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…

A Customized Campaign against Bullying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruder, Robert

2005-01-01

Delivering a powerful anti-bullying message to middle school students is a challenge for middle level administrators, their staff members, and their students. However, there are many options to tackle this challenge. One option is to import a well-respected and capable external expert to present an anti-bullying program to students and offer…

Nuclear Data Covariances in the Indian Context – Progress, Challenges, Excitement and Perspectives

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

Ganesan, S., E-mail: gane-san555@gmail.com

We present a brief overview of progress, challenges, excitement and perspectives in developing nuclear data covariances in the Indian context in relation to target accuracies and sensitivity studies that are of great importance to Bhabha's 3-stage nuclear programme for energy and non-energy applications.

Having Confidence in Therapeutic Work with Young People: Constraints and Challenges to Confidentiality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Peter

2010-01-01

Confidentiality presents particular challenges to practitioners working with young people, on account of the latter's vulnerability and emotional immaturity. Ethical codes place a key importance on confidentiality, from deontological and teleological perspectives. However, young clients may rely on a more pragmatic approach in deciding whether to…

Child neurology: past, present, and future: part 3: the future.

PubMed

Ridel, Keith R; Gilbert, Donald L

2010-10-12

This is the last of a 3-part series exploring the past, present, and future of the field of child neurology. This article addresses the 2 fundamental challenges facing child neurology. The most important challenge is our inadequate workforce; based on current numbers, recruitment patterns, and projected retirement, the child neurology clinical and research workforce shortage will likely worsen. The second challenge involves adapting our training to prepare child neurologists for changes ahead. We propose that these 2 issues are related, and that solutions need to include consideration of career options in research, education, and patient care.

Beyond Fossil Fuels: Options and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, Levi T.

2007-05-01

Securing our nation’s energy supply is arguably the most important challenge we face. The source and amount of energy that is available impacts nearly every aspect of our lives including our mobility, health and welfare. Presently, the U.S. depends heavily on foreign energy resources. For example, in 2006, nearly 60 percent of the crude oil consumed in the U.S. was imported; approximately one-quarter of this oil comes from the Persian Gulf. With growing demands from emerging economies, declining environmental quality and potential for global conflict, there is a pressing need to develop a more sustainable energy strategy. This presentation will review options for a sustainable energy economy including the use of hydrogen and fuel cells, and describe some of the key challenges To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2007.OSS07.A1.2

Social media as a platform for science and health engagement: challenges and opportunities.

PubMed

Dixon, Graham

2016-01-01

Social media has become a major platform for debates on science and health. This commentary argues that while social media can present challenges to communicating important health matters, it can also provide health experts a unique opportunity to engage with and build trust among members of the public.

Scholarship of Teaching International Business: Challenges and Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aggarwal, Raj; Goodell, John W.

2011-01-01

International business (IB) is an important topic for business schools as business is global, but much business school teaching of IB still seems inadequate. IB education can be challenging but also presents many opportunities. We need to build our knowledge base of effective IB teaching methods and procedures. Such knowledge can not only be used…

Leadership and Context Connectivity: Merging Two Forces for Sustainable School Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marishane, Nylon Ramodikoe

2016-01-01

School improvement is admittedly the main business of school leadership. However, while there is agreement on the importance of school improvement, sustaining this improvement remains a challenge. The challenge seems to lie in the disconnection between the leader and the context in which the school operates. This chapter presents contextual…

Lean Six Sigma and Assurance of Learning: Challenges and Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rexeisen, Richard J.; Owens, Ernest L., Jr.; Garrison, Michael J.

2018-01-01

The importance, and associated challenges, of faculty ownership and engagement in the assurance of learning (AoL) process are well documented in the literature. The authors demonstrate how schools can further their AoL objectives by encouraging and subsequently supporting organic, faculty-led initiatives. Specifically, we present a case study of a…

Complex restoration challenges: weeds, seeds, and roads in a forested wildland urban interface

Treesearch

Michelle Buonopane; Gabrielle Snider; Becky K. Kerns; Paul S. Doescher

2013-01-01

Federal policies in the US strongly emphasize reducing hazardous fuels at the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). However, these areas present restoration challenges as they often have exotic weeds, frequent human disturbance, and the presence of roads. Understanding seed banks is important in planning for desirable post-disturbance community conditions, developing...

America's Role in the World: Challenges to American Businesses and Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindsay, James M.; Daalder, Ivo H.

2005-01-01

At its Summer 2003 meeting, the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) engaged the questions of America's role in the post-Sept.11, 2001 world. Following a series of panel presentations, BHEF members specifically examined the important issues of sustaining, legitimating, and using American power. Six major foreign policy challenges facing the…

Challenges to Military Operations in Support of U.S. Interests. Volume 2: Main Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

Challenges to Military Operations in Support of U.S. Interests U.S. conventional military capability remains unmatched by any state. As a result, nations...greater importance. PR EF AC E I xiii Preface U.S. conventional military capability remains unmatched by any state. U.S...scope of the study remained robust, presenting the challenge of how to approach the investigation into U.S. capabilities, capability gaps, and

Mother-Daughter Dyad Recruitment and Cancer Intervention Challenges in an African American Sample

PubMed Central

Mosavel, Maghboeba; Ports, Katie; Leighton-Herrmann, Ellyn

2014-01-01

Developing an effective youth-based health messaging intervention for African American women, who remain disparately impacted by cancer, presents unique challenges. This paper reports on the challenges with recruiting familial dyads from predominantly low-income, African American neighborhoods, as well as the challenges associated with designing and implementing an upward-directed cancer screening intervention. We developed and pilot tested an educational workshop that provided adolescents with cancer screening information to share with their mother or female relative. Data from follow-up interviews and focus groups, as well as observation records regarding implementation obstacles highlight important lessons learned. The use of familial dyads as well as issues of access posed challenges for recruitment and follow-up. Workshop-related challenges stemmed from the approach, content and length. Finally, personal and environmental factors presented barriers to adolescent message delivery and adult follow-through. By identifying these challenges, we hope to influence and enable the future development of effective adolescent-initiated health messaging interventions. PMID:25489496

Making Presentations. ERIC Topical Bibliography and Commentary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Carl B., Ed.

This topical bibliography and commentary consists of research summaries which address the challenges of creating an effective public presentation. The research articles discussed in the bibliography/commentary are geared toward teaching students to better present information with an emphasis on the primary importance of content above empty…

An Inventory for Measuring Student Teachers' Knowledge of Chemical Representations: Design, Validation, and Psychometric Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taskin, V.; Bernholt, S.; Parchmann, I.

2015-01-01

Chemical representations play an important role in helping learners to understand chemical contents. Thus, dealing with chemical representations is a necessity for learning chemistry, but at the same time, it presents a great challenge to learners. Due to this great challenge, it is not surprising that numerous national and international studies…

Microfluidics-Enabled Diagnostic Systems: Markets, Challenges, and Examples.

PubMed

Becker, Holger; Gärtner, Claudia

2017-01-01

Microfluidics has become an important tool for the commercial product development in diagnostics. This article will focus on current technical demands during the development process such as material and integration challenges. Furthermore, we present data on the diagnostics market as well as examples of microfluidics-enabled systems currently under commercial development or already on the market.

Planning and Providing End-of-life Care in Rural Areas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Donna M.; Justice, Christopher; Sheps, Sam; Thomas, Roger; Reid, Pam; Leibovici, Karen

2006-01-01

Context: Approximately 20% of North Americans and 25% of Europeans reside in rural areas. Planning and providing end-of-life (EOL) care in rural areas presents some unique challenges. Purpose: In order to understand these challenges, and other important issues or circumstances, a literature search was conducted to assess the state of science on…

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…

Using the Electronic Health Record in Nursing Research: Challenges and Opportunities.

PubMed

Samuels, Joanne G; McGrath, Robert J; Fetzer, Susan J; Mittal, Prashant; Bourgoine, Derek

2015-10-01

Changes in the patient record from the paper to the electronic health record format present challenges and opportunities for the nurse researcher. Current use of data from the electronic health record is in a state of flux. Novel data analytic techniques and massive data sets provide new opportunities for nursing science. Realization of a strong electronic data output future relies on meeting challenges of system use and operability, data presentation, and privacy. Nurse researchers need to rethink aspects of proposal development. Joining ongoing national efforts aimed at creating usable data output is encouraged as a means to affect system design. Working to address challenges and embrace opportunities will help grow the science in a way that answers important patient care questions. © The Author(s) 2015.

Planning strategies for the avoidance of pitfalls in intervention research.

PubMed

Pruitt, R H; Privette, A B

2001-08-01

With the exception of large clinical trials, few studies in nursing and other social sciences test interventions. The discipline of nursing needs to maintain a full range of research designs for continued knowledge development. Intervention research presents unique opportunities and challenges for the novice as well as the seasoned researcher. Some of these methodological challenges include the complex nature of human subjects and interventions, including many factors that interfere with the study variables. Preliminary studies often reveal challenges that may not always be predicted or reflected in research texts. These challenges may be as important as the study results for success in future research efforts. Difficulties encountered in intervention research and suggested strategies for maintaining the integrity of the study are addressed. These challenges include maintaining an adequate sample size, intervention demands, measuring variables, timing issues, and experiencing unexpected events. Strategies presented include the importance of extensive planning, minimizing subject expectations and rewarding efforts, attention to control group members, incorporating retention strategies, expanding knowledge of variables and the study population, preliminary studies as well as anticipating unexpected events. The need for enhanced communication among nurse researchers, educators and clinicians is addressed. In the current health care arena, nurse researchers must understand organizational dynamics and marketing strategies. Collaborative research efforts can increase the visibility of nursing research as well as funding opportunities.

Leadership Strategies for Meeting New Challenges. Resources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knox, Alan B., Ed.

1982-01-01

Presents some basic concepts and examples regarding finances and education that reflect effective leadership strategies; summarizes findings from a recent national study of cost accounting in continuing education; presents some generalizations pertinent to decision making regarding financial issues; and emphasizes the importance of taking…

Social Learning Analytics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buckingham Shum, Simon; Ferguson, Rebecca

2012-01-01

We propose that the design and implementation of effective "Social Learning Analytics (SLA)" present significant challenges and opportunities for both research and enterprise, in three important respects. The first is that the learning landscape is extraordinarily turbulent at present, in no small part due to technological drivers.…

Taking Play Seriously: Children and Play in Early Childhood Education--An Exciting Challenge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lillemyr, Ole Fredrik

2009-01-01

In the book the author presents from different perspectives what is understood by the phenomenon of children's play, why it is important, and how children's play challenge and stimulate the educator or caregiver in regard of educational values and practice, with the conclusion: play has to be taken seriously. A selection of theories is introduced…

Pride and performance: evaluation challenges of a multimedia and information technologies project in remote Aboriginal Australia.

PubMed

Hunter, Ernest; Travers, Helen; Pelham, Steven; Gibson, Julie; Hermawan, Grace; Austin, Corey

2009-08-01

This paper explores an approach to an evaluation challenge: to demonstrate the impact of an initiative drawing on innovative use of information/multimedia technology and performance to address perceived social needs within a disadvantaged, remote Indigenous Australian community. The approach is described and preliminary data are presented supporting the importance of local production and participation.

Lived experience of working with female patients in a high-secure mental health setting.

PubMed

Beryl, Rachel; Davies, Jason; Völlm, Birgit

2018-02-01

Women's secure hospitals are often considered to be stressful and demanding places to work, with these environments characterized as challenging and violent. However, the staff experience of working in this environment is not well represented in the literature. The present study is the first to examine the 'lived experience' of seven nurses working in the National High Secure Healthcare Service for Women. Interview transcripts were analysed with the use of interpretative phenomenological analysis, and the findings presented within four superordinate themes 'horror', 'balancing acts', 'emotional hard labour', and 'the ward as a community'. These themes all depict the challenges that participants experience in their work, the ways in which they cope with these challenges, and how they make sense of these experiences. A meta-theme of 'making sense by understanding why' is also presented, which represents the importance for participants to attempt to make sense of the tensions and challenges by formulating a fuller meaning. The findings suggest the importance of workforce development in terms of allowing sufficient protected time for reflection and formulation (e.g. within the format of group supervision or reflective practice), and for staff-support mechanisms (e.g. clinical supervision, counselling, debriefs) to be inbuilt into the ethos of a service, so as to provide proactive support for staff 'on the frontline'. © 2016 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Introduction: Science, Sexuality, and Psychotherapy: Shifting Paradigms.

PubMed

Cerbone, Armand R

2017-08-01

This introduction presents an overview of the current issue (73, 8) of Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session. This issue features a series of articles, with clinical cases, each presented to illustrate the challenges faced by individuals and couples whose sexual and gender identities and expressions do not comport with traditional and cultural norms. These articles also document the challenges to the therapists who treat them. Considered individually, each article underscores the need to recognize the importance of evidence in guiding psychotherapy in cases involving sexuality. The discussions in each article offer recommendations meant to help and guide psychotherapists. Considered collectively, they raise important questions and considerations about shifting paradigms of human sexuality. Implications for assessment and treatment of cases involving sexuality and gender identity are discussed and recommended. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Research at a Liberal Arts College: Make Sure you have a Net for your High Wire Act

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marshall, Mark D.; Leung, Helen O.

2015-06-01

A career as a spectroscopist at a primarily (or exclusively) undergraduate institution presents both great rewards and significant challenges. Strategies that we have found helpful in meeting some of the challenges are presented along with some of the work we have been able to accomplish with undergraduate students. The most important resource is a network of colleagues who can provide mentoring and collaboration, and the role of the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy in facilitating this support is highlighted.

Considerations for the design, analysis and presentation of in vivo studies.

PubMed

Ranstam, J; Cook, J A

2017-03-01

To describe, explain and give practical suggestions regarding important principles and key methodological challenges in the study design, statistical analysis, and reporting of results from in vivo studies. Pre-specifying endpoints and analysis, recognizing the common underlying assumption of statistically independent observations, performing sample size calculations, and addressing multiplicity issues are important parts of an in vivo study. A clear reporting of results and informative graphical presentations of data are other important parts. Copyright © 2016 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving Gram stain proficiency in hospital and satellite laboratories that do not have microbiology.

PubMed

Guarner, Jeannette; Street, Cassandra; Matlock, Margaret; Cole, Lisa; Brierre, Francoise

2017-03-01

Consolidation of laboratories has left many hospitals and satellite laboratories with minimal microbiologic testing. In many hospitals and satellite laboratories, Gram stains on primary specimens are still performed despite difficultly in maintaining proficiency. To maintain Gram stain proficiency at a community 450-bed hospital with an active emergency room we designed bimonthly challenges that require reporting Gram staining and morphology of different organisms. The challenges consist of five specimens prepared by the reference microbiology laboratory from cultures and primary specimens. Twenty to 23 medical laboratory scientists participate reading the challenges. Results from the challenges are discussed with each medical laboratory scientists. In addition, printed images from the challenges are presented at huddle to add microbiology knowledge. On the first three challenges, Gram staining was read correctly in 71%-77% of the time while morphology 53%-66%. In the last six challenges correct answers for Gram stain were 77%-99% while morphology 73%-96%. We observed statistically significant improvement when reading Gram stains by providing frequent challenges to medical laboratory scientists. The clinical importance of Gram stain results is emphasized during huddle presentations increasing knowledge and motivation to perform the test for patients.

"Did You Pay Your Taxes?" How (Not) to Conduct Tax Evasion Surveys in Transition Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerxhani, Klarita

2007-01-01

Gathering large-scale data on tax evasion is an undisputable challenge in and of itself. Doing so in a country in transition from a communist to a democratic system is even more difficult. This paper discusses the challenges and presents a case study to show how they can be dealt with effectively. One important implication of the paper is that…

Queering the spinsters: single middle-class women in Norway, 1880-1920.

PubMed

Hellesund, Tone

2008-01-01

Constituting what may be called "a community of spinsters," Norwegian middle-class unmarried woman played an important role in undermining and destabilizing the heterosexual cultural matrix during the period 1880-1920. In their anti-sexuality, self-sufficiency and hatred of men the spinsters challenged the heteronormativity of the period, and their queerness still presents a challenge to the harmony-oriented, heteromormative Norwegian women's history.

Bimodal Emotion Congruency Is Critical to Preverbal Infants' Abstract Rule Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsui, Angeline Sin Mei; Ma, Yuen Ki; Ho, Anna; Chow, Hiu Mei; Tseng, Chia-huei

2016-01-01

Extracting general rules from specific examples is important, as we must face the same challenge displayed in various formats. Previous studies have found that bimodal presentation of grammar-like rules (e.g. ABA) enhanced 5-month-olds' capacity to acquire a rule that infants failed to learn when the rule was presented with visual presentation of…

Challenges to collaboration in school mental health and strategies for overcoming them.

PubMed

Weist, Mark D; Mellin, Elizabeth A; Chambers, Kerri L; Lever, Nancy A; Haber, Deborah; Blaber, Christine

2012-02-01

This article reviews challenges to collaboration in school mental health (SMH) and presents practical strategies for overcoming them. The importance of collaboration to the success of SMH programs is reviewed, with a particular focus on collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals. Challenges to effective collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals in SMH are considered. Strategies for overcoming challenges to effective collaboration are presented. Marginalization of the SMH agenda, limited interdisciplinary teamwork, restricted coordination mechanisms, confidentiality concerns, and resource and funding issues are key challenges to collaboration. Strategies targeted toward each of these challenges may help improve the effectiveness of SMH programs and ultimately student outcomes. Collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals is critical to the success of SMH programs. Despite its promise, the success of SMH programs can be jeopardized by ineffective collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals. Strategies to overcome marginalization, promote authentic interdisciplinary teamwork, build effective coordination mechanisms, protect student and family confidentiality, and promote policy change and resource enhancements should be addressed in SMH improvement planning. © 2012, American School Health Association.

Quasi-experimental study designs series-paper 10: synthesizing evidence for effects collected from quasi-experimental studies presents surmountable challenges.

PubMed

Becker, Betsy Jane; Aloe, Ariel M; Duvendack, Maren; Stanley, T D; Valentine, Jeffrey C; Fretheim, Atle; Tugwell, Peter

2017-09-01

To outline issues of importance to analytic approaches to the synthesis of quasi-experiments (QEs) and to provide a statistical model for use in analysis. We drew on studies of statistics, epidemiology, and social-science methodology to outline methods for synthesis of QE studies. The design and conduct of QEs, effect sizes from QEs, and moderator variables for the analysis of those effect sizes were discussed. Biases, confounding, design complexities, and comparisons across designs offer serious challenges to syntheses of QEs. Key components of meta-analyses of QEs were identified, including the aspects of QE study design to be coded and analyzed. Of utmost importance are the design and statistical controls implemented in the QEs. Such controls and any potential sources of bias and confounding must be modeled in analyses, along with aspects of the interventions and populations studied. Because of such controls, effect sizes from QEs are more complex than those from randomized experiments. A statistical meta-regression model that incorporates important features of the QEs under review was presented. Meta-analyses of QEs provide particular challenges, but thorough coding of intervention characteristics and study methods, along with careful analysis, should allow for sound inferences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kennedy Space Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simpkins, Patrick A.

2010-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the importance of the Kennedy Space Center both in terms to the economy of Florida and to spaceflight. It reviews the general NASA direction,the challenges of the coming year and the accomplishments.

Biologically Based Methods for Pest Management in Agriculture under Changing Climates: Challenges and Future Directions.

PubMed

Chidawanyika, Frank; Mudavanhu, Pride; Nyamukondiwa, Casper

2012-11-09

The current changes in global climatic regimes present a significant societal challenge, affecting in all likelihood insect physiology, biochemistry, biogeography and population dynamics. With the increasing resistance of many insect pest species to chemical insecticides and an increasing organic food market, pest control strategies are slowly shifting towards more sustainable, ecologically sound and economically viable options. Biologically based pest management strategies present such opportunities through predation or parasitism of pests and plant direct or indirect defense mechanisms that can all be important components of sustainable integrated pest management programs. Inevitably, the efficacy of biological control systems is highly dependent on natural enemy-prey interactions, which will likely be modified by changing climates. Therefore, knowledge of how insect pests and their natural enemies respond to climate variation is of fundamental importance in understanding biological insect pest management under global climate change. Here, we discuss biological control, its challenges under climate change scenarios and how increased global temperatures will require adaptive management strategies to cope with changing status of insects and their natural enemies.

Data mining and medical world: breast cancers' diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and challenges.

PubMed

Oskouei, Rozita Jamili; Kor, Nasroallah Moradi; Maleki, Saeid Abbasi

2017-01-01

The amount of data in electronic and real world is constantly on the rise. Therefore, extracting useful knowledge from the total available data is very important and time consuming task. Data mining has various techniques for extracting valuable information or knowledge from data. These techniques are applicable for all data that are collected inall fields of science. Several research investigations are published about applications of data mining in various fields of sciences such as defense, banking, insurances, education, telecommunications, medicine and etc. This investigation attempts to provide a comprehensive survey about applications of data mining techniques in breast cancer diagnosis, treatment & prognosis till now. Further, the main challenges in these area is presented in this investigation. Since several research studies currently are going on in this issues, therefore, it is necessary to have a complete survey about all researches which are completed up to now, along with the results of those studies and important challenges which are currently exist in this area for helping young researchers and presenting to them the main problems that are still exist in this area.

Re-assessing the relationship between sporozoite dose and incubation period in Plasmodium vivax malaria: a systematic re-analysis.

PubMed

Lover, Andrew A; Coker, Richard J

2014-05-01

Infections with the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax are noteworthy for potentially very long incubation periods (6-9 months), which present a major barrier to disease elimination. Increased sporozoite challenge has been reported to be associated with both shorter incubation and pre-patent periods in a range of human challenge studies. However, this evidence base has scant empirical foundation, as these historical analyses were limited by available analytic methods, and provides no quantitative estimates of effect size. Following a comprehensive literature search, we re-analysed all identified studies using survival and/or logistic models plus contingency tables. We have found very weak evidence for dose-dependence at entomologically plausible inocula levels. These results strongly suggest that sporozoite dosage is not an important driver of long-latency. Evidence presented suggests that parasite strain and vector species have quantitatively greater impacts, and the potential existence of a dose threshold for human dose-response to sporozoites. Greater consideration of the complex interplay between these aspects of vectors and parasites are important for human challenge experiments, vaccine trials, and epidemiology towards global malaria elimination.

ST-elevation myocardial infarction in a young adult secondary to giant coronary aneurysm thrombosis: an important sequela of Kawasaki disease and a management challenge.

PubMed

Potter, Elizabeth L; Meredith, Ian T; Psaltis, Peter James

2016-01-20

Thrombosis of a coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) is a rare trigger for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and an important cause of STEMI in young adults previously affected by Kawasaki disease. Initial management should proceed in line with standard STEMI-management guidelines advocating antiplatelet medication and emergency coronary angiography. Acute CAA thrombosis presents the interventional cardiologist with unique challenges during attempted percutaneous revascularisation. In the absence of consensus guidelines, experiential reporting can therefore be of great value. We report on a 36-year-old Vietnamese woman presenting with an inferior STEMI secondary to two giant thrombosed aneurysms of the right coronary artery. Coronary wiring and thrombus aspiration temporarily improved coronary flow but recurrent thrombus with distal embolisation resulted in ventricular fibrillation and cardiogenic shock. Emergency surgical revascularisation subsequently provided a definitive and successful outcome. We discuss the challenges of percutaneous coronary intervention in this scenario and review previous reports to give an overview of principles of decision-making and management. 2016 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Data mining and medical world: breast cancers’ diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and challenges

PubMed Central

Oskouei, Rozita Jamili; Kor, Nasroallah Moradi; Maleki, Saeid Abbasi

2017-01-01

The amount of data in electronic and real world is constantly on the rise. Therefore, extracting useful knowledge from the total available data is very important and time consuming task. Data mining has various techniques for extracting valuable information or knowledge from data. These techniques are applicable for all data that are collected inall fields of science. Several research investigations are published about applications of data mining in various fields of sciences such as defense, banking, insurances, education, telecommunications, medicine and etc. This investigation attempts to provide a comprehensive survey about applications of data mining techniques in breast cancer diagnosis, treatment & prognosis till now. Further, the main challenges in these area is presented in this investigation. Since several research studies currently are going on in this issues, therefore, it is necessary to have a complete survey about all researches which are completed up to now, along with the results of those studies and important challenges which are currently exist in this area for helping young researchers and presenting to them the main problems that are still exist in this area. PMID:28401016

Monitoring challenges and innovative ideas

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

O'Neill, R.V.; Hunsaker, C.T.; Levine, D.A.

1990-01-01

Monitoring programs are difficult to design even when they focus on specific problems. Ecosystems are complex, and it is often impossible to predetermine what aspects of system structure or dynamics will respond to a specific insult. It is equally difficult to interpret whether a response is a stabilizing compensatory mechanism or a real loss of capacity to maintain the ecosystem. The problems are compounded in a broad monitoring program designed to assess ecosystem health'' at regional and continental scales. It is challenging in the extreme to monitor ecosystem response, at any scale, to past insults as well as an unknownmore » future array of impacts. The present paper will examine some of the fundamental issues and challenges raised by large-scale monitoring efforts. The challenges will serve as a framework and as an excuse to discuss several important topics in more detail. Following the discussion of challenges, we suggest some basic innovations that could be important across a range of monitoring programs. The innovations include integrative measures, innovative methodology, and creative interpretation. 59 refs., 1 tab.« less

A scope of the problem: Post-deployment reintegration challenges in a National Guard Unit.

PubMed

Wilcox, Sherrie L; Oh, Hyunsung; Redmond, Sarah A; Chicas, Joseph; Hassan, Anthony M; Lee, Pey-Jiuan; Ell, Kathleen

2015-01-01

More Reserve and Guard members have been activated in the past few years than in any other time in history. In addition to the high rates of psychological and behavioral challenges among military personnel, there are other equally important post-deployment reintegration challenges. Post-deployment reintegration challenges are particularly important to Reserve and Guard members, who transition rapidly from civilian-military-civilian. This study aims to describe the scope of challenges that a battalion of National Guard members (NGM) report experiencing after returning from a one-year deployment to Iraq. This article reports data from a sample of 126 NGM who recently returned from a one-year deployment to Iraq. The scope of post-deployment problems at baseline, 3- and 6-month post-deployment are presented. Overall, the rates of post-deployment psychological and behavioral problems were elevated upon returning from deployment and remained fairly constant for up to 6 months post-deployment. Approximately 30% of respondents were unsatisfied with their relationship and upwards of 30% reported family reintegration challenges. Comparisons with similar research and implications for prevention and improvement of post-deployment quality of life are addressed.

DNA origami nanopores: developments, challenges and perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernández-Ainsa, Silvia; Keyser, Ulrich F.

2014-11-01

DNA nanotechnology has enabled the construction of DNA origami nanopores; synthetic nanopores that present improved capabilities for the area of single molecule detection. Their extraordinary versatility makes them a new and powerful tool in nanobiotechnology for a wide range of important applications beyond molecular sensing. In this review, we briefly present the recent developments in this emerging field of research. We discuss the current challenges and possible solutions that would enhance the sensing capabilities of DNA origami nanopores. Finally, we anticipate novel avenues for future research and highlight a range of exciting ideas and applications that could be explored in the near future.

Long-Term Preservation of NASA Heliophysics Data and Access: Where We Were and Where We're Going

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGuire, Robert E.

2011-01-01

The importance of ensuring preservation and useful access to the unique science potential of past, present and future NASA solar and space physics (i.e. heliophysics) data has been recognized since the inception of NASA but remains challenging. In this talk, I will briefly review the history of this topic and and then discuss the present NASA model for heliophysics science data management, including key current resources for finding and using data projects like the Space Physics Data Facility. I will highlight expected future directions, building on working elements of the present program and exploiting new technology, to further improve the data environment, address existing issues and anticipate emerging challenges.

Ensuring pain relief for children at the end of life

PubMed Central

Grégoire, Marie-Claude; Frager, Gerri

2006-01-01

Pain management in the context of pediatric palliative care can be challenging. The present article reviews, through a case-based presentation, the nonpharmacological and pharmacological methods used to ensure adequate pain control in children facing end of life. Details on the impressive range of opioid dosages required and routes of administration are highlighted from published literature and clinical experience. Where available, evidence-based recommendations are provided. Potential side effects of pain medication and barriers to good pain control are discussed. Novel analgesics and innovative delivery methods are presented as future tools enhancing pain relief at the end of life. Some challenges to ethically grounded research in this important context of care are reviewed. PMID:16960633

When the heart rules the head: ischaemic stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage complicating infective endocarditis.

PubMed

Jiad, Estabrak; Gill, Sumanjit K; Krutikov, Maria; Turner, David; Parkinson, Michael H; Curtis, Carmel; Werring, David J

2017-01-01

Sir William Osler meticulously described the clinical manifestations of infective endocarditis in 1885, concluding that: 'few diseases present greater difficulties in the way of diagnosis … which in many cases are practically insurmountable'. Even with modern investigation techniques, diagnosing infective endocarditis can be hugely challenging, yet is critically important in patients presenting with stroke (both cerebral infarction and intracranial haemorrhage), its commonest neurological complication. In ischaemic stroke, intravenous thrombolysis carries an unacceptably high risk of intracranial haemorrhage, while in intracerebral haemorrhage, mycotic aneurysms require urgent treatment to avoid rebleeding, and in all cases, prompt treatment with antibiotics and valve surgery may be life-saving. Here, we describe typical presentations of ischaemic stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage caused by infective endocarditis. We review the diagnostic challenges, the importance of rapid diagnosis, treatment options and controversies. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Exploration Rover Concepts and Development Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zakrajsek, James J.; McKissock, David B.; Woytach, Jeffrey M.; Zakrajsek, June F.; Oswald, Fred B.; McEntire, Kelly J.; Hill, Gerald M.; Abel, Phillip; Eichenberg, Dennis J.; Goodnight, Thomas W.

2005-01-01

This paper presents an overview of exploration rover concepts and the various development challenges associated with each as they are applied to exploration objectives and requirements for missions on the Moon and Mars. A variety of concepts for surface exploration vehicles have been proposed since the initial development of the Apollo-era lunar rover. This paper provides a brief description of the rover concepts, along with a comparison of their relative benefits and limitations. In addition, this paper outlines, and investigates a number of critical development challenges that surface exploration vehicles must address in order to successfully meet the exploration mission vision. These include: mission and environmental challenges, design challenges, and production and delivery challenges. Mission and environmental challenges include effects of terrain, extreme temperature differentials, dust issues, and radiation protection. Design methods are discussed that focus on optimum methods for developing highly reliable, long-life and efficient systems. In addition, challenges associated with delivering a surface exploration system is explored and discussed. Based on all the information presented, modularity will be the single most important factor in the development of a truly viable surface mobility vehicle. To meet mission, reliability, and affordability requirements, surface exploration vehicles, especially pressurized rovers, will need to be modularly designed and deployed across all projected Moon and Mars exploration missions.

Mock Data Challenge for the MPD/NICA Experiment on the HybriLIT Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gertsenberger, Konstantin; Rogachevsky, Oleg

2018-02-01

Simulation of data processing before receiving first experimental data is an important issue in high-energy physics experiments. This article presents the current Event Data Model and the Mock Data Challenge for the MPD experiment at the NICA accelerator complex which uses ongoing simulation studies to exercise in a stress-testing the distributed computing infrastructure and experiment software in the full production environment from simulated data through the physical analysis.

Emergency response health physics.

PubMed

Mena, Rajah; Pemberton, Wendy; Beal, William

2012-05-01

Health physics is an important discipline with regard to understanding the effects of radiation on human health. This paper aims to illustrate the unique challenges presented to the health physicist or analyst of radiological data in a large-scale emergency.

Developing the Next Generation of International Safeguards and Nonproliferation Experts: Highlights of Select Activities at the National Laboratories

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

Reed, J; Mathews, C; Kirk, B

2010-03-31

With many safeguards experts in the United States at or near retirement age, and with the growing and evolving mission of international safeguards, attracting and educating a new generation of safeguards experts is an important element of maintaining a credible and capable international safeguards system. The United States National Laboratories, with their rich experience in addressing the technical and policy challenges of international safeguards, are an important resource for attracting, educating, and training future safeguards experts. This presentation highlights some of the safeguards education and professional development activities underway at the National Laboratories. These include university outreach, summer courses, internships,more » mid-career transition, knowledge retention, and other projects. The presentation concludes with thoughts on the challenge of interdisciplinary education and the recruitment of individuals with the right balance of skills and backgrounds are recruited to meet tomorrow's needs.« less

The Effect of Using a Video Clip Presenting a Contextual Story on Low-Achieving Students' Mathematical Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kolikant, Yifat Ben-David; Broza, Orit

2011-01-01

The question of how to enhance the learning of low-achieving students in mathematics presents an important challenge to researchers and teachers alike. We investigated whether and how the use of a contextual story presented in a video clip facilitated low-achieving students' understanding of the meaning of fraction expansion. To this end, we (a)…

Comprehensible Presentation of Topological Information

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

Weber, Gunther H.; Beketayev, Kenes; Bremer, Peer-Timo

2012-03-05

Topological information has proven very valuable in the analysis of scientific data. An important challenge that remains is presenting this highly abstract information in a way that it is comprehensible even if one does not have an in-depth background in topology. Furthermore, it is often desirable to combine the structural insight gained by topological analysis with complementary information, such as geometric information. We present an overview over methods that use metaphors to make topological information more accessible to non-expert users, and we demonstrate their applicability to a range of scientific data sets. With the increasingly complex output of exascale simulations,more » the importance of having effective means of providing a comprehensible, abstract overview over data will grow. The techniques that we present will serve as an important foundation for this purpose.« less

Wind Turbine Gearbox Oil Filtration and Condition Monitoring

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

Sheng, Shuangwen

This is an invited presentation for a pre-conference workshop, titled advances and opportunities in lubrication: wind turbine, at the 2015 Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) Tribology Frontiers Conference held in Denver, CO. It gives a brief overview of wind turbine gearbox oil filtration and condition monitoring by highlighting typical industry practices and challenges. The presentation starts with an introduction by covering recent growth of global wind industry, reliability challenges, benefits of oil filtration and condition monitoring, and financial incentives to conduct wind operation and maintenance research, which includes gearbox oil filtration and condition monitoring work presented herein. Then,more » the presentation moves on to oil filtration by stressing the benefits of filtration, discussing typical main- and offline-loop practices, highlighting important factors considered when specifying a filtration system, and illustrating real-world application challenges through a cold-start example. In the next section on oil condition monitoring, a discussion on oil sample analysis, oil debris monitoring, oil cleanliness measurements and filter analysis is given based on testing results mostly obtained by and at NREL, and by pointing out a few challenges with oil sample analysis. The presentation concludes with a brief touch on future research and development (R and D) opportunities. It is hoping that the information presented can inform the STLE community to start or redirect their R and D work to help the wind industry advance.« less

The Pacific Century. Opportunities and Challenges for Continuing Education, NUCEA Region VI Conference Proceedings (Turtle Bay, Hawaii, October 12-15, 1986).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Univ. Continuing Education Association, Los Angeles, CA. Region VI.

These 15 presentations are from a conference held to draw attention to the importance of countries bordering the Pacific Ocean and their contributions to continuing education. They provide perspectives on continuing education opportunities from the standpoint of programming, marketing, technology, and intercultural relations. Presentations include…

68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT in Primary Hepatic Neuroendocrine Tumor.

PubMed

Gorla, Arun Kumar Reddy; Basher, Rajender Kumar; Kaman, Lileshwar; Bal, Amanjit; Bhattacharya, Anish; Mittal, Bhagwant Rai

2017-02-01

Primary neuroendocrine tumors of the liver are a diagnostic challenge. We present a rare case of primary hepatic neuroendocrine tumor in which Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT imaging played an important role in the diagnosis and follow-up.

Square sugars: challenges and synthetic strategies.

PubMed

Hazelard, Damien; Compain, Philippe

2017-05-10

Square sugars (4-membered ring carbohydrate mimetics) are at the intersection of several important topics concerning the recent emergence, in medicinal chemistry, of glycomimetic drugs and small ring systems. Monosaccharide mimetics containing oxetane, azetidine, thiethane or cyclobutane rings present a number of synthetic challenges that are a powerful driving force for innovation in organic synthesis. In addition to the inherent issues associated with 4-membered rings, the high density of functional groups and asymmetric centres found in glycomimetics further complicates the matter and requires efficient stereoselective methodologies. The purpose of this review is to present an overview of the elegant strategies that have been developed to synthesize the different types of square sugars.

[Challenge and strategy of prevention and control of important parasitic diseases under the Belt and Road Initiative].

PubMed

Chun-Li, Cao; Jia-Gang, Guo

2018-04-17

China was once a country with the heaviest burden of parasitic diseases. Under the leadership of the Communist Party and national authority, after more than 60 years' efforts of prevention and control, the remarkable results have been achieved in China. However, affected by the social and economic development and environmental changes, the prevention and control of parasitic diseases, especially imported parasitic diseases, are facing new challenges, and the parasitic diseases, such as malaria, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, filariasis and trypanosomiasis, appear increasingly. With the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, the transmission risks of these diseases are more increased. The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience and results of parasitic disease prevention and control in China, understand the present parasitic disease epidemic situation of the Belt and Road Initiative related countries, analyze the transmission risks of important parasitic diseases, and present some relevant suggestions, so as to provide the evidence for the health administrative department formulating the prevention and control strategies of such parasitic diseases timely and effectively.

Current frontiers and future directions of telecoupling research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, J.

2016-12-01

The world has been increasingly interconnected over long distances though processes such as international trade, migration, telecommunication, and disease spread. However, previous studies often focused on socioeconomic or environmental issues of distant processes. While these studies have generated useful information for individual disciplines, integrating socioeconomic and environmental information is essential for holistic understanding of complex global challenges and unbiased decision making to address the challenges. To advance integrated research, the framework of telecoupling (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) has been developed to explicitly address both socioeconomic and environmental issues simultaneously. Although the framework is relatively new, it has already been applied to tackle a variety of globally important issues, such as food security, water resources, energy sustainability, land use, international trade (e.g., food, forest products, energy, wildlife, industrial products), species invasion, investment, ecosystem services, conservation, information dissemination, and tourism. These applications have identified many important research gaps (e.g. spillover systems) and hidden linkages (e.g. feedbacks) among distant areas of the world with profound implications for sustainable development, ecosystem health, and human well-being. While working with telecoupling presents more challenges than focusing only on disciplinary issues, support from funding agencies has helped accelerate research on telecoupling and more efforts are being aimed at framework quantification and operationalization. The presenter will provide an overview of the current frontiers, discuss future research directions, and highlight emerging opportunities and challenges in telecoupling research and governance.

Primary breast tuberculosis: diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas.

PubMed

Hiremath, Bharati V; Subramaniam, Narayana

2015-01-01

To review the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges associated with treating isolated primary breast tuberculosis through discussion of our series of seven cases. Although breast is an uncommon site of occurrence of tuberculosis and isolated primary breast tuberculosis is an even rarer entity, its importance lies in distinguishing it from more common pathologies like abscesses or malignancy and avoiding unnecessary erroneous surgical intervention. The spectrum and presentation is wide and varied and we present our experience in managing seven such cases. A retrospective analysis of all the cases of histopathologically proven primary breast tuberculosis in the last three years at M.S. Ramaiah Hospital (2012-2014) was done. Analysis was in terms of mode of presentation, clinical features, diagnostic modalities used for evaluation and confirmation of the diagnosis, medical treatment and surgical intervention, if any. Special emphasis was placed on dilemmas in diagnosis and difficulties encountered during treatment. All cases were followed up till cure. Patients most commonly presented with a breast abscess, painful breast lumps and recurrent abscesses. Other foci of tuberculosis were ruled out in all of these patients. Majority were treated exclusively with anti-tubercular therapy (although regimens varied), but those with abscesses underwent incision and drainage. All cases were treated and followed up till cure. The challenges associated with primary breast tuberculosis are multiple, including which anti-tubercular therapy regimen to use, when to surgically intervene (as the breast is a cosmetically important area) and treating atypical mycobacteria. We provide a detailed discussion of the challenges we faced and review of literature.

SeaBASS: A Marine BioAcoustics Summer School 2014

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-30

present state of the field, identified current obstacles and challenges, and discussed important “hot topics” areas (Table 1). Each seminar included an...like me they end up with little background when reaching the post-graduate level when this knolwedge/skills are very important . I would love for...that can be grasped by anyone. I also took away a tremendous amount of important back ground material from Dr. Frankel’s lecture. Not the most exciting

The clinical dilemma of "silent desensitization" in aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease.

PubMed

White, Andrew A; Bosso, John V; Stevenson, Donald D

2013-01-01

Aspirin desensitization is a treatment option for patients with aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD). Some patients with an excellent history of aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) reactions have negative aspirin challenges/desensitization. This study discusses the clinical entity of silent desensitization in AERD and the dilemma that this presents to the practicing allergist/immunologist. We discuss a series of patients with a strong history of NSAID reactions who initially underwent a negative challenge/silent desensitization. These patients were subsequently proven to have AERD after a second positive aspirin challenge. Silent desensitization is an uncommon but important outcome to recognize in AERD. Clinicians performing aspirin desensitization should understand that this can occur and consider a second confirmatory aspirin challenge in some patients.

The ISECG* Global Exploration Roadmap as Context for Robotic and Human Exploration Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lupisella, Mark

2015-01-01

The International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) provides a broad international context for understanding how robotic missions and robotic assets can enable future human exploration of multiple destinations. This presentation will provide a brief high-level review of the GER with a focus on key robotic missions and robotic assets that can provide enabling technology advancements and that also raise interesting operational challenges in both the near-term and long-term. The GER presently features a variety of robotic missions and robotic assets that can provide important technology advancements as well as operational challenges and improvements, in areas ranging from: (a) leveraging the International Space Station, (b) planetary science robotic missions to potential human destinations, (c) micro-g body proximity operations (e.g. asteroids), (d) autonomous operations, (e) high and low-latency telerobotics, (f) human assisted sample return, and (g) contamination control. This presentation will highlight operational and technology challenges in these areas that have feed forward implications for human exploration.

Summary of ECE presentations at EC-18

DOE PAGES

Taylor, G.

2015-03-12

There were nine ECE and one EBE presentation at EC-18. Four of the presentations were on various aspects of ECE on ITER. The ITER ECE diagnostic has entered an important detailed preliminary design phase and faces several design challenges in the next 2-3 years. Most of the other ECE presentations at the workshop were focused on applications of ECE diagnostics to plasma measurements, rather than improvements in technology, although it was apparent that heterodyne receiver technology continues to improve. CECE, ECE imaging and EBE imaging are increasingly providing valuable insights into plasma behavior that is important to understand if futuremore » burning plasma devices, such as ITER, FNSF and DEMO, are to be successful.« less

Data mining of air traffic control operational errors

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-01-01

In this paper we present the results of : applying data mining techniques to identify patterns and : anomalies in air traffic control operational errors (OEs). : Reducing the OE rate is of high importance and remains a : challenge in the aviation saf...

Some Like It Hot.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brook, Richard; And Others

1997-01-01

Describes the Sonoran Desert, the hottest desert in North America. Discusses management challenges, recreation, exotic plants, threatened and endangered species, American Indian traditional cultural places, and riparian areas. Presents classroom activities aimed at educating youth about the area's many distinctive features and the importance of…

Improving safety on rural local and tribal roads safety toolkit.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-08-01

Rural roadway safety is an important issue for communities throughout the country and presents a challenge for state, local, and Tribal agencies. The Improving Safety on Rural Local and Tribal Roads Safety Toolkit was created to help rural local ...

Music or Musics? An Important Matter at Hand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goble, J. Scott

2015-01-01

Philosophers of music education presently find themselves suspended between modernism's universalist convictions and post-modernism's cultural relativist insights. In "Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education" (1995), David Elliott challenged longstanding conceptions of "music education as aesthetic education" to…

Towards sustainable environmental quality: A call to prioritize global research needs

EPA Science Inventory

Identifying, prioritizing, and advancing research priorities are important goals for those engaged in scientific enterprise. Anticipating the greatest scientific needs and challenges presents opportunities to be more agile in response, more efficient in purpose, and more intentio...

ALLERGEN PROVOCATION AUGMENTS ENDOTOXIN-INDUCED NASAL INFLAMMATION IN ATOPIC ASTHMATICS

EPA Science Inventory

Background: Recent epidemiologic and in vivo studies have suggested that inhaled endotoxin plays an important role in asthma pathogenesis.
Objective: The present study examines the effect of nasal allergen provocation on subsequent endotoxin challenges in subjects with atopi...

Improving safety on rural local and tribal roads.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-08-01

Rural roadway safety is an important issue for communities throughout the country and presents a challenge for local and Tribal agencies. The FHWA created a Toolkit and two User Guides to help rural local and Tribal roadway safety practitioners addre...

International Student Recruitment: Trends and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falcone, Santa

2017-01-01

This paper provides a review of current trends in international student recruitment. Focusing specifically on recruitment of Chinese students, important aspects of China's educational system relevant to recruitment are presented. Barriers to Chinese student recruitment are then discussed. Successful, employed, international graduates validate…

Wildland fire management policy: Learning from the past and present and responding to future challenges

Treesearch

Tom Zimmerman

2009-01-01

Wildland fire is one of the most important vegetation- shaping factors that land managers deal with. It is our highest risk, most complex, and potentially highest consequence program. Wildland fire management policy is the most important element in defining the direction, scope, and focus of the program. What is policy? If we look it up in Merriam-Webster's...

MetaMapping the nursing procedure manual.

PubMed

Peace, Jane; Brennan, Patricia Flatley

2006-01-01

Nursing procedure manuals are an important resource for practice, but ensuring that the correct procedure can be located when needed is an ongoing challenge. This poster presents an approach used to automatically index nursing procedures with standardized nursing terminology. Although indexing yielded a low number of mappings, examination of successfully mapped terms, incorrect mappings, and unmapped terms reveals important information about the reasons automated indexing fails.

Substance misuse prevention and economic analysis: challenges and opportunities regarding international utility.

