Overview and Analysis of Practices with Open Educational Resources in Adult Education in Europe

OER4Adults aimed to provide an overview of Open Educational Practices in adult learning in Europe, identifying enablers and barriers to successful implementation of practices with OER. The project was conducted in 2012-2013 by a team from the Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University, funded by The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). The project drew on data from four main sources: • OER4Adults inventory of over 150 OER initiatives relevant to adult learning in Europe • Responses from the leaders of 36 OER initiatives to a detailed SWOT survey • Responses from 89 lifelong learners and adult educators to a short poll • The Vision Papers on Open Education 2030: Lifelong Learning published by IPTS Interpretation was informed by interviews with OER and adult education experts, discussion at the IPTS Foresight Workshop on Open Education and Lifelong Learning 2030, and evaluation of the UKOER programme. Analysis revealed 6 tensions that drive developing practices around OER in adult learning as well 6 summary recommendations for the further development of such practices

Interagency adult support and protection practice of police and health and social care professionals: a realistic evaluation approach.

The purpose of this project was to investigate the interagency Adult Support and Protection practices of police, health and social care professionals in Scotland by means of a Realistic Evaluation Approach. The study comprised of two specific phases. The first phase sought to establish the 'state of play' for cross boundary working by: identifying the gaps in interagency practice; evaluating the education and training needs of professionals working in the area of adult support and protection, and identifying information sharing practices. Focus groups with members of the police and health and social care professionals were conducted in each of the three Police Scotland Command areas. Thirteen focus groups were conducted, with 101 professionals participating. Nine key themes were identified: Information sharing; relationships; people and processes; lessons from child protection; environment; implementation of the act; regional variations and training; rights of the service users. The second phase will inform the development and evaluation of future interprofessional training resources and identify key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs will enable subsequent evaluation and monitoring of practice for all professionals involved in adult support and protection

Support for current and aspiring women leaders: an exploration of UK higher education institutions' responses.

This research was funded by Advance HE’s Small Development Fund to explore higher education institutions' (HEIs') mechanisms for the support and advancement of current and aspiring women leaders. Over recent years there has been an increase in the number of women holding senior and executive level positions in the higher education (HE) sector, but there is a continued lack of proportional representation of women at these levels. The aim of the research was to generate findings that could inform policy and highlight best practice to address the support mechanisms needed to develop current and aspiring women leaders within HEIs. This research is important to inform senior leaders, stakeholder policymakers, organisational developers, Aurora champions and aspiring women leaders. The research explored how HEIs were working with Aurora, a women-only leadership programme, and other mechanisms available to support women’s leadership aspirations. The views and experiences of women at all levels within HEIs were sought from the diverse populations of women working in HE. This included women who had held leadership roles and those with no current leadership responsibilities but with aspirations to a leadership role. Perspectives on support mechanisms in HEIs were obtained using two online surveys: an institution survey for the HEIs, and a women’s survey for women employed at HEIs. Both informal and formal support mechanisms were explored, as well as where responses from the two surveys showed there was agreement and differences in the perspectives of support available. One thousand two hundred and forty one women completed the women’s survey, with the range of academic disciplines and administrative posts within HEIs represented. The survey was open to women and those who identified as women. Thirty-four HEIs completed the institution survey, with responses from pre- and post-1992 universities. The majority of these were located in England and Scotland, although the survey was open to all HEIs in the UK. The findings demonstrated the range of support mechanisms available to women in HEIs to facilitate the achievement of their leadership aspirations. There was a high level of agreement from the women respondents that there was support available within their institution to aid their leadership aspirations. However, this perception of support was found to vary, and could be dependent on other aspects such as ethnicity or nationality, having a disability or the type of work role. These aspects, along with care responsibilities and marital status, were also perceived to have had an impact on the women’s career aspirations. A high prevalence of aspiration to a leadership role by both those with current leadership responsibilities and those without was indicated. Over half of the women had applied for a leadership programme, and nearly two thirds had applied for, or sought, promotion once or more. Generally, there was a positive view of women-only leadership programmes by both the institutions and the women participating in the project. Three quarters of the women respondents, both those who had completed a women-only leadership programme and those who had not, perceived benefits to a women-only leadership programme. This was in accordance with the institutions’ perspective, with 86% of institutions responding that they offer women-only leadership programmes, and over half of those who did not currently offer such programmes considering doing so. The findings highlighted that support mechanisms could be both facilitators of achieving leadership aspirations, but also barriers where these support mechanisms were absent or implemented incorrectly. Furthermore, the findings emphasised that women in HE should not be considered to be homogenous in their experiences, advancement goals and support needs. This report recommends that women employed in the higher education sector should not be assumed to have the same support needs or advancement goals and none require the same processes to help them achieve their career aspirations. This should be taken into consideration in the provision of support mechanisms. The findings also suggested a more tailored approach to leadership training, taking into account aspects in addition to gender, such as care responsibilities, that may impact on career aspirations. HEIs need to respond to the clear interest in advancement to leadership roles and the positive outcomes that can be gained from participation in leadership programmes, and implement outcomes measures for the impact of support mechanisms on women’s leadership aspirations. Support may be required for HEIs to implement and maintain these effectively

