Dignity in care for older people: Bridging the gap between policy and practice

This presentation was given as part of the Brunel Institute for Ageing Studies (BIAS) Annual Conference 2012 by Dr Deborah Cairns from the School of Health Sciences and Social Care at Brunel University. The 2nd annual conference was hosted at Brunel University on the 15th February 2012.This presentation was based on the work from a 30 month research project funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust. The project collaborators are Brunel University, City University, Southampton University and Oxford Brookes University

Determinants for Successful Agile Collaboration between UX Designers and Software Developers in a Complex Organisation

Agile and User-centered design processes have been reported to frequently putting contradictory demands on people working within these methodological frameworks. The current research addresses this point by focussing on the crucial relationship between software developer and designer. An online survey, a contextual inquiry, and a diary study were employed with 107 developers and designers in a large media organization to determine the factors for success in agile development cycles. The results from the survey show that while developers and designers have similar levels of satisfaction with agile processes, there are differences in the factors predicting those ratings. Developers are happier with the wider teamwork but want more access to and close collaboration with designers, while the latters’ concern was the quality of the wider teamwork. Additional contextual inquiries and a diary study with pairs of designers and developers reflected the survey findings that close cooperation (and proximity) was essential for improving communication, reducing inefficiencies, and avoiding suboptimal products being released. However, organizational processes, the setup of the work environment, and managerial traditions meant that this close collaboration and localized decision-making was found difficult to maintain. Results from the survey, the contextual inquiry, and the diary study found six factors for success from collaborations emerged

Detecting and preventing elder financial abuse

This presentation was given as part of the Brunel Institute for Ageing Studies (BIAS) Annual Conference 2012 by Dr Miranda Davies from the School of Health Sciences and Social Care at Brunel University. The 2nd annual conference was hosted at Brunel University on the 15th February 2012.This presentation was based on research from the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme projec

The Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials

Flaws in the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of randomised trials can cause the effect of an intervention to be underestimated or overestimated. The Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias aims to make the process clearer and more accurat

Improving compliance to colorectal cancer screening using blood and stool based tests in patients refusing screening colonoscopy in Germany

Background Despite strong recommendations for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, participation rates are low. Understanding factors that affect screening choices is essential to developing future screening strategies. Therefore, this study assessed patient willingness to use non-invasive stool or blood based screening tests after refusing colonoscopy. Methods Participants were recruited during regular consultations. Demographic, health, psychological and socioeconomic factors were recorded. All subjects were advised to undergo screening by colonoscopy. Subjects who refused colonoscopy were offered a choice of non-invasive tests. Subjects who selected stool testing received a collection kit and instructions; subjects who selected plasma testing had a blood draw during the office visit. Stool samples were tested with the Hb/Hp Complex Elisa test, and blood samples were tested with the Epi proColon® 2.0 test. Patients who were positive for either were advised to have a diagnostic colonoscopy. Results 63 of 172 subjects were compliant to screening colonoscopy (37%). 106 of the 109 subjects who refused colonoscopy accepted an alternative non-invasive method (97%). 90 selected the Septin9 blood test (83%), 16 selected a stool test (15%) and 3 refused any test (3%). Reasons for blood test preference included convenience of an office draw, overall convenience and less time consuming procedure. Conclusions 97% of subjects refusing colonoscopy accepted a non-invasive screening test of which 83% chose the Septin9 blood test. The observation that participation can be increased by offering non-invasive tests, and that a blood test is the preferred option should be validated in a prospective trial in the screening setting

Segmentação Distribuída de Imagem de Sensoriamento Remoto a partir de Banco de Dados PostgreSQL/InterIMAGE.

A abordagem de classificação baseada em objetos representa um novo paradigma no processamento de imagens de altas resoluções espaciais, espectrais e temporais, e a construção de objetos baseia-se na segmentação das imagens. A análise de imagens baseada em objetos (GEOBIA - Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis) apresenta métodos capazes de explorar, além de atributos espectrais, elementos como textura, forma ou contexto. Existem aplicações que buscam melhorar o desempenho computacional com soluções sequenciais e distribuídas, ou programas como TerraView que abordam o uso de sistemas gerenciadores de banco de dados. Este trabalho propõe explorar especificações de aplicações para integrar o Sistema Gerenciador de Banco de Dados (SGBD) PostgreSQL/PostGIS e o classificador Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) do InterIMAGE Desktop para processamento de grandes imagens orbitais. O método apresentado é expansível no uso da biblioteca TerraLib 5, com linguagem de programação C++. Os experimentos realizados com as representações matriciais (raster) indicaram a viabilidade das aplicações e podem se consolidar sob a forma de processos de armazenamento e processamento da segmentação no SGBD

EEG alterations during treatment with olanzapine

The aim of this naturalistic observational study was to investigate EEG alterations in patients under olanzapine treatment with a special regard to olanzapine dose and plasma concentration. Twenty-two in-patients of a psychiatric university ward with the monodiagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia (ICD-10: F20.0), who received a monotherapy of olanzapine were included in this study. All patients had a normal alpha-EEG before drug therapy, and did not suffer from brain-organic dysfunctions, as verified by clinical examination and cMRI scans. EEG and olanzapine plasma levels were determined under steady-state conditions (between 18 and 22 days after begin of treatment). In 9 patients (40.9%), pathological EEG changes (one with spike-waves) consecutive to olanzapine treatment were observed. The dose of olanzapine was significantly higher in patients with changes of the EEG than in patients without changes (24.4 mg/day (SD: 8.1) vs. 12.7 mg/day (SD: 4.8); T = −4.3, df = 21, P < 0.001). In patients with EEG changes, the blood plasma concentration of olanzapine (45.6 μg/l (SD: 30.9) vs. 26.3 μg/l (SD: 21.6) tended to be also higher. The sensitivity of olanzapine dosage to predict EEG changes was 66.7%, the specificity 100% (Youden-index: 0.67). EEG abnormalities during olanzapine treatment are common. These are significantly dose dependent. Thus, EEG control recordings should be mandatory during olanzapine treatment with special emphasis on dosages exceeding 20 mg per day, although keeping in mind that EEGs have only a limited predictive power regarding future epileptic seizures

