Personal Email Research Articles

Knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practices regarding plagiarism among health researchers in Egypt and Lebanon: a multicenter questionnaire study

To enhance efforts against plagiarism, a deeper understanding of its various aspects is essential. This cross-sectional questionnaire study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and self-reported plagiarism practices among health researchers in Egypt and Lebanon. A validated questionnaire was distributed to postgraduate students and faculty members across 15 universities through personal emails and health researcher-specific social media platforms. Out of 283 respondents, the mean knowledge score was 14.8 ± 3.7 out of a possible 27.0, indicating moderate knowledge of plagiarism. Attitudes toward plagiarism were moderately permissive, with an average score of 62.2 ± 10.9, out of a maximum of 90.0. Subjective norms received a moderate score of 33.6 ± 6.7, where a favorable score should be low (10–23) suggesting that participants perceive society as disapproving of plagiarism and believe its prevalence is low. The mean self-reported Plagiarism Severity Score (PSS) was 4.1 ± 3.6, reflecting a low level of self-reported plagiarism, with a maximum possible score of 18. Multivariable analysis revealed a negative correlation between subjective norms and the PSS (β = −0.194, CI [−0.196: −0.010]). This finding is counterintuitive, as one would typically expect that a lower subjective norms score (indicating stronger disapproval of plagiarism), would correlate with fewer acts of plagiarism. One possible explanation for this result is the presence of negative perceptions of organizational justice—such as feelings of being unfairly treated—which might lead to higher rates of self-reported research misconduct. We recommend that universities in the Arab Middle East region develop research ethics training programs that include responsible conduct in research. However, it is essential for academic leaders to assess and address the research integrity climate within their institutions, as organizational injustice could undermine the effectiveness of these educational efforts.

AI-Driven Mood Analysis for Employee Wellbeing: A Proactive Approach to Enhancing Workplace Productivity

This paper explores the implementation of an AI-enabled camera system to detect faces and analyze the mood, expressions, and mental health of employees as they enter the office. The data collected is stored in an Amazon S3 bucket and used to send personalized emails within the company, offering proactive wellbeing support sessions and tips to help employees improve productivity. This approach aims to enhance employee wellbeing and organizational performance through timely and tailored interventions.

It Helped Push Me Through the Class’: Community College Student Perceptions of the Role of Instructor Immediacy Behaviors in Completing an Online Course

For decades, the number of students enrolling in online courses has been increasing, and this trend toward online education has been further intensified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The completion rate of online courses is not as high as in-person instruction, and researchers and practitioners have long been invested in identifying ways in which online education can be optimized. One dimension of online education that has received scholarly attention is the transactional distance that exists between students and instructors, which, if not appropriately minimized, can lead to a variety of negative student outcomes. Scholars have also identified a variety of verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors that can help online instructors decrease this transactional distance and promote a variety of positive student outcomes. To date, the study of immediacy behaviors in online college courses has focused primarily on four-year institutions utilizing quantitative methods. As complement to this research, we interviewed 12 community college students to better understand how a particular set of immediacy behaviors (i.e., a “welcome” phone call, sending personalized emails, using humor, creating videos, and sending “check-in” emails) influenced students’ desire and ability to remain in and complete an online course. Implications of these findings for practice and future research are discussed.

Enhancing Response Rates in Web-Based Surveys: The Impact of Direct Participant Contact.

Achieving a high participation rate is a common challenge in healthcare research based on web-based surveys. A study on local anesthetic systemic toxicity awareness and usage among medical practitioners at two Swiss university hospitals encountered resistance in obtaining personal email addresses from Heads of Departments. Participants were therefore divided into two groups: those who were directly invited via email (personal invitation group) and those who received a generic link through intermediaries (generic link group). The latter group was eventually excluded from survey data analysis. To determine whether one method of survey administration was more effective than another, we carried out a retrospective analysis of response rates and the proportion of new questionnaires completed after initial invitation and subsequent reminders. The results showed significantly higher response rates in the personal invitation group (40.2%, 313/779) compared to the generic link group (25.3%, 22/87), emphasizing the effectiveness of personal invitations on response rate (+14.9%, p = 0.007). The personal invitation group consistently yielded a higher number of completed questionnaires following the initial invitation and each reminder. The method of survey administration can greatly influence response rates and should be acknowledged as a quality criterion when conducting web-based surveys.

