List Of Practices Research Articles

I174] Strategic leadership in medical physics – a to-do list

Purpose In today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive world, strategic leadership skills have become important to all professions and essential for small professions such as Medical Physics. A practical to-do list is important. Methods The author reflects on his own personal experiences of leadership at the national, European and international levels and his readings on the subject and summarizes these experiences in a short to-do list. Results Essential items on the to-do list are: to clarify vision, to decide on the style of leadership to adopt, to have a deep personal commitment, to conduct an honest personal SWOT audit, to conduct an honest SWOT audit of your team/departmental/profession, to develop a practical strategic plan for achieving the vision, to persevere till the vision is achieved, to prepare the next generation of leaders. Conclusions It is hope that this short to-do list will help others develop their own leadership skills.

University faculty’s perceptions and practices of student centered learning in Qatar

Purpose Although student-centered learning (SCL) has been encouraged for decades in higher education, to what level instructors are practicing SCL strategies remains in question. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a university faculty’s understanding and perceptions of SCL, along with current instructional practices in Qatar. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method research design was employed including quantitative data from a survey of faculty reporting their current instructional practices and qualitative data on how these instructors define SCL and perceive their current practices via interviews with 12 instructors. Participants of the study are mainly from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field. Findings Study results show that these instructors have rather inclusive definitions of SCL, which range from lectures to student interactions via problem-based teamwork. However, a gap between the instructors’ perceptions and their actual practices was identified. Although student activities are generally perceived as effective teaching strategies, the interactions observed were mainly in the form of student–content or student-teacher, while student–student interactions were limited. Prevailing assessment methods are summative, while formative assessment is rarely practiced. Faculty attributed this lack of alignment between how SCL could and should be practiced and the reality to external factors, including students’ lack of maturity and motivation due to the Middle Eastern culture, and institutional constraints such as class time and size. Research limitations/implications The study is limited in a few ways. First regarding methodological justification the data methods chosen in this study were mainly focused on the faculty’s self-reporting. Second the limited number of participants restricts this study’s generalizability because the survey was administered in a volunteer-based manner and the limited number of interview participants makes it difficult to establish clear patterns. Third, researching faculty members raises concerns in the given context wherein extensive faculty assessments are regularly conducted. Practical implications A list of recommendations is provided here as inspiration for institutional support and faculty development activities. First, faculty need deep understanding of SCL through experiences as learners so that they can become true believers and implementers. Second, autonomy is needed for faculty to adopt appropriate assessment methods that are aligned with their pedagogical objectives and delivery methods. Input on how faculty can adapt instructional innovation to tailor it to the local context is very important for its long-term effectiveness (Hora and Ferrare, 2014). Third, an inclusive approach to faculty evaluation by encouraging faculty from STEM backgrounds to be engaged in research on their instructional practice will not only sustain the practice of innovative pedagogy but will also enrich the research profiles of STEM faculty and their institutes. Social implications The faculty’s understanding and perceptions of implementing student-centered approaches were closely linked to their prior experiences – experiencing SCL as a learner may better shape the understanding and guide the practice of SCL as an instructor. Originality/value SCL is not a new topic; however, the reality of its practice is constrained to certain social and cultural contexts. This study contributes with original and valuable insights into the gap between ideology and reality in implementation of SCL in a Middle Eastern context.

