Formal Measures Research Articles

Long-term oncologic outcomes after omitting axillary surgery in older women with early stage, node-negative breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

525 Background: In 2016, Choosing Wisely recommended the omission of routine sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in early stage, clinically node-negative, hormone receptor-positive, Her2-negative breast cancer in women ≥70 years old, although data supporting this was limited. Our study aimed to examine the long-term impact of omitting axillary staging in elderly women undergoing surgery for early stage, clinically node-negative breast cancer. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted. Medline (Ovid) and Embase were searched for published papers and abstracts using a systematic search strategy. Randomized and observational studies comparing women aged ≥70 years of age with early-stage, clinically node-negative breast cancer undergoing surgery for breast cancer with and without axillary staging, were included. Included studies reported at least one of the following outcomes: axillary recurrence (primary outcome), disease-free survival (DFS), breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS), and overall survival. Risk ratios (RR) were calculated as summary estimates for all outcomes. A weighted pooled mean difference and 95% CI was calculated using a random-effects inverse variance meta-analysis for each outcome. Heterogeneity was calculated using I2 statistics, and explored using meta-regression. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the methodological quality of eligible trials, based on the selection of patients, comparability of cohorts, and the methods of outcome assessment. Results: Nine studies were eligible for meta-analysis, including data for 48,523 patients. For the primary outcome of axillary recurrence, data for 3,591 patients was meta-analyzed. Axillary staging was found to reduce the risk of axillary recurrence compared to no axillary staging, although this was not statistically significant (RR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.26 to 1.35, I2= 46.6%, p = 0.21). For overall mortality, data for 14,981 patients was meta-analyzed, and a statistically significant protective effect of axillary staging on overall mortality was demonstrated (RR 0.55, 95% CI: 0.33 to 0.90, I2= 78.1%, p= 0.003). No significant differences were observed in DFS (RR 1.02, 95% CI: 0.51 to 2.07, I2 = 0.0%, p = 0.37) and BCSS (RR 0.96, 95% CI: 0.57 to 1.62, I2 = 0.0%, p = 0.78). Conclusions: Omission of axillary surgery to stage the axilla may be associated with a higher risk of overall mortality in older women with early-stage breast cancer compared to those who undergo axillary surgery. Omission of axillary surgery in this patient population should be carefully tailored to the individual patient, taking into consideration co-morbidity, life expectancy, and formal measures of frailty. Randomized trials are required to further explore the oncologic safety of omitting axillary staging in women aged 70 years or older undergoing breast cancer surgery.

Medical Knowledge Acquisition during a Pandemic: Pediatric Subspecialty in-Training Examination and Board Certification Exam Passing Rate

ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in training programs restructuring their curricula. Fellowship programs are required to monitor each fellow’s training progress through a combination of formal evaluations, competency tracking, and measures of knowledge acquisition. The American Board of Pediatrics administers subspecialty in-training examinations (SITE) to pediatric fellowship trainees annually and board certification exams at the completion of the fellowship. The objective of this study was to compare SITE scores and certification exam passing rates before and during the pandemic. MethodsIn this retrospective observational study, we collected summative data on SITE scores and certification exam passing rates for all pediatric subspecialties from 2018 to 2022. Trends over time were assessed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis to test for trends across years within one group and t-test analysis to compare groups before and during the pandemic. ResultsData were obtained from 14 pediatric subspecialties. Comparing prepandemic to pandemic scores, Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, and Critical Care Medicine saw statistically significant decreases in SITE scores. Conversely, Child Abuse and Emergency Medicine saw increases in SITE scores. Emergency Medicine saw a statistically significant increase in certification exam passing rates, while Gastroenterology and Pulmonology saw decreases in exam passing rates. ConclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in restructuring didactics and clinical care based on the needs of the hospital. There were also societal changes affecting patients and trainees. Subspecialty programs with declining scores and certification exam passing rates may need to assess their educational and clinical programs and adapt to the needs of trainees’ learning edges.

