Vol. 36, No. 2

Labor Relations Collaboration from Start to Finish: A Case Study on a First Contract for Westminster Colorado Firefighters, by Lisa R. Callaway and Rebecca C. Barnard Recent Developmentshttps://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/iperr/1109/thumbnail.jp

Cathodoluminescence-based nanoscopic thermometry in a lanthanide-doped phosphor

Crucial to analyze phenomena as varied as plasmonic hot spots and the spread of cancer in living tissue, nanoscale thermometry is challenging: probes are usually larger than the sample under study, and contact techniques may alter the sample temperature itself. Many photostable nanomaterials whose luminescence is temperature-dependent, such as lanthanide-doped phosphors, have been shown to be good non-contact thermometric sensors when optically excited. Using such nanomaterials, in this work we accomplished the key milestone of enabling far-field thermometry with a spatial resolution that is not diffraction-limited at readout. We explore thermal effects on the cathodoluminescence of lanthanide-doped NaYF$_4$ nanoparticles. Whereas cathodoluminescence from such lanthanide-doped nanomaterials has been previously observed, here we use quantitative features of such emission for the first time towards an application beyond localization. We demonstrate a thermometry scheme that is based on cathodoluminescence lifetime changes as a function of temperature that achieves $\sim$ 30 mK sensitivity in sub-$\mu$m nanoparticle patches. The scheme is robust against spurious effects related to electron beam radiation damage and optical alignment fluctuations. We foresee the potential of single nanoparticles, of sheets of nanoparticles, and also of thin films of lanthanide-doped NaYF$_4$ to yield temperature information via cathodoluminescence changes when in the vicinity of a sample of interest; the phosphor may even protect the sample from direct contact to damaging electron beam radiation. Cathodoluminescence-based thermometry is thus a valuable novel tool towards temperature monitoring at the nanoscale, with broad applications including heat dissipation in miniaturized electronics and biological diagnostics.Comment: Main text: 30 pages + 4 figures; supplementary information: 22 pages + 8 figure

Improving children's social care services: results of a feasability study.

This report sets out the findings of a feasibility study that aimed to understand how to define ‘good’ children’s social care services and how to assess whether they have improved. The intention was for the feasibility study to support a larger project exploring the processes involved in improving children’s social care services. The key findings of the study are: • There is a lack of consistent expectations about outcomes for children’s social care services and what indicators should be used to monitor them. There is mixed evidence about the features that characterise good children’s social care services, and a significant proportion of it is based on expert opinion and has not been tested quantitatively. • Analysis of the relationship between outcome data for children in need collated nationally by the Department for Education and Ofsted ratings of children’s services found very little association. There did not seem to be any pattern in terms of the local authorities that were in the top or bottom percentiles for child outcome. Only one child outcome variable and one workforce variable had a statistically significant relationship with the Ofsted ratings. • Before proceeding with a study exploring how children’s social care services improve, it is important to identify an outcomes framework that a wide range of stakeholders agree is appropriate and to establish a set of indicators that reflect these outcomes and that could be collected and collated at a national level. • The study team concluded that at this time it is not feasible to go ahead with the main project as originally envisaged, and instead to focus on how to create an outcomes framework and establish an appropriate set of indicators

Something borrowed, something new : challenges in using qualitative methods to study under-researched international business phenomena

