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There is limited evidence for the utilization of physiotherapy in the management of sub-acute sciatica. The aim of this pilot study was to explore the Delphi method to attempt to reach consensus on physiotherapeutic approaches to the management of sub-acute sciatica amongst a panel of clinicians experienced in this field. The panel included senior physiotherapists (n = 10) working within an outpatient setting at a specialized orthopedic trust. Iteration 1 consisted of the open-ended question "List the treatment approaches/techniques/modalities you employ when treating a patient with sub-acute sciatica and provide justifications". Themes reaching 70% consensus progressed to the second iteration which followed up with the question "Please indicate how frequently you would employ the following treatments in the management of sub-acute sciatica" using a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). The mean score was calculated for each treatment and those themes achieving a mean of 3.5 or greater progressed to iteration 3 "Please rank in order of preference which of the following treatments you would employ in the treatment of sub-acute sciatica". The response rate at iteration 3 was 60%. This pilot study achieved consensus on five treatment approaches to be employed in the management of sub-acute sciatica. In order of preference these treatments were advice (regarding staying active, staying at work, reassurance, analgesia), advice (time scale of recovery, natural course of sciatica, self-limiting condition, hurt does not equal harm), lumbar joint mobilizations (rotations, PA's, ilial mobs [distractions], transverse glides), direction specific stretches and nerve mobilizations. This pilot study provides preliminary evidence of commonly used treatment approaches for sub acute sciatica amongst physiotherapists.

There is limited evidence for the utilization of physiotherapy in the management of sub-acute sciatica. The aim of this study is to reach consensus on physiotherapeutic approaches to the management of sub-acute sciatica amongst a panel of clinicians experienced in this field. The Delphi method was chosen as the process. The panel comprised expert physiotherapists ($n=11$) working within a musculoskeletal outpatient setting within the United Kingdom National Health Service. Iteration 1 consisted of the open-ended question ‘List the treatment approaches/techniques/modalities you employ when treating a patient with sub-acute sciatica and provide justifications’. Themes reaching 70% consensus progressed to the second iteration which followed up with the question “Please indicate how frequently you would employ the following treatments in the management of sub-acute sciatica” using a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). The mean score was calculated for each treatment and those themes achieving a mean of 3.5 or greater progressed to iteration 3 “Please rank in order of preference which of the following treatments you would employ in the treatment of sub-acute sciatica”. The response rate at iteration 3 was 100%. This study achieved consensus on two treatment approaches to be employed in the management of sub-acute sciatica. These treatments were advice on the nature and natural history of the condition and self-help activities such as heat/ice, staying active and rest when needed.

Business model innovations are recognised as a key to the creation of sustainable business, but their adoption by firms has been slow. Organisations can only be sustainable when the whole societal system is sustainable. Both structural and cultural changes are required to facilitate firm- and system-level sustainability. The central idea of this paper is to examine how societal transition towards sustainable business models (SBMs) can be achieved. Through a qualitative Delphi study, we assess and categorise the key structural and cultural barriers to sustainable business model innovation (SBMI). By applying the innovation system approach, we explain how to overcome existing barriers by strengthening the functions of the innovation system. We analyse how these barriers can be overcome through the activities of governments, firms, and consumers, and discuss the wider implications of our research for practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers.

Background: Advances in treatment philosophies and microsurgical techniques for peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) have led to improved outcomes. However, lack of standardisation in the evaluation of clinical outcomes after PNI treatment precludes the ability to compare reconstruction methods, such as nerve transfer, nerve grafting, free functioning muscle transfers and tendon transfers. To this end, our goal is to work collaboratively to establish a core outcome set to evaluate outcomes after PNI.

Methods: The protocol for this arc of work, delineated in this manuscript, consists of two phases: (1) conducting a systematic review of how outcomes are currently reported following PNI and (2) a Delphi process to gain consensus on the measures to include in the core outcome set for PNI. In the Delphi process, two online rounds will be used to gather consensus on the importance of each outcome measure. A final round will be conducted in person to discuss and resolve measures for which there is not yet consensus and to finalise the core outcomes set.

Conclusions: Through this process, a common standard for reporting outcomes after PNI will be created, facilitating collaboration and future research.

Dengue virus causes serious diseases and deaths in the world. Understanding the fundamental mechanisms of dengue virus is highly demanded to develop treatments for dengue virus caused diseases. Here, we present a computational work which focused on the stability of dengue viral capsid. The interactions among E proteins on the dengue viral capsid were studied using several computational approaches. It was found that the electrostatic distribution on a single E protein monomer is highly inhomogeneous, which makes an E protein strongly binding with another E protein. This is the reason why all the E proteins form homodimers as the basic units on the whole dengue viral capsids. The pKa calculations of E proteins demonstrated that the folding energy of an E protein is low and stable in the range of pH 6–10, which is different from many other proteins that are stable at certain pH. The pH dependence of binding energy of E protein homodimer shows that the binding energy is low and independent from pH when the pH is also in the range of 6–10. This finding implies that the dengue virus can survive in a wide range of pH, which can explain why the dengue virus is so widely distributed in the world and spreads fast.

As a branch of architectural design, landscape design covers interdisciplinary education involving the fields of planning and design, construction and management, electromechanics, ecology and environmental protection, etc. Because of easily causing environmental and ecological damage, landscape design is considered as a highly polluting industry. To take fully advantage of interdisplainary cooperation and innovation, this study explores the key factors impacting on the effectiveness of interdisciplinary learning using Analytical Hierarchy Process and Delphi. It hopes to mitigate the impact of landscape design on the environment.

The urban-rural gap is the normal state of urban development imbalance, which easily leads to serious phenomena such as the decline of towns and villages, the outflows of population and industries. Developing the cultural tourism of characteristic towns will facilitate the Rural Revitalization. This study adopts Delphi and Analytical Hierarchy Process to discuss key success factors for the development of tourism business in Lingnan cultural characteristic towns, which will help promote the return of the township population and industries.