Systematic Techniques to Enhance rEtention in Randomised controlled trials: the STEER study protocol

Background Non-retention of participants seriously affects the credibility of clinical trial results and significantly reduces the potential of a trial to influence clinical practice. Non-retention can be defined as instances where participants leave the study prematurely. Examples include withdrawal of consent and loss to follow-up and thus outcome data cannot be obtained. The majority of existing interventions targeting retention fail to describe any theoretical basis for the observed improvement, or lack of improvement. Moreover, most of these interventions lack involvement of participants in their conception and/or design, raising questions about their relevance and acceptability. Many of the causes of non-retention involve people performing a behaviour (e.g. not returning a questionnaire). Behaviour change is difficult, and the importance of a strong theoretical basis for interventions that aim to change behaviour is increasingly recognised. This research aims to develop and pilot theoretically informed, participant-centred, evidence-based behaviour change interventions to improve retention in trials. Methods This research will generate data through semi-structured interviews on stakeholders’ perspectives of the reasons for trial non-retention. It will identify perceived barriers and enablers to trial retention using the Theoretical Domains Framework. The intervention development work will involve identification of behaviour change techniques, using recognised methodology, and co-production of retention interventions through discussion groups with end-users. An evaluation of intervention acceptability and feasibility will be conducted in focus groups. Finally, a ready-to-use evaluation framework to deploy in Studies Within A Trial as well as an explanatory retention framework will be developed for identifying and tackling modifiable issues to improve trial retention. Discussion We believe this to be one of the first studies to apply a theoretical lens to the development of interventions to improve trial retention that have been informed by, and are embedded within, participants’ experiential accounts. By developing and identifying priority interventions this study will support efforts to reduce research waste

Childhood, Futurity, and Settler Time

Settler childhood’s futurity is grounded in settler time: the colonial temporal structures of settlers that view time as strictly delineated, in opposition to Indigenous temporal heterogeneity—the coexistence of a multiplicity of temporalities. Mark Rifkin describes this temporal heterogeneity as having the power to unsettle settler frames of reference. In response to Adam Gaudry’s call for settlers to engage in insurgent research by engaging with Indigenous research and worldviews while focusing on settler problems, turning to the tension of settler time with Indigenous temporal sovereignty alongside Barbara Adam’s conception of temporal care relations offers a way to unsettle settler childhoods. Bringing together two ways of rethinking temporality through Dwayne Donald’s conception of ethical relationality enables a critique of colonialism without seeking to take up Indigenous childhoods to fill the broken spaces in settlers’ own. This effort reflects Alexis Shotwell’s warning to attendees of the Common Worlds colloquium Responding to Ecological Challenges with/in Contemporary Childhoods: An Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Climate Pedagogies to be attentive to epistemic extractivism and the problem of settlers seeking to resolve the damage of colonialism through seeking to behave as if they are Indigenous. Instead, I propose a way forward in which children are reentangled in both common worlds and common fates

Using VARK to assess Saudi nursing students' learning style preferences: Do they differ from other health professionals?

أهداف البحث: تهدف هذه الدراسة لمعرفة أسلوب التعلم المفضل لطالبات التمريض السعوديات، الأمر الذي يؤدي إلى فهم محتوى المنهج وبالتالي تحسين رعاية المرضى. طرق البحث: وزعت استبانة مسحية مقطعية على ١٢٥ طالبة تمريض سعودية تطوعت بالاشتراك في هذا البحث. النتائج: فضل أكثر من ٨٠.٥٪ من المشاركات التعلم الحركي. وفضلت بقوة ٣٨.٢٪ منهن التعلم الحركي، في حين هيمن تفضيل ١٠.٦ ٪٬ و ٤.٩٪ و ٢.٤٪ للتعلم السماعي، والقراءة/الكتابة، والتعلم البصري، على التوالي. ولم تكن أساليب التعلم لطالبات التمريض السعوديات مختلفه كثيرا في تفضيلهن التعلم الحركي عن مجموعة طالبات التمريض الاستراليات، ولكن كانت مختلفة إلى حد كبير في تفضيل التعلم الحركي عن طالبات الطب السعوديات. وحصل أسلوب التعلم الحركي على أعلى رتبة تفضيل بين جميع مجموعات طالبات التمريض. الاستنتاجات: كانت أساليب التعلم المذكورة لطالبات التمريض السعوديات أكثر مماثلة لمجموعات أخرى من الممرضات عن طالبات التخصصات الصحية السعوديات في مجالات رئيسة لتفضيل أساليب التعلم

