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The objective of this article is to describe the current fracture between global trade and public health priorities, as well as examine opportunities for harmonisation. A literature review of public health, global trade, and intellectual property articles describes several issues with recommendations. Currently, there is mixed quality of research and a lack of health impact assessments to accompany the global trade agenda. Human rights concepts continue in debate as flexibilities to trade laws remain without organised surveillance or evaluation. There are specific, relevant recommendations to implement a trade agenda inclusive of public health leadership. Recent trade and intellctual property advances in public health collaborations should be supported and continued. Trade groups should produce impact assessments before decisions on policies are made, with quality to the research. Lastly, a global research and development treaty should be an open, accessed path.

Mature overall survival (OS) data are often unavailable at the time of regulatory and reimbursement decisions for a new cancer treatment. For patients with early-stage cancers treated with potentially curative treatments, demonstrating an OS benefit may take years and may be confounded by subsequent lines of therapy or crossover to the investigational treatment. For patients with advanced-stage cancers, mature OS data may be available but difficult to interpret for similar reasons. There are strong opinions about approval and reimbursement in the absence of mature OS data, with concerns over delay in patient access set against concerns about uncertainty in long-term benefit. This position paper reflects our individual views as patient advocate, clinician or health economist on one aspect of this debate. We look at payer decisions in the absence of mature OS data, considering when and how non-OS trial outcomes could inform decision-making and how uncertainty can be addressed beyond the trial, supporting these views with evidence from the literature. We consider when it is reasonable for payers to expect or not expect mature OS data at the initial reimbursement decision (based on criteria such as cancer stage and treatment efficacy) acknowledging that there are settings in which mature OS data are expected. We propose flexible strategies for generating and appraising patient-relevant evidence, including context-relevant endpoints and quality of life measures, when survival rates are good and mature OS data are not expected. We note that fair reimbursement is important; this means valuing patient benefit as shown through prespecified endpoints and reappraising if there is ongoing uncertainty or failure to show a sustained benefit. We suggest that reimbursement systems continue to evolve to align with scientific advances, because innovation is only meaningful if readily accessible to patients. The proposed strategies have the potential to promote thorough assessment of potential benefit to patients and lead to timely access to effective medicines., Graphical Abstract

Home testing is an emerging innovation that can enable nations and health care systems to safely and efficiently test large numbers of patients to manage COVID-19 and other viral outbreaks. In this position paper, we explore the process of moving home testing across the translational continuum from labs to households, and ultimately into practice and communities for optimal public health impact. We focus on the four translational science drivers to accelerate the implementation of systems-wide home testing programmes 1) collaboration and team science, 2) technology, 3) multilevel interventions, and 4) knowledge integration. We use the Socio Ecological Model (SEM) as a framework to illustrate our vision for the ideal future state of a comprehensive system of stakeholders utilising tech-enabled home testing for COVID-19 and other virus outbreaks, and we suggest SEM as a tool to address key translational readiness and response questions.

Introduction: Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) is standard treatment for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This includes lifelong aspirin combined with a P2Y(12) inhibitor for 1 year. The indication for one of the P2Y(12) inhibitors (clopidogrel, prasugrel, ticagrelor) is dependent on the treatment strategy; whether patients undergo coronary angiography or are treated medically only. Tailoring antiplatelet therapy to the risk profile of the individual patient is of specific importance to the older patient. Areas covered: In this review, we discuss dual antiplatelet therapy in elderly patients with ACS. We present the options to tailor antiplatelet therapy based on platelet function testing, CYP2C19 genotyping and patients' thrombotic and bleeding risk. Finally, we discuss alternatives for dual antiplatelet therapy. Expert opinion: DAPT in elderly patients with ACS should consist of aspirin with clopidogrel or ticagrelor. Weighing patients' thrombotic and bleeding risk, based on clinical judgment or with use of specific risk scores, is probably the most convenient method to individualize antiplatelet therapy; however, CYP2C19 genotyping can also be used. In elderly patients with an increased bleeding risk, clopidogrel is a safe and effective alternative to ticagrelor. An alternative to 12 months DAPT could be ticagrelor monotherapy after a short period of DAPT.

In this article the author outlines his understanding of self-psychology as an independent psychoanalytic treatment paradigm created by the late Heinz Kohut and initially geared toward the psychoan...

