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Seminars in Hearing Aug 2023Audiology is experiencing exponential growth in technology, service, and provision options. These advancements give hearing care professionals the opportunity to revise,... (Review)
Review
Audiology is experiencing exponential growth in technology, service, and provision options. These advancements give hearing care professionals the opportunity to revise, potentially improve, and adapt to the modern hearing care landscape to better serve the modern consumer. Consumer needs guide care planning and delivery, with the goal of achieving outcomes that are important to both the consumer and the clinician. The changes available to the hearing care industry can also enable consumers' needs to be identified and served in a more holistic and personalized manner than has previously been possible. The purpose of this article is to explain and encourage hearing care professionals to adopt a mindset of doing whatever is reasonable and clinically appropriate to meet the need and desires of the consumer by implementing choice in service, technology, and channel across whichever model of care adopted by a provider.
PubMed: 37484985
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1769624 -
Health Science Reports Apr 2024Menopause is one of the most significant stages in women's life. It is accompanied by many complications and a serious challenge. This study aimed to assess the...
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Menopause is one of the most significant stages in women's life. It is accompanied by many complications and a serious challenge. This study aimed to assess the menopause experiences of Iranian women and compatibility strategies.
METHODS
We searched PubMed, Web of Science (ISI), Scopus, Ovid, and the Iranian Clinical Trial Registry and Magiran, SID, from January 1990 to January 2021.
RESULTS
Psychological effects, sexual disorders, physical problems, bone pain, insomnia, fatigue, and hot flashes are all menopause experiences. Cultural factors, lifestyle, social factors, education level, employment and economic status, marital status, and the number of pregnancies and births can influence this experience. It is important that menopausal women are aware how menopausal compatibility and prepare for this period. Many factors have affected menopausal adopting strategies. Negative emotions, negative attitudes, worry, and anxiety, and their psychological effects exacerbate the annoying experiences of menopause and decelerate menopausal adoption.
CONCLUSIONS
Social support and educational intervention were the practical menopausal adopting strategies. It will guarantee the health of menopausal women in the last third of their lives.
PubMed: 38633735
DOI: 10.1002/hsr2.1968 -
MedEdPORTAL : the Journal of Teaching... 2023The 2020 Focused Asthma Updates introduced a paradigm shift in the treatment of asthma that includes symptom-based adjustments to outpatient asthma treatment that vary...
INTRODUCTION
The 2020 Focused Asthma Updates introduced a paradigm shift in the treatment of asthma that includes symptom-based adjustments to outpatient asthma treatment that vary by age and severity. The length and complexity of the updates have made them challenging to adopt.
METHODS
We implemented an educational session among pediatric residents to increase their familiarity with, comprehension of, and plans to adopt two evidence-based recommendations introduced in the 2020 Updates for symptom-based therapy. Facilitators led groups of four to six pediatric residents in cased-based discussions during a 30-minute, ambulatory care-based session. One week prior, participants and facilitators received synopses of the 2007 Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma and the 2020 Updates. Facilitators also received a guide and scripts explaining new concepts, providing supporting data, and highlighting learning objectives. Retrospective pre/post surveys assessed participants' familiarity with, comprehension of, and planned adoption of recommendations for intermittent steroids and single maintenance and reliever therapy (SMART) before and after the conference. The surveys also assessed prior exposure to the 2020 Updates and reflections on the educational session.
RESULTS
There were 26 participants. Ratings of familiarity, comprehension, and adoption plans regarding the recommendations significantly improved (s < .001, Wilcoxon signed rank test). The case-based approach was well received, and the material was deemed relevant.
DISCUSSION
This educational session significantly increased pediatric residents' familiarity with, comprehension of, and plans to adopt two new evidence-based treatments. Dissemination of this educational session may improve outpatient asthma management.
Topics: Humans; Child; Retrospective Studies; Asthma; Internship and Residency; Steroids; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 37441565
DOI: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11320 -
Heliyon Feb 2024Sustainable agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture have been promoted in southern Africa for nearly three decades, but their adoption remains low. It is...
