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Agreement between pre-exercise screening questionnaires completed online versus face-to-face
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access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.Objectives
To investigate the levels of agreement between self-reported responses to the Adult Preexercise
Screening System (APSS) questionnaire using online versus face-to-face (F2F)
modalities.
Design
Convenience sample of adults completing a pre-exercise screening questionnaire using different
modalities.
Methods
Adult volunteers (n = 94) were recruited to complete the APSS using both online and F2F
modalities. Participants were provided a URL link to an online APSS questionnaire then followed-
up the next day in a F2F interview. Objective health risk factors were also measured.
Comparisons between responses were undertaken using kappa and correlation statistics to
determine levels of agreement.
Results
The levels of agreement between online versus F2F responses for the seven compulsory
Stage 1 questions (known diseases and signs and/or symptoms of disease) were >94%
(kappa = 0.644±0.794). Response comparisons for Stage 2 questions on health risk factors
were also generally high (>82% agreement) but there were larger differences between
reported and measured risk factors in Stage 3.
Conclusions
Levels of agreement between the Stage 1 responses were substantial and support the use
of this online option for pre-exercise screening. There were larger differences between selfreported
and objectively measured health risk factors in Stages 2 and 3.The authors received no specific funding
for this work
Controlled slicing of single walled carbon nanotubes under continuous flow
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (August 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policy.Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are sliced with control over their length distribution within a laser irradiated dynamic thin film in a vortex fluidic device (VFD) operating under continuous flow conditions. Length control depends on the laser pulse energy, the flow rate of the liquid entering the device, the speed of the rapidly rotating tube and its tilt angle, choice of solvent and concentration of the as received SWCNTs. The induced mechanoenergy in the thin film while being simultaneously irradiated with a Nd:YAG pulsed laser operating at 1064 nm wavelength results in the slicing, with laser pulse energies of 250, 400 and 600 mJ affording 700, 300 and 80 nm length distributions of SWCNTs respectively. The processing avoids the need for using any other reagents, is scalable under continuous flow conditions, and does not introduce defects into the side walls of the SWCNTs
A forensic investigation on the persistence of organic gunshot residues
Get PDFThis manuscript version is made available
under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Sept 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyGunshot residues (GSR) are a potential form of forensic traces in firearm-related events. In most forensic laboratories, GSR analyses focus on the detection and characterisation of the inorganic components (IGSR), which are mainly particles containing mixtures of lead, barium and antimony originating from the primer. The increasing prevalence of heavy metal-free ammunition challenges the current protocols used for IGSR analysis. To provide complementary information to IGSR particles, the current study concentrated on the organic components (OGSR) arising from the combustion of the propellant. The study focused on four compounds well-known as being part of OGSR: ethylcentralite (EC), methylcentralite (MC), diphenylamine (DPA), N-nitrosodiphenylamine (N-nDPA). This study assessed the retention of these OGSR traces on a shooter’s hands. The overall project aim was to provide appropriate information regarding OGSR persistence, which can be suitable to be integrated into the interpretation framework of OGSR as recommended by the recent ENFSI Guideline for Evaluative Reporting in Forensic Science. The persistence was studied through several intervals ranging from immediately after discharge to four hours and two ammunition calibres were chosen: .40 S&W calibre, used by the NSW Police Force; and .357 Magnum, which is frequently encountered in Australian casework. This study successfully detected the compounds of interest up to four hours after discharge. The trends displayed a large decrease in the amount detected during the first hour. A large variability was also observed due to numerous factors involved in the production, deposition and collection of OGSR.This project is supported by a Premier’s Research and Industry Fund grant provided by the South Australian Government Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology. Anne-Laure Gassner and Céline Weyermann wish to additionally acknowledge the Swiss National Foundation (10521A_165608) for financial support
Clustered domestic model of residential care is associated with better consumer rated quality of care
Get PDF© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected]
To compare consumer rated quality of care among individuals living long-term in homelike clustered domestic and standard models of residential care in Australia.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
Seventeen residential aged care facilities in four Australian states providing alternative models of care.
Study participants
A sample of individuals with high prevalence of cognitive impairment living in residential care for 12 months or longer, not immediately in palliative care and having a proxy available to provide consent and assist with data collection. Of 901 eligible participants, 541 consented and participated in the study.
Main outcome measure
Consumer rated quality of care was measured using the Consumer Choice Index–6 Dimension instrument (CCI-6D) providing a preference weighted summary score ranging from 0 to 1. The six dimensions of care time, shared-spaces, own-room, outside and gardens, meaningful activities and care flexibility were individually evaluated.
Results
Overall consumer rated quality of care (Mean ∆: 0.138, 95% CI 0.073–0.203 P < 0.001) was higher in clustered domestic models after adjusting for potential confounders. Individually, the dimensions of access to outside and gardens (P < 0.001) and flexibility of care (P < 0.001) were rated significantly better compared to those living in standard model of care.
Conclusions
Homelike, clustered domestic models of care are associated with better consumer rated quality of care, specifically the domains of access to outdoors and care flexibility, in a sample of individuals with cognitive impairment. Including consumer views on quality of care is feasible and should be standard in future evaluations of residential care
Lead, Zinc, Copper, and Cadmium Content of Water from South Australian Rainwater Tanks
Get PDFThis article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Rainwater is consumed for drinking water in many parts of Australia, either preferentially over municipal water or in regional or remote areas, because rainwater is the primary source of water. Previous rainwater studies in other areas in Australia have shown the levels of some metals to be above the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). This study assessed the level of metals in rainwater harvested in the Adelaide region. Water samples were collected from 53 tanks from three different sampling corridors. A total of 365 water samples were analysed for lead, zinc, copper, and cadmium using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. In 47 out of the 53 tanks, lead was above the ADWG of 0.01 ppm in at least one sample (with 180/365 samples above 0.01 ppm). Zinc was above the ADWG (3.0 ppm) in 53/365 samples, copper was above the ADWG (2.0 ppm) in eight samples out of 365 samples, and cadmium was above the ADWG (0.002 ppm) in 19 samples out of 365 samples. These data are consistent with other studies of rainwater quality in Australia. Comparisons of levels of metals and volume of rainfall in the sampling and preceding month, roof material, and tank material, the presence of a first-flush device, sampling corridor, and sample pH showed that the roof material was related to higher levels of metals. There was a significant relationship between sampling corridors and the levels of lead and zinc. Nine of the tanks surveyed had filters installed. There was a small, but statistically significant, decrease in the levels of metals that passed through a filter prior to collection but, in those samples, filters did not remove metals to below guideline concentrations. An estimate of exposure, and a brief discussion of health risks as a result of exposure to metals, is presented.This project was funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (AGRTPS) and supported by the Environmental Health Group, College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University
Genes Encoding Transcription Factors TaDREB5 and TaNFYC-A7 Are Differentially Expressed in Leaves of Bread Wheat in Response to Drought, Dehydration and ABA
