How student engagement has been enhanced through research into factors affecting creativity

Student engagement is critical in helping students learn effectively and achieve success. For students working in the areas of art and design, there is also a strong emphasis placed on the importance of creativity. Over recent years we have conducted research into the factors and processes affecting creativity and explored how these insights can help improve student engagement and student creativity. The paper discusses the relationship between factors affecting student engagement and creativity; how our curriculum has been designed to develop student creativity; and how we have evaluated and refined our curriculum to enhance student engagement, based on our research into creativity. We present results from the National Student Survey (NSS) and from our own internal qualitative and quantitative data analysis highlighting areas where we have made a positive impact on student engagement. We also reflect on areas for further development and the possible impact our approach and curriculum design could have on other disciplines

Product user testing: The void between laboratory testing and field testing

User testing will frequently make the difference between an excellent product and a poor one. Moreover, in certain fields such as medical device development or training, the defence field or automotive industry, such testing can literally be the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, design teams rarely have the luxury of either time or budget to user test every aspect of a design at every stage, and so knowing where and when to devote time to testing, and the fidelity required for accurate results are all critical to delivering a good result. This paper introduces research aimed at defining the optimum fidelity of mixed-reality user testing environments. It aims to develop knowledge enabling the optimisation of user testing environments by balancing effort vs. reward and thus developing critical and accurate data early in the design process. Testing in a laboratory setting brings advantages such as the ability to limit experimental variability, control confidentiality and measure performance in great detail. Its disadvantages over ‘in the wild’ approaches tend to be related to ecological validity and the small but vitally important changes in user behaviour in real life settings. Virtual reality and hybrid physical-virtual testing environments should theoretically give designers the best of both worlds, finding critical design flaws cheaply and early. However, many attempts have focussed on high fidelity, technology-rich approaches that make them simultaneously more expensive, less flexible and less accessible. The final result is that they are less viable and hence somewhat counter-productive. This paper presents the results of testing at a variety of fidelity levels within a mixed reality testing environment created by a team of artists and designers. It concludes with a series of recommendations regarding where and when fidelity is important

Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968-2005

This paper examines long-term trends in the geography of poverty and wealth in Britain since 1968. To date, analysis of long-term trends in the spatial distribution of poverty in Britain have been frustrated by an absence of consistency in definitions, data sources and measures, as well as by changes over time in census and administrative geography. The research described here was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in order to further understanding of spatial inequalities in wealth and poverty in Britain since the 1960s (see Dorling et al., 2007). In particular, it draws upon a series of nationally representative poverty surveys conducted in 1968, 1983, 1990, and 1999 in order to derive methodologically consistent measures of ‘breadline poverty’ and ‘core poverty’. These results are then applied to UK Census data using longitudinally consistent boundary data (census tracts) in order to explore the changing geography of poverty in Britain. In comparison with poverty, much less is known about the geography of wealth in Britain, and establishing its distribution is essential for a more thorough understanding of the dynamics of social inequality in Britain. This study represents the first attempt to operationalise such a measure in order to produce longitudinally consistent small area measures of ‘asset wealth’ based on housing wealth data, and ‘exclusive wealth’ based upon analysis of Family Expenditure Survey data. These analyses suggest that not only is poverty widespread in Britain today, but that both poverty and wealth have become increasingly spatially concentrated since 1968. Rich and poor households are increasingly clustering together in different areas, and the ‘average’ group of households which are neither rich nor poor has gradually diminished in size during this period. As a result, poor, rich and ‘average’ households became progressively less likely to live next door to one another between 1971 and 2001

Preventive digital mental health interventions for children and young people: a review of the design and reporting of research

Abstract: Digital health interventions (DHIs) have frequently been highlighted as one way to respond to increasing levels of mental health problems in children and young people. Whilst many are developed to address existing mental health problems, there is also potential for DHIs to address prevention and early intervention. However, there are currently limitations in the design and reporting of the development, evaluation and implementation of preventive DHIs that can limit their adoption into real-world practice. This scoping review aimed to examine existing evidence-based DHI interventions and review how well the research literature described factors that researchers need to include in their study designs and reports to support real-world implementation. A search was conducted for relevant publications published from 2013 onwards. Twenty-one different interventions were identified from 30 publications, which took a universal (n = 12), selective (n = 3) and indicative (n = 15) approach to preventing poor mental health. Most interventions targeted adolescents, with only two studies including children aged ≤10 years. There was limited reporting of user co-design involvement in intervention development. Barriers and facilitators to implementation varied across the delivery settings, and only a minority reported financial costs involved in delivering the intervention. This review found that while there are continued attempts to design and evaluate DHIs for children and young people, there are several points of concern. More research is needed with younger children and those from poorer and underserved backgrounds. Co-design processes with children and young people should be recognised and reported as a necessary component within DHI research as they are an important factor in the design and development of interventions, and underpin successful adoption and implementation. Reporting the type and level of human support provided as part of the intervention is also important in enabling the sustained use and implementation of DHIs

