Introduction

The Special Focus section of this issue of Refuge is being edited by an “outsider” to Refugee Studies. By that I mean that my professional life has not focused on investigating refugee issues per se, but instead has been concerned with how technology is accessed and deployed by groups and communities. Therefore, what this Special Focus section off ers are some different perspectives on technology’s role in the refugee experience through the lenses of various disciplines that actually study technology adoption and uses. In doing this, I am hoping to begin an interdisciplinary dialogue between Refugee Studies and Technology Studies scholars about policies, models, and politics of technology provision, access and use with specific reference to refugee service provision in situations of displacement. To this end, I have also included contributions from other “outsiders” to encourage the sharing of data and knowledge across sectors

Technology’s Refuge

An investigation into the use of information communication technologies by refugees during flight, displacement and in settlement, this book examines the impact of Australia’s official policy of mandatory detention on how asylum seekers and refugees maintain links to diasporas and networks of support. Given the restricted contact with the world outside of the immigration detention centre, the book juxtaposes forms and processes of technology-mediated communication between institutionalised detention, with those of displacement and settlement. It finds that while there are obstacles to communication in situations of conflict and dislocation, asylum seekers and refugees are able to ‘make do’ with the technology options available to them in ways which were less constrained than in detention settings. The book also outlines how communication practices during the settlement process focus on learning new technologies, and repairing the disconnections with family members resulting from separation and detention

Embedding patient and public involvement: managing tacit and explicit expectations

Background: Evidencing well-planned and implemented patient and public involvement (PPI) in a research project is increasingly required in funding bids and dissemination activities. There is a tacit expectation that involving people with experience of the condition under study will improve the integrity and quality of the research. This expectation remains largely unproblematised and unchallenged. Objective: To critically evaluate the implementation of PPI activity, including co-research in a programme of research exploring ways to enhance the independence of people with dementia. Design: Using critical cases we make visible and explicate theoretical and moral challenges of PPI. Results: Case 1 explores the challenges of undertaking multiple PPI roles in the same study making explicit different responsibilities of being a co-applicant, PPI advisory member and a co-researcher. Case 2 explores tensions which arose when working with carer co-researchers during data collection; here the co-researcher’s wish to offer support and advice to research participants, a moral imperative, was in conflict with assumptions about the role of the objective interviewer. Case 3 defines and examines co-research data coding and interpretation activities undertaken with people with dementia; reporting the theoretical outputs of the activity and questioning whether this was co-researcher analysis or PPI validation. Conclusion: PPI activity can empower individual PPI volunteers and improve relevance and quality of research but it is a complex activity which is socially constructed in flexible ways with variable outcomes. It cannot be assumed to be simple or universal panacea for increasing the relevance and accessibility of research to the public

Repurposing screen identifies mebendazole as a clinical candidate to synergise with docetaxel for prostate cancer treatment

BACKGROUND: Docetaxel chemotherapy in prostate cancer has a modest impact on survival. To date, efforts to develop combination therapies have not translated into new treatments. We sought to develop a novel therapeutic strategy to tackle chemoresistant prostate cancer by enhancing the efficacy of docetaxel. METHODS: We performed a drug-repurposing screen by using murine-derived prostate cancer cell lines driven by clinically relevant genotypes. Cells were treated with docetaxel alone, or in combination with drugs (n = 857) from repurposing libraries, with cytotoxicity quantified using High Content Imaging Analysis. RESULTS: Mebendazole (an anthelmintic drug that inhibits microtubule assembly) was selected as the lead drug and shown to potently synergise docetaxel-mediated cell killing in vitro and in vivo. Dual targeting of the microtubule structure was associated with increased G2/M mitotic block and enhanced cell death. Strikingly, following combined docetaxel and mebendazole treatment, no cells divided correctly, forming multipolar spindles that resulted in aneuploid daughter cells. Liposomes entrapping docetaxel and mebendazole suppressed in vivo prostate tumour growth and extended progression-free survival. CONCLUSIONS: Docetaxel and mebendazole target distinct aspects of the microtubule dynamics, leading to increased apoptosis and reduced tumour growth. Our data support a new concept of combined mebendazole/docetaxel treatment that warrants further clinical evaluation

Developing Effective Principals: What Kind of Learning Matters?

