Adaptation of the DEMQOL-Proxy for routine use in care homes: a cross sectional study of the reliability and validity of DEMQOL-CH

Objective: To investigate the routine use of a measure of quality of life (QoL) in care homes and assess its psychometric properties when used by care staff Design: A cross-sectional two-phase study. Setting and participants: Data were collected from care staff in seven care homes in East Sussex, England. Method: Phase 1: The ability of care staff from two care homes to use the DEMQOL-Proxy without interviewer-administration was assessed using agreement analysis between a selfand interviewer-administered version of the instrument. Based on these findings, DEMQOLProxy was adapted into a new version, DEMQOL-CH, for use as a self-administered instrument in care homes. We assessed agreement between the new DEMQOL-CH and DEMQOL-Proxy to ensure DEMQOL-CH was used correctly. Phase 2: A preliminary assessment of the psychometric properties of DEMQOL-CH when used routinely was completed in a further five care homes. Results: Phase 1: Nineteen care staff from two care homes completed QoL measurements for residents. Systematic error was identified when staff self-completed the DEMQOL-Proxy without an interviewer. We modified the DEMQOL-Proxy to create DEMQOL-CH; this reduced the error, producing a version that could be used more accurately by care staff. Phase 2: Eleven care staff from five care homes rated resident QoL routinely. DEMQOL-CH showed acceptable psychometric properties with satisfactory reliability and validity and a clear factor structure. Conclusions: The research presents positive preliminary data on the acceptability, feasibility and performance of routine QoL measurement in care homes using an adapted version of DEMQOL-Proxy, the DEMQOL-CH. Results provide evidence to support the concept that routine measurement of QoL may be possible in care homes. Research is needed to refine and test the methodology and instrument further, and to explore the potential for benefits to residents, staff, and care homes in larger and more representative populations

Cormas, une plate-forme multi-agent pour concevoir collectivement des modèles et interagir avec les simulations

International audienceCe document présente les nouvelles fonctionnalités de Cormas, une plate-forme de modélisation multi-agent dédiée à la gestion des ressources renouvelables. Logiciel libre, Cormas vise à concevoir facilement un SMA et analyser des scénarios. Aujourd'hui, Cormas a pris une direction novatrice orientée vers la conception collective de modèles et la simulation interactive. Ces simulations hybrides mixent des décisions prises par les joueurs et d'autres par le modèle. Cela permet d'interagir avec une simulation en modifiant le comportement des agents et la façon dont ils utilisent les ressources. Ainsi, il est possible d'explorer collectivement des scénarios à moyen et long terme afin de mieux comprendre comment atteindre une situation souhaitée. En retour, cela permet de réviser collectivement le modèle conceptuel. Après avoir expliqué la philosophie de la modélisation d'accompagnement, ce document présente la façon dont les fonctionnalités de Cormas sont appliquées à travers trois expériences. Abstract This paper presents the new functionalities of Cormas, a multi-agent modeling platform dedicated to the management of renewable resources. As free software, Cormas is intended to facilitate the design of ABM as well as the monitoring and analysis of simulation scenarios. Today Cormas has taken an innovative direction oriented towards the collective design of models and interactive simulation. These hybrid simulations are mixing decisions taken by stakeholders and others by the model. This allows the user to interact with a simulation by changing the behavior of agents. Thus, it is possible to collectively explore medium and long-term scenarios to better understand how a desired situation may be reached. In turn, this feed back into the collective design of the model. After having explained the philosophy of the companion modeling, this paper presents how the Cormas functionalities are put into practice through three experiments with stakeholders facing actual environmental challenges

Replicating viral vector platform exploits alarmin signals for potent CD8+ T cell-mediated tumour immunotherapy

Viral infections lead to alarmin release and elicit potent cytotoxic effector T lymphocyte (CTLeff) responses. Conversely, the induction of protective tumour-specific CTLeff and their recruitment into the tumour remain challenging tasks. Here we show that lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) can be engineered to serve as a replication competent, stably-attenuated immunotherapy vector (artLCMV). artLCMV delivers tumour-associated antigens to dendritic cells for efficient CTL priming. Unlike replication-deficient vectors, artLCMV targets also lymphoid tissue stroma cells expressing the alarmin interleukin-33. By triggering interleukin-33 signals, artLCMV elicits CTLeff responses of higher magnitude and functionality than those induced by replication-deficient vectors. Superior anti-tumour efficacy of artLCMV immunotherapy depends on interleukin-33 signalling, and a massive CTLeff influx triggers an inflammatory conversion of the tumour microenvironment. Our observations suggest that replicating viral delivery systems can release alarmins for improved anti-tumour efficacy. These mechanistic insights may outweigh safety concerns around replicating viral vectors in cancer immunotherapy

