bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Managing Positive and Negative Trends in Sales Call Outcomes: The Role of Momentum
Authors: Nahm Irene Y. , Ahearne Michael J. , Lee Nick , Tirunillai Seshadri
Published: April 2022

Existing research treats sales performance as a series of discrete, independent events rather than a series of sales attempts with intertemporal spillover across these attempts. This research examines whether there are systematic short-term trends (“momentum”) in sales performance. To do so, the authors use the clumpiness approach to examine the existence of sales momentum in a high-frequency call-level data set obtained from two call centers of a large European firm. They further investigate the effect of positive (negative) momentum, or the positive (negative) deviation from the long-term expected performance on subsequent sales performance. Exploiting the differences in the social environment of the call centers, the authors find that the social working environment mitigates the harmful effect of negative momentum and sustains positive momentum. Further, they demonstrate that calls made midday, early-week, and late-week boost performance by mitigating the adverse effects of negative momentum. The findings suggest that monitoring sales performance can help managers detect momentum and use timely interventions to enhance sales productivity. Managers can also leverage momentum by creating a more social working environment to optimize overall salesperson performance.
Influence of Hospital Formularies on Outpatient Prescribing Practices: Analysis of the Introduction of a Local Formulary: A Single-Center, 2-Year Follow-Up, Retrospective Cohort Study of a Local Formulary in Japan
Authors: Kanai Norihito , Ando Masazumi , Shimodate Momoko , Miyazaki Yoshiko , Saito Toshio
Published: April 2022

Purpose

The impact of a hospital formulary was evaluated to provide a guide for the establishment of local formularies to optimize patient care and healthcare costs.

Methods

A formulary was introduced by formulary pharmacists of the Toda Medical Group for suggesting recommended medicines to physicians based on the medication history. Patients who were hospitalized in the rehabilitation ward of the Niiza Hospital and prescribed medicines according to the formulary introduced between April 2017 and March 2018 were included and followed-up for six months.

Results

Of the 183 patients screened, 154 patients were enrolled as the formulary’s introduction patients (76 males/78 females, median age 78 years); 92% of these patients received formulary-proposed prescriptions at the specified timepoints; and 19 patients re-consulted at the Niiza Hospital after discharge and continued the same formulary medicines. The proposed acceptance rate by physicians was 100%. Most changes suggested introduced generic formulations. The doses were equivalent for all pharmacological classes with the exception of medicines that interfere with the renin–angiotensin system, which fell from 10.7 to 7.2 mg ( P< .0001). Overall daily medication costs fell at discharge compared to admission (38.5 vs. 94.6 yen per patient, respectively, P< .0001). This was valid for all pharmacological classes except for calcium channel blockers.

Conclusion

Hospital formulary-prescribed medications continued after discharge and promoted significant decreases in costs associated with outpatient prescriptions. Introducing a hospital formulary provides a basis for the introduction of local formularies and contributes to the reduction of local healthcare costs.
The Power of Hashtags in Online Presentation Promotes Interactivity and Globalization in Students’ Learning
Authors: Chung Louisa Ming Yan
Published: April 2022

Online presentation is emerging when classroom presentation is not possible. This study was to compare students’ interactivity between the asynchronized online presentations with hashtags and the synchronized classroom presentations. This was a secondary analysis with seven courses conducted between 2016 and 2020. Students’ interactivity in group presentations was evaluated from the videos recorded in classrooms and the posts on social media. Three and four courses in the classroom mode and online mode, respectively were included. Students’ presentations if posted in social media with hashtags, it gained higher accessibility, more attention, more views and the interactions between the presenters and the audiences generated more themes. No significant difference was found between groups in students’ self-reported learning experience on exchanging ideas, learning from various sources and engaging in their own learning. The application of hashtags allowed more time and more viewers to give feedback to the students.
Re-visiting micro ESR as a screening tool for neonatal sepsis
Authors: Gupta Kshitij , Bhaskar Vikram , Narayanan Anand , Batra Prerna
Published: April 2022

Our study evaluated the role of micro-erythrocte sedimentation rate (micro-ESR) in the early detection of neonatal sepsis.

