Antonella Amore | NREL

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Pleurotus ostreatus," Biotechnol. Appl. Biochem. (2014) "Enzymes for Food and Beverage Industries : Current Situation, Challenges and Perspectives" in Advances in Food Biotechnology (2013) " : Enzymatic and Microbial Tools for Bioethanol Production (2013) "Chemico-physical factors affecting food

A New Vision of Professional Development for University Teachers in Libya "It's Not an Event, It Is a Process"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suwaed, Hameda; Rahouma, Wesam

2015-01-01

Being a university teacher in the Libya is most of the time described as a challenge. In the case of the current unstable situation in Libya, the task is formidable in many cases. This paper investigates the challenges encountered by Alzawia university teachers in four colleges. It attempts to answer the following questions: what are the…

A platform for evolving intelligently interactive adversaries.

PubMed

Fogel, David B; Hays, Timothy J; Johnson, Douglas R

2006-07-01

Entertainment software developers face significant challenges in designing games with broad appeal. One of the challenges concerns creating nonplayer (computer-controlled) characters that can adapt their behavior in light of the current and prospective situation, possibly emulating human behaviors. This adaptation should be inherently novel, unrepeatable, yet within the bounds of realism. Evolutionary algorithms provide a suitable method for generating such behaviors. This paper provides background on the entertainment software industry, and details a prior and current effort to create a platform for evolving nonplayer characters with genetic and behavioral traits within a World War I combat flight simulator.

Librarians' Attitudes toward Knowledge Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aharony, Noa

2011-01-01

The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of the factors that support or constrain the individual's sharing knowledge in the organization. The current study seeks to explore whether personality (self-efficacy and self-esteem) and situational (cognitive appraisal: threat versus challenge) characteristics influence participants'…

[Trends in hospital care].

PubMed

Vecina Neto, Gonzalo; Malik, Ana Maria

2007-01-01

This paper analyses trends in the delivery of hospital services in Brazil, considering the setting, the current situation and its challenges, examining what still remains to be done. The variables studied for the analysis of the setting are: demography, epidemiological profile, human resources, technology, medicalization, costs, review of the role of the citizen, legislation, equity, hospital-centricity and regionalization, care fractioning and bed availability. The Brazilian setting was studied through the supplementary healthcare model, financing and the healthcare area production chain. The observations of the current situation present external evaluation models, outsourcing, public-private relationships, de-hospitalization and financing. The analysis of the challenges examines the need for long range planning, the quest for new legal models for the 'business', the use of information and information systems, cost controls and the need for enhanced efficiency and compliance with legal directives, guaranteed universal access to full healthcare facilities, the inclusion of primary prevention in healthcare procedures, integrating the public and private sectors and engaging physicians in solving problems.

Anesthesia during and Immediately after Spaceflight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seubert, Christoph N.; Price, Catherine; Janelle, Gregory M.

2006-01-01

The increasing presence of humans in space and long-duration manned missions to the Moon or Mars pose novel challenges to the delivery of medical care. Even now, cumulative person-days in space exceed 80 years and preparations for a return to the Moon are actively underway. Medical care after an emergent de-orbit or an accident during a non-nominal landing must not only address the specific disease or injuries but also the challenges posed by physiologic adaptations to microgravity. In the highly autonomous situation of a long-term space mission the situation is even more complex, because personnel, equipment, specific training, and clinical experience are by definition limited. To summarize our current knowledge specifically for anesthetic care during and immediately after spaceflight, we will review physiologic adaptations to microgravity with particular emphasis on the resulting anesthetic risks, discuss veterinary experiences with anesthesia in weightlessness or in animals adapted to microgravity, describe current research that pertains to anesthesia and spaceflight and point out unresolved questions for future investigation.

The Recruitment of Support Staff in Tanzanian Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mwaisumo, William Nathan

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on the meaning, classification and types of support staff, their contributions towards conducive teaching and learning environments, conditions required/attributes required for support staff to be employed in temporally or permanent terms. It further identifies current situations and challenges in recruitment and recruited…

The Teacher Education Development Program: New Challenges (Current Status and Developing Trends in the State Policy for Higher Teacher Education)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sobolev, Alexander Borisovich

2016-01-01

The article reviews the general context of the situation that has arisen in Russian education after the new provisions of the Federal Law of 29 December 2012 "On Education in the Russian Federation" went into effect. The law has been enacted in response to the need to develop a new concept of teacher education. Currently, about 270…

Beyond Yes or No: Understanding Undergraduate Students' Responses as Bystanders to Sexual Assault Risk Situations.

PubMed

Hoxmeier, Jill C; McMahon, Sarah; O'Connor, Julia

2017-08-01

The White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault recommends bystander engagement programming as part of campus sexual assault prevention efforts. Measuring students' bystander behavior, and thus, assessing the effectiveness of such programming, is a challenging endeavor due to the range of risk situations students may witness, as well as the nuances in potential barriers students may face in these situations. Currently, many studies include dichotomous measures of bystander behavior without gathering further information about students' opportunities to intervene, barriers to intervening, and intervention strategies. The current study sought to implement a more comprehensive approach to understanding the types of sexual assault risk situations students report to witness, as well as their response in those situations, reasons for not intervening, and any gender differences therein. In 2014, undergraduate students ( n = 9,358) at a large, public university in the Northeast completed a web-based survey to assess bystander opportunities and responses for six different risk situations. Results show that prosocial bystander responses varied depending on the risk situation. Of those students with opportunities to intervene, noninterveners reported the situation was "none of their business" or that they were "unsure of what to do." Interveners reported to have either "confronted the situation directly" or "went and got assistance." We also observed significant gender differences in students' reported intervention opportunities and bystander responses. The findings of this study have several important implications for bystander engagement programming and future research.

Education and Gendered Citizenship in Pakistan. Postcolonial Studies in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naseem, M. Ayaz

2010-01-01

"Education and Gendered Citizenship in Pakistan" challenges the uncritical use of the long held dictum of the development discourse that education empowers women. Situated in the post-structuralist feminist position, it argues that in its current state the educational discourse in Pakistan actually disempowers women. Through a systematic…

Apprenticeships in England: What Next?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hogarth, Terence; Gambin, Lynn; Hasluck, Chris

2012-01-01

This paper examines recent development in Apprenticeship training in England. Since the introduction of Modern Apprenticeships in the mid-1990s this form of training has been subject to much analysis and reform. This paper summarises the current situation and highlights some of the challenges and opportunities which face Apprenticeship over the…

Adolescence and Poverty: Challenge for the 1990s.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edelman, Peter B., Ed.; Ladner, Joyce, Ed.

The current situation for poor adolescents in the United States is reviewed in this collection of essays, and some strategies and insights for policymakers are presented. The essays of this volume cover the basic interactions of adolescence and poverty from theoretical and anecdotal perspectives. Critical issues of education and employment are…

Solving Complex Problems: A Convergent Approach to Cognitive Load Measurement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Robert; Cook, Anne

2012-01-01

The study challenged the current practices in cognitive load measurement involving complex problem solving by manipulating the presence of pictures in multiple rule-based problem-solving situations and examining the cognitive load resulting from both off-line and online measures associated with complex problem solving. Forty-eight participants…

The QuEST for multi-sensor big data ISR situation understanding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogers, Steven; Culbertson, Jared; Oxley, Mark; Clouse, H. Scott; Abayowa, Bernard; Patrick, James; Blasch, Erik; Trumpfheller, John

2016-05-01

The challenges for providing war fighters with the best possible actionable information from diverse sensing modalities using advances in big-data and machine learning are addressed in this paper. We start by presenting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) related big-data challenges associated with the Third Offset Strategy. Current approaches to big-data are shown to be limited with respect to reasoning/understanding. We present a discussion of what meaning making and understanding require. We posit that for human-machine collaborative solutions to address the requirements for the strategy a new approach, Qualia Exploitation of Sensor Technology (QuEST), will be required. The requirements for developing a QuEST theory of knowledge are discussed and finally, an engineering approach for achieving situation understanding is presented.

Foot-and-mouth disease in pigs: current epidemiological situation and control methods.

PubMed

León, Emilio A

2012-03-01

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is the paradigm of a transboundary animal disease. Beyond any doubt, it is the most serious challenge for livestock's health. Official Veterinary Services from free countries invest considerable amount of money to prevent its introduction, whereas those from endemic countries invest most of their resources in the control of the disease. A very important volume of scientific production is developed every year in different aspects of FMD, and for that reason, the current knowledge makes the diagnosis of the disease easier to a great extent. However, FMD is still endemic in about two-thirds of the countries, and periodically re-emergent in several countries. This paper is a review of recent publications, focusing mainly on control measures and current world epidemiological situation, emphasizing primarily pigs. © 2012 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Can proprioception really be improved by exercises?

PubMed

Ashton-Miller, J A; Wojtys, E M; Huston, L J; Fry-Welch, D

2001-05-01

There is little question that ankle disc training can improve ankle muscle motor performance in a unipedal balance task, most likely through improved strength and coordination [62] and possibly endurance. How much of the observed improvement in motor performance is due to improved ankle proprioception remains unknown. We have reviewed a number of theoretical ways in which training might improve proprioception for moderately challenging weight-bearing situations such as balancing on one leg. Although the relevant experiments have yet to be performed to test this hypothesis, any improvement would theoretically help to reduce injuries at these moderate levels of challenge. We question, however, whether these exercises can ever improve the reactive response required to prevent injury under the most challenging time-critical situations. If confirmed, this limitation needs to be acknowledged by authors and practitioners alike. Alternative protective strategies for the most challenging time-critical situations should be sought. We conclude that, despite their widespread acceptance, current exercises aimed at "improving proprioception" have not been demonstrated to achieve that goal. We have outlined theoretical scenarios by which proprioception might be improved, but these are speculative. The relevant experiments remain to be conducted. We argue that even if they were proven to improve proprioception, under the best circumstances such exercises could only prevent injury under slow to intermediate rate provocations to the joint musculoligamentous complex in question.

The vulnerabilities of teenage mothers: challenging prevailing assumptions.

PubMed

SmithBattle, L

2000-09-01

The belief that early childbearing leads to poverty permeates our collective understanding. However, recent findings reveal that for many teens, mothering makes sense of the limited life options that precede their pregnancies. The author challenges several assumptions about teenage mothers and offers an alternative to the modern view of the unencumbered self that drives current responses to teen childbearing. This alternative perspective entails a situated view of the self and a broader notion of parenting and citizenship that supports teen mothers and affirms our mutual interdependence.

Research on the Internationalization and the Localization of China's MBA Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Jie; Ma, Haiyong

2012-01-01

This article started with a brief review of the history and current situation of Chinese MBA education and its internationalization and localization. Then, the author presented the opportunities faced of China's MBA education. Furthermore, the challenges faced by Chinese MBA education in the globalization process together with their implications…

Servant Leadership, Africanization, and Disruptive Innovation as Conditions for Effective Leadership at UNISA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Clayton; Gardner, J. Clark

2012-01-01

This article discusses effective leadership in educational environments and in particular focuses on the current situation at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The end of Apartheid in South Africa has brought many opportunities but also some challenges especially in education. Three conditions that contribute to ensuring strong distance…

Forming Future Teachers' Aesthetic Culture in Foreign Educational Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sotska, Galyna

2016-01-01

The article deals with a theoretical analysis of foreign educational experience in solving scientific problems of forming future teachers' aesthetic culture. Given the current socio-cultural situation, it has been noted that a teacher who developed his/her aesthetic culture can make a direct contribution to the social and cultural challenges of a…

Electronic Invoice in Costa Rica: Challenges for Its Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramírez-Jiménez, Juan José; De La O-Selva, Mario; Cortés-Morales, Roberto

2016-01-01

This paper discusses the current situation that Costa Rica faces around fiscal issues and high evasion rates. Using actors and multidimensional analysis, it proposes the electronic invoice as an e-government strategic solution that will close the gap around tax evasion and the government incomes. The success achieved by Brazil in this area…

Education, Science and Technology in Mexico: Challenges for Innovation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gómez-Merino, Fernando Carlos; Trejo-Téllez, Libia Iris; Méndez-Cadena, María Esther; Hernández-Cázares, Aleida Selene

2017-01-01

The innovation process is founded on a high-quality education system at all levels, which trains scientists and technologists capable of generating innovations. Education is the most decisive factor in human development, yet in Mexico current statistics reveal a critical situation at every educational level, as only 1 out of every 10 children…

"Language," "Literature," and the Challenge of the University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisen, Arnold M.

2014-01-01

Based on the author's great privilege to have known Mike Rosenak over many years as a conversation partner on issues of Jewish though, Jewish education, and the contemporary Jewish situation, he presents an issue of current concern in the philosophy of Jewish education and considers the response that Rosenak might offer. Directly and…

Refocusing the Vision: The Future of Instructional Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pence, Harry E.; McIntosh, Steven

2011-01-01

Two decades ago, many campuses mobilized a major effort to deal with a clear problem; faculty and students needed access to desktop computing technologies. Now the situation is much more complex. Responding to the current challenges, like mobile computing and social networking, will be ore difficult but equally important. There is a clear need for…

The role of stress mindset in shaping cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses to challenging and threatening stress.

PubMed

Crum, Alia J; Akinola, Modupe; Martin, Ashley; Fath, Sean

2017-07-01

Prior research suggests that altering situation-specific evaluations of stress as challenging versus threatening can improve responses to stress. The aim of the current study was to explore whether cognitive, physiological and affective stress responses can be altered independent of situation-specific evaluations by changing individuals' mindsets about the nature of stress in general. Using a 2 × 2 design, we experimentally manipulated stress mindset using multi-media film clips orienting participants (N = 113) to either the enhancing or debilitating nature of stress. We also manipulated challenge and threat evaluations by providing positive or negative feedback to participants during a social stress test. Results revealed that under both threat and challenge stress evaluations, a stress-is-enhancing mindset produced sharper increases in anabolic ("growth") hormones relative to a stress-is-debilitating mindset. Furthermore, when the stress was evaluated as a challenge, a stress-is-enhancing mindset produced sharper increases in positive affect, heightened attentional bias towards positive stimuli, and greater cognitive flexibility, whereas a stress-is-debilitating mindset produced worse cognitive and affective outcomes. These findings advance stress management theory and practice by demonstrating that a short manipulation designed to generate a stress-is-enhancing mindset can improve responses to both challenging and threatening stress.

Gamification for Measuring Cyber Security Situational Awareness

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fink, Glenn A.; Best, Daniel M.; Manz, David O.

Cyber defense competitions arising from U.S. service academy exercises, offer a platform for collecting data that can inform research that ranges from characterizing the ideal cyber warrior to describing behaviors during certain challenging cyber defense situations. This knowledge could lead to better preparation of cyber defenders in both military and civilian settings. This paper describes how one regional competition, the PRCCDC, a participant in the national CCDC program, conducted proof of concept experimentation to collect data during the annual competition for later analysis. The intent is to create an ongoing research agenda that expands on this current work and incorporatesmore » augmented cognition and gamification methods for measuring cybersecurity situational awareness under the stress of cyber attack.« less

Heat supply from municipal solid waste incineration plants in Japan: Current situation and future challenges.

PubMed

Tabata, Tomohiro; Tsai, Peii

2016-02-01

The use of waste-to-energy technology as part of a municipal solid waste management strategy could reduce the use of fossil fuels and contribute to prevention of global warming. In this study, we examined current heat and electricity production by incineration plants in Japan for external use. Herein, we discuss specific challenges to the promotion of heat utilisation and future municipal solid waste management strategies. We conducted a questionnaire survey to determine the actual conditions of heat production by incineration plants. From the survey results, information of about 498 incineration plants was extracted. When we investigated the relationship between heat production for external use and population density where incineration plants were located, we found that regions with a population density <1000 persons (km(2))(-1) produce <500 MJ t(-1) of heat. We also found that external use of such energy for factories, markets, and related use, was noted in cities with a population density of 2000 to 4000 persons (km(2))(-1). Several incineration plants have poor performance for heat production because there are few facilities near them to provide demand for the energy. This is the result of redundant capacity, and is reflected in the heat production performance. Given these results, we discussed future challenges to creating energy demand around incineration plants where there is presently none. We also examined the challenges involved in increasing heat supply beyond the present situation. © The Author(s) 2015.

A Vision-Based Wayfinding System for Visually Impaired People Using Situation Awareness and Activity-Based Instructions

PubMed Central

Kim, Eun Yi

2017-01-01

A significant challenge faced by visually impaired people is ‘wayfinding’, which is the ability to find one’s way to a destination in an unfamiliar environment. This study develops a novel wayfinding system for smartphones that can automatically recognize the situation and scene objects in real time. Through analyzing streaming images, the proposed system first classifies the current situation of a user in terms of their location. Next, based on the current situation, only the necessary context objects are found and interpreted using computer vision techniques. It estimates the motions of the user with two inertial sensors and records the trajectories of the user toward the destination, which are also used as a guide for the return route after reaching the destination. To efficiently convey the recognized results using an auditory interface, activity-based instructions are generated that guide the user in a series of movements along a route. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed system, experiments were conducted in several indoor environments: the sit in which the situation awareness accuracy was 90% and the object detection false alarm rate was 0.016. In addition, our field test results demonstrate that users can locate their paths with an accuracy of 97%. PMID:28813033

Science communication in Brazil: A historical review and considerations about the current situation.

PubMed

Massarani, Luisa; Moreira, Ildeu DE Castro

2016-09-01

In this paper, we present a historical overview of the science communication activities in Brazil since the nineteenth century and we analyze the current situation and its main concerns. The principal scopes and tools for science communication discussed here are the following: science centers and museums, mass media and large public events for communicating science and technology (S&T). In recent years, such activities have had a significant breakthrough in Brazil. Yet, there is still a long way to go in order to deliver a quality and extensive science and technology communication to the Brazilians as well as to achieve a suitable level of social appropriation of knowledge on S&T by the Brazilian society. Some of the main challenges that we are facing are discussed herein.

E-DECIDER Disaster Response and Decision Support Cyberinfrastructure: Technology and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glasscoe, M. T.; Parker, J. W.; Pierce, M. E.; Wang, J.; Eguchi, R. T.; Huyck, C. K.; Hu, Z.; Chen, Z.; Yoder, M. R.; Rundle, J. B.; Rosinski, A.

2014-12-01

Timely delivery of critical information to decision makers during a disaster is essential to response and damage assessment. Key issues to an efficient emergency response after a natural disaster include rapidly processing and delivering this critical information to emergency responders and reducing human intervention as much as possible. Essential elements of information necessary to achieve situational awareness are often generated by a wide array of organizations and disciplines, using any number of geospatial and non-geospatial technologies. A key challenge is the current state of practice does not easily support information sharing and technology interoperability. NASA E-DECIDER (Emergency Data Enhanced Cyber-Infrastructure for Disaster Evaluation and Response) has worked with the California Earthquake Clearinghouse and its partners to address these issues and challenges by adopting the XChangeCore Web Service Data Orchestration technology and participating in several earthquake response exercises. The E-DECIDER decision support system provides rapid delivery of advanced situational awareness data products to operations centers and emergency responders in the field. Remote sensing and hazard data, model-based map products, information from simulations, damage detection, and crowdsourcing is integrated into a single geospatial view and delivered through a service oriented architecture for improved decision-making and then directly to mobile devices of responders. By adopting a Service Oriented Architecture based on Open Geospatial Consortium standards, the system provides an extensible, comprehensive framework for geospatial data processing and distribution on Cloud platforms and other distributed environments. While the Clearinghouse and its partners are not first responders, they do support the emergency response community by providing information about the damaging effects earthquakes. It is critical for decision makers to maintain a situational awareness that is knowledgeable of potential and current conditions, possible impacts on populations and infrastructure, and other key information. E-DECIDER and the Clearinghouse have worked together to address many of these issues and challenges to deliver interoperable, authoritative decision support products.

UAS Integration Into the NAS: An Examination of Baseline Compliance in the Current Airspace System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fern, Lisa; Kenny, Caitlin A.; Shively, Robert J.; Johnson, Walter

2012-01-01

As a result of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are expected to be integrated into the National Airspace System (NAS) by 2015. Several human factors challenges need to be addressed before UAS can safely and routinely fly in the NAS with manned aircraft. Perhaps the most significant challenge is for the UAS to be non-disruptive to the air traffic management system. Another human factors challenge is how to provide UAS pilots with intuitive traffic information in order to support situation awareness (SA) of their airspace environment as well as a see-and-avoid capability comparable to manned aircraft so that a UAS pilot could safely maneuver the aircraft to maintain separation and collision avoidance if necessary. A simulation experiment was conducted to examine baseline compliance of UAS operations in the current airspace system. Researchers also examined the effects of introducing a Cockpit Situation Display (CSD) into a UAS Ground Control Station (GCS) on UAS pilot performance, workload and situation awareness while flying in a positively controlled sector. Pilots were tasked with conducting a highway patrol police mission with a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAS in L.A. Center airspace with two mission objectives: 1) to reroute the UAS when issued new instructions from their commander, and 2) to communicate with Air Traffic Control (ATC) to negotiate flight plan changes and respond to vectoring and altitude change instructions. Objective aircraft separation data, workload ratings, SA data, and subjective ratings regarding UAS operations in the NAS were collected. Results indicate that UAS pilots were able to comply appropriately with ATC instructions. In addition, the introduction of the CSD improved pilot SA and reduced workload associated with UAS and ATC interactions.

Fostering the Quality of Teaching and Learning by Developing the "Neglected Half " of University Teachers' Competencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marentic Požarnik, Barica; Lavric, Andreja

2015-01-01

For too long, the quality of teaching and learning in universities has been undervalued in comparison to research. Current social, economic, ecological and other challenges require that more attention be given to measures to improve the situation. Academic staff should receive incentives, policy support and high-quality pedagogical training to…

Access and Equity in Financing Higher Education: The Case of Morocco

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bougroum, Mohammed; Ibourk, Aomar

2011-01-01

This paper explores the higher education financing policy in Morocco in light of the central issue of equity. First, it surveys the current situation, using a critical approach to the present financing policy, and looking at the three dimensions of adequacy, efficiency, and equity. Second, it describes the principal policy challenges in financing…

Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hantzopoulos, Maria, Ed.; Tyner-Mullings, Alia R., Ed.

2012-01-01

Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform features the most current empirical research about the successes and challenges of the small schools movement and the implications of such for urban public educational policy. Situated in a climate of hierarchical reform, many of the principles of the original…

The New Responsibility and Challenge of Education: The Current and Prospective Situation of Philosophy for Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karikó, Sándor

2016-01-01

Douglas Martin (an editor) wrote a memoir in New York Times about Matthew Lipman, the founder of philosophy for children, today's classic thinker. Lipman's death brought attention again for the philosophy for children's status among professionals. Later one of the most prestigious international educational periodical review, the "Journal of…

Language Choice as an Index of Identity: Linguistic Landscape in Dili, Timor-Leste

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor-Leech, Kerry Jane

2012-01-01

This article aims to show how language choice indexes social and national identity in the linguistic landscape of Dili, the capital city of Timor-Leste. The linguistic landscape is examined in the light of the country's current language situation, its colonial legacies and its ongoing development challenges. In this study, the iconicity,…

The Phenomenon of "Being-In-Management" in Executive Education Programmes: An Integrative View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sewchurran, Kosheek; McDonogh, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Currently, we experience a situation in society in general as well as business school education where leaders and executives prefer to remain ambivalent and inauthentic about humanity's worsening socio-economic challenges. As a result of this, we continue with regimes of common sense that have lost their legitimacy and perpetuate an unsustainable…

The Evolution/Creation Science Controversy: Educate Rather Than Debate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jane, Beverley

This paper is linked to the theme History and Philosophy of Science. The Evolution and creation science controversy is now in the general public's arena and poses a challenge for school science. The paper begins by briefly describing the current situation concerning this issue in Australia and the United States of America. In the subject Biology,…

Ethics and the Promotion of Inclusiveness within Qualitative Research: Case Examples from Asia and the Pacific

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Czymoniewicz-Klippel, Melina T.; Brijnath, Bianca; Crockett, Belinda

2010-01-01

Qualitative researchers are often confronted by ethical challenges when making research decisions because current guidelines and principles guiding research ethics do not wholly cover the concerns that can arise in complex social research situations. In this article, the authors explore this dilemma in relation to our experiences of conducting…

Where Do Mexico and Chile Stand on Inclusive Education? Short Title: Inclusion in Mexico and Chile

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

García-Cedillo, Ismael; Romero-Contreras, Silvia; Ramos-Abadie, Liliana

2015-01-01

This paper discusses the background, current situation and challenges of educational integration and inclusive education in Mexico and Chile. These countries obtained similar low results on the academic achievement of their students (Mexico last and Chile second last) among OECD countries; and above average scores, among Latin-American countries.…

[Current situation of soil-transmitted nematodiasis monitoring in China and working keys in future].

PubMed

Chen, Ying-dan; Zang, Wei

2015-04-01

Soil-transmitted nematodiasis is widely epidemic in rural areas in China. It was showed that the infection rate of soil-transmitted nematodes was 19.56% while the overall number of persons infected was 129,000,000, which was supported by the results of the National Survey of Current Situation of Major Human Parasitic Diseases in China in 2005 published by former Ministry of Health. Therefore, soil-transmitted nematodiasis was included in the national infectious diseases and pathogenic media monitoring system by Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006, and subsequently 22 monitoring spots were established nationwide. From 2006 to 2013, the human infection rate of intestinal nematodes in national monitoring spots decreased from 20.88% to 3.12%, which showed a declining trend year by year. Meanwhile, the infection rates of Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, hookworm, Enterobius vermicularis decreased from 10.10%, 5.88%, 8.88%, 10.00% in 2006 to 0.76%, 0.42%, 2.04%, 6.78% in 2013 respectively. In this paper, the current situation of soil-transmitted nematodiasis is overviewed based on a summary of the 8 years' monitoring work, as well as the experiences, challenges and key of monitoring work in the future.

Sportsman hernia; the review of current diagnosis and treatment modalities.

PubMed

Paksoy, Melih; Sekmen, Ümit

2016-01-01

Groin pain is an important clinical entity that may affect a sportsman's active sports life. Sportsman's hernia is a chronic low abdominal and groin pain syndrome. Open and laparoscopic surgical treatment may be chosen in case of conservative treatment failure. Studies on sportsman's hernia, which is a challenging situation in both diagnosis and treatment, are ongoing in many centers. We reviewed the treatment results of 37 patients diagnosed and treated as sportsman's hernia at our hospital between 2011-2014, in light of current literature.

Disaster Research: A Nursing Opportunity

PubMed Central

Savage, Jane; Barcelona-deMendoza, Veronica; Harville, Emily W.

2013-01-01

Nurses working or living near a community disaster have the opportunity to study health-related consequences to disaster or disaster recovery. In such a situation, the researchers need to deal with the conceptual and methodological issues unique to post-disaster research and know what resources are available to guide them, even if they have no specialized training or previous experience in disaster research. The purpose of this article is to review issues and challenges associated with conducting post-disaster research and encourage nurses to seek resources and seize opportunities to conduct research should the situation arise. Current disaster studies and the authors’ personal experiences conducting maternal-child research in post-Katrina New Orleans (2005–2013) provide real-life examples of how health professionals and nurses faced the challenges of doing post-disaster research. After catastrophic events, nurses need to step forward to conduct disaster research that informs and improves future disaster planning and health care responses. PMID:23899191

Building bridges to operationalise one health - A Sino-Swedish collaboration to tackle antibiotic resistance.

PubMed

Cars, Otto; Xiao, Yonghong; Stålsby Lundborg, Cecilia; Nilsson, Lennart E; Shen, Jianzhong; Sun, Qiang; Bi, Zhenqiang; Börjesson, Stefan; Greko, Christina; Wang, Yang; Liu, Yuqing; Ottoson, Jakob; Li, Xuewen; Nilsson, Maud; Yin, Hong; Bi, Zhenwang; Zheng, Beiwen; Xia, Xi; Chen, Baoli; Ding, Lilu; Sun, Pan; Dyar, Oliver James; Hulth, Anette; Tomson, Göran

2016-12-01

Antibiotic resistance is a complex global health challenge. The recent Global Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance highlights the importance of adopting One Health approaches that can cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. We report on the early experiences of a multisectoral Sino-Swedish research project that aims to address gaps in our current knowledge and seeks to improve the situation through system-wide interventions. Our research project is investigating antibiotic use and resistance in a rural area of China through a combination of epidemiological, health systems and laboratory investigations. We reflect here on the challenges inherent in conducting long distance cross-disciplinary collaborations, having now completed data and sample collection for a baseline situation analysis. In particular, we recognise the importance of investing in aspects such as effective communication, shared conceptual frameworks and leadership. We suggest that our experiences will be instructive to others planning to develop similar international One Health collaborations.

Oral health in Libya: addressing the future challenges.

PubMed

Peeran, Syed Wali; Altaher, Omar Basheer; Peeran, Syed Ali; Alsaid, Fatma Mojtaba; Mugrabi, Marei Hamed; Ahmed, Aisha Mojtaba; Grain, Abdulgader

2014-01-01

Libya is a vast country situated in North Africa, having a relatively better functioning economy with a scanty population. This article is the first known attempt to review the current state of oral health care in Libya and to explore the present trends and future challenges. Libyan health system, oral health care, and human resources with the present status of dental education are reviewed comprehensively. A bibliographic study of oral health research and publications has been carried out. The results point toward a common indicator that oral health-related research is low. Strategies have to be developed to educate the medical and dental professionals, to update the current curriculum and enable the system to be competent in all aspects of oral health care management.

Oral health in Libya: addressing the future challenges

PubMed Central

Peeran, Syed Wali; Altaher, Omar Basheer; Peeran, Syed Ali; Alsaid, Fatma Mojtaba; Mugrabi, Marei Hamed; Ahmed, Aisha Mojtaba; Grain, Abdulgader

2014-01-01

Libya is a vast country situated in North Africa, having a relatively better functioning economy with a scanty population. This article is the first known attempt to review the current state of oral health care in Libya and to explore the present trends and future challenges. Libyan health system, oral health care, and human resources with the present status of dental education are reviewed comprehensively. A bibliographic study of oral health research and publications has been carried out. The results point toward a common indicator that oral health–related research is low. Strategies have to be developed to educate the medical and dental professionals, to update the current curriculum and enable the system to be competent in all aspects of oral health care management. PMID:24666627

Communicating the Value of Science--Issues, Imperatives and Insights

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gan, J.; Topousis, D.

2013-12-01

Over the last six decades, federal investments in scientific research have led to unquestionable economic and societal advances, while expanding human knowledge. Yet, in the current federal fiscal climate, funding for fundamental research is being challenged in some quarters. This situation has created the need for stakeholders in science to step forward and defend the role that basic research plays in creating the knowledge and workforce necessary to address current and future challenges. Communicating to fellow scientists in this environment is necessary but not sufficient to sustaining, or even expanding, support for fundamental research. A multi-faceted approach will be described for enhancing communication to broader audiences, including policy makers and the general public, increasingly responsible for ensuring the future of scientific progress.

The laboratory workforce shortage: a managerial perspective.

PubMed

Cortelyou-Ward, Kendall; Ramirez, Bernardo; Rotarius, Timothy

2011-01-01

Most clinical laboratories in the nation report severe difficulties in recruitment and retention of most types of personnel. Other important factors impacting this problem include work complexities, increased automation, and a graying workforce. As a further challenge, institutional needs for clinical laboratory personnel are expected to grow significantly in the next decade. This article examines the current situation of the clinical laboratory workforce. It analyzes the different types of personnel; the managerial, supervision, and line positions that are key for different types of laboratories; the job outlook and recent projections for different types of staff; and the current issues, trends, and challenges of the laboratory workforce. Laboratory managers need to take action with strategies suggested for overcoming these challenges. Most importantly, they need to become transformational leaders by developing effective staffing models, fostering healthy and productive work environments, and creating value with a strategic management culture and implementation of knowledge management.

Education, Culture, and Development: Co-ordinated Policies and Strategies. The Situation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tedesco, J. C.

This document is a brief presentation of the relation among education, culture, and development in the Latin American and Caribbean countries that focuses on two major aspects: (1) the new development strategies currently being implemented in the region, and (2) the educational actions being undertaken as an answer to the new challenges posed by…

Advising ePortfolios to Improve First-Generation Student Engagement in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambrose, G. Alex

2013-01-01

This study considers how advising ePortfolios are uniquely situated to address a current challenge in the application of educational technologies: using the right tool for the right job for the right reason at the right time. The particular problem identified for investigation lies at the intersection of two central issues: first, in the age of…

The Current State and Developments in Higher Education in Gerontology in the Nordic Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hietanen, Heidi; Lyyra, Tiina-Mari; Parkatti, Terttu; Heikkinen, Eino

2012-01-01

The growing size of the older population challenges not only researchers but also higher education in gerontology. On the basis of an online survey the authors describe the situation of Nordic higher education in gerontology in 2008 and 2009 and also give some good examples of Nordic- and European-level collaboration. The survey results showed…

Strategies Used by Intellectually Gifted Students to Cope with Stress during Their Participation in a High School International Baccalaureate Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaunessy, Elizabeth; Suldo, Shannon M.

2010-01-01

Individuals respond to threats to affiliation and achievement needs through drawing on a repertoire of coping strategies specific to a given situation. Gifted adolescents in college-preparatory high school programs may be faced with novel stressors, and may have unique coping strategies to manage these challenges. The current study considers…

NASA Synthetic Vision EGE Flight Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prinzel, Lawrence J.; Kramer, Lynda J.; Comstock, J. Raymond; Bailey, Randall E.; Hughes, Monica F.; Parrish, Russell V.

2002-01-01

NASA Langley Research Center conducted flight tests at the Eagle County, Colorado airport to evaluate synthetic vision concepts. Three display concepts (size 'A' head-down, size 'X' head-down, and head-up displays) and two texture concepts (photo, generic) were assessed for situation awareness and flight technical error / performance while making approaches to Runway 25 and Runway 07 and simulated engine-out Cottonwood 2 and KREMM departures. The results of the study confirm the retrofit capability of the HUD and Size 'A' SVS concepts to significantly improve situation awareness and performance over current EFIS glass and non-glass instruments for difficult approaches in terrain-challenged environments.

Emerging issue of e-waste in Pakistan: A review of status, research needs and data gaps.

PubMed

Iqbal, Mehreen; Breivik, Knut; Syed, Jabir Hussain; Malik, Riffat Naseem; Li, Jun; Zhang, Gan; Jones, Kevin C

2015-12-01

This review article focuses on the current situation of e-waste in Pakistan with the emphasis on defining the major e-waste recycling sites, current and future domestic generation of e-waste, hidden flows or import of e-waste and discusses various challenges for e-waste management. Needed policy interventions and possible measures to be taken at governmental level are discussed to avoid the increasing problem of e-waste in the country. Our findings highlight that there is still a general lack of reliable data, inventories and research studies addressing e-waste related issues in the context of environmental and human health in Pakistan. There is therefore a critical need to improve the current knowledge base, which should build upon the research experience from other countries which have experienced similar situations in the past. Further research into these issues in Pakistan is considered vital to help inform future policies/control strategies as already successfully implemented in other countries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A meta-analysis of human-system interfaces in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm management.

PubMed

Hocraffer, Amy; Nam, Chang S

2017-01-01

A meta-analysis was conducted to systematically evaluate the current state of research on human-system interfaces for users controlling semi-autonomous swarms composed of groups of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAV swarms pose several human factors challenges, such as high cognitive demands, non-intuitive behavior, and serious consequences for errors. This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 27 UAV swarm management papers focused on the human-system interface and human factors concerns, providing an overview of the advantages, challenges, and limitations of current UAV management interfaces, as well as information on how these interfaces are currently evaluated. In general allowing user and mission-specific customization to user interfaces and raising the swarm's level of autonomy to reduce operator cognitive workload are beneficial and improve situation awareness (SA). It is clear more research is needed in this rapidly evolving field. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aircraft Emergencies: Challenge and Response

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burian, Barbara K.

2010-01-01

Emergency and abnormal situations in aviation present flight crews with a number of challenges. Checklists are essential tools that have been developed to assist them to meet these challenges. However, in order for checklists to be most effective in these situations they must be designed with the operational and situational demands of emergencies and abnormal conditions in mind as well as human performance capabilities and limitations under high stress and workload.

Identifying the challenging factors in the transition from colleges of engineering to employment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baytiyeh, Hoda; Naja, Mohamad

2012-03-01

The transition from university to a career in engineering is a challenging process. This study examined the perceptions of engineering graduates regarding the difficulties they encountered in their transition from the university to the workplace. Lebanese practising engineers (n=217), living around the world, were surveyed to identify their current employment situations and their attitudes toward their academic preparation. Factor analysis revealed three main challenges facing engineering graduates: communication; responsibility; self-confidence. Seventeen interviews were conducted to gather information on ways to facilitate this transition. Comments reflected the need for better collaboration between engineering schools and engineering firms. The results will provide insight for engineering colleges, faculty members and administrators into the challenges faced by graduates and their aspirations for a smoother transition into employment.

Engineering Ethics Education : Its Necessity, Objectives, Methods, Current State, and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fudano, Jun

The importance of engineering ethics education has become widely recognized in the industrialized countries including Japan. This paper examines the background against which engineering ethics education is required, and reviews its objectives, methods, and challenges, as well as its current state. In pointing out important issues associated with the apparent acceptance and quantitative development of ethics education, especially after the establishment of the Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education in 1999, the author stresses that the most serious problem is the lack of common understanding on the objectives of engineering ethics education. As a strategy to improve the situation, the so-called “Ethics-across-the-Curriculum” approach is introduced. The author also claims that business/organization ethics which is consistent with engineering ethics should be promoted in Japan.

A survey of practice patterns in the use of laryngeal mask by pediatric anesthesiologists.

PubMed

Patel, Anuradha; Clark, Scott R; Schiffmiller, Moshe; Schoenberg, Catherine; Tewfik, George

2015-11-01

Laryngeal mask is frequently the airway device of choice in routine general anesthesia for many procedures in children. Several studies have described the use of laryngeal masks in unconventional situations. This survey was undertaken to assess how laryngeal masks are being used by pediatric anesthesiologists. The 40-question electronic survey using SurveyMonkey™ was sent to 2740 members of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA). This survey assessed the age, work environment, types of practice, and training levels, as well as clinical situations in which the practitioners use laryngeal masks across different pediatric age groups. Seven hundred and forty-three (27.1%) responses were obtained. The use of laryngeal mask increased as the patient age increased in nearly every queried situation. The practitioners routinely utilize laryngeal masks in a variety of challenging scenarios, such as in patients with a recent upper respiratory infection, in the difficult airway, remote locations, and long-duration surgeries. A small percentage of pediatric anesthesiologists use laryngeal masks in laparoscopic surgery and prone position procedures. Pediatric anesthesiologists are using laryngeal masks in both routine and challenging/unconventional situations. Although many of the uses for laryngeal masks are not explicitly stated in the manufacturer guidelines, literature and current practice support the use of laryngeal masks in several of these scenarios. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Biomedical Informatics for Computer-Aided Decision Support Systems: A Survey

PubMed Central

Belle, Ashwin; Kon, Mark A.; Najarian, Kayvan

2013-01-01

The volumes of current patient data as well as their complexity make clinical decision making more challenging than ever for physicians and other care givers. This situation calls for the use of biomedical informatics methods to process data and form recommendations and/or predictions to assist such decision makers. The design, implementation, and use of biomedical informatics systems in the form of computer-aided decision support have become essential and widely used over the last two decades. This paper provides a brief review of such systems, their application protocols and methodologies, and the future challenges and directions they suggest. PMID:23431259

Conceptualizing the multidimensional nature of self-efficacy: assessment of situational context and level of behavioral challenge to maintain safer sex. National Institute of Mental Health Multisite HIV Prevention Trial Group.

PubMed

Murphy, D A; Stein, J A; Schlenger, W; Maibach, E

2001-07-01

A. Bandura (1991) argued that self-efficacy measurement should be specific both to the situation in which the behavior occurs and level of challenge in that situation. Measures consistent with the 2 dimensions were developed with graded challenge levels and differing gender-appropriate situations. Participants were 1,496 controls in the National Institute of Mental Health Multisite HIV Prevention Trial recruited from STD clinics and health service centers (925 women and 571 men). The authors tested 4 separate-sex confirmatory factor analysis models as follows: (a) Condom negotiation efficacy as a unitary construct across situations and gradation of difficulty; (b) situation as preeminent, which transfers across skills whatever the gradation of difficulty; (c) skill as predominant, irrespective of situation; and (d) a multidimensional design that simultaneously accounts for both situation and graded difficulty. Consistent with Bandura's theory, the multidimensional model provided the best fit for both samples.

Sportsman hernia; the review of current diagnosis and treatment modalities

PubMed Central

Paksoy, Melih; Sekmen, Ümit

2016-01-01

Groin pain is an important clinical entity that may affect a sportsman’s active sports life. Sportsman’s hernia is a chronic low abdominal and groin pain syndrome. Open and laparoscopic surgical treatment may be chosen in case of conservative treatment failure. Studies on sportsman’s hernia, which is a challenging situation in both diagnosis and treatment, are ongoing in many centers. We reviewed the treatment results of 37 patients diagnosed and treated as sportsman’s hernia at our hospital between 2011–2014, in light of current literature. PMID:27436937

Beyond Digital Natives: European Research on Media Education; Challenges of Technology and Pedagogical Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rivoltella, Pier Cesare

2012-01-01

This article aims to map issues of Media Education currently under debate in Europe. It points out three main research trends. The first one concerns digital natives and their skills in media and technologies. Here we have quite a dialectic situation: on the one hand, a lot of scholars and policymakers are sure that digital natives exist, that…

Evolving the policy framework: Budget strategies, legislative authorities, and management strategies to facilitate federal forest adaptation and collaborative partnerships

Treesearch

Christopher Topik; Paige Lewis

2014-01-01

Some of the greatest challenges to the management of federal forests in the Unites States result from inadequate public and private investment in proactive forest restoration projects. This situation has been exacerbated by the growing fiscal and logistical demands of wildfire suppression activities, which currently consume at least 40 percent of the U.S. Forest...

The challenges of emerging HISs in bridging the communication gaps among physicians and nurses in China: an interview study.

PubMed

Wen, Dong; Zhang, Xingting; Wan, Jie; Fu, Jing; Lei, Jianbo

2017-06-12

To explore the current situation, existing problems and possible causes of said problems with regards to physician-nurse communication under an environment of increasingly widespread usage of Hospital Information Systems and to seek out new potential strategies in information technology to improve physician-nurse communication. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 physicians and nurses in five leading tertiary grade A hospitals in Beijing, China (two physicians and two nurses in each hospital). The interviews primarily included three aspects comprising the current situation and problems of clinical physician-nurse communication, the application and problems of Hospital Information Systems, and assessments on the improvement of physician-nurse communication through the usage of information technology. The inductive conventional content analysis approach was employed. (1) Physicians and nurses are generally quite satisfied with the current situation of communication. However, the information needs of nurses are prone to being overlooked, and the communication methods are primarily synchronous communication such as face-to-face and phone communication. (2) Hospital Information Systems are gradually being used for physician-nurse communication; in the meantime, physicians and nurses face challenges with regards to the improvement of physician-nurse communication through the usage of information technology. Challenges differ based on the different stages of using the system and the different levels of understanding of physicians and nurses towards information technology. Their dissatisfaction mainly deals with system errors and the level of convenience in using the system. (3) In-depth interviews found that in general, physicians and nurses have a strong interest and trust in improving physician-nurse communication through appropriate information technology, e.g., communication methods such as information reminders for physicians and nurses through mobile devices and instant voice-to-text conversion methods. There are objective risks in physician-nurse communication in Chinese hospitals, and clinical information systems lack solutions to the relevant problems. Developing a dedicated, mobile, quick and convenient module for physician-nurse communication within existing hospital information system with automatic reminders for important information that segregates between synchronous and asynchronous communication according to the different types of information could help improve physician-nurse communication.

[Tracheal Intubation by Paramedics in a Local Community: Current Situation and Future Challenges].

PubMed

Takinami, Yoshikazu

2016-03-01

As of April 2013, 164 paramedics are certified to perform tracheal intubation in Fukui Prefecture. This study investigated the current situation surrounding tracheal intubation performed by paramedics in prehospital care. Subjects were 58 paramedics who completed practical training at our hospital. Post-training duration, number of tracheal intubation cases, number of attempts before successful tracheal intubation, disease involved, rate of return of spontaneous circulation, and prognosis were examined. Tracheal intubation was successful on the first attempt in 92% of cases. Rate of return of spontaneous circulation was high in paramedics whose post-training duration was short. No return of spontaneous circulation occurred after a second attempt. Four patients survived asphyxia or aspiration. It is important to perform successful tracheal intubation on the first attempt, to recognize the probability of successful resuscitation in patients with exogenous disease, and to strengthen the medical control system.

Health situation and issues in the Seychelles in 2012.

PubMed

Bovet, P; Gédéon, J; Louange, M; Durasnel, P; Aubry, P; Gaüzère, B A

2013-11-27

Located off the coast of Kenya, the Republic of the Seychelles is an island archipelago nation whose citizens are mostly of African origin. The population, independent from the United Kingdom since 1976, has largely completed its demographic and epidemiological transitions. Major investments in infrastructure and social services have fostered a steady economic growth. Health services and education are free. The predominance of chronic non-communicable diseases and rapid aging of the population cause significant new challenges for public health and the health system. However, like the other small island states in the region, the Seychelles remains under the threat of outbreaks, particularly of arboviruses. Health indicators from 2012 are generally very good. There are concerns, however, about the future of health care in the country. Geographic isolation, the small and aging population and limited resources provide major challenges for maintaining and sustaining an effective workforce of health professionals, a constantly evolving technical platform and an increasing number of available medications. This is true particularly in view of the increasing burden of chronic diseases and the continued threat to the population of current or emerging infectious diseases. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief introduction to the geography, history, and political context of Seychelles to provide an account of the current situation regarding major diseases in the Seychelles and to review health priorities of the last few decades. To our knowledge, no comprehensive inventory of sporadic, endemic or epidemic events has been attempted before, except for a remarkable report from the 1950s [1]. Using health data from the past few decades, information from health personnel who live and practice in the Indian Ocean, we attempt to identify major current and future health challenges in the Seychelles.

Psychosocial health challenges of the elderly in Nigeria: a narrative review.

PubMed

Animasahun, Victor J; Chapman, Helena J

2017-06-01

Globally, national health systems are challenged to build successful aging models to prepare for biomedical, psychological and social changes. The integral component of psychosocial health in overall quality of life and well-being, however, is underscored and requires greater focus. Changing demographics in Nigeria, in addition to cultural considerations and absence of a social security system, present unique challenges to elderly. We aimed to review the literature that describes the current situation and challenges in psychosocial health status in the elderly in Nigeria and provide recommendations that promote health and well-being during the aging process. Four primary factors affect psychosocial health status of elderly Nigerians, namely: changes in family dynamics, increased demand for healthcare services, increased economic stress, and decreased functional independence. Like other developing countries, the Nigerian national system faces similar challenges in preparing a national framework that can maximize coverage to citizens in the midst of demographic changes in aging. By focusing on five target areas such as the educational system, health services, community-based initiatives, local or regional policies and national strategies, current framework in Nigeria can be modified to prepare for changing demographics in aging.

Establishing versus preserving impressions: Predicting success in the multiple audience problem.

PubMed

Nichols, Austin Lee; Cottrell, Catherine A

2015-12-01

People sometimes seek to convey discrepant impressions of themselves to different audiences simultaneously. Research suggests people are generally successful in this "multiple audience problem." Adding to previous research, the current research sought to examine factors that may limit this success by measuring social anxiety and placing participants into situations requiring them to either establish or preserve multiple impressions simultaneously. In general, participants were more successful when preserving previously conveyed impressions than when establishing impressions for the first time. In contrast, social anxiety did not affect multiple audience success. In all, this research offers valuable insight into potential challenges that people face in many social situations. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Enhancing crisis leadership in public health emergencies.

PubMed

Deitchman, Scott

2013-10-01

Reviews of public health emergency responses have identified a need for crisis leadership skills in health leaders, but these skills are not routinely taught in public health curricula. To develop criteria for crisis leadership in public health, published sources were reviewed to identify attributes of successful crisis leadership in aviation, public safety, military operations, and mining. These sources were abstracted to identify crisis leadership attributes associated with those disciplines and compare those attributes with crisis leadership challenges in public health. Based on this review, the following attributes are proposed for crisis leadership in public health: competence in public health science; decisiveness with flexibility; ability to maintain situational awareness and provide situational assessment; ability to coordinate diverse participants across very different disciplines; communication skills; and the ability to inspire trust. Of these attributes, only competence in public health science is currently a goal of public health education. Strategies to teach the other proposed attributes of crisis leadership will better prepare public health leaders to meet the challenges of public health crises.

Thinking like an expert: surgical decision making as a cyclical process of being aware.

PubMed

Cristancho, Sayra M; Apramian, Tavis; Vanstone, Meredith; Lingard, Lorelei; Ott, Michael; Forbes, Thomas; Novick, Richard

2016-01-01

Education researchers are studying the practices of high-stake professionals as they learn how to better train for flexibility under uncertainty. This study explores the "Reconciliation Cycle" as the core element of an intraoperative decision-making model of how experienced surgeons assess and respond to challenges. We analyzed 32 semistructured interviews using constructivist grounded theory to develop a model of intraoperative decision making. Using constant comparison analysis, we built on this model with 9 follow-up interviews about the most challenging cases described in our dataset. The Reconciliation Cycle constituted an iterative process of "gaining" and "transforming information." The cyclical nature of surgeons' decision making suggested that transforming information requires a higher degree of awareness, not yet accounted by current conceptualizations of situation awareness. This study advances the notion of situation awareness in surgery. This characterization will support further investigations on how expert and nonexpert surgeons implement strategies to cope with unexpected events. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The functional organization of preschool-age children's emotion expressions and actions in challenging situations.

PubMed

Dennis, Tracy A; Cole, Pamela M; Wiggins, Crystal N; Cohen, Laura H; Zalewski, Maureen

2009-08-01

Although functional links between emotion and action are implied in emotion regulation research, there is limited evidence that specific adaptive actions for coping with a challenge are more probable when certain negative emotions are expressed. The current study examined this question among 3- and 4-year-olds (N = 113; M age = 47.84 months, SD = 6.19). Emotion expressions and actions were observed during 2 challenging tasks: children waited for a gift while the mother worked, and children worked alone to retrieve a prize from a locked box with the wrong key. Angry and happy expressions, compared with sad expressions, were associated with more actions. These actions varied with the nature of the task, reflecting appreciation of situational appropriateness. In addition, when waiting with the mother, happiness was associated with the broadest range of actions, whereas when working alone on the locked box, anger was associated with the broadest range of actions. Results are discussed in terms of the adaptive function of negative emotions and in terms of functional and dimensional models of emotion. Findings have implications for the development of emotion regulation and social-emotional competence. 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

The Functional Organization of Preschool-Age Children’s Emotion Expressions and Actions in Challenging Situations

PubMed Central

Dennis, Tracy A.; Cole, Pamela M.; Wiggins, Crystal N.; Cohen, Laura H.; Zalewski, Maureen

2010-01-01

Although functional links between emotion and action are implied in emotion regulation research, there is limited evidence that specific adaptive actions for coping with a challenge are more probable when certain negative emotions are expressed. The current study examined this question among 3- and 4-year-olds (N = 113; M age = 47.84 months, SD = 6.19). Emotion expressions and actions were observed during 2 challenging tasks: children waited for a gift while the mother worked, and children worked alone to retrieve a prize from a locked box with the wrong key. Angry and happy expressions, compared with sad expressions, were associated with more actions. These actions varied with the nature of the task, reflecting appreciation of situational appropriateness. In addition, when waiting with the mother, happiness was associated with the broadest range of actions, whereas when working alone on the locked box, anger was associated with the broadest range of actions. Results are discussed in terms of the adaptive function of negative emotions and in terms of functional and dimensional models of emotion. Findings have implications for the development of emotion regulation and social–emotional competence. PMID:19653775

Identification of Gifted African American Primary Grade Students through Leadership, Creativity, and Academic Performance in Curriculum Material Making and Peer-Teaching: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhbanova, Ksenia S.; Rule, Audrey C.; Stichter, Mary K.

2015-01-01

Research into identification of gifted early childhood students of minority groups through classroom activities is lacking. A focus in the United States on students with learning challenges and a lack of awareness of educators concerning the needs of early childhood gifted students are important causes of this situation. The current case study…

Biodegradation of Phenolic Contaminants: Current Status and Perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Lin; Wu, Qi; Ma, Aijin

2018-01-01

Phenolic compounds, a class of toxic pollutants in water, come mainly from a variety of industrial processes. The industrial application for biodegradation has become an important topic in recent years. In this review, we discuss the present situation, properties, and pollution characteristics of phenolic contaminants, factors affecting the degradation of phenols, microbial species and biodegradation methods. The challenges and opportunities in developing biodegradation processes of phenolic contaminants are also discussed.

