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Background: Centres dedicated to chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) have been developed, but delays for accessing to it are generally long. Teleconsultation might be a means to facilitate access to care by allowing an initial triage. CPSPs are neuropathic pain in around half of the cases and their diagnosis is mainly based on the score obtained from validated questionnaires. Among them, those requiring a neurological examination (i.e. the Douleur Neuropathique en 4 questions [DN4]) have a better sensitivity and specificity, and should be preferred. However, effectiveness of a remote neurological examination remains to be established. The aim of this observational study is to check during a face‐to‐face consultation if, after a short training, a naïve patient is capable to self‐assess the clinical signs of neuropathic sensations. Methods: Thirty patients with suspected neuropathic pain were seen in a face‐to‐face postoperative pain consultation. Before examination, the patient was instructed to fill the DN4 questionnaire, including the neurological examination. Once explanations were given and checked, the patient was left and completed it alone. Then, the pain physician performed the DN4 questionnaire. Inter‐rater reliability between patient and pain physician was assessed for each item and for DN4 score with the Kappa coefficient. Results: For each item of the DN4 questionnaire, Kappa coefficients were between 0.74 and 1, and could be considered as excellent. For DN4 ≥ 4, the Kappa coefficient was 0.86. Conclusions: Our results suggest that after a short training, a naïve patient is capable of recognizing and diagnosing symptoms of neuropathic pain. Significance: Our results suggest that self‐assessment, carried out after brief training and using a simple tool, provides results comparable to those obtained by a specialist physician to diagnose symptoms of neuropathic pain. If the results of the current study are confirmed on a larger scale, self‐assessment will help improve access to specialized chronic pain care by better orienting patients and opening up access to teleconsultations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control is necessary for aligning the actions of management (i.e., controllers) and subordinates (i.e., controlees) around common goals. The enactment of control often fails in practice; however, as controlee perceptions may not match those of controllers, leading to a myriad of possible outcomes. Through an interpretive case study of two inter‐organisational IT projects, we reveal how controlees' appraisals and responses to controls are context‐dependent and play out across multiple levels (e.g., personal, professional, project and organisational contexts). We build on a coping perspective of IS controls to theorise the 'coping strategies' that controlees pursued relevant to these contexts and the 'coping routes' followed when combining different consecutive coping strategies. We find the process need not end with the selection of a single strategy but can potentially continue as both the controller and controlees make ongoing readjustments. While Behavioural Control Theory traditionally assumes the presence of a single control hierarchy, interorganisational IT projects are multi‐level entities that amalgamate different structures and cultures. Our study moves beyond the existing assumptions of Behavioural Control Theory to discuss how a controller's choice of activities shapes the salience of different contexts in controlee appraisals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential of connected health solutions to solve the problems currently facing healthcare systems around the world with a particular interest in their decision support capabilities. Leveraging three selected projects in which we have been involved in the area of maternal and child health, the paper proposes a blueprint for connected health decisions in a variety of settings, namely: home-based, community-based, ward-based scenarios as well as the specific scenario of low-income countries. This blueprint can be used to frame discussions on connected health solutions and discuss their decision support potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the proliferation of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for Information Systems Development (ISD), the rate of ISD project failure continues to remain exorbitantly high. In particular, social complexity is increasingly seen as an innate feature of multiparty ISD projects which make them less amenable to being ‘tamed’. However, an understanding of the intricacies of social complexity and how it impacts team cohesion in multiparty projects remains nascent. In this paper we offer findings from the case study of a funded academia-industry collaboration to investigate the elusive phenomenon of social complexity. A theoretical framework is developed to reveal the factors which contribute to social complexity and its impact on team cohesion in multiparty ISD projects. The findings derived from the application of this lens reveal the numerous challenges to team cohesion that arose from