This position paper explores how community art education students applied an a-r-tographic disposition as artists, researchers, and teachers to investigate the pedagogic potential of public art in ...

“The American Library Association affirms that rights of privacy are necessary for intellectual freedom and are fundamental to the ethical practice of librarianship,” reads a position paper by the ...

This article discusses a scoping review of position papers aimed at enhancing the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities. It describes the approach taken to conducting the scoping...

The field of sport-related concussion (SRC) is evolving quickly, and psychological aspects affecting athletes’ recovery and well-being are now recognized as an important component for research and ...

International audience; An intertwined supply network (ISN) is an entirety of interconnected supply chains (SC) which, in their integrity secure the provision of society and markets with goods and services. The ISNs are open systems with structural dynamics since the firms may exhibit multiple behaviors by changing the buyer-supplier roles in interconnected or even competing SCs. From the positions of resilience, the ISNs as a whole provide services to society (e.g., food service, mobility service or communication service) which are required to ensure a long-term survival. The analysis of survivability at the level of ISN requires a consideration at a large scale as resilience of individual SCs. The recent example of coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak clearly shows the necessity of this new perspective. Our study introduces a new angle in SC resilience research when a resistance to extraordinary disruptions needs to be considered at the scale of viability. We elaborate on the integrity of the ISN and viability. The contribution of our position study lies in a conceptualization of a novel decision-making environment of ISN viability. We illustrate the viability formation through a dynamic game-theoretic modelling of a biological system that resembles the ISN. We discuss some future research areas.

Catalonia is experiencing a significant wave of innovation in its schools. After decades of little change, since 2015 there has been a systemic surge of innovation in education that includes hundre...

EMS personnel in the U.S. continue to be overwhelmingly Caucasian and male, with 75% being male and 85% identifying as nonminority. While the population of the United States becomes more diverse in ethnicity, religion, and race, the EMS workforce remains largely homogenous and does not reflect the diversity of the population it serves. Given the growing diversity across the country, EMS personnel will increasingly be responding to calls for service involving patients with different cultural backgrounds than their own. This growing gap between providers and the population they serve may exacerbate already existing disparities in care.

Following an analysis of national EMS agendas, National Association of EMS Educators developed a position supporting educator degree requirements in EMS. This position provided a framework for degree requirements at varying levels of EMS education. Identified support and appreciation for interprofessional approaches as well as EMS specific education was included in the position. The need for an educational workforce capable of providing robust degree options and innovative education emerged in response to the growing academic needs and professional complexities within EMS.

This position paper aims to bring attention to the unique collection of the Knitting & Crochet Guild (KCG) of the United Kingdom (UK), describing its composition, current and potential uses...

This position paper draws upon and expands the research presented in the special issue of the journal Utopian Studies ‘Utopia and Fashion’, guest edited by the author. The issue examined the under-...

The following article is a position paper based on a case study of “Un sacco di sport,” a design driven research project for the development of a new socially responsible production chain f...

The digital skills deficit in healthcare is a major topic being addressed at several instances in the EU. The new European Skills Agenda identifies as a core action the so-called “Pact for Skills” with the aim of upskilling (improving existing skills) and reskilling (training in new skills) the workforce in the next five years. The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) suggests framing digital skills into three main areas: general, technical and related to patient-doctor relationship. These new skills should be reflected in the future curricula of medical faculties, in particular during specialist medical education, and integrated into continuous professional development (CPD) to keep doctors up-to-date with digital innovations.

The – possibly – imminent AI revolution will, to a great extent, affect the education and training for all knowledge-working professions, and therefore must be considered an important aspect also of CME. This paper reviews some of the misconceptions about AI technology, then turns to point out possible applications of AI in the medical domain and then addresses the question what this will mean for (continuing) medical education.

In this position paper we focus on students who are contracted to fulfil teaching roles. While an accepted practice, student teaching assistants (STAs) tend to lack teaching experience as w...

The purpose of this position paper is to promote the interest, usefulness and specificity of a coherent system that is based on psychophenomenology as a theoretical framework [Vermersch, P. (2012)....

As Anne Hellum noted in her earlier position paper on the equality and anti-discrimination reform in Norway, to which we make a Swedish sequel, the Nordic countries are on the top of World Economic...