An Advanced Framework for Improving Situational Awareness in Electric Power Grid Operation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Yousu; Huang, Zhenyu; Zhou, Ning

With the deployment of new smart grid technologies and the penetration of renewable energy in power systems, significant uncertainty and variability is being introduced into power grid operation. Traditionally, the Energy Management System (EMS) operates the power grid in a deterministic mode, and thus will not be sufficient for the future control center in a stochastic environment with faster dynamics. One of the main challenges is to improve situational awareness. This paper reviews the current status of power grid operation and presents a vision of improving wide-area situational awareness for a future control center. An advanced framework, consisting of parallelmore » state estimation, state prediction, parallel contingency selection, parallel contingency analysis, and advanced visual analytics, is proposed to provide capabilities needed for better decision support by utilizing high performance computing (HPC) techniques and advanced visual analytic techniques. Research results are presented to support the proposed vision and framework.« less

Perceiving interpersonally-mediated risk in virtual environments

PubMed Central

Portnoy, David B.; Smoak, Natalie D.; Marsh, Kerry L.

2009-01-01

Using virtual reality (VR) to examine risky behavior that is mediated by interpersonal contact, such as agreeing to have sex, drink, or smoke with someone, offers particular promise and challenges. Social contextual stimuli that might trigger impulsive responses can be carefully controlled in virtual environments (VE), and yet manipulations of risk might be implausible to participants if they do not feel sufficiently immersed in the environment. The current study examined whether individuals can display adequate evidence of presence in a VE that involved potential interpersonally-induced risk: meeting a potential dating partner. Results offered some evidence for the potential of VR for the study of such interpersonal risk situations. Participants’ reaction to the scenario and risk-associated responses to the situation suggested that the embodied nature of virtual reality override the reality of the risk’s impossibility, allowing participants to experience adequate situational embedding, or presence. PMID:20228871

Optimizing Decision Preparedness by Adapting Scenario Complexity and Automating Scenario Generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dunne, Rob; Schatz, Sae; Flore, Stephen M.; Nicholson, Denise

2011-01-01

Klein's recognition-primed decision (RPD) framework proposes that experts make decisions by recognizing similarities between current decision situations and previous decision experiences. Unfortunately, military personnel arQ often presented with situations that they have not experienced before. Scenario-based training (S8T) can help mitigate this gap. However, SBT remains a challenging and inefficient training approach. To address these limitations, the authors present an innovative formulation of scenario complexity that contributes to the larger research goal of developing an automated scenario generation system. This system will enable trainees to effectively advance through a variety of increasingly complex decision situations and experiences. By adapting scenario complexities and automating generation, trainees will be provided with a greater variety of appropriately calibrated training events, thus broadening their repositories of experience. Preliminary results from empirical testing (N=24) of the proof-of-concept formula are presented, and future avenues of scenario complexity research are also discussed.

Perceiving interpersonally-mediated risk in virtual environments.

PubMed

Portnoy, David B; Smoak, Natalie D; Marsh, Kerry L

2010-03-01

Using virtual reality (VR) to examine risky behavior that is mediated by interpersonal contact, such as agreeing to have sex, drink, or smoke with someone, offers particular promise and challenges. Social contextual stimuli that might trigger impulsive responses can be carefully controlled in virtual environments (VE), and yet manipulations of risk might be implausible to participants if they do not feel sufficiently immersed in the environment. The current study examined whether individuals can display adequate evidence of presence in a VE that involved potential interpersonally-induced risk: meeting a potential dating partner. Results offered some evidence for the potential of VR for the study of such interpersonal risk situations. Participants' reaction to the scenario and risk-associated responses to the situation suggested that the embodied nature of virtual reality override the reality of the risk's impossibility, allowing participants to experience adequate situational embedding, or presence.

Health impact assessment in Mongolia: current situation, directions, and challenges.

PubMed

Spickett, Jeff; Batmunkh, Tsetsegsaikhan; Jones, Sarah

2015-03-01

Many developing countries have limited capacity to adequately assess and manage health impacts associated with environmental change. In Mongolia, methodologies to introduce health impact assessment (HIA) as part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process have been investigated, and a mechanism to incorporate HIA into the current EIA process is proposed. Some challenges to the implementation of HIA are discussed. The country is now in a position to incorporate HIA as part of the approvals process for development projects. Given the recent growth in population, industrial development, and urbanization together with the interest from international mining companies in the resources of the country, it is important for Mongolia to have such tools in place in order to take advantage of economic growth while improving health and well-being outcomes for the population. © 2012 APJPH.

Recognizing Dynamic Faces in Malaysian Chinese Participants.

PubMed

Tan, Chrystalle B Y; Sheppard, Elizabeth; Stephen, Ian D

2016-03-01

High performance level in face recognition studies does not seem to be replicable in real-life situations possibly because of the artificial nature of laboratory studies. Recognizing faces in natural social situations may be a more challenging task, as it involves constant examination of dynamic facial motions that may alter facial structure vital to the recognition of unfamiliar faces. Because of the incongruences of recognition performance, the current study developed stimuli that closely represent natural social situations to yield results that more accurately reflect observers' performance in real-life settings. Naturalistic stimuli of African, East Asian, and Western Caucasian actors introducing themselves were presented to investigate Malaysian Chinese participants' recognition sensitivity and looking strategies when performing a face recognition task. When perceiving dynamic facial stimuli, participants fixated most on the nose, followed by the mouth then the eyes. Focusing on the nose may have enabled participants to gain a more holistic view of actors' facial and head movements, which proved to be beneficial in recognizing identities. Participants recognized all three races of faces equally well. The current results, which differed from a previous static face recognition study, may be a more accurate reflection of observers' recognition abilities and looking strategies. © The Author(s) 2015.

Ethics in a time of contagion: a relational perspective.

PubMed

Austin, Wendy

2008-12-01

In times of contagion, the key role of nurses brings fears, dangers, and unique demands. The ethics of such challenges need to be explored and understood. Using Callahan's framework for thinking ethically and Taylor's "worries" of modern life, the author elucidates some of the challenges and then argues that the current approach to pandemic ethics, with its reliance on moral reasoning, is insufficient to guide nurses' ethical actions. Relational ethics, which explicitly situates ethics within relationships and our commitment to one another, and which recognizes that context matters in ethical decision-making, is offered as a viable alternative for nurses in considering how to respond.

[Management of an elderly patient in the emergency room at the end of life : A medical ethics challenge].

PubMed

Michels, G; Nies, R; Ortmann, S; Pfister, R; Salomon, F

2018-04-01

A 94-year-old patient with cardiogenic shock due to myocardial infarction was admitted via the emergency room. A coronary angiography and intensive care were requested. The need for care due to dementia was known. After case discussion in the interdisciplinary and multiprofessional treatment team, the decision for a palliative care concept in the form of symptom control was made in the emergency room, taking into account the patient's medical history, the current situation, and the presumed patient consent. The integration of medical ethics aspects and palliative medicine into "geriatric emergency medicine" will present a challenge in the future.

A Survey of the Current Situation of Clinical Biobanks in China.

PubMed

Li, Haiyan; Ni, Mingyu; Wang, Peng; Wang, Xiaomin

2017-06-01

The development of biomedical research urgently needs the support of a large number of high-quality clinical biospecimens. Therefore, human biobanks at different levels have been established successively in China and other countries at a significantly increasing pace in recent years. To better understand the general current state of clinical biobanks in China, we surveyed 42 clinical biobanks based in hospitals and collected information involving their management systems, sharing mechanisms, quality control systems, and informational management systems using closed questionnaire methods. Based on our current information, there has not been such a large-scale survey in China. An understanding of the status and challenges current clinical biobanks face will provide valuable insights for the construction and sustainable development of higher quality clinical biobanks.

Constructing America from the Sea: Maritime Archaeology Research, International Cooperation and Best Practices in the Underwater Cultural Heritage of Latin America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rey da Silva, Arturo; Herrera Tovar, Jorge M.

2017-12-01

This article introduces this special issue of the Journal of Maritime Archaeology by giving a brief introduction to the current situation of the practice of maritime archaeology in Latin America, as well as reviewing the main challenges that the discipline faces here. An assessment of existing regional cooperation, the presence of maritime archaeology within the international community and its importance to develop new theoretical and methodological perspectives that advance access to knowledge is made. Finally, the article focuses on some of the current work carried out in Latin America.

Climate change and forests of the future: Managing in the face of uncertainty

USGS Publications Warehouse

Millar, C.I.; Stephenson, N.L.; Stephens, S.L.

2007-01-01

We offer a conceptual framework for managing forested ecosystems under an assumption that future environments will be different from present but that we cannot be certain about the specifics of change. We encourage flexible approaches that promote reversible and incremental steps, and that favor ongoing learning and capacity to modify direction as situations change. We suggest that no single solution fits all future challenges, especially in the context of changing climates, and that the best strategy is to mix different approaches for different situations. Resources managers will be challenged to integrate adaptation strategies (actions that help ecosystems accommodate changes adaptively) and mitigation strategies (actions that enable ecosystems to reduce anthropogenic influences on global climate) into overall plans. Adaptive strategies include resistance options (forestall impacts and protect highly valued resources), resilience options (improve the capacity of ecosystems to return to desired conditions after disturbance), and response options (facilitate transition of ecosystems from current to new conditions). Mitigation strategies include options to sequester carbon and reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. Priority-setting approaches (e.g., triage), appropriate for rapidly changing conditions and for situations where needs are greater than available capacity to respond, will become increasingly important in the future. ?? 2007 by the Ecological Society of America.

African swine fever (ASF): five years around Europe.

PubMed

Sánchez-Vizcaíno, José Manuel; Mur, Lina; Martínez-López, Beatriz

2013-07-26

Since African swine fever (ASF) was re-introduced into Eastern Europe in April 2007, the disease has spread through five countries, drastically changing the European ASF situation. This re-introduction has significant implications for the affected countries, and it puts the European Union (EU) at serious risk of ASF introduction. Numerous factors are complicating the control of ASF in the Russian Federation and neighboring areas, particularly the absence of a coordinated control program, the abundance of backyard pig units with low or no biosecurity and the traditional use of swill feeding. All these risk factors are driven in turn by socio-economic, political and cultural factors. Moreover, the lack of clear information regarding the current situation of ASF in the Trans-Caucasus countries such as Armenia and Georgia may be increasing the risk of ASF spread into neighboring areas. The ASF situation in Eastern Europe poses a constant risk of ASF entry into the EU, especially via routes that are difficult to control, such as wild boar movements, illegal movement of animals and animal products and movements of contaminated vehicles or other fomites. This paper reviews and discusses current ASF epidemiology in Eastern Europe, the factors that may contribute to disease endemicity in the area, the current challenges for disease control, and the risk of introduction into the EU. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

La atencion preescolar en Chile: desafios para la redemocratizacion (Preschool Care in Chile: Challenges for Redemocratization. Discussion Paper No. 13).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Filp, Johanna; Undurrage, Consuelo

This paper examines the current status of programs for preschool children in Chile. Section 1 of the paper provides an overview of the situation of preschool children in Chile. The country's population includes more than 1.6 million children between the ages of 0 and 5 years 11 months, and in urban areas, 18.4 percent of children between the ages…

Issues and Challenges in Situation Assessment (Level 2 Fusion)

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-12-01

2 SAW–Comprehension of the current situa- tion ² Level 3 SAW–Projection of future states Operators of dynamic systems use their SAW in de - termining...1) build a model by either editing an existing template/model or create a new one; (2) activate/ de -activate existing models; or (3) view active models...and any evidence that has been associated with the model over time. Different political, military, economic, social , infrastructure, and informa

Situational Transitions and Military Nurses: A Concept Analysis Using the Evolutionary Method.

PubMed

Chargualaf, Katie A

2016-04-01

Situational transitions in nursing remain a significant issue for both new graduates and experienced nurses. Although frequently discussed in current nursing literature, nursing research has exclusively focused on the transition experience of civilian (nonmilitary) nurses. With differing role and practice expectations, altered practice environments, and the risk of deployment, the outcome of negative transition experiences for military nurses is significant. The purpose of this analysis is to clarify the concept of transition, in a situational context, as it relates to military nurses by investigating the attributes, antecedents, and consequences. Rodgers' evolutionary method served as the framework to this study. The sample included 41 studies, published in English, between 2000 and 2013. Data were retrieved from the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Medline, ProQuest, Ovid, and PsycINFO databases. Antecedents of situational transitions include any change in work roles or work environments. Attributes of situational transitions include journey, disequilibrium, finding balance, conditional, and pervasive. Consequences of transition range from successful to unsuccessful. Additional research that investigates the specific needs and challenges unique to nurses practicing in a military environment is needed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Delineating the relationship between stress mindset and primary appraisals: preliminary findings.

PubMed

Kilby, Christopher J; Sherman, Kerry A

2016-01-01

Stress mindset theory suggests that positive stress beliefs lead to positive, rather than negative, outcomes when engaging with stressors. Similarly, the Transactional Model of Stress predicts that perceiving a stressor as challenging leads to positive outcomes whereas negative perceptions of the stressor as threatening invoke negative outcomes. The aim of this study was to provide preliminary data examining the nature of the relationship between stress mindset and primary appraisals. It was predicted that positive beliefs about stress would be associated with perceiving a stressful situation as more challenging, and inversely related to perceptions of threat. Participants (N = 124) initially completed measures assessing stress mindset, lifetime and current perceived stress, trait anxiety, and self-efficacy. Then participants received a set of instructions regarding a stressful mathematics task, followed by completion of post-manipulation stress mindset and primary appraisals measures, prior to completing the mathematics task. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that participants who held a greater number of positive beliefs (as opposed to negative beliefs) about stress also perceived the stressor as being more challenging. However, there was no significant relationship between valence of beliefs and threat appraisals. These findings provide initial evidence for the nature of the relationship between valence of stress beliefs and challenge appraisals. Further research is needed to understand how stress beliefs impact on the way in which an individual copes with stressful situations.

The Challenge of Aviation Emergency and Abnormal Situations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burian, Barbara K.; Barshi, Immanuel; Dismukes, Key

2005-01-01

Emergency and abnormal situations occur on flights everyday around the world. They range from minor situations readily managed to extremely serious and highly time-critical situations that deeply challenge the skills of even the most effective crews. How well crews respond to these situations is a function of several interacting sets of issues: (1) the design of non-normal procedures and checklists, (2) design of aircraft systems and automation, (3) specific aspects of the non-normal situation, such as time criticality and complexity of the situation, (4) human performance capabilities and cognitive limitations under high workload and stress, (5) design of training for non-normal situations, (6) philosophies, policies and practices within the industry, and (7) economic and regulatory constraints. Researchers and pilots working on NASA's Emergency and Abnormal Situations project are addressing these issues in a long-range study. In this paper we discuss these issues and illustrate them with examples from recent incidents and accidents.

Mastering one's destiny: mastery goals promote challenge and success despite social identity threat.

PubMed

Stout, Jane G; Dasgupta, Nilanjana

2013-06-01

We used an achievement goal framework to enhance identity-threatened individuals' motivation and performance by way of an understudied mechanism, namely, challenge appraisals. In three experiments, women were given a mastery goal (focus on building skills) or a performance goal (perform well, avoid errors) before a mock job interview. Women who focused on mastery rather than performance felt more challenged and less threatened when anticipating an identity-threatening interview; goals did not affect appraisals of a nonthreatening interview (Experiment 1). Mastery relative to performance goals enhanced women's intention to be assertive (Experiment 2) and their actual face-to-face performance during the job interview (Experiment 3); challenge appraisals (but not threat appraisals) served as a mediator for these effects. Whereas a great deal of prior work has alleviated identity threat by altering construals of one's identity, the current research uses an alternative strategy--modifying appraisals of the situation, leaving one's self-concept intact.

Reasoning and Knowledge Acquisition Framework for 5G Network Analytics

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Autonomic self-management is a key challenge for next-generation networks. This paper proposes an automated analysis framework to infer knowledge in 5G networks with the aim to understand the network status and to predict potential situations that might disrupt the network operability. The framework is based on the Endsley situational awareness model, and integrates automated capabilities for metrics discovery, pattern recognition, prediction techniques and rule-based reasoning to infer anomalous situations in the current operational context. Those situations should then be mitigated, either proactive or reactively, by a more complex decision-making process. The framework is driven by a use case methodology, where the network administrator is able to customize the knowledge inference rules and operational parameters. The proposal has also been instantiated to prove its adaptability to a real use case. To this end, a reference network traffic dataset was used to identify suspicious patterns and to predict the behavior of the monitored data volume. The preliminary results suggest a good level of accuracy on the inference of anomalous traffic volumes based on a simple configuration. PMID:29065473

Reasoning and Knowledge Acquisition Framework for 5G Network Analytics.

PubMed

Sotelo Monge, Marco Antonio; Maestre Vidal, Jorge; García Villalba, Luis Javier

2017-10-21

Autonomic self-management is a key challenge for next-generation networks. This paper proposes an automated analysis framework to infer knowledge in 5G networks with the aim to understand the network status and to predict potential situations that might disrupt the network operability. The framework is based on the Endsley situational awareness model, and integrates automated capabilities for metrics discovery, pattern recognition, prediction techniques and rule-based reasoning to infer anomalous situations in the current operational context. Those situations should then be mitigated, either proactive or reactively, by a more complex decision-making process. The framework is driven by a use case methodology, where the network administrator is able to customize the knowledge inference rules and operational parameters. The proposal has also been instantiated to prove its adaptability to a real use case. To this end, a reference network traffic dataset was used to identify suspicious patterns and to predict the behavior of the monitored data volume. The preliminary results suggest a good level of accuracy on the inference of anomalous traffic volumes based on a simple configuration.

[Development and current situation of reconstruction methods following total sacrectomy].

PubMed

Huang, Siyi; Ji, Tao; Guo, Wei

2018-05-01

To review the development of the reconstruction methods following total sacrectomy, and to provide reference for finding a better reconstruction method following total sacrectomy. The case reports and biomechanical and finite element studies of reconstruction following total sacrectomy at home and abroad were searched. Development and current situation were summarized. After developing for nearly 30 years, great progress has been made in the reconstruction concept and fixation techniques. The fixation methods can be summarized as the following three strategies: spinopelvic fixation (SPF), posterior pelvic ring fixation (PPRF), and anterior spinal column fixation (ASCF). SPF has undergone technical progress from intrapelvic rod and hook constructs to pedicle and iliac screw-rod systems. PPRF and ASCF could improve the stability of the reconstruction system. Reconstruction following total sacrectomy remains a challenge. Reconstruction combining SPF, PPRF, and ASCF is the developmental direction to achieve mechanical stability. How to gain biological fixation to improve the long-term stability is an urgent problem to be solved.

Why Face a Challenge? The Reason behind Intrinsically Motivated Students' Spontaneous Choice of Challenging Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inoue, Noriyuki

2007-01-01

In a task choice situation, why do some students spontaneously choose challenging tasks while others do not? In the study, 114 undergraduate students were first asked of their perceived competence and interest in solving number puzzles at both individual and situational levels, and then asked to choose one puzzle from four difficulty levels. They…

The clinical challenge of concomitant aortic and mitral valve stenosis.

PubMed

Unger, Philippe; Lancellotti, Patrizzio; de Cannière, Didier

2016-02-01

The coexistence of mitral and aortic stenosis is not exceptional. Whereas rheumatic fever is currently plummeting in the Western countries, the incidence of degenerative disease is inversely increasing. The haemodynamic interactions which may interfere both with the usual echocardiographic parameters and with the invasive assessment may render the diagnosis difficult. The therapeutic challenges raised by this entity should not be underestimated. The increased morbidity and mortality of multivalvular surgery has to be balanced with the risk of a second operation down the line if one valvular involvement, deemed of a lesser importance, is neglected. This complex situation requires the multidisciplinary approach of a heart team involving surgeons, cardiologists, geriatrists if need be and imaging specialists.

Sole Dependence on Urine Testing Strips and the Ability to Identify Clinically Significant Disease: Challenging the Current Paradigm for Heme Detection in General Clinical Situations.

PubMed

Rothschild, Bruce

2016-05-01

The ability of health care professionals to provide patient care is potentially compromised when predicated on untested, although longstanding, perspectives. One such example is urinalysis testing, which has been currently simplified to use only urine testing strips for detection of microscopic hematuria. To determine whether urine testing strips are sufficient for identification of clinically significant findings in urinalysis. To determine the presence of microscopic hematuria, I examined a collection of urine specimens that had tested heme negative during the 3-month study period. Of the 342 patients from whom urine specimens were examined during this interval, 50 had microscopic hematuria, despite having tested negative for heme via urine testing strip. Also, 30% were not receiving any medication known to produce microscopic hematuria, and 18% had clinically significant pathology. Diagnosis of significant clinical pathologic manifestations would have been compromised had microscopic examination not been performed on the urine specimens from the cohort individuals. Examination of the novel approach of including microscopic examination of specimens in a specific clinical situation challenges the dominant paradigm of reliance on assaying using urine testing strips only, revealing that the current method is not only unreliable for determining microscopic hematuria but also is less than optimal in general clinical practice. The findings of this study provide evidence of the importance of microscopic evaluation as a routine component of urinalysis. © American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2016. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Reflections on the career of Brazilian Paralympic athletes.

PubMed

Haiachi, Marcelo de Castro; Cardoso, Vinícius Denardin; Reppold, Alberto Reinaldo; Gaya, Adroaldo Cezar Araújo

2016-10-01

The proximity of the Paralympic Games Rio 2016 opens the discussion about the possibility of building a career in Paralympic sport. This study aims to present the characteristics and challenges present in the sporting career of the Brazilian Paralympic athlete. The study was structured under three main guiding topics: the different moments of Paralympic Sport, the career characteristics of paralympians and the consequences of sports results for their careers. Currently, Paralympic sports has its focus on high performance, as the constant necessity for good results is an ever present reality. The characteristics and challenges of sporting careers reveal the current situation for Brazilian Paralympic sports in all of its stages (pre-transition, transition and post-transition). Upon reflecting on the career of the Brazilian paralympic athlete a debate opens up concerning future perspectives and particularly on an understanding of the existing challenges for consolidation. Structural problems such as venues for training, lack of awareness on the part of the private sector and the non-renewal of human resources, seem to be the main obstacles for the consolidation of paralympic careers in Brazil.

Relative receiver autonomous integrity monitoring for future GNSS-based aircraft navigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gratton, Livio Rafael

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has enabled reliable, safe, and practical aircraft positioning for en-route and non-precision phases of flight for more than a decade. Intense research is currently devoted to extending the use of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), including GPS, to precision approach and landing operations. In this context, this work is focused on the development, analysis, and verification of the concept of Relative Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RRAIM) and its potential applications to precision approach navigation. RRAIM fault detection algorithms are developed, and associated mathematical bounds on position error are derived. These are investigated as possible solutions to some current key challenges in precision approach navigation, discussed below. Augmentation systems serving continent-size areas (like the Wide Area Augmentation System or WAAS) allow certain precision approach operations within the covered region. More and better satellites, with dual frequency capabilities, are expected to be in orbit in the mid-term future, which will potentially allow WAAS-like capabilities worldwide with a sparse ground station network. Two main challenges in achieving this goal are (1) ensuring that navigation fault detection functions are fast enough to alert worldwide users of hazardously misleading information, and (2) minimizing situations in which navigation is unavailable because the user's local satellite geometry is insufficient for safe position estimation. Local augmentation systems (implemented at individual airports, like the Local Area Augmentation System or LAAS) have the potential to allow precision approach and landing operations by providing precise corrections to user-satellite range measurements. An exception to these capabilities arises during ionospheric storms (caused by solar activity), when hazardous situations can exist with residual range errors several orders of magnitudes higher than nominal. Until dual frequency civil GPS signals are available, the ability to provide integrity during ionospheric storms, without excessive loss of availability is a major challenge. For all users, with or without augmentation, some situations cause short duration losses of satellites in view. Two examples are aircraft banking during turns and ionospheric scintillation. The loss of range signals can translate into gaps in good satellite geometry, and the resulting challenge is to ensure navigation continuity by bridging these gaps, while simultaneously maintaining high integrity. It is shown that the RRAIM methods developed in this research can be applied to mitigate each of these obstacles to safe and reliable precision aircraft navigation.

[Current situation and reflection on the prevention and treatment of burns in the elderly].

PubMed

Zhang, J P; Huang, Y S

2017-09-20

With ageing of the population, it is estimated that the percentage of old people aged above 65 years old will be approached to 30% in China by 2035. This presents a considerable challenge to geriatric burn treatment, as elderly burn patients have more serious injuries, longer hospital lengths of stay, and higher rates of complications and mortality. In this article, we analyze the current status of burns in the elderly in China and the factors contributing to the outcome of the elderly, and put forward therapeutic strategies so as to improve the level of prevention and treatment of burns in the elderly.

Offshore oil spill response practices and emerging challenges.

PubMed

Li, Pu; Cai, Qinhong; Lin, Weiyun; Chen, Bing; Zhang, Baiyu

2016-09-15

Offshore oil spills are of tremendous concern due to their potential impact on economic and ecological systems. A number of major oil spills triggered worldwide consciousness of oil spill preparedness and response. Challenges remain in diverse aspects such as oil spill monitoring, analysis, assessment, contingency planning, response, cleanup, and decision support. This article provides a comprehensive review of the current situations and impacts of offshore oil spills, as well as the policies and technologies in offshore oil spill response and countermeasures. Correspondingly, new strategies and a decision support framework are recommended for improving the capacities and effectiveness of oil spill response and countermeasures. In addition, the emerging challenges in cold and harsh environments are reviewed with recommendations due to increasing risk of oil spills in the northern regions from the expansion of the Arctic Passage. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Toward a Personalized Science of Emotion Regulation

PubMed Central

Doré, Bruce P.; Silvers, Jennifer A.; Ochsner, Kevin N.

2018-01-01

The ability to successfully regulate emotion plays a key role in healthy development and the maintenance of psychological well-being. Although great strides have been made in understanding the nature of regulatory processes and the consequences of deploying them, a comprehensive understanding of emotion regulation that can specify what strategies are most beneficial for a given person in a given situation is still a far-off goal. In this review, we argue that moving toward this goal represents a central challenge for the future of the field. As an initial step, we propose a concrete framework that (i) explicitly considers emotion regulation as an interaction of person, situation, and strategy, (ii) assumes that regulatory effects vary according to these factors, and (iii) sets as a primary scientific goal the identification of person-, situation-, and strategy-based contingencies for successful emotion regulation. Guided by this framework, we review current questions facing the field, discuss examples of contextual variation in emotion regulation success, and offer practical suggestions for continued progress in this area. PMID:29750085

Affordable multisensor digital video architecture for 360° situational awareness displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheiner, Steven P.; Khan, Dina A.; Marecki, Alexander L.; Berman, David A.; Carberry, Dana

2011-06-01

One of the major challenges facing today's military ground combat vehicle operations is the ability to achieve and maintain full-spectrum situational awareness while under armor (i.e. closed hatch). Thus, the ability to perform basic tasks such as driving, maintaining local situational awareness, surveillance, and targeting will require a high-density array of real time information be processed, distributed, and presented to the vehicle operators and crew in near real time (i.e. low latency). Advances in display and sensor technologies are providing never before seen opportunities to supply large amounts of high fidelity imagery and video to the vehicle operators and crew in real time. To fully realize the advantages of these emerging display and sensor technologies, an underlying digital architecture must be developed that is capable of processing these large amounts of video and data from separate sensor systems and distributing it simultaneously within the vehicle to multiple vehicle operators and crew. This paper will examine the systems and software engineering efforts required to overcome these challenges and will address development of an affordable, integrated digital video architecture. The approaches evaluated will enable both current and future ground combat vehicle systems the flexibility to readily adopt emerging display and sensor technologies, while optimizing the Warfighter Machine Interface (WMI), minimizing lifecycle costs, and improve the survivability of the vehicle crew working in closed-hatch systems during complex ground combat operations.

Summary of human social, cultural, behavioral (HSCB) modeling for information fusion panel discussion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blasch, Erik; Salerno, John; Kadar, Ivan; Yang, Shanchieh J.; Fenstermacher, Laurie; Endsley, Mica; Grewe, Lynne

2013-05-01

During the SPIE 2012 conference, panelists convened to discuss "Real world issues and challenges in Human Social/Cultural/Behavioral modeling with Applications to Information Fusion." Each panelist presented their current trends and issues. The panel had agreement on advanced situation modeling, working with users for situation awareness and sense-making, and HSCB context modeling in focusing research activities. Each panelist added different perspectives based on the domain of interest such as physical, cyber, and social attacks from which estimates and projections can be forecasted. Also, additional techniques were addressed such as interest graphs, network modeling, and variable length Markov Models. This paper summarizes the panelists discussions to highlight the common themes and the related contrasting approaches to the domains in which HSCB applies to information fusion applications.

Overview of Maternal, Neonatal and Child Deaths in South Africa: Challenges, Opportunities, Progress and Future Prospects

PubMed Central

Mabaso, Musawenkosi H L; Ndaba, Thoko; Mkhize-Kwitshana, Zilungile L

2014-01-01

Background: The fact that most sub-Saharan Africa countries including South Africa (SA) are not on track to meet the 2015 target of improving maternal, neonate and child health (MNCH) is a major public health concern. The aim of this paper to give an overview of the current state of MNC deaths in SA, their relative causes, highlight challenges, existing opportunities, progress made and future prospects. Methods: The overview involved a synthesis and review of recent data and information from key national representative peer reviewed articles and grey literature from the National Department of Health and related stakeholder reports. Results: Since 1990 the situation in SA aroused a lot of research interest in tracing the historical context of the problem, evaluating progress made and actions for improving MNCH. In 2009 the SA government established three national committees for confidential enquiry on MNC deaths. Multifactorial systems’ related challenges were identified. Subsequently, the new National Strategic Plan for MNC and Women’s Health and Nutrition has, in addition to provision of comprehensive interventions, been linked and aligned with efforts to strengthen the health systems particularly through the re-engineering of the Primary Health Care (PHC) services and district health systems. Conclusion and Global Health Implications: The overview gives an insight of the process that has influenced MNCH policy and programs in the country. The SA experience and current MNCH situation may be different compared to other African countries, however, the political commitment and government stewardship coupled with critical and yet complimentary research is exemplary, especially, given several global and regional plans and commitments to improve MNCH in the continent. PMID:27621971

IRB Problems and Solutions in Health Communication Research.

PubMed

King, Carie S Tucker; Bivens, Kristin Marie; Pumroy, Erin; Rauch, Susan; Koerber, Amy

2018-07-01

In this article, we contribute to the current literature on the difficulties that social scientists encounter with IRBs, but with a focus on the distinct challenges that health communication scholars face in dealing with IRBs at their own institutions and elsewhere. Although health communication researchers, like other communication researchers, can expect to face many of the same challenges that their social science colleagues face during the IRB process, the researcher narratives we present in this article suggest that health communication research presents some distinct challenges because the communication interactions that we investigate occur in highly protected, private spaces, including the medical exam room, online patient forums, and electronic health records. To that end, we present a series of examples in which health communication researchers were able to find solutions or workarounds to the challenges they faced in gaining IRB approval for their research. In every case that we present, the researcher had to revise her initial study design to get around the constraints imposed by IRB requirements, and in every case, the researcher reports having experienced points of incommensurability similar to those reported by many other social scientists. In some situations, investigators even express frustration that the IRB's needs and demands superseded those of healthcare professionals and the patients whom they serve. Additionally, in some situations, investigators' understandings of human subjects' protection actually go further to protect patients' privacy and confidentiality than the IRB required. But, in all four cases that we present, the health communication research was ultimately successful.

Use of Highways in the Sky and a virtual pad for landing Head Up Display symbology to enable improved helicopter pilots situation awareness and workload in degraded visual conditions.

PubMed

Stanton, Neville A; Plant, Katherine L; Roberts, Aaron P; Allison, Craig K

2017-12-15

Flight within degraded visual conditions is a great challenge to pilots of rotary-wing craft. Environmental cues typically used to guide interpretation of speed, location and approach can become obscured, forcing the pilots to rely on data available from in-cockpit instrumentation. To ease the task of flight during degraded visual conditions, pilots require easy access to flight critical information. The current study examined the effect of 'Highways in the Sky' symbology and a conformal virtual pad for landing presented using a Head Up Display (HUD) on pilots' workload and situation awareness for both clear and degraded conditions across a series of simulated rotary-wing approach and landings. Results suggest that access to the HUD lead to significant improvements to pilots' situation awareness, especially within degraded visual conditions. Importantly, access to the HUD facilitated pilot awareness in all conditions. Results are discussed in terms of future HUD development. Practitioner Summary: This paper explores the use of a novel Heads Up Display, to facilitate rotary-wing pilots' situation awareness and workload for simulated flights in both clear and degraded visual conditions. Results suggest that access to HUD facilitated pilots' situation awareness, especially when flying in degraded conditions.

Joint search and sensor management for geosynchronous satellites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zatezalo, A.; El-Fallah, A.; Mahler, R.; Mehra, R. K.; Pham, K.

2008-04-01

Joint search and sensor management for space situational awareness presents daunting scientific and practical challenges as it requires a simultaneous search for new, and the catalog update of the current space objects. We demonstrate a new approach to joint search and sensor management by utilizing the Posterior Expected Number of Targets (PENT) as the objective function, an observation model for a space-based EO/IR sensor, and a Probability Hypothesis Density Particle Filter (PHD-PF) tracker. Simulation and results using actual Geosynchronous Satellites are presented.

Advice offered by practitioners of complementary/ alternative medicine: an important ethical issue.

PubMed

Ernst, E

2009-12-01

The current popularity of complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) generates many challenges to medical ethics. The one discussed here is the advice offered by CAM practitioners. Using selected examples, the author tries to demonstrate that some of the advice issued through the popular media or provided by acupuncturists, chiropractors, herbalists, homeopaths, pharmacists, and doctors is misleading or dangerous. This, the author argues, can impinge on the main principle of medical ethics: beneficence, nonmaleficence, and autonomy. We should work toward correcting this deplorable situation.

The Development of Teachers' Responses to Challenging Situations during Interaction Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Talvio, Markus; Lonka, Kirsti; Komulainen, Erkki; Kuusela, Marjo; Lintunen, Taru

2015-01-01

The qualitative changes in teachers' responses in challenging situations were analysed during a four-day Teacher Effectiveness Training (TET) course, which aimed at improving teachers' interpersonal dynamics with pupils, parents and colleagues. The participants were 21 teachers from one elementary and 23 teachers from one secondary school…

Challenges and outlook for the UICC-Asian Regional Office.

PubMed

Akaza, Hideyuki

2013-01-01

At the United Nations High-level Meeting on Non-communicable Disease Prevention and Control in 2011 the link between health and socioeconomic issues was raised, becoming a global political issue. Health equity is one challenge that has hitherto not been addressed directly, although there is a growing shared recognition that cancer in Asia is an urgent social issue. At the UICC-ARO we are working to promote and widen networks of individuals and organizations in Asia and involve them in cooperation for this purpose. As part of our current activities, we are addressing the question of the "Economic burden of cancer in Asian countries: How should we face the current situation? " from a variety of angles and seeking to bring together a wealth of multidisciplinary knowledge about cancer in Asia and its related socioeconomic factors. It is essential to ensure that the real picture of cancer in Asia, which is currently not accurately understood, is conveyed clearly to all concerned, and also that the differences between cancer in Asia and in the West are highlighted.

Tuberculosis control in prisons: current situation and research gaps.

PubMed

Dara, Masoud; Acosta, Colleen D; Melchers, Natalie V S Vinkeles; Al-Darraji, Haider A A; Chorgoliani, Dato; Reyes, Hernan; Centis, Rosella; Sotgiu, Giovanni; D'Ambrosio, Lia; Chadha, Sarabjit S; Migliori, Giovanni Battista

2015-03-01

Tuberculosis (TB) in penitentiary services (prisons) is a major challenge to TB control. This review article describes the challenges that prison systems encounter in TB control and provides solutions for the more efficient use of limited resources based on the three pillars of the post-2015 End TB Strategy. This paper also proposes research priorities for TB control in prisons based on current challenges. Articles (published up to 2011) included in a recent systematic review on TB control in prisons were further reviewed. In addition, relevant articles in English (published 1990 to May 2014) were identified by searching keywords in PubMed and Google Scholar. Article bibliographies and conference abstracts were also hand-searched. Despite being a serious cause of morbidity and mortality among incarcerated populations, many prison systems encounter a variety of challenges that hinder TB control. These include, but are not limited to, insufficient laboratory capacity and diagnostic tools, interrupted supply of medicines, weak integration between civilian and prison TB services, inadequate infection control measures, and low policy priority for prison healthcare. Governmental commitment, partnerships, and sustained financing are needed in order to facilitate improvements in TB control in prisons, which will translate to the wider community. Copyright © 2015 World Health Organization. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Oncologists' and oncology nurses' attitudes and practices towards family involvement in cancer consultations.

PubMed

Laidsaar-Powell, R; Butow, P; Bu, S; Fisher, A; Juraskova, I

2017-01-01

Family members (FMs) regularly attend cancer consultations with patients, may assume an array of roles (e.g. emotional, informational) and their involvement may result in benefits and/or challenges. Little is currently known about how oncology health professionals (HPs) view FMs who accompany a patient in consultations. This study aimed to explore the attitudes and practices of Australian oncologists and oncology nurses regarding family involvement in consultations. Eleven oncologists and 10 nurses from a range of subspecialties and tumour streams participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and qualitatively analysed using framework analysis methods. Five relevant themes were identified: (1) the varied and dynamic nature of family roles during consultations; (2) positivity towards FMs; (3) the benefits of family involvement to the FM themselves; (4) current HP practices to facilitate positive family involvement; and (5) the challenges of family involvement in consultations and HP practices to manage them. Overall, participants held mostly positive attitudes towards family involvement. Although they identified a number of challenges which can arise when family are involved, many noted these situations are the exception, that there are strategies which can help to overcome the challenges, and that the benefits of family involvement typically outweigh the costs. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

"How Can I Help?": Practicing Familial Support through Simulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coughlin, April B.; Dotger, Benjamin H.

2016-01-01

Teachers face numerous challenges in daily practice, including situations that involve the health, safety, and well-being of students and families. When harassment and physical abuse impact K-12 students, these situations pose unexpected challenges to novice teachers working to support their students. In this article, the authors report on a study…

Systematic review of restraint interventions for challenging behaviour among persons with intellectual disabilities: focus on experiences.

PubMed

Heyvaert, Mieke; Saenen, Lore; Maes, Bea; Onghena, Patrick

2015-03-01

This article is the second in a two-part series. Heyvaert et al. focused on the effectiveness of restraint interventions (RIs) for reducing challenging behaviour among persons with intellectual disabilities) in the first article. In this second article, Heyvaert et al. focus on experiences with RIs for challenging behaviour among people with intellectual disabilities. A mixed methods research synthesis involving statistical meta-analysis and qualitative meta-synthesis techniques was applied to synthesize 76 retrieved articles. This second article reports on the qualitative meta-synthesis of 17 articles on experiences with RIs for challenging behaviour among people with intellectual disabilities. The 17 included articles report on important variables relating to the persons receiving RIs, to the persons giving RIs and to their interactions and relationship, as well as variables situated at the meso- and macro-level. The developed model can assist in reflecting on and improving of current RI practices among people with intellectual disabilities. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Leadership challenges in multinational medical peacekeeping operations: Lessons from UNIFIL Hospital.

PubMed

Datta, Rakesh; Khanna, Sangeeta

2017-10-01

Commanding a military multinational and multilingual healthcare facility can be a formidable task with very little margin for error. The authors were in leadership positions of UNIFIL Hospital, unique in its diversity of both staff and clientele. Experience about the challenges faced and methods adopted to overcome them will be shared. Troops from diverse backgrounds differ in their competency, and also in their attitudinal approach to situations. It is imperative for the medical commanders to identify these differences, and work towards harnessing individual strengths to form a cohesive unit. Frequent rotation of team members and thereby difficulty in adapting to new environment makes the tasks more challenging. Challenges can be broadly categorized in those dealing with functional roles (providing medical support) and command and control issues. Linguistic challenges especially in situations where professionals have to work as a coordinated unit remains a major challenge. The threat of medical errors arising out of misunderstandings is very real. Gender sensitization is essential to avoid potential unpleasant situations. Interpersonal conflict can easily go out of hand. The leadership has to be more direct and deliberate relying less on hierarchy and more on direct communication. A strict enforcement of UN standards for equipment and competence, frequent joint medical drills help to overcome interoperability issues and develop mutual confidence. Leadership in multinational UN hospitals is a demanding task with its peculiar set of challenges. A systematic and deliberate approach focused on mutual respect, flexibility and direct leadership can help medical commanders in such situations.

Migrants and Refugees in Europe: Challenges, Experiences and Contributions.

PubMed

Schilling, Tobias; Rauscher, Stephan; Menzel, Christian; Reichenauer, Simon; Müller-Schilling, Martina; Schmid, Stephan; Selgrad, Michael

2017-08-01

Due to the current geopolitical situation more refugees from crisis countries were and will be treated in Europe. In 2015 the number of displaced people reached an unprecedented level, with more than one million crossing into Europe. The migration itself can impair both mental and physical health. Therefore, the provision of medical care for refugees and migrants is a novel and major challenge for the health care systems in Europe. In this article we describe our experiences and contribution in providing medical care for refugees who have newly arrived in Stuttgart, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Furthermore, we report our experiences from a tertiary referral University center in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. We focus on challenges in both the outpatient and the inpatient setting, with a special focus on intensive care patients. In addition, we provide an overview about the spectrum of diseases in this specific patient cohort.

Cognitive appraisals of stereotype threat.

PubMed

Berjot, S; Roland-Levy, C; Girault-Lidvan, N

2011-04-01

Using the cognitive appraisal conceptualisation of the transactional model of stress, the goal was to assess how victims of stereotype threat respond to this situation in terms of primary appraisals (threat/challenge) and to investigate whether those appraisals may mediate the relation between stereotype threat and performance. Results show that, while participants from North Africa living in France did appraise the situation more as a threat and less as a challenge, only challenge appraisal mediated between stereotype threat and performance.

Improving the informed consent process in international collaborative rare disease research: effective consent for effective research

PubMed Central

Gainotti, Sabina; Turner, Cathy; Woods, Simon; Kole, Anna; McCormack, Pauline; Lochmüller, Hanns; Riess, Olaf; Straub, Volker; Posada, Manuel; Taruscio, Domenica; Mascalzoni, Deborah

2016-01-01

The increased international sharing of data in research consortia and the introduction of new technologies for sequencing challenge the informed consent (IC) process, adding complexities that require coordination between research centres worldwide. Rare disease consortia present special challenges since available data and samples may be very limited. Thus, it is especially relevant to ensure the best use of available resources but at the same time protect patients' right to integrity. To achieve this aim, there is an ethical duty to plan in advance the best possible consent procedure in order to address possible ethical and legal hurdles that could hamper research in the future. Therefore, it is especially important to identify key core elements (CEs) to be addressed in the IC documents for international collaborative research in two different situations: (1) new research collections (biobanks and registries) for which information documents can be created according to current guidelines and (2) established collections obtained without IC or with a previous consent that does not cover all CEs. We propose here a strategy to deal with consent in these situations. The principles have been applied and are in current practice within the RD-Connect consortia – a global research infrastructure funded by the European Commission Seventh Framework program but forward looking in terms of issues addressed. However, the principles established, the lessons learned and the implications for future research are of direct relevance to all internationally collaborative rare-disease projects. PMID:26860059

Spain: Promoting the Welfare of Older Adults in the Context of Population Aging

PubMed Central

Serrano, Juan P.; Latorre, José M.; Gatz, Margaret

2014-01-01

Spain is one of the European countries with the most significant societal changes in the 21st century contributing to an aging population, in particular, high life expectancy coupled with low fertility, which will result in a doubling of the old-age dependency ratio. Demographic aging implies important challenges that affect the lives of people, families, the economy, public finances, and the reorganization of the health and social systems. Currently, the older population has become particularly vulnerable due to the economic crisis taking place in Spain, which has brought about the need for new policies and systems to protect older persons. The pension system is under the greatest threat in conjunction with possible changes in the national health care system. This report presents a general view of the main factors that surround and affect older adults in Spain, as well as policies developed by the government in response to the current and future situation. We highlight demographic predictions for the coming decades, quality-of-life indicators, situations of dependency, active aging policies, and the main research programs related to gerontology in Spain. PMID:24632624

Maintaining Sibling Relationships for Children in Foster and Adoptive Placements.

PubMed

James, Sigrid; Monn, Amy R; Palinkas, Lawrence A; Leslie, Laurel K

2008-01-01

To better understand the nature of sibling relationships among children in foster or adoptive placement and the challenges and processes involved in maintaining these relationships, we conducted an exploratory analysis of data collected from semi-structured interviews with caregivers of 14 foster and adopted children in San Diego County. We identified three patterns of placement histories and living situations which appeared to impact the degree of contact maintained with siblings: (1) children who had never lived together and were not currently placed together; (2) children who at some point lived with or were placed together with their siblings, but were now separated from them; and (3) children who had lived with their siblings all their life and were placed together with at least some of their siblings at the time of the interview. Children's current living situations and placement histories, caregivers' experiences and perceptions of feasibility and desirability of sibling contact, and the sibling relationship itself are primary determinants in the development and maintenance of contact between siblings. Implications for child welfare policy and practice are discussed.

Maintaining Sibling Relationships for Children in Foster and Adoptive Placements

PubMed Central

James, Sigrid; Monn, Amy R.; Palinkas, Lawrence A.; Leslie, Laurel K.

2008-01-01

To better understand the nature of sibling relationships among children in foster or adoptive placement and the challenges and processes involved in maintaining these relationships, we conducted an exploratory analysis of data collected from semi-structured interviews with caregivers of 14 foster and adopted children in San Diego County. We identified three patterns of placement histories and living situations which appeared to impact the degree of contact maintained with siblings: (1) children who had never lived together and were not currently placed together; (2) children who at some point lived with or were placed together with their siblings, but were now separated from them; and (3) children who had lived with their siblings all their life and were placed together with at least some of their siblings at the time of the interview. Children’s current living situations and placement histories, caregivers’ experiences and perceptions of feasibility and desirability of sibling contact, and the sibling relationship itself are primary determinants in the development and maintenance of contact between siblings. Implications for child welfare policy and practice are discussed. PMID:19122749

Nutrition status of children in Latin America

PubMed Central

Garmendia, M. L.; Jones‐Smith, J.; Lutter, C. K.; Miranda, J. J.; Pedraza, L. S.; Popkin, B. M.; Ramirez‐Zea, M.; Salvo, D.; Stein, A. D.

2017-01-01

Summary The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rapidly increasing among Latin American children, posing challenges for current healthcare systems and increasing the risk for a wide range of diseases. To understand the factors contributing to childhood obesity in Latin America, this paper reviews the current nutrition status and physical activity situation, the disparities between and within countries and the potential challenges for ensuring adequate nutrition and physical activity. Across the region, children face a dual burden of undernutrition and excess weight. While efforts to address undernutrition have made marked improvements, childhood obesity is on the rise as a result of diets that favour energy‐dense, nutrient‐poor foods and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle. Over the last decade, changes in socioeconomic conditions, urbanization, retail foods and public transportation have all contributed to childhood obesity in the region. Additional research and research capacity are needed to address this growing epidemic, particularly with respect to designing, implementing and evaluating the impact of evidence‐based obesity prevention interventions. PMID:28741907

Miles In Trail (MIT) Restrictions: A Perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kopardekar, Parimal; Green, Steven; Roherty, Tom; Aston, John

2003-01-01

Miles-in-trail restrictions are issued to meet the airport and/or airspace capacity. The purpose of this paper is to review the currently practiced miles-in-trail operations for traffic flow management at a typical en route Air Traffic Control Center. The paper describes roles and considerations of both traffic management coordinators and the controllers in planning, coordination, execution, and monitoring of miles-in-trail restrictions. The paper addresses the type of decisions that traffic management coordinators must make and the different information required to plan and monitor miles-in-trail restrictions. The implications of miles-in-trail restrictions on controller workload are also addressed. Using the Cleveland center as an example, the paper also identified some challenging traffic situations that required miles-in-trail restrictions on a regular basis. The paper is expected to benefit the research and development community as it provides the current challenges in traffic flow management and strengths and weakness of miles-in-trail operations.

Some considerations concerning the challenge of incorporating social variables into epidemiological models of infectious disease transmission.

PubMed

Barnett, Tony; Fournié, Guillaume; Gupta, Sunetra; Seeley, Janet

2015-01-01

Incorporation of 'social' variables into epidemiological models remains a challenge. Too much detail and models cease to be useful; too little and the very notion of infection - a highly social process in human populations - may be considered with little reference to the social. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim proposed that the scientific study of society required identification and study of 'social currents'. Such 'currents' are what we might today describe as 'emergent properties', specifiable variables appertaining to individuals and groups, which represent the perspectives of social actors as they experience the environment in which they live their lives. Here we review the ways in which one particular emergent property, hope, relevant to a range of epidemiological situations, might be used in epidemiological modelling of infectious diseases in human populations. We also indicate how such an approach might be extended to include a range of other potential emergent properties to represent complex social and economic processes bearing on infectious disease transmission.

Current trends in small vocabulary speech recognition for equipment control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doukas, Nikolaos; Bardis, Nikolaos G.

2017-09-01

Speech recognition systems allow human - machine communication to acquire an intuitive nature that approaches the simplicity of inter - human communication. Small vocabulary speech recognition is a subset of the overall speech recognition problem, where only a small number of words need to be recognized. Speaker independent small vocabulary recognition can find significant applications in field equipment used by military personnel. Such equipment may typically be controlled by a small number of commands that need to be given quickly and accurately, under conditions where delicate manual operations are difficult to achieve. This type of application could hence significantly benefit by the use of robust voice operated control components, as they would facilitate the interaction with their users and render it much more reliable in times of crisis. This paper presents current challenges involved in attaining efficient and robust small vocabulary speech recognition. These challenges concern feature selection, classification techniques, speaker diversity and noise effects. A state machine approach is presented that facilitates the voice guidance of different equipment in a variety of situations.

The learning and mentoring experiences of Paralympic coaches.

PubMed

Fairhurst, Katherine E; Bloom, Gordon A; Harvey, William J

2017-04-01

Participation in the Paralympic Games has grown substantially, yet the same growth and development has not occurred with empirical literature for coaching in disability sport. The purpose of the current study was to explore Paralympic coaches' perceptions of their learning and educational experiences, including their formal and informal mentoring opportunities. Six highly successful and experienced Paralympic coaches were individually interviewed in this qualitative study. The interview data were analyzed following Braun and Clarke's guidelines for thematic analysis. Results demonstrated that Paralympic coaches faced several challenges to acquire disability specific coaching knowledge and skills. These challenges led the participants to utilize an array of informal learning situations, such as actively seeking mentoring relationships when they first entered the field. After becoming expert coaches, they gave back to their sport by making mentoring opportunities available for aspiring coaches. The results of the current study address the value and importance of mentoring as a structured source of education and career development for aspiring Paralympic coaches. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health promotion capacity mapping: the Korean situation.

PubMed

Nam, Eun Woo; Engelhardt, Katrin

2007-06-01

Ten years ago the Republic of Korea enacted the National Health Promotion Act, setting the stage for health promotion action in the country. A National Health Promotion Fund was established, financed through tobacco taxes, which is now one of the largest in the world. However, despite abundant financial resources, the infrastructure needed to plan, implement, coordinate and evaluate health promotion efforts is still underdeveloped. Currently, health promotion capacity mapping efforts are emerging in Korea. Two international capacity mapping tools have been used to assess the Korean situation, namely HP-Source and the Health Promotion Capacity Profile, which was developed prior to the sixth Global Conference of Health Promotion, held in August 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand. The article summarizes and discusses the results of the capacity mapping exercise, highlights its challenges and suggest ways to improve the accuracy of health promotion capacity mapping.

VAST 2010 Challenge: Arms Dealings and Pandemics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Grinstein, Georges; Konecni, Shawn; Plaisant, Catherine

2010-10-23

The 5th VAST Challenge consisted of three mini-challenges that involved both intelligence analysis and bioinformatics. Teams could solve one, two or all three mini-challenges and assess the overall situation to enter the Grand Challenge. Mini-challenge one involved text reports about people and events giving information about arms dealers, situations in various countries and linkages between different countries. Mini-challenge two involved hospital admission and death records from various countries providing information about the spread of a world wide pandemic. Mini-challenge three involved genetic data to be used to identify the origin of the pandemic and the most dangerous viral mutations. Themore » Grand Challenge was to determine how these various mini-challenges were connected. As always the goal was to analyze the data and provide novel interactive visualizations useful in the analytic process. We received 58 submissions in total and gave 15 awards.« less

Crossing the Boundary from Music outside to inside of School: Contemporary Pedagogical Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallerstedt, Cecilia; Lindgren, Monica

2016-01-01

Music education in formal settings has the last decades been characterised by informal methods borrowed from outside school. In this study we analyse situations in Swedish secondary school where pupils' experience of music outside school becomes visible in music class. Pedagogical challenges in these situations are identified that concern how to…

Situating and teaching 21st century zoology: revealing pattern in the form and function of animals.

PubMed

Russell, Anthony P

2009-09-01

The current challenges (increasing levels of integration in the biological sciences) facing the teaching of zoology and the structure of the zoology curriculum are explored herein. General context is provided and a more focused scrutiny of the situation in North America is presented. The changing emphases in more broadly-based biological sciences programs in North America are outlined, and their influence on the role of zoology as part of fundamental biological training is considered. The longer term impact of such changes in emphasis on the teaching of zoology is discussed, and the central role that zoology can play in dealing with both science content and science education is advanced. Based upon a focal workshop on the future of the zoology curriculum in Canada, a perspective on the challenges facing curriculum evolution is provided. Extensive curriculum redesign is called for to ensure that zoology provides a broad-scale integrative approach to the understanding of biodiversity in evolutionary, ecological and functional contexts. Barriers to, and drivers of change are identified and the need for collaborative approaches to curricular evolution is emphasized. © 2009 ISZS, Blackwell Publishing and IOZ/CAS.