US Patient-Centered Research Priorities and Roadmap for Bronchiectasis

Noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (bronchiectasis) is an increasingly common chronic lung disease that is difficult to manage because of a lack of evidence on which to base treatment decision-making. We sought to develop a practical list of US-based patient-centered research priorities and an associated roadmap to guide bronchiectasis research. We designed and administered a web-based patient needs assessment survey to establish broad research priorities, convened three stakeholder webinars to confirm the top priorities, obtained written stakeholder feedback, and completed a final consensus survey of objectives. The stakeholder panel consisted of clinical research experts in bronchiectasis, a seven-member patient advisory panel, and representatives from the two key patient advocacy organizations: COPD Foundation and NTM Info and Research Inc. Based on survey results from 459 patients with bronchiectasis, the stakeholder panel identified 27 patient-centered research priorities for bronchiectasis in the areas of bronchiectasis treatment and prevention of exacerbations, improving treatment of exacerbations and infections, improving health-related quality of life, predictors of poor prognosis, understanding the impact of underlying conditions, and conducting patient-centered clinical trials. These priorities should further inform the development and evaluation of both new and previously unproven therapies, with particular attention to the inclusion of patient-reported outcomes. We anticipate a great deal of progress will be made in the field of bronchiectasis in the next decade.

Management of multimorbidity using a patient-centred care model: a pragmatic cluster-randomised trial of the 3D approach

SummaryBackgroundThe management of people with multiple chronic conditions challenges health-care systems designed around single conditions. There is international consensus that care for multimorbidity should be patient-centred, focus on quality of life, and promote self-management towards agreed goals. However, there is little evidence about the effectiveness of this approach. Our hypothesis was that the patient-centred, so-called 3D approach (based on dimensions of health, depression, and drugs) for patients with multimorbidity would improve their health-related quality of life, which is the ultimate aim of the 3D intervention.MethodsWe did this pragmatic cluster-randomised trial in general practices in England and Scotland. Practices were randomly allocated to continue usual care (17 practices) or to provide 6-monthly comprehensive 3D reviews, incorporating patient-centred strategies that reflected international consensus on best care (16 practices). Randomisation was computer-generated, stratified by area, and minimised by practice deprivation and list size. Adults with three or more chronic conditions were recruited. The primary outcome was quality of life (assessed with EQ-5D-5L) after 15 months' follow-up. Participants were not masked to group assignment, but analysis of outcomes was blinded. We analysed the primary outcome in the intention-to-treat population, with missing data being multiply imputed. This trial is registered as an International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial, number ISRCTN06180958.FindingsBetween May 20, 2015, and Dec 31, 2015, we recruited 1546 patients from 33 practices and randomly assigned them to receive the intervention (n=797) or usual care (n=749). In our intention-to-treat analysis, there was no difference between trial groups in the primary outcome of quality of life (adjusted difference in mean EQ-5D-5L 0·00, 95% CI −0·02 to 0·02; p=0·93). 78 patients died, and the deaths were not considered as related to the intervention.InterpretationTo our knowledge, this trial is the largest investigation of the international consensus about optimal management of multimorbidity. The 3D intervention did not improve patients' quality of life.FundingNational Institute for Health Research.

Modelos de Referencia de Arquitectura Empresarial para la Industria de Educación Superior

La digitalización de las universidades es uno de los grandes desafíos de la universidad ecuatoriana en la actualidad. La búsqueda de la calidad en la educación superior implica el logro de transformaciones desde la perspectiva estratégica, por lo que los líderes de TI deben estar preparados para formar parte del equipo de toma de decisiones que entienda las necesidades empresariales, proponga soluciones tecnológicas que garanticen la generación de valor. A lo largo del tiempo, la falta de entendimiento de las necesidades de los grupos de interés, ha llevado a proponer soluciones aisladas y desconectadas, que han abordado los problemas sin hacer un análisis causal. El presente trabajo, busca motivar a los líderes de TI de las instituciones de educación superior del Ecuador la implementación de procesos de arquitectura empresarial a plantear soluciones estratégicas y aborden la problemática de las universidades de forma integral, articulando los componentes estratégicos, del negocio, de las aplicaciones, datos y la tecnología a través de arquitectura empresarial. La propuesta se basa en el marco de referencia TOGAF y su metodología ADM, a la que se suman una lista de marcos de referencia, modelos, estándares y buenas prácticas alineadas a la educación superior. Estos referentes deberán ser adoptados en función del contexto la necesidad de cada institución. en el entorno en el que se aplican. Cabe mencionar que en este trabajo se han omitido otras herramientas y métodos propios del marco de referencia, los cuales deberán ser adoptados en el ejercicio de la arquitectura empresarial.

