(Re)Introducing the Gerontology and Geriatrics Curricular Standards and Guidelines in Higher Education

The Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), the education member group of GSA, is the only national institutional membership organization devoted primarily to gerontology and geriatrics education. Its mission provides for development and sponsorship of initiatives to advance the field of aging through its focus on education in gerontology/geriatrics. AGHE first published the Gerontology and Geriatrics Curricular Standards over three decades ago – a document that has been an integral resource for implementing/revising programs in liberal arts, the sciences, and more recently, health professions. To meet the needs in the field for increased breadth and depth of content, the new 7th edition of the educational guidelines fully embraces competency-based education for gerontology, as the health professions programs have for years. Our first presenter will provide an overview of the new edition. The second presenter will focus on associate degree programs in gerontology and their unique contribution to higher education. The third will present on undergraduate programs in gerontology explaining how these programs give students an edge in today’s job market. The fourth presenter will address graduate programs in gerontology, describing master’s degree programs and doctoral degree programs in gerontology and aging studies. The fifth presenter will discuss health professions programs including geriatrics curricula for osteopathic medical education, gerontology/geriatrics curricula for health-related programs and the doctor of pharmacy degree programs. Presentations will provide expert recommendations for program development through mapping AGHE’s Gerontology Competencies for Undergraduate and Graduate Education to programs in higher education. Nina Silverstein will serve as discussant.

Green Nanotechnology Innovations to Realize UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030

Purpose: Adoption of suitable technology and managing it strategically to solve social problems of the world is the need of the hour. United nations being a multi-country membership organization, has announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the year 2015 with a slogan of action to end poverty, to protect the planet, and to ensure peace and prosperity by the year 2030. It is argued that nanotechnology that is considered a technology of the 21st century can be used to realize thirteen out of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. These thirteen SDGs include: Reduce Poverty, Reduce Hunger, Health & Well-Being, Clean Water & Sanitation, Affordable renewable energy, Sustainable Industrialization, Ensure Sustainable Production & Consumption, Combat on Climate Change, Conserve Ocean & Marine Resources, and Protect life on Land. Methodology: The study uses explorative research methodology based on developing postulates. The data and information are collected from various related scholarly publications searched through suitable keywords in Google scholar. Findings: Nanotechnology anticipated as a universal technology has capabilities to solve problems of society at the basic level, comfortable level, and dreamy desirable levels. Nanotechnology, if not managed strategically and carefully has dangers to human health due to its potential risks of predicted nanotoxicity. In this paper, we have analysed these potentials challenges of nanotechnology, its strategic management, and developed a model of how green and eco-friendly nanotechnology can be used in many industries to realize these thirteen sustainable development goals and eliminates the threat of the technification of development processes. Originality/Value: The paper discusses the advantages and benefits of systematic management of green and eco-friendly nanotechnology in the process of realizing individual sustainable goals in detail. Further, the concept, current research outcome, and the industrial prospects of achieving global SDG using eco-friendly green nanotechnology are analysed using predictive analysis framework of explorative research methodology. Paper type: Exploratory Research Analysis.

THE SOCIETY OF URAL MINING TECHNICIANS: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

The article traces the historical conditions and the reasons for the creation of organization “The Society of Ural Mining Technicians”, which made a great contribution to the development of science and technology of the Ural region during the new socio-economic processes of the early 20th century. The article discusses the expediency of the activity of administrative structure of “The Society of Ural Mining Technicians” and its governing bodies on the territory of the Perm province over the 1901 to 1909. The authors of the article write in detail about the coordination and subordination of structural divisions: the General Meeting and the Management Board and dwell on the questions of the membership organization particularly. Changing the form of management and powers of the General meeting and the Management Board in the process of finalizing the Charter has become a natural fact of the organization development during this period. This question has not been studied deeply in historiography. In addition, the authors refer to the engineering, technical and organizational activities of the founder and the chairman of “The Society of Ural Mining Technicians” P.M. Utaykov.

The Weight of the Past: Political Parties’ ‘Genetic’ Heritage and the Ease of their Organizational Professionalization

How do political parties react organizationally when the competitive context changes? Are all parties equally accustomed to adapting? In recent decades, the emergence of an electorally volatile and publicity-oriented style of politics has pushed Western parties to replace member-centred mass organizations with centralized ‘media agencies’. However, as has long been speculated, parties’ ‘genetic’ heritage may condition their adaptive capacity and threaten their competitiveness. This study presents the first comprehensive quantitative test of the impact of party ‘genetics’ on the ease of parties’ organizational professionalization in the cartel party era (1983–2018). It utilizes uniquely fine-grained time-series data on the financial and staff resources of central party offices to compare the adaptive processes of two ‘genetically’ distinct major Finnish parties – a social democratic mass party and a conservative cadre party. The study finds that although both parties have professionalized under strong external pressure, the ‘genetically’ election-driven cadre party case adapted much faster, and the member-oriented mass party case continues to invest much more in its membership organization.

Political Game-Changers: The Importance of Leaders for Newly Emerged Parties in Romania

Party leaders continue to be crucial players in politics. The theories of personalization and presidentialization of party politics reflect the centrality of leaders’ roles. Little attention has been paid to the effects of leaders on the formation and development of newly emerged parties. This article aims to fill that gap by analyzing the effect of leaders on the formation, intra-party cohesion, and membership organization of three newly emerged Romanian parties between 2015 and 2019. The qualitative analysis uses content from primary (party documents and elite discourses) and secondary sources (media reports). The findings indicate that the leaders’ approaches towards party formation and organization differ substantially across the examined parties and explain their cohesion and electoral appeal.