'I still have no idea why this patient was here': An exploration of the difficulties GP trainees experience when gathering information.

PubMed

Giroldi, Esther; Veldhuijzen, Wemke; de Leve, Tijme; van der Weijden, Trudy; Bueving, Herman; van der Vleuten, Cees

2015-07-01

Collecting information during patient encounters is essential for the delivery of patient-centered care. To obtain insight into areas that require more attention in medical communication training, this study explores what difficulties GP trainees encounter when gathering information. In this phenomenological study, we observed a morning clinic of 15 GP trainees. To explore trainees' experiences with information-gathering, we held brief interviews after every consultation and a lengthier interview directly after the morning clinic. The resulting data were analyzed using template analysis. From trainees' reflections, we distilled five difficulties that trainees experience when gathering information: (1) Goal conflicts; (2) Ineffectiveness of trained communication skills in specific situations; (3) Trainees' distress hampers open communication; (4) Untrustworthy information; (5) Tunnel vision. Information-gathering is difficult for GP trainees. Current generic communication skills training does not seem to support trainees sufficiently to handle effectively the challenges they encounter during consultations. Medical communication training needs to support trainees in handling their goal-conflicts and feelings that hamper information-gathering, while also providing them with communication strategies adapted to handling specific challenging situations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

E-WIN Project 2016: Evaluating the Current Gender Situation in Neurosurgery Across Europe-An Interactive, Multiple-Level Survey.

PubMed

Steklacova, Anna; Bradac, Ondrej; de Lacy, Patricia; Benes, Vladimir

2017-08-01

The proportion of women among neurosurgeons appears to be growing worldwide with time. Official data concerning the current situation across Europe have not yet been published. Thus, there are still concerns about gender inequality. The European Women in Neurosurgery Project 2016 was designed to recognize the current situation across Europe. The office holders of the national neurosurgical societies of 39 countries forming the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies were contacted to provide data stating the proportion of women in neurosurgery. Obtained data were supplied with the results of an online survey. The response rate of national office holders was 90%. The number of reported neurosurgeons was 12,985, and overall proportion of women represented was 12%. Two hundred thirty-seven responses to online questionnaire were taken into account. The overall proportion of female respondents was 30%. There was no intergender variability in responses regarding amount of working time per week, exposure to surgeries, or administrative work. Male respondents reported dedicating significantly more time to scientific work and feeling more confident dictating own career direction. Female respondents reported being less often married, having fewer children, a stronger perception of gender significance level, and a higher appreciation of personal qualities. Neurosurgery is a challenging field of medicine. The results of our survey did not imply an overall feeling of gender inequality among European respondents, although women believe that the gender issue to be more important than men do and that they have to sacrifice more of their personal lives. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Human computer interactions in next-generation of aircraft smart navigation management systems: task analysis and architecture under an agent-oriented methodological approach.

PubMed

Canino-Rodríguez, José M; García-Herrero, Jesús; Besada-Portas, Juan; Ravelo-García, Antonio G; Travieso-González, Carlos; Alonso-Hernández, Jesús B

2015-03-04

The limited efficiency of current air traffic systems will require a next-generation of Smart Air Traffic System (SATS) that relies on current technological advances. This challenge means a transition toward a new navigation and air-traffic procedures paradigm, where pilots and air traffic controllers perform and coordinate their activities according to new roles and technological supports. The design of new Human-Computer Interactions (HCI) for performing these activities is a key element of SATS. However efforts for developing such tools need to be inspired on a parallel characterization of hypothetical air traffic scenarios compatible with current ones. This paper is focused on airborne HCI into SATS where cockpit inputs came from aircraft navigation systems, surrounding traffic situation, controllers' indications, etc. So the HCI is intended to enhance situation awareness and decision-making through pilot cockpit. This work approach considers SATS as a system distributed on a large-scale with uncertainty in a dynamic environment. Therefore, a multi-agent systems based approach is well suited for modeling such an environment. We demonstrate that current methodologies for designing multi-agent systems are a useful tool to characterize HCI. We specifically illustrate how the selected methodological approach provides enough guidelines to obtain a cockpit HCI design that complies with future SATS specifications.

Human Computer Interactions in Next-Generation of Aircraft Smart Navigation Management Systems: Task Analysis and Architecture under an Agent-Oriented Methodological Approach

PubMed Central

Canino-Rodríguez, José M.; García-Herrero, Jesús; Besada-Portas, Juan; Ravelo-García, Antonio G.; Travieso-González, Carlos; Alonso-Hernández, Jesús B.

2015-01-01

The limited efficiency of current air traffic systems will require a next-generation of Smart Air Traffic System (SATS) that relies on current technological advances. This challenge means a transition toward a new navigation and air-traffic procedures paradigm, where pilots and air traffic controllers perform and coordinate their activities according to new roles and technological supports. The design of new Human-Computer Interactions (HCI) for performing these activities is a key element of SATS. However efforts for developing such tools need to be inspired on a parallel characterization of hypothetical air traffic scenarios compatible with current ones. This paper is focused on airborne HCI into SATS where cockpit inputs came from aircraft navigation systems, surrounding traffic situation, controllers’ indications, etc. So the HCI is intended to enhance situation awareness and decision-making through pilot cockpit. This work approach considers SATS as a system distributed on a large-scale with uncertainty in a dynamic environment. Therefore, a multi-agent systems based approach is well suited for modeling such an environment. We demonstrate that current methodologies for designing multi-agent systems are a useful tool to characterize HCI. We specifically illustrate how the selected methodological approach provides enough guidelines to obtain a cockpit HCI design that complies with future SATS specifications. PMID:25746092

Nursing and pharmacy students' use of emotionally intelligent behaviours to manage challenging interpersonal situations with staff during clinical placement: A qualitative study.

PubMed

McCloughen, Andrea; Foster, Kim

2018-07-01

To identify challenging interpersonal interactions experienced by nursing and pharmacy students during clinical placement, and strategies used to manage those situations. Healthcare students and staff experience elevated stress when exposed to dynamic clinical environments, complex care and challenging professional relationships. Emotionally intelligent behaviours are associated with appropriate recognition and management of emotions evoked by stressful experiences and development of effective relationships. Nursing and pharmacy students' use of emotionally intelligent behaviours to manage challenging interpersonal situations is not well known. A qualitative design, using semi-structured interviews to explore experiences of challenging interpersonal situations during clinical placement (Phase two of a larger mixed-methods study). Final-year Australian university nursing and pharmacy students (n = 20) were purposefully recruited using a range of Emotional Intelligence scores (derived in Phase one), measured using the GENOS Emotional intelligence Inventory (concise version). Challenging interpersonal situations involving student-staff and intrastaff conflict, discourteous behaviour and criticism occurred during clinical placement. Students used personal and relational strategies, incorporating emotionally intelligent behaviours, to manage these encounters. Strategies included reflecting and reframing, being calm, controlling discomfort and expressing emotions appropriately. Emotionally intelligent behaviours are effective to manage stressful interpersonal interactions. Methods for strengthening these behaviours should be integrated into education of nursing and pharmacy students and qualified professionals. Education within the clinical/workplace environment can incorporate key interpersonal skills of collaboration, social interaction and reflection, while also attending to sociocultural contexts of the healthcare setting. Students and staff are frequently exposed to stressful clinical environments and challenging interpersonal encounters within healthcare settings. Use of emotionally intelligent behaviours to recognise and effectively manage these encounters may contribute to greater stress tolerance and enhanced professional relationships. Nursing and pharmacy students, and their qualified counterparts, need to be educated to strengthen their emotional intelligence skills. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Access Control for Cooperation Systems Based on Group Situation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Minsoo; Joshi, James B. D.; Kim, Minkoo

Cooperation systems characterize many emerging environments such as ubiquitous and pervasive systems. Agent based cooperation systems have been proposed in the literature to address challenges of such emerging application environments. A key aspect of such agent based cooperation system is the group situation that changes dynamically and governs the requirements of the cooperation. While individual agent context is important, the overall cooperation behavior is more driven by the group context because of relationships and interactions between agents. Dynamic access control based on group situation is a crucial challenge in such cooperation systems. In this paper we propose a dynamic role based access control model for cooperation systems based on group situation. The model emphasizes capability based agent to role mapping and group situation based permission assignment to allow capturing dynamic access policies that evolve continuously.

Mental health care in Nepal: current situation and challenges for development of a district mental health care plan.

PubMed

Luitel, Nagendra P; Jordans, Mark Jd; Adhikari, Anup; Upadhaya, Nawaraj; Hanlon, Charlotte; Lund, Crick; Komproe, Ivan H

2015-01-01

Globally mental health problems are a serious public health concern. Currently four out of five people with severe mental illness in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) receive no effective treatment. There is an urgent need to address this enormous treatment gap. Changing the focus of specialist mental health workers (psychiatrists and psychologists) from only service delivery to also designing and managing mental health services; building clinical capacity of the primary health care (PHC) workers, and providing supervision and quality assurance of mental health services may help in scaling up mental health services in LMICs. Little is known however, about the mental health policy and services context for these strategies in fragile-state settings, such as Nepal. A standard situation analysis tool was developed by the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME) consortium to systematically analyze and describe the current gaps in mental health care in Nepal, in order to inform the development of a district level mental health care plan (MHCP). It comprised six sections; general information (e.g. population, socio-economic conditions); mental health policies and plans; mental health treatment coverage; district health services; and community services. Data was obtained from secondary sources, including scientific publications, reports, project documents and hospital records. Mental health policy exists in Nepal, having been adopted in 1997, but implementation of the policy framework has yet to begin. In common with other LMICs, the budget allocated for mental health is minimal. Mental health services are concentrated in the big cities, with 0.22 psychiatrists and 0.06 psychologists per 100,000 population. The key challenges experienced in developing a district level MHCP included, overburdened health workers, lack of psychotropic medicines in the PHC, lack of mental health supervision in the existing system, and lack of a coordinating body in the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP). Strategies to overcome these challenges included involvement of MoHP in the process, especially by providing psychotropic medicines and appointing a senior level officer to facilitate project activities, and collaboration with National Health Training Centers (NHTC) in training programs. This study describes many challenges facing mental health care in Nepal. Most of these challenges are not new, yet this study contributes to our understanding of these difficulties by outlining the national and district level factors that have a direct influence on the development of a district level mental health care plan.

Counselling and psychotherapy services in more developed and developing regions in China: a comparative investigation of practitioners and current service delivery.

PubMed

Qian, Mingyi; Chen, Ruiyun; Chen, Hong; Hu, Sherlyn; Zhong, Jie; Yao, Ping; Yi, Chunli

2012-09-01

Counselling and psychotherapy services have taken off with uneven speed across China since the 1980s after several years of stagnation. Researchers have attributed socioeconomic development (or the lack thereof) and regional differences as main barriers to the development in this field. However, little is known today about the status of counselling and psychotherapy services across China. To investigate and compare the current situation of practitioners and service delivery of counselling and psychotherapy in more developed and developing regions across China. Convenience sampling methods from counselling and psychological services organizations in 29 Chinese provinces, municipalities or autonomous regions were used to recruit 1,543 participants to take part in the investigation by completing a 93-item self-designed questionnaire. Organizations in developing and more developed regions in China varied in their current practices and employment situation of their practitioners, and in the quality of service delivery. However, counselling and psychotherapy offered at universities in both types of regions are of similar quality. In China, the level of socioeconomic development significantly influences the development of professional counselling and psychotherapy services. Important progress is evident in the field; however, the lack of systematic training and the scarcity of professional practitioners remain a challenge.

Water Utility Management Strategies in Turkey: The current situation and the challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alp, E.; Aksoy, M. N.; Koçer, B.

2013-12-01

As the effects of climate change becomes more prominent, current challenges related to water and wastewater management is becoming more serious. Providing water that satisfies environmental and safety standards in terms of quantity and quality is needed to maintain human life without compromising the need of future generations. Besides providing safe and affordable water, necessary treatment should be achieved according to several important factors such as receiving body standards, discharge standards, water reuse options. Therefore, management of water becomes more crucial than ever that states have to provide accessibility of safe water with affordable cost to its citizens with the means of effective utility management, including water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, water supply facilities and water distribution systems. Water utilities encounter with several challenges related to cost, infrastructure, population, legislation, workforce and resource. This study aims to determine the current situation and the necessary strategies to improve utility management in Turkish municipalities in a sustainable manner. US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has formed a tool on effective utility management that assists utilities to provide a solution for both current and future challenges. In this study, we used EPA's guidelines and developed a survey consists of 60 questions under 10 sub-topics (Product Quality, Employee & Leadership Development, Stakeholder Understanding & Support, Operational Optimization, Infrastructure Stability, Financial Viability, Community Sustainability, Customer Satisfaction, Operational Resiliency, and Water Resource Adequacy). This survey was sent to the managers of 25 metropolitan municipalities in Turkey to assess the current condition of municipalities. After the evaluation of the survey results for each topic, including the importance given by managers, facilities were rated according to their level of achievement. The scores were given for Rate Achievement from 1 to 5 and Rank Importance from 1 to 10 to the survey outcomes for each topic. Then, rating and ranking matrix was constructed according to score ranges. Results show that Product Quality, Stakeholder Understanding & Support, Infrastructure Stability and Customer Satisfaction are the major topics that needs to be improved according to the utility managers in Turkey. According to the outcomes of the study, water losses and unbilled unmetered consumption of water appeared to be the most important issues with the utility management. The utility managers also think there is still room for improvement to satisfy the needs of the users. Even though the rehabilitation of the infrastructure is a costly investment, it can be compensated with the help of the increased revenues as a result of improvement in water loss and unbilled water use. Suggestions given as a result of this study aim to aid decision makers and local authorities to overcome the significant problems faced during management and to achieve a sustainable utility management.

Futility Disputes: A Review of the Literature and Proposed Model for Dispute Navigation Through Trust Building.

PubMed

Leland, Brian D; Torke, Alexia M; Wocial, Lucia D; Helft, Paul R

2017-10-01

Futility disputes in the intensive care unit setting have received significant attention in the literature over the past several years. Although the idea of improving communication in an attempt to resolve these challenging situations has been regularly discussed, the concept and role of trust building as the means by which communication improves and disputes are best navigated is largely absent. We take this opportunity to review the current literature on futility disputes and argue the important role of broken trust in these encounters, highlighting current evidence establishing the necessity and utility of trust in both medical decision-making and effective communication. Finally, we propose a futility dispute navigation model built upon improved communication through trust building.

Teaching undergraduate nursing students about environmental health: addressing public health issues through simulation.

PubMed

Stanley, Mary Jo; Rojas, Deb

2014-01-01

Schools of nursing are challenged to find clinical placements in public health settings. Use of simulation can address situations unique to public health, with attention to specific concerns, such as environmental health. Environmental health is an integral part of public health nursing and is a standard of professional practice. Current simulations focus on acute care situations, offering limited scenarios with a public health perspective and excluding environmental health. This study's simulation scenario was created to enhance nursing students' understanding of public health concepts within an environmental health context. Outcomes from the simulation include the need for integration of environmental issues in public health teaching. Students stated that this scenario provided a broader understanding of the environmental influences that can affect the client's and family's health. This scenario fills a void in simulation content, while providing an interactive teaching and learning strategy to help students to apply knowledge to practice. Copyright 2014, SLACK Incorporated.

[The current situation of acupuncture definition in international organizations and legislation of some countries].

PubMed

Sun, Yujie; Liu, Baoyan; He, Liyun; Wu, Xiaodong; Liu, Jia

2017-12-12

Acupuncture is developing rapidly in the world, and more attention is paid on acupuncture in various countries. Because of the cultural differences, there are different views on acupuncture between China and the west, which has brought influence and challenge to the development of acupuncture in the world. Acupuncture-related research is becoming increasingly extensive and complex, but the definition of acupuncture is lack of unified standards. The definition of acupuncture is in urgent need. Based on the analysis of acupuncture definition in the 201 international organizations of 48 countries on five continents and legislation of representative countries, this paper summarized the development status of acupuncture in foreign countries, and put forward that the definition of acupuncture should adopt the model of small connotation and large extension, integrate discipline superiority, expand the scope of acupuncture, and focus on the overall situation.

The Farm Credit Situation: Implications for Agricultural Policy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bullock, J. Bruce

1986-01-01

Examines issues regarding current farm finance situation from a public policy perspective: origins and causes of current situation, available policy options for dealing with the problems, and impacts of policy options. (NEC)

Challenges facing European agriculture and possible biotechnological solutions.

PubMed

Ricroch, Agnès; Harwood, Wendy; Svobodová, Zdeňka; Sági, László; Hundleby, Penelope; Badea, Elena Marcela; Rosca, Ioan; Cruz, Gabriela; Salema Fevereiro, Manuel Pedro; Marfà Riera, Victoria; Jansson, Stefan; Morandini, Piero; Bojinov, Bojin; Cetiner, Selim; Custers, René; Schrader, Uwe; Jacobsen, Hans-Joerg; Martin-Laffon, Jacqueline; Boisron, Audrey; Kuntz, Marcel

2016-10-01

Agriculture faces many challenges to maximize yields while it is required to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. In the present study, we analyze the major agricultural challenges identified by European farmers (primarily related to biotic stresses) in 13 countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, UK and Turkey, for nine major crops (barley, beet, grapevine, maize, oilseed rape, olive, potato, sunflower and wheat). Most biotic stresses (BSs) are related to fungi or insects, but viral diseases, bacterial diseases and even parasitic plants have an important impact on yield and harvest quality. We examine how these challenges have been addressed by public and private research sectors, using either conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection, transgenesis, cisgenesis, RNAi technology or mutagenesis. Both national surveys and scientific literature analysis followed by text mining were employed to evaluate genetic engineering (GE) and non-GE approaches. This is the first report of text mining of the scientific literature on plant breeding and agricultural biotechnology research. For the nine major crops in Europe, 128 BS challenges were identified with 40% of these addressed neither in the scientific literature nor in recent European public research programs. We found evidence that the private sector was addressing only a few of these "neglected" challenges. Consequently, there are considerable gaps between farmer's needs and current breeding and biotechnology research. We also provide evidence that the current political situation in certain European countries is an impediment to GE research in order to address these agricultural challenges in the future. This study should also contribute to the decision-making process on future pertinent international consortia to fill the identified research gaps.

Perspective: A new model of leadership performance in health care.

PubMed

Souba, Wiley

2011-10-01

Current leadership models are based largely on concepts and explanations, which provide limited access to the being and actions of an effective leader in health care. Rather than teaching leadership from a theoretical vantage point, the ontological perspective teaches leadership as it is lived and experienced. When one exercises leadership "as lived," concurrently informed by theories, one performs at one's best. A distinctive feature of the ontological approach resides in its capacity to disclose human ways of being and acting that limit our freedom to lead effectively as our natural self-expression. Ontological leadership maintains that our worldviews and mental maps affect the way we lead and are shaped by and accessible through language--hence, to lead more effectively, mastery of a new conversational domain of leadership is required. This emerging model of leadership performance reveals that (1) our actions as leaders are correlated with the way in which the leadership situation we are dealing with occurs for us, and (2) this "occurring" is shaped by the context we bring to that situation. Master leaders use language to recontextualize their leadership challenges so that their naturally correlated ways of being and acting can emerge, resulting in effective leadership. When leaders linguistically unveil limiting contexts, they are freed up to create new contexts that shift the way leadership challenges occur for them. This provides leaders--physicians, scientists, educators, executives--with new opportunity sets (previously unavailable) for exercising exemplary leadership. The ontological approach to leadership offers a powerful framework for tackling health care's toughest challenges.

Space Situational Awareness of Large Numbers of Payloads From a Single Deployment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Segerman, A.; Byers, J.; Emmert, J.; Nicholas, A.

2014-09-01

The nearly simultaneous deployment of a large number of payloads from a single vehicle presents a new challenge for space object catalog maintenance and space situational awareness (SSA). Following two cubesat deployments last November, it took five weeks to catalog the resulting 64 orbits. The upcoming Kicksat mission will present an even greater SSA challenge, with its deployment of 128 chip-sized picosats. Although all of these deployments are in short-lived orbits, future deployments will inevitably occur at higher altitudes, with a longer term threat of collision with active spacecraft. With such deployments, individual scientific payload operators require rapid precise knowledge of their satellites' locations. Following the first November launch, the cataloguing did not initially associate a payload with each orbit, leaving this to the satellite operators. For short duration missions, the time required to identify an experiment's specific orbit may easily be a large fraction of the spacecraft's lifetime. For a Kicksat-type deployment, present tracking cannot collect enough observations to catalog each small object. The current approach is to treat the chip cloud as a single catalog object. However, the cloud dissipates into multiple subclouds and, ultimately, tiny groups of untrackable chips. One response to this challenge may be to mandate installation of a transponder on each spacecraft. Directional transponder transmission detections could be used as angle observations for orbit cataloguing. Of course, such an approach would only be employable with cooperative spacecraft. In other cases, a probabilistic association approach may be useful, with the goal being to establish the probability of an element being at a given point in space. This would permit more reliable assessment of the probability of collision of active spacecraft with any cloud element. This paper surveys the cataloguing challenges presented by large scale deployments of small spacecraft, examining current methods. Potential new approaches are discussed, including simulations to evaluate their utility. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for R&E, via the Data-to-Decisions program.

[Situational low self-esteem in pregnant women: an analysis of accuracy].

PubMed

Cavalcante, Joyce Carolle Bezerra; de Sousa, Vanessa Emille Carvalho; Lopes, Marcos Venícios de Oliveira

2012-01-01

To investigate the accuracy of defining characteristics of Situational low self-esteem we developed a cross-sectional study, with 52 pregnant women assisted in a family centre. The NANDA-I taxonomy was used as well as the Rosenberg's scale. The diagnosis was present in 32.7% of the sample and all characteristics presented statistical significance, except "Reports verbally situational challenge to its own value". The characteristics "Indecisive behavior" and "Helplessness expressions" had 82.35% of sensitivity. On the other hand, the characteristics "Expression of feelings of worthlessness" and "Reports verbally situational challenge to its own value" were the more specific, with 94.29% of specificity. These results can contribute with the nursing practice because the identification of accurate characteristics is essential to a secure inference.

Robust speech perception: Recognize the familiar, generalize to the similar, and adapt to the novel

PubMed Central

Kleinschmidt, Dave F.; Jaeger, T. Florian

2016-01-01

Successful speech perception requires that listeners map the acoustic signal to linguistic categories. These mappings are not only probabilistic, but change depending on the situation. For example, one talker’s /p/ might be physically indistinguishable from another talker’s /b/ (cf. lack of invariance). We characterize the computational problem posed by such a subjectively non-stationary world and propose that the speech perception system overcomes this challenge by (1) recognizing previously encountered situations, (2) generalizing to other situations based on previous similar experience, and (3) adapting to novel situations. We formalize this proposal in the ideal adapter framework: (1) to (3) can be understood as inference under uncertainty about the appropriate generative model for the current talker, thereby facilitating robust speech perception despite the lack of invariance. We focus on two critical aspects of the ideal adapter. First, in situations that clearly deviate from previous experience, listeners need to adapt. We develop a distributional (belief-updating) learning model of incremental adaptation. The model provides a good fit against known and novel phonetic adaptation data, including perceptual recalibration and selective adaptation. Second, robust speech recognition requires listeners learn to represent the structured component of cross-situation variability in the speech signal. We discuss how these two aspects of the ideal adapter provide a unifying explanation for adaptation, talker-specificity, and generalization across talkers and groups of talkers (e.g., accents and dialects). The ideal adapter provides a guiding framework for future investigations into speech perception and adaptation, and more broadly language comprehension. PMID:25844873

The ISB model (infrastructure, service, behaviour): a tool for waste practitioners.

PubMed

Timlett, R; Williams, I D

2011-06-01

In response to the EU Landfill Directive and the challenge of mitigating climate change, the UK government (nationally and locally) must develop strategies and policies to reduce, recycle, compost and recover waste. Best practice services that yield high recycling rates, such as alternate weekly collections, are now largely mainstream in suitable areas. However, national recycling performance is short of what is needed; policy makers must look for innovative ways to meet challenging recycling targets. Increasingly, local authorities are using behaviour change interventions to encourage the public to recycle; these tend to be based on the premise that an individuals' behaviour is predetermined by their values. In practice, this has led to a host of initiatives that attempt to change individuals' behaviour without addressing situational barriers. In this paper, we argue that that a behaviour-centric approach has limited effectiveness. Using an analysis of the literature and studies that investigated recycling participation in the city of Portsmouth, we have identified three significant clusters that can facilitate effective recycling: infrastructure, service and behaviour (ISB). We present the ISB model - a tool that can be used by waste practitioners when planning interventions to maximise recycling to better understand the situation and context for behaviour. Analysis using the ISB model suggests that current best practice, "business as usual" interventions could realistically achieve a national recycling rate of 50%. If the UK is to move towards zero waste, policy makers must look "upstream" for interventions that change the situational landscape. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[School escorts in inclusive education- the current situation in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg].

PubMed

Henn, Katharina; Thurn, Leonore; Besier, Tanja; Künster, Anne K; Fegert, Jörg M; Ziegenhain, Ute

2014-11-01

In the context of inclusive education, so-called «Schulbegleiter» (school escorts) have been installed to assist children with special needs. However, adequate conceptions of their role are lacking, and no provisions exist describing the exact tasks and duties of these school escorts. This article presents data on a statewide empirical study and provides information on the professional background, qualifications, and assignments of such escorts as well as the nature of the assisted children in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The data were collected in nearly 50 % of all schools providing general education in Baden-Württemberg, and a total of 526 school escorts completed a questionnaire on their work. Children with special needs who received such assistance were aged 6 to 19 years (M = 10.4) and had a mental disorder in nearly three-fourths of all cases, with autism spectrum disorders being most common (59.4 %). The most frequent assignments of the escorts were providing practical assistance during classes and mobilizing the child as well as providing direct support in emotionally challenging situations. Such escorts can make a significant contribution to the inclusive education of disabled children. They do, however, need an adequate qualification and practical competences to meet the diverse challenges of children with special needs. Child and adolescent psychiatrists are supposed to stay involved in the process, not only by planning interventions, but also during the course of inclusive education itself. Thus, the emotional situation and adjustment of included children with mental disorders over time must be monitored adequately.

The challenges of reshaping disease specific and care oriented community based services towards comprehensive goals: a situation appraisal in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

PubMed

Schneider, Helen; Schaay, Nikki; Dudley, Lilian; Goliath, Charlyn; Qukula, Tobeka

2015-09-30

Similar to other countries in the region, South Africa is currently reorienting a loosely structured and highly diverse community care system that evolved around HIV and TB, into a formalized, comprehensive and integrated primary health care outreach programme, based on community health workers (CHWs). While the difficulties of establishing national CHW programmes are well described, the reshaping of disease specific and care oriented community services, based outside the formal health system, poses particular challenges. This paper is an in-depth case study of the challenges of implementing reforms to community based services (CBS) in one province of South Africa. A multi-method situation appraisal of CBS in the Western Cape Province was conducted over eight months in close collaboration with provincial stakeholders. The appraisal mapped the roles and service delivery, human resource, financing and governance arrangements of an extensive non-governmental organisation (NGO) contracted and CHW based service delivery infrastructure that emerged over 15-20 years in this province. It also gathered the perspectives of a wide range of actors - including communities, users, NGOs, PHC providers and managers - on the current state and future visions of CBS. While there was wide support for new approaches to CBS, there are a number of challenges to achieving this. Although largely government funded, the community based delivery platform remains marginal to the formal public primary health care (PHC) and district health systems. CHW roles evolved from a system of home based care and are limited in scope. There is a high turnover of cadres, and support systems (supervision, monitoring, financing, training), coordination between CHWs, NGOs and PHC facilities, and sub-district capacity for planning and management of CBS are all poorly developed. Reorienting community based services that have their origins in care responses to HIV and TB presents an inter-related set of resource mobilisation, system design and governance challenges. These include not only formalising community based teams themselves, but also the forging of new roles, relationships and mind-sets within the primary health care system, and creating greater capacity for contracting and engaging a plural set of actors - government, NGO and community - at district and sub-district level.

Challenges created by data dissemination and access restrictions when attempting to address community concerns: individual privacy versus public wellbeing.

PubMed

Colquhoun, Amy; Aplin, Laura; Geary, Janis; Goodman, Karen J; Hatcher, Juanita

2012-05-08

Population health data are vital for the identification of public health problems and the development of public health strategies. Challenges arise when attempts are made to disseminate or access anonymised data that are deemed to be potentially identifiable. In these situations, there is debate about whether the protection of an individual's privacy outweighs potentially beneficial public health initiatives developed using potentially identifiable information. While these issues have an impact at planning and policy levels, they pose a particular dilemma when attempting to examine and address community concerns about a specific health problem. Research currently underway in northern Canadian communities on the frequency of Helicobacter pylori infection and associated diseases, such as stomach cancer, is used in this article to illustrate the challenges that data controls create on the ability of researchers and health officials to address community concerns. Barriers are faced by public health professionals and researchers when endeavouring to address community concerns; specifically, provincial cancer surveillance departments and community-driven participatory research groups face challenges related to data release or access that inhibit their ability to effectively address community enquiries. The resulting consequences include a limited ability to address misinformation or to alleviate concerns when dealing with health problems in small communities. The development of communication tools and building of trusting relationships are essential components of a successful investigation into community health concerns. It may also be important to consider that public wellbeing may outweigh the value of individual privacy in these situations. As such, a re-evaluation of data disclosure policies that are applicable in these circumstances should be considered.

The current situation in education and training of health-care professionals across Africa to optimise the delivery of palliative care for cancer patients

PubMed Central

Rawlinson, FM; Gwyther, L; Kiyange, F; Luyirika, E; Meiring, M; Downing, J

2014-01-01

The need for palliative care education remains vital to contribute to the quality of life of patients, both adults and children, with cancer in Africa. The number of patients with cancer continues to rise, and with them the burden of palliative care needs. Palliative care has been present in Africa for nearly four decades, and a number of services are developing in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, the needs of cancer patients remain a challenge. Education and training initiatives have developed throughout this time, using a combination of educational methods, including, more recently, e-learning initiatives. The role of international and national organisations in supporting education has been pivotal in developing models of education and training that are robust, sustainable, and affordable. Developing a material for education and professional development needs to continue in close collaboration with that already in production in order to optimise available resources. Seeking ways to evaluate programmes in terms of their impact on patient care remains an important part of programme delivery. This article reviews the current situation. PMID:25624873

Public and Stakeholder Engagement and the Built Environment: a Review.

PubMed

Leyden, Kevin M; Slevin, Amanda; Grey, Thomas; Hynes, Mike; Frisbaek, Fanney; Silke, Richard

2017-09-01

We review 50 articles from 2015 and 2016 that focus upon public and stakeholder engagement as it pertains to the built environment. Our purpose is to understand the current state of the literature and approaches being used to better enable public and stakeholder engagement. As part of this review, we consider whether recent digital and mobile technologies have enabled advances for stakeholder and public participation. The literature suggests some positive and some challenging developments. Researchers clearly suggest that most policy-makers and planners understand, and to some extent, aspire toward enabling more inclusive participatory planning processes. That said, there is far less consensus as to how to make meaningful inclusive participatory processes possible even with digital, as well as more traditional, tools. This lack of consensus is true across all academic disciplines reviewed. We discuss these issues as well as current solutions offered by many scholars. We find that no single solution can be applied to different situations, as contextual factors create different problems in different situations, and that the participation process itself can create biases that can-intentionally or unintentionally-benefit some participants over others. We conclude with a series of questions for practitioners and researchers to consider when evaluating inclusive engagement.

The Problem of “Just for Fun”: Patterns of Use Situations among Active Club Drug Users

PubMed Central

Starks, Tyrel J.; Golub, Sarit; Kelly, Brian C.; Parsons, Jeffrey T.

2010-01-01

Existing research has demonstrated the significance of situational antecedents to substance use. The current study used a cluster analytic approach to identify groups of club drug users who report using substances in similar situations (assessed by the Inventory of Drug Taking Situations) with longitudinal data from 400 active drug users. A three-cluster solution emerged in baseline data and was replicated in 12-month follow-up data. Groups were identified as Situationally Restricted, Pleasure Driven, and Situationally Broad users. Group differences were observed on measures of mental health, attitudes towards substance use, amount of substance use, and rates of substance dependence. Cluster membership predicted substance dependence after controlling for past dependence, current use, and current depression/anxiety. PMID:20696530

Is the "flipped" pedagogical model the answer to the challenges of rural nursing education?: A discussion paper?

PubMed

Anolak, Helena; Coleman, Andrew; Sugden, Paul

2018-07-01

Rural Australian health services face significant challenges such as aging populations, access and retention of services and health practitioners as well as difficulties with staff training due to geographic isolation. Educational pedagogy, through a 'flipped' or 'flipped' classroom method has become popular in nursing literature whereby discussion surrounding its effectiveness, ability to increase performance, address learning outcomes and resolve the education-clinical practice divide is currently being explored. Several reviews that look specifically at the validity and implementation of the flipped classroom pedagogy into nursing education demonstrate a need for further scientific research. Current literature examines the in-class on campus implementation of the methodology but rarely does it consider the advantages or ways of implementing such a method in a rural off campus nursing learning environment. The use of technology is not the solution unless supported by interaction to develop practical situational skills. The authors consider advantages and disadvantages and identify central problems for the effective implementation of 'flipped' in off-campus rural nursing education. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nutrition status of children in Latin America.

PubMed

Corvalán, C; Garmendia, M L; Jones-Smith, J; Lutter, C K; Miranda, J J; Pedraza, L S; Popkin, B M; Ramirez-Zea, M; Salvo, D; Stein, A D

2017-07-01

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rapidly increasing among Latin American children, posing challenges for current healthcare systems and increasing the risk for a wide range of diseases. To understand the factors contributing to childhood obesity in Latin America, this paper reviews the current nutrition status and physical activity situation, the disparities between and within countries and the potential challenges for ensuring adequate nutrition and physical activity. Across the region, children face a dual burden of undernutrition and excess weight. While efforts to address undernutrition have made marked improvements, childhood obesity is on the rise as a result of diets that favour energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle. Over the last decade, changes in socioeconomic conditions, urbanization, retail foods and public transportation have all contributed to childhood obesity in the region. Additional research and research capacity are needed to address this growing epidemic, particularly with respect to designing, implementing and evaluating the impact of evidence-based obesity prevention interventions. © 2017 The Authors. Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of World Obesity.

Addiction research centres and the nurturing of creativity. Monitoring the European drug situation: the ongoing challenge for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

PubMed

Griffiths, Paul; Mounteney, Jane; Lopez, Dominique; Zobel, Frank; Götz, Wolfgang

2012-02-01

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is the designated hub for drug-related information in the European Union. The organization's role is to provide the European Union (EU) and its Member States with a factual overview of European drug problems and a common information framework to support the drugs debate. In order to achieve its mission, the EMCDDA coordinates and relies on a network of 30 national monitoring centres, the Reitox National Focal Points. The Centre publishes on a wide range of drug-related topics, across epidemiology, interventions, laws and policies. Every November, the EMCDDA publishes its Annual Report, providing a yearly update on the European drug situation, translated into 23 EU languages. In line with its founding regulation, the EMCDDA has a role acting as an interface between the worlds of science and policy. While not a research centre in the formal sense, the results the Centre generates serve as catalysts for new research questions and help to identify priorities. Current challenges facing the agency include continuing to increase scientific standards while maintaining a strong institutional role, as well as supporting European efforts to identify, share and codify best practice in the drugs field. © 2011 EMCDDA.

Cooperative urban mining in Brazil: Collective practices in selective household waste collection and recycling.

PubMed

Gutberlet, J

2015-11-01

Solid waste is a major urban challenge worldwide and reclaiming the resources embedded in waste streams, involving organized recyclers, is a smart response to it. Informal and organized recyclers, mostly in the global south, already act as important urban miners in resource recovery. The paper describes the complex operations of recycling cooperatives and draws attention to their economic, environmental, and social contributions. A detailed discussion based on empirical data from the recycling network COOPCENT-ABC in metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil, contextualizes this form of urban mining. The analysis is situated within Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and Ecological Economy (EE) theory. Current challenges related to planning, public policy, and the implementation of cooperative recycling are analysed on the level of individual recyclers, cooperatives, municipalities and internationally. There are still many hurdles for the informal, organized recycling sector to become recognized as a key player in efficient material separation and to up-scale these activities for an effective contribution to the SSE and EE. Policies need to be in place to guarantee fair and safe work relations. There is a win-win situation where communities and the environment will benefit from organized urban mining. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ethics for pandemics beyond influenza: Ebola, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and anticipating future ethical challenges in pandemic preparedness and response.

PubMed

Smith, Maxwell J; Silva, Diego S

2015-01-01

The unprecedented outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa has raised several novel ethical issues for global outbreak preparedness. It has also illustrated that familiar ethical issues in infectious disease management endure despite considerable efforts to understand and mitigate such issues in the wake of past outbreaks. To improve future global outbreak preparedness and response, we must examine these shortcomings and reflect upon the current state of ethical preparedness. To this end, we focus our efforts in this article on the examination of one substantial area: ethical guidance in pandemic plans. We argue that, due in part to their focus on considerations arising specifically in relation to pandemics of influenza origin, pandemic plans and their existing ethical guidance are ill-equipped to anticipate and facilitate the navigation of unique ethical challenges that may arise in other infectious disease pandemics. We proceed by outlining three reasons why this is so, and situate our analysis in the context of the EVD outbreak and the threat posed by drug-resistant tuberculosis: (1) different infectious diseases have distinct characteristics that challenge anticipated or existing modes of pandemic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery, (2) clear, transparent, context-specific ethical reasoning and justification within current influenza pandemic plans are lacking, and (3) current plans neglect the context of how other significant pandemics may manifest. We conclude the article with several options for reflecting upon and ultimately addressing ethical issues that may emerge with different infectious disease pandemics.

Epistemologies of Situated Knowledges: "Troubling" Knowledge in Philosophy of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lang, James C.

2011-01-01

Epistemologies of situated knowledges, advanced by scholars such as Donna Haraway, Lorraine Code, and Maureen Ford, challenge mainstream epistemology's claim to be the gold standard in determining what counts as knowledge. In this essay, James Lang uses the work of these and other feminist theorists to explicate the notion of situated knowledges…

Uptake of critical knowledge in nursing practice: lessons learned from a knowledge translation study.

PubMed

Anderson, Joan M; Browne, Annette J; Reimer-Kirkham, Sheryl; Lynam, M Judith; Rodney, Paddy; Varcoe, Colleen; Wong, Sabrina; Tan, Elsie; Smye, Victoria; McDonald, Heather; Baumbusch, Jennifer; Khan, Koushambhi Basu; Reimer, Joanne; Peltonen, Adrienne; Brar, Anureet

2010-09-01

This article is based on a knowledge translation (KT) study of the transition of patients from hospital to home. It focuses on the lessons learned about the challenges of translating research-derived critical knowledge in practice settings. The authors situate the article in current discourses about KT; discuss their understanding of the nature of critical knowledge; and present themes from their body of research, which comprises the knowledge that was translated. The findings have the potential to guide future KT research that focuses on the uptake of critical knowledge in nursing practice.

Temporary Mechanical Circulatory Support: A Review of the Options, Indications, and Outcomes

PubMed Central

Gilotra, Nisha A; Stevens, Gerin R

2014-01-01

Cardiogenic shock remains a challenging disease entity and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Temporary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) can be implemented in an acute setting to stabilize acutely ill patients with cardiomyopathy in a variety of clinical situations. Currently, several options exist for temporary MCS. We review the indications, contraindications, clinical applications, and evidences for a variety of temporary circulatory support options, including the intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), CentriMag blood pump, and percutaneous ventricular assist devices (pVADs), specifically the TandemHeart and Impella. PMID:25674024

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Turkey: Current status and future challenges.

PubMed

Leblebicioglu, Hakan; Ozaras, Resat; Irmak, Hasan; Sencan, Irfan

2016-02-01

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral disease of humans that affects a wide geographic area of Africa and Eurasia, including Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia. Since the first detection of CCHF cases in Turkey in 2002, more than 9700 patients have been reported, with an overall mortality rate just under 5%. This article assesses the present epidemiological situation of CCHF in Turkey, with an updated literature review, describes national practices and summarizes lessons learned in preparation for future outbreaks. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Surgical treatment of osteoporotic fractures: An update on the principles of management.

PubMed

Yaacobi, Eyal; Sanchez, Daniela; Maniar, Hemil; Horwitz, Daniel S

2017-12-01

The treatment of osteoporotic fractures continues to challenge orthopedic surgeon. The fragility of the underlying bone in conjunction with the need for specific implants led to the development of explicit surgical techniques in order to minimize implant failure related complications, morbidity and mortality. From the patient's perspective, the existence of frailty, dementia and other medical related co-morbidities induce a complex situation necessitating high vigilance during the perioperative and post-operative period. This update reviews current principles and techniques essential to successful surgical treatment of these injuries. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning Agents for Autonomous Space Asset Management (LAASAM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scally, L.; Bonato, M.; Crowder, J.

2011-09-01

Current and future space systems will continue to grow in complexity and capabilities, creating a formidable challenge to monitor, maintain, and utilize these systems and manage their growing network of space and related ground-based assets. Integrated System Health Management (ISHM), and in particular, Condition-Based System Health Management (CBHM), is the ability to manage and maintain a system using dynamic real-time data to prioritize, optimize, maintain, and allocate resources. CBHM entails the maintenance of systems and equipment based on an assessment of current and projected conditions (situational and health related conditions). A complete, modern CBHM system comprises a number of functional capabilities: sensing and data acquisition; signal processing; conditioning and health assessment; diagnostics and prognostics; and decision reasoning. In addition, an intelligent Human System Interface (HSI) is required to provide the user/analyst with relevant context-sensitive information, the system condition, and its effect on overall situational awareness of space (and related) assets. Colorado Engineering, Inc. (CEI) and Raytheon are investigating and designing an Intelligent Information Agent Architecture that will provide a complete range of CBHM and HSI functionality from data collection through recommendations for specific actions. The research leverages CEI’s expertise with provisioning management network architectures and Raytheon’s extensive experience with learning agents to define a system to autonomously manage a complex network of current and future space-based assets to optimize their utilization.

[The older patient with malignant diseases].

PubMed

Buske, C; Hiddemann, W

2007-11-01

Most malignancies show a steep increase of incidence with growing age. Because of this age specific incidence and the general aging of the population in western industrial countries the number of elderly cancer patients continuously and rapidly increases. Despite this development elderly cancer patients are currently underrepresented in clinical trials. This is caused in part by the lack of a common definition of the elderly patient and by the fact that a part of the elderly patients suffers from co-morbidities, not allowing a more dose intense treatment in these patients. It is one of the key current challenges to compensate this deficit and to develop therapeutic concepts specifically for the elderly patients, taking the individual somatic, but also social situation and finally the quality and perspective of life of the elderly patient into account.

EU ambition to build the world's leading bioeconomy-Uncertain times demand innovative and sustainable solutions.

PubMed

Bell, John; Paula, Lino; Dodd, Thomas; Németh, Szilvia; Nanou, Christina; Mega, Voula; Campos, Paula

2018-01-25

This article outlines the current context and the development of the European Bioeconomy Strategy. It analyses the current situation, challenges and needs for EU action and concludes with the next steps that the European Commission will undertake to review and update the Bioeconomy Strategy. Bioeconomy offers great opportunities to realising a competitive, circular and sustainable economy with a sound industrial base that is less dependent on fossil carbon. A sustainable bioeconomy also contributes to climate change mitigation, with oceans, forests and soils being major carbon sinks and fostering negative CO 2 emissions. The EU has invested significantly in research and innovation in this field and the European Commission is committed to lead on European bioeconomy strategy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Treatment Options: Biological Basis of Regenerative Endodontic Procedures

PubMed Central

Hargreaves, Kenneth M.; Diogenes, Anibal; Teixeira, Fabricio B.

2013-01-01

Dental trauma occurs frequently in children and often can lead to pulpal necrosis. The occurrence of pulpal necrosis in the permanent but immature tooth represents a challenging clinical situation since the thin and often short roots increase the risk of subsequent fracture. Current approaches for treating the traumatized immature tooth with pulpal necrosis do not reliably achieve the desired clinical outcomes, consisting of healing of apical periodontitis, promotion of continued root development and restoration of the functional competence of pulpal tissue. An optimal approach for treating the immature permanent tooth with a necrotic pulp would be to regenerate functional pulpal tissue. This review summarizes the current literature supporting a biological rationale for considering regenerative endodontic treatment procedures in treating the immature permanent tooth with pulp necrosis. PMID:23439043

Healthcare waste management: current practices in selected healthcare facilities, Botswana.

PubMed

Mbongwe, Bontle; Mmereki, Baagi T; Magashula, Andrew

2008-01-01

Healthcare waste management continues to present an array of challenges for developing countries, and Botswana is no exception. The possible impact of healthcare waste on public health and the environment has received a lot of attention such that Waste Management dedicated a special issue to the management of healthcare waste (Healthcare Wastes Management, 2005. Waste Management 25(6) 567-665). As the demand for more healthcare facilities increases, there is also an increase on waste generation from these facilities. This situation requires an organised system of healthcare waste management to curb public health risks as well as occupational hazards among healthcare workers as a result of poor waste management. This paper reviews current waste management practices at the healthcare facility level and proposes possible options for improvement in Botswana.

An overview of current applications, challenges, and future trends in distributed process-based models in hydrology

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fatichi, Simone; Vivoni, Enrique R.; Odgen, Fred L; Ivanov, Valeriy Y; Mirus, Benjamin B.; Gochis, David; Downer, Charles W; Camporese, Matteo; Davison, Jason H; Ebel, Brian A.; Jones, Norm; Kim, Jongho; Mascaro, Giuseppe; Niswonger, Richard G.; Restrepo, Pedro; Rigon, Riccardo; Shen, Chaopeng; Sulis, Mauro; Tarboton, David

2016-01-01

Process-based hydrological models have a long history dating back to the 1960s. Criticized by some as over-parameterized, overly complex, and difficult to use, a more nuanced view is that these tools are necessary in many situations and, in a certain class of problems, they are the most appropriate type of hydrological model. This is especially the case in situations where knowledge of flow paths or distributed state variables and/or preservation of physical constraints is important. Examples of this include: spatiotemporal variability of soil moisture, groundwater flow and runoff generation, sediment and contaminant transport, or when feedbacks among various Earth’s system processes or understanding the impacts of climate non-stationarity are of primary concern. These are situations where process-based models excel and other models are unverifiable. This article presents this pragmatic view in the context of existing literature to justify the approach where applicable and necessary. We review how improvements in data availability, computational resources and algorithms have made detailed hydrological simulations a reality. Avenues for the future of process-based hydrological models are presented suggesting their use as virtual laboratories, for design purposes, and with a powerful treatment of uncertainty.

Challenging situations when teaching children with autism spectrum disorders in general physical education.

PubMed

Obrusnikova, Iva; Dillon, Suzanna R

2011-04-01

As the first step of an instrument development, teaching challenges that occur when students with autism spectrum disorders are educated in general physical education were elicited using Goldfried and D'Zurilla's (1969) behavioral-analytic model. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 43 certified physical educators (29 women and 14 men) using a demographic questionnaire and an elicitation questionnaire. Participants listed 225 teaching challenges, 46% related to cooperative, 31% to competitive, and 24% to individualistic learning situations. Teaching challenges were categorized into nine themes: inattentive and hyperactive behaviors, social impairment, emotional regulation difficulties, difficulties understanding and performing tasks, narrow focus and inflexible adherence to routines and structure, isolation by classmates, negative effects on classmates' learning, and need for support.

Current management of Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Salawu, F; Olokoba, A; Danburam, A

2010-01-01

Although Parkinson's disease (PD) is still incurable, a large number of different treatments have become available to improve the quality of life and physical and psychological morbidity, and its early treatment is of prime importance. This article reviews the current situation of PD. This review was based on a search of Medline, the Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews, and citation lists of relevant publications. The subject headings and keywords used were Parkinson's disease and therapeutic advances. Only articles written in English were included.The management of PD has evolved rapidly over the last 10 years with the advent of new drugs and new classes of drugs, but the currently available treatment methods are all symptomatic ones. However, some of these may have marginal disease-modifying effects. Progress in manufacture of newer drugs has markedly improved the treatment of early PD; however, the management of advanced Parkinson's symptoms remains a challenge. Currently no treatment has been proven to slow the progression of PD. Although symptomatic therapy can provide benefit for many years, PD will eventually result in significant morbidity.

Current Status of Infant Mental Health in Day-Care Centres in Japan: An Investigation of Okinawa and Aomori Prefectures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Takizawa, Tohru; Kondo, Tsuyoshi; Tanaka, Osamu; Wake, Norie; Naka, Kuoichi; Todoriki, Hidemi; Ishizu, Hiroshi

2009-01-01

Grasping both the extent and the actual situation of psychosomatic disorders, neurotic habits and developmental disorders of infancy and childhood is vital for their prevention and for taking appropriate measures to deal with the current situation. The purpose of this study is to explore the current situation of infant mental health in Japanese…

38 CFR 36.4326 - Subrogation and indemnity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... the obligor's current financial situation and prospective earning potential and obligations indicates... situation will consider all of the following: (i) The obligor's current and anticipated family income based... financial situation. Such actions would include termination of the loan by means of a deed-in-lieu of...

The Development of Program for Enhancing Learning Management Competency of Teachers in Non-Formal and Informal Education Centers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jutasong, Chanokpon; Sirisuthi, Chaiyut; Phusri-on, Songsak

2016-01-01

The objectives of this research are: 1) to study factors and indicators, 2) to study current situations, desirable situations and techniques, 3) to develop the Program, and 4) to study the effect of Program. It comprised 4 phases: (1) studying the factors and indicators; (2) studying the current situations, desirable situations and techniques; (3)…

Aircraft conceptual design - an adaptable parametric sizing methodology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coleman, Gary John, Jr.

Aerospace is a maturing industry with successful and refined baselines which work well for traditional baseline missions, markets and technologies. However, when new markets (space tourism) or new constrains (environmental) or new technologies (composite, natural laminar flow) emerge, the conventional solution is not necessarily best for the new situation. Which begs the question "how does a design team quickly screen and compare novel solutions to conventional solutions for new aerospace challenges?" The answer is rapid and flexible conceptual design Parametric Sizing. In the product design life-cycle, parametric sizing is the first step in screening the total vehicle in terms of mission, configuration and technology to quickly assess first order design and mission sensitivities. During this phase, various missions and technologies are assessed. During this phase, the designer is identifying design solutions of concepts and configurations to meet combinations of mission and technology. This research undertaking contributes the state-of-the-art in aircraft parametric sizing through (1) development of a dedicated conceptual design process and disciplinary methods library, (2) development of a novel and robust parametric sizing process based on 'best-practice' approaches found in the process and disciplinary methods library, and (3) application of the parametric sizing process to a variety of design missions (transonic, supersonic and hypersonic transports), different configurations (tail-aft, blended wing body, strut-braced wing, hypersonic blended bodies, etc.), and different technologies (composite, natural laminar flow, thrust vectored control, etc.), in order to demonstrate the robustness of the methodology and unearth first-order design sensitivities to current and future aerospace design problems. This research undertaking demonstrates the importance of this early design step in selecting the correct combination of mission, technologies and configuration to meet current aerospace challenges. Overarching goal is to avoid the reoccurring situation of optimizing an already ill-fated solution.

The 12C(α ,γ )16O reaction and its implications for stellar helium burning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

deBoer, R. J.; Görres, J.; Wiescher, M.; Azuma, R. E.; Best, A.; Brune, C. R.; Fields, C. E.; Jones, S.; Pignatari, M.; Sayre, D.; Smith, K.; Timmes, F. X.; Uberseder, E.

2017-07-01

The creation of carbon and oxygen in our Universe is one of the forefront questions in nuclear astrophysics. The determination of the abundance of these elements is key to our understanding of both the formation of life on Earth and to the life cycles of stars. While nearly all models of different nucleosynthesis environments are affected by the production of carbon and oxygen, a key ingredient, the precise determination of the reaction rate of 12C(α ,γ )16O, has long remained elusive. This is owed to the reaction's inaccessibility, both experimentally and theoretically. Nuclear theory has struggled to calculate this reaction rate because the cross section is produced through different underlying nuclear mechanisms. Isospin selection rules suppress the E 1 component of the ground state cross section, creating a unique situation where the E 1 and E 2 contributions are of nearly equal amplitudes. Experimentally there have also been great challenges. Measurements have been pushed to the limits of state-of-the-art techniques, often developed for just these measurements. The data have been plagued by uncharacterized uncertainties, often the result of the novel measurement techniques that have made the different results challenging to reconcile. However, the situation has markedly improved in recent years, and the desired level of uncertainty ≈10 % may be in sight. In this review the current understanding of this critical reaction is summarized. The emphasis is placed primarily on the experimental work and interpretation of the reaction data, but discussions of the theory and astrophysics are also pursued. The main goal is to summarize and clarify the current understanding of the reaction and then point the way forward to an improved determination of the reaction rate.

The C 12 ( α , γ ) O 16 reaction and its implications for stellar helium burning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

deBoer, R. J.; Gorres, J.; Wiescher, M.