This artistic position paper describes some of the dramaturgical possibilities that emerged from working as a dramaturg on AΦE's VR-performance, Whist. Specifically, it details three dramaturgical devices, which are distinctive to VR performance practices. It also points out current difficulties inherent within VR performances and discusses ways in which these can be resolved.

The article is a position paper on inclusive practice in education with respect to students with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties (sld/pmld). It asks if children and young people with sld/pmld have been excluded from the policy and the practice of inclusive education. A review of the literature found that there is a research gap around inclusive education for learners with sld/pmld, and a review of historical and current practices indicated that this group of learners has indeed been excluded from both the policy and practice of inclusion in the United Kingdom with the use of curricula based on a mainstream linear and academic model reinforcing this exclusion. The study makes a theoretical and practical contribution to the continuing debate about inclusive education and will be of interest to teachers, parents, policy-makers and the learners themselves.

International audience; This position paper presents the state-of-the art of the field of workplace commitment. Yet, for workplace commitment to stay relevant, it is necessary to look beyond current practice and to extrapolate trends to envision what will be needed in future research. Therefore, the aim of this paper is twofold, first, to consolidate our current understanding of workplace commitment in contemporary work settings and, second, to look into the future by identifying and discussing avenues for future research. Representative of the changing nature of work, we explicitly conceptualize workplace commitment in reference to (A) “Temporary work”, and (B) “Cross-boundary work”. Progressing from these two themes, conceptual, theoretical and methodological advances of the field are discussed. The result is the identification of 10 key paths of research to pursues, a shared agenda for the most promising and needed directions for future research and recommendations for how these will translate into practice.

This position paper sets out to examine value creation in the engineering enterprise, a process that has mostly been associated with innovation and entrepreneurs. An analysis of the literature on e...

Current research on return to work (RTW) for employees with common mental disorders suffers from two limitations. First, research mostly focuses on the influence of resources during the absence period ignoring the resources which may facilitate sustainable RTW, i.e. employees continuing to work and thrive at work post-return. Second, research tends to view the work and non-work domains separately and fails to consider the interaction of resources at the individual, group, leader and organisational levels, once back at work. In the present position paper, we present an integrated framework and a preliminary definition of sustainable RTW. Based on current occupational health psychology theory and existing research on RTW, we develop ten propositions for the resources in and outside work, which may promote sustainable RTW. In addition to the individual, group, leader, and organisational levels, we also argue for the importance of the overarching context, i.e. the societal context and the culture and legislation that may promote sustainable RTW. Our framework raises new questions that need to be addressed to enhance our understanding of how key stakeholders can support employees with common mental health disorders staying and thriving at work.

The position of the National Association of EMS Educators (NAEMSE) is that critical care paramedicine is a specialty area of EMS practice that, when fully developed, includes the following:Critical...

RATIONALE: While severe asthma affects approximately 5% of all individuals with asthma, this small minority of individuals accounts for a large proportion of the asthma-related costs. Greater understanding of the pathophysiology of asthma combined with the emergence of novel biologic therapies for severe asthma supported the need for a thorough review of the diagnosis, investigation, phenotyping, and management of severe asthma.OBJECTIVES: We aimed to propose a practical approach to distinguish uncontrolled asthma due to inadequate asthma management from severe asthma despite optimal asthma management. Moreover, based on emerging scientific evidence, we sought to provide guidance for characterizing individuals with severe asthma and considering a phenotype-specific management. We also aimed to review other novel new potential therapeutic approaches.METHODS: We systematically reviewed the relevant literature focusing on randomized controlled trials and when available, systematic reviews of randomiz...

The commentary compares the WPA position statement with a similar paper published recently by the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN; Deutsche Gesellschaft f...

This study investigates the ethical and political implications of reflective practice among preservice teachers. The author reviewed previous research which suggests the need for a more critical analysis of teacher education programs to implement more intensive reflective methodologies that foster authentic, caring, dispositional development as a moral obligation toward socially just practice rather than mere audited compliance with standards-based technical training. This position paper then analyzes preservice teacher education as an interdependent process of methodological development, perceptive development, and cognitive/affective development. Finally, the author makes recommendations for program modification to better prepare preservice teachers to conceptualize their transformative role in society.

