Pre-conference Workshop Research Articles

World Congress Integrative Medicine & Health 2017: part three

World Congress Integrative Medicine & Health 2017: part three

Identifying opportunities for collaboration and growth of genetic counseling services in the Asia Region.

The Genetic Counseling Pre-Conference Workshop (GCPCW) was held on September 16, 2015, in Hanoi, Vietnam. We report the GCPCW outcomes obtained from pre- and post-conference questionnaires, case-review breakout session, and an open discussion of needs for genetic counseling services in the Asia region. The GCPCW participants completed questionnaires with closed- and open-ended questions regarding the status and needs of providing genetic counseling services in Asia. Utilizing thematic content analysis, common themes shared during the case-review breakout session are summarized and survey results are tabulated. Of the 71 participants, pre- and post-conference questionnaires were returned by 57 (80%) and 44 (62%) individuals, respectively. Of the 42 participants who did not identify themselves as students in training, 36 (86%) stated they are currently providing genetic counseling services. Participants cited that the most useful information obtained during the GCPCW related to the status of genetic counseling services in the region, discovery of shared challenges, professional networking, and the need to establish genetic counseling training programs and its accreditation. The GCPCW provided a collaborative forum to address current challenges and needs of genetic counseling services in the region. Strategies were identified to foster genetic counseling training and clinical service opportunities.

Clean, Safe and Healthy Environment:From Home to Workplace

Occupational and environmental health related problems are found in every workstation and country. Still the budget allocation for prevention and control of such diseases is poor. Simple measures such as cleanliness, personal protection can be adopted by all workers and employers can ensure its implementation. In a series of organizing conferences and workshops for last 5 years, seven preconference workshops and an international conference with theme of clean, safe and healthy environment-from home to workplace was organized in 2016 with the objective of increasing the skills among occupational health professionals. More than 129 research papers were presented by the young scholars and doctors. Proceedings of the conference and workshops have been given in the present article.

Academic Writing and Publishing: A NASIG Preconference Workshop

ABSTRACTThe goal of this preconference was to guide aspiring academic librarians in understanding how to navigate scholarly publication requirements and be successful academic writers. The presenters provided tips for beginners as well as for those already engaged in a research agenda. One of the presenters is a published book and journal author and the other is the editor-in-chief of a major peer-reviewed library journal.

Deep Dive into KBART

ABSTRACTThe Deep Dive into KBART preconference workshop provided a comprehensive overview of the National Information Standards Organization Knowledge Bases and Related Tools (KBART) Phase II Recommended Practice (http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/rp-9–2014/). The workshop was divided into four sections. The first provided an overview of the background, purpose, and value of KBART to all members of the information supply chain. The next section focused on the basic guidelines for effective exchange of metadata with knowledgebases, including method of exchange, data format, file naming conventions, and frequency of exchange. The remaining two sections of the workshop addressed the correct use of KBART data fields, first in relation to serials and then to monographs. Through classroom instruction, interactive quizzes, and hands-on exercises, the workshop provided in-depth coverage of all KBART data elements, with special focus on many of the most frequently asked questions about the recommended practice.

Research progress from the SCI Model Systems (SCIMS): An interactive discussion on future directions

Context/Objective: To describe current and future directions in spinal cord injury (SCI) research.Design: The SCI Model Systems (SCIMS) programs funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) during the 2011 to 2016 cycle provided abstracts describing findings from current research projects. Discussion among session participants generated ideas for research opportunities.Setting/Participants: Pre-conference workshop before the 2016 American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) annual meeting. A steering committee selected by the SCIMS directors that included the moderators of the sessions at the ASIA pre-conference workshop, researchers presenting abstracts during the session, and the audience of over 100 attending participants in the pre-conference workshop.Methods/Results: Group discussion followed presentations in 5 thematic areas of (1) Demographics and Measurement; (2) Functional Training; (3) Psychosocial Considerations; (4) Assistive Technology; and (5) Secondary Conditions. The steering committee reviewed and summarized discussion points on future directions for research and made recommendations for research based on the discussion in each of the five areas.Conclusion: Significant areas in need of research in SCI remain, the goal of which is continued improvement in the quality of life of individuals with SCI.

Seventh Annual GCES Symposium: Innovation and Transformation: Values, Challenges, and Prospects for Education in the GCC

The Gulf Comparative Education Society (GCES) held its seventh annual symposium under the sponsorship of the Arab Open University Kuwait, the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research from April 5th to 7th, 2016. Entitled “Innovation and Transformation: Values, Challenges, and Prospects for Education in the GCC,” the symposium was held at the Arab Open University in Kuwait City, Kuwait. It consisted of three different pre-conference workshops, two keynote addresses, three featured panels and seven breakout sessions with over 42 presentations by both invited speakers as well as those who had submitted abstracts. The speakers came from a wide variety of countries including the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Switzerland, England, Australia, and the United States, and represented different voices in the education sector, such as policymakers, academics and researchers, school providers and leaders, consultants, and teachers.

