List Of Practices Research Articles

Development of a modified open set sentence test for assessment of speech perception skills in Hindi preschool children

Introduction: Clinical assessment of speech perception skills is very important for several reasons. However, it is routinely assessed in older children and adults but not in very young children mainly due to lack of appropriate tools, especially in Indian languages. Considering the limitations of closed-set and open-set tests for young children modified open set test would be appropriate. Aim: To develop a modified open set sentence test in Hindi based on the Mr. Potato Head Test framework using appropriate toy and sentence material and employ the developed test to assess children with normal hearing in the age range of 18 to 48 months. Method: Two sentence lists with ten sentences each and one practice list with five sentences were developed. The test was recorded in a professional studio by a sound engineer and sentences were calibrated using the Bruel & Kjaer-Type-2250 sound level meter (SLM) so that the test could be administered via speakers using a laptop. The test was administered in a quiet room, directly through a laptop connected to speakers on 200 Hindi speaking children with normal motor and speech developmental milestones and bilateral pass result on OAE screening. Results and discussion: There was a significant difference in the scores between the 5 age groups of children with normal hearing. There was an increase in scores as age increased, thus indicating improved performance with increasing age. There was also no significant difference in the performance on List 1 and List 2 for all age groups indicating that the two lists were equivalent. Item reliability was also observed to be high. Conclusion: The developed Modified Open Set Sentence Test can be successfully used to assess speech perception skills in young children with normal hearing. This test has a potential to be a useful clinical tool when used as a part of a test battery and also play a role in monitoring the progress of an intervention program.

A CRITICAL REVIEW ON LEAN GREEN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: STATE OF ART AND PROPOSED CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The latent relationships between lean product development (PD) and green PD appear to be in its infancy in literature. Thus, the main objective of this research is to uncover the intersection of lean and green with PD issues, by building a conceptual framework of the field and proposing synergies among practices from these paradigms. A research design is proposed listing the lean and green practices in PD through a systematic literature review process. Firstly, papers were gathered from international peer-reviewed journal articles. Secondly, a total of 38 papers were assessed by quantitative indicators and evaluated using content analysis. This research contributes with an analysis of the main topics of lean and green paradigms revealed in the literature and provides a comprehensive list of lean PD and green PD practices, drivers, and barriers. Finally, lean and green synergistic propositions in PD field are discussed.

Impact by Intention: An Argument for Forensics as a High-Impact Practice

This essay locates forensics within national discourse about high-impact practices (HIPs) in higher education, as outlined by scholar George D. Kuh. Forensics shares all the characteristics associated with the ten promising practices Kuh (2008) outlined initially. Though Kuh's original overview and expanded list of practices (Kuh, 2016) serve as reference points for addressing HIPs, forensics has not been recognized as a HIP. The essay argues that framing forensics as a HIP could enrich advocacy efforts to start and/or sustain current forensics programs. The article connects the fiscal climate with the assessment paradigm, examines the ways forensics adheres to Kuh's definition, and identifies three ways reframing forensics could enrich advocacy efforts and the visibility of forensics.

Good Practices in Empirical Corporate Finance and Accounting Research

This paper presents the risks of quantitative research pertaining to corporate finance and accounting. These is followed by a survey-like catalogue of good practices in modelling. All considerations are rooted in financial microeconometrics, the field for examining both practical and theoretical questions of applying econometric techniques in corporate finance and accounting research based on the use of microdata (Gruszczynski 2018a). Two major parts of the paper include: (1) discussion of the typical drawbacks in applying regression-type models, like causality vs. correlation, selection of explanatory variables and endogeneity, and (2) list of good practices in microeconometric applications to corporate finance and accounting research, based on Faff (2017), Kennedy (2002), Adams (2017), Hyndman (robjhyndman.com/) and author’s own experience. Catalogue of good practices in microeconometric applications to corporate finance and accounting may serve as the checklist for students and researchers.