Sr/Ca and δ18O seasonality in a Porites coral from the MIS 9 (339-303 ka) interglacial

Past changes in the seasonal distribution of insolation across the Earth's surface are thought to play a critical role in Quaternary climate cycles. In this study we use Sr/Ca and δ18O as geochemical proxies in the skeleton of a fossil Porites coral to

High-precision U-series measurements of more than 500,000 year old fossil corals

Robust, independent age constraints on the absolute timing of climate events based on the U-series dating of fossil coral are sparse before the last glacial cycle. Using multiple-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with multiple-Faraday protocols, we are able to date ∼ 600 ka samples with an uncertainty of better than ± 15 ka (2σ), representing a three-fold improvement in precision compared with previous techniques. Using these methods, we report U-series measurements for a suite of > 500 thousand year old (ka) corals from Henderson Island, an emergent atoll in the south-central Pacific Ocean. The fossil corals show extraordinarily little diagenetic alteration for their age and the best-preserved sample yields a U-series age of 600 ± 15 ka (2σ), which overlaps with the timing of the warm Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 15 interglacial. The open-system model of Villemant and Feuillet [Villemant B. and Feuillet N. (2003) Dating open systems by the 238U–234U–230Th method: application to Quaternary reef terraces. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 210(1–2), 105–118.] and the linear regression (or open-system isochron) is clearly limited for such old samples. However, the open-system model developed by Thompson et al. [Thompson W.G., Spiegelman M.W., Goldstein S.L., and Speed R.C. (2003) An open-system model for U-series age determinations of fossil corals. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 210(1–2), 365–381.] appears to reliably correct for open-system effects in roughly half of the corals, giving a MIS 15 origin for these. Thus the data provide evidence that the systematic addition of 230Th and 234U through α-recoil is a dominant open-system process occurring in the Henderson Island fossil reef system. Several coral samples yield significantly older Thompson et al. open-system ages between 650 and 750 ka. The uncertainty on these ages (typically ± 30 kyrs) is too great for precise assignment but most data overlap with the MIS 17 interglacial. The reliability of these ages is currently unclear. It is shown that separate aliquots of the same coral can yield different Thompson model ages. Therefore, there appear to be additional diagenetic mechanisms that create further anomalous excursions in the U-series systematics, limiting the reliability of the Thompson et al. open-system model

The timing of sea-level high-stands during Marine Isotope Stages 7.5 and 9: Constraints from the uranium-series dating of fossil corals from Henderson Island

Direct dating of fossil coral reefs using the U-series chronometer provides an important independent test of the Milankovitch orbital forcing theory of climate change. However, well-dated fossil corals pre-dating the last interglacial period (\u3e130 thousand years ago; ka) are scarce due to, (1) a lack of sampling localities, (2) insufficient analytical precision in U-series dating methods, and (3) diagenesis which acts to violate the assumption of closed-system U-series isotopic decay in fossil corals. Here we present 50 new high-precision U-series age determinations for fossil corals from Henderson Island, an emergent coral atoll in the central South Pacific. U-series age determinations associated with the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9 interglacial and MIS 7.5 interstadial periods are reported. The fossil corals show relatively little open-system U-series behaviour in comparison to other localities with fossil coral reefs formed prior to the last glacial cycle, however, open-system U-series behaviour is still evident in most of the dated corals. In particular, percent-level shifts in the [230Th/238U]act composition are observed, leading to conventional U-series ages that are significantly younger or older than the true sample age. This open-system U-series behaviour is not accounted for by any of the open-system U-series models, indicating that new models should be derived. The new U-series ages reported here support and extend earlier findings reported in Stirling et al. (2001), providing evidence of prolific coral reef development on Henderson Island at 320 ka, most likely correlated with MIS 9.3, and subsequent reef development at 307 ka during MIS 9.1, while relative sea-level was potentially 20 m lower than during MIS 9.3. The U-series ages for additional well-preserved fossil corals are suggestive of minor reef development on Henderson Island during MIS 7.5 (245–230 ka) at 240.3 ± 0.8 and 234.7 ± 1.3 ka. All U-series observations are consistent with the Milankovitch theory of climate change, in terms of the timing of onset and termination of the dated interglacial and interstadial periods. The best preserved samples also suggest that the oceanic 234U/238U during MIS 9 and MIS 7.5 was within five permil of the modern open ocean composition. [Retrieved from publisher\u27s website: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001670371000147X