Agents of Socialization, Anxiety, College Women, and Fear of Rape.

This paper examines the impact of messages about sexual danger women receive from parents, peers, media, school officials, and past victimization on fear of stranger and acquaintance rape. Analyzing survey data for 630 undergraduate women, we find that parental warnings, internalized mean world view, university crime alerts, and being more prone to anxiety are significant predictors of fear of rape across models, while effects of media and victimization are limited. When high and low proneness to anxiety subgroups are considered separately, numerous differences emerge. Results suggest the need to include formal measures of anxiety in future fear of crime research.

Formalizing the Informal: Adopting a Formal Culture-Fit Measurement System in the Employee-Selection Process

ABSTRACTMany organizations rely on formal management control systems that align employee values with organizational values (i.e., culture fit) to shape organizational culture. Using proprietary data from a highly decentralized organization, I examine employee-performance consequences of adopting a formal culture-fit measurement system in employee selection. I exploit the staggered feature of the adoption of the system and find that employees selected with the system perform significantly better than those without the system. However, the performance consequences of adopting the culture-fit measurement system exhibit significant variation, depending on (1) alignment of existing local culture and organizational values and (2) noise in the measurement of culture fit due to applicants’ gaming behavior. Taken together, this study implies that the adoption of a formal culture-fit measurement system can potentially alleviate difficulties in instilling organizational values and highlights the conditions under which such a system can be more effective in facilitating the diffusion of organizational culture.

Non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive impairment in older adults with heart failure: A systematic review

BackgroundCognitive impairment is a prevalent issue among older adults with heart failure, and non-pharmacological approaches are recommended as the first line of treatment. However, it remains unclear which non-pharmacological interventions are the most effective for achieving optimal cognitive and physical outcomes. The aim of this study is to summarize the available evidence on the impact of non-pharmacological interventions for optimizing cognitive function in older adults with HF. MethodsA systematic research was carried out across multiple databases including PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, and Wanfang Database up until May 2022. Randomized controlled trials that focused on non-pharmacological interventions for older adults with heart failure and cognitive impairment, and evaluated the impact on cognitive function were targeted. The risk bias of the selected articles was analyzed following the Cochrane handbook. Two independent reviewers were responsible for selecting the studies, extracting the data, and assessing their quality. The results were reported in a narrative format. ResultsA total of 11 studies, which involved 1,287 patients, were reviewed and showed an acceptable risk of bias. These studies evaluated various cognitive domains, including global cognition, delayed recall memory, working memory, and verbal memory. Non-pharmacological interventions that included cognitive intervention, cognitive training combined with exercise, exercise training, and self-care management, were shown to have a positive impact on cognitive function, physical performance, and depression levels in older adults with heart failure. One study explored the effects of electrical muscle stimulation therapy, but no significant improvement in cognitive abilities was observed. ConclusionThe available evidence for the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive impairment in older adults with heart failure is limited, and further research with formal outcome measures and longer follow-up periods is necessary to provide more informed recommendations.