Opioid prescribing trends and geographical variation in England, 1998–2018: a retrospective database study

There is a call for greater monitoring of opioid prescribing in the UK, particularly of strong opioids in chronic pain, for which there is little evidence of clinical benefit. We aimed to comprehensively assess trends and variation in opioid prescribing in primary care in England, from 1998 to 2018, and to assess factors associated with high-dose opioid prescribing behaviour in general practices. We did a retrospective database study using open data sources on prescribing for all general practices in England. For all standard opioids we calculated the number of items prescribed, costs, and oral morphine equivalency to account for variation in strength. We assessed long-term prescribing trends from 1998 to 2017, patterns of geographical variation for 2018, and investigated practice factors associated with higher opioid prescribing. We also analysed prescriptions for long-acting opioids at high doses. Between 1998 and 2016, opioid prescriptions increased by 34% in England (from 568 per 1000 patients to 761 per 1000). After correcting for total oral morphine equivalency, the increase was 127% (from 190 000 mg to 431 000 mg per 1000 population). There was a decline in prescriptions from 2016 to 2017. If every practice prescribed high-dose opioids at the lowest decile rate, 543 000 fewer high-dose prescriptions could have been issued over a period of 6 months. Larger practice list size, ruralness, and deprivation were associated with greater high-dose prescribing rates. The clinical commissioning group to which a practice belongs accounted for 11·7% of the variation in high-dose prescribing. We have developed a publicly available interactive online tool, OpenPrescribing.net, which displays all primary care opioid prescribing data in England down to the individual practice level. Failing to account for opioid strength would substantially underestimate the true increase in opioid prescribing in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Our findings support calls for greater action to promote best practice in chronic pain prescribing and to reduce geographical variation. This study provides a model for routine monitoring of opioid prescribing to aid targeting of interventions to reduce high-dose prescribing. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School of Primary Care Research, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Oxford, NHS England.

Teaching From 1 to 9: A Progressive Teaching and Learning Experience

The peak quality of teaching and learning experience cannot be developed or fostered overnight; however, adopting a course design and delivery framework is instrumental in achieving such a level of peak quality at the teaching and learning process. This paper introduces a novel double-loop course design and delivery process and overall syllabus and course design framework that has been developed over the years and achieved great popularity among many engineering students. Over the time, a unified course design and delivery framework that encapsulate long lists of best practices have been developed which will be described in detail in this paper. A software tool for unified course design called Touch-it, a data-driven course analytics system, and grade reporting systems that augment the proposed framework will be highlighted as well. The experience reported should be useful for early career instructors or those who might be struggling in their teaching career.

Reflective Practice on Social Loafing in College-Level Group Projects

While reflecting on my teaching strategies and researching social loafing for my dissertation, I realized this endeavor has given me a stronger grasp of the pedagogical approaches to facilitate cooperative learning. Observing, sharing, and reflecting on specific social loafing experiences using Gibbs’ reflective framework allowed me, with time, to better conceptualize the dynamics of university-level group projects. Leveraging my experience and insightful research analysis on group dysfunctionalities inside and outside the classroom has gradually reshaped my understanding of the social loafing phenomenon. Nurturing my professional development through this reflective practice allowed me to create an ongoing coaching relationship with students (and later with faculty), and to generate a list of best practices for cooperative learning that can result in higher group achievements and improved learning outcomes. Key words: Teaching, learning, Graham Gibbs’ reflective framework, reflective practice, social loafing, team-based learning, cooperative learning, groups, teams, John Dewey reflective theory, group projects, Stephen Brookfield lenses.

Reflective Practice on Social Loafing in College-Level Group Projects

While reflecting on my teaching strategies and researching social loafing for my dissertation, I realized this endeavor has given me a stronger grasp of the pedagogical approaches to facilitate cooperative learning. Observing, sharing, and reflecting on specific social loafing experiences using Gibbs’ reflective framework allowed me, with time, to better conceptualize the dynamics of university-level group projects. Leveraging my experience and insightful research analysis on group dysfunctionalities inside and outside the classroom has gradually reshaped my understanding of the social loafing phenomenon. Nurturing my professional development through this reflective practice allowed me to create an ongoing coaching relationship with students (and later with faculty), and to generate a list of best practices for cooperative learning that can result in higher group achievements and improved learning outcomes. Keywords: Teaching, learning, Graham Gibbs’ reflective framework, reflective practice, social loafing, team-based learning, cooperative learning, groups, teams, John Dewey reflective theory, group projects, Stephen Brookfield lenses

Reflective Practice on Social Loafing in College-Level Group Projects

While reflecting on my teaching strategies and researching social loafing for my dissertation, I realized this endeavor has given me a stronger grasp of the pedagogical approaches to facilitate cooperative learning. Observing, sharing, and reflecting on specific social loafing experiences using Gibbs’ reflective framework allowed me, with time, to better conceptualize the dynamics of university-level group projects. Leveraging my experience and insightful research analysis on group dysfunctionalities inside and outside the classroom has gradually reshaped my understanding of the social loafing phenomenon. Nurturing my professional development through this reflective practice allowed me to create an ongoing coaching relationship with students (and later with faculty), and to generate a list of best practices for cooperative learning that can result in higher group achievements and improved learning outcomes.

