BACKGROUND:The Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation - Older Persons (SCORE-OP) algorithm is developed to assess 10-year risk of death due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals aged ≥65 years. We studied the performance of SCORE-OP in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk) prospective population cohort.METHODS:10-year CVD mortality as predicted by SCORE-OP was compared with observed CVD mortality among individuals in the EPIC-Norfolk cohort. Persons aged 65-79 years without known CVD were included in the analysis. CVD mortality was defined as death due to ischemic heart disease, cardiac failure, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral-artery disease or aortic aneurysm. Predicted 10-year CVD mortality was calculated by the SCORE-OP algorithm, and compared to observed mortality rates. The area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUROC) was calculated to evaluate discriminative power. Calibration was evaluated by calculating ratios of predicted vs observed mortality and by Hosmer-Lemeshow tests.RESULTS:A total of 6590 individuals (45.8% men), mean age 70.2 years (standard deviation 3.3) were included. The predicted mortality by SCORE-OP was 9.84% (95% confidence interval (CI) 9.76-9.92) and observed mortality was 10.2% (95% CI 9.52-11.04), ratio 0.96. AUROC was 0.63 (95% CI 0.60-0.65), and X2 was 3.3 (p = 0.92).CONCLUSION:SCORE-OP overall accurately estimates the rate of CVD mortality in a general population aged 65-79 years. However, while calibration is excellent, the discriminative power of the SCORE-OP is limited, and as such cannot be readily implemented in clinical practice for this population.
Scrum is increasingly becoming an essential product development methodology for project education in modern curricula, however, individually assessing students that work in scrum projects as applied in the professional work field remains extremely challenging until date. In scrum, students team up in order to deliver high-quality products in projects that are directed to real business stakeholders in order to enhance professional productivity and allow for flexibility to product requirements. Our new standard adds up to this methodology in three ways. First, we propose to represent the common language that is relevant to stakeholders, product owners and development teams in terms of epic, user story and task such that team members from different backgrounds learn to comprehend together. Second, we propose a two-stage task allocation approach in which, first, learning outcomes for a course that are set in education designs are preliminary mapped by the lecturer to abstract, state-of-the-art, tasks that are commonly relevant in the expert domain, and, then, concrete tasks for the project at hand are placed on project scrum boards by students during scrum sprint plannings in the course run. Third, we propose to assess scrum teams both at group and individual student level. For the individual grading, we define a novel concept of task balance that we consequently measure inside teams. With the aid of automated tools, the standard has been successfully applied and operationalised in various course runs of our multidisciplinary master where it has proven to be effective in assigning individual grades when needed.
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De toename van flexibel en gepersonaliseerd onderwijs zorgt voor uitdagingen op het gebied van sociale binding van studenten met elkaar, met de opleiding en met docenten. Een onderzoeksteam van onderzoekers en lectoren van vier hogescholen in Nederland is daarom nagegaan hoe gevoel van verbondenheid in leergemeenschappen bevorderd kan worden. Aan de hand van literatuur- en ontwerpgericht onderzoek is in acht leergemeenschappen geëxperimenteerd met het bevorderen van sociale binding. Deze leergemeenschappen bevonden zich in de domeinen Verpleegkunde, Lerarenopleiding Gezondheidszorg en Welzijn, Management in de Zorg, Pabo en Voeding en Diëtetiek, zowel duaal,deeltijd als voltijd.Het onderzoek heeft de handreiking Sociale binding in online en blended leergemeenschappen opgeleverd, welke voor u ligt. De handreiking bestaat uit twee delen. In het eerste deel worden de zeven ontwerpprincipes (gericht op inhouds-, houdings- en randvoorwaardelijke aspecten) waar de docent als facilitator mee aan de slag kan, toegelicht. De docent kan deze ontwerpprincipes toepassen om sociale binding in online en blended leergemeenschappen te bevorderen onder andere als er sprake is van flexibele studieroutes. Deze ontwerpprincipes zijn voorzien van praktische (ICT)tools en werkvormen. De ontwerpprincipes zijn breed inzetbaar. Het gaat om de volgende ontwerpprincipes:A. Elkaar leren kennenB. Vertrouwen en samenwerkenC. Gedeelde en gezamenlijke doelenD. Bereidheid om mee te doenE. Programma en instructiestrategieënF. Delen van informatie en kennisG. Hulpbronnen en randvoorwaardenDeel 2 bestaat uit een methodische verantwoording en onderbouwing van het uitgevoerde onderzoek waarop de handreiking is gebaseerd, een beschrijving van de resultaten en afsluiting met een conclusie, discussie en aanbevelingen voor verder onderzoek.Uit de experimenten bleek dat leergemeenschappen die nieuw opgestart werden of na een periode wisselden van samenstelling vooral kozen voor de ontwerpprincipes A. Elkaar leren kennen en B. Vertrouwen en samenwerken. Leergemeenschappen die langer actief waren kozen vooral voor C. Gedeelde en gezamenlijke doelen. Verder (longitudinaal) onderzoek is nodig om na te gaan in hoeverre de ontwerpprincipes en de rol van de facilitators toepasbaar zijn in andere domeinen (zoals techniek, economie).