#1817 Decrease in hospital-acquired blood stream infection by using automated sensor technology to improve and keep a high level of hand hygiene compliance

Abstract Background and Aims Hospital-acquired infection (HAIs) is a problem for 6-8% of hospitalized patients. HAIs has personal costs, prolongs the hospital stay, increasing the risk of morbidity, mortality, time and staff consuming. Hand hygiene (HH) is essential for preventing infections. World Health Organization (WHO) recommends hand hygiene compliance (HHC) as a key performance indicator. Manual observations of HHC are time consuming and may affect compliance by the physical presence of the observers (Hawthorne effect). There is a need to identify the most effective long-term intervention to improve HHC and reduce HAI. The Danish Ministry of Health have chosen blood stream infections (HA-BSI) as a national indicator for the overall risk of HAIs expecting an incidence of no more than 8 cases per 10,000 patient days. The aim of the present study was to examine the use of an automated sensor technology to improve HHC and prevent HAIs in an inpatient department for nephrology and intern medicine. Nephrology patients have a high number of invasive catheters, which may increases the risk of HAI. Method The study comprised a 2 year cohort with no specific HHC interventions (July 2018-June 2020), a baseline period (February 2020-June 2020) to investigate HHC level by an electronic hand hygiene measuring system (EHHMS) without ongoing HHC interventions followed by a 3 year cohort period (July 2020-June 2023) with various EHHMS-based feedback interventions to staff. Intervention consisted primarily of group feedback and later individual feedback. All caregivers and doctors carried an anonymous Sani ID tag (Sani Nudge, DK) fixed to their nametag throughout the study period. EHHMS-based Sani Sensors were located in designated locations in the clinical department with the purpose of continuously capturing the caregiver patient contact including staff use of liquid alcohol based hand rub (ABHR). In Denmark, the national hygiene guidelines also require that ABHR follow hand wash. Local hygiene mentors regularly presented anonymous group data on boards and in letters to the staff. Soon after there was a demand on individual data, which was then added by individual results forwarded in a personal email every week. HA-BSI was defined as the presence of a pathogen in the blood and the prescription of an appropriate concomitant antimicrobial treatment and classified as hospital-acquired if the patient has been hospitalized for >48 hours. Data were obtained from various electronic health care systems in the hospital. Results We collected HHC data by monitoring 203 caregivers and 50 doctors for a period of 40 months. Caregivers HHC improved after implementation of an electronic hand hygiene measuring system from baseline to group feedback and finally individual feedback (39% vs 50% vs 71%). For doctors, the improvement from baseline to group feedback and finally individual feedback was 30% vs. 32% vs 52%. The overall improvement curve reached a stable plateau after 20 months. An incidence rate of 14 HA-BSI cases per 10,000 patient days during a previous two years control period (95% CI 8.8-21.2) was during the intervention period markedly reduced to 5 HA-BSI cases per 10,000 patient days (95% CI 2.3-9.0). This difference was statistically significant, P = 0.004. Conclusion The use and feedback of the electronic hand hygiene monitoring system improved successfully hand hygiene compliance in the groups of both caregivers, doctors, and furthermore reduced the rate of HA-BSI significantly. We observed a significant stepwise increase in compliance after group feedback data and later after reporting individual data. There continue to be a need to find effective long-term interventions to improve and keep a high level of hand hygiene compliance and a sustained reduction in hospital-acquired bloodstream infection.