Hyperfocus and offending behaviour: a systematic review

PurposeHyperfocus (HF) is characterised by an intense state of concentration/focus. The purpose of this study is to explore in what ways HF has been found to contribute towards offending behaviour and what treatments have been found to be efficacious to reduce offending behaviour where HF was a contributing factor.Design/methodology/approachThe systematic review was performed according to the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Papers were screened for quality appraisal and risk of bias. The initial search yielded 9,446 articles. Fifty-seven papers were deemed as meeting the inclusion criteria.FindingsHF was noted to act as a vulnerability factor for aggression, sexual offending, radicalisation and stalking. HF was also observed in clients with psychopathy, autism, mental illness and those without a diagnosis. Thus, HF was not found to be offence or diagnosis specific. Furthermore, HF was found across males and females and adults and adolescents. The results identified themes in relation to the mechanisms by which HF may contribute to offending and suggested interventions for HF and offending.Practical implicationsPractitioners working with clients with HF currently lack evidence on the extent to which this contributes towards offending and recidivism and how HF could be addressed in interventions. Future research is needed to establish the role of HF in offending behaviour. Ideally, this should involve longitudinal data collection, retrospective analysis of data and sophisticated statistical analysis. This should also include exploration of the ways in which HF may be interconnected with offence risks/need factors which contribute towards offending. Research could inform the development of formal measurement tools for HF which are validated with norms for adult and adolescent offender samples. Practitioners should use case formulation to explore if HF represents a treatment need for clients they are working with.Originality/valueThis review noted that although HF has been postulated as being an important contributing factor to offending behaviour, few studies have tested this directly. From the limited studies available, HF was found to be relevant across different types of offences. HF was noted to contribute to offending due to neuropsychological mechanisms linked to executive functioning deficits and positive rewards associated with offending behaviour. Reasons for the lack of HF research are noted and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Using the Personality Assessment Inventory to Assess the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders: Criterion Validity in a Clinical Sample

The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) is a broadband measure of psychopathology that is widely used in applied settings. Researchers developed regression-based estimates that use the PAI to measure constructs of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) – a hybrid dimensional and categorical approach to conceptualizing personality disorders. Although prior work has linked these estimates to formal measures of the AMPD, there is little work investigating the clinical correlates of this scoring approach of the PAI. The current study examines associations between these PAI-based AMPD estimates and life data in a large, archival dataset of psychiatric outpatients and inpatients. We found general support for the criterion validity of AMPD estimate scores, such that a theoretically consistent pattern of associations emerged with indicators such as prior academic achievement, antisocial behavior, psychiatric history, and substance abuse. These results provide preliminary support to this scoring approach for use in clinical samples.

The Black Hole Candidate Swift J1728.9–3613 and the Supernova Remnant G351.9–0.9

A number of neutron stars have been observed within the remnants of the core-collapse supernova explosions that created them. In contrast, black holes are not yet clearly associated with supernova remnants (SNRs). Indeed, some observations suggest that black holes are “born in the dark,” i.e., without a supernova explosion. Herein, we present a multiwavelength analysis of the X-ray transient Swift J1728.9−3613, based on observations made with Chandra, ESO-VISTA, MeerKAT, NICER, NuSTAR, Swift, and XMM-Newton. Three independent diagnostics indicate that the system likely harbors a black hole primary. Infrared imaging signals a massive companion star that is broadly consistent with an A or B spectral type. Most importantly, the X-ray binary lies within the central region of the cataloged SNR G351.9−0.9. Our deep MeerKAT image at 1.28 GHz signals that the remnant is in the Sedov phase; this fact and the nondetection of the soft X-ray emission expected from such a remnant argue that it lies at a distance that could coincide with the black hole. Utilizing a formal measurement of the distance to Swift J1728.9−3613 (d = 8.4 ± 0.8 kpc), a lower limit on the distance to G351.9−0.9 (d ≥ 7.5 kpc), and the number and distribution of black holes and SNRs within the Milky Way, extensive simulations suggest that the probability of a chance superposition is <1.7% (99.7% credible interval). The discovery of a black hole within an SNR would support numerical simulations that produce black holes and remnants, and thus provide clear observational evidence of distinct black hole formation channels. We discuss the robustness of our analysis and some challenges to this interpretation.

The Subversive Influence of Informal Institutions on Formal Equity Policies in Nigerian Universities: Gender Stakeholders' Perspectives

In an effort to address the systemic problem of gender imbalance in academic leadership, fifteen universities in Nigeria have established gender centres and adopted institutional gender policies. With these formal equity measures in place, it is assumed that women can easily progress to academic leadership; however, this has not been the case. Using interview data gathered from two purposively selected universities in Nigeria; this paper unveils the perspectives of policy stakeholders on the ‘informal rules of the game’. The gender policy stakeholders constitute selected individuals responsible for providing the context and environment for formulating and implementing the gender policy; as such, it is imperative to consider the influence this structure exerts. Informed by Feminist Institutionalism (FI), the analysis was the extent to which gender norms and practices, embodied in informal rules and institutional legacies, challenge the intent of gender equity policies. Findings revealed two major discourses: the nestedness of informal selection in the gender policy formulation process and the gendered logic of appropriateness in gender policy implementation. This paper, therefore, contributes to the FI literature, providing a broader understanding of how the subversion of formalised policies limits the prospect for a positive institutional gender change and undermines women’s academic leadership progression.