A reanalysis of crossed-dimension “Who Said What?” paradigm studies, using a better error base-rate correction

Abstract Cognitive and evolutionarily-minded researchers have increasingly adopted the Who Said What? memory-confusion paradigm, a powerful and sensitive paradigm originating from social psychology which allows researchers to unobtrusively measure social categorization. The paradigm has been particularly important over the past two decades for arbitrating between different functionalist hypotheses about the evolved social mind. XXXX (this volume) has pointed out, however, that the simple arithmetic base-rate correction inherited from social psychology for this paradigm is problematic. This standard base-rate correction—in use since 1992 and in over a dozen studies—creates a mathematical artifact in which the calculated magnitude of categorization by one dimension can affect the calculated magnitude of categorization by a second, crossed dimension, even when the two dimensions are in fact fully independent from one another. No one had noticed this in 25 years. Worryingly, this means that all previously-reported Who Said What? studies featuring two crossed dimensions have reported potentially-biased estimates of the true magnitude of categorization. Here, a reanalysis of four large research projects is presented, involving 56 effect sizes across 31 between-subjects conditions (Pietraszewski, Cosmides, & Tooby, 2014; Pietraszewski & Schwartz, 2014; Pietraszewski, Curry, Peterson, Cosmides, & Tooby, 2015; Pietraszewski, 2016). In all cases, the previously reported results from those papers hold or are even strengthened by the reanalysis. In particular, the previously-reported experimental reductions in racial categorization were in fact underestimates. This reanalysis also reveals that the most common artifact of the previously-used error correction was to artificially-inflate categorization by the weaker of the two dimensions—at least among the studies reported here. Finally, a succinct list of best practices for use of the Who Said What? paradigm in the future is presented, including but not limited to this new base-rate correction.

An observational study assessing high dose opioid prescribing and associated adrenal insufficiency

BackgroundLong-term opioid use is known to affect endocrine function, with case reports indicating an association with adrenal insufficiency.AimThis study aims to investigate long-term, high-dose opioid use (≥80mg morphine or equivalent per day) at a Suffolk (UK) General Practice and its effect on adrenal function.MethodFrom a practice list of 18,300, retrospective data was collected for patients prescribed high-dose opioids for non-cancer pain for at least three months on current repeat prescription. Patient demographics and prescribing information were collected using SystmOne. Cortisol levels in the high-dose opioid patients, and short synacthen testing if indicated, were performed.ResultsThe 35 identified patients (0.2% of practice list) were predominantly female (77%) ≥70 years old (37%), and taking opioids prescribed for osteoarthritis or back pain (77%). 6% were prescribed >280mg morphine or equivalent per day, with one patient prescribed 705 mg. Routine evaluation for development of adrenal suppression and subsequent management was poor. 31% (11 of 35) had developed symptoms potentially indicative of adrenal insufficiency. One of these patients was among the 21% (7 of 35) with suppressed serum cortisol. Adrenal insufficiency secondary to opioids was confirmed in one patient using short synacthen testing. There was no statistical difference in either opioid dose or months of use for those with or without early morning cortisol suppression.ConclusionThe investigation highlights both the considerable use of high-dose opioids for non-malignant pain and their apparent association with adrenal suppression, demonstrating the need for formal guidelines to aid recognition and diagnosis.

