Designing open access, educational resources / Développer des ressources éducatives en libre accès

The recent bourgeoning of open educational resources has meant greater access to materials with open licenses in the public domain than ever before. Open educational resources are learning tools, such as textbooks, that are freely available and typically accessed online. Despite the expansion of open educational resources, many educators are still unacquainted with the nature and process of producing such resources. The purpose of this discussion paper is to share our experience in developing an open educational e-textbook for students in post-secondary programs for nursing and other health professions while highlighting practical tips for educators. The exemplar referenced in this paper focuses on vital signs’ measurement, a familiar concept for nurse educators, and a topic ubiquitous in healthcare. This paper is suited for any user curious about designing open educational resources with consideration of key elements to produce quality and educational resources that support excellence in nursing pedagogy. We begin by providing a background to our specific project followed by a discussion of the planning phase, the design phase, and other considerations. The e-textbook falls under a Creative Commons license and can be accessed for free by educators and learners. Résumé Le développement récent de ressources éducatives en libre accès a permis une accessibilité beaucoup plus grande, comme jamais auparavant, au matériel avec licences ouvertes dans le domaine public. Les ressources éducatives en libre accès sont des outils d’apprentissage, comme les manuels scolaires, qui sont offerts gratuitement et qui sont généralement accessibles en ligne. En dépit de la prolifération des ressources éducatives libres, bon nombre de professeurs sont toujours peu familiers avec la nature et le processus de production de telles ressources. L’objectif de ce texte de discussion est de partager notre expérience du développement d’un e-manuel de formation en libre accès, pour les étudiants inscrits dans les programmes postsecondaires pour la profession infirmière et les autres professions de la santé, tout en soulignant des conseils pratiques pour les professeurs. L’exemple, cité en référence dans ce texte, est axé sur la prise des signes vitaux, un concept familier aux infirmières enseignantes et un sujet omniprésent dans le domaine de la santé. Cet article convient à toute personne curieuse d’en apprendre davantage sur la conception des ressources éducatives en libre accès en tenant compte d’éléments clés afin de produire des ressources éducatives de qualité qui appuient l’excellence de la pédagogie en soins infirmiers. Nous établissons d’abord le contexte du projet particulier suivi d’une discussion sur la phase de planification, la phase de conception et sur d’autres éléments à considérer. Le e-manuel relève d’une licence Creative Commons et est accessible gratuitement pour les professeurs et les étudiants

Association between diabetes mellitus and active tuberculosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The burgeoning epidemic of diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the major global health challenges. We systematically reviewed the published literature to provide a summary estimate of the association between DM and active tuberculosis (TB). We searched Medline and EMBASE databases for studies reporting adjusted estimates on the TB-DM association published before December 22, 2015, with no restrictions on region and language. In the meta-analysis, adjusted estimates were pooled using a DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model, according to study design. Risk of bias assessment and sensitivity analyses were conducted. 44 eligible studies were included, which consisted of 58,468,404 subjects from 16 countries. Compared with non-DM patients, DM patients had 3.59-fold (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.25-5.73), 1.55-fold (95% CI 1.39-1.72), and 2.09-fold (95% CI 1.71-2.55) increased risk of active TB in four prospective, 16 retrospective, and 17 case-control studies, respectively. Country income level (3.16-fold in low/middle-vs. 1.73-fold in high-income countries), background TB incidence (2.05-fold in countries with >50 vs. 1.89-fold in countries with ≤50 TB cases per 100,000 person-year), and geographical region (2.44-fold in Asia vs. 1.71-fold in Europe and 1.73-fold in USA/Canada) affected appreciably the estimated association, but potential risk of bias, type of population (general versus clinical), and potential for duplicate data, did not. Microbiological ascertainment for TB (3.03-fold) and/or blood testing for DM (3.10-fold), as well as uncontrolled DM (3.30-fold), resulted in stronger estimated association. DM is associated with a two- to four-fold increased risk of active TB. The association was stronger when ascertainment was based on biological testing rather than medical records or self-report. The burgeoning DM epidemic could impact upon the achievements of the WHO "End TB Strategy" for reducing TB incidence