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The production, use, disposal and recovery of packaging not only generates massive volumes of waste, it also consumes raw materials, water and energy (Fitzpatrick et al. 2012). Simultaneously, consumers have shown an increasing interest in products incorporating sustainable and social attributes (Kletzan et al., 2006). As a result, environmentally friendly packaging, also called ecofriendly or sustainable packaging, has become mainstream. In this context, packaging is more than just ensuring the product's protection and easing transportation, it is also a communicative tool (Palmer, 2000) and it becomes associated with multiple drivers of the purchasing process. Consequently, companies face pressure to innovate responding to consumer demands, and focusing on sustainable solutions that reduce harmful materials and favour green alternatives for both, the product and the packaging. Although the above has triggered research on consumer choice for sustainable products and alternatives on sustainable packaging, the relation between sustainable packaging and consumer behaviour remains underexplored. This research unpacks this relationship, i.e., empirically verifies which dimensions (recyclability, biodegradability, reusability) of sustainable packaging are perceived and valued by consumers. Put differently, this research investigates consumer behaviour towards the functions of sustainable packaging in terms of product protection, convenience, reliability of information and promotion, and scrutinises the perceived credibility of the associated ethical responsibility claims. It aims to identify those packaging materials and/or sustainability characteristics perceived as more sustainable by consumers as well as the factors influencing actual consumer choice towards sustainable packaged products. We aim to gain more insights in the perceptual frame that different types of consumers apply when exposed to sustainable packaging. To this end, we will make use of revealed preference methods to measure consumer valuations of sustainable packaged products. This game-theoretic approach should provide a more complete depiction of consumers' perceptions and preferences.
Despite Dutch Hospitality industry’s significant economic value, employers struggle to attract and retain early career professionals at a time when tourism is forecasted to grow exponentially (Ruël, 2018). Universally, hospitality management graduates are shunning hospitality careers preferring other career paths; stimulating the Dutch Hospitality to find innovative ways of attracting and retaining early career professionals. Following calls from the Human Resource Management (HRM) community (Ehnert, 2009), we attribute this trend to personnel being depicted as rentable resources, driving profit’’ often at personal expense. For example, hotels primarily employ immigrants and students for a minimum wage suppressing salaries of local talent (Kusluvan, et al 2010, O’Relly and Pfeffer, 2010). Similarly, flattening organizational structures have eliminated management positions, placing responsibility on inexperienced shoulders, with vacancies commonly filled by pressured employees accepting unpaid overtime jeopardizing their work life balance (Davidson, et al 2010,). These HRM practices fuel attrition by exposing early career professionals to burnout (Baum et al, 2016, Goh et al, 2015, Deery and Jog, 2009). Collectively this has eroded the industry’s employer brand, now characterized by unsocial working hours, poor compensation, limited career opportunities, low professional standing, high turnover and substance abuse (Mooney et al, 2016, Gehrels and de Looij, 2011). In contrast, Sustainable HRM “enables an organizational goal achievement while simultaneously reproducing the human resource base over a long-lasting calendar time (Ehnert, 2009, p. 74).” Hence, to overcome this barrier we suggest embracing the ROC framework (Prins et al, 2014), which (R)espects internal stakeholders, embraces an (O)pen HRM approach while ensuring (C)ontinuity of economic and societal sustainability which could overcome this barrier. Accordingly, we will employ field research, narrative discourse, survey analysis and quarterly workshops with industry partners, employees, union representatives, hotel school students to develop sustainable HRM practices attracting and retaining career professionals to pursue Dutch hospitality careers.
In this project, the AGM R&D team developed and refined the use of a facial scanning rig. The rig is a physical device comprising multiple cameras and lighting that are mounted on scaffolding around a 'scanning volume'. This is an area at which objects are placed before being photographed from multiple angles. The object is typically a person's head, but it can be anything of this approximate size. Software compares the photographs to create a digital 3D recreation - this process is called photogrammetry. The 3D model is then processed by further pieces of software and eventually becomes a face that can be animated inside in Unreal Engine, which is a popular piece of game development software made by the company Epic. This project was funded by Epic's 'Megagrant' system, and the focus of the work is on streamlining and automating the processing pipeline, and on improving the quality of the resulting output. Additional work has been done on skin shaders (simulating the quality of real skin in a digital form) and the use of AI to re/create lifelike hair styles. The R&D work has produced significant savings in regards to the processing time and the quality of facial scans, has produced a system that has benefitted the educational offering of BUas, and has attracted collaborators from the commercial entertainment/simulation industries. This work complements and extends previous work done on the VIBE project, where the focus was on creating lifelike human avatars for the medical industry.
