SYSTEMATIC REVIEW Involving older people in health research

Abstract Background: it is a UK policy requirement to involve patients and the public in health research as active partners. Objective: we reviewed published reports of studies which involved older people in commissioning, prioritising, designing, conducting or disseminating research. Search strategy and selection criteria: systematic searches of databases (PubMed, SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, ASSIA, Embase, CINAHL and Medline) for English language studies published between 1995 and 2005 which had involved older people as partners in the research process as opposed to research subjects. Articles were reviewed by two authors using a standardised matrix for data extraction. Results: thirty studies were included and classified according to the stage in the research process in which older people were involved. Barriers to involving older people were: cultural divisions, language barriers, research skills capacity, ill health, time and resources. Four of the studies had been formally evaluated to identify the impact of involvement. Evaluation focussed on the impact on participants rather than on impact on research processes and outcomes. Benefits to participants included: increased knowledge, awareness and confidence, meeting others in similar situations, empowering older people to become active in their community regarding decisions/policies which affect them. Conclusions: factors hindering the involvement of older people in research were the same as reported factors hindering involvement of younger people, suggesting that age, per se, is not a barrier. To demonstrate the impact of user involvement on research quality, the definition of user involvement requires clarification, and systematic evaluation of research involving older people needs to be developed

Assessing direct contributions of morphological awareness and prosodic sensitivity to children’s word reading and reading comprehension

We examined the independent contributions of prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness to word reading, text reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. We did so in a longitudinal study of English-speaking children (N = 70). At 5 to 7 years of age, children completed the metalinguistic measures along with control measures of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Children completed the reading measures two years later. Morphological awareness, but not prosodic sensitivity made a significant independent contribution to word reading, text reading accuracy and reading comprehension. The effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension remained after controls for word reading. These results suggest that morphological awareness needs to be considered seriously in models of reading development and that prosodic sensitivity might have primarily indirect relations to reading outcomes. Keywords: Morphological Awareness; Prosody; Word Reading; Reading Comprehension

“The embodiment of pure thought”? Digital fabrication, disability and new possibilities for auto/biography

This essay draws on findings from a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council project: “In the Making” (AH/M006026/1) to argue that the digital turn in art therapy – particularly 3D printing – makes possible new forms of disability agency, engaging post-humanist theory to suggest re-conceptualizations of embodied person-hood. Keywords: digital fabrication; disability; auto/biography; embodimen

The Intermediate Filament Network in Cultured Human Keratinocytes Is Remarkably Extensible and Resilient

The prevailing model of the mechanical function of intermediate filaments in cells assumes that these 10 nm diameter filaments make up networks that behave as entropic gels, with individual intermediate filaments never experiencing direct loading in tension. However, recent work has shown that single intermediate filaments and bundles are remarkably extensible and elastic in vitro, and therefore well-suited to bearing tensional loads. Here we tested the hypothesis that the intermediate filament network in keratinocytes is extensible and elastic as predicted by the available in vitro data. To do this, we monitored the morphology of fluorescently-tagged intermediate filament networks in cultured human keratinocytes as they were subjected to uniaxial cell strains as high as 133%. We found that keratinocytes not only survived these high strains, but their intermediate filament networks sustained only minor damage at cell strains as high as 100%. Electron microscopy of stretched cells suggests that intermediate filaments are straightened at high cell strains, and therefore likely to be loaded in tension. Furthermore, the buckling behavior of intermediate filament bundles in cells after stretching is consistent with the emerging view that intermediate filaments are far less stiff than the two other major cytoskeletal components F-actin and microtubules. These insights into the mechanical behavior of keratinocytes and the cytokeratin network provide important baseline information for current attempts to understand the biophysical basis of genetic diseases caused by mutations in intermediate filament genes

Students' sense-making of personalised feedback based on learning analytics

Although technological advances have brought about new opportunities for scaling feedback to students, there remain challenges in how such feedback is presented and interpreted. There is a need to better understand how students make sense of such feedback to adapt self-regulated learning processes. This study examined students’ sense-making of learning analytics–based personalised feedback across four courses. Results from a combination of thematic analysis and epistemic network analysis show an association between student perceptions of their personalised feedback and how these map to subsequent self-described self-regulated learning processes. Most notably, the results indicate that personalised feedback, elaborated by personal messages from course instructors, helps students refine or strengthen important forethought processes of goal-setting, as well as to reduce procrastination. The results highlight the need for instructors to increase the dialogic element in personalised feedback in order to reduce defensive reactions from students who hold to their own learning strategies. This approach may prompt reflection on the suitability of students’ current learning strategies and achievement of associated learning goals.&#x0D; Implications for practice or policy:&#x0D; &#x0D; Personalised feedback based on learning analytics should be informed by an understanding of students’ self-regulated learning.&#x0D; Instructors implementing personalised feedback should align this closely with the course curriculum.&#x0D; Instructors implementing personalised feedback in their courses should consider the relational element of feedback by using a positive tone.&#x0D; Personalised feedback can be further enhanced by increasing the dialogic element and by including more information about learning strategies.&#x0D; </jats:p

Drop splashing after impact onto immiscible pools of different viscosities

Droplet impact onto liquid pools is a canonical scenario relevant to numerous natural phenomena and industrial processes. However, despite their ubiquity, multi-fluid systems with the drop and pool consisting of different liquids are far less well understood. Our hypothesis is that the post-impact dynamics greatly depends on the pool-to-droplet viscosity ratio , which we explore over a range of six orders of magnitude using a combination of experiments and theoretical approaches (mathematical modelling and direct numerical simulation). Our findings indicate that in this scenario the splashing threshold and the composition of the ejecta sheet are controlled by the viscosity ratio. We uncover that increasing the pool viscosity decreases the splashing threshold for high viscosity pools () when the splash comes from the droplet. By contrast, for low viscosity pools, the splash sheet comes from the pool and increasing the pool viscosity increases the splashing threshold. Surprisingly, there are conditions for which no splashing is observed under the conditions attainable in our laboratory. Furthermore, considering the interface velocity together with asymptotic arguments underlying the generation of the ejecta has allowed us to understand meaningful variations in the pressure during impact and rationalise the observed changes in the splashing threshold