Nosocomial Endocarditis Caused by Corynebacterium amycolatum and Other Nondiphtheriae Corynebacteria

The nondiphtheriae corynebacteria are uncommon but increasingly recognized as important agents of community-acquired endocarditis in patients with underlying structural heart disease, as well as of prosthetic-valve endocarditis. We describe three cases of nondiphtheriae corynebacterial endocarditis, including the first reported case of endocarditis caused by Corynebacterium amycolatum, occurring over an 18-month period, all in association with indwelling intravascular devices

Sexual Attraction Toward Clients, Use of Supervision, and Prior Training: A Qualitative Study of Predoctoral Psychology Interns

Interviews were conducted with 13 predoctoral psychology interns about an experience of sexual attraction toward a client, use of supervision to address the sexual attraction, and prior training regarding sexual attraction. Results indicated that sexual attraction to clients consisted of physical and interpersonal aspects. Therapists believed they were more invested and attentive than usual to clients to whom they were sexually attracted, and they indicated that sexual attraction created distance, distraction, and loss of objectivity. In terms of supervision, only half of the participants disclosed their sexual attraction to supervisors, and supervisors seldom initiated the discussion. Furthermore, trainees found it helpful when supervisors normalized the sexual attraction and provided the opportunity to explore feelings in supervision. Finally, trainees believed their training programs did not adequately address therapist sexual attraction

What matters to patients? A thematic analysis of patient information and support needs

A thematic analysis was done to look at qualitative free text responses to a members survey carried out by the International Glaucoma Association (IGA) in 2017. A further analysis was done on data from calls made to the IGA’s glaucoma helpline during 2018-19, including an initial investigation of cross-cutting call topics. This qualitative analysis has shed light on the complexity of patients’ information and support needs

Feasibility, Acceptability and Preliminary Outcomes of Embracing Your Life: An Online Self-Compassion Program for Emerging Adults

Due to the psychological toll COVID-19 has had on emerging adults, as well as normative mental health challenges of this developmental period, emerging adults are struggling more than ever with depression and loneliness. The objective of this study was to assess feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary psychosocial outcomes of Embracing Your Life, a self-compassion program for emerging adults, as self-compassion is associated with better mental health. Thirty-nine emerging adults (Mage = 23.7, 67% female) enrolled in a 6-session online program from July 2020 to January 2022 participated in this study. Results indicated the program was feasible; 81% of participants attended at least five out of six sessions. Qualitative feedback indicated high acceptability, with recommended changes to make the program more interactive. Participants reported significant improvements in self-compassion, resilience, loneliness, depression, stress, and emotion regulation. Conclusions are that Embracing Your Life is a promising, accessible intervention to address the mental health of emerging adults

Acute Respiratory and Cardiovascular Outcomes Associated with Low Levels of Ambient Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) on the Island of Oahu

Scant literature exists regarding health effects of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution at or below national standards. This study examined the relationship between PM2.5 and acute care use and costs in Honolulu where PM2.5 is low. Single and distributed lag over-dispersed Poisson models were used to examine hospitalizations/emergency department (ED) visits associated with cumulative PM2.5 exposure over the current day and seven previous days (lags 0-7) in 2011. A 10-µg/m3 increase in cumulative PM2.5 concentration was associated with a 32% increase in respiratory admissions (RR=1.32, p=0.001) costing $486,908 and a 24$117,856. Additional research is needed on health effects within pollution lower levels

Application of intervention mapping in cybersecurity education design

Education in Cybersecurity is considered one of the key challenges facing the modern digitized world. Several frameworks, e.g., developed by NIST or ENISA, have defined requirements for cybersecurity education but do not give recommendations for their development. Developing appropriate education offerings need to incorporate theory-based approaches that are evidence supported. Adopting the Intervention Mapping paradigm, we propose an educational framework incorporating validated theoretical and evidence-based approaches to cybersecurity education encompassing stakeholders' input, identified competency needs, and how to implement and evaluate learning outcomes. This paper presents a case study of how Intervention Mapping can be used to help design cybersecurity education, discuss challenges in educational and professional aspects of cybersecurity, and present an applied educational approach based on Intervention Mapping and its evaluation.publishedVersio

Learning to analyse students’ problem-solving strategies with cartoon vignettes

The project coReflect@maths (2019-1-DE01-KA203-004947) is co-funded by the EU Erasmus+ Programme

Experience of Health Leadership in Partnering With University-Based Researchers in Canada – A Call to “Re-imagine” Research

Background: Emerging evidence that meaningful relationships with knowledge users are a key predictor of research use has led to promotion of partnership approaches to health research. However, little is known about health system experiences of collaborations with university-based researchers, particularly with research partnerships in the area of health system design and health service organization. The purpose of the study was to explore the experience and perspectives of senior health managers in health service organizations, with health organization-university research partnerships. Methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 25) were conducted with senior health personnel across Canada to explore their perspectives on health system research; experiences with health organization-university research partnerships; challenges to partnership research; and suggested actions for improving engagement with knowledge users and promoting research utilization. Participants, recruited from organizations with regional responsibilities, were responsible for system-wide planning and support functions. Results: Research is often experienced as unhelpful or irrelevant to decision-making by many within the system. Research, quality improvement (QI) and evaluation are often viewed as separate activities and coordinated by different responsibility areas. Perspectives of senior managers on barriers to partnership differed from those identified in the literature: organizational stress and restructuring, and limitations in readiness of researchers to work in the fast-paced healthcare environment, were identified as major barriers. Although the need for strong executive leadership was emphasized, “multi-system action” is needed for effective partnerships. Conclusion: Common approaches to research and knowledge translation are often not appropriate for addressing issues of health service design and health services organization. Nor is the research community providing expertise to many important activities that the healthcare system is taking to improve health services. A radical rethinking of how we prepare health service researchers; position research within the health system; and fund research activities and infrastructure is needed if the potential benefits of research are to be achieved. Lack of response to health system needs may contribute to research and ‘evidence-informed’ practice being further marginalized from healthcare operations. Interventions to address barriers must respond to the perspectives and experience of health leadership

CyberGenomics: Application of behavioral genetics in cybersecurity

Cybersecurity (CS) is a contemporary field for research and applied study of a range of aspects from across multiple disciplines. A cybersecurity expert has an in-depth knowledge of technology but is often also recognized for the ability to view technology in a non-standard way. This paper explores how CS specialists are both a combination of professional computing-based skills and genetically encoded traits. Almost every human behavioral trait is a result of many genome variants in action altogether with environmental factors. The review focuses on contextualizing the behavior genetics aspects in the application of cybersecurity. It reconsiders methods that help to identify aspects of human behavior from the genetic information. And stress is an illustrative factor to start the discussion within the community on what methodology should be used in an ethical way to approach those questions. CS positions are considered stressful due to the complexity of the domain and the social impact it can have in cases of failure. An individual risk profile could be created combining known genome variants linked to a trait of particular behavior using a special biostatistical approach such as a polygenic score. These revised advancements bring challenging possibilities in the applications of human behavior genetics and CS.publishedVersio