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Current approaches to soft contact lens handling training - Global perspectives
Get PDFYesAll neophyte contact lens wearers require training on how to handle contact lenses. Currently, almost no published information exists describing the most common approaches used by those involved in such training in soft contact lens wearers. This study aimed to gather information on the approaches taken by those conducting this training worldwide.
An online survey was created in English and translated to Spanish and distributed internationally via social media, conference attendees, and professional contacts. The anonymous survey included information on workplace setting of respondents, information about the typical approaches used for application and removal of soft contact lenses, length of the appointment, and success rate with their approach. Survey responses were received between May 2021 and April 2022.
A total of 511 individuals completed the survey and responses were received from 31 countries with 48.7% from the UK. The most common approach taught for application was to have the patient hold the upper eyelashes (84.7%) and to hold the lower eyelid with the same hand as the lens (89.4%). Lenses were applied directly to the cornea by 57.7% of the respondents. The most common approach taught for lens removal was to drag the lens inferiorly from the cornea prior to removal (49.3%). Most respondents did not use videos to aid the teaching appointment (62.0%); however, they felt that their approach was successful in most cases (90). Application and removal training sessions lasted a median of 30Β min and contact lenses were typically dispensed after the instructor witnessing successful application and removal three times.
Various methods are adopted globally for training of application and removal of soft contact lenses, with many advising a patient-specific approach is required for success. The results of this survey provide novel insights into soft contact lens handling training in clinical practice.British & Irish University and College Contact Lens Educators (BUCCLE) receives sponsorship from CooperVision, Alcon, Bausch + Lomb and Johnson and Johnson. No specific grant was received for this study, and no sponsors had any input or involvement within this project. Nery Garcia-Porta is supported financially by a Maria Zambrano contract at USC under the grants call for the requalification of the Spanish university system 2021β2023, funded by the European UnionβNext Generation EU
Bringing strategy back in: Corporate sustainability and firm performance
Get PDFYesDespite the importance of firms' strategy in corporate sustainability (CS), insufficient research has focused on the role of business strategy in the relationship between CS and firm performance. Focusing on generic business strategy, this study examines when and under what conditions CS relates to firm performance. The main argument is that the effects of CS on firm performance are contingent on the firm's business strategy. The findings present that CS strengths are positively related to firm performance when firms pursue a differentiation strategy. Meanwhile, CS concerns are negatively associated with firm performance when firms operate with a differentiation strategy. Empirical evidence is obtained from a sample of U.S. firms and fixed effects panel regression models, which controls for unobservable time-invariant factors that are correlated with covariates. This study contributes to the literature on CS and firm performance by suggesting business strategy as an important moderating condition in the CS-firm performance link
Bursting phenomenon created by bridge piers group in open channel flow
Get PDFYesBridge pier is a common feature in hydraulic structure. Its impact to the river usually occurs in group form rather than single pier, so this challenging piers-group influence towards river hydraulics and turbulence needs to be explored. In this paper, the measurements were conducted using an Acoustic doppler velocimeter (ADV) to study velocities in three dimensions (longitudinal, transversal, and vertical). Based on the experimental data, we have observed reversed depth-averaged velocity vector after each pier in the group of three-pier. The analysis has been conducted on the contribution of each bursting event to Reynolds shear stress (RSS) generation, in order to identify the critical events and turbulence structures around the piers. In the upstream near-wake flow in the bed-wall layer, strong sweep and ejection events have been observed; while at downstream, sweeps were more dominant. The pattern of burst changed in the outer layer of flow, where ejections were more dominant. Furthermore, the contribution fractional ratio to RSS variation at hole size Hβ=β0 indicates that sweeps and ejections were significantly generated at the near wake-flow in upstream
Latent Dirichlet Allocation for the Detection of Multi-Stage Attacks
No full textNoThe rapid shift and increase in remote access to
organisation resources have led to a significant increase in the
number of attack vectors and attack surfaces, which in turn
has motivated the development of newer and more sophisticated
cyber-attacks. Such attacks include Multi-Stage Attacks (MSAs).
In MSAs, the attack is executed through several stages. Classifying malicious traffic into stages to get more information about
the attack life-cycle becomes a challenge. This paper proposes a
malicious traffic clustering approach based on Latent Dirichlet
Allocation (LDA). LDA is a topic modelling approach used in
natural language processing to address similar problems. The
proposed approach is unsupervised learning and therefore will
be beneficial in scenarios where traffic data is not labeled and
analysis needs to be performed. The proposed approach uncovers
intrinsic contexts that relate to different categories of attack
stages in MSAs. These are vital insights needed across different
areas of cybersecurity teams like Incident Response (IR) within
the Security Operations Center (SOC), the insights uncovered
could have a positive impact in ensuring that attacks are detected
at early stages in MSAs. Besides, for IR, these insights help to
understand the attack behavioural patterns and lead to reduced
time in recovery following an incident. The proposed approach is
evaluated on a publicly available MSAs dataset. The performance
results are promising as evidenced by over 99% accuracy in
identified malicious traffic clusters
Non-Governmental Organizationsβ approaches to womenβs empowerment amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: Towards decolonizing development praxis in northern Ghana
Get PDFYesThis article examines local non-governmental organizations (LNGOs) approaches to women's empowerment amid crisis and the implications for decolonizing women's empowerment praxis. The article draws on lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic and decolonial critique of development praxis to analyse LNGOs approach to women's empowerment. The study relied on snowballing to select twenty-six LNGOs operating in northern Ghana for in-depth interviews. Our study found that LNGOs deploy local and international frameworks on women's rights and combine these with indigenous knowledge principles and economic empowerment. Yet there are tensions between negotiating culturally appropriate approaches and meeting the interests of philanthro-capitalist donor agencies. The LNGOs are dependent on Western donors for financial resources and have become more vulnerable due to Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath as funding for women's empowerment work continues to dwindle. LNGOs have modified their interventions to address specific needs of beneficiaries arising from the consequences of the crises. This study enriches understandings of the specific vulnerabilities of LNGOs in northern Ghana, resource-scarce and semi-arid settings across the global South. For women's empowerment to achieve meaningful results, especially during and after crisis, activism needs to be centred on indigenous knowledge. This is central to building the resilience of LNGOs and women beneficiaries to effectively position themselves to absorb the shocks that attend crisis and to cope more effectively with it
Bursting phenomenon created by bridge piers group in open channel flow
Get PDFYesBridge pier is a common feature in hydraulic structure. Its impact to the river usually occurs in group form rather than single pier, so this challenging piers-group influence towards river hydraulics and turbulence needs to be explored. In this paper, the measurements were conducted using an Acoustic doppler velocimeter (ADV) to study velocities in three dimensions (longitudinal, transversal, and vertical). Based on the experimental data, we have observed reversed depth-averaged velocity vector after each pier in the group of three-pier. The analysis has been conducted on the contribution of each bursting event to Reynolds shear stress (RSS) generation, in order to identify the critical events and turbulence structures around the piers. In the upstream near-wake flow in the bed-wall layer, strong sweep and ejection events have been observed; while at downstream, sweeps were more dominant. The pattern of burst changed in the outer layer of flow, where ejections were more dominant. Furthermore, the contribution fractional ratio to RSS variation at hole size Hβ=β0 indicates that sweeps and ejections were significantly generated at the near wake-flow in upstream
Oil price shocks and exchange rate dynamics: Evidence from decomposed and partial connectedness measures for oil importing and exporting economies
Get PDFYesThis paper introduces a novel framework of partial connectedness measures to investigate contagion dynamics between different types of oil price shocks and exchange rates. Oil price shocks are persistent net transmitters of shocks within the network. It is found that the oil shock net spillovers made up most of the net connectedness values in most countries during the pre-COVID-19 period. Both oil exporters and oil importers, without any exception, were all net receivers of shocks. However, during the COVID-19 era, there were significant differences within the groups of countries. It is also observed that the oil-risk shock transmits to the other two types of oil shocks in the pre-COVID-19 and during the COVID-19 periods. The results may have potential implications for traders.David Gabauer would like to acknowledge that this research has been partly funded by BMK, BMDW, Austria and the Province of Upper Austria in the frame of the COMET Programme managed by FFG, Austria
Financing constraints, intellectual property rights protection and incremental innovation: Evidence from transition economy firms
Get PDFYesDespite a growing literature, the relationship between financing constraints (FC), intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and firm innovation remains unclear within the transitional country context. Drawing on endogenous growth theory and extending the Gorodnichenko and Schnitzer (2013) framework, we hypothesize that in addition to firm-specific factors, country-level variables manifested within FC hamper incremental innovation, albeit in varying degrees due to industry heterogeneity. Secondly, as opposed to previous studies that solely focus on FC affecting firm innovation, we propose that due to resource constraints, firms in transition economies tend to follow an imitational innovation strategy, and therefore, from this perspective, IPR protection can be crucial for firm-level innovation within those economies. Using data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) consisting of information for about 21,960 firms from 27 Eastern European and Central Asian transition countries and employing a two-step probit model with endogenous regressors, we find that adverse effects of FC and IPR on firms' innovation activities are driven from within as well as between industries. Focusing on the differential impacts of FC and IPR protection across industries, we direct potential causal pathways from easing FC and optimal IPR protection to encourage firms' innovation. Based on the findings, while very strict IPR protection is detrimental to firms' product and process innovation in industries with limited resource and skill capabilities, it is nevertheless helpful for research and development (R&D) activities in industries characterised by strong R&D and IP capacities. Our results offer useful insights for policymakers to support incremental innovation as well as boost invention. IPR protection policies require to be customised to the industries and firms, since invariably tight or lax IPR enforcement can be discouraging to both incremental and radical innovation, causing all industries suffering from the same treatment
Clinical investigation of flat pack toric contact lenses and wearer attitudes to environmental impact
Get PDFYesObjectives:
To investigate the performance of a novel flat pack toric daily disposable contact lens compared with traditionally packaged toric lenses in a randomized, crossover study. Environmental attitudes to contact lens wear were also explored.
