The effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions on quality of life for family caregivers : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Caregivers (CGs) of older adults with chronic illnesses often face consequences of caregiving that negatively impact their quality of life (QoL). Objective: To examine the overall effect of psychoeducational interventions (PEIs) on QoL among CGs of older adults with chronic illnesses, including dementia, stroke, and cancer. Design: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published or unpublished randomized controlled trials testing the effects of PEIs on QoL among CGs of older adults with chronic illnesses. We located studies using electronic databases including PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and PsycINFO as well as alternative search strategies including hand searches. Data extraction and quality assessment: Two coders independently extracted data related to the study purpose, participant characteristics, intervention characteristics, and QoL outcomes, and compared their work for accuracy. The methodological quality of eligible studies was assessed by using the Jadad tool. Data synthesis: We conducted meta-analyses on summary scores of QoL and the following QoL domains: physical, psychological, social, and environment well-being. Standardized mean difference effect sizes (d) were calculated using final post-intervention data and then synthesized using a random effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed with Cochran's Q statistic and I2 statistic. Publication bias was evaluated by using the funnel plot and Egger's regression test. Results: We identified 27 eligible randomized controlled trials with a total of 3,154 CGs. PEIs had significant and positive effects on summary scores of QoL (d =0.508, 95% CI [0.253, 0.762], p [less than] 0.001) and social well-being (d =0.306, 95% CI [0.088, 0.525], p = 0.006). However, the effect sizes of PEIs showed no statistically significant improvement on physical well-being, psychological well-being, and environment well-being. Conclusion: PEIs for CGs of older adults with chronic illness significantly improved summary scores for QoL and social well-being, but not other QoL domains. It is recommended that future studies testing the effects of PEIs on QoL should be theory-driven, should assess CGs' knowledge, skills, and needs, and should consider interdisciplinary intervention. Future metaanalyses should consider examining the overall effect size of PEIs on various consequences of caregiving, such as depression and anxiety.Includes bibliographical references

Model checking probabilistic and stochastic extensions of the pi-calculus

We present an implementation of model checking for probabilistic and stochastic extensions of the pi-calculus, a process algebra which supports modelling of concurrency and mobility. Formal verification techniques for such extensions have clear applications in several domains, including mobile ad-hoc network protocols, probabilistic security protocols and biological pathways. Despite this, no implementation of automated verification exists. Building upon the pi-calculus model checker MMC, we first show an automated procedure for constructing the underlying semantic model of a probabilistic or stochastic pi-calculus process. This can then be verified using existing probabilistic model checkers such as PRISM. Secondly, we demonstrate how for processes of a specific structure a more efficient, compositional approach is applicable, which uses our extension of MMC on each parallel component of the system and then translates the results into a high-level modular description for the PRISM tool. The feasibility of our techniques is demonstrated through a number of case studies from the pi-calculus literature

Revisão sistemática de prognóstico e custo-efetividade de tratamentos não invasivos para cárie radicular