Clinical Consequences of Incidental Durotomy during Full-Endoscopic Lumbar Decompression Surgery in Relation to Intraoperative Epidural Pressure Measurements

Background: Seizures, neurological deficits, bradycardia, and, in the worst cases, cardiac arrest may occur following incidental durotomy during routine lumbar endoscopy. Therefore, we set out to measure the intraoperative epidural pressure during lumbar endoscopic decompression surgery. Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study to obtain intraoperative epidural measurements with an epidural catheter-pressure transducer assembly through the spinal endoscope on 15 patients who underwent lumbar endoscopic decompression of symptomatic lumbar herniated discs and spinal stenosis. The endoscopic interlaminar technique was employed. Results: There were six (40.0%) female and nine (60.0%) male patients aged 49.0667 ± 11.31034, ranging from 36 to 72 years, with an average follow-up of 35.15 ± 12.48 months. Three of the fifteen patients had seizures with durotomy and one of these three had intracranial air on their postoperative brain CT. Another patient developed spinal headaches and diplopia on postoperative day one when her deteriorating neurological function was investigated with a brain computed tomography (CT) scan, showing an intraventricular hemorrhage consistent with a Fisher Grade IV subarachnoid hemorrhage. A CT angiogram did not show any abnormalities. Pressure recordings in the epidural space in nine patients ranged from 20 to 29 mm Hg with a mean of 24.33 mm Hg. Conclusion: Most incidental durotomies encountered during lumbar interlaminar endoscopy can be managed without formal repair and supportive care measures. The intradural spread of irrigation fluid and intraoperatively used drugs and air entrapment through an unrecognized durotomy should be suspected if patients deteriorate in the recovery room. Ascending paralysis may cause nausea, vomiting, upper and lower motor neuron symptoms, cranial nerve palsies, hypotension, bradycardia, and respiratory and cardiac arrest. The recovery team should be prepared to manage these complications.

The Effects of Language Experience in Both Home and School Environments for Spanish-English Bilingual Children: A Preliminary Study

ABSTRACT The amount of language input bilingual children receive influences their language acquisition. This three-year quasi-longitudinal study determined the extent home language input influences measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among Spanish-English school-age bilingual children. The study also determined whether a relationship exists between school of attendance and measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among the same group of children. One Spanish-English dual-immersion school and one English-only school in Utah participated in the study. Participants were administered two formal measures of receptive and expressive English once a year for three consecutive years. Results indicate that regardless of their home language, all children demonstrated improvements in receptive and expressive English language skills after three years. Between year one and three, the increase in English receptive language measures were statistically significant among the children who primarily heard Spanish at home. Results revealed that all children made advancements in expressive and receptive vocabulary skills, regardless of their home language and the type of school they attended. Findings suggest that exposure to a language other than English at home is not a detriment to English language development. Additionally, bilingual education is as effective as English-only education in fostering children‘s vocabulary skills in English.

Noticing Acute Changes in Health in Long-Term Care Residents.

