality, and various trials have shown very good tolerability. Results from animal models have indicated CNS depressant and anxiolytic effects. This survey was conducted at the hospital “Klinik Arlesheim” in Switzerland to find out how the physicians and the nursing staff perceive the effectiveness and the tolerability of the Bryophyllum preparations they most frequently use. Design: Internal, anonymous online survey of healthcare professionals (April 8–May 31, 2022). The questionnaire comprised 105 multiple-choice questions. Answering the questions was taken as consent to participate in the survey. Participants and Methods: All physicians and nursing staff with a valid email address at the hospital “Klinik Arlesheim AG” were invited via email to participate in this REDCap survey. The data were analysed descriptively. Results: Out of 266 invited participants, 48 answered some and 36 answered all questions (response rate between 18.0% and 13.5%). The participants had long experience with Bryophyllum preparations and were comprised approximately equal numbers of physicians and nursing staff. Various Bryophyllum preparations from the hospital’s own production and Wala Heilmittel GmbH (in both cases produced from the species B. daigremontianum) and from Weleda AG (species B. pinnatum) were used. The indications for which most participants had prescribed or administered Bryophyllum preparations “very frequently” were anxiety, sleep disorders, crisis situations in oncology, posttraumatic stress disorder, benzodiazepine dependence/withdrawal, and depression. Improvements such as relief from restlessness, decreased anxiety, balance, easier falling asleep, better sleeping through, increased resilience, mood elevation, and less urge to move one’s legs were reported “frequently” or “very frequently.” Almost all participants agreed that Bryophyllum can be used to reduce the intake of synthetic sedatives or psychotropic drugs, but only approximately half believed that it could replace them. The majority of participants mentioned good tolerability of the various products, but a few reported occasional stomach or intestinal irritation, daytime fatigue, drowsiness, diarrhoea, and nausea. Conclusion: Bryophyllum preparations are perceived as helpful in the treatment of various mental disorders, particularly anxiety, and are generally well tolerated. Most of these preparations are used for indications that have not yet been clinically investigated.

The Potential Harm of Email Delivery: Investigating the HTTPS Configurations of Webmail Services

Webmail, protected by the HTTPS protocol, only works correctly if both the server and client implement HTTPS-related features without vulnerability. Nevertheless, the deployment situation of these features in the webmail world is still unclear. To this end, we perform the first end-to-end and large-scale measurement of webmail service. For the server side, we first build an email address set with a size of 2.2 billion. Then we construct two webmail domain datasets: one contains 21 k domains filtered from the email address set; the other only includes 34 domains but supports more than 75% of the 2.2 billion email addresses. After performing a comprehensive measurement on these two webmail domain datasets, we find that some features are poorly deployed. Furthermore, we also rank servers by analyzing the properties of HTTPS-related features. For the client side, we investigate implement of HTTPS-related features in 50 different combinations of web browsers and operating systems (OSes). We find that even the latest browsers have poor support for some features. For example, Firefox in all OSes does not support CT. Our findings highlight that the full deployment of the security features for the HTTPS ecosystem is still a challenge, even in the webmail service.

An Investigation of the Impact of Mobile Money Services on the Profitability of Commercial Banks in Zambia

This paper sought to determine the impact of mobile money services on the profitability of commercial banks in Zambia. The study was guided by three objectives; (i) To examine the level of use of mobile money services in Zambia; (ii) to assess the measures of financial performance in the banking industry and (iii) to establish the relationship between the use of mobile money services and financial performance of the banking industry. The study applied both qualitative and quantitative research approaches mainly descriptive correlation design. The target population comprised of workers in all the commercial banks, mobile money operators (MMOs) and regulators and bank experts from Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) and Zambia Institute of Bankers (ZIOB) located in Lusaka central business district. A sample of 156 respondents was chosen using purposive sampling techniques to select retail, operations, customer service and finance department employees from banks and MMOs and two experts from ZICTA and ZIOB as key informants. Data were collected using questionnaires administered via Google forms sent to WhatsApp contacts and email addresses of respondents. Data were and analyzed using SPSS statistical packages to generate descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (regression analysis). The findings of study were presented in form of means, standard deviations, Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient and linear regression analysis. According to the findings of the study, it was indicated that there is generally a high level of use of mobile money services in the banking industry observed from a high level of reliability and accessibility to the services (Means of 3.71 and 4.17 simultaneously). The findings also indicated that there is a high level of financial performance reflected by a high level of profitability (Mean=4.52) in the banking industry, a high level of loan supervision (Mean=3 .85) and relatively high revenue sources (Mean=4. 11) for the banks. It was also indicated that there is an insignificant relationship between mobile money services use and financial performance in terms of profitability of banking industry (Sig. Value=0.2l2). It was also indicated that there is an insignificant relationship between mobile money services use and loan portfolio management of the banking industry (Sig. value=0.605). Finally, it also indicated that there an insignificant relationship between mobile money services use and revenue of banking industry (Sig. Value=0.435). The study thus recommends that commercial banks in Zambia which have not yet collaborated with MMOs should adopt the use of mobile money services on their platforms as it is highly reliable, accessible and reduces congestion in bank premises by customers who come to make transactions. This will help to boost financial performance in the banking industry.