This is, as the subtitle indicates, a joint paper in two voices. Each author has worked with her counterpart to revise what began as their position paper for the Round Table ‘Women’s History at the Cutting Edge’ at the International Congress for the Historical Sciences, held in August 2015 in Jinan, China, which met jointly with the International Federation for Research in Women's History (IFRWH). Chen Yan explains her perplexity about the reticence of Chinese historians (based in China) to embrace topics in women's and gender history, using her own case as an example. She then poses five questions in the paper to stimulate reflections from the commentators, drawing on their varied experiences as historians of women and gender in other countries. Her particular objective is to ‘jump-start’ research and publication in these areas in China, where a variety of obstacles dissuade scholars from pursuing this path. Karen Offen’s contribution builds out from that of Chen Yan, arguing that women's and gen...

This piece addresses the key questions posed by Chen Yan and Karen Offen in their joint position paper on the current state of women's history and its place at the cutting edge of historical practice. Having made the case that women's and gender history has had a significant and multi-level impact (empirical, conceptual, methodological and theoretical) on that practice, my article observes that acknowledgement of this is still very limited among those not centrally involved in the field. It notes the tensions between the aspiration both to identify and pursue women's and gender history as discrete fields of scholarly endeavour and the aspiration for women and gender to be treated as topics/categories which should be constitutive of all historical inquiry. It goes on to consider the relationship of women's history to gender history, to post-colonial and cross-cultural scholarship, and to recent work in spatial histories. It argues that in the first case the two approaches are mutually reinforcing, ...

In January, 2016, the Board of Directors of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children approved a position paper on allegations of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence in divorce/parental relationship dissolution. This commentary describes the range of dynamics that can lead to allegations of interpersonal violence in divorce/relationship dissolution, outlines the process employed in developing the position paper, and provides a description of the contents of the position paper.

There is currently a need to better understand the impacts of emerging technologies used to support health and health information needs as they relate to users. In the discussion of health information searching behavior, human individual differences and identity are factors to be considered. Identity, specifically, is a key to understanding the health-related self-maintenance behaviors of individuals with a variety of illnesses. As a result, this position paper will identify a research program that supports the investigation of identity in the context of the human information consumer. A number of research questions will be posed that are meant to encourage further research, debate, and discussion around developing e-health technologies that are tailored to a patient’s individual health background and needs. Thus, beginning to situate the user appropriately within these characteristics is a challenge that will yield more understanding of the individual and increase the usability of the technology for health-related purposes.

This paper builds on prior research that establishes the connection between femininity and gay men by adding sexual position identity, or one’s sexual role as a top, bottom or versatile, to the argument. Using concepts of hegemonic masculinity and censure, the paper examines the historic link between feminine pursuits of fashion and aesthetics and gay identity as well as contemporary views of ‘gayness’ to argue that gay men are censured by other gay men in order to conform to heteronormative expectations of gender. The mechanism for the censure is invoking the word ‘bottom’ to criticise gay men who have feminine traits. Data were gathered from casual interviews, conversations, blogs and vlogs and demonstrate the underlying tension between masculinity and femininity within the gay, male community and how the community has co-opted heteronormative concepts of gender.

Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) has published a position paper strongly advocating powered mobility (PM) for children with severe physical limitations (Rosen et al., 2009). Many studies have established that there are gains in social skills and functional mobility. While PM can aid independence, there has been more emphasis on the improvements in socialization rather than the positive changes PM can make in a child's daily living. For example, Bottos and colleagues stated the quality of life did not change for the children in their study (2001). This could be an explanation for why insurance companies deny coverage for PM. However, without coverage for PM, these children face major barriers to mobility and accessibility, even if they are able to use PM at physical therapy. If they obtain PM at home through other funding, transportation still remains an issue. These barriers have not been addressed or only briefly mentioned. We present a case of a 2 years 10 months old boy with rachischisis (cervical level spina bifida) who had impressive gains in both functional communication and social skills through achieving PM.

The Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (SLIPE), with the support of the Americas Health Foundation (AHF), has developed a position paper on varicella prevention in Latin America and Caribbean countries (LAC). This article summarizes the most relevant aspects of varicella in LAC, and emphasizes the need to include the varicella vaccine in the national immunization programs in the Region and evaluate its impact disease burden.A systematic review was conducted of the medical evidence published and presented at various regional medical conferences on the disease burden in LAC, the advances made by prevention programs, the available vaccines in the Region, and their immunogenicity, efficacy, effectiveness, and safety. The different national varicella-prevention vaccination programs were reviewed, as was available information regarding the impact of these programs on the epidemiology of varicella in those countries implementing a varicella vaccine strategy. Following that initial publication, an update was conducted, including data from additional countries in the Region.Varicella is a vaccine-preventable infectious disease, considered a 'benign disease' because of lower complication rates when compared with measles, pertussis. The incorporation of a two-dose varicella vaccine in national immunization schedules in all countries throughout LAC would be of great benefit to the health of the children.

This position paper argues that the lack of take-up of management science (MS) modelling in health care is a particularly severe example of a more general problem for MS, articulated by many authorities. We relate this severity to the extreme complexity of the health care domain, which might be termed ‘hypercomplexity’. We argue that, for a variety of reasons, the health care domain is different to other domains in this respect, and we explore the mechanisms by which hypercomplexity might have inhibited the use of modelling within the domain. We conclude with some tentative suggestions for making progress, including the possibility of taking deliberate steps to reduce health care hypercomplexity.

Climate change has been identified as a major challenge in the achievement of sustainable development especially for developing countries like Kenya. There has been a wide acknowledgement that there is a need for long-term strategies for the industry players to reduce their contribution to climate change in line with other industries. Industries and societal sectors have sought ways of mitigating the causes of climate change. The Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism, held in Davos, Switzerland, on 3 October 2007, provided practical guidelines for the industry in response to climate change. This paper seeks to evaluate the adoption of the ‘Davos Declaration’ among selected Mombasa hotels in terms of water, energy and waste management. Results indicate that despite wide knowledge among hoteliers on the impacts of climate change and the role hotels can play in its mitigation, most hoteliers are slow in adopting the mitigation measures.

The IBPSA organisation (www.ibpsa.org) was inaugurated in the mid-80s to support the evolution of Building Performance Simulation (BPS) by providing forums for discussion of the issues relating to the development, testing and application of tools. Over the intervening years the organisation has evolved into a unique grouping of disciplines – architects, engineers of all types, computer scientists, facilities managers, policy-makers and academics – each bringing particular insights into the needs and prospects for a computational approach to building design and operation. Significantly, the organisation has the ability through its regional structure to act globally while responding to local need: at the present time the IBPSA network comprises 28 national affiliates, with additional affiliates in the process of formation. The work of IBPSA is pursued through national and international conferences, various publication activities (most notably this journal), and initiatives to support student development. Sub-committees are also established to address particular issues and one such committee, the Futures Committee, has been charged to elaborate a vision for BPS in order to encourage task-sharing developments and provide a benchmark against which progress can be measured. This paper presents this vision, which has been contributed to and endorsed by the IBPSA Board and some members and may therefore be considered to represent the official view of the organisation. The purpose of the paper is threefold: 1) to elicit general feedback from those involved in the development or application of BPS in order to ensure that the vision statement is generally acceptable and complete #; 2) to stimulate a discussion on where and how IBPSA might resource specific developments; and 3) provide a community statement of intent that may be used by individuals and organisations as the context justification for specific project proposals.

A position paper on the use of whole bowel irrigation (WBI) was first published in 1997 by the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AACT) and the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT) and updated in 2004. The aims of this paper are to briefly summarize the content of the 2004 Position Paper and to present any new data and recommendations.A systematic review of the literature from January 2003 to February 28, 2013 was conducted using multiple online databases for articles concerning WBI for gastrointestinal decontamination. An evidence table was created for applicable articles. The authors produced the initial draft that was reviewed by AACT and EAPCCT.The literature search produced 60 articles with the possibility of applicable human data. Based mainly on volunteer studies, WBI can be considered for potentially toxic ingestions of sustained-release or enteric-coated drugs particularly for those patients presenting later than 2 h after drug ingestion when activated charcoal is less effective. WBI can be considered for patients who have ingested substantial amounts of iron, lithium, or potassium as the morbidity is high and there is a lack of other potentially effective options for gastrointestinal decontamination. WBI can be considered for removal of ingested packets of illicit drugs in "body packers." However, controlled data documenting improvement in clinical outcome after WBI are lacking. WBI is contraindicated in patients with bowel obstruction, perforation, or ileus, and in patients with hemodynamic instability or compromised unprotected airways. WBI should be used cautiously in debilitated patients and in patients with medical conditions that might be further compromised by its use. The concurrent administration of activated charcoal and WBI might decrease the effectiveness of the charcoal. The clinical relevance of this interaction is uncertain.WBI can facilitate removal of select toxicants from the gastrointestinal tract in some patients, but there is no convincing evidence from clinical studies that it improves the outcome of poisoned patients. There is no new evidence that would require a major revision of the conclusions of the 2004 position statement.

