SERS substrates for sensing in pathology and physiology

Monitoring physiological parameters such as pH at the site of a disease are important in determining the health status in patients. Current approaches are based on the analysis of arterial blood to measure systemic blood pH along with other parameters such as PO2 and PCO2, to allow assessment of gaseous exchange and ventilation efficiency. There has been a drive to develop improved sensors capable of continuous and dynamic monitoring of these aspects. Optical sensing devices have gained popularity as they can be designed to incorporate inexpensive optical fibres and miniaturised and mass-produced detectors and LED-based light sources. In addition to monitoring pH in a clinical situation, the development of physiological sensing tools for use at a cellular level has been critical in being able to non-invasively assess cellular response to a host of insults be it drug treatment or other cellular modulation strategies. The move towards three-dimensional (3D) cell culture has become increasingly attractive as a mimic of the 3D architecture and gradients found in vivo. The development of spatially selective sensors capable of measuring these physiological features could provide a tool in understanding cell-drug responses. In this thesis, multiple approaches were developed to enable SERS pH sensing based on both an optical fibre as well macroscopically entrapped SERS sensors applied as a means of observing extracellular pH within a 3D cell culture system. This included the use of pH responsive reporter molecules on nanoparticles (Chapter 2), their entrapment within macro-scale supports such as polymer beads and (Chapter 3), and paper (Chapter 4)

Scientometric analysis of the forensic science literature for fibre as an evidence type:Access and data availability

The large volume of information available within citation databases has become a challenge to manage and distil in all areas of research. In this study, a scientometric approach has been applied to fibres as an evidence type using information contained in Scopus and Web of Science. A comparison was also made with the references listed in the INTERPOL International Forensic Science Managers Symposium Science (IFSMS) reports (2004–2019) where only a limited number of documents were common with the citation databases, illustrating the value of the IFSMS reports. Finally, this study also highlights that data availability and location are generally omitted in publications. The forensic science community has an opportunity to change this culture and lead the way in making their data available, aligning with the ideals of fairness, openness and transparency of the underpinning data upon which scientific developments are based

Interactive book reading to accelerate word learning by kindergarten children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI): Identifying adequate progress and successful learning patterns

PURPOSE. The goal of this study was to provide guidance to clinicians on early benchmarks of successful word learning in an interactive book reading treatment and to examine how encoding and memory evolution during treatment contribute to word learning outcomes by kindergarten children with SLI. METHOD. Twenty-seven kindergarten children with SLI participated in a preliminary clinical trial using interactive book reading to teach 30 new words. Word learning was assessed at four points during treatment through a picture naming test. RESULTS. The results indicate that the following performance during treatment was cause for concern, indicating a need to modify the treatment: naming 0-1 treated words correctly at naming test 1; naming 0-2 treated words correctly at naming test 2; naming 0-3 treated words correctly at naming test 3. In addition, the results showed that encoding was the primary limiting factor in word learning but retention also contributed (albeit to a lesser degree) to word learning success. CONCLUSION. Case illustrations demonstrate how a clinician’s understanding of a child’s word learning strengths and weaknesses develop over the course of treatment, substantiating the importance of regular data collection and clinical decision-making to ensure the best possible outcomes for each individual child

OPTIMA Case Study 1 : TransMed Student Conference

TransMed was a student-driven cross-CDT competition held in Edinburgh in May 2016. More than 100 attendees enjoyed two days of science, socialising and inter-CDT cohort building. This has now become a regular addition to the CDT calendar, with other CDTs hosting the conference around the country

Features of successful interventions to improve adherence to Inhaled Corticosteroids in children with asthma:A narrative systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Nonadherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) in children with asthma leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Few adherence interventions have been effective and little is known about what contributes to intervention effectiveness. This systematic review summarizes the efficacy and the characteristics of effective interventions. METHODS: Six databases were systematically searched on October 3, 2020 for randomized control trials measuring adherence to ICS in children with asthma. A narrative synthesis was conducted focusing on intervention efficacy and study reliability. Intervention content was coded based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines for medicines adherence (the Perceptions and Practicalities Approach, PAPA) and behavior change techniques (BCTs), to determine the effective aspects of the intervention. RESULTS: Of 240 studies identified, 25 were eligible for inclusion. Thirteen of the 25 studies were categorized as being highly reliable. Nine of the 13 interventions were effective at increasing adherence and 6 of those met the criteria for a PAPA intervention. Techniques targeting perceptions and practicalities in successful interventions included rewards, reminders, feedback and monitoring of adherence, pharmacological support, instruction on how to take their ICS/adhere, and information about triggers for symptoms and nonadherence. CONCLUSION: Adherence interventions in children with asthma have mixed effectiveness. Effective intervention studies were more frequently of higher quality, were tailored to individuals' perceptual and practical adherence barriers, and used multiple BCTs. However, due to the small number of included studies and varying study design quality, conclusions drawn here are preliminary. Future research is needed to test a PAPA‐based intervention with a rigorous study design