Feasibility of Freedom of Information Requests for Amputee Epidemiology in the United Kingdom.

While each of the 44 National Health Service commissioned artificial limb clinics in the United Kingdom record information about their own prosthetic limb users, these are not collated to give a national picture of amputee epidemiology. The requirement to respond to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests within 20 working days offers another way of extracting data from all centres, and this study describes a first attempt to use this method to update national epidemiological data. Questions were sent to the FoI email addresses of all 44 centres, requesting numbers of adult unilateral below-knee amputees, adult unilateral above or through-knee amputees and child unilateral above or through-knee amputees (all of K2 level mobility), numbers of people consistently using a prosthesis with a single axis myoelectric hand, and access to an occupational therapist with skills to teach someone to use a myoelectric hand. A FoI request was sent to NHS England seeking release of data that they collect every month from all the prosthetic services which they commission in England. All but one of the UK centres responded, the great majority within 31 days. Incomplete results were generally due to centres finding the questions ambiguous and many did not record mobility levels consistently. While 33 centres had access to skilled occupational therapy, only 4 reported more than 10 patients who constantly used a single axis myoelectric hand. Eighteen centres were unable to provide complete data, and the remainder reported a ranges of 5 to 992 below-knee amputees, 7 to 574 adult above-knee amputees and 0 to 137 child above-knee amputees, suggesting different approaches to managing missing mobility level data. Freedom of Information requests are an inexpensive way of gathering data from NHS prosthetic clinics, which can identify age, sex, level of amputation but not activity levels or use of a prosthesis and hence only gives limited demographic information of the amputee cohort.

Technical Report Column

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Examination Of The Relationship Between Academicians' Life Long Learning Tendencies And Thinking Styles

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between academicians' lifelong learning tendencies and their thinking styles. Relational descriptive method was used in the research. All academicians working in higher education institutions in the 2022-2023 academic year were determined as the population of the research. After obtaining the necessary permissions, the scale was applied to a sample group of 1554 people, by reaching all universities by means of official letters and e-mails to the institutional e-mail addresses of the individuals. Personal Information Form, “Lifelong Learning Tendency Scale” and “Rational-Experiential Thinking Styles Scale” were used as data collection tools. The obtained data were transferred to the statistical package program. In the light of the sub-problems, it was examined whether the scale scores differed in terms of various variables (education level, academic title, field of science). The results were classified according to sociodemographic variables and presented in frequency tables. In accordance with the results obtained from the variables, Kruskal Wallis H test and Spearman-Brown Correlation Analysis were performed, and Mann Whitney U test was applied to determine the direction of the differences. Based on the findings, it was concluded that academicians have a high level of lifelong learning tendencies. While the lifelong learning tendencies of academicians differ according to the variables of educational status and field of science; did not differ according to academic title variables. It was concluded that the academicians' thinking styles levels were at a moderate level. The thinking styles of the academicians differed in terms of educational status, academic title and field of science variables. It has been concluded that the relationship between academicians' lifelong learning tendencies and thinking styles is at a significant level in terms of total and sub-dimension scores, generally below the medium level and in a positive direction.

