How can we help novice child protection social workers to see situations like experienced practitioners? A randomised controlled trial evaluation of the ShadowBox™ method using pre-recorded video feedback

Background Protecting children for abuse and neglect is a complex area of decision-making but frequent staff turnover has meant that many frontline child protection social workers are often relatively inexperienced. The ShadoxBoxTM method is an educational intervention that enables novice practitioners to gain decision-making skills quickly. Aim: This study was an RCT evaluation of an educational intervention for novice social workers that used the ShadoxBoxTM method adapted to include pre-recorded video feedback from an expert panel to test whether novice decision making would become more similar to experienced practitioners. Methods: The study was an RCT in which participants completed complex scenarios in a computer lab in control and intervention groups. The training method involved participants receiving feedback from highly experienced practitioners at each decision point within the scenarios. The intervention group received pre-recorded video feedback from a panel of highly experienced practitioners while the control group received no feedback. Participants and Setting Participants (n=83) were trainee social workers from a London university randomly allocated to control and intervention groups. Data was collected on computer stations using Qualtrics. Results Undertaking the scenarios improved both groups but greater improvement was seen in participants who had received video feedback from a panel of experienced practitioners. The results were promising, with participant accuracy increasing by 44% (from 31% to 75%) in the intervention group compared to an increase of 31% (from 32% to 63%) in the control group. Considerable improvements were noted in both intervention and control groups, which suggest that scenario-based interventions can be a promising educational method as learning is rooted in real life scenarios and participants have the opportunity to reflect upon their decisions. The qualitative findings are that novice participants make predictable errors, including: • Making shallow assumptions • Focusing exclusively on the parents rather than the child. • Jumping to early conclusions with insufficient information. Conclusions • ShadoxBoxTM training appears to be a promising intervention for improving decision making. • Novices benefitted from having concentrated exposure to complex scenarios focused on assessing risk and making professional judgements. • When this was augmented by direct feedback from a panel of highly experienced practitioners, these benefits were increased considerably. • The complexity of the scenarios also exposed the novices to real life pressures rather than the simplified versions used in decision research

Generating ring currents, solitons, and svortices by stirring a Bose-Einstein condensate in a toroidal trap

We propose a simple stirring experiment to generate quantized ring currents and solitary excitations in Bose-Einstein condensates in a toroidal trap geometry. Simulations of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation show that pure ring current states can be generated efficiently by adiabatic manipulation of the condensate, which can be realized on experimental time scales. This is illustrated by simulated generation of a ring current with winding number two. While solitons can be generated in quasi-1D tori, we show the even more robust generation of hybrid, solitonic vortices (svortices) in a regime of wider confinement. Svortices are vortices confined to essentially one-dimensional dynamics, which obey a similar phase-offset--velocity relationship as solitons. Marking the transition between solitons and vortices, svortices are a distinct class of symmetry-breaking stationary and uniformly rotating excited solutions of the 2D and 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a toroidal trapping potential. Svortices should be observable in dilute-gas experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in J. Phys. B (Letters

The Paths to Choreography Extraction

Choreographies are global descriptions of interactions among concurrent components, most notably used in the settings of verification (e.g., Multiparty Session Types) and synthesis of correct-by-construction software (Choreographic Programming). They require a top-down approach: programmers first write choreographies, and then use them to verify or synthesize their programs. However, most existing software does not come with choreographies yet, which prevents their application. To attack this problem, we propose a novel methodology (called choreography extraction) that, given a set of programs or protocol specifications, automatically constructs a choreography that describes their behavior. The key to our extraction is identifying a set of paths in a graph that represents the symbolic execution of the programs of interest. Our method improves on previous work in several directions: we can now deal with programs that are equipped with a state and internal computation capabilities; time complexity is dramatically better; we capture programs that are correct but not necessarily synchronizable, i.e., they work because they exploit asynchronous communication

Cost-effectiveness of integrated disease management for high risk, exacerbation prone, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a primary care setting

