Perspectives on the training of Chinese Primary Health Care Physicians to reduce chronic illnesses and their burden

This paper is a commentary on the training of Chinese Primary Health Care Doctors to reduce chronic illness and its burden. First, we will consider the policy position of the Chinese government concerning the development of a competent and enlarged primary physician workforce to deliver the proposed primary health care system reforms. We then turn to a review of the drivers of the high burden of chronic illnesses especially in older people in China. We argue that the curriculum for the training of primary health care medical practitioners should match the demonstrated high prevalence chronic illnesses and their risk factors and that there needs to specific competencies in prevention and mitigation of the diseases and their risk factors

Characterizing the role of vehicular cloud computing in road traffic management

Vehicular cloud computing is envisioned to deliver services that provide traffic safety and efficiency to vehicles. Vehicular cloud computing has great potential to change the contemporary vehicular communication paradigm. Explicitly, the underutilized resources of vehicles can be shared with other vehicles to manage traffic during congestion. These resources include but are not limited to storage, computing power, and Internet connectivity. This study reviews current traffic management systems to analyze the role and significance of vehicular cloud computing in road traffic management. First, an abstraction of the vehicular cloud infrastructure in an urban scenario is presented to explore the vehicular cloud computing process. A taxonomy of vehicular clouds that defines the cloud formation, integration types, and services is presented. A taxonomy of vehicular cloud services is also provided to explore the object types involved and their positions within the vehicular cloud. A comparison of the current state-of-the-art traffic management systems is performed in terms of parameters, such as vehicular ad hoc network infrastructure, Internet dependency, cloud management, scalability, traffic flow control, and emerging services. Potential future challenges and emerging technologies, such as the Internet of vehicles and its incorporation in traffic congestion control, are also discussed. Vehicular cloud computing is envisioned to have a substantial role in the development of smart traffic management solutions and in emerging Internet of vehicles. © The Author(s) 2017

Considerations for application of skill acquisition in Sport : an example from tennis

Skill acquisition principles are crucial to prepare athletes for superior performance in sport, but, in training athletes, coaches have focused less on these principles than they have on the design of training. This paper provides an overview of how a skill acquisition specialist disseminated scientific knowledge to amateur and professional coaches and initiated collaboration to improve practice design. First, a framework of representative task design is outlined, which considers perception and action components of sports skills in practice tasks relative to the competition setting. Second, with elite tennis as an example, steps are described as to how the skill acquisition specialist can initiate collaboration with coaches to evaluate practice tasks and make recommendations using representative task design. This approach includes delivery of a seminar to educate coaches, observation of practice tasks to rate representative task design with recommendations made, and factors identified by coaches that should be considered when applying skill acquisition principles. Factors identified by coaches related to presentation of anticipatory cues, practice variability, individualization of practice, skill complexity, and consistency of skill tests. Collectively, this paper provides insight into how skill acquisition specialists can collaborate with coaches to disseminate knowledge, and it presents some of the challenges and solutions of designing representative practice tasks in sport

Mental health at the COVID-19 frontline : an assessment of distress, fear, and coping among staff and attendees at screening clinics of rural/regional settings of Victoria, Australia

Purpose: Research examining psychological well-being associated with COVID-19 in rural/regional Australia is limited. This study aimed to assess the extent of psychological distress, fear of COVID-19, and coping strategies among the attendees in COVID-19 screening clinics at 2 rural Victorian settings. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during July 2020 to February 2021 inclusive. Participants were invited to fill in an online questionnaire. Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10), Fear of COVID-19 Scale, and Brief Resilient Coping Scale were used to assess psychological distress, fear of COVID-19, and coping, respectively. Findings: Among 702 total participants, 69% were females and mean age (±SD) was 49 (±15.8) years. One in 5 participants (156, 22%) experienced high to very high psychological distress, 1 in 10 (72, 10%) experienced high fear, and more than half (397, 57%) had medium to high resilient coping. Participants with mental health issues had higher distress (AOR 10.4, 95% CI: 6.25-17.2) and fear (2.56, 1.41-4.66). Higher distress was also associated with having comorbidities, increased smoking (5.71, 1.04-31.4), and alcohol drinking (2.03, 1.21-3.40). Higher fear was associated with negative financial impact, drinking alcohol (2.15, 1.06-4.37), and increased alcohol drinking. Medium to high resilient coping was associated with being ≥60 years old (1.84, 1.04-3.24) and completing Bachelor and above levels of education. Conclusion: People who had pre-existing mental health issues, comorbidities, smoked, and consumed alcohol were identified as high-risk groups for poorer psychological well-being in rural/regional Victoria. Specific interventions to support the mental well-being of these vulnerable populations, along with engaging health care providers, should be considered. © 2021 The Authors. The Journal of Rural Health published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Rural Health Association

Developing a case-based experiential learning model at a program level in a regional university : reflections on the developmental process

