Interactive Process (interactive + process)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The application of knowledge discovery in databases to post-marketing drug safety: example of the WHO database

FUNDAMENTAL & CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
A. Bate
Abstract After market launch, new information on adverse effects of medicinal products is almost exclusively first highlighted by spontaneous reporting. As data sets of spontaneous reports have become larger, and computational capability has increased, quantitative methods have been increasingly applied to such data sets. The screening of such data sets is an application of knowledge discovery in databases (KDD). Effective KDD is an iterative and interactive process made up of the following steps: developing an understanding of an application domain, creating a target data set, data cleaning and pre-processing, data reduction and projection, choosing the data mining task, choosing the data mining algorithm, data mining, interpretation of results and consolidating and using acquired knowledge. The process of KDD as it applies to the analysis of spontaneous reports can be exemplified by its routine use on the 3.5 million suspected adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports in the WHO ADR database. Examples of new adverse effects first highlighted by the KDD process on WHO data include topiramate glaucoma, infliximab vasculitis and the association of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and neonatal convulsions. The KDD process has already improved our ability to highlight previously unsuspected ADRs for clinical review in spontaneous reporting, and we anticipate that such techniques will be increasingly used in the successful screening of other healthcare data sets such as patient records in the future. [source]


Understanding the implementation of software process improvement innovations in software organizations

INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2004
Karlheinz Kautz
Abstract., The development of software is a complex task frequently resulting in unfinished projects, project overruns and system failures. Software process improvement (SPI) approaches have been promoted as a promising remedy for this situation. The organizational implementation of such approaches is a crucial issue and attempts to introduce SPI into software organizations often fail. This paper presents a framework to understand, and subsequently successfully perform, the implementation of SPI innovations in software organizations. The framework consists of three perspectives on innovation: an individualist, a structuralist and an interactive process perspective. Applied to SPI, they emphasize different aspects of implementing SPI innovations. While the first focuses on leadership, champions and change agents, the second focuses on organization size, departmental and task differentiation and complexity, and the third perspective views the contents of the innovation, the social context and process of the implementation as related in an interactive process. We demonstrate the framework's applicability through two cases. We show that the three perspectives supplement each other and together provide a deeper understanding of the implementation process. Such understanding is crucial for the successful uptake of SPI approaches in software organizations. [source]


The Elements of Rationality and Chance in the Choice of Human Action

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2004
ERNEST KRAUSZ
The focus in this paper is on deliberate human action. The central questions addressed are: whether purely rational choice is possible; whether choices may be induced by chance alone; or whether there is always a mixture of rationality and chance, as well as other factors such as habit, emotion, imitation and irrationality. The approach is a factualist one, upholding the view that, although human action can be explained by its antecedents, this is not incompatible with the notion of "free choice". It is the actual choosing process that determines the final choice of action. Whatever the sources of the elements involved in the choosing process, the choice of action is a specific outcome created by the acting agent. It is in this choosing process and decision making that both rationality and chance enter. The conclusion is that rationality is the element which links intentionality with goal seeking and attainment, but that the actual choice is determined by a complex interactive process in which both logic and chance play a part. [source]


Tales of resistance and other emancipatory functions of storytelling

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 11 2009
Jane S. Grassley
Abstract Title.,Tales of resistance and other emancipatory functions of storytelling. Aim., This paper is the report of a study to explore how the process of storytelling might facilitate women's emancipatory knowing, using examples from women's breastfeeding stories. Background., Storytelling, as an interactive process, can give women a way to explain pivotal life events, justify choices, examine reality and find meaning in experiences. Emancipatory functions of storytelling have been identified as contextual grounding, bonding with others, validating and affirming experiences, venting and catharsis, resisting oppression and educating others. Method., Secondary data analysis was conducted in 2008 on breastfeeding stories originally gathered from 13 women from 2002 to 2004 for a feminist hermeneutic study of maternal breastfeeding confidence. The stories were re-examined through the lens of the emancipatory functions of storytelling. Illustrations of contextual grounding, validating and affirming experiences, venting and catharsis and acts of resistance were found in the breastfeeding stories and presented as exemplars of emancipatory knowing. Findings., Women revealed the difficulties they encountered breastfeeding, transforming these experiences as they discovered their meaning. They described collisions that occurred when personal, familial, healthcare professionals' or cultural expectations differed from their experience. The stories suggested possible liberation from old ideologies about breastfeeding as women redefined the difficulties they encountered. Conclusion., Storytelling has potential as a simple, yet profound, and powerful emancipatory intervention which nurses can use to help women in their care make sense of and transform experiences of health and illness. Storytelling may have global implications for nursing practice and research. [source]