Perceptions about Training during Endocrinology Residency Programs in India over the Years: A Cross-sectional Study (PEER India Study).

Background:Residents' perception on quality of endocrinology training in India is not known. This study aimed to evaluate the perceptions about endocrinology residency programs in India among current trainees as compared to practicing endocrinologists.Methods:Trainees attending a preconference workshop at the annual conference of Endocrine Society of India (ESI) were given a questionnaire designed to evaluate their perceptions on their training. These evaluated the reasons for choosing endocrinology, their experiences during residency, and career plans. Practicing endocrinologists attending ESICON with at least 5-year experience were evaluated as controls.Results:Questionnaires from 63 endocrine trainees and 78 practicing endocrinologists were analyzed. Endocrinology is perceived to be the super-specialty with the best quality of life (QOL) but fair with regard to financial remuneration. Among current trainees, 61.89%, 31.74%, and 34.91% are satisfied with training in clinical endocrinology, laboratory endocrinology, and clinical/translational research, respectively. The corresponding figures for practicing endocrinologists are 71.78%, 25.63%, and 30.75%, respectively. Exposure to national endocrinology conferences during their endocrinology residency was adequate. However, exposure to international endocrinology conferences, research publications, project writing, and grant application are limited. Laboratory endocrinology is rated as the most neglected aspect during endocrine residency. Most of the trainees want to establish their own clinical practice in the long run. Very few trainees (17.46%) wish to join the medical education services.Conclusion:There is a good perception of QOL in endocrinology in spite of average financial remuneration. There is dissatisfaction with the quality of training in laboratory endocrinology and clinical research. Very few endocrine trainees consider academics as a long-term career option in India.

Notes on the third Drama in Education Days 2017

After two successful conferences (2015 & 2016) at Reutlingen University, the third Drama in Education Days was held at Konstanz University of Applied Sciences, June 30th and July 1st, 2017. The bilingual (English/German) conference focuses on best practice and research in the field of drama and theatre in education in second and foreign language teaching, and is organised by Dr. Stefanie Giebert (Konstanz University of Applied Sciences, Germany) und MA Eva Göksel (Centre for Oral Communication, University of Teacher Education Zug, Switzerland). The two-day event caters to teachers, scholars, and performers working with drama and theatre in language education at all levels – primary through to tertiary. This year’s conference attracted 45 participants from 9 countries including Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Kirgizstan, Spain, Switzerland, the US, and the UK. The conference kicked off Thursday, June 29th, with a hands-on pre-conference workshop, during which Tomáš Andrášik (Masaryk University) demonstrated how improv theatre creates a positive classroom atmosphere and fosters communication skills. In the space of two hours, workshop participants tested out techniques to lower communicative anxiety and to develop public speaking skills. Exercises aimed at building self-confidence in speaking and listening and to empower spontaneous and authentic communication were also presented. ...

A wrap-up of the 26th Annual State Conference of the Indian Psychiatric Society-Assam State Branch held at Silchar

A galaxy of eminent names in the sphere of psychiatry illuminated the 26th Annual State Conference of the Indian Psychiatric Society-Assam State Branch held at Silchar on the 23rd and 24th of September, 2016. Women and Mental was chosen as the theme of the summit. Meet the Masters-an innovative interactive session with stalwarts and a panel discussion featuring celebrated women from various walks of life were the highlights of the two-day academic fiesta. A one-day pre-Conference workshop on Forensic Psychiatry conducted by foremost experts from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru studded the scholastic extravaganza.

Learning from 'Pitching Research' Competition Winners: Insights and Reflections

TWENTY16 has been a BIG year! As a companion to Faff (2015, 2016), the current paper reviews experiences and draws insights from a series of workshops, pitch days, competitions, webinars and other events based on the “pitching research” template tool. With close to 80 unique events conducted throughout the calendar year 2016, this intense program of activity culminated in the Final of a “pitching” competition at the University of Queensland sponsored by the UQ Association of Postgraduate Students (UQuAPS). Like its inaugural version the previous year, the UQuAPS 2016 event captured the full spectrum of academic discipline areas: from human movements to … telehealth to … architecture and more. Other similar major events held and activity in 2016 include: the SIRCA “pitching symposium”, the FIRN “pitch my research” competition, the ANZAM Doctoral workshop and the AIC2016 pre-conference pitching workshop. A review of these events is contained within, with a particular focus on the winning pitches and the winning pitchers.

