Increasing ICU Nurses' Support for Non-Restrictive Visitation Policies: Challenges and Ways Forward.

This article describes a data set to map and model research collaborations in German biotechnology. Underlying micro-data for firms and institutions in the biotech sector together with information on their research collaboration partners have been extracted from a commercial industry directory, the BIOCOM Year and Address book, for 2005 and 2009. The data have been processed and aggregated to the level of NUTS3 regions. This core data set has been linked to regional covariates which measure the regional endowment with biotech-related research capacities, sector-specific S&T policy support and the strength of a region׳s overall local innovation system. The full data set, which is attached to this article, offers applied researchers an alternative source of information for empirical analyses of knowledge flows in research networks and for studying their determinants. Potential fields of application include social network and regression analysis. First empirical results are reported in “Determining factors of interregional research collaboration in Germany׳s biotech network: Capacity, proximity, policy?” (Mitze and Strotebeck, 2018) and “Centrality and get-richer mechanisms in interregional knowledge networks” (Mitze and Strotebeck, 2018).

Real-World Surveillance of FDA-Cleared Artificial Intelligence Models: Rationale and Logistics.

While climate scientists have developed high resolution data sets on the distribution of climate risks, we still lack comparable data on the local distribution of public climate change opinions. This paper provides the first effort to estimate local climate and energy opinion variability outside the United States. Using a multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) approach, we estimate opinion in federal electoral districts and provinces. We demonstrate that a majority of the Canadian public consistently believes that climate change is happening. Belief in climate change’s causes varies geographically, with more people attributing it to human activity in urban as opposed to rural areas. Most prominently, we find majority support for carbon cap and trade policy in every province and district. By contrast, support for carbon taxation is more heterogeneous. Compared to the distribution of US climate opinions, Canadians believe climate change is happening at higher levels. This new opinion data set will support climate policy analysis and climate policy decision making at national, provincial and local levels.

This MRP explores the ethical dilemma inherent in the use of emotional appeals in political speeches. Taking a historical approach to the question of how ethics and emotion have played out in rhetorical theory and propaganda studies, I examine how political speakers use rhetorical appeals to pathos in order to gain support for controversial policies. I question where the “line” between legitimate rhetorical appeals to pathos and illegitimate, emotionally manipulative propaganda lies, and ask: do appeals to emotion constitute propaganda? What is the difference between a legitimate appeal to emotion and propaganda? What constitutes a “legitimate” appeal to emotion in political speech? To answer this, I analyze three speeches made by Western political leaders justifying America’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. My analysis distinguishes different kinds of appeals to pathos, or emotion, within my data set and weighs each speaker’s use of “legitimate” appeals to pathos against emotional appeals that are classified as “propaganda,” according to Elspeth Tilley’s Propaganda Index (2005). My findings show that a large percentage of appeals to pathos in each speech analyzed meet the requirements for propaganda as defined by Tilley. Eighty-one percent of appeals to pathos in George W. Bush’s “Message to Saddam” constitute propaganda; sixty-eight percent of appeals to pathos in Tony Blair’s Speech to the British House of Commons constitute propaganda; and seventy-three percent of appeals to pathos in Stephen Harper’s Speech to the Canadian House of Commons are considered propaganda as defined by Tilley. My findings showcase the ambiguity of “ethical” communication in political contexts, and underline the importance of critical audience engagement in political processes.