Sustainable agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture have been promoted in southern Africa for nearly three decades, but their adoption remains low. It is of policy interest to unpack behavioural drivers of adoption to understand why adoption remains lower than anticipated. This paper assesses the effects of risk aversion and impatience on the extent and intensity of the adoption of conservation agriculture using panel data collected from 646 households in 2021 and 2022 in Zambia. We find that 12% and 18% of the smallholders were impatient and risk averse, respectively. There are two main empirical findings based on panel data Probit and Tobit models. First, on the extensive margin, being impatient is correlated with a decreased likelihood of adopting combined minimum-tillage (MT) and rotation by 2.9 percentage points and being risk averse is associated with a decreased propensity of adopting combined minimum tillage (MT) and mulching by 3.2 percentage points. Being risk averse is correlated with a decreased chance of adopting basins by 2.8 percentage points. Second, on the intensive margin, impatience and risk aversion are significantly correlated with reduced adoption intensity of basins, ripping, minimum tillage (MT), and combined MT and rotation by 0.02-0.22 ha. These findings imply a need to embed risk management (e.g., through crop yield insurance) in the scaling of sustainable agricultural practices to incentivise adoption. This can help to nudge initial adoption and to protect farmers from yield penalties that are common in experimentation stages.
PubMed: 38420490
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26460 -
BioRxiv : the Preprint Server For... Feb 2024How humans and animals distribute their behavior across choice options has been of key interest to economics, psychology, ecology, and related fields. Neoclassical and...
How humans and animals distribute their behavior across choice options has been of key interest to economics, psychology, ecology, and related fields. Neoclassical and behavioral economics have provided prescriptions for how decision-makers can maximize their reward or utility, but these formalisms are used by decision-makers rarely. Instead, individuals allocate their behavior in proportion to the worth of their options, a phenomenon captured by the generalized matching law. Why biological decision-makers adopt this strategy has been unclear. To provide insight into this issue, this article evaluates the performance of matching across a broad spectrum of decision situations, using simulations. Matching is found to attain a high or near-optimal gain, and the strategy achieves this level of performance following a single evaluation of the decision options. Thus, matching provides highly efficient decisions across a wide range of choice environments. This result offers a quantitative explanation for the broad adoption of matching by biological decision-makers.
PubMed: 38464109
DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.15.580481 -
Clinical Trials (London, England) Dec 2023Data monitoring committees advise on clinical trial conduct through appraisal of emerging data to ensure participant safety and scientific integrity. While consideration...
BACKGROUND
Data monitoring committees advise on clinical trial conduct through appraisal of emerging data to ensure participant safety and scientific integrity. While consideration of their use is recommended for trials performed with vulnerable populations, previous research has shown that data monitoring committees are reported infrequently in publications of pediatric randomized controlled trials. We aimed to assess the frequency of reported data monitoring committee adoption in ClinicalTrials.gov registry records and to examine the influence of key trial characteristics.
METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional data analysis of all randomized controlled trials performed exclusively in a pediatric population and registered in ClinicalTrials.gov between 2008 and 2021. We used the Access to Aggregate Content of ClinicalTrials.gov database to retrieve publicly available information on trial characteristics and data on safety results. Abstracted data included reported trial design and conduct parameters, population and intervention characteristics, reasons for prematurely halting, serious adverse events, and mortality outcomes. We performed descriptive analyses on the collected data and explored the influence of clinical, methodological, and operational trial characteristics on the reported adoption of data monitoring committees.