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Uncovering Blue Diffuse Dwarf Galaxies

Extremely metal poor (XMP) galaxies are known to be very rare, despite the large numbers of low-mass galaxies predicted by the local galaxy luminosity function. This paper presents a sub-sample of galaxies that were selected via a morphology-based search on SDSS images with the aim of finding these elusive XMP galaxies. By using the recently discovered extremely metal-poor galaxy, Leo P, as a guide, we obtained a collection of faint, blue systems, each with isolated H ii regions embedded in a diffuse continuum, that have remained undetected until now. Here we show the first results from optical spectroscopic follow-up observations of 12 of ∼100 of these blue, diffuse dwarf (BDD) galaxies yielded by our search algorithm. Oxygen abundances were obtained via the direct method for eight galaxies, and found to be in the range 7.45 < 12 + log (O/H) < 8.0, with two galaxies being classified as XMPs. All BDDs were found to currently have a young star-forming population (< 10 Myr) and rela-tively high ionisation parameters of their H ii regions. Despite their low luminosities (−11. MB. −18) and low surface brightnesses ( ∼ 23–25 mag arcsec−2), the galax-ies were found to be actively star-forming, with current star-formation rates between 0.0003 and 0.078 M yr−1. From our current subsample, BDD galaxies appear to be a population of non-quiescent dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies, or the diffuse counterparts to blue compact galaxies (BCDs) and as such may bridge the gap between these two populations. Our search algorithm demonstrates that morphology-based searches are successful in uncovering more diffuse metal-poor star-forming galaxies, which tradi-tional emission-line based searches overlook

Ensembl’s 10th year

Ensembl (http://www.ensembl.org) integrates genomic information for a comprehensive set of chordate genomes with a particular focus on resources for human, mouse, rat, zebrafish and other high-value sequenced genomes. We provide complete gene annotations for all supported species in addition to specific resources that target genome variation, function and evolution. Ensembl data is accessible in a variety of formats including via our genome browser, API and BioMart. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Ensembl and in that time the project has grown with advances in genome technology. As of release 56 (September 2009), Ensembl supports 51 species including marmoset, pig, zebra finch, lizard, gorilla and wallaby, which were added in the past year. Major additions and improvements to Ensembl since our previous report include the incorporation of the human GRCh37 assembly, enhanced visualisation and data-mining options for the Ensembl regulatory features and continued development of our software infrastructure

Effects of antiplatelet therapy after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (RESTART): a randomised, open-label trial

Background: Antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of major vascular events for people with occlusive vascular disease, although it might increase the risk of intracranial haemorrhage. Patients surviving the commonest subtype of intracranial haemorrhage, intracerebral haemorrhage, are at risk of both haemorrhagic and occlusive vascular events, but whether antiplatelet therapy can be used safely is unclear. We aimed to estimate the relative and absolute effects of antiplatelet therapy on recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage and whether this risk might exceed any reduction of occlusive vascular events. Methods: The REstart or STop Antithrombotics Randomised Trial (RESTART) was a prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded endpoint, parallel-group trial at 122 hospitals in the UK. We recruited adults (≥18 years) who were taking antithrombotic (antiplatelet or anticoagulant) therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage, discontinued antithrombotic therapy, and survived for 24 h. Computerised randomisation incorporating minimisation allocated participants (1:1) to start or avoid antiplatelet therapy. We followed participants for the primary outcome (recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage) for up to 5 years. We analysed data from all randomised participants using Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusted for minimisation covariates. This trial is registered with ISRCTN (number ISRCTN71907627). Findings: Between May 22, 2013, and May 31, 2018, 537 participants were recruited a median of 76 days (IQR 29–146) after intracerebral haemorrhage onset: 268 were assigned to start and 269 (one withdrew) to avoid antiplatelet therapy. Participants were followed for a median of 2·0 years (IQR [1·0– 3·0]; completeness 99·3%). 12 (4%) of 268 participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had recurrence of intracerebral haemorrhage compared with 23 (9%) of 268 participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (adjusted hazard ratio 0·51 [95% CI 0·25–1·03]; p=0·060). 18 (7%) participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy experienced major haemorrhagic events compared with 25 (9%) participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (0·71 [0·39–1·30]; p=0·27), and 39 [15%] participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had major occlusive vascular events compared with 38 [14%] allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (1·02 [0·65–1·60]; p=0·92). Interpretation: These results exclude all but a very modest increase in the risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage with antiplatelet therapy for patients on antithrombotic therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage. The risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage is probably too small to exceed the established benefits of antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention