Using research vignettes to explore co-production in a large diverse team: implications for research in superdiverse contexts

This chapter responds to Vertovec and Wessendorf’s (2010) call for new methodologies in exploring linguistic and cultural transformations in superdiverse settings by focusing on the potential insights generated by large diverse research teams. To explore the divergent perspectives which emerge from teamwork, we focus on vignettes produced as part of a large Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded project exploring multilingualism as a communicative resource across four UK cities (the Translation and Translanguaging [TLANG] project). Vignettes have traditionally been used as a participant-orientated method to elicit reflections (Hughes 1998). In this case, the vignettes were significantly different: they represented researchers’ own accounts of being involved in ethnographic fieldwork. This methodological shift in the application of vignettes was developed by members of TLANG on two earlier projects (e.g. Creese and Blackledge et al. 2015). On the current project, the team comprised a core group of linguists and other scholars at various career stages and with different project roles, as well as key participants (KPs) who were embedded in a range of community settings and who brought experience from various language, socio-cultural and educational backgrounds

A Community Research Methodology: Working with New Migrants to Develop a Policy Related Evidence Base

This paper reflects on a community research project aimed at building the capacity of Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs). The project intended to identify and collect a robust and reliable evidence base to equip RCO leaders with the relevant information required to engage in policy lobbying to raise awareness of the barriers faced by refugees when trying to access ESOL and support for mental health issues, education and employment. The main mechanism used to collect evidence was a team of 16 paid community researchers from a range of refugee backgrounds. This paper considers the rationale for adopting a community research approach, the meaning of community research to those involved, as well as the methodological challenges and practical concerns associated with the approach.</jats:p

Researching migration in a superdiverse society: challenges, methods, concerns and promises

The arrival of superdiversity raises a wide range of methodological issues that warrant further consideration by social researchers conducting research in superdiverse contexts. The complex multi-layering of population settlement that has emerged due to successive waves of migration means that identities, lived experience and access to services including welfare are played out in a plethora of different ways, often determined by the interplay of a range of socio-economic variables alongside structural characteristics, which influence the fundamental rights and entitlements of individuals living in the UK and in turn their settlement and adaptation experiences. This paper reflects on the limitations of ethno-centric research designs, which concentrate on ethnicity as the most important unit of analysis, and calls for more participatory and multidimensional methodologies that engage diverse participants and reflect the levels of socio-demographic complexity experienced in urban areas of society. It then moves on to discuss a number of specific methodological challenges associated with complex populations. In particular sampling and access issues associated with diverse migrant populations will be considered. The latter part of this paper discusses the adoption of a range of research approaches that offer promising potential in terms of better capturing and understanding the heterogeneity, complexity and fluidity concomitant with superdiversity as well as engaging a range of community stakeholders in the production of knowledge.</jats:p

Self as Teacher: Preliminary Role Identification of the Potential Teaching Candidate

In this study, the researchers used qualitative surveys to explore potential teaching candidates’ preliminary perceptions of self as teacher and examine how roles are identified, defined and constructed in the context of a tutoring lab that provides support to English Language Learners. Prospective candidates’ perceptions of their tutees, children whose cultural identities and backgrounds differ from their own, are also examined. Findings indicate participants’ teaching identities and conceptualizations of their roles as teachers became more specific and elaborated over the course of the semester. Additionally, the significance of multiple practicum experiences in diverse settings for ongoing identity development and for developing knowledge about culturally and linguistically diverse school children was also clear

Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environment: the challenge ahead.

Lifestyle factors are responsible for a considerable portion of cancer incidence worldwide, but credible estimates from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) suggest that the fraction of cancers attributable to toxic environmental exposures is between 7% and 19%. To explore the hypothesis that low-dose exposures to mixtures of chemicals in the environment may be combining to contribute to environmental carcinogenesis, we reviewed 11 hallmark phenotypes of cancer, multiple priority target sites for disruption in each area and prototypical chemical disruptors for all targets, this included dose-response characterizations, evidence of low-dose effects and cross-hallmark effects for all targets and chemicals. In total, 85 examples of chemicals were reviewed for actions on key pathways/mechanisms related to carcinogenesis. Only 15% (13/85) were found to have evidence of a dose-response threshold, whereas 59% (50/85) exerted low-dose effects. No dose-response information was found for the remaining 26% (22/85). Our analysis suggests that the cumulative effects of individual (non-carcinogenic) chemicals acting on different pathways, and a variety of related systems, organs, tissues and cells could plausibly conspire to produce carcinogenic synergies. Additional basic research on carcinogenesis and research focused on low-dose effects of chemical mixtures needs to be rigorously pursued before the merits of this hypothesis can be further advanced. However, the structure of the World Health Organization International Programme on Chemical Safety 'Mode of Action' framework should be revisited as it has inherent weaknesses that are not fully aligned with our current understanding of cancer biology

New models and online calculator for predicting non-sentinel lymph node status in sentinel lymph node positive breast cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Current practice is to perform a completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for breast cancer patients with tumor-involved sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), although fewer than half will have non-sentinel node (NSLN) metastasis. Our goal was to develop new models to quantify the risk of NSLN metastasis in SLN-positive patients and to compare predictive capabilities to another widely used model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We constructed three models to predict NSLN status: recursive partitioning with receiver operating characteristic curves (RP-ROC), boosted Classification and Regression Trees (CART), and multivariate logistic regression (MLR) informed by CART. Data were compiled from a multicenter Northern California and Oregon database of 784 patients who prospectively underwent SLN biopsy and completion ALND. We compared the predictive abilities of our best model and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Breast Cancer Nomogram (Nomogram) in our dataset and an independent dataset from Northwestern University.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>285 patients had positive SLNs, of which 213 had known angiolymphatic invasion status and 171 had complete pathologic data including hormone receptor status. 264 (93%) patients had limited SLN disease (micrometastasis, 70%, or isolated tumor cells, 23%). 101 (35%) of all SLN-positive patients had tumor-involved NSLNs. Three variables (tumor size, angiolymphatic invasion, and SLN metastasis size) predicted risk in all our models. RP-ROC and boosted CART stratified patients into four risk levels. MLR informed by CART was most accurate. Using two composite predictors calculated from three variables, MLR informed by CART was more accurate than the Nomogram computed using eight predictors. In our dataset, area under ROC curve (AUC) was 0.83/0.85 for MLR (n = 213/n = 171) and 0.77 for Nomogram (n = 171). When applied to an independent dataset (n = 77), AUC was 0.74 for our model and 0.62 for Nomogram. The composite predictors in our model were the product of angiolymphatic invasion and size of SLN metastasis, and the product of tumor size and square of SLN metastasis size.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We present a new model developed from a community-based SLN database that uses only three rather than eight variables to achieve higher accuracy than the Nomogram for predicting NSLN status in two different datasets. </p