Overcoming Legacy Processing in Photographic Collections through Collaboration and Digital Technologies

In the 1960s, a Louisville photography studio began donating its negatives, prints, and invoices to the University of Louisville Photographic Archives. The Caufield & Shook collection remains a significant primary source for local history and a prime candidate for digitization. Unfortunately, on its receipt, nonarchivists processed the collection with little documentation of original order or organizational decision making. Additionally, workflow choices were determined largely by the desire to maximize student labor. In 2017, the digital initiatives librarian worked with in-house application developers and archives staff to create a workflow that has significantly sped up the process of making this valuable photographic collection accessible online. This article describes how archivists recovered from the poor processing decisions, used technology to enhance the digitization workflow, and developed a list of best practices for future processing and digitization of large photographic collections.

Using drug knowledgebase information to distinguish between look-alike-sound-alike drugs.

To extract drug indications from a commercial drug knowledgebase and determine to what extent drug indications can discriminate between look-alike-sound-alike (LASA) drugs. We extracted drug indications disease concepts from the MedKnowledge Indications module from First Databank Inc. (South San Francisco, CA) and associated them with drugs on the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) list of commonly confused drug names. We used high-level concepts (rather than granular concepts) to represent the general indications for each drug. Two pharmacists reviewed each drug's association with its high-level indications concepts for accuracy and clinical relevance. We compared the high-level indications for each commonly confused drug pair and categorized each pair as having a complete overlap, partial overlap or no overlap in high-level indications. Of 278 LASA drug pairs, 165 (59%) had no overlap and 58 (21%) had partial overlap in high-level indications. Fifty-five pairs (20%) had complete overlap in high-level indications; nearly half of these were comprised of drugs with the same active ingredient and route of administration (e.g., Adderall, Adderall XR). Drug indications data from a drug knowledgebase can discriminate between many LASA drugs.

The Ethics Resistance

Legal ethics complaints have been filed against several of the high-ranking lawyers in the Trump Administration. While individual complaints have caught the public eye, the collective movement to use legal ethics to resist Trumpism has escaped attention. This is not altogether surprising: legal ethics rules have not historically been an attractive tool for political change. Perhaps, desperate times have called for desperate measures. This “Ethics Resistance” will face significant opposing forces. Legal ethics complaints seldom result in punishment. Further, the agencies that are asked to investigate these high-profile and controversial matters will not be eager to leave their comfort zone; they are accustomed to complaints from clients who are unhappy with their lawyers over straightforward matters like unreturned phone calls or high fees. There will also be loud dissenting voices from those who will see the movement as the weaponization of a tool designed for the modest task of lawyer self-governance. Finally, the complaints will have to navigate between powerful constitutional protections of lawyer speech and federal power. But we should not dismiss this movement simply because it is unusual or challenging. The wisdom of the Ethics Resistance can only be judged after we understand its distinctive qualities and consider how they further or hinder our legal, institutional, and pragmatic interests. In this Article, I undertake that analysis and conclude that the movement has the capacity to be legally permissible, institutionally sound, and prudent. I further offer a list of best practices for future complaints.

Addressing sexual issues in palliative care: A qualitative study on nurses' attitudes, roles and experiences.

To explore palliative care nurses' attitudes, roles and concrete experience with regard to addressing sexual issues in their daily practice. Patients and their partners in palliative care might experience dramatic changes in their sexuality and want nurses to provide the opportunity to address them. Moreover, it is argued that the holistic philosophy of palliative care encourages nurses working in this area to include sexual issues in their daily care. It is, however, unknown how palliative care nurses address sexual issues. A generic qualitative study was performed. In total, 21 in-depth interviews were done with nurses from different facilities of palliative care networks in Flanders. Data were collected between September 2014 - September 2016 and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. It was found that the way palliative care nurses addressed sexual issues was clearly influenced by their own interpretation of the philosophical principles underlying palliative care. The different interpretations of these basic principles create tensions for nurses about how to address sexual issues in the daily practice of palliative care and nurses vary in their reactions to these tensions. The present findings show that palliative care nurses - when they were able to overcome these tensions - use a "sex-positive approach" that fits with their tendency to focus on quality of life. Out of the results of this study, we made a list of good practices for palliative care nurses addressing sexual issues. This list can be used in nursing educational programs.

