371 research outputs found
A protocol for co-creating research project lay summaries with stakeholders:Guideline development for Canada's AGE-WELL Network
Background
Funding bodies increasingly require researchers to write lay summaries to communicate projects’ real-world relevance to the public in an accessible way. However, research proposals and findings are generally not easily readable or understandable by non-specialist readers. Many researchers find writing lay summaries difficult because they typically write for fellow subject specialists or academics rather than the general public or a non-specialist audience. The primary objective of our project is to develop guidelines for researchers in Canada’s AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence, and ultimately various other disciplines, sectors, and institutions, to co-create lay summaries of research projects with stakeholders. To begin, we produced a protocol for co-creating a lay summary based on workshops we organized and facilitated for an AGE-WELL researcher. This paper presents the lay summary co-creation protocol that AGE-WELL researchers will be invited to use.
Methods
Eligible participants in this project will be 24 AgeTech project researchers who are funded by the AGE-WELL network in its Core Research Program 2020. If they agree to participate in this project, we will invite them to use our protocol to co-produce a lay summary of their respective projects with stakeholders. The protocol comprises six steps: Investigate principles of writing a good lay summary, identify the target readership, identify stakeholders to collaborate with, recruit the identified stakeholders to work on a lay summary, prepare for workshop sessions, and execute the sessions. To help participants through the process, we will provide them with a guide to developing an accessible, readable research lay summary, help them make decisions, and host, and facilitate if needed, their lay summary co-creation workshops.
Discussion
Public-facing research outputs, including lay summaries, are increasingly important knowledge translation strategies to promote the impact of research on real-world issues. To produce lay summaries that include information that will interest a non-specialist readership and that are written in accessible language, stakeholder engagement is key. Furthermore, both researchers and stakeholders benefit by participating in the co-creation process. We hope the protocol helps researchers collaborate with stakeholders effectively to co-produce lay summaries that meet the needs of both the public and project funders
Doing gender locally: The importance of ‘place’ in understanding marginalised masculinities and young men’s transitions to ‘safe’ and successful futures
Observable anxieties have been developing about the position of boys and young men in contemporary society in recent years. This is expressed as a crisis of masculinity, in which place is often implicitly implicated, but is rarely considered for its role in the shaping of young men’s practices, trajectories and aspirations. Drawing on research conducted with young people who accessed a range of social care support services, this article argues that transition means different things for young men in different locales and that local definitions of masculinity are required to better understand young men’s lives and the opportunities available to them. The authors argue that home life, street life, individual neighbourhoods, regions and nations all shaped the young men’s identities and the practices they (and the staff working with them) drew on in order to create successful futures and ‘safe’ forms of masculinity. It is suggested that this place-based approach has the potential to re-shape the ‘crisis’ discourse surrounding masculinity and the anxieties associated with young men
Judicial actors’ understanding of the mental health impacts of intimate partner violence: a scoping review
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health issue that has grave physical and mental health consequences for millions of women. The judicial system plays a critical role in responding to IPV principally through the criminal justice system, family law, and/or child welfare jurisdictions. However, victims/survivors who interact with the legal system report negative experiences. An under-researched area of scholarship is the degree to which judicial actors understand the mental health impacts of IPV on victims/survivors and how they apply that knowledge in practice. This scoping review aimed to identify and synthesize existing scholarship on judicial actors’ understanding of the mental health impacts of IPV on women survivors. We searched 10 databases (Medline, Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Westlaw, HeinOnline, the Cochrane Library, and the Joanna Briggs Library databases) for studies published between 2000 and 2023. A total of 27 studies were included in the review. We identified five main themes, including: awareness of survivors’ experiences, gap in judicial actors’ knowledge, understanding of perpetrator tactics and risk factors, disclosing mental health problems, training, and guidance. The review highlights significant gaps in judicial actors’ understanding of this issue and recommends strategies to increase the awareness and understanding of IPV among judicial actors. The findings can be used to justify future research to better understand the training and development needs of judicial actors to improve their level of awareness of the dynamics and impact of IPV and to make policy and practice recommendations to build the capacity of the judicial workforce
Long Intergenic Noncoding RNAs Mediate the Human Chondrocyte Inflammatory Response and Are Differentially Expressed in Osteoarthritis Cartilage
Objective To identify long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), including long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs), antisense RNAs, and pseudogenes, associated with the inflammatory response in human primary osteoarthritis (OA) chondrocytes and to explore their expression and function in OA. Methods OA cartilage was obtained from patients with hip or knee OA following joint replacement surgery. Non-OA cartilage was obtained from postmortem donors and patients with fracture of the neck of the femur. Primary OA chondrocytes were isolated by collagenase digestion. LncRNA expression analysis was performed by RNA sequencing (RNAseq) and quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Modulation of lncRNA chondrocyte expression was achieved using LNA longRNA GapmeRs (Exiqon). Cytokine production was measured with Luminex. Results RNAseq identified 983 lncRNAs in primary human hip OA chondrocytes, 183 of which had not previously been identified. Following interleukin-1β (IL-1β) stimulation, we identified 125 lincRNAs that were differentially expressed. The lincRNA p50-associated cyclooxygenase 2-extragenic RNA (PACER) and 2 novel chondrocyte inflammation-associated lincRNAs (CILinc01 and CILinc02) were differentially expressed in both knee and hip OA cartilage compared to non-OA cartilage. In primary OA chondrocytes, these lincRNAs were rapidly and transiently induced in response to multiple proinflammatory cytokines. Knockdown of CILinc01 and CILinc02 expression in human chondrocytes significantly enhanced the IL-1-stimulated secretion of proinflammatory cytokines. Conclusion The inflammatory response in human OA chondrocytes is associated with widespread changes in the profile of lncRNAs, including PACER, CILinc01, and CILinc02. Differential expression of CILinc01 and CIinc02 in hip and knee OA cartilage, and their role in modulating cytokine production during the chondrocyte inflammatory response, suggest that they may play an important role in mediating inflammation-driven cartilage degeneration in OA
