Faculty Input in Evaluation for a College with Many Disciplines

The co-presenters will describe how faculty in one academic unit of a large College combining many academic disciplines were tasked with examining best practices and development of a faculty merit performance evaluation rubric. Perspective on the project will be offered by the initiating School Director, Dean of the College and Associate Dean of the College

Investigation of Bearing Fatigue Damage Life Prediction Using Oil Debris Monitoring

Research was performed to determine if a diagnostic tool for detecting fatigue damage of helicopter tapered roller bearings can be used to determine remaining useful life (RUL). The taper roller bearings under study were installed on the tail gearbox (TGB) output shaft of UH- 60M helicopters, removed from the helicopters and subsequently installed in a bearing spall propagation test rig. The diagnostic tool was developed and evaluated experimentally by collecting oil debris data during spall progression tests on four bearings. During each test, data from an on-line, in-line, inductance type oil debris sensor was monitored and recorded for the occurrence of pitting damage. Results from the four bearings tested indicate that measuring the debris generated when a bearing outer race begins to spall can be used to indicate bearing damage progression and remaining bearing life

Actividades deportivas en el medio natural: su representación en libros de texto de Educación Física en Primaria

The objective of this research is to analyze the sport activities carried out in the natural environment represented in the textbooks of Physical Education (PE) in Primary Education (EP), published according to Organic Law of Education 2/2006, of May 3rd, (LOE). 4339 images have been analyzed, from 44 different textbooks, belonging to eight Spanish publishers. The SAIMEF (Physical Analysis Images Analysis System) tool, elaborated ad hoc, was used to analyze the content of the images. The pilot test, panel of experts and triangulation with several observers were some of the scientific criteria that endorsed this tool. The results show that the presence of images related to sport activities in the natural environment continues to be very scarce in PE textbooks. The editorial Teide represents in greater proportion this type of activities compared to the rest of publishers. In the third cycle appears a greater number of images, predominating drawings over pictures. The most represented sport activity is the orientation, with a 25.6%, included within the multidisciplinary sports, prevailing the terrestrial environment. The representation of sports in the natural environment varies according to the analyzed publishers. Thus, in Anaya and Bruño predominates the orientation, in Edelvives, Paidotribo and Serbal predominates the ski, and in the publishers Santillana and Teide prevails the escalation. It is necessary to reflect on the low representation of these activities in EF textbooks

Antiretroviral Therapy outcomes among adolescents and youth in rural Zimbabwe

Around 2 million adolescents and 3 million youth are estimated to be living with HIV worldwide. Antiretroviral outcomes for this group appear to be worse compared to adults. We report antiretroviral therapy outcomes from a rural setting in Zimbabwe among patients aged 10-30 years who were initiated on ART between 2005 and 2008. The cohort was stratified into four age groups: 10-15 (young adolescents) 15.1-19 years (adolescents), 19.1-24 years (young adults) and 24.1-29.9 years (older adults). Survival analysis was used to estimate rates of deaths and loss to follow-up stratified by age group. Endpoints were time from ART initiation to death or loss to follow-up. Follow-up of patients on continuous therapy was censored at date of transfer, or study end (31 December 2008). Sex-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios for different age groups. 898 patients were included in the analysis; median duration on ART was 468 days. The risk of death were highest in adults compared to young adolescents (aHR 2.25, 95%CI 1.17-4.35). Young adults and adolescents had a 2-3 times higher risk of loss to follow-up compared to young adolescents. When estimating the risk of attrition combining loss to follow-up and death, young adults had the highest risk (aHR 2.70, 95%CI 1.62-4.52). This study highlights the need for adapted adherence support and service delivery models for both adolescents and young adults

Efficacy of transdiagnostic treatments: a review of published outcomes studies and future research directions

Theory and evidence relating to biological and psychological vulnerabilities, comorbidity, latent structure, cognitive and behavioral maintaining factors, and treatment outcome suggest that commonalities across emotional disorders may outweigh the differences. Thus, researchers have recently begun evaluating transdiagnostic (or unified) treatment protocols, which target common maintaining factors, by applying them to individuals with multiple disorders or to mixeddiagnosis groups. The aim of this article is to review the efficacy of unified protocols for anxiety and mood disorders. Evidence suggests that unified treatments are associated with symptom improvement, generally perform better than wait-list controls, are associated with improvements in comorbid disorders, and may compare well to diagnosis-specific treatments. Unified protocols are also associated with high client satisfaction, therapeutic alliance, group cohesion, and positive treatment expectations. However, these conclusions are tempered by the small number of studies and methodological limitations. We propose directions for future research

Strategies to Address Misestimation of Energy Intake Based on Self-Report Dietary Consumption in Examining Associations Between Dietary Patterns and Cancer Risk

