Conceptualising the value of simulation modelling for public engagement with policy: a critical literature review.

As we face complex and dynamically changing public health and environmental challenges, simulation modelling has come to occupy an increasingly central role in public engagements with policy. Shifts are occurring not only in terms of wider public understandings of modelling, but also in how the value of modelling is conceptualised within scientific modelling communities. We undertook a critical literature review to synthesise the underlying epistemic, theoretical and methodological assumptions about the role and value of simulation modelling within the literature across a range of fields (e.g., health, social science and environmental management) that engage with participatory modelling approaches. We identified four cross-cutting narrative conceptualisations of the value of modelling across different research traditions: (1) models simulate and help solve complex problems; (2) models as tools for community engagement; (3) models as tools for consensus building; (4) models as volatile technologies that generate social effects. Exploring how these ideas of 'value' overlap and what they offer one another has implications for how participatory simulation modelling approaches are designed, evaluated and communicated to diverse audiences. Deeper appreciation of the conditions under which simulation modelling can catalyse multiple social effects is recommended.

National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education IPE core data set and information exchange for knowledge generation.

Since 2012, the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education has worked with over 70 sites implementing over 100 interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) programs in the United States (U.S.). Program leaders have contributed data and information to the National Center to inform an approach to advancing the science of interprofessional practice and education (IPE), called IPE Knowledge Generation. This paper describes how the evolution of IPE Knowledge Generation blends traditional research and evaluation approaches with the burgeoning field of health informatics and big data science. The goal of IPE Knowledge Generation is to promote collaboration and knowledge discovery among IPE program leaders who collect comparable, sharable data in an information exchange. This data collection then supports analysis and knowledge generation. To enable the approach, the National Center uses a structured process for guiding IPE program design and implementation in practice settings focused on learning and the Quadruple Aim outcomes while collecting the IPE core data set and the contribution of contemporary big data science.

Can everyone hear me? Reflections on the use of global online workshops for promoting inclusive knowledge generation.

Online research methods have risen in popularity over recent decades, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. We conducted five online workshops capturing the experiences of participatory health researchers in relation to power, as part of a collaborative project to develop global knowledge systems on power in participatory health research. These workshops included predominantly academic researchers working in 24 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Here, we reflect on the opportunities, limitations, and key considerations of using online workshops for knowledge generation and shared learning. The online workshop approach offers the potential for cross-continental knowledge exchange and for the amplification of global South voices. However, this study highlights the need for deeper exploration of power dynamics exposed by online platform use, particularly the 'digital divide' between academic partners and community co-researchers. Further research is needed to better understand the role of online platforms in generating more inclusive knowledge systems.

International Nurses Day 2021 literary contribution: At a fork in the research journey: a poem in resistance to publishing in highly ranked journals.

In celebration of International Nurses Day 2021 and in critique of scholars who are driven to publish as many articles as possible in highly ranked journals, a short poem is offered here. This poem has resonance for the scholarly world in terms of questioning why we keep trying to be seen as successful scholars in the eyes of others employing a publish or perish mentality rather than pursuing the true purpose of our scholarly existence. The author asks nurses, 'Why are you doing science'?

The current understanding of knowledge management concepts: A critical review.

Background: Higher education institutions include experts who are knowledgeable. Knowledge management facilitates institutions to enhance the capacity to collect information and knowledge and apply it to problem-solving and decision making. Through the review of related studies, we observed that there are multiple concepts and terms in the field of knowledge management. Thus, the complexity and variety of these concepts and definitions must be clarified. Considering the importance of clarifying these concepts for utilization by users, this study aimed to examine the concepts related to this filed. Methods: The methodology used in this study was based on the Carnwell and Daly's critical review method. An extensive search was carried out on various databases and libraries. A critical and profound review was carried out on selected articles. Many wandering concepts were found. Identified concepts were classified into seven categories based on conceptual proximity. Existing definitions and evidence in relation to extracted concepts were criticized and synthesized. The definitional attributes for them were identified and a conceptual identity card was provided for each of the concepts. Results: Thirty-seven concepts with the most relevance to the field of knowledge management were extracted. There was no clear boundary among them, and they wandered. To avoid more confusion, concepts were classified according to semantic relation. Eight categories were created; each category consisted of a mother concept and several other concepts with similarity and proximity to the meaning of the original concept. Their attributes have been identified, and finally, each of them was presented in the form of a conceptual identity card. Conclusion: Through critically reviewing the literature in this field, we were able to identify the concepts and realize their attributes. In this way, we came to a new interpretation of the concepts. At the end of the study, we concluded that some of the concepts have not been properly defined and are not properly located in the knowledge management field; also their application is uncertain.