A study of nurses' inferences of patients' physical pain

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 4 2006
Benita Wilson BSc
Aim., The aim of this study was to establish if postregistration education and clinical experience influence nurses' inferences of patients' physical pain. Background., Pain is a complex, subjective phenomenon making it an experience that is elusive and difficult to define. Evaluation of an individual's pain is the product of a dynamic, interactive process that frequently results in ineffective pain management. Educating nurses should address the deficit, however the clinical environment is thought to be most influential in the acquisition of knowledge. Design., A series of vignettes was used to consider nurses' inferences of physical pain for six hypothetical patients; these were employed within a self-administered questionnaire that also addressed lifestyle factors of patients in pain, general attitudes and beliefs about pain management and general knowledge of pain control. Method., One hundred questionnaires were distributed; 86 nurses returned the questionnaire giving a response rate of 86%. Following selection of the sample 72 nurses participated in the study: 35 hospice/oncology nurses (specialist) and 37 district nurses (general). Data analysis was carried out using SPSS and qualitative analysis of the written responses. Results., The specialist nurses tended to infer lower levels of physical pain than the general nurses when considering the patients in the vignettes. Conclusion., Education and clinical experience influence nurses' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about pain. However, it would appear that the specialist nurses' working environment and knowledge base engenders a practice theory divide, resulting in desensitization to patients' physical pain. Relevance to clinical practice., It is suggested that the specialist nurses use defence mechanisms to protect them from the conflict that arises from working within the clinical environment. These cognitive strategies have the potential to ease cognitive dissonance for the nurse, but may increase patient suffering. [source]


Nurse practitioner,client interaction as resource exchange in a women's health clinic: an exploratory study

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 5 2003
Rebecca K. Donohue PhD
Summary ,,Empirical research has thoroughly documented the success of nurse practitioners (NPs) in terms of patient satisfaction and cost-effectiveness. What is missing is the in-depth knowledge of the interactive process through which this is accomplished during a clinic visit. ,,The aim of this study was to understand the special nature and processes of NP and client encounters in the ambulatory primary care context using a resource exchange perspective. ,,An exploratory descriptive design was used to address the following research questions: (i) What do midlife female clients expect in terms of resources to be exchanged prior to a visit with a NP in an ambulatory clinic visit? (ii) What resources are actually exchanged during the clinic visit? (iii) To what extent is there congruence between a woman's expectations and what she is actually receiving from the clinic visit in terms of resources exchanged? ,,The participants included two women health NPs and eight midlife female clients. ,,Data for the study were comprised of audiotaped pre- and postencounter interviews with the clients, audiotapes of the entire clinic visits with the NP and field notes recorded by the researcher of the client visits. Content analysis was conducted using ETHNOGRAPH software. ,,Findings indicated that clients of both NPs had surprisingly similar expectations of receipt of services as well as actual receipt of services. Resources expected and received from the visits included some combination of services, health information, trust, self-disclosure, support, affirmation, time, acceptance and respect. ,,Results of this study suggest that resource exchange theoretical formulations can be applied to NP,client interactions to understand and explain the specific nature of resources the clients expect and receive from a NP during a woman's health clinic visit. [source]


Impact of clinical leadership development on the clinical leader, nursing team and care-giving process: a case study

JOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2008
BERNADETTE DIERCKX de CASTERLÉ phd
Aim, This study explored the dynamics related to a leadership development programme and their impact on the clinical leader, the nursing team and the care-giving process. Background, While there is a growing conviction about the need to invest in transformational leadership in nursing, further insight into the true complexity of leadership development and, more specifically, how leadership can make a difference in nursing and patient outcomes is essential. Method, A single instrumental case study was conducted in a unit of a large academic hospital where a Clinical Leadership development Project (CLP) was implemented successfully. We used mixed methods with multiple sources of data to capture the complexity of leadership development. Data were collected through individual interviews, focus groups and observation of participants. A purposive sample of 17 participants representing a wide variety of team members has permitted data saturation. The data were categorized and conceptualized and finally organized into a framework describing leadership development on the unit and its impact on the leader, the nursing team and the care-giving process. Results, Leadership development is an ongoing, interactive process between the clinical leader and the co-workers. The head nurse became more effective in areas of self-awareness, communication skills, performance and vision. The nursing team benefited because more effective leadership promoted effective communication, greater responsibility, empowerment and job clarity. Improved clinical leadership seemed also to influence patient-centred communication, continuity of care and interdisciplinary collaboration. Conclusions, The results of the study give more insight into the processes underlying the leader's progress towards attaining a transformational leadership style and its impact on the team members. The impact of leadership on the care-giving process, however, remains difficult to describe. Implications for nursing management, The interactive nature of leadership development makes CLP a challenge for the leader as well for the team members. Through its impact on the leader and the nursing team, CLP is a valuable instrument for improving work environments of nurses, contributing positively to patient-centred care. [source]


