“Can politics really be beneficial?” Toward a model for positive politics through consensus

PurposeThis article wants to propose deeper insights and clarifications into the effects of organizational politics which have been at the center of many debates in decision-making literature. For a long time, the debate focused on the negative effects of organizational politics and how to avoid them. This article wants to explore the positive effects of organizational politics and see how this impacts the consensus process in teams moderated by organizational change.Design/methodology/approachThe article model and propositions are grounded in the organisational politics literature. The analysis builds on the “positive” politics literature which has been gaining steam in the last two decades and links this with the consensus literature.FindingsThe article proposes an integrated model which clearly shows how the three core concepts influence each other through the four proposed hypotheses. Organizational politics can help to create more consensus in a team decision-making process, and this can have a positive effect on team performance.Originality/valueThe article aims to expand insights of organizational politics on decision-making by putting the light on possible positive effects of organizational politics. The article addresses the theoretical gap of how organizational politics can impact the consensus process.

Step, Error, and Event Frameworks in Endovascular Aortic Repair

Objective: Competency-based surgical education requires detailed and actionable feedback to ensure adequate and efficient skill development. Comprehensive operative capture systems such as the Operating Room Black Box (ORBB; Surgical Safety Technologies, Inc), which continuously records and synchronizes multiple sources of intraoperative data, have recently been integrated into hybrid rooms to provide targeted feedback to endovascular teams. The objective of this study is to develop step, error, and event frameworks to evaluate technical performance in elective endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) comprehensively captured by the ORBB (Surgical Safety Technologies, Inc; Toronto, Canada). Methods: This study is based upon a modified Delphi consensus process to create evaluation frameworks for steps, errors, and events in EVAR. International experts from Vascular Surgery and Interventional Radiology were identified, based on their records of publications and invited presentations, or serving on relevant journal editorial boards. In an initial open-ended survey round, experts were asked to volunteer a comprehensive list of steps, errors, and events for a standard EVAR of an infrarenal aorto-iliac aneurysm (AAA). In subsequent survey rounds, the identified items were presented to the expert panel to rate on a 5-point Likert scale. Delphi survey rounds were repeated until the process reached consensus with a predefined agreement threshold (Cronbach α>0.7). The final frameworks were constructed with items achieving an agreement (responses of 4 or 5) from greater than 70% of experts. Results: Of 98 invited proceduralists, 38 formed the expert consensus panel (39%), consisting of 29 vascular surgeons and 9 interventional radiologists, with 34% from North America and 66% from Europe. Consensus criteria were met following the third round of the Delphi consensus process (Cronbach α=0.82–0.93). There were 15, 32, and 25 items in the error, step, and event frameworks, respectively (within-item agreement=74%–100%). Conclusion: A detailed evaluation tool for the procedural steps, errors, and events in infrarenal EVAR was developed. This tool will be validated on recorded procedures in future work: It may focus skill development on common errors and hazardous steps. This tool might be used to provide high-quality feedback on technical performance of trainees and experienced surgeons alike, thus promoting surgical mastery.

Queuing Theory of Improved Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant Consensus

In recent years, the use of consensus mechanism to maintain the security of blockchain system has become a considerable concern of the community. Delegated proof of stake (DPoS) and practical Byzantine fault tolerant (PBFT) consensus mechanisms are key technologies in maintaining the security of blockchain system. First, this study proposes a consensus mechanism combining DPoS and PBFT, which can rapidly deal with malicious witness nodes and shorten the time of block verification. Second, the M/PH/1 queuing model is used to analyze the performance of the proposed consensus mechanism, and the performance of the improved practical Byzantine fault tolerant consensus mechanism is evaluated from steady-state conditions and key performance measure of the system. Third, the current study uses the theoretical method of open (Jackson) queuing network, combined with the blockchain consensus process, and provides theoretical analysis with special cases. Lastly, this research utilizes numerical examples to verify the computability of the theoretical results. The analytic method is expected to open a series of potentially promising research in queueing theory of blockchain systems.