the interplay between macro- and micro-level factors. Theoretical and practical implications from the paper are also outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healthcare sector is a highly regulated environment that is subject to numerous constraints. Standards around medical protocol, medical device certification, and data protection ensure that the wellbeing and privacy of patients is protected during all encounters with the healthcare system. However, a gap has opened up between the need to meet these constraints, improve performance, and also deliver good patient experience. For example, the medical protocol for hypertension during pregnancy establishes a set of clinically validated treatment guidelines, but does not consider the unique nature of patient experience. We assert that design research principles can be used to create visual tools that pay homage to these constraints and performance improvement goals without compromising patient experience. In this paper, we describe such a tool that has been developed during a healthcare project using a human-centred design research approach. The integrated tool for patient journey mapping addresses the shortcomings of existing methodologies by supporting multidisciplinary practitioners in designing healthcare solutions that meet the demands of existing constraints, performance improvement, and patient experience. In addition, we document how patient journey maps were used on the project to facilitate collaboration among a team of multidisciplinary stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Thrombocytopenia and increased platelet clearance observed in von Willebrand disease-type 2B (VWD-2B) may be explained by platelet apoptosis triggered by the constitutive binding of VWF to its receptor, glycoprotein Ib (GPIb). Apoptosis was assessed in platelets from two patients with a severe VWD-2B mutation VWF/p.V1316M and from mice transiently expressing VWF/p.V1316M. We now report that the VWD-2B mutation VWF/p.V1316M which binds spontaneously to its receptor GPIbα does not induce apoptosis. In 2 unrelated patients (P1 and P2) exhibiting different VWF plasma levels (70% and 36%, respectively, compared with normal pooled human plasma given as 100%), inner transmembrane depolarization of mitochondria, characteristic of apoptotic events was undetectable in platelets, whether washed or in whole blood. No or a moderate phosphatidyl serine (PS) exposure as measured by annexin-V staining was observed for P1 and P2, respectively. Expression of pro-apoptotic proteins Bak and Bax, and caspase-3 activity were similar to control platelets. In the VWD-2B mouse model expressing high levels of mVWF/p.V1316M (423%), similar to what is found in inflammatory pathologies, no significant difference was observed between mice expressing mVWF/WT and mVWF/p.V1316M. These results strongly argue against apoptosis as a mechanism for the thrombocytopenia of severe VWD-2B exhibiting the VWF/p.V1316M mutation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – In recent years there has been an increasing interest in make-to-stock and make-to-order combined strategies in food manufacturing operations. However, most scholarly work to-date has neglected the role of hierarchical production planning (HPP) in guiding small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) implementation of such strategies. The purpose of this paper is to address food SME manufacturers’ readiness to adopt such strategies, in terms of internal integration and their capability to adopt formalised planning approaches. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopted an action research methodology to explore the potential impact of HPP in SME food manufacturers. Selected companies had identified product variety management as a challenge and also had recognised the need to enhance internal integration. Given this, the research team, from a theoretical perspective, proposed the use of HPP set within a broader decision-making conceptual framework to improve internal integration and planning. Findings – This paper adopts the fundamental position that HPP provides a useful framework in the establishment of strategic and tactical level constraints and priorities which then act as specific guides at the operational level, and presents empirical evidence in a food SME manufacturing context. In the cases the authors studies, the cascading effect of this decision-making framework focused attention on key metrics, encouraged greater internal integration and delivered tangible, significant improvements in performance. This was greatly facilitated by the provision of new key data on the cost of certain managerial trade-offs which these firms faced. Originality/value – SMEs are of a scale that requires a formalised planning approach; however production planning systems are typically designed for large scale enterprises. This paper addresses the need of SMEs in this regard. Well-established supply chain metrics were used to establish the benefits of both HPP and resulting improvement in internal integration and beyond, in terms of improvement in the quality of planning decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – E-Government