Enhancing Spam Email Classification Using Effective Preprocessing Strategies and Optimal Machine Learning Algorithms

Objective: This article proposes a content-based spam email classification by applying various text pre-processing techniques. NLP techniques have been applied to pre-process the content of an email to get the optimal performance of spam email classification using machine learning. Method: Several combinations of pre-processing methods, such as stopping, removing tags, converting to lower case, removing punctuation, removing special characters, and natural language processing, were applied to the extracted content from the email with machine learning algorithms like NB, SVM, and RF to classify an email as ham or spam. The standard datasets like Enron and SpamAssassin, along with the personal email dataset collected from Yahoo Mail, are used to evaluate the performance of the models. Findings: Applying stemming in pre-processing to the RF classifier yielded the best results, achieving 99.2% accuracy on the SpamAssassin dataset and 99.3% accuracy on the Enron dataset. Lemmatization followed closely with 99% accuracy. In real-world testing on a personal Yahoo email dataset, the proposed method significantly improved accuracy from 89.82% to 97.28% compared to the email service provider's built-in classifier. Additionally, the study found that SVM performs accurately when stop words are retained. Novelty: This article introduces a unique perspective by highlighting the fine-tuning of pre-processing techniques. The focus is on removing tags and certain special characters, while retaining those that improve spam email classification accuracy. Unlike prior works that primarily emphasize algorithmic approaches and pre-defined processing functions, our research delves into the intricacies of data preparation, showcasing its significant impact on spam email classifiers. These findings emphasize the crucial role of pre-processing and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of effective strategies for robust spam detection. Keywords: Spam, Classification, Pre-processing, NLP, Machine Learning

The Crime of Invasion Electronic Data and Information in the Emeriti Law

This study examines the crime of unauthorized access to electronic data and information, focusing on the role of the UAE legislator in combating this crime through Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Combatting Rumors and Cybercrimes. It assesses the law’s effectiveness in addressing unauthorized activities such as the destruction or removal of information and data, and invasions of privacy. The paper concludes with recommendations to strengthen legal measures against such crimes. Key suggestions include defining “invasion” within the law to clarify the crime and its penalties, distinguishing between personal and professional email breaches with harsher penalties for the latter due to their significant impact on both state-owned and private enterprises, and recognizing the disruption of information networks as a punishable offense. These recommendations aim to enhance the UAE’s legal framework for protecting electronic data and information.

Assessments of Principals’ Communication Procedures on Female Teachers’ Progression to Management Positions of Public Secondary Schools: Case Study of Kajiado County, Kenya

Communication is a very important tool in the success of Educational Institutions. The study examined the influence of principals’ communication procedures on Female Teachers’ progression to Management Positions of Public Secondary Schools in Kajiado County, Kenya. The study assessed how communication on availability of management positions influence the number of Female Teachers’ Progression into Management of public secondary schools in Kajiado County, Kenya. The study was guided by Theories of Human Communication. Data was collected using questionnaires administered to 419 public secondary school teachers holding management positions of Heads of departments, senior teachers, deputy and principals managing public secondary schools. Interview schedule was used to collect data from the five TSC sub-county directors of education in Kajiado County. Stratified sampling technique was used in sampling 205 public secondary school teachers in management positions in Kajiado County while 4 TSC Sub-county directors of Education were purposively sampled. The qualitative data collected from the interviews was analyzed using content analysis, presented in a narrative form and the findings of quantitative data were presented by use of tables and charts. The study used Pearsons correlation analysis to test if there is a linear association between independent variables and the dependent variable where null hypothesis was tested. The data analysis software used was statistical package for social sciences. The study assessed on the principals communication procedures on female teachers’ progression into management of public secondary schools. Some of the communication procedures used included circulars, staff briefs by principals, use of newspapers, reports from higher education offices and recreation facilities interactions. From the study, it was established that staff briefs by principals was the main channel of communication to teachers which updates them on when to prepare for promotional interviews which are often delayed before teachers get the invitations. The study suggested that principals should communicate the available management vacancies to female teachers in good time so that the teachers can prepare adequately for the promotional interviews. Through personal emails and direct messages, principals should directly communicate the available management vacancies to the teachers other than waiting for forums like staff briefs which may take long especially when the principals are away on other school activities.

