An evaluation of professional networks, co-ordination, cooperation and collaboration in the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network

Introduction: This is a report on Strand 3 of the Big Study, which studied the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network. The Big Study was funded by The Big Lottery Fund and Strand 3 of the Big Study was researched by the Centre for Nursing and Healthcare Research in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Greenwich. 1.1 Background: The West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network began as an interest group which started in the year 2000, with 6 to 10 members and grew. At one stage it was allied to the Birmingham Cancer Network and funded by the NHS Strategic Health Authority and at this stage it became more representative of services and West Midlands geography. It has existed in its current format, as a voluntary clinical network to promote paediatric palliative care and share best practice since 2009. The membership is wide and inclusive which means 30 to 40 people may attend the meetings which are held on a bimonthly basis and are hosted and supported charitably. Subgroups are now used to manage work in specific areas e.g. transition or clinical standards. There are links to other related networks with reciprocal membership and informal links to NHS commissioners who may seek advice. 1.2 Scope: This strand of the Big Study focused on the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network. The geographical area of the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network includes Birmingham, Coventry, The Black Country, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. All members of the WMPCCN and the organisations they represent were included in the study. Both NHS and non-NHS organisations offering clinical services to any children requiring palliative care were represented. Excluded from this study was the detailed examination of any of the other networks, e.g. children’s speciality networks or networks covering smaller geographical areas, to which members belonged. 1.3 Report: This report will present the results of an analysis of the responses to an online questionnaire and Social Network data from semi structured telephone interviews. This data was collected during the period February to June 2012. The approach included analysing the online survey data in order to understand the benefits and constraints of the network for individual members and Social Network Analysis of data derived from telephone interviews to explore the flow of knowledge, communication and information within the network. This report will consist of 3 different sections, with Section 1 focusing on children’s palliative care policy, the development of clinical networks and social network analysis concepts. Section 2 will focus on the research design and methods. Section 3 presents the results of the study and the final section provides a summary and conclusions of the analysis

Brittle fracture investigations in selection of an optimum steel for heavy ship plate

Investigations have been undertaken to evaluate some of the geometrical properties influencing brittle behavior. In doing this, several and various fracture tests have been conducted

Designing New Worlds::Design, evaluation and specification of user experiences within immersive environments

his is a research project in collaboration with the Ulster Museum in Belfast (NMNI) and Ulster University. This project will design an immersive VR experience for NMNI’s most popular key exhibit, the Twenty-fifth dynasty Egyptian mummy Takabuti. It will provide the possibility to virtually make Takabuti and the world she knew digitally live again in a VR experience.The aims of this project are: (i) to explore the power of rich storytelling – ‘story living’ as a key spatial design tool to improve immersive User Experience (UX), (ii) to investigate the UX of immersive reality platforms and design and evaluate a narrative driven case study (Takabuti) where the technology has been adopted,(iii) to subsequently identify and evaluate a series of guidelines for designing immersive technology and improving user experiences, informed by expert and lay user groups.Recreating in VR a museum map room, part of Karnak temple, an upper-class Egyptian home and an Egyptian afterlife environment based on the beliefs of the time. Documenting and exploring (through Reflective Practise) the fully immersive techniques/tools used to create and develop a ‘story living’ immersive experience with a positive User Experience (UX). Developing a new form of narrative based design which some term ‘Story living’ is crucial to VR UX design. Unique to all other visual/interactive mediums, VR places participants at the very centre of an experience, as both audience and director of all that happens within that experience. The participant moves through a story, VR is after all a spatial medium and not frames based like film. A current lack of understanding of how to design for VR results in poor UX. Never more so than when the VR experience is museum sector based and has the added roles of historical authenticity, usability, and storyteller educationally to a wide range of participants

Meta-Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Reveals Several Population Bottlenecks during Worldwide Migrations of Cattle

Several studies have investigated the differentiation of mitochondrial DNA in Eurasian, African and American cattle as well as archaeological bovine material. A global survey of these studies shows that haplogroup distributions are more stable in time than in space. All major migrations of cattle have shifted the haplogroup distributions considerably with a reduction of the number of haplogroups and/or an expansion of haplotypes that are rare or absent in the ancestral populations. The most extreme case is the almost exclusive colonization of Africa by the T1 haplogroup, which is rare in Southwest Asian cattle. In contrast, ancient samples invariably show continuity with present-day cattle from the same location. These findings indicate strong maternal founder effects followed by limited maternal gene flow when new territories are colonized. However, effects of adaptation to new environments may also play a rol