‘Crowdsourcing’ is currently one of the most discussed key words within the open innovation community. The major question for both research and business is how to find and lever the enormous ...potential of the ‘collective brain’ to broaden the scope of ‘open R&D’. Based on a literature review in the fields of Community Building and Innovation Management, this work develops an integrated framework called ‘Community Engineering for Innovations’. This framework is evaluated in an Action Research project – the case of an ideas competition for an ERP Software company. The case ‘SAPiens’ includes the design, implementation and evaluation of an IT‐supported ideas competition within the SAP University Competence Center (UCC) User Group. This group consists of approximately 60,000 people (lecturers and students) using SAP Software for educational purposes. The current challenges are twofold: on the one hand, there is not much activity yet in this community. On the other, SAP has not attempted to systematically address this highly educated group for idea generation or innovation development so far. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop a framework for a community‐based innovation development that generates innovations, process and product ideas in general and for SAP Research, in particular, combining the concepts of idea competitions and virtual communities. Furthermore, the concept aims at providing an interface to SAP Human Resources processes in order to identify the most promising students in this virtual community. This paper is the first to present an integrated concept for IT‐supported idea competitions in virtual communities for leveraging the potential of crowds that is evaluated in a real‐world setting.
Pinewood (
Pinus
ssp.) is widely used for furniture and building purposes. However, despite its widespread use, information on possible human sensory irritations and pulmonary effects caused by ...exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted from pinewood is sparse. For this purpose, (1) sensory irritation of eyes, nose and throat, (2) lung function parameters (FVC, FEV
1
), (3) exhaled nitrogen oxide (NO) concentration, (4) eye blink frequency, and (5) sensory evaluation (using the SD method) were investigated before, after, and partly during exposure of human volunteers to emissions from pinewood panels. Fifteen healthy nonsmokers were exposed for 2 h under controlled conditions to VOCs emitted from pinewood panels in a 48 m
3
test chamber. VOC concentrations were about 5 mg/ m
3
(loading rate, 1 m
2
/m
3
), 8 mg/m
3
(loading rate, 2 m
2
/m
3
), and 13 mg/m
3
(loading rate, 3 m
2
/m
3
), respectively. Terpene and aldehyde exposure concentrations ranged from about 3.50 ± 0.51 mg/m
3
and 0.07 ± 0.008 mg/m
3
, 5.00 ± 0.95 mg/ m
3
, and 0.20 ± 0.02 mg/m
3
or 9.51 ± 1.10 mg/m
3
and 0.21 ± 0.04 mg/m
3
for loading rates of 1, 2, and 3 m
2
/m
3
, respectively. The emissions consisted predominantly of
α
-pinene and δ
3
-carene. No concentration-dependent effects before or after exposure to the emissions were measured with respect to sensory irritation, pulmonary function, exhaled NO, and eye blink frequency. Only the odor of the emissions was perceived by the study subjects, rated as being closer to “pleasant” than to “unpleasant.” In conclusion, the results of our study suggest that short-term exposure to high VOC concentrations, even up to 13 mg/m
3
, released from pinewood does not elicit sensory irritation or pulmonary effects in healthy humans under controlled conditions.
Highlights • A rate of 20% of nosocomial influenza was seen in two consecutive influenza seasons. • 9% of nosocomial cases died and were mainly associated with A/H1N1pdm09. • Median age of nosocomial ...cases with fatal outcome was 64 ± 17.9 years. • Information on influenza vaccination could be retrieved for 204 individuals and was low (6%).
Summary Despite control efforts, the burden of health-care-associated infections in Europe is high and leads to around 37 000 deaths each year. We did a systematic review to identify crucial elements ...for the organisation of effective infection-prevention programmes in hospitals and key components for implementation of monitoring. 92 studies published from 1996 to 2012 were assessed and ten key components identified: organisation of infection control at the hospital level; bed occupancy, staffing, workload, and employment of pool or agency nurses; availability of and ease of access to materials and equipment and optimum ergonomics; appropriate use of guidelines; education and training; auditing; surveillance and feedback; multimodal and multidisciplinary prevention programmes that include behavioural change; engagement of champions; and positive organisational culture. These components comprise manageable and widely applicable ways to reduce health-care-associated infections and improve patients' safety.
