President's Page: Advancing sustainability in SEG

In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In this framework, development is conceived as an integrated approach to elevate the quality of life by raising economic progress with environmental protection considerations. This vision evolved into the formulation in 2015 of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to mitigate the hazards of climate change and to contribute to the development of society in every aspect, establishing targets to be attained by 2030. As an example, SDG 13: Climate Action calls for initiatives to moderate climate change within development frameworks. SDG 14: Life Below Water and SDG 15: Life on Land also call for more sustainable practices in using the earth's natural resources. The world is not making progress against the SDGs fast enough to achieve all the goals within the established timeline, yet with international agreements and specific actions, the success rate is growing incrementally.

Methodological Principles for the Development of a Questionnaire “Quality of Life” in Patients with Computer Visual Syndrome

Purpose: scientific substantiation and development of methodological principles of the “quality of life” (QOL) assessment questionnaire in patients with symptoms of computer visual syndrome (CVS).Material and мethods. As part of the first stage of the study, an individual interview was carried out (according to the standard developed methodology) with 100 patients with visually strenuous labor, according to the results of which the entire spectrum of complaints arising during prolonged work with a computer was determined (44 complaints in total). As part of the second stage, a special questionnaire was developed, in which the identified complaints were transformed into questions. The study involved 96 ophthalmologists aged 32 to 62 years with an average of 17.3 ± 1.4 years. The task of an expert ophthalmologist was to assess the relevance each of the questions in terms of the influence degree on the patient’s QOL, as well as the “severity” of the complaint in terms the of occurrence frequency.Results. The development of the questionnaire was based on the sequential implementation of five stages (development of a conceptual framework; development of a preliminary version and confirmation of validity content; additional modification; scaling procedure development; psychometric properties determination). The results obtained made it possible to form the questionnaire (22 questions) the final version, which (according to the analysis) meets the requirements of meaningful and constructive validity (specificity, reflection of questions and scales of significance for the patient, the results of an expert assessment by ophthalmologists of the psychometric response scale) with the weight coefficients development, the required values correlation coefficients (according to Pearson) between the relevance assessment of the question from the points according to the symptom severity, as well as the high level of consistency according to the “Cronbach-α” indicator.Conclusion. The main direction of the assessment QOL improving of a patient with GLC is active participation in the ophthalmologist’s questionnaire development. Our results determine that the expert assessment provides a mathematically confirmed choice of the most significant (in terms on QoL impact) subjective manifestations, which (in conjunction with the development of each patient’s possible responses expert assessments, in points) provides the required level of the questionnaire meaningful and constructive validity. The developed questionnaire can be recommended for further clinical testing.

Legal consequences for the state arising from the use of weapons against civil aircraft: review and legal framework development

The authors elaborate on one of the controversial issues of international air law - safety of civil aircraft in flight in respect of the use of weapons against it. The first part of the present article considers major aerial accidents arising from shooting down the civil aircraft for the last 70 years as a factual basis for further legal analysis. In the second part, the authors back up customary prohibition of the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight and legal consequences for states for violating the mentioned principle. The authors investigate the grounds for the security exception and conclude that the only grounds for derogation from the principle of non-use of weapons against civil aircraft is Article 51 of the UN Charter proclaiming the inherent right of the state to self-defence. Even in this case, the application of the security exception by the state is tolerated by using a set of precautions before employment of weapons. Finally, authors conclude that compensation for victims reflects the inevitable monetisation of human lives. Moreover, states negotiations reveal the controversial reality of trade-offs between them, where compensation amounts are occasionally affected by external political factors and current position of a particular state in the international community.

