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• Generation of a specific data ontology for underground built heritage spaces. • Specific data structure for the documentation, management and conservation of the typology of Underground built heritage spaces. • Annotation of the alphanumeric data of the heritage asset on the three-dimensional model using web applications, facilitating the reading and understanding of the heritage information. Progress in the field of documentation and safeguarding of heritage buildings has evolved considerably since the implementation and use of information models. However, these models are being refined and particularised in an attempt to cover the full range of elements to be protected. There is one case that has not yet been sufficiently studied, namely the specific typology of underground built heritage spaces, where the procedures designed for more conventional buildings are not applicable. A lack of consensus has been detected in the standardisation of data processing, which is fundamentally since these spaces do not respond to the classification nor as a building or as an archaeological site. In addition, the morphology of these spaces, -with irregular surfaces of complex geometry-, makes the three-dimensional representation indispensable to record concise and exact documentation. This research proposes a specific methodology for processing heritage data from CIDOC-based models for underground built heritage spaces that fills the identified gap. The research also proposes solutions to the ontological problem of linking information and annotated data, establishing a methodology for performing this kind of work directly on three-dimensional models using web applications. This simplification of the procedure facilitates the reading and multidisciplinary access to the information of the agents involved in safeguarding heritage, replacing two-dimensional projections representation with the introduction of three-dimensional tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core function of joint registries is to collect, collate, and present data about patients who undergo joint replacement surgery, and afford clinicians and administrators a range of analytic functions to monitor service performance. This article describes the development, evolution, and future of arthroplasty registries, drawing particularly from the experience of the Scottish Arthroplasty Project (SAP). The SAP was established in 1999 and is one of the oldest arthroplasty registries in the world. It collects information on patients undergoing hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, and elbow arthroplasty. The primary aim is to encourage continual improvement in the quality of care provided for arthroplasty patients in Scotland. It is distinct in terms of administration and methodology from the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as it monitors patients rather than implants. Since its inception, its work has contributed to a reduction in overall complication rates and a significant decrease in hospital length of stay for the growing number of patients undergoing arthroplasty. It continues to provide a robust database that is used to underpin national guidance through data-driven research. The research carried out by dedicated SAP fellows has enhanced the research portfolio of the SAP and raised its profile through high quality peer-reviewed publications. The SAP continues to evolve and by collaborating with other Scottish registries it will provide larger datasets containing greater diversity and granularity of information. These developments as well as ongoing analysis of existing areas ensure that the SAP continues to maintain and improve standards in arthroplasty across Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the known health costs of persistent depression, there is no established service framework for the treatment of this disorder and a lack of long-term outcome data to inform commissioning. To address this gap, we report the long-term clinical effectiveness of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) testing a specialist, collaborative model of care for people with persistent moderate to severe unipolar depression. A multicentre, pragmatic, single-blind, parallel-group randomised controlled trial comparing outcomes from a Specialist Depression Service (SDS) offering collaborative treatment with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy for 12 months with treatment as usual (TAU) for persistent, moderate-severe depression in UK secondary care. Participants were initially assessed at baseline, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months, with primary endpoints (17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale [HDRS17], and a Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF]) reported elsewhere (Morriss et al., 2016). Additional long-term, post-treatment, follow-up was made at 24 and 36 months with outcomes presented here. ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01047124) and ISRCTN registration (ISRCTN 10963342). At 24 months there remained a statistically significant between-group difference in HDRS 17 –2.69 (−5.14, −0.23) and a non-significant improvement in GAF 2.85 (−1.23, 6.94), both favouring the SDS. Simple statistics are presented at 36 months, due to attrition, showing higher continued response and remission vs TAU across all measures. Potential bias through loss to follow-up, particularly beyond 24 months. Compared with standard secondary care, SDS management of persistent moderate-severe depression, produced long-term clinical benefits, sustained following treatment completion, suggesting a model for future specialist care. • Long-term outcomes of specialist care for depression are sustained to 36 months. • Specialist care for depression produces clinically substantial longer-term change. • Specialist care is associated with clinically important long-term functional change. • Longer-term outcomes for persistent depression in secondary care can be improved. • Limitations of our findings include the high loss to follow-up by 36 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newly qualified radiographers often find working in the operating theatre (OT) challenging and intimidating. These perceptions, which inhibit confidence, may hinder their effectiveness in interprofessional teamwork, which may in turn adversely affect patient outcomes. A collaborative education programme was designed, building upon the foundations of competency-based education (CBE) and simulation-based mastery learning (SBML) to examine its potential in mitigating these perceptions. The objective of this research was to assess participants' experience and level of competency after attending the curated collaborative educational programme. The programme was developed based on the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model and comprises two teaching and learning phases: educational session and simulation. A collaborative approach was undertaken to develop an assessment checklist for the interprofessional simulation. Requirements for the simulation, such as scenario design, information and storyboard, task trainer, logistics, and learners' briefing, debrief, and feedback, were identified and assembled. The radiographers' performance was recorded using a practical skills assessment checklist and a theory assessment. Twelve radiographers participated and showed improvement in their self-rating of learning objectives before and after the programme. The median (interquartile range) score achieved in the theory assessment, out of a possible of 11, was 9.00 (7.75–9.50). The median (interquartile range) score achieved in the simulation component, out of a possible of 16, was 15.00 (14.00–15.00). There was statistically significant difference in self-perceived performance in all learning objective domains. The findings from the programme were promising. The use of simulation and an assessment checklist proved to be useful learning tools in preparing newly qualified radiographers for work in the OT. Assessment checklists are valuable tools that should be considered to facilitate teaching and learning. The use of interprofessional simulation activities can support radiographers in developing knowledge, professional skills, and clinical competency. It should be conducted in a timely manner to facilitate the introduction to role understanding and effective communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active learning methods are known to improve motivation, engagement, and student performance in traditional classrooms. However, the COVID-19 pandemic compelled students to continue their studies through an online setting wherein teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. In this study, the design and implementation of flipped classrooms supported with collaborative learning was evaluated for the remote instruction of Analytical Chemistry. The flipped classroom was designed to include pre-recorded