The creation of carbon and oxygen in our Universe is one of the forefront questions in nuclear astrophysics. The determination of the abundance of these elements is key to our understanding of both the formation of life on Earth and to the life cycles of stars. While nearly all models of different nucleosynthesis environments are affected by the production of carbon and oxygen, a key ingredient, the precise determination of the reaction rate of 12C (α, γ) 16O , has long remained elusive. This is owed to the reaction’s inaccessibility, both experimentally and theoretically. Nuclear theory has struggled to calculatemore » this reaction rate because the cross section is produced through different underlying nuclear mechanisms. Isospin selection rules suppress the E 1 component of the ground state cross section, creating a unique situation where the E 1 and E 2 contributions are of nearly equal amplitudes. Experimentally there have also been great challenges. Measurements have been pushed to the limits of state-of-the-art techniques, often developed for just these measurements. The data have been plagued by uncharacterized uncertainties, often the result of the novel measurement techniques that have made the different results challenging to reconcile. However, the situation has markedly improved in recent years, and the desired level of uncertainty ≈ 10 % may be in sight. In this review the current understanding of this critical reaction is summarized. The emphasis is placed primarily on the experimental work and interpretation of the reaction data, but discussions of the theory and astrophysics are also pursued. In conclusion, the main goal is to summarize and clarify the current understanding of the reaction and then point the way forward to an improved determination of the reaction rate.« less

The C 12 ( α , γ ) O 16 reaction and its implications for stellar helium burning

DOE PAGES

deBoer, R. J.; Gorres, J.; Wiescher, M.; ...

2017-09-07

The creation of carbon and oxygen in our Universe is one of the forefront questions in nuclear astrophysics. The determination of the abundance of these elements is key to our understanding of both the formation of life on Earth and to the life cycles of stars. While nearly all models of different nucleosynthesis environments are affected by the production of carbon and oxygen, a key ingredient, the precise determination of the reaction rate of 12C (α, γ) 16O , has long remained elusive. This is owed to the reaction’s inaccessibility, both experimentally and theoretically. Nuclear theory has struggled to calculatemore » this reaction rate because the cross section is produced through different underlying nuclear mechanisms. Isospin selection rules suppress the E 1 component of the ground state cross section, creating a unique situation where the E 1 and E 2 contributions are of nearly equal amplitudes. Experimentally there have also been great challenges. Measurements have been pushed to the limits of state-of-the-art techniques, often developed for just these measurements. The data have been plagued by uncharacterized uncertainties, often the result of the novel measurement techniques that have made the different results challenging to reconcile. However, the situation has markedly improved in recent years, and the desired level of uncertainty ≈ 10 % may be in sight. In this review the current understanding of this critical reaction is summarized. The emphasis is placed primarily on the experimental work and interpretation of the reaction data, but discussions of the theory and astrophysics are also pursued. In conclusion, the main goal is to summarize and clarify the current understanding of the reaction and then point the way forward to an improved determination of the reaction rate.« less

BALKANS SECURITY. Current and Projected Factors Affecting Regional Stability

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-04-01

Security Briefing Section II Current Situation in Kosovo and Bosnia primary responsibility for public security in Kosovo. 6 According to a senior KFOR...Integrity * Reliability GAO/NSIAD-00-125BR „.c-miBUTION STATEMENT A ApSwed for Public Release Contents Letter Briefing Section Appendixes Tables...Figures Briefing Section I: Background Briefing Section II: Current Situation in Kosovo and Bosnia Briefing Section III: Projected Security Situation

How midwives' discursive practices contribute to the maintenance of the status quo in English maternity care.

PubMed

Pollard, Katherine C

2011-10-01

poor relationships between maternity care professionals still contribute to poor outcomes for childbearing women, although issues concerning power, gender, professionalism and the medicalisation of birth have been identified and discussed as germane to this situation for nearly three decades. Although power relationships and communication issues are known to affect the way maternity care professionals in the UK work together, there has been no study of the interplay between these factors, or of how semiotic aspects of professionals' communication relate to it. to explore how National Health Service midwives' discursive practices relate to the status quo; that is, how they contribute either to maintaining or challenging traditional discourses concerning power, gender, professionalism and the medicalisation of birth. in a qualitative study within a critical discourse analysis framework, data were collected from maternity care professionals and women within one English maternity unit, through semi-structured interviews and observation of physical behaviour and naturally occurring conversation. midwives in the unit revealed an inconsistent professional identity, sometimes challenging established hierarchies and power relationships, but often reinforcing traditional notions of gender, professionalism and the medicalisation of birth through their discursive practices. given the known effect of wider social factors on maternity care, it is not surprising that the status quo persists, and that problems linked to these factors are still commonplace. This situation is compounded by the conflicting obligations under which UK midwives are forced to practice. These findings may have implications for midwives' capacity to respond to current challenges facing the profession. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Health, illness, and healing in an uncertain era: challenges from and for medical sociology.

PubMed

Pescosolido, B A; Kronenfeld, J J

1995-01-01

The current situation in health care organizations, among providers and for people, dramatically challenges the "business as usual" roles of medicine, government, insurance companies, the community, and the university. Health care reform marks the first attempt in a century to consider a reconstruction of the social contract between society and medicine. While sociology stands as one of the earliest social sciences to systematically study the health care arena and create a health-focused subfield, there is a perception, not without support, of a desertion of identity from within, an encroachment by other areas from without, and abandonment by the parent discipline. We argue that these situations in medical arenas and in research fields require serious rethinking. The key lies in understanding how these phenomena are related to each other and to larger social forces, and how they offer opportunities, rather than signal limitations, to medical sociologists. We turn to the theoretical tools of sociology to help unravel the complicated challenges that face both policymakers and researchers. After framing these issues in a sociology of knowledge perspective, we use the case of "utilization theory" to illustrate the connections between society and systems of care (as well as studies of them) and to create a future agenda. We end by raising three basic questions: (1) Why is a sociological perspective critical to the understanding of change and reform in health care? (2) Why is medical sociology critical to the survival of the general sociological enterprise? and (3) Why is general sociology critical to the research agenda in medical sociology?

Current Challenges in Geothermal Reservoir Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Driesner, T.

2016-12-01

Geothermal reservoir simulation has long been introduced as a valuable tool for geothermal reservoir management and research. Yet, the current generation of simulation tools faces a number of severe challenges, in particular in the application for novel types of geothermal resources such as supercritical reservoirs or hydraulic stimulation. This contribution reviews a number of key problems: Representing the magmatic heat source of high enthalpy resources in simulations. Current practice is representing the deeper parts of a high enthalpy reservoir by a heat flux or temperature boundary condition. While this is sufficient for many reservoir management purposes it precludes exploring the chances of very high enthalpy resources in the deepest parts of such systems as well as the development of reliable conceptual models. Recent 2D simulations with the CSMP++ simulation platform demonstrate the potential of explicitly including the heat source, namely for understanding supercritical resources. Geometrically realistic incorporation of discrete fracture networks in simulation. A growing number of simulation tools can, in principle, handle flow and heat transport in discrete fracture networks. However, solving the governing equations and representing the physical properties are often biased by introducing strongly simplifying assumptions. Including proper fracture mechanics in complex fracture network simulations remains an open challenge. Improvements of the simulating chemical fluid-rock interaction in geothermal reservoirs. Major improvements have been made towards more stable and faster numerical solvers for multicomponent chemical fluid rock interaction. However, the underlying thermodynamic models and databases are unable to correctly address a number of important regions in temperature-pressure-composition parameter space. Namely, there is currently no thermodynamic formalism to describe relevant chemical reactions in supercritical reservoirs. Overcoming this unsatisfactory situation requires fundamental research in high temperature physical chemistry rather than further numerical development.

Evolving PBPK applications in regulatory risk assessment: current situation and future goals

EPA Science Inventory

The presentation includes current applications of PBPK modeling in regulatory risk assessment and discussions on conflicts between assuring consistency with experimental data in current situation and the desire for animal-free model development.

Two Stages Cooperative Learning by Ability Indicators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, YuLung

2013-01-01

The teaching system in Taiwan is currently based on large classes where teachers cannot control student situations totally. In E-Learning System, a teacher who reviews a student's learning situation must examine the students' learning records according to different items, and further organize and define the students' current learning situations,…

Challenges and Successful Pedagogical Strategies: Experiences from Six Swedish Students with Blindness and Autism in Different School Settings.

PubMed

de Verdier, Kim; Fernell, Elisabeth; Ek, Ulla

2018-02-01

The prevalence of autism in children with blindness is much higher than in the general population. There are many challenges regarding the school situation for children with this complex dual disability. This study explored challenges and successful strategies in school for a sample of six Swedish children with blindness and autism, with and without intellectual disability, through qualitative interviews with students, teachers and parents. All students displayed executive functioning deficits, and the teaching situation entailed several challenges. Our research points to the importance of adopting evidence-based practices for ASD, but adapted according to the students lack of vision. For this to be possible, close collaboration between teachers, parents and specialists in the field of visual impairment and autism is necessary.

Health Effects of Environmental Exposures, Occupational Hazards and Climate Change in Ethiopia: Synthesis of Situational Analysis, Needs Assessment and the Way Forward.

PubMed

Berhane, Kiros; Kumie, Abera; Samet, Jonathan

2016-01-01

The burden of diseases caused by environmental and occupational health hazards and the effects of global climate change are of growing concerns in Ethiopia. However, no adequate information seems to be available on the current situation. This means there is a critical gap in research, policy framework and implementation in the country. The purpose of this paper was to synthesize evidence from a systematic situational analysis and needs assessment to help establish a hub for research and training on three major themes and their related policy frameworks: air pollution and health, occupational health and safety and climate change and health. The methods used in this work include a systematic review of secondary data from peer-reviewed literature, thesis reports from academia, government and national statistical reports. Limited primary data based on key informant interviews held with major stakeholders were also used as sources of data. Exposures to high levels of indoor and outdoor air pollutants were found to be major sources of public health challenges. Lack of occupational safety and health due to agricultural activities and exposure to industries was found to be substantial. Worse is the growing fear that climate change will pose increasingly significant multidimensional challenges to the environment and public health. Across all three areas of focus, there was a paucity of information on local scientific evidence. There is also very limited trained skilled manpower and physical infrastructure to monitor the environment and enforce regulatory guidelines. Research, policy frameworks and regulatory mechanisms were among the cross-cutting issues that needed urgent attention. Critical gaps were observed in research and training across the three themes. Also, there is a limitation in implementing the link between policy and related regulations in the environment and health.

Science Education for Women: Situated Cognition, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and the Status of Women in Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinnick, Cassandra L.

2008-01-01

This paper examines the relation between situated cognition theory in science education, and feminist standpoint theory in philosophy of science. It shows that situated cognition is an idea borrowed from a long since discredited philosophy of science. It argues that feminist standpoint theory ought not be indulged as it is a failed challenge to…

Demonstration of ECDA Applicability and Reliability for Demanding Situations

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-08-31

On June 2, 2005, PHMSA issued the fifth Broad Agency Announcement, #DTPH56-05-BAA-0001, which included research to improve the understanding of Direct Assessment (DA) methods and practices in challenging situations. This project received support from...

[Epidemic situation and prevention and control strategy of clonorchiasis in Guangdong Province, China].

PubMed

Zhuo-Hui, Deng; Yue-Yi, Fang

2016-05-24

Clonorchiasis is one of the food-borne parasitic diseases. Adult parasites live in the human liver and gallbladder tube system, causing serious complications, such as gallstones, cholecystitis and cholangitis, and even bile duct cancer. The disease is very popular in our country, and the population infection rate is high. It is an important public health problem. Guangdong Province is the earliest province being found of clonorchiasis and with serious epidemic. In the second national human parasitic diseases distribution survey, the results showed that the average infection rate of Clonorchis sinensis in the epidemic areas in Guangdong was 16.42%. It is estimated that the population of C. sinensis infection is over 6 million. The prevention and control of clonorchiasis in China is still in the initial stage currently and we face many challenges such as unclear epidemic characteristics and transmission mode, and lack of long-term prevention and control mechanism. This article introduces the epidemic situation of clonorchiasis and prevention and control strategies and measures in Guangdong.

Type 1 diabetes: Awareness, management and challenges: Current scenario in India

PubMed Central

Kumar, K.M. Prasanna; Saboo, Banshi; Rao, P.V.; Sarda, Archana; Viswanathan, Vijay; Kalra, Sanjay; Sethi, Bipin; Shah, Nalini; Srikanta, S.S.; Jain, Sunil M; Raghupathy, P.; Shukla, Rishi; Jhingan, Ashok; Chowdhury, Subhankar; Jabbar, P.K.; Kanungo, Alok; Joshi, Rajesh; Kumar, Surendra; Tandon, Nikhil; Khadilkar, Vaman; Chadha, Manoj

2015-01-01

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has a wide presence in children and has a high mortality rates. The disease, if left unmanaged, poses various challenges to the patient and healthcare providers, including development of diabetic complications and thus decreasing the life expectancy of the affected child. The challenges of T1DM include awareness of the disease that is very poor among the general public and also in parents of T1DM children along with the health care professionals. The challenge of lack of awareness of T1DM can be met by increasing public awareness programs, conducting workshops for diabetes educators regarding T1DM in children, newsletters, CMEs, online courses, and by structured teaching modules for diabetes educators. Diagnosis of T1DM was a challenge a few decades ago but the situation has improved today with diagnostic tests and facilities, made available even in villages. Investigation facilities and infrastructure, however, are very poor at the primary care level, especially in rural areas. Insulin availability, acceptability, and affordability are also major problems, compounded by the various types of insulin that are available in the market with a varied price range. But effective use of insulin remains a matter of utmost importance. PMID:25941655

Advanced consequence management program: challenges and recent real-world implementations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graser, Tom; Barber, K. S.; Williams, Bob; Saghir, Feras; Henry, Kurt A.

2002-08-01

The Enhanced Consequence Management, Planning and Support System (ENCOMPASS) was developed under DARPA's Advanced Consequence Management program to assist decision-makers operating in crisis situations such as terrorist attacks using conventional and unconventional weapons and natural disasters. ENCOMPASS provides the tools for first responders, incident commanders, and officials at all levels to share vital information and consequently, plan and execute a coordinated response to incidents of varying complexity and size. ENCOMPASS offers custom configuration of components with capabilities ranging from map-based situation assessment, situation-based response checklists, casualty tracking, and epidemiological surveillance. Developing and deploying such a comprehensive system posed significant challenges for DARPA program management, due to an inherently complex domain, a broad spectrum of customer sites and skill sets, an often inhospitable runtime environment, demanding development-to-deployment transition requirements, and a technically diverse and geographically distributed development team. This paper introduces ENCOMPASS and explores these challenges, followed by an outline of selected ENCOMPASS deployments, demonstrating how ENCOMPASS can enhance consequence management in a variety real world contexts.

Assessment of temperatures in the vaccine cold chain in two provinces in Lao People's Democratic Republic: a cross-sectional pilot study.

PubMed

Kitamura, Tomomi; Bouakhasith, Viraneth; Phounphenghack, Kongxay; Pathammavong, Chansay; Xeuatvongsa, Anonh; Norizuki, Masataro; Okabayashi, Hironori; Mori, Yoshio; Machida, Munehito; Hachiya, Masahiko

2018-04-27

All childhood vaccines, except the oral polio vaccine, should be kept at 2-8 °C, since the vaccine potency can be damaged by heat or freezing temperature. A temperature monitoring study conducted in 2008-2009 reported challenges in cold chain management from the provincial level downwards. The present cross-sectional pilot study aimed to assess the current status of the cold chain in two provinces (Saravan and Xayabouly) of Lao People's Democratic Republic between March-April 2016. Two types of temperature data loggers recorded the temperatures and the proportions of time exposed to < 0 or > 8 °C were calculated. The temperature remained within the appropriate range in the central and provincial storages. However, the vaccines were frequently exposed to > 8 °C in Saravan and < 0 °C in Xayabouly in the district storage. Vaccines were exposed to > 8 °C during the transportation in Saravan and to both > 8 and < 0 °C in Xayabouly. Thus, challenges in managing the cold chain in the district storage and during transportation remain, despite improvements at the provincial storage. A detailed up-to-date nationwide analysis of the current situation of the cold chain is warranted to identify the most appropriate intervention to tackle the remaining challenges.

Cellulases: Role in Lignocellulosic Biomass Utilization.

PubMed

Soni, Sanjeev Kumar; Sharma, Amita; Soni, Raman

2018-01-01

Rapid depletion of fossil fuels worldwide presents a dire situation demanding a potential replacement to surmount the current energy crisis. Lignocellulose presents a logical candidate to be exploited at industrial scale owing to its vast availability, inexpensive and renewable nature. Microbial degradation of lignocellulosic biomass is a lucrative, sustainable, and promising approach to obtain valuable commercial commodities at gigantic scale. The enzymatic hydrolysis involving cellulases is fundamental to all the technologies needed to transform lignocellulosic biomass to valuable industry relevant products. Cellulases have enormous potential to utilize cellulosic biomass, thus reducing environmental stress in addition to production of commodity chemicals resolving the current challenge to meet the energy needs globally. The substitution of petroleum-based fuels with bio-based fuels is the subject of thorough research establishing biofuel production as the future technology to achieve a sustainable, eco-friendly society with a zero waste approach.

Challenges in the management of community pharmacies in Malaysia

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Background: The provision of professional pharmacy services by community pharmacists continues to be limited, particularly in low and middle income countries. It was postulated that multiple management challenges faced by community pharmacists contribute to this situation. Objective: The primary aim of the research was to determine the challenges faced in the management of community pharmacies in Sarawak (the largest state in Malaysia), and practical strategies to cope and overcome the challenges. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with community pharmacists practising in Sarawak. Purposive and snowball sampling were employed to ensure a diverse group of informants. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, with the resultant data analysed using thematic analysis. Data collection, coding, interpretation were carried out iteratively until theoretical saturation. Results: Twenty respondents from different demographic characteristics were recruited. Six major themes were identified. Management challenges faced by community pharmacists traverse five major domains: market competition, legislative issues, customers’ knowledge and expectations, macroeconomic impacts and operational challenges. Most of these challenges require government intervention to be resolved. In the meantime, improving customer service and expanding the range of professional services were seen as the most viable strategies to cope with existing challenges. The main concern is that current legislative and economic landscape may hinder these strategies. Enactment of dispensing separation and more protective measures against market competition were suggested to alleviate the challenges faced. Conclusion: Numerous management challenges faced by community pharmacists that distract them from delivering professional pharmacy services have been highlighted. Urgent affirmative actions by the government are warranted in supporting community pharmacists to realise and maximise their potentials. PMID:28690697

Challenges of urban planning in Palestine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moghayer, Taher J. T.; Tesmamma Daget, Yidnekachew; Wang, Xingping

2017-08-01

For the last two centuries, Palestinian territory had faced several changes. This is due to historical precedents and the unstable political situation in the area. This has resulted in mutli-faced challenges in Palestine. The objective of this paper is to analyse and understand the major factors that had impacted the urban planning, urban form and urban development of the Palestinian territory. The findings showed that the lack of available land, rapid urban population growth, failure in urban planning policy decisions, the unstable political situation on the ground, fragmented urban developments in the west bank area, and also diffusion of urban sprawls within the landscapes and around the cities are the major factors that caused challenges in Palestine’s cities.

[Study on restriction factors and countermeasures of influence of China medical devices competitiveness].

PubMed

Zhang, Zhijun

2012-07-01

Recent years, China medical devices industry has been a sunrise industry with widely-ranged products, high-tech innovation, and booming market demands. But with the globalization of market economy, China industry is still in the inferior position of competition. How to promote the industrial structure transition, increase scientific and technological level, speed up the updating of products, enhance the international competitiveness is one of the major tasks to maintain the healthy development of industry. This article makes a study on current situation of China medical devices industry, analyses the new opportunities, challenges and restriction factors, provides the countermeasures of strengthening industry competitiveness as well.

Animal leptospirosis.

PubMed

Ellis, William A

2015-01-01

Leptospirosis is a global disease of animals, which can have a major economic impact on livestock industries and is an important zoonosis. The current knowledge base is heavily biased towards the developed agricultural economies. The disease situation in the developing economies presents a major challenge as humans and animals frequently live in close association. The severity of disease varies with the infecting serovar and the affected species, but there are many common aspects across the species; for example, the acute phase of infection is mostly sub-clinical and the greatest economic losses arise from chronic infection causing reproductive wastage. The principles of, and tests for, diagnosis, treatment, control and surveillance are applicable across the species.

Treatment of infections caused by carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Baño, Jesús; Cisneros, José Miguel; Gudiol, Carlota; Martínez, José Antonio

2014-12-01

Treatment of infections caused by carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) is currently one of the most important challenges of infectious diseases. The available information is based on in vitro studies, some animal model data and a few case studies and retrospective cohorts; appropriate data are lacking or are very scarce for some old antibiotics that are still occasionally used. Because of the heterogeneity in clinical situations, in specific carbapenemases and in the susceptibility of isolates, individualized treatment decisions must usually be made. Here we review the different antibiotics that might be useful for treating infections caused by CPE. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Studies on acquired resistance to Schistosoma mansoni in mice exposed to X-irradiated cercariae

PubMed Central

Perlowagora-Szumlewicz, Alina

1964-01-01

In the first part of this paper current information on acquired resistance to schistosomes is reviewed and related to factors which have led to divergent interpretations of experimental results. The author then reports on and discusses experiments performed by her on the development of challenge infections in mice exposed to X-irradiated cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. While there is some evidence that resistance to S. mansoni may be developed by such exposure, the author considers present findings equivocal and stresses that further research is needed to clarify the situation. ImagesFIG. 2FIG. 3FIG. 4 PMID:14165059

Effectiveness of mindfulness meditation (Vipassana) in the management of chronic low back pain

PubMed Central

Patil, Sangram G

2009-01-01

Summary Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is challenging to treat with its significant psychological and cognitive behavioural element involved. Mindfulness meditation helps alter the behavioural response in chronic pain situations. Significant body of research in the filed of mindfulness meditation comes from the work of Dr Kabat-Zinn. The current evidence in the field, though not grade one, shows that there is a place for mindfulness meditation in managing chronic pain conditions including CLBP. Further research to test the usefulness of mindfulness in CLBP should involve good quality randomized controlled trials of pure mindfulness based technique in matched subjects. PMID:20640116

From Assistant Teacher to Teacher: Challenges and Pathways in Situated Pre-Service Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strangeways, Al

2017-01-01

Vocational pathways to Higher Education have a key role in opening teacher education to under-represented groups but bring with them particular challenges. Teacher educators need to address the challenges faced by these learners, of not only connecting their learning but also challenging their knowledge, and doing so in an invested work…

Control of swine pseudorabies in China: Opportunities and limitations.

PubMed

Sun, Yuan; Luo, Yuzi; Wang, Chun-Hua; Yuan, Jin; Li, Na; Song, Kun; Qiu, Hua-Ji

2016-02-01

Pseudorabies (PR), also known as Aujeszky's disease (AD), is caused by pseudorabies virus (PRV) or called suid herpesvirus 1 (SuHV-1). It is an economically significant viral disease of pigs and other animals. Although the disease has been eradicated in commercial swine populations of some countries using gE-deleted vaccines and differentiating infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) strategy, PR continues to be one of the most important diseases of pigs in many countries, particularly in regions with dense pig populations, including China. This article reviews the current situation of PR in China, including epidemiology, diagnostic assays, control strategies and challenges of the disease. PR has been endemic in most provinces of China largely due to the lack of appropriate compulsory vaccination campaigns of pigs, sufficient awareness and biosecurity measures, although gE-deleted vaccines based on the Bartha-K61 strain and regional DIVA-based eradication programs have been widely used in the past decades. Notably, since 2011, an emerging variant PRV with enhanced pathogenicity has become prevalent in vaccinated swine herds in many regions of China and the disease situation is worsening. Control and eventual eradication of PR remain a big challenge in China, and strengthened control measures based on updated DIVA strategy are urgently needed toward national eradication of PR. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stresses and Challenges for New Graduates in Hospitals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oermann, Marilyn H.; Garvin, Michael F.

2002-01-01

Recent nursing graduates (n=46) rated stresses and challenges in clinical practice. Stressors included not feeling competent/confident, making mistakes due to increased workload, and encountering new situations. Challenges included applying knowledge to practice and acquiring new skills. Most emotions were positive but anxiety was frequent. Ways…

Changes & Challenges for Rural Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blair, Leslie Asher, Ed.

2001-01-01

This theme issue of the newsletter SEDLetter contains articles about the challenges facing rural youth, communities, and schools, and the ways that rural schools are meeting those challenges. "When Rural Traditions Really Count" (Ullik Rouk) outlines the rural situation with regard to adolescent substance abuse, youth gangs, teen pregnancy,…

Communicative challenges in the home care of older persons - a qualitative exploration.

PubMed

Sundler, Annelie J; Eide, Hilde; van Dulmen, Sandra; Holmström, Inger K

2016-10-01

To explore communicative challenges in encounters between nurse assistants and older persons during home care visits. The older population is increasing worldwide. Currently, there is a shift in care for older people from institutional care to home care. Providing home care in a person's home involves several challenges, including the complexity of communication. A descriptive observational design with a qualitative approach was used. The data consisted of audio recordings of real-life encounters during home care visits between nurse assistants and older persons, collected in 2014. A hermeneutic phenomenological analysis was conducted. Communicative challenges were identified: (a) in situations where the older persons had a different view than the nurse assistants on the care task and its content; and (b) when unexpected actions or turns occurred in the communication. Challenges included older person's existential issues, fragility and worries and concerns, which often appeared to be only vaguely expressed and difficult to verbally detect and tackle. This engendered a risk of misinterpretation or ignorance of these challenges. The findings point to the importance of communication as the key to facilitate person-centred home care. Communication training should focus more on addressing needs and existential issues in older persons. Person-centred home care for older persons needs to be addressed at both an individual and an organizational level. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

VAST Challenge 2016: Streaming Visual Analytics

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-25

understand rapidly evolving situations. To support such tasks, visual analytics solutions must move well beyond systems that simply provide real-time...received. Mini-Challenge 1: Design Challenge Mini-Challenge 1 focused on systems to support security and operational analytics at the Euybia...Challenge 1 was to solicit novel approaches for streaming visual analytics that push the boundaries for what constitutes a visual analytics system , and to

Examining the relationships between challenge and threat cognitive appraisals and coaching behaviours in football coaches.

PubMed

Dixon, Martin; Turner, Martin J; Gillman, Jamie

2017-12-01

Previous research demonstrates that sports coaching is a stressful activity. This article investigates coaches' challenge and threat cognitive appraisals of stressful situations and their impact on coaching behaviour, using Blascovich and Mendes' (2000) biopsychosocial model as a theoretical framework. A cross-sectional correlational design was utilised to examine the relationships between irrational beliefs (Shortened general attitude and belief scale), challenge and threat appraisals (Appraisal of life events scale), and coaching behaviours (Leadership scale for sports) of 105 professional football academy coaches. Findings reveal significant positive associations between challenge appraisals and social support, and between threat appraisals and autocratic behaviour, and a significant negative association between threat appraisals and positive feedback. Results also show that higher irrational beliefs are associated with greater threat, and lesser challenge cognitive appraisals. However, no associations were revealed between irrational beliefs and challenge cognitive appraisals. Additionally, findings demonstrate a positive relationship between age and training and instruction. Results suggest that practitioners should help coaches to appraise stressful situations as a challenge to promote positive coaching behaviours.

Some of the challenges of teaching multilevel classes and suggestions for how to deal with the situation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demarcsek, R.; Todea, L.

2016-08-01

Teaching English to Engineering or Business students has always been a challenge. One of the major reasons which makes this task particularly challenging is the fact that, being graduates of various high schools, they join the university having very different levels of English. Some may have started English in kindergarten, while others only in high school. Some speak it fluently; others may barely be able to introduce themselves despite having studied it for a similar number of years as the former. This paper takes a look at the major challenges teachers of English in university are faced with when teaching multilevel classes, and attempts to offer some suggestions as to how to deal with this situation while at the same time keeping the quality of the teaching-learning process.

Challenges for psychiatric recruitment and training in Chile.

PubMed

Vicente, Benjamín; Rosel, Leonardo

2013-08-01

This paper aims to describe the current challenges to recruitment of psychiatrists in Chile, and investigate factors related to interest in psychiatry from medical students of the Chilean Biobío Region. An online survey was completed by 39 medical students currently performing the internship. This survey included questions regarding socio-demographic aspects, probability of choosing a medical speciality, influencing factors on the choice of the medical speciality, and personal features. Students were separated in two groups for the analysis based on their likelihood of choosing psychiatry as a career. A total of 35.9% of the respondents showed some degree of interest in psychiatry. Factors considered important by the respondents were academic opportunities, training vacancies, and balance between job and personal life. The low participation in the study does not allow the extrapolation of data to the national situation, and may represent response bias to those already interested in psychiatry as a career. However, Chile has an average psychiatrist rate per number of inhabitants for the region, but an uneven distribution of this resource. National policies must be focused on this issue in order to reduce the gap in mental healthcare.

Homeland security: sharing and managing critical incident information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashley, W. R., III

2003-09-01

Effective critical incident response for homeland security requires access to real-time information from many organizations. Command and control, as well as basic situational awareness, are all dependant on quickly communicating a dynamically changing picture to a variety of decision makers. For the most part, critical information management is not unfamiliar or new to the public safety community. However, new challenges present themselves when that information needs to be seamlessly shared across multiple organizations at the local, state and federal level in real-time. The homeland security problem does not lend itself to the traditional military joint forces planning model where activities shift from a deliberate planning process to a crisis action planning process. Rather, the homeland security problem is more similar to a traditional public safety model where the current activity state moves from complete inactivity or low-level attention to immediate crisis action planning. More often than not the escalation occurs with no warning or baseline information. This paper addresses the challenges of sharing critical incident information and the impacts new technologies will have on this problem. The value of current and proposed approaches will be critiqued for operational value and areas will be identified for further development.

Editors' Introduction: Abstract Concepts: Structure, Processing, and Modeling.

PubMed

Bolognesi, Marianna; Steen, Gerard

2018-06-22

Our ability to deal with abstract concepts is one of the most intriguing faculties of human cognition. Still, we know little about how such concepts are formed, processed, and represented in mind. For example, because abstract concepts do not designate referents that can be experienced through our body, the role of perceptual experiences in shaping their content remains controversial. Current theories suggest a variety of alternative explanations to the question of "how abstract concepts are represented in the human mind." These views pinpoint specific streams of semantic information that would play a prominent role in shaping the content of abstract concepts, such as situation-based information (e.g., Barsalou & Wiemer-Hastings, ), affective information (Kousta, Vigliocco, Vinson, Andrews, & Del Campo, ), and linguistic information (Louwerse, ). Rarely, these theoretical views are directly compared. In this special issue, current views are presented in their most recent and advanced form, and directly compared and discussed in a debate, which is reported at the end of each article. As a result, new exciting questions and challenges arise. These questions and challenges, reported in this introductory article, can arguably pave the way to new empirical studies and theoretical developments on the nature of abstract concepts. © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Fit for purpose and modern validity theory in clinical outcomes assessment.

PubMed

Edwards, Michael C; Slagle, Ashley; Rubright, Jonathan D; Wirth, R J

2018-07-01

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as part of its regulatory mission, is charged with determining whether a clinical outcome assessment (COA) is "fit for purpose" when used in clinical trials to support drug approval and product labeling. In this paper, we will provide a review (and some commentary) on the current state of affairs in COA development/evaluation/use with a focus on one aspect: How do you know you are measuring the right thing? In the psychometric literature, this concept is referred to broadly as validity and has itself evolved over many years of research and application. After a brief introduction, the first section will review current ideas about "fit for purpose" and how it has been viewed by FDA. This section will also describe some of the unique challenges to COA development/evaluation/use in the clinical trials space. Following this, we provide an overview of modern validity theory as it is currently understood in the psychometric tradition. This overview will focus primarily on the perspective of validity theorists such as Messick and Kane whose work forms the backbone for the bulk of high-stakes assessment in areas such as education, psychology, and health outcomes. We situate the concept of fit for purpose within the broader context of validity. By comparing and contrasting the approaches and the situations where they have traditionally been applied, we identify areas of conceptual overlap as well as areas where more discussion and research are needed.

Adolescents in the Postsocialist Slovenia: Between Parental Authority and Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuhar, Metka

2010-01-01

The study examines the relationship between parental and adolescents' perceptions of (communicative) ways of parental power assertion in situations challenging parental authority (dialogical communication, parental reminder, nonreciprocal communication), the perceived most probable outcomes of these situations, and attitudes toward ideal outcomes…

Nutrition and food security policy in the Islamic Republic of Iran: situation analysis and roadmap towards 2021.

PubMed

Damari, Behzad; Abdollahi, Zahra; Hajifaraji, Majid; Rezazadeh, Arezoo

2018-05-03

All government policies and programmes for food and nutrition security should include providing healthy food, as well as providing economic and social availability for all people. This study aimed to analyse the current situation of Iranian food and nutrition security and establish a road map towards 2021. The applied methods were situation analysis and a mixed qualitative-quantitative method. The conceptual method used for developing this national document encompassed three areas: sustainable food supply, food safety and nutrition. The outcomes of the Iranian food and nutrition security system in the past three decades include development of management infrastructure and improvement in food and nutrition security status. However, analysis of current programmes showed that there were some overlapping, intertwining and parallel works in the responsibilities of related organizations in the field of supervision of food safety (from production to supply). The national document produced as the outcome of this paper was communicated by the Iranian Ministry of Health in 2012 and has been running for 2 years. Selected ministries are responsible for implementation of 20 national programmes by the end of the 5th Economic, Social and Cultural Development Programme (2016-2011). The consensus of stakeholders by the end of the 6th Development Programme (2021) is to put all of the provinces in a safe or very safe situation in terms of food and nutrition security. The most important challenge in establishing national documents is to make them operational. This aim was achieved by an intersectoral nutrition and food security working group, which produced a general memorandum of understanding with the main organizations, the media, universities and private sector. Copyright © World Health Organization (WHO) 2018. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo).

Challenges of Documenting Schoolchildren's Psychosocial Health: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clausson, Eva K.; Berg, Agneta; Janlöv, Ann-Christin

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to explore school nurses' experience of challenges related to documenting schoolchildren's psychosocial health in Sweden. Six focus group discussions were carried out. Areas for discussions included questions about situations, especially challenging to document as well as what constrains and/or facilitates documenting…

Video occupant detection and classification

DOEpatents

Krumm, John C.

1999-01-01

A system for determining when it is not safe to arm a vehicle airbag by storing representations of known situations as observed by a camera at a passenger seat; and comparing a representation of a camera output of the current situation to the stored representations to determine the known situation most closely represented by the current situation. In the preferred embodiment, the stored representations include the presence or absence of a person or infant seat in the front passenger seat of an automobile.

Immunosuppressive therapy for transplant-ineligible aplastic anemia patients.

PubMed

Schrezenmeier, Hubert; Körper, Sixten; Höchsmann, Britta

2015-02-01

Aplastic anemia is a rare life-threatening bone marrow failure that is characterized by bicytopenia or pancytopenia in the peripheral blood and a hypoplastic or aplastic bone marrow. The patients are at risk of infection and hemorrhage due to neutropenia and thrombocytopenia and suffer from symptoms of anemia. The main treatment approaches are allogeneic stem cell transplantation and immunosuppression. Here, we review current standard immunosuppression and the attempts that have been made in the past two decades to improve results: review of recent developments also reveals that sometimes not only the advent of new drugs, good ideas and well-designed clinical trials decide the progress in the field but also marketing considerations of pharmaceutical companies. Aplastic anemia experts unfortunately had to face the situation that efficient drugs were withdrawn simply for marketing considerations. We will discuss the current options and challenges in first-line treatment and management of relapsing and refractory patients with an emphasis on adult patients. Some promising new approaches are currently under investigation in prospective, randomized trials.

Instructional Plans and Situated Learning: The Challenge of Suchman's Theory of Situated Action for Instructional Designers and Instructional Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streibel, Michael J.

This paper discusses the implications of Lucy Suchman's conclusion that a theory of situated action--i.e., the actual sense that specific users make out of specific Xeroxing events--is truer to the lived experience of Xerox users than a cognitive account of the user's plans--e.g., the hierarchy of subprocedures for how Xerox machines should be…

The Language Situation in Mexico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terborg, Roland; Landa, Laura Garcia; Moore, Pauline

2006-01-01

This monograph will cover the language situation in Mexico; a linguistically very complex country with 62 recognised indigenous languages, the "de facto" official language, Spanish, and some immigrant languages of lesser importance. Throughout the monograph, we will concentrate on three distinct challenges which we consider relevant for…

The Current Situation of Field Experience in a Five-Year Science Teacher Education Program in Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faikhamta, Chatree; Jantarakantee, Ekgapoom; Roadrangka, Vantipa

2011-01-01

This research explored the current situation in managing the field experience of a five-year science teacher education program in one university in Thailand. A number of methods were used to assess field experience situation: (1) a questionnaire on the perceptions of pre-service science teachers of field experience management; (2) participant…

Current situations and discussions in Japan in relation to the new occupational equivalent dose limit for the lens of the eye.

PubMed

Yokoyama, Sumi; Hamada, Nobuyuki; Hayashida, Toshiyuki; Tsujimura, Norio; Tatsuzaki, Hideo; Kurosawa, Tadahiro; Nabatame, Kuniaki; Ohguchi, Hiroyuki; Ohno, Kazuko; Yamauchi-Kawaura, Chiyo; Iimoto, Takeshi; Ichiji, Takeshi; Hotta, Yutaka; Iwai, Satoshi; Akahane, Keiichi

2017-09-25

Since the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommended reducing the occupational equivalent dose limit for the lens of the eye in 2011, there have been extensive discussions in various countries. This paper reviews the current situation in radiation protection of the ocular lens and the discussions on the potential impact of the new lens dose limit in Japan. Topics include historical changes to the lens dose limit, the current situation with occupational lens exposures (e.g., in medical workers, nuclear workers, and Fukushima nuclear power plant workers) and measurements, and the current status of biological studies and epidemiological studies on radiation cataracts. Our focus is on the situation in Japan, but we believe such information sharing will be useful in many other countries.

[The challenge of clinical complexity in the 21st century: Could frailty indexes be the answer?

PubMed

Amblàs-Novellas, Jordi; Espaulella-Panicot, Joan; Inzitari, Marco; Rexach, Lourdes; Fontecha, Benito; Romero-Ortuno, Roman

The number of older people with complex clinical conditions and complex care needs continues to increase in the population. This is presenting many challenges to healthcare professionals and healthcare systems. In the face of these challenges, approaches are required that are practical and feasible. The frailty paradigm may be an excellent opportunity to review and establish some of the principles of comprehensive Geriatric Assessment in specialties outside Geriatric Medicine. The assessment of frailty using Frailty Indexes provides an aid to the 'situational diagnosis' of complex clinical situations, and may help in tackling uncertainty in a person-centred approach. Copyright © 2016 SEGG. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Reactions of Air Transport Flight Crews to Displays of Weather During Simulated Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bliss, James P.; Fallon, Corey; Bustamante, Ernesto; Bailey, William R., III; Anderson, Brittany

2005-01-01

Display of information in the cockpit has long been a challenge for aircraft designers. Given the limited space in which to present information, designers have had to be extremely selective about the types and amount of flight related information to present to pilots. The general goal of cockpit display design and implementation is to ensure that displays present information that is timely, useful, and helpful. This suggests that displays should facilitate the management of perceived workload, and should allow maximal situation awareness. The formatting of current and projected weather displays represents a unique challenge. As technologies have been developed to increase the variety and capabilities of weather information available to flight crews, factors such as conflicting weather representations and increased decision importance have increased the likelihood for errors. However, if formatted optimally, it is possible that next generation weather displays could allow for clearer indications of weather trends such as developing or decaying weather patterns. Important issues to address include the integration of weather information sources, flight crew trust of displayed weather information, and the teamed reactivity of flight crews to displays of weather. Past studies of weather display reactivity and formatting have not adequately addressed these issues; in part because experimental stimuli have not approximated the complexity of modern weather displays, and in part because they have not used realistic experimental tasks or participants. The goal of the research reported here was to investigate the influence of onboard and NEXRAD agreement, range to the simulated potential weather event, and the pilot flying on flight crew deviation decisions, perceived workload, and perceived situation awareness. Fifteen pilot-copilot teams were required to fly a simulated route while reacting to weather events presented in two graphical formats on a separate visual display. Measures of flight crew reactions included performance-based measures such as deviation decision accuracy, and judgment-based measures such as perceived decision confidence, workload, situation awareness, and display trust. Results demonstrated that pilots adopted a conservative reaction strategy, often choosing to deviate from weather rather than ride through it. When onboard and NEXRAD displays did not agree, flight crews reacted in a complex manner, trusting the onboard system more but using the NEXRAD system to augment their situation awareness. Distance to weather reduced situation awareness and heightened workload levels. Overall, flight crews tended to adopt a participative leadership style marked by open communication. These results suggest that future weather displays should exploit the existing benefits of NEXRAD presentation for situation awareness while retaining the display structure and logic inherent in the onboard system.

Putting the puzzle together: the role of ‘problem definition’ in complex clinical judgement

PubMed Central

Cristancho, Sayra; Lingard, Lorelei; Forbes, Thomas; Ott, Michael; Novick, Richard

2017-01-01

CONTEXT We teach judgement in pieces; that is, we talk about each aspect separately (patient, plan, resources, technique, etc.). We also let trainees figure out how to put the pieces together. In complex situations, this might be problematic. Using data from a drawing-based study on surgeons’ experiences with complex situations, we explore the notion of ‘problem definition’ in real-world clinical judgement using the theoretical lens of systems engineering. METHODS ‘Emergence’, the sensitising concept for analysis, is rooted in two key systems premises: that person and context are inseparable and that what emerges is an act of choice. Via a ‘gallery walk’ we used these premises to perform analysis on individual drawings as well as cross-comparisons of multiple drawings. Our focus was to understand similarities and differences among the vantage points used by multiple surgeons. RESULTS In this paper we challenge two assumptions from current models of clinical judgement: that experts hold a fixed and static definition of the problem and that consequently the focus of the expert’s work is on solving the problem. Each situation described by our participants revealed different but complementary perspectives of what a surgical problem might come to be: from concerns about ensuring standard of care, to balancing personal emotions versus care choices, to coordinating resources, and to maintaining control while in the midst of personality clashes. CONCLUSION We suggest that it is only at the situation and system level, not at the individual level, that we are able to appreciate the nuances of defining the problem when experts make judgements during real-world complex situations. PMID:27943366

Putting the puzzle together: the role of 'problem definition' in complex clinical judgement.

PubMed

Cristancho, Sayra; Lingard, Lorelei; Forbes, Thomas; Ott, Michael; Novick, Richard

2017-02-01

We teach judgement in pieces; that is, we talk about each aspect separately (patient, plan, resources, technique, etc.). We also let trainees figure out how to put the pieces together. In complex situations, this might be problematic. Using data from a drawing-based study on surgeons' experiences with complex situations, we explore the notion of 'problem definition' in real-world clinical judgement using the theoretical lens of systems engineering. 'Emergence', the sensitising concept for analysis, is rooted in two key systems premises: that person and context are inseparable and that what emerges is an act of choice. Via a 'gallery walk' we used these premises to perform analysis on individual drawings as well as cross-comparisons of multiple drawings. Our focus was to understand similarities and differences among the vantage points used by multiple surgeons. In this paper we challenge two assumptions from current models of clinical judgement: that experts hold a fixed and static definition of the problem and that consequently the focus of the expert's work is on solving the problem. Each situation described by our participants revealed different but complementary perspectives of what a surgical problem might come to be: from concerns about ensuring standard of care, to balancing personal emotions versus care choices, to coordinating resources, and to maintaining control while in the midst of personality clashes. We suggest that it is only at the situation and system level, not at the individual level, that we are able to appreciate the nuances of defining the problem when experts make judgements during real-world complex situations. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

A streamlined software environment for situated skills

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Sophia T.; Slack, Marc G.; Miller, David P.

1994-01-01

This paper documents a powerful set of software tools used for developing situated skills. These situated skills form the reactive level of a three-tiered intelligent agent architecture. The architecture is designed to allow these skills to be manipulated by a task level engine which is monitoring the current situation and selecting skills necessary for the current task. The idea is to coordinate the dynamic activations and deactivations of these situated skills in order to configure the reactive layer for the task at hand. The heart of the skills environment is a data flow mechanism which pipelines the currently active skills for execution. A front end graphical interface serves as a debugging facility during skill development and testing. We are able to integrate skills developed in different languages into the skills environment. The power of the skills environment lies in the amount of time it saves for the programmer to develop code for the reactive layer of a robot.

Challenges in day-to-day midwifery practice; a qualitative study from a regional referral hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

PubMed

Bremnes, Hanna Strømholt; Wiig, Åsil Kjøl; Abeid, Muzdalifat; Darj, Elisabeth

2018-01-01

Maternal and infant mortality rates in Tanzania have decreased over the past decades, but remain high. One of the challenges the country faces, is the lack of skilled health care workers. High fertility rates make midwives and their patients particularly susceptible to stress as a result of understaffing. This paper explores the challenges midwives face in their day-to-day practice at a regional referral hospital in Tanzania, and investigates which measures the midwives themselves find necessary to implement to improve their situation. A qualitative study design with focus group discussions (FGDs) was employed to explore which challenges the midwives experienced. Each focus group consisted of five to six midwives. A FGD topic guide covering challenges, consequences, motivation, ideal situation and possible solutions was used. These data were analyzed using Systematic Text Condensation. A total of 28 Midwives, six men and 22 women, participated in five FGDs. Four categories emerged from the collected material: Feelings of demoralization, shortage of resources, societal challenges and personal struggles. A feeling of demoralization was especially prevalent and was caused by a lack of support from the leaders and little appreciation from the patients. Shortage of resources, and shortage of personnel in particular, was also highlighted as it led to an excessive workload resulting in difficulties with providing adequate care. These difficulties were intensified by lack of equipment, facilities and a non-optimal organization of the healthcare system. The challenges revealed during the FGDs prevent the midwives from providing sufficient midwifery care. To improve the situation, measures such as supportive leadership, reduction of workload, increasing availability of equipment and increasing knowledge of reproductive health in society, should be taken.

Mission Command in the Age of Network-Enabled Operations: Social Network Analysis of Information Sharing and Situation Awareness

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-22

this assumption in a large-scale, 2-week military training exercise. We conducted a social network analysis of email communications among the multi...exponential random graph models challenge the aforementioned assumption, as increased email output was associated with lower individual situation... email links were more commonly formed among members of the command staff with both similar functions and levels of situation awareness, than between

Current characteristics, challenges and coping strategies of young people with cystic fibrosis as they transition to adulthood.

PubMed

Askew, Kristina; Bamford, Jade; Hudson, Nicholas; Moratelli, Juliana; Miller, Rachel; Anderson, Alan; Doe, Simon; Bourke, Stephen J

2017-04-01

This study provides detailed data on the current characteristics, perceptions and outcomes of 45 young people with cystic fibrosis (CF) as they transition into adulthood. Although many had severe disease, they generally coped well, found attendance at a transition clinic helpful and welcomed the increased independence of an adult healthcare environment. Levels of psychological distress were low with only 15.6% having anxiety and 6.7% depression. The main psychological coping strategy used was optimistic acceptance. Overall, most remained stable after transfer but 33% had some decline in lung function and 9% in nutritional status, requiring intensification of treatment. They had high levels of satisfaction with their relationships and life situations and 76% were in employment or education. These results are encouraging and as life expectancy improves, young adults with CF are coping well with transition into adulthood. © Royal College of Physicians 2017. All rights reserved.

[Haiti, new immigrant community in Chile].

PubMed

Sánchez P, Katherin; Valderas J, Jaime; Messenger C, Karen; Sánchez G, Carolina; Barrera Q, Francisco

2018-04-01

Migration is a growing phenomenon in Latin America influenced by several factors such as economic stability, employment, social welfare, education and health system. Currently Chile has a positive migration flow rate. Particularly, a significant number of Haitian immigrants has been observed du ring the last years, especially after earthquake of 2010. These immigrants present a different cultural background expressed in relevant aspects of living including parenting and healthcare. Knowing the Haitian culture and its health situation is relevant for a better understanding of their health needs. Haitian people come to Chile looking for a cordial reception and willing to find a place with better perspectives of wellbeing in every sense. Immigration represents a major challenge for Chilean health system that must be embraced. Integration efforts in jobs, health, education system and community living should be enhanced to ensure a prosper settlement in our country. A new immigration law is crucial to solving major problems derived from current law created in 1975.

Yemen in a Time of Cholera: Current Situation and Challenges.

PubMed

Al-Mekhlafi, Hesham M

2018-03-19

Since early 2015, Yemen has been in the throes of a grueling civil war, which has devastated the health system and public services, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. The country is currently facing a cholera epidemic the world's largest on record, surpassing one million (1,061,548) suspected cases, with 2,373 related deaths since October 2016. Cases were first confirmed in Sana'a city and then spread to almost all governorates except Socotra Island. Continued efforts are being made by the World Health Organization and international partners to contain the epidemic through improving water, sanitation and hygiene, setting up diarrhea treatment centers, and improving the population's awareness about the disease. The provision of clean water and adequate sanitation is imperative as an effective long-term solution to prevent the further spread of this epidemic. Cholera vaccination campaigns should also be conducted as a preventive measure.

Internationalizing forensic assessments of criminal responsibility.

PubMed

Meynen, Gerben; Oei, Karel

2011-12-01

One of the important characteristics of current medicine is that it is an international endeavor. The fact that medicine is a global undertaking might even be one of its core strengths. However, the universal nature of medicine can be compromised when local issues become significant factors in medical practice. In this paper we identify criminal law as a relevant factor complicating the process of internationalizing a particular medical practice: the assessment of a defendant within the context of the question of criminal responsibility. Since criminal law--especially the laws relevant to assessments of criminal responsibility--may differ from country to country, or rather from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, forensic psychiatrists face the challenge of finding common ground and a common framework to advance these forensic psychiatric assessments. We describe the current situation and argue for internationalizing the discussion about this assessment, pointing to the example provided by assessments of competence.

Are South African Speech-Language Therapists adequately equipped to assess English Additional Language (EAL) speakers who are from an indigenous linguistic and cultural background? A profile and exploration of the current situation

PubMed Central

Mdlalo, Thandeka; Flack, Penelope

2016-01-01

This article presents the results of a survey conducted on Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs) regarding current practices in the assessment of English Additional Language (EAL) speakers in South Africa. It forms part of the rationale for a broader (PhD) study that critiques the use of assessment instruments on EAL speakers from an indigenous linguistic and cultural background. This article discusses an aspect of the broader research and presents the background, method, findings, discussion and implications of the survey. The results of this survey highlight the challenges of human and material resources to, and the dominance of English in, the profession in South Africa. The findings contribute to understanding critical factors for acquiring reliable and valid assessment results with diverse populations, particularly the implications from a cultural and linguistic perspective. PMID:27247254

'Big data' in mental health research: current status and emerging possibilities.

PubMed

Stewart, Robert; Davis, Katrina

2016-08-01

'Big data' are accumulating in a multitude of domains and offer novel opportunities for research. The role of these resources in mental health investigations remains relatively unexplored, although a number of datasets are in use and supporting a range of projects. We sought to review big data resources and their use in mental health research to characterise applications to date and consider directions for innovation in future. A narrative review. Clear disparities were evident in geographic regions covered and in the disorders and interventions receiving most attention. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the use of different types of data and the challenges of big data in general. Current research output from big data is still predominantly determined by the information and resources available and there is a need to reverse the situation so that big data platforms are more driven by the needs of clinical services and service users.

Past, present, and future of neuropsychology in Argentina.

PubMed

Fernandez, Alberto Luis; Ferreres, Aldo; Morlett-Paredes, Alejandra; Rivera, Diego; Arango-Lasprilla, Juan Carlos

2016-11-01

To describe the history, current situation, and future challenges of Argentinian neuropsychology. A brief historical description highlighting the most representative authors and publications is made. In addition, a survey was administered to a sample of 135 neuropsychologists practicing neuropsychology in Argentina. The survey explored the current neuropsychological practices among the respondents. Results show that most Argentinian neuropsychologists are: psychologists, women, and work in the clinical field in the country's major cities. Besides, the practice of neuropsychology is mostly unregulated with few training opportunities. Argentinian neuropsychology emerged from neurology in the early twentieth century and slowly progressed until the 1960s when the first organized research groups were created. Since then, a substantial and steady progress followed. However, more training opportunities and a better regulation of the discipline are needed. No similar studies have been conducted in the past, thus becoming one of the first to describe the development of neuropsychology in Argentina.

Putting Safety in the Frame: Nurses' Sensemaking at Work.

PubMed

O'Keeffe, Valerie Jean; Thompson, Kirrilly Rebecca; Tuckey, Michelle Rae; Blewett, Verna Lesley

2015-01-01

Current patient safety policy focuses nursing on patient care goals, often overriding nurses' safety. Without understanding how nurses construct work health and safety (WHS), patient and nurse safety cannot be reconciled. Using ethnography, we examine social contexts of safety, studying 72 nurses across five Australian hospitals making decisions during patient encounters. In enacting safe practice, nurses used "frames" built from their contextual experiences to guide their behavior. Frames are produced by nurses, and they structure how nurses make sense of their work. Using thematic analysis, we identify four frames that inform nurses' decisions about WHS: (a) communicating builds knowledge, (b) experiencing situations guides decisions, (c) adapting procedures streamlines work, and (d) team working promotes safe working. Nurses' frames question current policy and practice by challenging how nurses' safety is positioned relative to patient safety. Recognizing these frames can assist the design and implementation of effective WHS management.

