Reframing e-assessment: building professional nursing and academic attributes in a first year nursing course

This paper documents the relationships between pedagogy and e-assessment in two nursing courses offered at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. The courses are designed to build the academic, numeracy and technological attributes student nurses need if they are to succeed at university and in the nursing profession. The paper first outlines the management systems supporting the two courses and how they intersect with the e-learning and e-assessment components of course design. These pedagogical choices are then reviewed. While there are lessons to be learnt and improvements to be made, preliminary results suggest students and staff are extremely supportive of the courses. The e-assessment is very positively received with students reporting increased confidence and competency in numeracy, as well as IT, academic, research and communication skills

Neuro-Mechanics of Recumbent Leg Cycling in Post-Acute Stroke Patients

Cycling training is strongly applied in post-stroke rehabilitation, but how its modular control is altered soon after stroke has been not analyzed yet. EMG signals from 9 leg muscles and pedal forces were measured bilaterally during recumbent pedaling in 16 post-acute stroke patients and 12 age-matched healthy controls. Patients were asked to walk over a GaitRite mat and standard gait parameters were computed. Four muscle synergies were extracted through nonnegative matrix factorization in healthy subjects and patients unaffected legs. Two to four synergies were identified in the affected sides and the number of synergies significantly correlated with the Motricity Index (Spearman’s coefficient = 0.521). The reduced coordination complexity resulted in a reduced biomechanical performance, with the two-module sub-group showing the lowest work production and mechanical effectiveness in the affected side. These patients also exhibited locomotor impairments (reduced gait speed, asymmetrical stance time, prolonged double support time). Significant correlations were found between cycling-based metrics and gait parameters, suggesting that neuro-mechanical quantities of pedaling can inform on walking dysfunctions. Our findings support the use of pedaling as a rehabilitation method and an assessment tool after stroke, mainly in the early phase, when patients can be unable to perform a safe and active gait training

Combination interventions for Hepatitis C and Cirrhosis reduction among people who inject drugs: An agent-based, networked population simulation experiment

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is endemic in people who inject drugs (PWID), with prevalence estimates above 60 percent for PWID in the United States. Previous modeling studies suggest that direct acting antiviral (DAA) treatment can lower overall prevalence in this population, but treatment is often delayed until the onset of advanced liver disease (fibrosis stage 3 or later) due to cost. Lower cost interventions featuring syringe access (SA) and medically assisted treatment (MAT) for addiction are known to be less costly, but have shown mixed results in lowering HCV rates below current levels. Little is known about the potential synergistic effects of combining DAA and MAT treatment, and large-scale tests of combined interventions are rare. While simulation experiments can reveal likely long-term effects, most prior simulations have been performed on closed populations of model agents--a scenario quite different from the open, mobile populations known to most health agencies. This paper uses data from the Centers for Disease Control's National HIV Behavioral Surveillance project, IDU round 3, collected in New York City in 2012 by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to parameterize simulations of open populations. Our results show that, in an open population, SA/MAT by itself has only small effects on HCV prevalence, while DAA treatment by itself can significantly lower both HCV and HCV-related advanced liver disease prevalence. More importantly, the simulation experiments suggest that cost effective synergistic combinations of the two strategies can dramatically reduce HCV incidence. We conclude that adopting SA/MAT implementations alongside DAA interventions can play a critical role in reducing the long-term consequences of ongoing infection

Why Information Matters: A Foundation for Resilience

Embracing Change: The Critical Role of Information, a research project by the Internews' Center for Innovation & Learning, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, combines Internews' longstanding effort to highlight the important role ofinformation with Rockefeller's groundbreaking work on resilience. The project focuses on three major aspects:- Building knowledge around the role of information in empowering communities to understand and adapt to different types of change: slow onset, long-term, and rapid onset / disruptive;- Identifying strategies and techniques for strengthening information ecosystems to support behavioral adaptation to disruptive change; and- Disseminating knowledge and principles to individuals, communities, the private sector, policymakers, and other partners so that they can incorporate healthy information ecosystems as a core element of their social resilience strategies

Factors that influence the sustainability of structured allied health journal clubs: a qualitative study

Background: Structured journal clubs are a widely used tool to promote evidence-based practice in health professionals, however some journal clubs (JC) are more effectively sustained than others. To date, little research has provided insights into factors which may influence sustainability of JCs within health care settings. As part of a larger randomised controlled study, this research aimed to gain understanding of clinicians' experiences of sustaining a structured JC format (TREAT- Tailoring Research Evidence and Theory) within their clinical context. The study also aimed to identify which strategies may assist longer term sustainability and future implementation of the TREAT format. Methods: We employed a qualitative methodology, informed by behaviour change theory. Clinicians (n=19) from five different JCs participated in focus groups to explore their experience in sustaining the JC format six months after the formal trial period had completed. Clinicians were asked to describe factors which they perceived helped or hindered sustaining components of the JC format within their local context. Following a descriptive summary of the data, barriers and enablers were thematically analysed according to behaviour change theory domains: capability, motivation and opportunity and further mapped to targeted implementation strategies. Results: Participants reported perceived benefits of maintaining the TREAT format and described several components that promoted its sustainability. Sustaining factors linked to individuals' capability included building research knowledge and skills and having access to research experts. Sustaining factors that enhanced opportunities for behaviour change included management expectation to attend and a team culture which values evidence based practice, while factors found to enhance individuals' motivation included the JC having close application to practice and clinicians sensing ownership of the JC. Several implementation strategies to enhance these factors are described including graduated support to clinicians in facilitation of JCs and greater engagement with managers. Conclusions: Long-term sustainability of a structured JC is dependent on both individual and service level factors and a balance of implementation strategies that enhance capability, opportunity and motivation. Consideration of how clinicians can be engaged to take ownership and build their own capability from the commencement of the JC is important. Trial registration: ACTRN12616000811404

Quantifying the Effect of Matrix Structure on Multithreaded Performance of the SpMV Kernel

Sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) is the core operation in many common network and graph analytics, but poor performance of the SpMV kernel handicaps these applications. This work quantifies the effect of matrix structure on SpMV performance, using Intel's VTune tool for the Sandy Bridge architecture. Two types of sparse matrices are considered: finite difference (FD) matrices, which are structured, and R-MAT matrices, which are unstructured. Analysis of cache behavior and prefetcher activity reveals that the SpMV kernel performs far worse with R-MAT matrices than with FD matrices, due to the difference in matrix structure. To address the problems caused by unstructured matrices, novel architecture improvements are proposed.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. IEEE HPEC 201