IntroductionIn this scenario, Nick, an accelerated algebra student who is taking algebra a year early, was the assigned tutor and Heather, a pre-algebra student, was the intended tutee. They were among the 14 students who participated in a Heterogeneous Peer Tutoring (HPT) program designed by the classroom mathematics teacher.Thirty minutes remain until the end of the school day. Fourteen eighth grade students, in an academic assistance period known as advisory, are seated in pairs dispersed throughout a classroom. The students are working on a problem set of classifying linear and nonlinear functions. The classroom teacher, Jake, is circulating the room monitoring students' progress. The teacher frequently questions the students to gauge their understanding of linear and nonlinear functions. While some students are able to explain the key characteristics of linear and nonlinear functions, many others are unable to do so. Two students, Nick and Heather (pseudonyms), are working on a problem that requires them to determine if a given function is linear or nonlinear. Nick is having trouble comprehending this topic and seeks Heather's help. Collaboratively, they discuss possible solution processes to the problem. A few minutes before the end of the advisory, Jake asks Nick, "Do you know which of these functions are nonlinear and which are linear?" Nick correctly identifies the functions. Jake poses a follow up question: "How can you tell the difference between the two, especially with these problems where there is no graph provided?" Calm and collected, Nick explains that the functions containing variables with exponents not equal to one are nonlinear. Nick extends his response by referring to a graph, clearly identifying the piece that makes the function non-liner. The teacher is impressed. Nick's partner Heather leans forward and says, "He learned that from me," beaming with pride. Nick happily acknowledges.The goal of the program was to help pre-algebra students (tutees) deepen their knowledge of mathematical concepts by providing them an opportunity to collaborate with their peers-accelerated algebra students (tutors). The above snippet provides one instance of students' learning process. Evident also in this example is a role reversal between a tutor and a tutee. Over the duration of the program, the tutees and tutors gained a mutual respect for one another as they realized that they could both learn from each other's distinctive learning experiences. In this paper, we outline key features of an HPT program that was implemented with a group of middle school students, and we describe how this program impacted both the tutors' and the tutees' learning experiences. In so doing, we outline how this model could be used to enact some of the essential attributes of a middle level education program as outlined in the position paper of the Association for Middle Level Education (formerly National Middle School Association), This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (NMSA, 2010).Peer tutoring: An overviewPeer tutoring is a strategy in which, "People from similar social groupings who are not professional teachers [help] each other to learn and [learn] themselves by teaching" (Topping, 1996, p. 322). There are many forms of peer tutoring such as class-wide peer tutoring, homogeneous peer tutoring, and heterogeneous peer tutoring. Class-wide peer tutoring enables students in a class to tutor one another (Allsopp, 1997). In a homogeneous tutoring environment tutees and tutors are of the same ability level. In contrast, in a heterogeneous tutoring environment, tutees are taught by tutors of a higher ability level (Stenhoff 8c Lignugaris/Kraft, 2007). Many teachers have used an HPT technique as an intervention strategy to enhance student learning in reading, science, and mathematics (Robinson, Schofield, 8c SteersWentzell, 2005). In an academic setting, the use of peer tutoring in heterogeneous classrooms allows students of different learning backgrounds to collaborate and learn together, which often helps remove stigmas associated with receiving tutoring (Allsopp, 1997). …

