Neurodynamic approaches to cardinality-constrained portfolio optimization

This book addresses the growing need for a comprehensive guide to the application of machine learning in financial analytics. It offers a valuable resource for both beginners and experienced professionals in finance and data science by covering the theoretical foundations, practical implementations, ethical considerations, and future trends in the field. It bridges the gap between theory and practice, providing readers with the tools and knowledge they need to leverage the power of machine learning in the financial sector responsibly.</p

Simulation in Nursing Education: An Evidence Base for the Future

Executive summary: The purpose of this research project was to investigate how simulated learning can transform practice learning by comparing existing learning approaches with emerging simulated and technologyenhanced learning approaches. The project also maps the ability of simulation to meet the NMC (2018) future nurse standards of proficiency for registered nurses. Methods • Phase one – A systematic review of primary studies and regulatory and national standards. • Phase two – A cross-sectional survey to explore organisational readiness for simulation-based education (SBE) and opportunities and challenges of SBE in pre-registration nursing courses in the UK. • Phase three – A case study involving two self-reporting student surveys and a focus group with academic staff acting as practice supervisors. • Phase four - Focus groups with Council of Deans of Health (CoDH) members who have NMC approval for SPL to capture their experiences in the delivery of SPL in pre-registration nursing programmes. Findings and Conclusion This report provides an evidence base demonstrating how simulated learning can transform practice learning in nursing education and meet the NMC (2018) future nurse standards of proficiency for registered nurses. The findings emphasise the significant contribution of simulated practice learning (SPL) in the delivery of pre-registration nursing programmes. The systematic review indicated that, on average, SBE is more effective than traditional clinical education in improving nurse assessment outcomes. The cross-section survey of higher education institutions (HEIs) with pre-registration nursing programmes highlighted their commitment to SBE with the recognition that infrastructure, commitment by faculty leadership, access to facilities, resources and funding were critical for ensuring success and sustainability. SPL was acknowledged as an effective method that complements learning in clinical placements and enables attainment of the future nurse standards of proficiency for registered nurses. This research highlighted the difficulties HEIs face when delivering SPL. There was a strong desire for clarity and a benchmarking tool to ensure consistency in the approach of HEIs. In addition, the planning, design and delivery of simulation was viewed as an advanced skill for academic staff and thus they require sufficient training. There is a need to develop the evidence base of SPL and measure the impact and benefit on student learning and achievement of proficiencies. Creating a standardised tool to evaluate the outcomes of SPL would provide a benchmark for all HEIs to use. It would also be useful for the NMC to monitor the impact of the new definition of SPL. This research has been undertaken after several HEIs have already incorporated SPL into their programmes. In line with ambitions in the NHS England Long Term Workforce Plan, there is now an opportunity to expand the number of HEIs integrating SPL into their pre-registration nursing programmes. The findings provide an important bedrock of evidence for future decisions such as regulatory and financial support for simulated learning. Relevant stakeholders may take a range of positions on this subject, but this evidence base will further inform the conversations ahead.</p

Short- and long-term neuropsychiatric outcomes in long COVID in South Korea and Japan: binational population-based discovery and validation cohort study

No description supplied</p

Architectural Materials between Rural and Urban Models of Settlement Principles in the Urban Transformation

The article focuses on the relationship between urban and rural in architectural transformations. It demonstrates through an analytical process the transposition of the characteristics of rural architecture into urban expansions.</p

Architecture Through the Eyes of Joaquin Sorolla and New Hyperrealities

The duality of the real versus the hyperreal in architectural drawing is addressed through the analysis of the work of the painter Joaquín Sorolla and the new artificial intelligence representation systems</p

Sight Impairment registration in Trinidad: Trend in causes and populationcoverage in comparison to the National Eye Survey of Trinidad and Tobago

Background: Little was known about the population coverage and causes of sight impairment (SI) registration within the Caribbean, or the extent to which register studies offer insights into population eye health.Methods: We compared causes of SI registration in the Trinidad and Tobago Blind Welfare Association (TTBWA) register with findings from the 2014 National Eye Survey of Trinidad and Tobago (NESTT), and estimated registration coverage. Cross-sectional validation studies of registered clients included interviews, visual function and cause ascertainment in July 2013, and interviews and visual function in July 2016.Results: The TTBWA register included 863 people (all ages, 48.1%(n=415) male) registered between 1951 and 2015. The NESTT identified 1.1%(75/7158) people aged >5years eligible for partial or severe SI registration, of whom 49.3%(n=37) were male. Registration coverage was approximately 7% of the eligible population of Trinidad. Nevertheless, there was close agreement in the causes of SI comparing the register and population-representative survey. Glaucoma was the leading cause in both the register (26.1%,n=225) and population-based survey (26.1%, 18/69 adults), followed by cataract and diabetic retinopathy. In the validation studies combined, 62.6%(93/151) clients had severe SI, 28.5%(43/151) had partial SI and 9.9%(15/151) did not meet SI eligibility criteria. SI was potentially avoidable in at least 58%(n=36/62) adults and 50%(n=7/14) children.Conclusion: We report very low register coverage of the SI population, but close agreement in causes of SI to a contemporaneous national population-based eye survey, half of which resulted from preventable or treatable eye disease.</p

How and why do medical students engage with or disengage from undergraduate psychiatry education in India - a study using constructivist grounded theory