PubMed

Guyll, Max; Spoth, Richard; Cornish, Marilyn A

2012-01-01

Economic analyses of substance misuse prevention assess the intervention cost necessary to achieve a particular outcome, and thereby provide an additional dimension for evaluating prevention programming. This article reviews several types of economic analysis, considers how they can be applied to substance misuse prevention, and discusses challenges to enhancing their international relevance, particularly their usefulness for informing policy decisions. Important first steps taken to address these challenges are presented, including the disease burden concept and the development of generalized cost-effectiveness, advances that facilitate international policy discussions by providing a common framework for evaluating health care needs and program effects.

The Ascent of Olympus - An Everest Anniversary Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cockell, C. S.

Olympus Mons, at 21,183 m above the Mars gravitational equipotential, stands just under 2.5 times the height of Mount Everest. Symbolically, as the highest construct in the Solar System, it is the most important feature to be climbed. Despite its powerful symbolism, the mountain presents one of the most tedious long distance expeditions on Mars - a ~300 km journey up a near constant 5 degree slope. Only at the beginning and the end of the expedition do the scarp and caldera cliffs present impressive climbs. In almost all respects Olympus presents environmental challenges much worse than Everest, apart from the lack of fatal storms, perhaps the only environmental factor in which Olympus is an improvement. Similarly to Everest, Olympus presents scien- tific questions of immense interest. In this mini-review I compare Olympus and Everest as exploratory and scientific challenges.

Diagnostic challenges of tubercular lesions of breast

PubMed Central

Jairajpuri, Zeeba Shamim; Jetley, Sujata; Rana, Safia; Khetrapal, Shaan; Khan, Sabina; Hassan, Mohammad Jaseem

2018-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Tuberculosis (TB) in the developing countries presents with both pulmonary and extrapulmonary manifestations. Breast TB, however, remains a rare presentation. Its importance lies in the fact that it may mimic malignancy or present as inflammatory lump/abscess. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study is to highlight the importance of breast TB and its diagnostic challenges. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a retrospective study conducted at a tertiary care hospital, over 2 years between 2013 and 2015 during which eight cases of breast lesions were diagnosed as of tubercular origin. RESULTS: Granulomas were seen in five cases while three cases revealed only few epithelioid cells, and necrosis was seen in all cases on fine-needle aspiration cytology. Histopathological evaluation was available in six out of the eight cases, while acid–fast bacilli were positive in three cases, the characteristic granulomas were seen in all the six cases evaluated. CONCLUSION: Significance of TB breast lies in the fact that it may masquerade as breast malignancy or pyogenic abscess. India is a developing country where TB is endemic, a high index of suspicion should be expressed in evaluating breast masses, and TB should be considered in the differential diagnosis. PMID:29692584

Staff variables associated with the challenging behaviour of clients with severe or profound intellectual disabilities.

PubMed

Lambrechts, G; Kuppens, S; Maes, B

2009-07-01

Previous research has identified that staff-client interactions play an important role in the origin and maintenance of challenging behaviour. Particularly, the reciprocity between staff behaviour and client behaviour has been considered a key issue. Furthermore, severe challenging behaviour has been found to elicit negative emotional reactions from staff which in turn may influence staff's behaviour. Another variable that has been associated with staff behaviour are staff's attributions regarding clients' challenging behaviour. The present study tested several hypotheses about associations between staff variables and challenging behaviour. Questionnaires were used to investigate associations between the attributions, emotional reactions and behavioural reactions of 51 staff members towards challenging behaviour of clients with severe or profound intellectual disabilities who displayed self-injurious behaviour, stereotyped behaviour and/or aggressive/destructive behaviour. Staff members reported that reactions to challenging behaviour differed according to the type of challenging behaviour. Negative emotional reactions were positively associated with challenging behaviour. Associations between emotional reactions, staff beliefs and staff reactions were inconsistent. The findings suggest that there is a need to look for a better conceptualization and assessment of the variables under investigation.

Informational Support in Pediatric Oncology: Review of the Challenges Among Arab Families.

PubMed

Otmani, Naïma; Khattab, Mohammed

2016-11-18

Childhood cancer and its invasive treatment is a distressing life experience for the child and his family. Providing informational support is an essential part of community care, and defining parent's burden is an important part of this goal. However, providing such information can be particularly challenging in Arab countries where beliefs, traditions, religion, and socioeconomic factors influence parents' needs and their priorities of needs. This article presents a review of these specificities among Arab families. Implications of health-care providers are also discussed.

Connectivist Communication Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waßmann, Ingolf; Nicolay, Robin; Martens, Alke

2016-01-01

Facing the challenges of the digital age concerning lifelong learning, this contribution presents an approach to dynamically establish Connectivist communication networks. According the statement "the pipe is more important than the content within the pipe" by Georg Siemens, learning in digital age includes the connection of people to…

Emotional Intelligence: Popular but Elusive Construct.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfeiffer, Steven I.

2001-01-01

Important work of Daniel Goleman, Peter Salovey and John Mayer on emotional intelligence (EI) is discussed to illustrate recent theorizing on EI. The article discusses conceptual and measurement problems that presently challenge the usefulness of the EI construct and urges further research. (Author/CR)

Bowling for Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curtis, Joyce M.

2005-01-01

Physical education programs at the elementary school level play an important role in developing students' interest and skill in lifelong physical activities. With increasing inactivity, overweight, and obesity among children, school physical education programs are challenged with presenting activities that can be enjoyed in childhood and…

DBP formation and disinfection under current and future climates - slides

EPA Science Inventory

How to predict and monitoring DBP formation under current and future climate is a challenge and important to water plant operations and water supply security. This presentation summarizes a system approach being developed at the EPA Water Resources Adaptation Program (WRAP).

International Education, Educational Rights and Pedagogy: Introduction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milatovic, Maja; Spoto, Stephanie; Wånggren, Lena

2018-01-01

With increased globalization, travel and mobility, international student education has become an academically and economically important part of tertiary education around the world. The increased commodification and marketization of higher education complicate the present challenges in ensuring culturally sensitive and competent pedagogies and…

Technology-Supported Inquiry for Learning about Aquatic Ecosystems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.; Eberbach, Catherine; Jordan, Rebecca

2014-01-01

Understanding ecosystems is challenging, but important for becoming environmentally-literate citizens of today's society. People have difficulty considering how different components, mechanisms, and phenomena, both visible and invisible, are interconnected within ecosystems. This research presents both the design and initial testing of an…

Visualization and Enabling Science at PO.DAAC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tauer, E.; To, C.

2017-12-01

Facilitating the identification of appropriate data for scientific inquiry is important for efficient progress, but mechanisms for that identification vary, as does the effectiveness of those mechanisms. Appropriately crafted visualizations provide the means to quickly assess science data and scientific features, but providing the right visualization to the right application can present challenges. Even greater is the challenge of generating and/or re-constituting visualizations on the fly, particularly for large datasets. One avenue to mitigate the challenge is to arrive at an optimized intermediate data format that is tuned for rapid processing without sacrificing the provenance trace back to the original source data. This presentation will discuss the results of trading several current approaches towards an intermediate data format, and suggest a list of key attributes that will facilitate rapid visualization, and in the process, facilitate the identification of the right data for a given application.

Studies of thermal dissolution of RDX in TNT melt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suvorova, N. A.; Hamilton, V. T.; Oschwald, D. M.; Balakirev, F. F.; Smilowitz, L. B.; Henson, B. F.

2017-01-01

The thermal response of energetic materials is studied due to its importance in issues of material safety and surety. Secondary high explosives which melt before they thermally decompose present challenging systems to model due to the addition of material flow. Composition B is a particularly challenging system due to its multiphase nature with a low melt component (TNT) and a high melt component (RDX). The dissolution of RDX crystals in molten TNT at the temperature below RDX melting point has been investigated using hot stage microscopy. In this paper, we present data on the dissolution rate of RDX crystals in molten TNT as a function of temperature above the TNT melt.

Seizure as an initial presentation of human immunodeficiency virus: acute toxoplasmosis mimicking glioblastoma multiforme.

PubMed

Parekh, Parth; Boggs, Jody P; Silverberg, Marc; Marik, Paul

2013-11-14

We present a case of a 46-year-old man with a history significant only for hypertension and depression that presented with a new onset seizure resulting from a right parietal lobe mass. Further evaluation determined the parietal mass to be central nervous system toxoplasmosis, which was the initial presentation of his underlying HIV/AIDS. This case provided a diagnostic challenge and demonstrates the importance of a thorough evaluation as it pertains to a newly diagnosed brain lesion.

Climate Change in Colorado: Findings and Scientific Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barsugli, J.; Ray, A.; Averyt, K.; Wolter, K.; Hoerling, M. P.

2008-12-01

In response to the risks associated with anthropogenic climate change, Governor Ritter issued the Colorado Climate Action Plan (CCAP) in 2007. In support of the adaptation component of the CCAP, the Colorado Water Conservation Board commissioned the Western Water Assessment at the University of Colorado to prepare the report "Climate Change in Colorado: A Synthesis to Support Water Resources Management and Adaptation." The objective of "Climate Change in Colorado" is to communicate the state of the science regarding the physical aspects of climate change that are important for evaluating impacts on Colorado's water resources. Accordingly, the document focuses on observed trends, modeling, attribution, and projections of hydroclimatic variables that are important for Colorado's water supply. Although many published datasets include information about Colorado, there are few climate studies that focus on the state. Consequently, many important analyses for Colorado are lacking. The report summarizes Colorado-specific findings from peer-reviewed regional studies, and presents new analyses derived from existing datasets. Here we will summarize the findings of the report, discuss the extent to which conclusions from West-wide studies hold in Colorado, and highlight the many scientific challenges that were faced in the preparation of the report. These challenges include interpreting observed and projected precipitation and temperature variability and trends, dealing with attribution and uncertainty at the state level, and justifying the relevance of climate model projections in a topographically complex state. A second presentation (Ray et al.) discusses the process of developing the report.

A Decade of Experience in Creating and Maintaining Data Elements for Structured Clinical Documentation in EHRs

PubMed Central

Zhou, Li; Collins, Sarah; Morgan, Stephen J.; Zafar, Neelam; Gesner, Emily J.; Fehrenbach, Martin; Rocha, Roberto A.

2016-01-01

Structured clinical documentation is an important component of electronic health records (EHRs) and plays an important role in clinical care, administrative functions, and research activities. Clinical data elements serve as basic building blocks for composing the templates used for generating clinical documents (such as notes and forms). We present our experience in creating and maintaining data elements for three different EHRs (one home-grown and two commercial systems) across different clinical settings, using flowsheet data elements as examples in our case studies. We identified basic but important challenges (including naming convention, links to standard terminologies, and versioning and change management) and possible solutions to address them. We also discussed more complicated challenges regarding governance, documentation vs. structured data capture, pre-coordination vs. post-coordination, reference information models, as well as monitoring, communication and training. PMID:28269927

A Nitrogen Physical Input-Output Table (PIOT) Model for Illinois

EPA Science Inventory

Nitrogen (N) presents an important challenge for sustainability due to its role in providing goods and services to society, since release of N beyond its intended use has many negative consequences. Several systems modeling approaches have been developed to understand the tradeof...

Progress in the mechanization of mating disruption deployment

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The American Cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton (Ericaceae) is the most important fruit crop in Wisconsin, accounting for almost 85% of the states total value of fruit production. A challenge faced by cranberry growers is managing for insect pests that cause economic damage. Presently, growers u...

A review on bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to H2: Key challenges and new insights.

PubMed

Ren, Nan-Qi; Zhao, Lei; Chen, Chuan; Guo, Wan-Qian; Cao, Guang-Li

2016-09-01

With the increasing energy crisis and rising concern over climate change, the development of clean alternative energy sources is of great importance. Biohydrogen produced from lignocellulosic biomass is a promising candidate, because of its positives such as readily available, no harmful emissions, environment friendly, efficient, and renewable. However, obstacles still exist to enable the commercialization of biological hydrogen production from lignocellulosic biomass. Thus the objective of this work is to provide update information about the recent progress on lignocellulosic hydrogen conversion via dark fermentation. In this review, the most important technologies associated with lignocellulosic hydrogen fermentation were covered. Firstly, pretreatment methods for better utilization of lignocellulosic biomass are presented, at the same time, hydrolysis methods assisting to achieve efficient hydrogen fermentation were discussed. Afterwards, issues related to bioprocesses for hydrogen production purposes were presented. Additionally, the paper gave challenges and new insights of lignocellulosic biohydrogen production. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Examples L-Band Interference will be Presented and Discussed, as well as the Importance of L-Band Soil Moisture Observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Edward

2010-01-01

Examples of L-band interference will be presented and discussed, as well as the importance of L-band soil moisture observations, as part of this one-day GEOSS workshop XXXVII on "Data Quality and Radio Spectrum Allocation Impact on Earth Observations" will address the broad challenges of data quality and the impact of generating reliable information for decision makers who are Earth data users but not necessarily experts in the Earth observation field. GEO has initiated a data quality assessment task (DA-09-01a) and workshop users will review and debate the directions and challenges of this effort. Radio spectrum allocation is an element of data availability and data quality, and is also associated with a GEO task (AR-06-11). A recent U.S. National Research Council report on spectrum management will be addressed as part of the workshop. Key representatives from industry, academia, and government will provide invited talks on these and related issues that impact GEOSS implementation.

Polycythemia vera presenting as acute myocardial infarction: An unusual presentation

PubMed Central

Bahbahani, Hussain; Aljenaee, Khaled; Bella, Abdelhaleem

2014-01-01

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is usually seen in the setting of atherosclerosis and its associated risk factors. Myocardial infarction in the young poses a particular challenge, as the disease is less likely, due to atherosclerosis. We report the case of a 37-year-old female patient who presented with ST segment elevation anterolateral AMI. The only abnormality on routine blood investigation was raised hemoglobin and hematocrit. After further testing, she was diagnosed according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria with polycythemia vera. This case illustrates the importance of recognizing polycythemia vera as an important cause of thrombosis, which can present initially as AMI, and to emphasize the early recognition of the disease in order to initiate appropriate management strategies. PMID:25544823

Introduction to the Special Section on Racial and Ethnic Identity in Counseling Psychology: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges and Proposed Solutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ponterotto, Joseph G.; Mallinckrodt, Brent

2007-01-01

Racial and ethnic identity development have been important topics in counseling psychology research for the last four decades. At present, however, there appears to be some confusion and debate regarding the quality of theory and measurement in the topical area. The present article serves as an introduction to this Journal of Counseling Psychology…

Fast, Power-Rich Space Transportation Key to Human Space Exploration and Survival

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang-Diaz, F.

2002-01-01

above the rest: Physiological debilitation, radiation sickness and psychological stress. Many counter-measures are presently being considered to ameliorate these difficulties; however, in the long run, two important new developments are required: abundant space power and advanced propulsion. Recent initiatives are beginning to focus on these long-term issues. As a result, important technologies currently in the conceptual realm are now being considered for rapid test and deployment. This presentation discusses the promises and the challenges of the new approaches and the profound impact they will have on our capability to survive and explore our new human frontier.

Neuropathological Assessment as an Endpoint in Clinical Trial Design.

PubMed

Gentleman, Steve; Liu, Alan King Lun

2018-01-01

Different neurodegenerative conditions can have complex, overlapping clinical presentations that make accurate diagnosis during life very challenging. For this reason, confirmation of the clinical diagnosis still requires postmortem verification. This is particularly relevant for clinical trials of novel therapeutics where it is important to ascertain what disease and/or pathology modifying effects the therapeutics have had. Furthermore, it is important to confirm that patients in the trial actually had the correct clinical diagnosis as this will have a major bearing on the interpretation of trial results. Here we present a simple protocol for pathological assessment of neurodegenerative changes.

Computational approaches to protein inference in shotgun proteomics

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Shotgun proteomics has recently emerged as a powerful approach to characterizing proteomes in biological samples. Its overall objective is to identify the form and quantity of each protein in a high-throughput manner by coupling liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. As a consequence of its high throughput nature, shotgun proteomics faces challenges with respect to the analysis and interpretation of experimental data. Among such challenges, the identification of proteins present in a sample has been recognized as an important computational task. This task generally consists of (1) assigning experimental tandem mass spectra to peptides derived from a protein database, and (2) mapping assigned peptides to proteins and quantifying the confidence of identified proteins. Protein identification is fundamentally a statistical inference problem with a number of methods proposed to address its challenges. In this review we categorize current approaches into rule-based, combinatorial optimization and probabilistic inference techniques, and present them using integer programing and Bayesian inference frameworks. We also discuss the main challenges of protein identification and propose potential solutions with the goal of spurring innovative research in this area. PMID:23176300

Undermining belief in false memories leads to less efficient problem-solving behaviour.

PubMed

Wang, Jianqin; Otgaar, Henry; Howe, Mark L; Smeets, Tom; Merckelbach, Harald; Nahouli, Zacharia

2017-08-01

Memories of events for which the belief in the occurrence of those events is undermined, but recollection is retained, are called nonbelieved memories (NBMs). The present experiments examined the effects of NBMs on subsequent problem-solving behaviour. In Experiment 1, we challenged participants' beliefs in their memories and examined whether NBMs affected subsequent solution rates on insight-based problems. True and false memories were elicited using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Then participants' belief in true and false memories was challenged by telling them the item had not been presented. We found that when the challenge led to undermining belief in false memories, fewer problems were solved than when belief was not challenged. In Experiment 2, a similar procedure was used except that some participants solved the problems one week rather than immediately after the feedback. Again, our results showed that undermining belief in false memories resulted in lower problem solution rates. These findings suggest that for false memories, belief is an important agent in whether memories serve as effective primes for immediate and delayed problem-solving.

Grey literature: An important resource in systematic reviews.

PubMed

Paez, Arsenio

2017-12-21

Systematic reviews aid the analysis and dissemination of evidence, using rigorous and transparent methods to generate empirically attained answers to focused research questions. Identifying all evidence relevant to the research questions is an essential component, and challenge, of systematic reviews. Grey literature, or evidence not published in commercial publications, can make important contributions to a systematic review. Grey literature can include academic papers, including theses and dissertations, research and committee reports, government reports, conference papers, and ongoing research, among others. It may provide data not found within commercially published literature, providing an important forum for disseminating studies with null or negative results that might not otherwise be disseminated. Grey literature may thusly reduce publication bias, increase reviews' comprehensiveness and timeliness and foster a balanced picture of available evidence. Grey literature's diverse formats and audiences can present a significant challenge in a systematic search for evidence. However, the benefits of including grey literature may far outweigh the cost in time and resource needed to search for it, and it is important for it to be included in a systematic review or review of evidence. A carefully thought out grey literature search strategy may be an invaluable component of a systematic review. This narrative review provides guidance about the benefits of including grey literature in a systematic review, and sources for searching through grey literature. An illustrative example of a search for evidence within grey literature sources is presented to highlight the potential contributions of such a search to a systematic review. Benefits and challenges of grey literature search methods are discussed, and recommendations made. © 2017 Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Towards Increased Engagement of Geoscientists in Global Development Frameworks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, Joel

2016-04-01

Geoscientists have the potential to make a significant contribution to tackling some of the major socio-environmental challenges of today, including extreme poverty, sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and climate change. This presentation explores the importance and social responsibility of geoscientists to engage in such work through understanding and supporting key global development frameworks. During 2015 the international community agreed three important agendas for change. Each framework relates to the intersection of environmental processes with human activities and behaviours, addressing significant challenges affecting society. The frameworks are (i) the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development, (ii) the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, and (iii) subject to final confirmation at the time of writing, an agreement on climate change at the Paris Conference of the Parties - COP21. The UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development, for example, includes 17 goals aiming to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and ensure environmental sustainability. Specific goals relate to clean water and sanitation, clean and affordable energy, the development of resilient infrastructure, and the need for climate action. Given this context, here (i) a synthesis is presented of the role of geoscience in successfully achieving these major global development frameworks agreed in 2015, (ii) the ethical and social understanding that underpins effective engagement by geoscientists in the science-policy-practice interface is discussed, and (iii) this required ethical understanding is placed into the context of geoscience training and development needs. This approach demonstrates the importance of geoscientists from across all sectors and specialisms, engaging in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of global development frameworks. It highlights the importance of a greater awareness and consideration of our ethical responsibilities in order to better support efforts to tackle major societal challenges.

[Clinical microbiology laboratory and imported parasitic diseases].

PubMed

Martín-Rabadán, Pablo; Martínez-Ruiz, Rocío; Cuadros, Juan; Cañavate, Carmen

2010-12-01

Imported parasitosis represents an increasingly frequent diagnostic challenge for microbiology laboratories. A surge in immigration and international travel has led to a rise in the number of imported cases of parasitosis, and this trend is expected to continue in the future. The present article addresses this challenge by reviewing recommended diagnostic approaches and tests. Currently, microscopy is always recommended when analysing blood samples for parasites. If malaria is suspected, rapid antigen testing (including at least HRP2 antigen) should also be performed. The work-up for suspected leishmaniasis should include serology, culture, and in selected cases detection of antigen in urine. In suspected Chagas disease, two different serological tests should be performed. PCR for blood protozoa is highly sensitive, although it cannot be used to rule out Chagas disease, since this condition may be present without parasitemia. Accurate diagnosis of intestinal amebiasis usually requires PCR or antigen detection tests. In helminthiasis, traditional microscopy may need to be complemented with other tests, such as agar plate culture for strongyloidiasis, Og4C3 antigen detection for bancroftian filariasis, and antibody detection test for filariasis and schistosomiasis. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Collaborative Strategic Planning: Myth or Reality?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mbugua, Flora; Rarieya, Jane F. A.

2014-01-01

The concept and practice of strategic planning, while entrenched in educational institutions in the West, is just catching on in Kenya. While literature emphasizes the importance of collaborative strategic planning, it does not indicate the challenges presented by collaboratively engaging in strategic planning. This article reports on findings of…

MOOC Quality: The Need for New Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hood, Nina; Littlejohn, Allison

2016-01-01

MOOCs are re-operationalising traditional concepts in education. While they draw on elements of existing educational and learning models, they represent a new approach to instruction and learning. The challenges MOOCs present to traditional education models have important implications for approaching and assessing quality. This paper foregrounds…

Improving Technological Competency in Nursing Students: The Passport Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Julie; O'Connor, Patricia A.

2011-01-01

Integration of informatics competency into a nursing curriculum is important to ensure success throughout the education and career of contemporary nursing students. As enrollment in nursing programs increases, the diverse population of students from many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds presents a challenge for faculty in…

Preventing Family Problems: Troubling Trends and Promising Opportunities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tiesel, Judy Watson; Olson, David H.

1992-01-01

Presents family professional with overview that highlights challenges and opportunities in the field by describing several troubling trends in family life (divorce, teenage pregnancy, domestic abuse/violence, poverty), growing diversity and complexity among families in the United States, and the importance of prevention. Emphasizes prevention,…

Between Teaching and Research: Challenges of the Academic Profession in Croatia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turk, Marko; Ledic, Jasminka

2016-01-01

Discussions about synergy or independence of teaching and research are present in many studies (Bilic, 2009; Brew & Boud, 1995; Enders & Teichler, 1997; Griffiths, 2004; Jakovljevic, 2010; Jenkins, 2000; Ramsden & Moses, 1992). Humboldt's model introduced synergy between teaching and research, thus highlighting the importance of…

Lessons from the trenches: meeting evaluation challenges in school health education.

PubMed

Young, Michael; Denny, George; Donnelly, Joseph

2012-11-01

Those involved in school health education programs generally believe that health-education programs can play an important role in helping young people make positive health decisions. Thus, it is to document the effects of such programs through rigorous evaluations published in peer-reviewed journals. This paper helps the reader understand the context of school health program evaluation, examines several problems and challenges, shows how problems can often be fixed, or prevented, and demonstrates ways in which challenges can be met. A number of topics are addressed, including distinguishing between curricula evaluation and evaluation of outcomes, types of evaluation, identifying stakeholders in school health evaluation, selection of a program evaluator, recruiting participants, design issues, staff training, parental consent, instrumentation, program implementation and treatment fidelity, participant retention, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, presentation of results, and manuscript preparation and submission. Although there is a lack of health-education program evaluation, rigorous evaluations that have been conducted have, at least in some cases, led to wider dissemination of effective programs. These suggestions will help those interested in school health education understand the importance of evaluation and will provide important guidelines for those conducting evaluations of school health-education programs. © 2012, American School Health Association.

Why Are We Talking About Capacity Markets?

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

Frew, Bethany

Revenue sufficiency or 'missing money' concerns in wholesale electricity markets are important because they could lead to resource (or capacity) adequacy shortfalls. Capacity markets or other capacity-based payments are among the proposed solutions to remedy these challenges. This presentation provides a high-level overview of the importance of and process for ensuring resource adequacy, and then discusses considerations for capacity markets under futures with high penetrations of variable resources such as wind and solar.

Tuberculous mastitis simulating carcinoma of the breast in a young Nigerian woman: a case report.

PubMed

Sabageh, Donatus; Amao, Emmanuel Afolabi; Ayo-Aderibigbe A, Adebisi; Sabageh, Adedayo Olukemi

2015-01-01

Tuberculous mastitis is an uncommon disease even in countries where tuberculosis is highly endemic. It typically presents a diagnostic challenge masquerading as carcinoma or other primary disease of the breast. We report the case of a young multiparous Nigerian woman who presented with a tender left breast lump and enlargement of the left axillary lymph nodes for which a provisional diagnosis of carcinoma of the breast was made after clinical and radiological evaluation. The mass was pathologically diagnosed as tuberculous mastitis and anti-tuberculous therapy was instituted although she later absconded. This case shows that TM may present a diagnostic challenge on clinical, radiologic and microbiological investigation. Therefore, a high index of suspicion as well as FNAC and/or histological evaluation of tissue samples remain very important its diagnosis.

Mining High-Dimensional Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Wei; Yang, Jiong

With the rapid growth of computational biology and e-commerce applications, high-dimensional data becomes very common. Thus, mining high-dimensional data is an urgent problem of great practical importance. However, there are some unique challenges for mining data of high dimensions, including (1) the curse of dimensionality and more crucial (2) the meaningfulness of the similarity measure in the high dimension space. In this chapter, we present several state-of-art techniques for analyzing high-dimensional data, e.g., frequent pattern mining, clustering, and classification. We will discuss how these methods deal with the challenges of high dimensionality.

A new day: Challenger and space flight thereafter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vonputtkamer, Jesco

1986-01-01

On January 28, 1986, at an altitude of 14 kilometers, the Space Shuttle Challenger was torn apart by an explosion of the external tank. The effects of the accident are undoubtedly far-reaching; they have broad repercussions that affect NASA's international partner organizations. The effects of the postponed shuttle flights on European space programs are discussed. A review of the German participation in the American space program is presented. The need to continue the future projects such as the space station is examined in light of its importance as a springboard for further exploration.

An integrated conceptual framework for evaluating and improving 'understanding' in informed consent.

PubMed

Bossert, Sabine; Strech, Daniel

2017-10-17

The development of understandable informed consent (IC) documents has proven to be one of the most important challenges in research with humans as well as in healthcare settings. Therefore, evaluating and improving understanding has been of increasing interest for empirical research on IC. However, several conceptual and practical challenges for the development of understandable IC documents remain unresolved. In this paper, we will outline and systematize some of these challenges. On the basis of our own experiences in empirical user testing of IC documents as well as the relevant literature on understanding in IC, we propose an integrated conceptual model for the development of understandable IC documents. The proposed conceptual model integrates different methods for the participatory improvement of written information, including IC, as well as quantitative methods for measuring understanding in IC. In most IC processes, understandable written information is an important prerequisite for valid IC. To improve the quality of IC documents, a conceptual model for participatory procedures of testing, revising, and retesting can be applied. However, the model presented in this paper needs further theoretical and empirical elaboration and clarification of several conceptual and practical challenges.

Comparative Circadian Metabolomics Reveal Differential Effects of Nutritional Challenge in the Serum and Liver.

PubMed

Abbondante, Serena; Eckel-Mahan, Kristin L; Ceglia, Nicholas J; Baldi, Pierre; Sassone-Corsi, Paolo

2016-02-05

Diagnosis and therapeutic interventions in pathological conditions rely upon clinical monitoring of key metabolites in the serum. Recent studies show that a wide range of metabolic pathways are controlled by circadian rhythms whose oscillation is affected by nutritional challenges, underscoring the importance of assessing a temporal window for clinical testing and thereby questioning the accuracy of the reading of critical pathological markers in circulation. We have been interested in studying the communication between peripheral tissues under metabolic homeostasis perturbation. Here we present a comparative circadian metabolomic analysis on serum and liver in mice under high fat diet. Our data reveal that the nutritional challenge induces a loss of serum metabolite rhythmicity compared with liver, indicating a circadian misalignment between the tissues analyzed. Importantly, our results show that the levels of serum metabolites do not reflect the circadian liver metabolic signature or the effect of nutritional challenge. This notion reveals the possibility that misleading reads of metabolites in circulation may result in misdiagnosis and improper treatments. Our findings also demonstrate a tissue-specific and time-dependent disruption of metabolic homeostasis in response to altered nutrition. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Celebrating methodological challenges and changes: reflecting on the emergence and importance of the role of qualitative evidence in Cochrane reviews

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Cochrane systematic reviews have proven to be beneficial for decision making processes, both on a practitioner and a policy level, and there are current initiatives to extend the types of evidence used by them, including qualitative research. In this article we outline the major achievements of the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group. Although the Group has encountered numerous challenges in dealing with the evolution of qualitative evidence synthesis, both outside and within the Cochrane Collaboration, it has successfully responded to the challenges posed in terms of incorporating qualitative evidence in systematic reviews. The Methods Group will continue to advocate for more flexible and inclusive approaches to evidence synthesis in order to meet the exciting challenges and opportunities presented by mixed methods systematic reviews and reviews of complex interventions. PMID:24135194

Grand Challenges 1993: High Performance Computing and Communications. A Report by the Committee on Physical, Mathematical, and Engineering Sciences. The FY 1993 U.S. Research and Development Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington, DC.

This report presents the United States research and development program for 1993 for high performance computing and computer communications (HPCC) networks. The first of four chapters presents the program goals and an overview of the federal government's emphasis on high performance computing as an important factor in the nation's scientific and…

An Ultra-Wideband Millimeter-Wave Phased Array

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Novak, Markus H.; Miranda, Felix A.; Volakis, John L.

2016-01-01

Wideband millimeter-wave arrays are of increasing importance due to their growing use in high data rate systems, including 5G communication networks. In this paper, we present a new class of ultra-wideband millimeter wave arrays that operate from nearly 20 GHz to 90 GHz. The array is based on tightly coupled dipoles. Feeding designs and fabrication challenges are presented, and a method for suppressing feed resonances is provided.

Coal Formation and Geochemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orem, W. H.; Finkelman, R. B.

2003-12-01

Coal is one of the most complex and challenging natural materials to analyze and to understand. Unlike most rocks, which consist predominantly of crystalline mineral grains, coal is largely an assemblage of amorphous, degraded plant remains metamorphosed to various degrees and intermixed with a generous sprinkling of minute syngenetic, diagenetic, epigenetic, and detrital mineral grains, and containing within its structure various amounts of water, oils, and gases. Each coal is unique, having been derived from different plant sources over geologic time, having experienty -45ced different thermal histories, and having been exposed to varying geologic processes. This diversity presents a challenge to constructing a coherent picture of coal geochemistry and the processes that influence the chemical composition of coal.Despite the challenge coal presents to geochemists, a thorough understanding of the chemistry and geology of this complex natural substance is essential because of its importance to our society. Coal is, and will remain for sometime, a crucial source of energy for the US and for many other countries (Figure 1). In the USA, more than half of the electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants, and almost 90% of the coal mined in the USA is sold for electricity generation (Pierce et al., 1996). It is also an important source of coke for steel production, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and even perfumes ( Schobert, 1987). It may also, in some cases, be an economic source of various mineral commodities. The utilization of coal through mining, transport, storage, combustion, and the disposal of the combustion by-products, also presents a challenge to geochemists because of the wide range of environmental and human health problems arising from these activities. The sound and effective use of coal as a natural resource requires a better understanding of the geochemistry of coal, i.e., the chemical and mineralogical characteristics of the coal that control its technological behavior, by-product characteristics, and environmental and human health impacts. In this chapter, we will try to make geochemical sense of this wonderfully complex and important resource. (5K)Figure 1. Photograph of a low rank coal bed (lignite of Pliocene age) from southwestern Romania.

Ethical concerns in early 21st century organ transplantation

PubMed Central

Waness, Abdelkarim

2011-01-01

Medical ethics is an indispensible and challenging aspect of clinical practice. This is particularly prominent in the field of organ transplantation. In this paper, initially, a clinical case with brain death that ended up as an organ donor will be presented. Following the presentation, important moral challenges which initially formed medical ethics and some highlights of it in organ transplantation will be discussed in detail. The impact of complex modern influential factors that might interfere with the practice of medical ethics in this field such as patients’ vulnerability, financial temptations, and legal regulations will be also dealt with. Finally, we shall propose practical guidelines aiming at improving the practice of medical ethics in the emerging issue of organ transplantation. PMID:23908752

The Synthesis of Fragrant Natural Products from Santalum album L.: (+)-(Z)-α-Santalol and (-)-(Z)-β-Santalol.

PubMed

Birkbeck, Anthony A

2017-12-01

The synthetic challenges associated with the selective synthesis of α-Santalene (1), (Z)-α-Santalol (2), β-Santalene (3), and most importantly (Z)-β-Santalol (4) have interested the world's synthetic chemists for decades. These molecules, lovely examples of nature's exquisite creations, have been isolated from East Indian Sandalwood Oil (Santalum album L.) and have stimulated chemists to develop new and efficient methodologies to synthesize them. The synthesis and evolution of various approaches to the [2.2.1]bicycloheptane ring system present in β-Santalene (3) and the even more challenging selective synthesis of the (Z)-allylic alcohol sidechain present in both (Z)-α-Santalol (2) and ((Z)-β-Santalol (4) will be covered in this review.

Morbidly obese parturient: Challenges for the anaesthesiologist, including managing the difficult airway in obstetrics. What is new?

PubMed Central

Rao, Durga Prasada; Rao, Venkateswara A

2010-01-01

The purpose of this article is to review the fundamental aspects of obesity, pregnancy and a combination of both. The scientific aim is to understand the physiological changes, pathological clinical presentations and application of technical skills and pharmacological knowledge on this unique clinical condition. The goal of this presentation is to define the difficult airway, highlight the main reasons for difficult or failed intubation and propose a practical approach to management Throughout the review, an important component is the necessity for team work between the anaesthesiologist and the obstetrician. Certain protocols are recommended to meet the anaesthetic challenges and finally concluding with “what is new?” in obstetric anaesthesia. PMID:21224967

Holistic sustainable development: Floor-layers and micro-enterprises.

PubMed

Lortie, Monique; Nadeau, Sylvie; Vezeau, Steve

2016-11-01

Attracting and retaining workers is important to ensuring the sustainability of floor laying businesses, which are for the most part micro-enterprises (MiE). The aim of this paper is to shed light on the challenges MiE face in OHS implementation in the context of sustainable development. Participative ergonomics and user-centred design approaches were used. The material collected was reviewed to better understand the floor layers' viewpoints on sustainability. The solutions that were retained and the challenges encountered to make material handling and physical work easier and to develop training and a website are presented. The importance of OHS as a sustainability factor, its structuring effect, what distinguishes MiE from small businesses and possible strategies for workings with them are also discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Science Teachers' Perspectives about Climate Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawson, Vaille

2012-01-01

Climate change and its effects are likely to present challenging problems for future generations of young people. It is important for Australian students to understand the mechanisms and consequences of climate change. If students are to develop a sophisticated understanding, then science teachers need to be well-informed about climate change…

Problems of Implementing Offender Programs in the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Astbury, Brad

2008-01-01

Rehabilitation of offenders is, at present, an important focus among many correctional departments. A substantial body of international research literature now exists to guide the design and development of new programs that aim to reduce re-offending. However, successful implementation of these programs has been challenging for many correctional…

Aphanomyces root rot of alfalfa: Widespread distribution of race 2 in Minnesota

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Strong seedling establishment in alfalfa is important to achieve the plant density needed to out-compete weeds and produce high biomass yields. Establishing alfalfa can be challenging because alfalfa seeds and seedlings are vulnerable to several pathogens present in soil. Wet soil conditions favor t...

Exitus: An Agent-Based Evacuation Simulation Model for Heterogeneous Populations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manley, Matthew T.

2012-01-01

Evacuation planning for private-sector organizations is an important consideration given the continuing occurrence of both natural and human-caused disasters that inordinately affect them. Unfortunately, the traditional management approach that is focused on fire drills presents several practical challenges at the scale required for many…

Assessing the Quality of Expertise Differences in the Comprehension of Medical Visualizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gegenfurtner, Andreas; Siewiorek, Anna; Lehtinen, Erno; Saljo, Roger

2013-01-01

Understanding how best to assess expertise, the situational variations of expertise, and distinctive qualities of expertise that arises from particular workplace experiences, presents an important challenge. Certainly, at this time, there is much interest in identifying standard occupational measures and competences, which are not well aligned…

Cyberbullying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feinberg, Ted; Robey, Nicole

2008-01-01

Cyberspace presents a serious challenge for adults who are concerned about the safety and well-being of adolescents. Approximately 93% of U.S. youths ages 12-17 use the Internet, a significant increase from 2004. The number of teens with online profiles, including those on social networking sites, also has increased. Importantly, 38% of high…

Consulting Young Children about Barriers and Supports to Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgeson, Jan; Porter, Jill; Daniels, Harry; Feiler, Anthony

2014-01-01

From consideration of children's rights in general and equal opportunities for disabled children in particular, it is important to consult children about barriers and supports to learning and participation. Finding appropriate and feasible ways, however, to incorporate this into educational programmes for younger children can present challenges.…

The Role of Risk and Risk Management in Experiential Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mobley, Michael

A monograph examines the role of risk and risk management in experiential education, particularly stress/challenge programming. Definitions of risk are presented. The importance of risk and stress in experiential education is emphasized. Implications of subjective versus objective risk assessment in adventure education are discussed, with…

Evaluation of automotive mass airflow sensors for animal environment research and control

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Mass air flow is an important parameter to consider in animal research applications, especially for the generation of heat and moisture production data. The high flow rates and low operating pressures in animal research facilities present a unique and costly challenge for measurement of mass air fl...

Heidelberg Interaction Training for Language Promotion in Early Childhood Settings (HIT)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buschmann, Anke; Sachse, Steffi

2018-01-01

Beside parents, teachers in early childhood education and care have the greatest potential to foster language acquisition in children. This is especially important for children with language delays, language disorders or bi-/multilingual children. However, they present teachers with a particular challenge in language support. Therefore, integrated…

Dual-Process Theories and Cognitive Development: Advances and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrouillet, Pierre

2011-01-01

Dual-process theories have gained increasing importance in psychology. The contrast that they describe between an old intuitive and a new deliberative mind seems to make these theories especially suited to account for development. Accordingly, this special issue aims at presenting the latest applications of dual-process theories to cognitive…

Our New Challenge: Recreation for the Deaf-Blind.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brannan, Steve A., Ed.

Presented are 20 papers delivered at the 1975 Northwest Regional Conference on Recreation for the Deaf-Blind. Included are papers on the following topics (with sample papers in parentheses): national trends; interdisciplinary considerations ("Movement and Physical Activity: the Foundation for the Most Important R" by J. Stein); community…

Importance of accurate measurements in nutrition research: dietary flavonoids as a case study

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Accurate measurements of the secondary metabolites in natural products and plant foods are critical to establishing diet/health relationships. There are as many as 50,000 secondary metabolites which may influence human health. Their structural and chemical diversity present a challenge to analytic...

Collaborating to Compete: Achieving Effective Knowledge Sharing in Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laycock, Martyn

2005-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to present a practitioner overview of the challenges and growing strategic importance of knowledge and knowledge sharing in organizations, considering roles of learning, and in particular networks, together with collaboration in the development of sustainable competitive edge through knowledge, knowledge management and the…

Leastwise, Not Much.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mallinson, George G.

1984-01-01

Discusses the current crisis in science/mathematics and engineering education in comparison to the crisis after Sputnik. Suggests money is not the answer and deplores the lack of coordinated effort to meet the challenges the crisis presents. Emphasizes the importance of less than positive attitude of U.S. citizens toward these areas. (JM)

Research Space: Who Needs It, Who Gets It, Who Pays for It?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fink, Ira

2004-01-01

Today, the amount of space devoted to research at research universities exceeds that of classrooms and class laboratories. This research space portfolio presents important policy and management challenges. As stewards of this portfolio, universities must address issues of funding the construction of research facilities, equipping and…

A systems approach for management of pests and pathogens of nursery crops

Treesearch

Jennifer L. Parke; Niklaus J. Grünwald

2012-01-01

Horticultural nurseries are heterogeneous and spatially complex agricultural systems, which present formidable challenges to management of diseases and pests. Moreover, nursery plants shipped interstate and internationally can serve as important vectors for pathogens and pests that threaten both agriculture and forestry. Current regulatory strategies to prevent this...

Including School Resource Officers in School-Based Crisis Intervention: Strengthening Student Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

James, Richard K.; Logan, Joan; Davis, Scott A.

2011-01-01

This article discusses the importance of trained police officers, School Resource Officers (SROs), participating in school-based crisis response efforts. These efforts, mostly preventative in nature, mitigate and de-escalate trauma for students exposed to a wide variety of challenging situations. Scenarios are presented with dialogue between…

Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research and Education in Canada: A Review and Suggested Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillis, Daniel; Nelson, Jessica; Driscoll, Brianna; Hodgins, Kelly; Fraser, Evan; Jacobs, Shoshanah

2017-01-01

Transcending disciplinary boundaries is becoming increasingly important for devising solutions to the world's most pressing issues, such as climate change and food insecurity. Institutions of higher education often present challenges to teaching students how to work and innovate on transdisciplinary teams. We first define transdisciplinarity and…

A Biosafety Level 2 Virology Lab for Biotechnology Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matza-Porges, Sigal; Nathan, Dafna

2017-01-01

Medical, industrial, and basic research relies heavily on the use of viruses and vectors. Therefore, it is important that bioscience undergraduates learn the practicalities of handling viruses. Teaching practical virology in a student laboratory setup presents safety challenges, however. The aim of this article is to describe the design and…

Supporting Students Who Have Experienced Trauma

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Travis

2017-01-01

Travis Wright presents an important understanding of trauma that leads to a new perspective of "challenging" behaviors in the classroom. "Trauma is not an event in itself, but is instead the reaction to extremely stressful life circumstances... When children operate in overwhelming states of stress, the stress response system may…

A Virtual Educational Exchange: A North-South Virtually Shared Class on Sustainable Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abrahamse, Augusta; Johnson, Mathew; Levinson, Nanette; Medsker, Larry; Pearce, Joshua M.; Quiroga, Carla; Scipione, Ruth

2015-01-01

Increasingly, international competence is considered an important skill to be acquired from an undergraduate education. Because international exchange presents a challenge to many students, there is a need to develop and implement alternative means for incorporating international and cross-cultural experiences into the undergraduate classroom. We…

Developing Competence Profiles for Educators in Environmental Education Organisations in the Netherlands

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wesselink, Renate; Wals, Arjen E. J.

2011-01-01

This qualitative study explores the meanings and possible merits of introducing competence profiles for enhancing professional development in the environmental education sector in the Netherlands. It presents the three most important environmental education jobs and their underlying competencies alongside their core professional challenges, as…

Adolescent Literacies in a Multicultural Context. Routledge Research in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cumming, Alister, Ed.

2012-01-01

This book presents results from a four-year project addressing the central question: What factors, challenges, and contexts contribute to and constrain literacy achievement among at-risk adolescent learners with culturally diverse backgrounds? Researchers consider the importance of several, interrelated factors that support the development of…

Translation Accommodations Framework for Testing English Language Learners in Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solano-Flores, Guillermo

2012-01-01

The present framework is developed under contract with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) as a conceptual and methodological tool for guiding the reasonings and actions of contractors in charge of developing and providing test translation accommodations for English language learners. The framework addresses important challenges in…

Discrimination in Elite Public Schools: Investigating Buffalo

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orfield, Gary, Ed.; Ayscue, Jennifer B., Ed.

2018-01-01

School choice is an increasingly important part of today's educational landscape and this timely volume presents fresh research about the competitive admissions policies of choice systems. Based on their investigation of a unique civil rights challenge to school choice admissions policies in politically and racially divided Buffalo, New York, and…

Adoptive cell therapy and modulation of the tumour microenvironment: new insights from ASCO 2016.

PubMed

Khoja, Leila; Gyawali, Bishal

2016-01-01

Immuno-oncology has changed the landscape of cancer treatment in recent years. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have shown survival advantage with long term remissions in a variety of cancers. However, there is another approach to harnessing the power of the immune system in combating cancer: the adoptive cell therapy (ACT) strategy. Although ACT is restricted to small specialized centres and has yet to deliver as much success as ICI, some important results were presented at this year's ASCO meeting. Important lessons have been learned from these studies, including the prospects and challenges ahead. In this editorial, we summarize the important studies on ACT presented at the ASCO 2016 meeting and discuss the way forward.

Adoptive cell therapy and modulation of the tumour microenvironment: new insights from ASCO 2016

PubMed Central

Khoja, Leila; Gyawali, Bishal

2016-01-01

Abstract Immuno-oncology has changed the landscape of cancer treatment in recent years. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have shown survival advantage with long term remissions in a variety of cancers. However, there is another approach to harnessing the power of the immune system in combating cancer: the adoptive cell therapy (ACT) strategy. Although ACT is restricted to small specialized centres and has yet to deliver as much success as ICI, some important results were presented at this year’s ASCO meeting. Important lessons have been learned from these studies, including the prospects and challenges ahead. In this editorial, we summarize the important studies on ACT presented at the ASCO 2016 meeting and discuss the way forward. PMID:27610200

Adult Brain Tumors and Pseudotumors: Interesting (Bizarre) Cases.

PubMed

Causil, Lazaro D; Ames, Romy; Puac, Paulo; Castillo, Mauricio

2016-11-01

Some brain tumors results are interesting due to their rarity at presentation and overwhelming imaging characteristics, posing a diagnostic challenge in the eyes of any experienced neuroradiologist. This article focuses on the most important features regarding epidemiology, location, clinical presentation, histopathology, and imaging findings of cases considered "bizarre." A review of the most recent literature dealing with these unusual tumors and pseudotumors is presented, highlighting key points related to the diagnosis, treatments, outcomes, and differential diagnosis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A benchmark for comparison of cell tracking algorithms

PubMed Central

Maška, Martin; Ulman, Vladimír; Svoboda, David; Matula, Pavel; Matula, Petr; Ederra, Cristina; Urbiola, Ainhoa; España, Tomás; Venkatesan, Subramanian; Balak, Deepak M.W.; Karas, Pavel; Bolcková, Tereza; Štreitová, Markéta; Carthel, Craig; Coraluppi, Stefano; Harder, Nathalie; Rohr, Karl; Magnusson, Klas E. G.; Jaldén, Joakim; Blau, Helen M.; Dzyubachyk, Oleh; Křížek, Pavel; Hagen, Guy M.; Pastor-Escuredo, David; Jimenez-Carretero, Daniel; Ledesma-Carbayo, Maria J.; Muñoz-Barrutia, Arrate; Meijering, Erik; Kozubek, Michal; Ortiz-de-Solorzano, Carlos

2014-01-01

Motivation: Automatic tracking of cells in multidimensional time-lapse fluorescence microscopy is an important task in many biomedical applications. A novel framework for objective evaluation of cell tracking algorithms has been established under the auspices of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2013 Cell Tracking Challenge. In this article, we present the logistics, datasets, methods and results of the challenge and lay down the principles for future uses of this benchmark. Results: The main contributions of the challenge include the creation of a comprehensive video dataset repository and the definition of objective measures for comparison and ranking of the algorithms. With this benchmark, six algorithms covering a variety of segmentation and tracking paradigms have been compared and ranked based on their performance on both synthetic and real datasets. Given the diversity of the datasets, we do not declare a single winner of the challenge. Instead, we present and discuss the results for each individual dataset separately. Availability and implementation: The challenge Web site (http://www.codesolorzano.com/celltrackingchallenge) provides access to the training and competition datasets, along with the ground truth of the training videos. It also provides access to Windows and Linux executable files of the evaluation software and most of the algorithms that competed in the challenge. Contact: codesolorzano@unav.es Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:24526711

In vitro effects of platelet-rich gel supernatants on histology and chondrocyte apoptosis scores, hyaluronan release and gene expression of equine cartilage explants challenged with lipopolysaccharide.

PubMed

Carmona, Jorge U; Ríos, Diana L; López, Catalina; Álvarez, María E; Pérez, Jorge E; Bohórquez, Mabel E

2016-07-01

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) preparations are a common treatment in equine osteoarthritis (OA). However, there are controversies regarding the ideal concentration of platelets and leukocytes in these biological substances necessary to induce an adequate anti-inflammatory and anabolic response in articular cartilage. The aims were to study the influence of leukocyte- and platelet-rich gel (L-PRG) and pure platelet-rich gel (P-PRG) supernatants on the histological changes of cartilage, the degree of chondrocyte apoptosis, the production of hyaluronan (HA) and the gene expression of nuclear factor kappa beta (NFkβ), matrix metalloproteinase 13 (MMP-13), a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 4 (ADAMTS-4), collagen type I alpha 1 (COL1A1), collagen type II alpha 1 (COL2A1) and cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) in normal cartilage explants (CEs) challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Overall, 25 % L-PRG supernatant (followed in order of importance by, 50 % P-PRG, 25 % P-PRG and 50 % L-PRG) represented the substance with the most important anti-inflammatory and anabolic effect. 25 % P-PRG supernatant presented important anabolic effects, but it induced a more severe chondrocyte apoptosis than the other evaluated substances. 25 % L-PRG supernatant presented the best therapeutic profile. Our results demonstrate that the biological variability of PRP preparations makes their application rather challenging. Additional in vivo research is necessary to know the effect of PRP preparations at different concentrations.

The Diagnostic Challenges of Autoimmune Pancreatitis

PubMed Central

Papp, Kata; Angst, Eliane; Seidel, Stefan; Flury-Frei, Renata; Hetzer, Franc Heinrich

2015-01-01

Autoimmune pancreatitis is a rare but important differential diagnosis from pancreatic cancer. This autoimmune disease can mimic pancreatic cancer by its clinical symptoms, including weight loss and jaundice. Furthermore imaging findings may include a mass of the pancreas. Here we present the case of a 67-year-old male patient diagnosed with autoimmune pancreatitis but showing the well-known symptoms of pancreatic cancer. This emphasizes the difficulties of histological findings and the importance of the correct diagnostic process. PMID:25802499

Sensor Network Middleware for Cyber-Physical Systems: Opportunities and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, G.

2015-12-01

Wireless Sensor Network middleware typically provides abstractions for common tasks such as atomicity, synchronization and communication with the intention of isolating the developers of distributed applications from lower-level details of the underlying platforms. Developing middleware to meet the performance constraints of applications is an important challenge. Although one would like to develop generic middleware services which can be used in a variety of different applications, efficiency considerations often force developers to design middleware and algorithms customized to specific operational contexts. This presentation will discuss techniques to design middleware that is customizable to suit the performance needs of specific applications. We also discuss the challenges poised in designing middleware for pervasive sensor networks and cyber-physical systems with specific focus on environmental monitoring.

Mothering and midwifery: sometimes a challenge.

PubMed

Fenwick, J

1998-12-01

This paper attempts to present two levels of argument. Firstly it argues that the use of story, in its entirety, is a valid, relevant and useful tool for informing personal and professional knowing. The second level of debate is elicited by the story itself and the discourse surrounding the challenges of implementing continuity of midwifery care models within the mainstream maternity care system. The author hopes that the telling of the story provides a window through which others can share her experience. It is argued that 'identification' with the challenges involved in implementing innovative models of care is an important and vital step in the process, if these models are to begin, survive and achieve their aim of providing women-centred health care.

Psychosocial Issues in Geriatric Rehabilitation.

PubMed

Rodriguez, Ricardo M

2017-11-01

Geriatric patients present multiple age-related challenges and needs that must be taken into account during the rehabilitation process to achieve expected goals. This article examines the importance of identifying and managing psychosocial issues commonly observed in older adults and presents strategies to optimize their rehabilitation process. Depression, anxiety, fear of falling, adjustment issues, neurocognitive disorders, and caregiver support are discussed as a selection of factors that are relevant for geriatric patients undergoing rehabilitation. An argument is made for the importance of comprehensive geriatric assessment in older adults to identify salient issues that may impact rehabilitation and quality of life. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fish consumption by children in Canada: Review of evidence, challenges and future goals

PubMed Central

Wine, Osnat; Osornio-Vargas, Alvaro R; Buka, Irena S

2012-01-01

Fish consumption is of great importance to children’s health and is essential for neurodevelopment, which begins in pregnancy and continues throughout early childhood and into adolescence. However, fish consumption presents conflicting health outcomes associated with its nutritional benefits and its adverse contaminant risks, because both avoiding fish as well as the consumption of contaminated fish can potentially harm children. This may be challenging to communicate. The present review was performed to assess the current knowledge and recommendations around ‘smart’ fish-consumption decisions. Health Canada advises, as well as other advisories and guides, that fish should be consumed for its health benefits, while also informing consumers, especially women and children, to limit certain fish consumption. The current literature must attempt to handle the challenges inherent in communicating the dilemmas of children’s fish consumption. Incorporation of new knowledge translation strategies are proposed as a means to raise the level of knowledge about optimal fish consumption practices. PMID:23633896

Statistical analysis of sparse infection data and its implications for retroviral treatment trials in primates.

PubMed Central

Spouge, J L

1992-01-01

Reports on retroviral primate trials rarely publish any statistical analysis. Present statistical methodology lacks appropriate tests for these trials and effectively discourages quantitative assessment. This paper describes the theory behind VACMAN, a user-friendly computer program that calculates statistics for in vitro and in vivo infectivity data. VACMAN's analysis applies to many retroviral trials using i.v. challenges and is valid whenever the viral dose-response curve has a particular shape. Statistics from actual i.v. retroviral trials illustrate some unappreciated principles of effective animal use: dilutions other than 1:10 can improve titration accuracy; infecting titration animals at the lowest doses possible can lower challenge doses; and finally, challenging test animals in small trials with more virus than controls safeguards against false successes, "reuses" animals, and strengthens experimental conclusions. The theory presented also explains the important concept of viral saturation, a phenomenon that may cause in vitro and in vivo titrations to agree for some retroviral strains and disagree for others. PMID:1323844

NASA Workmanship Hot Topics: Water Soluble Flux and ESD Charge Device Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Plante, Jeannette F.

2009-01-01

This slide presentation reviews two topics of interest to NASA Workmanship: (1) Water Soluble Flux (WSF) and Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) safety. In the first topic, WSF, the presentation reviews voiding and the importance of cleanliness in using WSF for welding and soldering operations. The second topic reviews the NASA-HDBK-8739.21 for Human Body Model, and Machine Model safety methods, and challenges associated with the Charged Device Model (CDM)

Quantitative computational models of molecular self-assembly in systems biology

PubMed Central

Thomas, Marcus; Schwartz, Russell

2017-01-01

Molecular self-assembly is the dominant form of chemical reaction in living systems, yet efforts at systems biology modeling are only beginning to appreciate the need for and challenges to accurate quantitative modeling of self-assembly. Self-assembly reactions are essential to nearly every important process in cell and molecular biology and handling them is thus a necessary step in building comprehensive models of complex cellular systems. They present exceptional challenges, however, to standard methods for simulating complex systems. While the general systems biology world is just beginning to deal with these challenges, there is an extensive literature dealing with them for more specialized self-assembly modeling. This review will examine the challenges of self-assembly modeling, nascent efforts to deal with these challenges in the systems modeling community, and some of the solutions offered in prior work on self-assembly specifically. The review concludes with some consideration of the likely role of self-assembly in the future of complex biological system models more generally. PMID:28535149

Quantitative computational models of molecular self-assembly in systems biology.

PubMed

Thomas, Marcus; Schwartz, Russell

2017-05-23

Molecular self-assembly is the dominant form of chemical reaction in living systems, yet efforts at systems biology modeling are only beginning to appreciate the need for and challenges to accurate quantitative modeling of self-assembly. Self-assembly reactions are essential to nearly every important process in cell and molecular biology and handling them is thus a necessary step in building comprehensive models of complex cellular systems. They present exceptional challenges, however, to standard methods for simulating complex systems. While the general systems biology world is just beginning to deal with these challenges, there is an extensive literature dealing with them for more specialized self-assembly modeling. This review will examine the challenges of self-assembly modeling, nascent efforts to deal with these challenges in the systems modeling community, and some of the solutions offered in prior work on self-assembly specifically. The review concludes with some consideration of the likely role of self-assembly in the future of complex biological system models more generally.

The Mock LISA Data Challenges: History, Status, Prospects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vallisneri, Michele; Babak, Stas; Baker, John; Benacquista, Matt; Cornish, Neil; Crowder, Jeff; Cutler, Curt; Larson, Shane; Littenberg, Tyson; Porter, Edward;

Caring for a major government official: challenges and lessons learned.

PubMed

Weiss, Yoram G; Mor-Yosef, Shlomo; Sprung, Charles L; Weissman, Charles; Weiss, Yuval

2007-07-01

Analysis of the medical, organizational, and administrative issues surrounding the care of a dignitary in an intensive care unit. On January 4, 2006, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister was emergently admitted to the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem owing to a severe intracranial hemorrhage. Immediately following his admission, he underwent an extensive neurosurgical procedure to control the bleeding. Thereafter, he required intensive care for 5 months and underwent additional procedures. This admission presented organizational and administrative challenges. The major challenge was to provide the Prime Minister with the best medical care while avoiding the "very important person syndrome" and simultaneously continuing routine hospital activities. To coordinate his complicated medical management, a consultation forum was established composed of all the physicians directly involved in Mr. Sharon's care. Additionally, a senior intensivist was chosen to coordinate the medical care and, along with a physician from the hospital administration, assist with administrative issues. Among the issues that the coordinating team addressed, with the help of many other hospital services, included patient confidentiality vs. public information, security of the patient's medical chart (including laboratory data and imaging), and coordination with security personnel. The acute care of a major governmental official requires the medical staff to address many administrative issues, while providing the "very important person" patient with appropriate intensive medical care. This article presents a strategy for addressing these issues.

The Traffic Light Challenge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roman, Harry T.

2014-01-01

Traffic lights are an important part of the transportation infrastructure, regulating traffic flow and maintaining safety when crossing busy streets. When they go awry or become nonfunctional, a great deal of havoc and danger can be present. During power outages, the street lights go out all over the affected area. It would be good to be able to…

Developing Social Justice Literacy: An Open Letter to Our Faculty Colleagues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sensoy, Ozlem; DiAngelo, Robin

2009-01-01

Just agreeing that social justice is important is not enough. Educators must practice social justice or else the concept is meaningless. The author presents four vignettes to illustrate common challenges faced by professors who explicitly teach social justice-oriented education courses, provides a glossary of common terms, and offers…

Teaching Improvisation and the Pedagogical History of the Jimmy Giuffre 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Peter

2013-01-01

Improvisation pedagogy has presented a challenge to music educators since jazz courses began being offered in North American universities in the 1950s, a development which has raised important pedagogical questions ranging from 'Can improvisation be taught?' to "Should it be taught?" Following on the increase in academic…

Instant Update: Considering the Molecular Mechanisms of Mutation & Natural Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hubler, Tina; Adams, Patti; Scammell, Jonathan

2015-01-01

The molecular basis of evolution is an important concept to understand but one that students and teachers often find challenging. This article provides training and guidance for teachers on how to present molecular evolution concepts so that students will associate molecular changes with the evolution of form and function in organisms. Included…

Serious Games for Assessment: Welcome to the Jungle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kato, Pamela M.; de Klerk, Sebastiaan

2017-01-01

Serious games are increasingly being explored for use as assessment tools in broad domains. Drawing from research in these domains, we present important advantages and challenges that arise when using games for assessment. In light of this context and as an introduction to this special issue on Serious Games and Assessments, we introduce the…

Balancing the Equity Equation: The Importance of Experience and Culture in Science Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farenga, Stephen J.; Joyce, Beverly A.; Ness, Daniel

2003-01-01

Explains the rights of all students, no matter what their background, to have the opportunity to attain scientific literacy. Points out the challenges and opportunities teachers face in a diverse student environment and how culturally diverse students speaking different languages perform worse than native English speakers. Presents instructional…

Disrupting Myths of Poverty in the Face of Resistance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pollock, Katina; Lopez, Ann; Joshee, Reva

2013-01-01

This case disrupts some of the prevalent myths about families from low-income and poor households held by educators. Recognizing the inherent tensions, this case demonstrates the importance of creating equitable and inclusive learning environments. We presented some of the challenges faced by Marcus, a progressive principal, as he attempts to…

Scientific Method & Evolutionary Theory Elucidated by the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Story

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krupa, James J.

2014-01-01

Large, introductory, nonmajors biology classes present challenges when trying to encourage class discussion to help reinforce important concepts. Lively in-class discussion involving hundreds of students is more successful when a relevant story told with passion is used to introduce a topic. In my courses, each semester begins with thorough…

Partial Derivative Games in Thermodynamics: A Cognitive Task Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kustusch, Mary Bridget; Roundy, David; Dray, Tevian; Manogue, Corinne A.

2014-01-01

Several studies in recent years have demonstrated that upper-division students struggle with the mathematics of thermodynamics. This paper presents a task analysis based on several expert attempts to solve a challenging mathematics problem in thermodynamics. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we highlight the importance of cognitive task…

Context and Relationships, Past and Present: The Role of Authority in Information Discovery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adamich, Tom

2010-01-01

This article provides an overview of and rationale for the use of authority in school libraries--from both an historical and current/future perspective. First, the importance of consistent, meaningful authority term context and form is discussed. Then, the exciting, yet challenging, role of authority in today's information world is…

Exploring the Use of Wikis for Information Sharing in Interdisciplinary Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phuwanartnurak, Jiranida

2013-01-01

Interdisciplinary design presents challenges in design collaboration due to the difficulty in communicating and coordinating among disciplines. Many tools have been developed and used to support information sharing in design, and the use of Web technology is becoming increasingly important for the sharing of information within design teams. Wikis…

An Analysis of Social Capital and Environmental Management of Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evangelinos, Konstantinos I.; Jones, Nikoleta

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of the theory of social capital for the challenges presented during environmental management initiatives in higher education institutions (HEIs). In particular, the paper utilises the fundamental components of social capital theory and assesses a hypothesis that higher stocks of…

One Fish, Two Fish: Balancing Economy with Ecology as a Fishery Manager

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunn, Paul H.; Davidson, Timothy M.

2010-01-01

The ocean provides humanity with many services and goods, including clean air, minerals, and food. Sustainable use and management of our marine resources are important to ensure that these resources are available for future generations. The turn-based activity presented in this article teaches students the challenges of managing a sustainable…

Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Spain: An Overview of the Accreditation System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ríos, Cristina

2015-01-01

Accreditation has become an important issue in Spain. This paper presents an overview of Spain's accreditation system; a system which is relatively new and has evolved rapidly, fostered by legislative mandates which established accreditation bodies to regulate the quality of higher education institutions. One of the initial challenges faced by…

Peer Pressure: An Issue That Crosses Generations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kittredge, Karen; McCarthy, Alice R.

2000-01-01

Recent research on peer pressure shows that: parents are important to teens, today's teens face unique challenges, and teaching teens to say no does not mean losing friends. The paper presents parenting tips for countering peer pressure, noting the influence of adult peer pressure on children. A sidebar examines the right age to start talking to…

Cybersex and the E-Teen: What Marriage and Family Therapists Should Know

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delmonico, David L.; Griffin, Elizabeth J.

2008-01-01

Adolescents who use the Internet regularly (the "e-teen") present a new set of challenges for marriage and family therapists. This article introduces marriage and family therapists to (a) the basic technological concepts and unique psychological characteristics of the Internet important in understanding and addressing adolescent online sexual…

A High-Tech Makeover for School Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marowitz, David R.

2011-01-01

Because people today are accustomed to listening to electronic instruments, school music ensembles need to rise to the challenge of reflecting present-day culture by doing a "contemporary makeover". This is all-important if ensembles are to command student respect and attract new members. With a creative mindset and openness to innovation, one can…

Is My World Getting Smaller? The Challenges of Living with Vision Loss

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berger, Sue

2012-01-01

Introduction: Vision loss influences both basic and instrumental activities of daily living. There is limited information, however, on the relationship between vision loss and leisure activities. The research presented here was part of a larger study that aimed to understand the importance of participation in leisure activities for those with…

Choice, Coverage & Cost in the Countryside: A Topology of Adolescent Rural Mobile Technology Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Calvin

2009-01-01

As mobile technologies become increasingly prevalent throughout Australian society, it is important to consider the impact of local factors on their use. In order to support rural students and develop appropriate mobile learning frameworks, it is essential to have an understanding of the particular communication challenges presented by local…

Training Emotional and Social Competences in Higher Education: The Seminar Methodology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberst, Ursula; Gallifa, Josep; Farriols, Nuria; Vilaregut, Anna

2009-01-01

This article discusses the importance of emotional and social competences in higher education and presents a training model. In 1991, Ramon Llull University of Barcelona (Spain) created the Seminar methodology to tackle these challenges. A general model derived from the Emotional Intelligence concept and the general principles of this methodology…

'Shaped like a Question Mark': Found Poetry from Herbert Blau's "The Audience"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prendergast, Monica

2004-01-01

Performance theorist Herbert Blau's "The Audience" (Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins Press, 1990) is an important yet neglected theoretical text on theatre audience. Deconstructive, dense and allusive in nature, Blau's text creates a real challenge for his reader. This paper presents a study of "The Audience" employing what I am calling…

A Behavior Change Framework of Health Socialization and Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stanley, Christopher T.; Stanley, Lauren H. K.

2017-01-01

An individual's identity related to health is critically important in terms of the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors, and guides approaches to health change across the lifespan. This article presents a review of the literature and proposes a health socialization and health identity framework, which may be used to clarify challenges in…

Managing invasive plants in natural areas: Moving beyond weed control

Treesearch

Dean Pearson; Yvette Ortega

2009-01-01

Exotic invasive plants present one of the greatest challenges to natural resource management. These weeds can alter entire communities and ecosystems, substantially degrading important ecosystem services such as forage for wild and domestic herbivores, water and soil quality, recreational values, and wildlife habitat. Traditionally, weed management in natural areas has...

Commercialization of Nanotechnology

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-03-01

NATO LECTURES M. Meyyappan Commercialization of Nanotechnology Abstract Nanotechnology is an enabling technology and as such, will have an...years), medium term (10 years) and long term (> 15 years) prospects. In addition, the challenges currently being faced to commercialize nanotechnology ...multinational corporations, government funding etc. will be presented. It is important to recognize that nanotechnology is not any one

Comprehensive Substance Abuse Services for Homeless Persons with Alcohol and Other Drug Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirby, Michael W., Jr.; Braucht, G. Nicholas

Homeless people with alcohol and other drug problems present the traditional substance abuse services delivery provider with special challenges. This paper discusses the optimal designs of comprehensive treatment services for homeless persons with alcohol and other drug problems. Most importantly, the homeless must have immediate access to a safe…

Role Integration through the Practice of Social Work with Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gherardi, Stacy A; Whittlesey-Jerome, Wanda K.

2018-01-01

The current environment for school social work presents great challenges and great opportunities. Amid promising shifts in programs and policies, many school social workers feel marginalized. Despite sustained efforts at definition, the role of the school social worker remains unclear to many outside the field. More important, this role is often…

The Impact of Behavioral-Social Disorders on Students' Education Drop-Off

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laei, Soosan; Abdi, Ali; Karamaerouz, Mohamad Javad; Shirkhani, Nassim

2014-01-01

Experts believe that adolescence is more challenging than childhood and is of critical importance. It is the period when the youth must be able to seek a philosophy for life and find an identity. Unfortunately nowadays most youths cannot learn developmental tasks successfully. The present descriptive study aims to identify pathological…

The Challenge of Counseling in Middle Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Rourke, Kathleen, Ed.

This book of readings presents 33 articles that address topics of importance to counselors who serve middle school students. It was written for counselors already working in middle schools and for individuals who are preparing for careers as middle school counselors. The book will also benefit both elementary school counselors who help children…

Hmong Culture and Visual Impairment: Strategies for Culturally Sensitive Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conroy, Paula Wenner

2006-01-01

In this article, the author introduces the traditional Hmong culture and the background of the Hmong people and presents important aspects of collectivist cultures. The author discusses possible challenges in providing services to students living in the United States who are blind and visually impaired and from a Hmong background. She also…

Another Perspective: Multiculturalism--Can It Be Attained?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarroll, Jesse C.

2016-01-01

Respected music professor and pianist Jesse C. McCarroll presents an overview of his multicultural journey, sharing some of his challenges and high points in a fascinating career. His writing offers a look at an important part of the history of Music Educators National Conference and the National Association for Music Education and points the way…

Adapting to a Changing World--Challenges and Opportunities in Undergraduate Physics Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academies Press, 2013

2013-01-01

"Adapting to a Changing World" was commissioned by the National Science Foundation to examine the present status of undergraduate physics education, including the state of physics education research, and, most importantly, to develop a series of recommendations for improving physics education that draws from the knowledge we have about…

Improving Measurements of Self-Regulated Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winne, Philip H.

2010-01-01

Articles in this special issue present recent advances in using state-of-the-art software systems that gather data with which to examine and measure features of learning and particularly self-regulated learning (SRL). Despite important advances, there remain challenges. I examine key features of SRL and how they are measured using common tools. I…

The Influence of Technology on Communication for School Leaders: Preferences, Beliefs, and Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Suzanne; Berube, William; Perry, Suzanne

2008-01-01

The value of good communication practices in schools is important to their overall operation and to how efficiently and effectively teachers and students perform (Sobel & Ornstein, 1996). The challenge of communicating as often as needed and with the appropriate method is ever present for the school administrator, in particular. Communication…

A Review of Observational Pain Scales in Nonverbal Elderly with Cognitive Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Juyoung; Castellanos-Brown, Karen; Belcher, John

2010-01-01

Objective: Pain assessment for nonverbal older adults with cognitive impairments or dementia presents many challenges, and it is important to determine which scales are most useful in assessing pain among this population. Method: In this review 11 observational scales for assessment of pain in older adults with dementia or cognitive impairments…

Implementing Keyword and Question Generation Approaches in Teaching EFL Summary Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Mu-hsuan

2012-01-01

Summary writing has been considered an important aspect of academic writing. However, writing summaries can be a challenging task for the majority of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Research into teaching summary writing has focused on different processes to teach EFL learners. The present study adopted two methods--keyword and…

Disciplined Imagination: Art and Metaphor in the Business School Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryman, Joel A.; Porter, Thomas W.; Galbraith, Craig S.

2009-01-01

Business schools frequently emphasize the importance of thinking "outside-the-box," and yet very few business students are actually challenged to do so in practice. This paper presents a pedagogical technique designed to foster creativity and imagination, while providing a deeper understanding of the concepts taught in a capstone business…

Impacts of Urbanization on Flood and Soil Erosion Hazards in Istanbul, Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozacar, Biricik Gozde

2013-01-01

Due to the inappropriate planning and explosive population growth in urban areas, especially in developing countries, sustainable and disaster-safe urbanization has become the most important challenge for governments. Urbanization presents benefits in different ways but has led simultaneously to changes in land use/land cover (LULC), impacting…

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Traci; Blachman, Dara; Dye, Jane; Macartney, Suzanne; Lukacs, Susan; Howie, LaJeana; Kena, Grace; Sonnenberg, William; Axelrad, Daniel; Steffen, Barry; Truman, Jennifer; Cotto, Jessica; Jekielek, Susan; Mueggenborg, Mary; Coleman-Jensen, Alisha; Denton, Stephanie; Avenevoli, Shelli; Singleton, James; Knighton, Cindi; Han, Beth; O'Connell, Kellie; Guenther, Patricia; Hiza, Hazel; Kuczynski, Kevin; Koegel, Kristin; Radel, Laura

2011-01-01

"America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011" is a compendium of indicators depicting both the promises and the challenges confronting our Nation's young people. The report, the 15th in an ongoing series, presents 41 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. These indicators are drawn from the most…

Generic E-Assessment Process Development Based on Reverse Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hajjej, Fahima; Hlaoui, Yousra Bendaly; Ben Ayed, Leila Jemni

2017-01-01

The e-assessment, as an important part of any e-learning system, faces the same challenges and problems such as problems related to portability, reusability, adaptability, integration and interoperability. Therefore, we need an approach aiming to generate a general process of the e-assessment. The present study consists of the development of a…

Self-Efficacy Perspectives of Children Ages 7 to 10 with Peanut Allergies: A Phenomenological Exploration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koel, Jennifer L.

2017-01-01

Navigating through life with a peanut allergy is challenging for children and requires developmentally appropriate self-management or children could experience unfavorable allergic reactions. This research study presents self-efficacy as an important construct of peanut allergy management in childhood. This study aimed to illuminate the extent…

Teaching the Millennial Generation in the Religious and Theological Studies Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauman, Whitney; Marchal, Joseph A.; McLain, Karline; O'Connell, Maureen; Patterson, Sara M.

2014-01-01

This essay provides an overview of the distinctive challenges presented to teaching and learning in religious and theological studies by the conditions and characteristics of "millennial" students. While the emerging literature on this generation is far from consistent, it is still instructive and important to engage, as students that…

Stare Decisis: Dueling Legal Interpretations of the Douglas County, Colorado Choice Scholarship Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Robert A.

2016-01-01

In the absence of incontrovertible performance data in support of, or opposition to, school vouchers, court decisions on their legality become increasingly important. Analysis of legal challenges provides a rich opportunity for scholars and policymakers to follow arguments for or against their positions. We present a chronicle of the litigation…

Investigating Teacher Learning Using a Web-Based Writing Platform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Shih-hsien

2018-01-01

Due to its complex nature and inherent unobservable features, teacher change within a specific context has rarely been investigated despite its importance as an issue in teacher professional development. To meet this challenge, the present study explored how teacher change was nurtured with the support of a web-based writing platform featuring…

Interactive Visual Tools as Triggers of Collaborative Reasoning in Entry-Level Pathology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nivala, Markus; Rystedt, Hans; Saljo, Roger; Kronqvist, Pauliina; Lehtinen, Erno

2012-01-01

The growing importance of medical imaging in everyday diagnostic practices poses challenges for medical education. While the emergence of novel imaging technologies offers new opportunities, many pedagogical questions remain. In the present study, we explore the use of a new tool, a virtual microscope, for the instruction and the collaborative…

Learning from Japanese Approach to Teachers' Professional Development: Can "Jugyou Kenkyu" Work in Other Countries?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masami, Matoba; Reza, Sarkar Arani M.

2005-01-01

This paper tries to present a careful analysis of current trends and challenges to importing Japanese model of teachers' professional development. The objective is to examine what "we" can learn from Japanese approach to improving instruction, especially "Jugyou Kenkyu" (Lesson Study) as a collaborative research on the…

Item Difficulty in the Evaluation of Computer-Based Instruction: An Example from Neuroanatomy

PubMed Central

Chariker, Julia H.; Naaz, Farah; Pani, John R.

2012-01-01

This article reports large item effects in a study of computer-based learning of neuroanatomy. Outcome measures of the efficiency of learning, transfer of learning, and generalization of knowledge diverged by a wide margin across test items, with certain sets of items emerging as particularly difficult to master. In addition, the outcomes of comparisons between instructional methods changed with the difficulty of the items to be learned. More challenging items better differentiated between instructional methods. This set of results is important for two reasons. First, it suggests that instruction may be more efficient if sets of consistently difficult items are the targets of instructional methods particularly suited to them. Second, there is wide variation in the published literature regarding the outcomes of empirical evaluations of computer-based instruction. As a consequence, many questions arise as to the factors that may affect such evaluations. The present paper demonstrates that the level of challenge in the material that is presented to learners is an important factor to consider in the evaluation of a computer-based instructional system. PMID:22231801

Item difficulty in the evaluation of computer-based instruction: an example from neuroanatomy.

PubMed

Chariker, Julia H; Naaz, Farah; Pani, John R

2012-01-01

This article reports large item effects in a study of computer-based learning of neuroanatomy. Outcome measures of the efficiency of learning, transfer of learning, and generalization of knowledge diverged by a wide margin across test items, with certain sets of items emerging as particularly difficult to master. In addition, the outcomes of comparisons between instructional methods changed with the difficulty of the items to be learned. More challenging items better differentiated between instructional methods. This set of results is important for two reasons. First, it suggests that instruction may be more efficient if sets of consistently difficult items are the targets of instructional methods particularly suited to them. Second, there is wide variation in the published literature regarding the outcomes of empirical evaluations of computer-based instruction. As a consequence, many questions arise as to the factors that may affect such evaluations. The present article demonstrates that the level of challenge in the material that is presented to learners is an important factor to consider in the evaluation of a computer-based instructional system. Copyright © 2011 American Association of Anatomists.

Research advances and challenges in one-dimensional modeling of secondary settling tanks--a critical review.

PubMed

Li, Ben; Stenstrom, M K

2014-11-15

Sedimentation is one of the most important processes that determine the performance of the activated sludge process (ASP), and secondary settling tanks (SSTs) have been frequently investigated with the mathematical models for design and operation optimization. Nevertheless their performance is often far from satisfactory. The starting point of this paper is a review of the development of settling theory, focusing on batch settling and the development of flux theory, since they played an important role in the early stage of SST investigation. The second part is an explicit review of the established 1-D SST models, including the relevant physical law, various settling behaviors (hindered, transient, and compression settling), the constitutive functions, and their advantages and disadvantages. The third part is a discussion of numerical techniques required to solve the governing equation, which is usually a partial differential equation. Finally, the most important modeling challenges, such as settleability description, settling behavior understanding, are presented. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Iterative Importance Sampling Algorithms for Parameter Estimation

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

Grout, Ray W; Morzfeld, Matthias; Day, Marcus S.

In parameter estimation problems one computes a posterior distribution over uncertain parameters defined jointly by a prior distribution, a model, and noisy data. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is often used for the numerical solution of such problems. An alternative to MCMC is importance sampling, which can exhibit near perfect scaling with the number of cores on high performance computing systems because samples are drawn independently. However, finding a suitable proposal distribution is a challenging task. Several sampling algorithms have been proposed over the past years that take an iterative approach to constructing a proposal distribution. We investigate the applicabilitymore » of such algorithms by applying them to two realistic and challenging test problems, one in subsurface flow, and one in combustion modeling. More specifically, we implement importance sampling algorithms that iterate over the mean and covariance matrix of Gaussian or multivariate t-proposal distributions. Our implementation leverages massively parallel computers, and we present strategies to initialize the iterations using 'coarse' MCMC runs or Gaussian mixture models.« less

Global nurse leader perspectives on health systems and workforce challenges.

PubMed

Gantz, Nancy Rollins; Sherman, Rose; Jasper, Melanie; Choo, Chua Gek; Herrin-Griffith, Donna; Harris, Kathy

2012-05-01

As part of the 2011 annual American Organization of Nurse Executives conference held in San Diego, California, a session was presented that focused on nursing workforce and health systems challenges from a global perspective. This article includes content addressed during the session representing nurse leader perspectives from the UK, Singapore and the USA. Recent events in global economic markets have highlighted the interdependence of countries. There is now a global focus on health-care costs and quality as government leaders struggle to reduce budgets and remain solvent. Finding solutions to these complex problems requires that nurse leaders adopt more of a world view and network with one another as they look for best practices and creative strategies. Nursing leadership challenges such as staffing, competency development, ageing populations, reduced health-care funding and maintaining quality are now common global problems. There is a need for innovation in nursing practice to accommodate the enormous challenges facing nursing's future. Opportunities on an international scale for nurse leaders to have dialogue and network, such as the conference presentation discussed in this article, will become increasingly more important to facilitate the development of innovative leadership strategies. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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

Barada, K., E-mail: kshitish@ucla.edu; Rhodes, T. L.; Crocker, N. A.

We present new measurements of internal magnetic fluctuations obtained with a novel eight channel cross polarization scattering (CPS) system installed on the DIII-D tokamak. Measurements of internal, localized magnetic fluctuations provide a window on an important physics quantity that we heretofore have had little information on. Importantly, these measurements provide a new ability to challenge and test linear and nonlinear simulations and basic theory. The CPS method, based upon the scattering of an incident microwave beam into the opposite polarization by magnetic fluctuations, has been significantly extended and improved over the method as originally developed on the Tore Supra tokamak.more » A new scattering geometry, provided by a unique probe beam, is utilized to improve the spatial localization and wavenumber range. Remotely controllable polarizer and mirror angles allow polarization matching and wavenumber selection for a range of plasma conditions. The quasi-optical system design, its advantages and challenges, as well as important physics validation tests are presented and discussed. Effect of plasma beta (ratio of kinetic to magnetic pressure) on both density and magnetic fluctuations is studied and it is observed that internal magnetic fluctuations increase with beta. During certain quiescent high confinement operational regimes, coherent low frequency modes not detected by magnetic probes are detected locally by CPS diagnostics.« less

Malnutrition and poverty.

PubMed

Peña, Manuel; Bacallao, Jorge

2002-01-01

This paper is an attempt to discuss the problem of malnutrition within the framework of the global need for development and the challenges posed by the trends of neoliberalism and globalization. We argue that there is a two-way link between poverty and health in which nutrition plays an important role both as an active and as a mediating factor. Key concepts are exposed and expanded: (a) Development per se does not ensure better health; (b) unequal distribution of income has an independent effect on health indicators after adjusting for total income; (c) improving health can make an important contribution to reducing poverty; (d ) improving nutrition throughout the whole life course is an indispensable strategy for better health; (e) obesity has to be included amongst the most critical health problems, has different traits, and presents with different challenges in the developing world and in the industrialized countries.

In Vitro Evaluation of Molecular Tumor Targets in Nuclear Medicine: Immunohistochemistry Is One Option, but Under Which Conditions?

PubMed

Reubi, Jean Claude

2017-12-01

The identification of new molecular targets for diagnostic and therapeutic applications using in vitro methods is an important challenge in nuclear medicine. One such method is immunohistochemistry, increasingly popular because it is easy to perform. This review presents the case for conducting receptor immunohistochemistry to evaluate potential molecular targets in human tumor tissue sections. The focus is on the immunohistochemistry of G-protein-coupled receptors, one of the largest families of cell surface proteins, representing a major class of drug targets and thus playing an important role in nuclear medicine. This review identifies common pitfalls and challenges and provides guidelines on performing such immunohistochemical studies. An appropriate validation of the target is a prerequisite for developing robust and informative new molecular probes. © 2017 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Psychological Flexibility as a Framework for Understanding and Improving Family Reintegration Following Military Deployment.

PubMed

Sandoz, Emily K; Moyer, Danielle N; Armelie, Aaron P

2015-10-01

Postdeployment reintegration may present an exceptional challenge to service members and their families; yet, overcoming this challenge seems to strengthen family relationships through a shared sense of purpose. Navigating family reintegration may be an important determinant of long-term psychological well-being. If the needs of military families are to be answered effectively, it is of critical importance to identify the skills that facilitate positive reintegration following deployment. This article proposes psychological flexibility as a group of interrelated skills that could be directly intervened on to facilitate not only resilience but also positive growth and development. This paper focuses on the conceptualization of family reintegration in terms of psychological flexibility, including common deficits observed in this population and potential goals of treatment. Video Abstract. © 2014 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Advances and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, G. E.

2015-12-01

We address the state-of-the-art in areas important to monitoring, current challenges, specific efforts that illustrate approaches addressing shortcomings in capabilities, and additional approaches that might be helpful. The exponential increase in the number of events that must be screened as magnitude thresholds decrease presents one of the greatest challenges. Ongoing efforts to exploit repeat seismic events using waveform correlation, subspace methods, and empirical matched field processing holds as much "game-changing" promise as anything being done, and further efforts to develop and apply such methods efficiently are critical. Greater accuracy of travel time, signal loss, and full waveform predictions are still needed to better locate and discriminate seismic events. Important developments include methods to model velocities using multiple types of data; to model attenuation with better separation of source, path, and site effects; and to model focusing and defocusing of surface waves. Current efforts to model higher frequency full waveforms are likely to improve source characterization while more effective estimation of attenuation from ambient noise holds promise for filling in gaps. Censoring in attenuation modeling is a critical problem to address. Quantifying uncertainty of discriminants is key to their operational use. Efforts to do so for moment tensor (MT) inversion are particularly important, and fundamental progress on the statistics of MT distributions is the most important advance needed in the near term in this area. Source physics is seeing great progress through theoretical, experimental, and simulation studies. The biggest need is to accurately predict the effects of source conditions on seismic generation. Uniqueness is the challenge here. Progress will depend on studies that probe what distinguishes mechanisms, rather than whether one of many possible mechanisms is consistent with some set of observations.

Strategic positioning. Part 2: Positioning challenges in an evolving health care marketplace.

PubMed

Kauer, R T; Berkowitz, E

1997-01-01

Why is strategic positioning so important to health care organizations struggling in a managed care environment and what are the sources of value? In Part 1 of this article, entitled "The Sources of Value under Managed Care," the authors presented four sources of value relative to the evolution of the market from fee-for-service to managed care. These value sources are: (1) assets, (2) price/performance, (3) distribution, and, ultimately, (4) capabilities and brand equity. In this article, the authors further elaborate on the sources of value as the market moves beyond the historical fee-for-service position to a managed care marketplace. Part 2 presents the marketing and financial challenges to organizational positioning and performance across the four stages of managed care.

Covariance descriptor fusion for target detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cukur, Huseyin; Binol, Hamidullah; Bal, Abdullah; Yavuz, Fatih

2016-05-01

Target detection is one of the most important topics for military or civilian applications. In order to address such detection tasks, hyperspectral imaging sensors provide useful images data containing both spatial and spectral information. Target detection has various challenging scenarios for hyperspectral images. To overcome these challenges, covariance descriptor presents many advantages. Detection capability of the conventional covariance descriptor technique can be improved by fusion methods. In this paper, hyperspectral bands are clustered according to inter-bands correlation. Target detection is then realized by fusion of covariance descriptor results based on the band clusters. The proposed combination technique is denoted Covariance Descriptor Fusion (CDF). The efficiency of the CDF is evaluated by applying to hyperspectral imagery to detect man-made objects. The obtained results show that the CDF presents better performance than the conventional covariance descriptor.

Endodontic management of permanent mandibular molars with 6 root canals: report of 3 cases.

PubMed

Malhotra, Amit; Ahlawat, Jyoti; Bansal, Chirag; Tahiliani, Divya

2016-01-01

Aberrations in the internal dental anatomy present challenges for clinicians performing endodontic therapy. These challenges have been partly resolved in recent years by a more comprehensive knowledge of root canal anatomy as well as advancements in the endodontic armamentarium. The aim of this case series is to describe successful root canal treatment, under magnification, in 3 cases of mandibular first molars with 6 root canals. Two of these teeth had 2 roots (mesial and distal) with 3 canals in each root; the third tooth had 3 root canals located mesially and 3 present distally as well as a radix entomolaris. A distal root with 3 canals is rare; however, it is important to look for such anatomical variations to ensure successful endodontic therapy.

Delimiting family in syntheses of research on childhood chronic conditions and family life.

PubMed

Knafl, Kathleen; Leeman, Jennifer; Havill, Nancy; Crandell, Jamie; Sandelowski, Margarete

2015-03-01

Synthesis of family research presents unique challenges to investigators who must delimit what will be included as a family study in the proposed review. In this paper, the authors discuss the conceptual and pragmatic challenges of conducting systematic reviews of the literature on the intersection between family life and childhood chronic conditions. A proposed framework for delimiting the family domain of interest is presented. The framework addresses both topical salience and level of relevance and provides direction to future researchers, with the goal of supporting the overall quality of family research synthesis efforts. For users of synthesis studies, knowledge of how investigators conceptualize the boundaries of family research is important contextual information for understanding the limits and applicability of the results. © 2014 Family Process Institute.

Nutritional issues for older adults: addressing degenerative ageing with long-term studies.

PubMed

de Groot, Lisette C P G M

2016-05-01

The ageing process is influenced by a variety of factors, including extrinsic, malleable lifestyle variables. The present paper deals with the epidemiological evidence for the role of dietary patterns and key nutritional concerns in relation to survival and ageing-related disorders that present themselves in later life. Healthful dietary patterns appear to be most relevant in old age. Specific nutritional concerns are related to vitamin D, vitamin B12 and protein malnutrition. An important challenge to further expand the knowledge base is currently addressed by the NuAge project, acknowledging the complexity of the ageing process and integrating different dimensions of research into human healthy ageing. In the meantime, reversing poor adherence to existing guidelines for a healthy diet remains a first challenge in public health nutritional practices.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth.

PubMed

Cohen, Judith A; Mannarino, Anthony P; Kinnish, Kelly

2017-06-01

Commercially sexually exploited children and adolescents ("commercially exploited youth")present numerous clinical challenges that have led some mental health providers to question whether current evidence-based treatments are adequate to address the needs of this population. This paper 1) addresses commonalities between the trauma experiences, responses and treatment challenges of commercially exploited youth and those of youth with complex trauma; 2) highlights the importance of careful assessment to guide case conceptualization and treatment planning for commercially exploited youth; and 3) describes strategies for implementing Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for complex trauma specific to these youth.

Training for laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy.

PubMed

Kuroki, Tamotsu; Fujioka, Hikaru

2018-05-10

In recent years, laparoscopic procedures have developed rapidly, and the reports of laparoscopic pancreatic resection including laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD) have increased in number. Although LPD is a complex procedure with high mortality, the training system for LPD remains unestablished. Ensuring patient safety is extremely important, even in challenging surgeries such a LPD. At present, several tools have been developed for surgical education to ensure patient safety preoperatively, such as video learning, virtual reality simulators, and cadaver training. Although LPD is reported as a safe and feasible choice, LPD is still a challenging operation. An LPD training system should be established with a board-certified system.

Applications and challenges of next-generation sequencing in Brassica species.

PubMed

Wei, Lijuan; Xiao, Meili; Hayward, Alice; Fu, Donghui

2013-12-01

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) produces numerous (often millions) short DNA sequence reads, typically varying between 25 and 400 bp in length, at a relatively low cost and in a short time. This revolutionary technology is being increasingly applied in whole-genome, transcriptome, epigenome and small RNA sequencing, molecular marker and gene discovery, comparative and evolutionary genomics, and association studies. The Brassica genus comprises some of the most agro-economically important crops, providing abundant vegetables, condiments, fodder, oil and medicinal products. Many Brassica species have undergone the process of polyploidization, which makes their genomes exceptionally complex and can create difficulties in genomics research. NGS injects new vigor into Brassica research, yet also faces specific challenges in the analysis of complex crop genomes and traits. In this article, we review the advantages and limitations of different NGS technologies and their applications and challenges, using Brassica as an advanced model system for agronomically important, polyploid crops. Specifically, we focus on the use of NGS for genome resequencing, transcriptome sequencing, development of single-nucleotide polymorphism markers, and identification of novel microRNAs and their targets. We present trends and advances in NGS technology in relation to Brassica crop improvement, with wide application for sophisticated genomics research into agronomically important polyploid crops.

Diagnostic challenges of childhood asthma.

PubMed

Bakirtas, Arzu

2017-01-01

Diagnosis of asthma in childhood is challenging. Both underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis of asthma are important issues. The present review gives information about challenging factors for an accurate diagnosis of childhood asthma. Although underdiagnosis of asthma in childhood has always been the most important diagnostic problem, overdiagnosis of asthma has also been increasingly recognized. This is probably due to diagnosis of asthma based on symptoms and signs alone. Demonstration of variable airflow obstruction by lung function tests is the most common asthma diagnostic tests used in practice and is therefore strongly recommended in children who can cooperate. Recently, an asthma guideline combining the clinical and economic evidences with sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic procedures was developed to improve accuracy of diagnosis and to avoid overdiagnosis. This guideline provided an algorithmic clinical and cost-effective approach and included fractional exhaled nitric oxide measurement as one of the diagnostic tests in addition to lung function. Diagnosis of asthma in children should be made by combining relevant history with at least two confirmatory diagnostic tests whenever possible. Diagnosis based on short-period treatment trials should be limited to young children who are unable to cooperate with these tests.

RNA Interference in Insect Vectors for Plant Viruses.

