Knowledge management is a multifaceted, complex, end-to-end organizational process dealing with collecting and using data, information, and knowledge generated by a group of individuals. The current ...study examines the changes required in companies’ quality systems to enhance intergenerational learning and knowledge retention. Our primary objective was to understand the factors that influence the development of an organizational culture encouraging innovation, knowledge sharing, organizational learning, openness, and providing opportunities to create up-to-date knowledge. We collected the viewpoints and needs of industry professionals by using interviews and a survey. Then, we analyzed the factors that influence knowledge management quality and transfer between workforce generations. The professionals’ primary goal is to introduce, integrate, and improve knowledge in their organization. Their second goal is to facilitate knowledge sharing and transfer between workforce generations. Improving transgenerational knowledge sharing and reducing the loss of knowledge are challenges for all industries. A cutting-edge industry such as the defense field deals with sensitive data, and knowledge management is a strategic need in a competitive context. Quality management standards propose guidelines for developing and enhancing the overall knowledge-related processes. However, implementing them requires a shift in the corporate culture team. Organizational knowledge resilience must be developed by involving the workforce in implementing knowledge management systems.
Latency and ongoing replication have both been proposed to explain the drug-insensitive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reservoir maintained during antiretroviral therapy. Here we explore a novel ...mechanism for ongoing HIV replication in the face of antiretroviral drugs. We propose a model whereby multiple infections per cell lead to reduced sensitivity to drugs without requiring drug-resistant mutations, and experimentally validate the model using multiple infections per cell by cell-free HIV in the presence of the drug tenofovir. We then examine the drug sensitivity of cell-to-cell spread of HIV, a mode of HIV transmission that can lead to multiple infection events per target cell. Infections originating from cell-free virus decrease strongly in the presence of antiretrovirals tenofovir and efavirenz whereas infections involving cell-to-cell spread are markedly less sensitive to the drugs. The reduction in sensitivity is sufficient to keep multiple rounds of infection from terminating in the presence of drugs. We examine replication from cell-to-cell spread in the presence of clinical drug concentrations using a stochastic infection model and find that replication is intermittent, without substantial accumulation of mutations. If cell-to-cell spread has the same properties in vivo, it may have adverse consequences for the immune system, lead to therapy failure in individuals with risk factors, and potentially contribute to viral persistence and hence be a barrier to curing HIV infection.
To assess the efficacy, safety and acceptability of a new TLC-NOSF dressing with poly-absorbent fibres in the management of exuding leg ulcers, at the different stages of healing.
This work presents ...the results of two prospective, multicentric clinical studies: NEREIDES and CASSIOPEE. Patients with a non-infected, moderate-to-strongly exudating leg ulcer of venous or mixed origin, were treated with the dressing and an appropriate compression system for 12 weeks. The wounds included in NEREIDES had to be in debridement stage, and those in CASSIOPEE at granulation stage. In both studies, the primary outcome was the relative wound area reduction (RWAR) at week 12. Main secondary outcomes included healing rate, time-to-reach wound closure, adverse events and acceptability of the dressing by patients and health professionals.
There were 37 patients included in NEREIDES and 51 in CASSIOPEE. The two cohorts presented similar patient and wound characteristics, except from the percentage of sloughy tissue on wound bed at baseline (median: 75% NEREIDES and 30% CASSIOPEE). At week 12, the RWAR (60% NEREIDES and 81% CASSIOPEE), wound closure rates (18% NEREIDES and 20% CASSIOPEE) and mean times-to-reach wound closure (58±27 days NEREIDES and 55±23 days CASSIOPEE) supported the beneficial outcomes of the treatment in both cohorts. In patients with a wound duration ≤6 months, the wound area reduction reached 85% in NEREIDES and 81% in CASSIOPEE, highlighting the importance to initiate adequate treatment as soon as possible. The nature and frequency of the local adverse events were similar in both studies and consistent with the good safety profiles of the poly-absorbent fibres and of the TLC-NOSF dressings. The acceptability of the dressing (easy to apply, conformable and non-adherent to the wound bed at removal, with no pain or bleeding at removal) has been judged 'very good' or 'good' at each stage of the healing process, by both nursing staff and patients.
These clinical results establish the new TLC-NOSF dressing with poly-absorbent fibres (UrgoStart Plus, Laboratoires Urgo) as an effective, safe and simple treatment for the local management of leg ulcers, at the different stages of healing and until wound closure.
From the mid-1920s on, single urban Jewish women in Palestine under the British Mandate (1920-1948) experienced a chronic shortage of suitable and affordable lodgings. This spurred Zionist women's ...organizations to take action and solve the problem. Their cooperation led to building four 'Women Pioneers' Houses', which offered single immigrant working women modern lodgings and vocational training. Women architects designed the buildings, keeping in mind their future women residents. The buildings' architects, who had studied and worked in Europe before immigrating to Mandatory Palestine, applied modernist concepts to the buildings' design. All the houses followed the highest contemporary standards of living and working environments. They became urban female hubs and notable socio-cultural forces in the city, eventually reaching beyond the female sphere, and offering the public at large a variety of activities. The houses had significant visibility and prominence in the urban landscape and were a source of pride for women.
The COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant global threat. However, despite urgent need, there remains uncertainty surrounding best practices for pharmaceutical interventions to treat COVID-19. In ...particular, conflicting evidence has emerged surrounding the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, alone or in combination, for COVID-19. The COVID-19 Evidence Accelerator convened by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, in collaboration with Friends of Cancer Research, assembled experts from the health systems research, regulatory science, data science, and epidemiology to participate in a large parallel analysis of different data sets to further explore the effectiveness of these treatments.
Electronic health record (EHR) and claims data were extracted from seven separate databases. Parallel analyses were undertaken on data extracted from each source. Each analysis examined time to mortality in hospitalized patients treated with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and the two in combination as compared to patients not treated with either drug. Cox proportional hazards models were used, and propensity score methods were undertaken to adjust for confounding. Frequencies of adverse events in each treatment group were also examined.
Neither hydroxychloroquine nor azithromycin, alone or in combination, were significantly associated with time to mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. No treatment groups appeared to have an elevated risk of adverse events.
Administration of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and their combination appeared to have no effect on time to mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Continued research is needed to clarify best practices surrounding treatment of COVID-19.
Several genetic and environmental factors increase gastric cancer (GC) risk, with Helicobacter pylori being the main environmental agent. GC is thought to emerge through a sequence of morphological ...changes that have been elucidated on the molecular level. New technologies have shed light onto pathways that are altered in GC, involving mutational and epigenetic changes and altered signaling pathways. Using various new model systems and innovative approaches, the relevance of such alterations for the emergence and progression of GC has been validated. Here, we highlight the key strategies and the resulting achievements. A major step is the characterization of epithelial stem cell behavior in the healthy stomach. These data, obtained through new reporter mouse lines and lineage tracing, enabled insights into the processes that control cellular proliferation, self-renewal, and differentiation of gastric stem cells. It has become evident that these cells and pathways are often deregulated in carcinogenesis. Second, insights into how H pylori colonizes gastric glands, directly interacts with stem cells, and alters cellular and genomic integrity, as well as the characterization of tissue responses to infection, provide a comprehensive picture of how this bacterium contributes to gastric carcinogenesis. Third, the development of stem cell– and tissue-specific reporter mice have driven our understanding of the signals and mutations that promote different types of GC and now also enable the study of more advanced, metastasized stages. Finally, organoids from human tissue have allowed insights into gastric carcinogenesis by validating mutational and signaling alterations in human primary cells and opening a route to predicting responses to personalized treatment.
We Investigated how promoting diverse, healthy food options affects long-term dietary choices. We hypothesized that encouraging exploration of nutritious plant-based foods would lead to lasting ...improvements in diet. Participants (N=211) were randomly assigned into two groups for a 6-week intervention: The fixed menu group was given the same large menu every week, while the changing menu group received a new small menu each week. At the end of the intervention both groups were exposed to the same menu suggestions. Food diversity evaluation was based on weekly reports collected during the intervention. Self-reported adherence to Mediterranean diet components was assessed using the I-MEDAS screener. The proportion of plant-based foods in participants' diets was estimated using a 0-100% scale based on self-report. Both items were evaluated using online questionnaires given to participants at baseline, at the end of the intervention, as well as three and six months after the intervention concluded. Results mean(SD) demonstrated that participants in fixed menu group explored a significantly wider array of items 26.33(11.64) than those in the changing menus group 19.79(10.29), t(202) = 4.25, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.60. A repeated measures analysis of covariance rmANCOVA revealed that short-term increase in I-MEDAS and PBD score were noted in both groups; however, only participants with the fixed menu sustained this increase at months follow-up diff = 1.50, t(132) = 4.50, p <0.001 Our findings suggest that manipulating the rate of exposure to food suggestions may affect overall dietary variety. It seems that early presentation with options may increase overall dietary variety and may even support longer-term habits. This study contributes to developing effective interventions and highlights the challenge of promoting exploratory behavior in nutrition.