Building professional development opportunities in data services for academic librarians

Research data management represents a significant professional development area for academic librarians – significant for its growing importance to the profession, since researchers are increasingly expected to comply with research data management requirements, and for the extent of competence needed by librarians to support researchers in research data management practices and plans. This article recounts how the Association of College and Research Libraries is fostering professional development opportunities in research data management. The authors describe two key endeavors: (1) the development and deployment of a needs assessment survey, which allowed insight into the types of librarians expressing the most need; and (2) planning and implementation of a pre-conference workshop for ACRL 2015, intended to prototype a future professional development offering. The article concludes by discussing additional assessment that was done following the workshop and how the pre-conference laid the foundation for proposing a “roadshow” for research data management, similar to what the Association of College and Research Libraries sponsors for scholarly communication.

Technical Guidelines to Extract and Analyze VGI from Different Platforms

An increasing number of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and social media platforms have been continuously growing in size, which have provided massive georeferenced data in many forms including textual information, photographs, and geoinformation. These georeferenced data have either been actively contributed (e.g., adding data to OpenStreetMap (OSM) or Mapillary) or collected in a more passive fashion by enabling geolocation whilst using an online platform (e.g., Twitter, Instagram, or Flickr). The benefit of scraping and streaming these data in stand-alone applications is evident, however, it is difficult for many users to script and scrape the diverse types of these data. On 14 June 2016, a pre-conference workshop at the AGILE 2016 conference in Helsinki, Finland was held. The workshop was called “LINK-VGI: LINKing and analyzing VGI across different platforms”. The workshop provided an opportunity for interested researchers to share ideas and findings on cross-platform data contributions. One portion of the workshop was dedicated to a hands-on session. In this session, the basics of spatial data access through selected Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and the extraction of summary statistics of the results were illustrated. This paper presents the content of the hands-on session including the scripts and guidelines for extracting VGI data. Researchers, planners, and interested end-users can benefit from this paper for developing their own application for any region of the world.

7th Annual Symposium on Clinical and Pharmaceutical Solutions through Analysis.

7th Annual Symposium on Clinical & Pharmaceutical Solutions through Analysis, Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel, Shanghai, China, 20-23 April 2016 The 7th Annual Shanghai Symposium on Innovative Approaches to Reduce Attrition and Predict Clinical Outcomes (CPSA Shanghai 2016) was held on 20-23 April 2016 in Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel, Shanghai, China. The meeting was featured with highly interactive events including diversified symposia, round table discussions, workshops, poster sessions and conference awards. There were over 220 participants from more than ten countries, with 61 oral presentations and 29 posters presented. In addition, the meeting included one preconference workshop and three joint sessions held with bioanalytical experts from local communities.

Children's palliative care now! Highlights from the second ICPCN conference on children's palliative care, 18-21 May 2016, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The International Children’s Palliative Care Network held its second international conference on children’s palliative care in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from the 18th–21st May 2016. The theme of the conference was ‘Children’s Palliative Care…. Now!’ emphasising the need for palliative care for children now, as the future will be too late for many of them. Six pre-conference workshops were held, addressing issues connected to pain assessment and management, adolescent palliative care, ethics and decision-making, developing programmes, the basics of children’s palliative care, and hidden aspects of children’s palliative care. The conference brought together 410 participants from 40 countries. Plenary, concurrent, and poster presentations covered issues around the status of children’s palliative care, genetics, perinatal and neonatal palliative care, the impact of children’s palliative care and the experiences of parents and volunteers, palliative care as a human right, education in children’s palliative care, managing complex pain in children, spiritual care and when to initiate palliative care. The ‘Big Debate’ explored issues around decision-making and end of life care in children, and gave participants the opportunity to explore a sensitive and thought provoking topic. At the end of the conference, delegates were urged to sign the Commitment of Buenos Aires which called for governments to implement the WHA resolution and ensure access to palliative care for neonates, children and their families, and also commits us as palliative care providers to share all that we can and collaborate with each other to achieve the global vision of palliative care for all children who need it. The conference highlighted the ongoing issues in children’s palliative care and participants were continually challenged to ensure that children can access palliative care NOW.

Award for distinguished contributions to psychophysiology: Gregory A. Miller.

Award for distinguished contributions to psychophysiology: Gregory A. Miller.

ACB2015: Biotechnology and bioeconomy for sustainable future.

ACB2015: Biotechnology and bioeconomy for sustainable future.

