The Skull Measuring Business: Some Murderous Little Facts from the Forgotten Spaces of Anthropology in Ireland

The “skull measuring business” is a phrase that resonates with a particular view of Victorian anthropology as practised in Ireland in the 1890s. It captures the idea of English scientists travelling to the periphery of the United Kingdom to trace the racial origins of the “native” Irish at the height of the home rule crisis. Indeed, Patrick Geddes, the bio-social innovator, coined the phrase to describe a restricted form of Anglo-French anthropology that has become inextricably linked to eugenics, the theoretical precursor of scientific racism. Geddes was warning Alfred Cort Haddon that a radical approach to social organisation represented the future of anthropology. This study attempts to find out how Haddon responded, in view of the fact that he was photographed measuring skulls in the Aran Islands in 1892. It builds upon the discovery in 2013 and 2014 of “lost” documentary and photographic material in Dublin and Cambridge. This triggered a review–an “Irish” reading–of Haddon’s papers, concentrating on mostly uncatalogued material relating to his experimental ethnographical surveys of ethnical islands in the west of Ireland. It became clear that the facts uncovered contradict conventional accounts of the skull measuring business; narratives that are usually structured around evolution, race, and imperialism. Instead, Haddon emerges as an English radical and supporter of home rule. He built a network of folklore collectors that constituted an anti-imperial, Anglo-Irish folklore movement, which was aligned with the nationalist cultural programme of Douglas Hyde. That has been forgotten, overlooked, or misinterpreted. Furthermore, Haddon preferred photography to text and his use of the magic lantern as an instrument of anti-colonial activism represents a singular modernist achievement in anthropology. Ironically, this has remained invisible to many historians of disciplinary anthropology. This thesis attempts to correct this by killing some anthropological tropes and creating space for alternative narratives

Online patient safety education programme for junior doctors: is it worthwhile?

BACKGROUND: Increasing demand exists for blended approaches to the development of professionalism. Trainees of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland participated in an online patient safety programme. AIMS: Study aims were: (1) to determine whether the programme improved junior doctors\u27 knowledge, attitudes and skills relating to error reporting, open communication and care for the second victim and (2) to establish whether the methodology facilitated participants\u27 learning. METHODS: 208 junior doctors who completed the programme completed a pre-online questionnaire. Measures were \u22patient safety knowledge and attitudes\u22, \u22medical safety climate\u22 and \u22experience of learning\u22. Sixty-two completed the post-questionnaire, representing a 30 % matched response rate. RESULTS: Participating in the programme resulted in immediate (p \u3c 0.01) improvement in skills such as knowing when and how to complete incident forms and disclosing errors to patients, in self-rated knowledge (p \u3c 0.01) and attitudes towards error reporting (p \u3c 0.01). Sixty-three per cent disagreed that doctors routinely report medical errors and 42 % disagreed that doctors routinely share information about medical errors and what caused them. Participants rated interactive features as the most positive elements of the programme. CONCLUSIONS: An online training programme on medical error improved self-rated knowledge, attitudes and skills in junior doctors and was deemed an effective learning tool. Perceptions of work issues such as a poor culture of error reporting among doctors may prevent improved attitudes being realised in practice. Online patient safety education has a role in practice-based initiatives aimed at developing professionalism and improving safety

Since The Start Of The Vaccines For Children Program, Uptake Has Increased, And Most Disparities Have Decreased

The Vaccines for Children program is a US government intervention aimed at increasing vaccination uptake by removing financial barriers that may prevent US children from accessing vaccinations. This study examined the impact that this intervention had on race and ethnicity–related and income-related disparities for diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, measles-mumps-rubella, and polio vaccinations, using data from the National Immunization Survey, 1995–2013. Vaccination rates increased across all races, ethnicities, and income groups following the introduction of the Vaccines for Children program. Disparities among race and ethnic groups narrowed considerably over time since the introduction of the vaccine program, although income-related disparities changed at different rates within racial and ethnic groups and in some cases increased. Government interventions aimed solely at reducing certain financial barriers to vaccination may fail to address other important aspects of cost or perceived benefits that influence vaccination uptake, especially among poorer children

Preparing Tutors for Mathematics Learning Support

This paper reports on a Mathematics Learning Support (MLS) tutor training programme implemented on a coordinated basis across three universities in Ireland in 2015 by the Irish Mathematics Learning Support Network (IMLSN). The training events were conducted in September near the start of the first semester of the academic year. Focus groups were conducted at the end of the semester in the three institutions with tutors who had participated in the training events to evaluate the workshops and their impact on the tutors MLS teaching

Illness perceptions of gout patients and the use of allopurinol in primary care: baseline findings from a prospective cohort study