This study aims to examine the factors of success and challenges in implementing asset-based community development in tourist villages, to achieve self-sufficient villages in Indonesia. The approach used in this study is a systematic literature review conducted through a process of selecting and analyzing previous literature from books and articles. The book referenced in this study is Hill's book, supported by 18 articles that have been synthesized. Data analysis was conducted using content analysis techniques to identify key factors that support and hinder the success of asset-based community development (ABCD) in the context of tourist villages in Indonesia. The study's results indicate that the asset-based community development strategy is crucial for building a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive local economy. The ABCD approach has been proven to strengthen collaboration among stakeholders. Successful ABCD initiatives in village self-sufficiency can have a significant impact on poverty reduction and improve welfare. Some key factors for the success of ABCD include: strong leadership and institutions, community capacity and empowerment, policy support and funding, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Challenges in implementing ABCD to achieve self-sufficient villages include: community dependence on government assistance, limited infrastructure and technology, conflicts of interest and social fragmentation, as well as threats from climate change and resource exploitation. The successful ABCD concept can be disseminated for implementation in various villages in Indonesia, thereby creating self-sufficient villages. The success of ABCD is driven by active community participation, with a vision that aligns with utilizing the surrounding nature and culture. The implementation of ABCD creates a multiplier effect on various actors. Optimal implementation of ABCD can lead to self-sufficient villages. However, the challenge of community dependence on the government remains a significant obstacle. Therefore, further research is needed to examine efforts to address the challenges outlined in this study for ABCD through practical implementation in communities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of anti-corruption education and training in order to prevent corruption of public officials as a cause of disasters, and to suggest ways to strengthen the capabilities of public officials to avoid conflicts of interest. As a result of the analysis, the laws and regulations for ethics and integrity duties and public financial management of public officials are increasing, while the duties of the state and the duties of public officials who perform them are also increasing. However, standards for the integrity and morality of public officials are scattered in individual laws.
 The measures to prevent corruption of public officials and manage conflicts of interest are as follows. First, policy support is needed to activate the conflict-of-interest avoidance system proposed by the current law. Second, it is necessary to integrate such complex and scattered anti-corruption laws and systems. Third, it is necessary to strictly detect and punish corruption and to come up with realistic measures to improve the treatment of public officials.

Purpose Patients with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) have significant unmet needs that current policies do not fully address. Methods A comprehensive analysis of national cancer control programs and breast cancer (BC) policies and programs was conducted across 16 countries representing diverse geographies, socioeconomic status, and health care systems. Key policy components were identified, aligned with the journey of a patient with BC, and evaluated using standardized criteria that measured the adoption and implementation of national cancer control program goals and mBC-specific programs. The identified gaps for patients with mBC were aligned with promising practices implemented or spearheaded by civil society that demonstrated success at filling the gaps with the objective of creating an information resource that other organizations in the field can use as practice-based evidence. Results Despite considerable BC policy development and implementation, important gaps for patients with mBC persist across all areas of the patient journey and vary between countries studied. Inadequate public awareness, lack of trained specialists, inefficient coordination of care delivery, and limited access to innovative mBC treatments are barriers to effective care in select regions in high-income countries and overall in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, the provision of palliative care remains in its infancy in low- and middle-income countries, although this is an area of increasing policy development in high-income countries. Promising practices that evaluate patient advocacy efforts have revealed that adaptable models can support policy adoption and target specific gaps through an approach that can be tailored to countries’ resource contexts. For example, advocacy efforts identified in sub-Saharan Africa used a range of tools, in collaboration with key hospitals, to address barriers at the diagnosis stage and facilitate access to care. In the United States, a Clinical Trial Helpline launched in partnership with local patient groups aims to connect patients with mBC with innovative treatment options through clinical trials. Conclusion The 70th United Nations World Health Assembly’s cancer resolution discussed the need to leverage efforts and collaborative initiatives among stakeholders. This research exemplifies successful multistakeholder engagement solutions, which are tailored to the country context, and offer targeted ideas to further policy development. Phased BC control implementation strategies must ensure that the policies and programs address the needs of both patients with early BC and of those with advanced BC. AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/jco/site/ifc . Anna Cabanes Research Funding: Pfizer, Genentech, Merk (Inst) Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Pfizer, AstraZeneca Fatima Carodso Consulting or Advisory Role: Amgen, Astellas/Medivation, AstraZeneca, Celgene, Daiichi-Sankyo, Eisai, GE Oncology, Genetech, GlaxoSmithKline, Macrogenics, Merk-Sharp, Merus BV, Mylan Mundipharma, Novartis, Pfizer, Pierre-Fabre, Roche, Sanofi, Seattle Genetics, Samsung Bioepis, Teva Expert Testimony: Pfizer, Roche Maia Thrift-Perry Employment: Pfizer Stock or Other Ownership: Pfizer