For almost 60 years, the Indian psychiatry literature has called for medical students to learn psychiatry in order to help the millions of people in India who have a diagnosable mental illness but receive no treatment. For the same number of years, the literature says that medical students have not engaged in psychiatry education, leaving millions of people without the help they need. Many senior psychiatrists have expressed opinions as to how to improve engagement in psychiatry education, but until now, no-one has asked the students.This research has therefore sought to understand how and why medical students engage in or disengage from undergraduate psychiatry education in India. The methodology used was constructivist grounded theory, which in addition to being appropriate to explain a little understood social phenomenon, also aligns with a decolonisation research framework, which is vital for myself as a Western researcher undertaking intercultural research in India.The grounded theory produced explains how engagement or disengagement in psychiatry education is dependent on whether students’ learning goals are fulfilled or not. Most students attend psychiatry education wanting to learn clinical skills. If teaching faculty do not teach clinical skills, students disengage, perceiving psychiatry education as insignificant, despite the vast majority believing it is an important subject all doctors should know. This dual perception of psychiatry as simultaneously important yet insignificant is a recurring pattern seen throughout Indian society, including in governmental policies, mental health services and medical education – a pattern which makes student disengagement in psychiatry education almost inevitable.This research provides an evidence-based theory to underpin the governmental need to prioritise the teaching of clinical skills in undergraduate psychiatry education, both in policy and practice. If faculty are enabled to teach psychiatry skills, this would address the learning goals of medical students, who with consequentially increased engagement would learn how to address the unmet mental health needs across India.</p

Diclazepam and its metabolites: a chemometric interpretation

Diclazepam is a ‘designer’ benzodiazepine derivative and modified version of the existing pharmaceutically prescribed benzodiazepine diazepam. There is little knowledge regarding its pharmacokinetics, it has never undergone clinical trials, and it was deemed unfit for human consumption in the early 1970s. However, the possible illicit use of diclazepam as both a recreational and a drink spiking drug has recently been reported. Diclazepam metabolises into three pharmaceutically prescribed benzodiazepines (delorazepam, lormetazepam, and lorazepam) with overlapping metabolic pathways, which could make the identification of the parent drug challenging.The aim of this research was to identify whether delorazepam, lormetazepam, and lorazepam are parent drugs, or whether their detections are due to the metabolism of diclazepam. This was achieved by analysing the metabolite ratios of in vitro metabolised diclazepam, delorazepam, and lormetazepam in pooled human liver microsomes over 240 minutes. Liquid liquid extraction (LLE) was used to extract diclazepam and its metabolites from the incubated microsomes over different incubation times, and analytes detected by a validated gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. A calibration model provided limits of detection that ranged between 0.02 to 0.43 μg/ml for diclazepam and its metabolites delorazepam and lormetazepam, and >5 μg/ml for lorazepam, with all precisions below 8.9%.In vitro metabolism identified possible backward metabolism of diclazepam and its metabolites during incubation. Diclazepam and its metabolite ratios proved that one could differentiate whether the parent drug was diclazepam, or one of its metabolites, thus meeting the aim of this research. In addition, novel chemometric models using principal component analysis showed the potential for differentiating parent benzodiazepines based on their detected metabolite proportions.The findings from this research could contribute to improving and advancing drug identification and interpretation methods in biological samples. The findings also provides new information for the way in which benzodiazepines may undergo backwards metabolism or chemical conversion to predecessor drugs.</p

What Are the Economic Arguments for Mandating LGBT+ Health Training for Healthcare Providers? An Economic Evaluation of the Impacts of LGBT+ Health Training on Cervical Screening

Background: Equitable access to healthcare is a priority of many healthcare systems, aiming to ensure access is driven by need and not minority groups such as those defined by sexual orientation. However, there are healthcare areas where inequity in access across sexual orientation groups is found that are not justified based on need. Mandated LGBTQ+-specific training of the healthcare workforce may help address some barriers of access for these groups. The study aims to understand the potential economic implications for mandated LGBTQ+-specific healthcare training on the healthcare system in England, UK to inform commissioning of training provision. Methods: Cervical cancer screening was used as an exemplar case where there appears to be inequity in access for different sexual orientation groups. A decision model was developed and analysed that considered the impacts of greater uptake of screening for lesbian and bisexual women due to LGBTQ+ training. Costs took the perspective of the healthcare system and outcomes modelled were cancer cases averted in a timeframe of 5 years. Results: Based on cervical cancer screening alone, where training costs are fully attributed to this service, training would likely result in fewer cancer cases detected in the lesbian and bisexual populations, though this comes at a modest increase in healthcare sector costs, with this increase largely reflecting a greater volume of screens. Training costs do not appear to be a major component of the cost implications. Conclusions: In resource-constrained systems with increasing pressures for efficiency savings, the opportunity cost of delivering training is a realistic component of the commissioning decision. The findings in this paper provide a signal that mandated LGBTQ+ training in healthcare could lead to potentially greater outcomes and in breaking down barriers of access and could also enable the healthcare system to provide more equitable access to healthcare

Educational affordances of music video games and gaming mobile apps

The rapid advancement of mobile and computing technologies has made the enjoyment of music in the video gaming experience more accessible and affordable, and has raised the interest of educators in the affordances of music-related games for informal music learning. This study aimed to examine the educational affordances of music-related games through content analysis. User reviews of music gaming mobile apps and video games were collected from two major digital distribution platforms and analysed to identify patterns and meanings related to their educational affordances and learning design. The findings reflected a sense of competence, autonomy and engagement resulting from playing video games, which motivated players to become self-directed learners in the context of informal learning. Several bias and limitations were identified, suggesting that an overreliance on video games may lead to unbalanced musical growth and incomprehensive musicianship training.</p