Aim: to evaluate the prognosis of root caries treatment with non-invasive methods, as well as to compare non-invasive therapies as viable alternatives for clinicians, indicating their cost-effectiveness. Literature review: Data collected were number of active lesions at baseline(BL) and in the last clinical assessment after follow-up(FL), and the follow-up period in months(P). The outcome was the monthly progression rate of the lesions that was calculated by (FL–BL)/P. A negative progression rate means the arrestment of the lesions. A cost-effectiveness rate was calculated. Results: From 596 titles retrieved in the search, 8 studies were included in a qualitative synthesis after assessed for eligibility. The monthly progression rate of lesions of home-based treatments (toothpastes, mouth rinses, supplemented milk intake) was an average of -0.79 (-3.68 to 2.3), while the office-based treatments (varnish, topic solutions) was 0.07 (-0.01 to 0.51), suggesting a better prognosis of the home-based treatments. The lowest monthly progression rate was -3.97 (toothpaste 5000ppm/F) while the highest was 2.31 (conventional toothpaste). The cost-effectiveness rate was better for treatments with toothpastes with 5000ppm/F (BRL21.78) when compared to mouthwashes (BRL579.47). Discussion: A better prognosis was found for toothpastes with a high fluoride concentration (5000ppm/F) compared to other therapies, as well as a better cost-effectiveness when compared to mouthwashes. Conclusion: Home-based therapies represented the highest rates of good prognosis for treating root caries lesions within the available scientific evidence. Although 5000ppm/F toothpastes have a very high cost for the Brazilian market, this treatment presented the highest cost-effectiveness when compared to mouthrinses (PROSPERO:CRD42019136035).Objetivo: avaliar o prognóstico do tratamento da cárie radicular com métodos não invasivos, bem como comparar as terapias não invasivas como alternativas viáveis para os clínicos, indicando seu custo-efetividade. Revisão de literatura: os dados coletados foram o número de lesões ativas no início do estudo(BL) e na última avaliação clínica após o acompanhamento(FL), e o período de acompanhamento em meses(P). O desfecho foi a taxa de progressão mensal das lesões calculada por (FL–BL)/P. Uma taxa de progressão negativa significou a inativação das lesões. Uma taxa de custo-efetividade foi calculada. Resultados: Dos 596 títulos recuperados na busca, 8 estudos foram incluídos em uma síntese qualitativa após avaliação de elegibilidade. A taxa de progressão mensal das lesões dos tratamentos caseiros (dentifrícios, enxaguatórios bucais, ingestão de leite complementado) foi em média -0,79 (-3,68 a 2,3), enquanto os tratamentos de consultório (verniz, soluções tópicas) foi de 0,07 (-0,01 a 0,51), sugerindo um melhor prognóstico dos tratamentos domiciliares. A menor taxa de progressão mensal foi de -3,97 (dentifrício 5000ppm/F), enquanto a maior foi de 2,31 (dentifrício convencional). A taxa de custo-efetividade foi melhor para tratamentos com dentifrícios com 5000ppm/F(R$21,78) quando comparados aos bochechos (R$579,47). Discussão: Foi encontrado melhor prognóstico para dentifrícios com alta concentração de flúor(5000ppm/F) em comparação com outras terapias, bem como melhor custo-efetividade quando comparados aos bochechos. Conclusão: As terapias domiciliares representaram as maiores taxas de bom prognóstico para o tratamento de lesões de cárie radicular dentro das evidências científicas disponíveis. Embora dentifrícios de 5000ppm/F tenham um custo muito alto para o mercado brasileiro, este tratamento apresentou o maior custo-efetividade quando comparado aos enxaguatórios bucais(PROSPERO:CRD42019136035)

A programming system for process coordination in virtual organisations

PhD thesisDistributed business applications are increasingly being constructed by composing them from services provided by various online businesses. Typically, this leads to trading partners coming together to form virtual organizations (VOs). Each member of a VO maintains their autonomy, except with respect to their agreed goals. The structure of the Virtual Organisation may contain one dominant organisation who dictates the method of achieving the goals or the members may be considered peers of equal importance. The goals of VOs can be defined by the shared global business processes they contain. To be able to execute these business processes, VOs require a flexible enactment model as there may be no single ‘owner’ of the business process and therefore no natural place to enact the business processes. One solution is centralised enactment using a trusted third party, but in some cases this may not be acceptable (for instance because of security reasons). This thesis will present a programming system that allows centralised as well as distributed enactment where each organisation enacts part of the business process. To achieve distributed enactment we must address the problem of specifying the business process in a manner that is amenable to distribution. The first contribution of this thesis is the presentation of the Task Model, a set of languages and notations for describing workflows that can be enacted in a centralised or decentralised manner. The business processes that we specify will coordinate the services that each organisation owns. The second contribution of this thesis is the presentation of a method of describing the observable behaviour of these services. The language we present, SSDL, provides a flexible and extensible way of describing the messaging behaviour of Web Services. We present a method for checking that a set of services described in SSDL are compatible with each other and also that a workflow interacts with a service in the desired manner. The final contribution of this thesis is the presentation of an abstract architecture and prototype implementation of a decentralised workflow engine. The prototype is able to enact workflows described in the Task Model notation in either a centralised or decentralised scenario

Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism

File replaced in PEARL - file size reduced on 15.02.19 by LW (TIS).Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Restoration Aviva A. Rahmani This dissertation presents a new approach to addressing environmental degradation based on transdisciplinary ecological art. Transdisciplinarity is defined here as merging art and science to discover new insights. Ecological art is defined as an aesthetic practice that promotes environmental resilience. This writing will describe why those approaches are essential to restoring resilient bioregionalism. It introduces the author’s own heuristic perspectives and methodologies and demonstrates how they may be integrated with technology and science. The problems of accelerated loss of coastal (littoral) zone biodiversity, degraded water quality, and habitat fragmentation need critical attention. The author’s research goal was to present a replicable set of guidelines for identifying small points of restoration for wetland littoral zones (the coastal region between terrestrial and marine life) based on a case study called Ghost Nets, scaled to a second case study, Fish Story. Her novel approach included establishing relevant parallels from quantum physics and acupuncture to energetic systems. Additional specific analogies were explored from visual arts, theatre, music, dance, and performance art, to discover a holistic and integrated point of view. Parallels and analogies were drawn by interrogating the two case studies. An important aim of the study was to examine how certain restoration practices could be scaled up to the bioregional level and integrated with a special theory, Trigger Point Theory, to reinforce healthy ecosystems. This included an analysis of how restored upland ecotones and a different relationship to other species could contribute to restoration in the littoral zone. The analysis critiqued how anthropocentric considerations often fail to protect vulnerable water systems. The role of environmental justice for vulnerable human populations and ethical concerns for other animal species was included in that analysis. The author also claims that when artists work with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, that may propel a new transdiscourse and eventually make heuristic information scientifically useful. Insight from the Ghost Nets case study informed data collections and GIS mapping for the Southern Gulf of Maine. Those insights and the mapping were used to analyze relationships between finfish abundance, eelgrass, and invasive, predatory green crabs. Conclusions were drawn that are relevant to coastal and fisheries management practices. The author used performative approaches to contribute expert witnessing to her conclusions. Questionnaires were used to determine how much community awareness was accomplished with the case studies, and assess effects on future behavior. By combining art and science methodologies, the author revealed insights that could help small restored sites act as trigger points towards restoration of healthy bioregional systems more efficiently than would be possible through restoration science alone. In scaling up (applying small models to larger systems) and applying these practices for landscape ecology, the author assembled a set of recommendations for other researchers to implement these ideas in the future. Those recommendations included the formal engagement of ecological artists as equal partners on environmental restoration teams

