General Research Priorities Research Articles

Research priority setting for paediatric rheumatology in the UK.

The evidence base that underlies the management of children and young people with paediatric rheumatic diseases is deficient. In this field, there are many crucial unanswered questions. The UK Paediatric Rheumatology Clinical Studies Group, supported by UK National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network: children and Versus Arthritis, elicited ideas for research priorities from paediatric rheumatologists, trainees, allied health-care professionals, nurse specialists, patients, parents of patients, carers, and charities. These ideas were collected through online surveys and face-to-face meetings. A modified Delphi process was used, which included online research priority ranking surveys and a consensus workshop. A longlist of 55 disease-specific research priorities and 37 general research priorities were voted on in the first survey. A list of 11 top general research priorities was produced. The top ten disease-specific research priorities were discussed in depth at a Delphi workshop to determine their final ranking. This Health Policy paper will help to guide clinicians, academics, and funding bodies to prioritise research in paediatric rheumatic diseases, specifically in areas of unmet patient needs.

New perspectives for the future interoperable enterprise systems

The rapid changes in today's socio-economic and technological environment in which the enterprises operate necessitate the identification of new requirements that address both theoretical and practical aspects of the Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). Such an evolving environment contributes to both the process and the system complexity which cannot be handled by the traditional architectures. The constant pressure of requirements for more data, more collaboration and more flexibility motivates us to discuss about the concept of Next Generation EIS (NG EIS) which is federated, omnipresent, model-driven, open, reconfigurable and aware. All these properties imply that the future enterprise system is inherently interoperable. This position paper presents the discussion that spans several research challenges of future interoperable enterprise systems, specialized from the existing general research priorities and directions of IFAC Technical Committee 5.3,11IFAC Technical Committee 5.3 « Enterprise Integration and Networking », http://www.ifac-tc53.org namely: context-aware systems, semantic interoperability, cyber-physical systems, cloud-based systems and interoperability assessment.

Challenges and current developments for Sensing, Smart and Sustainable Enterprise Systems

As technology advances and thus Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) evolve, a new enterprise model must be devised to face future digital enterprise needs. This paper discusses issues and emerging trends that must be addressed if a true sensing and smart enterprise is to be achieved to meet sustainability requirements. Methods are required to capture enterprise reality and to provide a seamless interoperable digital enterprise model. The paper summarises several challenges to be addressed by future research in enterprise modelling. Challenges are discussed from the Enterprise, Information, Computational, Engineering and Technological points of view, according to the ODP-RM (Open Distributed Processing—Reference Model). To some extent, progress on some challenges has already been made and solutions are expected to materialise in the near future. Other challenges have only recently been identified and potential solutions cannot yet be predicted. The paper offers a discussion of these challenges for the future enterprise along with the required enterprise model; it also introduces the concept of the Sensing, Smart and Sustainable (S^3) Enterprise System. The position paper expresses opinions derived from the existing general research priorities and directions identified by the International Federation for Automatic Control–Technical Committee on Enterprise Integration and Networking (IFAC–TC 5.3).

Roseoloviruses: unmet needs and research priorities: Perspective

The human roseoloviruses, human herpesviruses 6A (HHV-6A), HHV-6B, and HHV-7, are highly prevalent viruses that typically cause fever/rash illnesses such as roseola during early life primary infections. They also cause significant neurologic disease and complications following stem cell and solid organ transplantation, and have suggestive but less certain etiologic associations with other neurologic diseases and immunologic disorders. The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently sponsored a workshop (Roseoloviruses: Clinical Impact, Interventions, and Research Needs) to discuss disease associations, novel biology, and the many unmet research needs related to Roseoloviruses. This perspective is a distillation of the workshop's presentations and discussions, with a focus on the more general research priorities that emerged.

Resolving Conflicting Priorities Concerning Food Safety Issues in Leafy Green Vegetables

Author(s): Bianchi, Mary L.; Mercer, Kay L.; Crohn, David M. | Abstract: Efforts to exclude disease organisms from farms growing irrigated lettuce and leafy vegetables on California’s central coast are conflicting with traditionally accepted strategies to protect surface water and environmental quality. The agricultural community, scientists and producers, are caught between the requirements to safeguard water quality and efforts to ensure a safe food supply. These programs evolved independently, albeit side-by-side, leading to separate habits of thought among environmental and food safety scientists in academia, business, and non-profit programs. The potential for coordinated management of water quality and food safety on-farm management practices was the focus of a conference held in San Luis Obispo, California in April 2007. Conference presentations, discussions, farm visits, and working groups used existing technical guidance to frame research and organizational objectives. These conference products were summarized for inclusion in iterative on-line questionnaires, with conference attendees participating as respondents. This process, called a Delphi process, produced general research priorities in coordinated management. Conference participants, who self identified as having either food safety or water quality as their primary area of focus, prioritized research objectives under theme areas. There were general research objectives, which approached consensus by the whole group, including: 1) persistence and fate of pathogen in the crop and in conservation practices; 2) pathways by which pathogens move through the crop production system; and 3) identification of environmental conditions that promote pathogen survival and proliferation. Conference participants and Delphi respondents were not able to identify an existing forum for gathering and disseminating coordinated management information. Respondents placed their highest priority on the formation of a Coordinating Council, and identified those entities that ought to play specific roles within the Council. Two technical guidance documents, one emphasizing on-farm management of food safety and one stressing water quality practices, are already in use by a majority of leafy greens growers on California’s Central Coast. Used together, these technical guidance documents can be used to develop an initial framework for the evaluation and development of coordinated management practices that protect both human health and the environment. The conference final report and accompanying materials are published online at http://groups.ucanr.org/wqfsconf/.

A systematic review of existing national priorities for child health research in sub-Saharan Africa

BackgroundWe systematically reviewed existing national child health research priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the processes used to determine them.MethodsCollaborators from a purposive sample of 20 WHO-AFRO Region countries, assisted by key informants from a range of governmental, non-governmental, research and funding organisations and universities, identified and located potentially eligible prioritisation documents. Included documents were those published between 1990 and 2002 from national or nationally accredited institutions describing national health research priorities for child health, alone or as part of a broader report in which children were a clearly identifiable group. Laboratory, clinical, public health and policy research were included. Two reviewers independently assessed eligibility for inclusion and extracted data.ResultsEight of 33 potentially eligible reports were included. Five reports focused on limited areas of child health. The remaining three included child-specific categories in reports of general research priorities, with two such child-specific categories limited to reproductive health. In a secondary analysis of Essential National Health Research reports that included children, though not necessarily as an identifiable group, the reporting of priorities varied markedly in format and numbers of priorities listed, despite a standard recommended approach. Comparison and synthesis of reported priorities was not possible.ConclusionFew systematically developed national research priorities for child health exist in sub-Saharan Africa. Children's interests may be distorted in prioritisation processes that combine all age groups. Future development of priorities requires a common reporting framework and specific consideration of childhood priorities.