Neonates with >34 completed weeks of gestation, appropriate for gestational age, admitted in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with clinical suspicion of early onset sepsis were enrolled in the study. A sepsis screen and blood culture was performed on all the babies within 4 h of admission. The sensitivity of micro-ESR for detecting positive blood culture was calculated and the best cut-off was determined using the Area Under Curve.
Black Racial Identity, Perceived Support, and Mental Health Within Dyadic Relationships
Authors: Hubbard Sultan A. , Lakey Brian , Jones Shawn C. T. , Cage Jamie L.
Published: April 2022

Black racial identity (BRI), particularly centrality and private regard, have been linked to mental health and are often theorized to reflect trait-like and situational influences. We estimated the strength of trait and dyadic relationships (a type of situation) for BRI and its links to subclinical anxiety and depression. Black university students ( N = 110) rated their BRI, mental health, and perceived support when with or thinking about three relationship partners (e.g., mothers, friends). Variance components analyses estimated the strength of trait and dyadic effects. All constructs had significant trait and dyadic components. Participants with higher trait private regard and centrality reported better mental health than those with lower BRI. Additionally, BRI varied depending upon which partner was rated (dyadic effects). Participants who experienced increased private regard with partners, these participants also reported a lower level of subclinical depression in those relationships. Participants who reported higher levels of BRI or mental health with partners also perceived their partners as more supportive. Findings suggest the importance of supportive others for adaptive BRI.
Thinking-with Decorator Crabs: Oceanic Feminism and Material Remediation in the Multispecies Aquarium
Authors: Tien Jianni , Burmann Elizabeth
Published: April 2022

Feminist scholarship has increasingly turned towards the ocean as a conceptual apparatus in which to think through the complex philosophical and ethical dilemmas of the Anthropocene. Responding to the ebbs, flows and transformations of the oceanic turn, our article outlines our interactions with four decorator crabs. It begins by situating our experience of thinking-with these crabs as a feminist practice of care within the conceptual context of the ocean. Our article then draws on the knowledge that arose out of our fertile entanglements with the crabs to propose that: 1) the aquarium, with its colonial histories of subjugation, is a fertile space to re-image human–aquatic relationalities, revealing the fallacy of human control over ‘nature’ and emphasising the agency of marine worlds; 2) Stacy Alaimo’s concept of trans-corporeality is a powerful way to think through the consequences of an acidifying ocean, both for ourselves and for our shelled companions; and 3) remediation is a radical approach to taking seriously the materiality of watery worlds. The objective of the article is to craft a practice of material feminism that entangles our more-than-human bodies to learn-with decorator crabs. In doing so, we show that the aquarium is a potent space of transformation that allows us to imagine new and distinctly feminist entanglements that dismantle hierarchies. We show that thinking-with the materiality of marine worlds is a series of remediations, both material and discursive, that dissolve the boundaries between entities, creating an embodied environmental ethics that is necessary as a feminist challenge to the Anthropocene.
Wild Swimming Methodologies for Decolonial Feminist Justice-to-Come Scholarship
Authors: Shefer Tamara , Bozalek Vivienne
Published: April 2022

This article thinks with oceans and swimming, in dialogue with decolonial feminist materialist approaches and other current novel methodologies which foreground embodiment and relational ontologies, in order to consider the conceptual potential of such diffractions for the project of alternative scholarly practices. We focus on swimming in the sea as one form of wild methodology and Slow scholarship that draws on hauntology to think about the possibilities of such methodologies for troubling normative academic practices directed at different ways of being and becoming. Located in the (post-)apartheid space of South African higher education, which continues to follow and reinstate colonial, patriarchal and neoliberal capitalist logics, we ask questions about the silences around material histories of subjugation and violence that are embedded in the institution and the lives of those who enter these spaces. Propositions are made about how a swimming methodology may inspire a consciousness and engagement with intersectional gender hauntings that permeate the material, curricula, relational and affective spaces of academia as part of disrupting and reimagining the university as a space of/for justice and flourishing. We explore the ways in which embodied, affective methodologies in or near the ocean/s may be deployed to subvert and reconfigure, to make and stay with trouble. We therefore propose sea swimming as a powerful way of thinking with the sea in productive and creative ways for scholarship towards a justice-to-come, to open up new imaginaries of scholarship that make a difference.
Watery Archives: Transoceanic Narratives in Andil Gosine’s Our Holy Waters, and Mine
Authors: Gooptu Subhalakshmi
Published: April 2022

In this article, I describe Andil Gosine’s artistic archives as ‘watery’ to chart a feminist genealogy of archival practice. I argue that routing interdisciplinary studies of Atlantic and Indian Oceans through the Caribbean provides a transoceanic method to analyse race and sexuality within Indo-Caribbean connections. To that end, I examine the representation of water and waterways in Gosine’s Our Holy Waters, and Mine (2014) to illustrate how relations with water provides a heuristic and representative practice for critiquing afterlives of colonialism and indentureship. I bring together Indo-Caribbean feminist epistemology, scholarship on feminist and queer archival practices and ocean studies to read Gosine’s experimental artistic practice as offering ways to rethink oceanic materiality in the context of historical and archival knowledge production.
Does Connectedness Need Satisfaction Diminish or Promote Social Goal Striving?
Authors: Dang Jianning , Liu Li
Published: April 2022