RESULTS
We identified 13,928 pediatric randomized controlled trial records, of which 39.7% reported adopting a data monitoring committee, 49.0% reported not adopting a data monitoring committee, and 11.3% did not answer on this item. While the number of registered pediatric trials has been increasing since 2008, we found no clear time trend in the reported adoption of data monitoring committees. Data monitoring committees were more common in multicenter trials (50.6% vs 36.9% for single-center), multinational trials (60.2% vs 38.7% for single-country), National Institutes of Health-funded (60.3% vs 40.1% for industry-funded or 37.5% for other funders), and placebo-controlled (47.6% vs 37.5% for other types of control groups). Data monitoring committees were also more common among trials enrolling younger participants, trials employing blinding techniques, and larger trials. Data monitoring committees were more common in trials with at least one serious adverse event (52.6% vs 38.4% for those without) as well as for trials with reported deaths (70.3% vs 38.9% for trials without reported deaths). In all, 4.9% were listed as halted prematurely, most often due to low accrual rates. Trials with a data monitoring committee were more often halted for reasons related to scientific data than trials without a data monitoring committee (15.7% vs 7.3%).
CONCLUSION
According to registry records, the use of data monitoring committees in pediatric randomized controlled trials was more frequent than previously reported in reviews of published trial reports. The use of data monitoring committees varied across key clinical and trial characteristics based on which their use is recommended. Data monitoring committees may still be underutilized in pediatric trials, and reporting of this item could be improved.
Topics: United States; Humans; Child; Clinical Trials Data Monitoring Committees; Cross-Sectional Studies; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Research Design; National Institutes of Health (U.S.)
PubMed: 37366168
DOI: 10.1177/17407745231182417 -
Heliyon Jan 2024Understanding the underlying reasons for farmers' AGPT adoption in the context of resource environment tightening and agricultural carbon reduction has become crucial to...
Understanding the underlying reasons for farmers' AGPT adoption in the context of resource environment tightening and agricultural carbon reduction has become crucial to promote agriculture sustainable development. This paper uses multiple ordered regression model and probit model to test the impact of farmers' perceived value on their adoption of agricultural green production technologies (AGPT) by using the first-hand data from 613 rice farmers in Hunan, and explores the effect and mechanism of policy subsidies and market incentives on the adoption of AGPT, and investigates the differences in the impact of perceived value on the adoption of green technologies in different production stages. The results showed that, (1)farmers' AGPT adoption is significantly affected by their perceived value, in which perceived benefits significantly promotes farmers' AGPT adoption, while the perceived risks is the opposite. But farmers' AGPT adoption in different production stages is influenced by different perceived value. The adoption of soil testing and fertilization technology (STFT) in the pre-production stage is significantly influenced by the perceived benefits; adoption of green pest control technology (GPCT) in the mid-production stage is significantly influenced by both the perceived benefits and the perceived risks; and adoption of straw return technology (SRT) in the post-production stage is significantly influenced by the perceived risks. (2) Farmers' adoption of green technologies can be encouraged by policy subsidies, which also have the moderating effect of decreasing the negative influence of perceived risks on farmers' adoption behaviour. (3) Further analysis reveals that market incentives can compensate for the limitations of policy subsidies, greatly promote farmers' adoption of AGPT, and regulate farmers' perceived risks and perceived benefits to encourage them to use green technologies. Consequently, the Government should actively publicize and organize training on agriculture green technologies, and provide diversified subsidy programmes for different green technologies. And governments should also improve the quality certification system and the market price mechanism for agricultural products, so as to help farmers adopting green technologies to achieve an increase in their income.
PubMed: 38226239
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23925 -
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Mar 2024Additive manufacturing (AM) is an innovative printing technology that can manufacture 3-dimensional solid objects by adding layers of material from model data. AM in...
PURPOSE
Additive manufacturing (AM) is an innovative printing technology that can manufacture 3-dimensional solid objects by adding layers of material from model data. AM in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) provides several clinical applications such as surgical guides and implants. However, the adoption of AM in OMFS is not well covered. The purpose was to study the adoption of AM in OMFS in university and non-university hospitals in Sweden. Three research questions were addressed: What is the degree of using AM solutions in university and non-university hospitals?; What are AM solutions used?; How are the AM solutions accessed (production mode) in university hospitals and non-university hospitals?
METHODS
A survey was distributed to OMF surgeons in Sweden. The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions. Data were analyzed through descriptive and content analysis.