If in doubt, don't cross them out

Taking the decision to remove a patient from the practice list is often made following difficulties that can have a negative impact on other patients but also on practice staff. In such cases, it is vital to follow the correct protocols, says Gabrielle Pendlebury

The Family–School Linkage in Addressing Bullying in Hong Kong: A Sociocultural Perspective

The phenomenon that around ten percent of schoolchildren are bullied regularly in Hong Kong has attracted much scholarly attention in anti-bullying research. Current literature suggests taking into consideration the contextual features and socioeconomic factors in anti-bullying research, instead of applying identical intervention/prevention measures across cultures. Therefore, this article examines the role of school-family linkage as a mirror of the wide social-culture context, and analyzes the functions of such linkage in anti-bullying practice in Hong Kong. This study was conducted following a film approach in 2015. That is, a group of middle school teachers in Hong Kong were invited to watch small films showing typical bullying and anti-bullying episodes, followed by semi-structured interviews. The article demonstrates a list of good practices representing the functioning of a positive family-school linkage in bullying addressing. However, parental involvement does not always facilitate and can hinder bullying addressing on campuses. This study implies that efficient bullying addressing aligns with parental involvement in the intervention process, suggesting more parental involvement and more collaboration between family and school in anti-bullying. It also raises an urgent question in regards to balancing the various opinions between parents and teachers in child-raising and bullying addressing. This article suggests further and more investigations examining anti-bullying from a socioeconomic perspective.

3F05 実践的英語力測定指標の “外部評価” 大阪工大で芝浦工大Can-Do Listを適用する

3F05 実践的英語力測定指標の “外部評価” 大阪工大で芝浦工大Can-Do Listを適用する

Utilizing a two nurse timeout process to eliminate errors during chemotherapy administration.

237 Background: Chemotherapeutic agents are listed as high risk medications at Cleveland Clinic, and have long been included on the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) List of High Alert Medications due to the heightened risk of causing significant patient harm if they are used in error. Following a series of significant adverse events involving chemotherapy administration in 2012 at Cleveland Clinic, a two nurse timeout process (modeled after surgical and procedural timeout practices) was established to eliminate interruptions and decrease the risk of error. Methods: A written protocol was established to formalize a two nurse timeout process which must be completed prior to administration of chemotherapy. In order to eliminate unnecessary distractions during order review and medication administration, nurses hand off their phone and/or pager and coverage is provided for the nurses who are checking in the chemotherapy. A designated distraction-free area is utilized chemotherapy verification and order review. Following comparison of the chemotherapy agents to the orders, the nurses proceed to the patient’s room with the chemotherapy and the order pulled up on a computer. A procedure stop sign is placed on the door and the door is closed to eliminate interruptions. During the in-room timeout process, each step in the chemotherapy documentation flow sheet is reviewed by both nurses. After proper patient identification, one nurse will read the chemotherapeutic agent label and the other nurse will program the infusion pump. The two nurses will then switch roles with re-verification of the label and the infusion pump. The tubing set-up is then verified and the infusion is initiated. Results: Since the two nurse timeout process was established in 2013, there have been zero serious chemotherapy errors resulting in patient harm. Conclusions: Results have shown that implementation of the chemotherapy timeout process has increased the safety of administration of chemotherapeutic agents. It has now been more than five years since the last significant adverse event involving chemotherapy has occurred at Cleveland Clinic.

What agricultural practices are most likely to deliver “sustainable intensification” in the UK?

AbstractSustainable intensification is a process by which agricultural productivity is enhanced whilst also creating environmental and social benefits. We aimed to identify practices likely to deliver sustainable intensification, currently available for UK farms but not yet widely adopted. We compiled a list of 18 farm management practices with the greatest potential to deliver sustainable intensification in the UK, following a well‐developed stepwise methodology for identifying priority solutions, using a group decision‐making technique with key agricultural experts. The list of priority management practices can provide the focal point of efforts to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture, as the UK develops post‐Brexit agricultural policy, and pursues the second Sustainable Development Goal, which aims to end hunger and promote sustainable agriculture. The practices largely reflect a technological, production‐focused view of sustainable intensification, including for example, precision farming and animal health diagnostics, with less emphasis on the social and environmental aspects of sustainability. However, they do reflect an integrated approach to farming, covering many different aspects, from business organization and planning, to soil and crop management, to landscape and nature conservation. For a subset of 10 of the priority practices, we gathered data on the level of existing uptake in English and Welsh farms through a stratified survey in seven focal regions. We find substantial existing uptake of most of the priority practices, indicating that UK farming is an innovative sector. The data identify two specific practices for which uptake is relatively low, but which some UK farmers find appealing and would consider adopting. These practices are: prediction of pest and disease outbreaks, especially for livestock farms; staff training on environmental issues, especially on arable farms.

Epidemiology of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs consumption in Spain. The MCC-Spain study

BackgroundNon-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used despite their risk of gastrointestinal bleeding or cardiovascular events. We report the profile of people taking NSAIDs in Spain, and we include demographic factors, health-related behaviours and cardiovascular disease history.MethodsFour thousand sixtyparticipants were selected using a pseudorandom number list from Family Practice lists in 12 Spanish provinces. They completed a face-to-face computerized interview on their NSAID consumption, demographic characteristics, body mass index, alcohol and tobacco consumption and medical history. In addition, participants completed a self-administered food-frequency and alcohol consumption questionnaire. Factors associated with ever and current NSAID consumption were identified by logistic regression.ResultsWomen consumed more non-aspirin NSAIDs (38.8% [36.7–41.0]) than men (22.3 [20.5–24.2]), but men consumed more aspirin (11.7% [10.3–13.2]) than women (5.2% [4.3–6.3]). Consumption of non-aspirin NSAIDs decrease with age from 44.2% (39.4–49.1) in younger than 45 to 21.1% (18.3–24.2) in older than 75, but the age-pattern for aspirin usage was the opposite. Aspirin was reported by about 11% patients, as being twice as used in men (11.7%) than in women (5.2%); its consumption increased with age from 1.7% (< 45 years old) to 12.4% (≥75 years old). Aspirin was strongly associated with the presence of cardiovascular risk factors or established cardiovascular disease, reaching odds ratios of 15.2 (7.4–31.2) in women with acute coronary syndrome, 13.3 (6.2–28.3) in women with strokes and 11.1 (7.8–15.9) in men with acute coronary syndrome. Participants with cardiovascular risk factors or diseases consumed as much non-aspirin NSAID as participants without such conditions.ConclusionsNon-aspirin NSAIDs were more consumed by women and aspirin by men. The age patterns of aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs were opposite: the higher the age, the lower the non-aspirin NSAIDs usage and the higher the aspirin consumption. People with cardiovascular risk factors or diseases consumed more aspirin, but they did not decrease their non-aspirin NSAIDs usage.

Distributed Co-simulation of Maritime Systems and Operations

Here, we present the concept of an open virtual prototyping framework (VPF) for maritime systems and operations that enables its users to develop reusable component or subsystem models, and combine them in full-system simulations for prototyping, verification, training, and performance studies. This framework consists of a set of guidelines for model coupling, high-level and low-level coupling interfaces to guarantee interoperability, a full-system simulation software, and example models and demonstrators. We discuss the requirements for such a framework, address the challenges and the possibilities in fulfilling them, and aim to give a list of best practices for modular and efficient virtual prototyping and full-system simulation. The context of our work is within maritime systems and operations, but the issues and solutions we present here are general enough to be of interest to a much broader audience, both industrial and scientific.

Documenting current practices in the management of deaf suspects in the USA

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to combine previous research on deaf suspects with the findings from data gathered from law enforcement personnel nationwide to gain an understanding of the common practices of US law enforcement when arresting, interrogating and communicating with deaf suspects.Design/methodology/approachIn light of the limited amount of research available on handling deaf suspects, a two-part sampling approach was used. Using critical case sampling, the author surveyed law enforcement via open-ended surveys designed to solicit information about their involvement with deaf suspects and any related questions and concerns. Guided by the Wave 1 data, Wave 2 surveys were administered to law enforcement nationwide (using expert sampling).FindingsAn analysis of the two waves of data collected was used to assemble the list of current practices.Originality/valueThis study combines previous research on deaf suspects, which has been published largely through the framework of deaf studies, with the insight of practitioners to identify a list of current practices used by US law enforcement when handling deaf suspects.