Early signs of acute conditions and increased fall risk often go unrecognized in patients in long-term care facilities. The aim of this study was to examine how healthcare staff identify and act on changes in health status in this patient population. A qualitative study design was used for this study. Six focus groups across two Department of Veterans Affairs long-term care facilities were conducted with 26 interdisciplinary healthcare staff members. Using thematic content analysis, the team preliminarily coded based on interview questions, reviewed and discussed emerging themes, and agreed on the resultant coding scheme for each category with additional independent scientist review. Themes included describing and explaining how "normal" or expected behavior is identified by staff, noticing changes in a resident, determining the significance of the change, hypothesizing reasons for an observed change, response to an observed change, and resolution of the clinical change. Despite limited training in formal assessment methods, long-term care staff have developed methods to conduct ongoing assessments of the residents. This technique, individual phenotyping, often identifies acute changes; however, the lack of formal methods, language, or tools to communicate the changes means that these assessments are not often formalized in a manner that informs the residents' changing care needs. More formal objective measures of health change are needed to assist long-term care staff in expressing and interpreting the subjective phenotype changes into objective, easily communicated health status changes. This is particularly important for acute health changes and impending falls, both of which are associated with acute hospitalization.

The Song of the Kedidi: The Embodiment of a Hero in a Malay Folktale as an Intangible Cultural Heritage

The present study is part of a movement to safeguard Malay folktales as an unsung intangible cultural heritage (ICH). A folktale is a representation of oral traditions and expressions. This study converges on literary folktales as a revitalized form of oral folktales. As urged by UNESCO, the viability of the ICH is achievable via scientific research, among other things. Therefore, considering the small amount of study on Malay folktales at the moment, the current study endeavors to examine the folktale The Song of the Kedidi (TSoK) of its hero embodiment as one of the dramatis personae. The framework of Propp’s dramatis personae, which is based on Russian folktales, grounds the examination. This study examines whether the heroes from the Russian folktales embody TSoK. The thematic qualitative text analysis (TQTA) was employed to examine TSoK. It was conducted in Atlas.ti environment to assure rigor and trustworthiness. The study’s findings suggest that TSoK embodies heroes from Russian folktales. However, a conundrum exists in the embodiment of the hero. There is a conflict between the dramatis personae’s role, and such an enigma calls for the involvement of other dramatis personae, which is reserved for future works. As a crusade to safeguard the Malay folktales as the unsung ICH, the findings create a platform for scholars of similar interests to pursue the examination of heroes in other Malay folktales. Most importantly, the findings are necessary for endless recreation and transmission of knowledge to safeguard the Malay folktale as a living heritage. This act echoes one of UNESCO’s formal education measures to foster society’s respect, recognition, and awareness of the ICH.

The Song of the Kedidi: The Embodiment of a Hero in a Malay Folktale as an Intangible Cultural Heritage

The present study is part of a movement to safeguard Malay folktales as an unsung intangible cultural heritage (ICH). A folktale is a representation of oral traditions and expressions. This study converges on literary folktales as a revitalised form of oral folktales. As urged by UNESCO, the viability of the ICH is achievable via scientific research, among other things. Therefore, considering the small amount of study on Malay folktales at the moment, the current study endeavours to examine the folktale The Song of the Kedidi (TSoK) of its hero embodiment as one of the dramatis personae. The framework of Propp’s dramatis personae, which is based on Russian folktales, grounds the examination. This study examines whether the heroes from the Russian folktales embody TSoK. The thematic qualitative text analysis (TQTA) was employed to examine TSoK. It was conducted in Atlas.ti environment to assure rigour and trustworthiness. The study’s findings suggest that TSoK embodies heroes from Russian folktales. However, a conundrum exists in the embodiment of the hero. There is a conflict between the dramatis personae’s role, and such an enigma calls for the involvement of other dramatis personae, which is reserved for future works. As a crusade to safeguard the Malay folktales as the unsung ICH, the findings create a platform for scholars of similar interests to pursue the examination of heroes in other Malay folktales. Most importantly, the findings are necessary for endless recreation and transmission of knowledge to safeguard the Malay folktale as a living heritage. This act echoes one of UNESCO’s formal education measures to foster society’s respect, recognition, and awareness of the ICH.

"Their Bodies Just Give It Away": A Qualitative Study of Pain Assessment in the Context of Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Therapy.