A machine-learned knowledge discovery method for associating complex phenotypes with complex genotypes. Application to pain.

BACKGROUND: The association of genotyping information with common traits is not satisfactorily solved. One of the most complex traits is pain and association studies have failed so far to provide reproducible predictions of pain phenotypes from genotypes in the general population despite a well-established genetic basis of pain. We therefore aimed at developing a method able to prospectively and highly accurately predict pain phenotype from the underlying genotype. METHODS: Complex phenotypes and genotypes were obtained from experimental pain data including four different pain stimuli and genotypes with respect to 30 reportedly pain relevant variants in 10 genes. The training data set was obtained in 125 healthy volunteers and the independent prospective test data set was obtained in 89 subjects. The approach involved supervised machine learning. RESULTS: The phenotype-genotype association was reached in three major steps. First, the pain phenotype data was projected and clustered by means of emergent self-organizing map (ESOM) analysis and subsequent U-matrix visualization. Second, pain sub-phenotypes were identified by interpreting the cluster structure using classification and regression tree classifiers. Third, a supervised machine learning algorithm (Unweighted Label Rule generation) was applied to genetic markers reportedly modulating pain to obtain a complex genotype underlying the identified subgroups of subjects with homogenous pain response. This procedure correctly identified 80% of the subjects as belonging to an extreme pain phenotype in an independently and prospectively assessed cohort. CONCLUSION: The developed methodology is a suitable basis for complex genotype-phenotype associations in pain. It may provide personalized treatments of complex traits. Due to its generality, this new method should also be applicable to other association tasks except pain.

Practice-Based Knowledge Discovery for Comparative Effectiveness Research: An Organizing Framework.

Electronic health information systems can increase the ability of health-care organizations to investigate the effects of clinical interventions. The authors present an organizing framework that integrates outcomes and informatics research paradigms to guide knowledge discovery in electronic clinical databases. They illustrate its application using the example of hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU). The Knowledge Discovery through Informatics for Comparative Effectiveness Research (KDI-CER) framework was conceived as a heuristic to conceptualize study designs and address potential methodological limitations imposed by using a single research perspective. Advances in informatics research can play a complementary role in advancing the field of outcomes research including CER. The KDI-CER framework can be used to facilitate knowledge discovery from routinely collected electronic clinical data.

Sustainable transformation of agriculture requires landscape experiments.

Transformation of agriculture to realise sustainable site-specific management requires comprehensive scientific support based on field experiments to capture the complex agroecological process, incite new policies and integrate them into farmers' decisions. However, current experimental approaches are limited in addressing the wide spectrum of sustainable agroecosystem and landscape characteristics and in supplying stakeholders with suitable solutions and measures. This review identifies major constraints in current field experimentation, such as a lack of consideration of multiple processes and scales and a limited ability to address interactions between them. It emphasizes the urgent need to establish a new category of landscape experimentation that empowers agricultural research on sustainable agricultural systems, aiming at elucidating interactions among various landscape structures and functions, encompassing both natural and anthropogenic features. It extensively discusses the key characteristics of landscape experiments and major opportunities to include them in the agricultural research agenda. In particular, simultaneously considering multiple factors, and thus processes at different scales and possible synergies or antagonisms among them would boost our understanding of heterogeneous agricultural landscapes. We also highlight that though various studies identified promising approaches with respect to experimental design and data analysis, further developments are still required to build a fully functional and integrated framework for landscape experimentation in agricultural settings.