People pursue social goals primarily to satisfy their innate need for affiliation; however, there is no consensus regarding how the successful fulfillment of affiliation need—social connectedness—influences striving for social goals. To address this issue, we proposed a dual-pathway model postulating both a negative effect of social connectedness on social goal striving via decreased emotional distress and a positive effect via increased social self-efficacy. Six studies (total N = 1,849), using cross-sectional, experimental, and daily diary methods, provided support for this model at both the between- and within-person levels. Furthermore, by distinguishing between approach and avoidance social goal strivings, and between deficit-reduction and growth connectedness need orientations, we found that the relative strength with which each path operates differed. The dual-pathway model generates theoretical and practical implications for need satisfaction and goal striving.
The pandemic shock doctrine in an authoritarian context: the economic, bodily, and political precarity of Turkey’s journalists during the pandemic
Authors: Bulut Ergin , Ertuna Can
Published: April 2022

What happens to journalists when hit by a pandemic in a country governed by authoritarian media regulations? We examine journalists’ experience in Turkey’s mainstream and alternative media and find that while the pandemic has deepened their economic precarity, journalists further suffer from bodily and political precarity. In the context of Covid, the body emerges as a site on which precarity with multiple dimensions (economic anxiety, illness, and state violence) is inscribed. Under the conditions of what we deem political precarity, most journalists cannot speak truth to power as the pandemic is politically instrumentalized. This retheorizing of precarity dewesternizes the term by connecting it to state-induced forms of violence relying on relations of political recognition and value ascription. We urge journalism and media labor studies to refrain from Eurocentricism and technological determinism that center the standard employment model and the disruptive cultures of technology at the expense of body and politics.
Orchestrating Open Innovation through Punctuated Openness: A process model of open organizing for tackling wicked multi-stakeholder problems
Authors: Diriker Damla , Porter Amanda J. , Tuertscher Philipp
Published: April 2022

Orchestrating open innovation initiatives characterized by frequent changes in stakeholders and activities can be a daunting task. As these initiatives need to adapt to the constantly changing requirements of the process, they can benefit from an open organizing approach that enables the direct participation of stakeholders, not only in the innovation process but also in its orchestration. Building on the constitutive view on open organizing, we argue that the interactions among various stakeholders can be orchestrated by an open organizing process complemented by elements of closure. However, determining when and how to deploy a closure to complement open organizing remains a practical and theoretical puzzle. We address this puzzle through a longitudinal field study of an award-winning open innovation initiative tackling the sustainability challenges of oceans. We show when and how temporary closures can catalyze the participation of diverse stakeholders across phases, while opening up the organizing process to participatory fine-tuning allows the orchestration to evolve with the changing requirements of the process. By emphasizing the temporal dimension of deploying closure in open organizing, we develop a process model explaining how punctuated openness—open organizing interrupted by moments of closure—can be used as an organizing principle.
Lessons learned about online engagement and implementation of an intuitive eating programme for university employees
Authors: Gnau Jaime , Novik Melinda G. , Powell Sara M. , Novotny Daniela
Published: April 2022

Background: Intuitive eating (IE) principles present an evidence-based strategy for improving one's relationship with food while reducing the incidence of weight cycling and health risks associated with chronic dieting and weight regain. Offering online programming provides improved access to education while reducing barriers to programme enrollment but is also associated with high rates of attrition. Aim: To examine the process of programme implementation and identify barriers and facilitators of engagement for an online IE programme for employees at a large Midwestern university. Methods: The web-based programme Finding Peace with Food: An Intuitive Eating Approach consisted of an online community with discussion prompts, 10 weekly modules containing videos, activities, and counsellor interviews and was developed using recognized health behaviour theory and evidence-based practices. Participants were university employees (n = 20). Qualitative data were assessed using a phenomenological approach to discern the themes of barriers and facilitators of programme participation. Participation rates were assessed using descriptive statistics. Results: All participants were Caucasian, 85% were female, and their ages ranged from 26–64. The module-based structure was well received. The primary barriers to participation were time constraints, overwhelming amount of information, and aversion to Flipgrid platform use. The quality and usefulness of the programme information were identified as facilitators of participation. Conclusion: Program participation was influenced by the time frame available to complete the programme modules and participants’ ease of use of platform applications.
Too hunky to help: A person-centered approach to masculinity and prosocial behavior beliefs among adolescent boys
Authors: Nielson Matthew G. , Jenkins Diana L. , Fraser Ashley M.
Published: April 2022