Does practice analysis agree with the ambulatory care sensitive conditions’ list of avoidable unplanned admissions?: a cross-sectional study in the East of England

ObjectivesTo use significant event audits (SEAs) in primary care to determine which of a sample of emergency (unplanned) admissions were potentially avoidable; and compare with the National Health Service (NHS)...

School practices to promote social distancing in K-12 schools: review of influenza pandemic policies and practices

BackgroundDuring an evolving influenza pandemic, community mitigation strategies, such as social distancing, can slow down virus transmission in schools and surrounding communities. To date, research on school practices to promote social distancing in primary and secondary schools has focused on prolonged school closure, with little attention paid to the identification and feasibility of other more sustainable interventions. To develop a list and typology of school practices that have been proposed and/or implemented in an influenza pandemic and to uncover any barriers identified, lessons learned from their use, and documented impacts.MethodsWe conducted a review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature on social distancing interventions in schools other than school closure. We also collected state government guidance documents directed to local education agencies or schools to assess state policies regarding social distancing. We collected standardized information from each document using an abstraction form and generated descriptive statistics on common plan elements.ResultsThe document review revealed limited literature on school practices to promote social distancing, as well as limited incorporation of school practices to promote social distancing into state government guidance documents. Among the 38 states that had guidance documents that met inclusion criteria, fewer than half (42%) mentioned a single school practice to promote social distancing, and none provided any substantive detail about the policies or practices needed to enact them. The most frequently identified school practices were cancelling or postponing after-school activities, canceling classes or activities with a high rate of mixing/contact that occur within the school day, and reducing mixing during transport.ConclusionLittle information is available to schools to develop policies and procedures on social distancing. Additional research and guidance are needed to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of school practices to promote social distancing.

Expanding the Intellectual Property Knowledge Base at University Libraries: Collaborating with Patent and Trademark Resource Centers.

Patent and Trademark Resource Centers are located in libraries throughout the U.S., with 43 being in academic libraries. With the importance of incorporating a knowledge of intellectual property (IP) and patent research in university curricula nationwide, this study developed and evaluated a partnership program to increase the understanding of IP and patent searching methods at universities that do not headquarter a PTRC. This article describes the methods for establishing those partnerships, summarizes their results, and offers a list of best practices and lessons learned for establishing future partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Re-design of a uniplanar, monolateral external fixator.

This work deals with the structural analysis of screw clamps for external fixator devices. Screw clamps are widely used in external fixators as a means to connect the half-pins to the fixator body. The analysis is carried out by both numerical and experimental techniques, based on the case study of a clamp produced by Citieffe (Bologna, Italy). As a preliminary activity, the tribological parameters involved in the screw-clamp interaction have been characterized by means of a mixed finite element analysis and experimental procedure. Then, an assessment of the current design of the clamp has been carried out. A re-design has been proposed, which, based on some targeted geometrical modifications, allows achieving higher strength requirements with the same overall dimensions and type of materials. A higher load-bearing capability for a given size may allow the fixator to be used on a broader population. Finally, a list of good practices for the design of this kind of clamps has been proposed.

Policing the ‘Middle of Nowhere’: Officer Working Strategies in Isolated Communities

Abstract Thousands of isolated communities across the globe are policed by officers who confront the challenges posed by distinctive geographic and environmental conditions, and many serve in places with a high proportion of economically and politically marginalized peoples in the population. This study reports the results of a survey soliciting the perceptions of 827 Canadian officers working in Indigenous communities; 260 of whom were deployed in isolated locations. Comparison of their responses using t-tests reveal that officers working in isolated communities confront a greater volume and seriousness of crime, and higher levels of social problems contrasted against their counterparts policing non-isolated communities. The results show that officers working in these locations develop a style of policing that is responsive to the characteristics of these places. Considering the perceptions of officers serving in isolated communities is an important step to consider when developing a list of best policing practices that are responsive to the needs of these places, regardless of where in the world they are located.