This article reflects on the developmental process of a case-based experiential learning model: the Federation University model, in an undergraduate community and human services program at a regional university. There is abundant literature that addresses the use and need for introducing experiential learning at the subject/unit level in community and human services/social work content. However, despite the expansion of research on experiential learning, there is limited literature that bridges the gap between course/program level teaching philosophy and using experiential learning activities in individual subjects. The article will demonstrate how Kolb’s four stage cycle (Kolb, 1984) and case-based experiential learning were integrated to develop curriculum at a program level. It will also demonstrate how a move to experiential learning facilitated better alignment with face-to-face and online learning. As a way of argument, we suggest that case-based experiential learning is very relevant and useful to human services/ social work education because of its emphasis on bridging the theory and praxis nexus and providing graduates with an opportunity to work effectively in a complex, fluid and ever-changing sector. © 2020, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved

2020 International Society of Hypertension global hypertension practice guidelines

DOCUMENT REVIEWERS: Hind Beheiry (Sudan), Irina Chazova (Russia), Albertino Damasceno (Mozambique), Anna Dominiczak (UK), Anastase Dzudie (Cameroon), Stephen Harrap (Australia), Hiroshi Itoh (Japan), Tazeen Jafar (Singapore), Marc Jaffe (USA), Patricio Jaramillo-Lopez (Colombia), Kazuomi Kario (Japan), Giuseppe Mancia (Italy), Ana Mocumbi (Mozambique), Sanjeevi N.Narasingan (India), Elijah Ogola (Kenya), Srinath Reddy (India), Ernesto Schiffrin (Canada), Ann Soenarta (Indonesia), Rhian Touyz (UK), Yudah Turana (Indonesia), Michael Weber (USA), Paul Whelton (USA), Xin Hua Zhang, (Australia), Yuqing Zhang (China)

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) prevention : virtual classroom education for hand hygiene

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), has spread rapidly in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. Considering the recent outbreak of COVID-19, some precautionary measures have been announced, including campus class suspensions. Nursing campus courses have also been suspended, and there may be a learning gap between hand hygiene theory and clinical training for nursing students. A virtual classroom education approach may help address the learning gap by providing ongoing theoretical strengthening of hand hygiene during clinical nursing training. This editorial proposes a 3-step virtual classroom education approach to support nursing educators in online theoretical hand hygiene enhancement. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

Asymptomatic carotid stenosis is associated with circadian and other variability in embolus detection

Background and Purpose: Variability in transcranial Doppler (TCD) detection of embolic signals (ES) is important for risk stratification. We tested the effect of time of day on ES associated with 60–99% asymptomatic carotid stenosis. Materials and Methods: Subjects were from the Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis Embolus Detection (ASED) Study such that half were previously ES-positive and half ES-negative with 6-monthly 60-min TCD monitoring. All underwent bilateral TCD monitoring for two 12-h sessions separated by 24 h. ES detection rates were calculated using 6 and 4-h intervals from midnight and effective TCD monitoring time. Results: Ten subjects (8 male, mean age 79.5 years) were monitored. Over 24 h, 5/10 study arteries with 60–99% asymptomatic carotid stenosis were ES-positive (range 1–28 ES/artery, 56 total ES from 177.9 total effective monitoring hours). The remaining five study arteries and all eight successfully monitored contralateral arteries were ES-negative. Using 6-h intervals the mean ES detection rate peaked at 0600-midday (0.64/h) and was lowest 1800-midnight (0.09/h) with an incidence rate ratio of 7.26 (95% CI 2.52–28.64, P ≤ 0.001). Using 4-h intervals the mean ES detection rate peaked at 0800-midday (0.64/h) and was lowest midnight-0400 (0.12/h) with an incidence rate ratio of 5.51 (95% CI 1.78–22.67, P = 0.001). Conclusions: Embolism associated with asymptomatic carotid stenosis shows circadian variation with highest rates 4–6 h before midday. This corresponds with peak circadian incidence of stroke and other vascular complications. These and ASED Study results show that monitoring frequency, duration, and time of day are important in ES detection. © Copyright © 2019 Abbott, Merican, Pearce, Juric, Worsnop, Foster and Chambers

Assessment of, as and for learning : the challenges of assessment terminology

Assessment, teaching and learning are intertwined concepts and are at the heart of quality teaching (Absolum, Flockton, Hattie, Hipkins and Reid, 2009 Ministry of Education (MoE), 2011). With its shifts in assessment-related content, the revision of Te Whariki (MoE, 2017), provides timely opportunity to explore early childhood teachers' understandings and practices related to assessment (McLachlan, 2018)

"Had I been there, which am a silly woman" : dealing with gendered casting in an Australian tertiary setting

Margaret of Anjou's reference to herself as a 'silly woman' in Henry VI is a political ploy to draw attention to her gender, yet indicate her limitless power in the face of male dominance. This paper will map the trajectory of repertoire selection in my 18 years of working as a director and artistic director of actor training in the regional city of Ballarat. I have witnessed a profound shift in the demographic, political and financial realities that shape my practice. Intake numbers have doubled the age of candidates has dropped mental health problems for young actors have increased and budgets have plummeted. After the main struggle to maintain adequate studio time in order to create effective models of actor pedagogy, gender considerations follow. When choosing repertoire for training purposes, issues of equity and the cultural appropriateness of repertoire and teaching tools arise. Linda Walsh Jenkins and Susan Ogden -Malouf suggest 'a feminist critique of theatre shifts the gaze from product to process'. In Ballarat I have programmed female playwrights and directors, double-cast women and men, and staged obscure classical works. I will explore the queries to actor-training orthodoxy inherent in such choices and the challenges faced by actor-trainers working in a #MeToo environment