A qualitative study of a food intervention in a primary school: Pupils as agents of change.

This study explored the impact of a school-based kitchen project at a large inner London school. Timetabled kitchen classroom sessions (90 min every fortnight) were held with all 7-9 year old pupils. Semi-structured focus group discussions (with 76 pupils, 16 parents) and interviews (with headteachers, catering managers and specialist staff) were conducted at the intervention school and a matched control school. Categories and concepts were derived using a grounded theory approach. Data analysis provided three main categories each with their related concepts: Pupil factors (enthusiasm and enjoyment of cooking, trying new foods, food knowledge and awareness, producing something tangible); School factors (learning and curriculum links, resource implications and external pressures) and Home factors (take home effects, confidence in cooking and self-esteem, parents' difficulties cooking at home with children). Children's engagement and the opportunity to cook supported increased food awareness, skills and food confidence. In the grounded theory that emerged, take home effects beyond the school gate dominate, as children act as agents of change and influence cooking and food choice at home. These short term outcomes have the potential to lead to longer term outcomes including changing eating behaviour and diet

Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO

The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages

Oscillatory effects in a homeopathic clinical trial: an explanation using complexity theory, and implications for clinical practice

Four double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials of asthma or rhinitis treated with homeopathic immunotherapy (HIT) at a 30C potency have been published. The most recent study, involving house dust mite allergic asthmatics, failed to confirm a therapeutic improvement at the end of the study, but did provide preliminary evidence for an oscillation in outcome (both physiological and subjective) in with verum treatment to placebo. In this paper we show how such an oscillation is consistent with a complexity theory interpretation of how the body functions as a whole, and speculate on why different studies have produced different results. If the complexity theory interpretation is correct, then this will have a significant impact on the design of clinical trials in homeopathy and, possibly, other complementary medical interventions

Developing a measure of attitudes: the holistic complementary and alternative medicine questionnaire

We have developed an 11-item scale, the Holistic Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (HCAMQ). Six of the HCAMQ items relate to beliefs about the scientific validity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and five to beliefs about holistic health (HH). The HCAMQ was completed by 50 patients attending a CAM clinic and 50 attending rheumatology outpatients; the former completed it twice. Factor analysis (oblique rotation) showed that the CAM and HH items measured distinct but related constructs. The HCAMQ has good test retest reliability (r=0.86, 0.82 and 0.77 for the total, CAM subscale and HH subscale, respectively). The individuals attending CAM clinics were significantly more positive on the CAM but not the HH subscale of the HCAMQ and also used less antibiotics than those attending rheumatology outpatients. Positivity towards CAM on the total HCAMQ and subscales was significantly associated with lower age, increased vitamin use, reduced painkiller use, and, other than on the HH subscale, less antibiotic use. The reason why the HH subscale failed to distinguish between the two patient groups or predict less antibiotic use is unknown. The HCAMQ appears to have good internal validity, but its external validity remains to be established