Research Article: Participation of patients with chronic illness in nursing care: An Iranian perspective

NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 3 2010
Mohsen Soleimani rn, phd (Cand.)
Abstract The increasing number of chronically ill people has served as an impetus for the promotion of patient participation in nursing care. However, little is known about patient participation in Iran. The aim of this study was to identify the factors that are relevant to patient participation and the nature of that participation, as experienced by chronically ill patients and registered nurses in Iran. Grounded theory was used as the method. Twenty-two participants were recruited by using purposeful and theoretical sampling. The data were generated by semistructured interviews and participant observations. Constant comparison was used for the data analysis. This study indicated that participation is an interactive process between nurses, patients, and family members in the caregiving context. Participation occurred when the caring agents worked together. The core category of "convergence of the caring agents" emerged. The subcategories emerged as the levels of participation and included "adhering", "involving", "sharing", and "true participation". The factors related to the caring agents and caregiving context could be considered as predictors of the level of participation when caring for these patients. [source]


Beyond empathy: clinical intimacy in nursing practice

NURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2007
Timothy W. Kirk PhD
Abstract Understanding, shared meaning, and mutual trust lie at the heart of the therapeutic nurse,patient relationship. This article introduces the concept of clinical intimacy by applying the interpersonal process model of intimacy to the nurse,patient relationship. The distinction between complementary and reciprocal behaviours, and between intimate interactions and intimate relationships, addresses background concerns about the appropriateness of intimacy in nursing relationships. The mutual construction of meaning in the interactive process between nurses and patients is seen to lie at the heart of clinical intimacy as a hermeneutic enterprise. Intimacy is distinguished from empathy based on intentionality and the status and location of meaning. Reasons for continued investigation into clinical intimacy as an explanatory model for nursing as a hermeneutic practice are presented. [source]


The foundational level of psychodynamic meaning: Implicit process in relation to conflict, defense and the dynamic unconscious

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 4 2007
Boston Change Process Study Group (BCPSG)
Traditionally, intrapsychic entities such as conflict and defense were assumed to determine what happened at the interactive level. The interactive level was seen merely as the instantiation of such deeper forces. The authors delineate the upsidedown theoretical conception of the relationship between the supposedly ,superficial' layer of immediate interaction and the supposedly ,profound' layer of intrapsychic entities such as conflict and defense. Here they suggest that the interactive process itself is primary and generates the raw material from which they draw the generalized abstractions that they term conflicts, defenses and phantasy. Conflicts and defenses are shown to be born and reside in the domain of interaction. It follows that relational living out is the deep layer of experience, while the abstractions used to describe the repetitive aspects of these relational strategies, such as conflict and defense, are secondary descriptors of the deep level, but not the level itself, and exist further from the lived experience. These relational processes have largely been written about abstractly and even metaphorically, however, rather than in terms of specific exchanges at the local level of the interaction. Here the authors are redefining the intrapsychic as lived experience that is represented at the implicit level. They suggest that conflict and defense, as explicated in language, are useful abstractions, which are derived from the implicit level of lived interactions. However, they are secondary. The past is carried forward into the present at the level of lived experience. As such, the level of relational action is the foundation for the grasping of the psychodynamics to which the analyst will respond implicitly and interpretively. [source]


REMEMBERING A DEPRESSIVE PRIMARY OBJECT

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 1 2002
Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber
Memory has always been a central issue in psychoanalytic theory and practice. Recent developments in the cognitive and neural sciences suggest that traditional notions of memory based on stored structures which are also often underlying psychoanalytic thinking cannot account for a number of fundamental phenomena and thus need to be revised. We suggest that memory be conceived as a) a theoretical construct explaining current behaviour by reference to events that have happened in the past. b) Memory is not to be conceived as stored structures but as a function of the whole organism, as a complex, dynamic, recategorising and interactive process, which is always ,embodied'. c) Memory always has a subjective and an objective side. The subjective side is given by the individual's history, the objective side by the neural patterns generated by the sensory motor interactions with the environment. This implies that both ,narrative' (subjective) and ,historical' (objective) truth have to be taken into account achieving stable psychic change as is illustrated by extensive clinical materials taken from a psychoanalysis with a psychogenic sterile borderline patient. [source]


