377 research outputs found
From Compliance to Impact: Tracing the Transformation of an Organizational Security Awareness Program
There is a growing recognition of the need for a transformation from
organizational security awareness programs focused on compliance -- measured by
training completion rates -- to those resulting in behavior change. However,
few prior studies have begun to unpack the organizational practices of the
security awareness teams tasked with executing program transformation. We
conducted a year-long case study of a security awareness program in a United
States (U.S.) government agency, collecting data via field observations,
interviews, and documents. Our findings reveal the challenges and practices
involved in the progression of a security awareness program from being
compliance-focused to emphasizing impact on workforce attitudes and behaviors.
We uniquely capture transformational organizational security awareness
practices in action via a longitudinal study involving multiple workforce
perspectives. Our study insights can serve as a resource for other security
awareness programs and workforce development initiatives aimed at better
defining the security awareness work role
Daydreaming factories
Optimisation of factories, a cornerstone of production engineering for the past half century, relies on formulating the challenges with limited degrees of freedom. In this paper, technological advances are reviewed to propose a “daydreaming” framework for factories that use their cognitive capacity for looking into the future or “foresighting”. Assessing and learning from the possible eventualities enable breakthroughs with many degrees of freedom and make daydreaming factories antifragile. In these factories with augmented and reciprocal learning and foresighting processes, revolutionary reactions to external and internal stimuli are unnecessary and industrial co-evolution of people, processes and products will replace industrial revolutions
Myelography and the 20th Century Localization of Spinal Cord Lesions
In this article, we commemorate the centenary of myelography, a neuroradiological procedure that, despite certain disadvantages, significantly contributed to the diagnosis and localization of spinal cord lesions during the 20th century. From the start, the use of myelography was characterized by different views regarding the potential dangers associated with the prolonged exposure of a "foreign body" to the central nervous system. Such differences in attitude resulted in divergent myelography practices; its precise indications, technical performance, and adopted contrast material remaining subject to variability until the procedure were eventually replaced by MRI at the close of the 20th century
Inpatient opioid prescribing patterns and their effect on rehospitalisations: a nested case-control study using data from a Swiss public acute hospital.
AIMS OF THE STUDY
Opioid prescriptions have increased in Switzerland, even though current guidelines warn of their harms. If opioids for postoperative analgesia are not tapered before hospital discharge, patients are at risk of adverse events such as constipation, drowsiness, dependence, tolerance and withdrawal. The aim of this study was to investigate and quantify the potential association between opioids prescribed at discharge from hospital and rehospitalisation.
METHODS
We conducted a nested case-control study using routinely collected electronic health records from a Swiss public acute hospital. Cases were patients aged 65 years or older admitted between November 2014 and December 2018, with documented opioid administration on the day of discharge and rehospitalisation within 18 or 30 days after discharge. Each case was matched to five controls for age, sex, year of hospitalisation and Charlson Comorbidity Index. We calculated odds ratios for 18-day and 30-day rehospitalisation based on exposure to opioids using a conditional logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders. Secondary analyses included stratifications into morphine-equivalent doses of <50 mg, 50-89 mg and ≥90 mg, and co-prescriptions of gabapentinoids and benzodiazepines.
RESULTS
Of 22,471 included patients, 3144 rehospitalisations were identified, of which 1698 were 18-day rehospitalisations and 1446 were 30-day rehospitalisations. Documented opioid administration on the day of discharge was associated with 30-day rehospitalisation after adjustment for confounders (adjusted odds ratio 1.48; 95% CI 1.25-1.75, p 50 mg were rare.
CONCLUSIONS
Patients receiving opioids on the day of discharge were 48% more likely to be readmitted to hospital within 30 days. Clinicians should aim to discontinue opioids started in hospital before discharge if possible. Patients receiving an opioid prescription should be educated and monitored as part of opioid stewardship programmes
Quality of anticholinergic burden scales and their impact on clinical outcomes: a systematic review.
