Decision aids for randomised controlled trials : a qualitative exploration of stakeholders' views

Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions. Funding: This work was supported by personal fellowship award (to KG) from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Governments Health and Social Care Directorates, grant number [PDF/09/01]. The Health Services Research Unit is supported by a core grant from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Metabolic changes during carcinogenesis: Potential impact on invasiveness

Successful adaptation to varying microenvironmental constraints plays a crucial role during carcinogenesis. We develop a hybrid cellular automation approach to investigate the cell–microenvironmental interactions that mediate somatic evolution of cancer cells. This allows investigation of the hypothesis that regions of premalignant lesions develop a substrate-limited environment as proliferation carries cells away from blood vessels which remain separated by the intact basement membrane. We find that selective forces in tumoural regions furthest from the blood supply act to favour cells whose metabolism is best suited to respond to local changes in oxygen, glucose and pH levels. The model predicts three phases of somatic evolution. Initially, cell survival and proliferation is limited due to diminished oxygen levels. This promotes adaptation to a second phase of growth dominated by cells with constitutively up-regulated glycolysis, less reliant on oxygen for ATP production. Increased glycolysis induces acidification of the local environment, limiting proliferation and inducing cell death through necrosis and apoptosis. This promotes a third phase of cellular evolution, with emergence of phenotypes resistant to acid-induced toxicity. This emergent cellular phenotype has a significant proliferative advantage because it will consistently acidify the local environment in a way that is toxic to its competitors but harmless to itself. The model's results suggest this sequence is essential in the transition from self-limited premalignant growth to invasive cancer, and, therefore, that this transition may be delayed or prevented through novel strategies directed towards interrupting the hypoxia–glycolysis–acidosis cycle

ChairMaker - a parametric chair modelling program

In this report we describe a new parametric modelling program that can produce 3D models of chairs. The parameters used are easily understood physical traits such as back height and seat width. The nished ChairMaker program is capable of producing a vast range of semi-realistic 3D models from a set of 33 parameters. It is intended that these are used to explore automated chair design

Development and evaluation of decision aids for people considering taking part in a clinical trial : a conceptual framework

Funding This research was supported by the MRC Methodology Fellowship (KG MR/L01193X/1. The Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, receives core funding from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate. Authors’ contributions KG and MC conceived the idea for the article. KG wrote the first draft of the manuscript. KG and MC contributed to further development of the manuscript. Both reviewed and approved the final manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Determining information for inclusion in a decision-support intervention for clinical trial participation : A modified Delphi approach

Peer reviewedPostprin

Evaluation of interventions for informed consent for randomised controlled trials (ELICIT) : protocol for a systematic review of the literature and identification of a core outcome set using a Delphi survey

Acknowledgements This work was supported by personal fellowship award (to KG) from the Medical Research Council’s Strategic Skills Methodology programme. The Health Services Research Unit is supported by a core grant from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates. PW is funded by a UK Medical Research Council Hub for Trials Methodology Research Network grant G0800792. The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chief Scientist Office, MRC or the Department of Health.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Observation and parameterization of solar irradiance in marine stratocumulus and cumulus regimes

December 1995.Bibliography: pages 100-104.Sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration NAG 1-1704.Sponsored by Office of Naval Research N00014-91-J-1422, P00006.Sponsored by Office of Naval Research N00014-95-1-1188

A Comparison of the Effects of Haptic and Visual Feedback on Presence in Virtual Reality

In the current consumer market, Virtual reality experiences are predominantly generated through visual and auditory feedback. Haptics are not yet well established, but are increasingly introduced to enhance the user’s sense of ‘reality’. With haptic (vibrotactile) feedback now part of the built-in mechanism of VR consumer devices, there is an urgent need to understand how different modalities work together to improve the user experience. This paper reports an experiment that explores the contributions made to participants’ sense of presence by haptic and visual feedback in a virtual environment. Participants experienced a virtual ball bouncing on a virtual stick resting across their avatar hands. We found that presence was enhanced when they could both see and feel the ball’s action; with a strong suggestion that haptic feedback alone gave rise to a greater sense of presence than visual alone. Similarly, whilst visual or bimodal feedback enhanced participants’ ability to locate where the ball bounced on the stick, our results suggest that the action itself was more readily discerned haptically than visually

Information about dissemination of trial results in patient information leaflets for clinicals trials in the UK and Ireland : the what and the when.

Acknowledgments Ellen Murphy and Genevieve Shiely Hayes for their contributions to data collection. Funding: MB was funded for a summer period by the Health Research Board, Ireland through funding from the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network (Ref: HRB TMRN-2017-1). The Health Services Research Unit, Institute of Applied Health Sciences (University of Aberdeen), is core-funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates (CZU/3/3). The funders had no involvement in study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, reporting or the decision to publish.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Analysis of Iron Meteorites Using Computed Tomography and Electron-probe Microanalysis

Computed tomography (CT) imaging and electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA) have been used to study samples of the Mundrabilla and Colomera iron meteorites in order to perform structural, textural, and mineralogical analysis. Both gamma-ray (Co-60 source, essentially monochromatic 1.25MeV avg.) and x-ray (420 KeV, continuous) sources have been used, with effective resolution of approximately 1 mm and 0.25 mm, respectively. The gamma-ray source provides approx. 15 cm penetration through steel and is used for larger samples, whereas the x-ray source provides superior resolution at reduced penetration but exhibits beam hardening artifacts. Here we present a combined approach where CT and EPMA imaging and microanalysis aid in the identification of structural and compositional features in iron meteorites