The basic idea of this research – to learn from those who have escaped poverty – is very interesting and potentially very valuable. The question is how to ensure that this potential is fully realized. There are of course many aspects to this. In these comments, I focus on two broad points. The first has to do with the balance between retaining the richness and insight of qualitative research an...

OBJECTIVE Physical activity is positively related to improved student behaviors. Stability balls have been used as interventions to affect student behavior. The objective of this study was to determine whether the use of stability balls elicits more physical activity than the use of regular chairs and whether stability balls positively influence behavior. METHOD Participants (n = 43 fourth gr...

Active surveillance and watchful waiting are potential alternatives to delay or avoid the need for treatment in carefully selected patients. The key issue is determining which patients are appropriate for conservative management. Although these approaches are often targeted toward elderly men, such men are more likely to be diagnosed with high-risk disease. A recent study by Scosyrev et al. [2]...

A longitudinal, repeated-measures design with intervention and comparison groups was used to evaluate the effect of a training curriculum based on TeamSTEPPS with video vignettes focusing on fall prevention. Questionnaires, behavioral observations, and fall data were collected over 9 months from both groups located at separate hospitals. The intervention group questionnaire scores improved on a...

PROBLEM Concerns have been raised that community participation might compromise scientific rigor in community-based participatory research (CBPR). PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to identify potential sources of tension between the values of scientific rigor and community participation in CBPR. KEY POINTS CBPR lies at the nexus of two major underlying ethical concerns--respect for comm...

Modelling is valuable in the planning and evaluation of interventions, especially when a controlled trial is ethically or logistically impossible. Models are often used to calculate the expected course of events in the absence of more formal assessments. They are also used to derive estimates of rare or future events from recorded intermediate points. When developing models, decisions are neede...

Learning analytics is focused on the educational challenge of optimizing opportunities for meaningful learning. Assessment deeply influences learning, but at the same time data about assessment are rarely considered and utilized by learning analytics. Current approaches to analysis and reasoning about peerassessment lack rigor and appropriate measures of reliability assessment. Our paper addres...

Hospitals in the United States are under increasing pressure to perform active surveillance cultures for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) among newly admitted patients. Results of such cultures can then be used to direct contact precautions to prevent transmission of MRSA and VRE in the health care setting. However, using...

Active surveillance is becoming a very reasonable and appropriate “treatment” strategy for men with low-risk localized prostate cancer, as Large and Eggener eloquently describe in this review article. It is important to recognize that active surveillance is not what was once referred to as “watchful waiting,” which I believe many patients interpret as “watching and waiting to die.” As the name ...

Résumé