Technology-enhanced Auditing in Voluntary Sustainability Standards: The Impact of COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the certification and auditing services of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). The traditional approach to auditing—on-site visits—has been significantly curtailed, and it is unclear when, and under what conditions, it might resume in full. The purpose of this paper is to study the initial responses to COVID-19 of leading VSS—a group of 21 standards that are members of ISEAL, a global membership organization for VSS. This is a qualitative study, and data are collected from publicly-available sources (i.e., official announcements, policy amendments, derogations) in order to inductively analyze how individual VSS have adjusted their certification services in response to travel bans and lockdowns. The emphasis of the analysis was understanding the role of technologies in the VSS responses to the COVID-19 crisis. The findings demonstrate significant uptake of remote auditing and information and communications technology (ICT), even though that uptake is constrained by limiting conditions and it is not currently expected by VSS to extend beyond the crisis. Lessons learned from the crisis are discussed, and the potential for remote auditing during this period to encourage the adoption of more advanced technologies (such as artificial intelligence and satellite monitoring) in certification services is explored. A set of research questions to guide future work grounded in the analysis is also provided.

OP0335-PARE MODERNISATION OF PATIENT ORGANIZATION THROUGH ONLINE COURSES

Background:A big and very crucial part of every membership organization is the continuing education of members and elected representatives in regional and local chapters.Given the geographical long distances in Sweden, attending courses in person can be difficult, and expensive for the Swedish Rheumatism Association, the SRA. In 2019 the SRA developed a method to modernise our educational efforts by offering online courses to our elected representatives. Thus making it possible for anyone who has access to a computer to participate when it suits him or her. The courses can be done individually or in groups.Objectives:The goal is to offer modern and cost effective ways to educate in matters selected by the SRA, and for elected representatives and members to be able to attend courses at any times.Methods:The courses consists of films, texts and study exercises.The staff of the SRA record films and make as much of the content themselves as possible. The content must be relaxed, easy to do and enhance the feeling of familiarity. Those who complete the courses should feel like they are in the same room as the lecturers.Results:In 2019, the SRA completed two courses for elected representatives.The first course was on the matter of democratic structures at the annual general meeting of the SRA, and all decision making that applies for the SRA, for example, statutes, how to elect new board members and decide on an activity plan for the coming year.The course circled around these topics:How do you write a motion and how do you send it to the annual meeting?How do you prepare as a representative?What happens at an annual general meeting?How do you ask for the word and how do you argue for your cause?How do you report from a general meeting to your local organization?During the evaluation, the SRA received positive comments from those who attended.By the end of 2019, the SRA finished developing an online course on membership recruitment.Conclusion:In 2020, the SRA plan to do three more online courses on the topic of systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia.Online courses will not replace physical meetings, but offer a good alternative in the field of patient education.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

Research Illustrates Role of New Council on Criminal Justice as Center of Gravity for the Field

Launched in 2019, the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) is an invitational membership organization and think tank that serves as a center of gravity and incubator of policy and leadership for the criminal justice field. Its mission is to advance understanding of the criminal justice policy choices facing the nation and build consensus for solutions that enhance safety and justice for all. CCJ’s emergence reflects broad agreement across the ideological spectrum that the nation’s justice system is deeply flawed and requires equally deep reform. A quarter-century ago, crime was one of the most divisive issues in politics; today, people in Washington and in capitals of red and blue states alike are uniting behind solutions based on facts and evidence. That consensus and commitment to data-driven policymaking is the lifeblood of the Council, and it is embodied by the accomplished and diverse group of leaders and innovators who comprise its members, Directors and Trustees. Through research, task forces, convenings, and special projects, CCJ accelerates momentum for criminal justice reform and drives smart policymaking by generating achievable solutions that are factual, not just fashionable. The Council’s first projects include an ongoing series of papers analyzing the legacy and lessons of the 1994 Crime Bill, which was and remains the most far-reaching and controversial criminal justice legislation in the nation’s history. Also in its first year, CCJ produced a report documenting recent, surprising trends in racial disparities across correctional populations, marking a significant advance in the data and analysis surrounding this critical issue.

The Universal Business Language ecosystem and the OASIS TC process

A rich worldwide ecosystem has grown around the freely-available Universal Business Language (UBL) standard for 81 business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, waybills, etc., and 4600 semantic business objects expressed in those business documents The UBL development committee was formed in 2001 as a technical committee in OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) under a strict set of transparency rules supported by a rich set of collaborative tools with which the committee members have created both normative and non-normative work products. For UBL, normative XML schemas and non-normative JSON schemas are examples of both of these kinds of work products, specified for user communities to leverage in their communication environments for electronic business solutions. Solutions built on a foundation of open standards are attractive to large ecosystems of developers and end users working towards shared objectives. To be truly open, the development and deployment of such a specification must address three critically important issues: governance, transparency and availability. UBL was developed under the governance of the OASIS Technical Committee Process, working with a tool set that is available to any community wanting to create a markup vocabulary. OASIS, a membership organization, fosters the successful development of work products by its members participating in its technical committees. And so it is important to look into the detail of these two perspectives of UBL: how UBL is best deployed within the ecosystem due to its magnitude, and how UBL is governed and maintained during the development process. Illustrated by UBL, when considering where to bring together participants developing new open vocabulary ecosystems, OASIS with its TC process should be a front-runner in your consideration of a positive and productive environment for building team results.