USING PARADATA AND MANUAL REVIEW TO DETECT AUTOMATED ONLINE RESEARCH SURVEY PARTICIPATION

Abstract With an increase in health research recruitment on social media, there is also an increase in prevalence of software known as bots auto-enrolling in online studies. Despite efforts to prevent automated fraudulent enrollment, bots have become more sophisticated with some able to bypass a CAPTCHA and generate false email addresses. This session describes such fraudulent enrollment in one study and our efforts to detect it. For an online study of family caregivers of people with dementia, we recruited via family caregiver groups on Facebook. Potential participants could proceed to the online study and immediately answer screening questions and complete the study. A CAPTCHA was used to screen non-human respondents, but we detected rapid enrollment compared with other methods, raising suspicions. Paradata generated in the process of survey administration and unusual email addresses flagged suspected bot responses. To screen the responses, we reviewed the time to complete surveys compared with known human responses. We also noted email addresses that consisted of long alphanumeric usernames not common with most human respondents. After screening for suspicious respondents, we attempted to contact the email addresses of borderline cases to verify they were real respondents. Only one of 157 (0.006%) were determined to be a real respondent. Lessons learned from this experience include using paradata as part of data quality monitoring, using survey design methods to elude automated bots, and the value of researchers interacting with participants during enrollment.

Key Features of Smart Medication Adherence Products: Updated Scoping Review.

Older adults often face challenges in self-managing their medication owing to physical and cognitive limitations, complex medication regimens, and packaging of medications. Emerging smart medication dispensing and adherence products (SMAPs) offer the options of automated dispensing, tracking medication intake in real time, and reminders and notifications. A 2021 review identified 51 SMAPs owing to the rapid influx of digital technology; an update to this review is required. This review aims to identify new products and summarize and compare the key features of SMAPs. Gray and published literature and videos were searched using Google, YouTube, PubMed, Embase, and Scopus. The first 10 pages of Google and the first 100 results of YouTube were screened using 4 and 5 keyword searches, respectively. SMAPs were included if they were able to store and allowed for the dispensation of medications, tracked real-time medication intake data, and could automatically analyze data. Products were excluded if they were stand-alone software applications, not marketed in English, not for in-home use, or only used in clinical trials. In total, 5 researchers independently screened and extracted the data. This review identified 114 SMAPs, including 80 (70.2%) marketed and 34 (29.8%) prototypes, grouped into 15 types. Among the marketed products, 68% (54/80) were available for consumer purchase. Of these products, 26% (14/54) were available worldwide and 78% (42/54) were available in North America. There was variability in the hardware, software, data collection and management features, and cost of the products. Examples of hardware features include battery life, medication storage capacity, availability of types and number of alarms, locking features, and additional technology required for use of the product, whereas software features included reminder and notification capabilities and availability of manufacturer support. Data capture methods included the availability of sensors to record the use of the product and data-syncing capabilities with cloud storage with short-range communications. Data were accessible to users via mobile apps or web-based portals. Some SMAPs provided data security assurance with secure log-ins (use of personal identification numbers or facial recognition), whereas other SMAPs provided data through registered email addresses. Although some SMAPs were available at set prices or free of cost to end users, the cost of other products varied based on availability, shipping fees, and subscription fees. An expanding market for SMAPs with features specific to at-home patient use is emerging. Health care professionals can use these features to select and suggest products that meet their patients' unique requirements.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea In An Indian Population: A Cross Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep-related breathing disorder, associated with impaired ventilation during sleep and disruption of sleep; which is defined on the basis of nocturnal and daytime symptoms as well as sleep study findings. It’s associated with certain risk factors, namely – obesity, male sex, advancing age, hypertension, chronic consumption of alcohol and sedatives, along with positive family history. Any unexplained systemic or pulmonary hypertension, new-onset arrhythmias, polycythemia, personality and mood changes (including depression, anxiety), or cognitive defects are often linked to sleep disturbances and OSA. AIMS: Consequently, this study had 2 primary aims that were intended to be achieved by certain objectives: To screen an apparently healthy adult Indian population for prevalence of OSA amidst them, by – assessing the cardinal predisposing factors;and appraising extent of daytime sleepiness, fatigue and sleep status of volunteers. To significantly curb the incidence of OSA, by – counselling affected individuals to remodel their modus vivendi, and creating awareness amongst general public. METHODS: Subsequent to procuring assent from the Institutional Ethics Committee, for this cross-sectional, time-based study (of 3 months), a multiple-choice questionnaire was responded by 1078 Indian adults. Considering the specific target population of each, this questionnaire was an amalgamation of the three standard, subjective, clinical tools, namely: Berlin Questionnaire (BQ), STOP-BANG Questionnaire (SBQ), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Responses were thoroughly and discretely analyzed, using the elementary Microsoft 365 Excel, in tandem with IBM SPSS ver29. Suggested appropriate lifestyle changes to those seemingly affected with OSA, by reaching out through the affiliated email address (thesleepperils@gmail.com). OSA Awareness campaigns organized for the general public. RESULTS: According to the data collected (margin of error ±3% at 95% confidence interval), 11.78% and 5.75% of the participants were found highly vulnerable to OSA, using the BQ and SBQ tools, respectively. ESS depicted that more than one-fourth of the participants are susceptible to OSA. In congruence with similar studies conducted across the globe, this research has also concluded that males are significantly more prone to OSA than females. CONCLUSION: The public health impact of obstructive sleep apnea is escalating, particularly in developing countries like India, because of increasing urbanization leading to sedentary lifestyles, and its potential contribution to the worsening rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other co-morbidities. Identifying and addressing lifestyle and behavioral factors as well as comorbidities that may be exacerbating OSA, by budding clinicians is a must for a comprehensive management of obstructive sleep apnea. Consequently, the ultimate aim of this study was to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea at an early stage; along with analyzing the national burden of the ailment.