A cross-sectional survey of the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding tuberculosis among general practitioners working in municipalities with and without asylum centres in eastern Norway

TB survey among Norwegian GPs survey questionnaire NOR: The survey questionnaire in Norwegian. (PDF 208 kb

Cytokine and Chemokine Concentrations as Biomarkers of Feline Mycobacteriosis

Abstract Mycobacteriosis is an emerging zoonotic disease of domestic cats and timely, accurate diagnosis is currently challenging. To identify differential cytokine/chemokine concentrations in serum/plasma of cats, which could be diagnostic biomarkers of infection we analysed plasma/serum from 116 mycobacteria-infected cats, 16 healthy controls and six cats hospitalised for unrelated reasons was analysed using the Milliplex MAP Feline Cytokine Magnetic Bead multiplex assay. Three cytokines; sFAS, IL-13 and IL-4 were reduced while seven; GM-CSF, IL-2, PDGF-BB, IL-8, KC, RANTES and TNF-α were elevated in mycobacteria-infected cats compared to healthy controls. However, IL-8 and KC concentrations were not significantly different from cats hospitalised for other reasons. Elevations in TNF-α and PDGF-BB may have potential to identify M. bovis and M. microti infected cats specifically while GM-CSF, IL-2 and FLT3L were increased in MTBC infected cats. This study demonstrates potential use of feline tuberculosis as a spontaneously occurring model of this significant human disease. Cytokine profiling has clear diagnostic potential for mycobacteriosis of cats and could be used discriminate tuberculous from non-tuberculous disease to rapidly inform on zoonotic risk. Future work should focus on the in-field utility of these findings to establish diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of these markers

Fracture analysis of the pulley of a bucket wheel boom hoist system

© 2016, Polish Academy of Sciences Branch Lublin. All rights reserved. This paper presents the results of the pulley fracture analysis. Experimental investigations confirmed that the chemical composition and basic mechanical properties of the pulley material, except the impact energy at a temperature of –20°C, meet the requirements of the corresponding standard. The impact energy value at the temperature of –20°C is for ≈45% lower than the prescribed value which has considerable influence on the appearance of the brittle fracture, especially having in mind the fact that the bucket wheel excavators operate at low temperatures. Metallographic examinations as well as magnetic particle inspections indicated that initial cracks in the welded joints occurred during the manufacture of the pulleys. Characteristic levels of the rope load cycle are obtained by using in-house software which includes the dynamic effects of the resistance-to-excavation. The FEA results pointed out that in the representative load cases the combinations of the mean stress and the alternating stress in the pulley critical zone lie considerably below the limit line of the modified Goodman’s diagram. The conclusion, based on the presented results, is that the fracture of the pulley appeared as the result of the ‘manufacturing-in’ defects

Therapeutic fascism: re-educating Communists in Nazi-occupied Serbia, 1942-44

This article probes the relationship between psychoanalysis and right-wing authoritarianism, and analyses a unique psychotherapeutic institution established by Serbia’s World War II collaborationist regime. The extraordinary Institute for compulsory re-education of high-school and university students affiliated with the Communist resistance movement emerged in the context of a brutal civil war and violent retaliations against Communist activists, but its openly psychoanalytic orientation was even more astonishing. In order to stem the rapid spread of Communism, the collaborationist state, led by its most extreme fascistic elements, officially embraced psychotherapy, the ‘talking cure’ and Freudianism, and conjured up its own theory of mental pathology and trauma – one that directly contradicted the Nazi concepts of society and the individual. In the course of the experiment, Serbia’s collaborationists moved away from the hitherto prevailing organicist, biomedical model of mental illness, and critiqued traditional psychiatry’s therapeutic pessimism