New records of Xerotyphlops vermicularis (Merrem, 1820) indicate the northernmost locality of the species in the Balkan Peninsula

The Xerotyphlops vermicularis (Merrem, 1820) complex represents small, burrowing snakes that occur from the Balkan Peninsula to Afghanistan and generally they are mostly observed during the springtime. In the present study, we report new records of this snake (10 individuals observed) from Elenite village in coastal Bulgaria. According to current knowledge, they represent the northernmost locality of the species in the Balkan Peninsula. We expand the known distribution of X. vermicularis and help to fill information gaps.

“I think that she would have wanted...”: Caregiver reflections on goal-concordant care for patients with cancer at the end of life.

163 Background: Experts recognize goal-concordant care (GCC) as among the most important outcomes for those with advanced cancer. Despite a conceptual understanding about ways to measure goal-concordant care, we know little about what patient experiences align perceptions of goal concordance. Caregivers’ close proximity to patients give them a unique perspective on what factors contribute to perceived goal concordance. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 recently bereaved family caregivers of those with cancer to understand their experience of care, the extent to which they felt it was goal-concordant, and the factors of care which contextualized their experience. Caregivers were interviewed using a semi-structured guide based on the end-of-life planning module in Round 2 of the National Health and Aging Trends Survey (NHATS). We used template analysis to identify themes across the 19 interviews. Results: Most caregivers reported goal-concordant care when prompted, though many also recalled moments of goal discordance. Three high-level themes characterized their care perceptions: communication, relationships and humanistic care, and care transitions. Sub-themes of communication included clinician communication quality, prognostic communication, and information gaps. First, clear and transparent clinician communication facilitated GCC and high-quality care. Prognostic communication that did not align to patient preferences or consider patient hope was seen as harmful. Information gaps inhibited high-quality care as well as caregivers’ confidence that decisions were goal concordant. Second, relationships between patients and their clinicians enriched care, and humanistic care was seen as higher-quality. Lastly, logistical barriers, the need for relationship rebuilding, uncertain information communication, and a general lack of coordination characterized perceptions around care transitions and goal discordance. In particular, several caregivers noted issues and inter-specialty tensions around transitions specifically involving hospice. Conclusions: Caregivers consistently rated care as goal-concordant while also identifying areas of disappointing and low-quality care. Measures that capture goal-concordant care may be subject to psychological bias and may not clearly align with or predict other measures of care quality. Communication, relationships and humanistic care, and care transitions are all modifiable targets for quality improvement and deserve clear attention for patients with advanced cancer.

SEGMENTATION OF THE REGIONAL BLOGOSPHERE: VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF TVER BLOGGERS

Статья посвящена изучению процессов, происходящих в региональной блогосфере, в частности проблеме выявления сегментов региональной блогосферы в соответствии с уровнем подготовленности блогеров к созданию актуального для целевой аудитории контента. Обращение к проблемам развития и функционирования региональной блогосферы обусловлено рядом причин: именно блогеры, как носители авторитетного мнения, не ангажированные местными властными структурами, во многом заполняют своими постами информационные лакуны в региональном медиа-пространстве; блогосфера является источником информации для СМИ, а также способствует распространению информации из профессиональных медиа. The article is devoted to the study of the processes taking place in the regional blogosphere, in particular, the problem of identifying segments of the regional blogosphere in accordance with the level of readiness of bloggers to create relevant content for the target audience. The appeal to the problems of the development and functioning of the regional blogosphere is due to a number of reasons: it is bloggers, as carriers of an authoritative opinion, not biased by local government structures, who largely fill information gaps in the regional media space with their posts; the blogosphere is a source of information for the media, and also contributes to the dissemination of information from professional media.

Collecting, Sharing and Utilising Data to Inform Decision-making and Improve Equality

Although we live in an era in which government and private organisations collect large amounts of data, this has not filtered through to anti-discrimination and equality law in Australia. Government and its agencies have little incentive to collect information, nor does business. Neither group bears any obligation to tackle discrimination if they detect it. Yet the self-regulating enforcement model used in equality law is premised on the idea that information will be available to aid voluntary compliance. This article examines the nature of the data organisations that are currently required to collect and identify significant information gaps. It argues that it is not enough to simply fill those gaps with information; increased data collection needs to be accompanied by the obligation to address inequality if that is what the data reveals.

Dynamic Communication Quantification Model for Measuring Information Management During Mass-Casualty Incident Simulations

Objective To develop a new model to quantify information management dynamically and to identify factors that lead to information gaps. Background Information management is a core task for emergency medical service (EMS) team leaders during the prehospital phase of a mass-casualty incident (MCI). Lessons learned from past MCIs indicate that poor information management can lead to increased mortality. Various instruments are used to evaluate information management during MCI training simulations, but the challenge of measuring and improving team leaders’ abilities to manage information remains. Method The Dynamic Communication Quantification (DCQ) model was developed based on the knowledge representation typology. Using multi point-of-view synchronized video, the model quantifies and visualizes information management. It was applied to six MCI simulations between 2014 and 2019, to identify factors that led to information gaps, and compared with other evaluation methods. Results Out of the three methods applied, only the DCQ model revealed two factors that led to information gaps: first, consolidation of numerous casualties from different areas, and second, tracking of casualty arrivals to the medical treatment area and departures from the MCI site. Conclusion The DCQ model allows information management to be objectively quantified. Thus, it reveals a new layer of knowledge, presenting information gaps during an MCI. Because the model is applicable to all MCI team leaders, it can make MCI simulations more effective. Application This DCQ model quantifies information management dynamically during MCI training simulations.

Dangerous Aliens, Crisis Constellations, and Information Gaps

Chapter 4 shifts the analytical focus from elite claims made in the name of ‘the people’ to EU citizens’ vernacular knowledge of migration. Particular emphasis is given to the vernacular knowledge and categories used by citizens to discuss the issue of migration as it is perceived to impact and disrupt their everyday lives, the underpinning assumptions about hierarchies of race and gender used to position citizens in relation to perceptions about different ‘types’ of people on the move, and citizens’ awareness of/support for dominant governmental and media representations of the issue of migration in Europe. As well as offering a map of these contours, the discussion identifies three overriding themes. First, vernacular conversations problematize the notion of a linear transmission between elite crisis narratives and their reception among diverse publics. Second, the claim that elite narratives merely ventriloquize what ‘the people’ think about and want in regard to about migration is challenged by the complexity and nuance of vernacular narratives. Third, EU citizens repeatedly spoke of what they perceived to be a series of ‘information gaps’, which led to a widespread distrust of mainstream politicians and media sources, anxieties about their individual and collective futures, and demands for more detailed, higher quality, and accessible knowledge about migration from the EU, national governments, media sources, and academics. By taking vernacular views and experiences of migration seriously we can better understand how the propagation of misinformation, confusion, and uncertainty among EU citizens set the scene for populist notions of ‘taking back control’ to thrive.

What Still Needs to be Noted: Pseudo-Clefts in the Academic Discourse of Applied Linguistics

Pseudo-clefts are the building blocks of coherent discourse progression and serve as a rhetorical toolkit to construct an authorial stance in the academic discourse. Despite an increasing interest in grammatical constructions in the academic discourse, researchers have not treated pseudo-clefts in much detail. This paper explores the features of pseudo-clefts in the corpus of academic discourse in the field of applied linguistics. Here, we take the textual and the interpersonal perspectives, focusing on the use of pseudo-clefts in terms of their distribution in generic structure, discourse functions with reference to clefted constituents, and evaluative meaning. The results show that pseudo-clefts were more frequently used in “Results and Discussion” and Literature Review, performing the functions such as the specification of key terms, generalization of the literature, the description and explanation of findings, etc. They are facilitative in creating information gaps and establishing a logic-semantic expansive relationship between the clauses. The findings also suggest that the pseudo-clefts are evaluative devices and are involved in the construction of authorial identities.

Understanding patient needs and gaps in radiology reports through online discussion forum analysis

Our objective is to investigate patient needs and understand information gaps in radiology reports using patient questions that were posted on online discussion forums. We leveraged online question and answer platforms to collect questions posted by patients to understand current gaps and patient needs. We retrieved six hundred fifty-nine (659) questions using the following sites: Yahoo Answers, Reddit.com, Quora, and Wiki Answers. The questions retrieved were analyzed and the major themes and topics were identified. The questions retrieved were classified into eight major themes. The themes were related to the following topics: radiology report, safety, price, preparation, procedure, meaning, medical staff, and patient portal. Among the 659 questions, 35.50% were concerned with the radiology report. The most common question topics in the radiology report focused on patient understanding of the radiology report (62 of 234 [26.49%]), image visualization (53 of 234 [22.64%]), and report representation (46 of 234 [19.65%]). We also found that most patients were concerned about understanding the MRI report (32%; n = 143) compared with the other imaging modalities (n = 434). Using online discussion forums, we discussed major unmet patient needs and information gaps in radiology reports. These issues could be improved to enhance radiology design in the future.

RooT37 – CUTA’s TRA Tool in Response to a Changing Threat Landscape

In this chapter the authors discuss the establishment of the Belgian ‘Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis’ (CUTA), its remits and fields of competence and how its scope was widened in the last few years because of changes in the threat landscape of problematic radicalization, extremism and terrorism and the changing tactics of the Belgian government to tackle them. In the second part of this chapter the authors elaborate on ‘RooT37’, a risk assessment tool that was tailor-made by CUTA to address its newly assigned tasks in the framework of the revised Belgian Action Plan on Radicalism. The tool takes several risk indicators into account to aid CUTA’s experts in making structured professional judgments about threats and risks posed by monitored individuals, and semi-automatically produces a threat level. Furthermore, it provides CUTA’s support agencies with clues for further investigation based on discovered information gaps through the assessment. Finally, it also points out opportunities for coordinated intervention by partner services to reduce the risk posed by monitored individuals. Certain characteristics of the methodology of the tool are described in more detail, as well as its advantages and some challenges for the future.