Identifying acne treatment uncertainties via a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership

Objectives: The Acne Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) was set up to identify and rank treatment uncertainties by bringing together people with acne, and professionals providing care within and beyond the National Health Service (NHS). Setting: The UK with international participation. Participants: Teenagers and adults with acne, parents, partners, nurses, clinicians, pharmacists, private practitioners. Methods: Treatment uncertainties were collected via separate online harvesting surveys, embedded within the PSP website, for patients and professionals. A wide variety of approaches were used to promote the surveys to stakeholder groups with a particular emphasis on teenagers and young adults. Survey submissions were collated using keywords and verified as uncertainties by appraising existing evidence. The 30 most popular themes were ranked via weighted scores from an online vote. At a priority setting workshop, patients and professionals discussed the 18 highest-scoring questions from the vote, and reached consensus on the top 10. Results: In the harvesting survey, 2310 people, including 652 professionals and 1456 patients (58% aged 24 y or younger), made submissions containing at least one research question. After checking for relevance and rephrasing, a total of 6255 questions were collated into themes. Valid votes ranking the 30 most common themes were obtained from 2807 participants. The top 10 uncertainties prioritised at the workshop were largely focused on management strategies, optimum use of common prescription medications and the role of nondrug based interventions. More female than male patients took part in the harvesting surveys and vote. A wider range of uncertainties were provided by patients compared to professionals. Conclusions: Engaging teenagers and young adults in priority setting is achievable using a variety of promotional methods. The top 10 uncertainties reveal an extensive knowledge gap about widely used interventions and the relative merits of drug versus non-drug based treatments in acne management

Global Explorers Journaling and Reflection Initiative

Research suggests that journaling will increase reflection and improve program outcomes (Bain, et al, 1999; Duerden, et al, 2012) This study involved a partnership with a non-profit, Global Explorers (GEx), which provides international immersion experiences for youth. Their programs are designed to teach youth participants principles of leadership, environmental awareness, service, and science. This study, which tested whether teaching journaling techniques to youth program facilitators would have a positive impact on participant outcomes, addressed the following hypotheses: 1) Greater training in reflective thinking among participants would be associated with higher outcome scores, and 2) Participants in the intervention group (facilitators trained in journaling pedagogy) would show greater increases in reflective thinking than comparison group members. Results based on participant self-assessment were significant in testing the first hypothesis; reflective thinking is positively associated with outcome measures, but the intervention group did not show increases in reflective thinking

Evaluation of Partnerships for People and Place:Birmingham Project

This evaluative assessment has been undertaken by City-REDI and the School of Education based at the University of Birmingham. It aims to capture learning and early impacts of the activities supported by Partnerships for People and Place (PfPP) funding in East Birmingham to improve young people’s access to relevant and meaningful careers information, advice, and guidance. This report supplements the national evaluation of the PfPP programme completed by IPOS-Mori commissioned by Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), now known as the Ministry of of Housing, Communities and Local Government. PfPP supports place-based partnerships to:•trial new ways of working across local and central government and deliver innovative, locally led solutions to key challenges that communities face•look at whether improved government structures, more flexible funding models and greater collaboration across the public sector could be effective in addressing specific issues in local areas.The funding of the Birmingham PfPP project enabled testing of new approaches to careers advice, information and guidance and more general awareness of employment opportunities for young people in East Birmingham. It aimed to raise awareness of a range of career pathways – including vocational career pathways – and reduce the risk of young people becoming NEET. Also funded was a complementary workstream investigating data sources available locally in Birmingham City Council and nationally (including from central government departments – such as the Department for Education [DfE], the Department for Work and Pensions and DLUHC) that have the potential to provide further information on, and relevant to, the experiences of young people transitioning from school into employment and, or further and higher education. PfPP funded a secondee from City-REDI to work with Birmingham City Council (BCC) and the newly formed Birmingham City Observatory.This report provides an initial assessment of:1.schools’, stakeholder organisations’, professionals’, and young people’s experiences of PfPP approaches in East Birmingham; and 2.the impact of these approaches on: (a)organisations and professional practices and (b) young people’s perceptions of themselves, the options available to them, and initial indications of outcomes.It provides information on:•involvement of local voices in the design of the project and the need to be agile in delivering different aspects of the project•why a new approach based around young people’s concerns to careers information advice and guidance was needed and how it was delivered including innovative Be Bold, Be the Future Reverse Mentoring Event where employers could find out what young people look for in a job•challenges experienced by schools and their students included parental expectations•evidence of collaborative advantage created including demonstrating proof of concept for the partnership approach developed to support careers education for young people in East Birmingham•how the project has supported schools to make good progress towards meeting the Gatsby Benchmark for CIAG.The report also includes seven lessons for future programmes and nine recommendations.<br/