This article responds to calls for IB researchers to study a greater diversity of international business (IB) phenomena in order to generate theoretical insights about empirical settings that are under-represented in the scholarly IB literature. While this objective is consistent with the strengths of qualitative research methods, novel empirical settings are not always well aligned with methods that have been developed in better-researched and thus more familiar settings. In this article, we explore three methods-related challenges of studying under-researched empirical settings, in terms of gathering and analyzing qualitative data. The challenges are: managing researcher identities, navigating unfamiliar data gathering conditions, and theorizing the uniqueness of novel empirical settings. These challenges are integral to the process of contextualization, which involves linking observations from an empirical setting to the categories of the theoretical research context. We provide a toolkit of recommended practices to manage them, by drawing on published accounts of research by others, and on our own experiences in the field.Cet article répond aux appels lancés aux chercheurs en affaires internationales (International Business - IB) à étudier une plus grande diversité de phénomènes en IB pour générer des renseignements théoriques sur des terrains empiriques sous-représentés dans la littérature de l’IB. Bien que cet objectif soit cohérent avec les points forts des méthodes de recherche qualitative, les nouveaux terrains empiriques ne sont pas toujours compatibles avec les méthodes développées dans des terrains mieux étudiés et donc plus familiers. Dans cet article, nous explorons trois défis liés aux méthodes de recherche sur les terrains empiriques peu étudiés, plus spécifiquement, à la collecte et l’analyse des données qualitatives. Les défis sont les suivants : gérer les identités des chercheurs, naviguer dans des conditions de collecte de données peu familières et théoriser le caractère unique des nouveaux terrains empiriques. Ces défis font partie intégrante du processus de contextualisation qui consiste à relier les observations sur un terrain empirique aux catégories théoriques. Pour les gérer, nous élaborons une « boîte à outils » de pratiques recommandées en nous appuyant sur des comptes rendus de recherche publiés par d'autres ainsi que sur nos propres expériences sur le terrain.Este artículo responde a los pedidos para que los investigadores de negocios internacionales estudien una mayor diversidad de fenómenos de negocios internacionales con el fin de generar conocimientos teóricos sobre entornos empíricos que están escasamente representados en la literatura académica de los negocios internacionales. Aunque este objetivo es consecuente con las fortalezas de los métodos de investigación cualitativa, los nuevos entornos empíricos no siempre están bien alineados con los métodos que se han desarrollado en entornos mejor investigados y, por ende, más familiares. En este artículo, exploramos tres desafíos relacionados con los métodos para estudiar entornos empíricos poco investigados, en términos de recopilación y análisis de datos cualitativos. Los retos son: la gestión de las identidades de los investigadores, la navegación por condiciones desconocidas de recopilación de datos y la teorización de la peculiaridad de los nuevos entornos empíricos. Estos retos son parte integral del proceso de contextualización, el cual implica vincular las observaciones de un entorno empírico a las categorías del contexto de investigación teórico. Proporcionamos una caja de herramientas de prácticas recomendadas para gestionarlas, basándonos en los reportajes de investigación publicados por otros y en nuestras propias experiencias en el campo.The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.https://link.springer.com/journal/41267hj2023Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS

Listening to women: experiences of using closed-loop in type 1 diabetes pregnancy

Introduction: Recent high-profile calls have emphasized that women's experiences should be considered in maternity care provisioning. We explored women's experiences of using closed-loop during type 1 diabetes (T1D) pregnancy to inform decision-making about antenatal rollout and guidance and support given to future users. Methods: We interviewed 23 closed-loop participants in the Automated insulin Delivery Among Pregnant women with T1D (AiDAPT) trial after randomization to closed-loop and ∼20 weeks later. Data were analyzed thematically. Results: Women described how closed-loop lessened the physical and mental demands of diabetes management, enabling them to feel more normal and sleep better. By virtue of spending increased time-in-range, women also worried less about risks to their baby and being judged negatively by health care professionals. Most noted that intensive input and support during early pregnancy had been crucial to adjusting to, and developing confidence in, the technology. Women emphasized that attaining pregnancy glucose targets still required ongoing effort from themselves and the health care team. Women described needing education to help them determine when, and how, to intervene and when to allow the closed-loop to operate without interference. All women reported more enjoyable pregnancy experiences as a result of using closed-loop; some also noted being able to remain longer in paid employment. Conclusions: Study findings endorse closed-loop use in T1D pregnancy by highlighting how the technology can facilitate positive pregnancy experiences. To realize fully the benefits of closed-loop, pregnant women would benefit from initial intensive oversight and support together with closed-loop specific education and training. Clinical Trial Registration number: NCT04938557

Collecting Symptoms and Sensor Data With Consumer Smartwatches (the Knee OsteoArthritis, Linking Activity and Pain Study):Protocol for a Longitudinal, Observational Feasibility Study

BACKGROUND: The Knee OsteoArthritis, Linking Activity and Pain (KOALAP) study is the first to test the feasibility of using consumer-grade cellular smartwatches for health care research. OBJECTIVE: The overall aim was to investigate the feasibility of using consumer-grade cellular smartwatches as a novel tool to capture data on pain (multiple times a day) and physical activity (continuously) in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Additionally, KOALAP aimed to investigate smartwatch sensor data quality and assess whether engagement, acceptability, and user experience are sufficient for future large-scale observational and interventional studies. METHODS: A total of 26 participants with self-diagnosed knee osteoarthritis were recruited in September 2017. All participants were aged 50 years or over and either lived in or were willing to travel to the Greater Manchester area. Participants received a smartwatch (Huawei Watch 2) with a bespoke app that collected patient-reported outcomes via questionnaires and continuous watch sensor data. All data were collected daily for 90 days. Additional data were collected through interviews (at baseline and follow-up) and baseline and end-of-study questionnaires. This study underwent full review by the University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee (#0165) and University Information Governance (#IGRR000060). For qualitative data analysis, a system-level security policy was developed in collaboration with the University Information Governance Office. Additionally, the project underwent an internal review process at Google, including separate reviews of accessibility, product engineering, privacy, security, legal, and protection regulation compliance. RESULTS: Participants were recruited in September 2017. Data collection via the watches was completed in January 2018. Collection of qualitative data through patient interviews is still ongoing. Data analysis will commence when all data are collected; results are expected in 2019. CONCLUSIONS: KOALAP is the first health study to use consumer cellular smartwatches to collect self-reported symptoms alongside sensor data for musculoskeletal disorders. The results of this study will be used to inform the design of future mobile health studies. Results for feasibility and participant motivations will inform future researchers whether or under which conditions cellular smartwatches are a useful tool to collect patient-reported outcomes alongside passively measured patient behavior. The exploration of associations between self-reported symptoms at different moments will contribute to our understanding of whether it may be valuable to collect symptom data more frequently. Sensor data-quality measurements will indicate whether cellular smartwatch usage is feasible for obtaining sensor data. Methods for data-quality assessment and data-processing methods may be reusable, although generalizability to other clinical areas should be further investigated. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/10238

Fanny Copeland and the geographical imagination

Raised in Scotland, married and divorced in the English south, an adopted Slovene, Fanny Copeland (1872 – 1970) occupied the intersection of a number of complex spatial and temporal conjunctures. A Slavophile, she played a part in the formation of what subsequently became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that emerged from the First World War. Living in Ljubljana, she facilitated the first ‘foreign visit’ (in 1932) of the newly formed Le Play Society (a precursor of the Institute of British Geographers) and guided its studies of Solčava (a then ‘remote’ Alpine valley system) which, led by Dudley Stamp and commended by Halford Mackinder, were subsequently hailed as a model for regional studies elsewhere. Arrested by the Gestapo and interned in Italy during the Second World War, she eventually returned to a socialist Yugoslavia, a celebrated figure. An accomplished musician, linguist, and mountaineer, she became an authority on (and populist for) the Julian Alps and was instrumental in the establishment of the Triglav National Park. Copeland’s role as participant observer (and protagonist) enriches our understanding of the particularities of her time and place and illuminates some inter-war relationships within G/geography, inside and outside the academy, suggesting their relative autonomy in the production of geographical knowledge

Applications of Lagrangian Dispersion Modeling to the Analysis of Changes in the Specific Absorption of Elemental Carbon

We use a Lagrangian dispersion model driven by a mesoscale model with four-dimensional data assimilation to simulate the dispersion of elemental carbon (EC) over a region encompassing Mexico City and its surroundings, the study domain for the 2006 MAX-MEX experiment, which was a component of the MILAGRO campaign. The results are used to identify periods when biomass burning was likely to have had a significant impact on the concentrations of elemental carbon at two sites, T1 and T2, downwind of the city, and when emissions from the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) were likely to have been more important. They are also used to estimate the median ages of EC affecting the specific absorption of light, aABS, at 870 nm as well as to identify periods when the urban plume from the MCMA was likely to have been advected over T1 and T2. Values of aABS at T1, the nearer of the two sites to Mexico City, were smaller at night and increased rapidly after mid-morning, peaking in the mid-afternoon. The behavior is attributed to the coating of aerosols with substances such as sulfate or organic carbon during daylight hours, but such coating appears to be limited or absent at night. Evidence for this is provided by scanning electron microscope images of aerosols collected at three sampling sites. During daylight hours the values of aABS did not increase with aerosol age for median ages in the range of 1-4 hours. There is some evidence for absorption increasing as aerosols were advected from T1 to T2 but the statistical significance of that result is not strong

An action research protocol to strengthen system-wide inter-professional learning and practice

Background. Inter-professional learning (IPL) and inter-professional practice (IPP) are thought to be critical determinants of effective care, improved quality and safety and enhanced provider morale, yet few empirical studies have demonstrated this. Whole-of-system research is even less prevalent. We aim to provide a four year, multi-method, multi-collaborator action research program of IPL and IPP in defined, bounded health and education systems located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The project is funded by the Australian Research Council under its industry Linkage Program. Methods/Design. The program of research will examine in four inter-related, prospective studies, progress with IPL and IPP across tertiary education providers, professional education, regulatory and registration bodies, the ACT health system's streams of care activities and teams, units and wards of the provider facilities of the ACT health system. One key focus will be on push-pull mechanisms, ie, how the education sector creates student-enabled IPP and the health sector demands IPL-oriented practitioners. The studies will examine four research aims and meet 20 research project objectives in a comprehensive evaluation of ongoing progress with IPL and IPP. Discussion. IPP and IPL are said to be cornerstones of health system reforms. We will measure progress across an entire health system and the clinical and professional education systems that feed into it. The value of multi-methods, partnership research and a bi-directional push-pull model of IPL and IPP will be tested. Widespread dissemination of results to practitioners, policymakers, managers and researchers will be a key project goal