Tuberculosis in children and adolescents: Strategies for social workers' interventions.

PubMed

González, Norma E; Angueira, Luciana

2017-12-01

In the care of children and adolescents with tuberculosis (TB), it is necessary to know the difficulties that many families have in accessing health care, obtaining a diagnosis, and receiving a timely treatment. Social workers, along with other members of the health care team, assist in providing access to health care resources and benefits that may favor treatment compliance and strengthen the health of this vulnerable population. Although the purpose of social workers involvement in this disease is to reduce the risk of becoming infected, sick or dying from TB, the current epidemiological situation of this disease in Argentina has faced social workers with the challenge of reconsidering new intervention strategies and revising current objectives. This study addresses their role and proposes actions that may contribute to decreasing TB morbidity and mortality in children and adolescents. Sociedad Argentina de Pediatría.

Putting Safety in the Frame

PubMed Central

O’Keeffe, Valerie Jean; Thompson, Kirrilly Rebecca; Tuckey, Michelle Rae; Blewett, Verna Lesley

2015-01-01

Current patient safety policy focuses nursing on patient care goals, often overriding nurses’ safety. Without understanding how nurses construct work health and safety (WHS), patient and nurse safety cannot be reconciled. Using ethnography, we examine social contexts of safety, studying 72 nurses across five Australian hospitals making decisions during patient encounters. In enacting safe practice, nurses used “frames” built from their contextual experiences to guide their behavior. Frames are produced by nurses, and they structure how nurses make sense of their work. Using thematic analysis, we identify four frames that inform nurses’ decisions about WHS: (a) communicating builds knowledge, (b) experiencing situations guides decisions, (c) adapting procedures streamlines work, and (d) team working promotes safe working. Nurses’ frames question current policy and practice by challenging how nurses’ safety is positioned relative to patient safety. Recognizing these frames can assist the design and implementation of effective WHS management. PMID:28462311

[Solidarity in health. Report on the 2017 Poverty and Health Congress].

PubMed

Waldhauer, Julia; Amler, Marion; Böhme, Nicole; Janella, Maren; Pospiech, Stefan; Lampert, Thomas

2017-08-01

The annual congress Armut und Gesundheit (Poverty and Health), which is organized by Gesundheit Berlin-Brandenburg e. V. and takes place at the Technical University of Berlin has become one of the biggest public health events in Germany. It constitutes an exchange platform for sciences, practice, and politics. This year's congress topic was solidarity in health, aiming to emphasize the responsibility that society and its actors have to bear in order to warrant health equity. Overall, 121 activities took place, with more than 500 experts and moderators discussing a wide range of subjects and questions including regional disparities in poverty, ethics in public health, the current situation of homeless and people without insurance, time trends in health inequalities, health and healthcare of refugees and asylum seekers, and the current progress and challenges in connection with the German prevention act.

Midwives' strategies in challenging dietary and weight counselling situations.

PubMed

Wennberg, Anna Lena; Hamberg, Katarina; Hörnsten, Asa

2014-10-01

By enhancing maternal nutritional status, midwives can help women lower the risks of pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes as well as improve maternal health during pregnancy and in the long run. Dietary counselling is, on the other hand, not reported to be effective. Poor communication and conflicting messages are identified as possible barriers to adherence with recommendations. Midwives' experiences of providing dietary advice and counselling during pregnancy are sparsely reported. The aim of this study was therefore to explore midwives' strategies when faced with challenging dietary counselling situations. Seventeen midwives from different parts of Sweden and working within antenatal health care were interviewed by telephone. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Challenges were commonly experienced when counselling women who were overweight, obese, had eating disorders or were from different cultures. The midwives talked in terms of "the problematic women" when addressing counselling problems. Strategies used in challenging counselling situations were Getting acquainted; Trying to support and motivate; Pressure to choose "correctly"; Controlling and mastering; and Resigning responsibility. The results indicate that Swedish midwives' counselling strategies are quite ambiguous and need to be questioned and that counselling of vulnerable groups of women should be highlighted. We could identify a need for education of practicing midwives to develop person-centred counselling skills. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using the living laboratory framework as a basis for understanding next-generation analyst work

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McNeese, Michael D.; Mancuso, Vincent; McNeese, Nathan; Endsley, Tristan; Forster, Pete

2013-05-01

The preparation of next generation analyst work requires alternative levels of understanding and new methodological departures from the way current work transpires. Current work practices typically do not provide a comprehensive approach that emphasizes the role of and interplay between (a) cognition, (b) emergent activities in a shared situated context, and (c) collaborative teamwork. In turn, effective and efficient problem solving fails to take place, and practice is often composed of piecemeal, techno-centric tools that isolate analysts by providing rigid, limited levels of understanding of situation awareness. This coupled with the fact that many analyst activities are classified produces a challenging situation for researching such phenomena and designing and evaluating systems to support analyst cognition and teamwork. Through our work with cyber, image, and intelligence analysts we have realized that there is more required of researchers to study human-centered designs to provide for analyst's needs in a timely fashion. This paper identifies and describes how The Living Laboratory Framework can be utilized as a means to develop a comprehensive, human-centric, and problem-focused approach to next generation analyst work, design, and training. We explain how the framework is utilized for specific cases in various applied settings (e.g., crisis management analysis, image analysis, and cyber analysis) to demonstrate its value and power in addressing an area of utmost importance to our national security. Attributes of analyst work settings are delineated to suggest potential design affordances that could help improve cognitive activities and awareness. Finally, the paper puts forth a research agenda for the use of the framework for future work that will move the analyst profession in a viable manner to address the concerns identified.

Use of Mobile Video to Enhance Situational Awareness in HA/DR Missions

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

challenges . Although many definitions have been proposed so far, Mica R. Endsley describes “situational awareness” as: [T]he perception of the...Player, QuickTime, Flash Player, VLC Media Player, HTML 5 Video and DivX Web Player. This feature helps overcome a usual handicap that developers

Challenges in Using Analogies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Shih-Yin; Singh, Chandralekha

2011-01-01

Learning physics requires understanding the applicability of fundamental principles in a variety of contexts that share deep features. One way to help students learn physics is via analogical reasoning. Students can be taught to make an analogy between situations that are more familiar or easier to understand and another situation where the same…

Preschoolers' Social Information Processing and Early School Success: The Challenging Situations Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denham, Susanne A.; Way, Erin; Kalb, Sara C.; Warren-Khot, Heather K.; Bassett, Hideko H.

2013-01-01

As part of a larger longitudinal project on the assessment of preschoolers' social-emotional development, children's social information processing (SIP) responses to unambiguous hypothetical situations of peer provocation were assessed for 298 four-year-olds from Head Start and private childcare settings. Measurement focused on emotions children…

[Current Situation and Prospects of Emergency Medical Equipment in Our Country].

PubMed

Qi, Lijing; Cheng, Feng

2016-03-01

This article analyzes the new demand of emergency medical equipment in the current development trend based on the analysis of the development and current situation of emergency medicine in our country. At the same time it introduces the current industrial characteristics of our country. Finally it analyzes the development trend of this kind of equipment in the new emergency medicine field.

Teaching nursing in a situation of conflict: encounters between Palestinian-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli nursing students.

PubMed

Arieli, D; Hirschfeld, M J

2010-09-01

This research examines the ways Palestinian-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli nursing students, who study together in one group in an academic school of nursing situated in northern Israel, perceive each other and the relationships among them. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students. The cohort consists of 46 students, 20 of whom participated in the study. The students perceive themselves as divided into two separate groups according to nationality. Cooperation between the groups related to their study duties is described as generally satisfying, but little expressive communication and scarce social relations occur across these two groups. Students provided their perceptions of 'the others' to explain this social distance. We discuss the challenges of the situation for nursing educators and some strategies for coping with these challenges.

Fostering Reflection through Challenging Practica

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nickel, Jodi; Sutherby, Linda; Garrow-Oliver, Susan

2010-01-01

This article describes challenging practicum situations that provided three early childhood education students with leadership opportunities to promote best practices in child care centers. Using excerpts from student journals and meetings, the article documents students' initial discouragement at practices observed, inspiration through…

A qualitative study of the current situation of elderly care in Iran: what can we do for the future?

PubMed

Goharinezhad, Salime; Maleki, Mohammadreza; Baradaran, Hamid Reza; Ravaghi, Hamid

2016-01-01

With the successful improvement of global health systems and social security in societies, the world is now advancing toward aging. All countries have to face the phenomenon of population aging sooner or later depending on their degree of development; however, elderly care is predicted to soon become a major concern for developing countries such as Iran. This study was conducted to identify the challenges of elderly care in Iran and to help policymakers develop roadmaps for the future through providing a clearer image of the current state of affairs in this area of healthcare. This study has adopted a framework approach to qualitative data analysis. For this purpose, 37 semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2015 with a number of key informants in elderly care who were familiar with the process at macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Maximum variation purposive sampling was performed to select the study samples. A conceptual framework was designed using a review of the literature, and key issues were then identified for data analysis. The elderly care process yielded five major challenges, including policymaking, access, technical infrastructure, integrity and coordination, and health-based care services. According to the stakeholders of elderly care in Iran, the current care system is not well-suited for meeting the needs of the elderly, as the elderly tend to receive the services they need sporadically and in a non-coherent manner. Given the rapid growth of the elderly population in the coming decades, it is the authorities' job to concentrate on the challenges faced by the health system and to use foresight methods for the comprehensive and systematical management of the issue.

Flow situations during everyday practice in a medical hospital ward. Results from a study based on experience sampling method.

PubMed

Bringsén, Asa; Ejlertsson, Göran; Andersson, Ingemar H

2011-02-02

Nursing is a constant balance between strain and stimulation and work and health research with a positive reference point has been recommended. A health-promoting circumstance for subjective experience is flow, which is a psychological state, when individuals concurrently experience happiness, motivation and cognitive efficiency. Flow situations can be identified through individuals' estimates of perceived challenge and skills. There is, to the best of our knowledge, no published study of flow among health care staff. The aim of this study was to identify flow-situations and study work-related activities and individual factors associated with flow situations, during everyday practice at a medical emergency ward in Sweden, in order to increase the knowledge on salutogenic health-promoting factors. The respondents consisted of 17 assistant nurses and 14 registered nurses, who randomly and repeatedly answered a small questionnaire, through an experience sampling method, during everyday nursing practice. The study resulted in 497 observations. Flow situations were defined as an exact match between a high challenge and skill estimation and logistic regression models were used to study different variables association to flow situations. The health care staff spent most of its working time in individual nursing care and administrative and communicative duties. The assistant nurses were more often occupied in individual nursing care, while the registered nurses were more involved in medical care and administrative and communicative duties. The study resulted in 11.5% observations of flow situations but the relative number of flow situations varied between none to 55% among the participants. Flow situations were positively related to medical care activities and individual cognitive resources. Taking a break was also positively associated with flow situations among the assistant nurses. The result showed opportunities for work-related interventions, with an adherent increase in flow situations, opportunity for experience of flow and work-related health among the nursing staff in general and among the assistant nurses in particular.

Early osteoarthritis of the patellofemoral joint.

PubMed

Arendt, Elizabeth A; Berruto, Massimo; Filardo, Giuseppe; Ronga, Mario; Zaffagnini, Stefano; Farr, Jack; Ferrua, Paolo; Grassi, Alberto; Condello, Vincenzo

2016-06-01

Patellofemoral joint cartilage lesions are associated with a variety of clinical situations including blunt trauma, lateral patella dislocations, or as a secondary development in the setting of abnormal joint loading. There is a need for more clarity on how to best address these lesions. Most specifically, when is it necessary to surgically treat these lesions of the patella and trochlea and which technique to use? This review will focus on the spectrum of patellofemoral disease/injury and their treatment strategies, with special emphasis on cartilage damage and early osteoarthritis. Chapter sections will review the most common scenarios of cartilage damage in the patellofemoral joint, with an attempt to summarize current treatment, their outcomes, remaining challenges and unanswered questions.

Neglected populations: safeguarding the health of street-involved children in Ghana.

PubMed

Osei-Twum, Jo-Ann; Wasan, Kishor M

2012-10-01

Ensuring the health of street-involved children is a growing public health challenge. These children are vulnerable, neglected, and rarely a priority for basic service providers and governments. Sizable populations of street-involved children are present in major urban areas worldwide and current trends in urbanization suggest these populations will grow in the coming years. Although migration offers employment and training opportunities, the health and wellbeing of children is negatively impacted by their interactions with the streets. However, systemic barriers may also prevent these children from achieving an adequate health status. The situation of street-involved children in Ghana, West Africa will be discussed. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations in the competitive context: an examination of person-situation interactions.

PubMed

Abuhamdeh, Sami; Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly

2009-10-01

The current study examined Intrinsic Motivation Orientation and Extrinsic Motivation Orientation (Work Preference Inventory; Amabile, Hill, Hennessey, & Tighe, 1994) as potential trait-level moderators of the way Internet chess players responded to the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of the chess games they played. On the basis of the defining characteristics of these 2 types of motivational orientations, we predicted that (a) Intrinsic Motivation Orientation would be associated with a stronger curvilinear relationship between challenge and enjoyment and (b) Extrinsic Motivation Orientation would be associated with a heightened affective responsivity to competitive outcome (i.e., winning vs. losing). Results supported the predictions. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Malaria in South America: a drug discovery perspective.

PubMed

Cruz, Luiza R; Spangenberg, Thomas; Lacerda, Marcus V G; Wells, Timothy N C

2013-05-24

The challenge of controlling and eventually eradicating malaria means that new tools are urgently needed. South America's role in this fight spans both ends of the research and development spectrum: both as a continent capable of discovering and developing new medicines, and also as a continent with significant numbers of malaria patients. This article reviews the contribution of groups in the South American continent to the research and development of new medicines over the last decade. Therefore, the current situation of research targeting malaria control and eradication is discussed, including endemicity, geographical distribution, treatment, drug-resistance and diagnosis. This sets the scene for a review of efforts within South America to discover and optimize compounds with anti-malarial activity.

Challenges in managing elderly people with diabetes in primary care settings in Norway

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Abstract Objective To explore the experiences and clinical challenges that nurses and nursing assistants face when providing high-quality diabetes-specific management and care for elderly people with diabetes in primary care settings. Design Focus-group interviews. Subjects and setting Sixteen health care professionals: 12 registered nurses and four nursing assistants from nursing homes (10), district nursing service (5), and a service unit (1) were recruited by municipal managers who had local knowledge and knew the workforce. All the participants were women aged 32–59 years with clinical experience ranging from 1.5 to 38 years. Results Content analysis revealed a discrepancy between the level of expertise which the participants described as important to delivering high-quality care and their capacity to deliver such care. The discrepancy was due to lack of availability and access to current information, limited ongoing support, lack of cohesion among health care professionals, and limited confidence and autonomy. Challenges to delivering high-quality care included complex, difficult patient situations and lack of confidence to make decisions founded on evidence-based guidelines. Conclusion Participants lacked confidence and autonomy to manage elderly people with diabetes in municipal care settings. Lack of information, support, and professional cohesion made the role challenging. PMID:24205973

Attachment status and salivary cortisol in a normal day and during simulated interpersonal stress in young men.

PubMed

Rifkin-Graboi, Anne

2008-05-01

Attachment insecurity, as assessed via the adult attachment interview (AAI), may be expected to relate to basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity because it is retrodictive of stressful early experiences, which may influence HPA development. In addition, because AAI insecurity may reflect limitations on concurrent cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies for managing interpersonal distress, insecurity may also relate to cortisol reactivity specifically during inter-personal challenges. Nevertheless, only two studies have examined associations between AAI insecurity and cortisol, and in total only eight non-clinical men were included. To expand upon past research, the current study focused on college aged men and examined relations between attachment status (via categories and continuous scores) and cortisol levels during daily life and during interpersonal laboratory challenges, wherein subjects were asked to visualize and respond to hypothetical situations concerning loss, separation, and abandonment. Unlike prior research, salivary cortisol was measured during cognitive challenges (e.g. non-autobiographical memory tests), so as to inform questions concerning the specificity of effects. Contrary to expectations, only limited evidence suggested a relation between insecurity and basal HPA functioning. However, in keeping with expectations, associations between insecurity, and in particular dismissing idealization, and comparatively higher cortisol values following interpersonal challenges were observed.

Developmental immunotoxicity of chemicals in rodents and its possible regulatory impact.

PubMed

Hessel, Ellen V S; Tonk, Elisa C M; Bos, Peter M J; van Loveren, Henk; Piersma, Aldert H

2015-01-01

Around 25% of the children in developed countries are affected with immune-based diseases. Juvenile onset diseases such as allergic, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases have shown increasing prevalences in the last decades. The role of chemical exposures in these phenomena is unclear. It is thought that the developmental immune system is more susceptible to toxicants than the mature situation. Developmental immunotoxicity (DIT) testing is nowadays not or minimally included in regulatory toxicology requirements. We reviewed whether developmental immune parameters in rodents would provide relatively sensitive endpoints of toxicity, whose inclusion in regulatory toxicity testing might improve hazard identification and risk assessment of chemicals. For each of the nine reviewed toxicants, the developing immune system was found to be at least as sensitive or more sensitive than the general (developmental) toxicity parameters. Functional immune (antigen-challenged) parameters appear more affected than structural (non-challenged) immune parameters. Especially, antibody responses to immune challenges with keyhole limpet hemocyanine or sheep red blood cells and delayed-type hypersensitivity responses appear to provide sensitive parameters of developmental immune toxicity. Comparison with current tolerable daily intakes (TDI) and their underlying overall no observed adverse effect levels showed that for some of the compounds reviewed, the TDI may need reconsideration based on developmental immune parameters. From these data, it can be concluded that the developing immune system is very sensitive to the disruption of toxicants independent of study design. Consideration of including functional DIT parameters in current hazard identification guidelines and wider application of relevant study protocols is warranted.

[Challenges in geriatric rehabilitation: the development of an integrated care pathway].

PubMed

Everink, Irma Helga Johanna; van Haastregt, Jolanda C M; Kempen, Gertrudis I J M; Dielis, Leen M J; Maessen, José M C; Schols, Jos M G A

2015-04-01

Coordination and continuity of care within geriatric rehabilitation is challenging. To tackle these challenges, an integrated care pathway within geriatric rehabilitation care (hospital, geriatric rehabilitation and follow-up care in the home situation) has been developed. The aim of this article is to expound the process of developing the integrated care pathway, and to describe and discuss the results of this process (which is the integrated care pathway). Developing the integrated care pathway was done by the guidance of the first four steps of the theoretical framework for implementation of change from Grol and Wensing: (1) development of a specific proposal for change in practice; (2) analysis of current care practice; (3) analysis of the target group and setting; and (4) development and selection of interventions/strategies for change. The organizations involved in geriatric rehabilitation argued that the integrated care pathway should focus on improving the process of care, including transfer of patients, handovers and communication between care organizations. Current practice, barriers and incentives for change were analyzed through literature research, expert consultation, and interviews with the involved caregivers and by establishing working groups of health care professionals, patients and informal caregivers. This resulted in valuable proposals for improvement of the care process, which were gathered and combined in the integrated care pathway. The integrated care pathway entails agreements on (a) the triage process in the hospital; (b) active engagement of patients and informal caregivers in the care process; (c) timely and high quality handovers; and (d) improved communication between caregivers.

Emotion control in collaborative learning situations: do students regulate emotions evoked by social challenges?

PubMed

Järvenoja, Hanna; Järvelä, Sanna

2009-09-01

During recent decades, self-regulated learning (SRL) has become a major research field. SRL successfully integrates the cognitive and motivational components of learning. Self-regulation is usually seen as an individual process, with the social aspects of regulation conceptualized as one aspect of the context. However, recent research has begun to investigate whether self-regulation processes are complemented by socially shared regulation processes. The presented study investigated what kind of socio-emotional challenges students experience during collaborative learning and whether the students regulate the emotions evoked during these situations. The interplay of the emotion regulation processes between the individual and the group was also studied. The sample for this study was 63 teacher education students who studied in groups of three to five during three collaborative learning tasks. Students' interpretations of experienced social challenges and their attempts to regulate emotions evoked by these challenges were collected following each task using the Adaptive Instrument for the Regulation of Emotions. The results indicated that students experienced a variety of social challenges. Students also reported the use of shared regulation in addition to self-regulation. Finally, the results suggested that intrinsic group dynamics are derived from both individual and social elements of collaborative situations. The findings of the study support the assumption that students can regulate emotions collaboratively as well as individually. The study contributes to our understanding of the social aspects of emotional regulation in collaborative learning contexts.

Fostering German-Language Learners' Constructions of Meanings for Fractions--Design and Effects of a Language-and Mathematics-Integrated Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prediger, Susanne; Wessel, Lena

2013-01-01

Learning situations that concentrate on conceptual understanding are particularly challenging for learners with limited proficiency in the language of instruction. This article presents an intervention on fractions for Grade 7 in which linguistic challenges and conceptual mathematical challenges were treated in an integrated way. The quantitative…

The Consumer Behavior Challenge: Designing an Assignment to Motivate Student Reflection and Self-Growth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gravois, Renée; Lopez, Tará Burnthorne; Budden, Michael C.

2017-01-01

The tension caused by change pushes students to reflect on their new situation, examine preconceived ideas, and synthesize new with existing knowledge. In the Consumer Behavior Challenge, students are challenged to step outside of their comfort zone by changing a behavior or trying something new for a period of time. Through guided reflection…

Using the Socratic Method in Secondary Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schoeman, Stephen

1997-01-01

Students are more accustomed to receiving knowledge than to questioning knowledge, challenging underlying assumptions, and seeing inconsistencies and irrelevancies. The Socratic method requires teachers to challenge students' critical thinking abilities by developing questions based on analogies and hypothetical situations. Although the Socratic…

Superstitious behavior in sport: A literature review.

PubMed

Dömötör, Zsuzsanna; Ruíz-Barquín, Roberto; Szabo, Attila

2016-08-01

The objective of this first literature review, in this area, is to unveil the current status of knowledge on superstition in sport. Its outcome reveals that superstitious behaviors vary with the type of sport, athletic level, as well as athletic role. In agreement with past theories, they increase with the level of challenge, as reflected by the importance of the competition, as well as with the level of uncertainty. Cultural factors, in conjunction with the education level, as well as gender, have a strong influence on superstitious behaviors in sports. Based on current thoughts, religiosity and superstition are different psychological constructs used as psychological aids by several athletes. Personality factors appear to mediate the manifestation of the behavior. Elite athletes are clearly more superstitious than non-elite athletes, An interaction between athletic skill and task-difficulty emerges to be another strong predictor of superstition in sport. It is evident that a set of complex personal and situational factors interact in the manifestation of superstitious behavior in sport that is used for the regulation of emotions in a quest for optimal performance. It is concluded that the objective benefits (i.e., success) of superstition in sport may be ascribed to the placebo effect that yields an increased sense of control and mental reassurance in unpredictable contest situations. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluating integrated watershed management using multiple criteria analysis--a case study at Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh.

PubMed

Biswas, Shampa; Vacik, Harald; Swanson, Mark E; Haque, S M Sirajul

2012-05-01

Criteria and indicators assessment is one of the ways to evaluate management strategies for mountain watersheds. One framework for this, Integrated Watershed Management (IWM), was employed at Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh using a multi-criteria analysis approach. The IWM framework, consisting of the design and application of principles, criteria, indicators, and verifiers (PCIV), facilitates active participation by diverse professionals, experts, and interest groups in watershed management, to explicitly address the demands and problems to measure the complexity of problems in a transparent and understandable way. Management alternatives are developed to fulfill every key component of IWM considering the developed PCIV set and current situation of the study area. Different management strategies, each focusing on a different approach (biodiversity conservation, flood control, soil and water quality conservation, indigenous knowledge conservation, income generation, watershed conservation, and landscape conservation) were assessed qualitatively on their potential to improve the current situation according to each verifier of the criteria and indicator set. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), including sensitivity analysis, was employed to identify an appropriate management strategy according to overall priorities (i.e., different weights of each principle) of key informants. The AHP process indicated that a strategy focused on conservation of biodiversity provided the best option to address watershed-related challenges in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh.

Analysis of the strain on employees in the retail sector considering work-life balance.

PubMed

Zülch, Gert; Stock, Patricia; Schmidt, Daniel

2012-01-01

Many companies currently strive to support their employees' work-life balance through appropriate measures in order to improve employees' loyalty towards the company and to recruit new employees. In this context, flexibility in the area of working times is a measure that can influence employees' private lives immensely. This is why the individualisation of working time arrangements has been accorded high importance in current discussions on work-life balance. In this area, best practice examples can be found showing how working-time arrangements can improve the situation of the employees. It should be noted, however, that there is not one single perfect working-time model. A working-time model must always be adapted specifically to the actual situation of the company and the employees. Therefore, a targeted analysis of the challenges facing the company and the demands on the employees is essential for the creation of an appropriate working time policy. In particular, the employees' working-time preferences must be appropriately taken into account. Owing, however, to a combination of organisational complications and legal data protection restrictions, it is for the most part impossible to meet these working-time preferences in their entirety. This paper, which is based on an employee survey, illustrates the strain on employees in the retail sector and identifies different types of working-time preferences.

[The health situation and health care needs of unaccompanied minor refugees - an approximation based on qualitative and quantitative studies from Bielefeld, Germany].

PubMed

Spallek, Jacob; Tempes, Jana; Ricksgers, Hannah; Marquardt, Louisa; Prüfer-Krämer, Luise; Krämer, Alexander

2016-05-01

Unaccompanied minor refugees are children or adolescents below the age of 18 years who are not accompanied by their parents. International studies show that unaccompanied minor refugees represent a special risk group. Currently, empirical study results about the health status of unaccompanied minor refugees barely exist for Germany. Therefore, the goal of this article is an assessment of the health status and health care of unaccompanied minor refugees in Bielefeld, Germany. For this purpose, two qualitative studies and one quantitative study from Bielefeld are used.Results demonstrate that the health care of unaccompanied minor refugees underlies certain peculiarities that indicate major medical needs: Firstly, the need for psychological/psychiatric care and secondly the need for health care regarding infectious diseases. Further challenges in the health care needs of this population group result from its specific situation, and comprise legal conditions, as well as language and cultural competencies on behalf of the health care providers and the unaccompanied minor refugees themselves.

Overview of Celiac Disease in Russia: Regional Data and Estimated Prevalence

PubMed Central

Erdes, Svetlana I.; Antishin, Anton S.

2017-01-01

Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy triggered by the ingestion of dietary gluten from some cereals mainly in individuals carrying the HLA-DQ2 and/or HLA-DQ8 haplotypes. As an autoimmune disease, CD is manifested in the small intestine in the form of a progressive and reversible inflammatory lesion due to immune response to self-antigens. Indeed, CD is one of the most challenging medicosocial problems in current gastroenterology. At present, the global CD prevalence is estimated at approximately 1% based on data sent from different locations and available CD screening strategies used. However, it is impossible to estimate global CD prevalence without all the data from the world, including Russia. In this review, we summarize the data on the incidence and prevalence of CD across geographically distinct regions of Russia, which are mostly present in local Russian scientific sources. Our conclusion is that the situation of CD prevalence in Russia is higher than is commonly believed and follows global tendencies that correspond to the epidemiologic situation in Europe, America, and Southwest Asia. PMID:28316996

[Universal health systems and territory: challenges for a regional policy in the Brazilian Legal Amazon].

PubMed

Viana, Ana Luiza d'Avila; Machado, Cristiani Vieira; Baptista, Tatiana Wargas de Faria; Lima, Luciana Dias de; Mendonça, Maria Helena Magalhães de; Heimann, Luiza S; Albuquerque, Mariana Vercesi; Iozzi, Fabíola Lana; David, Virna Carvalho; Ibañez, Pablo; Frederico, Samuel

2007-01-01

This article presents the results of a study on Federal health policy in the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) from 2003 to 2005, aimed at backing the development of regional health policies. The region has peculiar dynamics, an extensive border area, and adverse social indicators. The methodology included documental and financial analysis, participatory observation, interviews with heads of various Federal Ministries and State and Municipal health secretaries from the BLA; characterization of geographic situations in the BLA; and field studies in 15 municipalities. Institutional consolidation of health policy proved to be low in the Amazon during the study period, due to structural, institutional, and political difficulties. The identification of six geographic situations was useful for systematizing land use differences with repercussions on health, and which should be considered when implementing public policies. There is a certain gap between Federal actions and territorial dynamics, expressed as a mismatch between the current policy and its recognition by local administrators. In addition to establishing a regional policy for the Amazon, there is an evident need for differentiated policies within the region.

Dental laboratory technology education in China: current situation and challenges.

PubMed

Zheng, Liwei; Yue, Li; Zhou, Min; Yu, Haiyang

2013-03-01

Modern dentistry and dental education in China were first introduced from abroad by Dr. Lindsay in 1907. However, advancements in the field of dental laboratory technology did not occur to the same degree in specialties such as prosthodontics and orthodontics. Since the 1990s, orders from abroad demanding dental appliances surged as the image of China as the "world's factory" strengthened. The assembly line model, in which technicians work like simple procedure workers, was rapidly applied to denture production, while the traditional education system and apprenticeship systems demonstrated little progress in these years. The lack of advancement in dental laboratory technology education caused insufficient development in China's dental technology industry. In order to alter the situation, a four-year dental laboratory technology undergraduate educational program was established in 2005 by West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University (WCSS, SCU). This program was based on SCU's undergraduate education and WCSS's junior college education systems. The program introduced scientific methods in relevant subjects into laboratory technicians' training and made many improvements in the availability of trained faculty, textbooks, laboratory facilities, and curriculum.

Overview of Celiac Disease in Russia: Regional Data and Estimated Prevalence.

PubMed

Savvateeva, Lyudmila V; Erdes, Svetlana I; Antishin, Anton S; Zamyatnin, Andrey A

2017-01-01

Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy triggered by the ingestion of dietary gluten from some cereals mainly in individuals carrying the HLA-DQ2 and/or HLA-DQ8 haplotypes. As an autoimmune disease, CD is manifested in the small intestine in the form of a progressive and reversible inflammatory lesion due to immune response to self-antigens. Indeed, CD is one of the most challenging medicosocial problems in current gastroenterology. At present, the global CD prevalence is estimated at approximately 1% based on data sent from different locations and available CD screening strategies used. However, it is impossible to estimate global CD prevalence without all the data from the world, including Russia. In this review, we summarize the data on the incidence and prevalence of CD across geographically distinct regions of Russia, which are mostly present in local Russian scientific sources. Our conclusion is that the situation of CD prevalence in Russia is higher than is commonly believed and follows global tendencies that correspond to the epidemiologic situation in Europe, America, and Southwest Asia.

Harlequin-Inspired Story-Based Learning: An Educational Innovation for Pediatric Nursing Communication.

PubMed

Shaw, Alison; Lind, Candace; Ewashen, Carol

2017-05-01

Effective communication with patients and families is essential for quality care in the pediatric environment. Despite this, the current structure and content of undergraduate nursing education often contributes to novice RNs feeling unprepared to manage complex pediatric communication situations. By merging the characteristics of the Harlequin persona with the structure of story-based learning, undergraduate students can be introduced to increasingly advanced pediatric communication scenarios in the classroom. Although story-based learning encourages students to identify and address the contextual and emotional elements of a story, the Harlequin encourages educators to challenge assumptions and upset the status quo. Nursing students can develop advanced communication abilities and learn to identify and cope with the emotions and complexities inherent in pediatric practice and communication. Harlequin-inspired story-based learning can enable nurse educators to create interesting, realistic, and challenging pediatric nursing stories designed to push students outside their comfort zones and enhance their advanced pediatric communication abilities. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(5):300-303.]. Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.

Boeing electronic flight bag

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trujillo, Eddie J.; Ellersick, Steven D.

2006-05-01

The Boeing Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) is a key element in the evolutionary process of an "e-enabled" flight deck. The EFB is designed to improve the overall safety, efficiency, and operation of the flight deck and corresponding airline operations by providing the flight crew with better information and enhanced functionality in a user-friendly digital format. The EFB is intended to increase the pilots' situational awareness of the airplane and systems, as well as improve the efficiency of information management. The system will replace documents and forms that are currently stored or carried onto the flight deck and put them, in digital format, at the crew's fingertips. This paper describes what the Boeing EFB is and the significant human factors and interface design issues, trade-offs, and decisions made during development of the display system. In addition, EFB formats, graphics, input control methods, challenges using COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf)-leveraged glass and formatting technology are discussed. The optical design requirements, display technology utilized, brightness control system, reflection challenge, and the resulting optical performance are presented.

Current situation and challenge of registry in China.

PubMed

Zhang, Yang; Feng, Yuji; Qu, Zhi; Qi, Yali; Zhan, Siyan

2014-09-01

Increasing emphasis has been placed on registries for an organized system used in developing clinical research to improve health care. China has sufficient data that can be applied broadly, but the heterogeneity and irregularity of registries limit their applicability. This article aims to describe the status of registries in China and the related challenges. Patient registries for observational studies were retrieved from the International Clinical Trials Registry to quantitatively evaluate the number of comparatively high-quality registries in China. A literature search was also performed to provide support and updates. A total of 64 patient registries were retrieved from ClinicalTrials.gov using disease, product, and health service as criteria. The sample sizes ranged from 15 to 30,400, with only 12 registries marked as completed. This article describes and compares the detailed information in many aspects. The efficient use of registries has already made considerable progress in China; however, registries still require standardization, high-quality transition, and coordinated development.

Good Student/Bad Student: Situated Identities in the Figured Worlds of School and Creative Multimodal Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jocius, Robin

2017-01-01

This study situates young adolescents' multimodal composing practices within two figured worlds--school and creative multimodal production. In a microanalysis of two focal students' multimodal processes and products, I trace how pedagogical, interactional, and semiotic resources both reified and challenged students' developing identities as…

Beyond Research "on" Cultural Minorities: Challenges and Implications of Research as Situated Cultural Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arzubiaga, Angela E.; Artiles, Alfredo J.; King, Kathleen A.; Harris-Murri, Nancy

2008-01-01

This article examines the cultural nature of research. This is a consequential idea as research knowledge is expected to inform professional practices for our increasingly multicultural society. We highlight theoretical and methodological limits of the traditional practice of research on cultural groups and outline research as situated cultural…

An Examination of the Multidimensionality of Situational Interest in Elementary School Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Haichun; Chen, Ang; Ennis, Catherine; Martin, Robert; Shen, Bo

2008-01-01

It has been demonstrated that situational interest in physical activity may derive from five dimensional sources, Novelty, Optimal Challenge, Attention Demand, Exploration Intent, and Instant Enjoyment. The purpose of this study was to examine the multidimensional sources in elementary school physical education. The five dimensions were measured…

Language Students Learning to Manage Complex Pedagogic Situations in a Technology-Rich Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tumelius, Riikka; Kuure, Leena

2017-01-01

Being a language teacher in the modern world requires sensitivity to complexity, which may pose challenges for student teachers and teachers in the field accustomed to classroom-based learning and teaching. This study examines how language students are managing complex pedagogic situations in a technologyrich environment while exploring new ways…

Cautious caregivers: gender stereotypes and the sexualization of men nurses' touch.

PubMed

Evans, Joan A

2002-11-01

The aim of this research was to explore the experience of men nurses and the ways in which gender relations structure different work experiences for women and men in the same profession. Men are now entering the nursing profession in record numbers and challenging the notion that men are inappropriate in caregiver roles or incapable of providing compassionate and sensitive care. A limitation of the current state of knowledge regarding caring and men nurses is that it is primarily focused on men nursing students, not practising nurses. Little is known about men nurses' practices of caring and how such practices reflect the gendered nature of nursing and nurses' caring work. The theme of men nurses as cautious caregivers emerged from data that were collected in two rounds of semi-structured interviews with eight men nurses practising in Nova Scotia, Canada. Thematic analysis, informed by feminist theory and masculinity theory, was used as the method for analysing the data. For men nurses, the stereotype of men as sexual aggressors is compounded by the stereotype that men nurses are gay. These stereotypes sexualize men nurses' touch and create complex and contradictory situations of acceptance, rejection and suspicion of men as nurturers and caregivers. They also situate men nurses in highly stigmatized roles in which they are subject to accusations of inappropriate behaviour. For men nurses, this situation is lived as a heightened sense of vulnerability and the continual need to be cautious while touching and caring for patients. Ultimately, this situation impacts on the ability of men nurses to do the caring work they came into nursing to do.

Exotic encounters with dental implants: managing complications with unidentified systems.

PubMed

Mattheos, N; Janda, M Schittek

2012-06-01

As the application of dental implants increases worldwide, so is the number of technical and biological complications that general dental practitioners will be called to manage, while maintaining implant patients. In addition, the greater patient mobility encountered today combined with a growing trend of 'dental implant tourism' will very often result in situations where the dentist is requested to deal with complications in implants placed elsewhere and which sometimes might be of an 'exotic' system one cannot directly recognize. Such a situation can pose significant challenges to even experienced clinicians. The challenges are not only in the scientific field, but often include professional and ethical implications. This case report will discuss strategies for the management of implant complications in cases of unidentified implant systems. Critical factors in such situations would be the clinician's experience and special training, the correct radiographic technique, as well as access to the appropriate tools and devices. © 2012 Australian Dental Association.

Exploring perinatal shift-to-shift handover communication and process: an observational study.

PubMed

Poot, Else P; de Bruijne, Martine C; Wouters, Maurice G A J; de Groot, Christianne J M; Wagner, Cordula

2014-04-01

Loss of situation awareness (SA) by health professionals during handover is a major threat to patient safety in perinatal care. SA refers to knowing what is going on around. Adequate handover communication and process may support situation assessment, a precursor of SA. This study describes current practices and opinions of perinatal handover to identify potential improvements. Structured direct observations of shift-to-shift patient handovers (n = 70) in an academic perinatal setting were used to measure handover communication (presence and order of levels of SA: current situation, background, assessment and recommendation) and process (duration, interruptions/distractions, eye contact, active inquiry and reading information back). Afterwards, receivers' opinions of handover communication (n = 51) were measured by means of a questionnaire. All levels of SA were present in 7% of handovers, the current situation in 86%, the background in 99%, an assessment in 24% and a recommendation in 46%. In 77% of handovers the background was mentioned first, followed by the current situation. Forty-four per cent of handovers took 2 minutes or more per patient. In 52% distractions occurred, in 43% there was no active inquiry, in 32% no eye contact and in 97% information was not read back. The overall mean of the receivers' opinions of handover communication was 4.1 (standard deviation ± 0.7; scale 1-5, where 5 is excellent). Perinatal handovers are currently at risk for inadequate situation assessment because of variability and limitations in handover communication and process. However, receivers' opinions of handover communication were very positive, indicating a lack of awareness of patient safety threats during handover. Therefore, the staff's awareness of current limitations should be raised, for example through video reflection or simulation training. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Navigating the Road to Reintegration: Status and Continuing Support of the U.S. Air Force's Wounded Warriors.

PubMed

Sims, Carra S; Vaughan, Christine Anne; Theologis, Haralambos; Boal, Ashley; Osilla, Karen Chan

2015-11-30

The U.S. Air Force, wanting to gain greater insight into the well-being of its members who have sustained mental or physical injuries in combat or combat-related situations, including their quality of life and the challenges they will confront in their reintegration following separation or retirement, asked the RAND Corporation for assistance in gauging the current status of the Air Force's wounded warriors, including their use of and satisfaction with Air Force programs designed to serve them. This article presents the baseline findings from a longitudinal analysis of enrollees in the Air Force Wounded Warrior (AFW2) program who were receiving benefits or undergoing evaluation to receive benefits, the majority of whom had a primary administrative diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A high proportion of the Airmen in the sample screened positive for PTSD (roughly 78 percent) and major depressive disorder (MDD) (roughly 75 percent); 69 percent screened positive for both. Although more than 90 percent of those in the sample who screened positive for PTSD or MDD were receiving treatment, about half indicated that there was at least one instance during the past year in which they desired mental health treatment but did not receive it. Participants reported concerns about stigma, confidentiality, and the quality of available treatment as barriers to receiving mental health care, though the current data do not link these concerns to a particular treatment setting. About 10 percent of Airmen reported a financial situation that could be considered as living in poverty based on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' poverty guidelines. Similarly, close to 15 percent of those in the labor force could be considered unemployed. Reserve and National Guard Airmen evidenced heightened challenges across examined domains. Respondents were overall satisfied with the services they received from the AFW2 and Air Force Recovery Care Coordinator programs.

Public Health Genomics and Genetic Test Evaluation: The Challenge of Conducting Behavioural Research on the Utility of Lifestyle-Genetic Tests

PubMed Central

Sanderson, Saskia C.; Wardle, Jane; Humphries, Steve E.

2008-01-01

Human genetics research is increasingly concerned with multifactorial conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, which are influenced not only by genetic but also lifestyle factors such as diet and smoking. Although the results of ‘lifestyle-genetic’ tests using this information could conceivably motivate lifestyle changes in the future, companies are already selling such tests and related lifestyle advice commercially. Some academics and lobby groups have condemned the companies for selling these tests in advance of scientific support. Others are concerned that the tests may not motivate lifestyle improvements, instead causing distress in people receiving adverse test results and complacency in those receiving reassuring results. There is currently no regulatory oversight of genetic test utility, despite consensus in the Public Health Genomics community that clinical utility (including psychological and behavioural impact) of all emerging genetic tests should be evaluated before being introduced for individual use. Clearly, empirical data in this area is much needed, to inform understanding of the potential utility of these tests, and of whether stricter regulation of commercial exploitation is needed. In this article, we review the current situation regarding lifestyle-genetic tests, and discuss the challenges inherent in conducting this kind of behavioural research in the genomics era. PMID:19776630

Immunisation registers in Canada: progress made, current situation, and challenges for the future.

PubMed

Laroche, J A; Diniz, A J

2012-04-26

Immunisation registers have the capacity to capture data on the administration of vaccine doses at the individual level within the population and represent an important tool in assessing immunisation coverage and vaccine uptake. In 1999, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended that a network of immunisation registers be established in Canada. The Canadian Immunization Registry Network (CIRN) was established to coordinate the development of standards and facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience to develop a national network of such registers. In 2003, the National Immunization Strategy identified immunisation registers as an important component in improving national immunisation surveillance. In addition, there has been consistent public and professional interest in a national immunisation register being available and considerable progress has been made in developing technologies to facilitate the capture of immunisation-related data. More specifically, the automated identification of vaccines, through the use of barcodes on vaccines, will facilitate collection of data related to administered vaccine doses. Nevertheless, challenges remain in the implementation of immunisation registers in all Canadian provinces and territories such that Canada still does not currently have a fully functional network of immunisation registers with the capacity to be interoperable between jurisdictions and to allow for data to be captured at the national level.

Exploring Powered Wheelchair Users and Their Caregivers’ Perspectives on Potential Intelligent Power Wheelchair Use: A Qualitative Study

PubMed Central

Kairy, Dahlia; Rushton, Paula W.; Archambault, Philippe; Pituch, Evelina; Torkia, Caryne; El Fathi, Anas; Stone, Paula; Routhier, François; Forget, Robert; Demers, Louise; Pineau, Joelle; Gourdeau, Richard

2014-01-01

Power wheelchairs (PWCs) can have a positive impact on user well-being, self-esteem, pain, activity and participation. Newly developed intelligent power wheelchairs (IPWs), allowing autonomous or collaboratively-controlled navigation, could enhance mobility of individuals not able to use, or having difficulty using, standard PWCs. The objective of this study was to explore the perspectives of PWC users (PWUs) and their caregivers regarding if and how IPWs could impact on current challenges faced by PWUs, as well as inform current development of IPWs. A qualitative exploratory study using individual interviews was conducted with PWUs (n = 12) and caregivers (n = 4). A semi-structured interview guide and video were used to facilitate informed discussion regarding IPWs. Thematic analysis revealed three main themes: (1) “challenging situations that may be overcome by an IPW” described how the IPW features of obstacle avoidance, path following, and target following could alleviate PWUs’ identified mobility difficulties; (2) “cautious optimism concerning IPW use revealed participants” addresses concerns regarding using an IPW as well as technological suggestions; (3) “defining the potential IPW user” revealed characteristics of PWUs that would benefit from IPW use. Findings indicate how IPW use may help overcome PWC difficulties and confirm the importance of user input in the ongoing development of IPWs. PMID:24566051

[Family: a Challenge for the Future of our Earth].

PubMed

Gamboa-Bernal, Gilberto A

2016-01-01

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the family as the basic cell of society, highlighting its importance, the need to protect it, to promote it as a natural and fundamental group unit of society. To reflect on the effects that the actual culture is in the family is important from the situation as it is now presented, then move to raise the changes seen necessary to ensure their own future and that of their habitat that is Earth. To accomplish this first task some study results World Family Map 2015 is glossed. Later reflections on the binomial environmental ecology and human ecology, where the importance of adequate from anthropological concepts to succeed in each of these fields. The current decline of culture directly affects the family by undermining one of its main bases, human love, which is a real threat. They are proposed some challenges for the family and mentioned strategies to address them. As outlined that conclusion not to follow the activity of endangering the human species and destroy the planet, it is necessary to change the current social structure and culture, beginning with the family; must be helped to become aware of their problems and limitations, so that later you can give truly human solutions to these problems, almost always produced by the same man.

Field testing of tele-operation versus shared and traded control for military assets: an evaluation involving real-time embedded simulation and soldier assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Metcalfe, Jason S.; Alban, Jillyn; Cosenzo, Keryl; Johnson, Tony; Capstick, Erin

2010-04-01

Those applying autonomous technologies to military systems strive to enhance human-robot and robot-robot performance. Beyond performance, the military must be concerned with local area security. Characterized as "secure mobility", military systems must enable safe and effective terrain traversal concurrent with maintenance of situational awareness (SA). One approach to interleaving these objectives is supervisory control, with popular options being shared and traded control. Yet, with the scale and expense of military assets, common technical issues such as transition time and safeguarding become critical; especially as they interact with Soldier capabilities. Study is required to enable selection of control methods that optimize Soldier-system performance while safeguarding both individually. The current report describes a study utilizing experimental military vehicles and simulation systems enabling teleoperation and supervisory control. Automated triggering of SA demands was interspersed with a set of challenging driving maneuvers in a 'teleoperation-like' context to examine the influence of supervisory control on Soldier-system performance. Results indicated that direct application of supervisory control, while beneficial under particular demands, requires continued development to be perceived by Soldiers as useful. Future efforts should more tightly couple the information exchanged between the Soldier and system to overcome current challenges not addressed by standard control methods.

Exploring powered wheelchair users and their caregivers' perspectives on potential intelligent power wheelchair use: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Kairy, Dahlia; Rushton, Paula W; Archambault, Philippe; Pituch, Evelina; Torkia, Caryne; El Fathi, Anas; Stone, Paula; Routhier, François; Forget, Robert; Demers, Louise; Pineau, Joelle; Gourdeau, Richard

2014-02-21

Power wheelchairs (PWCs) can have a positive impact on user well-being, self-esteem, pain, activity and participation. Newly developed intelligent power wheelchairs (IPWs), allowing autonomous or collaboratively-controlled navigation, could enhance mobility of individuals not able to use, or having difficulty using, standard PWCs. The objective of this study was to explore the perspectives of PWC users (PWUs) and their caregivers regarding if and how IPWs could impact on current challenges faced by PWUs, as well as inform current development of IPWs. A qualitative exploratory study using individual interviews was conducted with PWUs (n = 12) and caregivers (n = 4). A semi-structured interview guide and video were used to facilitate informed discussion regarding IPWs. Thematic analysis revealed three main themes: (1) "challenging situations that may be overcome by an IPW" described how the IPW features of obstacle avoidance, path following, and target following could alleviate PWUs' identified mobility difficulties; (2) "cautious optimism concerning IPW use revealed participants" addresses concerns regarding using an IPW as well as technological suggestions; (3) "defining the potential IPW user" revealed characteristics of PWUs that would benefit from IPW use. Findings indicate how IPW use may help overcome PWC difficulties and confirm the importance of user input in the ongoing development of IPWs.

Challenges and Successful Pedagogical Strategies: Experiences from Six Swedish Students with Blindness and Autism in Different School Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Verdier, Kim; Fernell, Elisabeth; Ek, Ulla

2018-01-01

The prevalence of autism in children with blindness is much higher than in the general population. There are many challenges regarding the school situation for children with this complex dual disability. This study explored challenges and successful strategies in school for a sample of six Swedish children with blindness and autism, with and…

Towards addressing transient learning challenges in undergraduate physics: an example from electrostatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fredlund, T.; Linder, C.; Airey, J.

2015-09-01

In this article we characterize transient learning challenges as learning challenges that arise out of teaching situations rather than conflicts with prior knowledge. We propose that these learning challenges can be identified by paying careful attention to the representations that students produce. Once a transient learning challenge has been identified, teachers can create interventions to address it. By illustration, we argue that an appropriate way to design such interventions is to create variation around the disciplinary-relevant aspects associated with the transient learning challenge.

Teamwork & Teamplay: A Guide to Cooperative, Challenge and Adventure Activities That Build Confidence, Cooperation, Teamwork, Creativity, Trust, Decision Making, Conflict Resolution, Resource Management, Communication, Effective Feedback and Problem Solving Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cain, Jim; Jolliff, Barry

Challenge and adventure programs create situations that challenge the abilities of individuals and groups and that are metaphors for the problems and challenges of daily life. This book describes dozens of group activities that foster individual and group skills such as cooperation, problem solving, and communication. Each activity has a…

Aircraft Wake Vortices : An Assessment of the Current Situation

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1991-01-01

The state of knowledge about aircraft wake vortices in the summer of 1990 is summarized. With the advent of a new FAA wake vortex program, the current situation was assessed by answering five questions: (1) What do we know about wake vortices, (2) wh...

[Do residents and nurses communicate safety relevant concerns? : simulation study on the influence of the authority gradient].

PubMed

St Pierre, M; Scholler, A; Strembski, D; Breuer, G

2012-10-01

Due to the negative impact on decision-making too steep authority gradients in teams represent a risk factor for patient safety. As residents and nursing staff may fear sanctions they may be reluctant to forward critical information to or challenge planned actions of attending physicians. In the setting of a simulation course it was investigated whether and to what extent team members would challenge decisions of familiar attending physicians. In each case where participants did not voice an opinion the underlying motives for the behavior were investigated. A total of 59 physicians and 18 nursing staff participated in the scenario. During a rapid sequence induction they were confronted with 7 critical situations created by the attending physician who had been instructed by the simulation team. Recommendations of the German Society of Anaesthesiology were ignored as well as clinical standard operating procedures (SOPs) and two potentially fatal drug administrations were ordered. An attempt was made to determine whether team members were aware of the safety threat at all and if so how they would solve the resulting conflicts. The level of verbal challenge was scored. During debriefing participants were asked to verbalize the motives which they thought might account for their silence or level of challenge. In situations where non-verbal conflict resolution was possible 65% of the participants pursued that strategy whereas 35% voiced an opinion. Situations necessitating verbal intervention were identified in 66% but 72% of the participants chose to remain silent. Team members decided to challenge the attending physician in only 28% of the situations. In 35% their statement was oblique, in 25% the problem was addressed but not further pursued and only in 40% did participants show crisp advocacy and assertiveness and initiated discussion. Asked why they had refrained from challenging the attending physician 37% had no answer, in 35% of situations participants observed a discrepancy between their own knowledge and the intended course of action yet they decided not to address the problem, 12% explained their behavior with the perceived authority of the attending physician and 8% stated that in their opinion attending physicians violated SOPs on a daily basis. None of the participants had the feeling that the simulation setting had provoked a response different to what they might have done in everyday life. The authority gradient can have a major negative impact on perioperative patient care. Residents and nursing staff are seldom able to challenge the attending physicians when patient safety is at risk. However, even attending physicians who normally accept feedback and criticism from team members can fail to receive support.

Cross-situational statistical word learning in young children.

PubMed

Suanda, Sumarga H; Mugwanya, Nassali; Namy, Laura L

2014-10-01

Recent empirical work has highlighted the potential role of cross-situational statistical word learning in children's early vocabulary development. In the current study, we tested 5- to 7-year-old children's cross-situational learning by presenting children with a series of ambiguous naming events containing multiple words and multiple referents. Children rapidly learned word-to-object mappings by attending to the co-occurrence regularities across these ambiguous naming events. The current study begins to address the mechanisms underlying children's learning by demonstrating that the diversity of learning contexts affects performance. The implications of the current findings for the role of cross-situational word learning at different points in development are discussed along with the methodological implications of employing school-aged children to test hypotheses regarding the mechanisms supporting early word learning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Strategic model of national rabies control in Korea.

PubMed

Cheong, Yeotaek; Kim, Bongjun; Lee, Ki Joong; Park, Donghwa; Kim, Sooyeon; Kim, Hyeoncheol; Park, Eunyeon; Lee, Hyeongchan; Bae, Chaewun; Oh, Changin; Park, Seung-Yong; Song, Chang-Seon; Lee, Sang-Won; Choi, In-Soo; Lee, Joong-Bok

2014-01-01

Rabies is an important zoonosis in the public and veterinary healthy arenas. This article provides information on the situation of current rabies outbreak, analyzes the current national rabies control system, reviews the weaknesses of the national rabies control strategy, and identifies an appropriate solution to manage the current situation. Current rabies outbreak was shown to be present from rural areas to urban regions. Moreover, the situation worldwide demonstrates that each nation struggles to prevent or control rabies. Proper application and execution of the rabies control program require the overcoming of existing weaknesses. Bait vaccines and other complex programs are suggested to prevent rabies transmission or infection. Acceleration of the rabies control strategy also requires supplementation of current policy and of public information. In addition, these prevention strategies should be executed over a mid- to long-term period to control rabies.