Boys’ beliefs about prosocial behavior toward other boys may be negatively affected by masculine norm adherence, and there is evidence that early adolescence is a time when boys feel heightened levels of pressure from multiple sources (e.g., friends, family, and self) to adhere to masculine norms like emotional restriction (e.g., appearing stoic and uncaring). However, the relation between boys’ masculinity and their prosocial behavior beliefs is likely further affected by boys’ social competency. Generally, boys’ social competency is positively associated with prosocial behavior, but this is not the case for “tough” boys (boys who adhere to many traditionally masculine norms). We expected that analyzing the relation between early adolescent boys’ pressure to adhere to masculine norms and boys’ unique social profiles (created using adherence to masculine norms and aspects of social competency) would further illuminate boys’ patterns of prosocial behavior beliefs toward other boys. A latent profile analysis estimated profiles of masculinity and social competence among 260 early adolescent boys (59% White, M age = 11.45 years old, Range age = 10–12) in the southwestern U.S. Three profiles emerged which we labeled socially precarious (50%), socially self-confident (41%), and socially avoidant (9%). R3Step and BCH procedures indicated that higher levels of felt pressure from all three sources resulted in a significantly higher likelihood of being in the socially precarious profile compared to the socially self-confident profile and that boys in the socially self-confident profile had significantly higher mean levels of prosocial behavior beliefs toward other boys ( M = 3.22) compared to boys in the socially precarious profile ( M = 3.01). Overall, this study encourages the socialization of social competency while simultaneously discouraging the perpetuation of certain masculine norms among adolescent boys.
Mechanical traction from different knee joint angles in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Abdel-Aal Nabil Mahmoud , Ibrahim Amal Hussein , Kotb Mohamed Mostafa , Hussein Alaa Abdelraheem , Hussein Hisham Mohamed
Published: April 2022

Objective

To compare the effect of mechanical traction from different knee angles on pain, physical function, and range of motion in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Design

A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial.

Setting

Outpatient public and governmental Hospital clinics.

Participants

One hundred and twenty patients with knee osteoarthritis were randomly assigned into 4 equal groups with 30 patients in each group.

Interventions

Group (A) received conventional physiotherapy(CPT) treatment; group (B) received CPT with knee traction from full extension, group (C) received CPT with knee traction from 90° flexion, while group (D) received CPT with knee traction from 20° flexion. Interventions were applied 3 sessions a week for 4 weeks.

Outcome measurements

Visual analog scale (VAS), knee passive range of motion and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) were measured at baseline, immediately after 4 weeks of intervention, and after 4 weeks of no intervention as a follow-up.

Results

After eight weeks, the mean (SD) for VAS scores were 30.97 ± 8.68, 24.0 ± 8.8, 15.43 ± 6.31, and 16.17 ± 6.11 mm; for total WOMAC scores were 26.77 ± 9.19, 20.3 ± 8.52, 13.27 ± 6.25, and 13.43 ± 7.14 for groups A, B, C and D, respectively. The three traction groups showed statistically significant changes in pain scores, physical function, and total WOMAC, but not for knee passive range of motion, in favor of traction groups C and D than the conventional group ( P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Traction from 90°and 20° of knee flexion was found superior to full extension knee in improving pain and physical function, but not for knee passive range of motion, in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
Developing Economic Models for Assessing the Cost-Effectiveness of Multiple Diagnostic Tests: Methods and Applications
Authors: Xie Xuanqian , Tiggelaar Sean , Guo Jennifer , Wang Myra , Vandersluis Stacey , Ungar Wendy J.
Published: April 2022

Background

Clinical pathways with multiple diagnostic tests are complex to model, but problematic and simplistic approaches are often used in economic evaluations.

Methods

We analyzed statistical methods of handling multiple diagnostic tests and provided guidance on applying these methods in economic modeling. We first introduced a statistical model to quantify the correlations between 2 tests and how those correlations can be incorporated within an economic model. We also presented the general form of conditional dependence among multiple tests. We then introduced net reclassification improvement (NRI), a measure that evaluates the added value of a new risk factor (e.g., biomarker) for risk prediction. We further provided 2 examples to illustrate the application of these methods.

Results

Our first example illustrated how to model an add-on test to an existing test, in the absence of a perfect reference standard. After accounting for the imperfect nature of both tests and the conditional dependence between tests, the potential health benefits from the additional test were reduced. This led to differential cost-effectiveness results when comparing models using the perfect test and conditional independence assumptions. The second example illustrated how to evaluate the added value of a new risk factor using the NRI measure. Using the new risk classification provides greater precision in risk prediction, and in the example, the strategy using the new risk classification with treatment for selected individuals led to more favorable cost-effectiveness results.

Conclusions

These innovative methods for handling multiple diagnostic tests have improved the methodology within the field and should be adopted to provide more accurate estimates within cost-effectiveness analyses.