lectures, individual self-assessment questions and in-class group activities (polls and quiz bee). Word problems were given as collaborative tasks to improve the students' interactions on the learning content. The impact on learning of these instructional practices was evaluated based on students' learning experience and academic performance, and the instructors' reflection. The survey at the end of the term gathered quantitative and qualitative data regarding students' experiences with flipped classroom and peer collaboration methods. The students' feedback indicated that participation in group collaborative activities had a positive impact on their comprehension of Analytical Chemistry concepts and calculations. Majority of the students indicated that group collaboration was immensely helpful in enhancing communication skills and improving their ability to apply what they had learned in class to solving difficult word problems. In addition, students underscored the importance of pre-recorded videos for their self-paced learning, and synchronous sessions to increase their engagement and motivation. On the other hand, several students perceived flipped classrooms as very demanding and challenging in terms of the required output submissions given the short 6-week term. Overall, the combination of these active-learning methods had a positive impact on the remote-learning environment, but potential drawbacks of online active learning interventions on student attitudes were also present. Therefore, careful integration of these instructional practices into online courses will help improve the students' learning experience. • Flipped classroom combined with peer collaborative learning is an effective online teaching and learning strategy. • Collaborative learning was useful for developing skills while flipped classroom was useful in building autonomy in learning. • Problem-solving group activities enhances student learning from their peers through diverse viewpoints and learning styles. • Improvement in student passing rate in Analytical Chemistry courses with the introduction of active learning strategies. • Collaboration reduced the stress of preparing materials for the online classes among students and instructors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution optical remote sensing images are the primary source of data for fine Earth observations. However, extensive cloud occlusion often limits the immediate use of such images. Moreover, although the reconstructed and composite images maintain consistent semantics and appearance in the non-reconstructed regions, they can present structural similarities and spectral variances in the reconstructed regions. Existing models use undifferentiated feature extraction for the reconstructed and non-reconstructed regions of reconstructed and composite images, exacerbating problems (such as the boundary effect) and affecting the overall consistency in the reconstructed images. Consequently, we designed a collaborative dual-harmonization reconstruction network, namely, the CDH-RecNet network, from the perspective of pixel-level local context and global-level context and proposed a pixel-to-pixel fine-grained local harmonization module (PFLH), image-to-image global harmonization module (IGH), ground constraint module (GCM), and foreground–background aware module (FBAM) for reconstructed and non-reconstructed regions to achieve the goal of reconstructing large ratios of missing information in high-resolution images. Compared to the classical recurrent feature reasoning network (RFR-Net), spatiotemporal generator network (STGAN), spatial–temporal–spectral convolutional neural network (STS-CNN), and bishift network (BSN), our model can be applied to the problem of reconstructing missing information with different resolutions, from different satellites, with different band combinations, addresses different missing types and different cloud occlusion distributions, and is not affected by cloud density and distribution status. Specifically, (1) our model shows significant advantages in 40%, 50%, and 70% large-ratio cloud occlusion reconstruction in the high-resolution image Gaofen-1(2 m), and the clarity index is improved by 1.2599, 1.2169, and 1.0678 at 40 %, by 1.4392, 1.1277, and 0.9245 at 50%; by 2.5493, 2.3635, and by 2.1776 at 70%; (2) it also well-reconstructs 40%, 50%, and 70% large-ratio cloud-occluded information in Sentinel-2 (10 m), Gaofen-1 (16 m), and Landsat-8 (30 m) medium and low-resolution satellite images with different band combinations; (3) our model has an excellent reconstruction effect on Landsat-7 (30 m) 20% and 40% stripes missing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context and Objectives: Although multiple national organizations have created consensus guidelines and metrics for pediatric palliative care (PPC), standardized implementation and measurement has been challenging. In 2016, 6 PPC physician-experts in program development and quality improvement (QI) formed a healthcare learning collaborative network entitled the Pediatric Palliative Improvement Network (PPIN).Methods: The primary drivers identified were 1) Feasibility of a national learning network demonstrated through the completion of one small QI project, 2) Standard education in QI methodology and 3) Salient pediatric palliative care operational, clinical and satisfaction metrics clearly defined.Results: PPIN now includes146 members representing 51 organizations. In 2019 the group completed a national collaborative QI project focused on pain assessment at the time of initial consult, demonstrating a national increase in pain assessment from 75.8% to >90% over 12 months. PPIN has hosted two national QI workshops training more than 50 PPC clinicians in QI, with a 2-hour webinar provided in 2020 due to COVID. Monthly calls since 2017 provide QI methods "refreshers", share local works in progress, and provide infrastructure for future collaborative projects.Conclusions: PPIN has become a sustainable organization which improves the quality of PPC through focus on national QI methods training, successful collaborative projects, and the creation of a learning and peer support community with regular calls. With the advent of the Palliative Care Quality Collaborative in 2020, PPIN provides critical educational and organizational infrastructure to inform ongoing quality efforts in PPC, now and in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ankle fractures are one of the most common fractures in adults aged 20-65 years. The British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) and British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (BOFAS) jointly produced Standards for Trauma (BOAST) BOAST 12, with the aim of reducing morbidity by standardising care of these injuries. The primary aim of the AUGMENT study was to determine the extent and clinical effect of variation from BOAST 12.Methods: AUGMENT was a multi-centre prospective trainee led audit of consecutive patients presenting with an ankle fracture within a four-week period. Data were collected on patient demographics, comorbidities, management and 12-week outcome. The BOAST 12 standards were divided into four subgroups; documentation, imaging, management and follow-up. Percentage compliance with each subgroup was analysed. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine impact of overall compliance on likelihood of discharge in follow-up period.Findings: 971 patients were included across 52 sites. The overall rate of BOAST 12 compliance was 41.7%. Variations in practice were observed in clinical documentation, especially of neurovascular status, (40.7%) and VTE assessment (61.5%). Patient management compliance with all 16 of the BOAST 12 standards was associated with a higher rate of discharge during the 12-week follow-up period (p = 0.005).Conclusion: AUGMENT has demonstrated that the management of ankle fractures is variable across the UK. Over half of patients had aspects of their care that were not BOAST 12 compliant. When compliance was observed, it was associated with earlier discharge from orthopaedic care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel teaching collaborative for acute care medicine advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) was formed by five faculty preceptors. The primary goal of the collaborative model was to ensure that acute care medicine APPEs provided students with opportunities to achieve Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education Standards 2016, including strengthening students' ability to be practice- and team-ready. The collaborative model included group discussions, video modules, patient cases, journal scans, and case presentations among student pharmacists completing an adult or pediatric acute care APPE. Anonymous, voluntary pre−/post-surveys were completed by a cohort of students who participated in the collaborative model from May 2018 to April 2019. Survey questions assessed student-perceived ability/confidence related to