Development, Testing, and Validation of a Model-Based Tool to Predict Operator Responses in Unexpected Workload Transitions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sebok, Angelia; Wickens, Christopher; Sargent, Robert

2015-01-01

One human factors challenge is predicting operator performance in novel situations. Approaches such as drawing on relevant previous experience, and developing computational models to predict operator performance in complex situations, offer potential methods to address this challenge. A few concerns with modeling operator performance are that models need to realistic, and they need to be tested empirically and validated. In addition, many existing human performance modeling tools are complex and require that an analyst gain significant experience to be able to develop models for meaningful data collection. This paper describes an effort to address these challenges by developing an easy to use model-based tool, using models that were developed from a review of existing human performance literature and targeted experimental studies, and performing an empirical validation of key model predictions.

Impact of future energy policy on water resources in Kazakhstan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivotti, Pedro; Karatayev, Marat; Sobral Mourão, Zenaida; Shah, Nilay; Clarke, Michèle; Konadu, D. Dennis

2017-04-01

As part of its commitment to become one of the top-30 developed countries in the world, Kazakhstan set out an ambitious target of increasing the share of renewables and alternative sources of energy in its power generation mix to 50% by 2050. This vision greatly contrasts with the current situation, with coal and natural gas power plants producing around 90% of total electricity in 2016. While this transition provides a unique opportunity to improve the sustainability of the national energy system, major natural resources challenges currently faced in the country should be taken into account. Particularly in the case of water resources management, the current system is characterised by significant losses, heavy reliance on irrigation for the agricultural sector, unevenly distributed surface water, vulnerability to climate change and variations in transboundary inflows, amongst other issues. In this context, this study aims to investigate the future availability of water resources to support food production and the transition to a new energy system. Given the challenges mentioned above, tackling this question requires an integrated analysis of the water-energy-food systems in Kazakhstan. This is done in three stages: (1) characterising the water supply and demand in the country; (2) establishing the linkages between water resources and activities in the power production and agricultural sectors; and (3) identifying potential conflicts at the nexus between water, energy and food, taking into account future energy policy scenarios, trends for food production and water resource use.

Urologic cancer in Japan: role of Japan at the frontier of issues in Asia.

PubMed

Akaza, Hideyuki

2016-01-01

The characteristics of urological cancer in Japan can be summarized in the following points. (i) As the onset of this type of cancer is typically seen in elderly patients, it is becoming a major social issue in Japan that has already become an aging society. (ii) Many diverse treatment methods are available and a response is required that prioritizes quality of life. (iii) Although vigorous research and development efforts into new drugs are being carried out on a global level, resulting in beneficial medical agents becoming more readily available, unless concepts relating to cost vs. effectiveness are further developed and there is a real risk that medical systems and structures in their current form will become unsustainable. (iv) Although at the current point there are no original large-scale clinical trials being conducted in Asia, Japan has a wealth of experience of participating in many international joint clinical trials and it is therefore an urgent and pressing challenge to organize joint clinical trials in Asia and amass a body of knowledge that is unique to Asia. In view of this current situation and given Japan's position at the frontier of issues, it is important for Japan to take the initiative in Asia in cooperating with other Asian nations in efforts to resolve and overcome various challenges. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Geographical Education and the Environment: Assessment Situations from Cartographic Expression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Gonzalez, Monica Rodriguez

2007-01-01

Even though the appearance and spread of new technologies offer considerable challenges in the design of far reaching and complex pre-test and assessment situations which are in keeping with the trends of teaching and learning, the thematic map is still an insuperable document to value either integral training or academic performance of future…

Creativity in Its Social Context: The Interplay of Organizational Norms, Situational Threat, and Gender

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walton, Andre P.; Kemmelmeier, Markus

2012-01-01

Past research has frequently made the assumptions that creativity is an individual, rather than social, behavior; that the factors shaping creative behavior influence everyone in the same way; and that these factors always have the same influence regardless of the situation. This research challenges all 3 of these assumptions. In an experiment,…

The situation specificity of youth responses to peer provocation.

PubMed

Dirks, Melanie A; Treat, Teresa A; Weersing, V Robin

2007-01-01

Previous studies have identified peer provocation as a challenging class of situations for youth. The work presented here builds on previous methods of assessing peer provocation by (a) increasing the contextual detail of the vignettes; (b) developing a reliable, descriptive coding system of the range of youth responses to physical, verbal, and relational provocation; and (c) assessing the relevance of these situations for a sample (N = 76) of ethnically diverse, economically disadvantaged youth ages 12 to 14. The vignettes were used to examine the situation specificity of youth responses to provocation. Situation and identity of aggressor were both predictors of youth responses. For example, participants "matched" physical aggression to physical provocation. These findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating the situation specificity of social information processing, even within the relatively homogeneous category of peer provocations.

Preservice Teachers' Learning to Plan Intellectually Challenging Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Hosun

2017-01-01

This study explores how and under which conditions preservice secondary science teachers (PSTs) engage in effective planning practices that incorporate intellectually challenging tasks into lessons. Drawing upon a situative perspective on learning, eight PSTs' trajectories of participation in communities of practice are examined with a focus on…

Taming the Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clinton, Janeen S.

This document reports on efforts to find technology-based solutions for the diverse challenges faced by students with disabling conditions. Twenty-three case studies describe actual scenarios experienced in the school district of Palm Beach County, Florida. For each case study, a situation is described, a challenge is identified, solutions are…

Educational Research in Mainland China: Current Situation and Developmental Trends

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Miantao

2011-01-01

The influence of Confucian culture in Chinese Mainland China is reflected in the current situation and contextual trends of educational research content of educational thought of Confucianism, educational issues grounded on theoretical views of Confucianism, and the influence of the inclusiveness of Confucianism. In terms of research method, the…

Constructing the electricity-carbohydrate-hydrogen cycle for a sustainability revolution.

PubMed

Zhang, Y-H Percival; Huang, Wei-Dong

2012-06-01

In this opinion, we suggest the electricity-carbohydrate-hydrogen (ECHo) cycle which bridges primary energies and secondary energies. Carbohydrates are sources of food, feed, liquid biofuels, and renewable materials and are a high-density hydrogen carrier and electricity storage compounds (e.g. >3000 Wh/kg). One element of this ECHo cycle can be converted to another reversibly and efficiently depending on resource availability, needs and costs. This cycle not only supplements current and future primary energy utilization systems for facilitating electricity and hydrogen storage and enhancing secondary energy conversion efficiencies, but also addresses such sustainability challenges as transportation fuel production, CO(2) utilization, fresh water conservation, and maintenance of a small closed ecosystem in emergency situations. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recovery of large carnivores in Europe's modern human-dominated landscapes.

PubMed

Chapron, Guillaume; Kaczensky, Petra; Linnell, John D C; von Arx, Manuela; Huber, Djuro; Andrén, Henrik; López-Bao, José Vicente; Adamec, Michal; Álvares, Francisco; Anders, Ole; Balčiauskas, Linas; Balys, Vaidas; Bedő, Péter; Bego, Ferdinand; Blanco, Juan Carlos; Breitenmoser, Urs; Brøseth, Henrik; Bufka, Luděk; Bunikyte, Raimonda; Ciucci, Paolo; Dutsov, Alexander; Engleder, Thomas; Fuxjäger, Christian; Groff, Claudio; Holmala, Katja; Hoxha, Bledi; Iliopoulos, Yorgos; Ionescu, Ovidiu; Jeremić, Jasna; Jerina, Klemen; Kluth, Gesa; Knauer, Felix; Kojola, Ilpo; Kos, Ivan; Krofel, Miha; Kubala, Jakub; Kunovac, Saša; Kusak, Josip; Kutal, Miroslav; Liberg, Olof; Majić, Aleksandra; Männil, Peep; Manz, Ralph; Marboutin, Eric; Marucco, Francesca; Melovski, Dime; Mersini, Kujtim; Mertzanis, Yorgos; Mysłajek, Robert W; Nowak, Sabina; Odden, John; Ozolins, Janis; Palomero, Guillermo; Paunović, Milan; Persson, Jens; Potočnik, Hubert; Quenette, Pierre-Yves; Rauer, Georg; Reinhardt, Ilka; Rigg, Robin; Ryser, Andreas; Salvatori, Valeria; Skrbinšek, Tomaž; Stojanov, Aleksandar; Swenson, Jon E; Szemethy, László; Trajçe, Aleksandër; Tsingarska-Sedefcheva, Elena; Váňa, Martin; Veeroja, Rauno; Wabakken, Petter; Wölfl, Manfred; Wölfl, Sybille; Zimmermann, Fridolin; Zlatanova, Diana; Boitani, Luigi

2014-12-19

The conservation of large carnivores is a formidable challenge for biodiversity conservation. Using a data set on the past and current status of brown bears (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), gray wolves (Canis lupus), and wolverines (Gulo gulo) in European countries, we show that roughly one-third of mainland Europe hosts at least one large carnivore species, with stable or increasing abundance in most cases in 21st-century records. The reasons for this overall conservation success include protective legislation, supportive public opinion, and a variety of practices making coexistence between large carnivores and people possible. The European situation reveals that large carnivores and people can share the same landscape. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Triazole Resistance in Aspergillus spp.: A Worldwide Problem?

PubMed Central

Rivero-Menendez, Olga; Alastruey-Izquierdo, Ana; Mellado, Emilia; Cuenca-Estrella, Manuel

2016-01-01

Since the first description of an azole-resistant A. fumigatus strain in 1997, there has been an increasing number of papers describing the emergence of azole resistance. Firstly reported in the USA and soon after in Europe, it has now been described worldwide, challenging the management of human aspergillosis. The main mechanism of resistance is the modification of the azole target enzyme: 14-α sterol demethylase, encoded by the cyp51A gene; although recently, other resistance mechanisms have also been implicated. In addition, a shift in the epidemiology has been noted with other Aspergillus species (mostly azole resistant) increasingly being reported as causative agents of human disease. This paper reviews the current situation of Aspergillus azole resistance and its implications in the clinical setting. PMID:29376938

Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, Jianhui; Inganäs, Olle; Friend, Richard H.; Gao, Feng

2018-02-01

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have been dominated by donor:acceptor blends based on fullerene acceptors for over two decades. This situation has changed recently, with non-fullerene (NF) OSCs developing very quickly. The power conversion efficiencies of NF OSCs have now reached a value of over 13%, which is higher than the best fullerene-based OSCs. NF acceptors show great tunability in absorption spectra and electron energy levels, providing a wide range of new opportunities. The coexistence of low voltage losses and high current generation indicates that new regimes of device physics and photophysics are reached in these systems. This Review highlights these opportunities made possible by NF acceptors, and also discuss the challenges facing the development of NF OSCs for practical applications.

A robust bayesian estimate of the concordance correlation coefficient.

PubMed

Feng, Dai; Baumgartner, Richard; Svetnik, Vladimir

2015-01-01

A need for assessment of agreement arises in many situations including statistical biomarker qualification or assay or method validation. Concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) is one of the most popular scaled indices reported in evaluation of agreement. Robust methods for CCC estimation currently present an important statistical challenge. Here, we propose a novel Bayesian method of robust estimation of CCC based on multivariate Student's t-distribution and compare it with its alternatives. Furthermore, we extend the method to practically relevant settings, enabling incorporation of confounding covariates and replications. The superiority of the new approach is demonstrated using simulation as well as real datasets from biomarker application in electroencephalography (EEG). This biomarker is relevant in neuroscience for development of treatments for insomnia.

The current state and developments in higher education in gerontology in the nordic countries.

PubMed

Hietanen, Heidi; Lyyra, Tiina-Mari; Parkatti, Terttu; Heikkinen, Eino

2012-01-01

The growing size of the older population challenges not only researchers but also higher education in gerontology. On the basis of an online survey the authors describe the situation of Nordic higher education in gerontology in 2008 and 2009 and also give some good examples of Nordic- and European-level collaboration. The survey results showed that gerontological education was given in every Nordic country, in 31 universities and 60 other higher education institutions. Although separate aging-related courses and modules were relatively numerous, programs for majors were relatively few. Networking in the Nordic region offers a good example on how to further develop higher education in gerontology. Emphasis should be put on strengthening networking on the European and trans-Atlantic levels.

Knowledge, data and interests: Challenges in participation of diverse stakeholders in HIA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Negev, Maya, E-mail: negevm@bgu.ac.il

2012-02-15

Stakeholder participation is considered an integral part of HIA. However, the challenges that participation implies in a multi-disciplinary and multi-ethnic society are less studied. This paper presents the manifestations of the multiplicity of sectors and population groups in HIA and discusses the challenges that such diversity imposes. Specifically, there is no common ground between participants, as their positions entail contradictory knowledge regarding the current situation, reliance on distinct data and conflicting interests. This entails usage of multiple professional and ethnic languages, disagreements regarding the definition of health and prioritizing health issues in HIA, and divergent perceptions of risk. These differencesmore » between participants are embedded culturally, socially, individually and, maybe most importantly, professionally. This complex picture of diverse stakeholder attributes is grounded in a case study of stakeholder participation in HIA, regarding zoning of a hazardous industry site in Israel. The implication is that participatory HIAs should address the multiplicity of stakeholders and types of knowledge, data and interests in a more comprehensive way. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This paper analyses challenges in participation of diverse stakeholders in HIA. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The multiplicity of disciplines and population groups raises fundamental challenges. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Stakeholders possess distinct and often contradictory knowledge, data and interests. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer They speak different languages, and differ on approaches to health and risk perceptions. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Substantial amendments to diverse participation are needed, in HIA and generally.« less

Multilingual Language Policies and the Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornberger, Nancy H.

2002-01-01

Uses the metaphor of ecology of language to explore ideologies underlying multilingual language policies, and the continua of biliteracy framework as ecological heuristic for situating the challenges faced in implementing them. Considers community and classroom challenges inherent in implementing these new ideologies, as evident in Bolivia and…

Classroom Management Challenges in the Dance Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Dawn

2007-01-01

Teaching dance can be a challenge because of the unique classroom-management situations that arise from the dynamic nature of the class content. Management is a delicate navigation of advance planning; rule setting; the establishment and implementation of daily protocols, routines, and interventions; and the teacher's own presentation. This…

Contextual Influences on Faculty Diversity Conceptualizations when Working with Trainee Competence Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen-Miller, David S.; Forrest, Linda; Burt, Michelle

2012-01-01

Trainees with problems of professional competence (TPPC) present trainers with unique challenges. When TPPC situations include diversity issues, the complexity of such challenges increases. Although attention to such intersections is important, little is known about what influences faculty thinking about diversity issues when trainee competence…

Female Faculty: Challenges and Choices in the United States and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samble, Jennifer N.

2008-01-01

Substantial amounts of research and data detail the challenges female faculty face in the academy. These include unequal pay for similarly situated individuals, disparities between female representation within the professoriate and student population, and perceptions and accepted modes of behavior that have the effect of disenfranchising women as…

School Leader Relationships: The Need for Explicit Training on Rapport, Trust, and Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lasater, Kara

2016-01-01

An important aspect of school leadership is relationship development, but developing meaningful relationships as a school leader is challenging. School leader relationships are challenged by diverse stakeholder groups, varied contexts, and difficult situations. The complex nature of school leader relationships necessitates explicit training for…

A Bio-Ecological Interpretation of the Relationship Challenges in the Context of the Reconstituted Family

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ebersohn, S.; Bouwer, A. C.

2015-01-01

From an educational psychology perspective, family life--as a child's primary educational situation--is changing drastically as divorces increase worldwide. Various challenges to relationships accompany the restructuring of family systems after divorce. When remarriage occurs, children's shared membership of two family microsystems and the…

What are the new challenges, goals, and tasks of occupational health in China's Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (13th FYP) period?

PubMed Central

Wang, Bing; Wu, Chao; Kang, Liangguo; Huang, Lang; Pan, Wei

2018-01-01

Objective: In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to occupational health under the guidance of people-oriented concept. This paper introduces the current status and future development of occupational health in China's Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (13th FYP) period (2016-2020) to promote the cooperation and exchange on occupational health between China and other countries. Methods: We collected statistical data about occupational diseases and information addressing occupational diseases. We included all types of official reports, guidelines, policies, and relevant laws published by the Chinese government. Results: China has carried out a series of strategies and measures to reduce the incidence of occupational diseases, and has made progress in occupational health protection. However, occupational health in China still faces severe conditions and challenges for occupational diseases that have not been prevented and controlled effectively. To actively promote the future development of occupational health during the 13th FYP period, China has issued a series of important policy documents (such as the Plan for a Healthy China 2030, the 13th FYP for Occupational Disease Prevention and Control, and the 13th FYP for Occupational Health Hazard Prevention and Control) in the last two years. Conclusion: The overall situation condition of occupational health in China is still serious. Occupational health in China's 13th FYP period faces a series of challenges, future tasks include plans to add the employer and regulatory levels of occupational health management, and occupational health education and publicity to the current technology-dominated approaches. PMID:29563366

Toward fisheries sustainability in North America: Issues, challenges, and strategies for action

USGS Publications Warehouse

MacDonald, D.D.; Knudsen, E.E.

2004-01-01

Many fisheries in North America are severely depleted and trending downwards. In an effort to find ways of reversing this disturbing situation, the American Fisheries Society and the Sustainable Fisheries Foundation invited leading experts in fisheries science and aquatic resource management to share their thoughts and insights in this book. These experts were asked to identify the factors that are currently impairing our ability to effectively manage fisheries resources and propose creative solutions for addressing the most challenging issues affecting fisheries sustainability. Based on the information that was provided by the experts (i.e., as presented in the earlier chapters of this book), it is apparent that a wide range of human activities are adversely affecting our shared fisheries resources and the aquatic habitats upon which they depend. The most challenging problems stem from causes that are largely beyond the scope of traditional fisheries management (e.g., human population growth, resource consumption patterns, global climate change, broad land-use patterns). It is also apparent that resolution of these challenges will require a new approach to fisheries management - one that effectively integrates economic, social, and environmental interests into a decision-making framework that supports fisheries sustainability. The key strategies for supporting such a transition toward a more holistic and comprehensive approach to managing the human activities that influence fisheries and aquatic resources are summarized in this chapter. ?? 2004 by the American Fisheries Society.

Encompassing multiple moral paradigms: a challenge for nursing educators.

PubMed

Caldwell, Elizabeth Shirin; Lu, Hongyan; Harding, Thomas

2010-03-01

Providing ethically competent care requires nurses to reflect not only on nursing ethics, but also on their own ethical traditions. New challenges for nurse educators over the last decade have been the increasing globalization of the nursing workforce and the internationalization of nursing education. In New Zealand, there has been a large increase in numbers of Chinese students, both international and immigrant, already acculturated with ethical and cultural values derived from Chinese Confucian moral traditions. Recently, several incidents involving Chinese nursing students in morally conflicting situations have led to one nursing faculty reflecting upon how moral philosophy is taught to non-European students and the support given to Chinese students in integrating the taught curriculum into real-life clinical practice settings. This article uses a case study involving a Chinese student to reflect on the challenges for both faculty members and students when encountering situations that present ethical dilemmas.

[Urban shrinkage and challenges for the public health-care service].

PubMed

Kabisch, S

2007-10-01

In the 21st century, urban development is facing new challenges caused by the simultaneous growing and shrinking of cities and urban regions. Whilst the development patterns and instruments of urban growth are well-known and widely accepted, the processes of shrinkage with its broad consequences, sphere of impact and speed need intensive investigation. In particular, urban restructuring including housing demolition brings about psychological stress situations for the affected inhabitants. Until the present time public services, including health-care, are poorly prepared to cope with the new situation. To take account of these new challenges, the adaptation of tasks, instruments and targets is urgently needed. To be successful, a continuous cooperation and communication between municipal institutions and housing enterprises responsible for urban and housing development is indispensable. Furthermore, appropriately focussed scientific research results can support the creation of adequate strategies and instruments.

The Employment Situation of People with Disabilities in Lebanon: Challenges and Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wehbi, Samantha; El-Lahib, Y.

2007-01-01

This article presents the findings of a study on the employment situation of people with disabilities in a rural region in Lebanon. The study was conducted as one of the activities of a community development project that saw the establishment of a job centre for people with disabilities. The majority of the study's 200 participants were…

Coping with challenges to memory in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease: observation of behaviour in response to analogues of everyday situations.

PubMed

Oyebode, Jan Rachel; Motala, Jamilah R; Hardy, Rachel M; Oliver, Chris

2009-01-01

To describe ways of coping in people with mild to moderate AD when faced with situations that are challenging to their memory. Twenty-four participants (12 with mild and 12 with moderate AD) were presented with a set of seven tasks that were analogues of everyday situations that tax memory. The participants' responses were videotaped and analysed. Participants' coping responses were grouped into seven categories to best reflect the main strategies. Individuals used a significantly greater frequency of effortful problem solving (self-reliance and reliance on carers) (p < 0.01) than other ways of coping. Positive acknowledgement of memory difficulties was used significantly more than negative acknowledgement and defensive coping (concealment and avoidance) (p < 0.01). This study used novel methodology of observation of behavioural responses in analogues of everyday situations. The predominance of effortful problem-solving emphasizes the role of the person with AD as an active agent in the management of memory loss. An emphasis in previous literature on defensive coping and denial is counter-balanced by the finding that participants commonly coped by acknowledging their memory impairment.

Situation selection is a particularly effective emotion regulation strategy for people who need help regulating their emotions.

PubMed

Webb, Thomas L; Lindquist, Kristen A; Jones, Katelyn; Avishai, Aya; Sheeran, Paschal

2018-03-01

Situation selection involves choosing situations based on their likely emotional impact and may be less cognitively taxing or challenging to implement compared to other strategies for regulating emotion, which require people to regulate their emotions "in the moment"; we thus predicted that individuals who chronically experience intense emotions or who are not particularly competent at employing other emotion regulation strategies would be especially likely to benefit from situation selection. Consistent with this idea, we found that the use of situation selection interacted with individual differences in emotional reactivity and competence at emotion regulation to predict emotional outcomes in both a correlational (Study 1; N = 301) and an experimental field study (Study 2; N = 125). Taken together, the findings suggest that situation selection is an effective strategy for regulating emotions, especially for individuals who otherwise struggle to do so.

40 CFR 1054.660 - What are the provisions for exempting emergency rescue equipment?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... certified to current emission standards under the following conditions if the equipment will be used solely in emergency rescue situations: (1) You must determine annually that no engines certified to current... situations” means firefighting or other situations in which a person is retrieved from imminent danger. (c...

An ex-ante economic evaluation of the Maternal and Child Health Voucher Scheme as a decision-making tool in Myanmar

PubMed Central

Kingkaew, Pritaporn; Werayingyong, Pitsaphun; Aye, San San; Tin, Nilar; Singh, Alaka; Myint, Phone; Teerawattananon, Yot

2016-01-01

Reducing child and maternal mortality in order to meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 remains a major challenge in Myanmar. Inadequate care during pregnancy and labour plays an important role in the maternal mortality rate in Myanmar. A Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Voucher Scheme comprising a subsidization for pregnant women to receive four antenatal care (ANC), delivery and postnatal care (PNC) free-of-charge was planned to help women overcome financial barriers in addition to raising awareness of ANC and delivery with skilled birth attendants (SBA), which can reduce the rate of maternal and neonatal death. This study is part of an ex-ante evaluation of a feasibility study of the MCH Voucher Scheme. A cost-utility analysis was conducted using a decision tree model to assess the cost per disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted from the MCH Voucher Scheme compared with the current situation. Most input parameters were obtained from Myanmar context. From the base-case analysis, where the financial burden on households was fully subsidized, the MCH Voucher Scheme increased utilization for ANC from 73% up to 93% and for delivery from SBAs from 51% up to and 71%, respectively; hence, it is considered to be very cost-effective with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of 381 027 kyats per DALY averted (2010, price year). From the probabilistic sensitivity analysis, the MCH Voucher Scheme had a 52% chance of being a cost-effective option at 1 GDP per capita threshold compared to the current situation. Given that the Voucher Scheme is currently being implemented in one township in Myanmar as a result of this study, ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of this scheme is warranted. PMID:26412858

A Conceptual Architecture for National Biosurveillance: Moving Beyond Situational Awareness to Enable Digital Detection of Emerging Threats.

PubMed

Velsko, Stephan; Bates, Thomas

2016-01-01

Despite numerous calls for improvement, the US biosurveillance enterprise remains a patchwork of uncoordinated systems that fail to take advantage of the rapid progress in information processing, communication, and analytics made in the past decade. By synthesizing components from the extensive biosurveillance literature, we propose a conceptual framework for a national biosurveillance architecture and provide suggestions for implementation. The framework differs from the current federal biosurveillance development pathway in that it is not focused on systems useful for "situational awareness" but is instead focused on the long-term goal of having true warning capabilities. Therefore, a guiding design objective is the ability to digitally detect emerging threats that span jurisdictional boundaries, because attempting to solve the most challenging biosurveillance problem first provides the strongest foundation to meet simpler surveillance objectives. Core components of the vision are: (1) a whole-of-government approach to support currently disparate federal surveillance efforts that have a common data need, including those for food safety, vaccine and medical product safety, and infectious disease surveillance; (2) an information architecture that enables secure national access to electronic health records, yet does not require that data be sent to a centralized location for surveillance analysis; (3) an inference architecture that leverages advances in "big data" analytics and learning inference engines-a significant departure from the statistical process control paradigm that underpins nearly all current syndromic surveillance systems; and (4) an organizational architecture with a governance model aimed at establishing national biosurveillance as a critical part of the US national infrastructure. Although it will take many years to implement, and a national campaign of education and debate to acquire public buy-in for such a comprehensive system, the potential benefits warrant increased consideration by the US government.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brouillette, Greg A.

These are slides for various presentations on C41SR and urban disasters disasters response and recovery tools. These are all mainly charts and images of disaster response and recovery tools. Slides included have headings such as the following: vignette of a disaster response, situational awareness and common operating picture available to EOC, plume modeling capability, Program ASPECT Chemical Response Products, EPA ASPECT - Hurricane RITA Response 9/25/2005, Angel Fire Imagery, incident commander's view/police chief's view/ EMS' view, common situational awareness and collaborative planning, exercise, training capability, systems diagram, Austere Challenge 06 Sim/C4 Requirements, common situational awareness and collaborative planning, exercise, trainingmore » environment, common situational awareness, real world, crisis response, and consequence management.« less

Autonomic arousal in children of parents with and without social anxiety disorder: a high-risk study.

PubMed

Nikolić, Milica; de Vente, Wieke; Colonnesi, Cristina; Bögels, Susan M

2016-09-01

Autonomic hyperarousal in social situations is considered a genetic vulnerability factor for social anxiety disorder (SAD), but so far it is unstudied in children at risk for developing SAD. We examined autonomic activity during socially stressful tasks in children of mothers and fathers with and without lifetime SAD to reveal possible biological mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of SAD. One hundred ten children aged 4.5 years were asked to sing a song in front of an audience and watch back their performance in the presence of that audience. Heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), electrodermal activity (EDA), and blushing (cheek blood flow and temperature) were measured in anticipation of, during, and after the tasks. Both parents' lifetime SAD status was assessed, and both parents reported about their own and their child's social anxiety symptoms. Children of parents with lifetime SAD blushed more during the socially challenging tasks than children of parents without SAD. Moreover, children of parents with more social anxiety symptoms showed increased EDA throughout the tasks. Finally, more blushing, increased EDA, and reduced HRV were associated with greater child social anxiety. This study adds to the current knowledge on the intergenerational transmission of SAD by providing evidence that children at risk for SAD are characterized by excessive blushing in socially challenging situations. The findings also demonstrate that heightened autonomic activity is a characteristic of social anxiety already during early childhood. Hence, autonomic hyperarousal, and blushing in particular, is likely to play an etiological role in the development of SAD. © 2016 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Drones in Automation - Secured Unmanned Aerial Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morales Rodriguez, Marissa E.; Rooke, Sterling; Fuhr, Peter L.

Factories, refineries, utilities (water/wastewater, electric) and related industrial sites are complex systems and structures with inspection and maintenance procedures required for optimal operation and regulatory compliance. As a specific example, consider just the bulk electric power system which is comprised of more than 200,000 miles of highvoltage transmission lines, thousands of generation plants and millions of digital controls. More than 1,800 entities own and operate portions of the grid system, with thousands more involved in the operation of distribution networks across North America. The interconnected and interdependent nature of the bulk power system requires a consistent and systematic application ofmore » risk mitigation across the entire grid system to be truly effective. Similar situations are found throughout automation where frequently an aging infrastructure is in place too. Consider, for example, the situation present in a refinery or chemical processing setting with the requirement for leak detection inspection of pipes, interconnects and systems stretching across the plant. The current practices and challenges relating just to this task - leak detection and repair (LDAR) – of detecting any fugitive emissions present and documenting all measurements thereby meeting air compliance regulations are typically “handled” by a small army of individuals with handheld or backpack-sized detectors who crawl through piping racks conducting measurements at each flange. Such work is performed in difficult conditions (temperature, humidity, physically challenging) with frequently a high level of employee turnover. Finaly, enter low cost sensors and mobile platforms – in other words unmanned aerial systems (UASs, or drones) with enhanced sensing capabilities.« less

Reducing pesticide use while preserving crop productivity and profitability on arable farms.

PubMed

Lechenet, Martin; Dessaint, Fabrice; Py, Guillaume; Makowski, David; Munier-Jolain, Nicolas

2017-03-01

Achieving sustainable crop production while feeding an increasing world population is one of the most ambitious challenges of this century 1 . Meeting this challenge will necessarily imply a drastic reduction of adverse environmental effects arising from agricultural activities 2 . The reduction of pesticide use is one of the critical drivers to preserve the environment and human health. Pesticide use could be reduced through the adoption of new production strategies 3-5 ; however, whether substantial reductions of pesticide use are possible without impacting crop productivity and profitability is debatable 6-17 . Here, we demonstrated that low pesticide use rarely decreases productivity and profitability in arable farms. We analysed the potential conflicts between pesticide use and productivity or profitability with data from 946 non-organic arable commercial farms showing contrasting levels of pesticide use and covering a wide range of production situations in France. We failed to detect any conflict between low pesticide use and both high productivity and high profitability in 77% of the farms. We estimated that total pesticide use could be reduced by 42% without any negative effects on both productivity and profitability in 59% of farms from our national network. This corresponded to an average reduction of 37, 47 and 60% of herbicide, fungicide and insecticide use, respectively. The potential for reducing pesticide use appeared higher in farms with currently high pesticide use than in farms with low pesticide use. Our results demonstrate that pesticide reduction is already accessible to farmers in most production situations. This would imply profound changes in market organization and trade balance.

Drones in Automation - Secured Unmanned Aerial Systems

DOE PAGES

Morales Rodriguez, Marissa E.; Rooke, Sterling; Fuhr, Peter L.; ...

2017-05-01

Factories, refineries, utilities (water/wastewater, electric) and related industrial sites are complex systems and structures with inspection and maintenance procedures required for optimal operation and regulatory compliance. As a specific example, consider just the bulk electric power system which is comprised of more than 200,000 miles of highvoltage transmission lines, thousands of generation plants and millions of digital controls. More than 1,800 entities own and operate portions of the grid system, with thousands more involved in the operation of distribution networks across North America. The interconnected and interdependent nature of the bulk power system requires a consistent and systematic application ofmore » risk mitigation across the entire grid system to be truly effective. Similar situations are found throughout automation where frequently an aging infrastructure is in place too. Consider, for example, the situation present in a refinery or chemical processing setting with the requirement for leak detection inspection of pipes, interconnects and systems stretching across the plant. The current practices and challenges relating just to this task - leak detection and repair (LDAR) – of detecting any fugitive emissions present and documenting all measurements thereby meeting air compliance regulations are typically “handled” by a small army of individuals with handheld or backpack-sized detectors who crawl through piping racks conducting measurements at each flange. Such work is performed in difficult conditions (temperature, humidity, physically challenging) with frequently a high level of employee turnover. Finaly, enter low cost sensors and mobile platforms – in other words unmanned aerial systems (UASs, or drones) with enhanced sensing capabilities.« less

Novel formulation and drug delivery strategies for the treatment of pediatric poverty-related diseases.

PubMed

Sosnik, Alejandro; Seremeta, Katia P; Imperiale, Julieta C; Chiappetta, Diego A

2012-03-01

Due to a lack of approved drugs and formulations, children represent the most vulnerable patients. Magistral, unlicensed formulations obtained by the manipulation of solid forms should undergo clinical evaluation to ensure bioequivalence. The development of new pediatric medicines is complex and faces technological, economic and ethical challenges. This phenomenon has contributed to the emergence of an adult-children gap. To improve the situation, the World Health Organization launched the global campaign 'Make medicines child size' and a number of international initiatives have been established. The situation is more critical in the case of poverty-related diseases (PRDs) that mainly affect poor countries. This review critically discusses different strategies to develop pediatric formulations and drug delivery systems (DDS) in PRDs and their potential implementation in the current market. Readers will gain an updated perspective on the development of pediatric medicines for the treatment of PRDs and the proximate challenges and opportunities faced to ensure an effective pharmacotherapy. There is an urgent need for the development of innovative, scalable and cost-viable formulations to ensure pediatric patients have access to appropriate medications for PRDs. The guidelines of the International Conference on Harmonisation constitute a very good orientation tool, as they emphasize physiological and developmental aspects that need to be considered in pediatric research. It is important to consider cultural, economic and ethical aspects that make developing nations facing PRDs different from the developed world. Thus, the best strategy would probably be to conceive and engage similar initiatives in the developing world, to address unattended therapeutic niches.

A virtual environment for modeling and testing sensemaking with multisensor information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholson, Denise; Bartlett, Kathleen; Hoppenfeld, Robert; Nolan, Margaret; Schatz, Sae

2014-05-01

Given today's challenging Irregular Warfare, members of small infantry units must be able to function as highly sensitized perceivers throughout large operational areas. Improved Situation Awareness (SA) in rapidly changing fields of operation may also save lives of law enforcement personnel and first responders. Critical competencies for these individuals include sociocultural sensemaking, the ability to assess a situation through the perception of essential salient environmental and behavioral cues, and intuitive sensemaking, which allows experts to act with the utmost agility. Intuitive sensemaking and intuitive decision making (IDM), which involve processing information at a subconscious level, have been cited as playing a critical role in saving lives and enabling mission success. This paper discusses the development of a virtual environment for modeling, analysis and human-in-the-loop testing of perception, sensemaking, intuitive sensemaking, decision making (DM), and IDM performance, using state-of-the-art scene simulation and modeled imagery from multi-source systems, under the "Intuition and Implicit Learning" Basic Research Challenge (I2BRC) sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). We present results from our human systems engineering approach including 1) development of requirements and test metrics for individual and integrated system components, 2) the system architecture design 3) images of the prototype virtual environment testing system and 4) a discussion of the system's current and future testing capabilities. In particular, we examine an Enhanced Interaction Suite testbed to model, test, and analyze the impact of advances in sensor spatial, and temporal resolution to a user's intuitive sensemaking and decision making capabilities.

Data-Centric Situational Awareness and Management in Intelligent Power Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dai, Xiaoxiao

The rapid development of technology and society has made the current power system a much more complicated system than ever. The request for big data based situation awareness and management becomes urgent today. In this dissertation, to respond to the grand challenge, two data-centric power system situation awareness and management approaches are proposed to address the security problems in the transmission/distribution grids and social benefits augmentation problem at the distribution-customer lever, respectively. To address the security problem in the transmission/distribution grids utilizing big data, the first approach provides a fault analysis solution based on characterization and analytics of the synchrophasor measurements. Specically, the optimal synchrophasor measurement devices selection algorithm (OSMDSA) and matching pursuit decomposition (MPD) based spatial-temporal synchrophasor data characterization method was developed to reduce data volume while preserving comprehensive information for the big data analyses. And the weighted Granger causality (WGC) method was investigated to conduct fault impact causal analysis during system disturbance for fault localization. Numerical results and comparison with other methods demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of this analytic approach. As more social effects are becoming important considerations in power system management, the goal of situation awareness should be expanded to also include achievements in social benefits. The second approach investigates the concept and application of social energy upon the University of Denver campus grid to provide management improvement solutions for optimizing social cost. Social element--human working productivity cost, and economic element--electricity consumption cost, are both considered in the evaluation of overall social cost. Moreover, power system simulation, numerical experiments for smart building modeling, distribution level real-time pricing and social response to the pricing signals are studied for implementing the interactive artificial-physical management scheme.

The Clinician as Leader: Why, How, and When.

PubMed

Stoller, James K

2017-11-01

Clinicians are inveterate leaders. We lead patients through the difficult maze of illness, families through the travails of ill loved ones, and physicians-in-training through the gauntlet of learning medicine. Yet, in the context of a range of leadership styles that effective leaders must be able to deploy situationally, physician leaders have traditionally defaulted to a "command and control" style that fosters the concept of physicians as "Viking warriors" or "heroic lone healers." The perverse effects of "command and control" are that this style conspires against collaboration and tends to be perpetuated as aspiring leaders emulate their predecessors. Because healthcare faces challenges of cost, access, and quality and is in the throes of change, the current landscape requires effective leadership. Though still relatively uncommon among healthcare organizations, frontrunner organizations are offering leadership development programs. The design of such programs requires clarity about requisite leadership competencies and about how and when to best to deliver such curricula. As one example, the American Thoracic Society has launched its Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), which is currently offering a leadership development curriculum to 18 selected emerging leaders. The ATS ELP curriculum focuses on awareness of self and system and incorporates highly participatory sessions on emotional intelligence, teambuilding, change management, situational leadership, appreciative inquiry, process and quality improvement, strategic planning, and organizational culture. Short-term deliverables are the development and presentation of business plans for innovations proposed by the group. Hoped for longer-term outcomes include an enhanced leadership pipeline for global respiratory health.

Synergy and sustainability in rural procedural medicine: views from the coalface.

PubMed

Swayne, Andrew; Eley, Diann S

2010-02-01

The practice of rural and remote medicine in Australia entails many challenges, including a broad casemix and the remoteness of specialist support. Many rural practitioners employ advanced procedural skills in anaesthetics, surgery, obstetrics and emergency medicine, but the use of these skills has been declining over the last 20 years. This study explored the perceptions of rural general practitioners (GPs) on the current and future situation of procedural medicine. The qualitative results of data from a mixed-method design are reported. Free-response survey comments and semistructured interview transcripts were analysed by a framework analysis for major themes. General practices in rural and remote Queensland. Rural GPs in Rural and Remote Metropolitan Classification 4-7 areas of Queensland. The perceptions of rural GPs on the current and future situation of rural procedural medicine. Major concerns from the survey focused on closure of facilities and downgrading of services, cost and time to keep up skills, increasing litigation issues and changing attitudes of the public. Interviews designed to draw out solutions to help rectify the perceived circumstances highlighted two major themes: 'synergy' between the support from medical teams and community in ensuring 'sustainability' of services. This article presents a model of rural procedural practice where synergy between staff, resources and support networks represents the optimal way to deliver a non-metropolitan procedural service. The findings serve to remind educators and policy-makers that future planning for sustainability of rural procedural services must be broad-based and comprehensive.

Culture, hydrology, and other situational controls on atoll freshwater availability (Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuster, W.

2016-12-01

The comparatively uncertain rainfall catch and rising seas in isolated North Pacific atoll communities has presented serious challenges to maintain human communities with freshwater volume. Moreover, the feudal hierarchy, which structures social and economic relationships among local governance and citizens contributes equally to problems and potential solutions. These relationships modulate the availability of critical ecosystem services generated by freshwater, with additional constraints contributed by climate change, rainfall variability (e.g., current El Niño climate pattern), and continuous threat of drought. The major freshwater resources for an atoll are the groundwater freshwater lens, residential and commercial rainwater harvesting, large-scale rainfall catchments (e.g., an airport runway), imported-virtual water, or desalinization subsidies. The significance of each of these resources scale across different atolls according to size, topography, soils, population, infrastructure, and land ownership. The potential integration and coordination of these water resources is largely unrealized due to land ownership, the lack of a contiguous catchment area, uneven and fractured governance. The situational aspects are further characterized by feuding among families and communities (some resource rich, some resource poor), and conflicting land use priorities where agriculture placement and practice can compromise the quality of already limited freshwater resources. This presentation uses the example of Majuro atoll (Republic of the Marshall Islands), field data and other observations, to illustrate sociohydrologic-drivers of freshwater availability, and suggests approaches that may improve on current and ongoing threats to public health and well-being.

Managing Situation Awareness on the Flight Deck

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chappell, Sheryl L.; Connell, Linda (Technical Monitor)

1996-01-01

Awareness is required of the plane, the path and the people, both now and in the future. The steps to situation awareness are to monitor and evaluate the current situation. Anticipate the future to stay ahead of the airplane and consider contingencies, having a plan for 'what if situations. Continually update and modify the plan and share it with all crew members.

Biomarkers in prostate cancer - Current clinical utility and future perspectives.

PubMed

Kretschmer, Alexander; Tilki, Derya

2017-12-01

Current tendencies in the treatment course of prostate cancer patients increase the need for reliable biomarkers that help in decision-making in a challenging clinical setting. Within the last decade, several novel biomarkers have been introduced. In the following comprehensive review article, we focus on diagnostic (PHI ® , 4K score, SelectMDx ® , ConfirmMDx ® , PCA3, MiPS, ExoDX ® , mpMRI) and prognostic (OncotypeDX GPS ® , Prolaris ® , ProMark ® , DNA-ploidy, Decipher ® ) biomarkers that are in widespread clinical use and are supported by evidence. Hereby, we focus on multiple clinical situations in which innovative biomarkers may guide decision-making in prostate cancer therapy. In addition, we describe novel liquid biopsy approaches (circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA) that have been described as predictive biomarkers in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and might support an individual patient-centred oncological approach in the nearer future. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Herbal Medicines: challenges in the modern world. Part 5. status and current directions of complementary and alternative herbal medicine worldwide.

PubMed

Enioutina, Elena Yu; Salis, Emma R; Job, Kathleen M; Gubarev, Michael I; Krepkova, Lubov V; Sherwin, Catherine M T

2017-03-01

Herbal medicine (HM) use is growing worldwide. Single herb preparations, ethnic and modern HM formulations are widely used as adjunct therapies or to improve consumer wellbeing. Areas covered: This final part in the publication series summarizes common tendencies in HM use as adjunct or alternative medicine, education of healthcare professionals and consumers, current and proposed guidelines regulating of production. We discuss potential HM-HM and HM-drug interactions that could lead to severe adverse events in situations where HMs are taken without proper medical professional oversight. Expert commentary: A number of serious problems have arisen with the steady global increase in HM use. HM interaction with conventional drugs (CD) may result in inadequate dosing of CD or adverse reactions; HM-HM interaction within herbal supplements could lead to toxicity of formulations. Inadequate education of clinicians and patients regarding medicinal properties of HMs must be addressed regionally and globally to ensure consumer safety.

Current Rural Drug Use in the US Midwest

PubMed Central

Dombrowski, Kirk; Crawford, Devan; Khan, Bilal; Tyler, Kimberly

2016-01-01

The nature and challenge of illicit drug use in the United States continues to change rapidly, evolving in reaction to myriad social, economic, and local forces. While the use of illicit drugs affects every region of the country, most of our current information about drug use comes from large urban areas. Data on rural drug use and its harms justify greater attention. Record overdose rates, unexpected outbreaks of HIV, and a dearth of treatment facilities point to a rapidly worsening health situation. While health sciences have made considerable progress in understanding the etiology of drug use and uncovering the link between drug use and its myriad associated harms, this promising scientific news has not always translated to better health outcomes. The scope of the problem in the Central Plains of the US is growing, and can be estimated from available sources. Clear remedies for this rising level of abuse are available, but few have been implemented. Suggestions for short-term policy remedies are discussed. PMID:27885362

Zika, chikungunya and dengue: the causes and threats of new and re-emerging arboviral diseases.

PubMed

Paixão, Enny S; Teixeira, Maria Gloria; Rodrigues, Laura C

2018-01-01

The recent emergence and re-emergence of viral infections transmitted by vectors-Zika, chikungunya, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile, yellow fever and others-is a cause for international concern. Using as examples Zika, chikungunya and dengue, we summarise current knowledge on characteristics of the viruses and their transmission, clinical features, laboratory diagnosis, burden, history, possible causes of the spread and the expectation for future epidemics. Arboviruses are transmitted by mosquitoes, are of difficult diagnosis, can have surprising clinical complications and cause severe burden. The current situation is complex, because there is no vaccine for Zika and chikungunya and no specific treatment for the three arboviruses. Vector control is the only comprehensive solution available now and this remains a challenge because up to now this has not been very effective. Until we develop new technologies of control mosquito populations, the globalised and urbanised world we live in will remain vulnerable to the threat of successive arbovirus epidemics.

Management of diabetes and diabetes policies in Turkey

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Diabetes and its complications are among the present and future challenges of the Turkish health care system. The objective of this paper is to discuss the current situation of diabetes and its management in Turkey with special emphasis on the changing policy environment. Methods A literature review in databases such as PUBMED was performed from 2000 to 2011. This synthesis was complemented by grey literature, personal communication and contact with national and provincial health authorities and experts in diabetes from Turkey. Results The literature review and expert consultations indicated a growing policy emphasis on diabetes. Both the public and private sectors, non-governmental organizations have initiated policy papers to shape the outlook of diabetes care in the future. This is in line with the current dynamics of the healthcare system. Conclusions Diabetes care will be high on the agenda in future. Evidence based policy-making is the key to implement the policies adopted so far and a supportive environment is needed. PMID:23597065

Communication--a core concept in client supervision by public health nurses.

PubMed

Tveiten, Sidsel; Severinsson, Elisabeth

2006-04-01

The aim of this study was to explore public health nurses' reflections on client supervision. Reflection on actions represents a possible basis for constructing and refining assumptions on current theories used in practice thus making knowledge development possible. Transcript-based qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the findings from individual interviews with 13 female public health nurses. Communication is a core concept of client supervision by public health nurses and includes the following themes: (1) building a trusting relationship, (2) looking beyond the current situation, (3) creating a partnership and equality and (4) considering the challenge involved in trying to act in the clients' best interests. This study shows that public health nurses' reflection and reflecting related to their provision of client supervision revealed one possible assumption regarding their theories-in-use; communication is a core concept in client supervision. Communication is viewed from a hermeneutic perspective--as the meaning of the interaction between the public health nurses and the client in the supervision is reflected upon and interpreted.

The current status of occupational health in China

PubMed Central

Zhang, Xueyan; Li, Tao

2010-01-01

Objective This study aimed to summarize the major health problems among Chinese workers, the strategies and measures for occupational hazards control, the network and organizations of occupational health administration, and the achievements and current challenges of occupational health in China. Results The situation of occupational health was found to be still serious in China. Enterprises with occupational hazards were widely distributed, the exposed population and cases of occupational diseases were numerous, and occupational risks were being transferred from the city to the countryside and from developed areas to developing ones. New emerging problems coexisted with traditional occupational hazards. Besides, a lack of occupational health services for migrant workers could be a major problem for a long time. Conclusions It is necessary to improve the fields related to occupational health, such as the supervision and administration of small- and medium-scale enterprises, research into key techniques for the prevention and control of occupational hazards, systems for the diagnosis and reporting of occupational diseases, and the training of health professionals. PMID:21432554

Marketers don't wear plaid: marketing and health care administration in the Canadian context.

PubMed

Rigby, J M; Backman, A M

1997-01-01

Marketing has a bad reputation among Canadian health managers, even though marketing solutions may address many of their problems. This article provides an overview of current understandings of marketing and how they may be applied to health care situations. Marketing should be considered an ongoing process. This is particularly helpful if we understand the root task of health managers as creating and promoting exchanges--with governments, physicians, nurses, other health workers and client groups. Exchanges that are desirable to the health care community will more likely occur if the true costs and benefits of health services are analyzed, understood and imaginatively communicated. The public constantly evaluates the health system. Constant evaluation implies a need for marketing directed internally at staff and those within the health system, and externally at constituents outside the system. Properly understood and practiced, marketing can be part of the innovative solutions health care managers develop and apply as they deal with the difficult challenges facing them in Canada's current health care environment.

Zika, chikungunya and dengue: the causes and threats of new and re-emerging arboviral diseases

PubMed Central

Paixão, Enny S.; Teixeira, Maria Gloria; Rodrigues, Laura C

2018-01-01

The recent emergence and re-emergence of viral infections transmitted by vectors—Zika, chikungunya, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile, yellow fever and others—is a cause for international concern. Using as examples Zika, chikungunya and dengue, we summarise current knowledge on characteristics of the viruses and their transmission, clinical features, laboratory diagnosis, burden, history, possible causes of the spread and the expectation for future epidemics. Arboviruses are transmitted by mosquitoes, are of difficult diagnosis, can have surprising clinical complications and cause severe burden. The current situation is complex, because there is no vaccine for Zika and chikungunya and no specific treatment for the three arboviruses. Vector control is the only comprehensive solution available now and this remains a challenge because up to now this has not been very effective. Until we develop new technologies of control mosquito populations, the globalised and urbanised world we live in will remain vulnerable to the threat of successive arbovirus epidemics. PMID:29435366

Youth Acquisition and Situational Use of Cigars, Cigarillos, and Little Cigars: A Cross-sectional Study

PubMed Central

Trapl, Erika S.; O’Rourke-Suchoff, Danielle; Yoder, Laura D.; Cofie, Leslie E.; Frank, Jean L.; Fryer, Craig S.

2017-01-01

Introduction Although adolescent use of cigars, cigarillos, and little cigars (CCLCs) has been increasing, little research has been conducted to understand how adolescents acquire CCLCs and the situations in which they smoke CCLCs. Thus, this study aims to understand how adolescent smokers acquire CCLCs and the situations in which they smoke them. Methods Data were drawn from the 2011 Cuyahoga County Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Current CCLC smoking was assessed; analysis was limited to current smokers (n=1,337). Current users were asked to identify situations in which they use cigars and ways in which they get cigars. Bivariate analyses assessed differences by sex, race, and concurrent substance use. Data were analyzed in 2014. Results Youth acquired CCLCs most commonly by buying (64.2%). CCLC smokers also reported high rates of social use (81.1%). There were no significant differences is situational use across sexes, but female adolescents were significantly more likely than male adolescents to share CCLCs and significantly less likely to buy or take CCLCs. Conversely, significant differences were seen for situational use by race/ethnicity, with whites significantly more likely to use in social situations and less likely to use in solitary situations versus blacks and Hispanics. Finally, significant differences were observed in both acquisition and use for youth who concurrently used CCLCs and cigarettes compared with CCLCs only; fewer differences were noted among those who concurrently used CCLCs and marijuana compared with CCLCs only. Conclusions These findings highlight how adolescents acquire and use CCLCs and can inform tobacco control strategies to prevent and reduce CCLC use. PMID:27717517

The influence of day care centres designed for people with dementia on family caregivers - a qualitative study.

PubMed

Tretteteig, Signe; Vatne, Solfrid; Rokstad, Anne Marie Mork

2017-01-05

Dementia is one of the most challenging age-related illnesses for family caregivers, whose care-related burden is well known. Research indicates that day care centres (DCCs) can reduce the caregiver burden and help family caregivers to cope with demands; however, the current body of knowledge is still tentative and inconsistent, and more research is recommended. The aim of this study is to provide an extended understanding of the situation of family caregivers and to examine to what extent DCCs can meet their need for support and respite. This study has a qualitative descriptive design using in-depth interviews with 17 family caregivers of people with dementia attending DCCs. The data analysis was undertaken using systematic text condensation. Caregivers experience a complex role, with added responsibilities, new tasks, and emotional and relational challenges that are expressed through distressing emotions and demands for interaction. Additionally, the caregiving role leads to positive experiences, such as acceptance and adaptation, support and help, and positive changes in the relationship. Day care relieves family caregivers by meeting the person with dementia's needs for social community, nutrition, physical activity, and structure and variety in everyday life. Using a DCC led to a higher quality of time spent together and easier cooperation, but it also produced some hard feelings and challenging situations. DCCs gave the caregivers a feeling of freedom and increased the time available to be spent on their own needs, to be social and to work or do practical tasks undisturbed. DCCs for people with dementia can give family caregivers support and relief and have a positive impact on the relationship between the family caregiver and the person with dementia. A more individualized program, in addition to flexible opening hours, would make DCCs even more effective as a respite service, positively influencing the family caregiver's motivation and ability to care and postponing the need for nursing home placement.