Highlights

Economic evaluations of multiple diagnostic tests often apply problematic simplistic approaches, such as ignoring conditional dependence between 2 tests or assuming a perfect final test in the diagnostic pathway. We provided guidance on how to apply improved methods for economic modeling. We introduced methods to model conditional dependence between 2 imperfect tests. We used an example to illustrate how assumptions about perfect diagnostic test accuracy and conditional independence between tests affect cost-effectiveness. Compared with the results of the area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve, net reclassification improvement has distinct advantages in measuring the added value of a new risk factor for model-based economic evaluation. Economic evaluations that appropriately account for the complexities of diagnostic test pathways can help decision makers ensure efficient use of resources.
Between the colossal and the catastrophic: Planetary urbanization and the political ecologies of emergent infectious disease
Authors: Brenner Neil , Ghosh Swarnabh
Published: April 2022

Against the backdrop of contemporary debates on the transcendence of city-centric epistemologies in urban theory, this article proposes a theoretical framework for exploring the connections between processes of planetary urbanization and the political ecologies of emergent infectious disease. Following a brief overview of research on cities and the coronavirus pandemic, we elaborate a critical interrogation and heterodox synthesis of two distinct lines of investigation—(1) research by Roger Keil and his collaborators on the embeddedness of emergent infectious diseases within processes of extended urbanization and (2) work by radical epidemiologist Rob Wallace and his colleagues, which productively situates emergent infectious diseases in relation to the geographies and political ecologies of agribusiness under neoliberalizing capitalism. We direct attention to the ways in which processes of planetary urbanization are remaking the human and nonhuman geographies of non-city spaces, causing infectious pathogens to be unmoored from previously localized ecosystems and catapulted into broader territories of circulation. This line of analysis requires rigorous application of dialectical methods that can illuminate the internal relations through which cities dynamically co-evolve and co-transform with the non-city spaces, more-than-human territories, and multispecies political ecologies that support their metabolic operations, including at the microbiological scale of novel pathogens. The elaboration of such an approach yields an interpretation of the urbanization/emergent infectious disease nexus as a medium and expression of the agro-ecological crisis tendencies of neoliberal capitalism. A concluding section outlines three emergent arenas of agro-industrial transformation in which processes of extended urbanization have created new spatial configurations and infrastructural pathways for the production and proliferation of emergent infectious diseases.
Multistate Analysis Investigating Roadway Characteristics that Affect Driver Yielding at LED-Embedded Pedestrian- and School-Crossing Signs
Authors: Fitzpatrick Kay , Sug Park Eun , Johnson Neal
Published: April 2022

To address public health concerns about rising pedestrian–vehicle crashes, traffic agencies are seeking options to reduce the number and severity of crashes. For established pedestrian-crossing locations, an increasingly common traffic-control treatment is the pedestrian- or school-crossing warning sign with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) embedded in the borders (called LED-Em in this paper). The LED-Em treatment, a system that includes LEDs embedded in warning signs and pedestrian push buttons, is pedestrian activated, so the LEDs only flash when a pedestrian is attempting to cross the street. For this analysis, researchers considered more than 7,000 drivers involved in more than 3,200 staged pedestrian crossings at 53 sites. The average driver-yielding rates at those sites were analyzed, using analysis of covariance models to assess the effects of various roadway characteristic variables as well as traffic-control device characteristic variables. The statistical analysis showed that the posted speed limit and the vehicle volume at the time of the crossing influenced a driver’s decision to yield to a pedestrian attempting to cross a street when an LED-Em treatment was present. Higher posted speed limits and higher vehicle volumes were associated with lower driver yielding.
Effect of Previous Knee Surgery on Clinical Outcome After ACI for Knee Cartilage Defects: A Propensity Score–Matched Study Based on the German Cartilage Registry (KnorpelRegister DGOU)
Authors: Seiferth Nick L. , Faber Svea O. , Angele Peter , Kniffler Heino , Loer Ingo , Schauf Gunnar , Spahn Gunter , Zinser Wolfgang , Niemeyer Philipp
Published: April 2022

Background:

Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is an established procedure for the treatment of cartilage damage in the knee joint. At present, it is still unclear how previous surgery influences outcome after ACI.

Purpose:

To evaluate the effect of previous knee surgery related or nonrelated to the treated cartilage defect on clinical outcome after ACI for knee cartilage defects.

Study Design:

Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods:

An overall 730 patients with ACI who underwent previous unspecific knee surgery, whether related to the defect being currently treated or not, were identified from a cohort of 5961 patients registered in the German Cartilage Registry. Propensity score matching was used to match these patients to 690 patients with analogous characteristics but without previous surgery. Subsequently, 317 patients with previously failed cartilage treatment at the defect site were identified and compared with a matched collective of 254 patients without previous cartilage treatment. In a subgroup analysis, the type of previous cartilage surgery was additionally investigated. Outcome was evaluated by Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), visual analog scale for pain, rate of reintervention, and patient satisfaction up to 36 months. A chi-square test was used to compare categorial variables and an unpaired t test to compare continuous variables.

Results:

Patients with previous knee surgery not related to the cartilage defect showed a lower KOOS at 6 months (68.3 vs 70.8; P = .026), while patients with previous cartilage surgery showed significantly lower KOOS values at all follow-up time points when compared with patients without any previous knee or cartilage surgery (all P < .05). A comparison of KOOS values in patients with previous therapy at the cartilage defect with ACI versus bone marrow stimulation did not show any significant differences at any follow-up.

