Examining What We Know in Relation to How We Know It: A Team-Based Reflexivity Model for Rapid Qualitative Health Research

Reflexivity constitutes a core component of qualitative research and has been actively integrated into long-term and “lone ranger” approaches to qualitative research. However, its application to team-based approaches and particularly to rapid qualitative team-based approaches continues to lag behind. In this article, we introduce a reflexivity model we developed for teams undertaking rapid qualitative studies. Utilizing our most recent application of this model to a rapid qualitative appraisal of health care workers’ experiences delivering care during the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, we identify the steps to put this model into practice and its main outcomes. Our application of the model revealed that the team’s practices could be grouped along four dimensions: design assumptions, data collection and analysis processes, multidisciplinary collaboration, and responsible dissemination. Reflexivity can improve the relations within the team and the quality of the research output, if it is implemented as a continuous and iterative process

Missing the human connection: A rapid appraisal of healthcare workers' perceptions and experiences of providing palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: During infectious epidemics, healthcare workers are required to deliver traditional care while facing new pressures. Time and resource restrictions, a focus on saving lives and new safety measures can lead to traditional aspects of care delivery being neglected. AIM: Identify barriers to delivering end-of-life care, describe attempts to deliver care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and understand the impact this had on staff. DESIGN: A rapid appraisal was conducted incorporating a rapid review of policies from the United Kingdom, semi-structured telephone interviews with healthcare workers, and a review of mass print media news stories and social media posts describing healthcare worker's experiences of delivering care during the pandemic. Data were coded and analysed using framework analysis. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: From a larger ongoing study, 22 interviews which mentioned death or caring for patients at end-of-life, eight government and National Health Service policies affecting end-of-life care delivery, eight international news media stories and 3440 publicly available social media posts were identified. The social media analysis centred around 274 original tweets with the highest reach, engagement and relevance. Incorporating multiple workstreams provided a broad perspective of end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. RESULTS: Three themes were developed: (1) restrictions to traditional care, (2) striving for new forms of care and (3) establishing identity and resilience. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic prohibited the delivery of traditional care as practical barriers restricted human connections. Staff prioritised communication and comfort orientated tasks to re-establish compassion at end-of-life and displayed resilience by adjusting their goals

A decreasing glacier mass balance gradient from the edge of the Upper Tarim Basin to the Karakoram during 2000-2014

In contrast to the glacier mass losses observed at other locations around the world, some glaciers in the High Mountains of Asia appear to have gained mass in recent decades. However, changes in digital elevation models indicate that glaciers in Karakoram and Pamir have gained mass, while recent laser altimetry data indicate mass gain centred on West Kunlun. Here, we obtain results that are essentially consistent with those from altimetry, but with two-dimensional observations and higher resolution. We produced elevation models using radar interferometry applied to bistatic data gathered between 2011 and 2014 and compared them to a model produced from bistatic data collected in 2000. The glaciers in West Kunlun, Eastern Pamir and the northern part of Karakoram experienced a clear mass gain of 0.043 ± 0.078~0.363 ± 0.065 m w.e. yr−1. The Karakoram showed a near-stable mass balance in its western part (−0.020 ± 0.064 m w.e. yr−1), while the Eastern Karakoram showed mass loss (−0.101 ± 0.058 m w.e. yr−1). Significant positive glacier mass balances are noted along the edge of the Upper Tarim Basin and indicate a decreasing gradient from northeast to southwest

Twenty-first century glacier slowdown driven by mass loss in High Mountain Asia

International audienc

Cryptanalysis of GlobalPlatform Secure Channel Protocols

GlobalPlatform (GP) card specifications are the de facto standards for the industry of smart cards. Being highly sensitive, GP specifications were defined regarding stringent security requirements. In this paper, we analyze the cryptographic core of these requirements; i.e. the family of Secure Channel Protocols (SCP). Our main results are twofold. First, we demonstrate a theoretical attack against SCP02, which is the most popular protocol in the SCP family. We discuss the scope of our attack by presenting an actual scenario in which a malicious entity can exploit it in order to recover encrypted messages. Second, we investigate the security of SCP03 that was introduced as an amendment in 2009. We find that it provably satisfies strong notions of security. Of particular interest, we prove that SCP03 withstands algorithm substitution attacks (ASAs) defined by Bellare et al. that may lead to secret mass surveillance. Our findings highlight the great value of the paradigm of provable security for standards and certification, since unlike extensive evaluation, it formally guarantees the absence of security flaws

Glacier changes in the Karakoram region mapped by multi-mission satellite imagery

Glaciers in the Karakoram region are known to show stable and advancing terminus positions or surging behavior, which contrasts the worldwide retreat of many mountain glaciers. The present study uses Landsat imagery to derive an updated and extended glacier inventory. Surging and advancing glaciers and their annual termini position changes are mapped in addition. Out of 1334 glaciers, 134 show advancing or surging behavior, with a marked increase since 2000. The length distribution of surging glaciers differs significantly from non-surging glaciers. More than 50% of the advancing/surging glaciers are shorter than 10 km. Besides a regional spatial coverage of ice dynamics, high-resolution SAR data allows to investigate very small and comparably fast flowing glaciers (up to 1.8 m day−1). Such data enables mapping of temporal changes of ice dynamics of individual small surging or advancing glaciers. In a further case study, glacier volume changes of three glaciers around Braldu Glacier are quantified during a surge event comparing digital elevation models from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and the new TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement (TanDEM-X) Mission. We recommend regular acquisitions of high resolution (bi-static) SAR satellite data and further exploitation of the archives in order to generate an improved database for monitoring changes, and to at least partially compensate for the lack of in-situ and long-term climatological measurements in the Karakoram region

Glacier changes in the Karakoram region mapped by multi-mission satellite imagery

Glaciers in the Karakoram region are known to show stable and advancing terminus positions or surging behavior, which contrasts the worldwide retreat of many mountain glaciers. The present study uses Landsat imagery to derive an updated and extended glacier inventory. Surging and advancing glaciers and their annual termini position changes are mapped in addition. Out of 1334 glaciers, 134 show advancing or surging behavior, with a marked increase since 2000. The length distribution of surging glaciers differs significantly from non-surging glaciers. More than 50% of the advancing/surging glaciers are shorter than 10 km. Besides a regional spatial coverage of ice dynamics, high-resolution SAR data allows to investigate very small and comparably fast flowing glaciers (up to 1.8 m day−1). Such data enables mapping of temporal changes of ice dynamics of individual small surging or advancing glaciers. In a further case study, glacier volume changes of three glaciers around Braldu Glacier are quantified during a surge event comparing digital elevation models from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and the new TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement (TanDEM-X) Mission. We recommend regular acquisitions of high resolution (bi-static) SAR satellite data and further exploitation of the archives in order to generate an improved database for monitoring changes, and to at least partially compensate for the lack of in-situ and long-term climatological measurements in the Karakoram region