Instructional Leadership Challenges and Practices of Novice Principals in Rural Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiezorek, Douglas; Manard, Carolyn

2018-01-01

We report on a phenomenological study of the leadership experiences of six novice, rural public school principals in a midwestern U.S. state. We situated our analysis within existing research on leadership for learning, particularly how novice principals interpreted instructional leadership challenges in the context of rural school leadership. Our…

Situating the Lesotho Secondary School Geography in Curriculum Relevance Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raselimo, Mohaeka

2017-01-01

The issue of curriculum relevance has attracted attention of academics and the general public in Lesotho where there are social, economic, environmental and political challenges confronting the society. To address these challenges education, through various school subjects, is expected to play a pivotal role. However, there are concerns that the…

Traffic Flow - USMES Teacher Resource Book. Fourth Edition. Trial Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keskulla, Jean

This Unified Sciences and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) unit challenges students to improve traffic flow at a problem location. The challenge is general enough to apply to many problem-solving situations in mathematics, science, social science, and language arts at any elementary school level (grades 1-8). The Teacher Resource Book…

Pedestrian Crossings - USMES Teacher Resource Book. Fifth Edition. Trial Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keskulla, Jean

This Unified Sciences and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) unit challenges students to improve the safety and convenience of a pedestrian crossing near a school. The challenge is general enough to apply to many problem-solving situations in mathematics, science, social science, and language arts at any elementary school level (grades…

Language Policy and Planning: Challenges for Latin American Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamel, Rainer Enrique; Álvarez López, Elisa; Carvalhal, Tatiana Pereira

2016-01-01

This article starts with an overview of the sociolinguistic situation in Latin America as a context for language policy and planning (LPP) decisions in the academic field. Then it gives a brief overview of the language policy challenges faced by universities to cope with neoliberal internationalisation. A conceptualisation of the domain as a…

A Conversation Analysis Approach to Researching eTandems--The Challenges of Data Collection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renner, Julia

2016-01-01

This article deals with the challenges of data collection from a Conversation Analysis (CA) perspective to researching synchronous, audio-visual eTandems. Conversation analysis is a research tradition that developed out of ethnomethodology and is concerned with the question of how social interaction in naturally occurring situations is organized.…

Protecting Property - USMES Teacher Resource Book. First Edition. Trial Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bussey, Margery Koo

This Unified Sciences and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) unit challenges students to find good ways to protect property (property in desks or lockers; animals; bicycles; tools). The challenge is general enough to apply to many problem-solving situations in mathematics, science, social science, and language arts at any elementary school…

Higher Education Leaders' Transformative Learning and Leadership Experiences Responding to Student Drug Abuse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Battin, James Vernon

2017-01-01

Today's academic and social environment creates uncertainties, new roles, frequent changes, and challenging situations for student affairs academic leaders. The purpose of this study was to explore how student affairs academic leaders described their recent challenging experiences in addressing student drug abuse in higher education. The…

Ethical Challenges of In-The-Field Training: A Surgical Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernstein, Mark; Knifed, Eva

2007-01-01

The teaching of professions in which technical and manual acts combined with excellent judgment are used to enhance the safety of people, poses challenges to educators. Book learning combined with mock or simulated situations goes a long way, but ultimately "in-the-field" instruction and learning is necessary to qualify trainees for many…

Manufacturing - USMES Teacher Resource Book. Second Edition. Trial Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agro, Sally

This Unified Sciences and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) unit challenges students to find the best way to produce an item in quantities needed. The challenge is general enough to apply to many problem-solving situations in mathematics, science, social science, and language arts at any elementary school level (grades 1-8). The Teacher…

Blended Learning with Everyday Technologies to Activate Students' Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vesisenaho, Mikko; Valtonen, Teemu; Kukkonen, Jari; Havu-Nuutinen, Sari; Hartikainen, Anu; Karkkainen, Sirpa

2010-01-01

Schools are facing challenges to meet the demands of the information society and the student generation of today. Not only are students carrying their mobile phones everywhere, they are also familiar with different online environments, especially social software. This situation can be seen both a challenge and a chance for schools, as mobile…

Business Process Reengineering towards an Integrated Learning Management System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basal, Abdelraheem Mousa

2010-01-01

The task of managing an information technology (IT) system in a school environment poses unique challenges. For example, one of the greatest challenges facing individual schools is the lack of integration among various information systems. The present situation in many schools is that there are many disconnected systems managing many different…

Didactic Friction--Challenges and Reflections on Interlinking PBL and Discipline-Specific Tuition Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bejder, Anne Kirkegaard; Larsen, Gunvor Riber; Wind, Simon

2017-01-01

This is a discussion paper based on didactic reflections of three junior academics at the Architecture and Urban Design (A&UD) programme at Aalborg University. The discussion unfolds "didactic friction", where principles of PBL come into contact with architectural didactics, causing challenging teaching situations. This discussion of…

A Modeling Approach to the Development of Students' Informal Inferential Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doerr, Helen M.; Delmas, Robert; Makar, Katie

2017-01-01

Teaching from an informal statistical inference perspective can address the challenge of teaching statistics in a coherent way. We argue that activities that promote model-based reasoning address two additional challenges: providing a coherent sequence of topics and promoting the application of knowledge to novel situations. We take a models and…

Student Performance in Teacher Education in Norway: The Impact of Student, Institutional and Structural Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wikan, Gerd; Bugge, Liv Susanne

2014-01-01

Many education systems face a challenge in recruiting graduates as teachers. This is also the situation in Norway and the newest estimates tell us that we will lack 9000 teachers in 2020. The situation is made even worse by the high number of dropouts and low performance rates in teacher education. There are many factors which have an impact on…

Socio-Pedagogical Challenges Facing Orphaned and Vulnerable Children in the Aftermath of the 2007-2008 Election Violence in Nakuru County, Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majanga, Eunice; Mukonyi, Phillip; Vundi, Silvia

2015-01-01

The conflict situations that have afflicted parts of Kenya every five years, in the wake of general elections, since 1992 were most prominent after the disputed presidential elections of 2007. The magnitude of the clashes, loss of life, destruction of property and internal displacement of people were hitherto unwitnessed. The situation of Orphans…

Girls' Drop-Out from Primary Schooling in the Middle East and North Africa: Challenges and Alternatives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mehrah, Golnar

The present situation in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) regarding primary school drop-out and repetition, with special reference to the situation of the girl child, is examined in this study. The in-school as well as out-of-school causes of primary school drop-out are examined, and solutions that help reduce or eliminate the…

A Qualitative Study of Individual and Peer Factors Related to Effective Nonviolent versus Aggressive Responses to Problem Situations among Adolescents with High Incidence Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Terri N.; Helms, Sarah W.; Bettencourt, Amie F.; Sutherland, Kevin; Lotze, Geri M.; Mays, Sally; Wright, Stephen; Farrell, Albert D.

2012-01-01

To enhance the positive adjustment of youths with high incidence disabilities, a better understanding of the factors that influence their use of effective responses in challenging situations is needed. In this qualitative study, adolescents described individual and peer factors that would influence their use of effective nonviolent or aggressive…

Regulation of Emotions in Socially Challenging Learning Situations: An Instrument to Measure the Adaptive and Social Nature of the Regulation Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarvenoja, Hanna; Volet, Simone; Jarvela, Sanna

2013-01-01

Self-regulated learning (SRL) research has conventionally relied on measures, which treat SRL as an aptitude. To study self-regulation and motivation in learning contexts as an ongoing adaptive process, situation-specific methods are needed in addition to static measures. This article presents an "Adaptive Instrument for Regulation of Emotions"…

A unique method of retention for gum stripper- a case report.

PubMed

Doddamani, Santosh S; T S, Priyanka

2014-12-01

Successful restoration of partially edentulous situations, especially kennedy's class-I, II &IV requires lot of contemporary and conventional treatment approaches. Semi precision attachments play a major role in retention of clinically challenging partially edentulous situation. Attachment retained partial dentures can be one of the successful treatment option in prosthdontics. This article presents a unique technique of retaining gum stripper using semi precision attachments.

Using a Systemic Functional Genre-Based Approach to Promote a Situated View of Academic Writing among EFL Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Correa, Doris; Echeverri, Sandra

2017-01-01

This article reports partial results of a qualitative study which explored the gains and challenges encountered by two groups of English as a foreign language pre-service teachers from a public university in Medellin, Colombia, in developing a situated view of academic writing through a systemic functional genre-based instructional unit. The unit…

Fresh osteochondral allografts-procurement and tissue donation in Europe.

PubMed

Schmidt, S; Schulte, A; Schwarz, S; Hofmann, N; Tietz, S; Boergel, M; Sixt, S U

2017-07-01

Fresh osteochondral allografts are a well-established treatment for large, full-thickness cartilage defects. The clinical outcome for carefully selected patients is very favorable, especially for the young and active and graft survival up to 25 years has been described in the literature. Furthermore, a high patient satisfaction rate has been reported, but the biggest obstacle to overcome is the availability of tissue for transplantation. Large fresh bone allografts for cartilage damage repair only can be harvested from organ donors following organ removal or cadaveric donors, preferably in the setting of an operation room to minimize possible contamination of the tissue. Apart from the logistic challenges this entails, an experienced recovery team is needed. Furthermore, the public as well as medical staff is much less aware of the possibility and requirements of tissue donation than organ donation and families of deceased are rarely approached for bone and cartilage donation. This review aims to highlight the current situation of organ and tissue donation in Europe with special focus on the processing of bones and possible safety and quality concerns. We analyze what may prevent consent and what might be done to improve the situation of tissue donation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Clinical Simulation in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: Post-Graduation Follow Up.

PubMed

Lilly, Mary LuAnne; Hermanns, Melinda; Crawley, Bill

2016-10-01

In psychiatric-mental health, creating an innovative strategy to help students learn content that may not be frequently seen in a clinical setting is challenging. Thus, simulation helps narrow this gap. Using Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation to guide the current study, faculty contacted baccalaureate nursing program graduates who completed a psychiatric-mental health clinical simulation scenario featuring a hanging suicide and wrist cutting suicide attempt scenario in the "Behind the Door" series as part of the clinical component of their undergraduate psychiatric-mental health course. Eleven nurses responded to a survey regarding their post-graduate encounters with these types of clinical situations, and their perception of recall and application of knowledge and skills acquired during the simulation experience to the clinical situation. Nursing graduates' responses are expressed through three major themes: emotional, contextual/behavioral, and assessment outcomes. Data from the survey indicate that nursing graduates perceived the "Behind the Door" simulations as beneficial to nursing practice. This perception is important in evaluating knowledge transfer from a simulation experience as a student into application in nursing practice. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 54(10), 40-45.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

Human engineering and habitability: the critical challenges for the International Space Station.

PubMed

Novak, J B

2000-09-01

As the duration of spaceflight increases, the impact of habitability on mission success becomes significant. Habitability is based on the qualities and capabilities of an environment that enable people to work and live. Poor habitability can impact productivity, safety, well-being, and performance. The International Space Station (ISS) Operational Habitability Project has been established to address the increased role of habitability for ISS. The primary objective of the project is to establish a pool of data from which opinions and decisions for judging and improving habitability on ISS will be generated. The main activities of the project are to: 1) collect and interpret data related to habitability on ISS; 2) identify Operational Habitability Lessons Learned; and 3) provide data summaries, judgments, and recommendations for the improvement of habitability. As an example, the ISS Operational Habitability Project has provided significant inputs to a current ISS issue regarding stowage. In this situation, a lack of prioritization on habitability resulted in a less than ideal situation. Operational Habitability data from previous missions was identified and summarized to provide inputs to assist in working the issues toward a resolution that supports habitability on ISS.

Reaching the Surveillance-Response Stage of Schistosomiasis Control in The People's Republic of China: A Modelling Approach.

PubMed

Feng, Y; Liu, L; Xia, S; Xu, J-F; Bergquist, R; Yang, G-J

2016-01-01

With the goal set to eliminate schistosomiasis nationwide by 2020, The People's Republic of China has initiated the surveillance-response stage to identify remaining sources of infection and potential pockets from where the disease could reemerge. Shifting the focus from classical monitoring and evaluation to rapid detection and immediate response, this approach requires modelling to bridge the surveillance and response components. We review here studies relevant to schistosomiasis modelling in a Chinese surveillance-response system with the expectation to achieve a practically useful understanding of the current situation and potential future study directions. We also present useful experience that could tentatively be applied in other endemic regions in the world. Modelling is discussed at length as it plays an essential role, both with regard to the intermediate snail host and in the definitive, mammal hosts. Research gaps with respect to snail infection, animal hosts and sectoral research cooperation are identified and examined against the prevailing background of ecosystem and socioeconomic changes with a focus on coexisting challenges and opportunities in a situation with increasing financial constraints. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phrase-Meaning Relationship According to Situational and Incidental Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coskun, Mustafa Volkan; Ozkaya, Perihan Gulce; Uysal, Zeynep Ezgi

2017-01-01

The purpose of the current study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the situational story of Sait Faik Abasiyanik entitled as "Alemdag'da Var Bir Yilan" and the incidental story of Refik Halid Karay entitled as "Boz Esek" in terms of syntax on the basis of their deep structures. The current study employed case study, one…

Negotiating role management through everyday activities: narratives in action of two stroke survivors and their spouses.

PubMed

Satink, Ton; Josephsson, Staffan; Zajec, Jana; Cup, Edith H C; de Swart, Bert J M; Nijhuis-van der Sanden, Maria W G

2016-12-01

To manage social roles is a challenging part of self-management post-stroke. This study explored how stroke survivors act as role managers with their spouses in the context of everyday activities. Two stroke survivors with a first time stroke living at home with a spouse were included. Data were generated through participant observations at their own environment at 3, 6, 9, 15 and 21 months post-discharge. The narrative analysis focused on the actions of participants. Daily activities can be understood as an arena where role management and a meaningful live is negotiated and co-constructed with others. Everyday activities gave stroke survivors and their spouses insight into stroke survivors' capacities in daily situations. This was sometimes empowering, and other times conflicting when a spouse had negative perceptions of the abilities of the stroke survivors. The findings add to the current understanding of self-management and role management with regard to how these are situated in everyday activities. Daily activities can help both spouses to reflect and understand about self-management, role management and comanagement in daily life. Moreover, observing stroke survivors in everyday situations provides professionals with concrete pictures of stroke survivors' performance and self-management in interaction with their spouses. Implications for Rehabilitation Self-management is a dynamic process in which individuals actively manage a chronic condition and finally live a meaningful life with a long-term chronic condition; self-management can be divided into medical, role, and emotional management; comanagement is when individuals activate resources and use the capacities of other persons to manage a situation together. Self-management is situated in everyday activities. Everyday activities give stroke survivors ánd their partners impressions about stroke survivors' self-management abilities post-stroke in an everyday context. Everyday activities give stroke survivors ánd their partners an arena where role management and a meaningful life are negotiated and coconstructed through doing. Observing stroke survivors in everyday situations provides professionals a concreter picture of stroke survivors' self-management and comanagement with their partners than can be obtained from an informal interview.

Identifying Patterns of Situational Antecedents to Heavy Drinking among College Students

PubMed Central

Lau-Barraco, Cathy; Linden-Carmichael, Ashley N.; Braitman, Abby L.; Stamates, Amy L.

2016-01-01

Background Emerging adults have the highest prevalence of heavy drinking as compared to all other age groups. Given the negative consequences associated with such drinking, additional research efforts focused on at-risk consumption are warranted. The current study sought to identify patterns of situational antecedents to drinking and to examine their associations with drinking motivations, alcohol involvement, and mental health functioning in a sample of heavy drinking college students. Method Participants were 549 (65.8% women) college student drinkers. Results Latent profile analysis identified three classes based on likelihood of heavy drinking across eight situational precipitants. The “High Situational Endorsement” group reported the greatest likelihood of heavy drinking in most situations assessed. This class experienced the greatest level of alcohol-related harms as compared to the “Low Situational Endorsement” and “Moderate Situational Endorsement” groups. The Low Situational Endorsement class was characterized by the lowest likelihood of heavy drinking across all situational antecedents and they experienced the fewest alcohol-related harms, relative to the other classes. Class membership was related to drinking motivations with the “High Situational Endorsement” class endorsing the highest coping- and conformity-motivated drinking. The “High Situational Endorsement” class also reported experiencing more mental health symptoms than other groups. Conclusions The current study contributed to the larger drinking literature by identifying profiles that may signify a particularly risky drinking style. Findings may help guide intervention work with college heavy drinkers. PMID:28163666

Information and communication technology needs for distributed communication and coordination during expedition-class spaceflight.

PubMed

Caldwell, B S

2000-09-01

AO-lU. Expedition-class missions are distinct from historical human presence in space in ways that significantly affect information flow and information technology designs for such missions. The centrality of Mission Control in these missions is challenged by the distances, associated communication delays, and durations of expeditions, all of which require crews to have more local resources available to manage on-board situations. The author's current research investigates how ground controllers effectively allocate communications bandwidth, cognitive resources, and knowledge sharing skills during time critical routine and non-routine situations. The research focus is on team-based information and communication technology (ICT) use to provide recommendations for improvements to support adaptive bandwidth allocations and improved sharing of data and knowledge in Mission Control contexts. In order to further improve communication and coordination between controllers and crew, additional ICT support resources will be needed to provide shared context knowledge and dynamic assessment of costs and benefits for accessing local information vs. remote expertise. Crew members will have critical needs to understand the goals, intentions, and situational constraints associated with mission information resources in order to use them most effectively in conditions where ground-based expertise is insufficient or requires more time to access and coordinate than local task demands permit. Results of this research will serve to improve the design and implementation of ICT systems to improve human performance capabilities and system operating tolerances for exploration missions. (Specific research data were not available at the time of publication.)

Chapter 3: International non-governmental organizations in the emerging world society: the example of ISPRM.

PubMed

Reinhardt, Jan D; von Groote, Per M; DeLisa, Joel A; Melvin, John L; Bickenbach, Jerome E; Li, Leonard S W; Stucki, Gerold

2009-09-01

Using the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) as a case in point, the paper describes the complex world societal situation within which non-governmental organizations that address health issues have to operate.This paper describes the complex world societal situation within which non-governmental organizations (NGOs), that are addressing health issues have to operate. In particular, as an international organization in official relation with the World Health Organization (WHO), ISPRM is confronted with a variety of responsibilities and a true world health political mandate. The accompanying rights need to be played out in relation to its own internal member organization and external allies. The theory of the world society and the current situation are briefly reviewed. The role of international NGOs within the world health polity, rehabilitation and Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) is highlighted, whilst special emphasis is placed on NGOs in official relation with WHO. Functions, dysfunctions and challenges of international NGOs operating in the health sector are discussed. Against this background, key approaches to enhance ISPRM's political role are analysed. These include transparent and accountable development of the organization, the differentiation between internal and external policy relations, the harmonization of organizational structures and procedures, the consequential use of political structures available to influence WHO's agenda, and the identification of other policy players of major relevance to PRM in order to build strategic alliances with external partners and to enhance ISPRM's membership base.

Mechanical CPR: Who? When? How?

PubMed

Poole, Kurtis; Couper, Keith; Smyth, Michael A; Yeung, Joyce; Perkins, Gavin D

2018-05-29

In cardiac arrest, high quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a key determinant of patient survival. However, delivery of effective chest compressions is often inconsistent, subject to fatigue and practically challenging.Mechanical CPR devices provide an automated way to deliver high-quality CPR. However, large randomised controlled trials of the routine use of mechanical devices in the out-of-hospital setting have found no evidence of improved patient outcome in patients treated with mechanical CPR, compared with manual CPR. The limited data on use during in-hospital cardiac arrest provides preliminary data supporting use of mechanical devices, but this needs to be robustly tested in randomised controlled trials.In situations where high-quality manual chest compressions cannot be safely delivered, the use of a mechanical device may be a reasonable clinical approach. Examples of such situations include ambulance transportation, primary percutaneous coronary intervention, as a bridge to extracorporeal CPR and to facilitate uncontrolled organ donation after circulatory death.The precise time point during a cardiac arrest at which to deploy a mechanical device is uncertain, particularly in patients presenting in a shockable rhythm. The deployment process requires interruptions in chest compression, which may be harmful if the pause is prolonged. It is recommended that use of mechanical devices should occur only in systems where quality assurance mechanisms are in place to monitor and manage pauses associated with deployment.In summary, mechanical CPR devices may provide a useful adjunct to standard treatment in specific situations, but current evidence does not support their routine use.

When sentimental rules collide: "norms with feelings" in the dilemmatic context.

PubMed

Royzman, Edward B; Goodwin, Geoffrey P; Leeman, Robert F

2011-10-01

According to a recently prominent account of moral judgment, genuine moral disapprobation is a product of two convergent vectors of normative influence: a strong negative affect that arises from the mere consideration of a given piece of human conduct and a (socially acquired) belief that this conduct is wrong (Nichols, 2002). The existing evidence in favor of this "norms with feelings" proposal is rather mixed, with no obvious route to an empirical resolution. To help shed further light on the situation, we test a previously unexamined prediction that this account logically yields in a novel dilemmatic context: when individuals are faced with a moral dilemma that pits two or more "affectively-charged" moral norms against each other, the norm underwritten by the strongest feeling ought to determine the content of dilemmatic resolution. Across three studies, we find evidence that directly challenges this prediction, offering support for a Kolhberg-style "rationalist" alternative instead. More specifically, we find that it is not the participants' degree of norm-congruent emotion (whether situationally or dispositionally assessed) or its correlates, but rather their appraisal of the relative costs associated with various alternative courses of action that appears to be most predictive of how they resolve the experimentally induced moral conflict. We conclude by situating our studies within an overarching typology of moral encounters, which, we believe, can help guide future research as well as shed light on some current controversies within this literature. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Where to next with animal health in Latin America? The transition from endemic to disease-free status.

PubMed

Rojas, H; Romero, J R

2017-04-01

The Latin American and Caribbean region (LAC) is a leading global producer and exporter of animal products. Its livestock production systems are diverse, ranging from large-scale commercial enterprises to family farms. Countries in this region have sought to improve their animal health status through both public and private efforts. Despite significant advances in eradicating such diseases as foot and mouth disease and classical swine fever, other animal health challenges remain; constraining exports, causing negative economic impacts and threatening food security. Obtaining certification of disease-free status is only the first step towards gaining benefits from improvements in animal health. Increasing international trade means that countries must manage the sustainability of their disease-free status in conjunction with trade partners and must comply with additional food safety and animal welfare standards. This paper comments on the challenges created by this new scenario in relation to the epidemiology and economics of animal health, when seeking to improve decisionmaking for animal health management. The authors characterise the current LAC livestock landscape and animal health situation, describing transitions in disease control and the use of economics in improving animal health. They conclude with remarks on the challenges presented by decision-making, economic rationality, sources of benefits, distribution and incentives.

Forest carbon research in Inner Mongolia: current knowledge, opportunity and challenge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuyong, Li; Mei, Huang; Shenggong, Li

2014-03-01

Carbon storage in forests in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region plays a significant role in the terrestrial carbon budget due to its largest forest coverage and forest growing stock among all the provinces in China. Nevertheless, scientific research on forest carbon is comparatively less as compared with the research on the main ecosystem, steppe in this area. We are still short of knowledge of forest carbon sequestration's rate, mechanism and potential in the area. Now we are conducting a research program aiming at making clear the above scientific issues. So knowing well previous research work and key findings is essential and helpful for our underway study. In this paper we reviewed the current knowledge, opportunity and challenges of forest carbon research in Inner Mongolia. The total carbon storage in forest of this region increased significantly from 0.417Pg carbon in 1949 to 0.719Pg carbon in 2008 with an annual increase of 2.842Tg~5.226Tg carbon and a dramatically increment of carbon storage in shrub. Carbon storage varied with dominant tree species, forest age and forest growth situation with an average forest carbon density of 42.68 t-C.hm-2, displaying a downtrend before 1980 and later a slow smooth uptrend. It is suggested that increase in vegetation carbon sequestration potential be achieved through selection of plant species and forest management.

Operationalizing the Space Weather Modeling Framework: Challenges and Resolutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welling, D. T.; Gombosi, T. I.; Toth, G.; Singer, H. J.; Millward, G. H.; Balch, C. C.; Cash, M. D.

2016-12-01

Predicting ground-based magnetic perturbations is a critical step towards specifying and predicting geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in high voltage transmission lines. Currently, the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF), a flexible modeling framework for simulating the multi-scale space environment, is being transitioned from research to operational use (R2O) by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. Upon completion of this transition, the SWMF will provide localized time-varying magnetic field (dB/dt) predictions using real-time solar wind observations from L1 and the F10.7 proxy for EUV as model input. This presentation chronicles the challenges encountered during the R2O transition of the SWMF. Because operations relies on frequent calculations of global surface dB/dt, new optimizations were required to keep the model running faster than real time. Additionally, several singular situations arose during the 30-day robustness test that required immediate attention. Solutions and strategies for overcoming these issues will be presented. This includes new failsafe options for code execution, new physics and coupling parameters, and the development of an automated validation suite that allows us to monitor performance with code evolution. Finally, the operations-to-research (O2R) impact on SWMF-related research is presented. The lessons learned from this work are valuable and instructive for the space weather community as further R2O progress is made.

Collection and recycling of electronic scrap: A worldwide overview and comparison with the Brazilian situation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reis de Oliveira, Camila, E-mail: Camilareis.oliveira@hotmail.com; Moura Bernardes, Andrea, E-mail: amb@ufrgs.br; Gerbase, Annelise Engel, E-mail: agerbase@ufrgs.br

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Review of the different e-waste collection systems and recycling processes. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We present the e-waste collection systems used in Europe and in the US. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We present e-waste collection systems used in Asia and Latin America. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer E-waste management between developed and developing countries is very different. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We made a comparison of the world situation to the current Brazilian reality. - Abstract: Recycling and the related issue of sustainable development are increasing in importance around the world. In Brazil, the new National Policy on Solid Wastes has prompted discussion on the future of electronic waste (e-waste). Overmore » the last 10 years, different e-waste collection systems and recycling processes have been applied globally. This paper presents the systems used in different countries and compares the world situation to the current Brazilian reality. To establish a recycling process, it is necessary to organize efficient collection management. The main difficulty associated with the implementation of e-waste recycling processes in Brazil is the collection system, as its efficiency depends not only on the education and cooperation of the people but also on cooperation among industrial waste generators, distributors and the government. Over half a million waste pickers have been reported in Brazil and they are responsible for the success of metal scrap collection in the country. The country also has close to 2400 companies and cooperatives involved in recycling and scrap trading. On the other hand, the collection and recycling of e-waste is still incipient because e-wastes are not seen as valuable in the informal sector. The Brazilian challenge is therefore to organize a system of e-waste management including the informal sector without neglecting environmentally sound management principles.« less

The excesses of care: a matter of understanding the asymmetry of power.

PubMed

Delmar, Charlotte

2012-10-01

The aim of the article is to illustrate concrete problems in the asymmetrical nurse-patient power relationship. It is an ethical demand that the nurse is faced with the challenges that the power in the relation is administered so that the patient's room for action is expanded and trust maintained. It is an essential message in care philosophy, but in clinical practice, success is not always achievable. A hidden and more or less unconscious restriction of the patient's room for action may result in the excesses of care. Three selected aspects: dependence, trust, and power described by the Danish philosopher K.E. Løgstrup and the Norwegian nursing philosopher Kari Martinsen's care philosophy has inspired this empirically based examination of some current barriers in the asymmetrical nurse-patient relationship. On the basis of qualitative interviews with six patients and six nurses, the research thus provides an identifying and problem-exploratory examination of some current obstacles in which the handling of trust and power reflects the excesses of care. The findings develop three themes. 'Being a burden' acknowledges that the balance of power will always tip to the nurse's advantage. The second theme, 'Doing only what's absolutely necessary', shows how a fixation with 'technicalism' creates a distance between people that may constrain the patient's room for action. The last theme is concerning the nurse's ability to navigate between closeness and distance is essential in avoiding 'the excesses of care', paternalism, and overprotectiveness. A situation in which distance takes the upper hand and care turns into paternalism. A different situation would arise if the nurse's emotions became sentimental or intimate with the result that closeness gets the upper hand. To avoid a harmful exercise of power and the excesses of care, the findings have demonstrated that a relationship-based caring is a demand for situation-specific sensitive attention skills. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Improving drug addiction treatment in China.

PubMed

Tang, Yi-Lang; Hao, Wei

2007-07-01

To illustrate the current situation and problems of drug addiction in treatment China and propose suggestions. A descriptive study based on literature searched from Medline and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database (1996-2007) and hand-picked references. Since the re-emergence of drug addiction in China in the early 1990s, there has been tremendous progress in drug addiction treatments in China, especially treatments for opiate addiction. However, many problems and challenges remain for improvement, including widespread negative attitudes towards drug abuse and drug-dependent individuals, the lack of evidence-based data on the efficacy of Chinese traditional medicine and the lack of a comprehensive and integrated system to organize all treatment resources and monitor treatment progress. The authors discuss the challenges that impede effective treatments of drug addiction and some suggestions are proposed. Implementing these suggestions can improve the outcome of treatment of drug-dependent individuals and benefit the whole society. China faces substantial drug addiction problems that appear to be worsening with time. Although much progress in drug addiction treatment has been made, improvement in many aspects is needed urgently.

Newborn screening in Bangladesh.

PubMed

Hasan, Mizanul; Nahar, Nurun; Moslem, Fauzia; Begum, Nargis Ara

2008-12-01

Newborn screening started in Bangladesh in 1999. The programme started as part of a regional project of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to screen for congenital hypothyroidism (CH). In the beginning the IAEA helped the country with equipment, filter papers, reagents, training and expert services. Since 1999, 2 pilot projects to screen newborns for CH were completed. Under these projects some 30,000 newborns were screened and 16 were identified with hypothyroidism. The government of Bangladesh approved a national project in July 2006 to screen newborns in some selected areas of the country for CH. Under the project some 200,000 newborns will be screened and laboratory facilities for newborn screening will be increased. Bangladesh has a large population of about 140 million. With the current birth rate some 2 million new births take place every year. The socio-economic situation of the country is also different. Per capita income of the country is one of the lowest in the world. About 85% of babies are still delivered at home. As such newborn screening is a big challenge for Bangladesh. However, the country is trying to overcome these challenges.

The challenges and opportunities of a commercial human spaceflight mission to the ISS.

PubMed

Belingheri, M; Mirra, C

2003-01-01

ESA astronauts' ISS flight opportunities are considered as a vital source to meet the utilisation, operation and political objectives that Europe has established for participating in the International Space Station programme. Recent internal ESA assessments have demonstrated that a rate of three flights per year for European Astronauts should be maintained as a minimum objective. The current flight rate is lower than this. In order to improve this situation, in the context of the activation of the ESA ISS Commercialisation programme, ESA is developing the conditions for the establishment of commercially based human spaceflights with the financial support of both ESA and the private sector or, in the future, only the latter. ESA is working in a Partnership with the space industry to facilitate the implementation of such projects and support customers with a range of end-to-end commercial services. The opportunities and challenges of a "commercial human spaceflight", involving a member of the European Astronaut Corps, or a privately employed flight participant, are discussed here. c2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face transplant: is it feasible in developing countries?

PubMed

González-García, Ignacio; Lyra-González, Iván; Medina-Preciado, David; Guerrero-Torres, Alejandro; Ramos-Gallardo, Guillermo; Armendáriz-Borunda, Juan

2013-01-01

This article is based on the case of a 28-year-old woman who was involved in a car accident, with diagnosis of polytrauma, loss of left eye, and second- and third-degree burns over the left midface, rendering an exposed area of 8 cm wide and 19 cm length, ranging from glabella to mandible, with skull exposure and loss of left eye.A latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous free flap was transferred into the defect; left eye and nose prosthetics were necessary to restore normal appearance. Excellent results were obtained; reinsertion to patient's normal life and reinstatement of facial appearance were achieved with minimal costs and no postsurgical complications.Analysis of the current situation in developing countries demonstrates that technique and infrastructure do not represent a real challenge to carry on face transplants. However, socioeconomic reality in these societies makes it difficult to establish face transplant as a feasible therapeutic opportunity for the overwhelming majority of patients who are victims of severe facial damage.Therefore, strategies such as latissimus dorsi free flap remains as an excellent therapy to face off our complex facial reconstructive challenges in developing countries such as Mexico.

Urban climate and energy demand interaction in Northern Eurasia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasilova, E. V.; Ginzburg, A. S.; Demchenko, P. F.

2017-11-01

The regional and urban climate change in Northern Eurasia is one of the main challenges for sustainable development of human habitats situated in boreal and temperate areas. The half of primary energy is spent for space heating even under quite a mild European climate. Implementation of the district heating in urban areas is currently seen as one of the key conditions of sustainable development. The clear understanding of main problems of the urban climateenergy demand interaction is crucial for both small towns and megacities. The specific features of the urban energy systems in Finland, Russia and China under the changing climate conditions were studied. Regional manifestations of the climate change were examined. The climate projections were established for urban regions of the Northern Eurasia. It was shown that the climate warming is likely to continue intensively there. History and actual development trends were discussed for the urban district heating systems in Russia, China and Finland. Common challenges linked with the climate change have been identified for the considered areas. Adaptation possibilities were discussed taking into account climate-energy interactions.

Drosophila hematopoiesis under normal conditions and in response to immune stress.

PubMed

Letourneau, Manon; Lapraz, Francois; Sharma, Anurag; Vanzo, Nathalie; Waltzer, Lucas; Crozatier, Michèle

2016-11-01

The emergence of hematopoietic progenitors and their differentiation into various highly specialized blood cell types constitute a finely tuned process. Unveiling the genetic cascades that control blood cell progenitor fate and understanding how they are modulated in response to environmental changes are two major challenges in the field of hematopoiesis. In the last 20 years, many studies have established important functional analogies between blood cell development in vertebrates and in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Thereby, Drosophila has emerged as a powerful genetic model for studying mechanisms that control hematopoiesis during normal development or in pathological situations. Moreover, recent advances in Drosophila have highlighted how intricate cell communication networks and microenvironmental cues regulate blood cell homeostasis. They have also revealed the striking plasticity of Drosophila mature blood cells and the presence of different sites of hematopoiesis in the larva. This review provides an overview of Drosophila hematopoiesis during development and summarizes our current knowledge on the molecular processes controlling larval hematopoiesis, both under normal conditions and in response to an immune challenge, such as wasp parasitism. © 2016 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Pathfinder radar development at Sandia National Laboratories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castillo, Steven

2016-05-01

Since the invention of Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging in the 1950's, users or potential users have sought to exploit SAR imagery for a variety of applications including the earth sciences and defense. At Sandia Laboratories, SAR Research and Development and associated defense applications grew out of the nuclear weapons program in the 1980's and over the years has become a highly viable ISR sensor for a variety of tactical applications. Sandia SAR systems excel where real-­-time, high-­-resolution, all-­-weather, day or night surveillance is required for developing situational awareness. This presentation will discuss the various aspects of Sandia's airborne ISR capability with respect to issues related to current operational success as well as the future direction of the capability as Sandia seeks to improve the SAR capability it delivers into multiple mission scenarios. Issues discussed include fundamental radar capabilities, advanced exploitation techniques and human-­-computer interface (HMI) challenges that are part of the advances required to maintain Sandia's ability to continue to support ever changing and demanding mission challenges.

Lessons from Practice: Designing Tools to Facilitate Individualized Support for Quitting Smoking

PubMed Central

Bhattacharya, Arpita; Vilardaga, Roger; Kientz, Julie A.; Munson, Sean A.

2017-01-01

Many health care providers, with a variety of trainings, counsel clients on quitting smoking on a day-to-day basis. In their clinical practice, they draw from and adapt guidelines and research-based strategies to fit individual client situations and challenges. Designers of technologies to support quitting smoking can learn from these real world practices to create tools that better adapt to individual differences. We present findings from interviews with 28 providers with diverse experiences in smoking cessation counselling. Through analysis of their individualization strategies, challenges, and perceptions of technology, we find that providers: (1) individualize context appropriate coping strategies by involving clients in brainstorming, (2) emphasize the need to support nicotine withdrawal in clients, (3) mitigate social triggers and mediate social support for clients, and (4) need to navigate dependencies with other providers for managing medications and comorbid health conditions of clients. With this empirical understanding, we extend the discussion on the design of technology to support quitting smoking, highlight current barriers to individualization, and suggest future opportunities to address these barriers. PMID:29123362

[Social trauma: Clinical practice and analysis of subjectivity].

PubMed

Lagos, Mariana; Bekerman, Silvana; Sosa, Noemí

2017-07-01

Clinical and psychosocial assistance demand that we try and understand the complex effect traumatic events have on people and their subjectivity, as well as on our own stance and reference framework. Traumatic situations of social origin affect groups of individuals and the State is to some extent responsible for their genesis and the resolution of their effects. In our professional practice we are faced with problems that concern both the individuals and the relationships they establish. The way highly traumatic events are dealt with is in?uenced by various factors that challenge our therapeutic theories and approaches. The crisis of our time, characterized by uncertainty, violence patterns, intolerance of differences, fracture of social bonds, combined with major technological developments and subjective changes, triggers new and complex ways of connection -even hyperconnectivity- through social media. These vicissitudes of our time confront us with new expressions of discomfort about our own place in the world, deeply affect our identities and reinforce the suffering we experience when faced with the emergency of the devastating power of social trauma. Thus, they become part of our current challenge as professionals.

Plant responses to environmental stresses-from gene to biotechnology.

PubMed

Ahanger, Mohammad Abass; Akram, Nudrat Aisha; Ashraf, Muhammad; Alyemeni, Mohammed Nasser; Wijaya, Leonard; Ahmad, Parvaiz

2017-07-01

Increasing global population, urbanization and industrialization are increasing the rate of conversion of arable land into wasteland. Supplying food to an ever-increasing population is one of the biggest challenges that agriculturalists and plant scientists are currently confronting. Environmental stresses make this situation even graver. Despite the induction of several tolerance mechanisms, sensitive plants often fail to survive under environmental extremes. New technological approaches are imperative. Conventional breeding methods have a limited potential to improve plant genomes against environmental stress. Recently, genetic engineering has contributed enormously to the development of genetically modified varieties of different crops such as cotton, maize, rice, canola and soybean. The identification of stress-responsive genes and their subsequent introgression or overexpression within sensitive crop species are now being widely carried out by plant scientists. Engineering of important tolerance pathways, like antioxidant enzymes, osmolyte accumulation, membrane-localized transporters for efficient compartmentation of deleterious ions and accumulation of essential elements and resistance against pests or pathogens is also an area that has been intensively researched. In this review, the role of biotechnology and its successes, prospects and challenges in developing stress-tolerant crop cultivars are discussed.

Regulatory T Cell Therapy for Uveitis: A New Promising Challenge.

PubMed

Foussat, Arnaud; Gregoire, Sylvie; Clerget-Chossat, Nathalie; Terrada, Celine; Asnagli, Hélène; Lemoine, François M; Klatzmann, David; LeHoang, Phuc; Forte, Miguel; Bodaghi, Bahram

2017-05-01

Uveitis is a sight-threatening primary intraocular inflammation of various origins in mainly young and active patients. Due to the absence of biomarkers in most of the cases, the current treatment of noninfectious entities remains nonspecific, using corticosteroids, conventional immunosuppressors, and more recently biological agents. Identification of regulatory T cells in different models of autoimmune uveitis together with the evaluation of this important subpopulation in different entities paved the way for new therapeutic strategies, in addition to exclusive pharmaceutical approaches. Upregulation of regulatory T cells induced by biological agents has been recently highlighted. Development of cell therapy in autoimmune diseases is at its stammering needing more experimental data and robust clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy before larger developments. Specific or polyclonal Tregs may be used, but it is of utmost importance to determine the method of selection, the level of activation, and the route of administration. Mastering immune cell therapy remains a challenging goal in patients with autoimmune diseases, but it may significantly enlarge our therapeutic possibilities in severe and refractory situations.

Engineering Rugged Field Assays to Detect Hazardous Chemicals Using Spore-Based Bacterial Biosensors.

PubMed

Wynn, Daniel; Deo, Sapna; Daunert, Sylvia

2017-01-01

Bacterial whole cell-based biosensors have been genetically engineered to achieve selective and reliable detection of a wide range of hazardous chemicals. Although whole-cell biosensors demonstrate many advantages for field-based detection of target analytes, there are still some challenges that need to be addressed. Most notably, their often modest shelf life and need for special handling and storage make them challenging to use in situations where access to reagents, instrumentation, and expertise are limited. These problems can be circumvented by developing biosensors in Bacillus spores, which can be engineered to address all of these concerns. In its sporulated state, a whole cell-based biosensor has a remarkably long life span and is exceptionally resistant to environmental insult. When these spores are germinated for use in analytical techniques, they show no loss in performance, even after long periods of storage under harsh conditions. In this chapter, we will discuss the development and use of whole cell-based sensors, their adaptation to spore-based biosensors, their current applications, and future directions in the field. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dynamic and adaptive policy models for coalition operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, Dinesh; Calo, Seraphin; Chakraborty, Supriyo; Bertino, Elisa; Williams, Chris; Tucker, Jeremy; Rivera, Brian; de Mel, Geeth R.

2017-05-01

It is envisioned that the success of future military operations depends on the better integration, organizationally and operationally, among allies, coalition members, inter-agency partners, and so forth. However, this leads to a challenging and complex environment where the heterogeneity and dynamism in the operating environment intertwines with the evolving situational factors that affect the decision-making life cycle of the war fighter. Therefore, the users in such environments need secure, accessible, and resilient information infrastructures where policy-based mechanisms adopt the behaviours of the systems to meet end user goals. By specifying and enforcing a policy based model and framework for operations and security which accommodates heterogeneous coalitions, high levels of agility can be enabled to allow rapid assembly and restructuring of system and information resources. However, current prevalent policy models (e.g., rule based event-condition-action model and its variants) are not sufficient to deal with the highly dynamic and plausibly non-deterministic nature of these environments. Therefore, to address the above challenges, in this paper, we present a new approach for policies which enables managed systems to take more autonomic decisions regarding their operations.

An overview of knowledge management (KM) issues for implementation in consultant firms in Malaysian construction industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Othman, Azlan; Ismail, Syuhaida; Yahya, Khairulzan

2017-12-01

In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in treating knowledge as a significant organisational resource. Thus, effective development and implementation of KM requires a foundation in several rich literatures. As a preparation for the competitive industrial nation, KM is an important countenance that should be the point of convergence for the industry players. This paper wishes to draw the attention on the current situation of KM practice, focusing on consultant firms in Malaysian construction industry. Questionnaires were distributed to about 200 respondents working in the industry, with the objective of appraising the KM implementation amongst consultant firms working in construction industry in Malaysia. This paper also gives the overview on KM definition, process, understanding and challenges in construction industry, besides the critical success factor of KM implementation. The literature is restricted on the recent KM study of 17 years research from 2000 to 2017. Finally, this paper proposes the conceptual ideas of relationship between KM process, KM understanding and KM challenges with critical success factor of KM implementation.

It takes chutzpah: oncology nurse leaders.

PubMed

Green, E

1999-01-01

Chutzpah, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1996) is a slang term from the Yiddish language which means shameless audacity. Chutzpah has been used to identify people with courage who take on situations that others avoid and somehow achieve the impossible. Tim Porter-O'Grady (1997) recently wrote that management is dead, and has been replaced by process leadership. Health care organizations have made shifts from hierarchical structures to process or program models where people have dual/multiple reporting/communication relationship. In this new orientation, management functions of controlling, directing, organizing and disciplining are replaced by process leadership functions of coordinating, facilitating, linking and sustaining (Porter O'Grady, 1997). Herein lies the challenge for oncology nurse leaders: "what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Leadership is not a function of job title. The evidence for this is clear in current practice.... There are no/few positions of nurse leaders. Titles have changed to eliminate the professional discipline, and reflect a non-descript orientation. The new titles are process leaders, program leaders, professional practice leaders. Nurse leaders need new points of reference to take in the challenges of influencing, facilitating and linking. Those points of reference are: principle-centered leadership, integrity and chutzpah. This presentation will focus on examining current thinking, defining key characteristics and attributes, and using scenarios to illustrate the impact of leadership. We, as leaders in oncology nursing, must use chutzpah to make positive change and long-term gains for patient care and the profession of nursing.

Four Cornerstones for Ensuring a Sustainable Workforce and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Geoscientists

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keane, C. M.; Houlton, H. R.

2012-04-01

The great demographic shift underway in many developed nations is impacting the geosciences extraordinarily hard. We examine the situation in the United States as an example of how there are four clear overarching issues to establishing a sustainable geosciences workforce: Carrying Capacity of the Educational Sector, the fundamentals of meeting future demand, the issue of graduate quality, and the emerging challenge of sustaining the capacity building of future geoscientist generations. The United States currently hosts about half of all geoscientists globally and is facing the imminent, and in the case of the Federal geosciences workforce, attrition of the Baby Boom generation geoscientists. This demographic shift is impacting all parts of the geosciences and when coupled by internal shifts in the geosciences on subdisciplinary thrusts, the match between the skill portfolio of new graduates is not necessarily well-aligned with the exiting skills of retirees. In particular, the US geosciences face the challenge of, based on current demand, attrition, and graduation rates of being short nearly 150,000 geoscientists by 2021. At the same time, the educational community is seeing the retirement of faculty that are leading into constrained ability to educate students in a number of topics, especially those in the resource industries. Given current funding trends and priorities, this phenomenon is likely to be in a feedback loop and will complicate the broad skill portfolio of the future geosciences. We also examine the issues of global migration and how it does not appear to be nearly as important to addressing the challenges as assumed by many. In addition, the prospective future geosciences majors appear to be of lesser quality than even 5 years ago based on test score, yet we will also present several broad strategies and cautionary tales that can help the US, and likely the global, geosciences community to ensure a stable and effective future and how this is actually opening new opportunities for the next generation of geoscientists.

A 'difficult' insect allergy patient: reliable history of a sting, but all testing negative.

PubMed

Tracy, James M; Olsen, Jonathan A; Carlson, John

2015-08-01

Few conditions are as treatable as allergy to stinging insects, with venom immunotherapy (VIT) providing up to 98% protection to subsequent stings. The challenge with VIT is not in the treatment, but in the diagnosis. To offer VIT, one must determine a history of a systemic reaction to a stinging insect in conjunction with the presence venom-specific IgE. Current diagnostic methods, although sensitive and specific, are imperfect, and some newer testing options are not widely available. A conundrum occasionally faced is the patient with a reliable and compelling history of a systemic allergic reaction yet negative venom-specific testing. This diagnostic dilemma presents an opportunity to consider possible causes for this diagnostic challenge. Our evolving understanding of the role of occult mast cell disease may begin to help us understand this situation and develop appropriate management strategies. Venom-specific skin testing has long been the cornerstone of the evaluation of venom sensitivity and is often combined with in-vitro assays to add clarity, but even these occasionally may fall short. Exploring novel venom diagnostic testing methods may help to fill in some of the diagnostic gaps. Do currently available venom vaccines contain all the key venom species? Are there enough differences between insect species that we may simply be missing the relevant allergens? What is the significance of the antigenicity of carbohydrate moieties in venoms? What is the role of recombinant venom extracts? VIT is the definitive treatment for insect allergic individuals. To utilize VIT, identification of the relevant Hymenoptera is necessary. Unfortunately, this cannot always be accomplished. This deficiency can have several causes: a potential comorbid condition such as occult mast cell disease, limitations of currently available diagnostic resources, or testing vaccines with an insufficient coverage of relevant venom allergens. Exploring these potential causes may help to provide important insight into this important diagnostic conundrum. The use of a case report may help clarify this challenge.

An Examination of the Multidimensionality of Situational Interest in Elementary School Physical Education

PubMed Central

Sun, Haichun; Chen, Ang; Ennis, Catherine; Martin, Robert; Shen, Bo

2015-01-01

It has been demonstrated that situational interest in physical activity may derive from five dimensional sources, Novelty, Optimal Challenge, Attention Demand, Exploration Intent, and Instant Enjoyment. The purpose of this study was to examine the multidimensional sources in elementary school physical education. The five dimensions were measured in 5,717 students in third, fourth, and fifth grades from a random sample of 30 elementary schools. Students’ responses were randomly divided into two samples for a two-step confirmatory factor analysis. The results confirmed that the five dimensions are primary sources of situational interest for elementary school physical education. The findings implied that situational interest should be taken into account as a necessary curricular component in elementary physical education. PMID:18431952

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bazillian, Morgan; Pedersen, Ascha Lychett; Pless, Jacuelyn

Shale gas resource potential in China is assessed to be large, and its development could have wide-ranging economic, environmental, and energy security implications. Although commercial scale shale gas development has not yet begun in China, it holds the potential to change the global energy landscape. Chinese decision-makers are wrestling with the challenges associated with bringing the potential to reality: geologic complexity; infrastructure and logistical difficulties; technological, institutional, social and market development issues; and environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on water availability and quality, and air pollution. This paper briefly examines the current situation and outlook for shale gasmore » in China, and explores existing and potential avenues for international cooperation. We find that despite some barriers to large-scale development, Chinese shale gas production has the potential to grow rapidly over the medium-term.« less

Pancreatic Islets: Methods for Isolation and Purification of Juvenile and Adult Pig Islets.

PubMed

Brandhorst, Heide; Johnson, Paul R V; Brandhorst, Daniel

The current situation of organ transplantation is mainly determined by the disbalance between the number of available organs and the number of patients on the waiting list. This obvious dilemma might be solved by the transplantation of porcine organs into human patients. The metabolic similarities which exist between both species made pancreatic islets of Langerhans to that donor tissue which will be most likely transplanted in human recipients. Nevertheless, the successful isolation of significant yields of viable porcine islets is extremely difficult and requires extensive experiences in the field. This review is focussing on the technical challenges, pitfalls and particularities that are associated with the isolation of islets from juvenile and adult pigs considering donor variables that can affect porcine islet isolation outcome.

The world needs a new energy paradigm.

PubMed

Hedberg, Dick; Kullander, Sven; Frank, Harry

2010-01-01

During 19-20 October 2009, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences arranged the international symposium Energy 2050 in Stockholm. The symposium was held in association with the Swedish EU presidency in autumn 2009. Internationally renowned scientists assessed the energy issue in a broad perspective, with particular emphasis on the possibilities of a fossil-free future. The symposium focused on key topics emanating from the in-depth energy studies carried through by the Academy's Energy Committee since 2005. The world community is facing a challenge of historic proportions to define a new energy paradigm based on fossil-energy substitutes. This article gives an overview of the current global energy situation (2007) and of the technologies which have the major potential for supplying energy up to year 2050 without jeopardizing the CO2 emission targets.

PubMed Central

Lepage, D

1991-01-01

The author deals with temporary incapacity, as currently expressed by "sick leave." Minor psychiatric problems are involved more and more as a cause of temporary incapacity, and sometimes the duration of such leaves of absence is much longer than might be warranted by the nature of the problem. Challenges by paying agents and employers are more and more frequent. On the basis of literature of a very general nature the author distinguishes between a difficult personal situation, a symptom, an illness, functional limitations and invalidity, the last one being at the crossroads between medical, personal and social reasons. The author emphasizes the particular difficulties experienced by physicians faced with that kind of problem and describes the rapid intervention needed to deal with the underlying reasons for an obvious request for a leave of absence. PMID:1933706

Public Health Interventions for Control of Malaria in the Population Living in the Terai Region of Nepal.

PubMed

Awasthi, Kiran Raj; Adefemi, Kazeem; Awasthi, Mamata Sherpa; Chalise, Binaya

2018-01-01

Infectious diseases are a major problem for developing countries. Controlling and eradicating these diseases have remained a challenge because of the multitudes of social and environmental factors involved. However, a multi-sectoral and collective effort in dealing with these diseases has been shown to result in positive outcomes. This paper looks at the current situation of Malaria in Nepal and a population that is at high risk. It explains the impact that social and environmental determinants have on this target population. This review then critically examines the various possible public health interventions that could potentially help in the control of malaria in this high risk population, drawing from evidences and experiences reported from other countries with suggestions for adapting these interventions to the Nepali environment.

A review of contamination of surface-, ground-, and drinking water in Sweden by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs).

PubMed

Banzhaf, Stefan; Filipovic, Marko; Lewis, Jeffrey; Sparrenbom, Charlotte J; Barthel, Roland

2017-04-01

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are found in aquatic systems, flora, and fauna worldwide. These potentially harmful compounds are also frequently detected in Sweden and have already resulted in severe problems for public drinking water supply, i.e., some wells had to be closed due to high PFAS concentrations both in raw water and produced drinking water. Knowledge on PFAS occurrence in Sweden is still quite low, although monitoring is currently ongoing. This work describes potential sources for PFASs to enter the drinking water supply in Sweden and compares different occurrences of PFASs in raw and drinking water in the country. Moreover, the monitoring history, the legal situation, and remediation actions taken are presented. Finally, future challenges and the way forward in Sweden are discussed.

Take-home video for adult literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yule, Valerie

1996-01-01

In the past, it has not been possible to "teach oneself to read" at home, because learners could not read the books to teach them. Videos and interactive compact discs have changed that situation and challenge current assumptions of the pedagogy of literacy. This article describes an experimental adult literacy project using video technology. The language used is English, but the basic concepts apply to any alphabetic or syllabic writing system. A half-hour cartoon video can help adults and adolescents with learning difficulties. Computer-animated cartoon graphics are attractive to look at, and simplify complex material in a clear, lively way. This video technique is also proving useful for distance learners, children, and learners of English as a second language. Methods and principles are to be extended using interactive compact discs.

Bioactive Glass Scaffolds for Dental Pulp and Dentin Tissue Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shawli, Hassan Talat

Current and historical endodontic "root canal" treatments employ inert obturating materials inserted into the teeth's pulp chambers and root canals, often saving teeth but without adequate function. Furthermore, the occurrence of pulpal necrosis in the immature permanent tooth is considered to be a challenging situation, clinically, in treatment because the thin and often short roots increase the risk of fracture. The ideal treatment would be to promote continued root development. This work demonstrated that endodontically-shaped and durable scaffolds of slowly resorbable fibrous (HT) glass and faster-resorbing small-particle Bioglass can be sintered at 900 degrees C for such placement, and that cell growth of osteoblasts in these scaffolds shows good early results. Retained bioactivity in the sintered specimen was revealed by Multiple Attenuated Internal Reflection Infrared Spectroscopy.