BackgroundPatients’ perceptions of their illness are dynamic and can directly influence aspects of management. Our aim was to examine the illness perceptions of gout patients in UK primary care and associations with allopurinol use.MethodsA health questionnaire was sent to 1805 people with gout aged =18 years identified by a gout diagnosis or prescriptions for allopurinol or colchicine in their primary care medical records in the preceding 2 years. The questionnaire included selected items from the revised illness perception questionnaire (IPQ-R). Associations between illness perceptions and use of allopurinol were calculated using multinomial logistic regression adjusted for age, gender, deprivation status, body mass index, alcohol consumption, comorbidities and gout characteristics.ResultsOne thousand one hundred eighty-four participants responded to the baseline questionnaire (65.6 %). Approximately half of responders perceived that they were able to control (51.2 %) or affect their gout through their own actions (44.8 %). Three quarters perceived treatments to be effective (76.4 %) and agreed that gout is a serious condition (76.4 %). Patients who agreed that they could control their gout (Relative Risk Ratio, 95 % confidence interval 1.66 (1.12 to 2.45)) and that treatments were effective (2.24 (1.32 to 3.81)) were more likely to currently be using allopurinol than not using allopurinol. However, this significance was attenuated after adjustment for self-reported gout characteristics (1.39 (0.89 to 2.17) & 1.78 (0.96 to 3.29) respectively).ConclusionsPatients who perceive that they can control their gout and that treatments are effective are more likely to be using allopurinol, this suggests that better information is needed for the patient from GPs and rheumatologist to reassure and support their use of UL

Computing for Perturbative QCD - A Snowmass White Paper

We present a study on high-performance computing and large-scale distributed computing for perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 21 pages, 5 table

Association between rheumatoid arthritis disease activity, progression of functional limitation and long-term risk of orthopaedic surgery : Combined analysis of two prospective cohorts supports EULAR treat to target DAS thresholds

Objectives: To examine the association between disease activity in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), functional limitation and long-term orthopaedic episodes. Methods: Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability scores were collected from two longitudinal early RA inception cohorts in routine care; Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study and Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network from 1986 to 2012. The incidence of major and intermediate orthopaedic surgical episodes over 25 years was collected from national data sets. Disease activity was categorised by mean disease activity score (DAS28) annually between years 1 and 5; remission (RDAS≤2.6), low (LDAS>2.6-3.2), low-moderate (LMDAS≥3.2-4.19), high-moderate (HMDAS 4.2-5.1) and high (HDAS>5.1). Results: Data from 2045 patients were analysed. Patients in RDAS showed no HAQ progression over 5 years, whereas there was a significant relationship between rising DAS28 category and HAQ at 1 year, and the rate of HAQ progression between years 1 and 5. During 27 986 person-years follow-up, 392 intermediate and 591 major surgeries were observed. Compared with the RDAS category, there was a significantly increased cumulative incidence of intermediate surgery in HDAS (OR 2.59 CI 1.49 to 4.52) and HMDAS (OR 1.8 CI 1.05 to 3.11) categories, and for major surgery in HDAS (OR 2.48 CI 1.5 to 4.11), HMDAS (OR 2.16 CI 1.32 to 3.52) and LMDAS (OR 2.07 CI 1.28 to 3.33) categories. There was no significant difference in HAQ progression or orthopaedic episodes between RDAS and LDAS categories. Conclusions: There is an association between disease activity and both poor function and long-term orthopaedic episodes. This illustrates the far from benign consequences of persistent moderate disease activity, and supports European League Against Rheumatism treat to target recommendations to secure low disease activity or remission in all patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Malnutrition, nutritional interventions and clinical outcomes of patients with acute small bowel obstruction : results from a national, multicentre, prospective audit

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status of patients presenting with small bowel obstruction (SBO), along with associated nutritional interventions and clinical outcomes. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: 131 UK hospitals with acute surgical services. Participants: 2069 adult patients with a diagnosis of SBO were included in this study. The mean age was 67.0 years and 54.7% were female. Primary and secondary outcome measures: Primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes recorded included: major complications (composite of in-hospital mortality, reoperation, unplanned intensive care admission and 30-day readmission), complications arising from surgery (anastomotic leak, wound dehiscence), infection (pneumonia, surgical site infection, intra-abdominal infection, urinary tract infection, venous catheter infection), cardiac complications, venous thromboembolism and delirium. Results: Postoperative adhesions were the most common cause of SBO (49.1%). Early surgery (<24 hours postadmission) took place in 30.0% of patients, 22.0% underwent delayed operation and 47.9% were managed non-operatively. Malnutrition as stratified by Nutritional Risk Index was common, with 35.7% at moderate risk and 5.7% at severe risk of malnutrition. Dietitian review occurred in just 36.4% and 55.9% of the moderate and severe risk groups. In the low risk group, 30.3% received nutritional intervention compared with 40.7% in moderate risk group and 62.7% in severe risk group. In comparison to the low risk group, patients who were at severe or moderate risk of malnutrition had 4.2 and 2.4 times higher unadjusted risk of in-hospital mortality, respectively. Propensity-matched analysis found no difference in outcomes based on use or timing of parenteral nutrition. Conclusions: Malnutrition on admission is associated with worse outcomes in patients with SBO, and marked variation in management of malnutrition was observed. Future trials should focus on identifying effective and cost-effective nutritional interventions in SBO