Research data management competencies of researchers in selected public universities in South Africa

PurposeIn today's global and competitive corporate environment characterised by rapidly changing information, knowledge and technology (IKT), researchers must be upskilled in all aspects of research data management (RDM). This study investigates a set of capabilities and competencies required by researchers at selected South African public universities, using the community capability model framework (CCMF) in conjunction with the digital curation centre (DCC) lifecycle model.Design/methodology/approachThe post-positivist paradigm was used in the study, which used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Case studies, both qualitative and quantitative, were used as research methods. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic rules and regulations, semi-structured interviews with 23 study participants were conducted online via Microsoft Teams to collect qualitative data, and questionnaires were converted into Google Forms and emailed to 30 National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researchers to collect quantitative data.FindingsParticipating institutions are still in the initial stages of providing RDM services. Most researchers are unaware of how long their institutions retain research data, and they store and backup their research data on personal computers, emails and external storage devices. Data management, research methodology, data curation, metadata skills and technical skills are critically important RDM competency requirements for both staff and researchers. Adequate infrastructure, as well as human resources and capital, are in short supply. There are no specific capacity-building programmes or strategies for developing RDM skills at the moment, and a lack of data curation skills is a major challenge in providing RDM.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study can be applied widely in research, teaching and learning. Furthermore, the research could help shape RDM strategy and policy in South Africa and elsewhere.Originality/valueThe scope, subject matter and application of this study contribute to its originality and novelty.

Towards privacy-aware exploration of archived personal emails

This paper examines how privacy measures, such as anonymisation and aggregation processes for email collections, can affect the perceived usefulness of email visualisations for research, especially in the humanities and social sciences. The work is intended to inform archivists and data managers who are faced with the challenge of accessioning and reviewing increasingly sizeable and complex personal digital collections. The research in this paper provides a focused user study to investigate the usefulness of data visualisation as a mediator between privacy-aware management of data and maximisation of research value of data. The research is carried out with researchers and archivists with vested interest in using, making sense of, and/or archiving the data to derive meaningful results. Participants tend to perceive email visualisations as useful, with an average rating of 4.281 (out of 7) for all the visualisations in the study, with above average ratings for mountain graphs and word trees. The study shows that while participants voice a strong desire for information identifying individuals in email data, they perceive visualisations as almost equally useful for their research and/or work when aggregation is employed in addition to anonymisation.

Factors Influencing the Degree of Employee Involvement in Preventive Nutrition and Physical Activity Web-Based Programs in Medium and Small Enterprises.

This cross-sectional study was part of a comprehensive workplace health promotion program (WHPP) implemented in the work environment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Western Slovenia, which included web-based educational campaigns aimed at promoting positive lifestyle changes among workers, including healthy eating habits and physical activity. As part of this program, which included campaigns in the areas of stress management, ergonomics, sleep hygiene, communication, work climate, and absenteeism, we developed and examined the engagement frequency in web-based content on healthy eating and physical activity for the companies included in the WHPP. This part of the project lasted from 2020 to 2022. Prior to the educational campaign, participants voluntarily completed a screening questionnaire. We analyzed the patterns of 370 workers in terms of their job classification (predominantly sedentary, predominantly standing, or predominantly physical), body mass index (BMI), gender, age, and selected indicators of diet and physical activity. Of the 88 companies participating in the WHPP, 26 took part in our web-based educational campaigns on nutrition and physical activity. Through an empirical analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics and a linear regression, we found that, on average, the engagement frequency (i.e., proportion of educational personal e-mails read) was highest among men with sedentary work, with older employees participating more actively than expected. Moreover, workers with good dietary habits and a favorable BMI proved to be the most avid readers of the web-based campaigns. Despite the overall low participant engagement frequency, it is clear that web-based educational campaigns are more appealing to workers with sedentary jobs and good dietary habits. This study provides valuable information on the potential effectiveness of appropriate workplace health promotion campaigns for SMEs and public health practices.