Strength in numbers: Crowdsourcing the most relevant literature in pediatric cardiology.

The growing body of medical literature in pediatric cardiology has made it increasingly difficult for individual providers to stay abreast of the most current, meaningful articles to help guide practice. Crowdsourcing represents a collaborative process of obtaining information from a large group of individuals, typically from an online or web-based community, and could serve a potential mechanism to pool individual efforts to combat this issue. This study aimed to utilize crowdsourcing as a novel way to generate a list of the most relevant, current publications in congenital heart disease, utilizing input from an international group of professionals in the field of pediatric cardiology. All members of the PediHeartNet Google group, an international email distribution list of medical professionals with an interest in pediatric cardiology, were queried in 2017 to submit literature that they considered to be most relevant to their current practice. A Google Form submission platform was used. The articles were evaluated by a multi-institutional panel of four experts in pediatric cardiology using the Delphi method via an electronic evaluation form until a consensus was reached regarding whether the article merited inclusion in the final list. In total, 260 articles were submitted by members of the PediHeartNet Google group. Expert review using the Delphi method resulted in a list of 108 articles. The final collection of articles was published on a publicly available educational website. Crowdsourcing represents a novel approach for generating a high-yield, comprehensive, yet practical list of the most relevant recent publications in pediatric cardiology. The same techniques could be easily applied to any medical subspecialty. By enlisting the input of frontline providers, the value and relevance of such a list will be significant. A web-based platform for publication of the list allows for real-time updates to ensure continued relevance.

Decoder Partitioning: Towards Practical List Decoding of Polar Codes

Polar codes represent one of the major recent breakthroughs in coding theory and, because of their attractive features, they have been selected for the incoming 5G standard. As such, a lot of attention has been devoted to the development of decoding algorithms with good error performance and efficient hardware implementation. One of the leading candidates in this regard is represented by successive-cancelation list (SCL) decoding. However, its hardware implementation requires a large amount of memory. Recently, a partitioned SCL (PSCL) decoder has been proposed to significantly reduce the memory consumption. In this paper, we consider the paradigm of PSCL decoding from a practical standpoint, and we provide several improvements. First, by changing the target signal-to-noise ratio and consequently modifying the construction of the code, we are able to improve the performance at no additional computational, latency, or memory cost. Second, we bridge the performance gap between SCL and PSCL decoding by introducing a generalized PSCL decoder and a layered PSCL decoder. In this way, we obtain almost the same performance of the SCL decoder with a significantly lower memory requirement, as testified by hardware implementation results. Third, we present an optimal scheme to allocate cyclic redundancy checks. Finally, we provide a lower bound on the list size that guarantees optimal maximum a posteriori performance for the binary erasure channel.

Best practices for preventing malfunctions in rule-based clinical decision support alerts and reminders: Results of a Delphi study

ObjectiveDeveloping effective and reliable rule-based clinical decision support (CDS) alerts and reminders is challenging. Using a previously developed taxonomy for alert malfunctions, we identified best practices for developing, testing, implementing, and maintaining alerts and avoiding malfunctions. Materials and methodsWe identified 72 initial practices from the literature, interviews with subject matter experts, and prior research. To refine, enrich, and prioritize the list of practices, we used the Delphi method with two rounds of consensus-building and refinement. We used a larger than normal panel of experts to include a wide representation of CDS subject matter experts from various disciplines. Results28 experts completed Round 1 and 25 completed Round 2. Round 1 narrowed the list to 47 best practices in 7 categories: knowledge management, designing and specifying, building, testing, deployment, monitoring and feedback, and people and governance. Round 2 developed consensus on the importance and feasibility of each best practice. DiscussionThe Delphi panel identified a range of best practices that may help to improve implementation of rule-based CDS and avert malfunctions. Due to limitations on resources and personnel, not everyone can implement all best practices. The most robust processes require investing in a data warehouse. Experts also pointed to the issue of shared responsibility between the healthcare organization and the electronic health record vendor. ConclusionThese 47 best practices represent an ideal situation. The research identifies the balance between importance and difficulty, highlights the challenges faced by organizations seeking to implement CDS, and describes several opportunities for future research to reduce alert malfunctions.