2,576 research outputs found

    Pulmonary embolism (PE) to chronic thromboembolic pulmonary disease (CTEPD): findings from a survey of UK physicians

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    Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary disease (CTEPD) is a complication of pulmonary embolism (PE). We conducted an online survey of UK PE-treating physicians to understand practices in the follow-up of PE and awareness of CTEPD. The physicians surveyed (N = 175) included 50 each from cardiology, respiratory and internal medicine, plus 25 haematologists. Most (89%) participants had local guidelines for PE management, and 65% reported a PE follow-up clinic, of which 69% were joint clinics. Almost half (47%) had a protocol for the investigation of CTEPD. According to participants, 129 (74%) routinely consider a diagnosis of CTEPD and 97 (55%) routinely investigate for CTEPD, with 76% of those 97 participants investigating in patients who are symptomatic at 3 months and 22% investigating in all patients. This survey demonstrated variability in the follow-up of PE and the awareness of CTEPD and its investigation. The findings support the conduct of a national audit to understand the barriers to the timely detection of CTEPD

    Flexible grouping patterns in a western and eastern chimpanzee community

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    Primate social organizations, or grouping patterns, vary significantly across species. Behavioral strategies that allow for flexibility in grouping patterns offer a means to reduce the costs of group living. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have a fission‐fusion social system in which temporary subgroups (“parties”) change in composition because of local socio‐ecological conditions. Notably, western chimpanzees (P. t. verus) are described as showing a higher degree of bisexual bonding and association than eastern chimpanzees, and eastern female chimpanzees (P. t. schweinfurthii) are thought to be more solitary than western female chimpanzees. However, reported comparisons in sociality currently depend on a small number of study groups, particularly in western chimpanzees, and variation in methods. The inclusion of additional communities and direct comparison using the same methods are essential to assess whether reported subspecies differences in sociality hold in this behaviorally heterogeneous species. We explored whether sociality differs between two communities of chimpanzees using the same motion‐triggered camera technology and definitions of social measures. We compare party size and composition (party type, sex ratio) between the western Gahtoy community in the Nimba Mountains (Guinea) and the eastern Waibira community in the Budongo Forest (Uganda). Once potential competition for resources such as food and mating opportunities were controlled for, subspecies did not substantially influence the number of individuals in a party. We found a higher sex‐ratio, indicating more males in a party, in Waibira; this pattern was driven by a greater likelihood in Gahtoy to be in all‐female parties. This finding is the opposite of what was expected for eastern chimpanzees, where female‐only parties are predicted to be more common. Our results highlight the flexibility in chimpanzee sociality, and caution against subspecies level generalizations

    Proposal for a gamification strategy applied to remote learning

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    With the rapid and drastic evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019, interventions in the social interaction of the world population were necessary. Despite the distance from socializing, people’s routines needed to remain normal as far as possible, and this includes student learning. Thus, the solution for educational institutions was to migrate activities to the remote teaching format as an emergency. As expected, some obstacles were encountered, and others were accentuated and requiring strategies to help mitigate such problems. Several studies point to demotivation as one of the main elements that affect students in terms of low academic performance and, consequently, culminating in low learning achievement, high failure rates, and dropout rates. The objective of this study is to propose, for Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) activities, a simple gamification strategy aimed at student engagement. An exploratory literature review was carried out to identify potentially key points that could be adopted, which could influence student motivation. Based on this, the primary motivational activators for the gamification strategy were listed in Framework Octalysis. As a way of validating the technique, two not mandatory classes were taught in a remote format containing the same course content (Introductory to the Internet of Things (IoT)), differentiating between the control group (without interventions) and the group with the application of the proposed strategy of gamification. The expected result was the perception of greater engagement in the class with the application of the gamification strategy against the control class, but it was not achieved as expected. The research found that students had low participation and engagement in both traditional and gamified classes, even after intervention. This could be due to factors such as course duration, lack of collaboration, and teacher involvement. Both classes had the same completion and dropout rate (2 completions and 13 dropouts). As future works, the authors suggest interviewing students to understand the causes of demotivation and using Design Thinking, plan to investigate the root causes of low participation and develop actions for the ”Ownership and Possession” motivational activator, apply improvements to larger classes, introduce a student/monitor role, and compare gamification in regular and non-mandatory classes