Children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are vulnerable to pain. This study aimed to examine how healthcare providers and parents assessed pain and what contextual factors influenced their pain assessment practices for children hospitalized after allogeneic HSCT therapy. A qualitative case study was conducted in a tertiary level pediatric HSCT unit in 2 phases. Semistructured interviews with parents were conducted at 30 and 90 days after HSCT therapy. Healthcare providers participated in naturalistic observations of pain-related care provided to children during their hospitalization for HSCT therapy and a semistructured interview. The assessment of pain after transplantation by healthcare providers and parents was predominantly reliant on the observation of children for behaviors indicative of pain, rather than the application of validated pain assessment tools. Without formal measures of the pain experience, judgments regarding the severity of children's pain were influenced by the context of high acuity of care posttransplantation and the emotional responses of healthcare providers and parents from bearing witness to children's pain. Pain assessments mostly reflected children's ability to tolerate pain, rather than a genuine measurement of how significantly pain impacted the child. This study has emphasized how the assessment of pain for children hospitalized during HSCT therapy is limited by the complexity of the clinical environment. It is recommended that validated methods of assessing pain by healthcare providers and parents be implemented into clinical practice to ensure children's pain is visible.

Informal university entrepreneurship: The missing link in transition higher education systems

This article probes the transition of an emerging higher education system into the entrepreneurial model. Tunisia’s alignment with the European Bologna Process reforms in 2008 was meant to ease graduates’ transition to the job market through enhancing their employability skills as well as injecting them with an entrepreneurial proclivity to mainstream self-employment as a worthy career path. Several measures were introduced across public universities, including a transversal entrepreneurship module and a corresponding entrepreneurship support structure of technology transfer office and incubators. North’s new institutional lens will be used to frame the discussion analytically. The article goes beyond such formal interventions and particularly looks into the informal aspects of the newly-assumed entrepreneurial identity of Tunisian higher education. Following a scoping review approach informed by PRISMA-ScR guidelines, it investigates some informal matters on the shop floor to ascertain the extent to which the new identity has been established more than a decade after the introduction of the reforms. It looks into the profile of the purpose-hired teaching staff entrusted with delivering the cross-curricular entrepreneurship module; students’ and academics’ networks and rapport with the staff of the recently-established support structure; as well as their openness to the Tunisian entrepreneurial ecosystem. Empirical findings from the scoping review suggest a misalignment between progressive formal measures on the one hand and, on the other, a persistently unconducive university environment structured along deep-seated collegial values and quite decoupled from the realities of its national ecosystem.

ADAPTATION OF FACE-TO-FACE COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS FOR TELEPHONE ADMINISTRATION: A POTENTIAL THREAT TO VALIDITY

Abstract Telephone-administered cognitive assessments are a cost-effective, feasible, and sometimes necessary alternative to in-person assessments. However, there is a scarcity of information in large cohort studies concerning mode effects, or differences in cognitive performance attributable to assessment method instead of underlying cognition, as a potential measurement threat. We evaluated mode effects on individual cognitive items and overall cognitive score using a population-based sample of community-living older adults aged 65-79 in the US in the 2014 Health and Retirement Study for whom interview mode was randomized (n=6825). We assessed mode differences in test means and reliability, whether mode modifies associations of cognition with criterion variables, and formal measurement invariance testing by mode. Relative to those assessed face-to-face, people assessed by telephone tended to have higher scores for memory and calculation items (0.06 to 0.013 standard deviations (SD)) and lower scores for non-memory items (-0.09 to -0.01 SD). We also found evidence that estimated cognition was significantly differentially related to IADL score depending on mode of assessment, observing a stronger association among participants completing telephone interviews. Measurement invariance testing identified the largest mode differences in memory and attention items: immediate noun recall, delayed noun recall, and serial 7s scores were higher when administered by telephone. Differences by telephone vs face-to-face mode of administration are apparent in cognitive measurement in older adults, and most pronounced for tests of memory and attention that can be easier to answer via telephone. Future investigations are warranted to further evaluate methods to correct for such differences.