Solbak, N. M., Al Rajabi, A., Akawung, A. K., Lo Siou, G., Kirkpatrick, S. I., & Robson, P. J. (2019). Strategies to Address Misestimation of Energy Intake Based on Self-Report Dietary Consumption in Examining Associations Between Dietary Patterns and Cancer Risk. Nutrients, 11(11), 2614. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11112614The objective of this study was to determine the influence of strategies of handling misestimation of energy intake (EI) on observed associations between dietary patterns and cancer risk. Data from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project participants (n = 9,847 men and 16,241 women) were linked to the Alberta Cancer Registry. The revised-Goldberg method was used to characterize EI misestimation. Four strategies assessed the influence of EI misestimation: Retaining individuals with EI misestimation in the cluster analysis (Inclusion), excluding before (ExBefore) or after cluster analysis (ExAfter), or reassigning into ExBefore clusters using the nearest neighbor method (InclusionNN). Misestimation of EI affected approximately 50% of participants. Cluster analysis identified three patterns: Healthy, Meats/Pizza and Sweets/Dairy. Cox proportional hazard regression models assessed associations between the risk of cancer and dietary patterns. Among men, no significant associations (based on an often-used threshold of p < 0.05) between dietary patterns and cancer risk were observed. In women, significant associations were observed between the Sweets/Dairy and Meats/Pizza patterns and all cancer risk in the ExBefore (HR (95% CI): 1.28 (1.04–1.58)) and InclusionNN (HR (95% CI): 1.14 (1.00–1.30)), respectively. Thus, strategies to address misestimation of EI can influence associations between dietary patterns and disease outcomes. Identifying optimal approaches for addressing EI misestimation, for example, by leveraging biomarker-based studies could improve our ability to characterize diet-disease associations.Funder 1, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project is funded by the Alberta Cancer Foundation || Funder 2, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer|| Funder 3, the Alberta Cancer Prevention Legacy Fund (administered by the Government of Alberta) || Funder 4, the University of Toronto and substantial in-kind funding from Alberta Health Services. Although funding has been provided by several organizations, the analyses and interpretation of the data presented in this paper are those of the authors alon

Evaluating the feasibility of administering a combination of online dietary assessment tools in a cohort of adults in Alberta, Canada

Purpose: Evidence suggests that combining tools, such as 24-hour recalls and food frequency questionnaires, may allow more accurate assessment of diet in epidemiologic studies. Webbased technology should make this approach more feasible than in the past, but it is important to explore response rates and acceptability of such an approach in real-world settings. We sought to determine the feasibility of using a combination of online tools (Automated SelfAdministered 24-hour (ASA24) Dietary Assessment Tool and Diet History Questionnaire-II (DHQ-II)) in a sub-set of participants in Alberta’s Tomorrow Project (ATP); a prospective cohort of 55,000 adults >35y in Alberta, Canada. Methods: Invitations to the feasibility study were mailed to 550 ATP participants. Those who consented (n=331) were asked to complete a health questionnaire, four ASA24 recalls (approximately three weeks apart over a four month period, with staggered start dates between June and December 2016), followed by the DHQ-II, and an evaluation survey. Results: The majority of participants [mean (SD) age =57.1 (10.1)] were women (70.7%), urban residents (84.8%) and non-smokers (95.7%). Of the 229 participants who completed at least one ASA24, roughly equal proportions completed one (24.8%), two (24.5%), three (24.5%) and four recalls (26.2%). One third (n=102) of consenting participants did not respond to any ASA24 recall requests, with “lack of time” given as the primary reason. Only 41% of consenting participants (n=136) completed the DHQ-II; of these, 40% (n=55) completed all four recalls. Median (25th-75th percentile) completion times were 46 (26-64) minutes for the first ASA24 recall and 50 (40-90) minutes for the DHQ-II. Conclusions: Over half of participants completed at least two or more ASA24 recalls, and those who completed a greater number of recalls also completed the DHQ-II, demonstrating that the approach is feasible in the ATP cohort. However, response rates may be sensitive to the timing and frequency of recall administration. Future investigations will (i) evaluate the dietary data collected from each tool; (ii) explore methods of combining the data to optimize assessment of diet in the cohort, while accounting for the fact that not all participants will complete the entire dietary assessment protocol

Nanoinformatics: developing new computing applications for nanomedicine

Nanoinformatics has recently emerged to address the need of computing applications at the nano level. In this regard, the authors have participated in various initiatives to identify its concepts, foundations and challenges. While nanomaterials open up the possibility for developing new devices in many industrial and scientific areas, they also offer breakthrough perspectives for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this paper, we analyze the different aspects of nanoinformatics and suggest five research topics to help catalyze new research and development in the area, particularly focused on nanomedicine. We also encompass the use of informatics to further the biological and clinical applications of basic research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and the related concept of an extended ?nanotype? to coalesce information related to nanoparticles. We suggest how nanoinformatics could accelerate developments in nanomedicine, similarly to what happened with the Human Genome and other -omics projects, on issues like exchanging modeling and simulation methods and tools, linking toxicity information to clinical and personal databases or developing new approaches for scientific ontologies, among many others