    Displacement and the Humanities: Manifestos from the Ancient to the Present

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    This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this recordThis is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities/special_issues/Manifestos Ancient Present)This volume brings together the work of practitioners, communities, artists and other researchers from multiple disciplines. Seeking to provoke a discourse around displacement within and beyond the field of Humanities, it positions historical cases and debates, some reaching into the ancient past, within diverse geo-chronological contexts and current world urgencies. In adopting an innovative dialogic structure, between practitioners on the ground - from architects and urban planners to artists - and academics working across subject areas, the volume is a proposition to: remap priorities for current research agendas; open up disciplines, critically analysing their approaches; address the socio-political responsibilities that we have as scholars and practitioners; and provide an alternative site of discourse for contemporary concerns about displacement. Ultimately, this volume aims to provoke future work and collaborations - hence, manifestos - not only in the historical and literary fields, but wider research concerned with human mobility and the challenges confronting people who are out of place of rights, protection and belonging

    Gut microbiome-based noninvasive diagnostic model to predict acute coronary syndromes

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    BackgroundPrevious studies have shown that alterations in the gut microbiota are closely associated with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) development. However, the value of gut microbiota for early diagnosis of ACS remains understudied.MethodsWe recruited 66 volunteers, including 29 patients with a first diagnosis of ACS and 37 healthy volunteers during the same period, collected their fecal samples, and sequenced the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Functional prediction of the microbiota was performed using PICRUSt2. Subsequently, we constructed a nomogram and corresponding webpage based on microbial markers to assist in the diagnosis of ACS. The diagnostic performance and usefulness of the model were analyzed using boostrap internal validation, calibration curves, and decision curve analysis (DCA).ResultsCompared to that of healthy controls, the diversity and composition of microbial community of patients with ACS was markedly abnormal. Potentially pathogenic genera such as Streptococcus and Acinetobacter were significantly increased in the ACS group, whereas certain SCFA-producing genera such as Blautia and Agathobacter were depleted. In addition, in the correlation analysis with clinical indicators, the microbiota was observed to be associated with the level of inflammation and severity of coronary atherosclerosis. Finally, a diagnostic model for ACS based on gut microbiota and clinical variables was developed with an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 0.963 (95% CI: 0.925–1) and an AUC value of 0.948 (95% CI: 0.549–0.641) for bootstrap internal validation. The calibration curves of the model show good consistency between the actual and predicted probabilities. The DCA showed that the model had a high net clinical benefit for clinical applications.ConclusionOur study is the first to characterize the composition and function of the gut microbiota in patients with ACS and healthy populations in Southwest China and demonstrates the potential effect of the microbiota as a non-invasive marker for the early diagnosis of ACS

    Children and Youth at Risk in Times of Transition: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

