The Simplest Wedding

The groom had been in a coma for almost a year. The bride was, the guests speculated, a feral spirit. And, yet, everything had gone according to the accepted practices of this day and age

H4O and other hydrogen-oxygen compounds at giant-planet core pressures

Water and hydrogen at high pressure make up a substantial fraction of the interiors of giant planets. Using ab initio random structure search methods we investigate the ground-state crystal structures of water, hydrogen, and hydrogen-oxygen compounds. We find that, at pressures beyond 14 Mbar, excess hydrogen is incorporated into the ice phase to form a novel structure with H4O stoichiometry. We also predict two new ground state structures, P2_1/m and I4/mmm, for post-C2/m water ice

Reflecting on the Use of Photo-elicitation Methods in IPA Research. Enhancing the Interpretative Lens and Re-balancing Power Back to the Participant. A Review of Published Studies

The use of visual and creative methods, specifically photo-elicitation in qualitative research has seen an increase in popularity in applied social science research, particularly in studies of psychology. This paper considers the evolution of the photograph as a research tool, particularly when combined with one-to-one interviewing. This paper situates the use of the photograph within historical and disciplinary contexts whilst offering new perspectives on its application to psychological fields of study. We argue that there are interesting benefits associated with supplementing qualitative methods such as one-to-one interviews with photographic stimuli. We present a recent systematic review of photo-elicitation used in research which identifies as being informed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Interpretative phenomenological Analysis is a particular qualitative approach which aims produce an account of lived experience. It is often unconcerned by adhering to the application of pre-existing theoretical preconceptions and instead offers an inductive, iterative and highly idiographic account of a phenomena of which the participant has direct experience of. This may be phenomena linked to personal changes in health and illness, or even adapting to new learning environments. Central to the purpose of IPA is the recognition that this account of lived experience is an interpretative endeavor between both participant and analyst. We argue that this need for interpretation and co-construction offers space for creative methods to ‘bridge the gap’ between simply describing a phenomena and entering into the symbolic, metaphorical interpretative world of meaning making which pushes IPA research from mediocrity to excellence. In this review we aimed to capture information related to the use of photographic methods in IPA research with particular interest in exploring the body of published work across the following protocols; 1) sample for inclusion, 2) domain of study, 3) orientation of research questions, 4) design features, 5) variation of photo-method, 6) outcomes of research and 7) critical appraisal of study. There are 14 published articles utilising photographs in IPA from 2010-2018. These studies were conducted internationally and reach across different topic domains including health, developmental, education and occupational research. The reviewed studies extend across the age span and there was notable younger age participants involved. Using photographs offered particular advantages in comparison to interview alone. These include; (a) to empower marginalized, ‘hard to reach’ groups (b) to facilitate in-depth interpretative discussions of abstract, ‘metaphorical’ concepts, sensitive issues (c) to synthesise data with other methods to strengthen and d) enhance trustworthiness of findings. There was considerable variation in how photographs were ‘produced’ ranging from photos, ‘elicited’ by participants or as a secondary artefact produced by researcher as a stimulus for discussion. Visual methods using photographs vary, and include photo-narratives, photo-journals, photo-montage, photo-questionnaires. We situation our review within fast moving changes and opportunities for this method within a wider ‘open science’ framework and also pay particular attention to exploring ethical issues to ensure confidentiality, consent, privacy and wider 2018 General Data Protection Regulation adherence

Application of machine learning to support self-management of asthma with mHealth

While there have been several efforts to use mHealth technologies to support asthma management, none so far offer personalised algorithms that can provide real-time feedback and tailored advice to patients based on their monitoring. This work employed a publicly available mHealth dataset, the Asthma Mobile Health Study (AMHS), and applied machine learning techniques to develop early warning algorithms to enhance asthma self-management. The AMHS consisted of longitudinal data from 5,875 patients, including 13,614 weekly surveys and 75,795 daily surveys. We applied several well-known supervised learning algorithms (classification) to differentiate stable and unstable periods and found that both logistic regression and naïve Bayes-based classifiers provided high accuracy (AUC > 0.87). We found features related to the use of quick-relief puffs, night symptoms, frequency of data entry, and day symptoms (in descending order of importance) as the most useful features to detect early evidence of loss of control. We found no additional value of using peak flow readings to improve population level early warning algorithms