A Six-Step Model for Developing Competency Frameworks in the Healthcare Professions

Competency frameworks are developed for a variety of purposes, including describing professional practice and informing education and assessment frameworks. Despite the volume of competency frameworks developed in the healthcare professions, guidance remains unclear and is inconsistently adhered to (perhaps in part due to a lack of organizing frameworks), there is variability in methodological choices, inconsistently reported outputs, and a lack of evaluation of frameworks. As such, we proposed the need for improved guidance. In this paper, we outline a six-step model for developing competency frameworks that is designed to address some of these shortcomings. The six-steps comprise [1] identifying purpose, intended uses, scope, and stakeholders; [2] theoretically informed ways of identifying the contexts of complex, “real-world” professional practice, which includes [3] aligned methods and means by which practice can be explored; [4] the identification and specification of competencies required for professional practice, [5] how to report the process and outputs of identifying such competencies, and [6] built-in strategies to continuously evaluate, update and maintain competency framework development processes and outputs. The model synthesizes and organizes existing guidance and literature, and furthers this existing guidance by highlighting the need for a theoretically-informed approach to describing and exploring practice that is appropriate, as well as offering guidance for developers on reporting the development process and outputs, and planning for the ongoing maintenance of frameworks.

Review on Sensing Technology Adoption in the Construction Industry

Sensing technologies demonstrate promising potential in providing the construction industry with a safe, productive, and high-quality process. The majority of sensing technologies in the construction research area have been focused on construction automation research in prefabrication, on-site operation, and logistics. However, most of these technologies are either not implemented in real construction projects or are at the very early stages in practice. The corresponding applications are far behind, even in extensively researched aspects such as Radio Frequency Identification, ultra-wideband technology, and Fiber Optic Sensing technology. This review systematically investigates the current status of sensing technologies in construction from 187 articles and explores the reasons responsible for their slow adoption from 69 articles. First, this paper identifies common sensing technologies and investigates their implementation extent. Second, contributions and limitations of sensing technologies are elaborated to understand the current status. Third, key factors influencing the adoption of sensing technologies are extracted from construction stakeholders’ experience. Demand towards sensing technologies, benefits and suitability of them, and barriers to their adoption are reviewed. Lastly, the governance framework is determined as the research tendency facilitating sensing technologies adoption. This paper provides a theoretical basis for the governance framework development. It will promote the sensing technologies adoption and improve construction performance including safety, productivity, and quality.

Automated Conflict Management Framework Development for Autonomous Aerial and Ground Vehicles

The number of aerial- and ground-based unmanned vehicles and operations is expected to significantly expand in the near future. While aviation traditionally has an excellent safety record in managing conflicts, the current approaches will not be able to provide safe and efficient operations in the future. This paper presents the development of a novel framework integrating autonomous aerial and ground vehicles to facilitate short- and mid-term tactical conflict management. The methodology presents the development of a modular web service framework to develop new conflict management algorithms. This new framework is aimed at managing urban and peri-urban traffic of unmanned ground vehicles and assisting the introduction of urban air mobility into the same framework. A set of high-level system requirements is defined. The incremental development of two versions of the system prototype is presented. The discussions highlight the lessons learnt while implementing and testing the conflict management system and the introduced version of the stop-and-go resolution algorithm and defines the identified future development directions. Operation of the system was successfully demonstrated using real hardware. The developed framework implements short- and mid-term conflict management methodologies in a safe, resource efficient and scalable manner and can be used for the further development and the evaluation of various methods integrating aerial- and ground-based autonomous vehicles.

Competency-Based Education: Developing an Advanced Competency Framework for Indonesian Pharmacists