<i>MaqFACS</i> (Macaque Facial Action Coding System) can be used to document facial movements in Barbary macaques (<i>Macaca sylvanus</i>)

Human and non-human primates exhibit facial movements or displays to communicate with one another. The evolution of form and function of those displays could be better understood through multispecies comparisons. Anatomically based coding systems (Facial Action Coding Systems: FACS) are developed to enable such comparisons because they are standardized and systematic and aid identification of homologous expressions underpinned by similar muscle contractions. To date, FACS has been developed for humans, and subsequently modified for chimpanzees, rhesus macaques, orangutans, hylobatids, dogs, and cats. Here, we wanted to test whether the MaqFACS system developed in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) could be used to code facial movements in Barbary macaques (M. sylvanus), a species phylogenetically close to the rhesus macaques. The findings show that the facial movement capacity of Barbary macaques can be reliably coded using the MaqFACS. We found differences in use and form of some movements, most likely due to specializations in the communicative repertoire of each species, rather than morphological differences

Adiposity, Biological Markers of Disease, and Insulin Resistance in Mexican American Adolescents, 2004-2005

Introduction Rates of obesity and overweight, which frequently lead to type 2 diabetes, have increased dramatically among US children during the past 30 years. We analyzed associations between insulin resistance and other markers of disease in a sample of Mexican American adolescents from a severely disadvantaged community on the Texas-Mexico border. Methods We analyzed results from 325 students from 1 high school in this descriptive study. We measured height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, and lipids; calculated body mass index; and estimated insulin resistance. Results Approximately 50% of our sample (mean age, 16 y) were overweight or obese, and more participants were obese than overweight. More than 40% had high waist circumference, and 66% had elevated high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. These characteristics were already present in the youngest participants (aged 12 y). Although only 1% of participants had elevated fasting blood glucose, 27% exhibited insulin resistance and most of these were also obese. Similarly, participants with high waist circumference were more likely to exhibit insulin resistance than those with normal waist circumference. Conclusion Participants in this sample had insulin resistance, a potent predictor of diabetes. Two markers, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high waist circumference, were strongly linked to insulin resistance; the surrogate for central adiposity, waist circumference, exhibited strong association. We identified high levels of obesity and markers for future disease in our sample. These findings emphasize the need to address insulin resistance at least as early as adolescence to prevent adverse economic, social, and health consequences

Co-design of a neurodevelopment assessment scale : a study protocol

Neurodevelopmental disorders are a heterogeneous group of conditions with overlapping symptomatology and fluctuating developmental trajectories that transcend current diagnostic categorisation. There is a need for validated screening instruments which dimensionally assess symptomatology from a holistic, transdiagnostic perspective. The primary aim is to co-design a Neurodevelopment Assessment Scale (NAS), a user-friendly transdiagnostic assessment inventory that systematically screens for all signs and symptoms commonly encountered in neurodevelopmental disorders. Our first objective is to undertake development of this tool, utilising co-design principles in partnership with stakeholders, including both those with lived experience of neurodevelopmental disorders and service providers. Our second objective is to evaluate the face validity, as well as the perceived utility, user-friendliness, suitability, and acceptability (i.e., ‘social validity’), of the NAS from the perspective of parents/caregivers and adults with neurodevelopmental disorders, clinicians, and service providers. Our third objective is to ascertain the psychometric properties of the NAS, including content validity and convergent validity. The NAS will provide an efficient transdiagnostic tool for evaluating all relevant signs, symptoms, and the dimensional constructs that underpin neurodevelopmental presentations. It is anticipated that this will maximise outcomes by enabling the delivery of personalised care tailored to an individual’s unique profile in a holistic and efficient manner