An overview of the outreach of the 2019-2021 Endo-ERN knowledge generation webinars.

The current study aims to assess the development of the knowledge generation program of the European Reference Network on Rare Endocrine Conditions (Endo-ERN) from its start in 2019 until December 2021, with special reference to webinars. We analyzed the number of webinars and live/postevent participants and whether participation and engagement of the attendees changed over time. A total of 30 (86%) self-prepared webinars comprising 300 h of knowledge and competence sharing were broadcasted (2019 - 3; 2020 - 13; 2021 - 14). A total of six webinars were broadcasted live prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic (https://endo-ern.eu/events/webinars/). The most active main thematic group (MTG) was MTG3 Genetic Disorders of Glucose and Insulin Homeostasis with eight (27%) webinars. Two (25%) MTGs fulfilled the goal to prepare at least two to three webinars per year. Patients were actively involved in 20% of the accounted webinars as both creators and presenters. The total number of live and postevent participants was 3023. The availability of the webinars after the live broadcast increased their outreach with a larger number of postevent viewers (n = 1629, 54%). Within the formal structured evaluation of the webinars, 40-85% of the participants replied on separate occasions and helped improve content. The free webinar access is among the perceived reasons for the rapidly increasing number of total hits to the Endo-ERN website. In conclusion, for its short existence, the Endo-ERN rapidly developed educational outreach, and further efforts to attract creators and learners are warranted.

What We Learned in 25 Years of Interactive Molecular Design Sessions.

We retrace Prof. François Diederich's consultancy work for Roche and its impact over the years he worked with us. François Diederich uniquely shaped our approach to molecular design, and interactions with him and his research group at ETH Zurich have created deep insights into molecular recognition. Herein we share how his style and approach continue to inspire us.

Technology generation of lithium batteries in leading countries.

Rechargeable lithium batteries are a key component of the global value chain of this chemical element. They have revolutionized different industries in the world (such as the automotive industry), with the intention of reducing the greenhouse effect and combating climate change. The aim of this research is to know the positioning of leading countries in the technology generation of lithium rechargeable batteries and the existing geo-strategic support between them. To achieve this purpose, we created and applied a new linear index to determine the technology regimes and the application of other known indexes (related to attractiveness, specialization and benchmarking) linked to technology generation in lithium batteries from 1993 to 2015. The main results show that China is oriented to technological regimes and that the USA, Germany, South Korea, and Japan are focused on scientific regimes, and the consequences of these regimes are a direct technological competition between China and South Korea (this last country supported by Germany and Japan).

New Approach to Food Safety Training: A Review of a Six-Step Knowledge-Sharing Model.

Significant resources, including both human and financial capital, have been dedicated to developing and delivering food handler training programs to meet government and organizational mandates. Even with the plethora of food safety-oriented training programs, there is scant empirical evidence documenting effectiveness, suggesting the need to rethink the design and delivery of food safety training for food handlers. One underlying assumption of most training programs is that food handlers engage in unsafe practices because of lack of knowledge. As a result, many training curricula are designed to improve knowledge, assuming behavior will change as knowledge increases. However, food handlers often return to the work environment and try to implement the new knowledge with minimal success. One explanation for this is that the training context and the implementation context often differ, making it difficult for the food handler to transfer what they learned into practice. Understanding the connection between knowledge, the organization, and its environment is critical to knowledge implementation. The focus of this review is to describe a six-step knowledge-sharing model. Here, knowledge sharing is broadly defined as the process of creating and then using knowledge to change a practice or behavior. Our proposed knowledge-sharing model includes six steps: generation, adaptation, dissemination, reception, adoption, and implementation. We have organized this model into two dyads: (i) transfer between researcher (i.e., knowledge generators) and educator and (ii) transfer between educator and food handler (i.e., knowledge implementers). To put into practice this proposed model for developing and delivering effective food safety training for food handlers, we have provided suggested actions that can be performed within each step of the knowledge-sharing process.