interprofessional (IP) relationships and decision-making skills for adult and pediatric patients, as well as value of activities. From the cohort of 67 students, 54 pre-survey and 45 post-survey responses were obtained. Post-rotation, students showed an increase in confidence to practice pharmacy on an IP team (39% vs. 100%, P <.001). Significant increases were also found for therapeutic decision-making regarding antibiotics, anticoagulants, and pharmacokinetics for adult and pediatric patients. Among students completing the post-survey, video modules were the most valued component of the model. A collaborative APPE model resulted in consistent increases in student-perceived ability and confidence related to care of adult and pediatric patients. This APPE model could be adapted within different care settings and pharmacy curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to safe drinking water remains a significant challenge for many Indigenous communities in Canada, particularly for remote communities. This stems from historic colonial practices of water governance that have relied on Western worldviews and excluded Indigenous Peoples. Using an Indigenist research framework and a Community-Based Participatory Research design, we, as Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborative research team wanted to learn from remote Indigenous communities, including Star Blanket Cree First Nation and the Cumberland House Village at the Treaty 4 and 5 territories (known as Saskatchewan) that have not been adequately represented in water governance. Following this, we used storytelling and deep listening to engage seven Elders and knowledge-keepers from the two communities. The findings show Indigenous People have spiritual and historical worldviews and practices surrounding water and its governance. Promoting Indigenous worldviews in water governance is critical to enhancing access to safe drinking water within the two communities. Therefore, reviving and reconnecting Indigenous drinking water governance promotes community healing and water protection. Insights from this paper propose a meaningful bridge between Western and Indigenous perspectives and the capacity to govern water through deep and complex practices and meanings of water governance. • Remote Indigenous communities lack access to safe drinking water. • Understanding the spirituality of water is key to Indigenous water governance. • Reclaiming Indigenous water stories is key to water reconciliation. • Collaborative water governance enhances access to safe drinking water. • Collaborative water governance promotes sovereignty and self-governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DARTS-PT is a well-known differentiable NAS method that measures the operation strength through its contribution to the supernet performance, extracting architecture from the underlying supernet. However, persistent issues of degraded architecture in DARTS-PT have been identified in recent studies. In response, we undertake a comprehensive analysis of this performance degradation issue and identify two primary contributing factors: the unfavorable competition among correlated operations during the operation selection process and the unfair advantage of parameter-free operations within DARTS-PT supernet. Building upon these findings, we propose DARTS-PT-CORE, a novel architecture selection algorithm that incorporates a collaborative operation competition mechanism and a regularization technique in the perturbation-based architecture selection approach. Our method aims to mitigate the negative effects of competition among correlated operations, yielding more reliable operation contribution scores. Furthermore, our regularization technique addresses the unfair advantage of parameter-free operations, facilitating a more balanced architecture selection process. Extensive experiments conducted on various datasets and search spaces indicate that DARTS-PT-CORE outperforms other state of-the-art methods. Specifically, in the DARTS search space, DARTS-PT-CORE achieves 2.43% test error on CIFAR10 and 16.23% test error on CIFAR100, while the search time is less than 0.8 GPU days. When transferring to ImageNet, DARTS-PT-CORE achieves 24.97% top-1 error. Such results underscore the effectiveness of our method in enhancing the reliability and balance of architecture selection in differentiable NAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acceleration of product development requires clear and systematic project management as a guideline and reference point for engineers from different backgrounds, different organizations and different cultures. Project management has therefore been part of the education of mechanical engineers for years. During the last years product development projects evolved the need for agile and lean management methods. So concepts originated from software development influence the organization of even pure mechanical engineering departments. Multidisciplinary product development projects can nowadays hardly do without scrum. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly transformed student cohorts from local classrooms into distributed teams from one day to the other. The basics of engineering project management could neither be explained nor trained in classroom teaching. Accidental discussions did not take place. Asking was difficult and feedback loops could not be closed. Exams in presence could not be carried out and has been transformed into some kind of homework assignment. The individual student got out of focus and learning success began to slip away. This contribution provides a case study how the sudden restrictions led to the implementation of a digital and virtual concept in teaching project management for mechanical engineering studies. It shows how classic project management is taught in a blended lecture set-up with asynchronous videos, synchronous web meetings and project based learning in a bachelor course. It further shows how agile project management is used to keep the close contact between student and teacher during student thesis. It also explains how scrum is applied to organize self-learning in a master course. The focus of this contribution is on the implementation of known methods with digital project management and communication tools. Finally, an attempt is made to compare the previous classroom teaching and the new digital teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project assessed the feasibility and acceptability of Parent Connext, a positive parenting program that integrates screening and co-located parent coaching within pediatric primary care. Eleven practices implemented Parent Connext in phases between November 1, 2016, and July 31, 2019. Screening and surveillance for parenting and family psychosocial concerns were performed during patient visits. Providers responded with brief motivational interviewing and referral. Parenting Specialists provided individualized parent coaching to referred caregivers. Screens were completed at 13,346 (65%) targeted visits, with 26% positive for concerns. Parent coaching was provided to 1,301 of 2,711 (48%) referred families (average 2.2 sessions per family). Providers and staff felt significantly more supported, confident, and knowledgeable about addressing parenting and family psychosocial concerns after implementing Parent Connext and felt the program improved their relationships with families and quality of care. Co-located parent coaching was found to be a feasible and worthwhile addition to pediatric primary care. • Pediatricians screened for parenting and family psychosocial concerns at checkups. • Parenting Specialists provided parent coaching to parents at 11 pediatric offices. • A total of 1,301 families participated in parent coaching over a two year period. • Physician confidence and knowledge improved for addressing psychosocial concerns. • Physicians endorsed parent coaching as a valuable addition to child primary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Collaborative robotics is paradigm shift in industrial robot system safety. • Collaborative robotics can permit closer work between people and robots. • Risk assessment is a crucial tool for collaborative robot system safety. • There are four types of collaborative robotic operations. • ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012 and its TRs specify safety requirements for industrial robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are implementing and leading initiatives to showcase high value care. • This descriptive report describes APRN-led initiatives implemented as part of a national collaborative promoting the Choosing Wisely ® campaign and high-value care measures. • A national collaborative has proven to be a successful way to engage APRN teams to focus on targeting high-value care and promoting evidence-based practices in clinical care. High-value healthcare focuses on improving healthcare to produce cost effective care, however limited information on the role