Numerical simulation of the inception of channel meandering

EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 9 2005
Jennifer G. Duan
Abstract The inception of channel meandering is the result of the complex interaction between flow, bed sediment, and bank material. A depth-averaged two-dimensional hydrodynamic model is developed to simulate the inception and development of channel meandering processes. The sediment transport model calculates both bedload and suspended load assuming equilibrium sediment transport. Bank erosion consists of two interactive processes: basal erosion and bank failure. Basal erosion is calculated from a newly derived equation for the entrainment of sediment particles by hydrodynamic forces. The mass conservation equation, where basal erosion and bank failure are considered source terms, was solved to obtain the rate of bank erosion. The parallel bank failure model was tested with the laboratory experiments of Friedkin on the initiation and evolution processes of non-cohesive meandering channels. The model replicates the downstream translation and lateral extension of meandering loops reasonably well. Plots of meandering planforms illustrate the evolution of sand bars and redistribution of flow momentum in meandering channels. This numerical modelling study demonstrates the potential of depth-integrated two-dimensional models for the simulation of meandering processes. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Modeled interactive effects of precipitation, temperature, and [CO2] on ecosystem carbon and water dynamics in different climatic zones

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 9 2008
YIQI LUO
Abstract Interactive effects of multiple global change factors on ecosystem processes are complex. It is relatively expensive to explore those interactions in manipulative experiments. We conducted a modeling analysis to identify potentially important interactions and to stimulate hypothesis formulation for experimental research. Four models were used to quantify interactive effects of climate warming (T), altered precipitation amounts [doubled (DP) and halved (HP)] and seasonality (SP, moving precipitation in July and August to January and February to create summer drought), and elevated [CO2] (C) on net primary production (NPP), heterotrophic respiration (Rh), net ecosystem production (NEP), transpiration, and runoff. We examined those responses in seven ecosystems, including forests, grasslands, and heathlands in different climate zones. The modeling analysis showed that none of the three-way interactions among T, C, and altered precipitation was substantial for either carbon or water processes, nor consistent among the seven ecosystems. However, two-way interactive effects on NPP, Rh, and NEP were generally positive (i.e. amplification of one factor's effect by the other factor) between T and C or between T and DP. A negative interaction (i.e. depression of one factor's effect by the other factor) occurred for simulated NPP between T and HP. The interactive effects on runoff were positive between T and HP. Four pairs of two-way interactive effects on plant transpiration were positive and two pairs negative. In addition, wet sites generally had smaller relative changes in NPP, Rh, runoff, and transpiration but larger absolute changes in NEP than dry sites in response to the treatments. The modeling results suggest new hypotheses to be tested in multifactor global change experiments. Likewise, more experimental evidence is needed for the further improvement of ecosystem models in order to adequately simulate complex interactive processes. [source]


Longitudinal Dyad Models in Family Research

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 4 2005
Karen S. Lyons
Multilevel modeling allows for the simultaneous analysis of data gathered at more than 1 unit of analysis (e.g., children nested in schools). It is often used to examine the effects of various contexts on individual differences in change. This paper promotes the application of multilevel models to longitudinal dyadic data in family research. By focusing on the dyad as context, researchers can examine within-dyad change and begin to understand the interactive processes that constitute the relationship between partners. They can then frame questions about interdyad differences in within-dyad change. We present several longitudinal models that researchers can use to examine the pattern of change within dyads, assess heterogeneity in change across dyads, and investigate cross-partner effects on change. We comment on the implications of these models for family research. [source]


On Genes, Brains, and Behavior: Why Should Developmental Psychologists Care About Brain Development?

CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES, Issue 3 2009
Joan Stiles
Abstract, The past several decades have seen tremendous progress in understanding mammalian brain development. The models that have emerged suggest that this development is dynamic and, from the very beginning, involves the continuous interaction of genetic, organismic, and environmental factors. The central question posed in this article is whether these models of brain development should be of import to developmental psychologists. It is argued that the key debates in psychology are founded on assumptions that are integrally related to questions of biology and biological inheritance. The construct of innateness, in particular, is central to these debates, and the biological system most critically implicated in claims about innate behaviors is the brain. However, as this article attempts to show, the underlying assumptions of contemporary psychological models reflect largely outdated ideas about what it means for something to be innate. Contemporary models of brain development challenge the foundational constructs of the nature versus nurture formulation, emphasizing that the processes of brain development engage both inherited and environmental factors and rely upon their continuous interaction. These models also emphasize that the relationship between brain and behavioral development is one of interdependence and reciprocity: Behaviors influence brain development and the brain mediates all behavior. Thus, the key to understanding the origins and emergence of both the brain and behavior lies in understanding how genetic, organismic, and environmental factors are engaged in the dynamic and interactive processes that define development of the neurobehavioral system. [source]