programs often address problems such as institutional ineffectiveness, lack of transparency, or social exclusion. Financial exclusion and people's reliance on ineffective payment methods appear to be a well-known problem world-wide. Yet, despite the large number of related case studies and academic reports on the topic, little is understood about the impact governmental payment practices have on the financial behaviour of citizens. Few investigations address how governmental use of payment methods and related policies may impact citizen/consumer behaviour. Through investigating the move to E-Payment based methods to replace the dominant use of cash and cheques in social welfare in Ireland, the purpose of this paper is to explore the recipient's view of this government project. Design/methodology/approach – The research is organized as an intrinsic case study where the unit of analysis is one large project. It aims at a rich description of one particular case by analysing data collected from two main sources of evidence: preliminary investigation is done by reviewing relevant documents, while primary data collection involved face-to-face surveys of social welfare recipients (using a short, structured questionnaire augmented with a few open-ended questions). Findings – The planning and execution of E-Government programs often face barriers of mostly social and historical nature. As the results of this research indicate, these barriers might be hard to overcome as they are the result of certain behaviours and attitudes rooted in people's daily experience, such as their daily financial reality. Results also imply that the choice of an adequate E-Payment method and migration scenario by governmental agencies will be crucial to the outcome. Implementation and education will also be critical. Originality/value – This study reports on the influence governmental decisions related to social welfare payment methods may have on recipients' financial habits regarding the choice of payment options. It also shows how recipients' everyday experience and financial reality determine the way they relate to payment options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the 20th anniversary of the "Journal of Decision Systems" which was created by Jean-Charles Pomerol in 1992. Topics discussed include the establishment of the Decision Support discipline which was reflected by the creation of the journal in 1992 and is one of the most enduring areas of research in the enlarged Information Systems field, and the focus of the journal on research which investigates the specific contexts inherent in providing decision support.

Companies have been investing in integrated enterprise applications (such as ERP) for over a decade, without firm evidence of a return from these investments. Much research has centred on the factors which will lead to a successful implementation project (eg: Holland and Light, 1999; Shanks and Seddon, 2000), but to date there appears to be little research on the longer term impact of ERP systems on the organisation (Heili and Vinck, 2008). Although the greater level of system integration brought on by ERP has meant that there is more operational information available to managers than ever before, the information stored in ERP applications requires much off-line manipulation in order to be meaningful to managers. The data held in ERP databases originate in physical processes that evolve over time, and thus inevitably a gap opens between the ERP system, and the reality it is designed to capture (Lee and Lee, 2000). Taking the evaluation of management performance against organisational objectives as research domain, and focusing on a case study in the pharmaceutical sector, this paper looks at the footprint of a global ERP system in the day to day decision making of managers both at a manufacturing site level and at Headquarters level. Although the ERP implementation resulted in major improvements in data integrity at an operational level, resulting in improved visibility of costs and traceability of transactions for head office, many of the benefits associated with exploiting the information thus collected have been compromised by the need to rely on non-integrated tools for certain specific functions. Thus, for decision making purposes, managers must still download data to spreadsheets, where they are manipulated and combined with data from other, non-integrated systems. Thus, this paper examines the role of ERP systems in supporting management activity in a manufacturing environment, highlighting the gap between management performance and the informational and decisional support provided by the ERP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platelet activation by thrombin plays a major role in the development of haemostasis and thrombosis. Thrombin activates human platelets by cleaving the N-terminal region of G-protein-coupled protease-activated receptors (PARs). On the other hand, the platelet membrane glycoprotein GPIb acts as a thrombin-binding site and promotes platelet activation by low thrombin concentrations. We present here new evidence in favour of a thrombin receptor function for GPIb. We have