Event Abstract Back to Event Automated Identification of Axonal Action Potentials in high-density CMOS Microelectrode Array Recordings David Hoffmann1, 2*, Miriam Reh1, 2 and Günther Zeck1 1 Natural and Medical Sciences Institute, Neurophysics, Germany 2 Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, International Max Planck Research School, Germany When recording or modulating activity in neural tissue, such as the retina, it is of great advantage to obtain online information about cell location, about their axons and putative synaptically connected partners [1]. In this work we present and evaluate an algorithm for automated classification of retinal ganglion cells and identification of their axons based on recordings with high-density CMOS-based MEAs (CMOS MEA 5000, MultiChannelSystems MCS GmbH) from ex vivo mouse retina. The algorithm, which is based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) computes spike triggered average (STAs) electrical image and performs a classification of the electrical images during the experiment. This may enable the user to selectively stimulate a cell at a specified position. Material and Methods Spike sorting and computation of STAs was done using the software CMOS-MEA-TOOLs, which is based on an cICA algorithm [2]. This software visualizes the STAs as short videos, which are used here for producing a ground truth data set. A total of 1309 neurons were hand labelled and used to train the CNN classifier. Input to the CNN are feature maps of the STAs, namely a Boolean indicating threshold crossing for each electrode of the MEA, the mean maximum cross-correlation and the minimal voltage values per electrode. For a single electrode i the mean maximum cross-correlation is calculated by computing the maximum cross-correlation of this electrode with all 8 adjacent electrodes and calculating the mean over these 8 values. The algorithm was implemented in python and the resulting package, called axonFinder, comes with methods for semi-automatic labelling, to increase the amount of available training data. With more training data the classification accuracy can be expected to increase further. Results The mean accuracy of the CNN over all data sets (n=15) is 0.76 ± 0.1 (mean ± standard deviation), which is somewhat lower than human accuracy 0.84 ± 0.09. Human accuracy was determined by one human expert classifying the cells based on the input feature maps of the CNN, each visualized as image. For 6 out of 15 data sets the CNN and the human accuracy is indistinguishable. We found that the true positive rate (classifying a cell correctly as RGC comprising an axon) is very similar between human (0.74 ± 0.15) and CNN (0.74 ± 0.16). Differences are observed for true negative rate. The lower accuracy of the CNN can partially be explained by occasional failure of the optimization, which is a result of the small training and, by chance, ill-chosen early stopping data set. Some of these problems can be solved using N-fold cross-validation. Indeed, we found that usage of N-fold cross-validation for training increases the accuracy of the CNN to 0.8 ± 0.07. Conclusion Here we demonstrated how axonal action potentials are automatically identified in CMOS MEA recordings. The method can be used offline for unequivocal separation of ganglion cells from possible displaced amacrine cells and online to select electrical stimulus positions. Conflict of Interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Acknowledgements This work is partially funded by the German Ministry for education and Research (BMBF, FKZ: 031L0059A). DH acknowledges support by the Graduate Training Centre Neuroscience, Tübingen. We thank Larissa Höfling and Florian Jetter for sharing their recorded data.

We examine whether parents rely on principles of equity or equality in making judgments about nonresident fathers’ obligations and rights. The data are taken from the first wave of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The analysis sample includes 4,304 new mothers and 3,414 new fathers. Results indicate that fathers perceive obligations and rights as independent concerns (equality principle), whereas mothers see obligations and rights as linked (equity principle). The findings raise questions about previous claims that women favor equality principles, whereas men favor equity principles. They also underscore the importance of considering gender differences in perceptions of fathers’ rights and obligations in designing effective child support and visitation policies.

