An Introduction to Collaboration with SharePoint for First-Year Business Students

The need for collaboration skills in today’s market is increasing, with more businesses looking for ways to streamline communication, improve innovation, and share corporate knowledge. Students at the beginning of their college careers have had numerous opportunities to work in groups, but very few opportunities to engage in true collaboration. This Teaching Tip provides an approach to teaching collaboration as part of an Introduction to Computer Information Systems course, and incorporating it into course work so students can begin to develop the skills they will need for workplace collaboration. Initially, students tend to see collaboration and cooperation as interchangeable terms; the approach outlined here focuses on the collaboration concepts of content sharing, feedback, and iteration. By applying these concepts and using a collaboration tool like Microsoft SharePoint, the instructor can guide the students to understanding true collaboration

A Systems Analysis Role-Play Exercise and Assignment

Systems analysis and design, System development life cycle (SDLC), Collaboration, User requirements, Requirements analysis & specification, Active learning, Role-play, Cost benefit analysi

Adaptable lives: agency and accountability in a cancer cluster town

This dissertation provides an ethnographic account of the experiences of residents living within the cancer cluster town of Clyde, Ohio, where over 50 children have been diagnosed with or have died of cancers of the brain and central nervous system since the mid-1990s. My entry into the field coincided with the filing of a lawsuit against the town’s largest employer, a Whirlpool Corporation plant, after the discovery of nine feet of toxic PCB sludge at a former community recreational park built by the company. Drawing on in-depth interviews, archival documents, and government reports, I examine systems of power at work within the community that hamper a collective sense of community subpolitics. Using a grounded theoretical approach to analysis informed by risk theory, I discovered that community-level responses to risk echo national logics that promote the concepts of deterrence and avoidance of harm as matters of individual preventive choice. Within a cultural context where efforts towards pinpointing the toxins responsible for the elevated cancer rates in Clyde have failed and there exists an imperative for self-protection that is impossible to achieve, residents experience serious psychosocial and practical conflicts as they adapt to the impact of cancer on their families. Furthermore, although risk and awareness of risk have penetrated the dialog of everyday life, townspeople have largely adapted to risk as a way of life rather than working to eliminate it. Examples of this are seen in the modification of residents’ consumer and lifestyle choices, and the participation in an evolving system of support from the community’s schools, businesses, and churches. I offer a theoretical framework for understanding the process through which the community changed to accommodate risk rather than to substantially alter it. This research bridges sociology and public health, and responds to a long-standing call to incorporate social theory into social epidemiological studies. It advances both the understanding of the ways in which residents are influenced by interactions with the State, as well as the occurrence of collective community inaction in cases of environmental contamination

Evidence-practice gaps for Australian General Practitioners (GP) in assisting pregnant women to quit

Background: Smoking prevalence among Indigenous pregnant women is high at 49%. Evidence-based smoking cessation interventions have not been effectively translated into the maternal Indigenous context. Aims: To explore GPs' knowledge, attitudes and practices of managing smoking in pregnant women. Methods: A random sample of 500 members of the RACGP National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health were invited to an on-line survey. Inclusion criteria were GPs who consult with pregnant women. The response rate was low at 8% (N = 42), however alternative recruitment is ongoing. Results: One-third of the sample worked in Indigenous organisations; 62% of respondents were women. Most GPs (81%) always asked and gave brief advice about smoking in pregnancy. Less GPs (62%) always provided cessation support, assessed dependence (55%), discussed the psychosocial context of smoking (33%), followed up within 2 weeks (14%); 5% referred to the Quitline. Only 21% always recommended/prescribed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), despite 93% agreeing that using NRT in pregnancy was safer than smoking; 71% believed NRT was moderately effective, and 69% were confident to prescribe NRT. More GPs in Indigenous organisations, compared to mainstream, agreed that discussing smoking benefits their relationship with pregnant clients (p < 0.05). Discussing psychosocial contexts was positively associated with prescribing NRT (p < 0.05). Only 10% GPs trained in smoking cessation for pregnancy; 83% agreed training was warranted, over two-thirds agreed access to oral NRT should be improved. Conclusions: Smoking cessation is a high priority for cancer prevention. NRT can be offered to pregnant smokers unable to quit. Low levels of assisted quitting may relate to scarcity of training for pregnancy, and policies governing access. Caution is advised due to small sample size. Translational research aspect: Training GPs in smoking cessation for pregnant women, and improving NRT access, may progress T2/3 translation of evidence-based methods for smokers in high prevalence groups

