How can continuing professional development better promote shared decision-making? Perspectives from an international collaboration.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Shared decision-making is not widely implemented in healthcare. We aimed to set a research agenda about promoting shared decision-making through continuing professional development. METHODS: Thirty-six participants met for two days. RESULTS: Participants suggested ways to improve an environmental scan that had inventoried 53 shared decision-making training programs from 14 countries. Their proposed research agenda included reaching an international consensus on shared decision-making competencies and creating a framework for accrediting continuing professional development initiatives in shared decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: Variability in shared decision-making training programs showcases the need for quality assurance frameworks.

Building the niche through time: using 13,000 years of data to predict the effects of climate change on three tree species in Europe

Aim Species distribution models (SDMs) based on current species ranges underestimate the potential distribution when projected in time and/or space. A multi-temporal model calibration approach has been suggested as an alternative, and we evaluate this using 13,000 years of data. Location Europe. Methods We used fossil-based records of presence for Picea abies, Abies alba and Fagus sylvatica and six climatic variables for the period 13,000 to 1000yr bp. To measure the contribution of each 1000-year time step to the total niche of each species (the niche measured by pooling all the data), we employed a principal components analysis (PCA) calibrated with data over the entire range of possible climates. Then we projected both the total niche and the partial niches from single time frames into the PCA space, and tested if the partial niches were more similar to the total niche than random. Using an ensemble forecasting approach, we calibrated SDMs for each time frame and for the pooled database. We projected each model to current climate and evaluated the results against current pollen data. We also projected all models into the future. Results Niche similarity between the partial and the total-SDMs was almost always statistically significant and increased through time. SDMs calibrated from single time frames gave different results when projected to current climate, providing evidence of a change in the species realized niches through time. Moreover, they predicted limited climate suitability when compared with the total-SDMs. The same results were obtained when projected to future climates. Main conclusions The realized climatic niche of species differed for current and future climates when SDMs were calibrated considering different past climates. Building the niche as an ensemble through time represents a way forward to a better understanding of a species' range and its ecology in a changing climate.

Improvement of a fully distributed decision making protocol for CRN

Abstract¿La deteción del espectro libre para las comunicaciones inalámbricas en un momento puntual es una tarea compleja cuyo desarrollo se simplica al realizarse de forma distribuida por una red de radio cognitiva. Sin embargo existes dificultades y vulnerabilidades de seguridad que han de ser tenidas en cuenta y solventadas a la hora de autenticar y validar los nodos de la red. Este artículo presenta una propuesta de mejora del protocolo fully distributed decision making protocol for CRN con el fin de llevar a cabo esta tarea de detección del espectro de una manera eficiente y segura.

Ag Decision Maker, February 2015, Vol. 19, no. 4

A Business Newsletter for Agriculture

Ag Decision Maker, March 2015, Vol. 19, no. 5

A Business Newsletter for Agriculture

Ag Decision Maker, April 2015, Vol. 19, no. 6

A Business Newsletter for Agriculture

Ag Decision Maker, May 2015, Vol. 19, no. 7

A Business Newsletter for Agriculture

Dibuixar un arbre / Drawing a Tree

L’arbre, un dels símbols més universals i un element intrínsecament vinculat al desenvolupament de la nostra cultura, esdevé, en aquest llibre, el pretext idoni per donar a conèixer alguns dels interrogants que la vivència de l’art contemporani planteja. L’artista Àlex Nogué obre les portes del seu procés de creació per fer visible com es desencadena la gènesi d’una obra d’art i posa a la llum les incerteses, les intuïcions i les aspiracions que comporta la creació artística. Dibuixar un arbre tracta de les similituds entre l’emoció que produeix un plançó al mig d’un bosc i l’emoció de traslladar-lo fins a l’interior d’una presó. De les diferències de dibuixar un xiprer dret o abatut. Dels silencis i dels sorolls de les imatges. Del que una obra pretén i del que mai aconsegueix. Les imatges i els textos d’aquest llibre ens permeten transitar per l’interior de vuit processos de creació i ens mostren com els treballs artístics neixen i creixen. Per emmarcar l’experiència creativa en el context cultural contemporani, Dibuixar unarbre s’inicia amb cinc reflexions d’autors que han viscut amb empatia aquest recorregutcreatiu. Ells mateixos estan immersos de manera apassionada en la creació, producció,difusió o direcció de projectes creatius, i són: Eudald Camps, Xavier Franquesa, Rosa Pera, Víctor Sunyol i Àngels Viladomiu.

Ag Decision Maker, June 2015, Vol. 19, no. 8

A Business Newsletter for Agriculture

A method for decision making with the OWA operator

A new method for decision making that uses the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator in the aggregation of the information is presented. It is used a concept that it is known in the literature as the index of maximum and minimum level (IMAM). This index is based on distance measures and other techniques that are useful for decision making. By using the OWA operator in the IMAM, we form a new aggregation operator that we call the ordered weighted averaging index of maximum and minimum level (OWAIMAM) operator. The main advantage is that it provides a parameterized family of aggregation operators between the minimum and the maximum and a wide range of special cases. Then, the decision maker may take decisions according to his degree of optimism and considering ideals in the decision process. A further extension of this approach is presented by using hybrid averages and Choquet integrals. We also develop an application of the new approach in a multi-person decision-making problem regarding the selection of strategies.

Improvement of a fully distributed decision making protocol for CRN

Este artículo presenta una propuesta de mejora del protocolo fully distributed decision making protocol for CRN con el fin de llevar a cabo la tarea de detección del espectro libre para las comunicaciones inalámbricas de una manera eficiente y segura.

Cost evaluation and comparison of three decision strategies to revascularize : results of the suspected CAD protocol of the european CMR registry

Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is accepted as a method to assess suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Nonetheless, invasive coronary angiography (CXA) combined or not with fractional flow reserve (FFR) remains the main diagnostic test to evaluate CAD. Little data exist on the economic impact of the use of these procedures in a population with a low to intermediate pre-test probability. Objective: To compare the costs of 3 decision strategies to revascularize a patient with suspected CAD: 1) strategy guided by CMR 2) hypothetical strategy guided by CXA-FFR, 3) hypothetical strategy guided by CXA alone.

The impact of authority advice and accountability on auditors' decision to recognise norm-violating transactions.

Auditors face the difficult responsibilty to approve companies' financial accounting information reliably. They are trained to work according to accounting standards that are designed to help them in their decision making. Yet, auditors do not work in a social vacuum and are thus subject to various influences. One important source of influence at work is authority figures (e.g., experts, supervisors). On this background, we examined within two studies the impact of (1) authority advice to comply with accounting standards or to additionally maximize profits and (2) of participants' accountability for their decision. In Study 1, (n = 184 accounting students), participants who were advised by an authority to comply with accounting standards had a lower probability to recognise transactions that violated those standards than participants who were advised to comply but also to maximise profit. However, holding participants accountable for their decision reduced the difference between the two groups. In Study 2, (n = 58 managers), we again found an interaction between authority advice and accountability. But unlike the first study, participants only showed a lower probability to recognise transactions that violated accounting standards when they were held accountable and when the authority only advised them to comply with the standards. We discuss our results in light of unethical decision making and different norms or pressures to which managers may be exposed but students may not.

Ag Decision Maker, July 2015, Vol. 19, no. 9

A Business Newsletter for Agriculture

Effect of pruning on tree growth, yield, and wood properties of Tectona grandis plantations in Costa Rica

Abstract