Treatment and diagnostic recommendations are often made in clinical guidelines, reports from advisory committee meetings, opinion pieces such as editorials, and narrative reviews. Quite often, the authors or members of advisory committees have industry ties or particular specialty interests which may impact on which interventions are recommended. Similarly, clinical guidelines and narrative reviews may be funded by industry sources resulting in conflicts of interest. To investigate to what degree financial and non-financial conflicts of interest are associated with favourable recommendations in clinical guidelines, advisory committee reports, opinion pieces, and narrative reviews. We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Methodology Register for studies published up to February 2020. We also searched reference lists of included studies, Web of Science for studies citing the included studies, and grey literature sources. We included studies comparing the association between conflicts of interest and favourable recommendations of drugs or devices (e.g. recommending a particular drug) in clinical guidelines, advisory committee reports, opinion pieces, or narrative reviews. Two review authors independently included studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. When a meta-analysis was considered meaningful to synthesise our findings, we used random-effects models to estimate risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), with RR > 1 indicating that documents (e.g. clinical guidelines) with conflicts of interest more often had favourable recommendations. We analysed associations for financial and non-financial conflicts of interest separately, and analysed the four types of documents both separately (pre-planned analyses) and combined (post hoc analysis). We included 21 studies analysing 106 clinical guidelines, 1809 advisory committee reports, 340 opinion pieces, and 497 narrative reviews. We received unpublished data from 11 studies; eight full data sets and three summary data sets. Fifteen studies had a risk of confounding, as they compared documents that may differ in other aspects than conflicts of interest (e.g. documents on different drugs used for different populations). The associations between financial conflicts of interest and favourable recommendations were: clinical guidelines, RR: 1.26, 95% CI: 0.93 to 1.69 (four studies of 86 clinical guidelines); advisory committee reports, RR: 1.20, 95% CI: 0.99 to 1.45 (four studies of 629 advisory committee reports); opinion pieces, RR: 2.62, 95% CI: 0.91 to 7.55 (four studies of 284 opinion pieces); and narrative reviews, RR: 1.20, 95% CI: 0.97 to 1.49 (four studies of 457 narrative reviews). An analysis combining all four document types supported these findings (RR: 1.26, 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.44). One study investigating specialty interests found that the association between including radiologist guideline authors and recommending routine breast cancer screening was RR: 2.10, 95% CI: 0.92 to 4.77 (12 clinical guidelines). We interpret our findings to indicate that financial conflicts of interest are associated with favourable recommendations of drugs and devices in clinical guidelines, advisory committee reports, opinion pieces, and narrative reviews. However, we also stress risk of confounding in the included studies and the statistical imprecision of individual analyses of each document type. It is not certain whether non-financial conflicts of interest impact on recommendations.