Conclusion:

Previously failed cartilage treatment at the defect site represents a negative prognostic factor up to 3 years after ACI. However, this influence appears to be independent of the type of previous treatment at the defect site and applies equally to failed bone marrow stimulation as well as previous ACI. In contrast, a negative effect of previous surgery to the knee unrelated to the cartilage defect could not be shown in the 3-year follow-up.
Transitions of care for hospital discharges in a primary care network
Authors: Schaub Jessica , Shpilkerman Yana Ilin , Roland Heather , Keyko Kacey , Parisé Katrina
Published: April 2022

Transitions to and from primary care are a time of concern, especially for patients with chronic conditions and complex care needs. The Edmonton Southside Primary Care Network (ESPCN) developed a process for nurses to ensure timely post-discharge follow-up calls and physician appointments after hospitalization, assessing readmission risk with LACE and Clinical Frailty scores. Over 84% of eligible high-risk discharges received follow-up within 14 days. Of 7,400 index discharges, 1,464 had an emergency department revisit and 725 patients were readmitted within 30 days. Overall, ESPCN rates of readmission (9.8%) and rates of Family Practice Sensitive Conditions (FPSC) (5.7%) were significantly lower than national and provincial rates. FPSC rates for high-risk patients were significantly lower than low- or medium-risk groups. Consistent processes that support nursing involvement enable primary care teams to focus on those with highest risk for adverse outcomes and support patients to access the most appropriate place for the care they need.
European case law on migrants’ social and mobility rights: The need for a comparative approach in assessing ‘human rights overreach’
Authors: Slingenberg Lieneke
Published: April 2022

Social rights (right to social security and social welfare) and mobility rights (right to freedom of movement within the territory) are the only two rights in European human rights law that limit their scope of application to persons lawfully in the territory. Migrants have contested this limitation in two ways: (1) arguing for exceptions to, or for a broad interpretation of, the concept of lawful presence, and (2) arguing that such policies violate other human rights that apply to everyone. This article examines the responses in European case law to these arguments, and shows a striking difference between cases on social rights and cases on mobility rights. While European courts and treaty bodies have significantly expanded the personal scope of social rights and/or the material scope of civil rights into the social realm, they have refrained from doing so as regards mobility rights. This finding is relevant for two reasons. First, it nuances the general idea that civil rights are privileged over social rights. Second, it nuances concerns about human rights ‘proliferation’ or ‘overreach’, which have been voiced as regards the expansion of migrants’ social rights.
Synthesis and mechanical characterization of epoxy hybrid composites containing graphene nanoplatelets
Authors: Namdev Anurag , Telang Amit , Purohit Rajesh
Published: April 2022

The light-weight and excellent mechanical properties of polymer composites have attributed their use in different structural parts in the aerospace and automobile industries over the past decades. In this research, carbon fiber and Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) reinforced hybrid composites were fabricated via hand layup followed by compression molding. Effect of different weight percent of GNP (0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1 wt%) on mechanical, thermal, and physical properties were analyzed. In comparison to other composites, the 0.5 wt% GNP filled carbon fiber/epoxy composite has improved tensile and flexural strength, inter laminar shear strength, and Vickers hardness. At 0.25 wt% GNP-filled epoxy hybrid composite, impact strength was at its peak. The maximum tensile and flexural strength values were obtained at 0.5 wt% of GNP, 11%, and 8% higher than neat fiber composites. The 0.5 wt% GNP composite has the highest heat deflection temperature and thermal conductivity in terms of thermal characteristics. The morphology of composites was explored by field emission scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were also performed for nanocomposite characterization.
Computational modelling of turbulent Taylor–Couette flow for bearing chamber applications: A comparison of unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models
Authors: Nicoli Andrew , Johnson Kathy , Jefferson-Loveday Richard
Published: April 2022