Scientific Program

OverviewPaper and Poster SessionsIn all, 173 papers were approved for the program, but unfortunately last-minute cancellations (largely related to visa issues) reduced the number presented to 155. The program featured 25 general oral paper sessions and 12 special oral paper sessions, each containing three or four papers, and typically with either three or four running concurrently. Twenty poster papers were presented, in three sessions.Special SessionsThe following special paper sessions were conducted (organizers in parenthesis):• Topographic-Bathymetric LiDAR (Webster)• Global Scale Modeling and EO Data Analysis (Guoqing and Song)• Marine Traffic and Risk Analysis: 2 paper sessions (Fournier)• Massive Mobility Data Analysis and Mining (Stefanakis)• Discrete Global Grid Systems: 3 paper sessions (Purrs)• Digital Earth Education (Moorman)• GEOGLAM: 2 paper sessions (Justice and Wu)• Digital Globes (Woodgate and Chrisman)Panel DiscussionsThe following plenary panel discussions were conducted (organizers/moderators in parenthesis):• Digital Globes (Woodgate and Chrisman)• DGGS: Why all the Hype? (Gibb)• Astronauts’ Perspectives (McLean/Werle)• DE Ethics in Daily Life (Georgiadou)• Wrap-up Panel (Millward)WorkshopsThe following pre-conference workshops were offered (organizers in parenthesis):• RADARSAT-2 Images: Theory and Applications (Brigitte Leblon)• Topo-Bathymetric LiDAR (Tim Webster)• COIN Atlantic Geospatial Tools Training (Jeff McKenna)• Next Generation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (David Coleman)• Geospatial Thinking and Digital Earth (Lynn Moorman)All workshops were scheduled as half-day sessions on Sunday, October 4.

Assessing Daily Physical Activity in Older Adults: Unraveling the Complexity of Monitors, Measures, and Methods.

At the 67th Gerontological Society of America Annual Meeting, a preconference workshop was convened to discuss the challenges of accurately assessing physical activity in older populations. The advent of wearable technology (eg, accelerometers) to monitor physical activity has created unprecedented opportunities to observe, quantify, and define physical activity in the real-world setting. These devices enable researchers to better understand the associations of physical activity with aging, and subsequent health outcomes. However, a consensus on proper methodological use of these devices in older populations has not been established. To date, much of the validation research regarding device type, placement, and data interpretation has been performed in younger, healthier populations, and translation of these methods to older populations remains problematic. A better understanding of these devices, their measurement properties, and the data generated is imperative to furthering our understanding of daily physical activity, its effects on the aging process, and vice versa. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the highlights of the preconference workshop, including properties of the different types of accelerometers, the methodological challenges of employing accelerometers in older study populations, a brief summary of ongoing aging-related research projects that utilize different types of accelerometers, and recommendations for future research directions.

Incorporating Geriatric Oncology Concepts into Palliative Medicine Across the Cancer Care Continuum (P18)

•Understand and use geriatric medicine centered principles and cancer-focused geriatric assessment to enhance the delivery of comprehensive supportive cancer care for older adults.•Understand the potential role of primary and consultative geriatrics relating to the continuum of care of an older adult who has received a cancer diagnosis.•Develop the necessary skillset to recognize and treat geriatric conditions to facilitate providing palliative care earlier in the continuum of care for geriatric oncology patients. As the number of older adults at risk for and/or having been diagnosed with cancer steadily increases, so does the necessity for models of greater collaboration between geriatrics, palliative medicine, and oncology. Cancer will surpass cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of mortality in older adult cohorts within several decades. The 2013 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis has highlighted the multi-factorial need for change in the delivery of cancer care—focusing specifically upon older adult population issues. “The expert committee concluded that the cancer care delivery system is in crisis due to: 1) a growing demand for cancer care; 2) increasing complexity of treatment; 3) a shrinking workforce; and 4) rising costs.” Recognizing the need for enhanced collaborative efforts between the disciplines of palliative and geriatric medicine and oncology, and in response to this IOM report, the American Geriatrics Society/American Society of Clinical Oncology Geriatric Oncology Summit was convened in December 2013. Select representatives from each organization discussed the potential opportunities and existing barriers impacting the delivery of best-practices cancer care to older adults ranging from prevention to end-of-life care. Palliative medicine practitioners will increasingly be caring for older adults earlier in the cancer care continuum and will need to be prepared to assess and treat age-related conditions and geriatric syndromes in order to provide best supportive care. The goal of this preconference workshop is to provide relevant information and tools employed by geriatric oncology to palliative medicine practitioners caring for older adults with cancer. This preconference session will explore the interface between palliative medicine, geriatrics, and oncology and consider how the collaborative care among the three disciplines contributes to optimal supportive care. This workshop will focus upon the geriatric oncology based knowledge and clinical competencies necessary for palliative medicine providers to best serve their older adult patients.