Perceptions of Academic Librarians Toward Open Source Library System (OSLS): Case Study of Pakistan

ABSTRACT Advanced technology has brought tremendous changes in our daily lives; academic libraries are changing agents of modern technologies and experimenting with innovations for library operations. Open Source Library System (OSLS) is a computer software with free source code and a license that permits users to use, change, redistribute and improve according to their needs. The study uses a quantitative survey approach with 45 questions and a Likert-type scale. A random sample approach was used to collect data from the academic librarians in Pakistan. A survey was designed in Google Forms and shared with n = 300 librarians via personal e-mails, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp to reach a diverse community of librarians in Pakistan. N = 282 questionnaires returned with 94.33%. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 26. The result shows that the adoption rate of OSLS is still in its infancy and is slowing for many reasons, like lack of technical equipment, inadequate funds, lack of IT skills, digital resilience of Librarians and interest of stakeholders. The present study will pave the way for practitioner librarians, research scholars, stakeholders and policymakers in Pakistan and beyond.

Effectiveness of Audio-Visual Aids in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the University Level

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent the widespread use of audio-visual aids with Libyan EFL university instructors. Also, it is to examine how such audio-visual aids are appropriate to Arabic-speaking Libyan undergraduate students specializing in the English language as to be teachers of English after graduation. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches for collecting data was followed. The quantitative approach was based on a closed-ended questionnaire to check Libyan EFL university instructors’ opinions towards using audio-visual aids within the class whereas the qualitative approach was based on observations to notice the effectiveness of audio-visual aids in the class. Thirty four Libyan EFL university instructors participated in filling in the questionnaire sent via personal e-mails and Facebook messenger. This was followed by twenty four undergraduate students at Tripoli University (Faculty of Education – Department of English) who were observed while attending lectures on Listening and Speaking. The obtained results of the study showed how audio-visual aids had a strong effect on students' interaction. The implications of this study suggest that Libyan EFL university instructors have to consider audio-visual aids as a means to motivate students’ interactions. They are highly recommended to focus on the integration of audio-visual aids in teaching foreign languages.

Place de la santé sexuelle en médecine générale

ObjectiveAssessment of the practices and knowledge of general practitioners in Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse regarding their patients's sexual health. MethodA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among general practitioners in Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse from January 12, 2023 to February 9, 2023. A questionnaire was developed and sent to general practitioners practicing in Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse. It was distributed by personal and professional emails and numbers, and Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse's medical order. The questionnaire was divided into three parts: the first collected demographic and epidemiological data, the second assessed knowledge and practices of general practitioners regarding the sexual health, and the last evaluated practitioner's obstacles to talking about sexual health. ResultsNinety-nine general practitioners responded to the questionnaire (99/276, 35.9%). In all, 30.3% obtained a rate of correct answers>60%. The general practitioners with the best response rates had training in sexology or a degree in gynecology (P=0.0109). In their practices, some topics such as contraception for adolescents, the reassessment of contraception, the search for vulvuvaginal disorders in postmenopausal patients are more addressed by doctors and in particular those of the female sex. Other topics such as sexual violence, male sexual dysfunction and sexual health in patients over 70 are less discussed in consultation. ConclusionThe care of sexual health is an important part of global health, specific to the profession of general practitioner. The results of our study suggest that the knowledge and practices of general practitioners in Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse, are perfectible. The establishment of professional training, consultation dedicated to prevention, or even better awareness of sexual health professionals would promote a better screening.

Laplace transform for Mittag-Leffler function in cryptography

The security of information has been a significant part of human civilization since the ancient era. In the information society, the protection of information becomes increasingly crucial for humankind, and new technologies are progressing in an unending stream. Cryptography is one of the greatest methods intended for protecting the transmission of messages and the security of data. For instance, digital commerce, electronic telecommunications such as mobile phone networks, sending personal emails, commercial transactions, paying television, the security of bank cards, cryptocurrency, etc, affect many areas of our everyday lives. Cryptography enables secrecy and protection for secret information by concealing it. It is made through a mathematical method. In this study, we built a new mathematical technique for cryptography in which we applied the Laplace transform (L-Transform) for the Mittag-Leffler function (or E-function) to plain text for encryption and the correspondent inverse L-Transform related to the E-function for decryption. Eventually, we use the Monobit test and correlation test for measuring the security level of encryption and the Python programming language for easily attaining cipher text, the original message, and computations of statistical tests.