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Glass ceilings and stone floors: an intersectional approach to challenges UK geographers face across the career lifecycle
While there has been a steady growth of women working in geography in UK universities since the mid-Twentieth Century, there are continuing challenges in gendered career progression and professional interactions within the contemporary discipline. These range from problems associated with employment precarity and inflexible work practices, life choices and obligations in the domestic arena, discrimination and bullying, to less tangible gendered norms and cultures in the workplace. This paper discusses these challenges and inequalities in the light of a brief overview of sector-wide statistical data on appointments by gender and career-stage and with the analysis of some 250 in-depth responses to a nationwide qualitative survey of gender and career experience in UK universities (Maddrell et al 2016). While the term ‘glass ceiling’ still has significant relevance, findings show a more complicated picture which also includes ‘stone floors’ and stumbling blocks. It also shows how career experience varies by institution and individual: challenges in career progression can be compounded by institutional protocols and intersectional factors, and vary with career stage. The intersection of early-career job precarity, reproductive decisions and associated family responsibilities were particularly highlighted in this study. These ‘pinch points’ in career development disproportionately affect, but are not limited to, female early career scholars. Early career progress may be stalled in mid-career in multi-staged promotional systems such as that in UK universities; some from minorities face compound barriers; men with caring responsibilities may face prejudice. The paper concludes with suggested strategies for change, highlighting the importance of individual university and department protocols and practices; line manager and other senior colleagues’ attitudes and leadership in creating workplaces with an equality-driven ethos and structures that allow individuals to flourish
Learning through social spaces: migrant women and lifelong learning in post-colonial London
This article shows how migrant women engage in learning through social spaces. It argues that such spaces are little recognised, and that there are multiple ways in which migrant women construct and negotiate their informal learning through socialising with other women in different informal modes. Additionally, the article shows how learning is shaped by the socio-political, geographical and multicultural context of living in London, outlining ways in which gendered and racialised identities shape, construct and constrain participation in lifelong learning. The article shows that one way in which migrant women resist (post)colonial constructions of difference is by engaging in informal and non-formal lifelong learning, arguing that the benefits are (at least) two-fold. The women develop skills (including language skills) but also use their informal learning to develop what is referred to in this article as 'relational capital'. The article concludes that informal lifelong learning developed through social spaces can enhance a sense of belonging for migrant women
Governance of policing and cultural codes: interpreting and responding to policy directives
In terms of governance, British policing seems to arise from a history of local traditions influenced more recently by centralist managerial demands. A creeping process of privatisation has led social scientists to argue that patterns of governance in British policing are changing in several directions. This has included the way police officers not only are challenged, but also challenge these changing modes of governance in terms of ethical codes of behaviour. There is evidence that police officers, as meaningful actors, have made attempts to diverge from these strictures and have forged their own ways, via their cultural knowledge and practices, to ‘do policing’, rather than relying upon codes of practice or rules and regulations
Genomic profiling reveals spatial intra-tumor heterogeneity in follicular lymphoma
We are indebted to the patients for donating
tumor specimens as part of this study. The authors thank the Centre de
Ressources Biologiques (CRB)-Santé of Rennes (BB-0033-00056) for
patient samples, Queen Mary University of London Genome Centre
for Illumina Miseq sequencing, and the support by the National
Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College
London for Illumina Hiseq sequencing. The views expressed are
those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR,
or the Department of Health. This work was supported by grants
from the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund (KKL 757 awarded to J.O.),
Cancer Research UK (22742 awarded to J.O., 15968 awarded to J.F.,
Clinical Research Fellowship awarded to S.A.), Bloodwise through
funding of the Precision Medicine for Aggressive Lymphoma (PMAL)
consortium, Centre for Genomic Health, Queen Mary University
of London, Carte d’Identité des Tumeurs (CIT), Ligue National
contre le Cancer, Pôle de biologie hospital universitaire de
Rennes, CRB-Santé of Rennes (BB-0033-00056), and CeVi/Carnot
program
Gendered immobility: influence of social roles and local context on mobility decisions in Pakistan
This paper examines the instances of one-day immobility in Pakistan and reports its socio-demographic determinants using the nationally representative dataset of the 2007 Pakistan Time Use Survey. Of 37,830 time diary respondents, nearly 30% did not report travel during the diary day. Homemakers and those out of the workforce were more likely to be immobile than employed or student respondents. Immobility rates were very high among women (55%) as compared to men (4%). Among women, those between 20 and 34 years of age, married, with children, having better education, dependent on other household members and those living in higher income households were more likely to be immobile. The excessive gender nature of immobility seems to be triggered by a gender-based sociocultural environment, which restricts female mobility due to family honor concerns. Other than this, those living in the provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or in urban areas were more likely to be immobile than those living in Punjab and Sindh provinces or in rural areas. The significant geographic effect at broader spatial scale is caused by the demographic structure as well as due to differences in the social and cultural context of these areas. Finally, questions regarding the measurement of immobility and the potential implications of increased female immobility are discussed
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