The role of the user within the medical device design and development process: medical device manufacturers' perspectives

Copyright @ 2011 Money et al.Background: Academic literature and international standards bodies suggest that user involvement, via the incorporation of human factors engineering methods within the medical device design and development (MDDD) process, offer many benefits that enable the development of safer and more usable medical devices that are better suited to users' needs. However, little research has been carried out to explore medical device manufacturers' beliefs and attitudes towards user involvement within this process, or indeed what value they believe can be added by doing so.Methods: In-depth interviews with representatives from 11 medical device manufacturers are carried out. We ask them to specify who they believe the intended users of the device to be, who they consult to inform the MDDD process, what role they believe the user plays within this process, and what value (if any) they believe users add. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the fully transcribed interview data, to gain insight into medical device manufacturers' beliefs and attitudes towards user involvement within the MDDD process.Results: A number of high-level themes emerged, relating who the user is perceived to be, the methods used, the perceived value and barriers to user involvement, and the nature of user contributions. The findings reveal that despite standards agencies and academic literature offering strong support for the employment formal methods, manufacturers are still hesitant due to a range of factors including: perceived barriers to obtaining ethical approval; the speed at which such activity may be carried out; the belief that there is no need given the 'all-knowing' nature of senior health care staff and clinical champions; a belief that effective results are achievable by consulting a minimal number of champions. Furthermore, less senior health care practitioners and patients were rarely seen as being able to provide valuable input into the process.Conclusions: Medical device manufacturers often do not see the benefit of employing formal human factors engineering methods within the MDDD process. Research is required to better understand the day-to-day requirements of manufacturers within this sector. The development of new or adapted methods may be required if user involvement is to be fully realised.This study was in part funded by grant number Ref: GR/S29874/01 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. This article is made available through the Brunel University Open Access Publishing Fund

Percepção de estudantes de psicologia sobre a informática em sua formação profissional

Neste artigo analisa-se uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa, cujo objetivo era explorar a percepção de 45 alunos de psicologia de diferentes universidades da cidade de Santiago do Chile, sobre a incorporação da informática como apoio para a aprendizagem em sua formação profissional. A informação foi coletada através de entrevistas semiestruturadas e analisou-se mediante o processo de codificação da Teoría Fundamentada. Os resultados mostram como categorias principais, o conhecimento da informática, a valoração da informática, e os fatores que obstaculizam o uso desta. Da codificação seletiva se desprende uma alta valoração da informática como ferramenta econômica e cômoda, mas também se observa uma alta reticência dos alunos diante de sua utilização no trabalho profissional tradicional do psicólogo. Encontraram-se fatores pessoais e institucionais nos que se baseia a valoração, a motivação e o nível de conhecimento dos estudantes diante do uso de ferramentas informáticas.This paper analyses a qualitative research aimed to exploring the perception of 45 psychology students from different universities in Santiago de Chile, about incorporating information systems to support learning in their professional training. Data were collected through semi structured interviews and their analysis was based on Grounded Theory's coding process. Results show that the major categories are computer knowledge, appreciation of computers and factors that hinder their use. From the selective coding a positive evaluation emerges of information systems as an economic and useful tool. However, there is also a high reluctance on the part of the students regarding the use of such tools in the psychologist' traditional professional work. Personal and organizational factors were found as bases for students' assessment, motivation and level of knowledge facing the use of these tools.En este artículo se analiza una investigación de naturaleza cualitativa, cuyo objetivo era explorar la percepción de 45 alumnos de psicología de diferentes universidades de la ciudad de Santiago de Chile, sobre la incorporación de la informática como apoyo para el aprendizaje en su formación profesional. La información se recolectó a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas y se analizó mediante el proceso de codificación de la Teoría Fundamentada. Los resultados muestran como categorías principales, el conocimiento de la informática, la valoración de la informática, y los factores que obstaculizan el uso de ésta. De la codificación selectiva se desprende una alta valoración de la informática como herramienta económica y cómoda, pero también se observa una alta reticencia de los alumnos frente a su utilización en el trabajo profesional tradicional del psicólogo. Se encontraron factores personales e institucionales en los cuales se fundamenta la valoración, la motivación y el nivel de conocimiento de los estudiantes frente al uso de herramientas informáticas

Immunology of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) leading to demyelination, axonal damage, and progressive neurologic disability. The development of MS is influenced by environmental factors, particularly the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and genetic factors, which include specific HLA types, particularly DRB1*1501-DQA1*0102-DQB1*0602, and a predisposition to autoimmunity in general. MS patients have increased circulating T-cell and antibody reactivity to myelin proteins and gangliosides. It is proposed that the role of EBV is to infect autoreactive B cells that then seed the CNS and promote the survival of autoreactive T cells there. It is also proposed that the clinical attacks of relapsing-remitting MS are orchestrated by myelin-reactive T cells entering the white matter of the CNS from the blood, and that the progressive disability in primary and secondary progressive MS is caused by the action of autoantibodies produced in the CNS by ­meningeal lymphoid follicles with germinal centers