Improving primary palliative care – a Delphi consensus study on measures for general practice in Germany

Background The majority of severely ill and dying people in Germany can be administered primary palliative care (PPC) by general practitioners (GP). However, the current provision of PPC does not match the needs of the population. Although several public health strategies aim at strengthening the role of GPs in PPC provision, it remains challenging for GP teams to integrate PPC into their daily routines. Aim A Delphi study with GPs was conducted to achieve consensus on specific measures for improving the integration of PPC into everyday GP practice. Methods The study is part of the junior research project “Primary Palliative Care in General Practice” (ALLPRAX). After having developed, tested and evaluated 26 practical measures for GP practices to improve their PPC, a Delphi consensus study among GPs took place. In 2020, 569 GPs were asked to rate the relevance and feasibility of the measures on a 4-point Likert scale via an anonymous online questionnaire. Consensus was defined as a sum percentage of ‘strongly agree’ and ‘somewhat agree’ responses ≥75% after two rounds. Between these rounds, measures that were not consented in the first round were adapted in light of respondents’ free text comments and suggestions. Results The response rate was 11.3% in round 1 (n = 64) and 53.1% in round 2 (n = 34). From the initial n = 26 measures, n = 20 measures achieved consensus and were included in the final intervention package. The consented measures pertained to four main topics: advance care planning with patients, consulting and informing patients and family caregivers, GP office organisation and continuing education. N = 6 measures did not achieve consensus, predominantly due to time and workload constraints. Conclusion The consented measures provide valuable support to improve the provision of PPC by GPs. They can be used freely and flexibly, according to the needs of individual GP teams, and are thus suitable for implementation nationwide. Trial registration The study was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (Registration N° DRKS00011821; 4 December 2017; https://apps.who.int/trialsearch/) and the German Register of Health Care Research (Registration N° VfD_ALLPRAX_16_003817; 30 March 2017).

Trying Again, Failing Again: Samuel Beckett and the Sequel Play

Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot has spawned several unauthorized sequel plays, which see Godot arrive on stage in 1960s Yugoslavia, 1980s Ireland, 1990s North America, and early 2000s Japan. The sequel play is a largely ignored phenomenon in literary scholarship, with the sequel form itself routinely dismissed as a derivative and inevitably disappointing text. Yet the sequel also re-situates and re-evaluates the original text, and its reiterative nature aptly parallels the paradox of non-ending in Beckett’s original Waiting for Godot. Focusing on four unauthorized stage sequels to Beckett’s play – Miodrag Bulatović’s Godo je došao (Godot Has Arrived, 1966), Alan Titley’s Tagann Godot (Godot Arrives, 1987), Daniel Curzon’s Godot Arrives (1999), and Minoru Betsuyaku’s Yattekita Godot (Godot Has Come, 2007) – this article examines how these sequels rework the cultural logic of Godot’s arrival to their own critical and political ends. These playwrights draw on the very recursive, even frustrating, nature of the sequel form itself as an exegetic framework, reproducing the trope of non-ending that characterizes Beckett’s own work. Hannah Simpson is the Rosemary Pountney Junior Research Fellow in British and European Drama at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford. She is currently working on two forthcoming Beckett-related monographs: Witnessing Pain: Samuel Beckett and Post-War Francophone Theatre and Samuel Beckett and Disability Performance.

A research parasite's perspective on establishing a baseline to avoid errors in secondary analyses

To enhance reproducibility in scientific research, more and more datasets are becoming publicly available so that researchers can perform secondary analyses to investigate questions the original scientists had not posited. This increases the return on investment for the NIH and other funding bodies. These datasets, however, are not perfect, and a better understanding of the assumptions that shaped them is required. The 2020 Junior Research Parasite Award recognized our work that showed that the signal-to-noise ratio in a particular dataset had not been investigated, leading to an erroneous conclusion in the original research. In this commentary, I share the process that led to the identification of the problem and hopefully provide useful lessons for other research parasites.

Secondary Data Analysis: Lessons and perspective of a research parasite

Secondary data analysis refers to re-analyzing publicly available datasets to investigate the questions that original scientists had not posited. This helps in scientific progress by paving the path to more reliable and robust analyses and new research directions without any considerable expense. However, these datasets are anything but perfect, and researchers must investigate and assess the signal to noise ratio robustly to extract meaningful information. These efforts of rigorous secondary analysis are further recognized and supported by the Research Parasite Awards. As the 2020 Junior Research Parasite Award recipient, I share my journey and perspective of a research parasite in this commentary article.

Sozialgerichtsbarkeit im Blick – Interdisziplinäre Forschung in Bewegung

Social jurisdiction is an essential institution of the German social constitutional state. It is here that social rights are realised and the welfare state can be experienced. At the same time, the social courts with their upstream and downstream divisions are places where social conflicts are fought out. As such, they have not yet been the subject of comprehensive research. This volume is a contribution to interdisciplinary social policy research and brings together different perspectives on the legal and judicial forms of action of the welfare state. They were the subject of a conference of the FIS-funded junior research group "Social Jurisdiction and the Development of Social Law and Social Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany". With contributions by Katie Baldschun, Minou Banafsche, Michael Beyerlein, Alice Dillbahner, Gesine Fuchs, Thomas Frank, Stefan Greß, Christian Grube, Andreas Hänlein, Armin Höland, Christian Jesberger, Lukas Kiepe, Martin Kilimann, Tanja Klenk, Sabine Knickrehm, Simone Kreher, Romina-Victoria Köller, Tanja Pritzlaff-Scheele, Stephan Rixen, Simon Roesen, Gül Savran, Wolfgang Schroeder, Solveig Sternjakob, Berthold Vogel, Felix Welti and Katharina Weyrich.

Open Access Journals: A Boon or Bane for Early Career Researchers in India

Background : It is demonstrated that for a junior research faculty in India, a proper guidelines and funding resources are required to publish research articles in the Open Access (OA) journals. Recently, many of the important scientific journals are turned out to be OA journals. When we need to publish in an OA journal, the funding support for article processing charge (APC) is uncertain due to the limited funds or absence of institutional level support. Objective: To find out the total number of open access and subscription based articles published from the top ten countries in the scientific journals up to July 2020. Materials and Methods: For the data collection a keyword of “Chemistry” was used in all fields in the “Scopus database” on 07 July 2020. Results: From the articles published by top ten countries, it was found that USA has published more number of publications (open access plus subscription based) followed by China, Japan, Germany, UK, India, France, Canada, Italy, and Russian Federation. However, if we carefully look at the total numbers of OA publications up to July 2020, Japan (33.47%) has published more percentage of OA documents compared to UK (26.92%), Germany (24.63%) and USA (24.53%). In this list, India (13.02%) and Russian Federation (10.14%) have published lowest numbers of OA publications compared to other countries.

Assessment, monitoring, and regulation of odors of any origin in industrial enterprises

Virtually any enterprise in the food and chemical industries, as well as in treatment facilities, has waste with a distinctive unpleasant smell. Elimination of odors is becoming an urgent task for ensuring safety and labor protection at enterprises, as well as public health protection. Olga Malykh, junior research associate at the company "Odor Laboratory N 1", speaks about the experience of smell research at enterprises, the possibilities of olfactometric research, and modern methods and equipment.

Quantum and Atomic Scale Materials Modeling in the Philippines: Status, Challenges, and Recommendations

The computational materials modeling and simulation research landscape in the Philippines is explored to identify the problem areas and challenges faced by the experts in this field, thereby gaining insights for policy recommendations towards advancing this field in the country. The identified problem areas based on a survey administered to sixteen expert-respondents include the inadequate computational infrastructure, issues on funding, problems with students, administrative and teaching assignments, and lack of collaborations with the industry. Based on these results, policy recommendations were formulated, which include a proposed framework for an integrated computational and experimental approach in the national research and development agenda, enhancement of the national computing facility, amendment of the procurement law, dedicated funding for computational science, establishment of a junior research fellowship and an organized materials modeling community, and development of regional niches for computational materials science.

Data detectives, self-love, and humility: a research parasite's perspective

Secondary analysis solidifies and expands upon scientific knowledge through the re-analysis of existing datasets. However, researchers performing secondary analyses must develop specific skills to be successful and can benefit from adopting some computational best practices. Recognizing this work is also key to building and supporting a community of researchers who contribute to the scientific ecosystem through secondary analyses. The Research Parasite Awards are one such avenue, celebrating outstanding contributions to the rigorous secondary analysis of data. As the recipient of a 2019 Junior Research Parasite Award, I was asked to provide some perspectives on life as a research parasite, which I share in this commentary.

INVESTIGATION OF THE POROSSYA ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION IA NAS OF UKRAINE (2011—2016)

The Porossya archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (PorAE) is part of the research project about the Old Rus Porossay. The project is realizing in the Department of Old Rus and Medieval Archeology of the IA NAS of Ukraine. First Porossya archaeological expedition started on August 9, 1945. In 2011 it was renewed. Investigations are carried out on the territory of the South of Medieval Kyiv Region. Special attention in research activity is focused on surveys of archeological monuments and their documentation. The basis of the expedition is the annual work within the framework of the research topic of the Department of Old Rus and Medieval Archeology of the IA NAS of Ukraine. The head of the expedition is Artem Borysov, the junior research fellow of the department. The model for the expedition is the organizational structure of multi-year survey expeditions, in particular, the Ovruch / East-Volyn archaeological expedition of the IA NAS of Ukraine (leaded by A. Tomashevsky and S. Pavlenko) and Cherkassy Forest-steppe archaeological expedition (leaded by M. Syvolap). Field route planning and tasks are related to the program for collecting and analyzing the source base and for recording and mapping of the archaeological sites of Porossay. By 2017, the expedition surveyed 160 archeological monuments of different chronological periodss. The work of the expedition is aimed at a systematic, full-scale survey of Old Rus monuments in river Ros basin and adjacent territories. An important direction of the expedition is the multy-season study of certain micro-regions (the Nehvoroshch basin, the vicinity of chronicle Torchskye). Such areas are gradually approaching the level of continuous inspection of the territory. In total, during the 10 seasons, participents of the Porossya archaeological expedition surveyed 267 archaeological sites (including 22 settlements), 118 mounds in 20 burial groups and 9 separate burial mounds. The tradition of archeological exploration in Porossya is related to the names of V. Dovzhenko, M. Kuchera, L. Ivanchenko. The work of the expeditions on the study of the settlements of the Kyiv region and the Zmiyiv shaft (leaded by M. Kuchera) and the detachments of the Dnieper Ancient Expedition (leaded by O. Mitsev, L. Ivanchenko) allowed to create a basic map of monuments for this territory in the time of Old Rus.