RESULTS
A total of 14 university and non-university hospitals were captured. All 14 hospitals have adopted AM technology and 11 of the hospitals adopted AM in OMFS. Orthognathic and trauma surgery are two major types of surgery that involve AM technology where material extrusion and vat polymerization are the two most used AM technologies in OMFS. The primary application of AM was in medical models and guides.
CONCLUSION
Majority of Swedish university hospitals and non-university hospitals have adopted AM in OMFS. The type of hospital (university or non-university hospital) has no impact on AM adoption. AM in OMFS in Sweden can be perceived to be a mature clinical application.
Topics: Humans; Surgery, Oral; Sweden; Printing, Three-Dimensional; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 36920654
DOI: 10.1007/s10006-023-01147-5 -
Heliyon Mar 2024From the aspect of regional differences, this paper investigated the impact of social capital and technology cognition on the adoption of soil and water conservation...
From the aspect of regional differences, this paper investigated the impact of social capital and technology cognition on the adoption of soil and water conservation tillage technology in the Loess Plateau in China. We find social networks and social trust had significant impact on the adoption of contour tillage technology by farmers in Shanxi and Shaanxi. Social participation had a significant impact in Shaanxi, whereas social prestige had a significant impact in Gansu, and social norms had a significant impact on the adoption of contour tillage technology in the three provinces. Technology cognition played an intermediary role in the effects of social networks, social trust, and social norms on technology adoption in Shaanxi and Shanxi, and on the impact of social norms on technology adoption in Gansu. Considering social networks, the frequency of communication between farmers and villagers had the greatest impact on technology adoption in Shanxi and Shaanxi, while farmers' trust in villagers had the greatest impact on technology adoption in these two provinces. The participation in collective activities in the village had the greatest impact on technology adoption in Shaanxi. Furthermore as for social prestige there was little difference in the degree of impact of observation variables on technology adoption by farmers in Gansu. Finally, regarding social norms, the attitudes and behaviors adopted by relative's friends, and villagers in the village had the greatest impact.
PubMed: 38449628
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27137 -
The Oncologist Feb 2024Few studies examine how patients with advanced cancer cope with stress. The objective of our study was to evaluate coping strategies adopted by patients with cancer and...
BACKGROUND
Few studies examine how patients with advanced cancer cope with stress. The objective of our study was to evaluate coping strategies adopted by patients with cancer and their relationship with symptom burden.
METHODS
A secondary data analysis of a prospective cross-sectional survey of patients with cancer and tobacco use was conducted, which examined demographics, symptom burden (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System), and coping strategies (the Brief COPE Questionnaire). Demographic characteristics were summarized by standard summary statistics; we also examined associations between patient characteristics and coping strategies using t-test, rank-sum test, chi-squared test, or Fisher's exact test depending on the distribution of data.
RESULTS
Among 399 patients, the majority were female (60%), Caucasian (70%), the mean age was 56.5 (±12.0) years, and the most common malignancies were gastrointestinal (21%) and breast (19%). Patients with cancer adopted multiple adaptive coping strategies, most frequently acceptance (86.7%) and emotional support (79.9%), with humor (18.5%) being the least. Common maladaptive strategies included venting (14.5%) and self-distraction (36.6%), while substance use (1.0%) was infrequently reported. Of the adaptive strategies, female gender was significantly associated with higher engagement with emotional and instrumental support, positive reframing, religious coping, and acceptance (P < .05 for all). College educated patients reported significantly higher implementation of humor, planning, and acceptance. Maladaptive coping strategies such as denial were associated with increased pain and depression, while patients adopting emotional-focused strategies rated decreased emotional distress.
CONCLUSIONS
The majority of patients with advanced cancer reported adopting multiple, adaptive coping strategies, and a minority utilized maladaptive or avoidant strategies, rarely substance use, and may need additional psychological support.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Middle Aged; Adaptation, Psychological; Coping Skills; Symptom Burden; Cross-Sectional Studies; Prospective Studies; Substance-Related Disorders; Neoplasms; Surveys and Questionnaires; Psychological Tests; Self Report
PubMed: 37669020
DOI: 10.1093/oncolo/oyad253