Your research has been broadcast to millions - but how do you determine its impact?

The potential of broadcast programming to reach millions of people holds obvious appeal to researchers looking to maximise the dissemination of their work. But when it comes to impact, having vast reach is just one part of the equation - how can the significance of broadcast research be determined? Melissa Grant, Lucy Vernall and Kirsty Hill developed a mixed-methods approach, using questionnaires and focus groups, that sought to measure the impact of health-related research broadcast in two programmes on prime time television. Follow-up work conducted after the broadcasts showed that participants’ understanding of the issues had subsequently been enhanced, with a number revealing that they had changed their behaviours as a result of the research

Can the research impact of broadcast programming be determined?

The study used a pragmatic mixed methods approach to evaluate the change in knowledge and habits of viewers of research broadcast during two factual TV entertainment programmes to see if it was possible to measure the impact of watching. It was possible to demonstrate some changes in knowledge, though this is likely to be transient, and while potential changes in behaviour were reported, they are difficult to verify. Limitations of the approaches are discussed. Complexity of the participants' lifestyles and social interactions will additionally influence outcomes.</ns7:p

Archetypal trajectories of social, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing and distress in family care givers of patients with lung cancer: secondary analysis of serial qualitative interviews

Objective To assess if family care givers of patients with lung cancer experience the patterns of social, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing and distress typical of the patient, from diagnosis to death

Ethical considerations and publishing in human bioarcheology

INTRODUCTION: As bioarcheologists and forensic anthropologists, we are writing to highlight the apparent lack of ethical consideration, or mention of ethics, in published papers, especially when publishing on archeological human remains. In many situations, data deriving from excavated human remains provide the deep time perspective relevant to populations today (e.g., Binder et al., 2014). However, bearing in mind current ethical debates around the excavation, analysis, and curation of human remains (e.g., Squires, Errickson, & Márquez-Grant, 2019), and any in the future, we do need to address the ethics surrounding our research and its publication as we go forward

The Knee Arthroplasty Trial (KAT) : design features, baseline characteristics and two-year functional outcomes after alternative approaches to knee replacement

Background: The aim of continued development of total knee replacement systems has been the further improvement of the quality of life and increasing the duration of prosthetic survival. Our goal was to evaluate the effects of several design features, including metal backing of the tibial component, patellar resurfacing, and a mobile bearing between the tibial and femoral components, on the function and survival of the implant. Methods: A pragmatic, multicenter, randomized, controlled trial involving 116 surgeons in thirty-four centers in the United Kingdom was performed; 2352 participants were randomly allocated to be treated with or without a metal backing of the tibial component (409), with or without patellar resurfacing (1715), and/or with or without a mobile bearing (539). Randomization to more than one comparison was allowed. The primary outcome measures were the Oxford Knee Score (OKS), Short Form-12, EuroQol-5D, and the need for additional surgery. The results up to two years postoperatively are reported. Results: Functional status and quality-of-life scores were low at baseline but improved markedly across all trial groups following knee replacement (mean overall OKS, 17.98 points at baseline and 34.82 points at two years). Most of the change was observed at three months after the surgery. Six percent of the patients had additional knee surgery within two years. There was no evidence of differences in clinical, functional, or quality-of-life measures between the randomized groups at two years. Conclusions: Patients have substantial improvement following total knee replacement. This is the first adequately powered randomized controlled trial, of which we are aware, in which the effects of metal backing, patellar resurfacing, and a mobile bearing were investigated. We found no evidence of an effect of these variants on the rate of early complications or on functional recovery up to two years after total knee replacement. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level I. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme (Project Number 95/10/01); Howmedica Osteonics; Zimmer; DePuy, a Johnson and Johnson company; Corin Medical; Smith and Nephew Healthcare. Biomet Merck; and Wright CremascoliPeer reviewe

Ethical Considerations and Publishing in Human Bioarchaeology

As bioarchaeologists and forensic anthropologists, we are writing to highlight the apparent lack of ethical consideration, or mention of ethics, in published papers, especially when publishing on archaeological human remains. In many situations, data deriving from excavated human remains provide the deep time perspective relevant to populations today (e.g. Binder, Roberts, Spencer, Antoine & Cartwright, 2014). However, bearing in mind current ethical debates around the excavation, analysis, and curation of human remains (e.g. Squires, Errickson & Márquez-Grant, 2019a), and any in the future, we do need to address the ethics surrounding our research and its publication as we go forward

Physiological evidence of sensory integration in the electrosensory lateral line lobe of Gnathonemus petersii

Fechner S, Grant K, von der Emde G, Engelmann J. Physiological evidence of sensory integration in the electrosensory lateral line lobe of Gnathonemus petersii. PLOS ONE. 2018;13(4): e0194347.Mormyrid fish rely on reafferent input for active electrolocation. Their electrosensory input consists of phase and amplitude information. These are encoded by differently tuned receptor cells within the Mormyromasts, A- and B-cells, respectively, which are distributed over the animal’s body. These convey their information to two topographically ordered medullary zones in the electrosensory lateral line lobe (ELL). The so-called medial zone receives only amplitude information, while the dorsolateral zone receives amplitude and phase information. Using both sources of information, Mormyrid fish can disambiguate electrical impedances. Where and how this disambiguation takes place is presently unclear. We here investigate phase-sensitivity downstream from the electroreceptors. We provide first evidence of phase-sensitivity in the medial zone of ELL. In this zone I-cells consistently decreased their rate to positive phase-shifts (6 of 20 cells) and increased their rate to negative shifts (11/20), while E-cells of the medial zone (3/9) responded oppositely to I-cells. In the dorsolateral zone the responses of E- and I-cells were opposite to those found in the medial zone. Tracer injections revealed interzonal projections that interconnect the dorsolateral and medial zones in a somatotopic manner. In summary, we show that phase information is processed differently in the dorsolateral and the medial zones. This is the first evidence for a mechanism that enhances the contrast between two parallel sensory channels in Mormyrid fish. This could be beneficial for impedance discrimination that ultimately must rely on a subtractive merging of these two sensory streams