Security analysis of cyber-physical system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Bo; Zhang, Lichen

2017-05-01

In recent years, Cyber-Physical System (CPS) has become an important research direction of academic circles and scientific and technological circles at home and abroad, is considered to be following the third wave of world information technology after the computer, the Internet. PS is a multi-dimensional, heterogeneous, deep integration of open systems, Involving the computer, communication, control and other disciplines of knowledge. As the various disciplines in the research theory and methods are significantly different, so the application of CPS has brought great challenges. This paper introduces the definition and characteristics of CPS, analyzes the current situation of CPS, analyzes the security threats faced by CPS, and gives the security solution for security threats. It also discusses CPS-specific security technology, to promote the healthy development of CPS in information security.

The lifestylisation of healthcare? ‘Consumer genomics’ and mobile health as technologies for healthy lifestyle

PubMed Central

Lucivero, Federica; Prainsack, Barbara

2015-01-01

Consumer genomics and mobile health provide health-related information to individuals and offer advice for lifestyle change. These ‘technologies for healthy lifestyle’ occupy an ambiguous space between the highly regulated medical domain and the less regulated consumer market. We argue that this ambiguity challenges implicit distinctions between what is medical and what is related to personal lifestyle choices within current regulatory systems. In this article, we discuss how consumer genomics and mobile health devices give rise to new ways of creating (and making sense of) health-related knowledge. We also address some of the implications of harnessing, rather than denying, the hybridity of mobile health devices, being situated between medical devices and consumer products, between health and lifestyle. PMID:26937349

Evaluation of Flooding Risk and Engineering Protection Against Floods for Ulan-Ude

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borisova, T. A.

2017-11-01

The report presents the results of the study on analysis and risk assessment in relation to floods for Ulan-Ude and provides the developed recommendations of the activities for engineering protection of the population and economic installations. The current situation is reviewed and the results of the site survey are shown to identify the challenges and areas of negative water influence along with the existing security system. The report presents a summary of floods and index risk assessment. The articles describes the scope of eventual flooding, underflooding and enumerates the economic installations inside the urban areas’ research-based zones of flooding at the rated levels of water to identify the likeliness of exceedance. The assessment of damage from flood equal to 1% is shown.

The influence of the gender of patient and analyst in the psychoanalytic relationship.

PubMed

Kernberg, O F

2000-01-01

An overview of current explorations of the influence of gender on the psychoanalytic situation is presented. The topic does not lend itself to simple generalizations because the accumulated experience of several generations of psychoanalysts is now merging with newer views of psychoanalytic technique, while at the same time psychoanalytic theory is being influenced by changing ideological crosscurrents and by new knowledge regarding the similarities and differences in the development of both genders. Major issues still open are the relationship between gender and sexuality and between erotic desire and love; the challenges of the boundary of the psychoanalytic relationship as a facilitating and containing frame for the exploration of oedipal conflicts; and the related temptations, prohibitions, and derivatives of the erotic tension in the transference-countertransference.

Youth Acquisition and Situational Use of Cigars, Cigarillos, and Little Cigars:: A Cross-sectional Study.

PubMed

Trapl, Erika S; O'Rourke-Suchoff, Danielle; Yoder, Laura D; Cofie, Leslie E; Frank, Jean L; Fryer, Craig S

2017-01-01

Although adolescent use of cigars, cigarillos, and little cigars (CCLCs) has been increasing, little research has been conducted to understand how adolescents acquire CCLCs and the situations in which they smoke CCLCs. Thus, this study aims to understand how adolescent smokers acquire CCLCs and the situations in which they smoke them. Data were drawn from the 2011 Cuyahoga County Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Current CCLC smoking was assessed; analysis was limited to current smokers (n=1,337). Current users were asked to identify situations in which they use cigars and ways in which they get cigars. Bivariate analyses assessed differences by sex, race, and concurrent substance use. Data were analyzed in 2014. Youth acquired CCLCs most commonly by buying (64.2%). CCLC smokers also reported high rates of social use (81.1%). There were no significant differences is situational use across sexes, but female adolescents were significantly more likely than male adolescents to share CCLCs and significantly less likely to buy or take CCLCs. Conversely, significant differences were seen for situational use by race/ethnicity, with whites significantly more likely to use in social situations and less likely to use in solitary situations versus blacks and Hispanics. Finally, significant differences were observed in both acquisition and use for youth who concurrently used CCLCs and cigarettes compared with CCLCs only; fewer differences were noted among those who concurrently used CCLCs and marijuana compared with CCLCs only. These findings highlight how adolescents acquire and use CCLCs and can inform tobacco control strategies to prevent and reduce CCLC use. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The El-Barta Child and Family Project--Community Based Early Child Care and Development Programme: An Integrated Approach. Working Papers in Early Childhood Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lanyasunya, Andrew Ropilo; Lesolayia, Moses S.

The advent of schooling, the cash economy, and new political systems have brought about many situations providing challenges to the Samburu and the Turkana nomadic pastoralists in northern Kenya. This report details the experiences of the staff of the El-barta project in working with communities within a situation of isolation, harsh climatic…

A Unique Method of Retention for Gum Stripper- A Case Report

PubMed Central

T.S., Priyanka

2014-01-01

Successful restoration of partially edentulous situations, especially kennedy’s class-I, II &IV requires lot of contemporary and conventional treatment approaches. Semi precision attachments play a major role in retention of clinically challenging partially edentulous situation. Attachment retained partial dentures can be one of the successful treatment option in prosthdontics. This article presents a unique technique of retaining gum stripper using semi precision attachments. PMID:25654046

Quality of life, psychological characteristics, and adjustment in parents of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Cappe, Emilie; Bolduc, Mélanie; Rougé, Marie-Caroline; Saiag, Marie-Claude; Delorme, Richard

2017-05-01

This study investigated quality of life and adjustment mechanisms in parents of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Ninety parents of children with ADHD completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and self-assessment scales to measure their perceived stress, social support, sense of control, coping strategies and quality of life. ADHD in children negatively affected parents' quality of life, especially their psychological well-being and personal fulfillment. Family and couple relationships, as well as daily life activities, were also affected. The severity of the disorder, perceiving the situation as a threat or a loss, feeling guilty and holding on to irrational beliefs were related to emotion-focused coping strategies and to a poorer quality of life. Furthermore, hyperactivity index and stress ratings relative to perceiving the situation as a threat or a loss, and adopting emotion-focused coping strategies, predicted poorer quality of life. In contrast, perceiving the situation as challenging was related to a greater sense of control and personal fulfillment. Moreover, perceiving the situation as challenging and adopting problem-focused coping strategies predicted better quality of life. The findings highlight the negative effects of ADHD on parent psychological adjustment and underline the need to recommend training programs that improve parenting skills, parents' perceptions concerning their child's behavior disorder and parental functioning.

Social challenges of visible scarring after severe burn: A qualitative analysis.

PubMed

Martin, Lisa; Byrnes, Michelle; McGarry, Sarah; Rea, Suzanne; Wood, Fiona

2017-02-01

Visible scarring after burn causes social challenges which impact on interpersonal connection. These have health impacts which may worsen outcomes for burn patients and reduce the potential for posttraumatic growth (PTG). The aim of the study was to investigate adult burn survivors' experiences of interpersonal relationships as potential barriers to posttraumatic recovery following hand or face burns. This qualitative study explored patient experiences of interpersonal situations. A purposive sample (n=16) who had visible burn scarring were interviewed more than two years after their burn. Emotional barriers included the fear of rejection, feelings of self-consciousness, embarrassment and humiliation. Situational barriers included inquisitive questions, comments and behaviours of others. Responses depended on the relationship with the person, how they were asked and the social situation. Active coping strategies included positive reframing, humour, changing the self, and pre-empting questions. Avoidant coping strategies included avoidance of eye contact, closed body language, hiding scars, and learning to shut down conversations. Emotional and situational barriers reduced social connection and avoidant coping strategies reduced the interaction of people with burns with others. Active coping strategies need to be taught to assist with social reintegration. This highlights the need for peer support, family support and education, and social skills training. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Challenging Situations when Teaching Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in General Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Obrusnikova, Iva; Dillon, Suzanna R.

2011-01-01

As the first step of an instrument development, teaching challenges that occur when students with autism spectrum disorders are educated in general physical education were elicited using Goldfried and D'Zurilla's (1969) behavioral-analytic model. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 43 certified physical educators (29 women and 14 men)…

Meeting the Challenge: Between Depopulation and New Industrialization. Innovations in VET in Eastern Germany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barabasch, Antje

2012-01-01

Despite the heavy investments in the economic development of East German industry, the region still faces immanent structural challenges that affect the provision of vocational education and training (VET), in particular apprenticeships, and the availability of a well skilled workforce. In this article the situation of the economy as well as new…

Promoting Student Teachers' Adaptive Capabilities through Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hlalele, Dipane; Tsotetsi, Cias T.

2016-01-01

The gap between student teachers and their ability to adapt to the school situation remains a challenge. The literature further indicates that there is an under-utilisation of students' abilities in an ever-changing curriculum that should be responsive to the challenges with which communities are faced. This paper aims to report on the students'…

It's Not Just "What" You Say: Verbal and Nonverbal Skills Help Leaders Address Challenges and Achieve Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zoller, Kendall; Lahera, Antonia Issa; Normore, Anthony H.

2015-01-01

This article presents a story about two school leaders in a large Southern California urban district who used skills developed in a university school leadership program to create rapport, empathy, and trust while leading through challenging situations and achieving actionable outcomes. In addition to developing relationships in support of…

School Performance Trajectories and the Challenges for Principal Succession

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Linda C.

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use empirical data on new principals to clarify the connection between different succession situations and the challenges their successor principals face. Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on two waves of interview data from a random sample of 16 new elementary school principals in a major urban…

Conducting Design Experiments to Support Teachers' Learning: A Reflection from the Field

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cobb, Paul; Zhao, Qing; Dean, Chrystal

2009-01-01

This article focuses on 3 conceptual challenges that we sought to address while conducting a design experiment in which we supported the learning of a group of middle school mathematics teachers. These challenges involved (a) situating teachers' activity in the institutional setting of the schools and district in which they worked, (b) developing…

Characteristics of and Challenges for Advisors within a Privatized Extension System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knuth, Ulrike; Knierim, Andrea

2013-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this article is to provide evidence on the consequences of the privatization process in Brandenburg with a focus on the agricultural advisors' situation. Before the background of future European Union (EU) expectations on Farm Advisory Systems (FAS), their capacities and competences to respond to such challenges are discussed.…

Designing for Human Proportions - USMES Teacher Resource Book. Fourth Edition. Trial Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bussey, Margery Koo

Designing or making changes in things students use or wear is the challenge of this Unified Sciences and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) unit. The challenge is general enough to apply to many problem-solving situations in mathematics, science, social science, and language arts at any elementary school level (grades 1-8). The Teacher…

Community Connection and Change: A Different Conceptualization of School Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Marian

2008-01-01

Many of our schools are situated in communities characterized by high levels of disadvantage, presenting a range of challenges. One possible response is to acknowledge this disadvantage and to try to address some of the problems it raises for students. Another is for the school to be proactive, recognizing the challenges faced by the community and…

The Challenge of Infectious Diseases to the Biomedical Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foladori, Guillermo

2005-01-01

The resurgence of infectious diseases and the emergence of infectious diseases raise questions on how to cope with the situation. The germ or clinical approach is the hegemonic biomedical paradigm. In this article, the author argues that the spread of infectious diseases has posted a challenge to the biomedical paradigm and shows how lock-in…

Listening to Teacher Lore: The Challenges and Resources of Korean Heritage Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Soyong; Bang, Yoo-Seon

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present a study on the experiences of four Korean heritage language teachers in the United States, specifically the challenges they face and the resources they draw upon for their teaching. We situate our work within the conceptual framework of teacher lore (Ayers & Schubert, 1994) that accentuates the importance of putting…

Introducing Decision Making under Uncertainty and Strategic Considerations in Engineering Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosmopoulou, Georgia; Jog, Chintamani; Freeman, Margaret; Papavassiliou, Dimitrios V.

2010-01-01

Chemical Engineering graduates will face challenges at the workplace that even their peers who graduated a few years ago were not expected to face. One such major challenge is the management and operation of companies and plants under conditions of uncertainty and the need to make decisions in competitive situations. Modern developments in…

Building an Integrated Student Information System in a K-12 School System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steenkamp, Annette Lerine; Basal, Abdelraheem

2010-01-01

The task of managing an IT system in a school environment poses unique challenges. For example, one of the greatest challenges facing individual schools is the lack of integration between various information systems. The present situation in many schools is that there are many disconnected systems managing many different tasks. Systems with…

Self-Efficacy and Stress of Staff Managing Challenging Behaviours of People with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cudre-Mauroux, Annick

2011-01-01

Self-efficacy has been reported to play a significant role in stress levels of parents facing challenging behaviours of their children with learning disabilities. The role of self-efficacy has also been found to affect the stress levels of professional caregivers in such situations. To understand the implications of staff self-efficacy in…

Teaching Bad Apples: A Fun Way to Tackle Difficult Teaching Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turcotte, Nathaniel; Betrus, Anthony

2016-01-01

"Teaching Bad Apples" is a game developed in 2014 for current and future teachers. It plays much like "Apples to Apples" or "Cards Against Humanity," with each player in turn reading a situation card, followed by the other players choosing their response cards. Each situation, however dramatic or bizarre, is…

Scientific Human Resources: Profiles and Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falk, Charles E.

This publication is a report in which past trends and events relative to scientific manpower in the form of scientists and engineers are reviewed, the current status of the scientific manpower situation is described, and various assessments of possible future situations are compared. Within the last 25 years the situation has changed from one in…

Early Childhood Educators Attitudes towards Playful Aggression among Boys: Exploring the Importance of Situational Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hart, Jennifer L.

2016-01-01

The current study investigates the influence of situational context on perceptions of playful aggression. Using an online data collection instrument embedded with video vignettes showing young boys engaged in aggressive play behaviour, 36 situational profiles that are defined by the unique combinations of variables believed to influence attitudes…

The earth's ring current - Present situation and future thrusts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, D. J.

1987-01-01

Particle distributions, currents, and the ring current situation prior to the August 1984 launch of the AMPTE Charge Composition Explorer (CCE) are discussed. CCE results which demonstrate the capability of these new measurements to pursue questions of ring current sources, energization, and transport are presented. Consideration is given to various ring current generation mechanisms which have been discussed in the literature, and a two-step generation process which to a certain extent unifies the previous mechanisms is presented. The first in-situ global observations of ring current decay as obtained through the detection of energetic neutral atoms generated by charge exchange interactions between the ring current and hydrogen geocorona are discussed, as well as the possibility of using the detection of energetic neutral atoms to obtain global images of the earth's ring current.

Ethical challenges in surgery as narrated by practicing surgeons

PubMed Central

Torjuul, Kirsti; Nordam, Ann; Sørlie, Venke

2005-01-01

Background The aim of this study was to explore the ethical challenges in surgery from the surgeons' point of view and their experience of being in ethically difficult situations. Methods Five male and five female surgeons at a university hospital in Norway were interviewed as part of a comprehensive investigation into the narratives of nurses and physicians about being in such situations. The transcribed interview texts were subjected to a phenomenological-hermeneutic interpretation. Results No differences in ethical reasoning between male and female surgeons were found. They reasoned in both action and relational ethical perspectives. Surgeons focused on their relationships with patients and colleagues and their moral self in descriptions of the ethical challenges in their work. Dialogue and personal involvement were important in their relationships with patients. The surgeons emphasized the importance of open dialogue, professional recognition, and an inclusive and accepting environment between colleagues. Conclusion The surgeons are personally challenged by the existential realities of human life in their relationships with patients. They realized that ethical challenges are an inherent part of performing surgery and of life itself, and say that they have to learn to "live with" these challenges in a way that is confirmed both socially and by their inner moral self. This means accepting their personal and professional limitations, being uncertain, being fallible, and being humble. Living with the ethical challenges of surgery seems to contribute to the surgeons' confidence and vulnerability in their professional identity. PMID:15737235

Re-bordering comparative education in Latin America: Between global limits and local characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acosta, Felicitas; Perez Centeno, Cristian G.

2011-08-01

Conceived for presentation at the XIV WCCES conference in Istanbul in 2010, the topic of which was "Bordering Comparative Education", this paper, within that framework, aims to present the current state of the discipline in Latin America in relation to a quick overview of its present-day situation at a global level. After providing an overview of the current debates on comparative education, with special emphasis on what the authors refer to as motor nuclei (a series of milestones or episodes which have become transdiscursive as the discipline has evolved), as well as pinpointing current challenges in the field, this paper looks into the development of the discipline in Latin America and how it has contributed to the understanding of the region's educational systems. The paper also examines the unique relationship between comparative studies and the field of educational planning in Latin America. The authors then go on to provide a thematic analysis, categorising the papers presented at three conferences held by the Sociedad Argentina de Estudios Comparados en Educación (SAECE, the Argentine Society for Comparative Education Studies) in 2005, 2007 and 2009. The paper closes with several conclusions regarding the current debate on the discipline in the region and its possibilities for the future.

A review of electrostatic monitoring technology: The state of the art and future research directions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, Zhenhua; Hou, Junxing; Atkin, Jason

2017-10-01

Electrostatic monitoring technology is a useful tool for monitoring and detecting component faults and degradation, which is necessary for system health management. It encompasses three key research areas: sensor technology; signal detection, processing and feature extraction; and verification experimentation. It has received considerable recent attention for condition monitoring due to its ability to provide warning information and non-obstructive measurements on-line. A number of papers in recent years have covered specific aspects of the technology, including sensor design optimization, sensor characteristic analysis, signal de-noising and practical applications of the technology. This paper provides a review of the recent research and of the development of electrostatic monitoring technology, with a primary emphasis on its application for the aero-engine gas path. The paper also presents a summary of some of the current applications of electrostatic monitoring technology in other industries, before concluding with a brief discussion of the current research situation and possible future challenges and research gaps in this field. The aim of this paper is to promote further research into this promising technology by increasing awareness of both the potential benefits of the technology and the current research gaps.

Ethical issues in research.

PubMed

Artal, Raul; Rubenfeld, Sheldon

2017-08-01

Biomedical research is currently guided by ethical standards that have evolved over many centuries. Historical and political events, social and legal considerations, and continuous medical and technological advances have led to the prevailing research ethics and practice. Currently, patients and research subjects have complete autonomy while under medical care or when volunteering as research subjects. Enrolling volunteers in human subjects research includes a detailed and meaningful informed consent process that follows the cardinal principles of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. These principles were gradually adopted after World War II, primarily in response to the unethical behavior of German physicians and scientists during the Third Reich. This review emphasizes the importance of historical milestones and the essential role that ethics has in contemporary medical research. Research protocols should achieve maximum benefits for the society, have clinical and scientific value, be subject to independent review, respect human dignity, and follow the principles of informed consent, and most importantly, subjects should have complete autonomy. However, current principles and regulations cannot cover every conceivable situation, particularly in view of the new advances in science and technology. New and evolving medical technology, genetic research, therapeutic interventions, and innovations challenge society to maintain the highest moral and ethical principles. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Current status, crisis and trends in Chinese dental technicians.

PubMed

Chaoyi, Ma; Liwei, Zheng; Li, Yue; Min, Zhou; Haiyang, Yu

2012-04-01

Chinese dental technicians play a significant role in the globalised market of dental prosthesis fabrication, but this subject has not been investigated in detail. The demand for dental prostheses increases as individuals pay increasing attention to their oral health. Therefore, it is important to investigate the status of Chinese dental technicians. To evaluate the current status of Chinese dental technicians. Dental technicians' resumés, which reveal information regarding dental technician manpower, degrees, working age and salary, etc., were analysed and compared with those abroad. We also estimated the future demands of dental technician manpower, and discussed some potential solutions. There are fewer dental technicians in China than in other developed countries; they are also of a lower standard. Male technicians outnumber females. The education level of technicians is insufficient, and the education programme is still in its exploratory stage. The development of dental technician teams in China represents both an opportunity and a challenge. It is important to move forward from the current situation to yield long-term development. This article provides information on the Chinese dental technology industry, identifies the problems and offers solutions for its development. © 2012 FDI World Dental Federation.

Vaccines for pandemic influenza. The history of our current vaccines, their limitations and the requirements to deal with a pandemic threat.

PubMed

Hampson, Alan W

2008-06-01

Fears of a potential pandemic due to A(H5N1) viruses have focussed new attention on our current vaccines, their shortcomings, and concerns regarding global vaccine supply in a pandemic. The bulk of current vaccines are inactivated split virus vaccines produced from egg-grown virus and have only modest improvements compared with those first introduced over 60 years ago. Splitting, which was introduced some years ago to reduce reactogenicity, also reduces the immunogenicity of vaccines in immunologically naïve recipients. The A(H5N1) viruses have been found poorly immunogenic and present other challenges for vaccine producers which further exacerbate an already limited global production capacity. There have been some recent improvements in vaccine production methods and improvements to immunogenicity by the development of new adjuvants, however, these still fall short of providing timely supplies of vaccine for all in the face of a pandemic. New approaches to influenza vaccines which might fulfil the demands of a pandemic situation are under evaluation, however, these remain some distance from clinical reality and face significant regulatory hurdles.

The current situation and challenges of screening for and treating hepatitis B in sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed

Béguelin, Charles; Fall, Fatou; Seydi, Moussa; Wandeler, Gilles

2018-05-16

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the most important cause of hepatocellular carcinoma in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although the tools to curb the epidemic are known, only a minority of HBV-infected persons are currently diagnosed and treated. Areas covered: We discuss HBV epidemiological trends in SSA, describe important determinants of its natural history, and summarize current knowledge on the continuum of HBV care. Using the results of a systematic review of the literature, we describe the proportion of patients with liver fibrosis at presentation for care. Throughout the manuscript, we highlight major research gaps and explore potential ways to improve uptake of HBV testing, evaluation of liver disease, access to antiviral therapy and monitoring of complications. Expert commentary: Less than 1% of HBV-infected individuals are diagnosed in SSA, despite the availability of rapid tests with good diagnostic accuracy. Up to 15% of individuals enter care with liver cirrhosis, a clear indication for antiviral therapy. Although the proportion of patients eligible for immediate antiviral treatment is generally below 20%, there are few published data from prospective cohort studies. The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma could be reduced with improved access to antiviral therapy.

Changing tracks as situations change: humanitarian and health response along the Liberia-Côte d'Ivoire border.

PubMed

Derderian, Katharine

2014-10-01

In recent years, protracted crises and fragile post-conflict settings have challenged the co-existence, and even the linear continuum, of relief and development aid. Forced migration has tested humanitarian and development paradigms where sudden-onset emergencies, violence and displacement arise alongside ongoing development work. Drawing on Médecins Sans Frontières interventions in the region from December 2010 to May 2011, this paper examines aid and healthcare responses to displacement in Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia; it focuses on challenges to the maintenance of preparedness for such foreseeable emergencies and to adaptation in response to changing situations of displacement and insecurity. This 'backsliding' from development to emergency remains a substantial challenge to aid; yet, in exactly such cases, it also presents the opportunity to ensure access to medical care that is much more urgently needed in times of crisis, including the suspension of user fees for medical care. © 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

Decisions under distress: stress profiles influence anchoring and adjustment.

PubMed

Kassam, Karim S; Koslov, Katrina; Mendes, Wendy Berry

2009-11-01

People frequently make decisions under stress. Understanding how stress affects decision making is complicated by the fact that not all stress responses are created equal. Challenge states, for example, occur when individuals appraise a stressful situation as demanding, but believe they have the personal resources to cope, and are characterized by efficient cardiovascular reactivity and approach motivation. Threat states, in contrast, occur when situational demands are perceived to outweigh resources and are characterized by less efficient cardiovascular reactivity and withdrawal motivation. We randomly assigned participants to social-feedback conditions (i.e., positive or negative feedback) designed to engender challenge or threat, or a no-stress condition. Participants then completed an anchoring-and-adjustment questionnaire. Those assigned to the challenge condition adjusted more from self-generated anchors than those assigned to the threat condition. Cardiovascular responses mediated the relationship between condition and adjustment. This study demonstrates the importance of considering profiles of cardiovascular reactivity when examining the influence of stress on decision making.

Decisions Under Distress Stress Profiles Influence Anchoring and Adjustment

PubMed Central

Kassam, Karim S.; Koslov, Katrina; Mendes, Wendy Berry

2009-01-01

People frequently make decisions under stress. Understanding how stress affects decision making is complicated by the fact that not all stress responses are created equal. Challenge states, for example, occur when individuals appraise a stressful situation as demanding, but believe they have the personal resources to cope, and are characterized by efficient cardiovascular reactivity and approach motivation. Threat states, in contrast, occur when situational demands are perceived to outweigh resources and are characterized by less efficient cardiovascular reactivity and withdrawal motivation. We randomly assigned participants to social-feedback conditions (i.e., positive or negative feedback) designed to engender challenge or threat, or a no-stress condition. Participants then completed an anchoring-and-adjustment questionnaire. Those assigned to the challenge condition adjusted more from self-generated anchors than those assigned to the threat condition. Cardiovascular responses mediated the relationship between condition and adjustment. This study demonstrates the importance of considering profiles of cardiovascular reactivity when examining the influence of stress on decision making. PMID:19843261

The Role of Negative Affect and Physiological Regulation in maternal attribution

PubMed Central

Wang, Zhe; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; Bell, Martha Ann

2016-01-01

SYNOPSIS Objective Mothers who attribute child misbehaviors to children’s intentions, and not to situational causes, show more hostile parenting behaviors. Why are some mothers more likely than others to make more hostile attributions (i.e., high intentional attributions and low situational attributions) when confronted with child challenging behaviors? We examined the relation between mothers’ perception of child challenging behaviors and their hostile attributions of child misbehaviors, with an emphasis on how maternal negative affect and resting vagal activity moderated this relation. Design 160 mothers of 3- to 7-year-old children reported their perceptions of child problem behaviors, their attributions regarding child misbehaviors, and their temperamental negative affect. Mothers’ respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was measured during resting state. Results Maternal perceptions of child challenging behaviors were positively related to hostile maternal attributions, and this relation was strongest in mothers with high negative affect and low resting RSA. Conclusions These findings indicate the importance of considering mothers’ affective and physiological attributes when examining social-cognitive processes in parenting. PMID:27667969

Challenges in coupling LTER with environmental assessments: An insight from potential and reality of the Chinese Ecological Research Network in servicing environment assessments.

PubMed

Xia, Shaoxia; Liu, Yu; Yu, Xiubo; Fu, Bojie

2018-08-15

Environmental assessments estimate, evaluate and predict the consequences of natural processes and human activities on the environment. Long-term ecosystem observation and research networks (LTERs) are potentially valuable infrastructure to support environmental assessments. However, very few environmental assessments have successfully incorporated them. In this study, we try to reveal the current status of coupling LTERs with environmental assessments and look at the challenges involved in improving this coupling through exploring the role that Chinese Ecological Research Network (CERN), the LTER of China, currently plays in regional environment assessments. A review of official protocols and standards, regional assessments and CERN researches related to ecosystems and environment shows that there is great potential for coupling CERN with environment assessments. However in practice, CERN does not currently play the expected role. Remote sensing and irregular inventory data are still the main data sources currently used in regional assessments. Several causes led to the present situation: (1) insufficient cross-site research and failure to scale up site-level variables to the regional scale; (2) data barriers resulting from incompatible protocols and low data usability due to lack of data assimilation and scaling; and (3) absence of indicators relevant to human activities in existing monitoring protocols. For these reasons, enhancing cross-site monitoring and research, data assimilation and scaling up are critical steps required to improve coupling of LTER with environmental assessments. Site-focused long-term monitoring should be combined with wide-scale ground surveys and remote sensing to establish an effective connection between different environmental monitoring platforms for regional assessments. It is also necessary to revise the current monitoring protocols to include human activities and their impacts on the ecosystem, or change the LTERs into Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) networks. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health sciences librarians' awareness and assessment of the Medical Library Association Code of Ethics for Health Sciences Librarianship: the results of a membership survey.

PubMed

Byrd, Gary D; Devine, Patricia J; Corcoran, Kate E

2014-10-01

The Medical Library Association (MLA) Board of Directors and president charged an Ethical Awareness Task Force and recommended a survey to determine MLA members' awareness of and opinions about the current Code of Ethics for Health Sciences Librarianship. THE TASK FORCE AND MLA STAFF CRAFTED A SURVEY TO DETERMINE: (1) awareness of the MLA code and its provisions, (2) use of the MLA code to resolve professional ethical issues, (3) consultation of other ethical codes or guides, (4) views regarding the relative importance of the eleven MLA code statements, (5) challenges experienced in following any MLA code provisions, and (6) ethical problems not clearly addressed by the code. Over 500 members responded (similar to previous MLA surveys), and while most were aware of the code, over 30% could not remember when they had last read or thought about it, and nearly half had also referred to other codes or guidelines. The large majority thought that: (1) all code statements were equally important, (2) none were particularly difficult or challenging to follow, and (3) the code covered every ethical challenge encountered in their professional work. Comments provided by respondents who disagreed with the majority views suggest that the MLA code could usefully include a supplementary guide with practical advice on how to reason through a number of ethically challenging situations that are typically encountered by health sciences librarians.

Health sciences librarians' awareness and assessment of the Medical Library Association Code of Ethics for Health Sciences Librarianship: the results of a membership survey

PubMed Central

Byrd, Gary D.; Devine, Patricia J.; Corcoran, Kate E.

2014-01-01

Objective: The Medical Library Association (MLA) Board of Directors and president charged an Ethical Awareness Task Force and recommended a survey to determine MLA members' awareness of and opinions about the current Code of Ethics for Health Sciences Librarianship. Methods: The task force and MLA staff crafted a survey to determine: (1) awareness of the MLA code and its provisions, (2) use of the MLA code to resolve professional ethical issues, (3) consultation of other ethical codes or guides, (4) views regarding the relative importance of the eleven MLA code statements, (5) challenges experienced in following any MLA code provisions, and (6) ethical problems not clearly addressed by the code. Results: Over 500 members responded (similar to previous MLA surveys), and while most were aware of the code, over 30% could not remember when they had last read or thought about it, and nearly half had also referred to other codes or guidelines. The large majority thought that: (1) all code statements were equally important, (2) none were particularly difficult or challenging to follow, and (3) the code covered every ethical challenge encountered in their professional work. Implications: Comments provided by respondents who disagreed with the majority views suggest that the MLA code could usefully include a supplementary guide with practical advice on how to reason through a number of ethically challenging situations that are typically encountered by health sciences librarians. PMID:25349544

Preventing and managing challenging behaviour.

PubMed

Hallett, Nutmeg

2018-02-21

Patients exhibiting challenging behaviour, which includes any non-verbal, verbal or physical behaviour, is a significant issue in healthcare settings. Preventing such behaviour and the harm it can cause is important for healthcare organisations and individuals, and involves following a public health model comprised of three tiers: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention aims to reduce the risk of challenging behaviour occurring in the first instance; secondary prevention involves reducing the risk associated with imminent challenging behaviour and its potential escalation; and tertiary prevention focuses on minimising the physical and emotional harm caused by challenging behaviours, during and after an event. De-escalation should be the first-line response to challenging behaviour, and healthcare staff should use a range of techniques - maintaining safety, self-regulation, effective communication, and assessment and actions - to reduce the incidence of challenging behaviour. In some situations, physical interventions may be required to protect the safety of the individual, healthcare staff and other individuals involved, and healthcare staff should be aware of local policies and procedures for this. Following a serious incident, where there was potential or actual harm to patients and healthcare staff, healthcare organisations should use post-incident reviews to learn from the situation, while healthcare staff should be offered the opportunity for debriefing. Positive responses to challenging behaviour at an organisational and individual level can lead to improved work environments for healthcare staff and optimal patient care and outcomes. ©2018 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

Investigating influences on current community pharmacy practice at micro, meso, and macro levels.

PubMed

Hermansyah, Andi; Sainsbury, Erica; Krass, Ines

The nature of Australian community pharmacy is continually evolving, raising the need to explore the current situation in order to understand the potential impact of any changes. Although community pharmacy has the potential to play a greater role in health care, it is currently not meeting this potential. To investigate the nature of the contemporary practice of community pharmacy in Australia and examine the potential missed opportunities for role expansion in health care. In-depth semi-structured interviews with a wide-range of key stakeholders within and beyond community pharmacy circles were conducted. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed for emerging themes. Twenty-seven key informants across Eastern half of Australia were interviewed between December 2014 and August 2015. Several key elements of the current situation representing the social, economic and policy context of community pharmacy have been identified. These elements operate interdependently, influence micro, meso and macro levels of community pharmacy operation and are changing in the current climate. Community pharmacy has untapped potential in primary health care, but it has been slow to change to meet opportunities available in the current situation. As the current situation is complex, interrelated and dynamic with often unintended and unpredictable consequences, this paper suggests that policy makers to consider the micro, meso and macro levels of community pharmacy operation when making significant policy changes. The framework proposed in this study can be a helpful tool to analyze the processes operating at these three levels and their influences on practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Knowledge Management Model for Developing the Internal Quality Assurance in Educational Opportunity Expansion Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pradabpech, Pipat; Chantarasombat, Chalard; Sriampai, Anan

2015-01-01

This research for: 1) to study the current situation and problem in KM, 2) to develop the KM Model, and 3) to evaluate the finding usage of the KM Model for developing the Internal Quality Assurance of Educational Opportunity Expansion Schools. There were 3 Phases of research implementation. Phase 1: the current situation and problem in KM, was…

Virtue and the scientist: using virtue ethics to examine science's ethical and moral challenges.

PubMed

Chen, Jiin-Yu

2015-02-01

As science has grown in size and scope, it has also presented a number of ethical and moral challenges. Approaching these challenges from an ethical framework can provide guidance when engaging with them. In this article, I place science within a virtue ethics framework, as discussed by Aristotle. By framing science within virtue ethics, I discuss what virtue ethics entails for the practicing scientist. Virtue ethics holds that each person should work towards her conception of flourishing where the virtues enable her to realize that conception. The virtues must become part of the scientist's character, undergirding her intentions and motivations, as well as the resulting decisions and actions. The virtue of phronêsis, or practical wisdom, is critical for cultivating virtue, enabling the moral agent to discern the appropriate actions for a particular situation. In exercising phronêsis, the scientist considers the situation from multiple perspectives for an in-depth and nuanced understanding of the situation, discerns the relevant factors, and settles upon an appropriate decision. I examine goods internal to a practice, which are constitutive of science practiced well and discuss the role of phronêsis when grappling with science's ethical and moral features and how the scientist might exercise it. Although phronêsis is important for producing scientific knowledge, it is equally critical for working through the moral and ethical questions science poses.

Evaluating Options for Civil Space Situational Awareness (SSA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lal, B.; Carioscia, S. A.

In recent years, the number of active satellites and human-made orbital space debris has increased dramatically. An expansion of activities in space, as is currently being proposed by many commercial and international entities, is expected to further exacerbate this challenge. The 18th Space Control Squadron under the Department of Defense (DOD) United States Strategic Command provides space situational awareness (SSA) services to users outside the national security community at no cost. International and commercial users demand better SSA service than is currently feasible, and the demand comes at a time when DOD is under pressure to better prepare for and respond to growing space-based threats to national security. Concerned about the possibility of overextending across conflicting missions in a fiscally constrained environment, some DOD officials have publicly noted a desire to move SSA services not related to national security out of DOD purview. Responding to a request from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), researchers at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) identified and evaluated potential approaches for providing SSA services for civil and commercial operations in space. In this paper, we summarize the report [1] and present the pros and cons of four approaches to the provision of civil SSA services in the United States: (1) maintaining status quo through continued provision by DOD; (2) provision by a civil government entity; (3) industry self-provision; and (4) provision by an international organization. Within the second approach, assuming the provision of SSA by a civil agency, STPI further identified and discussed four options: (1) civil agency service capability embedded within DOD; (2) independent civil service capability, using DOD software and systems; (3) independent civil service capability, using commercial software and systems; and (4) the government certifies non-governmental entities (NGEs) to provide service capability. All of these approaches keep military and national security SSA services within DOD. Selecting which approach or option to proceed with depends on the determination of the role of government in the domain as well as consideration of other policy challenges.

Equity and working time: a challenge to achieve.

PubMed

Fischer, Frida Marina; Rotenberg, Lúcia; de Castro Moreno, Claudia Roberta

2004-01-01

Equity is a humanitarian issue that gained strength during the transition from the 20th to the 21st century due to the mounting global discussion and social crisis involving human rights, health, and work. This article aims at (1) introducing the concept of equity as it applies to work environments, particularly to situations involving demanding work schedules, (2) discussing the role of science in equity issues related to work, (3) introducing a new scientific society dedicated to working-time issues, and (4) presenting an overview of new research on working time and health as addressed by the series of manuscripts published in this special issue of Chronobiology International devoted to the XVIth International Symposium on Night and Shiftwork, held in Santos, Brazil, November 2003. The concept of equity has a political as a well as a scientific dimension. Many worldwide organizations, e.g., civil society, academia, and occupational health research institutions, advocate prompt actions toward equity as a strategy to attain sustainable development and to reduce poverty. The analyses of current tendencies in work settings reveal a general situation of disrespect for equity principles, which is expressed by heavy workloads, long work hours, poor work conditions, and deregulation of established labor laws, mainly in (but not restricted to) developing countries. In spite of the great contribution of science in the past five decades, obstacles stand in the way of effectively improving good working conditions, particularly in times of precarious employment. The Working Time Society is a new scientific society that aims at promoting research into working time and health and offers practical advice on how to minimize adverse effects of working hours on workers' health and well-being. An updated view of the research on working times and health includes studies on the relationship between work schedules, worker health, and well-being; effects of night and shiftwork on the internal synchronization of circadian rhythms and laboratory and field interventions; new methods of investigation or new approaches in shift-work studies; and prediction of risks in night and shift work. Current tendencies of work organization contribute to the amplification of inequality across groups and populations, revealing that equity remains a challenge to achieve.

Development of Waypoint Planning Tool in Response to NASA Field Campaign Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

He, Matt; Hardin, Danny; Mayer, Paul; Blakeslee, Richard; Goodman, Michael

2012-01-01

Airborne real time observations are a major component of NASA 's Earth Science research and satellite ground validation studies. Multiple aircraft are involved in most NASA field campaigns. The coordination of the aircraft with satellite overpasses, other airplanes and the constantly evolving, dynamic weather conditions often determines the success of the campaign. Planning a research aircraft mission within the context of meeting the science objectives is a complex task because it requires real time situational awareness of the weather conditions that affect the aircraft track. A flight planning tools is needed to provide situational awareness information to the mission scientists, and help them plan and modify the flight tracks. Scientists at the University of Alabama ]Huntsville and the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center developed the Waypoint Planning Tool, an interactive software tool that enables scientists to develop their own flight plans (also known as waypoints) with point -and-click mouse capabilities on a digital map filled with real time raster and vector data. The development of this Waypoint Planning Tool demonstrates the significance of mission support in responding to the challenges presented during NASA field campaigns. Analysis during and after each campaign helped identify both issues and new requirements, and initiated the next wave of development. Currently the Waypoint Planning Tool has gone through three rounds of development and analysis processes. The development of this waypoint tool is directly affected by the technology advances on GIS/Mapping technologies. From the standalone Google Earth application and simple KML functionalities, to Google Earth Plugin on web platform, and to the rising open source GIS tools with New Java Script frameworks, the Waypoint Planning Tool has entered its third phase of technology advancement. Adapting new technologies for the Waypoint Planning Tool ensures its success in helping scientist reach their mission objectives.

Assessing Dual Sensor Enhanced Flight Vision Systems to Enable Equivalent Visual Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kramer, Lynda J.; Etherington, Timothy J.; Severance, Kurt; Bailey, Randall E.; Williams, Steven P.; Harrison, Stephanie J.

2016-01-01

Flight deck-based vision system technologies, such as Synthetic Vision (SV) and Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS), may serve as a revolutionary crew/vehicle interface enabling technologies to meet the challenges of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Equivalent Visual Operations (EVO) concept - that is, the ability to achieve the safety of current-day Visual Flight Rules (VFR) operations and maintain the operational tempos of VFR irrespective of the weather and visibility conditions. One significant challenge lies in the definition of required equipage on the aircraft and on the airport to enable the EVO concept objective. A motion-base simulator experiment was conducted to evaluate the operational feasibility, pilot workload and pilot acceptability of conducting straight-in instrument approaches with published vertical guidance to landing, touchdown, and rollout to a safe taxi speed in visibility as low as 300 ft runway visual range by use of onboard vision system technologies on a Head-Up Display (HUD) without need or reliance on natural vision. Twelve crews evaluated two methods of combining dual sensor (millimeter wave radar and forward looking infrared) EFVS imagery on pilot-flying and pilot-monitoring HUDs as they made approaches to runways with and without touchdown zone and centerline lights. In addition, the impact of adding SV to the dual sensor EFVS imagery on crew flight performance, workload, and situation awareness during extremely low visibility approach and landing operations was assessed. Results indicate that all EFVS concepts flown resulted in excellent approach path tracking and touchdown performance without any workload penalty. Adding SV imagery to EFVS concepts provided situation awareness improvements but no discernible improvements in flight path maintenance.

Advances in data representation for hard/soft information fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rimland, Jeffrey C.; Coughlin, Dan; Hall, David L.; Graham, Jacob L.

2012-06-01

Information fusion is becoming increasingly human-centric. While past systems typically relegated humans to the role of analyzing a finished fusion product, current systems are exploring the role of humans as integral elements in a modular and extensible distributed framework where many tasks can be accomplished by either human or machine performers. For example, "participatory sensing" campaigns give humans the role of "soft sensors" by uploading their direct observations or as "soft sensor platforms" by using mobile devices to record human-annotated, GPS-encoded high quality photographs, video, or audio. Additionally, the role of "human-in-the-loop", in which individuals or teams using advanced human computer interface (HCI) tools such as stereoscopic 3D visualization, haptic interfaces, or aural "sonification" interfaces can help to effectively engage the innate human capability to perform pattern matching, anomaly identification, and semantic-based contextual reasoning to interpret an evolving situation. The Pennsylvania State University is participating in a Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program funded by the U.S. Army Research Office to investigate fusion of hard and soft data in counterinsurgency (COIN) situations. In addition to the importance of this research for Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), many of the same challenges and techniques apply to health and medical informatics, crisis management, crowd-sourced "citizen science", and monitoring environmental concerns. One of the key challenges that we have encountered is the development of data formats, protocols, and methodologies to establish an information architecture and framework for the effective capture, representation, transmission, and storage of the vastly heterogeneous data and accompanying metadata -- including capabilities and characteristics of human observers, uncertainty of human observations, "soft" contextual data, and information pedigree. This paper describes our findings and offers insights into the role of data representation in hard/soft fusion.

The Relationship between Observed Task Characteristics and the Pattern of Seventh Grade Students' Situational Engagement during a Science Unit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glassman, Sarah J.

Student engagement is an important aspect of teaching and learning. Traditionally, engagement has been measured as a static trait. This study measured engagement as a fluid trait in order to explore the relationship between seventh grade students' situational engagement over a science unit and five specific task characteristics. Further, this study investigated how the changing pattern of instruction is related to a changing pattern of student engagement. Informed by Self-Determination Theory, the five specific task characteristics investigated were: the use of tasks that give students opportunities to act autonomously (choice), the use of tasks that challenge students (challenge), constructive feedback from the teacher or peers that guides students work on the current task (feedback), the inclusion of tasks that require student collaboration (collaboration), and tasks in which the importance or relevance is explained to students or the task includes a real-world problem or scenario (real-life significance). Student engagement was measured as a multidimensional trait consisting of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. Participants included two teachers and 37 students. Two classrooms were observed and video-recorded for 10 consecutive 1.5 hour blocks during a unit investigating cells. At the end of each block students completed a three item survey for each task. For all tasks in both classrooms, the cumulative presence of task characteristics correlated with student engagement. However, students' behavioral engagement negatively correlated with the use of choice. Students' engagement increased from low to high during four related tasks exhibiting the highest cumulative presence of task characteristics. Nine out of 10 tasks with the highest student engagement involved hands-on learning. However, students' engagement was lower during tasks elaborating on those hands-on tasks.

Significant factors for work attractiveness and how these differ from the current work situation among operating department nurses.

PubMed

Björn, Catrine; Lindberg, Magnus; Rissén, Dag

2016-01-01

The aim was to examine significant factors for work attractiveness and how these differ from the current work situation among operating department nurses. A second objective was to examine the associations between age, gender, length of employment, work engagement, work ability, self-rated health indicators and attractiveness of the current work situation. The attractiveness of work is rarely taken into account in research on nurse retention. To expand this knowledge, it is relevant to examine factors that make work attractive and their associations with related concepts. Correlational, cross-sectional survey using a convenience sample. Questionnaires were answered by 147 nurses in four operating departments in Sweden. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted. The nurses rated the significance of all factors of work attractiveness higher than they rated those factors in their current work situation; salary, organisation and physical work environment had the largest differences. The most significant attractive factors were relationships, leadership and status. A statistically significant positive correlation between work engagement and attractive work was found. In the multiple regression model, the independent variables work engagement and older age significantly predicted work attractiveness. Several factors should be considered in the effort to increase work attractiveness in operating departments and thereby to encourage nurse retention. Positive aspects of work seem to unite work engagement and attractive work, while work ability and self-rated health indicators are other important dimensions in nurse retention. The great discrepancies between the significance of attractive factors and the current work situation in salary, organisation and physical work environment suggest ways in which work attractiveness may be increased. To discover exactly what needs to be improved may require a deeper look into the construct of the examined factors. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Rising to the Challenge: Acute Stress Appraisals and Selection Centre Performance in Applicants to Postgraduate Specialty Training in Anaesthesia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Martin J.; Gale, Thomas C. E.; McGrath, John S.; Wilson, Mark R.

2016-01-01

The ability to work under pressure is a vital non-technical skill for doctors working in acute medical specialties. Individuals who evaluate potentially stressful situations as challenging rather than threatening may perform better under pressure and be more resilient to stress and burnout. Training programme recruitment processes provide an…

Enabling Engineering Student Success: The Final Report for the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education. CAEE-TR-10-02

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atman, Cynthia J.; Sheppard, Sheri D.; Turns, Jennifer; Adams, Robin S.; Fleming, Lorraine N.; Stevens, Reed; Streveler, Ruth A.; Smith, Karl A.; Miller, Ronald L.; Leifer, Larry J.; Yasuhara, Ken; Lund, Dennis

2010-01-01

Today's engineering graduates will solve tomorrow's problems in a world that is advancing faster and facing more critical challenges than ever before. This situation creates significant demand for engineering education to evolve in order to effectively prepare a diverse community of engineers for these challenges. Such concerns have led to the…

Educational Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Primary Schools: Challenges and Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mwoma, Teresa; Pillay, Jace

2016-01-01

Educational status is an important indicator of children's wellbeing and future life opportunities. It can predict growth potential and economic viability of a state. While this is an ideal situation for all children, the case may be different for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) due to the challenges they go through on a daily basis. This…

Career Change: Everything You Need To Know To Meet New Challenges and Take Control of Your Career.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helfand, David P.

This book discusses the major challenges of and strategies for a career change. An introduction introduces 10 career changers whose real-life experiences are used throughout the book to illustrate key concepts. They show the wide range of career change situations and strategies for tackling them. Chapter 1 provides a theoretical background to…

Access to Higher Education for National Development in Nigeria: Distance Education to the Rescue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bakare; Tewo V.

2012-01-01

The paper examined the place of Distance Education (DE) as a method of Adult Education in Nigeria and its contribution to national development. The paper discussed DE practice and challenges in some African countries and related this to the Nigerian situation. The paper further noted the challenge of the national admission body for regular…

Challenge of Supporting Vocational Learning: Empowering Collaboration in a Scripted 3D Game--How Does Teachers' Real-Time Orchestration Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamalainen, Raija; Oksanen, Kimmo

2012-01-01

Along with the development of new technologies, orchestrating computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has become a topic of discussion because new learning spaces challenge teacher to support collaborative learning in new ways. However, despite the optimistic notions of teachers' orchestration in CSCL situations, there are still no…

Six Challenges for Ethical Conduct in Science.

PubMed

Niemi, Petteri

2016-08-01

The realities of human agency and decision making pose serious challenges for research ethics. This article explores six major challenges that require more attention in the ethics education of students and scientists and in the research on ethical conduct in science. The first of them is the routinization of action, which makes the detection of ethical issues difficult. The social governance of action creates ethical problems related to power. The heuristic nature of human decision making implies the risk of ethical bias. The moral disengagement mechanisms represent a human tendency to evade personal responsibility. The greatest challenge of all might be the situational variation in people's ethical behaviour. Even minor situational factors have a surprisingly strong influence on our actions. Furthermore, finally, the nature of ethics itself also causes problems: instead of clear answers, we receive a multitude of theories and intuitions that may sometimes be contradictory. All these features of action and ethics represent significant risks for ethical conduct in science. I claim that they have to be managed within the everyday practices of science and addressed explicitly in research ethics education. I analyse them and suggest some ways in which their risks can be alleviated.

Communicating in complex situations: a normative approach to HIV-related talk among parents who are HIV+.

PubMed

Edwards, Laura L; Donovan-Kicken, Erin; Reis, Janet S

2014-01-01

Parents with HIV/AIDS are confronted with unique challenges when discussing HIV-related information with their children. Strategies for navigating these challenges effectively have not been systematically examined. In this study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 76 parents with HIV/AIDS who had children ages 10-18 years. Guided by O'Keefe and Delia's definition of a complex communication situation and Goldsmith's normative approach to interpersonal communication, we examined parents' goals for discussing HIV-related information, factors that made conversations challenging, and instances where these conversational purposes conflicted with one another. Our data reveal the following parent-adolescent communication predicaments: relaying safety information about HIV while minimizing child anxiety, modeling open family communication without damaging one's parental identity, and balancing parent-child relational needs amid living with an unpredictable health condition. Parents also described a variety of strategies for mitigating challenges when discussing HIV-related topics. Strategies parents perceived as effective included reframing HIV as a chronic, manageable illness; keeping talk educational; and embedding HIV-related topics within more general conversations. The theoretical and practical applications of these findings are discussed with regard to their relevance to health communication scholars and HIV care professionals.

Situation criticality and basketball officials' stress levels.

PubMed

Ritchie, Jason; Basevitch, Itay; Rodenberg, Ryan; Tenenbaum, Gershon

2017-11-01

Officials are expected to perform impeccably despite the wide range of stressors they experience. A stressor that officials frequently report is situation criticality. Situation criticality is comprised of score differential (i.e., more pressure in close games) and time remaining in a game (i.e., more pressure as time expires), which affects athletes' stress levels. The present study explored the effect of situation criticality on officials' stress levels. High school basketball officials (n = 108) with an average of 18.1 (SD = 11.2) years of officiating experience were given a survey packet containing game situations that varied in criticality. For each game situation (n = 9) officials completed the overall stress and appraisal portions of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM). Results revealed that situation criticality has an effect on officials' perceived stress levels. Both threat and challenge appraisals were positively correlated with perceived stress. Overall, these findings indicate that officials' stress levels fluctuate within games depending on score differential and time of game. The findings encourage officials to recognise and manage their stress, possibly through their appraisals. Additionally, the findings can affect the training of officials in the management of stress, as well as prompt the consideration of potential rule changes that reflect the increased situational demands on officials in critical situations (e.g., expanded instant replay).

The Language Situation in Tunisia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daoud, Mohamed

2001-01-01

Describes the current language situation in Tunisia while maintaining a historical perspective that is helpful in understanding how language-related changes have come about, and a prospective view that may illuminate future developments. (Author/VWL)

[Current situation of the standardization of acupuncture and moxibustion in Taiwan].

PubMed

Pan, Li-Jia; Cui, Rui; Zhan, Bi-Yu; Liao, Cai-Yan; Cao, Qi-Hua; Li, Gui-Lan; Guo, Yi

2012-09-01

The current situation of the standardization of acupuncture and moxibustion in the Taiwan region is introduced in this paper from the three aspects, named the development state of standard of acupuncture and moxibustion in Taiwan, the implementation of Taiwan district standard and the standardization of acupuncture and moxibustion in Taiwan. At present, the relevant standards of acupuncture and moxibustion in Taiwan just include the standard operation procedure of acupuncture and moxibustion, the reference guideline of the safe operation in the medical service centers of traditional Chinese medicine, and the faculty standard of Chinese medicine hospital, etc. It is concluded that the current situation of the standardization of acupuncture and moxibusiton presented the weak awareness of the standardization of acupuncture and moxibustion in the industry, insufficient enterprise standard, less-quantity of the implemented standards and narrow coverage.

The Impact of the Current Economic Crisis on the Demand for Higher Education: An Analysis of Spanish Distance Education Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reina-Paz, María Dolores; Rodríguez-Oromendía, Ainhoa; Sevilla-Sevilla, Claudia

2012-01-01

Spain is currently experiencing a difficult economic situation, and in recent years a significant change has been observed in the behavior of the demand for educational programs as a result of this situation. Recent studies reveal a change in student demand that does not have the same effect on all academic institutions. Bearing this behavior in…