Developing an Intervention Toolbox for the Common Health Problems in the Workplace

Development of the Health ↔ Work Toolbox is described. The toolbox aims to reduce the workplace impact of common health problems (musculoskeletal, mental health, and stress complaints) by focusing on tackling work-relevant symptoms. Based on biopsychosocial principles this toolbox supplements current approaches by occupying the zone between primary prevention and healthcare. It provides a set of evidence-informed principles and processes (knowledge + tools) for tackling work-relevant common health problems. The toolbox comprises a proactive element aimed at empowering line managers to create good jobs, and a ‘just in time’ responsive element for supporting individuals struggling with a work-relevant health problem. The key intention is helping people with common health problems to maintain work participation. The extensive conceptual and practical development process, including a comprehensive evidence review, produced a functional prototype toolbox that is evidence based and flexible in its use. End-user feedback was mostly positive. Moving the prototype to a fully-fledged internet resource requires specialist design expertise. The Health ↔ Work Toolbox appears to have potential to contribute to the goal of augmenting existing primary prevention strategies and healthcare delivery by providing a more comprehensive workplace approach to constraining sickness absence

Mobile Health Technologies

Mobile Health Technologies, also known as mHealth technologies, have emerged, amongst healthcare providers, as the ultimate Technologies-of-Choice for the 21st century in delivering not only transformative change in healthcare delivery, but also critical health information to different communities of practice in integrated healthcare information systems. mHealth technologies nurture seamless platforms and pragmatic tools for managing pertinent health information across the continuum of different healthcare providers. mHealth technologies commonly utilize mobile medical devices, monitoring and wireless devices, and/or telemedicine in healthcare delivery and health research. Today, mHealth technologies provide opportunities to record and monitor conditions of patients with chronic diseases such as asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) and diabetes mellitus. The intent of this book is to enlighten readers about the theories and applications of mHealth technologies in the healthcare domain

Easing the Creation Process of Mobile Applications for Non-Technical Users

In this day and age, the mobile phone is becoming one of the most indispensable personal computing device. People no longer use it just for communication (i.e. calling, sending messages) but also for other aspects of their lives as well. Because of this rise in demand for different and innovative applications, mobile companies (i.e. mobile handset manufacturers and mobile network providers) and organizations have realized the power of collaborative software development and have changed their business strategy. Instead of hiring specific organizations to do programming, they are now opening up their APIs and tools to allow ordinary people create their own mobile applications either for personal use or for profit. However, the problem with this approach is that there are people who might have nice ideas of their own but do not possess the technical expertise in order to create applications implementing these ideas. The goal of this research is to find ways to simplify the creation of mobile applications for non-technical people by applying model-driven software development particularly domain-specific modeling combined with techniques from the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) particularly iterative, user-centered system design. As proof of concept, we concentrate on the development of applications in the domain of mHealth and use the Android Framework as the target platform for code generation. The iterative user-centered design and development of the front-end tool which is called the Mobia Modeler, led us to eventually create a tool that features a configurable-component based design and integrated modeless environment to simplify the different development tasks of end-users. The Mobia models feature both constructs specialized for specific domains (e.g. sensor component, special component ), and also those that are applicable to any type of domain (e.g. structure component, basic component ). In order to accommodate different needs of end-users, a clear separation between the front-end tools (i.e. Mobia Modeler ) and the underlying code generator (i.e. Mobia Processor ) is recommended as long as there is a consistent model in between, that serves as a bridge between the different tools

zwei empirische Untersuchungen zur Erkundung betriebswirtschaftlicher Absatzperspektiven für innovative mobilfunkbasierte Datendienste

Kumulative Dissertatio