of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) exists. This descriptive report describes APRN-led initiatives implemented as part of a national collaborative promoting the Choosing Wisely ® campaign and high-value care measures. An APRN national collaborative focuses on developing and implementing high-value care initiatives. Monthly calls, podcasts, and a file sharing platform are used to facilitate the work of the national collaborative. A total of 16 APRN teams from 14 states are participating and have implemented a number of initiatives to reduce unnecessary testing and treatments, promote appropriate antibiotic use, and promote optimal clinical practices such as mobility for hospitalized elderly patients, among others. A national collaborative has proven to be a successful way to engage APRN teams to focus on targeting high-value care and promoting evidence-based practices in clinical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In manufacturing, lean strategies are already widely distributed and have been research topic for years. However, the transfer of lean strategies to administrative areas is current research area. Some companies already implemented lean strategies in engineering departments. But since product development is performed more and more in globally distributed project teams, analogous processes don't work any longer. It becomes necessary to digitize the lean product development approaches. This paper gives a brief overview of the current state of research in the fields of lean management, distributed teams and digitalization. A short overview of existing project management software is given and the gap for the implementation of digital Lean Product Development (dLPD) is described. The last section shows the experience from the authors own projects and studies and explains a first orientation towards the implementation of dLPD and outlines the need for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning Analytics (LA) is a systematic and interdisciplinary field that uses methods and analysis techniques to measure the effectiveness of different pedagogical approaches such as problem based learning (PBL), project based learning etc. Analysis of data helps to bring improvements in the curriculum and content delivery in higher education. According to recent predictions, for educational technology, research seeks to analyze the learners' behavior, engagement time in learning, feedback, problem solving skills, ability to participate in team discussion. Teacher's involvement in designing an activity, keeping the student motivated and to induce them to participate in the activity sessions is a challenging task. Students' performance is always directly proportional to teachers' involvement. Combining PBL and LA helps to collect data and analyze in a structured way to make decisions for an academic purpose. The benefits include targeted course offerings to the students, students' learning outcomes, their behavior, performance, improved curriculum development, and improved personalized learning. Hence, this research enriches the application of PBL pedagogy with LA in engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 12 years, surgeon representatives from the 33 participating hospitals of the Michigan Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons Quality Collaborative (MSTCVS-QC), along with data specialists, surgical and quality improvement (QI) teams, have met at least 4 times a year to improve health-care quality and outcomes of cardiac and general thoracic surgery patients. The MSTCVS-QC nature of interactive learning has allowed all members to examine current data from each site in an unblinded manner for benchmarking, learn from their findings, institute clinically meaningful changes in survival and health-related quality of life, and carefully follow the effects. These meetings have resulted in agreement on various interventions to improve patient selection, periprocedural strategies, and adherence with evidence-based directed medication regimens, Factors contributing to the quality movement across hospitals include statewide-recognized clinicians who are eager to involve themselves in QI initiatives, dedicated health-care professionals at the hospital level, trusting environments in which failure is only a temporary step on the way toward achieving QI goals, real-time analytics of accurate data, and payers who strongly support QI efforts designed to improve outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Ti-MOF@DATp was developed by using Ti-MOF as core and in-situ growing DATp shells on its surface. • A Z-Scheme heterojunction was created through covalent bonds between Ti-MOF and DATp. • The Ti-MOF@DATp enables tetracycline passing through the DATp shell while selectively capturing U(VI). • Ti-MOF serves as the site for photooxidation tetracycline, while DATp serves as the site for photoreduction U(VI). Uranium and antibiotics coexisting in natural water bodies pose a significant threat to the environment and human health. Herein, Ti-MOF@DATp was developed by using a metal–organic framework (Ti-MOF) as the core and in-situ growing covalent organic framework (DATp) shells on its surface for simultaneous photocatalytic reduction U(VI) and oxidation tetracycline. The staggered energy levels between Ti-MOF and DATp create a Z-Scheme heterojunction through covalent bonds between them, promoting the charge and holes transfer with enhancing the photocatalytic performance. The Ti-MOF@DATp enables tetracycline passing through the DATp shell while selectively capturing U(VI), then Ti-MOF functions as the site for photooxidation tetracycline, while DATp serves as the site for photoreduction U(VI). The oxidation and reduction of sites can be effectively separated, improving the utilization efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes. Hence, Ti-MOF@DATp can effectively accomplish the simultaneous photocatalytic removal of 96% U(VI) and 90% tetracycline of their mixture. In comparison to the removal efficiency of 89% for U(VI) and 77% for tetracycline when removal alone, a notable enhancement in performance is observed. Particularly, the removal rate constant of the U(VI) and tetracycline mixture is 55 times higher than that of U(VI) alone and 4 times higher than that of tetracycline alone. Therefore, bifunctional photocatalysts offer an effective approach to tackling complex environmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A theory-practice gap exists in nursing curricula amid interprofessional communication opportunities. • Barriers exist to creating and implementing meaningful collaborative experiences with other disciplines. • An interdisciplinary communication role-play simulation among second year Bachelor of Science in Nursing and first year physical therapist assistant students improved their confidence with interprofessional communication. Interprofessional communication is imperative to quality patient care and improved outcomes as well as a requirement of nursing education programs, however, gaps exist between theory and practice. Often, students are not exposed to interprofessional interactions until later in the program when simulation experiences are offered or a clinical opportunity arises. 29 Bachelor of Science in Nursing and three physical therapist assistant students ranging in age from 18-35 years. An interdisciplinary communication role-play simulation among second year Bachelor of Science in Nursing students and first year physical therapist assistant students was implemented utilizing a situation-background-assessment-recommendation structured communication tool to facilitate and organize their communication. A total of 15 out of 32 students reported an increase in confidence to communicate with other healthcare professionals after participation in the simulation. This experience provided evidence of the effectiveness of a collaborative simulated experience improving undergraduate nursing students' understanding and confidence with interprofessional communication prior to a clinical opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the growing interest in digital storytelling (DST) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context, there is a lacuna in research on the role it plays in learning vocabulary. This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study explored the potential of collaborative learner-generated digital stories (DSs) for vocabulary knowledge development and students' attitudes towards DST-based vocabulary learning experiences. The primary data sources included pre/post-treatment vocabulary tests, collective reflection journals, weblog comments, and interviews. Two experimental groups of undergraduate EFL students were engaged in collaborative DST projects and their vocabulary test scores were compared with those of students in two control groups. The quantitative data were analyzed using independent and paired samples t-tests. Constant comparative method was employed to analyze the