Get PDFThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Two groups of six spring bread wheat varieties with either high or low grain yield under the dry conditions of Central and Northern Kazakhstan were selected for analysis. Experiments were set up with the selected wheat varieties in controlled environments as follows: (1) slowly progressing drought imposed on plants in soil, (2) rapid dehydration of whole plants grown in hydroponics, (3) dehydration of detached leaves, and (4) ABA treatment of whole plants grown in hydroponics. Representatives of two different families of transcription factors (TFs), TaDREB5 and TaNFYC-A7, were found to be linked to yield-under-drought using polymorphic Amplifluor-like SNP marker assays. qRT-PCR revealed differing patterns of expression of these genes in the leaves of plants subjected to the above treatments. Under drought, TaDREB5 was significantly up-regulated in leaves of all high-yielding varieties tested and down-regulated in all low-yielding varieties, and the level of expression was independent of treatment type. In contrast, TaNFYC-A7 expression levels showed different responses in the high- and low-yield groups of wheat varieties. TaNFYC-A7 expression under dehydration (treatments 2 and 3) was higher than under drought (treatment 1) in all high-yielding varieties tested, while in all low-yielding varieties the opposite pattern was observed: the expression levels of this gene under drought were higher than under dehydration. Rapid dehydration of detached leaves and intact wheat plants grown in hydroponics produced similar changes in gene expression. ABA treatment of whole plants caused rapid stomatal closure and a rise in the transcript level of both genes during the first 30 min, which decreased 6 h after treatment. At this time-point, expression of TaNFYC-A7 was again significantly up-regulated compared to untreated controls, while TaDREB5 returned to its initial level of expression. These findings reveal significant differences in the transcriptional regulation of two drought-responsive and ABA-dependent TFs under slowly developing drought and rapid dehydration of wheat plants. The results obtained suggest that correlation between grain yield in dry conditions and TaNFYC-A7 expression levels in the examined wheat varieties is dependent on the length of drought development and/or strength of drought; while in the case of TaDREB5, no such dependence is observed.Research program BR05236500 (SJ) has been supported by the Ministry of Education and Science (Kazakhstan), and ARC project DP170103975 (PL) entitled ‘Accessing diversity in large crop genomes via enhanced recombination’ (Australia)
E-learning for self-management support: introducing blended learning for graduate students – a cohort study
Get PDFThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
E-learning allows delivery of education in many diverse settings and researchers have demonstrated it can be as effective as learning conducted in traditional face-to-face settings. However, there are particular practices and skills needed in the area of providing patient self-management support (SMS), that may not be achievable online. The aim of this study was to compare three approaches in the training of university students regarding the preparation of a Chronic Condition Self-Management Care Plan: 1) traditional face-to-face delivery of SMS training, 2) an e-learning approach and 3) a blended approach (combining e-learning and face-to-face teaching).
Methods
Graduate entry physiotherapy students and medical students at Flinders University were recruited. Depending on the cohort, students were either exposed to traditional face-to-face training, e-learning or a blended model. Outcomes were compared between the three groups. We measured adherence to care plan processes in the preparation of an assessment piece using the Flinders Program Chronic Care Self Management tools. A total of 183 care plans were included (102 traditional, 52 blended, 29 e-learning,). All students submitted the Flinders Program Chronic Care Plan for university assessment and these were later assessed for quality by researchers. The submission was also assigned a consumer engagement score and a global competence score as these are integral to successful delivery of SMS and represent the patient perspective.
Results
The blended group performed significantly better than the traditional group in quality use of the Flinders Program tools: Problem and Goals (P < 0.0001). They also performed significantly better in the total care plan score (P < 0.0001) and engagement score (P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference between the groups for the Partners in Health tool.