Hypothesis tests

Background. Life expectancy is an important health status indicator based on average number of years a person at a given age may be expected to live given current mortality rates. Given this significance, it would be necessary to probe into the factors affecting the life expectancy. Ensuring that information and communication technology (ICT) services are properly used could contribute to development and achievement, as it represents an important issue for the countries moving toward knowledge-based and information-based societies. Therefore, this study explored the impact of the information and communication technology on life expectancy. Methods. This study covers annual data from 2008 to 2018 for a group of countries in the Middle East. Data were retrieved from the Annual Reports such as World Bank and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data sets. The effects of ICT on life expectancy are estimated with the Panel model. We also used the Hausman test to investigate fixed versus random effects. The data were analyzed by Stata 14 software. Results. The core findings of this study confirm the significant impact of ICT on life expectancy in the Middle East. The calculated Coefficient of the regression was 0.551 indicating how much life expectancy changes when ICT variable increases by one unit. Moreover, the rho (intraclass correlation) was found to be 0.975 showing that 97.5% of the variance is due to differences across panels. Conclusion. Considering the effect of ICT on life expectancy, policymakers of the Middle Eastern countries should integrate the use of ICT with the existing programs and systems. Technology is not an end in itself but merely the means to reinforce the existing system and to meet the locally determined goals. It can be used as a tool to attain broader health and development goals. Background Life expectancy is an important health status indicator based on average number of years a person at a given age may be expected to live given current mortality rates. Given this significance, it would be necessary to probe into the factors affecting the life expectancy. Ensuring that information and communication technology (ICT) services are properly used could contribute to development and achievement, as it represents an important issue for the countries moving toward knowledge-based and information-based societies. As ICT affects everyday lives, it also impacts the macroeconomic growth, which in turn further affects everyday lives by allowing improvements in infrastructures and a higher standard of living. ICTs inherently entail the economic development of countries, regions and cities, while also improving social inclusion, well-being and therefore quality of life. Therefore, this study explored the impact of the information and communication technology on life expectancy. Methods This study covers annual data from 2008 to 2018 for a group of countries of in the Middle East. Data were retrieved from the Annual Reports such as World Bank dataset and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data set. The effects of information and communication technology on life expectancy were estimated through the Panel model. First, stationary tests were performed with the Fisher’s generalized unit root test. In the Fisher test for panel data, the null hypothesis of a unit root was rejected at the 5% level of significance. The cross-section correlation test was performed with the Freeze test. The null hypothesis of no correlation was rejected at the 5% level of significance. We also used the Hausman test to investigate fixed versus random effects. The null hypothesis of no fixed effects was accepted so the random effects model was used. The Hausman test detects endogenous regressors in a regression model. Endogenous variables have values that are determined by other variables in the system. The data were analyzed by Stata 14 software. Results The core findings of this study confirm the significant impact of information and communication technology on life expectancy in the Middle East. The Coefficient of the regression was 0.551 indicating how much life expectancy changes when information technology variable increases by one unit. The coefficient of ICT shows that 1% increase in ICT variable causes 0.551 % incline in life expectancy and this result is significant at 5% level of significance. Regarding control variables, we found that all have expected statistically significant effects on life expectancy. The intra-cluster correlation coefficient (rho) is a measure of the relatedness, or similarity, of clustered data. Values of rho range from 0 to 1 in human studies, and as the rho increases, more individuals within the clusters resemble one another. The rho (intraclass correlation) was found to be 0.975 showing that 97.5% of the variance is due to differences across panels. This research recommends that human development programs need to focus on polices which foster digital inclusion. Conclusion Considering the effect of information and communication technology on life expectancy, policymakers of the Middle Eastern countries should integrate the use of information and communication technology with the existing programs and systems. The digital citizen is happier and values living in regions with technological capacity, investing in research & development, and committed to achieving sustainable growth. ICT use leads to improved assessments of the efficiency and management of the public administration by more technological users, underlining the importance of an understanding between users and public services in the virtual sphere. Technology is not an end in itself but merely an instrument to reinforce the existing system and to meet the locally determined goals. It can be used as a tool to attain broader health and development goals. The findings from this study provide key insights that explain how life expectancy may be enhanced through ICTs. Practical Implications of Research According to the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on life expectancy, policymakers should provide ICT infrastructures and adopt strategies integrating ICT policies with human life criteria such as education, health and work to improve life expectancy. Ethical Consideration The paper reflects the author’s own research and analysis in a truthful and complete manner. Conflict of Interests This study was an independent research and the author declares no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Acknowledgement I would like to thank Dr Marzieh Ronaghi for her guidance and assistance throughout this research.

Contact: Oliver.Serang@Childrens.Harvard.edu

This paper focuses on the role that inequality plays in shaping political support for child labour regulation policies. We provide a model of the evolution of child labour, fertility and human capital where the heterogeneity between low- and high-skilled workers allows for an endogenous analysis of inequality generated by child labour. Depending on the initial level of inequality, child labour regulation policies can affect the welfare of low- and high-skilled workers in different ways and therefore can have an impact on political support for their introduction. The possible conflicts of interest that may arise between the two groups can help explain the difficulties that many governments have when dealing with the issue of child labour.

ABSTRACTFollowing the failure of the Fundão mine tailings dam in Brazil, approximately 32 million cubic meters of Fe ore tailings were released into the downstream riverine system. The postevent monitoring surveys implemented the use of noninvasive acoustic methods to improve the understanding of the fish biomass distribution patterns and aquatic habitat condition of the impacted reaches of the Rio Gualaxo do Norte, Rio do Carmo, and Rio Doce. The primary focus of the program was to collect hydroacoustic measurements of fish biomass, which was accompanied by sonar imaging of aquatic habitats using high‐resolution side scan and downward imaging sonar at each site visited. The biannual surveys began in April 2017 and were fundamentally a multiple control–impact design because before data (prior to the dam failure event) were not available. Up to 22 sites were visited for each survey, including reservoir and river sites. Results indicate similar levels of instream habitat between control and impact river and reservoir sites. Average volumetric biomass was not significantly different between impact sites and their corresponding controls in the August 2018 survey (latest to date). Preliminary temporal analysis of the biomass data set collected indicates that either stable or increasing levels of biomass are detected at tailings impacted sites within the Rio Doce. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:615–621. © 2020 Hydrobiology QLD Pty Ltd. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC)