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There is a diversity of small ruminant production systems across Europe, which range from extensive upland and mountain systems with a low stocking rate and sometimes minimal supervision to more intensive and/or housed systems, fo...
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There is a diversity of small ruminant production systems across Europe, which range from extensive upland and mountain systems with a low stocking rate and sometimes minimal supervision to more intensive and/or housed systems, for example for milk production from sheep and goats. This diversity, more prevalent than for other livestock species, leads to difficulties in evaluating the welfare of the individual animals concerned (because the experiences of animals are so different) with a related difficulty in creating common criteria for evaluating welfare across Europe as a whole, and in individual countries. Nevertheless, even without a valid, transparent and agreed basis for the evaluation of individual enterprises, it is still possible for livestock advisers and veterinarians, in collaboration with producers, to be proactive and to recommend on-farm measures, which could raise the general standard of care and, importantly, to have a major impact on the welfare of individual animals in these systems
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OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to determine whether individual radiologists are predictive of important relevant health outcomes among emergency department (ED) patients undergoing abdominopelvic CT for right lower quadrant pain.
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Results-oriented approaches are widely regarded as an effective means to improving cost-effectiveness of agri-climate-environment schemes. We designed a hypothetical payment-by-results scheme for biodiversity conservation on envir...
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Results-oriented approaches are widely regarded as an effective means to improving cost-effectiveness of agri-climate-environment schemes. We designed a hypothetical payment-by-results scheme for biodiversity conservation on environmental grasslands in Finland. The scheme would pay farmers a premium if the site contains a set number of indicator species, which were selected based on vascular plant surveys of the target habitat type. We presented the hypothetical scheme to 20 farmers and six experts (researchers, officials and advisors) in agricultural policy for their opinions on the payment-by-result approach generally and the hypothetical scheme specifically. The indicator species list proved suitable for identifying sites with high total species richness of vascular plants and also appeared feasible in the eyes of the farmers. Farmers were mostly positive about the approach and, mainly, thought their peers and society at large would receive it positively. The main concerns were about implementation, especially verifying the biodiversity results. People working for the national control body were the most critical and could not see how the hypothetical scheme could fit into the current institutionalised programme. Experience in other countries may provide solutions for overcoming such obstacles. The results are highly relevant for a discourse on social experimentation and cost-efficient delivery of public goods for public money. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Context European beef production is facing fresh challenges on various fronts: increasing public concern on animal welfare; declining EU meat consumption; and, conversely, expected growth in global demand for meat. The Italian Nat...
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Context European beef production is facing fresh challenges on various fronts: increasing public concern on animal welfare; declining EU meat consumption; and, conversely, expected growth in global demand for meat. The Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (CReNBA) has developed an assessment protocol for collecting information about beef cattle welfare and biosecurity conditions, with the intention of better understanding animal needs and disseminating best practices. Aims The protocol was applied on Italian and Irish farms, and the results were used as a starting point for a specific statistical analysis for comparing animal welfare and biosecurity levels in the two countries. Methods The protocol consists of animal-based measures and non-animal-based measures (management-based and resource-based indicators) and has been designed to determine the major hazards and benefits that can influence cattle health and welfare, including the presence of biosecurity issues. The outcomes of welfare and biosecurity assessments conducted during November 2016-July 2017 of 40 Irish beef herds reared indoors were compared with those of 85 Italian beef units assessed over the same period. Differences obtained within each beef-unit distribution were calculated by the VARNC index (diversity index), and a distance estimate of the beef-unit distribution from a hypothetical ideal condition was calculated by using the distance from ideal (dfi) index. Key results Thedfiindex revealed that Irish farms were closer to the ideal condition for the measures 'experience and training of stockpersons', 'water provision', 'handling facilities', 'restraint facilities', and 'temperature, humidity and ventilations conditions'. Italian farms were closer to the ideal condition for 'diet calculation and feed quality', 'feeding management', 'feeding place dimension', 'cleanliness of water points', 'cleanliness of floors', 'type of floors', 'cleanliness of animals', and 'integument alterations'. In contrast to the Italian farms, there was particular awareness of the importance of biosecurity on Irish farms. Conclusions The results revealed intrinsic management and housing differences between the two rearing systems, although only few dissimilarities were found in the animal outcomes: in fact, the assessment of the animal-based measures gave very similar results for the two countries, except for 'cleanliness of the animals' and 'integument alterations'. Implications In the face of global challenges affecting the pursuit of farming sustainability, farmers should be encouraged to improve safeguards for animal welfare and reduce the spread of animal diseases. This can be achieved by facilitating knowledge exchange internationally.
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To use more effectively the limited resources available for conservation there is an urgent need to identify which conservation approaches are most likely to succeed. However, measuring conservation success is often difficult, as ...
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To use more effectively the limited resources available for conservation there is an urgent need to identify which conservation approaches are most likely to succeed. However, measuring conservation success is often difficult, as it is achieved outside the project time frame. Measures of implementation are often reported to donors to demonstrate achievement but it is unclear whether they really predict conservation success. We applied a conceptual framework and score-card developed by the Cambridge Conservation Forum (CCF) to a sample of 60 conservation activities to determine the predictive power of implementation measures versus measures of key outcomes (later steps in the models defined in the CCF tools). We show that assessing key outcomes is often more difficult than quantifying the degree of implementation of a project but that, while implementation is a poor predictor of success, key outcomes provide a feasible and much more reliable proxy for whether a project will deliver real conservation benefits. The CCF framework and evaluation tool provide a powerful basis for synthesizing past experience and, with wider application, will help to identify factors that affect the success of conservation activities.
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In the partnership between the medical departments of Wurzburg University, Germany, and Nagasaki University, Japan, palliative care is a relevant topic. The aim of the study was to perform a comparative analysis of the hospital-ba...
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In the partnership between the medical departments of Wurzburg University, Germany, and Nagasaki University, Japan, palliative care is a relevant topic. The aim of the study was to perform a comparative analysis of the hospital-based palliative care teams in Wurzburg (PCT-W) and Nagasaki (PCT-N). Survey of staff composition and retrospective analysis of PCT patient charts in both PCTs were conducted. Patients self-assessed their symptoms in PCT-W and in Radiation Oncology Wurzburg (RO-W). The (negative) quality indicator 'percentage of deceased hospitalised patients with PCT contact for less than 3 days before death' (Earle in Int J Qual Health Care 17(6):505-509, 2005) was analysed. Both PCTs follow a multidisciplinary team approach. PCT-N saw 410 cancer patients versus 853 patients for PCT-W (22.8% non-cancer patients). The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status at first contact with PCT-N was 3 or 4 in 39.3% of patients versus 79.0% for PCT-W. PCT-N was engaged in co-management longer than PCT-W (mean 20.7 days, range 1-102 versus mean 4.9 days, range 1-48). The most frequent patient-reported psychological symptom was anxiety (family anxiety: 98.3% PCT-W and 88.7% RO-W, anxiety 97.9% PCT-W and 85.9% RO-W), followed by depression (98.2% PCT-W and 80.3% RO-W). In 14 of the 148 deceased patients, PCT-N contact was initiated less than 3 days before death (9.4%) versus 121 of the 729 deceased PCT-W patients (16.6%). Psychological needs are highly relevant in both Germany and Japan, with more than 85% anxiety and depression in patients in the Japanese IPOS validation study (Sakurai in Jpn J Clin Oncol 49(3):257-262, 2019). This should be taken into account when implementing PCTs.
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Under the 1997 Oceans Act, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is required to lead and facilitate the development of integrated management plans for Canada's oceans. One of the integrated management projects is the Eastern Scotian S...
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Under the 1997 Oceans Act, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is required to lead and facilitate the development of integrated management plans for Canada's oceans. One of the integrated management projects is the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management Initiative (ESSIM), through which DFO is working with a range of stakeholders to develop and implement an integrated ocean management plan for the eastern Scotian Shelf. As part of this Initiative, DFO has undertaken a program to develop a set of objectives and related indicators for ocean management. This includes the development of a framework, objectives, and indicators for human use of the resource including the social, economic, and institutional ( governance) components of ocean management, areas that have received little attention internationally. This article provides some background to ESSIM and human uses of the resources of the eastern Scotian Shelf; briefly reviews objectives-based management and human use objectives internationally; outlines the process undertaken to develop the Human Use Objectives Framework; presents the resultant objectives and indicators that were developed; and highlights some of the lessons learned and challenges for their implementation.
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Abstract The aim of this paper is to report our notes from the field on using movement toward goals at an aggregate level as an inference of service effectiveness. Analysis of routinely collected data from UK youth mental health s...
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Abstract The aim of this paper is to report our notes from the field on using movement toward goals at an aggregate level as an inference of service effectiveness. Analysis of routinely collected data from UK youth mental health services was conducted (N?=?8,172, age M?=?13.8, 67% female, 32% male) to explore the impact of including goal‐based outcome data in combined calculations of standardized measures based on the principles of reliable change (“measurable change”). Due to the broad nature of standardized measures, inferred validity becomes diluted in any team or service level aggregate analysis. To make inferences that are closer to the person's interpretation of their difficulties, we argue that Idiographic Patient Reported Outcome Measures (I‐PROMs) counterbalance these limitations. This is supported by our findings. The measurable change metric is the first step towards enabling national analysis of aggregated I‐PROMs. I‐PROMs, supplemented by standardized measures should be used to consider service evaluation.
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Measurement is the basis for assessing potential improvements in healthcare quality. Measures may be classified into four categories: volume, structure, outcome, and process (VSOP). Measures of each type should be used with a full...
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Measurement is the basis for assessing potential improvements in healthcare quality. Measures may be classified into four categories: volume, structure, outcome, and process (VSOP). Measures of each type should be used with a full understanding of their cost and benefit. Although volume and structure measures are easily collected, impact on healthcare results is not always clear. Process measures are generally more difficult and expensive to collect, and the relationship between process and outcomes is only recently being explored. Knowledge of measure types and relationships among them, as well as emerging evidence on the role of patient satisfaction,must be used to guide improvements and ultimately for demonstrating value in healthcare.
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Nurses who implement quality improvement projects and evidence-based care need to measure quality of care before, during, and after a change in practice. The purpose of this overview is to summarize current literature within the t...
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Nurses who implement quality improvement projects and evidence-based care need to measure quality of care before, during, and after a change in practice. The purpose of this overview is to summarize current literature within the traditional framework of quality of care as structure, process, and outcome. This information should assist nurses in their selection of indicators/metrics that are appropriate for the neonatal population.
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