The Impact of Dose and Dose Frequency on Word Learning by Kindergarten Children With Developmental Language Disorder During Interactive Book Reading

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.Purpose The goal was to determine whether interactive book reading outcomes for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) were affected by manipulation of dose (i.e., the number of exposures to the target word during a book reading session) and dose frequency (i.e., the number of repeated book reading sessions) and whether pretreatment factors predicted treatment response variation. Method Thirty-four kindergarten children with DLD (aged 5;0–6;2 [years;months]) were taught 1 set of words using the Dose 6 and Dose Frequency 6 format from a prior study (Storkel, Voelmle, et al., 2017) and taught a different set of words using an alternative format, either Dose 4 × Dose Frequency 9 or Dose 9 × Dose Frequency 4, determined through random assignment. Word learning was tracked for each treatment via a definition task prior to, during, and after treatment. Results Results showed that children with DLD learned a significant number of words during treatment regardless of the dose and dose frequency format but that significant forgetting of newly learned words occurred in all formats once treatment was withdrawn. Individual differences in word learning were related to Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Core Language and Understanding Spoken Paragraphs scores. Conclusion When administered at an adequate intensity, variation in the dose and dose frequency of interactive book reading does not appear to influence word learning by children with DLD. Although interactive book reading continues to show promise as an effective word learning intervention for children with DLD, further development is needed to enhance the effectiveness of this treatment approach

Features of successful interventions to improve adherence to Inhaled Corticosteroids in children with asthma

INTRODUCTION: Non-adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in children with asthma leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Few adherence interventions have been effective, and little is known about what contributes to intervention effectiveness. This systematic review summarises the efficacy and the characteristics of effective interventions. METHODS: Six databases were systematically searched on 3rd October 2020 for randomised control trials measuring adherence to ICS in children with asthma. A narrative synthesis was conducted focusing on intervention efficacy and study reliability. Intervention content was coded based on the NICE guidelines for medicines adherence (The Perceptions and Practicalities Approach, PAPA) and Behaviour Change Techniques (BCT), to determine the effective aspects of the intervention. RESULTS: Of 240 studies identified, 25 were eligible for inclusion. Thirteen of the twenty-five studies were categorised as being highly reliable. Nine of the thirteen interventions were effective at increasing adherence and six of those met the criteria for a PAPA intervention. Techniques targeting perceptions and practicalities in successful interventions included rewards; reminders; feedback and monitoring of adherence; pharmacological support; instruction on how to take their ICS/adhere and information about triggers for symptoms and non-adherence. CONCLUSION: Adherence interventions in children with asthma have mixed effectiveness. Effective intervention studies were more frequently of higher quality, were tailored to individuals' perceptual and practical adherence barriers, and used multiple BCTs. However, due to the small number of included studies and varying study design quality, conclusions drawn here are preliminary. Future research is needed to test a PAPA-based intervention with a rigorous study design. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Investigating a Multimodal Intervention for Children with Limited Expressive Vocabularies Associated with Autism

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original is available at http://www.asha.org/default.htmPurpose: To investigate a new intervention package aimed at increasing expressive word learning by school-age children with autism who have limited expressive vocabularies. This pilot investigation was intended to show proof of concept. Method: Ten children between the ages of 6-10 years with educational diagnoses of autism and limited expressive vocabularies at the outset of the study participated. A multimodal intervention composed of speech sound practice and AAC was used to teach individualized vocabulary words that were selected based on initial speech sound repertoires and principles of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density. A multiple-probe design was used to evaluate learning outcomes. Results: Five children showed gains in spoken- word learning across successive word sets (High Responders). Five children did not meet learning criteria (Low Responders). Comparisons of behaviors measured prior to intervention indicated that High Responders had relatively higher skills in receptive language, prelinguistic communication, vocal/verbal imitation, adaptive behavior and consonant productions. Conclusions: The intervention package holds promise for improving spoken word productions for some children with autism who have limited expressive vocabularies. Further research is needed to better describe who may most benefit from this approach as well as investigate generalized benefits to untaught contexts and targets