PubMed

Kanakala, Surapathrudu; Ghanim, Murad

2016-12-12

Insects and other arthropods are the most important vectors of plant pathogens. The majority of plant pathogens are disseminated by arthropod vectors such as aphids, beetles, leafhoppers, planthoppers, thrips and whiteflies. Transmission of plant pathogens and the challenges in managing insect vectors due to insecticide resistance are factors that contribute to major food losses in agriculture. RNA interference (RNAi) was recently suggested as a promising strategy for controlling insect pests, including those that serve as important vectors for plant pathogens. The last decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in the functional analysis of insect genes, especially those whose silencing results in mortality or interference with pathogen transmission. The identification of such candidates poses a major challenge for increasing the role of RNAi in pest control. Another challenge is to understand the RNAi machinery in insect cells and whether components that were identified in other organisms are also present in insect. This review will focus on summarizing success cases in which RNAi was used for silencing genes in insect vector for plant pathogens, and will be particularly helpful for vector biologists.

RNA Interference in Insect Vectors for Plant Viruses

PubMed Central

Kanakala, Surapathrudu; Ghanim, Murad

2016-01-01

Insects and other arthropods are the most important vectors of plant pathogens. The majority of plant pathogens are disseminated by arthropod vectors such as aphids, beetles, leafhoppers, planthoppers, thrips and whiteflies. Transmission of plant pathogens and the challenges in managing insect vectors due to insecticide resistance are factors that contribute to major food losses in agriculture. RNA interference (RNAi) was recently suggested as a promising strategy for controlling insect pests, including those that serve as important vectors for plant pathogens. The last decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in the functional analysis of insect genes, especially those whose silencing results in mortality or interference with pathogen transmission. The identification of such candidates poses a major challenge for increasing the role of RNAi in pest control. Another challenge is to understand the RNAi machinery in insect cells and whether components that were identified in other organisms are also present in insect. This review will focus on summarizing success cases in which RNAi was used for silencing genes in insect vector for plant pathogens, and will be particularly helpful for vector biologists. PMID:27973446

Perception of Iranian Middle-Aged Women Regarding Moral Health Concept: A Content Analysis

PubMed Central

Salsali, Mahvash; Rezaee, Nasrin; Seyedfatemi, Naimeh; Rahnavard, Zahra

2015-01-01

Introduction: The present study aimed at exploring and describing the perception of moral health from middle-aged women standpoints. Women’s decisive role in family is undeniable. In the family which is built upon tradition, faith and ethics, this is women’s principle which is represented in the moral health of the individual and the society, deals with the nature of the vice and virtue. This study attempted to identify the perception of Iranian middle-aged women about the concept of moral health. Method: The present study completed through a content analysis method. Twenty two middle-aged women were recruited through purposive sampling. Data were granted by face to face, semi-structured interview. Result: Our major categories are devotion, preserving moral values and moral challenges. Devotion category includes subcategories such as prioritizing the health of family members and trying to save marriage. Preserving moral values category includes subcategories such as respecting values and consolidating beliefs over time. Moral challenges category consists of individual and familial challenges subcategories. Conclusion: Moral health is of high importance which affects various dimensions of individual, social and familial life. The findings of the present study presented new dimensions of middle-aged women’s health regarding moral health which can finally have different consequences on familial and social moral health. PMID:25948455

Perception of Iranian middle-aged women regarding moral health concept: a content analysis.

PubMed

Salsali, Mahvash; Rezaee, Nasrin; Seyedfatemi, Naimeh; Rahnavard, Zahra

2014-11-30

The present study aimed at exploring and describing the perception of moral health from middle-aged women standpoints. Women's decisive role in family is undeniable. In the family which is built upon tradition, faith and ethics, this is women's principle which is represented in the moral health of the individual and the society, deals with the nature of the vice and virtue. This study attempted to identify the perception of Iranian middle-aged women about the concept of moral health. The present study completed through a content analysis method. Twenty two middle-aged women were recruited through purposive sampling. Data were granted by face to face, semi-structured interview. Our major categories are devotion, preserving moral values and moral challenges. Devotion category includes subcategories such as prioritizing the health of family members and trying to save marriage. Preserving moral values category includes subcategories such as respecting values and consolidating beliefs over time. Moral challenges category consists of individual and familial challenges subcategories. Moral health is of high importance which affects various dimensions of individual, social and familial life. The findings of the present study presented new dimensions of middle-aged women's health regarding moral health which can finally have different consequences on familial and social moral health.

Continuous remote monitoring of COPD patients-justification and explanation of the requirements and a survey of the available technologies.

PubMed

Tomasic, Ivan; Tomasic, Nikica; Trobec, Roman; Krpan, Miroslav; Kelava, Tomislav

2018-04-01

Remote patient monitoring should reduce mortality rates, improve care, and reduce costs. We present an overview of the available technologies for the remote monitoring of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, together with the most important medical information regarding COPD in a language that is adapted for engineers. Our aim is to bridge the gap between the technical and medical worlds and to facilitate and motivate future research in the field. We also present a justification, motivation, and explanation of how to monitor the most important parameters for COPD patients, together with pointers for the challenges that remain. Additionally, we propose and justify the importance of electrocardiograms (ECGs) and the arterial carbon dioxide partial pressure (PaCO 2 ) as two crucial physiological parameters that have not been used so far to any great extent in the monitoring of COPD patients. We cover four possibilities for the remote monitoring of COPD patients: continuous monitoring during normal daily activities for the prediction and early detection of exacerbations and life-threatening events, monitoring during the home treatment of mild exacerbations, monitoring oxygen therapy applications, and monitoring exercise. We also present and discuss the current approaches to decision support at remote locations and list the normal and pathological values/ranges for all the relevant physiological parameters. The paper concludes with our insights into the future developments and remaining challenges for improvements to continuous remote monitoring systems. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

Surface Characterization of Nanomaterials and Nanoparticles. Important needs and challenging opportunities

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

Baer, Donald R.; Engelhard, Mark H.; Johnson, Grant E.

2013-08-27

This review examines the characterization challenges inherently associated with understanding nanomaterials and how surface characterization methods can help meet those challenges. In parts of the research community, there is growing recognition that many studies and published reports on the properties and behaviors of nanomaterials have involved inadequate characterization. As a consequence, the true value of the data in these reports is, at best, uncertain. As the importance of nanomaterials in fundamental research and technological applications increases, it is necessary for researchers to recognize the challenges associated with reproducible materials synthesis, maintaining desired materials properties during handling and processing, and themore » dynamic nature of nanomaterials, especially nanoparticles. Researchers also need to understand how characterization approaches (surface and otherwise) can be used to minimize synthesis surprises and to determine how (and how quickly) materials and properties change in different environments. The types of information that can be provided by traditional surface sensitive analysis methods (including X-ray photoelectron and Auger electron spectroscopies, scanning probe microscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy) and less common or evolving surface sensitive methods (e.g., nuclear magnetic resonance, sum frequency generation, and low and medium energy ion scattering) are discussed and various of their use in nanomaterial research are presented.« less

Moving beyond regression techniques in cardiovascular risk prediction: applying machine learning to address analytic challenges

PubMed Central

Goldstein, Benjamin A.; Navar, Ann Marie; Carter, Rickey E.

2017-01-01

Abstract Risk prediction plays an important role in clinical cardiology research. Traditionally, most risk models have been based on regression models. While useful and robust, these statistical methods are limited to using a small number of predictors which operate in the same way on everyone, and uniformly throughout their range. The purpose of this review is to illustrate the use of machine-learning methods for development of risk prediction models. Typically presented as black box approaches, most machine-learning methods are aimed at solving particular challenges that arise in data analysis that are not well addressed by typical regression approaches. To illustrate these challenges, as well as how different methods can address them, we consider trying to predicting mortality after diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. We use data derived from our institution's electronic health record and abstract data on 13 regularly measured laboratory markers. We walk through different challenges that arise in modelling these data and then introduce different machine-learning approaches. Finally, we discuss general issues in the application of machine-learning methods including tuning parameters, loss functions, variable importance, and missing data. Overall, this review serves as an introduction for those working on risk modelling to approach the diffuse field of machine learning. PMID:27436868

The leadership principles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and their relevance to surgery.

PubMed

Brunicardi, F Charles; Cotton, Ronald T; Cole, George W; Martinez, George

2007-01-01

In order to face the challenges in healthcare this century, it is essential that surgeons understand modern leadership principles. One of the greatest leaders in history was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who provides a shining example of level-5 leadership for us to study. The study of leadership principles of great leaders can provide us with practical methods of conflict resolution as well as inspiration to keep us engaged and focused. As leaders of the medical community, we face numerous challenges, including discovering and implementing new treatments for disease, providing care for the indigent, overcoming educational challenges such as incorporating the ACGME Core Competencies into our surgical training and promoting diversity in education. Achieving these goals is often hindered by the environment in which we labor-nearly 50 million are uninsured, the rising cost of medical care is currently at 16% of the GNP, and reimbursement rates are falling-which makes the practice of surgery a significant challenge. Effective leadership will be paramount in achieving these goals. In this editorial, which summarizes a presentation given to the Surgical Section of the annual National Medical Association meeting, five important leadership principles that are important for surgeons have been selected and related to the outstanding leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Blind prediction of cyclohexane-water distribution coefficients from the SAMPL5 challenge.

PubMed

Bannan, Caitlin C; Burley, Kalistyn H; Chiu, Michael; Shirts, Michael R; Gilson, Michael K; Mobley, David L

2016-11-01

In the recent SAMPL5 challenge, participants submitted predictions for cyclohexane/water distribution coefficients for a set of 53 small molecules. Distribution coefficients (log D) replace the hydration free energies that were a central part of the past five SAMPL challenges. A wide variety of computational methods were represented by the 76 submissions from 18 participating groups. Here, we analyze submissions by a variety of error metrics and provide details for a number of reference calculations we performed. As in the SAMPL4 challenge, we assessed the ability of participants to evaluate not just their statistical uncertainty, but their model uncertainty-how well they can predict the magnitude of their model or force field error for specific predictions. Unfortunately, this remains an area where prediction and analysis need improvement. In SAMPL4 the top performing submissions achieved a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) around 1.5 kcal/mol. If we anticipate accuracy in log D predictions to be similar to the hydration free energy predictions in SAMPL4, the expected error here would be around 1.54 log units. Only a few submissions had an RMSE below 2.5 log units in their predicted log D values. However, distribution coefficients introduced complexities not present in past SAMPL challenges, including tautomer enumeration, that are likely to be important in predicting biomolecular properties of interest to drug discovery, therefore some decrease in accuracy would be expected. Overall, the SAMPL5 distribution coefficient challenge provided great insight into the importance of modeling a variety of physical effects. We believe these types of measurements will be a promising source of data for future blind challenges, especially in view of the relatively straightforward nature of the experiments and the level of insight provided.

Blind prediction of cyclohexane-water distribution coefficients from the SAMPL5 challenge

PubMed Central

Bannan, Caitlin C.; Burley, Kalistyn H.; Chiu, Michael; Shirts, Michael R.; Gilson, Michael K.; Mobley, David L.

2016-01-01

In the recent SAMPL5 challenge, participants submitted predictions for cyclohexane/water distribution coefficients for a set of 53 small molecules. Distribution coefficients (log D) replace the hydration free energies that were a central part of the past five SAMPL challenges. A wide variety of computational methods were represented by the 76 submissions from 18 participating groups. Here, we analyze submissions by a variety of error metrics and provide details for a number of reference calculations we performed. As in the SAMPL4 challenge, we assessed the ability of participants to evaluate not just their statistical uncertainty, but their model uncertainty – how well they can predict the magnitude of their model or force field error for specific predictions. Unfortunately, this remains an area where prediction and analysis need improvement. In SAMPL4 the top performing submissions achieved a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) around 1.5 kcal/mol. If we anticipate accuracy in log D predictions to be similar to the hydration free energy predictions in SAMPL4, the expected error here would be around 1.54 log units. Only a few submissions had an RMSE below 2.5 log units in their predicted log D values. However, distribution coefficients introduced complexities not present in past SAMPL challenges, including tautomer enumeration, that are likely to be important in predicting biomolecular properties of interest to drug discovery, therefore some decrease in accuracy would be expected. Overall, the SAMPL5 distribution coefficient challenge provided great insight into the importance of modeling a variety of physical effects. We believe these types of measurements will be a promising source of data for future blind challenges, especially in view of the relatively straightforward nature of the experiments and the level of insight provided. PMID:27677750

Isolated thoughts and feelings and unsolved concerns: adolescents' and parents' perspectives on living with type 1 diabetes - a qualitative study using visual storytelling.

PubMed

Castensøe-Seidenfaden, Pernille; Teilmann, Grete; Kensing, Finn; Hommel, Eva; Olsen, Birthe Susanne; Husted, Gitte Reventlov

2017-10-01

To explore and describe the experiences of adolescents and their parents living with type 1 diabetes, to identify their needs for support to improve adolescents' self-management skills in the transition from child- to adulthood. Adolescents with type 1 diabetes often experience deteriorating glycaemic control and distress. Parents are important in adolescents' ability to self-manage type 1 diabetes, but they report anxiety and frustrations. A better understanding of the challenges adolescents and parents face, in relation to the daily self-management of type 1 diabetes, is important to improve clinical practice. A qualitative explorative study using visual storytelling as part of individual interviews. A purposive sample of nine adolescents and their parents (seven mothers, six fathers) took photographs illustrating their experiences living with type 1 diabetes. Subsequently, participants were interviewed individually guided by participants' photographs and a semistructured interview guide. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Four major themes were consistent across adolescents and their parents: (1) striving for safety, (2) striving for normality, (3) striving for independence and (4) worrying about future. Although adolescents and parents had same concerns and challenges living with type 1 diabetes, they were experienced differently. Their thoughts and feelings mostly remained isolated and their concerns and challenges unsolved. The concerns and challenges adolescents and their parents face in the transition from child- to adulthood are still present despite new treatment modalities. Parents are fundamental in supporting the adolescents' self-management-work; however, the parties have unspoken concerns and challenges. Healthcare providers should address the parties' challenges and concerns living with type 1 diabetes to diminish worries about future including fear of hypoglycaemia, the burden of type 1 diabetes and the feeling of being incompetent in diabetes self-management. It is important to focus on supporting both adolescents and their parents, and to provide a shared platform for communication. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

[Challenges of an integrative and personalised health care for health economics and the insurance system].

PubMed

Schoch, Goentje-Gesine; Würdemann, E

2014-11-01

"Stratifying medicine" is a topic of increasing importance in the public health system. There are several questions related to "stratifying medicine". This paper reconsiders definitions, opportunities and risks related to "stratifying medicine" as well as the main challenges of "stratifying medicine" from the perspective of a public health insurance. The application of the term and the definition are important points to discuss. Terms such as "stratified medicine", "personalised medicine" or "individualised medicine" are used. The Techniker Krankenkasse prefers "stratifying medicine", because it usually means a medicine that tailors therapy to specific groups of patients by biomarkers. OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS: "Stratifying medicine" is associated with various hopes, e. g., the avoidance of ineffective therapies and early detection of diseases. But "stratifying medicine" also carries risks, such as an increase in the number of cases by treatment of disease risks, a duty for health and the weakening of the criteria of evidence-based medicine. The complexity of "stratifying medicine" is a big challenge for all involved parties in the health system. A lot of interrelations are still not completely understood. So the statutory health insurance faces the challenge of making innovative therapy concepts accessible in a timely manner to all insured on the one hand but on the other hand also to protect the community from harmful therapies. Information and advice to patients related to "stratifying medicine" is of particular importance. The equitable distribution of fees for diagnosis and counselling presents a particular challenge. The solidarity principle of public health insurance may be challenged by social and ethical issues of "stratifying medicine". "Stratifying medicine" offers great potential to improve medical care. However, false hopes must be avoided. Providers and payers should measure chances and risks of "stratifying medicine" together for the welfare of the patients. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Spinal cord grey matter segmentation challenge.

PubMed

Prados, Ferran; Ashburner, John; Blaiotta, Claudia; Brosch, Tom; Carballido-Gamio, Julio; Cardoso, Manuel Jorge; Conrad, Benjamin N; Datta, Esha; Dávid, Gergely; Leener, Benjamin De; Dupont, Sara M; Freund, Patrick; Wheeler-Kingshott, Claudia A M Gandini; Grussu, Francesco; Henry, Roland; Landman, Bennett A; Ljungberg, Emil; Lyttle, Bailey; Ourselin, Sebastien; Papinutto, Nico; Saporito, Salvatore; Schlaeger, Regina; Smith, Seth A; Summers, Paul; Tam, Roger; Yiannakas, Marios C; Zhu, Alyssa; Cohen-Adad, Julien

2017-05-15

An important image processing step in spinal cord magnetic resonance imaging is the ability to reliably and accurately segment grey and white matter for tissue specific analysis. There are several semi- or fully-automated segmentation methods for cervical cord cross-sectional area measurement with an excellent performance close or equal to the manual segmentation. However, grey matter segmentation is still challenging due to small cross-sectional size and shape, and active research is being conducted by several groups around the world in this field. Therefore a grey matter spinal cord segmentation challenge was organised to test different capabilities of various methods using the same multi-centre and multi-vendor dataset acquired with distinct 3D gradient-echo sequences. This challenge aimed to characterize the state-of-the-art in the field as well as identifying new opportunities for future improvements. Six different spinal cord grey matter segmentation methods developed independently by various research groups across the world and their performance were compared to manual segmentation outcomes, the present gold-standard. All algorithms provided good overall results for detecting the grey matter butterfly, albeit with variable performance in certain quality-of-segmentation metrics. The data have been made publicly available and the challenge web site remains open to new submissions. No modifications were introduced to any of the presented methods as a result of this challenge for the purposes of this publication. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Care and Feeding of Pre-Meds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magleby, Stephanie

2009-05-01

Most physics instructors will at some point in their teaching career face a room full of students bound for medical or dental school. This particular student clientele presents a host of distinctive challenges. My presentation will discuss insights gained while teaching premed sections of algebra-based College Physics over the last ten semesters. Topics will include syllabus structure, grading techniques, testing strategies, letters of recommendation and most importantly: how to get a good teaching evaluation from a Pre-Med.

Meta-analysis of the performance variation in broilers experimentally challenged by Eimeria spp.

PubMed

Kipper, Marcos; Andretta, Ines; Lehnen, Cheila Roberta; Lovatto, Paulo Alberto; Monteiro, Silvia Gonzalez

2013-09-01

A meta-analysis was carried out to (1) study the relation of the variation in feed intake and weight gain in broilers infected with Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria maxima, Eimeria tenella, or a Pool of Eimeria species, and (2) to identify and to quantify the effects involved in the infection. A database of articles addressing the experimental infection with Coccidia in broilers was developed. These publications must present results of animal performance (weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio). The database was composed by 69 publications, totalling around 44 thousand animals. Meta-analysis followed three sequential analyses: graphical, correlation, and variance-covariance. The feed intake of the groups challenged by E. acervulina and E. tenella did not differ (P>0.05) to the control group. However, the feed intake in groups challenged by E. maxima and Pool showed an increase of 8% and 5% (P<0.05) in relation to the control group. Challenged groups presented a decrease (P<0.05) in weight gain compared with control groups. All challenged groups showed a reduction in weight gain, even when there was no reduction (P<0.05) in feed intake (adjustment through variance-covariance analysis). The feed intake variation in broilers infected with E. acervulina, E. maxima, E. tenella, or Pool showed a quadratic (P<0.05) influence over the variation in weight gain. In relation to the isolated effects, the challenges have an impact of less than 1% over the variance in feed intake and weight gain. However, the magnitude of the effects varied with Eimeria species, animal age, sex, and genetic line. In general the age effect is superior to the challenge effect, showing that age at the challenge is important to determine the impact of Eimeria infection. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Business continuity 2014: From traditional to integrated Business Continuity Management.

PubMed

Ee, Henry

As global change continues to generate new challenges and potential threats to businesses, traditional business continuity management (BCM) slowly reveals its limitations and weak points to ensuring 'business resiliency' today. Consequently, BCM professionals also face the challenge of re-evaluating traditional concepts and introducing new strategies and industry best practices. This paper points to why traditional BCM is no longer sufficient in terms of enabling businesses to survive in today's high-risk environment. It also looks into some of the misconceptions about BCM and other stumbling blocks to establishing effective BCM today. Most importantly, however, this paper provides tips based on the Business Continuity Institute's (BCI) Good Practices Guideline (GPG) and the latest international BCM standard ISO 22301 on how to overcome the issues and challenges presented.

To treat or not to treat: should psychologists treat tobacco use disorder?

PubMed

Bodie, Linda P

2014-08-01

The author presented this Presidential Address for Divison 18, Psychologists in Public Service, at the 2012 American Psychological Association Convention in Orlando, Florida. The address challenges public service psychologists to reduce the tobacco disease burden through their roles as researchers, leaders, educators, and practitioners and explains why treating tobacco use disorder is important and relevant for psychologists. The address discusses the prevalence and the resulting mortality and morbidity rates of tobacco use disorder, which call for effective evidence-based interventions that can be integrated by psychologists into other ongoing treatments. Treatment of the underserved populations, including those with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders, presents many barriers. In addition, education and training for tobacco use disorder in undergraduate and graduate clinical psychology programs present further barriers for psychology trainees. However, progress is being made because of the numerous resources and psychology leaders who are advocates for tobacco use disorder treatment and research. Challenges for the future include increasing awareness of the importance of treatment for tobacco use disorder, finding innovative ways to increase access to comprehensive evidence-based treatment, and acknowledging that psychologists can make a difference in reducing the tobacco use disorder disease burden. Psychologists have an ethical and professional responsibility to treat tobacco use disorder.

Integrating Science and Practice in Pharmacy Curricula

PubMed Central

Todd, Adam; Fulton, John

2014-01-01

An integrated curriculum is one where the summation of different academic disciplines forms a coherent whole and, importantly, where the relationships between the different disciplines have been carefully and strategically considered when forming the composite. Within pharmacy curriculum integration is important in order to produce graduates who have the capacity to apply their knowledge to a range of complex problems where available information is often incomplete. This paper discusses the development of an integrated curriculum in which students are presented with an organized, logical sequence of material, but still challenged to make their own integrations and develop as integrative thinkers. An evidence-based model upon which an interdisciplinary undergraduate pharmacy curriculum can be built is presented. PMID:24761024

Electronic Health in Perspective of Healthcare Managers: A Qualitative Study in South of Iran

PubMed Central

BASTANI, Peivand; ABOLHASANI, Nazanin; SHAARBAFCHIZADEH, Nasrin

2014-01-01

Abstract Background The important role of electronic health as well as importance of health care systems awareness and readiness may lead to develop the essential infrastructures for electronic health especially in developing countries. This study aims to investigate goals, gains, applications, challenges and other important issues related to success performance of electronic health. Method This research proposed a grounded theory in a qualitative design and a purposive sampling was used to select participants which consisted of 28 hospital managers and staff field managers working in deputy of health and curative affairs of Medical Science Universities in south of Iran. Semi structured interviews were conducted using a topic guide and intended themes derived from the results using Max QDA software during five steps. Results Nine themes through interviewees” viewpoints were made up as followed: Electronic health definition, necessity and importance of electronic health, electronic health advantages, relationship between electronic health and internet, physicians” opposition to electronic health, prerequisites for electronic health, solutions for applying electronic health plan, factors affecting electronic health acceptance in society and electronic health system challenges. Conclusion It seems that there are good circumstances in the south medical universities about settlement and implementations of electronic health and their managers are aware of its advantages, importance and necessities. The present findings implicate that these organizations should consider the user friendly and probable resistances of the present clients, in this regard it is suggested that the used technology must be accepted by users, having standard base, inexpensive and simple enough while less vulnerable in response to changes. PMID:26110152

Electronic Health in Perspective of Healthcare Managers: A Qualitative Study in South of Iran.

PubMed

Bastani, Peivand; Abolhasani, Nazanin; Shaarbafchizadeh, Nasrin

2014-06-01

The important role of electronic health as well as importance of health care systems awareness and readiness may lead to develop the essential infrastructures for electronic health especially in developing countries. This study aims to investigate goals, gains, applications, challenges and other important issues related to success performance of electronic health. This research proposed a grounded theory in a qualitative design and a purposive sampling was used to select participants which consisted of 28 hospital managers and staff field managers working in deputy of health and curative affairs of Medical Science Universities in south of Iran. Semi structured interviews were conducted using a topic guide and intended themes derived from the results using Max QDA software during five steps. Nine themes through interviewees" viewpoints were made up as followed: Electronic health definition, necessity and importance of electronic health, electronic health advantages, relationship between electronic health and internet, physicians" opposition to electronic health, prerequisites for electronic health, solutions for applying electronic health plan, factors affecting electronic health acceptance in society and electronic health system challenges. It seems that there are good circumstances in the south medical universities about settlement and implementations of electronic health and their managers are aware of its advantages, importance and necessities. The present findings implicate that these organizations should consider the user friendly and probable resistances of the present clients, in this regard it is suggested that the used technology must be accepted by users, having standard base, inexpensive and simple enough while less vulnerable in response to changes.

Improving Challenge/Skill Ratio in a Multimodal Interface by Simultaneously Adapting Game Difficulty and Haptic Assistance through Psychophysiological and Performance Feedback

PubMed Central

Rodriguez-Guerrero, Carlos; Knaepen, Kristel; Fraile-Marinero, Juan C.; Perez-Turiel, Javier; Gonzalez-de-Garibay, Valentin; Lefeber, Dirk

2017-01-01

In order to harmonize robotic devices with human beings, the robots should be able to perceive important psychosomatic impact triggered by emotional states such as frustration or boredom. This paper presents a new type of biocooperative control architecture, which acts toward improving the challenge/skill relation perceived by the user when interacting with a robotic multimodal interface in a cooperative scenario. In the first part of the paper, open-loop experiments revealed which physiological signals were optimal for inclusion in the feedback loop. These were heart rate, skin conductance level, and skin conductance response frequency. In the second part of the paper, the proposed controller, consisting of a biocooperative architecture with two degrees of freedom, simultaneously modulating game difficulty and haptic assistance through performance and psychophysiological feedback, is presented. With this setup, the perceived challenge can be modulated by means of the game difficulty and the perceived skill by means of the haptic assistance. A new metric (FlowIndex) is proposed to numerically quantify and visualize the challenge/skill relation. The results are contrasted with comparable previously published work and show that the new method afforded a higher FlowIndex (i.e., a superior challenge/skill relation) and an improved balance between augmented performance and user satisfaction (higher level of valence, i.e., a more enjoyable and satisfactory experience). PMID:28507503

A benchmark for comparison of dental radiography analysis algorithms.

PubMed

Wang, Ching-Wei; Huang, Cheng-Ta; Lee, Jia-Hong; Li, Chung-Hsing; Chang, Sheng-Wei; Siao, Ming-Jhih; Lai, Tat-Ming; Ibragimov, Bulat; Vrtovec, Tomaž; Ronneberger, Olaf; Fischer, Philipp; Cootes, Tim F; Lindner, Claudia

2016-07-01

Dental radiography plays an important role in clinical diagnosis, treatment and surgery. In recent years, efforts have been made on developing computerized dental X-ray image analysis systems for clinical usages. A novel framework for objective evaluation of automatic dental radiography analysis algorithms has been established under the auspices of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2015 Bitewing Radiography Caries Detection Challenge and Cephalometric X-ray Image Analysis Challenge. In this article, we present the datasets, methods and results of the challenge and lay down the principles for future uses of this benchmark. The main contributions of the challenge include the creation of the dental anatomy data repository of bitewing radiographs, the creation of the anatomical abnormality classification data repository of cephalometric radiographs, and the definition of objective quantitative evaluation for comparison and ranking of the algorithms. With this benchmark, seven automatic methods for analysing cephalometric X-ray image and two automatic methods for detecting bitewing radiography caries have been compared, and detailed quantitative evaluation results are presented in this paper. Based on the quantitative evaluation results, we believe automatic dental radiography analysis is still a challenging and unsolved problem. The datasets and the evaluation software will be made available to the research community, further encouraging future developments in this field. (http://www-o.ntust.edu.tw/~cweiwang/ISBI2015/). Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Challenges of Communicating Climate Change in North Dakota: Undergraduate Internship and Collaboration with Middle School Educators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mullendore, G. L.; Munski, L.; Kirilenko, A.; Remer, F.; Baker, M.

2012-12-01

In summer 2010, the University of North Dakota (UND) hosted an internship for undergraduates to learn about climate change in both the classroom and group research projects. As a final project, the undergraduates were tasked to present their findings about different aspects of climate change in webcasts that would be later used in middle school classrooms in the region. Interns indicated that participation significantly improved their own confidence in future scholarly pursuits. Also, communicating about climate change, both during the project and afterwards, helped the interns feel more confident in their own learning. Use of webcasts widened the impact of student projects (e.g. YouTube dissemination), and multiple methods of student communication should continue to be an important piece of climate change education initiatives. Other key aspects of the internship were student journaling and group building. Challenges faced included media accessibility and diverse recruiting. Best practices from the UND internship will be discussed as a model for implementation at other universities. Lesson plans that complement the student-produced webcasts and adhere to regional and national standards were created during 2011. Communication between scientists and K-12 education researchers was found to be a challenge, but improved over the course of the project. These lesson plans have been reviewed both during a teacher workshop in January 2012 and by several Master teachers. Although select middle school educators have expressed enthusiasm for testing of these modules, very little hands-on testing with students has occurred. Wide-ranging roadblocks to implementation exist, including the need for adherence to state standards and texts, inadequate access to technology, and generally negative attitudes toward climate change in the region. Feedback from regional educators will be presented, and possible solutions will be discussed. Although some challenges are specific to the Northern Great Plains region, understanding these challenges are important for agencies and universities with goals of national dissemination.

Genome sequence of M6, a diploid inbred clone of the high glycoalkaloid-producing tuber-bearing potato species Solanum chacoense, reveals residual heterozygosity

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Background: Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the world’s most important vegetable crop and central to global food security. Cultivated potato is a highly heterozygous autotetraploid that presents challenges in genome analyses and breeding. Numerous wild potato species serve as a resource for introgress...

Educational Leadership and Context: A Rendering of an Inseparable Relationship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, Simon; O'Donoghue, Tom

2017-01-01

The amount of empirical research on leadership of educational organisations, and especially of schools, which has stressed the importance of being sensitive to context, is not great. This paper seeks to highlight the challenge presented by this situation. First, context is defined. Second, attention is drawn to what can be learned in the area of…

Dechorionation of Zebrafish Embryos on Day 1 Post Fertilization Alters Response to an Acute Chemical Challenge at 6 Days Post Fertilization

EPA Science Inventory

Dechorionation is a method used to enable image acquisition in embryonic and larval zebrafish studies. As it is assumed that dechorionation has no long-term effects on fish embryo development, it is important to determine if that assumption is correct. The present study explored ...

Evaluating methods for monitoring populations of Mexican spotted owls: A case study

Treesearch

Jospeh L. Ganey; Gary C. White; David C. Bowden; Alan B. Franklin

2004-01-01

Monitoring population status of rare or elusive species presents special challenges. Understanding population trends requires separating signal (true and important changes in abundance) from noise (normal temporal and sampling variation; e.g., Block et al. 2001). This is particularly difficult when small numbers or elusive habits make it difficult to obtain precise...

Surprise! From CEOs to Navy Seals: How a Select Group of Professionals Prepare for and Respond to the Unexpected

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was a good example of a UU.7 The disaster itself was entirely unexpected and presented a variety of diplomatic challenges...This Chernobyl example helps to clarify an important point: A UU need not be considered an impossible event—certainly, a nuclear plant meltdown

Teaching and Learning in Later Life: Theoretical Implications. Studies in Educational Gerontology 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glendenning, Frank

This book contains nine papers on the development of education for older adults in the United Kingdom and Canada against the background of an aging population and the challenge of lengthening life expectancy. "Foreword" (David James) presents an overview of the book's contents and underscores the importance of motivation to learning in…

Islam in Social Studies Education: What We Should Teach Secondary Students and Why It Matters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, James R.

2006-01-01

One of the most important and difficult challenges facing social studies educators, particularly world history teachers, concerns the role of Islam--one of the world's fastest growing and most dynamic religions--in historical and contemporary domestic and international affairs. What teachers choose to teach about Islam and how they present it are…

Empirical Research on Native Chinese Speakers Reading in English: Data Driven Issues and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brantmeier, Cindy; Xiucheng, Yu

2014-01-01

Mastery of English in China has gathered increased prominence due to the need to foster cultural, political, and economic connections worldwide. Reading is an obvious skill of vital importance for advancing efforts as a player in the world economy. The present article examines research published in academic journals in Chinese and English to…

Development of an Electronic Nose Sensing Platform for Undergraduate Education in Nanotechnology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russo, Daniel V.; Burek, Michael J.; Iutzi, Ryan M.; Mracek, James A.; Hesjedal, Thorsten

2011-01-01

The teaching of the different aspects of a sensor system, with a focus on the involved nanotechnology, is a challenging, yet important task. We present the development of an electronic nose system that utilizes a nanoscale amperometric sensing mechanism for gas mixtures. The fabrication of the system makes use of a basic microfabrication facility,…

Assessing stand-level climate change risk using forest inventory data and species distribution models

Treesearch

Maria K. Janowiak; Louis R. Iverson; Jon Fosgitt; Stephen D. Handler; Matt Dallman; Scott Thomasma; Brad Hutnik; Christopher W. Swanston

2017-01-01

Climate change is having important effects on forest ecosystems, presenting a challenge for natural resource professionals to reduce climate-associated impacts while still achieving diverse management objectives. Regional projections of climate change and forest response are becoming more readily available, but managers are still searching for practical ways to apply...

Developing a Construct-Based Assessment to Examine Students' Analogical Reasoning around Physical Models in Earth Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rivet, Ann E.; Kastens, Kim A.

2012-01-01

In recent years, science education has placed increasing importance on learners' mastery of scientific reasoning. This growing emphasis presents a challenge for both developers and users of assessments. We report on our effort around the conceptualization, development, and testing the validity of an assessment of students' ability to reason around…

The Practicum Script Concordance Test: An Online Continuing Professional Development Format to Foster Reflection on Clinical Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornos, Eduardo H.; Pleguezuelos, Eduardo M.; Brailovsky, Carlos A.; Harillo, Leandro D.; Dory, Valerie; Charlin, Bernard

2013-01-01

Introduction: Judgment in the face of uncertainty is an important dimension of expertise and clinical competence. However, it is challenging to conceive continuing professional development (CPD) initiatives aimed at helping physicians enhance their clinical judgment skills in ill-defined situations. We present an online script concordance-based…

Motivation as Critical Factor for Teacher Development in Contextually Challenging Underperforming Schools in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heystek, Jan; Terhoven, René

2015-01-01

There is considerable interest in teacher development at present. This is especially so at underperforming schools, where teacher development is seen as an essential ingredient in transforming these schools into performing schools. Since many teachers at these schools might be reluctant to participate in development activities, it is important to…

The Research Interview as Discourses Crossing Swords: The Researcher and Apprentice on Crossing Roads

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanggaard, Lene

2007-01-01

This article presents a conception of the qualitative research interview as discourses crossing swords. The article draws on examples showing how the researchers' view on learning is challenged by the interviewed apprentices. The apprentices do not assume learning in itself to be an important aspect of their lives. They consider the process of…

Cognitive Assessment of Brazilian Children and Youth: Past and Present Perspectives and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wechsler, Solange Muglia; de Cassia Nakano, Tatiana

2016-01-01

The history of cognitive assessment in Brazil is described through evolutionary movements or waves, when tests were just imported and translated from other countries, criticized, and later evaluated in laboratories on test construction founded at private and state universities. The presence of high standards for test use place Brazil at the…

Podcasts: Are They an Effective Tool to Enhance Student Learning? A Case Study from McMaster University, Hamilton Canada

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vajoczki, Susan; Watt, Susan; Marquis, Nick; Holshausen, Katherine

2010-01-01

As universities turn to technology to become more learner-centred and address challenges created by increasing class sizes, changing consumer expectations, and increasing numbers of disability accommodation requests it is important to test the utility of technology solutions. This presentation describes a study to determine the effects of…

Islamic Morality: Teaching to Balance the Record

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lovat, Terence

2016-01-01

The article proposes that the teaching of Islamic morality presents as an important if not urgent task for moral education. It offers the opportunity to inform a student body about a vital historical development in the formation of moral thought and action; to challenge and offset a blind spot in Western thinking about Islam in general; to…

Flood tolerance of oak seedlings from bottomland and upland sites

Treesearch

Michael P. Walsh; Jerry Van Sambeek; Mark Coggeshall; David Gwaze

2009-01-01

Artificial regeneration of oak species in floodplains presents numerous challenges because of the seasonal flooding associated with these areas. Utilizing not only flood-tolerant oak species, but also flood tolerant seed sources of the oak species, may serve to enhance seedling survival and growth rates. Despite the importance of these factors to hardwood forest...

Image-Language Interaction in Online Reading Environments: Challenges for Students' Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Eveline; Unsworth, Len

2011-01-01

This paper presents the qualitative results of a study of students' reading of multimodal texts in an interactive, online environment. The study forms part of a larger project which addressed image-language interaction as an important dimension of language pedagogy and assessment for students growing up in a multimedia digital age. Thirty-two Year…

The Challenges of Teaching EFL Listening in Iraqi (Kurdistan Region) Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avci, Rauf; Doghonadze, Natela

2017-01-01

The article is dedicated to the issue of teaching EFL listening in Kurdistan region of Iraq. The important role of listening skills in a FL learning is presented, and the difficulties of listening are analyzed, including language (vocabulary, grammar) and psychological (low motivation and self-confidence as well as a high level of listening…

Vowels--Sonic Gems of Emotion for Social Communication: Practical Singing Strategies for Non-Musician Teachers with Developmentally Diverse Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weeks, Kaja

2015-01-01

Communicative and social capacities are known to be of primary developmental importance to all children and often present a particular difficulty for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. A recurring challenge for teachers is achieving effective communication with children who span developmental diversity (e.g. inclusive settings or those…

The Challenge for Educators: Seattle's Superintendent Outlines Social Justice Priorities and Their Importance in Efforts to Close the Achievement Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Journal of Staff Development, 2010

2010-01-01

Seattle Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson spoke at National Staff Development Council's (NSDC) 2010 Summer Conference in Seattle in July. Goodloe-Johnson shared her insights on the role of professional learning in reaching all students in a diverse urban district. Selected excerpts from her speech are presented.

The Hispanic Family: The Decade of Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rios, Abdin Noboa

This speech covers a broad range of issues surrounding the Hispanic American family and the changes it has undergone in the last 10 years. Some of the challenges that past and current society presents to minority groups are cited, and a discussion of family reviews its importance and the meaning of the concept "family" for successful identity. The…

Understanding Social Media Culture and its Ethical Challenges for Art Therapists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belkofer, Christopher M.; McNutt, Jill V.

2011-01-01

This article discusses ethics in the context of the participatory culture of social media as it relates to art therapy. The authors present the view that social media formats are important venues for expression that contribute to interpersonal connections and social learning via the active participation of their members. To make informed ethical…

Literacy and FLES. Connecting to the Common Core Learning Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martino, Al; Barnett, Harriet

2013-01-01

At present, Whole Language (WL) teachers DO teach reading as a part of their curriculum. However, the new common core learning standards set the stage for Foreign Language in Elementary Schools (FLES) teachers to take a more active role, if not lead the way in developing important reading skills in children. Although this new challenge may at…

Using Data Mining to Identify Actionable Information: Breaking New Ground in Data-Driven Decision Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streifer, Philip A.; Schumann, Jeffrey A.

2005-01-01

The implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) presents important challenges for schools across the nation to identify problems that lead to poor performance. Yet schools must intervene with instructional programs that can make a difference and evaluate the effectiveness of such programs. New advances in artificial intelligence (AI) data-mining…

Communication Challenges and Strategies of U.S. Health Professionals Caring for Seriously Ill South Asian Patients and Their Families.

PubMed

Khosla, Nidhi; Washington, Karla T; Shaunfield, Sara; Aslakson, Rebecca

2017-06-01

While effective communication is important in the care of seriously ill patients, little is known about communication challenges faced by healthcare providers serving U.S. patients of South Asian origin, one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States. Researchers sought to examine communication challenges faced by healthcare providers serving seriously ill South Asian patients and their families and present strategies recommended by providers for effective communication. Researchers conducted a thematic analysis of qualitative data obtained through focus groups and individual interviews with 57 healthcare providers, including physicians, social workers, nurses, chaplains, and others drawn from different healthcare settings in one Midwestern city. While acknowledging the considerable diversity within the U.S. South Asian community, participants discussed three types of communication challenges they often encounter when serving this population: ensuring effective interpretation, identifying a spokesperson, and challenges posed by different cultural norms. Participants shared strategies to address these challenges such as proactively inquiring about patients' and families' preferences and encouraging early appointment of a spokesperson. While providers should avoid stereotyping patients, an awareness of common challenges and adoption of recommended strategies to address these challenges may enhance the provision of culturally responsive person-centered services for seriously ill South Asian patients and their families receiving care in the United States.

The Importance of and the Complexities Associated With Measuring Continuity of Care During Resident Training: Possible Solutions Do Exist.

PubMed

Carney, Patricia A; Conry, Colleen M; Mitchell, Karen B; Ericson, Annie; Dickinson, W Perry; Martin, James C; Carek, Peter J; Douglass, Alan B; Eiff, M Patrice

2016-04-01

Evolutions in care delivery toward the patient-centered medical home have influenced important aspects of care continuity. Primary responsibility for a panel of continuity patients is a foundational requirement in family medicine residencies. In this paper we characterize challenges in measuring continuity of care in residency training in this new era of primary care. We synthesized the literature and analyzed information from key informant interviews and group discussions with residency faculty and staff to identify the challenges and possible solutions for measuring continuity of care during family medicine training. We specifically focused on measuring interpersonal continuity at the patient level, resident level, and health care team level. Challenges identified in accurately measuring interpersonal continuity of care during residency training include: (1) variability in empanelment approaches for all patients, (2) scheduling complexity in different types of visits, (3) variability in ability to attain continuity counts at the level of the resident, and (4) shifting make-up of health care teams, especially in residency training. Possible solutions for each challenge are presented. Philosophical issues related to continuity are discussed, including whether true continuity can be achieved during residency training and whether qualitative rather than quantitative measures of continuity are better suited to residencies. Measuring continuity of care in residency training is challenging but possible, though improvements in precision and assessment of the comprehensive nature of the relationships are needed. Definitions of continuity during training and the role continuity measurement plays in residency need further study.

Challenges for Product Roadmapping in Inter-company Collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suomalainen, Tanja; Tihinen, Maarit; Parviainen, Päivi

Product roadmapping is a critical activity in product development, as it provides a link between business aspects and requirements engineering and thus helps to manage a high-level view of the company’s products. Nowadays, inter-company collaboration, such as outsourcing, is a common way of developing software products, as through collaboration, organisations gain advantages, such as flexibility with in-house resources, savings in product development costs and gain a physical presence in important markets. The role of product roadmapping becomes even more critical in collaborative settings, since different companies need to align strategies and work together to create products. In order to support companies in improving their own product roadmapping processes, this paper first gives an overview of product roadmapping and then discusses in detail an empirical study of the current practices in industry. The presented results particularly focus on the most challenging and important activities of product roadmapping in collaboration.

Molecular optoelectronics: the interaction of molecular conduction junctions with light.

PubMed

Galperin, Michael; Nitzan, Abraham

2012-07-14

The interaction of light with molecular conduction junctions is attracting growing interest as a challenging experimental and theoretical problem on one hand, and because of its potential application as a characterization and control tool on the other. It stands at the interface between two important fields, molecular electronics and molecular plasmonics and has attracted attention as a challenging scientific problem with potentially important technological consequences. Here we review the present state of the art of this field, focusing on several key phenomena and applications: using light as a switching device, using light to control junction transport in the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes, light generation in biased junctions and Raman scattering from such systems. This field has seen remarkable progress in the past decade, and the growing availability of scanning tip configurations that can combine optical and electrical probes suggests that further progress towards the goal of realizing molecular optoelectronics on the nanoscale is imminent.

Island health: hope and challenges for public health.

PubMed

Binns, Colin; Hokama, Tomiko; Low, Wah Yun

2010-01-01

The Asia-Pacific region is a region of small islands, perhaps 100 000 of them. The health, communication, and development problems of islands present difficult challenges for the delivery of health care. The discussions at the Okinawa Symposium centred on how health can be provided to all in the region, not only those in metropolitan areas, but also the poor in rural areas and those on living on far-flung island archipelagos. It is important to apply principles of "public health" and "primary health care" so that all island residents may have a reasonable expectation of health care. Schools of public health have a special responsibility to educate those who are responsible for the delivery and management of health care in these remote locations. The development of telehealth systems will be important to support health workers in remote locations and to deliver continuing education programs.

Supercomputer requirements for selected disciplines important to aerospace

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peterson, Victor L.; Kim, John; Holst, Terry L.; Deiwert, George S.; Cooper, David M.; Watson, Andrew B.; Bailey, F. Ron

1989-01-01

Speed and memory requirements placed on supercomputers by five different disciplines important to aerospace are discussed and compared with the capabilities of various existing computers and those projected to be available before the end of this century. The disciplines chosen for consideration are turbulence physics, aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics, chemistry, and human vision modeling. Example results for problems illustrative of those currently being solved in each of the disciplines are presented and discussed. Limitations imposed on physical modeling and geometrical complexity by the need to obtain solutions in practical amounts of time are identified. Computational challenges for the future, for which either some or all of the current limitations are removed, are described. Meeting some of the challenges will require computer speeds in excess of exaflop/s (10 to the 18th flop/s) and memories in excess of petawords (10 to the 15th words).