Introduction: Pharmacists need to be adaptable, flexible, and capable of advancing their practice to adapt to rapidly changing population health needs. We describe an educational approach to pharmacy workforce transformation in Indonesia through an advanced practice competency framework development using an “adopt and adapt” methodology.Methods: The competency framework development process comprised a translation phase, an adopt and adapt phase, validation through a nationwide mapping survey, and a completion phase through leadership consensus panels. We conducted a forward-backwards translation of a previously validated Advanced to Consultancy Level Framework (ACLF) to yield the Indonesian Advanced Development Framework (IADF) draft. The subsequent adoption and adaptation process was conducted through a series of consensus panels. We validated the IADF through a nationwide workforce survey. The final phase included leadership consensus panels with the professional leadership body in Indonesia. We analyzed the qualitative data thematically and the quantitative data using a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) technique.Results: We identified conceptual challenges in adopting and adapting the existing ACLF, which were addressed by providing a national glossary and concrete examples. A total of 6,212 pharmacists participated in the national workforce survey, of which 43% had <2 years of post-license (post-registration) experience. The MCA results showed that practitioner self-assessment to the IADF could discriminate their career development stages. The results also indicated a four-stage career model (including early years career training). Embedding this model in a structured national training program will enhance the professional workforce development through a more structured career journey.Conclusions: We describe the first validation of an advanced competency development framework for the pharmacy workforce in a non-Anglophone country, showing the possibility of transnational applicability of this framework. We argue that this methodology can be used in Low and Middle-income countries (LMICs) for the more rapid advancement of pharmaceutical care practice.

Appraising clinical applicability of studies: mapping and synthesis of current frameworks, and proposal of the FrACAS framework and VICORT checklist

Background Not all research findings are translated to clinical practice. Reasons for lack of applicability are varied, and multiple frameworks and criteria exist to appraise the general applicability of epidemiological and clinical research. In this two-part study, we identify, map, and synthesize frameworks and criteria; we develop a framework to assist clinicians to appraise applicability specifically from a clinical perspective. Methods We conducted a literature search in PubMed and Embase to identify frameworks appraising applicability of study results. Conceptual thematic analysis was used to synthesize frameworks and criteria. We carried out a framework development process integrating contemporary debates in epidemiology, findings from the literature search and synthesis, iterative pilot-testing, and brainstorming and consensus discussions to propose a concise framework to appraise clinical applicability. Results Of the 4622 references retrieved, we identified 26 unique frameworks featuring 21 criteria. Frameworks and criteria varied by scope and level of aggregation of the evidence appraised, target user, and specific area of applicability (internal validity, clinical applicability, external validity, and system applicability). Our proposed Framework Appraising the Clinical Applicability of Studies (FrACAS) classifies studies in three domains (research, practice informing, and practice changing) by examining six criteria sequentially: Validity, Indication-informativeness, Clinical relevance, Originality, Risk-benefit comprehensiveness, and Transposability (VICORT checklist). Conclusions Existing frameworks to applicability vary by scope, target user, and area of applicability. We introduce FrACAS to specifically assess applicability from a clinical perspective. Our framework can be used as a tool for the design, appraisal, and interpretation of epidemiological and clinical studies.

Stakeholder Engagement in Competency Framework Development in Health Professions: A Systematic Review

Competency framework development in health professions has downstream implications for all relevant stakeholders, from the professionals themselves, to organisations, and most importantly end users of services. However, there is little guidance related to what stakeholders might be involved in the competency development process, and when. This review aimed to systematically review literature related to competency framework development methodology in health, to identify the breadth and purpose of key stakeholders commonly involved in the process. Studies were identified using five electronic databases (MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, and ERIC) and a search of websites of organisations involved in curriculum or regulation using keywords related to competency frameworks. The total yield from all databases was 10,625 results, with 73 articles included in the final review. Most articles were from Australia (30%) and were conducted in the nursing (34%) profession. Unsurprisingly, practitioners (86%) and academics (75%) were typically engaged as stakeholders in competency framework development. While many competency frameworks were described as patient-focused, only 14 (19%) studies elected to include service users as stakeholders. Similarly, despite the multi-disciplinary focus described in some frameworks, only nine (12%) studies involved practitioners from other professions. Limiting the conceptualisation of competence to that determined by members of the profession itself may not provide the depth of insight required to capture the complexity of healthcare and address the needs of important stakeholder groups. Future methodology should attempt to engage a variety of relevant stakeholders such as external health professions and the community to match professional education to health service demands.Systematic Review Registration:https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=128350