Effective principals can generate better outcomes for the teachers, students and the schools they lead. But great principals don't grow on trees; they receive high-quality development and ongoing support.In this report, researchers synthesize two decades of research on principal pre-service preparation and professional development and describe results of their own additional studies. They find that high-quality learning programs for future and current principals are associated with improved outcomes such as princip?als' feelings of preparedness, teacher satisfaction and retention, and student achievement.  Evidence also suggests that a focus on equity-oriented leadership has the potential to improve principals' ability to meet the needs of diverse learners.The research was led by Linda Darling-Hammond, who was also lead author of an influential report?, released 15 years ago, describing the key characteristics of effective principal preparation and professional development.  The report finds that high-quality pre-service preparation programs have common elements:Rigorous recruitment of candidates into the program;Close school district-university partnerships;Groupings of enrollees into cohorts;Experiences where candidates apply what they learn, guided by experienced mentors or coaches; andA focus on important content, with the five most important areas being leading instruction, managing change, developing people, shaping a positive school culture and meeting the needs of diverse learners.Mentoring and coaching were influential and valuable for current principals, along with collegial learning networks and applied learning, the report finds.Researchers found via a national survey that principals' access to high-quality learning opportunities appears to have improved over the last decade, with more than two-thirds of principals today reporting having had at least minimal access to learning across the five key content areas. At the same time, there are clearly gaps. One example: "Few principals have access to authentic, job-based learning opportunities during preparation, and high-quality internships are still relatively rare," the report says. In addition, access to learning opportunities varies greatly across states and by school poverty level, an indicator that also tends to reflect the racial demographics of a school. Principals in high-poverty schools were much less likely to report that they had professional development on important topics including redesigning schools for deeper learning and designing professional learning opportunities for teachers and other staff, for example. And only 10 percent of principals in high-poverty schools reported having had a mentor or coach in the last two years versus 24 percent in low-poverty schools.Across the country, most principals reported wanting more professional development in nearly all topics, but faced obstacles in pursuing learning opportunities, including lack of time and insufficient money.The authors emphasize that state policies can make a difference in the availability and quality of leadership preparation programs. In states and districts that overhauled standards and used them to inform principal preparation, learning opportunities, and assessment, there is evidence that the quality of principal learning has improved.To foster high-quality principal learning, the authors suggest that policymakers can:Develop and better use state principal licensing and program approval standards;Fund statewide efforts, such as leadership academies, paid internships and mentor training; andEncourage greater attention to equity by, for example, allocating professional development resources to schools that need them most or funding high-quality preparation for prospective principals of high-poverty schools.The report is the third of three research syntheses commissioned by Wallace. The first, released in February 2021, examined the critical role of principals in student learning and other outcomes. The second examined the increasingly important role of assistant principals and was released in April 2021.

Maintaining social connections in dementia: A qualitative synthesis

The clinical symptoms of dementia include difficulty with speech, poor short-term memory and changes in behavior. These symptoms can affect how the person with dementia understands and performs in social interactions. This qualitative review investigated how people with mild to moderate dementia managed social connections. A systematic search of social science databases retrieved 13 articles; data were synthesized using thematic analysis. Results established the work undertaken by people with dementia to maintain and present a social persona seen as socially acceptable. Interpretations are contextualized within Goffman and Sabat's theories on 'self'. People with dementia were agentic in impression management: undertaking work to maintain recognized social roles, while being aware of when their illness led to others discrediting them. Wider recognition of strategies used to maintain a social self could inform interventions designed to increase capability and confidence in co-managing social connections following dementia diagnosis

'The dynamic nature of being a person': An ethnographic study of people living with dementia in their communities

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A dementia diagnosis can impact on social interactions. This study aims to understand how people living with dementia act as social beings within everyday interactions in their local communities. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Focused ethnography informed by Spradley's approach to data collection and analysis. Observations in community spaces. RESULTS: Twenty-nine observations were undertaken in everyday social settings with 11 people with dementia who were part of a longitudinal interview study. Data consisted of 40 hours of observation, and researcher fieldnotes. The overarching theme 'The dynamic nature of being a person' encapsulates participants' exhibited experiences in negotiating to attain and sustain an acknowledged place in their communities. Two sub-themes characterized contexts and actions: 1 'Being me - not dementia': participants constructed narratives to assert their ontological presence in social settings. They and others used strategies to mediate cognitive changes evidencing dementia. 2 'Resisting or acquiescing to 'being absent in place'': Participants were often able to resist being absent to the gaze of others, but some social structures and behaviors led to a person being 'in place', yet not having their presence confirmed. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: People living with dementia can actively draw on personal attributes, familiar rituals, objects, and social roles to continue to present themselves as social beings. Identifying how post-diagnosis people may self-manage cognitive changes to retain their presence as a person can help health and social care practitioners and families collaborate with the person living with dementia enabling them to have a continued social presence

Promoting independence in dementia: protocol for a feasibility trial of the PRIDE intervention for living well with dementia

Background: Dementia can lead to social exclusion, loss of identity and independence, due to deterioration in cognition and activities of daily living. The aim of the study is to investigate the feasibility of the Promoting Independence in Dementia (PRIDE) intervention, designed to facilitate independence in people with mild dementia. Methods and Results: This is a mixed-methods feasibility trial of the PRIDE, in preparation for a future randomised controlled trial. Up to 50 people with dementia will be recruited. Dementia advisors will deliver the three session intervention. Quantitative outcomes will be taken at baseline and up to three months post baseline. Fidelity checklists will assess fidelity to the intervention. Qualitative implementation data will be gathered in a series of post-intervention semi-structured interviews with staff and participants. This will include data to examine participant experiences of and engagement with the intervention, and other aspects of delivery such as recruitment of DAWs, fidelity and experiences of receiving and delivering the intervention. This study aims to: 1) establish and field test the PRIDE intervention; 2) determine the recruitment rate of sites, providers and participants; 3) assess fidelity in delivery of the intervention and engagement with people with dementia; 4) assess the feasibility and acceptability of outcome measure data and 5) assess the acceptability of the intervention by stakeholders. Discussion: There has been increased need for non-pharmacological interventions for mild dementia. The results of this feasibility study will allow us to plan for a definitive RCT of a three session dementia advisor led intervention for mild dementia

A novel computational approach for predicting complex phenotypes in Drosophila (starvation-sensitive and sterile) by deriving their gene expression signatures from public data

Many research teams perform numerous genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic and other types of omic experiments to understand molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms of disease and health. Often (but not always), the results of these experiments are deposited in publicly available repository databases. These data records often include phenotypic characteristics following genetic and environmental perturbations, with the aim of discovering underlying molecular mechanisms leading to the phenotypic responses. A constrained set of phenotypic characteristics is usually recorded and these are mostly hypothesis driven of possible to record within financial or practical constraints. We present a novel proof-of-principal computational approach for combining publicly available gene-expression data from control/mutant animal experiments that exhibit a particular phenotype, and we use this approach to predict unobserved phenotypic characteristics in new experiments (data derived from EBI’s ArrayExpress and ExpressionAtlas respectively). We utilised available microarray gene-expression data for two phenotypes (starvation-sensitive and sterile) in Drosophila. The data were combined using a linear-mixed effects model with the inclusion of consecutive principal components to account for variability between experiments in conjunction with Gene Ontology enrichment analysis. We present how available data can be ranked in accordance to a phenotypic likelihood of exhibiting these two phenotypes using random forest. The results from our study show that it is possible to integrate seemingly different gene-expression microarray data and predict a potential phenotypic manifestation with a relatively high degree of confidence (>80% AUC). This provides thus far unexplored opportunities for inferring unknown and unbiased phenotypic characteristics from already performed experiments, in order to identify studies for future analyses. Molecular mechanisms associated with gene and environment perturbations are intrinsically linked and give rise to a variety of phenotypic manifestations. Therefore, unravelling the phenotypic spectrum can help to gain insights into disease mechanisms associated with gene and environmental perturbations. Our approach uses public data that are set to increase in volume, thus providing value for money