Understanding the quality of life of family carers of people with dementia: development of a new conceptual framework

Background Dementia is a major global health and social care challenge, and family carers are a vital determinant of positive outcomes for people with dementia. This study's aim was to develop a conceptual framework for the Quality of Life (QOL) of family carers of people with dementia. Methods We studied family carers of people with dementia and staff working in dementia services iteratively using in‐depth individual qualitative interviews and focus groups discussions. Analysis used constant comparison techniques underpinned by a collaborative approach with a study‐specific advisory group of family carers. Results We completed 41 individual interviews with 32 family carers and nine staff and two focus groups with six family carers and five staff. From the analysis, we identified 12 themes that influenced carer QOL. These were organised into three categories focussing on person with dementia, carer, and external environment. Conclusions For carers of people with dementia, the QOL construct was found to include condition‐specific domains which are not routinely considered in generic assessment of QOL. This has implications for researchers, policy makers, and service providers in addressing and measuring QOL in family carers of people with dementia

Multi-platform training sessions to teach agent-based simulation

Since 2011, an international training session is organized every summer in Montpellier (France) by a group of researchers who are using (and for some of them developping) various generic agent-based simulation platforms (Cormas, Gama, Mimosa, NetLogo). A benchmark model is implemented from scratch and demonstrated with these platformas by the trainers. From a textual description of a stylized socio-ecological system, the successive steps leading to a runnable model are performed in front of the trainees. The implementation is influenced by the platform, and also by the modellers' interpretations made from the initial description. More formal descriptions (like UML) are needed to enable implementing equivalent models with the different platforms. We draw some lessons from these parallel implementations of a benchmarck model, a process that slightly differs from the replication of an existing agent-based model. (Texte intégral

Social Interactions vs Revisions, What is important for Promotion in Wikipedia?

In epistemic community, people are said to be selected on their knowledge contribution to the project (articles, codes, etc.) However, the socialization process is an important factor for inclusion, sustainability as a contributor, and promotion. Finally, what does matter to be promoted? being a good contributor? being a good animator? knowing the boss? We explore this question looking at the process of election for administrator in the English Wikipedia community. We modeled the candidates according to their revisions and/or social attributes. These attributes are used to construct a predictive model of promotion success, based on the candidates's past behavior, computed thanks to a random forest algorithm. Our model combining knowledge contribution variables and social networking variables successfully explain 78% of the results which is better than the former models. It also helps to refine the criterion for election. If the number of knowledge contributions is the most important element, social interactions come close second to explain the election. But being connected with the future peers (the admins) can make the difference between success and failure, making this epistemic community a very social community too

SBML qualitative models: a model representation format and infrastructure to foster interactions between qualitative modelling formalisms and tools

Background: Qualitative frameworks, especially those based on the logical discrete formalism, are increasingly used to model regulatory and signalling networks. A major advantage of these frameworks is that they do not require precise quantitative data, and that they are well-suited for studies of large networks. While numerous groups have developed specific computational tools that provide original methods to analyse qualitative models, a standard format to exchange qualitative models has been missing. Results: We present the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) Qualitative Models Package (“qual”), an extension of the SBML Level 3 standard designed for computer representation of qualitative models of biological networks. We demonstrate the interoperability of models via SBML qual through the analysis of a specific signalling network by three independent software tools. Furthermore, the collective effort to define the SBML qual format paved the way for the development of LogicalModel, an open-source model library, which will facilitate the adoption of the format as well as the collaborative development of algorithms to analyse qualitative models. Conclusions: SBML qual allows the exchange of qualitative models among a number of complementary software tools. SBML qual has the potential to promote collaborative work on the development of novel computational approaches, as well as on the specification and the analysis of comprehensive qualitative models of regulatory and signalling networks