qualitative data. As the results showed, the students that were involved in learning the new words through collaborative DSs in the experimental groups outperformed the students in the control groups. The findings further demonstrated that DST empowers the students to integrate vocabulary learning into immediate daily contexts, experience peer-promoted vocabulary learning, contextualize vocabulary in multimodal stories, personalize the vocabulary knowledge development process, and enhance cognitive-affective engagement with stories to learn new words. The students also stated that DST is not a stand-alone pedagogical approach and recommended using animated, game-based, immersive, synchronous, social media-based, and micro DSs to facilitate vocabulary learning. The study promises implications for technology-assisted vocabulary instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an analysis of the decision-making process applied in the cultural institutions for choosing the best ICT platform, for purposes of developing a virtual exhibition for creative digital works. A review of the existing platforms and tools already used in creative digital field is performed and a multi-criteria analysis is described. The application of the consensus in decision-making process is presented and the use of the crowdsourcing approach is analyzed. The collaborative aspects of the decision-making process, based on consensus and crowdsourcing, are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microservice (MS) architectures, especially in combination with micro front ends, are a modern, scalable and sustainable approach to software development. The modular development of individual components and the possibility of a simple, collaborative and iterative development represent a strategic advantage for companies. In addition, the MS approach allows the consistent use of current technologies, whereby new software functionalities can constantly be included. In this paper, the potentials of MS for engineering tools are shown using the example of a web-based configurator for robot-based automation solutions. On the one hand, the implemented prototype illustrates a possible MS architecture pattern and, on the other hand, clarifies how new functionalities such as the collaborative multi-user configuration or different role-based configuration sessions are enabled by such a concept. Using the example of the web-based configuration platform, it is finally shown how a MS architecture contributes to better development and easier deployment of engineering software solutions based on the divide and conquer principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud Warehouses have been exploiting CPU-FPGA collaborative environments, where clients share the same infrastructure to maximize resource utilization with energy efficiency. In this scope, resource provisioning is challenging as kernels may be dispatched to CPU and FPGA in a scenario with highly variant resource availability and workload characteristics. In this work, we propose MVSym, a framework that leverages automatic HLS generation to enable further gains in CPU-FPGA Cloud. MVSym exploits the automatic generation from HLS to build libraries containing multiple versions of each incoming kernel request, greatly enlarging the available design space exploration passive of optimization by Cloud allocation strategies. MVSym makes kernel multi-versioning and allocation strategies work symbiotically, allowing fine-tuning regarding resource usage, performance, energy, or any combination of these parameters. Our framework achieves up to 4. 62 × makespan and 19. 04 × energy improvements over traditional strategies executing non-optimized kernels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Introduction Low self-efficacy level among patients with hypertension could be the underlying reason for poor daily disease self-management, leading to suboptimal blood pressure (BP) control. A structured, group-based hypertension self-management education (HSME) programme could be a potential solution to improve BP control; however, impact of HSME programme in the Malaysian setting remain unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a structured, group-based HSME programme on hypertensive patients' clinical and psychosocial outcomes. Methods A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study design was employed. Participants attended a total of 4-weekly of the HSME programme at a community hall. Participants' clinical and psychosocial outcomes were assessed at three time-points. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 23.0. Results Forty-five participants consented to join the programme, with 36 (80.0%) attended two or more sessions. At post 1-week of intervention, participants were found to have significant improvement in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (p = 0.001), number of days spent on vigorous physical activity (p = 0.007), motivation (p = 0.005) and self-efficacy (p = 0.005). At 2-month, participants have sustained increased in HDL cholesterol, motivation and self-efficacy, in addition to a significant improvement in self-care behaviour (p = 0.002). Conclusions The short-term HSME programme elicited certain positive clinical and psychosocial outcomes, a larger scale randomised controlled trial should be carried out to determine the effective elements of the HSME programme that lead to the self-care behavioural changes and to evaluate the long-term impacts of sustained self-care practices among community dwellers with hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-view clustering has attracted an increasing amount of attention in recent years due to its ability to analyze data from multiple sources or views. Despite significant success, there are still two challenging problems in multi-view clustering, namely, (i) how to satisfy the consistency across different views while preserving the diversity within each view, and (ii) how to weight the different views and the features in each view w.r.t. their importance to improve the clustering result. In this paper, to simultaneously tackle these two problems, we propose a novel multi-view clustering approach termed T wo-level W eighted Co llaborative k -means (TW-Co- k -means). A new objective function is designed for multi-view clustering, which exploits the distinctive information in each view while taking advantage of the complementariness and consistency across different views in a collaborative manner. The views and the features in each view are assigned with weights that reflect their importance. We introduce an iterative optimization method to optimize the objective function and thereby achieve the final clustering result. Experimental results on multiple real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hip fracture is the most common serious orthopaedic injury affecting older people. In Scotland, 7000 patients sustain a hip fracture each year, and this is projected to rise to 10,300 a year by 2029. In this narrative review, we describe the origin and evolution of the Scottish Hip Fracture Audit, including key elements which have improved hip fracture care and outcomes within Scotland, and the current state of play of hip fracture registries around the world. We go on to discuss future directions for data driven improvements in hip fracture care, including international standardised data collection and a global minimum common dataset for hip fracture registries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There is no collaborative multihop LoRa protocol. Users 'nodes cannot relay each-other's messages. • MauMe assumes users have a home-node with permanent power supply (base-node) acting as a relay for all users. • MauMe is single channel and designed for a controlled flooding of messages. • Messages are acknowledged. Acknowledgments kill lost messages. • Users can activate local Wi-Fi connection to allow sending free emergency SMS using a smartphone. • MauMe has a ready-to-use Github C++ library which allows immediate deployment on ESP32 microcontrollers. • The proposed implementation respects the legal duty-cycle. Low-cost low-power long-distance LoRa radio devices recently made available on the market allow the emerging of a new generation of networking paradigms on the Internet of Things. While the LoRaWan offers an efficient way of connecting LoRa end-point devices to the internet, LoRaWan nodes do not act as peers, but rather as terminals connected to gateways. As such, the current state of the art does not offer a public protocol for easily taking advantage of the fact that individuals and professionals wishing to aggregate data using LoRa devices are likely to run each a "base-node" on a continuous basis. Such permanently-powered base-nodes could potentially offer an increased cumulated area coverage to other nodes if they would behave as relays. In the present study, an Epidemic Delay Tolerant Network messaging protocol is proposed, which allows multi-hops between peer