Visual transmission of information as cognitive stimulus of the creative process

Technological surveillance, intelligence and prospective techniques seek to capture, assimilate and apply knowledge, often making use of diagrams. An experimental study was set up to learn how knowledge transfer can stimulate or obstruct the creative process. The state of the art was assessed, and new ways to visually represent knowledge and increment the quality and quantity of individual and collective inputs throughout the different stages of the creative process were sought. The impact of the different types of diagrams was measured using the CREA creative intelligence test. The connection type diagram, which is the least frequent, was found to yield the better results in terms of creativity stimulation. The analysis of two case studies to find alternatives for the development of products, processes and technology services confirms the good results obtained by combining the Delphi method (for prospective purposes), and mental maps as instances of diagrams with a connected structureLas técnicas de vigilancia, inteligencia y prospección tecnológica buscan capturar, asimilar y aplicar el conocimiento, recurriéndose con gran frecuencia a los diagramas. Para conocer cómo la transferencia de conocimiento puede estimular o bloquear el proceso creativo se diseñó una investigación experimental, buscando analizar el estado de la técnica y aportar nuevos caminos para la manifestación visual del conocimiento para mejorar e incrementar la calidad y cantidad de respuestas individuales o colectivas en las diferentes etapas del proceso creativo. El impacto de los distintos tipos de diagramas se midió utilizando el test de inteligencia creativa CREA. Se ha obtenido que el diagrama de tipo conexión, que es el menos frecuente, presenta los mejores resultados para estimular la creatividad. El análisis de dos casos de aplicación para encontrar alternativas para el desarrollo de productos, procesos y servicios tecnológicos, corrobora los buenos resultados que se obtienen de la combinación del método Delphi, para efectuar la prospección tecnológica, y los mapas mentales como diagrama con estructuras de conexió

La transmisión visual de la información como estímulo cognitivo de los procesos creativos

Las técnicas de vigilancia, inteligencia y prospección tecnológi-ca buscan capturar, asimilar y aplicar el conocimiento, recurriéndose con gran frecuencia a los diagramas. Para conocer cómo la transferencia de conocimiento puede estimular o bloquear el proceso creativo se diseñó una investigación experimental, buscando analizar el estado de la técnica y aportar nuevos caminos para la manifestación visual del conocimiento para mejorar e incrementar la calidad y cantidad de respuestas individuales o colectivas en las diferentes etapas del proceso creativo. El impacto de los distintos tipos de diagramas se midió utilizando el test de inteligencia creativa CREA. Se ha obtenido que el diagrama de tipo conexión, que es el menos frecuente, presenta los mejores resultados para estimular la creati-vidad. El análisis de dos casos de aplicación para encontrar alternativas para el desarrollo de productos, procesos y servicios tecnológicos, corro-bora los buenos resultados que se obtienen de la combinación del método Delphi, para efectuar la prospección tecnológica, y los mapas mentales como diagrama con estructuras de conexión.Postprint (published version

Improving quality of care and clinical outcomes for rectal cancer through clinical audits in a multicentre cancer care organisation

Introduction: Colorectal cancer treatment requires a complex, multidisciplinary approach. Because of the potential variability, monitoring through clinical audits is advisable. This study assesses the effects of a quality improvement action plan in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer and treated with radiotherapy. Methods: Comparative, multicentre study in two cohorts of 120 patients each, selected randomly from patients diagnosed with rectal cancer who had initiated radiotherapy with a curative intent. Based on the results from a baseline clinical audit in 2013, a quality improvement action plan was designed and implemented; a second audit in 2017 evaluated its impact. Results: Standardised information was present on 77.5% of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) staging reports. Treatment strategies were similar in all three study centres. Of the patients whose treatment was interrupted, just 9.7% received a compensation dose. There was an increase in MRI re-staging from 32.5 to 61.5%, and a significant decrease in unreported circumferential resection margins following neoadjuvant therapy (ypCRM), from 34.5 to 5.6% (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The comparison between two clinical audits showed improvements in neoadjuvant radiotherapy in rectal cancer patients. Some indicators reveal areas in need of additional efforts, for example to reduce the overall treatment time

Aerial base stations with opportunistic links for next generation emergency communications

Rapidly deployable and reliable mission-critical communication networks are fundamental requirements to guarantee the successful operations of public safety officers during disaster recovery and crisis management preparedness. The ABSOLUTE project focused on designing, prototyping, and demonstrating a high-capacity IP mobile data network with low latency and large coverage suitable for many forms of multimedia delivery including public safety scenarios. The ABSOLUTE project combines aerial, terrestrial, and satellites communication networks for providing a robust standalone system able to deliver resilience communication systems. This article focuses on describing the main outcomes of the ABSOLUTE project in terms of network and system architecture, regulations, and implementation of aerial base stations, portable land mobile units, satellite backhauling, S-MIM satellite messaging, and multimode user equipments

Cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors from 1980 to 2010: a comparative risk assessment

Background High blood pressure, blood glucose, serum cholesterol, and BMI are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and some of these factors also increase the risk of chronic kidney disease and diabetes. We estimated mortality from cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes that was attributable to these four cardiometabolic risk factors for all countries and regions from 1980 to 2010. Methods We used data for exposure to risk factors by country, age group, and sex from pooled analyses of populationbased health surveys. We obtained relative risks for the eff ects of risk factors on cause-specifi c mortality from metaanalyses of large prospective studies. We calculated the population attributable fractions for- each risk factor alone, and for the combination of all risk factors, accounting for multicausality and for mediation of the eff ects of BMI by the other three risks. We calculated attributable deaths by multiplying the cause-specifi c population attributable fractions by the number of disease-specifi c deaths. We obtained cause-specifi c mortality from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2010 Study. We propagated the uncertainties of all the inputs to the fi nal estimates. Findings In 2010, high blood pressure was the leading risk factor for deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes in every region, causing more than 40% of worldwide deaths from these diseases; high BMI and glucose were each responsible for about 15% of deaths, and high cholesterol for more than 10%. After accounting for multicausality, 63% (10\ub78 million deaths, 95% CI 10\ub71\u201311\ub75) of deaths from these diseases in 2010 were attributable to the combined eff ect of these four metabolic risk factors, compared with 67% (7\ub71 million deaths, 6\ub76\u20137\ub76) in 1980. The mortality burden of high BMI and glucose nearly doubled from 1980 to 2010. At the country level, age-standardised death rates from these diseases attributable to the combined eff ects of these four risk factors surpassed 925 deaths per 100 000 for men in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, but were less than 130 deaths per 100 000 for women and less than 200 for men in some high-income countries including Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and Spain. Interpretation The salient features of the cardiometabolic disease and risk factor epidemic at the beginning of the 21st century are high blood pressure and an increasing eff ect of obesity and diabetes. The mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors has shifted from high-income to low-income and middle-income countries. Lowering cardiometabolic risks through dietary, behavioural, and pharmacological interventions should be a part of the globalresponse to non-communicable diseases