Improved PBFT Algorithm For High-Frequency Trading Scenarios of Alliance Blockchain

With the continuous development of blockchain technology and the emergence of application scenarios, consensus algorithms are still the bottleneck restricting the number of network nodes and data writing efficiency that blockchain can support. How to improve the performance of alliance blockchains safely and efficiently has become an urgent problem to be solved at present. For the practical Byzantine fault tolerance algorithm (PBFT) commonly used in alliance blockchains, there are some problems, such as large communication overhead, simple selection of master nodes, and inability to expand and exit nodes dynamically in the network. This paper proposes an improved algorithm tPBFT (trust-based practical Byzantine algorithm), which is suitable for the high-frequency transaction scenario of alliance chains and introduces a trust interest scoring mechanism between network nodes to adjust the list of consensus nodes dynamically, simplify the PBFT consensus process and reduce the interaction overhead between network nodes. Theoretical analysis and experiments show that the improved tPBFT algorithm can effectively reduce the amount of information interaction between nodes, improve consensus efficiency and support more network nodes.

A New Approach for Fairness Increment of Consensus-driven Group Recommender Systems Based on Choquet Integral

It has been witnessed in recent years for the rising of Group recommender systems (GRSs) in most e-commerce and tourism applications like Booking.com, Traveloka.com, Amazon, etc. One of the most concerned problems in GRSs is to guarantee the fairness between users in a group so-called the consensus-driven group recommender system. This paper proposes a new flexible alternative that embeds a fuzzy measure to aggregation operators of consensus process to improve fairness of group recommendation and deals with group member interaction. Choquet integral is used to build a fuzzy measure based on group member interactions and to seek a better fairness recommendation. The empirical results on the benchmark datasets show the incremental advances of the proposal for dealing with group member interactions and the issue of fairness in Consensus-driven GRS.

Delivery of Virtual Care in Oncology: Province-Wide Interprofessional Consensus Statements Using a Modified Delphi Process

Virtual cancer care (i.e., teleoncology) was rapidly adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic to meet the needs of patients with cancer. However, there is a paucity of guidance for clinicians regarding virtual cancer care. We sought to develop consensus-based statements to guide the optimal provision of virtual care for clinicians caring for patients with cancer, using a modified Delphi consensus process with a 29-member panel consisting of an interprofessional group of clinicians caring for patients with cancer and patient representatives. The consensus process consisted of two rounds and one synchronous final consensus meeting. At the end of the modified Delphi process, 62 of 62 statements achieved consensus. Fifty-seven statements reached consensus in the first round of the process. Concerns regarding the ability to convey difficult news virtually and maintaining similar standards as in-person care without disproportionate strain on clinicians and patients were addressed in the consensus process. We achieved interprofessional consensus on virtual cancer care practices. Further research examining the impact of virtual cancer care on person-centred and clinical outcomes are needed to inform practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Diagnosis and Therapy of Female Genital Malformations (Part 1). Guideline of the DGGG, OEGGG and SGGG (S2k Level, AWMF Registry Number 015/052, May 2019)

Objectives Female genital malformations may take the form of individual entities, they may involve neighboring organs or they may occur in the context of complex syndromes. Given the anatomical structures of the vulva, vagina, uterus and adnexa, the clinical picture of malformations may vary greatly. Depending on the extent of the malformation, organs of the urinary system or associated malformations may also be involved. Methods This S2k-guideline was developed by representative members from different medical specialties and professions as part of the guidelines program of the DGGG, SGGG and OEGGG. The recommendations and statements were developed using a structured consensus process with neutral moderation and voted on. Recommendations The guideline is the first comprehensive presentation of the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment options for female genital malformations. Additional chapters on classifications and transition were included.

Diagnosis and Therapy of Female Genital Malformations (Part 2). Guideline of the DGGG, OEGGG and SGGG (S2k Level, AWMF Registry Number 015/052, May 2019)

Objectives Female genital malformations may be present in the form of individual entities, they may involve neighboring organs or they may occur in the context of complex syndromes. Given the anatomical structures of the vulva, vagina, uterus and uterine appendages, the clinical picture of malformations varies greatly. Methods This S2k-guideline was developed by representative members from different medical specialties and professions as part of the guidelines program of the DGGG, SGGG and OEGGG. The recommendations and statements were developed and voted on using a structured consensus process with neutral moderation. Recommendations This guideline is the first comprehensive summary of female genital malformations from infancy to adulthood which covers clinical examinations, diagnostic workups and treatment options. Additional chapters have been included on complex urogenital malformations, vascular malformations, psychosomatic care, and tumor risk.