selected conditions in which thrombin–GPIb interactions were enhanced by thrombin immobilization. Activation was studied independently of PAR cleavage by using active-site-blocked thrombin. We show that immobilized, proteolytically inactive thrombin induces platelet adhesion and spreading, dense granule secretion and integrin αIIbβ3-dependent platelet–platelet interactions. The pathway must be dependent on GPIb because it is deficient in platelets from a patient with Bernard Soulier syndrome and inhibited by a monoclonal antibody to GPIb (SZ2) or by an excess of glycocalicin. Secreted ADP plays a major role in GPIb-dependent thrombin-induced platelet activation which is, in addition, regulated by cAMP concentration. Thrombin-induced GPIb-dependent platelet activation leads to tyrosyl phosphorylation of several proteins. Inhibition of platelet–platelet interactions and protein tyrosine phosphorylations by inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases and protein kinase C implies that activation of the latter are important steps of the GPIb-coupled signalling pathway triggered by thrombin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic causes of congenital hypothyroidism due to thyroid dysgenesis (TD) remain largely unknown. We identified three novel TUBB1 gene mutations that co‐segregated with TD in three distinct families leading to 1.1% of TUBB1 mutations in TD study cohort. TUBB1 (Tubulin, Beta 1 Class VI) encodes for a member of the β‐tubulin protein family. TUBB1 gene is expressed in the developing and adult thyroid in humans and mice. All three TUBB1 mutations lead to non‐functional α/β‐tubulin dimers that cannot be incorporated into microtubules. In mice, Tubb1 knock‐out disrupted microtubule integrity by preventing β1‐tubulin incorporation and impaired thyroid migration and thyroid hormone secretion. In addition, TUBB1 mutations caused the formation of macroplatelets and hyperaggregation of human platelets after stimulation by low doses of agonists. Our data highlight unexpected roles for β1‐tubulin in thyroid development and in platelet physiology. Finally, these findings expand the spectrum of the rare paediatric diseases related to mutations in tubulin‐coding genes and provide new insights into the genetic background and mechanisms involved in congenital hypothyroidism and thyroid dysgenesis. Synopsis: Whole‐exome sequencing in a consanguineous family with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) revealed a novel homozygous mutation in TUBB1, encoding for a member of beta‐tubulins, essential for microtubule organisation. Until now, TUBB1 mutations were only known to be involved in platelet disorders. Two more mutations were identified in two distinct families with thyroid dysgenesis (TD) and abnormal platelet physiology, reinforcing the link between TUBB1 mutations and thyroid disease.TUBB1 is expressed in the developing and adult thyroid in humans and mice.Tubb1−/− mice have large platelets and show hypothyroidism with early thyroid progenitors proliferation defects, altered thyroid migration and failure of thyroid hormone synthesis.Platelet findings concerned basal activation and increased aggregation.These results expand our knowledge on genetic background of CH and TD. Whole‐exome sequencing in a consanguineous family with Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH) revealed a novel homozygous mutation in TUBB1, encoding for a member of beta‐tubulins, essential for microtubule organisation. Until now, TUBB1 mutations were only known to be involved in platelet disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between endothelial selectins and the leukocyte counter-receptor PSGL1 mediates leukocyte recruitment to inflammation sites. PSGL1 is highly sialylated, making it a potential ligand for Siglec-5, a leukocyte-receptor that recognizes sialic acid structures. Binding assays using soluble Siglec-5 variants (sSiglec-5/C4BP and sSiglec-5/Fc) revealed a dose- and calcium-dependent binding to PSGL1. Pre-treatment of PSGL1 with sialidase reduced Siglec-5 binding by 79 ± 4%. In confocal immune-fluorescence assays, we observed that 50% of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) simultaneously express PSGL1 and Siglec-5. Duolink-proximity ligation analysis demonstrated that PSGL1 and Siglec-5 are in close proximity (<40 nm) in 31 ± 4% of PBMCs. In vitro perfusion assays revealed that leukocyte-rolling over E- and P-selectin was inhibited by sSiglec-5/Fc or sSiglec-5/C4BP, while adhesion onto VCAM1 was unaffected. When applied to healthy mice (0.8 mg/kg), sSiglec-5/C4BP significantly reduced the number of rolling leukocytes under basal conditions (10.9 ± 3.7 versus 23.5 ± 9.3 leukocytes/field/min for sSiglec-5/C4BP-treated and control mice, respectively; p = 0.0093). Moreover, leukocyte recruitment was inhibited over a 5-h observation period in an in vivo model of TNFalpha-induced inflammation following injection sSiglec-5/C4BP (0.8 mg/kg). Our data identify PSGL1 as a ligand for Siglec-5, and soluble Siglec-5 variants appear efficient in blocking PSGL1-mediated leukocyte rolling and the inflammatory response in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]