LoRa relay-nodes through a raw-LoRa controlled-flooding approach. This protocol has been implemented on low-cost LoRa-chip-equipped microcontrollers in the form of an open-source library acting as a network transport-layer. The design analysis concluded that MauMe is better suited for networks with reduced connectivity (≤ 9), and that a 4-connectivity redundant network could allow each user to send several tens of messages several tens of hops away. The proposed approach was tested on three different LoRa network topologies, and the totality of the packets and acknowledgments reached their destination. Furthermore, the network's activity ceased after delivery, confirming the ability of the protocol to return the network to rest after the flooding. The proposed library also offers to users a free emergency-messaging system implemented as an http server embedded in each node and accessible via Wi-fi. End-users can readily use our solution to easily deploy a network of sensors at a much lower cost than when using multiple gateways. The MauMe protocol is a first step towards the creation of collaborative and application-friendly extended-range LoRa-peers networks, and is intended for use in remote regions with scattered housings such as in the islands and atolls of Polynesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sought to establish a collaborative learning environment for our first-year university cell biology course that would be sufficiently challenging to warrant team effort and turn students into autonomous learners. We chose team-based science-writing blogs, a choice grounded in the Self Determination Theory. This theory posits that a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness are essential requirements to perform a task in an autonomous-motivated fashion. Through surveys over a period of four years, we assessed how students perceived the blog project. Qualitative analyses revealed that students recognized and appreciated their autonomy. They also consistently considered as positive a sense of competence, expressed as being useful, and relatedness, i.e. relating with others and working together. A quantitative analysis based on an intrinsic-motivation inventory revealed that students experienced science-writing on the web as an intrinsically motivating learning task. We conclude that web-based learning triggers motivation to learn autonomously and discuss how task authenticity may play an important role in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of new technology is vital to the success of health care organizations. New technology provides health care organizations an opportunity to obtain new patients, increase revenue, and stay competitive. In 2014, a union hospital in Southern California successfully implemented a bronchial thermoplasty program. To implement this new technology, the administration created a strategy, identified financial risks and benefits, created an implementation model, established a plan based on Lewin's change model and Roger's diffusion of innovations theory, and recognized adult learning needs through an interdepartmental, open communication, and collaborative approach. In addition, the implementation of the bronchial thermoplasty program allowed the organization to meet the goals, mission, and vision of the organization, which is key to remaining viable and marketable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The Republic of Congo is on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of ‘high burden’ countries for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. TB is the leading cause of death among HIV-infected patients in the Republic of Congo. In this viewpoint, the available data on TB and HIV in the Republic of Congo are reviewed, and the gaps and bottlenecks that the National TB Control Program (NTCP) faces are discussed. Furthermore, priority requirements for developing and implementing TB and HIV collaborative service activities are identified. HIV and TB control programs operate as distinct entities with separate case management plans. The implementation of collaborative TB/HIV activities to evaluate and monitor the management of TB/HIV co-infected individuals remains inefficient in most regions, and these activities are sometimes non-existent. This reveals major challenges that require definition in order to improve the delivery of healthcare. The NTCP lacks adequate resources for optimal implementation of control measures of TB and HIV compliance and outcomes. The importance of aligning and integrating TB and HIV treatment services (including follow-up) and adherence support services through coordinated and collaborative efforts between individual TB and HIV programs is discussed. Aligning and integrating TB and HIV treatment services through coordinated and collaborative efforts between individual TB and HIV programs is required. However, the WHO recommendations are generic, and health services in the Republic of Congo need to tailor their TB and HIV programs according to the availability of resources and operational feasibility. This will also open opportunities for synergizing collaborative TB/HIV research and training activities, which should be prioritized by the donors supporting the TB/HIV programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NAND Flash memory-based SSDs have been widely used in modern storage systems to improve the performance and energy consumption. Existing caching management schemes rarely consider the utilization of parallel resources in flash memory array inside an SSD while these parallel resources cannot be fully exploited. The I/Os-access conflicts deteriorate the SSD performance and enlarge the response time under write-intensive workloads. Most cache replacement strategies give priority to clean data to improve the I/O-access conflicts, thereby boosting the SSD performance. However, clean data entirely depends on missed read-I/Os requests. Ideally, data replacement ought to evict clean data in the cache thanks to low replacement cost. As such, flash memory-based caching schemes give the highest priority to clean data. However, the proportion of replaced clean data is low in cache data. To solve this issue, we propose a dynamic active and collaborative cache management named DAC, in which the cache is composed of cold cache, hot cache, ghost cold cache, and ghost hot cache. DAC determines hot-cold changes of the I/O requests in workloads based on ghost cache size, thereby adjusting the real cache size to well serve I/O requests. The dynamic write-back window (DWW) mechanism dynamically adjusts the write-back window size in the cold cache. The write-back thresholds automatically update according to the changes in I/O patterns in workloads. When a flash chip is in the idle state, DAC produces clean data by proactively writing normal cold cache data back into flash memory, and the clean data is migrated into the active cold cache. DAC prioritizes replacing data in the active cold cache, aiming to avoid evicting data that are just read from flash memory. This method is adept at boosting the replacement rate of clean data, thereby optimizing SSD performance. We undertake extensive experiments in the latest NVMe SSD simulator to validate the DAC's edge over the seven existing caching schemes including LRU, CFLRU, GCaR-CFLRU, LCR, ARC, AD-LRU, and MQsim. The results unveil that our DAC shortens the response time by up to 60.8% with an average optimization rate of 24.4%. When it comes to response-time cliff, the maximum improvement offered by DAC reaches approximately 68.71%; meanwhile, DAC delivers an average optimization rate of 26.9%. Besides, the number of erase count reduces by up to 93.3% with an average improvement rate of 17.04%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the digital design and manufacturing technology for aircraft structural parts since the aircraft structural parts is becoming large-scale, integrated and complicated, and the requirement of manufacturing accuracy is higher, which taking challenge for manufacturing technology. The application of digital technology and intelligent technology in the process of aircraft structure part manufacture, and building the design and manufacturing collaborative platform for aircraft structure part to realization high efficiency, high quality, low cost, environmental protection and flexible design and manufacturing of aircraft structural parts is of great significance to improve the enterprise core competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Computational Fluid Dynamics method has solved the impact on the building space environment of collaborative working air-condition in theory, the actual air distribution can’t fully meet the boundary conditions due to the influence of these factors such as furniture, equipment and decoration. Therefore, the results of theoretical simulation cannot be directly applied to practical engineering. Not all the working condition can be covered by the theoretical calculation since the building load is changing. So a concise and effective model that can be used in practical engineering is needed to reduce energy consumption of collaborative working air-conditions. Based on the concept of single energy utilization efficiency, we come up with a method of calculating the efficiency of collaborative working air-conditions and propose an optimization strategy in energy usage. Experiments had proved that the method of energy efficiency optimization can improve the system energy efficiency of air-condition though reducing the entirety energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drag-reducing surfactant solution can provide a large-eddy environment for longitudinal microgrooves and may realize the complementarity between their drag-reduction mechanisms. In this work, the collaborative drag reduction performance of surfactant solution and longitudinal microgrooves was experimentally studied to verify the speculation about their complementary possibility. The mixture aqueous solution of cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride) and counterion salt (NaSal) was tested in the smooth and two longitudinal microgroove channels respectively at the mass concentrations of 0.16–0.47 mmol/L. It was found that the drag reduction performance of surfactant solution was enhanced by the longitudinal microgrooves. The drag-reduction mechanisms of microgrooves in water and surfactant solution were illustrated by the competition between the “peak effect” and the “restriction effect” of microgroove. Moreover, the “second peak effect” was proposed to explain the drag-reduction enhancement mechanisms for surfactant flow in microgroove channels. The groove with a larger size and roughness which might increase the drag in water could still enhance the drag reduction effectiveness of surfactant flow, and had a lower critical temperature and critical Reynolds number in surfactant solution, indicating a promising application in the heat transfer and drag reduction field. Moreover, the results of particle image velocimetry of smooth channel indirectly verified that the drag-reducing mechanism of microgroove was related to the turbulent vortex scale and the restriction effect on near-wall vortices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students with different learning styles approach learning differently. With the rise of social media technologies, investigating the effect of these styles on their intentions to use social media for learning has become all the more important. This study explored the factors affecting students’ intentions to use social media for learning based on their learning styles (i.e., participatory, collaborative, and independent), using the social media acceptance model. By convenience sampling, 300 Malaysian students were recruited via an online survey ( N participatory = 116; N independent = 97; and N collaborative = 87). The survey was prepared by drawing on the social media acceptance model. It was piloted before the final data collection step was conducted in August 2013. The demographic details of the students were analyzed using Statistical Program for Social Sciences 21, while path modeling and multivariate analyses were conducted using SmartPLS 2.0. The results revealed the significant effect of Self and Performance on students’ intentions to use social media regardless of their learning styles. A pair-wise comparison revealed that Self was more significant in participatory students than in collaborative students. Effort was found to be the least significant factor, indicating the popularity of social media among students. Further insight into the different factors that drive students with different learning styles to use social media will help educators use this technology to assist learning more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a collaborative assistive device, human intent recognition (IR) is one of the first and foremost requirements. Formalizing the complex process of human IR in a compact yet expressive mathematical model holds promise. We put forward a Hierarchical Finite State Machine (H-FSM) for human IR within a generalized framework for collaborative assistive devices. Visual and contextual observations drive the H-FSM to different levels of granularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The BBDTC ( https://biobigdata.ucsd.edu ) is a community-oriented platform to encourage high-quality knowledge dissemination with the aim of growing a well-informed biomedical big data community through collaborative efforts on training and education. The BBDTC collaborative is an e-learning platform that supports the biomedical community to access, develop and deploy open training materials. The BBDTC supports Big Data skill training for biomedical scientists at all levels, and from varied backgrounds. The natural hierarchy of courses allows them to be broken into and handled as modules. Modules can be reused in the context of multiple courses and reshuffled, producing a new and different, dynamic course called a playlist. Users may create playlists to suit their learning requirements and share it with individual users or the wider public. BBDTC leverages the maturity and design of the HUBzero content-management platform for delivering educational content. To facilitate the migration of existing content, the BBDTC supports importing and exporting course material from the edX platform. Migration tools will be extended in the future to support other platforms. Hands-on training software packages, i.e., toolboxes, are supported through Amazon EC2 and Virtualbox virtualization technologies, and they are available as: (i) downloadable lightweight Virtualbox Images providing a standardized software tool environment with software packages and test data on their personal machines, and (ii) remotely accessible Amazon EC2 Virtual Machines for accessing biomedical big data tools and scalable big data experiments. At the moment, the BBDTC site contains three open Biomedical big data training courses with lecture contents, videos and hands-on training utilizing VM toolboxes, covering diverse topics. The courses have enhanced the hands-on learning environment by providing structured content that users can use at their own pace. A four course biomedical big data series is planned for development in early 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) connect educational research and practice. • RPPs ensure all knowledge, experience and expertise available is utilized. • RPPs require new ways of thinking and working to be effective and productive. There is growing interest in the use of research-practice partnerships in education, in an attempt to narrow the widely recognized gap between educational research and practice. However, there is a tendency for partnership research to be weighted towards first-person accounts and the majority of literature comes from the US. This article describes the process of researcher-teacher collaboration to co-design an educational program, and teachers' evaluation of this process, set within the context of a longer-term research-practice partnership in the UK. This paper discusses the benefits, challenges and methodological considerations associated with research-practice partnerships. Implications for future research-practice partnerships are highlighted, as are lessons learnt for those interested in working collaboratively and productively at the intersection of research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous graphs, which consist of multiple types of nodes and edges, are highly suitable for characterizing real-world complex systems. In recent years, due to their strong capability of capturing rich semantics, heterogeneous graph neural networks (HGNNs) have proven to be a powerful technique for representation learning on heterogeneous graphs. However, most of the existing HGNNs only focus on learning node representations and ignore the learning of relation representations, which are complementary to node representations. To address this limitation, we propose a new HGNN model with Co llaborative Representation Learning for N odes and R elations (named CoNR) for link prediction task in this paper. Collaborative learning means that node representations and relation representations participate in and affect each other's learning process. Specifically, node representations are obtained through a delicate two-step attention mechanism incorporating relation representations that can hierarchically aggregate information within one relation and across different relations. For relation representations, a relation encoder based on node information is designed to encode node representations into relation representations. Therefore, in this framework, node representations and relation representations are mutually updated in a layer-wise manner and work together to facilitate the downstream tasks better. Extensive experimental results on different datasets show the excellent performance of the proposed