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    Children and youth belong to one of the most vulnerable groups in societies. This was the case even before the current humanitarian crises around the world which led millions of people and families to flee from wars, terror, poverty and exploitation. Minors have been denied human rights such as access to education, food and health services. They have been kidnapped, sold, manipulated, mutilated, killed, and injured. This has been and continues to be the case in both developed and developing countries, and it does not look as if the situation will improve in the near future. Rather, current geopolitical developments, political and economic uncertainties and instabilities seem to be increasing the vulnerability of minors, especially in the wars and armed conflicts currently being waged not only in Europe, but on almost every continent. How can risks children and youth are exposed to in times of transition be reduced? Which role do state agencies, non-governmental organisations, as well as children's coping strategies play in mitigating the vulnerabilities of minors? This volume addresses risks to which children and young people are exposed, especially in times of transition. The focus is on different groups of children in the European wartime and post-war societies of the Second World War, 'occupation children' in Germany, teenage National Socialist collaborators in Norway, and more recent cases such as child soldiers, refugee children, and children of European "Islamic State" fighters. The contributions come from international scholars and different academic disciplines (educational and social sciences, humanities, law, and international peace and conflict studies) and are based on historical, quantitative, and/or qualitative analyses.Kinder und Jugendliche gehören zu den am meisten gefährdeten Gruppen einer Gesellschaft. Dies war auch schon vor den aktuellen humanitären Krisen in der Welt der Fall, die Millionen von Menschen und Familien zur Flucht vor Kriegen, Terror, Armut und Ausbeutung veranlassten. Minderjährigen wurden Menschenrechte wie der Zugang zu Bildung, Nahrung und medizinischer Versorgung verweigert. Sie wurden entführt, verkauft, manipuliert, verstümmelt, getötet und verletzt. Dies war und ist sowohl in den Industrie- als auch in den Entwicklungsländern der Fall, und es sieht nicht so aus, als würde sich die Situation in naher Zukunft verbessern. Dieser Band befasst sich mit Risiken, denen Kinder und Jugendliche vor allem in Zeiten des Übergangs ausgesetzt sind. Im Mittelpunkt stehen verschiedene Gruppen von Kindern in den europäischen Kriegs- und Nachkriegsgesellschaften des Zweiten Weltkriegs, "Besatzungskinder" in Deutschland, jugendliche NS-Kollaborateure in Norwegen und neuere Fälle wie Kindersoldat*innen, Flüchtlingskinder und Kinder von europäischen "Islamischen Staat"-Kämpfer*innen. Die Beiträge stammen von internationalen Wissenschaftler*innen und verschiedenen akademischen Disziplinen (Erziehungs- und Sozialwissenschaften, Geisteswissenschaften, Rechtswissenschaften und internationale Friedens- und Konfliktstudien) und basieren auf historischen, quantitativen und/oder qualitativen Analysen

    FIREBALL: A Dataset of Dungeons and Dragons Actual-Play with Structured Game State Information

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    Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a tabletop roleplaying game with complex natural language interactions between players and hidden state information. Recent work has shown that large language models (LLMs) that have access to state information can generate higher quality game turns than LLMs that use dialog history alone. However, previous work used game state information that was heuristically created and was not a true gold standard game state. We present FIREBALL, a large dataset containing nearly 25,000 unique sessions from real D\&D gameplay on Discord with true game state info. We recorded game play sessions of players who used the Avrae bot, which was developed to aid people in playing D&D online, capturing language, game commands and underlying game state information. We demonstrate that FIREBALL can improve natural language generation (NLG) by using Avrae state information, improving both automated metrics and human judgments of quality. Additionally, we show that LLMs can generate executable Avrae commands, particularly after finetuning.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures. Accepted at ACL 202

    INCREASING ACCESS TO QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION FOR MINORITY CHILDREN IN DURHAM COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

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    Sherry Linton-Massiah, Anthony Maldonado, Sydney Scott, Elizabeth Stromberg Shumate, Aishwarya Venkatesh: INCREASING ACCESS TO QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION FOR MINORITY CHILDREN IN DURHAM COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA The purpose of this paper is to examine preschool education as a social determinant of health (SDOH). Healthy People 2030 recognizes education as a key component of health outcomes, and outlines access to high quality preschool education as a strategy to improving short and long-term health and overall wellness outcomes. (Social Determinants of Health - Healthy People 2030 | health.gov., n.d.). This paper explores challenges young, minority students in Durham County, North Carolina are facing in accessing high-quality early childhood education. The paper recommends an evidence-based program to mitigate these challenges. The barriers discussed include higher prevalence of poverty, lack of geographic accessibility, and non-traditional hours of operations that accommodate unpredictable work schedules. All Our Kin is identified as the program most aligned with the assets while addressing the needs of the population of interest. (Creating the Conditions for Family Child Care to Thrive, 2019). The paper recommends diversifying the modalities of licensed high quality preschool and early child care providers in Durham County by increasing access to licensed family child care. This change to the Durham County educational system, is intended to increase access to quality early childhood education and decrease related inequities faced by young, minority children. Key words: social determinant of health, early childhood education, minority students, Durham County, evidence-basedMaster of Public Healt
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