Methods:
Habitual contact lens wearers were recruited to wear a hioxifilcon A (Miru 1 day Flat Pack Toric, Menicon, Nagoya, Japan) test lens and a control lens: either nelfilcon A (Dailies AquaComfort Plus, Alcon, Geneva, Switzerland) or etafilcon A (1-Day Acuvue Moist, Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ). Objective lens performance was assessed at fitting, and participants wore lenses in a randomized order for three consecutive days. Subjective measures of lens performance (comfort, vision, and handling) were then assessed by a questionnaire, with further questions on overall lens preference and environmental perceptions.
Results:
Objective measures of lens fit were similar for the test and control lenses, except for distance VA which was better with the control lenses (P<0.05; difference of two logMAR letters). End of day comfort was greater with the test lens, but this did not reach significance. Both lenses demonstrated similar scores for overall satisfaction. 87.5% of participants indicated the environmental impact of contact lenses to be important/extremely important to them, with 100% of participants identifying the flat pack packaging as having a smaller environmental impact.
Conclusion:
Overall, the lenses used in the study performed to similar levels. Environmental credentials are important to contact lens wearers, which may contribute to overall lens preference
Back to basics: Nanomodulating calcium silicate hydrate gels to mitigate CO2 footprint of concrete industry
Get PDFYesTo realize the sustainable development of concrete, it is vital to mitigate its consumption and environmental footprint (especially CO2 footprint) from prolonging the service life through upgrading mechanical and durable performances of concrete. Incorporating nanofillers can effectively tailor the microstructures and performances of bulk cement paste and cement paste at interfacial transition zone in concrete. The hydrated calcium silicate (CβSβH) gels account for half of the volume of hardened Portland cement pastes, and they are the fundamental source of overall properties of concrete. However, the underlying mechanisms of nanofillers on CβSβH gels remains unclear. Herein, this paper underpinned the role of 5 types of representative nanofillers in tailoring the nanostructure of CβSβH gels in cement composites. The research results demonstrated that through the nano-core effect, nanofillers induce the formation of two new CβSβH gels in outer hydration products, namely nano-core-shell element doped low-density CβSβH (NEDLD CβSβH) and nano-core-shell element doped high-density CβSβH (NEDHD CβSβH). The indentation modulus/hardness of NEDLD and NEDHD CβSβH reaches 25.4/0.80 GPa and 46.7/2.72 GPa, respectively. Such superior performances of NEDLD and NEDHD CβSβH derive from the existence of nano-core-shell elements in CβSβH gels rather than the increase in CβSβH packing density. In a short-range, nanofillers form nano-core-shell elements by adsorbing silica tetrahedrons during the hydration process, improving the mechanical properties of CβSβH basic building blocks. In the long-range, the nano-core-shell elements modify the nano-scale performances of CβSβH gels in outer hydration products due to the increase of CβSβH gelsβ integrality.To realize the sustainable development of concrete, it is vital to mitigate its consumption and environmental footprint (especially CO2 footprint) from prolonging the service life through upgrading mechanical and durable performances of concrete. Incorporating nanofillers can effectively tailor the microstructures and performances of bulk cement paste and cement paste at interfacial transition zone in concrete. The hydrated calcium silicate (C-S-H) gels account for half of the volume of hardened Portland cement pastes, and they are the fundamental source of overall properties of concrete. However, the underlying mechanisms of nanofillers on C-S-H gels remains unclear. Herein, this paper underpinned the role of 5 types of representative nanofillers in tailoring the nanostructure of C-S-H gels in cement composites. The research results demonstrated that through the nano-core effect, nanofillers induce the formation of two new C-S-H gels in outer hydration products, namely nano-core-shell element doped low-density C-S-H (NEDLD C-S-H) and nano-core-shell element doped high-density C-S-H (NEDHD C-S-H). The indentation modulus/hardness of NEDLD and NEDHD C-S-H reaches 25.4/0.80 GPa and 46.7/2.72 GPa, respectively. Such superior performances of NEDLD and NEDHD C-S-H derive from the existence of nano-core-shell elements in C-S-H gels rather than the increase in C-S-H packing density. In a short-range, nanofillers form nano-core-shell elements by adsorbing silica tetrahedrons during the hydration process, improving the mechanical properties of C-S-H basic building blocks. In the long-range, the nano-core-shell elements modify the nano-scale performances of C-S-H gels in outer hydration products due to the increase of C-S-H gels' integrality.National Science Foundation of China (52308236, 51978127, 51908103, and 52368031), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC070560 and 2017YFC0703410), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M720648, 2022M710973, 2022M713497)