Learning analytics with iLearn Insights

iLearn Insights is an innovative online application to address the challenge of engaging, motivating and supporting students with automated personalised email for those at risk of failure. It allows academics to identify students who are engaging or otherwise with the Learning Management System (LMS) content, thus allowing early intervention, and ultimately improved retention in units by providing targeted support to a student cohort. In contrast to systems that provide only static data reports, this vendor-independent innovation was built in-house to analyse and visualise student learning data in relation to access patterns, forum activity, learning activity submission and grades to identify a student cohort that needs support, as well as enabling teaching staff to send personalised emails to students on the basis of their level of engagement and/or performance. Feedback has a powerful impact on learning, but students frequently highlight it as an area that can be improved in tertiary education (Dawson and Henderson, 2019). iLearn Insights provides graphical representation of LMS data that enables visual personalised feedback to students. Within three mouse clicks, academic staff can trigger a range of automated communications to commend high-achieving students, offer additional assistance to lower performing students or to recapture disengaged students. These emails can be a targeted to a group of students and configured by the unit convenor to contain motivating information including the top five resources accessed by classmates; a student’s mark in comparison to the class average; number or percentage of students that have already submitted an assignment; clickable links; and support resources for students falling behind. ILearn Insights was developed based on four principals of learning analytics design knowledge: integration, agency, reference frame and dialogue (Wise, 2014). It has been observed that targeted visual feedback with clickable links is the most effective way to engage students quickly.?The positive impact of iLearn Insights is demonstrated by its rapid uptake by teaching staff across Macquarie University. When it launched in Session 1, 2020, after 18 months of piloting, there were 478 users across 763 units (subjects) who sent 125334 targeted personalised emails. In Session 1, 2023 iLearn Insights was used by approximately 808 users across 40 departments and learning support areas and 1237 units, sending over 316576 targeted emails to encourage students to engage with learning activities or offer support. That represents an increase of 169% of users, 162% of units and 253% of emails in three years. These personalised email exchanges have led to enhanced student engagement, which is critical for student success (Kahu and Nelson, 2018; De Villiers and Werner, 2018; McClenney et al, 2012; Klem and Connell, 2004).

AHP P01 A Survey To Explore The Use Of Nutritional Outcome Measures In Clinical Practice By Dietitians In Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Care In The British Isles

Abstract Background Dietitians in clinical practice face the challenge of providing high quality care whilst demonstrating clinical effectiveness and continuous improvement. Assessing the effectiveness of dietetic intervention is vital in ensuring the provision of clinically effective dietetic services. Nutritional outcome measures are key in identifying the impact of dietetic interventions; enabling dietitians to objectively measure the effectiveness of their care as well as providing patients, other health care professionals and commissioners with data around the value of care provision. Currently there are no specific nutritional outcomes associated with oesophago-gastric cancer care in the UK. Methods A survey was disseminated through direct personal emails to 93 Dietitians known to be working in UGI, a list derived from NOGCA audit sites of 2021, with the aim of assessing the current use of nutritional outcome measures by Dietitians working in oesophago-gastric cancer acute care in the British Isles. Further promotion was directed through a UGI Dietitians Forum and through social media posts. A YouTube video was produced and distributed alongside the survey, with the aim of providing education around identifying nutritional outcomes. The video also aimed to connect personally with people, with a visual presentation from the researcher. Results 54 responses represented the entire patient journey. Whilst 72% of respondents reported identifying and documenting dietetic outcomes, the quality of these assessments was low, mainly focusing on weight, weight changes and hand grip strength. Other common themes related to nutritional intake, quality of life and symptom impact. Less common outcomes measured included standardised nutritional assessment (PG-SGA), gastro-intestinal symptom evaluation, optimised prehabilitation, biochemical parameters and patient experience. There was little standardisation in how outcomes are used and when they were taken. There is no national database available to collate OG nutritional outcome data, representing a missed opportunity to support national benchmarking. Conclusions This study has presented not only the inconsistencies in nutritional outcome data collection (definition, timing and tools) and the need for standardisation of outcomes use in this speciality, it has also demonstrated the challenges around the promotion of outcomes measures and application/roll out into clinical practice. Novel ways of obtaining and evaluating nutritional outcomes will need to be considered. This will form the basis of a further research study, exploring barriers to completion of nutritional outcomes.