"We are still tired": staff and administrators’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic within California residential care facilities for older adults

BackgroundExtensive research has been conducted on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term care workers in specialized care facilities. However, little is known about the impacts faced by facilities that provide generalized long-term support and care, such as residential care facilities for older adults (RCFs). This study describes the challenges experienced by staff and administrators of RCFs during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsAn electronic questionnaire collecting data using both closed- and open-ended questions on staff experiences was sent to 5,721 unique RCF administrator emails within the state of California between June-December 2021. Email addresses were obtained from the public database of RCFs available through the California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal. Descriptive statistics were calculated on quantitative data regarding staff preparedness training, access to resources, and administrators’ confidence in meeting recommended guidelines during the pandemic. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on qualitative data regarding the confidence levels in meeting pandemic guidelines and challenges faced related to staff stress and morale.ResultsA total of 150 RCF administrators across California (response rate of 2.6%) completed the survey. Over three-fourths of respondents indicated their facilities had a designated staff member to train other staff members on emergency preparedness plans and the most frequently used resources during the COVID-19 pandemic were the Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division (88.7%), the county health department (86.7%), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (80.7%). Administrators felt least confident in their facilities’ ability to maintain adequate staffing (52.0%), communication with nearby hospitals (62.1%) and communication with state and local public health officials (69.8%) during the pandemic. Three central themes emerged from the thematic analysis on staff stress and morale: (1) physical safety, mental and emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) staffing issues; and (3) challenges with guidelines in managing the ongoing pandemic.ConclusionsFindings from this research study can be used to actively target training resources for facility administrators and staff that have been identified as most frequently used and relevant for emergency preparedness in these understudied facilities. Additionally, developing a better understanding of the staffing stress and morale difficulties in RCFs can provide insight on how policymakers can assist these critical facilities in better preparing for future crises.

E-mail as a way of communication during the ACWY meningococcal vaccination campaign in adolescents and young adults in the Region of Murcia

In 2019, ACWY meningococcal vaccination for people born between 2001 and 2007 was recommended. In Murcia, during the first 9 months, the coverage was 52.89%. This study is aimed to evaluate the effects of e-mail reminders on vaccination coverage.A longitudinal, prospective trial was performed on non-vaccinated individuals with e-mail addresses. An e-mail reminder was sent to people assigned to the intervention group (born in any month, except January and July), and 4 weeks later, the same was sent to the control group. Vaccination coverage was assessed before and 4 weeks after each intervention.After the first intervention, 5.15% of the participants in the intervention group were vaccinated (1.57% in the control group). The increased likelihood of being vaccinated if a person had been sent an e-mail was 1.033 (95% confidence interval, 1.019–1.047; p = 0.001).This study highlighted the impact of e-mail as an appropriate method of communication for vaccination programmes.