Speech-language pathologists play important roles in supporting people to be competent communicators in the languages of their communities. However, with over 7000 languages spoken throughout the world and the majority of the global population being multilingual, there is often a mismatch between the languages spoken by children and families and their speech-language pathologists. This paper provides insights into service provision for multilingual children within an English-dominant country by viewing Australia's multilingual population as a microcosm of ethnolinguistic minorities. Recent population studies of Australian pre-school children show that their most common languages other than English are: Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, and Greek. Although 20.2% of services by Speech Pathology Australia members are offered in languages other than English, there is a mismatch between the language of the services and the languages of children within similar geographical communities. Australian speech-language pathologists typically use informal or English-based assessments and intervention tools with multilingual children. Thus, there is a need for accessible culturally and linguistically appropriate resources for working with multilingual children. Recent international collaborations have resulted in practical strategies to support speech-language pathologists during assessment, intervention, and collaboration with families, communities, and other professionals. The International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech was assembled to prepare a position paper to address issues faced by speech-language pathologists when working with multilingual populations. The Multilingual Children's Speech website ( http://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech ) addresses one of the aims of the position paper by providing free resources and information for speech-language pathologists about more than 45 languages. These international collaborations have been framed around the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF-CY) and have been established with the goal of supporting multilingual children to participate in society.

At the 2010 OR Society Simulation Workshop, there was a lively panel discussion entitled ‘Discrete-event simulation is dead, long live agent-based simulation!’, which was subsequently written up as a position paper for the Journal of Simulation (Siebers et al, 2010). This paper continues that discussion and, to quote Mark Twain, argues that rumours of the death of discrete-event simulation (DES) are greatly exaggerated. There has undoubtedly been a recent surge of interest within the mainstream OR community in the use of agent-based modelling, but this paper suggests that many of the cited benefits of agent-based simulation (ABS) can be achieved through the use of a traditional DES approach. These arguments are illustrated by several examples where DES has been used successfully to tackle ‘ABS-type’ problems.

This position paper argues that issues related to the future are worth emphasizing and discussing with more feminist fervour and engagement than is now the case within feminist studies and futures studies. It is concluded that feminists cannot just be critical from an outside perspective, but must engage in creating alternative futures. These futures should not be common goals around which to unite, but a way to inspire feminist thinking about different futures. The authors point out the problem that the futures studies field lacks feminist perspectives, and in this position paper they discuss the gap between futures studies and feminism.

Sweden has been a role model for many European countries as regards the phasing-out of nuclear power. Nuclear power policy became a strong political issue in 1976, much earlier than in other countries. Sweden was the first country in the world to decide to phase out nuclear energy. A non-binding referendum on this subject was held in 1980. As a result, parliament decided to ban nuclear power after 2010. The main aim of the paper is to understand the complex process of policy change throughout various periods in the Swedish phase-out policy by applying the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) theory. The ACF was designed in 1988 by Sabatier and Jenkins Smith to explain, for example, coalition structure and behavior, belief and policy change in controversial/debatable policy subsystems. In February 2009, the Swedish center-right alliance announced a position paper regarding plans to overturn a 30-year ban on new atomic plants, as a part of a new impulse to increase energy security and fight global warming. Ba...

The call for a “position paper” represented an opportunity to think and speak about the conditions for feminist knowledge production over the past two decades. What I speak here is the story of an ...

The nature of nanoscience and nanotechnology (collectively, nano) are discussed as important examples of the modern sciences and technologies that are having an increasing impact on all aspects of life. In this Position paper, general proposals are made for the levels of understanding of nano that might be attained by whole populations. The ideas that should be addressed in those levels of understanding are reviewed. The scope and limitations of formal and informal avenues to the attainment of such understanding are outlined. Proposals are made for the aspects of nano that are best conveyed by the different media available for informal provision and illustrated from the scant documentation of contemporary practice. Last, some substantial issues for further research and development are identified.

Nanotechnology has been touted as the next ‘industrial revolution’ of our modern age. In order for successful research, development, and social discourses to take place in this field, education research is needed to inform the development of standards, course development, and workforce preparation. In addition, there is a growing need to educate citizens and students about risks, benefits, and social and ethical issues related to nanotechnology. This position paper describes the advancements that have been made in nanoscale science and nanotechnology, and the challenges that exist to educate students and the public about critical nanoscience concepts. This paper reviews the current research on nanotechnology education including curricula, educational programs, informal education, and teacher education. Furthermore, the unique risks, benefits and ethics of these unusual technological applications are described in relation to nanoeducation goals. Finally, we outline needed future research in the areas of na...