Hydropower Modeling Challenges

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

Stoll, Brady; Andrade, Juan; Cohen, Stuart

Hydropower facilities are important assets for the electric power sector and represent a key source of flexibility for electric grids with large amounts of variable generation. As variable renewable generation sources expand, understanding the capabilities and limitations of the flexibility from hydropower resources is important for grid planning. Appropriately modeling these resources, however, is difficult because of the wide variety of constraints these plants face that other generators do not. These constraints can be broadly categorized as environmental, operational, and regulatory. This report highlights several key issues involving incorporating these constraints when modeling hydropower operations in terms of production costmore » and capacity expansion. Many of these challenges involve a lack of data to adequately represent the constraints or issues of model complexity and run time. We present several potential methods for improving the accuracy of hydropower representation in these models to allow for a better understanding of hydropower's capabilities.« less

Mitochondrial disorders: Challenges in diagnosis & treatment

PubMed Central

Khan, Nahid Akhtar; Govindaraj, Periyasamy; Meena, Angamuthu Kannan; Thangaraj, Kumarasamy

2015-01-01

Mitochondrial dysfunctions are known to be responsible for a number of heterogenous clinical presentations with multi-systemic involvement. Impaired oxidative phosphorylation leading to a decrease in cellular energy (ATP) production is the most important cause underlying these disorders. Despite significant progress made in the field of mitochondrial medicine during the last two decades, the molecular mechanisms underlying these disorders are not fully understood. Since the identification of first mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation in 1988, there has been an exponential rise in the identification of mtDNA and nuclear DNA mutations that are responsible for mitochondrial dysfunction and disease. Genetic complexity together with ever widening clinical spectrum associated with mitochondrial dysfunction poses a major challenge in diagnosis and treatment. Effective therapy has remained elusive till date and is mostly efficient in relieving symptoms. In this review, we discuss the important clinical and genetic features of mitochondrials disorders with special emphasis on diagnosis and treatment. PMID:25857492

'Easier said than done': empowering dialogues with patients at the pain clinic - the health professionals' perspective.

PubMed

Tveiten, Sidsel; Meyer, Ingrid

2009-11-01

The aim of the present study was to develop knowledge of the dialogue between the health professionals and the patient in the empowerment process. Dialogue is important regarding empowerment. Transcript-based qualitative content analysis was used to reveal the meaning of five health professionals' views and reflections as reported during three focus group interviews. The dialogues are important and have varying purposes and characteristics. Conducting good dialogues represents challenges. Engaging in dialogues according to the principles of empowerment was easier said than done. Establishing supervision groups, considering the dialogue as part of the therapy and organizing the service in a way that makes dialogues and real participation possible. Further research may focus on the patients' views and reflections regarding the dialogues with the health professionals. What is new knowledge about the complexity and the challenges in conducting dialogues in the empowerment process?

Applications of Mass Spectrometry to Structural Analysis of Marine Oligosaccharides

PubMed Central

Lang, Yinzhi; Zhao, Xia; Liu, Lili; Yu, Guangli

2014-01-01

Marine oligosaccharides have attracted increasing attention recently in developing potential drugs and biomaterials for their particular physical and chemical properties. However, the composition and sequence analysis of marine oligosaccharides are very challenging for their structural complexity and heterogeneity. Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an important technique for carbohydrate analysis by providing more detailed structural information, including molecular mass, sugar constituent, sequence, inter-residue linkage position and substitution pattern. This paper provides an overview of the structural analysis based on MS approaches in marine oligosaccharides, which are derived from some biologically important marine polysaccharides, including agaran, carrageenan, alginate, sulfated fucan, chitosan, glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and GAG-like polysaccharides. Applications of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) are mainly presented and the general applications of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) are also outlined. Some technical challenges in the structural analysis of marine oligosaccharides by MS have also been pointed out. PMID:24983643

Promotion of meaningful use of a personal health record in second life.

PubMed

Knapfel, Sarah; Plattner, Broc; Santo, Taylor; Tyndall, Sarah

2014-01-01

Patients today are demanding greater access to and control of their health information. Personal Health Records (PHRs) are paving the way for patients to update, maintain and share their comprehensive medical information. The opportunity to develop and maintain a PHR is equally as important for those individuals in the disabled community who face many unique challenges to access health information. The project, conducted as part of our graduate course, explored the use of Second Life to educate the disabled community on Virtual Ability Island (VAI) about the importance of PHRs. The project examined the tools needed to offer such a presentation for the disabled community and identified legal, ethical, social, or public challenges for PHR use. The project outcomes indicated a desire for knowledge and genuine concerns by the attendees regarding PHRs. The authors note that more research is needed to make this technology available to all.

Multicultural Issues in Oral Health

PubMed Central

Garcia, Raul I.; Cadoret, Cindy; Henshaw, Michelle

2008-01-01

Synopsis Demographic changes over the coming decades will heighten the challenges to the dental profession and to the nation. The expected growth in the numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, and the concomitant growth of immigrant populations are likely to lead to worsening of oral health disparities. Their consequences are becoming increasingly evident as the profession strives to improve the oral health of all Americans. The increasing diversity of the population, together with the importance of cultural beliefs and behaviors that affect health outcomes, will require ways to enhance provider-patient communications and oral health literacy. We discuss the nature and challenges presented by multicultural patient populations. One important means by which to promote oral health in diverse populations is to develop a dental workforce that is both culturally and linguistically competent, as well as one that is as culturally diverse as the American population. PMID:18329446

Modeling Multi-Bunch X-band Photoinjector Challenges

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

Marsh, R A; Anderson, S G; Gibson, D J

An X-band test station is being developed at LLNL to investigate accelerator optimization for future upgrades to mono-energetic gamma-ray technology at LLNL. The test station will consist of a 5.5 cell X-band rf photoinjector, single accelerator section, and beam diagnostics. Of critical import to the functioning of the LLNL X-band system with multiple electron bunches is the performance of the photoinjector. In depth modeling of the Mark 1 LLNL/SLAC X-band rf photoinjector performance will be presented addressing important challenges that must be addressed in order to fabricate a multi-bunch Mark 2 photoinjector. Emittance performance is evaluated under different nominal electronmore » bunch parameters using electrostatic codes such as PARMELA. Wake potential is analyzed using electromagnetic time domain simulations using the ACE3P code T3P. Plans for multi-bunch experiments and implementation of photoinjector advances for the Mark 2 design will also be discussed.« less

Survey on RGB, 3D, Thermal, and Multimodal Approaches for Facial Expression Recognition: History, Trends, and Affect-Related Applications.

PubMed

Corneanu, Ciprian Adrian; Simon, Marc Oliu; Cohn, Jeffrey F; Guerrero, Sergio Escalera

2016-08-01

Facial expressions are an important way through which humans interact socially. Building a system capable of automatically recognizing facial expressions from images and video has been an intense field of study in recent years. Interpreting such expressions remains challenging and much research is needed about the way they relate to human affect. This paper presents a general overview of automatic RGB, 3D, thermal and multimodal facial expression analysis. We define a new taxonomy for the field, encompassing all steps from face detection to facial expression recognition, and describe and classify the state of the art methods accordingly. We also present the important datasets and the bench-marking of most influential methods. We conclude with a general discussion about trends, important questions and future lines of research.

Communicating Genetic Risk Information for Common Disorders in the Era of Genomic Medicine

PubMed Central

Lautenbach, Denise M.; Christensen, Kurt D.; Sparks, Jeffrey A.; Green, Robert C.

2013-01-01

Communicating genetic risk information in ways that maximize understanding and promote health is increasingly important given the rapidly expanding availability and capabilities of genomic technologies. A well-developed literature on risk communication in general provides guidance for best practices, including presentation of information in multiple formats, attention to framing effects, use of graphics, sensitivity to the way numbers are presented, parsimony of information, attentiveness to emotions, and interactivity as part of the communication process. Challenges to communicating genetic risk information include deciding how best to tailor it, streamlining the process, deciding what information to disclose, accepting that communications may have limited influence, and understanding the impact of context. Meeting these challenges has great potential for empowering individuals to adopt healthier lifestyles and improve public health, but will require multidisciplinary approaches and collaboration. PMID:24003856

Framing the Future with Bacteriophages in Agriculture

PubMed Central

Svircev, Antonet; Roach, Dwayne; Castle, Alan

2018-01-01

The ability of agriculture to continually provide food to a growing world population is of crucial importance. Bacterial diseases of plants and animals have continually reduced production since the advent of crop cultivation and animal husbandry practices. Antibiotics have been used extensively to mitigate these losses. The rise of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria, however, together with consumers’ calls for antibiotic-free products, presents problems that threaten sustainable agriculture. Bacteriophages (phages) are proposed as bacterial population control alternatives to antibiotics. Their unique properties make them highly promising but challenging antimicrobials. The use of phages in agriculture also presents a number of unique challenges. This mini-review summarizes recent development and perspectives of phages used as antimicrobial agents in plant and animal agriculture at the farm level. The main pathogens and their adjoining phage therapies are discussed. PMID:29693561

Infectious Diseases in Older Adults of Long-Term Care Facilities: Update on Approach to Diagnosis and Management.

PubMed

Jump, Robin L P; Crnich, Christopher J; Mody, Lona; Bradley, Suzanne F; Nicolle, Lindsay E; Yoshikawa, Thomas T

2018-04-01

The diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases in older adults in long-term care facilities (LTCFs), particularly nursing facilities, remains a challenge for all health providers who care for this population. This review provides updated information on the currently most important challenges of infectious diseases in LTCFs. With the increasing prescribing of antibiotics in older adults, particularly in LTCFs, the topic of antibiotic stewardship is presented in this review. Following this discussion, salient points on clinical relevance, clinical presentation, diagnostic approach, therapy, and prevention are discussed for skin and soft tissue infections, infectious diarrhea (Clostridium difficile and norovirus infections), bacterial pneumonia, and urinary tract infection, as well as some of the newer approaches to preventive interventions in the LTCF setting. © 2018, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2018, The American Geriatrics Society.

Enhancing healthcare process design with human factors engineering and reliability science, part 1: setting the context.

PubMed

Boston-Fleischhauer, Carol

2008-01-01

The design and implementation of efficient, effective, and safe processes are never-ending challenges in healthcare. Less than optimal performance levels and rising concerns about patient safety suggest that traditional process design methods are insufficient to meet design requirements. In this 2-part series, the author presents human factors engineering and reliability science as important knowledge to enhance existing operational and clinical process design methods in healthcare. An examination of these theories, application approaches, and examples are presented.

Global tropospheric chemistry: Chemical fluexes in the global atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lenschow, Donald H. (Editor); Hicks, Bruce B. (Editor)

1989-01-01

In October 1987, NSF, NASA, and NOAA jointly sponsored a workshop at Columbia University to assess the experimental tools and analysis procedures in use and under development to measure and understand gas and particle fluxes across this critical air-surface boundary. Results are presented for that workshop. It is published to summarize the present understanding of the various measurement techniques that are available, identify promising new technological developments for improved measurements, and stimulate thinking about this important measurement challenge.

Importance of intraocular pressure in glaucoma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joos, Karen M.

1999-06-01

Glaucoma results in permanent vision loss and affects the peripheral vision initially. It is presented in 22.5 million people worldwide and is the 3rd cause of blindness. Present tonometers are not ideal for intraocular pressure measurements in all eyes. Of concern, PRK and LASIK may result in lower intraocular pressure readings. A challenges now exists for the development of a tonometer which can easily compensate for corneas with many parameters to avoid a future increase in normal-tension glaucoma or glaucoma which is advanced.

Small scale rainfall simulators: Challenges for a future use in soil erosion research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ries, Johannes B.; Iserloh, Thomas; Seeger, Manuel

2013-04-01

Rainfall simulation on micro-plot scale is a method used worldwide to assess the generation of overland flow, soil erosion, infiltration and interrelated processes such as soil sealing, crusting, splash and redistribution of solids and solutes. The produced data are of great significance not only for the analysis of the simulated processes, but also as a source of input-data for soil erosion modelling. The reliability of the data is therefore of paramount importance, and quality management of rainfall simulation procedure a general responsibility of the rainfall simulation community. This was an accepted outcome at the "International Rainfall Simulator Workshop 2011" at Trier University. The challenges of the present and near future use of small scale rainfall simulations concern the comparability of results and scales, the quality of the data for soil erosion modelling, and further technical developments to overcome physical limitations and constraints. Regarding the high number of research questions, different fields of application, and due to the great technical creativity of researchers, a large number of different types of rainfall simulators is available. But each of the devices produces a different rainfall, leading to different kinetic energy values influencing soil surface and erosion processes. Plot sizes are also variable, as well as the experimental simulation procedures. As a consequence, differing runoff and erosion results are produced. The presentation summarises the three important aspects of rainfall simulations, following a processual order: 1. Input-factor "rain" and its calibration 2. Surface-factor "plot" and its documentation 3. Output-factors "runoff" and "sediment concentration" Finally, general considerations about the limitations and challenges for further developments and applications of rainfall simulation data are presented.

Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics: Biological and Technological Aspects

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

Karpievitch, Yuliya V.; Polpitiya, Ashoka D.; Anderson, Gordon A.

2010-12-01

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics has become the tool of choice for identifying and quantifying the proteome of an organism. Though recent years have seen a tremendous improvement in instrument performance and the computational tools used, significant challenges remain, and there are many opportunities for statisticians to make important contributions. In the most widely used "bottom-up" approach to proteomics, complex mixtures of proteins are first subjected to enzymatic cleavage, the resulting peptide products are separated based on chemical or physical properties and analyzed using a mass spectrometer. The two fundamental challenges in the analysis of bottom-up MS-based proteomics are: (1) Identifying themore » proteins that are present in a sample, and (2) Quantifying the abundance levels of the identified proteins. Both of these challenges require knowledge of the biological and technological context that gives rise to observed data, as well as the application of sound statistical principles for estimation and inference. We present an overview of bottom-up proteomics and outline the key statistical issues that arise in protein identification and quantification.« less

Core Noise Reduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hultgren, Lennart S.

2011-01-01

This presentation is a technical summary of and outlook for NASA-internal and NASA-sponsored external research on core (combustor and turbine) noise funded by the Fundamental Aeronautics Program Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) Project. Sections of the presentation cover: the SFW system-level noise metrics for the 2015, 2020, and 2025 timeframes; turbofan design trends and their aeroacoustic implications; the emerging importance of core noise and its relevance to the SFW Reduce-Perceived-Noise Technical Challenge; and the current research activities in the core noise area. Recent work1 on the turbine-transmission loss of combustor noise is briefly described, two2,3 new NRA efforts in the core-noise area are outlined, and an effort to develop CMC-based acoustic liners for broadband noise reduction suitable for turbofan-core application is delineated. The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program has the principal objective of overcoming today's national challenges in air transportation. The reduction of aircraft noise is critical to enabling the anticipated large increase in future air traffic. The Subsonic Fixed Wing Project's Reduce-Perceived-Noise Technical Challenge aims to develop concepts and technologies to dramatically reduce the perceived aircraft noise outside of airport boundaries.

Multi -omics and metabolic modelling pipelines: challenges and tools for systems microbiology.

PubMed

Fondi, Marco; Liò, Pietro

2015-02-01

Integrated -omics approaches are quickly spreading across microbiology research labs, leading to (i) the possibility of detecting previously hidden features of microbial cells like multi-scale spatial organization and (ii) tracing molecular components across multiple cellular functional states. This promises to reduce the knowledge gap between genotype and phenotype and poses new challenges for computational microbiologists. We underline how the capability to unravel the complexity of microbial life will strongly depend on the integration of the huge and diverse amount of information that can be derived today from -omics experiments. In this work, we present opportunities and challenges of multi -omics data integration in current systems biology pipelines. We here discuss which layers of biological information are important for biotechnological and clinical purposes, with a special focus on bacterial metabolism and modelling procedures. A general review of the most recent computational tools for performing large-scale datasets integration is also presented, together with a possible framework to guide the design of systems biology experiments by microbiologists. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

New science at the meso frontier: Dense nanostructure architectures for electrical energy storage

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

Rubloff, Gary W.; Lee, Sang Bok

2015-08-01

We examine the scientific challenges and opportunities presented at the mesoscale in the context of employing nanostructures for electrical energy storage. In order to capitalize on the power–energy and charge/discharge cycling stability that nanostructures offer, massive assemblies of nanostructures in networks must be organized into dense mesoscale architectures. With a fairly wide variety of architectures already demonstrated and more expected, the essential questions are whether regular or random 3-D arrangements are favorable, which embodiments should show best performance, and at what dimensional scaling? Dense packing raises challenging new questions about ion available and transport in highly confined electrolyte nanoenvironments, asmore » well as designs to balance ion transport in electrolyte and electron transport in electrodes over distances long compared to nanostructure characteristic dimensions. Architectures and dimensional scaling present important issues of defects, statistical outliers, and their dynamic evolution, which in turn control degradation and failure phenomena. These considerations promise a rich set of mesoscale scientific challenges crucial to exploiting storage nanostructures in mesoscale architectures for energy storage.« less

Integrated river basin management, ICT and DSS: Challenges and needs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gourbesville, Philippe

River basin management is a complex task. Therefore, instruments that help to assess the present situation and assist in the development and evaluation of solutions may be important. Since several decades and after the implementation of the first compulsory legal environments and institutional organizations for IWRM and IRBM, the need for an efficient support in the different decision-making processes has emerged. After several experiences, the demonstration of the interest of ICT and DSS systems is obvious in the water resources management domain. However and until now, most of the efforts have been focused on the theoretical aspects with very few integrations into operational approaches. The implementation of the new European water framework directive (2000) represents today one key example from which some lessons can be learned in the way of definition and use of ICT and DSS systems for IWRM and IRBM. The paper presents the concepts available through ICT and DSS. The example of the WFD is used to underline the challenges and the difficulties for the elaboration of new tools - DSSs - which could be able to answer of the challenges of IWRM and IRBM.

The Europa Ocean Discovery mission

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

Edwards, B.C.; Chyba, C.F.; Abshire, J.B.

1997-06-01

Since it was first proposed that tidal heating of Europa by Jupiter might lead to liquid water oceans below Europa`s ice cover, there has been speculation over the possible exobiological implications of such an ocean. Liquid water is the essential ingredient for life as it is known, and the existence of a second water ocean in the Solar System would be of paramount importance for seeking the origin and existence of life beyond Earth. The authors present here a Discovery-class mission concept (Europa Ocean Discovery) to determine the existence of a liquid water ocean on Europa and to characterize Europa`smore » surface structure. The technical goal of the Europa Ocean Discovery mission is to study Europa with an orbiting spacecraft. This goal is challenging but entirely feasible within the Discovery envelope. There are four key challenges: entering Europan orbit, generating power, surviving long enough in the radiation environment to return valuable science, and complete the mission within the Discovery program`s launch vehicle and budget constraints. The authors will present here a viable mission that meets these challenges.« less

Addressing challenges for future strategic-level emergency management: reframing, networking, and capacity-building.

PubMed

Bosomworth, Karyn; Owen, Christine; Curnin, Steven

2017-04-01

The mounting frequency and intensity of natural hazards, alongside growing interdependencies between social-technical and ecological systems, are placing increased pressure on emergency management. This is particularly true at the strategic level of emergency management, which involves planning for and managing non-routine, high-consequence events. Drawing on the literature, a survey, and interviews and workshops with Australia's senior emergency managers, this paper presents an analysis of five core challenges that these pressures are creating for strategic-level emergency management. It argues that emphasising 'emergency management' as a primary adaptation strategy is a retrograde step that ignores the importance of addressing socio-political drivers of vulnerabilities. Three key suggestions are presented that could assist the country's strategic-level emergency management in tackling these challenges: (i) reframe emergency management as a component of disaster risk reduction rather than them being one and the same; (ii) adopt a network governance approach; and (iii) further develop the capacities of strategic-level emergency managers. © 2017 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2017.

Assessing Cognitive Function in Bipolar Disorder: Challenges and Recommendations for Clinical Trial Design

PubMed Central

Burdick, Katherine E.; Ketter, Terence A.; Goldberg, Joseph F.; Calabrese, Joseph R.

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE Neurocognitive impairment in schizophrenia has been recognized for more than a century. In contrast, only recently have significant neurocognitive deficits been recognized in bipolar disorder. Converging data suggest the importance of cognitive problems in relation to quality of life in bipolar disorder, highlighting the need for treatment and prevention efforts targeting cognition in bipolar patients. Future treatment trials targeting cognitive deficits will be met with methodological challenges due to the inherent complexity and heterogeneity of the disorder, including significant diagnostic comorbidities, the episodic nature of the illness, frequent use of polypharmacy, cognitive heterogeneity, and a lack of consensus regarding measurement of cognition and outcome in bipolar patients. Guidelines for use in designing future trials are needed. PARTICIPANTS The members of the consensus panel (each of the bylined authors) were selected based upon their expertise in bipolar disorder. Dr. Burdick is a neuropsychologist who has studied cognition in this illness for 15 years; Drs. Ketter, Calabrese, and Goldberg each bring considerable expertise in the treatment of bipolar disorder both within and outside of controlled clinical trials. This consensus statement was derived from work together at scientific meetings (e.g. symposium presention at the 2014 Annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, among others) and ongoing discussions by conference call. With the exception of the public presentations on this topic, these meetings were closed to outside participants. EVIDENCE A literature review was undertaken by the authors to identify illness-specific challenges relevant to the design and conduct of treatment trials targeting neurocognition in bipolar disorder. Expert opinion from each of the authors guided the consensus recommendations. CONSENSUS PROCESS Consensus recommendations, reached by unanimous opinion of the authors, are provided here as a preliminary guide for future trial design. Recommendations comprise exclusion of certain syndromal level comorbid diagnoses and current affective instability, restrictions on numbers and types of medications, and use of pre-screening assessment to ensure enrollment of subjects with adequate objective evidence of baseline cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS Clinical trials to address cognitive deficits in bipolar disorder face distinctive design challenges. As such trials move from proof-of-concept to confirmation of clinical efficacy, it will be important to incorporate distinctive design modifications to adequately address these challenges and increase the likelihood of demonstrating cognitive remediation effects. The field is now primed to address these challenges and a comprehensive effort to formalize best practice guidelines will be a critically important next step. PMID:25830456

Markov decision processes in natural resources management: observability and uncertainty

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, Byron K.

2015-01-01

The breadth and complexity of stochastic decision processes in natural resources presents a challenge to analysts who need to understand and use these approaches. The objective of this paper is to describe a class of decision processes that are germane to natural resources conservation and management, namely Markov decision processes, and to discuss applications and computing algorithms under different conditions of observability and uncertainty. A number of important similarities are developed in the framing and evaluation of different decision processes, which can be useful in their applications in natural resources management. The challenges attendant to partial observability are highlighted, and possible approaches for dealing with it are discussed.

Feedback from the European Bioanalysis Forum: focus workshop on current analysis of immunogenicity: best practices and regulatory hurdles.

PubMed

Goodman, Joanne; Cowen, Simon; Devanarayan, Viswanath; Egging, David; Emrich, Thomas; Golob, Michaela; Kramer, Daniel; McNally, Jim; Munday, James; Nelson, Robert; Pedras-Vasconcelos, João A; Piironen, Timo; Sickert, Denise; Skibeli, Venke; Fjording, Marianne Scheel; Timmerman, Philip

2018-02-01

European Bioanalysis Forum Workshop, Lisbon, Portugal, September 2016: At the recent European Bioanalysis Forum Focus Workshop, 'current analysis of immunogenicity: best practices and regulatory hurdles', several important challenges facing the bioanalytical community in relation to immunogenicity assays were discussed through a mixture of presentations and panel sessions. The main areas of focus were the evolving regulatory landscape, challenges of assay interferences from either drug or target, cut-point setting and whether alternative assays can be used to replace neutralizing antibody assays. This workshop report captures discussions and potential solutions and/or recommendations made by the speakers and delegates.

Ventricular assist device use in single ventricle congenital heart disease.

PubMed

Carlo, Waldemar F; Villa, Chet R; Lal, Ashwin K; Morales, David L

2017-11-01

As VAD have become an effective therapy for end-stage heart failure, their application in congenital heart disease has increased. Single ventricle congenital heart disease introduces unique physiologic challenges for VAD use. However, with regard to the mixed clinical results presented within this review, we suggest that patient selection, timing of implant, and center experience are all important contributors to outcome. This review focuses on the published experience of VAD use in single ventricle patients and details physiologic challenges and novel approaches in this growing pediatric and adult population. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Cryptosporidiosis Drug Discovery: Opportunities and Challenges.

PubMed

Manjunatha, Ujjini H; Chao, Alexander T; Leong, F Joel; Diagana, Thierry T

2016-08-12

The apicomplexan parasite Cryptosporidium is the second most important diarrheal pathogen causing life-threatening diarrhea in children, which is also associated with long-term growth faltering and cognitive deficiency. Cryptosporidiosis is a parasitic disease of public health concern caused by Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis. Currently, nitazoxanide is the only approved treatment for cryptosporidium infections. Unfortunately, it has limited efficacy in the most vulnerable patients, thus there is an urgent need for a safe and efficacious cryptosporidiosis drug. In this work, we present our current perspectives on the target product profile for novel cryptosporidiosis therapies and the perceived challenges and possible mitigation plans at different stages in the cryptosporidiosis drug discovery process.

Laser pattern generator challenges in airborne molecular contamination protection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ekberg, Mats; Skotte, Per-Uno; Utterback, Tomas; Paul, Swaraj; Kishkovich, Oleg P.; Hudzik, James S.

2003-08-01

The introduction of photomask laser pattern generators presents new challenges to system designers and manufacturers. One of the laser pattern generator's environmental operating challenges is Airborne Molecular Contamination (AMC), which affects both chemically amplified resists (CAResist) and laser optics. Similar challenges in CAResist protection have already been addressed in semiconductor wafer lithography with reasonable solutions and experience gained by all those involved. However, photomask and photomask equipment manufacturers have not previously had a comparable experience, and some photomask AMC issues differ from those seen in semiconductor wafer lithography. Culminating years of AMC experience, the authors discuss specific requirements of Photomask AMC. Air sampling and material of construction analysis were performed to understand these particular AMC challenges and used to develop an appropriate filtration specification for different classes of contaminates. The authors portray the importance of cooperation between tool designers and AMC experts early in the design stage to assure goal attainment to maximize both process stability and machine productivity in advanced mask making. In conclusion, the authors provide valuable recommendations to both laser tool users and other equipment manufacturers.

DNA vaccines encoding proteins from wild-type and attenuated canine distemper virus protect equally well against wild-type virus challenge.

PubMed

Nielsen, Line; Jensen, Trine Hammer; Kristensen, Birte; Jensen, Tove Dannemann; Karlskov-Mortensen, Peter; Lund, Morten; Aasted, Bent; Blixenkrone-Møller, Merete

2012-10-01

Immunity induced by DNA vaccines containing the hemagglutinin (H) and nucleoprotein (N) genes of wild-type and attenuated canine distemper virus (CDV) was investigated in mink (Mustela vison), a highly susceptible natural host of CDV. All DNA-immunized mink seroconverted, and significant levels of virus-neutralizing (VN) antibodies were present on the day of challenge with wild-type CDV. The DNA vaccines also primed the cell-mediated memory responses, as indicated by an early increase in the number of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)-producing lymphocytes after challenge. Importantly, the wild-type and attenuated CDV DNA vaccines had a long-term protective effect against wild-type CDV challenge. The vaccine-induced immunity induced by the H and N genes from wild-type CDV and those from attenuated CDV was comparable. Because these two DNA vaccines were shown to protect equally well against wild-type virus challenge, it is suggested that the genetic/antigenic heterogeneity between vaccine strains and contemporary wild-type strains are unlikely to cause vaccine failure.

Career perspective: Alf O. Brubakk-looking back to see ahead.

PubMed

Brubakk, Alf O

2015-01-01

The following describes my professional life up till today, but it also describes what I think lies ahead. I have led an interesting professional life and been lucky enough to be at the centre of some of the important development in modern medicine and diving, namely ultrasound in cardiology and the mechanisms of decompression. I therefore should be able to see some of the most challenging and exciting problems ahead. Ultrasound in cardiology has developed from simply listening to the Doppler signal to determine the velocity of blood flow to the complicated description of images presented today. Diving, in addition to being an important commercial and environmental activity, exposes the individual to intermittent hyperoxia and pressure reductions. These challenges evoke the production of radical oxygen species (ROS) and microparticles (MP) that also are central to many pathophysiologic mechanisms that are involved in a number of severe human diseases. Thus, diving can be regarded as an important model of disease and allows us to study their effects on healthy young individuals. The future thus points towards an integration of environmental physiology with detailed physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms and makes diving physiology a potentially very important field of study.

Orbital cellulitis: clinical course and management challenges. the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital experience.

PubMed

Balogun, Bolanle G; Balogun, Modupe M; Adekoya, Bola J

2012-01-01

Orbital cellulitis is a devastating acute infection of orbital soft tissues located posterior to the orbital septum. It is both vision and life-threatening. It is an ocular emergency which most often present in childhood. This article reviewed cases presenting during the study period with the view of examining the pattern of presentation, clinical course and management challenges. A retrospective study was conducted on patients presenting with orbital cellulitis between January 2008 and June 2011. Socio-demographic data, entry and discharge visual acuity, presenting complaints, predisposing factors, duration of complaints, admission period and complications were extracted from clinical records and analyzed. Seventeen (17) patients presented with orbital cellulitis constituting 6.2% of ocular emergency admissions during the study period. Twelve (70.6%) were males. Thirteen (76.5%) were children. The major predisposing factors were upper respiratory tract infections, and facial and globe injuries in five (22.7%) cases respectively. Only five (29.4%), presented within three days of disease onset. Average duration of admission was 10.6 days. Complications during the course of disease were category 4 and 5 blindness in five (23.5%), orbital abscess four (23.5%), cavernous sinus thrombosis two (11.8%), contralateral preseptal cellulitis two (11.8%) and exposure keratopathy in one (5.9%). Orbital cellulitis has remained a disease with high ocular morbidity. The major management challenges were poor financial status of patients precluding necessary diagnostic laboratory and imaging studies. Early recognition, diagnosis and treatment are crucial to the preservation of vision and reduced occurrence of complications. The importance of record keeping is also highlighted.

Creating an "Education Shark Tank" to Encourage and Support Educational Scholarship and Innovation.

PubMed

Cofrancesco, Joseph; Wright, Scott M; Vohr, Eric; Ziegelstein, Roy C

2017-11-01

Creating and supporting opportunities for innovation that showcase and reward creativity in medical and biomedical education is critically important for academic institutions, learners, and faculty. In 2014, the Institute for Excellence in Education at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine created a small grant program called Education Shark Tank, in which two to five finalist teams present their proposals on innovative initiatives to improve education to four or five senior educator "sharks" at an educational conference, with an audience. The sharks then "grill" the presenters, considering which if any to fund, focusing on the rationale, feasibility, appropriateness of the outcome measures, evaluation and assessment plan, and proposed method of dissemination. They also make suggestions that challenge the presenters to assess and improve their designs. In the program's first year (2014), funds were divided equally between two projects, both of which were successfully completed and one of which led to a journal publication; this led to increased funding for the program in 2015. Participants have called Education Shark Tank a "challenging and rewarding experience." Education Shark Tank can facilitate educational innovation and scholarship via engaging and challenging interactions between grant applicants and reviewers in a public venue. The authors plan to conduct a five-year survey (after 2018) of all Education Shark Tank finalists to determine the success and challenges the funded projects have had, what scholarly dissemination has occurred, whether nonfunded projects were able to move forward, and the value of the feedback and mentoring received.

CHALLENGES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF GLAUCOMA IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY; A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF PROVIDERS' PERSPECTIVES.

PubMed

Adekoya, B J; Adepoju, F G; Moshood, K F; Balarabe, A H

2015-01-01

Glaucoma management is challenging to patients as well as to the eye care providers. The study is aimed at describing the challenges faced by providers using qualitative methods. In-depth interviews were conducted with selected Ophthalmologists and resident doctors in ophthalmology at centres offering medical and surgical glaucoma services in Lagos state, Nigeria, according to established qualitative methods. This was done using semi-structured, open ended questions to explore the providers' perspective on glaucoma burden, challenges in the management, surgery for glaucoma, acceptance of glaucoma surgery by patients, and recommendations for improving glaucoma services. The discussions were recorded with the aid of a micro-cassette recorder. Familiarisation was done to identify key ideas in the data, then, the main themes and sub-themes were identified. Quotes that reflect the themes and sub-themes were then identified in the data. In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 11 ophthalmologists and resident doctors in training. Majority were of the opinion that glaucoma is a significant burden constituting about 35% of outpatient visits. Identified patient related challenges include; late presentation, lack of glaucoma awareness, delay in referral from optometrists, and poor compliance with medications. Shortages in needed equipment were also identified. Availability, affordability and counterfeiting of drugs were the major challenges related to medical treatment. Majority of the participants agreed that surgery should be offered to the patients as soon as the diagnosis of glaucoma is made. However, continuous monitoring of the patient on medical treatment is another line of option for them in early cases; if they are convinced the patients will be compliant. Some respondents considered the current number of glaucoma surgeries as adequate, while some think otherwise. Reasons put forward for reluctance to offer glaucoma surgery include; late presentation, lack of patient satisfaction, complications of surgery, and negative publicity. Even though the challenges in the management of glaucoma in developing countries are many, they are not insurmountable. There is need for concerted and integrated efforts involving all cadres of eye care practitioners, patients, institutions and governments to address this important eye disease. Improved awareness, provision of adequate equipment, availability and affordability of medications, need for training and retraining of eye care providers are all important measures that can lead to better management of the glaucoma patient.

Having Fun and Accepting Challenges Are Natural Instincts: Jigsaw Puzzles to Challenge Students and Test Their Abilities While Having Fun!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodenbaugh, Hanna R.; Lujan, Heidi L.; Rodenbaugh, David W.; DiCarlo, Stephen E.

2014-01-01

Because jigsaw puzzles are fun, and challenging, students will endure and discover that persistence and grit are rewarded. Importantly, play and fun have a biological place just like sleep and dreams. Students also feel a sense of accomplishment when they have completed a puzzle. Importantly, the reward of mastering a challenge builds confidence…

Implementing a rapid response team: factors influencing success.

PubMed

Murray, Theresa; Kleinpell, Ruth

2006-12-01

Rapid response teams (RRTs), or medical emergency teams, focus on preventing a patient crisis by addressing changes in patient status before a cardiopulmonary arrest occurs. Responding to acute changes, RRTs and medical emergency teams are similar to "code" teams. The exception, however is that they step into action before a patient arrests. Although RRTs are acknowledge as an important initiative, implementation can present many challenges. This article reports on the implementation and ongoing use of a RRT at a community health care setting, highlighting important considerations and strategies for success.

Abdominal Pain in the Geriatric Patient.

PubMed

Leuthauser, Amy; McVane, Benjamin

2016-05-01

Abdominal pain in the elderly can be a challenging and difficult condition to diagnose and treat. The geriatric population has significant comorbidities and often takes polypharmacy that can mask symptoms. The presentation of common conditions can be different than that in the younger population, often lacking the traditional indicators of disease, making it of pivotal importance for the clinician to consider a wide differential during their workup. It is also important to consider extra-abdominal abnormality that may manifest as abdominal pain. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modelling Southern Africa Air Quality and Atmosphere: Importance and Interplay of Natural and Anthropogenic Emissions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garland, R. M.; Naidoo, M.; Dedekind, Z.; Sibiya, B.; Piketh, S.; Engelbrecht, C. J.; Engelbrecht, F.

2017-12-01

Many parts of the southern hemisphere are linked in part due to the strong impact that emissions from natural sources, such as large biomass burning events and marine sources, as well as growing anthropogenic emission sources. Most of southern Africa has an arid to semi-arid climate that is strongly impacted by biomass burning, biogenic and dust emissions. In addition, there are areas of growing industrialization and urbanization that contributes to poor air quality. This air pollution can impact not only human health, but also agriculture, ecosystems, and the climate. This presentation will highlight on-going research to simulate the southern Africa atmosphere and impacts, with a focus on the interplay and relative importance of natural and anthropogenic emissions. The presentation will discuss the simulated sensitivity of the southern African climate to aerosol particles to highlight the importance of natural sources. These historical simulations (1979-2012) were performed with CCAM and are towards the development of the first Africa-led earth systems model. The analysis focused on the simulated sensitivity of the climate and clouds off the southwestern coast of Africa to aerosol particles. The interplay between natural and anthropogenic sources on air pollution will be highlighted using the Waterberg region of South Africa as a case study. CAMx was run at 2km resolution for 2013 using local emission inventories and meteorological output from CCAM to simulate the air quality of the region. These simulations estimate that, on average in the summer, up to 20% of ozone in and around a power plant plume is attributable to biogenic sources of VOCs, with ozone peaks of up to 120ppb; highlighting the importance of understanding the mix of pollutants in this area. In addition to presenting results from this study, the challenges in modelling will be highlighted. These challenges include very few or no measurements that are important to understand, and then accurately simulate, atmospheric chemistry (e.g. OH, PAN, SOA).

The persistence and challenges of homebirths: perspectives of traditional birth attendants in urban Kenya.

PubMed

Izugbara, Chimaraoke; Ezeh, Alex; Fotso, Jean-Christophe

2009-01-01

Through an analysis of focus group discussion data, we examine Kenyan traditional birth attendants' (TBAs) accounts of the persistence of homebirths and the key challenges they present. TBAs associated the continued demand for homebirths with the wide-ranging character and quality of their services. They did not consider their lack of formal training on matters of pregnancy and birthing to be a particular challenge to their work. Rather, they identified the non-cooperative and disrespectful attitudes of their counterparts in hospital settings as the most important issue. Further efforts are needed to make TBAs realize how much better their services could become if they adopted more modern ways of assisting in deliveries, unlearnt their belief in the superiority of their particular type of practice, and understood how their lack of formal training is a key issue.

Corrosion Challenges for the Oil and Gas Industry in the State of Qatar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnsen, Roy

In Qatar oil and gas has been produced from onshore fields in more than 70 years, while the first offshore field delivered its first crude oil in 1965. Due to the atmospheric conditions in Qatar with periodically high humidity, high chloride content, dust/sand combined with the temperature variations, external corrosion is a big treat to the installations and connecting infrastructure. Internal corrosion in tubing, piping and process systems is also a challenge due to high H2S content in the hydrocarbon mixture and exposure to corrosive aquifer water. To avoid corrosion different type of mitigations like application of coating, chemical treatment and material selection are important elements. This presentation will review the experiences with corrosion challenges for oil & gas installations in Qatar including some examples of corrosion failures that have been seen.

[Craniopharyngioma and Klinefelter syndrome during the pubertal transition: A diagnostic challenge].

PubMed

Mocarbel, Yamile; Arébalo de Cross, Graciela; Lebrethon, Marie C; Thiry, Albert; Beckersd, Albert; Valdes-Socin, Hernan

2017-04-01

Craniopharyngioma is the most common pituitary tumor in childhood. It can compromise the pubertal development because of its evolution or treatment. Syndrome of Klinefelter is the most common cause of hipergonadotrophic hypogonadism in males. The concomitant presentation of both entities is extremely low (1/109) and the pathophysiological association is questionned. We present the case of a 18-year-old Belgian patient. He had a diagnosis of craniopharyngioma in childhood and he presented with panhypopituitarism after radiotherapy and surgical treatment. At the age of 14, he started pubertal induction with gonadotropin therapy without clinical response. Asociación de craneofaringioma y síndrome de Klinefelter en la transición puberal: un desafío diagnóstico Craniopharyngioma and Klinefelter syndrome during the pubertal transition: A diagnostic challenge A genetic evaluation confirmed a homogeneous 47, XXY karyotype. Failure of exogenous gonadotropin therapy revealed the hidden association of primary and secondary hypogonadism, demonstrating the importance of the followup and a multidisciplinary approach in these patients. Sociedad Argentina de Pediatría.

Employment Experiences of Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Perspectives of Youth and Their Supervisors. Data Trends #102

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health, 2004

2004-01-01

"Data Trends" reports present summaries of research on mental health services for children and adolescents and their families. The article summarized in this "Data Trends" sought answers to several questions of central importance in understanding why maintaining employment is so challenging to these youth, and in designing transition programs and…

Does Community and Family Engagement Enhance Permanency for Children in Foster Care? Findings from an Evaluation of the Family-to-Family Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crampton, David S.; Usher, Charles L.; Wildfire, Judith B.; Webster, Daniel; Cuccaro-Alamin, Stephanie

2011-01-01

There is limited research assessing the effectiveness of family engagement for improving permanency for children. An important challenge is that randomized designs are not feasible for evaluating these practices because effective implementation of family engagement requires systemic change. Findings from a national evaluation are presented to…

Towards an Adolescent Friendly Methodology: Accessing the Authentic through Collective Reflection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keeffe, Mary; Andrews, Dorothy

2015-01-01

The re-emergence of student voice presents a challenge to schools and researchers to become more responsive to the voice of adolescents in education and in research. However, the poor articulation of the nature of student voice to date is confirmation of the complex and important nature of the personal advocacy and human agency that is involved in…

A Perceptual Study of Girls Education, Its Factors and Challenges in South Kashmir

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gul, Showkeen Bilal Ahmad; Khan, Zebun Nisa

2015-01-01

Education is accepted as an important tool for human development in all dimensions of life, it is at same level of significance for boys and girls. Despite this recognition, girls are one of the most vulnerable groups, deprived of education by various socio-cultural, economical and political reasons. The present study is a perceptual study, which…

Student Perceptions of Social Presence and Attitudes toward Social Media: Results of a Cross-Sectional Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leafman, Joan S.; Mathieson, Kathleen M.; Ewing, Helen

2013-01-01

Establishing and maintaining social presence in an online environment that depends on a learning management system (LMS) can be challenging. While students believe social presence to be important, LMS platforms have yet to discover a way to deliver this expectation. The growth of social media tools presents opportunities outside an LMS to foster…

Phased Arrays of Ground and Airborne Mobile Terminals for Satellite Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, John

1996-01-01

Phased array antenna is beginning to play an important in the arena of mobile/satellite communications. Two examples of mobile terminal phased arrays will be shown. Their technical background, challenges, and cost drivers will be discussed. A possible solution to combat some of the deficiencies of the conventional phased array by exploiting the phased reflectarray technology will be briefly presented.

Multimodality Imaging in Cardiac Sarcoidosis: Is There a Winner?

PubMed Central

Perez, Irving E.; Garcia, Mario J.; Taub, Cynthia C.

2016-01-01

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disease of unknown cause that can affect the heart. Cardiac sarcoidosis may be present in as many as 25% of patients with systemic sarcoidosis, and it is frequently underdiagnosed. The early and accurate diagnosis of myocardial involvement is challenging. Advanced imaging techniques play important roles in the diagnosis and management of patients with cardiac sarcoidosis. PMID:25784137

Genetic conservation and management of the California endemic, Torrey pine ( Pinus torreyana Parry): Implications of genetic rescue in a genetically depauperate species

Treesearch

Jill A. Hamilton; Raphaël Royauté; Jessica W. Wright; Paul Hodgskiss; F. Thomas Ledig

2017-01-01

Rare species present a challenge under changing environmental conditions as the genetic consequences of rarity may limit species ability to adapt to environmental change. To evaluate the evolutionary potential of a rare species, we assessed variation in traits important to plant fitness using multigenerational common garden experiments. Torrey pine, ...

Guidelines for reporting methodological challenges and evaluating potential bias in dementia research

PubMed Central

Weuve, Jennifer; Proust-Lima, Cécile; Power, Melinda C.; Gross, Alden L.; Hofer, Scott M.; Thiébaut, Rodolphe; Chêne, Geneviève; Glymour, M. Maria; Dufouil, Carole

2015-01-01

Clinical and population research on dementia and related neurologic conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, faces several unique methodological challenges. Progress to identify preventive and therapeutic strategies rests on valid and rigorous analytic approaches, but the research literature reflects little consensus on “best practices.” We present findings from a large scientific working group on research methods for clinical and population studies of dementia, which identified five categories of methodological challenges as follows: (1) attrition/sample selection, including selective survival; (2) measurement, including uncertainty in diagnostic criteria, measurement error in neuropsychological assessments, and practice or retest effects; (3) specification of longitudinal models when participants are followed for months, years, or even decades; (4) time-varying measurements; and (5) high-dimensional data. We explain why each challenge is important in dementia research and how it could compromise the translation of research findings into effective prevention or care strategies. We advance a checklist of potential sources of bias that should be routinely addressed when reporting dementia research. PMID:26397878

Genome-wide analysis of alternative splicing during dendritic cell response to a bacterial challenge.

PubMed

Rodrigues, Raquel; Grosso, Ana Rita; Moita, Luís

2013-01-01

The immune system relies on the plasticity of its components to produce appropriate responses to frequent environmental challenges. Dendritic cells (DCs) are critical initiators of innate immunity and orchestrate the later and more specific adaptive immunity. The generation of diversity in transcriptional programs is central for effective immune responses. Alternative splicing is widely considered a key generator of transcriptional and proteomic complexity, but its role has been rarely addressed systematically in immune cells. Here we used splicing-sensitive arrays to assess genome-wide gene- and exon-level expression profiles in human DCs in response to a bacterial challenge. We find widespread alternative splicing events and splicing factor transcriptional signatures induced by an E. coli challenge to human DCs. Alternative splicing acts in concert with transcriptional modulation, but these two mechanisms of gene regulation affect primarily distinct functional gene groups. Alternative splicing is likely to have an important role in DC immunobiology because it affects genes known to be involved in DC development, endocytosis, antigen presentation and cell cycle arrest.

Crumbs: Lightweight Daily Food Challenges to Promote Engagement and Mindfulness

PubMed Central

Epstein, Daniel A.; Cordeiro, Felicia; Fogarty, James; Hsieh, Gary; Munson, Sean A.

2017-01-01

Many people struggle with efforts to make healthy behavior changes, such as healthy eating. Several existing approaches promote healthy eating, but present high barriers and yield limited engagement. As a lightweight alternative approach to promoting mindful eating, we introduce and examine crumbs: daily food challenges completed by consuming one food that meets the challenge. We examine crumbs through developing and deploying the iPhone application Food4Thought. In a 3-week field study with 61 participants, crumbs supported engagement and mindfulness while offering opportunities to learn about food. Our 2×2 study compared nutrition versus non-nutrition crumbs coupled with social versus non-social features. Nutrition crumbs often felt more purposeful to participants, but non-nutrition crumbs increased mindfulness more than nutrition crumbs. Social features helped sustain engagement and were important for engagement with non-nutrition crumbs. Social features also enabled learning about the variety of foods other people use to meet a challenge. PMID:28503679

Children with chronic continence problems: the challenges for families.