Training on Converting Theses to Articles and Adapting Journal Templets for Unima Sociology Education Students

Training of Conversion thesis to article is expected to make it easier for future students to complete a comprehensive test requirement where one of the conditions is to create an article based on a revised essay that will be published in a reputable journal. It is also to avoid students paying others to make the article so that students can make it independently. The aim of this service is to conduct training on Converting Theses to Articles and Adapting Journal Templates for Unima Sociology Education Students so that students can master these skills. The methods used in this activity include lectures, discussions, questions and answers and of course direct practice. After carrying out the training, it can be that several steps in implementing this training are as follows: 1. Make sure the thesis file plagiarism is low below 30%, 2. Open the thesis word file, 3. Open the published journal/journal article word template file, 4. First adjust the title, author, affiliation and email address, 5. Create an abstract in English and Indonesian, consisting of: a. Background/Aim, b. Research methods, c. Method of collecting data, d. Data analysis, e. Research result, 6. Copy and paste the following from the thesis into the article: a. Introduction, b. Methods (research methods, data collection techniques/methods, c. Data analysis), d. Results (Interviews, observations, documents) and Discussion (Following results/findings, theories, references, researchers' opinions), e. Conclusion, f. Bibliography

Nursing home nurses' opinions on the potential evolution of their role in antibiotic stewardship: A French national cross-sectional survey.

To assess French nursing home nurses' opinions on the potential evolution of their antibiotic stewardship role, facilitators and barriers, and nurses' characteristics associated with their opinion toward new roles regarding antibiotic prescribing. We conducted a cross-sectional study in French nursing homes with ≥20 beds and for which an email address was available in a national database managed by the French government between May and June 2022. A self-administered internet-based questionnaire of 43 closed-ended Likert items was sent to directors of eligible nursing homes by email asking them to forward the link to the questionnaire to the nurses and head nurses of their institution. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and χ2 tests. 7215 nursing homes were sent the online questionnaire; 1090 participants completed it partially or totally and 923 fully filled in the questionnaire. A majority of nurses supported strengthening and expanding their antibiotic stewardship role. Regarding new roles, over 70% agreed that nurses could collect urine samples to perform a urine culture on their own initiative, prescribe microbiological laboratory tests, and change the drug formulation or the administration route of the antibiotic prescribed by the general practitioner. One-third declared that they could initiate antibiotics for some infections and/or change the empirical antibiotic treatment prescribed by the general practitioner. Nurses from public nursing homes with connection to a hospital (27.5% vs. >35% for other status) and with recent experience in nursing homes (31% for <5 years of practice vs. 41% for 10 years or more) were less likely to agree to prescribe antibiotics. This quantitative questionnaire survey identified potential new nurses' roles in antibiotic stewardship that seem to be acceptable and feasible for participants. These new nurses' roles need to be explored in future experimentations before considering implementation. The study adhered to relevant EQUATOR guidelines and followed the STROBE reporting guidelines. A self-administered internet-based questionnaire was sent to directors of eligible nursing homes by email asking them to forward the link to the questionnaire to the nurses and head nurses of their institution. Nurses and head nurses who were interested and willing could complete the questionnaire online partially or fully. This study is not a clinical trial and is not eligible for trial registration. We used another suitable study registration site, the Center for Open Science.

New medical schools in Sub-Saharan Africa –a cross-sectional survey of educational structures, operations, and policies

IntroductionAfrica does not have enough doctors despite having the highest continental burden of disease. Encouragingly, many new medical schools are opening and have begun to graduate doctors. However, the educational structures, operations, and policies of these schools remain poorly understood. This study aimed to better understand these dimensions of new medical schools on the continent.MethodologyWe developed and implemented an online survey covering topics that included admissions policies, curricular design, assessment, accreditation, faculty development, research capacity, postgraduate training, and COVID-19-specific challenges. The survey was sent to 130 schools of which 52 represented individually identifiable email addresses (the remainder being schools’ websites or generic addresses).ResultsResponses represented 10 countries (response rate ~ 56%). Curricula were mostly lecture-based (n = 18, 75%). Electronic platforms and information technologies were used by over 75% (n = 18) of schools. More than half have not implemented postgraduate training programs (n = 13, 57%). Most schools had a formal accreditation process (n = 16, 70%), but the source of accreditation varied. The biggest challenge facing schools was financial (n = 20, 87%) followed by faculty/staff recruitment, training, and retention (each n = 15, 65%).ConclusionNew medical schools in Sub-Saharan Africa are a gateway to the next generation of medical doctors in a region where medical professionals are desperately needed. This survey of new schools is an important step in better understanding their status and needs, especially with the onset of the pandemic.