Conclusions
In this pilot study, the blended learning model was a more effective method for teaching self-management skills than the traditional group, as assessed in the development of a chronic condition self-management care plan. We anticipate that future research with identical groups of students would yield similar results but in the meantime, academics can have confidence that blended learning is at least as effective as traditional learning methods
Assessing the access and value of online health information resources
No full textThis abstract was prepared for the inaugural 'HDR Student Conference', Flinders University, November 2018. Copyright © the authorIntroduction: User-based evaluations of usability undertaken during development of online health information and evidence resources generates valuable feedback identifying user interface issues, information architecture inconsistencies or navigation difficulties. Problem identification form the basis of iterative prototype improvements and dependence lies within user characteristics of user-testers whose recruitment is inherently skewed toward highly experienced, motivated and technological savvy individuals. Diversity in experience, attitudes, socioeconomic status, dis/ability, age and geographic location provides opportunity to identify ranges of usability and accessibility issues. Whilst outcomes from user-based evaluation methods are widely reported within the literature for e-devices, software and websites for user experience (UX), there is limited research on new modes of online resources such as online health toolkits (OHT). Objectives: The purpose of this research is assessing the role of usability and accessibility evaluations undertaken during development of OHT and investigating the influence of user characteristics on access and value of UX within the palliative care domain. METHODS Three independent studies will be conducted. The first is a systematic mapping review of the literature classifying current evaluation methods undertaken during development of OHT. The second examines application of a website evaluation model to the development of a palliative care online toolkit investigating outcomes as measures of UX. The final study will investigate how levels of user-testers digital readiness influence concepts and knowledge of palliative care and implications of interface design. Implications: Expected outcomes will inform a standardised approach for development of OHT, providing development, evaluation and implementation guidance producing valuable, useable and accessible online health information sources improving the UX
Hypertension management for community dwelling older people with diabetes in Nanchang, China: a cluster randomised controlled trial
No full textThis abstract was prepared for the inaugural 'HDR Student Conference', Flinders University, November 2018. Copyright © the authorBackground Although China has a large number of older people living with diabetes and hypertension, the primary care system is underdeveloped and so management of these conditions in community care settings is suboptimal. Methods A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted to randomly allocate 10 wards from four hospitals in Nanchang to either an intervention group (N=5) or a usual care group (N=5). In total, 270 patients were recruited in the study. The intervention included individualized self-care education and medication management prior to discharge and in the 6-month follow-up in community health service centres. A multilevel mixed-effect linear regression model was applied to compare the changes in health outcomes between the intervention and usual care groups. Results The intervention group demonstrated a statistically significant decrease of a mean systolic blood pressure of 10.7 mm Hg (95%CI: -14.2 to -7.1, P<0.001) and a mean diastolic blood pressure of 4.1 mm Hg (95% CI: -6.2 to -2.0, P<0.001) over 6 months as compared to the usual care group. Findings also demonstrated significant improvements of HbA1c, hypertension knowledge, diabetes knowledge, treatment adherence, quality of life, the prevention of adverse events and hospital readmission at 6 months in the intervention group compared to the usual care group. Conclusion A hypertension management program that targeted individualized self-care and medication management improved hypertension control for older people with diabetes in the community care setting
The impact of the Exceptional Care Education Program: An evaluation using institutional ethnography
No full textThis abstract was prepared for the inaugural 'HDR Student Conference', Flinders University, November 2018. Copyright © the authorIntroduction: The Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) leadership team is committed to achieving a positive culture of engagement and communication to enhance patient-centred care. Reports of perceived negative staff attitudes, inefficient sharing of information with patients and inadequate treatment have raised concerns about a 'disconnect' between the practices of some healthcare professionals and NALHNs vision of care delivery. These concerns led the NALHN leadership team to request the development of an Exceptional Care Education Program (ECEP) for staff. Aim: The aim of the ECEP was to improve healthcare delivery through reinforcement of the values of NALHN. This study will evaluate the impact of the ECEP on the healthcare professionals, and is funded by NALHN. Methodology: This study uses institutional ethnography (IE). IE seeks to examine the social relations and social organisations from the standpoint of the people within the institution. Through the exploration of the participants' workplace, together with their knowledge of the organisational culture, IE can provide an understanding of how the practices of healthcare professionals are coordinated within the institutional processes. By using IE, this study aims to gather evidence about the impact of the ECEP on: healthcare professionals' understanding of their role; the translation of the program's goals into practice; and the work culture that may influence the behaviour of healthcare professionals in patient care delivery. Methods: Phase 1 includes observation and interviews with healthcare professionals and review of documents informing healthcare delivery; Phase 2 involves interviews with key stakeholders of the ECEP. Implications: The significance of this study will emerge from findings that probe the underlying factors influencing healthcare professionals' delivery of patient care. Findings from this proposed study may inform policy changes and healthcare professionals' work culture