Screen agencies as cultural intermediaries: Delivering gender equality in the film and television sectors?

This article examines the role of national screen agencies in the realisation of an equitable screen sector. Publicly funded screen agencies like Ffilm Cymru Wales, Screen Ireland, Det Danske Filminstitut (Danish Film Institute) and Hrvatski Audiovizualni Centar (Croatian Audiovisual Centre) directly shape the sector, both on screen and behind the camera. Using interviews with senior decision-makers within several European screen agencies, we critically analyse the logics and practices of these cultural intermediaries in relation to gender equality. We chart how the issue is mediated by screen agencies, including their (in)actions. Alongside formal measures, we observe some staff working in quotidian ways to deliver change through positively leveraging their relationships with the sector. Our research highlights that while most of sampled agencies advocate for gender equality, few recognise ethnicity, socioeconomics, disability or age in their larger policy frameworks, and therefore, questions of intersectionality are rarely addressed formally in institutional approaches. We conclude that for screen agencies to become effective intermediaries for equality, a paradigmatic shift in their logics and working practices would be required. However, this would only represent a first step as wider policy and industrial reform is necessary to redress the exclusionary frames of the screen sector.

Improving movement confidence of people with dementia using gaming

AbstractBackgroundPeople living with dementia face increased risk of falls due to balance impairment and falling‐related psychological factors, such as fear of falling and lack of confidence. Improving movement confidence could improve balance and impact fall risk. This study set out to examine movement confidence of people living with dementia while playing a digital bowling game.MethodSixty‐six people (34F/32M) with dementia (mean MoCA 12.7/30), completed a formal balance measure (mini‐BEST or Sharpened Romberg) before and after participating in a 20‐session (2x per week) digital bowling game. Samples of video recordings of the bowling sessions were analysed by two raters, using a coding scheme developed to examine movement confidence.ResultFormal balance measures confirmed that the majority of participants were substantially impaired in several domains, including reactive postural control (mini‐BEST) and balance with eyes open (Sharpened Romberg). By contrast movement confidence during game play started at a high level in several domains such as optimal walking and fluency of motion and remained high throughout.ConclusionMovement confidence can be observed when people with dementia are playing a physical game and contrasts with their performance on formal measures. This may be due to game playing focusing attention onto the game activity, whereas formal assessment focuses on completing the specific movements under assessment. The results highlight the potential of exergames to improve movement confidence and target balance to reduce fall risk of people living with dementia.

Learning SHACL shapes from knowledge graphs

Knowledge Graphs (KGs) have proliferated on the Web since the introduction of knowledge panels to Google search in 2012. KGs are large data-first graph databases with weak inference rules and weakly-constraining data schemes. SHACL, the Shapes Constraint Language, is a W3C recommendation for expressing constraints on graph data as shapes. SHACL shapes serve to validate a KG, to underpin manual KG editing tasks, and to offer insight into KG structure. Often in practice, large KGs have no available shape constraints and so cannot obtain these benefits for ongoing maintenance and extension. We introduce Inverse Open Path (IOP) rules, a predicate logic formalism which presents specific shapes in the form of paths over connected entities that are present in a KG. IOP rules express simple shape patterns that can be augmented with minimum cardinality constraints and also used as a building block for more complex shapes, such as trees and other rule patterns. We define formal quality measures for IOP rules and propose a novel method to learn high-quality rules from KGs. We show how to build high-quality tree shapes from the IOP rules. Our learning method, SHACLearner, is adapted from a state-of-the-art embedding-based open path rule learner (Oprl). We evaluate SHACLearner on some real-world massive KGs, including YAGO2s (4M facts), DBpedia 3.8 (11M facts), and Wikidata (8M facts). The experiments show that our SHACLearner can effectively learn informative and intuitive shapes from massive KGs. The shapes are diverse in structural features such as depth and width, and also in quality measures that indicate confidence and generality.