The capability to accurately model fluid flow within rotating Taylor–Couette systems has a primary role in informing computational investigations of rotating machinery. There is considerable uncertainty regarding selection of modelling approach, including a suitable turbulence model, that can accurately resolve turbulence within such complex flows while remaining computationally feasible for industrially relevant applications. This paper presents a numerical comparison of axisymmetric and three-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) turbulence models within ANSYS Fluent. The CFD geometries are representative of ones for which there are published experimental measurements. For the Taylor–Couette study, investigation into inner cylinder start-up procedure, based on previous published findings, confirmed that the final state of the flow is highly dependent on the initial conditions and acceleration rate. Once Taylor vortices form and stabilise, they are not disrupted by small steps in inner cylinder speed, allowing computationally efficient accelerations. Investigations into applying rotational periodicity were unsuccessful, resulting in a significantly reduced core velocity. Axisymmetric predictions provided reasonable agreement with experimental data only at low rotation rates. A good prediction of the velocity flow field was obtained for three-dimensional simulations of the full 360° domain with differences of less than 5% for radial velocities. Among the URANS models, the standard k-ω model and baseline Reynolds stress model (BSL-RSM) provided the closest agreement to published experimental data. In the paper, the developed Taylor–Couette turbulence modelling methodology is extended to a bearing chamber geometry. Analysis of the secondary vortex flow field is compared both qualitatively and quantitatively to published bearing chamber experimental measurements. Overall, whilst a good agreement is still found using the standard k-ω turbulence model, discrepancies arise with the BSL-RSM. However, for this more complex bearing chamber environment compared to a Taylor–Couette flow, the shear stress transport k-ω turbulence model provided the closest agreement and is recommended for future bearing chamber modelling.
Renal outcomes of transient proteinuria in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus treated with corticosteroid therapy alone
Authors: Kim Young-Eun , Ahn Soo Min , Oh Ji Seon , Kim Yong-Gil , Lee Chang-Keun , Yoo Bin , Hong Seokchan
Published: April 2022

Objectives

To examine the long-term renal outcomes of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with transient proteinuria.

Methods

The medical records of SLE patients who showed improvement in proteinuria (urine protein/creatinine ratio < 500 mg/g) after receiving corticosteroid therapy without immunosuppressants were reviewed.

Results

A total of 38 patients (mean creatinine: 0.74 ± 0.33 mg/dl) showed an improvement of proteinuria (1361 ± 1053 mg/g to 289 ± 125 mg/g) after receiving corticosteroid therapy alone for a median of 25 days (IQR, 10–55). After follow-up (median, 23 months [IQR, 15–121]), 25 (65%) patients maintained the resolution of proteinuria without renal dysfunction. The remaining 13 (34%) patients experienced a relapse of proteinuria during a median follow-up of 13.9 months from baseline (IQR, 1.6–25). There was no significant difference in the baseline laboratory data according to the occurrence of proteinuria relapse, but longer SLE disease duration at baseline was associated with the risk of proteinuria relapse (HR, 1.007; p = 0.033). Of the patients who underwent renal biopsy with proteinuria relapse, class II (53%) lupus nephritis was the most common pathology. None progressed to end-stage renal disease during an additional long-term further follow-up of median 33 months (IQR, 22–49) after proteinuria relapse.

Conclusion

Two-thirds of SLE patients who showed improvement in proteinuria after corticosteroid alone maintained the non-proteinuric state without renal dysfunction. Thus, performing a kidney biopsy at the first onset of proteinuria could be delayed in patients who show an improvement in proteinuria after treatment with corticosteroids.
Effectiveness of a Self-instructional Module on Knowledge and Observed Practices of Nurses with Regard to Prevention of Central Line–Associated Blood Stream Infection:A Before–After Intervention Study
Authors: Dsilva Fatima , Mathew Sumi , Joseph Gincy
Published: April 2022

Background:

Healthcare-associated infections, a significant burden to patients and public health, are a major cause of increased mortality in critically ill patients. They not only cause increased functional disability and emotional stress but also cause a huge burden financially. Many healthcare professionals have found that education programmes and use of prevention bundles have resulted in decreased incidence of these infections. The present study was a quality improvement initiative by the investigator to improve the knowledge and practices of nurses related to prevention of central line–associated bloodstream infection.

Methods:

A before–after research design was used. Nurses ( n = 51) working in critical care areas of a 1,200-bedded tertiary care hospital were recruited by purposive sampling. The intervention comprised of a structured self-instructional module which included general information on central line catheters as well as specific information on infection prevention in central line catheters. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention guideline on prevention of 2011 update formed the basis of the module development. A 28-item knowledge questionnaire and an observational checklist were the tools utilised in the study.

Results:

The post-test mean knowledge and practice scores were significantly higher than the pretest scores ( P < 0.05). There was a 36% increase in knowledge, and the competencies had enhanced by 41% post-intervention. Hand hygiene compliance, which was 47.1% pre-intervention, had increased to 78.4% post-intervention.