Evaluation of cumulative cognitive deficits from electroconvulsive therapy

Background Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective acute treatment for severe depression, but widely held concerns about memory problems may limit its use. Aims To find out whether repeated or maintenance courses of ECT cause cumulative cognitive deterioration. Method Analysis of the results of 10 years of cognitive performance data collection from patients who have received ECT. The 199 patients had a total of 498 assessments, undertaken after a mean of 15.3 ECT sessions (range 0–186). A linear mixed-effect regression model was used, testing whether an increasing number of ECT sessions leads to deterioration in performance. Results The total number of previous ECT sessions had no effect on cognitive performance. The major factors affecting performance were age, followed by the severity of depression at the time of testing and the number of days since the last ECT session. Conclusions Repeated courses of ECT do not lead to cumulative cognitive deficits. This message is reassuring for patients, carers and prescribers who are concerned about memory problems and confusion during ECT. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective acute treatment for severe depression,1 with reported remission rates above 50%.2,3 Although some reports demonstrate even higher remission rates (such as 75% in patients with psychotic depression4), these could be below 50% for treatment-resistant depression or in community settings.5,6 ECT is often portrayed in mainstream media as a barbaric treatment7 and its cognitive side-effects as profound and debilitating, leading to public, patient and carer concerns. ECT does cause retrograde amnesia and acute disorientation immediately following a treatment,8 however, research has suggested that this is only a short-lived side-effect. A meta-analysis by Semkovska & McLoughlin9 analysed the cognitive tests of 2981 patients from 84 studies, performed before and after single courses of ECT, and found that a decline in cognitive performance was limited to the first 3 days following a treatment. Patients showed no cognitive deterioration when tested 2 or more weeks after their last ECT session. This does not apply to retrograde amnesia, which was not part of this analysis, and it cannot be extended to cognitive functions that were not tested. Much less is known about the side-effects of long-term ECT, including maintenance ECT. A major concern of patients and some health professionals is that it could lead to progressive cognitive deficits, especially if given for prolonged periods of time. Small studies and case reports have addressed this question and have found no evidence to support this concern (see Discussion). Over the past 10 years we performed prospective cognitive tests on 199 patients, of whom 96 had >12 ECTsessions during their lifetime (the usual maximum duration of a single ECT course). We wanted to find out whether there was evidence that their cognitive performance deteriorated with the increasing number of ECT sessions

Contrasting Development of Canopy Structure and Primary Production in Planted and Naturally Regenerated Red Pine Forests

Globally, planted forests are rapidly replacing naturally regenerated stands but the implications for canopy structure, carbon (C) storage, and the linkages between the two are unclear. We investigated the successional dynamics, interlinkages and mechanistic relationships between wood net primary production (NPPw) and canopy structure in planted and naturally regenerated red pine (Pinus resinosa Sol. ex Aiton) stands spanning ≥ 45 years of development. We focused our canopy structural analysis on leaf area index (LAI) and a spatially integrative, terrestrial LiDAR-based complexity measure, canopy rugosity, which is positively correlated with NPPw in several naturally regenerated forests, but which has not been investigated in planted stands. We estimated stand NPPw using a dendrochronological approach and examined whether canopy rugosity relates to light absorption and light–use efficiency. We found that canopy rugosity increased similarly with age in planted and naturally regenerated stands, despite differences in other structural features including LAI and stem density. However, the relationship between canopy rugosity and NPPw was negative in planted and not significant in naturally regenerated stands, indicating structural complexity is not a globally positive driver of NPPw. Underlying the negative NPPw-canopy rugosity relationship in planted stands was a corresponding decline in light-use efficiency, which peaked in the youngest, densely stocked stand with high LAI and low structural complexity. Even with significant differences in the developmental trajectories of canopy structure, NPPw, and light use, planted and naturally regenerated stands stored similar amounts of C in wood over a 45-year period. We conclude that widespread increases in planted forests are likely to affect age-related patterns in canopy structure and NPPw, but planted and naturally regenerated forests may function as comparable long-term C sinks via different structural and mechanistic pathways

Utility of Comorbidity Assessment in Predicting Transplantation-Related Toxicity Following Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Multiple Myeloma

AbstractPatients with coexisting medical problems may suffer increased toxicity and reduced quality of life after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The benefit of high-dose therapy for some patients with multiple myeloma (MM) is debatable. Decision tools that aid in identifying those patients with MM most suited for autologous HSCT may avoid the risk of excess toxicity. An objective assessment of comorbidities was performed in 126 patients with MM undergoing autologous HSCT using the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), the hematopoietic cell transplantation comorbidity index (HCT-CI), and a modified pretransplantation assessment of mortality (mPAM) to determine the strength of association with increased transplantation-related toxicity and increased length of hospital stay (LOS). Any comorbidity scored using the CCI or HCT-CI (score > 0) was associated with an increased number of organ systems with serious toxicity (at least grade 2 toxicity using the Seattle criteria), an increased total sum of toxicity grades for all organs, and prolonged LOS. An mPAM score ≥ 24 was associated with increased LOS. When considering autologous HSCT for a patient with MM, assessment of comorbidities using the CCI or HCT-CI may assist in predicting the risk of transplantation-related toxicity as an adjunct to physician judgment and patient preference