Older people are at risk of anticholinergic side effects due to changes affecting drug elimination and higher sensitivity to drug's side effects. Anticholinergic burden scales (ABS) were developed to quantify the anticholinergic drug burden (ADB). We aim to identify all published ABS, to compare them systematically and to evaluate their associations with clinical outcomes.
We conducted a literature search in MEDLINE and EMBASE to identify all published ABS and a Web of Science citation (WoS) analysis to track validation studies implying clinical outcomes. Quality of the ABS was assessed using an adapted AGREE II tool. For the validation studies, we used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Cochrane tool Rob2.0. The validation studies were categorized into six evidence levels based on the propositions of the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine with respect to their quality. At least two researchers independently performed screening and quality assessments.
Out of 1297 records, we identified 19 ABS and 104 validations studies. Despite differences in quality, all ABS were recommended for use. The anticholinergic cognitive burden (ACB) scale and the German anticholinergic burden scale (GABS) achieved the highest percentage in quality. Most ABS are validated, yet validation studies for newer scales are lacking. Only two studies compared eight ABS simultaneously. The four most investigated clinical outcomes delirium, cognition, mortality and falls showed contradicting results.
There is need for good quality validation studies comparing multiple scales to define the best scale and to conduct a meta-analysis for the assessment of their clinical impact
Національні тенденції розвитку університетської освіти
В сучасному динамічно змінюваному світі університет - це перш за все вищий навчальний заклад, який є індикатором цивілізаційності регіону та держави. Проте у наші дні класичні університети постали перед серйозними викликами часу.В современном динамически изменяющемся мире университет - это прежде всего высшее учебное заведение, которое является индикатором цивилизационности региона и государства. Однако в наши дни классические университеты встали перед серьезными вызовами времени
Search for CP Violation in the Decay Z -> b (b bar) g
About three million hadronic decays of the Z collected by ALEPH in the years
1991-1994 are used to search for anomalous CP violation beyond the Standard
Model in the decay Z -> b \bar{b} g. The study is performed by analyzing
angular correlations between the two quarks and the gluon in three-jet events
and by measuring the differential two-jet rate. No signal of CP violation is
found. For the combinations of anomalous CP violating couplings, and , limits of \hat{h}_b < 0.59h^{\ast}_{b} < 3.02$ are given at 95\% CL.Comment: 8 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses here.sty, epsfig.st
Outcomes of early switching from intravenous to oral antibiotics on medical wards
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate outcomes following implementation of a checklist with criteria for switching from intravenous (iv) to oral antibiotics on unselected patients on two general medical wards. METHODS: During a 12 month intervention study, a printed checklist of criteria for switching on the third day of iv treatment was placed in the medical charts. The decision to switch was left to the discretion of the attending physician. Outcome parameters of a 4 month control phase before intervention were compared with the equivalent 4 month period during the intervention phase to control for seasonal confounding (before-after study; April to July of 2006 and 2007, respectively): 250 episodes (215 patients) during the intervention period were compared with the control group of 176 episodes (162 patients). The main outcome measure was the duration of iv therapy. Additionally, safety, adherence to the checklist, reasons against switching patients and antibiotic cost were analysed during the whole year of the intervention (n = 698 episodes). RESULTS: In 38% (246/646) of episodes of continued iv antibiotic therapy, patients met all criteria for switching to oral antibiotics on the third day, and 151/246 (61.4%) were switched. The number of days of iv antibiotic treatment were reduced by 19% (95% confidence interval 9%-29%, P = 0.001; 6.0-5.0 days in median) with no increase in complications. The main reasons against switching were persisting fever (41%, n = 187) and absence of clinical improvement (41%, n = 185). CONCLUSIONS: On general medical wards, a checklist with bedside criteria for switching to oral antibiotics can shorten the duration of iv therapy without any negative effect on treatment outcome. The criteria were successfully applied to all patients on the wards, independently of the indication (empirical or directed treatment), the type of (presumed) infection, the underlying disease or the group of antibiotics being used
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