Since 2013, over 100 cases of Mycobacterium chimaera prosthetic valve endocarditis and disseminated disease were notified in Europe and the USA, linked to contaminated heater–cooler units (HCUs) used ...during cardiac surgery. We did a molecular epidemiological investigation to establish the source of these patients' disease.
We included 24 M chimaera isolates from 21 cardiac surgery-related patients in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, 218 M chimaera isolates from various types of HCUs in hospitals, from LivaNova (formerly Sorin; London, UK) and Maquet (Rastatt, Germany) brand HCU production sites, and unrelated environmental sources and patients, as well as eight Mycobacterium intracellulare isolates. Isolates were analysed by next-generation whole-genome sequencing using Illumina and Pacific Biosciences technologies, and compared with published M chimaera genomes.
Phylogenetic analysis based on whole-genome sequencing of 250 isolates revealed two major M chimaera groups. Cardiac surgery-related patient isolates were all classified into group 1, in which all, except one, formed a distinct subgroup. This subgroup also comprised isolates from 11 cardiac surgery-related patients reported from the USA, most isolates from LivaNova HCUs, and one from their production site. Isolates from other HCUs and unrelated patients were more widely distributed in the phylogenetic tree.
HCU contamination with M chimaera at the LivaNova factory seems a likely source for cardiothoracic surgery-related severe M chimaera infections diagnosed in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, the USA, and Australia. Protective measures and heightened clinician awareness are essential to guarantee patient safety.
Partly funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme, its FP7 programme, the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, and National Institute of Health Research Oxford Health Protection Research Units on Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance.
•A rotavirus outbreak among adults was detected in a university hospital in Germany.•Rapid typing identified rotavirus G2P4 as the etiologic agent.•Infection control measures successfully contained ...the outbreak.•Phylogenetic analysis allowed to identify outbreak associated cases.
Rotaviruses are the main cause of acute viral gastroenteritis in children under five years of age. Adults seem to be less frequently affected by rotaviruses most likely due to partial immunity resulting from prior infections.
To describe a hospital-associated outbreak of rotavirus infections among adults. Study design: Routine diagnostics and contact screening of symptomatic patients hospitalized at the university hospital of Freiburg. For rotavirus-positive patients, we performed rotavirus genotyping of all rotavirus RT-PCR positive samples and phylogenetic analysis.
Between December 2016 and April 2017 routine diagnostics showed an unexpectedly high number of rotavirus infections among adults with the exception of one pediatric case. In total, 32 temporal-associated cases were identified. Among these, two asymptomatic cases were detected. Genotyping showed that all isolates belonged to rotavirus G2P4. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed an outbreak. Infection prevention and control successfully contained further spread.
Infections with rotavirus are rare among adults but may spread between patients making timely recognition of rotavirus infections important for infection control. Rapid phylogenetic analysis is crucial for proactive infection control.
Trust provides the foundation for the successful implementation and operation of a virtual community (VC). Trust is an especially relevant success factor in online health-care communities. A look at ...existing communities leads to the conclusion that many VCs fail to meet requirements upon which trust is established. Based on the findings in the literature and the researchers' experience, this paper describes how trust-enabling functionalities can be systematically designed and implemented in a VC for cancer patients. Consequently, the outcomes of these design measures are evaluated. The evaluation results show that supporting trust can be achieved following a two-step model. The presented components support the perceived competence and perceived goodwill of the operators and the other members. Perceived goodwill and competence then support the process of creating and sustaining trust between members as well as between members and the operators of the VC and contribute to the successful implementation and maintenance of the community. The paper concludes with a discussion on further trust-supporting components yet to be implemented and gives recommendations for further research in this area.
In this prospective cohort study, 200 decontamination (cleaning and disinfection) procedures of the anesthesia workplace either by anesthesia nurses or by specially trained housekeeping staff were ...monitored. Time used by housekeeping staff was shorter (1.2 ± 0.1 vs 2.6 ± 0.2 minutes on average, data are mean ± SEM; P < 0.0001) with less visible marker spots (14.4 ± 0.68 55% vs 17.3 ± 0.75 66.7% on average, data are mean ± SEM; P = 0.0041), and the bacterial load showed a decrease (≅67%, P < 0.0001) compared with anesthesia nurses. Specially trained housekeeping staff outperformed anesthesia nurses in cleaning the anesthesia workplace. Specific training for anesthesia workplace cleaning is supported by these findings.
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