Survey of resuscitation practices at emergency medical service agencies in the U.S

BackgroundSurvival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) varies across emergency medical service (EMS) agencies. Yet, little is known about resuscitation response and quality improvement activities at EMS agencies. We describe herein a novel survey to EMS agencies in a U.S. registry for OHCA. MethodsUsing data from the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), we identified 577 EMS agencies with ≥10 OHCA cases annually between 2015 and 2019 that remained active in CARES. We administered a survey to EMS directors regarding agency characteristics, cardiac arrest response, relationships with first responders and dispatchers, quality improvement activities and perceived barriers in the community. ResultsOf eligible EMS agencies, 470 (81.5%) completed the survey. The high completion rate was likely due to frequent personalized emails and phone calls, liaising with CARES state coordinators to encourage survey response, and multiple periodic drawings of an automated external defibrillator during the survey period for participating EMS agencies. The survey examined rates of resuscitation training modalities; use of resuscitation equipment and devices in the field; frequency of simulation; non-EMS stakeholder response to OHCA (dispatchers, fire, police); quality improvement; and community factors affecting bystander response to OHCA. ConclusionsIn this study design paper on the RED-CASO survey, we provide summary data on EMS agency characteristics in the U.S. Upon linkage to CARES patient-level data, this survey will provide critical insights into ‘best practices’ at EMS agencies with the highest OHCA survival rates as well as provide insights into current disparities in outcomes.

Experimental evidence on a "light-touch" personalized email intervention in an online, undergraduate physiology course.

In large physiology classes, there is a demand for low-effort, or "light touch," strategies that faculty can use to connect with students and promote increased academic performance and student engagement. The purpose of this study was to compare personalized versus standardized emails following unit quizzes on student perceptions of faculty engagement, participation in academic resources, and academic performance in a junior-level, online physiology course. Students completed the online unit quiz and received a subsequent feedback email from the course director. Students were randomized into the Control (n = 101) or the Experimental (n = 104) group for general or personalized performance feedback emails, respectively. Students completed start and end of semester surveys capturing demographics, course expectations, self-reported use of resources, and impressions of the faculty. Final exam and course grades were collected. Perceptions of faculty were similar between groups, and receiving professor feedback after quizzes did not make the Experimental group more likely to use any of the available academic support services. There was no difference in final exam grades (Control: 73.9 ± 14.1%; Experimental: 73.4 ± 15.3%) or final course grades between groups (Control: 79.2 ± 13.1%; Experimental: 78.7 ± 13.3; P > 0.05). Personalized performance feedback from light-touch emails did not improve student perceptions of faculty engagement, self-reported participation in academic resources, or academic performance compared with a standardized email in a junior-level, online physiology course. Overall, this study does not support the use of personalized emails regarding quiz performance in an online physiology course.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Personalized performance feedback from light-touch emails did not improve student perceptions of faculty engagement, self-reported participation in academic resources, or academic performance compared with a standardized email in a junior-level, online physiology course.

What is a File on a Phone? Personal Information Management Practices Amongst WhatsApp Users

The file, as a means of sharing structured information across time and place, has spanned centuries of ICTs. Despite much CSCW research on file management practices in organizational desktop computing settings, little research has examined how files are managed and shared using mobile devices. Our research asks, how do mobile phones and mobile applications impact the personal information management (PIM) practices involving files for young adults? In this interview and task observation study, we examined the file management practices of mobile phone users (N=25), both Android and iOS owners who use the superapp WhatsApp. Superapps like WeChat and WhatsApp are increasingly characterized as technology of life for the majority world, particularly among mobile-first users. We find that many grammars of action related to managing digital files in personal computing and email contexts persist, but participants' sharing practices are influenced by media ideologies of friends, family, colleagues; and that their file management practices are shaped by the affordances of WhatsApp, as well as mobile operating systems and device hardware constraints. These results will be useful to researchers examining collective PIM practices; mobile communication practices between users and businesses via messaging apps; and theories of personal information practices related to the sharing and storage of digital files among mobile-first cohorts who increasingly share and access information via platforms and mobile applications.