PubMed

Erickson, David V; Ray, Lynne D

2004-01-01

For families who are raising children with myelomeningocele, bowel and bladder incontinence presents unique challenges for everyday life. The Parenting and Childhood Chronicity model is used to describe the work of raising a child with a chronic condition in 6 areas, including medical care, adapted parenting, dealing with the systems, caring for siblings, maintaining relationships, and personal coping (keeping yourself going). This article provides an overview of the physiologic and developmental challenges inherent in this neural tube defect and illustrates the work that is involved in the child's care and the challenges of maintaining a balance in family life. Clinical implications are discussed, including the setting of appropriate expectations, providing parents with accurate information, ensuring that a focus on continence is not at the expense of other important aspects of the child's functioning, and supporting parents in their interaction with the school system. The medical team, consisting of nursing, urology, nephrology, and psychology working together, can be a strong support for families.

Capacitive Feedthroughs for Medical Implants

PubMed Central

Grob, Sven; Tass, Peter A.; Hauptmann, Christian

2016-01-01

Important technological advances in the last decades paved the road to a great success story for electrically stimulating medical implants, including cochlear implants or implants for deep brain stimulation. However, there are still many challenges in reducing side effects and improving functionality and comfort for the patient. Two of the main challenges are the wish for smaller implants on one hand, and the demand for more stimulation channels on the other hand. But these two aims lead to a conflict of interests. This paper presents a novel design for an electrical feedthrough, the so called capacitive feedthrough, which allows both reducing the size, and increasing the number of included channels. Capacitive feedthroughs combine the functionality of a coupling capacitor and an electrical feedthrough within one and the same structure. The paper also discusses the progress and the challenges of the first produced demonstrators. The concept bears a high potential in improving current feedthrough technology, and could be applied on all kinds of electrical medical implants, even if its implementation might be challenging. PMID:27660602

Capacitive Feedthroughs for Medical Implants.

PubMed

Grob, Sven; Tass, Peter A; Hauptmann, Christian

2016-01-01

Important technological advances in the last decades paved the road to a great success story for electrically stimulating medical implants, including cochlear implants or implants for deep brain stimulation. However, there are still many challenges in reducing side effects and improving functionality and comfort for the patient. Two of the main challenges are the wish for smaller implants on one hand, and the demand for more stimulation channels on the other hand. But these two aims lead to a conflict of interests. This paper presents a novel design for an electrical feedthrough, the so called capacitive feedthrough, which allows both reducing the size, and increasing the number of included channels. Capacitive feedthroughs combine the functionality of a coupling capacitor and an electrical feedthrough within one and the same structure. The paper also discusses the progress and the challenges of the first produced demonstrators. The concept bears a high potential in improving current feedthrough technology, and could be applied on all kinds of electrical medical implants, even if its implementation might be challenging.

Intracystic breast carcinoma. An important differential diagnosis in postmenopausal patients presenting with a rapidly growing breast cyst. Management and literature review.

PubMed

Salemis, Nikolaos S

2018-03-16

Intracystic breast carcinoma is a rare clinical entity accounting for 0.5-2% of all breast cancers. It represents a distinctive clinical form rather a histological subtype of breast cancer and can either be in situ or invasive tumor. We herein describe a rare case of intracystic breast carcinoma arising from the wall of a cyst in a postmenopausal patient, who presented with a rapidly growing complex breast cyst. Diagnostic evaluation and management of the patient are discussed along with a review of the literature. Complex breast cysts may represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. An underlying malignancy has been reported in 21-31% of the cases. Preoperative diagnosis is challenging. Complex breast cysts with thick wall, thick inner septations, and intracystic solid components should undergo histological evaluation in order to rule out an underlying malignancy. The cytological analysis may be inconclusive. Ultrasound-guided biopsy is the diagnostic modality of choice. The correlation of clinical features, with imaging and histopathological findings is very important for the optimal treatment. In cases of discordance, a complete surgical excision is necessary with careful assessment of the extent of the disease and appropriate treatment.

The importance of living botanical collections for plant biology and the “next generation” of evo-devo research

PubMed Central

Dosmann, Michael; Groover, Andrew

2012-01-01

Living botanical collections include germplasm repositories, long-term experimental plantings, and botanical gardens. We present here a series of vignettes to illustrate the central role that living collections have played in plant biology research, including evo-devo research. Looking toward the future, living collections will become increasingly important in support of future evo-devo research. The driving force behind this trend is nucleic acid sequencing technologies, which are rapidly becoming more powerful and cost-effective, and which can be applied to virtually any species. This allows for more extensive sampling, including non-model organisms with unique biological features and plants from diverse phylogenetic positions. Importantly, a major challenge for sequencing-based evo-devo research is to identify, access, and propagate appropriate plant materials. We use a vignette of the ongoing 1,000 Transcriptomes project as an example of the challenges faced by such projects. We conclude by identifying some of the pinch points likely to be encountered by future evo-devo researchers, and how living collections can help address them. PMID:22737158

Common pediatric head and neck congenital/developmental anomalies.

PubMed

LaPlante, Justin K; Pierson, Nicholas S; Hedlund, Gary L

2015-01-01

Pediatric head and neck neuroradiology is a broad and complex topic. This article focuses on several of the common and sometimes challenging pediatric head and neck congenital/developmental anomalies physicians may encounter in clinical practice. Although some diagnoses may be evident on physical examination, others may present a diagnostic dilemma. Patients may initially present with a variety of secondary findings. Imaging serves an important role in making a diagnosis, guiding referral, and in some cases even providing treatment options through interventional radiology. Key diagnostic criteria and critical points of interest for each diagnosis are presented. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The leadership principles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and their relevance to surgery.

PubMed Central

Brunicardi, F. Charles; Cotton, Ronald T.; Cole, George W.; Martinez, George

2007-01-01

In order to face the challenges in healthcare this century, it is essential that surgeons understand modern leadership principles. One of the greatest leaders in history was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who provides a shining example of level-5 leadership for us to study. The study of leadership principles of great leaders can provide us with practical methods of conflict resolution as well as inspiration to keep us engaged and focused. As leaders of the medical community, we face numerous challenges, including discovering and implementing new treatments for disease, providing care for the indigent, overcoming educational challenges such as incorporating the ACGME Core Competencies into our surgical training and promoting diversity in education. Achieving these goals is often hindered by the environment in which we labor-nearly 50 million are uninsured, the rising cost of medical care is currently at 16% of the GNP, and reimbursement rates are falling-which makes the practice of surgery a significant challenge. Effective leadership will be paramount in achieving these goals. In this editorial, which summarizes a presentation given to the Surgical Section of the annual National Medical Association meeting, five important leadership principles that are important for surgeons have been selected and related to the outstanding leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Images Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 PMID:17304963

Moving beyond regression techniques in cardiovascular risk prediction: applying machine learning to address analytic challenges.

PubMed

Goldstein, Benjamin A; Navar, Ann Marie; Carter, Rickey E

2017-06-14

Risk prediction plays an important role in clinical cardiology research. Traditionally, most risk models have been based on regression models. While useful and robust, these statistical methods are limited to using a small number of predictors which operate in the same way on everyone, and uniformly throughout their range. The purpose of this review is to illustrate the use of machine-learning methods for development of risk prediction models. Typically presented as black box approaches, most machine-learning methods are aimed at solving particular challenges that arise in data analysis that are not well addressed by typical regression approaches. To illustrate these challenges, as well as how different methods can address them, we consider trying to predicting mortality after diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. We use data derived from our institution's electronic health record and abstract data on 13 regularly measured laboratory markers. We walk through different challenges that arise in modelling these data and then introduce different machine-learning approaches. Finally, we discuss general issues in the application of machine-learning methods including tuning parameters, loss functions, variable importance, and missing data. Overall, this review serves as an introduction for those working on risk modelling to approach the diffuse field of machine learning. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.

Ethical challenges with welfare technology: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Hofmann, Bjørn

2013-06-01

Demographical changes in high income counties will increase the need of health care services but reduce the number of people to provide them. Welfare technology is launched as an important measure to meet this challenge. As with all types of technologies we must explore its ethical challenges. A literature review reveals that welfare technology is a generic term for a heterogeneous group of technologies and there are few studies documenting their efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency. Many kinds of welfare technology break with the traditional organization of health care. It introduces technology in new areas, such as in private homes, and it provides new functions, e.g. offering social stimuli and entertainment. At the same time welfare technology is developed for groups that traditionally have not been extensive technology users. This raises a series of ethical questions with regard to the development and use of welfare technologies, which are presented in this review. The main challenges identified are: (1) Alienation when advanced technology is used at home, (2) conflicting goals, as welfare technologies have many stakeholders with several ends, (3) respecting confidentiality and privacy when third-party actors are involved, (4) guaranteeing equal access and just distribution, and (5) handling conflicts between instrumental rationality and care in terms of respecting dignity and vulnerability. Addressing these issues is important for developing and implementing welfare technologies in a morally acceptable manner.

Clinical Trials in Veterinary Medicine: A New Era Brings New Challenges.

PubMed

Oyama, M A; Ellenberg, S S; Shaw, P A

2017-07-01

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are among the most rigorous ways to determine the causal relationship between an intervention and important clinical outcome. Their use in veterinary medicine has become increasingly common, and as is often the case, with progress comes new challenges. Randomized clinical trials yield important answers, but results from these studies can be unhelpful or even misleading unless the study design and reporting are carried out with care. Herein, we offer some perspective on several emerging challenges associated with RCTs, including use of composite endpoints, the reporting of different forms of risk, analysis in the presence of missing data, and issues of reporting and safety assessment. These topics are explored in the context of previously reported veterinary internal medicine studies as well as through illustrative examples with hypothetical data sets. Moreover, many insights germane to RCTs in veterinary internal medicine can be drawn from the wealth of experience with RCTs in the human medical field. A better understanding of the issues presented here can help improve the design, interpretation, and reporting of veterinary RCTs. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.

Challenges in the management of rheumatoid arthritis in developing countries.

PubMed

Mody, Girish M; Cardiel, Mario H

2008-08-01

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease which is characterized by chronic inflammation of the joints. Patients experience chronic pain and suffering, and increasing disability; without treatment, life expectancy is reduced. It is imperative to identify patients early so that control of inflammation can prevent joint destruction and disability. Although great advances have been made in the developed nations, early diagnosis remains a great challenge for developing countries during the Bone and Joint Decade (2000-2010) and beyond. Developing countries face important and competitive social, economic, health- and poverty-related issues, and this frequently results in chronic diseases such as RA being forgotten in health priorities when urgent health needs are considered in an environment with poor education and scarce resources. Epidemiological studies in developing countries show a lower but still important prevalence in different regions when compared to that in Caucasians. It seems that the severity of RA varies among different ethnic groups, and probably starts at a younger age in developing countries. Practising rheumatologists in these regions need to take into account several important problems that include suboptimal undergraduate education, inadequate diagnosis, late referrals, lack of human and technical resources, poor access to rheumatologists, and some deficiencies in drug availability. Infections are very important in RA, and special care is needed in developing countries as some endemic infections include tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. These infections should be carefully taken into account when medications are prescribed and monitored. This chapter presents published information covering the main challenges faced in these environments, and suggests strategies to overcome these important problems in RA management.

Workstations and gloveboxes for space station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Junge, Maria

1990-01-01

Lockheed Missiles and Space Company is responsible for designing, developing, and building the Life Sciences Glovebox, the Laboratory Sciences Workbench, and the Maintenance Workstation plus 16 other pieces of equipment for the U.S. Laboratory Module of the Space Station Freedom. The Laboratory Sciences Workbench and the Maintenance Workstation were functionally combined into a double structure to save weight and volume which are important commodities on the Space Station Freedom. The total volume of these items is approximately 180 cubic feet. These workstations and the glovebox will be delivered to NASA in 1994 and will be launched in 1995. The very long lifetime of 30 years presents numerous technical challenges in the areas of design and reliability. The equipment must be easy to use by international crew members and also easy to maintain on-orbit. For example, seals must be capable of on-orbit changeout and reverification. The stringent contamination requirements established for Space Station Freedom equipment also complicate the zero gravity glovebox design. The current contamination control system for the Life Sciences Glovebox and the Maintenance Workstation is presented. The requirement for the Life Sciences Glovebox to safely contain toxic, reactive, and radioactive materials presents challenges. Trade studies, CAD simulation techniques and design challenges are discussed to illustrate the current baseline conceptual designs. Areas which need input from the user community are identified.

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

Bhatia, Harsh

This dissertation presents research on addressing some of the contemporary challenges in the analysis of vector fields—an important type of scientific data useful for representing a multitude of physical phenomena, such as wind flow and ocean currents. In particular, new theories and computational frameworks to enable consistent feature extraction from vector fields are presented. One of the most fundamental challenges in the analysis of vector fields is that their features are defined with respect to reference frames. Unfortunately, there is no single “correct” reference frame for analysis, and an unsuitable frame may cause features of interest to remain undetected, thusmore » creating serious physical consequences. This work develops new reference frames that enable extraction of localized features that other techniques and frames fail to detect. As a result, these reference frames objectify the notion of “correctness” of features for certain goals by revealing the phenomena of importance from the underlying data. An important consequence of using these local frames is that the analysis of unsteady (time-varying) vector fields can be reduced to the analysis of sequences of steady (timeindependent) vector fields, which can be performed using simpler and scalable techniques that allow better data management by accessing the data on a per-time-step basis. Nevertheless, the state-of-the-art analysis of steady vector fields is not robust, as most techniques are numerical in nature. The residing numerical errors can violate consistency with the underlying theory by breaching important fundamental laws, which may lead to serious physical consequences. This dissertation considers consistency as the most fundamental characteristic of computational analysis that must always be preserved, and presents a new discrete theory that uses combinatorial representations and algorithms to provide consistency guarantees during vector field analysis along with the uncertainty visualization of unavoidable discretization errors. Together, the two main contributions of this dissertation address two important concerns regarding feature extraction from scientific data: correctness and precision. The work presented here also opens new avenues for further research by exploring more-general reference frames and more-sophisticated domain discretizations.« less

Research Stakeholders' Views on Benefits and Challenges for Public Health Research Data Sharing in Kenya: The Importance of Trust and Social Relations.

PubMed

Jao, Irene; Kombe, Francis; Mwalukore, Salim; Bull, Susan; Parker, Michael; Kamuya, Dorcas; Molyneux, Sassy; Marsh, Vicki

2015-01-01

There is increasing recognition of the importance of sharing research data within the international scientific community, but also of the ethical and social challenges this presents, particularly in the context of structural inequities and varied capacity in international research. Public involvement is essential to building locally responsive research policies, including on data sharing, but little research has involved stakeholders from low-to-middle income countries. Between January and June 2014, a qualitative study was conducted in Kenya involving sixty stakeholders with varying experiences of research in a deliberative process to explore views on benefits and challenges in research data sharing. In-depth interviews and extended small group discussions based on information sharing and facilitated debate were used to collect data. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, and charting flow and dynamics in debates. The findings highlight both the opportunities and challenges of communicating about this complex and relatively novel topic for many stakeholders. For more and less research-experienced stakeholders, ethical research data sharing is likely to rest on the development and implementation of appropriate trust-building processes, linked to local perceptions of benefits and challenges. The central nature of trust is underpinned by uncertainties around who might request what data, for what purpose and when. Key benefits perceived in this consultation were concerned with the promotion of public health through science, with legitimate beneficiaries defined differently by different groups. Important challenges were risks to the interests of study participants, communities and originating researchers through stigmatisation, loss of privacy, impacting autonomy and unfair competition, including through forms of intentional and unintentional 'misuse' of data. Risks were also seen for science. Given background structural inequities in much international research, building trust in this low-to-middle income setting includes ensuring that the interests of study participants, primary communities and originating researchers will be promoted as far as possible, as well as protected. Important ways of building trust in data sharing include involving the public in policy development and implementation, promoting scientific collaborations around data sharing and building close partnerships between researchers and government health authorities to provide checks and balances on data sharing, and promote near and long-term translational benefits.

Research Stakeholders’ Views on Benefits and Challenges for Public Health Research Data Sharing in Kenya: The Importance of Trust and Social Relations

PubMed Central

Jao, Irene; Kombe, Francis; Mwalukore, Salim; Bull, Susan; Parker, Michael; Kamuya, Dorcas; Molyneux, Sassy; Marsh, Vicki

2015-01-01

Background There is increasing recognition of the importance of sharing research data within the international scientific community, but also of the ethical and social challenges this presents, particularly in the context of structural inequities and varied capacity in international research. Public involvement is essential to building locally responsive research policies, including on data sharing, but little research has involved stakeholders from low-to-middle income countries. Methods Between January and June 2014, a qualitative study was conducted in Kenya involving sixty stakeholders with varying experiences of research in a deliberative process to explore views on benefits and challenges in research data sharing. In-depth interviews and extended small group discussions based on information sharing and facilitated debate were used to collect data. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, and charting flow and dynamics in debates. Findings The findings highlight both the opportunities and challenges of communicating about this complex and relatively novel topic for many stakeholders. For more and less research-experienced stakeholders, ethical research data sharing is likely to rest on the development and implementation of appropriate trust-building processes, linked to local perceptions of benefits and challenges. The central nature of trust is underpinned by uncertainties around who might request what data, for what purpose and when. Key benefits perceived in this consultation were concerned with the promotion of public health through science, with legitimate beneficiaries defined differently by different groups. Important challenges were risks to the interests of study participants, communities and originating researchers through stigmatisation, loss of privacy, impacting autonomy and unfair competition, including through forms of intentional and unintentional 'misuse' of data. Risks were also seen for science. Discussion Given background structural inequities in much international research, building trust in this low-to-middle income setting includes ensuring that the interests of study participants, primary communities and originating researchers will be promoted as far as possible, as well as protected. Important ways of building trust in data sharing include involving the public in policy development and implementation, promoting scientific collaborations around data sharing and building close partnerships between researchers and government health authorities to provide checks and balances on data sharing, and promote near and long-term translational benefits. PMID:26331716

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review.

PubMed

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M

2014-10-01

Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques.

Quantifying factors for the success of stratified medicine.

PubMed

Trusheim, Mark R; Burgess, Breon; Hu, Sean Xinghua; Long, Theresa; Averbuch, Steven D; Flynn, Aiden A; Lieftucht, Alfons; Mazumder, Abhijit; Milloy, Judy; Shaw, Peter M; Swank, David; Wang, Jian; Berndt, Ernst R; Goodsaid, Federico; Palmer, Michael C

2011-10-31

Co-developing a drug with a diagnostic to create a stratified medicine - a therapy that is targeted to a specific patient population on the basis of a clinical characteristic such as a biomarker that predicts treatment response - presents challenges for product developers, regulators, payers and physicians. With the aim of developing a shared framework and tools for addressing these challenges, here we present an analysis using data from case studies in oncology and Alzheimer's disease, coupled with integrated computational modelling of clinical outcomes and developer economic value, to quantify the effects of decisions related to key issues such as the design of clinical trials. This illustrates how such analyses can aid the coordination of diagnostic and drug development, and the selection of optimal development and commercialization strategies. It also illustrates the impact of the interplay of these factors on the economic feasibility of stratified medicine, which has important implications for public policy makers.

Silver Nanoparticles: Technological Advances, Societal Impacts, and Metrological Challenges

PubMed Central

Calderón-Jiménez, Bryan; Johnson, Monique E.; Montoro Bustos, Antonio R.; Murphy, Karen E.; Winchester, Michael R.; Vega Baudrit, José R.

2017-01-01

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) show different physical and chemical properties compared to their macroscale analogs. This is primarily due to their small size and, consequently, the exceptional surface area of these materials. Presently, advances in the synthesis, stabilization, and production of AgNPs have fostered a new generation of commercial products and intensified scientific investigation within the nanotechnology field. The use of AgNPs in commercial products is increasing and impacts on the environment and human health are largely unknown. This article discusses advances in AgNP production and presents an overview of the commercial, societal, and environmental impacts of this emerging nanoparticle (NP), and nanomaterials in general. Finally, we examine the challenges associated with AgNP characterization, discuss the importance of the development of NP reference materials (RMs) and explore their role as a metrological mechanism to improve the quality and comparability of NP measurements. PMID:28271059

Silver nanoparticles: technological advances, societal impacts, and metrological challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calderón-Jiménez, Bryan; Johnson, Monique E.; Montoro Bustos, Antonio R.; Murphy, Karen E.; Winchester, Michael R.; Vega Baudrit, José R.

2017-02-01

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) show different physical and chemical properties compared to their macroscale analogs. This is primarily due to their small size and, consequently, the exceptional surface area of these materials. Presently, advances in the synthesis, stabilization, and production of AgNPs have fostered a new generation of commercial products and intensified scientific investigation within the nanotechnology field. The use of AgNPs in commercial products is increasing and impacts on the environment and human health are largely unknown. This article discusses advances in AgNP production and presents an overview of the commercial, societal, and environmental impacts of this emerging nanoparticle (NP), and nanomaterials in general. Finally, we examine the challenges associated with AgNP characterization, discuss the importance of the development of NP reference materials (RMs) and explore their role as a metrological mechanism to improve the quality and comparability of NP measurements.

Design of a rear anamorphic attachment for digital cinematography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cifuentes, A.; Valles, A.

2008-09-01

Digital taking systems for HDTV and now for the film industry present a particularly challenging design problem for rear adapters in general. The thick 3-channel prism block in the camera provides an important challenge in the design. In this paper the design of a 1.33x rear anamorphic attachment is presented. The new design departs significantly from the traditional Bravais condition due to the thick dichroic prism block. Design strategies for non-rotationally symmetric systems and fields of view are discussed. Anamorphic images intrinsically have a lower contrast and less resolution than their rotationally symmetric counterparts, therefore proper image evaluation must be considered. The interpretation of the traditional image quality methods applied to anamorphic images is also discussed in relation to the design process. The final design has a total track less than 50 mm, maintaining the telecentricity of the digital prime lens and taking full advantage of the f/1.4 prism block.

The MPGD-based photon detectors for the upgrade of COMPASS RICH-1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexeev, M.; Azevedo, C. D. R.; Birsa, R.; Bradamante, F.; Bressan, A.; Büchele, M.; Chiosso, M.; Ciliberti, P.; Dalla Torre, S.; Dasgupta, S.; Denisov, O.; Finger, M.; Finger, M.; Fischer, H.; Gobbo, B.; Gregori, M.; Hamar, G.; Herrmann, F.; Levorato, S.; Maggiora, A.; Makke, A.; Martin, A.; Menon, G.; Steiger, K.; Novy, J.; Panzieri, D.; Pereira, F. A. B.; Santos, C. A.; Sbrizzai, G.; Schopferer, S.; Slunecka, M.; Steiger, L.; Sulc, M.; Tessarotto, F.; Veloso, J. F. C. A.

2017-12-01

The RICH-1 Detector of the COMPASS experiment at CERN SPS has undergone an important upgrade for the 2016 physics run. Four new photon detectors, based on Micro Pattern Gaseous Detector technology and covering a total active area larger than 1.2 m2 have replaced the previously used MWPC-based photon detectors. The upgrade answers the challenging efficiency and stability quest for the new phase of the COMPASS spectrometer physics programme. The new detector architecture consists in a hybrid MPGD combination of two Thick Gas Electron Multipliers and a MicroMegas stage. Signals, extracted from the anode pad by capacitive coupling, are read-out by analog F-E based on the APV25 chip. The main aspects of the COMPASS RICH-1 photon detectors upgrade are presented focussing on detector design, engineering aspects, mass production, the quality assessment and assembly challenges of the MPGD components. The status of the detector commissioning is also presented.

Present situation and challenges of vaccinations for overseas travelers from Japan.

PubMed

Hamada, Atsuo; Fukushima, Shinji

2015-06-01

The vaccination rates of Japanese people travelling abroad are still relatively low compared to travelers from Europe and the U.S. The following 3 causes are considered to contribute to the low vaccination rates among Japanese. First point is the lack of attention to the prevention of diseases during overseas travel in Japanese people. Second point is the limited number of healthcare facilities where Japanese overseas travelers can receive vaccinations. Third, many vaccines administered to travelers are still unapproved in Japan. However, there appear to be recent developments in each matter. With these social changes, the vaccination rate should be improved by disseminating recognition of the importance of the travel medicine in Japan. This report summarizes the present situation of vaccination of Japanese overseas travelers and discusses the challenges to improving vaccination rates. Copyright © 2015 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rock climbing: A local-global algorithm to compute minimum energy and minimum free energy pathways.

PubMed

Templeton, Clark; Chen, Szu-Hua; Fathizadeh, Arman; Elber, Ron

2017-10-21

The calculation of minimum energy or minimum free energy paths is an important step in the quantitative and qualitative studies of chemical and physical processes. The computations of these coordinates present a significant challenge and have attracted considerable theoretical and computational interest. Here we present a new local-global approach to study reaction coordinates, based on a gradual optimization of an action. Like other global algorithms, it provides a path between known reactants and products, but it uses a local algorithm to extend the current path in small steps. The local-global approach does not require an initial guess to the path, a major challenge for global pathway finders. Finally, it provides an exact answer (the steepest descent path) at the end of the calculations. Numerical examples are provided for the Mueller potential and for a conformational transition in a solvated ring system.

From Picas to Pixels: An Astro 101 e-Book

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shawl, S.; Byrd, G.; Deustua, S.; LoPresto, M.

2015-11-01

What happens when a publisher discontinues publishing a textbook? That was the dilemma we were presented. Given that we know we have a high quality product that can contribute to student understanding of science in general and astronomy in particular, and that significant efforts had already been expended on the project, we decided to self-publish, even knowing that the challenges, and the gamble in terms of time and personal expense, were great. Self publication provides an opportunity to produce an updated edition at great cost savings to students— something faculty often say is an important consideration in their choice of a book. We discuss the many significant challenges, the greatest of which is marketing. We present the end result: a completed publication in various e-book formats and with links to the Discovering Astronomy Concept Videos made for the book (Figure 1). Details of the book, a sample chapter, and other information are available online.

Reducing myocardial infarct size: challenges and future opportunities

PubMed Central

Bulluck, Heerajnarain; Yellon, Derek M; Hausenloy, Derek J

2016-01-01

Despite prompt reperfusion by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), the mortality and morbidity of patients presenting with an acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remain significant with 9% death and 10% heart failure at 1 year. In these patients, one important neglected therapeutic target is ‘myocardial reperfusion injury’, a term given to the cardiomyocyte death and microvascular dysfunction which occurs on reperfusing ischaemic myocardium. A number of cardioprotective therapies (both mechanical and pharmacological), which are known to target myocardial reperfusion injury, have been shown to reduce myocardial infarct (MI) size in small proof-of-concept clinical studies—however, being able to demonstrate improved clinical outcomes has been elusive. In this article, we review the challenges facing clinical cardioprotection research, and highlight future therapies for reducing MI size and preventing heart failure in patients presenting with STEMI at risk of myocardial reperfusion injury. PMID:26674987

Endoport-Assisted Microsurgical Treatment of a Ruptured Periventricular Aneurysm

PubMed Central

Chen, Ching-Jen; Caruso, James; Buell, Thomas; Crowley, R. Webster; Liu, Kenneth C.

2016-01-01

Background and Importance. Ruptured periventricular aneurysms in patients with moyamoya disease represent challenging pathologies. The most common methods of treatment include endovascular embolization and microsurgical clipping. However, rare cases arise in which the location and anatomy of the aneurysm make these treatment modalities particularly challenging. Clinical Presentation. We report a case of a 34-year-old female with moyamoya disease who presented with intraventricular hemorrhage. CT angiography and digital subtraction angiography revealed an aneurysm located in the wall of the atrium of the right lateral ventricle. Distal endovascular access was not possible, and embolization risked the sacrifice of arteries supplying critical brain parenchyma. Using the BrainPath endoport system, the aneurysm was able to be accessed. Since the fusiform architecture of the aneurysm prevented clip placement, the aneurysm was ligated with electrocautery. Conclusion. We demonstrate the feasibility of endoport-assisted approach for minimally invasive access and treatment of uncommon, distally located aneurysms. PMID:27195160

Silver Nanoparticles: Technological Advances, Societal Impacts, and Metrological Challenges.

PubMed

Calderón-Jiménez, Bryan; Johnson, Monique E; Montoro Bustos, Antonio R; Murphy, Karen E; Winchester, Michael R; Vega Baudrit, José R

2017-01-01

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) show different physical and chemical properties compared to their macroscale analogs. This is primarily due to their small size and, consequently, the exceptional surface area of these materials. Presently, advances in the synthesis, stabilization, and production of AgNPs have fostered a new generation of commercial products and intensified scientific investigation within the nanotechnology field. The use of AgNPs in commercial products is increasing and impacts on the environment and human health are largely unknown. This article discusses advances in AgNP production and presents an overview of the commercial, societal, and environmental impacts of this emerging nanoparticle (NP), and nanomaterials in general. Finally, we examine the challenges associated with AgNP characterization, discuss the importance of the development of NP reference materials (RMs) and explore their role as a metrological mechanism to improve the quality and comparability of NP measurements.

An Adaptive Sensor Mining Framework for Pervasive Computing Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rashidi, Parisa; Cook, Diane J.

Analyzing sensor data in pervasive computing applications brings unique challenges to the KDD community. The challenge is heightened when the underlying data source is dynamic and the patterns change. We introduce a new adaptive mining framework that detects patterns in sensor data, and more importantly, adapts to the changes in the underlying model. In our framework, the frequent and periodic patterns of data are first discovered by the Frequent and Periodic Pattern Miner (FPPM) algorithm; and then any changes in the discovered patterns over the lifetime of the system are discovered by the Pattern Adaptation Miner (PAM) algorithm, in order to adapt to the changing environment. This framework also captures vital context information present in pervasive computing applications, such as the startup triggers and temporal information. In this paper, we present a description of our mining framework and validate the approach using data collected in the CASAS smart home testbed.

Brush Seals for Improved Steam Turbine Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turnquist, Norman; Chupp, Ray; Baily, Fred; Burnett, Mark; Rivas, Flor; Bowsher, Aaron; Crudgington, Peter

2006-01-01

GE Energy has retrofitted brush seals into more than 19 operating steam turbines. Brush seals offer superior leakage control compared to labyrinth seals, owing to their compliant nature and ability to maintain very tight clearances to the rotating shaft. Seal designs have been established for steam turbines ranging in size from 12 MW to over 1200 MW, including fossil, nuclear, combined-cycle and industrial applications. Steam turbines present unique design challenges that must be addressed to ensure that the potential performance benefits of brush seals are realized. Brush seals can have important effects on the overall turbine system that must be taken into account to assure reliable operation. Subscale rig tests are instrumental to understanding seal behavior under simulated steam-turbine operating conditions, prior to installing brush seals in the field. This presentation discusses the technical challenges of designing brush seals for steam turbines; subscale testing; performance benefits of brush seals; overall system effects; and field applications.

The Arctic zone: possibilities and risks of development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sentsov, A.; Bolsunovskaya, Y.; Melnikovich, E.

2016-09-01

The authors analyze the Arctic region innovative possibilities from the perspective of political ideology and strategy. The Arctic region with its natural resources and high economic potential attracts many companies and it has become an important area of transnational development. At present, the Arctic region development is of great importance in terms of natural resource management and political system development. However, the most important development issue in the Arctic is a great risk of different countries’ competing interests in economic, political, and legal context. These are challenges for international partnership creating in the Arctic zone, Russian future model developing for the Arctic, and recognition of the Arctic as an important resource for the Russians. The Russian economic, military, and political expansion in the Arctic region has the potential to strengthen the national positions. The authors present interesting options for minimizing and eliminating political risks during the Arctic territories development and define an effective future planning model for the Russian Arctic.

Challenges in the global-scale quantification of permafrost changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gruber, S.

2012-12-01

Permafrost underlies much of Earth's surface and interacts with climate, land-surface phenomena and human systems. This presentation highlights heterogeneity and near-isothermal ground, two simple and well-known phenomena, as important challenges for investigating current and future states of permafrost. Heterogeneity, which can be introduced by e.g., topography, vegetation or subsurface material, is shown to be important for large parts of the global permafrost areas based on two proxies calculated from a global model of permafrost distribution. The model is based on a 1km DEM and NCEP-NCAR as well as CRU TS 2.0 air temperature data. Near-isothermal ground occurs when heat flow into a volume of ground material is accompanied by only a minute temperature change due to the dominance of latent heat transfer near 0°C. This causes our monitoring systems, which are to a large part based on temperature measurements, to lose much of their sensitivity as an instrument to measure permafrost changes. The importance of this is argued for based on (a) the long duration that soil columns are usually exposed to this effect, (b) the abundance of boreholes with temperatures close to 0°C based on the IPY-TSP data set, and (c) the global abundance and relative importance of ground near 0°C. The results presented indicated that systems and methods of gathering permafrost evidence and monitoring data need to better account for heterogeneity and isothermal ground in order to maintain long-term relevance, and that in large-area models sub-grid heterogeneity needs explicit attention.

Challenges of caring for children with mental disorders: Experiences and views of caregivers attending the outpatient clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam - Tanzania.

PubMed

Ambikile, Joel Semel; Outwater, Anne

2012-07-05

It is estimated that world-wide up to 20 % of children suffer from debilitating mental illness. Mental disorders that pose a significant concern include learning disorders, hyperkinetic disorders (ADHD), depression, psychosis, pervasive development disorders, attachment disorders, anxiety disorders, conduct disorder, substance abuse and eating disorders. Living with such children can be very stressful for caregivers in the family. Therefore, determination of challenges of living with these children is important in the process of finding ways to help or support caregivers to provide proper care for their children. The purpose of this study was to explore the psychological and emotional, social, and economic challenges that parents or guardians experience when caring for mentally ill children and what they do to address or deal with them. A qualitative study design using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions was applied. The study was conducted at the psychiatric unit of Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania. Two focus groups discussions (FGDs) and 8 in-depth interviews were conducted with caregivers who attended the psychiatric clinic with their children. Data analysis was done using content analysis. The study revealed psychological and emotional, social, and economic challenges caregivers endure while living with mentally ill children. Psychological and emotional challenges included being stressed by caring tasks and having worries about the present and future life of their children. They had feelings of sadness, and inner pain or bitterness due to the disturbing behaviour of the children. They also experienced some communication problems with their children due to their inability to talk. Social challenges were inadequate social services for their children, stigma, burden of caring task, lack of public awareness of mental illness, lack of social support, and problems with social life. The economic challenges were poverty, child care interfering with various income generating activities in the family, and extra expenses associated with the child's illness. Caregivers of mentally ill children experience various psychological and emotional, social, and economic challenges. Professional assistance, public awareness of mental illnesses in children, social support by the government, private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are important in addressing these challenges.

Measurement and testing of the acoustic properties of materials: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeqiri, Bajram; Scholl, Werner; Robinson, Stephen P.

2010-04-01

A review is presented of methods of measurement for a range of key acoustic properties of materials, spanning three application areas: airborne sound, underwater acoustics and ultrasound. The acoustic properties considered, primarily transmission loss (damping) and echo-reduction, are specifically important to the end application of any material. The state-of-the-art in measurement and likely future challenges are described in detail.

A field method for soil erosion measurements in agricultural and natural lands

Treesearch

Y.P. Hsieh; K.T. Grant; G.C. Bugna

2009-01-01

Soil erosion is one of the most important watershed processes in nature, yet quantifying it under field conditions remains a challenge. The lack of soil erosion field data is a major factor hindering our ability to predict soil erosion in a watershed. We present here the development of a simple and sensitive field method that quantifies soil erosion and the resulting...

Years of Challenge: The Impact of Demographic and Work Force Trends on Higher Education in the 1990s. A NACUBO Monograph.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, K. Scott; And Others

This report describes national demographic and work force trends that have important implications for institutions and presents recommended management strategies for the 1990s. Among the trends predicted for the next 10 years are the following: (1) a continuing reduction in the traditional 18-24 year-old college-going population; (2) the…

Fourteen Important Concepts Regarding Moral Distress.

PubMed

Howe, Edmund G

2017-01-01

I suggest that we may want to strive, over time, to change our present professional-cultural view, from one that sees an expression of moral distress as a threat, to a professional-cultural view that welcomes these challenges. Such an effort to better medicine would not only include dissenting clinicians, but patients (and their loved ones) as well. Copyright 2016 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

Trends and Innovations in Higher Education Reform: Worldwide, Latin America and in the Caribbean. Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.12.10

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Segrera, Francisco Lopez

2010-01-01

Universities in Latin America and in the Caribbean (LAC), and throughout the world, are facing one of the most challenging eras in their history. Globalization presents many important opportunities for higher education, but also poses serious problems and raises questions about how best to serve the common good. The traditional values of…

Living excellence: life after Magnet designation.

PubMed

Malloch, Kathy

2009-01-01

The achievement of Magnet recognition is the beginning of a new way of being as an organization. Strategies to support innovation leadership, value-based decision making, agility, sustainability of excellence, technology advancements, and lifelong learning are discussed within the framework of the Magnet organization. Behaviors and challenges of living the expectations of the Magnet organization are presented as opportunities to assist healthcare leaders in this important work.

Nappy (diaper) rash: what else besides irritant contact dermatitis?

PubMed

Carvalho, Vânia Oliveira; Robl, Renata; Uber, Marjorie; Abagge, Kerstin Taniguchi; Marinoni, Leide Parolin; Presa, Juliana Gomes Loyola

2015-08-01

Nappy (diaper) rash is a common cutaneous disorder of infancy, and diverse dermatoses may affect this region. To perform a differential diagnosis can be challenging. We present four cases to emphasise the importance of clinical diagnosis. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Retention and Attrition of Students in Higher Education: Challenges in Modern Times to What Works

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maher, Marguerite; Macallister, Helen

2013-01-01

Retention and attrition rates in higher education have long been a focus of research. This paper presents findings of a single case study, undertaken in a School of Education, which identify important strategies that have led to attrition of five to eight per cent, compared with 18 per cent cross the education sector in Australia (Department of…

SolEn for a Sustainable Future: Developing and Teaching a Multidisciplinary Course on Solar Energy to Further Sustainable Education in Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pullen, Sonja; Brinkert, Katharina

2014-01-01

The high demand for the integration of sustainable topics into university curricula presents new challenges for the way chemistry is traditionally taught. New teaching concepts are required that consider and connect different disciplines to achieve a higher student awareness of the importance of these topics for humanity, the environment, and the…

Average stand age from forest inventory plots does not describe historical fire regimes in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America

Treesearch

Jens T. Stevens; Hugh D. Safford; Malcolm P. North; Jeremy S. Fried; Andrew N. Gray; Peter M. Brown; Christopher R. Dolanc; Solomon Z. Dobrowski; Donald A. Falk; Calvin A. Farris; Jerry F. Franklin; Peter Z. Fulé; R. Keala Hagmann; Eric E. Knapp; Jay D. Miller; Douglas F. Smith; Thomas W. Swetnam; Alan H. Taylor; Julia A. Jones

2016-01-01

Quantifying historical fire regimes provides important information for managing contemporary forests. Historical fire frequency and severity can be estimated using several methods; each method has strengths and weaknesses and presents challenges for interpretation and verification. Recent efforts to quantify the timing of historical high-severity fire events in forests...

What Do Educators Know, Do, and Think about Behavior? An Analysis of Special and General Educators' Knowledge of Evidence-Based Behavioral Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beam, Heather D.; Mueller, Tracy Gershwin

2017-01-01

As we attempt to address the needs of students with challenging behaviors in today's classrooms, it is important to gain an understanding of general and special educators' knowledge, skills, and confidence about evidence-based behavior interventions. This article presents a national survey study of 277 special and general educators' reported…

Responding to Poverty and Its Complex Challenges: The Importance of Policy Fluency for Educational Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Peter; Pavlakis, Alexandra; Lac, Van; Hoffman, Deborah

2014-01-01

We present a case example of a school leader whose understanding of both in- and out-of-school policies and issues supported 2 students who experienced severe trauma. We describe some of the principal's key beliefs and practices that led to the development of a justice-oriented school, and then contextualize her work in a "social…

Higher Education Research Agendas for the Coming Decade: A UK Perspective on the Policy-Research Nexus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Middlehurst, Robin

2014-01-01

From the perspective of the UK, this paper addresses two main themes. It presents a higher education (HE) research agenda for the next decade linked to key policy challenges and reflects on the dynamics of the research-policy landscape. The paper begins by identifying four dimensions of the UK that will continue to be important as a focus for…

Rewards and challenges of family practice

PubMed Central

Manca, Donna P.; Varnhagen, Stanley; Brett-MacLean, Pamela; Allan, G. Michael; Szafran, Olga; Ausford, Allen; Rowntree, Carol; Rumzan, Ismael; Turner, Diana

2007-01-01

OBJECTIVE To identify and describe the important rewards and challenges that affect family physicians in Alberta. DESIGN Web-based qualitative study using the Delphi method. SETTING Province of Alberta. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-eight family physicians practising in Alberta. METHODS The study website presented a description of the project, ethical information, a calendar of events, and contact information. Delphi surveys and demographic questionnaires were password protected. Five rounds of surveys were conducted between May 2004 and January 2005. Participants were notified of each round of surveys and prompted by e–mail ifthey did not respond. FINDINGS Participants identified 8 key rewards and 9 key challenges. The research team identified 2 additional challenges that were validated by participants. In order of perceived importance, key rewards were providing diverse and comprehensive care; providing preventive care; having relationships with patients and their families; being an immersed witness to the human condition; providing continuity of care and receiving ongoing feedback; having flexibility and control of practice and job security; maintaining and acquiring skills and knowledge; teaching and sharing knowledge and gaining experience and mentoring. The challenges, in order of perceived need to be addressed, were workload and time pressures and meeting demands; the need to promote the rewards of family practice to those considering joining the profession; overhead and income inequities; getting respect from specialists; the need to ensure that the rewards identified are not adversely affected by primary care reform; lack of availability of specialists, procedures, tests, and other resources; running a practice as a small business; paperwork, telephone calls, and forms; maintaining and acquiring skills and knowledge; patients’ expectations; and medicolegal issues, insurance paperwork, and dealing with medical claims related to motor vehicle accidents. CONCLUSION The rewards and challenges reported by participants outline the positive and negative factors in family practice. The challenges provide a focus for further work. PMID:17872645

Packaging food for radiation processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Komolprasert, Vanee

2016-12-01

Irradiation can play an important role in reducing pathogens that cause food borne illness. Food processors and food safety experts prefer that food be irradiated after packaging to prevent post-irradiation contamination. Food irradiation has been studied for the last century. However, the implementation of irradiation on prepackaged food still faces challenges on how to assess the suitability and safety of these packaging materials used during irradiation. Irradiation is known to induce chemical changes to the food packaging materials resulting in the formation of breakdown products, so called radiolysis products (RP), which may migrate into foods and affect the safety of the irradiated foods. Therefore, the safety of the food packaging material (both polymers and adjuvants) must be determined to ensure safety of irradiated packaged food. Evaluating the safety of food packaging materials presents technical challenges because of the range of possible chemicals generated by ionizing radiation. These challenges and the U.S. regulations on food irradiation are discussed in this article.

Graphs, matrices, and the GraphBLAS: Seven good reasons

DOE PAGES

Kepner, Jeremy; Bader, David; Buluç, Aydın; ...

2015-01-01

The analysis of graphs has become increasingly important to a wide range of applications. Graph analysis presents a number of unique challenges in the areas of (1) software complexity, (2) data complexity, (3) security, (4) mathematical complexity, (5) theoretical analysis, (6) serial performance, and (7) parallel performance. Implementing graph algorithms using matrix-based approaches provides a number of promising solutions to these challenges. The GraphBLAS standard (istcbigdata.org/GraphBlas) is being developed to bring the potential of matrix based graph algorithms to the broadest possible audience. The GraphBLAS mathematically defines a core set of matrix-based graph operations that can be used to implementmore » a wide class of graph algorithms in a wide range of programming environments. This paper provides an introduction to the GraphBLAS and describes how the GraphBLAS can be used to address many of the challenges associated with analysis of graphs.« less

Towards Actionable Waterborne and Vector-borne Disease Forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaitchik, B. F.

2015-12-01

Numerous studies have shown that remote sensing (RS) and Earth System Models (ESM) can make important contributions to the analysis, monitoring and prediction of waterborne and vector-borne illnesses. Unsurprisingly, however, the great majority of these studies have been proof-of-concept investigations, and vanishingly few have been translated into operational and utilized disease early warning systems. To some extent this is simply an example of the general challenge of translating research findings into decision-relevant operations. Disease early warning, however, entails specific challenges that distinguish it from many other fields of environmental monitoring and prediction. Some of these challenges stem from predictability and data constraints, while others relate to the difficulty of communicating predictions and the particularly high price of false alarms. This presentation will review progress on the translation of analysis to decision making, identify avenues for enhancing forecast utility, and propose priorities for future RS and ESM investments in disease monitoring and prediction.

I Got 99 Problems, and eHealth Is One.

PubMed

Wass, Sofie; Vimarlund, Vivian

2017-01-01

Many eHealth initiatives are never implemented or merely end as pilot projects. Previous studies report that organisational, technical and human issues need to be properly taken into consideration if such initiatives are to be successful. The aim of this paper is to explore whether previously identified challenges within the area have remained in the Swedish eHealth setting or whether they have changed. After interviewing experts in eHealth, we present a classification of areas of concern. Recurrence of previously identified challenges was found, but also new issues were identified. The results of the study indicate that there is a need to consider organisational and semantic issues on both national and international levels. Legal and technical challenges still exist but it seems even more important to support eHealth initiatives financially, increase practitioners' knowledge in health informatics and manage new expectations from patients.

Challenges facing an understanding of the nature of low-energy excited states in photosynthesis.

PubMed

Reimers, Jeffrey R; Biczysko, Malgorzata; Bruce, Douglas; Coker, David F; Frankcombe, Terry J; Hashimoto, Hideki; Hauer, Jürgen; Jankowiak, Ryszard; Kramer, Tobias; Linnanto, Juha; Mamedov, Fikret; Müh, Frank; Rätsep, Margus; Renger, Thomas; Styring, Stenbjörn; Wan, Jian; Wang, Zhuan; Wang-Otomo, Zheng-Yu; Weng, Yu-Xiang; Yang, Chunhong; Zhang, Jian-Ping; Freiberg, Arvi; Krausz, Elmars

2016-09-01

While the majority of the photochemical states and pathways related to the biological capture of solar energy are now well understood and provide paradigms for artificial device design, additional low-energy states have been discovered in many systems with obscure origins and significance. However, as low-energy states are naively expected to be critical to function, these observations pose important challenges. A review of known properties of low energy states covering eight photochemical systems, and options for their interpretation, are presented. A concerted experimental and theoretical research strategy is suggested and outlined, this being aimed at providing a fully comprehensive understanding. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Diversity leadership: the Rush University Medical Center experience.

PubMed

Clapp, J R

2010-01-01

Meeting the challenges of diversity is crucial, and within healthcare organizations a particularly strong case exists for a diversity strategy. Rush University Medical Center in 2006 was at an important juncture. Since its founding, the organization had made notable progress toward advancing diversity and inclusiveness. On the other hand, many diversity-related problems continued. Rush convened a committee to review the work of the institution in this area. The committee's report called for changes, and a Diversity Leadership Group (DLG) model was established. This article documents the progress made since 2006 through implementation of the DLG model. The changes prescribed for Rush are presented as recommendations and challenges that other healthcare organizations may find applicable to their own institutions.

A rare case of extra-nasopharyngeal angiofibroma of the septum in a female child.

PubMed

Singh, G B; Shukla, S; Kumari, P; Shukla, I

2018-02-01

Extra-nasopharyngeal angiofibroma is a rare but distinct clinical entity, different from juvenile angiofibroma. This clinical record elucidates the only case of extra-nasopharyngeal angiofibroma arising from the septum in a female child, who presented with epistaxis. The histopathological diagnosis was confirmed by immunohistochemistry, and the case was managed surgically with no recurrence. In a female paediatric patient presenting with epistaxis, extra-nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (of the inferior turbinate) is a rare albeit important differential diagnosis, as it challenges the hormonal theory of angiofibroma aetiopathogenesis.

Voyager 2 Uranus and Neptune targeting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gray, D. L.; Cesarone, R. J.; Van Allen, R. E.

1982-01-01

Targeting strategies are developed for the Voyager 2 flybys of Uranus and Neptune/Triton. The need to maximize science return, conserve propellant, and maintain spacecraft safety presents a challenge, given the difficulty in estimating the spacecraft orbit relative to these outer planets. Expected propellant usage, science return, and targeting complexity are presented for each targeting strategy. For the dual encounter of Neptune and its satellite Triton, split targeting conditions are proposed to fix the most important conditions at each body, and thus minimize science losses resulting from Triton ephemeris uncertainties.

Fanconi anaemia in South Africa: Past, present and future.

PubMed

Feben, C; Wainstein, T; Kromberg, J; Essop, F; Krause, A

2018-04-25

Fanconi anaemia (FA) is an inherited genetic disorder characterised by somatic anomalies, bone marrow failure and an increased predisposition to solid tumours and haematological malignancies. South African (SA) black and Afrikaner individuals are at higher than average risk for this condition owing to genetic founder mutations in certain Fanconi-associated genes. This review explores the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic modalities and recommended care of affected patients, focusing on the founder population groups in SA. The early diagnosis of FA is important and provides improved opportunities for early intervention, but remains challenging.

Celestial Mechanics: from the bases of the past to the challenges of the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Melo, C. F.; Prado, A. F. B. A.; Macau, E. E. N.; Winter, O. C.; Gomes, V. M.

2015-10-01

This special issue of Journal of Physics: Conference Series brings a set of 31 papers presented in the Brazilian Colloquium on Orbital Dynamics (CBDO), held on December 1 - 5, 2014, in the city of Águas de Lindoia, Brazil. CBDO is a traditional and important scientific meeting in the areas of Theoretical and Applied Celestial Mechanics. The meeting takes place every two years, when researchers from South America and also guests from other continents present their works and discuss the paths trodden by the space sciences.

A cross-cultural survey of residents' perceived barriers in questioning/challenging authority.

PubMed

Kobayashi, H; Pian-Smith, M; Sato, M; Sawa, R; Takeshita, T; Raemer, D

2006-08-01

To identify perceived barriers to residents' questioning or challenging their seniors, to determine how these barriers affect decisions, and to assess how these barriers differ across cultures. A written questionnaire was administered to residents in teaching hospitals in the US and Japan to assess factors affecting residents' willingness to question or challenge their superiors. The responses were analyzed for statistical significance of differences between the two cultures and to determine the importance of issues affecting decisions. Questionnaires were completed by 175 US and 65 Japanese residents, with an overall response rate of 71%. Trainees from both countries believe that questioning and challenging contribute to safety. The perceived importance of specific beliefs about the workplace differed across cultures in seven out of 22 questions. Residents' decisions to make a challenge were related to the relationships and perceived response of the superiors. There was no statistical difference between the US and Japanese residents in terms of the threshold for challenging their seniors. We have identified attributes of residents' beliefs of communication, including several cross-cultural differences in the importance of values and issues affecting one's decision to question or challenge. In contrast, there was no difference in the threshold for challenging seniors by the Japanese and US residents studied. Changes in organizational and professional culture may be as important, if not more so, than national culture to encourage "speaking up". Residents should be encouraged to overcome barriers to challenging, and training programs should foster improved relationships and communication between trainers and trainees.

Emergency neurological care of strokes and bleeds.

PubMed

Birenbaum, Dale

2010-01-01

Ischemic stroke and brain hemorrhage are common and challenging problems faced by emergency physicians. In this article, important details in the diagnosis and clinical management of these neurological emergencies are presented with the following goals: 1) To provide a more comprehensive understanding of the approach to the identification and management of patients who have sustained ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes; 2) to explain the importance and application of commonly used national stroke scoring and outcome scales; 3) to improve the ability to recognize important aspects in the approach and comprehensive treatment of ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms; and 4) to demonstrate the difficulties in the neurological, neurosurgical, and endovascular treatment of these catastrophic diseases.

Post-operative cognitive dysfunction after knee arthroplasty: a diagnostic dilemma

PubMed Central

Yap, Kiryu K.; Joyner, Peter

2014-01-01

Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is common in the elderly, and significantly impacts their recovery. We present an unusual diagnostic challenge where a 65-year-old male presented 4-week post-total knee arthroplasty with acute cognitive dysfunction lasting 19 days. Curiously, there were no findings uncovering a specific cause, but during investigation underlying predisposing factors such as depression, mild memory deficits and generalized brain volume loss were identified. The impression after psychogeriatric review was that of an organic brain syndrome with overlay of depression, with a complex presentation as POCD. After escalation of behavioural disturbance, he was commenced on anti-psychotic/depressant, with immediate response. We emphasize the importance of pre-operative evaluation of cognitive function and risk factors in all geriatric patients undergoing elective surgery, and the need for further characterization of POCD, as well as experimental research elucidating the underlying mechanisms to better identify and treat this important post-surgical phenomenon. PMID:25988029

Fleas infesting pets in the era of emerging extra-intestinal nematodes

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Modifications in climatic conditions, movements of hosts and goods, changes in animal phenology and human behaviour and increase of wildlife, are presently concurring in the geographic spread of vectors and cardio-respiratory nematodes, e.g. Dirofilaria immitis, Angiostrongylus vasorum, Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Capillaria aerophila. All these factors may also influence dispersion and clinical significance of fleas, thus posing relevant challenges in those regions where other parasites are emerging at the same time. Ctenocephalides felis, Ctenocephalides canis and Pulex irritans cause discomfort, nuisance, allergic reactions, anaemia, and may transmit several pathogens, some of them are of importance for public health. The present article reviews the importance of fleas in small animal practice and their sanitary relevance for dogs, cats and humans, and discusses current control methods in the present era of emerging extra-intestinal nematodes, towards a possible changing perspective for controlling key parasites affecting companion animals. PMID:23497511

IV: When Things Get Hard

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenfeld, Malke; Mahoney, Meg Robson; Jordan, Kim; Jackson, Spoon; Gabel, Bonnie; Adams, Holly; Plemons, Anna

2014-01-01

It is definitely easier to write about work when things are going well, but it is even more important to write about what happens when things get challenging. The act of writing about the challenging times can be challenging in itself but can also provide invaluable insights into the process of teaching: important for the writer and just as…

Invigorating self-regulated learning strategies of mathematics among higher education students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chechi, Vijay Kumar; Bhalla, Jyoti

2017-07-01

The global market is transforming at its ever-increasing rate of knots. Consequently, the work skills challenges that current students will encounter throughout their lifetimes will be drastically different from those of present and past and proffering new-fangled opportunities and posing new challenges. However, in order to deal with tomorrow's opportunities and challenges students ought to equip with higher order cognitive skills which are substantially different from those needed in the past. In order to accomplish this intention, students must be academically self-regulated, as academic self-regulation is playing a vital role for academic success, particularly in higher education. Students must be prepared in such a way that they should take responsibility for their own learning. Self-regulation suggests activities and thinking processes that learners can engage in during his learning. Self-regulation is encompassing a number of inter-dependent aspect viz. affective beliefs, cognition and meta-cognitive skills [1]. It helps the learners to make sagacious use of their intellect and expertise [2]. As statistics has shown that the achievement of students in mathematics has persistently been poor. Along with it, mathematics is considered as one of the most important subject course in architecture, agriculture, medicine, pharmacy and especially in engineering. In spite of its importance, most of the students considered it as a dull and dry subject and their performance is remarkably low and alarming. Therefore, the present paper will highlight various factors affecting performance of higher education students in mathematics and will suggest different self-regulated learning strategies which will act as boon for higher education students.

Ethical challenges in developing drugs for psychiatric disorders.

PubMed

Carrier, Felix; Banayan, David; Boley, Randy; Karnik, Niranjan

2017-05-01

As the classification of mental disorders advances towards a disease model as promoted by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), there is hope that a more thorough neurobiological understanding of mental illness may allow clinicians and researchers to determine treatment efficacy with less diagnostic variability. This paradigm shift has presented a variety of ethical issues to be considered in the development of psychiatric drugs. These challenges are not limited to informed consent practices, industry funding, and placebo use. The consideration for alternative research models and quality of research design also present ethical challenges in the development of psychiatric drugs. The imperatives to create valid and sound research that justify the human time, cost, risk and use of limited resources must also be considered. Clinical innovation, and consideration for special populations are also important aspects to take into account. Based on the breadth of these ethical concerns, it is particularly important that scientific questions regarding the development of psychiatric drugs be answered collaboratively by a variety of stakeholders. As the field expands, new ethical considerations will be raised with increased focus on genetic markers, personalized medicine, patient-centered outcomes research, and tension over funding. We suggest that innovation in trial design is necessary to better reflect practices in clinical settings and that there must be an emphasized focus on expanding the transparency of consent processes, regard for suicidality, and care in working with special populations to support the goal of developing sound psychiatric drug therapies. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

2D Presentation Techniques of Mind-maps for Blind Meeting Participants.

PubMed

Pölzer, Stephan; Miesenberger, Klaus

2015-01-01

Mind-maps, used as ideation technique in co-located meetings (e.g. in brainstorming sessions), which meet with increased importance in business and education, show considerably accessibility challenges for blind meeting participants. Besides an overview of general aspects of accessibility issues in co-located meetings, this paper focuses on the design and development of alternative non-visual presentation techniques for mind-maps. The different aspects of serialized presentation techniques (e.g. treeview) for Braille and audio rendering and two dimensional presentation techniques (e.g. tactile two dimensional array matrix and edge-projection method [1]) are discussed based on the user feedback gathered in intermediate tests following a user centered design approach.

Churg-Strauss syndrome presenting with eosinophilic myocarditis: a diagnostic challenge.

PubMed

Correia, Ana Sofia; Gonçalves, Alexandra; Araújo, Vítor; Almeida e Silva, João; Pereira, José Manuel; Rodrigues Pereira, Pedro; Pizarro, Manuel; Silva, João Carlos; Maciel, Maria Júlia

2013-09-01

Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) is an unusual disease that presents as systemic vasculitis and peripheral eosinophilia in patients with an atopic constitution. Cardiac involvement is unusual and often not prominent on initial presentation, but is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with CSS. We report the case of a young woman with severe acute myocarditis. Coronary arteriography demonstrated extensive focal vasculopathy, consistent with coronary vasculitis, and myocardial biopsy showed eosinophilic myocarditis. This presentation led to an initial diagnosis of CSS in this patient and appropriate therapy resulted in a spectacular remission of disease activity. Copyright © 2012 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Epilepsy Genetics—Past, Present, and Future

PubMed Central

Poduri, Annapurna; Lowenstein, Daniel

2014-01-01

Human epilepsy is a common and heterogeneous condition in which genetics play an important etiological role. We begin by reviewing the past history of epilepsy genetics, a field that has traditionally included studies of pedigrees with epilepsy caused by defects in ion channels and neurotransmitters. We highlight important recent discoveries that have expanded the field beyond the realm of channels and neurotransmitters and that have challenged the notion that single genes produce single disorders. Finally, we project toward an exciting future for epilepsy genetics as large-scale collaborative phenotyping studies come face to face with new technologies in genomic medicine. PMID:21277190

The status of indoor air pollution.

PubMed Central

Esmen, N A

1985-01-01

Indoor air pollution, specifically restricted in its meaning to chemicals in home indoor air environment, presents a new and probably an important challenge to the researchers of the air pollution field. The general overview of this topic suggests that the voluminous data generated in the past ten or so years have only defined the rudiments of the problem, and significant areas of research still exist. Among the important areas where information is lacking, the exposures to contaminants generated by the use of consumer products and through hobbies and crafts represent perhaps the most urgent need for substantial research. PMID:4085429

An Assessment of Research Gaps Related to Deep Water Wellbore Integrity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tkach, M. K.; Radonjic, M.; Kutchko, B. G.

2017-12-01

In order for a deep-water wellbore to uphold its integrity under high pressure - high temperature conditions, the wellbore must possess complete zonal isolation while surrounded in an extreme environment. Highly variable temperature and pressure ranges, shallow flow zones, as well as potentially corrosive fluids and gasses all present unique challenges to the job of the cement which maintains that zonal isolation. As such, alternative options to mainstream choices often present themselves as attractive avenues of discovery. As it is of utmost importance to maintain structural integrity under HPHT conditions, cement slurries are pumped downhole to provide zonal isolation and structural support to offshore wells. The wellbore system potentially faces a variety of temperature and pressure fluctuations from the immediate onset. These fluctuations may affect the hydration properties of the cement. It is also important to consider the chemical interactions that the cement may have at the rock-cement interface where potential degradation or annulus gaps may occur further risking a decrease in zonal isolation. This presentation intends to review some of the important issues regarding zonal isolation in HPHT conditions and to highlight critical knowledge gaps in order to generate important research questions.

From chemical risk assessment to environmental quality management: the challenge for soil protection.

PubMed

Bone, James; Head, Martin; Jones, David T; Barraclough, Declan; Archer, Michael; Scheib, Catherine; Flight, Dee; Eggleton, Paul; Voulvoulis, Nikolaos

2011-01-01

The 40 years that have passed since the beginning of the 'environmental revolution' has seen a large increase in development of policies for the protection of environmental media and a recognition by the public of the importance of environmental quality. There has been a shift from policy in reaction to high profile events, then to control of releases to single environmental media, and to the present position of moving toward integrated management of all environmental media at present. This development has moved away from classical chemical risk assessment toward environmental holism, including recognition of the ecological value of these media. This work details how policy developments have taken place for air and water, with examples from the USA and EU, in order to compare this with policy development regarding soil. Soil, with quite different policy frameworks and distinct uses, understanding, and threats compared to other environmental media, is currently attracting attention regarding the need for its protection independent of use. Challenges for soil policy are identified and evaluated, and recommendations on how these challenges can be overcome are discussed with relevance to water and air protection policy.

Investigating Integration Capabilities Between Ifc and Citygml LOD3 for 3d City Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Floros, G.; Pispidikis, I.; Dimopoulou, E.

2017-10-01

Smart cities are applied to an increasing number of application fields. This evolution though urges data collection and integration, hence major issues arise that need to be tackled. One of the most important challenges is the heterogeneity of collected data, especially if those data derive from different standards and vary in terms of geometry, topology and semantics. Another key challenge is the efficient analysis and visualization of spatial data, which due to the complexity of the physical reality in modern world, 2D GIS struggles to cope with. So, in order to facilitate data analysis and enhance the role of smart cities, the 3rd dimension needs to be implemented. Standards such as CityGML and IFC fulfill that necessity but they present major differences in their schemas that render their integration a challenging task. This paper focuses on addressing those differences, examining the up to date research work and investigates an alternative methodology in order to bridge the gap between those Standards. Within this framework, a generic IFC model is generated and converted to a CityGML Model, which is validated and evaluated on its geometrical correctness and semantical coherence. General results as well as future research considerations are presented.

Challenges to parenting in a new culture: Implications for child and family welfare.

PubMed

Lewig, Kerry; Arney, Fiona; Salveron, Mary

2010-08-01

Increasing numbers of families arriving through Australia's humanitarian settlement scheme are coming into contact with Australian child protection systems. A large number of these families come from African and Middle Eastern countries and have common experiences of trauma, dislocation, loss and many are victims of genocide, war, and torture. Pre-migration experiences together with the considerable challenges of settling into a new country can significantly affect family well-being and parenting practices. It is therefore important that child and family welfare service planners are well informed about how best to support refugee families using culturally competent family intervention and community development practices. This paper draws on the findings of a research project designed to examine why recently arrived families from refugee backgrounds are presenting in the South Australian child protection system and to identify culturally appropriate strategies for intervention. The paper presents findings from the project that relate to (1) refugee parents', community members' and child protection practitioners' perspectives on the challenges to being a refugee parent in Australia and (2) strategies and resources relevant to prevention and early intervention in refugee families before statutory child protection intervention becomes necessary. Copyright (c)2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissemination and implementation: INQRI's potential impact.

PubMed

Titler, Marita G; Wilson, Deleise S; Resnick, Barbara; Shever, Leah L

2013-04-01

Application of research evidence in care delivery improves patient outcomes. Large gaps still exist, however, between recommended care and that used in practice. To increase the understanding of implementation studies, and dissemination of research findings, we present the perspective of investigators from seven Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI)-funded studies. To describe implementation strategies, challenges, and lessons learned from conducting 5 INQRI-funded implementation studies, and present 2 case examples of other INQRI studies to illustrate dissemination strategies. Potential impact of study findings are set forth. Qualitative descriptive methods were used for the implementation studies. Case examples were set forth by investigators using reflection questions. Four of the 5 implementation studies focused on clinical topics and 1 on professional development of nurse managers, 4 were multisite studies. Common implementation strategies used across studies addressed education, ongoing interaction with sites, use of implementation tools, and visibility of the projects on the study units. Major challenges were the Institutional Review Board approval process and the short length of time allocated for implementation. Successes and lessons learned included creating excitement about research, packaging of study tools and resources for use by other organizations, and understanding the importance of context when conducting this type of research. Case examples revealed that study findings have been disseminated to study sites and to the health care community through publications and presentations. The potential impact of all 7 studies is far reaching. This study captures several nuanced perspectives from 5 Principal Investigators, who were completing INQRI-funded implementation studies. These nuanced perspectives are important lessons for other scientists embarking on implementation studies. The INQRI case examples illustrate important dissemination strategies and impact of findings on quality of care.

Skin cancers in albinos in a teaching Hospital in eastern Nigeria - presentation and challenges of care.

PubMed

Opara, Kingsley O; Jiburum, Bernard C

2010-08-25

Albinism is a genetic disorder characterized by lack of skin pigmentation. It has a worldwide distribution but is commoner in areas close to the equator like Nigeria. Skin cancers are a major risk associated with albinism and are thought to be a major cause of death in African albinos. Challenges faced in the care of these patients need to be highlighted in order to develop a holistic management approach with a significant public health impact. The aim of the study was to determine the pattern of skin cancers seen in Albinos, and to highlight problems encountered in their management. Case records of albinos managed in Imo state University teaching Hospital from June 2007 to May 2009 were reviewed. The data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics. In the period under review, albinos accounted for 67% of patients managed for primary skin cancers. There were twenty patients with thirty eight (38) lesions. Sixty one percent of the patients were below 40 years. Average duration of symptoms at presentation was 26 months. The commonest reason for late presentation was the lack of funds. Squamous cell carcinoma was the commonest histologic variant. Most patients were unable to complete treatment due to lack of funds. Albinism appears to be the most important risk factor in the development of skin cancers in our environment. Late presentation and poor rate of completion of treatment due to poverty are major challenges.

Uncertainty Reduction using Bayesian Inference and Sensitivity Analysis: A Sequential Approach to the NASA Langley Uncertainty Quantification Challenge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sankararaman, Shankar

2016-01-01

This paper presents a computational framework for uncertainty characterization and propagation, and sensitivity analysis under the presence of aleatory and epistemic un- certainty, and develops a rigorous methodology for efficient refinement of epistemic un- certainty by identifying important epistemic variables that significantly affect the overall performance of an engineering system. The proposed methodology is illustrated using the NASA Langley Uncertainty Quantification Challenge (NASA-LUQC) problem that deals with uncertainty analysis of a generic transport model (GTM). First, Bayesian inference is used to infer subsystem-level epistemic quantities using the subsystem-level model and corresponding data. Second, tools of variance-based global sensitivity analysis are used to identify four important epistemic variables (this limitation specified in the NASA-LUQC is reflective of practical engineering situations where not all epistemic variables can be refined due to time/budget constraints) that significantly affect system-level performance. The most significant contribution of this paper is the development of the sequential refine- ment methodology, where epistemic variables for refinement are not identified all-at-once. Instead, only one variable is first identified, and then, Bayesian inference and global sensi- tivity calculations are repeated to identify the next important variable. This procedure is continued until all 4 variables are identified and the refinement in the system-level perfor- mance is computed. The advantages of the proposed sequential refinement methodology over the all-at-once uncertainty refinement approach are explained, and then applied to the NASA Langley Uncertainty Quantification Challenge problem.

The Importance of Short- and Long-Range Exchange on Various Excited State Properties of DNA Monomers, Stacked Complexes, and Watson-Crick Pairs.

PubMed

Raeber, Alexandra E; Wong, Bryan M

2015-05-12

We present a detailed analysis of several time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) methods, including conventional hybrid functionals and two types of nonempirically tuned range-separated functionals, for predicting a diverse set of electronic excitations in DNA nucleobase monomers and dimers. This large and extensive set of excitations comprises a total of 50 different transitions (for each tested DFT functional) that includes several n → π and π → π* valence excitations, long-range charge-transfer excitations, and extended Rydberg transitions (complete with benchmark calculations from high-level EOM-CCSD(T) methods). The presence of localized valence excitations as well as extreme long-range charge-transfer excitations in these systems poses a serious challenge for TD-DFT methods that allows us to assess the importance of both short- and long-range exchange contributions for simultaneously predicting all of these various transitions. In particular, we find that functionals that do not have both short- and full long-range exchange components are unable to predict the different types of nucleobase excitations with the same accuracy. Most importantly, the current study highlights the importance of both short-range exchange and a nonempirically tuned contribution of long-range exchange for accurately predicting the diverse excitations in these challenging nucleobase systems.

Restoring Forest Landscapes: Important Lessons Learnt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mansourian, Stephanie; Vallauri, Daniel

2014-02-01

Forest restoration at large scales, or landscapes, is an approach that is increasingly relevant to the practice of environmental conservation. However, implementation remains a challenge; poor monitoring and lesson learning lead to similar mistakes being repeated. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the global conservation organization, recently took stock of its 10 years of implementation of forest landscape restoration. A significant body of knowledge has emerged from the work of the WWF and its partners in the different countries, which can be of use to the wider conservation community, but for this to happen, lessons need to be systematically collected and disseminated in a coherent manner to the broader conservation and development communities and, importantly, to policy makers. We use this review of the WWF's experiences and compare and contrast it with other relevant and recent literature to highlight 11 important lessons for future large-scale forest restoration interventions. These lessons are presented using a stepwise approach to the restoration of forested landscapes. We identify the need for long-term commitment and funding, and a concerted and collaborative effort for successful forest landscape restoration. Our review highlights that monitoring impact within landscape-scale forest restoration remains inadequate. We conclude that forest restoration within landscapes is a challenging yet important proposition that has a real but undervalued place in environmental conservation in the twenty-first century.

Late post-treatment radiographic changes 3 years following chemoradiation for glioma: the importance of histopathology.

PubMed

Galante, Joao R; Rodriguez, Fausto; Grossman, Stuart A; Strowd, Roy E

2017-07-18

Treatment-related changes can mimic brain tumor progression both clinically and radiographically. Distinguishing these two entities represents a major challenge in neuro-oncology. No single imaging modality is capable of reliably achieving such distinction. While histopathology remains the gold standard, definitive pathological criteria are also lacking which can further complicate such cases. We report a patient with high-grade glioma who, after initially presenting with histopathologically confirmed pseudoprogression 10 months following treatment, re-presented 3 years following concurrent chemoradiation with clinical and radiographic changes that were most consistent with progressive disease but for which histopathology revealed treatment effects without active glioma. This case highlights the potential late onset of treatment-related changes and underscores the importance of histopathologic assessment even years following initial therapy.

Major Mental Illness in Those Who Sexually Abuse.

PubMed

Moulden, Heather M; Marshall, Liam E

2017-11-09

There is evidence showing an increasing prevalence of mental illness in those in conflict with the law. However, there are many factors affecting the detection, treatment, and management of criminals who are mentally ill. Sex offenders with major mental illness present many challenges to those providing treatment and management services. For example, it is important to consider whether sexually offensive behavior is the cause of criminal behavior or whether it is reflective of an antisocial orientation. Recent evidence suggests it may help better understand and inform risk assessment and management. This paper will review the literature on mental illness among sexual offenders, present a typology to aid in the assessment, treatment, and management of sexual offender with mental illness, and highlight important considerations when providing treatment to sexual offenders with mental illness.

Teaching Electrostatics and Entropy in Introductory Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reeves, Mark

Entropy changes underlie the physics that dominates biological interactions. Indeed, introductory biology courses often begin with an exploration of the qualities of water that are important to living systems. However, one idea that is not explicitly addressed in most introductory physics or biology courses is important contribution of the entropy in driving fundamental biological processes towards equilibrium. I will present material developed to teach electrostatic screening in solutions and the function of nerve cells where entropic effects act to counterbalance electrostatic attraction. These ideas are taught in an introductory, calculus-based physics course to biomedical engineers using SCALEUP pedagogy. Results of student mastering of complex problems that cross disciplinary boundaries between biology and physics, as well as the challenges that they face in learning this material will be presented.

Increasing Literacy in Quantitative Methods: The Key to the Future of Canadian Psychology

PubMed Central

Counsell, Alyssa; Cribbie, Robert A.; Harlow, Lisa. L.

2016-01-01

Quantitative methods (QM) dominate empirical research in psychology. Unfortunately most researchers in psychology receive inadequate training in QM. This creates a challenge for researchers who require advanced statistical methods to appropriately analyze their data. Many of the recent concerns about research quality, replicability, and reporting practices are directly tied to the problematic use of QM. As such, improving quantitative literacy in psychology is an important step towards eliminating these concerns. The current paper will include two main sections that discuss quantitative challenges and opportunities. The first section discusses training and resources for students and presents descriptive results on the number of quantitative courses required and available to graduate students in Canadian psychology departments. In the second section, we discuss ways of improving quantitative literacy for faculty, researchers, and clinicians. This includes a strong focus on the importance of collaboration. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for improving quantitative skills and literacy for students and researchers in Canada. PMID:28042199

Experiences of living with myasthenia gravis: a qualitative study with Taiwanese people.

PubMed

Chen, Yu Tai; Shih, Fu Jin; Hayter, Mark; Hou, Chang Chiu; Yeh, Jiann Horng

2013-04-01

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an auto-immune, neuromuscular disorder, which presents with symptoms of fluctuating muscle fatigue because of a dysfunction of the neuromuscular junction. This study explores the illness experience of patients with MG, their experiences of illness, its challenges, and their coping and support strategies. In-depth interviews were undertaken with nine participants with MG (six for a generalized type of MG, three for ocular type). Data were subjected to inductive content and thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from MG patients with associated subthemes. They were "perceptions of MG," "challenges of MG, "social support," and "adapting and adjusting to MG." The study reveals the way in which individuals respond to and cope with their diagnosis. The importance of social and peer support is a key factor as well as the development of psychological strategies to live with MG. The recognition that there was a need to recognize the role of Western medicine in controlling their disease was also an important finding.

Data Sharing in DHT Based P2P Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roncancio, Claudia; Del Pilar Villamil, María; Labbé, Cyril; Serrano-Alvarado, Patricia

The evolution of peer-to-peer (P2P) systems triggered the building of large scale distributed applications. The main application domain is data sharing across a very large number of highly autonomous participants. Building such data sharing systems is particularly challenging because of the “extreme” characteristics of P2P infrastructures: massive distribution, high churn rate, no global control, potentially untrusted participants... This article focuses on declarative querying support, query optimization and data privacy on a major class of P2P systems, that based on Distributed Hash Table (P2P DHT). The usual approaches and the algorithms used by classic distributed systems and databases for providing data privacy and querying services are not well suited to P2P DHT systems. A considerable amount of work was required to adapt them for the new challenges such systems present. This paper describes the most important solutions found. It also identifies important future research trends in data management in P2P DHT systems.

Potential of glucans as vaccine adjuvants: A review of the α-glucans case.

PubMed

Moreno-Mendieta, Silvia; Guillén, Daniel; Hernández-Pando, Rogelio; Sánchez, Sergio; Rodríguez-Sanoja, Romina

2017-06-01

α-Glucans are present in virtually all domains of life, and these glucose chains linked by α-1,4- and α-1,6-linked branches form the most important storage carbohydrates in cells. It is likely for this reason that α-glucans are not generally considered as bioactive molecules as β-glucans are. Nevertheless, it is known that depending on their source, many α-glucans play important roles as modulators of immune response. Recent efforts have attempted to elucidate the mechanisms through which α-glucans exert their immunostimulant effects; however, the main challenge is the accurate identification of the receptors of immune cells involved in their recognition. Here, we review the adjuvant properties reported for some polysaccharides and ultimately focus on α-glucans and how their structural characteristics, such as molecular weight, solubility and derivatization, influence their immunostimulatory properties. As a final point, we discuss the potential and associated challenges of using these polysaccharides as adjuvants, particularly in mucosal vaccination. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An overview of poultry industry in Pakistan

PubMed Central

HUSSAIN, J.; RABBANI, I.; ASLAM, S.; AHMAD, H.A.

2015-01-01

The poultry sector is an important and vibrant segment of agriculture in Pakistan with a significant contribution to the national GDP (1.3%). Commercial poultry production in Pakistan started in the 1960’s and has been providing a significant portion of daily proteins to the Pakistani population ever since. During its evolution the industry enjoyed promotional policies of the Government, but has faced several challenges such as disease outbreaks and retail price fluctuations. Despite its important role in the country’s economy, not a single scientific study is available on its evolutionary history. The data available in this regard are scattered and lack reliability. This review is an effort to encompass the history of the overall growth of the poultry industry in Pakistan, its present status (2012 statistics) and future directions and challenges. This article may serve as the basic source of information on Pakistan’s poultry industry achievements. It will also guide poultry experts and policy makers for developing strategic planning for further growth of the industry. PMID:26696690

Increasing Literacy in Quantitative Methods: The Key to the Future of Canadian Psychology.

PubMed

Counsell, Alyssa; Cribbie, Robert A; Harlow, Lisa L

2016-08-01

Quantitative methods (QM) dominate empirical research in psychology. Unfortunately most researchers in psychology receive inadequate training in QM. This creates a challenge for researchers who require advanced statistical methods to appropriately analyze their data. Many of the recent concerns about research quality, replicability, and reporting practices are directly tied to the problematic use of QM. As such, improving quantitative literacy in psychology is an important step towards eliminating these concerns. The current paper will include two main sections that discuss quantitative challenges and opportunities. The first section discusses training and resources for students and presents descriptive results on the number of quantitative courses required and available to graduate students in Canadian psychology departments. In the second section, we discuss ways of improving quantitative literacy for faculty, researchers, and clinicians. This includes a strong focus on the importance of collaboration. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for improving quantitative skills and literacy for students and researchers in Canada.

An overview of poultry industry in Pakistan.

PubMed

Hussain, J; Rabbani, I; Aslam, S; Ahmad, H A

2015-12-01

The poultry sector is an important and vibrant segment of agriculture in Pakistan with a significant contribution to the national GDP (1.3%). Commercial poultry production in Pakistan started in the 1960's and has been providing a significant portion of daily proteins to the Pakistani population ever since. During its evolution the industry enjoyed promotional policies of the Government, but has faced several challenges such as disease outbreaks and retail price fluctuations. Despite its important role in the country's economy, not a single scientific study is available on its evolutionary history. The data available in this regard are scattered and lack reliability. This review is an effort to encompass the history of the overall growth of the poultry industry in Pakistan, its present status (2012 statistics) and future directions and challenges. This article may serve as the basic source of information on Pakistan's poultry industry achievements. It will also guide poultry experts and policy makers for developing strategic planning for further growth of the industry.

Acute vision loss: a fuzzy presentation of sarcoidosis.

PubMed

Austin, Andrea L; Day, Luke T; Bishop, Frank M

2013-04-01

Acute vision loss is a devastating problem for patients and a challenging diagnostic dilemma for Emergency Physicians. This chief complaint is one in which we must be adept at quickly evaluating and initiating either care or referral. This case reviews the approach to acute vision loss and shows the importance of expanding the differential in atypical and complex presentations. A 31-year-old, previously healthy, white woman presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with 1 day of painless right eye vision loss. Ocular ultrasound and slit-lamp examination were unremarkable. Fundoscopic examination revealed retinal hemorrhages and papillitis. Her chest X-ray study was significant for bilateral hilar adenopathy, and subsequent lymph node biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of sarcoidosis. Although sarcoidosis is more common in African Americans, it must be considered in all patients in the appropriate clinical context. Sarcoidosis is an important diagnosis to include on the differential of many chief complaints that present to the ED, including acute vision loss and dyspnea. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Diverticular disease of the colon presenting as pyometra: a case report.

PubMed

Pankaja, Susmita; Rrukaj, Astrit; Bathula, Uma

2014-05-04

Pyometra can be caused by various etiologies. We present a rare case of diverticular disease of the colon presenting as pyometra. This type of presentation can be challenging even for an astute clinician. A 74-year-old Caucasian woman with a history of pyometra was referred to our gynecology clinic as an urgent case. She was obese, diabetic and hypertensive. Due to the patient profile and the clinical presentation, clinicians were misled toward a diagnosis of possible endometrial cancer. After further investigations, she was found to have colouterine fistula secondary to a diverticular abscess of the sigmoid colon. Persistent vaginal discharge due to pyometra can be caused by diverticular disease of the colon. Clinicians should be aware of this important differential diagnosis.

Emerging souvenirs-clinical presentation of the returning traveller with imported arbovirus infections in Europe.

PubMed

Eckerle, I; Briciu, V T; Ergönül, Ö; Lupşe, M; Papa, A; Radulescu, A; Tsiodras, S; Tsitou, C; Drosten, C; Nussenblatt, V R; Reusken, C B; Sigfrid, L A; Beeching, N J

2018-03-01

Arboviruses are an emerging group of viruses that are causing increasing health concerns globally, including in Europe. Clinical presentation usually consists of a nonspecific febrile illness that may be accompanied by rash, arthralgia and arthritis, with or without neurological or haemorrhagic syndromes. The range of differential diagnoses of other infectious and noninfectious aetiologies is broad, presenting a challenge for physicians. While knowledge of the geographical distribution of pathogens and the current epidemiological situation, incubation periods, exposure risk factors and vaccination history can help guide the diagnostic approach, the nonspecific and variable clinical presentation can delay final diagnosis. This narrative review aims to summarize the main clinical and laboratory-based findings of the three most common imported arboviruses in Europe. Evidence is extracted from published literature and clinical expertise of European arbovirus experts. We present three cases that highlight similarities and differences between some of the most common travel-related arboviruses imported to Europe. These include a patient with chikungunya virus infection presenting in Greece, a case of dengue fever in Turkey and a travel-related case of Zika virus infection in Romania. Early diagnosis of travel-imported cases is important to reduce the risk of localized outbreaks of tropical arboviruses such as dengue and chikungunya and the risk of local transmission from body fluids or vertical transmission. Given the global relevance of arboviruses and the continuous risk of (re)emerging arbovirus events, clinicians should be aware of the clinical syndromes of arbovirus fevers and the potential pitfalls in diagnosis. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Challenges and Opportunities in Genome-Wide Environmental Interaction (GWEI) studies

PubMed Central

Aschard, Hugues; Lutz, Sharon; Maus, Bärbel; Duell, Eric J.; Fingerlin, Tasha; Chatterjee, Nilanjan; Kraft, Peter; Van Steen, Kristel

2012-01-01

The interest in performing gene-environment interaction studies has seen a significant increase with the increase of advanced molecular genetics techniques. Practically, it became possible to investigate the role of environmental factors in disease risk and hence to investigate their role as genetic effect modifiers. The understanding that genetics is important in the uptake and metabolism of toxic substances is an example of how genetic profiles can modify important environmental risk factors to disease. Several rationales exist to set up gene-environment interaction studies and the technical challenges related to these studies – when the number of environmental or genetic risk factors is relatively small – has been described before. In the post-genomic era, it is now possible to study thousands of genes and their interaction with the environment. This brings along a whole range of new challenges and opportunities. Despite a continuing effort in developing efficient methods and optimal bioinformatics infrastructures to deal with the available wealth of data, the challenge remains how to best present and analyze Genome-Wide Environmental Interaction (GWEI) studies involving multiple genetic and environmental factors. Since GWEIs are performed at the intersection of statistical genetics, bioinformatics and epidemiology, usually similar problems need to be dealt with as for Genome-Wide Association gene-gene Interaction (GWAI) studies. However, additional complexities need to be considered which are typical for large-scale epidemiological studies, but are also related to “joining” two heterogeneous types of data in explaining complex disease trait variation or for prediction purposes. PMID:22760307

Exercise and Sports Science Australia position statement on exercise and falls prevention in older people.

PubMed

Tiedemann, Anne; Sherrington, Catherine; Close, Jacqueline C T; Lord, Stephen R

2011-11-01

Falls affect a significant number of older Australians and present a major challenge to health care providers and health systems. The purpose of this statement is to inform and guide exercise practitioners and health professionals in the safe and effective prescription of exercise for older community-dwelling people with the goal of preventing falls. Falls in older people are not random events but can be predicted by assessing a number of risk factors. Of particular importance are lower limb muscle strength, gait and balance, all of which can be improved with appropriate exercise. There is now extensive evidence to demonstrate that many falls are preventable, with exercise playing a crucial role in prevention. Research evidence has identified that programs which include exercises that challenge balance are more effective in preventing falls than those which do not challenge balance. It is important for exercise to be progressively challenging, ongoing and of sufficient dose to maximise its benefits in reducing falls. Other (non-exercise) interventions are necessary for certain people with complex medical conditions or recent hospitalisation and risk factors relating to vision and the use of psychotropic medications. Qualified exercise professionals are well placed to implement the research evidence and to prescribe and supervise specific exercise aimed at preventing falls in both healthy older community-dwelling people and those with co-morbidities. Copyright © 2011 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Postmortem Brain: An Underutilized Substrate for Studying Severe Mental Illness

PubMed Central

McCullumsmith, Robert E; Hammond, John H; Shan, Dan; Meador-Woodruff, James H

2014-01-01

We propose that postmortem tissue is an underutilized substrate that may be used to translate genetic and/or preclinical studies, particularly for neuropsychiatric illnesses with complex etiologies. Postmortem brain tissues from subjects with schizophrenia have been extensively studied, and thus serve as a useful vehicle for illustrating the challenges associated with this biological substrate. Schizophrenia is likely caused by a combination of genetic risk and environmental factors that combine to create a disease phenotype that is typically not apparent until late adolescence. The complexity of this illness creates challenges for hypothesis testing aimed at understanding the pathophysiology of the illness, as postmortem brain tissues collected from individuals with schizophrenia reflect neuroplastic changes from a lifetime of severe mental illness, as well as treatment with antipsychotic medications. While there are significant challenges with studying postmortem brain, such as the postmortem interval, it confers a translational element that is difficult to recapitulate in animal models. On the other hand, data derived from animal models typically provide specific mechanistic and behavioral measures that cannot be generated using human subjects. Convergence of these two approaches has led to important insights for understanding molecular deficits and their causes in this illness. In this review, we discuss the problem of schizophrenia, review the common challenges related to postmortem studies, discuss the application of biochemical approaches to this substrate, and present examples of postmortem schizophrenia studies that illustrate the role of the postmortem approach for generating important new leads for understanding the pathophysiology of severe mental illness. PMID:24091486

[THE ACTUAL APPROACHES TO PROBLEM OF IMPORT SUBSTITUTION IN TH FIELD OF PRODUCTION GROWTH MEDIUM].

PubMed

Shepelin, A P; Domotenko, L V; Diatlov, I A; Mironov, A Yu; Aleshkin, V A

2015-06-01

The import substitution becomes one of strategic tasks of Russian economy as a result of imposition of economic sanctions on part of the USA, EU countries, Japan and number of other states. The development of structure and technology of production of national import substituted growth mediums permits satisfying needs of laboratory service of Russia inactive storage and to secure appropriate response to occurring challenges and new biological menaces and support bio-security of state at proper level. The presented data concerning substantiation of nomenclature of growth mediums and transport system permit satisfying in fullness the needs of clinical and sanitary microbiology in growth mediums of national production and to give up of import deliveries without decreasing of quality of microbiological studies.

Rapid Engineering of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine and Challenge Viruses

PubMed Central

Lee, Seo-Yong; Lee, Yeo-Joo; Kim, Rae-Hyung; Park, Jeong-Nam; Park, Min-Eun; Ko, Mi-Kyeong; Choi, Joo-Hyung; Chu, Jia-Qi; Lee, Kwang-Nyeong; Kim, Su-Mi; Tark, Dongseob; Lee, Hyang-Sim; Ko, Young-Joon; Seo, Min-Goo; Park, Jung-Won; Kim, Byounghan; Lee, Myoung-Heon

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT There are seven antigenically distinct serotypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), each of which has intratypic variants. In the present study, we have developed methods to efficiently generate promising vaccines against seven serotypes or subtypes. The capsid-encoding gene (P1) of the vaccine strain O1/Manisa/Turkey/69 was replaced with the amplified or synthetic genes from the O, A, Asia1, C, SAT1, SAT2, and SAT3 serotypes. Viruses of the seven serotype were rescued successfully. Each chimeric FMDV with a replacement of P1 showed serotype-specific antigenicity and varied in terms of pathogenesis in pigs and mice. Vaccination of pigs with an experimental trivalent vaccine containing the inactivated recombinants based on the main serotypes O, A, and Asia1 effectively protected them from virus challenge. This technology could be a potential strategy for a customized vaccine with challenge tools to protect against epizootic disease caused by specific serotypes or subtypes of FMDV. IMPORTANCE Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus (FMDV) causes significant economic losses. For vaccine preparation, the selection of vaccine strains was complicated by high antigenic variation. In the present study, we suggested an effective strategy to rapidly prepare and evaluate mass-produced customized vaccines against epidemic strains. The P1 gene encoding the structural proteins of the well-known vaccine virus was replaced by the synthetic or amplified genes of viruses of seven representative serotypes. These chimeric viruses generally replicated readily in cell culture and had a particle size similar to that of the original vaccine strain. Their antigenicity mirrored that of the original serotype from which their P1 gene was derived. Animal infection experiments revealed that the recombinants varied in terms of pathogenicity. This strategy will be a useful tool for rapidly generating customized FMD vaccines or challenge viruses for all serotypes, especially for FMD-free countries, which have prohibited the import of FMDVs. PMID:28566375

Rapid Engineering of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine and Challenge Viruses.

PubMed

Lee, Seo-Yong; Lee, Yeo-Joo; Kim, Rae-Hyung; Park, Jeong-Nam; Park, Min-Eun; Ko, Mi-Kyeong; Choi, Joo-Hyung; Chu, Jia-Qi; Lee, Kwang-Nyeong; Kim, Su-Mi; Tark, Dongseob; Lee, Hyang-Sim; Ko, Young-Joon; Seo, Min-Goo; Park, Jung-Won; Kim, Byounghan; Lee, Myoung-Heon; Lee, Jong-Soo; Park, Jong-Hyeon

2017-08-15

There are seven antigenically distinct serotypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), each of which has intratypic variants. In the present study, we have developed methods to efficiently generate promising vaccines against seven serotypes or subtypes. The capsid-encoding gene (P1) of the vaccine strain O1/Manisa/Turkey/69 was replaced with the amplified or synthetic genes from the O, A, Asia1, C, SAT1, SAT2, and SAT3 serotypes. Viruses of the seven serotype were rescued successfully. Each chimeric FMDV with a replacement of P1 showed serotype-specific antigenicity and varied in terms of pathogenesis in pigs and mice. Vaccination of pigs with an experimental trivalent vaccine containing the inactivated recombinants based on the main serotypes O, A, and Asia1 effectively protected them from virus challenge. This technology could be a potential strategy for a customized vaccine with challenge tools to protect against epizootic disease caused by specific serotypes or subtypes of FMDV. IMPORTANCE Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus (FMDV) causes significant economic losses. For vaccine preparation, the selection of vaccine strains was complicated by high antigenic variation. In the present study, we suggested an effective strategy to rapidly prepare and evaluate mass-produced customized vaccines against epidemic strains. The P1 gene encoding the structural proteins of the well-known vaccine virus was replaced by the synthetic or amplified genes of viruses of seven representative serotypes. These chimeric viruses generally replicated readily in cell culture and had a particle size similar to that of the original vaccine strain. Their antigenicity mirrored that of the original serotype from which their P1 gene was derived. Animal infection experiments revealed that the recombinants varied in terms of pathogenicity. This strategy will be a useful tool for rapidly generating customized FMD vaccines or challenge viruses for all serotypes, especially for FMD-free countries, which have prohibited the import of FMDVs. Copyright © 2017 Lee et al.

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review

PubMed Central

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M.

2014-01-01

Context Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. Objective This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. Method We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. Results We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Conclusions Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques. PMID:25125798

Laboratory-controlled Challenges of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) with Streptococcus agalactiae: Comparisons between Immersion, Oral, Intracoelomic and Intramuscular Routes of Infection.

PubMed

Soto, E; Zayas, M; Tobar, J; Illanes, O; Yount, S; Francis, S; Dennis, M M

2016-11-01

Streptococcus agalactiae, the aetiological agent of streptococcosis in fish, is an important pathogen of cultured and wild fish worldwide. To gain a better understanding of the pathogenesis of streptococcosis in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), and to identify the experimental route of infection that most closely mimics natural disease, fingerlings were challenged with S. agalactiae utilizing different delivery methods. Fingerlings were challenged via intracoelomic injection (ICinj), intramuscular injection (IMinj), orally or by immersion with serial dilutions of S. agalactiae. The dose lethal to 50% of test fish 15 days post challenge was 120 colony forming units (CFU)/fish after ICinj, and 10 5  CFU/fish after IMinj. Acute mortalities were present in both groups, but were higher in the fish challenged by ICinj. Very low mortalities were observed in the fish challenged via oral or immersion routes. Post-mortem evaluation of survivors revealed classical lesions associated with fish streptococcosis, including granulomatous or lymphohistiocytic epicarditis, splenitis, meningitis, myocarditis, choroiditis and exophthalmia. The information obtained improves our understanding of the pathogenesis of streptococcosis in fish, and provides useful information regarding controlled experimental infections in tilapia challenged with S. agalactiae. Results from this study suggest that IMinj challenge methods are not only suitable to induce streptococcosis in tilapia, but they may be the preferred method to study the pathogenesis of the naturally-occurring disease in this species. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender, psychosis and psychotropic drugs: differences and similarities.

PubMed

Groleger, Urban; Novak-Grubic, Virginija

2010-06-01

Acute psychosis is diagnosed by clearly defined operational criteria embedded into international classification systems. Many studies have tried to determine the role of gender in psychosis but mainly in terms of epidemiology and course of illness, most often schizophrenia. There are however also important gender-specific differences in clinical symptoms of acute psychosis. No guidelines or treatment recommendations suggest gender as an important factor in the choice of antipsychotic treatment, which is true for all treatment modalities (antipsychotic, dose, duration). We will review shortly available literature and present some of our own research data on gender differences in clinical presentations of acute psychosis. When the diagnosis of an illness depends almost entirely on symptoms and their presentations as in the case of acute psychosis, important gender specific differences might challenge the diagnostic process as well as treatment choice and course of psychosis. Our as well as other data confirm that acute psychosis manifest itself differently in males and females. To define further the impact of observed differences we need further research into gender specific clinical and not just epidemiological variables.

Perspectives on autonomy.

PubMed

Keys, Yolanda

2009-09-01

This department, sponsored by the AONE, presents information to assist nurse leaders in shaping the future of healthcare through creative and innovative leadership. The strategic priorities of AONE anchor the editorial content. They reflect contemporary healthcare and nursing practice issues that challenge nurse executives as they strive to meet the needs of patients. This article describes how 9 Magnet-hospital, chief nursing officers perceive their autonomy and its importance in accomplishing their work.

Adult Dental Trauma: What Should the Dental Practitioner Know?

PubMed

Chauhan, Ravi; Rasaratnam, Lakshmi; Alani, Aws; Djemal, Serpil

2016-05-01

The management of adult dental trauma can be a daunting challenge for practitioners at any level. Like medical emergencies, initial management can have a large influence on prognosis. It is important that practitioners understand the basic principles of managing the acute presentations of dental trauma. This article aims to illustrate a step-by-step approach in order to improve the management within general dental practice for better outcomes for patients.

Nutrition and Exercise in Space and on Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis-Street, Janis

2006-01-01

This presentation in outline format for delivery to school age groups (i.e., K-12) reviews the importance of proper nutrition and exercise for everyone, with emphasis on space travel. It reviews the types of space food, the constraints of eating in space, and some of the challenges of exercising in space. It lists the materials displayed and used as teaching resources, as well as materials to be distributed.

Cardiac stress testing for the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease: a reference for the primary care physician.

PubMed

Gajulapalli, Rama Dilip; Aneja, Ashish; Rovner, Aleksandr

2012-02-01

Choosing the appropriate stress test is important in the workup of patients with possible myocardial ischemia. This choice often is challenging and sometimes confusing because of the plethora of tests and guidelines available. We present a broad overview of commonly available stress tests and indications to help physicians select the most appropriate stress test for their patients.

Assembly of Terpenoid Cores by a Simple, Tunable Strategy.

PubMed

Lahtigui, Ouidad; Emmetiere, Fabien; Zhang, Wei; Jirmo, Liban; Toledo-Roy, Samira; Hershberger, John C; Macho, Jocelyn M; Grenning, Alexander J

2016-12-19

Oxygenated, polycyclic terpenoid natural products have important biological activities. Although total synthesis of such terpenes is widely studied, synthetic strategies that allow for controlled placement of oxygen atoms and other functionality remains a challenge. Herein, we present a simple, scalable, and tunable synthetic strategy to assemble terpenoid-like polycycloalkanes from cycloalkanones, malononitrile, and allylic electrophiles, abundantly available reagent classes. © 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Addressing multigenerational conflict: mutual respect and carefronting as strategy.

PubMed

Kupperschmidt, Betty R

2006-05-31

This article addresses the challenges faced by nurses as they work side-by-side with nurses from a variety of generational cohorts. First a brief overview of the generational characteristics of the four generational cohorts in today's workplace is presented. Next the importance of each nurse using respect and carefronting as antidotes to generational conflict is discussed. Finally the role of nursing leadership in facilitating respect and carefronting is noted.

Policies for managing urban growth and landscape change: a key to conservation in the 21st century

Treesearch

David N., tech. ed. Bengston

2005-01-01

Protecting natural areas in the face of urbanization is one of the most important challenges for conservation in the 21st century. The papers in this collection examine key issues related to growth management and selected approaches to managing urban growth and minimizing its social and environmental costs. They were presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the Society...

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.

Surgical management of chest wall trauma.

PubMed

Molnar, Tamas F

2010-11-01

Recent paradigm shift in major trauma profile elevates chest wall injuries among the most important topics of the specialty. Due to mass casualties of terror attacks and asymmetric warfare, civilian and military trauma care challenges thoracic surgery, traumatology, intensive anesthesiology, and related specialties. Contemporary advances of the main issues are systemically presented and discussed, such as soft tissue and bony structure injuries, complex traumas like flail chest, and extensively destroyed chest wall.

Computational dynamic approaches for temporal omics data with applications to systems medicine.

PubMed

Liang, Yulan; Kelemen, Arpad

2017-01-01

Modeling and predicting biological dynamic systems and simultaneously estimating the kinetic structural and functional parameters are extremely important in systems and computational biology. This is key for understanding the complexity of the human health, drug response, disease susceptibility and pathogenesis for systems medicine. Temporal omics data used to measure the dynamic biological systems are essentials to discover complex biological interactions and clinical mechanism and causations. However, the delineation of the possible associations and causalities of genes, proteins, metabolites, cells and other biological entities from high throughput time course omics data is challenging for which conventional experimental techniques are not suited in the big omics era. In this paper, we present various recently developed dynamic trajectory and causal network approaches for temporal omics data, which are extremely useful for those researchers who want to start working in this challenging research area. Moreover, applications to various biological systems, health conditions and disease status, and examples that summarize the state-of-the art performances depending on different specific mining tasks are presented. We critically discuss the merits, drawbacks and limitations of the approaches, and the associated main challenges for the years ahead. The most recent computing tools and software to analyze specific problem type, associated platform resources, and other potentials for the dynamic trajectory and interaction methods are also presented and discussed in detail.

Building a values-based culture in nurse education.

PubMed

Tetley, Josie; Dobson, Fiona; Jack, Kirsten; Pearson, Beryl; Walker, Elaine

2016-01-01

Nurse education has found itself challenged to select and educate nurses who on completion of? of their programme? have: excellent technical skills, an ability to critically analyse care and work compassionately in ways that support the values of care that are important to service users. Recent reports of care suggest that nursing still needs to develop the values base of its student selection and education processes. Against this backdrop, this paper presents two examples from pre registration nurse education that illustrate how a values based approach is used as part of the selection process in one university and used to inform the development of a reflective poetry initiative in another university. Having presented the two examples the authors debate some of the wider benefits and challenges linked to these ways of working. For example, the importance of connecting nurses' personal beliefs, attitudes and assumptions to service user values in recruitment are discussed. The use of poetry as a way of thinking about practice that moves beyond traditional models of reflection in nursing are also considered. However, the authors recognise that if developments in nurse education are to have a real impact on nursing practice and patient care, there is the need for values based initiatives to be more directly connected to the delivery of healthcare. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Baseline integrated behavioural and biological assessment among most at-risk populations in six high-prevalence states of India: design and implementation challenges.

PubMed

Saidel, Tobi; Adhikary, Rajatashuvra; Mainkar, Mandar; Dale, Jayesh; Loo, Virginia; Rahman, Motiur; Ramesh, Banadakoppa M; Paranjape, Ramesh S

2008-12-01

This paper presents key methodological approaches and challenges in implementing and analysing the first round of the integrated biobehavioural assessment of most-at-risk populations, conducted in conjunction with evaluation of Avahan, the India AIDS initiative. The survey collected data on HIV risk behaviours, sexually transmitted infections and HIV prevalence in 29 districts in six high-prevalence states of India. Groups included female sex workers and clients, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and truck drivers. Strategies for overcoming some challenges of the large-scale surveys among vulnerable populations, including sampling hidden populations, involvement of the communities targeted by the survey, laboratory and quality control in remote, non-clinic field settings, and data analysis and data use are presented. Satisfying the need for protocols, guidelines and tools that allowed for sufficient standardization, while being tailored enough to fit diverse local situations on such a large scale, with so many implementing partners, emerged as a major management challenge. A major lesson from the first round is the vital importance of investing upfront time in tailoring the sampling methods, data collection instruments, and analysis plan to match measurement objectives. Despite the challenges, the integrated biobehavioural assessment was a huge achievement, and was largely successful in providing previously unavailable information about the HIV situation among populations that are critical to the curtailment of HIV spread in India. Lessons from the first round will be used to evolve the second round into an exercise with increased evaluative capability for Avahan.

Guidelines for reporting methodological challenges and evaluating potential bias in dementia research.

PubMed

Weuve, Jennifer; Proust-Lima, Cécile; Power, Melinda C; Gross, Alden L; Hofer, Scott M; Thiébaut, Rodolphe; Chêne, Geneviève; Glymour, M Maria; Dufouil, Carole

2015-09-01

Clinical and population research on dementia and related neurologic conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, faces several unique methodological challenges. Progress to identify preventive and therapeutic strategies rests on valid and rigorous analytic approaches, but the research literature reflects little consensus on "best practices." We present findings from a large scientific working group on research methods for clinical and population studies of dementia, which identified five categories of methodological challenges as follows: (1) attrition/sample selection, including selective survival; (2) measurement, including uncertainty in diagnostic criteria, measurement error in neuropsychological assessments, and practice or retest effects; (3) specification of longitudinal models when participants are followed for months, years, or even decades; (4) time-varying measurements; and (5) high-dimensional data. We explain why each challenge is important in dementia research and how it could compromise the translation of research findings into effective prevention or care strategies. We advance a checklist of potential sources of bias that should be routinely addressed when reporting dementia research. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Challenging behavior and related factors in people with intellectual disability living in residential care centers in Israel.

PubMed

Sinai, Amanda; Tenenbaum, Ariel; Aspler, Shoshana; Lotan, Meir; Morad, Mohammed; Merrick, Joav

2013-01-01

Adults with intellectual disabilities have higher rates of mental ill-health and problem behaviors than the general population. In this study, we present data on trends in challenging behavior in residential care centers in Israel from 1998 to 2008 and further data on trends in employment of psychiatrists from 1998 to 2009 and psychotropic medication use from 1998 to 2008. Data was collected from annual questionnaires sent out to all residential care centers in Israel, from the Office of the Medical Director, Division for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services. Rates of challenging behaviors in people with intellectual disabilities living in residential care centers in Israel continues to rise. Alongside this, trends in regular psychotropic medication use also continues to increase. Consideration of biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors in the assessment and management of people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviors is important. This is best conducted using a multidisciplinary approach, which may include psychiatric assessment. Non-pharmacological interventions should always be considered either alongside, or instead of medication.

Challenging Behavior and Related Factors in People with Intellectual Disability Living in Residential Care Centers in Israel

PubMed Central

Sinai, Amanda; Tenenbaum, Ariel; Aspler, Shoshana; Lotan, Meir; Morad, Mohammed; Merrick, Joav

2013-01-01

Introduction: Adults with intellectual disabilities have higher rates of mental ill-health and problem behaviors than the general population. Method: In this study, we present data on trends in challenging behavior in residential care centers in Israel from 1998 to 2008 and further data on trends in employment of psychiatrists from 1998 to 2009 and psychotropic medication use from 1998 to 2008. Data was collected from annual questionnaires sent out to all residential care centers in Israel, from the Office of the Medical Director, Division for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services. Results: Rates of challenging behaviors in people with intellectual disabilities living in residential care centers in Israel continues to rise. Alongside this, trends in regular psychotropic medication use also continues to increase. Conclusion: Consideration of biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors in the assessment and management of people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviors is important. This is best conducted using a multidisciplinary approach, which may include psychiatric assessment. Non-pharmacological interventions should always be considered either alongside, or instead of medication. PMID:24350182

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists National Biotechnology Conference Short Course: Translational Challenges in Developing Antibody-Drug Conjugates: May 24, 2012, San Diego, CA.

PubMed

Thudium, Karen; Bilic, Sanela; Leipold, Douglas; Mallet, William; Kaur, Surinder; Meibohm, Bernd; Erickson, Hans; Tibbitts, Jay; Zhao, Hong; Gupta, Manish

2013-01-01

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) National Biotechnology Conference Short Course "Translational Challenges in Developing Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs)," held May 24, 2012 in San Diego, CA, was organized by members of the Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics and Drug Metabolism section of AAPS. Representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory authorities, and academia in the US and Europe attended this short course to discuss the translational challenges in ADC development and the importance of characterizing these molecules early in development to achieve therapeutic utility in patients. Other areas of discussion included selection of target antigens; characterization of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion; assay development and hot topics like regulatory perspectives and the role of pharmacometrics in ADC development. MUC16-targeted ADCs were discussed to illustrate challenges in preclinical development; experiences with trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1; Genentech) and the recently approved brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris; Seattle Genetics) were presented in depth to demonstrate considerations in clinical development. The views expressed in this report are those of the participants and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliations.

MO-G-12A-01: Quantitative Imaging Metrology: What Should Be Assessed and How?

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

Giger, M; Petrick, N; Obuchowski, N

The first two symposia in the Quantitative Imaging Track focused on 1) the introduction of quantitative imaging (QI) challenges and opportunities, and QI efforts of agencies and organizations such as the RSNA, NCI, FDA, and NIST, and 2) the techniques, applications, and challenges of QI, with specific examples from CT, PET/CT, and MR. This third symposium in the QI Track will focus on metrology and its importance in successfully advancing the QI field. While the specific focus will be on QI, many of the concepts presented are more broadly applicable to many areas of medical physics research and applications. Asmore » such, the topics discussed should be of interest to medical physicists involved in imaging as well as therapy. The first talk of the session will focus on the introduction to metrology and why it is critically important in QI. The second talk will focus on appropriate methods for technical performance assessment. The third talk will address statistically valid methods for algorithm comparison, a common problem not only in QI but also in other areas of medical physics. The final talk in the session will address strategies for publication of results that will allow statistically valid meta-analyses, which is critical for combining results of individual studies with typically small sample sizes in a manner that can best inform decisions and advance the field. Learning Objectives: Understand the importance of metrology in the QI efforts. Understand appropriate methods for technical performance assessment. Understand methods for comparing algorithms with or without reference data (i.e., “ground truth”). Understand the challenges and importance of reporting results in a manner that allows for statistically valid meta-analyses.« less

Regenerative medicine in Brazil: small but innovative.

PubMed

McMahon, Dominique S; Singer, Peter A; Daar, Abdallah S; Thorsteinsdóttir, Halla

2010-11-01

Although Brazil has received attention for conducting one of the world's largest stem cell clinical trials for heart disease, little has been published regarding Brazil's regenerative medicine (RM) sector. Here we present a comprehensive case study of RM in Brazil, including analysis of the current activity, the main motivations for engaging in RM and the remaining challenges to development in this field. Our case study is primarily based on semi-structured interviews with experts on RM in Brazil, including researchers, policymakers, clinicians, representatives of firms and regulators. Driven by domestic health needs and strategic government support, Brazil is producing innovative RM research, particularly for clinical research in cardiology, orthopedics, diabetes and neurology. We describe the main RM research currently taking place in Brazil, as well as some of the economic, regulatory and policy events that have created a favorable environment for RM development. Brazilian RM researchers need to overcome several formidable challenges to research: research funding is inconsistent, importation of materials is costly and slow, and weak linkages between universities, hospitals and industry impede translational research. Although Brazil's contribution to the RM sector is small, its niche emphasis on clinical applications may become of global importance, particularly if Brazil manages to address the challenges currently impinging on RM innovation.

Peculiarities of Enhancing Resistant Starch in Ruminants Using Chemical Methods: Opportunities and Challenges

PubMed Central

Deckardt, Kathrin; Khol-Parisini, Annabella; Zebeli, Qendrim

2013-01-01

High-producing ruminants are fed high amounts of cereal grains, at the expense of dietary fiber, to meet their high energy demands. Grains consist mainly of starch, which is easily degraded in the rumen by microbial glycosidases, providing energy for rapid growth of rumen microbes and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) as the main energy source for the host. Yet, low dietary fiber contents and the rapid accumulation of SCFA lead to rumen disorders in cattle. The chemical processing of grains has become increasingly important to confer their starch resistances against rumen microbial glycosidases, hence generating ruminally resistant starch (RRS). In ruminants, unlike monogastric species, the strategy of enhancing resistant starch is useful, not only in lowering the amount of carbohydrate substrates available for digestion in the upper gut sections, but also in enhancing the net hepatic glucose supply, which can be utilized by the host more efficiently than the hepatic gluconeogenesis of SCFA. The use of chemical methods to enhance the RRS of grains and the feeding of RRS face challenges in the practice; therefore, the present article attempts to summarize the most important achievements in the chemical processing methods used to generate RRS, and review advantages and challenges of feeding RRS to ruminants. PMID:23736826

Key issues and challenges in developing a pedagogical intervention in the simulation skills center--an action research study.

PubMed

Reierson, Inger Åse; Hvidsten, Anne; Wighus, Marianne; Brungot, Solvor; Bjørk, Ida Torunn

2013-07-01

Simulation skills centers (SSC) are considered important learning arenas for preparing and qualifying nursing students. Limited clinical placements and claims of diminished learning opportunities raise concerns that newly educated nurses lack proficiency in many psychomotor skills. Accordingly, there is an increased focus on learning in the SSC. However, it has been questioned if the pedagogical underpinning of teaching and learning in the SSC is missing or unclear. At a bachelor nursing education in Norway, there was a desire to change practice and enhance learning in the SSC by systematic use of The Model of Practical Skill Performance (Bjørk and Kirkevold, 2000). A participatory action research design was chosen. A pedagogical intervention was developed and implemented in 2010 in a cohort of eighty-seven first year bachelor nursing students during their basic nursing skill course. The intervention is shortly described. This article reports key issues and challenges that emerged during development of the new intervention. Data to inform the study were collected via thorough meeting minutes and the project leader's logbook, and analyzed using fieldnotes analysis. Six key issues and challenges were identified. These are presented and discussed consecutively in light of their importance for development and implementation of the new intervention. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The state of multiple sclerosis: current insight into the patient/health care provider relationship, treatment challenges, and satisfaction.

PubMed

Tintoré, Mar; Alexander, Maggie; Costello, Kathleen; Duddy, Martin; Jones, David E; Law, Nancy; O'Neill, Gilmore; Uccelli, Antonio; Weissert, Robert; Wray, Sibyl

2017-01-01

Managing multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment presents challenges for both patients and health care professionals. Effective communication between patients with MS and their neurologist is important for improving clinical outcomes and quality of life. A closed-ended online market research survey was used to assess the current state of MS care from the perspective of both patients with MS (≥18 years of age) and neurologists who treat MS from Europe and the US and to gain insight into perceptions of treatment expectations/goals, treatment decisions, treatment challenges, communication, and satisfaction with care, based on current clinical practice. A total of 900 neurologists and 982 patients completed the survey, of whom 46% self-identified as having remitting-relapsing MS, 29% secondary progressive MS, and 11% primary progressive MS. Overall, patients felt satisfied with their disease-modifying therapy (DMT); satisfaction related to comfort in speaking with their neurologist and participation in their DMT decision-making process. Patients who self-identified as having relapsing-remitting MS were more likely to be very satisfied with their treatment. Top challenges identified by patients in managing their DMT were cost, side effects/tolerability of treatment, and uncertainty if treatment was working. Half of the patients reported skipping doses, but only 68% told their health care provider that they did so. Several important differences in perception were identified between patients and neurologists concerning treatment selection, satisfaction, expectations, goals, and comfort discussing symptoms, as well as treatment challenges and skipped doses. The study results emphasize that patient/neurologist communication and patient input into the treatment decision-making process likely influence patient satisfaction with treatment.

Identifying and meeting the challenges of insulin therapy in type 2 diabetes.

PubMed

Sorli, Christopher; Heile, Michael K

2014-01-01

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic illness that requires clinical recognition and treatment of the dual pathophysiologic entities of altered glycemic control and insulin resistance to reduce the risk of long-term micro- and macrovascular complications. Although insulin is one of the most effective and widely used therapeutic options in the management of diabetes, it is used by less than one-half of patients for whom it is recommended. Clinician-, patient-, and health care system-related challenges present numerous obstacles to insulin use in T2DM. Clinicians must remain informed about new insulin products, emerging technologies, and treatment options that have the potential to improve adherence to insulin therapy while optimizing glycemic control and mitigating the risks of therapy. Patient-related challenges may be overcome by actively listening to the patient's fears and concerns regarding insulin therapy and by educating patients about the importance, rationale, and evolving role of insulin in individualized self-treatment regimens. Enlisting the services of Certified Diabetes Educators and office personnel can help in addressing patient-related challenges. Self-management of diabetes requires improved patient awareness regarding the importance of lifestyle modifications, self-monitoring, and/or continuous glucose monitoring, improved methods of insulin delivery (eg, insulin pens), and the enhanced convenience and safety provided by insulin analogs. Health care system-related challenges may be improved through control of the rising cost of insulin therapy while making it available to patients. To increase the success rate of treatment of T2DM, the 2012 position statement from the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes focused on individualized patient care and provided clinicians with general treatment goals, implementation strategies, and tools to evaluate the quality of care.

The Future of Water Security in Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo Through Different Climate Scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gesualdo, G. C.; Oliveira, P. T. S.; Rodrigues, D. B. B.

2017-12-01

Achieving a balance between water availability and demand is one of the most pressing environmental challenges in the twenty-first century. This challenge is exacerbated by, climate change, which has already affected the water balance of landscapes globally by intensifying runoff, reducing snowpacks, and shifting precipitation regimes. Understanding these changes is crucial to identifying future water availability and developing sustainable management plans, especially in developing countries. Here, we address the developing country water balance challenge by assessing the influence of climate change on the water availability in the Jaguari basin, Southeastern Brazil. The Jaguari basin is one of the main sources of freshwater for 9 million people in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. This region represents about 7% of the Brazil's Gross Domestic Product. The critical importance of the water balance challenge in this area has been highlighted recently when a major drought in southeastern Brazil revealed the vulnerability of current water management systems. Still today, the per capita water availability in the region remains severely limited. To help address this water balance challenge, we use a modeling approach to predict future water vulnerabilities of this region under different climate scenarios. Here, we calibrated and validated a lumped conceptual model using HYMOD to evaluate future scenarios using downscaled climate models resulting from HadGEM2-ES and MIROC5 GCMs forced by RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. We also present future directions which include bias correction from long-term weather station data and an empirical uncertainty assessment. Our results provide an important overview of climate change impacts on streamflow and future water availability in the Jaguari basin, which can be used to guide the basin`s water security plans and strategies.

The state of multiple sclerosis: current insight into the patient/health care provider relationship, treatment challenges, and satisfaction

PubMed Central

Tintoré, Mar; Alexander, Maggie; Costello, Kathleen; Duddy, Martin; Jones, David E; Law, Nancy; O’Neill, Gilmore; Uccelli, Antonio; Weissert, Robert; Wray, Sibyl

2017-01-01

Background Managing multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment presents challenges for both patients and health care professionals. Effective communication between patients with MS and their neurologist is important for improving clinical outcomes and quality of life. Methods A closed-ended online market research survey was used to assess the current state of MS care from the perspective of both patients with MS (≥18 years of age) and neurologists who treat MS from Europe and the US and to gain insight into perceptions of treatment expectations/goals, treatment decisions, treatment challenges, communication, and satisfaction with care, based on current clinical practice. Results A total of 900 neurologists and 982 patients completed the survey, of whom 46% self-identified as having remitting-relapsing MS, 29% secondary progressive MS, and 11% primary progressive MS. Overall, patients felt satisfied with their disease-modifying therapy (DMT); satisfaction related to comfort in speaking with their neurologist and participation in their DMT decision-making process. Patients who self-identified as having relapsing-remitting MS were more likely to be very satisfied with their treatment. Top challenges identified by patients in managing their DMT were cost, side effects/tolerability of treatment, and uncertainty if treatment was working. Half of the patients reported skipping doses, but only 68% told their health care provider that they did so. Conclusion Several important differences in perception were identified between patients and neurologists concerning treatment selection, satisfaction, expectations, goals, and comfort discussing symptoms, as well as treatment challenges and skipped doses. The study results emphasize that patient/neurologist communication and patient input into the treatment decision-making process likely influence patient satisfaction with treatment. PMID:28053511

Immature doublecortin-positive hippocampal neurons are important for learning but not for remembering.

PubMed

Vukovic, Jana; Borlikova, Gilyana G; Ruitenberg, Marc J; Robinson, Gregory J; Sullivan, Robert K P; Walker, Tara L; Bartlett, Perry F

2013-04-10

It is now widely accepted that hippocampal neurogenesis underpins critical cognitive functions, such as learning and memory. To assess the behavioral importance of adult-born neurons, we developed a novel knock-in mouse model that allowed us to specifically and reversibly ablate hippocampal neurons at an immature stage. In these mice, the diphtheria toxin receptor (DTR) is expressed under control of the doublecortin (DCX) promoter, which allows for specific ablation of immature DCX-expressing neurons after administration of diphtheria toxin while leaving the neural precursor pool intact. Using a spatially challenging behavioral test (a modified version of the active place avoidance test), we present direct evidence that immature DCX-expressing neurons are required for successful acquisition of spatial learning, as well as reversal learning, but are not necessary for the retrieval of stored long-term memories. Importantly, the observed learning deficits were rescued as newly generated immature neurons repopulated the granule cell layer upon termination of the toxin treatment. Repeat (or cyclic) depletion of immature neurons reinstated behavioral deficits if the mice were challenged with a novel task. Together, these findings highlight the potential of stimulating neurogenesis as a means to enhance learning.

Challenges and Issues of Radiation Damage Tools for Space Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tripathi, Ram; Wilson, John

2006-04-01

NASA has a new vision for space exploration in the 21st Century encompassing a broad range of human and robotic missions including missions to Moon, Mars and beyond. Exposure from the hazards of severe space radiation in deep space long duration missions is `the show stopper.' Thus, protection from the hazards of severe space radiation is of paramount importance for the new vision. Accurate risk assessments critically depend on the accuracy of the input information about the interaction of ions with materials, electronics and tissues. A huge amount of essential experimental information for all the ions in space, across the periodic table, for a wide range of energies of several (up to a Trillion) orders of magnitude are needed for the radiation protection engineering for space missions that is simply not available (due to the high costs) and probably never will be. In addition, the accuracy of the input information and database is very critical and of paramount importance for space exposure assessments particularly in view the agency's vision for deep space exploration. The vital role and importance of nuclear physics, related challenges and issues, for space missions will be discussed, and a few examples will be presented for space missions.

Fragment-based approaches to the discovery of kinase inhibitors.

PubMed

Mortenson, Paul N; Berdini, Valerio; O'Reilly, Marc

2014-01-01

Protein kinases are one of the most important families of drug targets, and aberrant kinase activity has been linked to a large number of disease areas. Although eminently targetable using small molecules, kinases present a number of challenges as drug targets, not least obtaining selectivity across such a large and relatively closely related target family. Fragment-based drug discovery involves screening simple, low-molecular weight compounds to generate initial hits against a target. These hits are then optimized to more potent compounds via medicinal chemistry, usually facilitated by structural biology. Here, we will present a number of recent examples of fragment-based approaches to the discovery of kinase inhibitors, detailing the construction of fragment-screening libraries, the identification and validation of fragment hits, and their optimization into potent and selective lead compounds. The advantages of fragment-based methodologies will be discussed, along with some of the challenges associated with using this route. Finally, we will present a number of key lessons derived both from our own experience running fragment screens against kinases and from a large number of published studies.

Lesson of the month 2: toxic shock syndrome.

PubMed

Shalaby, Tamer; Anandappa, Samantha; Pocock, Nicholas John; Keough, Alexander; Turner, Angus

2014-06-01

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) represents a fascinating example of immune activation caused by infection resulting in a dramatic and challenging clinical syndrome. TSS is commonly associated with tampon use and still causes significant morbidity and mortality in young healthy women. A misconception is that TSS presents with a skin rash and only occurs in women and children; however, it can occur in males and can present without skin changes. TSS presents initially as a febrile illness and within a few hours can progress to severe hypotension and multiple organ failure (MOF). Staphylococcus aureus and group A beta haemolytic streptococcus (GABHS) can secrete toxins from a small or hidden focus of infection and hence blood culture and sensitivity (C+S) tests can be negative, thereby making diagnosing this condition challenging. Clindamycin is superior to penicillin in the treatment of this condition and significantly decreases the mortality rate in TSS. However, there is also an important role for intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG). Early intensive care unit (ICU) as well as surgical team involvement (in selected cases) is required to avoid mortality which may approach 70%. © 2014 Royal College of Physicians.

Distilled single-cell genome sequencing and de novo assembly for sparse microbial communities.

PubMed

Taghavi, Zeinab; Movahedi, Narjes S; Draghici, Sorin; Chitsaz, Hamidreza

2013-10-01

Identification of every single genome present in a microbial sample is an important and challenging task with crucial applications. It is challenging because there are typically millions of cells in a microbial sample, the vast majority of which elude cultivation. The most accurate method to date is exhaustive single-cell sequencing using multiple displacement amplification, which is simply intractable for a large number of cells. However, there is hope for breaking this barrier, as the number of different cell types with distinct genome sequences is usually much smaller than the number of cells. Here, we present a novel divide and conquer method to sequence and de novo assemble all distinct genomes present in a microbial sample with a sequencing cost and computational complexity proportional to the number of genome types, rather than the number of cells. The method is implemented in a tool called Squeezambler. We evaluated Squeezambler on simulated data. The proposed divide and conquer method successfully reduces the cost of sequencing in comparison with the naïve exhaustive approach. Squeezambler and datasets are available at http://compbio.cs.wayne.edu/software/squeezambler/.

The Relationship Between Challenging Behaviour, Cognitions and Stress in Mothers of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities.

PubMed

Rose, John; Nelson, Lisa; Hardiman, Rebecca

2016-11-01

Cognitions are starting to receive more prominence as important when examining a number of factors including the topography of challenging behaviour. This study examined the relationships between maternal stress, challenging behaviour (aggressive and self-injurious behaviours) and parental cognitions and specifically whether maternal cognitions mediated the effect of challenging behaviour on parenting stress. 46 mothers of children and young adults with ID completed questionnaires regarding their child's challenging behaviour, maternal cognitions and stress. Significant correlations were found between challenging behaviour and maternal stress. The overall mediation models for aggression and self-injurious behaviour were significant. The Challenging Behaviour Perception Questionnaire: Consequences client subscale was the only independent significant mediator for both behaviours. Cognitions do play an important part in mediating the relationship between challenging behaviour and stress. Further research is needed to examine the similarities and differences between the mediation models for aggression and self-injurious behaviour.

Challenges for Synchrotron X-Ray Optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freund, Andreas K.

2002-12-01

It is the task of x-ray optics to adapt the raw beam generated by modern sources such as synchrotron storage rings to a great variety of experimental requirements in terms of intensity, spot size, polarization and other parameters. The very high quality of synchrotron radiation (source size of a few microns and beam divergence of a few micro-radians) and the extreme x-ray flux (power of several hundred Watts in a few square mm) make this task quite difficult. In particular the heat load aspect is very important in the conditioning process of the brute x-ray power to make it suitable for being used on the experimental stations. Cryogenically cooled silicon crystals and water-cooled diamond crystals can presently fulfill this task, but limits will soon be reached and new schemes and materials must be envisioned. A major tendency of instrument improvement has always been to concentrate more photons into a smaller spot utilizing a whole variety of focusing devices such as Fresnel zone plates, refractive lenses and systems based on bent surfaces, for example, Kirkpatrick-Baez systems. Apart from the resistance of the sample, the ultimate limits are determined by the source size and strength on one side, by materials properties, cooling, mounting and bending schemes on the other side, and fundamentally by the diffraction process. There is also the important aspect of coherence that can be both a nuisance and a blessing for the experiments, in particular for imaging techniques. Its conservation puts additional constraints on the quality of the optical elements. The overview of the present challenges includes the properties of present and also mentions aspects of future x-ray sources such as the "ultimate" storage ring and free electron lasers. These challenges range from the thermal performances of monochromators to the surface quality of mirrors, from coherence preservation of modern multilayers to short pulse preservation by crystals, and from micro- and nano-focusing techniques to the accuracy and stability of mechanical supports.

Image Analysis in Plant Sciences: Publish Then Perish.

PubMed

Lobet, Guillaume

2017-07-01

Image analysis has become a powerful technique for most plant scientists. In recent years dozens of image analysis tools have been published in plant science journals. These tools cover the full spectrum of plant scales, from single cells to organs and canopies. However, the field of plant image analysis remains in its infancy. It still has to overcome important challenges, such as the lack of robust validation practices or the absence of long-term support. In this Opinion article, I: (i) present the current state of the field, based on data from the plant-image-analysis.org database; (ii) identify the challenges faced by its community; and (iii) propose workable ways of improvement. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Cai, Yunhai

Similar to a super B-factory, a circular Higgs factory (CHF) will require strong focusing systems near the interaction points and a low-emittance lattice in the arcs to achieve a factory luminosity. At electron beam energy of 125 GeV, beamstrahlung effects during the collision pose an additional challenge to the collider design. In particular, a large momentum acceptance at the 2% level is necessary to retain an adequate beam lifetime. This turns out to be the most challenging aspect in the design of a CHF. In this paper, an example will be provided to illustrate the beam dynamics in a CHF,more » emphasizing the chromatic optics. Basic optical modules and advanced analysis will be presented. Most importantly, we will show that 2% momentum aperture is achievable.« less

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

Cai, Yunhai

Similar to a super B-factory, a circular Higgs factory will require strong focusing systems near the interaction points and a low-emittance lattice in arcs to achieve a factory luminosity. At electron beam energy of 120 GeV, beamstrahlung effects during the collision pose an additional challenge to the collider design. In particular, a large momentum acceptance at 2 percent level is necessary to retain an adequate beam lifetime. This turns out to be the most challenging aspect in the design of circular Higgs factory. In this paper, an example will be provided to illustrate the beam dynamics in circular Higgs factory,more » emphasizing on the chromatic optics. Basic optical modules and advanced analysis will be presented. Most important, we will show that 2% momentum aperture is achievable« less

Global regulatory developments for clinical stem cell research: diversification and challenges to collaborations.

PubMed

Rosemann, Achim; Bortz, Gabriela; Vasen, Federico; Sleeboom-Faulkner, Margaret

2016-10-01

In this article, we explore regulatory developments in stem cell medicine in seven jurisdictions: Japan, China, India, Argentina, Brazil, the USA and the EU. We will show that the research methods, ethical standards and approval procedures for the market use of clinical stem cell interventions are undergoing an important process of global diversification. We will discuss the implications of this process for international harmonization and the conduct of multicountry clinical research collaborations. It will become clear that the increasing heterogeneity of research standards and regulations in the stem cell field presents a significant challenge to international clinical trial partnerships, especially with countries that diverge from the regulatory models that have been developed in the USA and the EU.

Targeted delivery of miRNA therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases: opportunities and challenges.

PubMed

Kwekkeboom, Rick F J; Lei, Zhiyong; Doevendans, Pieter A; Musters, René J P; Sluijter, Joost P G

2014-09-01

Dysregulation of miRNA expression has been associated with many cardiovascular diseases in animal models, as well as in patients. In the present review, we summarize recent findings on the role of miRNAs in cardiovascular diseases and discuss the opportunities, possibilities and challenges of using miRNAs as future therapeutic targets. Furthermore, we focus on the different approaches that can be used to deliver these newly developed miRNA therapeutics to their sites of action. Since siRNAs are structurally homologous with the miRNA therapeutics, important lessons learned from siRNA delivery strategies are discussed that might be applicable to targeted delivery of miRNA therapeutics, thereby reducing costs and potential side effects, and improving efficacy.

Multidisciplinary lung cancer meetings: improving the practice of radiation oncology and facing future challenges.

PubMed

Campbell, Belinda A; Ball, David; Mornex, Françoise

2015-02-01

Clinical guidelines widely recognize the importance of multidisciplinary meetings (MDM) in the optimal care of lung cancer patients. The published literature suggest that dedicated Lung Cancer MDM lead to increased treatment utilization rates and improved survival outcomes for patients with lung cancer. For radiation oncologists, Lung Cancer MDM have been proven to support evidence-based practice and improve the utilization of radiotherapy. Lung Cancer MDM also allow for education and promotion of specialty radiotherapy services. The fast pace of modern medicine is also presenting new challenges for the multidisciplinary lung cancer team, and technological advances are likely to lead to new changes in the structure of traditional Lung Cancer MDM. © 2015 Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.

Multicultural health care in practice. An empirical exploration of multicultural care in The Netherlands.

PubMed

Olthuis, Gert; van Heteren, Godelieve

2003-09-01

This study presents a first assessment of the challenges faced by Dutch health care providers dealing with the increasing cultural diversity in Dutch society. Qualitative interviews with 24 Dutch caregivers and policy-makers point to a number of important difficulties encountered when confronted with the growing diversity of patient populations. The study focuses explicitly on the challenges health care providers perceive in their direct interactions with patients. On the basis of the observations of the 24 respondents five strategies were formulated to improve the delivery of care in a multicultural environment. Their findings were further evaluated by confronting the empirical data with care-ethical notions (attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness) and intercultural communication-theory.

Wide Field Spectroscopy of Diffusing and Interacting DNA Using Tunable Nanoscale Geometries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, Shane; Leith, Jason; Brandao, Hugo; Sehayek, Simon; Hofkirchner, Alexander; Laurin, Jill; Berard, Daniel; Verge, Alexander; Wiseman, Paul; Leslie, Sabrina

2015-03-01

It remains an outstanding challenge to directly image interacting and diffusing biomolecules under physiological conditions. Many biochemical questions can be posed in the form: Does A interact with B? What are the energetics, kinetics, stoichiometry, and cooperativity of this interaction? To tackle this challenge, we use tunable nanoscale confinement to perform wide-field imaging of interacting DNA molecules in free solution, under an extended range of reagent concentrations and interaction rates. We present the integration of ``Convex Lens-induced Confinement (CLiC)'' microscopy with image correlation analysis, simultaneously suppressing background fluorescence and extending imaging times. The measured DNA-DNA interactions would be inaccessible to standard techniques but are important for developing a mechanistic understanding of life-preserving processes such as DNA transcription. NSERC.

Excited state dynamics of thiophene and bithiophene: new insights into theoretically challenging systems.

PubMed

Prlj, Antonio; Curchod, Basile F E; Corminboeuf, Clémence

2015-06-14

The computational elucidation and proper description of the ultrafast deactivation mechanisms of simple organic electronic units, such as thiophene and its oligomers, is as challenging as it is contentious. A comprehensive excited state dynamics analysis of these systems utilizing reliable electronic structure approaches is currently lacking, with earlier pictures of the photochemistry of these systems being conceived based upon high-level static computations or lower level dynamic trajectories. Here a detailed surface hopping molecular dynamics of thiophene and bithiophene using the algebraic diagrammatic construction to second order (ADC(2)) method is presented. Our findings illustrate that ring puckering plays an important role in thiophene photochemistry and that the photostability increases when going upon dimerization into bithiophene.

Pre-service Science Teacher Preparation in China: Challenges and Promises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Enshan; Liu, Cheng; Wang, Jian

2015-02-01

The purpose of this article was to present an overview of pre-service science teacher preparation in China, which is heavily influenced by Chinese tradition, Confucianism, and rapid social and economic development. The policies, science teacher education systems and related programs jointly contribute to producing enough science teachers for hundreds of thousands of schools at different levels. At the same time, some important reforms should be undertaken, and more candidates with the ability to do educational research should be trained. These qualified science teachers not only face the challenges of the new round of science education reform, but also take opportunities to implement new science curriculum effectively. Therefore, it will facilitate professional development and improve science education in turn.

Pancultural self-enhancement.

PubMed

Sedikides, Constantine; Gaertner, Lowell; Toguchi, Yoshiyasu

2003-01-01

The culture movement challenged the universality of the self-enhancement motive by proposing that the motive is pervasive in individualistic cultures (the West) but absent in collectivistic cultures (the East). The present research posited that Westerners and Easterners use different tactics to achieve the same goal: positive self-regard. Study 1 tested participants from differing cultural backgrounds (the United States vs. Japan), and Study 2 tested participants of differing self-construals (independent vs. interdependent). Americans and independents self-enhanced on individualistic attributes, whereas Japanese and interdependents self-enhanced on collectivistic attributes. Independents regarded individualistic attributes, whereas interdependents regarded collectivistic attributes, as personally important. Attribute importance mediated self-enhancement. Regardless of cultural background or self-construal, people self-enhance on personally important dimensions. Self-enhancement is a universal human motive.

A Perspective on Education's Importance for Urban Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joshi, Priyadarshani

2017-01-01

The 21st century has been called the "age of the city". The concentration of human activity is what makes cities such an important space of opportunity and challenge. This article views urban development challenges from an education perspective and argues that education must be viewed as an important intermediary for capitalising on the…

Building a More Diverse Workforce in HIV/AIDS Research: The Time has Come.

PubMed

Stoff, David M; Cargill, Victoria A

2016-09-01

Investigators from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are grossly underrepresented in the nation's biomedical research enterprise. Projections of current demographic trends suggest that population growth rates of minority populations will outpace that of the Caucasian population by 2060. Thus, this workforce will remain a poor reflection of the U.S. As a result of this underrepresentation of all sectors of the U.S. populace, the majority of the HIV research involving minority populations-those disproportionately impacted by HIV infection-will be conducted by investigators who do not resemble them. Although this does not necessarily preclude scientifically valid and important research, it produces research without the important cultural and contextual issues that can enhance the utility and generalizability of specific findings or interventions. The goal of this review is to not only raise awareness of the small numbers of minority investigators engaged in biomedical research, but also to identify the challenges to recruiting and retaining these investigators. In this article, while we discuss issues of diversity in general, the focus will be upon the mental health aspects of the HIV epidemic for illustrative purposes: to demonstrate the issues associated with enhancing investigator diversity as a strategy for remediating the chronic shortage of historically underrepresented investigators in scientific research. After presenting the magnitude of the problem and a rationale for enhancing diversity of the biomedical research workforce, we identify a number of potential reasons and challenges for the shortage of minority investigators. Aspects of the mentoring process, together with ten key suggestions, are discussed as the backdrop for the supplement papers that follow (dealing with mentoring principles, challenges, and mentoring-related issues on mentee, mentor, mentee-mentor relationship, and programs). By identifying these realities we hope to: (1) promote greater discussions of these challenges in academic institutions and settings; (2) suggest meaningful strategies to address these challenges; and (3) foster a national discussion about the long-term investment necessary for permanent change, as there are no easy 'fixes' for these challenges.

Neural Information Processing in Cognition: We Start to Understand the Orchestra, but Where is the Conductor?

PubMed Central

Palm, Günther

2016-01-01

Research in neural information processing has been successful in the past, providing useful approaches both to practical problems in computer science and to computational models in neuroscience. Recent developments in the area of cognitive neuroscience present new challenges for a computational or theoretical understanding asking for neural information processing models that fulfill criteria or constraints from cognitive psychology, neuroscience and computational efficiency. The most important of these criteria for the evaluation of present and future contributions to this new emerging field are listed at the end of this article. PMID:26858632

The road ahead: comprehensive and innovative approaches for improving safety and preventing child maltreatment fatalities.

PubMed

Chahine, Zeinab; Sanders, David

2013-01-01

This article presents a high-level overview of the complex issues, opportunities, and challenges involved in improving child safety and preventing child maltreatment fatalities. It emphasizes that improving measurement and classification is critical to understanding and preventing child maltreatment fatalities. It also stresses the need to reframe child maltreatment interventions from a public health perspective. The article draws on the lessons learned from state-of-the-art safety engineering innovations, research, and other expert recommendations presented in this special issue that can inform future policy and practice direction in this important area.

Year in review 2009: Critical Care--infection.

PubMed

Harbarth, Stephan; Haustein, Thomas

2010-01-01

In 2009 Critical Care provided important and clinically relevant research data for management and prevention of infections in critically ill patients. The present review summarises the results of these observational studies and clinical trials and discusses them in the context of the current relevant scientific and clinical background. In particular, we discuss recent epidemiologic data on nosocomial infections in intensive care units, present new approaches to prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia, describe recent advances in biomarker-guided antibiotic stewardship and attempt to briefly summarise specific challenges related to the management of infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms and influenza A (H1N1).