Objective:
To evaluate the effects of adding vibrotactile feedback to myoelectric prosthesis users on the performance time and visual attention in a dual-task paradigm.
Design:
A repeated-measures ...design with a counterbalanced order of two conditions.
Setting:
Laboratory setting.
Subjects:
Transradial amputees using a myoelectric prosthesis with normal or corrected eyesight (N = 12, median age = 65 ± 13 years). Exclusion criteria were orthopedic or neurologic problems.
Interventions:
Subjects performed grasping tasks with their prosthesis, while controlling a virtual car on a road with their intact hand. The dual task was performed twice: with and without vibrotactile feedback.
Main measures:
Performance time of each of the grasping tasks and gaze behavior, measured by the number of times the subjects shifted their gaze toward their hand, the relative time they applied their attention to the screen, and percentage of error in the secondary task.
Results:
The mean performance time was significantly shorter (P = 0.024) when using vibrotactile feedback (93.2 ± 9.6 seconds) compared with the performance time measured when vibrotactile feedback was not available (107.8 ± 20.3 seconds). No significant differences were found between the two conditions in the number of times the gaze shifted from the screen to the hand, in the time the subjects applied their attention to the screen, and in the time the virtual car was off-road, as a percentage of the total game time (51.4 ± 15.7 and 50.2 ± 19.5, respectively).
Conclusion:
Adding vibrotactile feedback improved performance time during grasping in a dual-task paradigm. Prosthesis users may use vibrotactile feedback to perform better during daily tasks, when multiple cognitive demands are present.
Control of cell proliferation is a fundamental aspect of tissue physiology central to morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer. Although many of the molecular genetic factors are now known, the ...system level regulation of growth is still poorly understood. A simple form of inhibition of cell proliferation is encountered in vitro in normally differentiating epithelial cell cultures and is known as "contact inhibition." The study presented here provides a quantitative characterization of contact inhibition dynamics on tissue-wide and single cell levels. Using long-term tracking of cultured Madin-Darby canine kidney cells we demonstrate that inhibition of cell division in a confluent monolayer follows inhibition of cell motility and sets in when mechanical constraint on local expansion causes divisions to reduce cell area. We quantify cell motility and cell cycle statistics in the low density confluent regime and their change across the transition to epithelial morphology which occurs with increasing cell density. We then study the dynamics of cell area distribution arising through reductive division, determine the average mitotic rate as a function of cell size, and demonstrate that complete arrest of mitosis occurs when cell area falls below a critical value. We also present a simple computational model of growth mechanics which captures all aspects of the observed behavior. Our measurements and analysis show that contact inhibition is a consequence of mechanical interaction and constraint rather than interfacial contact alone, and define quantitative phenotypes that can guide future studies of molecular mechanisms underlying contact inhibition.
Deep neural networks (DNNs) have exhibited great success in image saliency prediction. However, few works apply DNNs to predict the saliency of generic videos. In this paper, we propose a novel ...DNN-based video saliency prediction method, called DeepVS2.0. Specifically, we establish a large-scale eye-tracking database of videos (LEDOV), which provides sufficient data to train the DNN models for predicting video saliency. Through the statistical analysis of LEDOV, we find that human attention is normally attracted by objects, particularly moving objects or the moving parts of objects. Accordingly, we propose an object-to-motion convolutional neural network (OM-CNN) in DeepVS2.0 to learn spatio-temporal features for predicting the intra-frame saliency via exploring the information of both objectness and object motion. We further find from our database that human attention has a temporal correlation with a smooth saliency transition across video frames. Therefore, a saliency-structured convolutional long short-term memory network (SS-ConvLSTM) is developed in DeepVS2.0 to predict inter-frame saliency, using the extracted features of OM-CNN as the input. Moreover, the center-bias dropout and sparsity-weighted loss are embedded in SS-ConvLSTM, to consider the center-bias and sparsity of human attention maps. Finally, the experimental results show that our DeepVS2.0 method advances the state-of-the-art video saliency prediction.
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