Real-world research and its importance in respiratory medicine

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Enhancing the student experience through values based personal tutoring

A values based approach is relational and has positive working relationships and good communication as the heart of its focus. The personal tutor relationship is often thought to be one of the key areas which can foster a sense of belonging to a higher education institution which is a key part of the widening participation agenda (HEFCE 2012), whose aim is “to promote and provide the opportunity of successful participation in higher education to everyone who can benefit from it”. This poster details the subject area approach to values based personal tutoring along the student journey.N/

Leadership Curriculum Evaluation: Final Report DFE- RR639

Evaluation report of the National College for Teaching and Leadership's Leadership Curriculum commissioned by Department for Education (2013-2016

The Role of the Doctoral Consortium: An Information Systems Signature Pedagogy?

The doctoral consortium is a well-established, widely endorsed event in the information systems (IS) discipline that occurs adjunct to mainstream IS conferences (e.g., ICIS, ECIS, PACIS, AMCIS). Anecdotal evidence suggests that PhD students’ experience of these events is almost universally positive; some have referred to the events as “life changing” or “magical”. Further, both participating students and scholars strongly perceive the events’ value. To extend the experience to more PhD students, doctoral consortia are more recently being run locally and unaffiliated with any conference. By reviewing the literature and historical documents and conducting a series of interviews and email exchanges with past conference co-chairs, we explore the merits of IS doctoral consortia (consortia). We position the IS doctoral consortium as distinct from forms of doctoral student development in other disciplines, a veritable “signature pedagogy” for IS. In examining the practices and motivations underlying doctoral consortia, we explain related phenomena to improving future consortia. In addition, by appending much historical detail, we add to the IS discipline’s organizational memory

Collaborative systems for enhancing the analysis of social surveys: the grid enabled specialist data environments

This paper describes a group of online services which are designed to support social survey research and the production of statistical results. The 'Grid Enabled Specialist Data Environment' (GESDE) services constitute three related systems which offer facilities to search for, extract and exploit supplementary data and metadata concerned with the measurement and operationalisation of survey variables. The services also offer users the opportunity to deposit and distribute their own supplementary data resources for the benefit of dissemination and replication of the details of their own analysis. The GESDE services focus upon three application areas: specialist data relating to the measurement of occupations; educational qualifications; and ethnicity (including nationality, language, religion, national identity). They identify information resources related to the operationalisation of variables which seek to measure each of these concepts - examples include coding frames, crosswalk and translation files, and standardisation and harmonisation recommendations. These resources constitute important supplementary data which can be usefully exploited in the analysis of survey data. The GESDE services work by collecting together as much of this supplementary data as possible, and making it searchable and retrievable to others. This paper discusses the current features of the GESDE services (which have been designed as part of a wider programme of ‘e-Science’ research in the UK), and considers ongoing challenges in providing effective support for variable-oriented statistical analysis in the social sciences

Machine perfusion in kidney transplantation: clinical application & metabolomic analysis

Kidney Transplantation is the gold standard treatment for patients with end-stage renal failure. Most kidneys used for transplantation are from deceased donors and ensuring successful outcomes depends on many factors. One of these is organ storage. Hypothermic Machine Perfusion (HMP) of deceased donor organs has been shown to have several benefits. However, it has not been widely adopted and the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. The first section of this thesis examines the introduction of HMP into clinical practice. HMP outcomes were similar to those of standard storage techniques but with the additional benefit of increasing safe storage times. This was likely due to inherent benefits of the machine itself, improved recipient preparation and better peri-operative conditions. The second part of this study analysed HMP perfusate using metabolomics (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) to identify potential predictors of graft outcome. Differences were identified in the metabolic profiles of perfusate from kidneys with immediate and delayed graft function. These may have a future role in viability assessment. Improved understanding of metabolism during storage may help target optimization strategies for deceased donor organs. The final part of this study describes the development of a porcine model of transplantation to test future hypotheses

Epilepsy, identity, and the experience of the body

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. Living with a chronic condition can challenge a person\u27s identity, yet there is a paucity of research exploring this experience for people with epilepsy and particularly for those diagnosed in adulthood. Consequently, through an interpretative phenomenological approach, the current study aimed to explore what the experience of adult-onset epilepsy meant for a person\u27s identity. Thirty-nine people with adult-onset epilepsy from across the UK took part in up to two semi-structured interviews. A modified form of interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted and identified three themes: 1) disarming the impact of seizures considered strategies used to control seizure occurrence and regain a sense of control over the body; 2) distinguishing the self from the body highlighted participants’ attempts to separate their sense of self from the unpredictability of their bodies; 3) separating epilepsy from themselves demonstrated how participants externalized epilepsy from themselves in order to reject it as part of their identity. The findings highlighted that living with adult-onset epilepsy can challenge a person\u27s sense of self and trust in their body, resulting in the adoption of various strategies to manage the threat to their identity. As such, practitioners must pay attention to the impact that adult-onset epilepsy can have on a person\u27s identity and faith in their body

The experience of living with adult-onset epilepsy.

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. The incidence and prevalence of adults diagnosed with epilepsy is higher compared to those diagnosed in childhood, yet the experience of living with adult-onset epilepsy has rarely been examined. Hence, the current study took a phenomenological approach to examining the experience of living with epilepsy following diagnosis in adulthood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 people from across the UK, diagnosed with epilepsy between the ages of eighteen and sixty, at two points in time, six months apart. Phenomenological analysis identified three central themes: the unpredictability of seizure occurrence; the ripple effect; and re-evaluating the future. Despite the accepted consensus in the epilepsy literature that living and coping with epilepsy becomes more difficult the older a person is diagnosed, the current findings indicated that this is inadequate. Rather, it is more suitable to consider that those living with adult-onset epilepsy have a specific experience of the condition and particular support needs, given that they once lived their lives as people without epilepsy

Thermal Protection System: Spray On Foam Insulation (SOFI)

No abstract availabl

Evaluating snow microbial assemblages

Psychrophiles are organisms that grow optimally below 20C (1). The US Great Basin is home to many mountain peaks with an abundance of alpine snow environments perfect for psychrophilic habitation. We analyzed samples from three different locations, Wheeler Peak, Pacific Crest Trail, and Mount Conness, characterizing and comparing the psychrophilic communities at varying depth intervals in the snow. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) showed no notable difference in community structure with depth, but there was a distinct difference when comparing different snow environments (i.e. shaded vs. full sun exposure). The chlorophyll concentration decreased as the depth of the snow increased. By creating a clone library and utilizing DNA sequencing technology we were able to obtain 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequences from samples collected from Mount Conness, which allowed us to identify microbes living in the ecosystem. This information enabled us to produce bacterial and eukaryl phylogenetic trees, giving us a clear look into the diversity of this psychrophilic community. Out of seventy bacterial results there were fifty‐three ‐Proteobacteria, thirteen Sphingobacteria, and only three Actinobacteria, with one unclassified bacteria as well. These results will guide us in our future plans for experimentation