Abstract

Managing a pets chronic dermatologic conditions can be frustrating for both clients and clinicians, but there are steps to making the process easier for everyone. Avoid the following seven mistakes sometimes made in managing dermatology cases and you will find the process considerably easier in the future.

Abstract

In the context of automated driving, a monitoring request (MR) is a means to prepare drivers for a take-over event. However, driver compliance may be an issue because not all MRs require a take-over. In this study, we investigated how drivers’ compliance with MRs was associated with previously experienced scenarios. The compliance level was measured based on drivers’ eye, hand, and foot preparatory behaviours retrieved from manual video observation. Although drivers showed good overall compliance by looking up to the road in response to MRs in all cases, hand and foot preparatory behaviour appeared to deteriorate after experiencing an MR without a critical event, and increased after a take-over event. Results further showed a positive association between preparatory behaviour and take-over performance.

Abstract

Maintaining high levels of safety under conditions of ever increasing air traffic is a challenging task. Failures to comply with safety-related regulations are often considered to be important contributors to safety occurrences. To address the issue of compliance, approaches based on external regulation of the employees’ behavior were proposed. Unfortunately, an externally imposed control is often not internalized by employees and has a short-term effect on their performance. To achieve a long-term effect, employees need to be internally motivated to adhere to regulations. Theories from social sciences propose that team processes play an important role in the dynamics of individual motivation. In this paper an agent-based model is proposed, by which the impact of social interaction and coordination in teams of platform employees on their individual motivation and compliance with safety regulations at an airline ground service organization are explored. The model was simulated and partially validated by a case study performed at a real airline ground service organization. The model was able to reproduce behavioral patterns of compliance of the platform employees in this study.

Abstract

In the context of automated driving, a monitoring request (MR) is a means to prepare drivers for a take-over event. However, driver compliance may be an issue because not all MRs require a take-over. In this study, we investigated how drivers’ compliance with MRs was associated with previously experienced scenarios. The compliance level was measured based on drivers’ eye, hand, and foot preparatory behaviours retrieved from manual video observation. Although drivers showed good overall compliance by looking up to the road in response to MRs in all cases, hand and foot preparatory behaviour appeared to deteriorate after experiencing an MR without a critical event, and increased after a take-over event. Results further showed a positive association between preparatory behaviour and take-over performance.

Abstract

This paper presents a reference architecture for interoperability testing of electric vehicles as well as their support equipment with the smart grid and the e-Mobility environment. Pan-European Electric Vehicle (EV)-charging is currently problematic as there are compliance and interoperability issues on different communication levels and among the different domains comprising the eMobility system. The discussed reference architecture is composed out of three layers that enable addressing a direct mapping of interfaces, functions and services, as well as real world actors and/or laboratory equipment. Utilizing this architecture enables cross-domain co-simulation for interoperability within the electric mobility and the smart grid environment. Given the future challenges that rise to interoperability testing and the fact that certain aspects are yet unknown or rarely defined, the discussed architecture presents a very modular and extendable approach. © 2015 IEEE.

Abstract

Functional analysis (Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994) is a robust approach to identifying function-based interventions for problem behavior, including self-injury, aggression, and destruction. Such interventions, however, may be difficult for untrained caregivers to implement with fidelity in natural environments. Further research is needed to identify simple antecedent strategies for promoting appropriate behavior among children with significant problem behavior. The purpose of the current study was to utilize a concurrent schedules arrangement to identify conditions under which two children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental delays who engaged in problem behaviors would choose to complete academic tasks to earn access to preferred items. In both cases, problem behaviors were shown to be sensitive to reinforcement in the forms of escape from task demands and access to preferred items. A concurrent operant arrangement in which the participants could choose to complete work tasks to earn access to preferred activities, or to take a break without demands or preferred items, was implemented. The schedule requirements in the demand component were systematically increased across opportunities, while the amount and type of reinforcement was kept constant. The results show, at the lowest levels of task demands, both participants allocated more opportunities to the work option. At higher levels, however, both participants allocated a majority of their choices to the break option. Despite the absence of preferred items in the break component, no instances of problem behavior were observed following selection of the break option. This indicates that this type of analysis could be used to identify conditions for compliance among individuals who engage in escape- or multiply-maintained problem behaviors, without the need to provoke or reinforce problem behavior. Limitations of the current study and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Abstract

In our study, we aimed to evaluate the influence of training on compliance and persistence with bisphosphonate treatment given on a weekly vs. monthly basis in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients. A total of 979 patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis (mean age: 63.2 ± 7.2 years) were included in this national, multicenter, prospective non-interventional observational cohort registry study. Patients were randomized into training (n = 492, 50.3%, mean age: 63.4 ± 7.2 years) and control (n = 487, 49.7%, mean age: 63.0 ± 7.1 years) groups. Patients in each intervention group were given weekly (44.9% and 44.6% for training and control subjects, respectively) or monthly (55.1% and 55.4%, respectively) bisphosphonate regimens. After the initial visit, patients were followed up at three-month intervals throughout 12 months of treatment for evaluation of persistence, compliance and adverse events. On average, 79.4% of the patients were persistent with the treatment with a mean of 350.4 days of duration during the 12-month follow-up period. The mean compliance in the compliant and fully compliant group remained at an average of 86.6%. No significant difference was detected between the training and control groups in terms of compliance and persistence. Significantly longer persistence (360.0 ± 89.0 vs. 345.0 ± 108.0 days, p = 0.035), higher percentage of persistent patients (83.4% vs. 74.2%, p = 0.012) and higher compliance rates (88.8% vs. 83.3%, p = 0.002) were noted in monthly regimen patients in comparison to those given weekly regimen. Our findings revealed remarkably high rates for persistence and compliance with bisphosphonate treatment in postmenopausal osteoporosis, with no impact of training on compliance and persistence rates. Longer persistence and better compliance rates were achieved with the monthly bisphosphonate regimen when compared to the weekly regimen.