Manifestations of life resistance of students medical psychologist National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsya in the realities of the war time

Annotation. In article is devoted analysis of the viability of students medical psychologists in wartime conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of vitality of 50 medical psychologist students 1st and 2nd years of study in National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsya in the period from February 2022 until February 2023. We used the Hardiness-Survey, adapted by D. O. Leontiev and O. 1. Rasskazova in 2006 and the author’s questionnaire in the form of a Google form, which was sent to respondents’ e-mail addresses. The questionnaire was anonymous and contained questions about age, gender, presence of a sense of security, contact with a psychiatrist or psychologist during the specified period with the aim of correcting the emotional state that worsened in connection with military operations and the probable intake of medications – because of this, the importance of influences during the specified period. “Test of vitality” by S. Muddy, modified by: D. O. Leontiev and O. I. Rasskazova includes the following subscales: involvement (setting on events that includes the following subscales: involvement (setting on the happening events), control (setting on activity in life events), risk-taking (setting in relation to difficult or new situations when they are considered as challenges and opportunities to gain experience) and general evaluation viability. The results of the study showed sufficiently high indicators of the average level of both general vitality among the surveyed students and its separate subscales of involvement, control and risk, which allows us to assert that the personal characteristics of students who are studying in the 1st and 2nd year of medical psychology at National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsya managed to successfully overcome and adapt to changing influences and requirements of the environment against the background of personal growth and high professional productivity. It is promising to search for new methods of increasing the level of vitality in order to effectively overcome crisis situations and preserve health.

Paper mills: a novel form of publishing malpractice affecting psychology

We first describe the phenomenon of the academic paper mill, a kind of large-scale fraud in which authors pay to have work published in reputable journals. We give examples of some known paper mills and discuss ‘red flags’ that characterise their outputs. Most of the early examples were in biomedical and computational sciences and so paper mills are less familiar to many psychologists. In the next section, we describe a broker company/paper mill, Tanu.pro, discovered by the first author, which was identified by the use of fake email addresses. This paper mill placed six outputs in the Journal of Community Psychology, a reputable journal from a mainstream publisher. We look in detail at these papers and describe the features that confirm that malpractice was involved in publication. In five cases there was circumstantial evidence of tampering with the peer review process coupled with lack of editorial oversight. These papers have now been retracted. In a final section, we discuss the need for editors of psychology journals to be aware of potential targeting by paper mills and recommend editorial procedures to counteract these.

Identifying disability-related barriers to academic employment

ABSTRACTThis study sought to increase understanding on barriers to securing academic employment met by people with disabilities. Lindsay and Fuentes [2022. “It is Time to Address Ableism in Academia: A Systematic Review of the Experiences and Impact of Ableism among Faculty and Staff.” Disabilities 2 (2): 178–203] pointed out the paucity of research on disability in academia. We surveyed over 5,000 authors of scholarly articles with ‘disab’ in the title and with UK or USA academic email addresses. People with disabilities were asked to describe barriers they met, and people without disabilities to describe barriers they believed that people with disabilities faced. The responses were classified according to the category of barrier. We found examples of 11 categories of barrier, indicating that a wide range of factors contribute to barriers to academic employment. The most common categories of barrier in responses by people with disabilities were attitudinal barriers, inadequate provision of reasonable adjustment, and excessive workload. Moreover, the frequencies of categories of barrier vary greatly with impairment. We consider the possible ramifications of our study for addressing the barriers to academic employment, the understanding of the nature of disability and methodology. Our study is the first investigation of the relative frequencies of barriers to academic employment.

Dentists' attitudes and prescription practices for analgesics and antibiotics in Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.

The inappropriate use of analgesics and antibiotics is a widespread issue among dentists globally, leading to the risk of over-prescription that could negatively affect patient health and quality of life. This study aimed to assess the prescribing patterns of analgesics and antibiotics by dentists in Kirkuk City, Iraq, focusing on their attitudes, knowledge levels, and practices regarding these medications. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 280 dentists in Kirkuk City. The dentists were contacted via their work email addresses, and they responded to a survey. Descriptive statistics, including frequency analysis, were employed to evaluate the appropriateness of analgesic and antibiotic prescriptions for different dental conditions. The first-choice analgesic for 44.6% of dentists was mefenamic acid, followed by paracetamol (31.1%). Regarding antibiotic use, 56.8% of dentists in Kirkuk City reported using antibiotics for empirical and direct therapy. Other dentists (43.2%) revealed that they did not have enough information regarding antibiotic group preference in empirical therapy. 106 of the participants (37.85%) recommended the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the treatment of bacterial infections. However, most (45%) were unfamiliar with the group preferences in empirical therapy. Dentists in Kirkuk City showed variations in knowledge and awareness regarding using analgesics and antibiotics. This requires further education and training on proper analgesics and antibiotic stewardship guidelines.