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

A Systematic Review of Patients’ Values, Preferences, and Expectations for the Treatment of Metastatic Prostate Cancer

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Bench to Bedside Development of [18F]Fluoromethyl-(1,2-2H4)choline ([18F]D4-FCH)

malignant transformation is characterised by aberrant phospholipid metabolism of cancers, associated with the upregulation of choline kinase alpha (CHK alpha). due to the metabolic instability of choline radiotracers and the increasing use of late-imaging protocols, we developed a more stable choline radiotracer, [F-18]fluoromethyl-[1,2-H-2(4)]choline ([F-18]D4-FCH). [F-18]D4-FCH has improved protection against choline oxidase, the key choline catabolic enzyme, via a H-1/D-2 isotope effect, together with fluorine substitution. Due to the promising mechanistic and safety profiles of [F-18]D4-FCH in vitro and preclinically, the radiotracer has transitioned to clinical development. [F-18]D4-FCH is a safe positron emission tomography (PET) tracer, with a favourable radiation dosimetry profile for clinical imaging. [F-18]D4-FCH PET/CT in lung and prostate cancers has shown highly heterogeneous intratumoral distribution and large lesion variability. treatment with abiraterone or enzalutamide in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients elicited mixed responses on PET at 12-16 weeks despite predominantly stable radiological appearances. the sum of the weighted tumour-to-background ratios (TBRs-wsum) was associated with the duration of survival

Bench to Bedside Development of [18F]Fluoromethyl-(1,2-2H4)choline ([18F]D4-FCH)

Malignant transformation is characterised by aberrant phospholipid metabolism of cancers, associated with the upregulation of choline kinase alpha (CHKα). Due to the metabolic instability of choline radiotracers and the increasing use of late-imaging protocols, we developed a more stable choline radiotracer, [18F]fluoromethyl-[1,2-2H4]choline ([18F]D4-FCH). [18F]D4-FCH has improved protection against choline oxidase, the key choline catabolic enzyme, via a 1H/2D isotope effect, together with fluorine substitution. Due to the promising mechanistic and safety profiles of [18F]D4-FCH in vitro and preclinically, the radiotracer has transitioned to clinical development. [18F]D4-FCH is a safe positron emission tomography (PET) tracer, with a favourable radiation dosimetry profile for clinical imaging. [18F]D4-FCH PET/CT in lung and prostate cancers has shown highly heterogeneous intratumoral distribution and large lesion variability. Treatment with abiraterone or enzalutamide in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients elicited mixed responses on PET at 12–16 weeks despite predominantly stable radiological appearances. The sum of the weighted tumour-to-background ratios (TBRs-wsum) was associated with the duration of survival

A library of quantitative markers of seizure severity

OBJECTIVE: Understanding fluctuations in seizure severity within individuals is important for determining treatment outcomes and responses to therapy, as well as assessing novel treatments for epilepsy. Current methods for grading seizure severity rely on qualitative interpretations from patients and clinicians. Quantitative measures of seizure severity would complement existing approaches, for electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring, outcome monitoring, and seizure prediction. Therefore, we developed a library of quantitative EEG markers that assess the spread and intensity of abnormal electrical activity during and after seizures. METHODS: We analysed intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings of 1009 seizures from 63 patients. For each seizure we computed 16 markers of seizure severity that capture the signal magnitude, spread, duration, and post-ictal suppression of seizures. RESULTS: Quantitative EEG markers of seizure severity distinguished focal vs. subclinical seizures across patients. In individual patients 53% had a moderate to large difference (ranksum r>0.3, p<0.05) between focal and subclinical seizures in three or more markers. Circadian and longer-term changes in severity were found for the majority of patients. SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrate the feasibility of using quantitative iEEG markers to measure seizure severity. Our quantitative markers distinguish between seizure types and are therefore sensitive to established qualitative differences in seizure severity. Our results also suggest that seizure severity is modulated over different timescales. We envisage that our proposed seizure severity library will be expanded and updated in collaboration with the epilepsy research community to include more measures and modalities. © 2023 International League Against Epilepsy

Metastatic prostate cancer men’s attitudes towards treatment of the local tumour and metastasis evaluative research (IP5-MATTER) : protocol for a prospective, multicentre discrete choice experiment study

Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the participants, study PIs, trial clinicians, research nurses, Imperial Clinical Trial Unit staff and other site staff who have been responsible for setting up, recruiting participants and collecting the data for the IP5-MATTER trial. We are also grateful for the ongoing support of the Trial Management Group and our IP5-MATTER patient representatives. Finally, we would like to thank our trial funder the Wellcome Trust and University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Charity. Funding MJC’s research is support by University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Charity and the Wellcome Trust. Mesfin Genie and Verity Watson are based at the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), University of Aberdeen. HERU is funded by the Chief Scientists Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate. KTJ acknowledges research grant from the UK National Institute of Health Research Clinical Research Network Eastern and has received educational grants from Bayer UK, Janssen Oncology, Pfizer, Roche, and Takeda. HUA’s research is supported by core funding from the United Kingdom’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.Peer reviewedPublisher PD