Quick and dirty or rapid and informative? Exploring a participatory method to facilitate implementation research and organizational change.

PURPOSE: The purpose is explore an approach to acquire, analyze and report data concerning an organizational change initiative that combines knowledge generation and knowledge use, and contrast that with a method where knowledge generation and use is separated. More specifically, the authors contrast a participatory group workshop with individual interviews analyzed with thematic analysis, focusing on information about the change process and its perceived practical relevance and usefulness. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Participants were managers responsible for implementing a broad organizational change aiming to improve service quality (e.g. access and equity) and reduce costs in a mental health service organization in Sweden. Individual interviews were conducted at two points, six months apart (i1: n = 15; i2: n = 18). Between the interviews, a 3.5-h participatory group workshop was conducted, during which participants (n = 15) both generated and analyzed data through a structured process that mixed individual-, small- and whole-group activities. FINDINGS: Both approaches elicited substantive information about the content, purpose and process of change. While the content and purpose findings were similar across the two data sources, the interviews described how to lead a change process, whereas the workshop yielded concrete information about what to do. Benefits of interviews included personal insights about leading change while the workshop provided an opportunity for collective sense-making. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: When organizational stakeholders work through the change process through a participatory workshop, they may get on the same page, but require additional support to take action.

Preserving for the future the - once widespread but now vanishing - knowledge on traditional pig grazing in forests and marshes (Sava-Bosut floodplain, Serbia).

BACKGROUND: Traditional knowledge is key for sustainability, but it is rapidly disappearing. Pig keeping in forests and marshes is an ancient, once widespread, now vanishing practice, with a major economic and ecological potential. The knowledge of pig keepers and the foraging activity of pigs are hardly documented. METHODS: We studied the knowledge of traditional pig keepers (svinjars) on wild plants and pig foraging on the Sava-Bosut forest-marsh complex in Serbia. We conducted picture-based interviews about 234 locally common and/or salient plant species, and participatory fieldwork (11 days) and visual observation (21 days) on pig foraging. RESULTS: 181 wild plant species were known by svinjars and 106 taxa were consumed by pigs. Svinjars knew well and could name most regularly foraged species. 98 species were reported by svinjars as foraged and 56 as not eaten. 28 species were observed by the authors as eaten regularly, while 21 were nibbled and 17 avoided. Contradictory information on foraging was rare both among svinjars (8 species) and between svinjars and researchers (7 species); several of these species were rare. Leaves of 92, fruits or seeds of 21 and 'roots' of 20 species were reported or observed as eaten, usually with high seasonality. Svinjars were overall observant, but knew little about some less salient species (e.g. Veronica, Circaea). The most common forages (reported and/or observed) were fruits (Quercus, fleshy fruits), grasses (Agrostis, Glyceria), herbs (Ranunculus ficaria, Circaea), nutritious 'roots' (Carex spp., Iris), young shrub leaves (Crataegus, Carpinus) and 'tame' plants growing in the sun (Persicaria dubia, Erigeron annuus). Traditional, now extinct pig breeds were reported as less selective and more 'knowledgeable' about plants, as they received less additional fodder. Svinjars learnt their knowledge since childhood, from community members, but long-term personal observations and everyday encounters with pigs were also important sources of knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: A deeper understanding of pig foraging could contribute to using pigs in nature conservation management, resource management and organic farming, and to a better understanding of wild boar foraging. The knowledge of svinjars is a disappearing intangible cultural heritage of European importance. Knowledge holders deserve recognition, and legal and financial support to continue this tradition.

Analysis of scientific production on glyphosate: An example of politicization of science.