Navigating Your Specialty Palliative APRN Career (P19)

•Review the scope of the current Palliative Advance Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) workforce and list available options for education and training in specialty practice.•Introduce the HPNA Professional Practice Guide as a tool to aid in job seeking, contract negotiation, and necessary infrastructure supports.•Integrate a plan for professional development as a Palliative APRN to optimize professional growth, commit to career sustainability, and contribute to others' professional growth. Nurses enter our field from many avenues and experiences—we must ask ourselves how best to align our interests and leverage our experience. In this workshop, the Palliative Advance Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) in hospice and palliative care will explore the current state of the workforce, including gaps in training and professional support, and review best practices and expert opinions on how to approach barriers and ensure a sustainable professional practice. The APRN will gain insight into options for educational preparation, navigating a new or existing APRN role, contract negotiation, and committing to career-long professional development. Faculty will integrate the perspectives of nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists on the essential building blocks for a fulfilling career at any stage for the Palliative APRN. This presentation will be interactive for the participants, using video technology, small group discussion and case studies addressing career paths and prospects for Palliative APRNs in various setting, including practicing in the community and at academic medical centers.

The State of Software for Evolutionary Biology.

With Next Generation Sequencing data being routinely used, evolutionary biology is transforming into a computational science. Thus, researchers have to rely on a growing number of increasingly complex software. All widely used core tools in the field have grown considerably, in terms of the number of features as well as lines of code and consequently, also with respect to software complexity. A topic that has received little attention is the software engineering quality of widely used core analysis tools. Software developers appear to rarely assess the quality of their code, and this can have potential negative consequences for end-users. To this end, we assessed the code quality of 16 highly cited and compute-intensive tools mainly written in C/C++ (e.g., MrBayes, MAFFT, SweepFinder, etc.) and JAVA (BEAST) from the broader area of evolutionary biology that are being routinely used in current data analysis pipelines. Because, the software engineering quality of the tools we analyzed is rather unsatisfying, we provide a list of best practices for improving the quality of existing tools and list techniques that can be deployed for developing reliable, high quality scientific software from scratch. Finally, we also discuss journal as well as science policy and, more importantly, funding issues that need to be addressed for improving software engineering quality as well as ensuring support for developing new and maintaining existing software. Our intention is to raise the awareness of the community regarding software engineering quality issues and to emphasize the substantial lack of funding for scientific software development.

Analysis of Open Innovation Practices in Malaysian SMEs

Open Innovation is a phenomenon that has become increasingly important due to found shorter innovation cycles, industrial R&D escalating costs as well as in the dearth of resources. Researchers have suggested various kinds of practices and ways to categorized them. However, most of prior studies only used some of the practices to measured open innovation, but the measurements were very generic as some practices are broadly defined, and the list of open innovation activities not included new activities and completed list of practices. Hence, it is crucial to identify a new list of open innovation practices and study on similar practices in developing countries to help their companies understand open innovation and its practices as well. This study reviewing prior studies on open innovation adoption published between 2003 and March 2014 and identified 36 different practices. Therefore, we created a new list of open innovation practices that cover most of strategies and practices mentioned in prior studies. This study used quantitative methodology, 400 high rank executives manager of Malaysia SMEs participated and completed the survey and further analyzed using the appropriate statistical procedures. The results indicated that Malaysian SMEs use three core processes of open innovation including coupled, outside-in, and inside-out practices in their open innovation processes, respectively.

Associations between physical behaviour patterns and levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety and well-being in middle-aged adults: a cross-sectional study using isotemporal substitution models

ObjectiveTo examine the compositional effects of physical behaviour on mental health.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingA population-representative random sample (Mitchelstown cohort) was recruited from a large primary care centre in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland.ParticipantsIn...