Age- and sex-specific pediatric LMS-Percentiles for Laboratory Parameters enabled by Data mining

Background:Various laboratory parameters routinely measured in pediatric practice covariate with sex and age. Conventional reference intervals are not suitable to account for this variation. Here we demonstrate construction of continuous LMS percentile curves from routine laboratory data. This allows adequate adjustment for both sex- and age-dependent covariation in childhood.Material and Methods:Anonymized routine blood test results requested by primary health care physicians were collected, outliers excluded and LMS-models generated in R.Results:Percentiles for several biomarkers derived from a regional population were established in the 'LMS' framework and provided here for comparison with etablished reference ranges, discussion and, potentially, clinical use.Conclusion: The reference framework 'LMS' is well-known from pediatric growth charts and can also be used in laboratory medicine.

Integrated Product, Process and Manufacturing System Development for Multifunctional Micromachine Tool

Novel practices in the formation of students are encouraged to be multidisciplinary which in fact, allows them to better understand the behaviour of systems. This skill allows them to identify existing needs that impact multiple areas, both for an organization and to complement their entrepreneurial training. In this work, there is exposed a reference framework that arose to aid in the innovative design process among the manufacturing sector, it seeks to stretch the gap between conceptualization and implementation for engineering projects. Furthermore, the formation of the learners is enriched due to the breakdown of complex systems into entities as it gathers existing knowledge and provides structure to systematize the development process, allocate problems and provide feedback. Thus, design stages are detailed, engineering stages are described, and a toolbox is presented to guide designers into their task. The methodology has been tested under multidisciplinary projects in different time lapses, observing a positive impact in the formation of participants, as it guarantees the inclusion of desired attributes, documentation and milestones in the scenario being developed. In this article, there are described three case studies. Findings when developing using the methodology shows a structural, documented process followed by the designers, capable of recognizing the abilities acquired and reinforced skills, documented entities corresponding to what is developed at the end of the projects and time of deployment is enhanced.

Developing Cyber Security Competences Through Simulation-Based Learning

The importance of cyber security competences is growing both in practice and in academia during the last few years. This chapter provides a current overview of the existing body of the literature in the field of simulation-based learning and the key cyber security issues. The author's primary goal is to develop a methodological business-oriented and evidence-based learning framework which will provide students or trainees with the opportunity to develop practical skills in the field of cyber security issues through a virtual business simulator. The overall intention is to provide a coherent framework that makes use of active-based learning and gamification to support the active participation of students or trainees. To meet these goals, the Reference Framework for Applied Competences (REFRAC) is applied. Taking into account that in 2040 ICT and internet will be ‘culturally invisible', cyber security competences will be a must for everyone. They will be critical both for personal and companies' survival in the turbulent and highly competitive digital environment.

Acceptability of Mebendazole Chewable Tablet in Children Aged 2 to 4 Years in Peru

Soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) is among the most common of parasitic infections, affecting vulnerable populations in tropical/subtropical areas globally. In endemic countries, children, a high-risk population, require treatment and preventive interventions. Mebendazole, a WHO-recommended medicine, originally formulated as a tablet that was often crushed for administration to young children unable to swallow it, was reformulated as a chewable tablet. Acceptability is a key aspect for treatment effectiveness in pediatrics. Herein, we used a validated data-driven approach to investigate the acceptability of the 500-mg mebendazole chewable tablet in children aged 2 to 4 years in Peru. Observer-reported outcomes were collected for 182 medicine intakes. Acceptability was scored using the acceptability reference framework: a three-dimensional map juxtaposing “positively accepted” and “negatively accepted” profiles. Results found that the 500-mg mebendazole chewable tablet was classified as “positively accepted” in children aged 2 to 4 years. Acceptability increased with age and some acceptability issue remain for the younger children. Nevertheless, this formulation was considerably better accepted than the conventional tablets regardless of treatment in young children. This chewable formulation appears to be an appropriate alternative to the hard tablet of mebendazole for treatment of STH and preventive interventions in children aged 2 to 4 years.

Chatbot as a Telehealth Intervention Strategy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and the need for social distancing have created a demand for new and innovative solutions in healthcare systems worldwide. One of the strategies that have been implemented are chatbots, which can be helpful in providing reliable health information and preventing people from seeking assistance in healthcare centers and being unnecessarily exposed to the virus. In this context, although a high number of chatbots have been implemented worldwide, little has been discussed about the process and challenges in developing and implementing this technology. This paper reports on an action research, which designed a novel chatbot as a prompt response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chatbot is intended to be a first layer of interaction with the public, performing triage of patients and providing information about COVID-19 on a large scale and without human contact. Our contribution is twofold: (i) we reflected on the development process and discuss lessons learned and recommendations to support a multidisciplinary development and evolution process of the chatbot; and (ii) we identified some interactive and technological features that can be used as a reference framework for this kind of technology. These contributions can be useful to other researchers and multidisciplinary teams facing similar challenges.

Rhetorical Analysis of Introduction Sections from Humanities and Sciences Research Theses Authored by Pakistani Scholars

This research aims to investigate the rhetorical structures of the introduction sections of Pakistani research theses at postgraduate level. The corpus of study contains 32 “Introduction” sections of Pakistani research theses from two faculties: Humanities and Sciences. The faculty of Sciences include theses from disciplines of Zoology, Chemistry, Botany and Biochemistry, whereas the faculty of Humanities include theses of Mass Communication, English, Gender Studies and Computer Studies. Both qualitative and quantitative methods including textual analysis and frequency percentages have been used for data analysis. The online software Compleat Lexical Tutor(Cobb.2015) was employed to extract the sentence units of the data. A hand tagged move analysis was conducted by following Swales’ Model (2004) as a reference framework. All the instances of moves and steps were calculated to explore the rhetorical variation across two faculties. Findings of the study disclosed that Pakistani authors follow their own pattern of Move 1 (Establishing the research territory) along with the variation in frequency of its constituent steps across two faculties. The demarcation between two faculties has revealed that, in the field of sciences, there is a stronger use of topic generalization than in humanities. Moreover, the inter-textual links to prior research in the field of sciences are provided more frequently than in the field of humanities. However, scholars from the faculty of Humanities represent their stance by claiming relevance of the field.

An Inspection of the Life Cycle of Sustainable Construction Projects: Towards a Biomimicry-Based Road Map Integrating Circular Economy

According to the National Energy Plan in Panama, the construction sector is one of the most prosperous and impactful sectors in the economy and it is expected to expand due to population growth by almost 300% by 2050. However, this sector must work on the transition towards sustainability and resilience in the face of climate change, since its growth implies a high consumption of resources and the contribution of greenhouse gases. The need to establish practices and strategies that embrace the dimension of sustainability and a circular economy is imminent. Currently, there is little guidance in the reference framework beyond certifications in planning, management and evaluation tools for its implementation. Different studies vary in the number of phases and considerations for projects. Therefore, the present work proposes the development of a unified road map, with defined phases, practices and indicators based on principles inspired by nature, such as biomimicry (Greek words: “bio” means life and “mimesis”, imitation), and focuses on a circular economy, validated by construction professionals, where strengths, opportunities, skills and threats are identified with a high level of acceptance. This contributes to strengthening the field of sustainable construction project management and a precedent for Panama.