Conclusion:

Frequent ongoing education programmes on infection control are essential for improving the knowledge as well as practices of nurses working in critical care areas.
Financial Performance and Profile of Brazilian Hospitals
Authors: Guerra Mariana , Morgan Beatriz Fátima , Alves Micael Conoring D’Assumpção
Published: April 2022

The literature on data envelopment analysis (DEA) of hospital efficiency has used absolute data to approach financial and operating indicators, either separate or combined. This study stratifies a sample of Brazilian hospitals using financial and operating indicators to investigate their performance, based on financial liquidity ratios and levels of indebtedness against their profitability and return on investments. The models obtained in the analysis show that the level of indebtedness and the operating margin are determinants of efficiency, but they may be overrun by debt capital and return on investments, depending on installed capacity.
Examining intersecting lives: Luca Pacioli, father of accounting, and his friend, Leonardo da Vinci
Authors: Smith Lawrence Murphy
Published: April 2022

In 1494, the first printed book on double-entry accounting was written by Franciscan Friar Luca Pacioli, later called the Father of Accounting. He would become close friends with Leonardo da Vinci, the iconic symbol of the Renaissance. This study analyzes simultaneously the lives of Pacioli and Leonardo, using a ‘biographical lens’ approach, incorporating older research and more recent work, to shed new light on their lives and contributions, providing a glimpse of how they became friends, where their lives intersected, some interests they shared, and how each contributed to the other's work. Preparers and users of financial information are indebted to Luca Pacioli for his monumental role in the development of accounting. His friend, Leonardo, made myriad contributions to art and science, notably world-famous paintings such as the Last Supper. Pacioli and Leonardo changed the course of history with their exceptional contributions, sometimes collaborating, to their respective fields.
Co-Occurrence of Taurodontism in Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip and Palate Patients in Subset of Indian Population: A Case–Control Study Using CBCT
Authors: Sobti Geetika , Chaudhry Astha , Thanvi Jaishree , Gaurav Isha , Shekhawat Chandni , Banerjee Debopriya , Likhyani Lalit Kumar , Soni Sugandhi
Published: April 2022

The present study aimed to assess the co-occurrence of taurodontism in nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate (NSCLP) patients in a subset of Indian population using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT).

The study was a retrospective case–control kinds assessing 1500 CBCT scans over a period of 2 years; 67 scans out of 1500 showed cleft lip and palate (CLP). After fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 38 subjects out of 67 comprised the case group; 80 randomly selected subjects constituted the control group. The first and second permanent molars in both the arches (8 teeth) of each subject were assessed for the presence and severity of taurodontism using the objective criteria. Statistical analysis was done using the χ2test. Inter and intraobserver agreement was evaluated by Kappa statistics.

71.05% subjects showed taurodontism in case group, while 45% subjects showed its presence in control group; results being significant for both the groups. However, the comparison of number of teeth with taurodontism in the 2 groups came out to be statistically insignificant. Also no significant association of taurodontism was seen with gender or the different types of cleft ( P = .437). Hypotaurodontism was the most prevalent type.

There was a higher prevalence of taurodontism in both groups which had been underestimated in the previous studies. This emphasizes the significance of the use of CBCT in detection of dental anomalies which would otherwise go undetected.
Current and Future Financial Well-Being in 16 Countries
Authors: Riitsalu Leonore , van Raaij W. Fred
Published: April 2022

Financial well-being—the evaluation of current personal finances and expectations for the financial future—has gained attention in research, practice, and policy. Yet, there is no consensus on its conceptualization or its operationalization. The authors contribute to this area of research by proposing a conceptual framework and reassessing a measure used in data on subjective financial well-being from 16 countries. The findings highlight methodological concerns in international marketing studies and show not only financial well-being but also its measures to be context dependent. Furthermore, although many studies use unidimensional financial well-being measures, some conceptualizations have at least two components: a current and a future element. The authors analyze the effects of individual and contextual factors on current and future financial well-being and explore their possible interaction. They observe income to be a significant predictor of both components of financial well-being, while institutional settings are correlated with current financial well-being and national culture with future financial well-being. They conclude that initiatives aimed at increasing financial well-being need to clearly target either its current or its future component as their antecedents differ.
Long Noncoding RNAs in CNS Myelination and Disease
Authors: Zhang Jing , Guan Menglong , Zhou Xianyao , Berry Kalen , He Xuelian , Lu Q. Richard
Published: April 2022

Myelination by oligodendrocytes is crucial for neuronal survival and function, and defects in myelination or failure in myelin repair can lead to axonal degeneration and various neurological diseases. At present, the factors that promote myelination and overcome the remyelination block in demyelinating diseases are poorly defined. Although the roles of protein-coding genes in oligodendrocyte differentiation have been extensively studied, the majority of the mammalian genome is transcribed into noncoding RNAs, and the functions of these molecules in myelination are poorly characterized. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate transcription at multiple levels, providing spatiotemporal control and robustness for cell type–specific gene expression and physiological functions. lncRNAs have been shown to regulate neural cell–type specification, differentiation, and maintenance of cell identity, and dysregulation of lncRNA function has been shown to contribute to neurological diseases. In this review, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of the functions of lncRNAs in oligodendrocyte development and myelination as well their roles in neurological diseases and brain tumorigenesis. A more systematic characterization of lncRNA functional networks will be instrumental for a better understanding of CNS myelination, myelin disorders, and myelin repair.