Global variations and time trends in the prevalence of childhood myopia, a systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis:implications for aetiology and early prevention

The aim of this review was to quantify the global variation in childhood myopia prevalence over time taking account of demographic and study design factors. A systematic review identified population-based surveys with estimates of childhood myopia prevalence published by February 2015. Multilevel binomial logistic regression of log odds of myopia was used to examine the association with age, gender, urban versus rural setting and survey year, among populations of different ethnic origins, adjusting for study design factors. 143 published articles (42 countries, 374 349 subjects aged 1- 18 years, 74 847 myopia cases) were included. Increase in myopia prevalence with age varied by ethnicity. East Asians showed the highest prevalence, reaching 69% (95% credible intervals (CrI) 61% to 77%) at 15 years of age (86% among Singaporean-Chinese). Blacks in Africa had the lowest prevalence; 5.5% at 15 years (95% CrI 3% to 9%). Time trends in myopia prevalence over the last decade were small in whites, increased by 23% in East Asians, with a weaker increase among South Asians. Children from urban environments have 2.6 times the odds of myopia compared with those from rural environments. In whites and East Asians sex differences emerge at about 9 years of age; by late adolescence girls are twice as likely as boys to be myopic. Marked ethnic differences in age-specific prevalence of myopia exist. Rapid increases in myopia prevalence over time, particularly in East Asians, combined with a universally higher risk of myopia in urban settings, suggest that environmental factors play an important role in myopia development, which may offer scope for prevention.

Post-registration learning trends of community pharmacists

Background: Some Australian pharmacists use continuing education to maintain knowledge and acquire new information. There has been a progression from continuing education to continuing professional development (CPD) - a mandatory requirement for pharmacists in all jurisdictions of Australia. Aim: To identify post-registration learning trends of community pharmacists in Western Australia. Method: A questionnaire was developed and administered by face-to-face interviews with community pharmacists in metropolitan Perth. Pharmacists registered for less than 12 months and pharmacists working in hospitals were excluded. Results: 103 pharmacists were approached with a response rate of 95%. Journals (41%), reference books (23%) and the Internet (18%) were the most commonly used educational resources cited by pharmacists. Keeping scientific information up-to-date (39%) and gathering practical knowledge (22%) were the leading motivators for pharmacists to participate in continuing education. Factors that hindered participation in continuing education included lack of time (34%), family commitments (21%) and business commitments (21%). 79% of pharmacists agreed with the concept of mandatory CPD. 47% of pharmacists suggested that the primary sanction for not complying with mandatory CPD should be counselling to determine reasons for non-compliance. Conclusion: Community pharmacists preferred educational resources that were easily accessible at convenient times. Most pharmacists were able to fulfil the requirements of CPD, however, further educational support and promotion would ensure the successful uptake of CPD by community pharmacists in Western Australia.

Creating lift versus building the base:current trends in marketing dynamics

Markets are dynamic by nature, and marketing efforts can be directed to stimulate, reduce, or to utilize these dynamics. The field of marketing dynamics aims at modeling the effects of marketing actions and policies on short-term performance (“lift”) and on long-term performance (“base”). One of the core questions within this field is: “How do marketing efforts affect outcome metrics such as revenues, profits, or shareholder value over time?” Developments in statistical modeling and new data sources allow marketing scientists to provide increasingly comprehensive answers to this question. We present an outlook on developments in modeling marketing dynamics and specify research directions.

Tracking the trends in manufacturing technology management

Purpose – This Editorial Viewpoint explores the practical developments in manufacturing technology management (MTM) over the last 22 years and links these to some of the subject trends of previous articles in JMTM. Design/methodology/approach – Themes and relevant articles have been identified from the Emerald advanced search facility and linked with developments in hard technologies, information technology and production organisation. Findings – There are numerous examples of where trends in the real world of MTM are reflected in changes to the orientation of JMTM articles, but there are still many articles following more well-worn paths of previous academic research. Research limitations/implications – Evidence for the findings is only from a small sample of articles identified in one journal. Practical implications – Over time, practitioners can find useful connections between published research and their own emerging areas of concern. Originality/value – The paper is based on original bibliographic research, supplemented by extensive editorial and practical experience.

Stretching the life of Twitter classifiers with time-stamped semantic graphs

Social media has become an effective channel for communicating both trends and public opinion on current events. However the automatic topic classification of social media content pose various challenges. Topic classification is a common technique used for automatically capturing themes that emerge from social media streams. However, such techniques are sensitive to the evolution of topics when new event-dependent vocabularies start to emerge (e.g., Crimea becoming relevant to War Conflict during the Ukraine crisis in 2014). Therefore, traditional supervised classification methods which rely on labelled data could rapidly become outdated. In this paper we propose a novel transfer learning approach to address the classification task of new data when the only available labelled data belong to a previous epoch. This approach relies on the incorporation of knowledge from DBpedia graphs. Our findings show promising results in understanding how features age, and how semantic features can support the evolution of topic classifiers.

Global trends in myopia management attitudes and strategies in clinical practice

PURPOSE: Myopia is a global public health issue; however, no information exists as to how potential myopia retardation strategies are being adopted globally. METHODS: A self-administrated, internet-based questionnaire was distributed in six languages, through professional bodies to eye care practitioners globally. The questions examined: awareness of increasing myopia prevalence, perceived efficacy and adoption of available strategies, and reasons for not adopting specific strategies. RESULTS: Of the 971 respondents, concern was higher (median 9/10) in Asia than in any other continent (7/10, p<0.001) and they considered themselves more active in implementing myopia control strategies (8/10) than Australasia and Europe (7/10), with North (4/10) and South America (5/10) being least proactive (p<0.001). Orthokeratology was perceived to be the most effective method of myopia control, followed by increased time outdoors and pharmaceutical approaches, with under-correction and single vision spectacles felt to be the least effective (p<0.05). Although significant intra-regional differences existed, overall most practitioners 67.5 (±37.8)% prescribed single vision spectacles or contact lenses as the primary mode of correction for myopic patients. The main justifications for their reluctance to prescribe alternatives to single vision refractive corrections were increased cost (35.6%), inadequate information (33.3%) and the unpredictability of outcomes (28.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of practitioners' awareness of the efficacy of myopia control techniques, the vast majority still prescribe single vision interventions to young myopes. In view of the increasing prevalence of myopia and existing evidence for interventions to slow myopia progression, clear guidelines for myopia management need to be established.