Availability of data and materials: The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the requirement to keep individual patient health information confdential but are available from Dr. Licskai on reasonable request.Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. Background: We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the ‘Best Care’ integrated disease management (IDM) program for high risk, exacerbation prone, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) compared to usual care (UC) within a primary care setting from the perspective of a publicly funded health system (i.e., Ontario, Canada). Methods: We conducted a model-based, cost-utility analysis using a Markov model with expected values of costs and outcomes derived from a Monte-Carlo Simulation with 5000 replications. The target population included patients started in GOLD II with a starting age of 68 years in the trial-based analysis. Key input parameters were based on a randomized control trial of 143 patients (i.e., UC (n = 73) versus IDM program (n = 70)). Results were shown as incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Results: The IDM program for high risk, exacerbation prone, patients is dominant in comparison with the UC group. After one year, the IDM program demonstrated cost savings and improved QALYs (i.e., UC was dominated by IDM) with a positive net-benefit of $5360 (95$5175, $5546) based on a willingness to pay of$50,000 (CAN) per QALY. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the IDM intervention for patients with COPD in a primary care setting is cost-effective in comparison to the standard of care. By demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of IDM, we confirm that investment in the delivery of evidence based best practices in primary care delivers better patient outcomes at a lower cost than UC. Highlights I. Interventions that can reduce the frequency and severity of exacerbations in patients who sufer from COPD have the potential to reduce the fnancial burden of COPD on the health system; II. Tis is the frst study that demonstrates the cost-efectiveness of integrated disease management for patients who sufer from COPD within a primary care environment; II. Tis study makes the case for embedding Certifed Respiratory Educators (CREs) within the primary care environment to improve the quality of life of patients who sufer from COPD, as well as alleviating unneces sary health services utilization and decreasing the overall fnancial burden of the disease on the health system.Asthma Research Group Windsor Essex County Inc. doctoral stipend

Does Updating Natural Hazard Maps to Reflect Best Practices Increase Viewer Comprehension of Risk?

In this study, we examine whether updating an interactive hazard map using recommendations from the literature improves user map comprehension. Analyses of experimental data collected from 75 university students revealed that map comprehension scores were not significantly better for those who viewed a “best practices” map compared to those who viewed an existing version. This may be because the existing map was itself better than most other interactive maps. Additionally, we found map comprehension levels to have significant positive relationships with objective tests, but not self-reported measures of spatial ability. Moreover, self-reported spatial ability had statistically significant, but only moderately strong, correlations with objective tests. These results indicate that spatial ability should be measured objectively rather than through self-reported methods in research on map comprehension. Further research is needed to examine the cognitive processes involved in hazard map comprehension, especially using a broader range of map characteristics and population segments with more diverse cognitive abilities

Risk of colon cancer in hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer patients as predicted by fuzzy modeling: Influence of smoking

AIM: To investigate whether a fuzzy logic model could predict colorectal cancer (CRC) risk engendered by smoking in hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) patients. METHODS: Three hundred and forty HNPCC mismatch repair (MMR) mutation carriers from the Creighton University Hereditary Cancer Institute Registry were selected for modeling. Age-dependent curves were generated to elucidate the joint effects between gene mutation (hMLH1 or hMSH2), gender, and smoking status on the probability of developing CRC. RESULTS: Smoking significantly increased CRC risk in male hMSH2 mutation carriers (P \u3c 0.05). hMLH1 mutations augmented CRC risk relative to hMSH2 mutation carriers for males (P \u3c 0.05). Males had a significantly higher risk of CRC than females for hMLH1 non smokers (P \u3c 0.05), hMLH1 smokers (P \u3c 0.1) and hMSH2 smokers (P \u3c 0.1). Smoking promoted CRC in a dose-dependent manner in hMSH2 in males (P \u3c 0.05). Females with hMSH2 mutations and both sexes with the hMLH1 groups only demonstrated a smoking effect after an extensive smoking history (P \u3c 0.05). CONCLUSION: CRC promotion by smoking in HNPCC patients is dependent on gene mutation, gender and age. These data demonstrate that fuzzy modeling may enable formulation of clinical risk scores, thereby allowing individualization of CRC prevention strategies

Nanoscopic tip sensors fabricated by gas phase etching of optical glass fibers

Silica-based fiber tips are used in a variety of spectroscopic, micro- or nano-scopic optical sensor applications and photonic micro-devices. The miniaturization of optical sensor systems and the technical implementation using optical fibers can provide new sensor designs with improved properties and functionality for new applications. The selective-etching of specifically doped silica fibers is a promising method in order to form complex photonic micro structures at the end or within fibers such as tips and cavities in various shapes useful for the all-fiber sensor and imaging applications. In the present study, we investigated the preparation of geometrically predefined, nanoscaled fiber tips by taking advantage of the dopant concentration profiles of highly doped step-index fibers. For this purpose, a gas phase etching process using hydrofluoric acid (HF) vapor was applied. The shaping of the fiber tips was based on very different etching rates as a result of the doping characteristics of specific optical fibers. Technological studies on the influence of the etching gas atmosphere on the temporal tip shaping and the final geometry were performed using undoped and doped silica fibers. The influence of the doping characteristics was investigated in phosphorus-, germanium-, fluorine- and boron-doped glass fibers. Narrow exposed as well as protected internal fiber tips in various shapes and tip radiuses down to less than 15 nm were achieved and characterized geometrically and topologically. For investigations into surface plasmon resonance effects, the fiber tips were coated with nanometer-sized silver layers by means of vapour deposition and finally subjected to an annealing treatment