CoNR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bibliographic search is a common entry point to any scientific work. It aims at gathering enough information to support the incoming thoughts. It is usually an unstructured process relying on both information retrieval and serendipity. Considering the search as an unstructured process, it could easily become a time consuming never ending process. In order to maximize the outcome of bibliographic search with limited time and resources, an approach is proposed. It focuses on how to structure such search without contradicting its need of serendipity thanks to different features. The first relies on the concept of Ideality. It aims at identifying and structuring the information to look for. The second feature focuses on identifying the scope and depth of the analysis related to any articles constituting the bibliography. These aspects are tackled thanks to an objective/subjective grading system with handling of the results inspired by the behavior of social insects. Another feature inspired by patent search (precision/recall indexes) focuses on identifying when to stop the article curation. Finally, parts of all these features can be coupled in order to generate a bibliographic search map. This map represents a means to share an overview of the work being done, allowing another person to take ownership of the bibliographic search. This feature provides the opportunity for structuring and strengthening collaborative bibliographic search approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the efficiency of the web 2.0 tool, Weebly, in history learning from the perspective of the students. The following historical topic: “Italian presence in the Dodecanese 1912-1943” in Weebly environment was chosen as case-study. The author executed an empirical web-based survey to collect data for this study. The study results illustrated a clear enhancement of the knowledge of the historical context and at the same time a great boost to the motivation of the students to participate in class activities. In parallel, the study examined the views of the students on the functionality and the degree of collaboration among class members with the use of the specific Web 2.0 tool, including any potential barriers. The results demonstrated a great level of satisfactory functioning of Weebly in history learning and a considerable promotion of team-spirited work. The most significant obstacles of this Web 2.0 tool issued by the students were: 1. unease and nervousness with openness 2.prolonged time to understand the tool [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transdisciplinary research, involving close collaboration between researchers and the users of research, has been a feature of environmental problem solving for several decades, often spurred by the need to find negotiated outcomes to intractable problems. In 2005, the Australian government allocated funding to its environment portfolio for public good research, which resulted in consecutive four-year programmes (Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities, National Environmental Research Program). In April 2014, representatives of the funders, researchers and research users associated with these programmes met to reflect on eight years of experience with these collaborative research models. This structured reflection concluded that successful multi-institutional transdisciplinary research is necessarily a joint enterprise between funding agencies, researchers and the end users of research. The design and governance of research programmes need to explicitly recognise shared accountabilities among the participants, while respecting the different perspectives of each group. Experience shows that traditional incentive systems for academic researchers, current trends in public sector management, and loose organisation of many end users, work against sustained transdisciplinary research on intractable problems, which require continuity and adaptive learning by all three parties. The likelihood of research influencing and improving environmental policy and management is maximised when researchers, funders and research users have shared goals; there is sufficient continuity of personnel to build trust and sustain dialogue throughout the research process from issue scoping to application of findings; and there is sufficient flexibility in the funding, structure and operation of transdisciplinary research initiatives to enable the enterprise to assimilate and respond to new knowledge and situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Collaborative care programs to treat comorbid depression in the medically ill often have general (nonpsychiatric) nurses care managers. In this paper, we aim to provide practical recommendations for their selection, training and supervision. Methods Based on more than 10 years of experience of selecting, training and supervising general nurses to deliver a highly effective collaborative care programme called “Depression Care for People with Cancer,” we describe the problems encountered and the solutions adopted to optimize the selection, training and supervision of nurse care managers. Results To select nurses for the role of care manager, we found that role plays enabled us to assess nurses' ability to interact with distressed patients and their capacity for self-reflection better than simple interviews. To train the nurses, we found that a structured program that mirrored the treatment manual and included simulated practice was best. To achieve effective supervision, we found that having sessions led by senior psychiatrists facilitated both constructive feedback to the nurses and effective review of the management of cases. Conclusions We recommend that the selection, training and supervision of general nurses use the strategies outlined if they are to maximize the benefit that patients achieve from collaborative care programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Traditional analytic approaches may oversimplify the mechanisms by which interventions effect change. Transition probability models can quantify both symptom improvement and sustained reduction in symptoms. We sought to quantify transition probabilities between higher and lower states for four outcome variables and to compare two treatment arms with respect to these transitions. Method: Secondary analysis of a year-long collaborative care intervention for chronic musculoskeletal pain in veterans. Forty-two clinicians were randomized to intervention or treatment as usual (TAU), with 401 patients nested within clinician. The outcome variables, pain intensity, pain interference, depression and disability scores were dichotomized (lower/higher). Probabilities of symptom improvement (transitioning from higher to lower) or sustained reduction (remaining lower) were compared between intervention and TAU groups at 0- to 3-, 3- to 6- and 6- to 12-month intervals. General estimating equations quantified the effect of the intervention on transitions. Results: In adjusted models, the intervention group showed about 1.5 times greater odds of both symptom improvement and sustained reduction compared to TAU, for all the outcomes except disability. Conclusions: Despite no formal relapse prevention program, intervention patients were more likely than TAU patients to experience continued relief from depression and pain. Collaborative care interventions may provide benefits beyond just symptom reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Endemic health care-associated safety problems, including health care-associated infection, account for substantial morbidity and mortality. We outline a regional No Preventable Harms campaign to reduce these safety problems and describe the initial results from the first initiative focusing on catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) prevention. Methods We formed a think tank composed of multidisciplinary experts from within a 7-hospital Midwestern Veterans Affairs network to identify hospital-acquired conditions that had strong evidence on how to prevent the harm and outcome data that could be easily collected to evaluate improvement efforts. The first initiative of this campaign focused on CAUTI prevention. Quantitative data on CAUTI rates and qualitative data from site visit interviews were used to evaluate the initiative. Results Quantitative data showed a significant reduction in CAUTI rates per 1,000 catheter days for nonintensive care units across the region (2.4 preinitiative and 0.8 postinitiative; P = .001), but no improvement in the intensive care unit rate (1.4 preinitiative and 2.1 postinitiative; P = .16). Themes that emerged from our qualitative data highlight the need for considering local context and the importance of communication when developing and implementing regional initiatives. Conclusions A regional collaborative can be a valuable strategy for addressing important endemic patient safety problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]