Glyphosate is one of the most used herbicides worldwide. However there still exists a strong debate about its effects on the environment or people health. In this context, the metric analysis is a methodology increasingly used to quantify and evaluate the scope of the scientific production around a specific topic. The goal of this work was to characterize the context of knowledge generation about glyphosate. All the scientific production linked to glyphosate was analyzed in the period from 1974 to 2016, using the Web of Science (WOS) as a source of information and "glyphosate" as a search criterion. A total of 8174 records were found. The bibliographic production on this herbicide experienced a sustained increase. There was a concentration in knowledge generation led by the United States. Monsanto Company produced the largest number of articles during the first thirty years of the development of this topic. Research around glyphosate in South America gained importance as of the year 2000, with Brazil being the country with the highest production followed by Argentina. A large proportion of research was focused on agricultural science, while the analysis of toxicology or environmental effects did not begin until the year 2000, and it is still insufficient.

Immersive Analytics: Theory and Research Agenda.

Advances in a variety of computing fields, including "big data," machine learning, visualization, and augmented/mixed/virtual reality, have combined to give rise to the emerging field of immersive analytics, which investigates how these new technologies support analysis and decision making. Thus far, we feel that immersive analytics research has been somewhat ad hoc, possibly owing to the fact that there is not yet an organizing framework for immersive analytics research. In this paper, we address this lack by proposing a definition for immersive analytics and identifying some general research areas and specific research questions that will be important for the development of this field. We also present three case studies that, while all being examples of what we would consider immersive analytics, present different challenges, and opportunities. These serve to demonstrate the breadth of immersive analytics and illustrate how the framework proposed in this paper applies to practical research.

RITAN: rapid integration of term annotation and network resources.

BACKGROUND: Identifying the biologic functions of groups of genes identified in high-throughput studies currently requires considerable time and/or bioinformatics experience. This is due in part to each resource housed within separate databases, requiring users to know about them, and integrate across them. Time consuming and often repeated for each study, integrating across resources and merging with data under study is an increasingly common bioinformatics task. METHODS: We developed an open-source R software package for assisting researchers in annotating their genesets with functions, pathways, and their interconnectivity across a diversity of network resources. RESULTS: We present rapid integration of term annotation and network resources (RITAN) for the rapid and comprehensive annotation of a list of genes using functional term and pathway resources and their relationships among each other using multiple network biology resources. Currently, and to comply with data redistribution policies, RITAN allows rapid access to 16 term annotations spanning gene ontology, biologic pathways, and immunologic modules, and nine network biology resources, with support for user-supplied resources; we provide recommendations for additional resources and scripts to facilitate their addition to RITAN. Having the resources together in the same system allows users to derive novel combinations. RITAN has a growing set of tools to explore the relationships within resources themselves. These tools allow users to merge resources together such that the merged annotations have a minimal overlap with one another. Because we index both function annotation and network interactions, the combination allows users to expand small groups of genes using links from biologic networks-either by adding all neighboring genes or by identifying genes that efficiently connect among input genes-followed by term enrichment to identify functions. That is, users can start from a core set of genes, identify interacting genes from biologic networks, and then identify the functions to which the expanded list of genes contribute. CONCLUSION: We believe RITAN fills the important niche of bridging the results of high-throughput experiments with the ever-growing corpus of functional annotations and network biology resources. AVAILABILITY: Rapid integration of term annotation and network resources is available as an R package at github.com/MTZimmer/RITAN and BioConductor.org.

The Importance of Biologic Knowledge and Gene Expression Context for Genomic Data Interpretation.

Background: Genomic sequencing, including whole exome sequencing (WES), is enabling a higher resolution for defining diseases, understand mechanisms, and improving the practice of clinical care. However, WES routinely identifies genomic variants with uncertain functional effects. Furthering uncertainty in WES data interpretation is that many genes can express multiple transcripts and their relative expression may differ by body tissue. In order to interpret WES data, we not only need to understand which transcript is most relevant, but what tissue is most relevant. Methods: In this work, we quantify how frequently differences in transcript and tissue expression affect WES data interpretation at gene, pathway, disease, and biologic network levels. We combined and analyzed multiple large and publically available datasets to inform genomic data interpretation. Results: Across well-established biologic pathways and genes with pathogenic disease variants, 54 and 40% have a different protein coding effect by transcript selection for, respectively, 25 and 50% of the genes contained. Additionally, strong differences in human tissue expression levels affect 33 and 19% of the same set of pathways and diseases for, respectively, 25 and 50% of the genes contained. Conclusion: Whole exome sequencing identifies genomic variants, but to interpret the functional effects of those variants in high-resolution, we recommend building transcript selection and cross-tissue gene expression levels into hypotheses and analyses. Using current large-scale data, we show how extensively interpretation of genomic variants may differ according to transcript and tissue, across most pathways and disease. Thus, their inclusion is necessary for WES data interpretation.