Artificial Intelligence and Venous Thromboembolism: Talking to the Experts

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a significant cause of preventable death among hospitalized patients. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its sub-branch machine learning (ML) may be useful in standardizing and improving VTE management in hospitalized patients. To learn attitudes towards using AI for VTE, we previously conducted a national survey of 100 clinical informaticians recruited through professional organizations and a publicly available database listing recipients of National Institutes of Health informatics grant awardees (Lam et al, RPTH, 2023). For the current study, we interviewed a subset of these informaticians to explore their perspectives in depth on using AI in clinical decision making and VTE management. Methods: Survey participants interested in participating in interviews were asked to submit their email addresses. We then recruited these participants and asked them to recommend other informaticians who may be interested. We conducted 30-60 minute interviews via videoconference which were recorded and transcribed. Two coders separately reviewed the interviews using thematic analyses to develop a codebook. Codes were identified inductively and agreed upon by consensus. Once a codebook was agreed upon, it was used to code all interviews in duplicate. Results: Of 32 informaticians who were contacted, 11 agreed to be interviewed. The final participant group included 4 clinicians, 6 data scientists, and 1 biomedical/computational biologist. The major themes that emerged were that AI is a powerful tool to reduce clinician burden and AI is well suited to preventing and managing VTE, but bias in the creation of AI tools must be minimized. Since machine learning models increase accuracy and efficiency in clinical practice, they can serve as decision support and management tools and help to improve communication thereby reducing clinician burden. (Table 1) Other than the ethical concerns regarding bias, subpar quality of training data and model inaccuracy were identified as potential challenges. ML tools need to be validated as safe and effective for their specific role. In addition, one theme highlighted that clinicians fear being replaced by AI, while another noted that most patients would prefer interacting with humans about their medical care over AI. There were multiple suggestions for implementation of AI. Participants noted that AI could be integrated into the EMR and that ML tools should be further investigated with input from domain experts (data scientists, computational biologists and clinicians). Finally, interviewees recognized that VTE management was an area of medicine in which AI could be used successfully given that it is a clearly defined problem that lends itself to an algorithmic solution which can incorporate the current guidelines into a tool within the EMR system. Conclusion: Informaticians see AI as a promising tool to support clinical decision making about VTE prophylaxis because not only does it increase accuracy and efficiency, but it is also a clearly defined area of clinical management where guidelines can be effectively incorporated into the EMR system via machine learning. Challenges identified to implementing AI/ML will have to be addressed in order to create an ethical and accurate model which reduces the burden on healthcare providers in the clinical setting.

From web forms to chatbots: The roles of consistency and reciprocity for user information disclosure

AbstractInteractive decision aids (IDAs) on websites often require users to disclose relevant information (e.g., preferences, contact information) to help users in making decisions (e.g., product choice). With technological advances in IDAs, websites increasingly switch from static, non‐conversational IDAs (e.g., web forms) to conversational ones (e.g., chatbots) to boost user information disclosure that nurtures the websites' economic viability. While this novel form of IDAs is already widely employed in practice, information systems research has yet to examine the defining dialogue design features of conversational IDAs and their effects on eliciting user information. Drawing on persuasion theory and particularly on consistency and reciprocity as influence techniques, we develop a research model around two crucial dialogue design features of conversational IDAs. Specifically, we investigate the distinct and joint effects of conversational style (i.e., absence vs. presence of a conversational presentation of requests) and reciprocation triggers (i.e., absence vs. presence of reciprocity‐inducing information) on user information disclosure (i.e., email addresses). By combining the complementary properties of a randomised field experiment (N = 386) and a follow‐up online experiment (N = 182), we empirically provide evidence in support of the distinct and joint effects of conversational style and reciprocation triggers of IDAs on user information disclosure. Moreover, we demonstrate that these dialogue design features have indirect effects on information disclosure via perceptions of social presence and privacy concerns. Thus, our paper provides theoretical and practical insights into whether, how, and why critical IDA dialogue design features can better elicit user information for website services.