Visualizing Magnitude: Graphical Number Representations Help Users Detect Large Number Entry Errors

Nurses frequently have to program infusion pumps to deliver a prescribed quantity of drug over time. Occasional errors are made in the performance of this routine number entry task, resulting in patients receiving the incorrect dose of a drug. While many of these number entry errors are inconsequential, others are not; infusing 100 ml of a drug instead of 10 ml can be fatal. This paper investigates whether a supplementary graphical number representation, depicting the magnitude of a number, can help people detect number entry errors. An experiment was conducted in which 48 participants had to enter numbers from a ‘prescription sheet’ to a computer interface using a keyboard. The graphical representation was supplementary and was shown both on the ‘prescription sheet’ and the device interface. Results show that while overall more errors were made when the graphical representation was visible, the graphical representation helped participants to detect larger number entry errors (i.e., those that were out by at least an order of magnitude). This work suggests that a graphical number entry system that visualizes magnitude of number can help people detect serious number entry errors

Free movement in education

Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 focus on examples of migration taking place within formal education, with emphasis on student mobility at tertiary level. In keeping with some of the ideas already introduced in this book, there is recognition that young people, including students, tend to make their own mobility, using their agency to help them cope with the challenges of living in foreign countries. It is also largely up to these individuals to make value, and make sense, out of this mobility, and to secure the transition from one mobile learning phase to another. Therefore, while the topics discussed in the subsequent chapters are all substantially different, they share recognition of students’ role in managing their own mobility. As such, what we have are accounts of free movement in tertiary education; free in the sense of being guided by one’s own needs and desires, but not free in terms of emotional and economic costs.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Body mass index and incident coronary heart disease in women: a population-based prospective study

BACKGROUND A high body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD); however, a low BMI may also be associated with an increased mortality risk. There is limited information on the relation of incident CHD risk across a wide range of BMI, particularly in women. We examined the relation between BMI and incident CHD overall and across different risk factors of the disease in the Million Women Study. METHODS 1.2 million women (mean age=56 years) participants without heart disease, stroke, or cancer (except non-melanoma skin cancer) at baseline (1996 to 2001) were followed prospectively for 9 years on average. Adjusted relative risks and 20-year cumulative incidence from age 55 to 74 years were calculated for CHD using Cox regression. RESULTS After excluding the first 4 years of follow-up, we found that 32,465 women had a first coronary event (hospitalization or death) during follow-up. The adjusted relative risk for incident CHD per 5 kg/m2 increase in BMI was 1.23 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22 to 1.25). The cumulative incidence of CHD from age 55 to 74 years increased progressively with BMI, from 1 in 11 (95% CI 1 in 10 to 12) for BMI of 20 kg/m2, to 1 in 6(95% CI 1 in 5 to 7) for BMI of 34 kg/m2. A 10 kg/m2 increase in BMI conferred a similar risk to a 5-year increment in chronological age. The 20 year cumulative incidence increased with BMI in smokers and non-smokers, alcohol drinkers and non-drinkers, physically active and inactive, and in the upper and lower socioeconomic classes. In contrast to incident disease, the relation between BMI and CHD mortality (n=2,431) was J-shaped. For the less than 20 kg/m2 and ≥35 kg/m2 BMI categories, the respective relative risks were 1.27 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.53) and 2.84 (95% CI 2.51 to 3.21) for CHD deaths, and 0.89 (95% CI 0.83 to 0.94) and 1.85 (95% CI 1.78 to 1.92) for incident CHD. CONCLUSIONS CHD incidence in women increases progressively with BMI, an association consistently seen in different subgroups. The shape of the relation with BMI differs for incident and fatal disease.The Million Women Study is funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, and the NHS Breast Screening Programme. The funding organizations were not involved in the study design or conduct, data analysis or interpretation, manuscript preparation or review, final version approval, or decision to submit the manuscript