Beyond sex and gender difference in funding and reporting of health research.

BACKGROUND: Understanding sex and gender in health research can improve the quality of scholarship and enhance health outcomes. Funding agencies and academic journals are two key gatekeepers of knowledge production and dissemination, including whether and how sex/gender is incorporated into health research. Though attention has been paid to key issues and practices in accounting for sex/gender in health funding agencies and academic journals, to date, there has been no systematic analysis documenting whether and how agencies and journals require attention to sex/gender, what conceptual explanations and practical guidance are given for such inclusion, and whether existing practices reflect the reality that sex/gender cannot be separated from other axes of inequality. METHODS: Our research systematically examines official statements about sex/gender inclusion from 45 national-level funding agencies that fund health research across 36 countries (covering the regions of the EU and associated countries, North America, and Australia) and from ten top-ranking general health (the top five in "science" and the top five in "social science") and ten sex- and/or gender-related health journals. We explore the extent to which agencies and journals require inclusion of sex/gender considerations and to what extent existing strategies reflect state of the art understandings of sex/gender, including intersectional perspectives. RESULTS: The research highlights the following: (a) there is no consistency in whether sex/gender are mentioned in funding and publishing guidelines; (b) there is wide variation in how sex/gender are conceptualized and how researchers are asked to address the inclusion/exclusion of sex/gender in research; (c) funding agencies tend to prioritize male/female equality in research teams and funding outcomes over considerations of sex/gender in research content and knowledge production; and (d) with very few exceptions, agency and journal criteria fail to recognize the complexity of sex/gender, including the intersection of sex/gender with other key factors that shape health. CONCLUSIONS: The conceptualization and integration of sex/gender needs to better capture the interacting and complex factors that shape health-an imperative that can be informed by an intersectional approach. This can strengthen current efforts to advance scientific excellence in the production and reporting of research. We provide recommendations and supporting questions to strengthen consideration of sex/gender in policies and practices of health journals and funding agencies.

What do we know about older former carers? Key issues and themes.

Despite a significant growth in the number older former family carers, they remain largely invisible in carer-related research and literature. To begin to address this deficit, a four-stage literature review was conducted to identify existing knowledge about older former carers. Narrative synthesis of the findings yielded five themes - the concept of 'older former carer', the legacies of caring, influences on the legacies of caring, conceptualising post-caring and support services for older former carers. Critical analysis of these findings suggests that existing evidence has a number of strengths. It highlights the terminological and conceptual confusion in the field, identifies the profound financial and health-related legacies older former carers' experience, the factors which shape these legacies and some of the complexities of bereavement older former carers face. The support needs of older former carers are also illuminated. However, the field is characterised by key weaknesses. The evidence base is fragmented and uneven. In part this reflects lack of definitional consensus and in part the fact that there is much more evidence about some sub-groups, such as carers of relatives admitted to a care home, than others. Methodology-related weaknesses include small sample sizes and a focus on a single, often condition-specific, group of older former carers. An overarching criticism relates to the narrow conceptual/theoretical purview. As post-caring tends to be viewed as one of the final temporal 'stages' of the carer's 'care-giving career', a bifurcatory model of carer/former carer is created, i.e. that a carer actively provides care and a former carer is no longer caring. This constructs being a former carer - namely formerality - as a single fixed state failing to capture its dynamic and shifting nature and constrains the potential of research to generate new knowledge and extend understanding.