Testing the Usefulness of the Evidence Integration Triangle for Implementation of EIT-4-BPSD

The effectiveness of evidence-based practices, such as use of behavioral interventions, can be improved when delivered under conditions of an implementation framework. This pragmatic trial used the Evidence Integration Triangle (EIT) which is a parsimonious, community-engaged participatory framework that brings evidence and facility stakeholders together. Active engagement empowers key stakeholders to integrate evidence into practice using a simple three-pronged framework: (1) A participatory implementation process which was done via monthly meetings and weekly emails between stakeholders and a clinical expert as they worked on facility based goals; (2) Implementation of the four steps delineated in the EIT-4-BPSD; and (3) evaluation using practical progress measures. There was some evidence of implementation of the EIT-4-BPSD based on participation in Stakeholder team meetings, settings working towards goal achievement, and increased use of behavioral interventions among staff. The EIT approach is a useful implementation framework to help change staff behavior in long term care.

The Practitioner’s Perspective: R2P at 15

In this contribution the authors reflect on the Forum topic ‘R2P 15 Years after the World Summit: Progress, Problems and Prospects’ and provide their perspective as advocates on the normative and practical progress made towards implementation of R2P. They discuss how R2P has created a greater consciousness regarding atrocity crimes within multilateral decision-making, the challenges inherent in cultivating norm champions, and how to transform R2P from a boutique foreign policy initiative into a domestic policy imperative.

Adjustability of exposed elements by updating their capacity for resistance after a damaging event: application to an earthquake–tsunami cascade scenario

The 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami remind us once again that these types of cascade event can occur and cause considerable damage. The scientific community realizes the need for rapid theoretical and practical progress on cascade events to provide field teams with the necessary tools and information for action during these types of events. The earthquake damage scenario for Martinique and Guadeloupe islands (French West Indies) has already been performed within the framework of French governmental projects, but these areas, in the vicinity of the French West Indies subduction zone, are also subject to tsunami events. In this study, we propose to perform a combined scenario in which an earthquake is followed by a tsunami, as it could arrive one day, considering the seismic characteristics and potential of such a subduction zone. The vulnerability of the buildings is defined considering local specific information based on several years of field inventories and inspections and is later classified into one of the 36 model building types of HAZUS. The calculation of the damages due to tsunamis follows the HAZUS methodologies. The main novelty of our study is the calculation of damage due to the two phenomena occurring one after the other, not in parallel, as is calculated in the existing literature. Therefore, for the calculation of the damages due to the second event (i.e. the tsunami), the vulnerability characteristics of the initial structure are reduced, considering the damage state of the construction after the first event (i.e. the earthquake). Hence, in our case, this calculation approach allows us to update the number of exposed elements and their changed vulnerabilities considering the damages due to the earthquake, since certain structures are already damaged by the earthquake before the arrival of the tsunami wave. The results coming from our study and our manner of treating the cascading hazards are putting into perspective with the Hazus method for combining damages coming from earthquake and the damages coming from consequently tsunami. The results expressed as the sum of the damages in both most damaged states, Extensive and Complete, are more or less in the same range of values for both studies (our study and HAZUS 2017). However, a trend of having more percentage of complete damages (and hence, less the Extensive damages) with our method than the ones obtained with the Hazus combination can be important information for crisis managing. This is a first result for the French West Indies territory, but anyway, more studies should be carried out in order to check this trend and eventually to confirm and validate this issue for others territories with others bathymetries, vulnerabilities and seismological features.

Scientific Landscape of Sustainable Urban and Rural Areas Research: A Systematic Scientometric Analysis

Urban and rural areas are the cradles of human development and civilization as all practical progress and feasible products have emerged from these places. Having a clear understanding of the sustainability of these areas, especially the progress of research in this field, is highly important. This study undertakes a comprehensive scientometric analysis to visualize and quantitatively measure the outcome of the scientific enterprise to construct sustainable urban and rural areas. The scientific productivity of recorded publications, their impacts, and their importance were systematically measured in diverse aspects by virtue of ten distinctive techniques. A critical assessment of the respected criteria for sustainable urban and rural areas is presented in order to further clarify its boundaries with other related topics, as well as providing a clear benchmark for future studies. After screening the search results between 1900 and 2018 on the Web of Science database, 7397 publications explicitly related to sustainable urban and rural areas were extracted and analyzed by the CiteSpace software via the relevant bibliometric indicators. The results of this study shed light on the trends and patterns, consisting of kernel research areas, countries, journals, institutions, and how these entities have been concatenated, inside the bibliographic records around sustainable urban and rural areas. The findings facilitate in identifying the barriers and weakness in the current sustainable urban and rural areas research, and consequently help in identifying auspicious directions for prospective investigations.

The Possibility of Applying the Basic Principles of Financial Control in Accordance with the Requirements of ISSAI 200 of the International Standards of the Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and its Impact on Internal Control in the Public Sector

The study aimed to clarifying the possibility of applying the basic principles of financial control in accordance with the requirements of ISSAI 200 of the international standards of the Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and its impact on the internal control in the public sector in addition to identifying the obstacles that limit the application of the basic principles of financial control according to the requirements of the standard ISSAI 200 of the International Standards of the Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), and its impact on internal control in the public sector, In order to achieve the objectives of the study and the testing of hypotheses, the researcher designed a questionnaire.This questionnaire was distributed to managers and employees in the internal control of the administrative government units, and (80) were recovered with an adoption rate of 80%for the statistical analysis purposes. The results showed that the application of the basic principles of financial control in accordance with the requirements of ISSAI 200 of the international standards of the Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and its impact on internal control in the public sector in general was high With an arithmetic mean of (4.266) and a standard deviation (0.887) The researcher attributes this result to what has been done in accordance with the laws, regulations, financial and accounting regulations prescribed for the financial control operations. It is in line with the standards assigned to it by the international standards of the Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). The obstacles that limit the application of the basic principles of financial control in general moderately came with an arithmetic mean of (3.417) and of (1.118). The researcher attributed this result to the existence of some obstacles, the most important of which is non-specialization and noncompliance with the development of the regulations and instructions with the international standards of the Supreme Audit Institutions. Finance and Accounting (INTOSAI) and others as stated in the results of the study. Based on the results of the study, the researcher recommended the need for attention employment staff  and work to keep pace with the development and modernization of international standards of Supreme Financial Control and Accounting INTOSAI internal control system in terms of training and development and keep up with scientific and practical progress need to emphasize the re-drafting of some legislation and instructions for some of the financial aspects and the need for harmonization and cooperation Continuous and continuous between the legislators and the applicable bodies of the standards to reach a consensus and appropriate in some of the minor or fundamental differences between the law and the standard and other Recommendations.