The second NINDS/NIBIB consensus meeting to define neuropathological criteria for the diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with exposure to head trauma. In 2015, a panel of neuropathologists funded by the NINDS/NIBIB defined preliminary consensus neuropathological criteria for CTE, including the pathognomonic lesion of CTE as an accumulation of abnormal hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) in neurons and astroglia distributed around small blood vessels at the depths of cortical sulci and in an irregular pattern, based on review of 25 tauopathy cases. In 2016, the consensus panel met again to review and refine the preliminary criteria, with consideration around the minimum threshold for diagnosis and the reproducibility of a proposed pathological staging scheme. Eight neuropathologists evaluated 27 cases of tauopathies (17 CTE cases), blinded to clinical and demographic information. Generalized estimating equation analyses showed a statistically significant association between the raters and CTE diagnosis for both the blinded (OR = 72.11, 95% CI = 19.5-267.0) and unblinded rounds (OR = 256.91, 95% CI = 63.6-1558.6). Based on the challenges in assigning CTE stage, the panel proposed a working protocol including a minimum threshold for CTE diagnosis and an algorithm for the assessment of CTE severity as Low CTE or High CTE for use in future clinical, pathological, and molecular studies

Tackling inequalities in obesity: a protocol for a systematic review of the effectiveness of public health interventions at reducing socioeconomic inequalities in obesity among adults

Background: Socioeconomic inequalities in obesity and associated risk factors for obesity are widening throughout developed countries worldwide. Tackling obesity is high on the public health agenda both in the United Kingdom and internationally. However, what works in terms of interventions that are able to reduce inequalities in obesity is lacking. Methods/Design: The review will examine public health interventions at the individual, community and societal level that might reduce inequalities in obesity among adults aged 18 years and over, in any setting and in any country. The following electronic databases will be searched: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index, ASSIA, IBSS, Sociological Abstracts, and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database. Database searches will be supplemented with website and gray literature searches. No studies will be excluded based on language, country or publication date. Randomized and non-randomized controlled trials, prospective and retrospective cohort studies (with/without control groups) and prospective repeat cross-sectional studies (with/without control groups) that have a primary outcome that is a proxy for body fatness and have examined differential effects with regard to socioeconomic status (education, income, occupation, social class, deprivation, poverty) or where the intervention has been targeted specifically at disadvantaged groups or deprived areas will be included. Study inclusion, data extraction and quality appraisal will be conducted by two reviewers. Meta-analysis and narrative synthesis will be conducted. The main analysis will examine the effects of 1) individual, 2) community and 3) societal level public health interventions on socioeconomic inequalities in adult obesity. Interventions will be characterized by their level of action and their approach to tackling inequalities. Contextual information on how such public health interventions are organized, implemented and delivered will also be examined. Discussion: The review will provide evidence, and reveal any gaps in the evidence base, of public health strategies which reduce and prevent inequalities in the prevalence of obesity in adults and provide information on the organization, implementation and delivery of such interventions. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO registration number: CRD4201300361

Electrically-assisted bikes: potential impacts on travel behaviour

This paper reports on a review of the European literature about the impacts of having an electrically-assisted bike available to use, together with results from a trial in the UK city of Brighton, where 80 employees were loaned an electrically-assisted bike for a 6–8 week period. In the Brighton trial, three-quarters of those who were loaned an e-bike used them at least once a week. Across the sample as a whole, average usage was in the order of 15–20 miles per week, and was accompanied by an overall reduction in car mileage of 20%. At the end of the trial, 38% participants expected to cycle more in the future, and at least 70%said that they would like to have an e-bike available for use in the future, and would cycle more if this was the case. This is consistent with the results of the European literature which shows that when e-bikes are made available, they get used; that a proportion of e-bike trips typically substitutes for car use; and that many people who take part in trials become interested in future e-bike use, or cycling more generall

The COVID-19 pandemic and international students: Consequences for researchers, stakeholders and policymakers in the mobility field

Since the early months of 2020, COVID-19 has had a profound impact on societies, transforming social, economic and political life throughout the European Union. This resulted in dramatic change in a central aspect of life for many Europeans: the freedom to circulate between countries for non-essential purposes, including tertiary education. This loss has created problems for EU citizens and others from third-party countries, who have found themselves cut off from essential support or the means to return home in a safe and timely manner. In this chapter, we take a look at this situation, with our research questions considering some of the most prominent impacts of the pandemic on internationalised learning for both intra-EU exchange students and extra-EU educational migrants. To illustrate the emerging challenges, we have conducted research with international students in Portugal during the initial months of the public health emergency, from which we were able to identify issues that may be of concern to researchers, stakeholders and policymakers in the mobility field.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio