Higher education, bridging capital, and developmental leadership in the Philippines: Learning to be a crossover reformer

The article presents findings from a research project which explored how experiences of higher education supported – or not – the emergence of developmental leadership and the formation of networks among leaders of three political and social movements in the Philippines in the post-Marcos era. Based on life history interviews with key leaders, the study points to the importance of different forms of social capital, especially bridging capital, in navigating a stratified system within this oligarchical democracy. Experiences of higher education were important for leaders' development, but not necessarily in predictable ways

What is translational research? Background, concepts, and a definition

Author version made available here in accordance with publisher copyright policy.This discussion paper aims to offer an overview and working definition of translational research, appropriate to health. Methods: Using scholarly and applied literature, the paper first identifies key challenges in achieving evidence-based policy and practice. It highlights international policy interest in new approaches to evidence translation and the barriers to achieving sound evidence translation. The paper offers an explicit definition of translational research and explains why it is important to have such a definition. It then elaborates on this definition by identifying and exploring seven distinctive research practices that could be associated with translational research. Findings and conclusions: Translational research is research with a sense of place. Its defining feature is excellence in evidence for a specific context or sphere of action, whether that is health policy for the World Health Organisation or service design for a local non-government organisation. If research is to be translated at all, it needs to be meaningful to many specific contexts, including small and regional contexts. The best promise that translational research offers is of exciting new techniques to achieve rigour and systemacy for such localised ‘real world’ policy, service and practice contexts

What personal and environmental factors determine frequency of urban greenspace use?

For many people, urban greenspaces are the only places where they encounter the natural world. This is concerning as there is growing evidence demonstrating that human well-being is enhanced by exposure to nature. There is, therefore, a compelling argument to increase how frequently people use urban greenspaces. This may be achieved in two complementary ways by encouraging: (I) non-users to start visiting urban greenspaces; (II) existing users to visit more often. Here we examine the factors that influence frequency of greenspace visitation in the city of Sheffield, England. We demonstrate that people who visit a site least frequently state lower self-reported psychological well-being. We hypothesised that a combination of socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, and the biophysical attributes of the greenspaces that they were visiting, would be important in influencing visit frequency. However, socio-demographic characteristics (income, age, gender) were not found to be predictors. In contrast, some biophysical attributes of greenspaces were significantly related to use frequency. Frequent use was more likely when the time taken to reach a greenspace was shorter and for sites with a higher index of greenspace neglect, but were unrelated to tree cover or bird species richness. We related these results to the motivations that people provide for their visits. Infrequent users were more likely to state motivations associated with the quality of the space, while frequent users gave motivations pertaining to physical, repeated activities. This suggests that there may be no simple way to manage greenspaces to maximise their use across user cohorts as the motivations for visits are very different

Amplifying Quiet Voices: Challenges and Opportunities for Participatory Design at an Urban Scale

Many Smart City projects are beginning to consider the role of citizens. However, current methods for engaging urban populations in participatory design activities are somewhat limited. In this paper, we describe an approach taken to empower socially disadvantaged citizens, using a variety of both social and technological tools, in a smart city project. Through analysing the nature of citizens’ concerns and proposed solutions, we explore the benefits of our approach, arguing that engaging citizens can uncover hyper-local concerns that provide a foundation for finding solutions to address citizen concerns. By reflecting on our approach, we identify four key challenges to utilising participatory design at an urban scale; balancing scale with the personal, who has control of the process, who is participating and integrating citizen-led work with local authorities. By addressing these challenges, we will be able to truly engage citizens as collaborators in co-designing their city

Recipients of electric-powered indoor/outdoor wheelchairs provided by a National Health Service: A cross-sectional study

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics, across all ages, of powered wheelchair users and the assistive technology prescribed by a regional specialist wheelchair service DESIGN: Cross-sectional study SETTING: Regional wheelchair service provided to those fulfilling strict eligibility criteria by a National Health Service serving a population of 3 million. PARTICIPANTS: 544 Electric Powered Indoor/outdoor wheelchair (EPIOC) users. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographic, clinical/diagnostic details of EPIOC recipients including pain, (kypho)scoliosis and ventilators. Technical features including specialised (adaptive) seating (SS), tilt in space (TIS), and modified control systems. Factors were related to age groups: 1 (0-15), 2 (16-24), 3 (25-54), 4 (55-74) and 5 (75+). RESULTS: 262 men mean age 41.7 (range 8-82, sd 20.7) and 282 women mean age 47.2 (range 7-92, sd 19.7) years were studied. Neurological/neuromuscular conditions predominated (81%) with cerebral palsy (CP) (18.9%) and multiple sclerosis (16.4%). Conditions presenting at birth or during childhood constituted 39%. 99 had problematic pain, 83 a (kypho)scoliosis and 11 used ventilators. SS was provided to 169 users (31%), the majority had CP or muscular dystrophy. TIS was used by 258 (53%). Younger people were more likely to receive TIS than older ones. Only 92 had SS and TIS, mean age 29 (range 8-72, sd 17.8) years. 52 used modified control systems. CONCLUSIONS: The diversity of EPIOC users across age and diagnostic groups is shown. Their complex interrelationships with these technical features of EPIOC prescription are explored. Younger users were more complex due to age-related changes. This study provides outcomes of the EPIOC prescription for this heterogeneous group of very severely disabled people