Understanding and reducing stress in collaborative e-learning

This article examines the important issue of stress in collaborative e-learning, and how it can be eliminated or minimised through appropriate design and support. The authors explore these issues mainly based on evidence from students in an Open University Business School (OUBS) course, and they also link their findings to previous research and similar concerns in other areas, like on-line collaboration in and across businesses and teleworking

Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients With Severe COVID-19: The REMAP-CAP COVID-19 Corticosteroid Domain Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Evidence regarding corticosteroid use for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is limited. Objective: To determine whether hydrocortisone improves outcome for patients with severe COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: An ongoing adaptive platform trial testing multiple interventions within multiple therapeutic domains, for example, antiviral agents, corticosteroids, or immunoglobulin. Between March 9 and June 17, 2020, 614 adult patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled and randomized within at least 1 domain following admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory or cardiovascular organ support at 121 sites in 8 countries. Of these, 403 were randomized to open-label interventions within the corticosteroid domain. The domain was halted after results from another trial were released. Follow-up ended August 12, 2020. Interventions: The corticosteroid domain randomized participants to a fixed 7-day course of intravenous hydrocortisone (50 mg or 100 mg every 6 hours) (n = 143), a shock-dependent course (50 mg every 6 hours when shock was clinically evident) (n = 152), or no hydrocortisone (n = 108). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was organ support-free days (days alive and free of ICU-based respiratory or cardiovascular support) within 21 days, where patients who died were assigned -1 day. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model that included all patients enrolled with severe COVID-19, adjusting for age, sex, site, region, time, assignment to interventions within other domains, and domain and intervention eligibility. Superiority was defined as the posterior probability of an odds ratio greater than 1 (threshold for trial conclusion of superiority >99%). Results: After excluding 19 participants who withdrew consent, there were 384 patients (mean age, 60 years; 29% female) randomized to the fixed-dose (n = 137), shock-dependent (n = 146), and no (n = 101) hydrocortisone groups; 379 (99%) completed the study and were included in the analysis. The mean age for the 3 groups ranged between 59.5 and 60.4 years; most patients were male (range, 70.6%-71.5%); mean body mass index ranged between 29.7 and 30.9; and patients receiving mechanical ventilation ranged between 50.0% and 63.5%. For the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively, the median organ support-free days were 0 (IQR, -1 to 15), 0 (IQR, -1 to 13), and 0 (-1 to 11) days (composed of 30%, 26%, and 33% mortality rates and 11.5, 9.5, and 6 median organ support-free days among survivors). The median adjusted odds ratio and bayesian probability of superiority were 1.43 (95% credible interval, 0.91-2.27) and 93% for fixed-dose hydrocortisone, respectively, and were 1.22 (95% credible interval, 0.76-1.94) and 80% for shock-dependent hydrocortisone compared with no hydrocortisone. Serious adverse events were reported in 4 (3%), 5 (3%), and 1 (1%) patients in the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with severe COVID-19, treatment with a 7-day fixed-dose course of hydrocortisone or shock-dependent dosing of hydrocortisone, compared with no hydrocortisone, resulted in 93% and 80% probabilities of superiority with regard to the odds of improvement in organ support-free days within 21 days. However, the trial was stopped early and no treatment strategy met prespecified criteria for statistical superiority, precluding definitive conclusions. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02735707

Stress caused by on-line collaboration in e-learning: a developing model

On-line collaboration is becoming increasingly common in education and in organisations. It was believed that this could in itself cause stress for collaborators. An analysis of on-line learning diaries, phone interviews and questionnaires indicated that on-line collaboration could cause stress, and this stress was linked to the dependency of the collaborators on each other, and the level of their mutual trust. Stress could be designed out of on-line collaborative exercises through management of the on-line working processes. The trend in both education and management towards increased on-line working and collaboration indicates that further research needs to be carried out into finding how to reduce stress from this cause

Management education for the twenty-first century

In many senses, the UK Open University (OU) was founded on the idea of blended learning long before the phrase came into common use. The combination of the latest technology and a high level of knowledgeable and skilled human support and intervention is just as relevant today as in the OU's foundation years of the 1970s. In this chapter, we focus on two major areas of development within blended learning: offering group skills development in the online environment and the change in the role of tutors

Tramps in transition: genetic differentiation between populations of an iconic "supertramp" taxon in the Central Indo-Pacific

The island monarch (Monarcha cinerascens) was an original example of the “supertramp strategy”. This involves well-developed dispersal specialisation, enabling a species to colonise remote islands but leaving it competitively inferior. Supertramps are hypothesised to be excluded from larger islands by superior competitors. It is the only original Melanesian supertramp to occur in Wallacea, home also to the sedentary pale-blue monarch (Hypothymis puella). We interrogate the supertramp strategy and its biogeographical underpinnings by assessing the population structure of these two monarchs. We sampled island and pale-blue monarchs in Wallacea, collecting DNA and morphological data. We investigated monarch population structure by applying ABGD and Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood methods to their ND2 and ND3 genes. We constructed linear models to investigate the relationships between genetic divergence, dispersal ability, and island area, elevation, and isolation. Wallacea’s deep waters restrict gene flow even in a supertramp, as the Wallacean and Melanesian island monarchs are likely separate species (mean genetic distance: 2.7%). This mirrors the split of the pale-blue monarch from Asia’s black-naped monarch (Hypothymis azurea). We found further population structure within Wallacean and Melanesian island monarch populations. Their genetic divergence was related to elevation, area, and isolation of islands, as well as dispersal ability of birds. However, dispersal ability was independent of island elevation and area. Rather than being r-selected on small, disturbance-prone islands, our results support the view that the island monarch’s supertramp lifestyle is a temporary stage of the taxon cycle, i.e. supertramps may transition into resident species after colonisation. Our models suggest that more dispersive monarchs reach more distant islands, and divergence is promoted on islands that are more distant or larger or more permanent, without selection against dispersal ability per se. We suggest that supertramp lifestyle helps determine the distribution of species across islands, not necessarily the divergence occurring thereafter

Figure 5. A in Small islands and large biogeographic barriers have driven contrasting speciation patterns in Indo-Pacific sunbirds (Aves: Nectariniidae)

Figure 5. A, map of the Indo-Pacific with the range of the olive-backed sunbird shaded, as currently recognized by BirdLife International. Sampling sites of the birds included in our 697 bp partial ND2 analysis are marked with different triangles, according to the species they were assigned to by ABGD. Currently recognized subspecies are labelled (Gill et al., 2022). B, mean genetic distance (uncorrected p-distance) between each of the species recognized by ABGD, based on a 697 bp partial ND2 alignment. C, simplified version of a combined maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian phylogenetic tree of 697 bp of olive-backed sunbird ND2. In this figure the outgroup is omitted and each of the ABGD species is collapsed into a single branch. Nodes are labelled with Bayesian probability/ ML bootstraps.Published as part of Marcaigh, Fionn Ó, Kelly, David J., O'Connell, Darren P., Analuddin, Kangkuso, Karya, Adi, Mccloughan, Jennifer, Tolan, Ellen, Lawless, Naomi, Marples, Nicola M., O, Darren P. & Connell, 2022, Small islands and large biogeographic barriers have driven contrasting speciation patterns in Indo-Pacific sunbirds (Aves: Nectariniidae), pp. 1-21 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society CLXVI (CLXVI) on page 12, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac081, http://zenodo.org/record/757383