Most UK scientists who publish extremely highly-cited papers do not secure funding from major public and charity funders: A descriptive analysis

The UK is one of the largest funders of health research in the world, but little is known about how health funding is spent. Our study explores whether major UK public and charitable health research funders support the research of UK-based scientists producing the most highly-cited research. To address this question, we searched for UK-based authors of peer-reviewed papers that were published between January 2006 and February 2018 and received over 1000 citations in Scopus. We explored whether these authors have held a grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Wellcome Trust and compared the results with UK-based researchers who serve currently on the boards of these bodies. From the 1,370 papers relevant to medical, biomedical, life and health sciences with more than 1000 citations in the period examined, we identified 223 individuals from a UK institution at the time of publication who were either first/last or single authors. Of those, 164 are still in UK academic institutions, while 59 are not currently in UK academia (have left the country, are retired, or work in other sectors). Of the 164 individuals, only 59 (36%; 95% CI: 29-43%) currently hold an active grant from one of the three funders. Only 79 (48%; 95% CI: 41-56%) have held an active grant from any of the three funders between 2006-2017. Conversely, 457 of the 664 board members of MRC, Wellcome Trust, and NIHR (69%; 95% CI: 65-72%) have held an active grant in the same period by any of these funders. Only 7 out of 655 board members (1.1%) were first, last or single authors of an extremely highly-cited paper. There are many reasons why the majority of the most influential UK authors do not hold a grant from the country’s major public and charitable funding bodies. Nevertheless, the results are worrisome and subscribe to similar patterns shown in the US. We discuss possible implications and suggest ways forward

São Paulo cavern-shaft collapse viewed as a trap-door problem.

Στο παρόν άρθρο εξετάζονται με τη βοήθεια αριθμητικού μοντέλου οι συνθήκες που οδήγησαν στην κατάρρευση του συνδεδεμένου συστήματος φρέατος-θαλάμου στην μεγαλούπολη Sao Paulo της Βραζιλίας το 2007. Οι δύο θάλαμοι αντιδιαμετρικά του φρέατος εξορύχθηκαν με τη Νέα Αυστριακή ή Τμηματική Μέθοδο. Ο σταθμός Pinheiros όπου εκδηλώθηκε το περιστατικό αυτό βρίσκεται εντός γεωλογικής ζώνης γνωστής ως Caucaia Shear Zone. Εντός της ζώνης αυτής ο βιοτιτικός και γρανιτικός γνεύσιος είναι έντονα κατακερματισμένος που διασχίζεται από τέσσερεις οικογένειες ασυνεχειών (οι δύο εξ αυτών είναι παρακατακόρυφες και οι άλλες δύο με κλίσεις προς τις αντίθετες παρυφές των θαλάμων). Σύμφωνα με το σύστημα ταξινόμησης RMR του Bieniawski oι θάλαμοι εξορύχθηκαν σε βραχόμαζα κλάσης II,III,IV (η τελευταία αναφέρεται σε σαπρόλιθο), με υπερκείμενα σαπρόλιθο και εδάφη αποσάρθρωσης κλάσης V. Η προσομοίωση της κατασκευής του συστήματος φρέατος-θαλάμου έγινε με τον τρι-διάστατο κώδικα πεπερασμένων διαφορών FLAC3D™. Δόθηκε ιδιαίτερη προσοχή στην ποσοτική περιγραφή των επί τόπου γεωλογικών συνθηκών. Λόγω του έντονου κατακερματισμού της βραχομάζας αυτή προσομοιώθηκε με ένα κινηματικό μοντέλο χαλάρωσης της συνοχής και της γωνίας τριβής. Από τις προσομοιώσεις βρέθηκε ότι σε κάοια στιγμή της εκσκαφής του θαλάμου σχηματίζεται συζυγές σύστημα ζωνών διατμήσεως που εκκινούν από τις γωνίες της προπορευόμενης σήραγγας το οποίο ενώνεται με μια κυλινδρική ζώνη διάτμησης που σχηματίζεται γύρω από το φρέαρ. Καταυτόν τον τρόπο σχηματίζεται σφήνα βραχομάζας η οποία και καταρρέει ως μηχανισμός θυροπαγίδας.This paper refers to the numerical simulation of the conditions that have lead to the collapse of the shaft-cavern collapse in São Paulo, Brazil (2007) constructed with the Conventional Tunnelling Method (CTM) or the New Austrian Tunneling Technique (NATM). The Pinheiros station where the incident has occurred, is located in an area known as the Caucaia Shear Zone, resulting in a highly fractured medium (four main families of discontinuities, i.e. two subvertical and two dipping towards the tunnel walls).The main observed lithologies were biotite gneiss and granite gneiss. According to the Bieniawski classification, the following rock mass classes were observed: II,III,IV (partially corresponding to saprolite), and V (partially corresponding to residual soils). The shaft-tunnel construction is simulated by virtue of the 3D finite differences code FLAC3D™. Special emphasis is given on the appropriate quantitative description of the geological conditions. A kinematic cohesion-friction softening model of the discontinuous rock mass is used. It was found that failure is manifested with the evolution of shear bands starting from the corners of the cavern periphery as this approaches the shaft while retreating. Before this, another cylindrical shear band initiates from the bottom of the shaft and also propagates upwards to connect with the former and hence producing the final collapse

Doctor-patient differences in risk and time preferences: a field experiment

We conduct a framed field experiment among patients and doctors to test whether the two groups have similar risk and time preferences. We elicit risk and time preferences using multiple price list tests and their adaptations to the healthcare context. Risk and time preferences are compared in terms of switching points in the tests and the structurally estimated behavioural parameters. We find that doctors and patients significantly differ in their time preferences: doctors discount future outcomes less heavily than patients. We find no evidence that doctors and patients systematically differ in their risk preferences in the healthcare domain

Who is more likely to use doctor-rating websites, and why? A cross-sectional study in London

Objectives: To explore the extent to which doctor-rating websites are known and used among a sample of respondents from London. To understand the main predictors of what makes people willing to use doctor-rating websites. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: The Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England. Participants: 200 individuals from the borough. Main outcome measures: The likelihood of being aware of doctor-rating websites and the intention to use doctor-rating websites. Results: The use and awareness of doctor-rating websites are still quite limited. White British subjects, as well as respondents with higher income are less likely to use doctor-rating websites. Aspects of the doctor–patient relationship also play a key role in explaining intention to use the websites. The doctor has both a ‘complementary’ and ‘substitute’ role with respect to Internet information. Conclusions: Online rating websites can play a major role in supporting patients’ informed decisions on which healthcare providers to seek advice from, thus potentially fostering patients’ choice in healthcare. Subjects who seek and provide feedback on doctor-ranking websites, though, are unlikely to be representative of the overall patients’ pool. In particular, they tend to over-represent opinions from non-White British, medium–low-income patients who are not satisfied with their choice of the healthcare treatments and the level of information provided by their GP. Accounting for differences in the users’ characteristics is important when interpreting results from doctor-rating sites

Doctor-patient differences in risk preferences, and their links to decision-making: a field experiment

We conduct a field experiment among patients and doctors, with the aim to test i) whether the two groups have similar risk preferences; and ii) whether differences in risk preferences between doctors and patients are associated with the likelihood of patients seeking a second medical opinion. We measure risk preferences using an adaptation of the Holt and Laury (2002) test to the healthcare context (Galizzi et al., 2013). We find no evidence that the two groups of doctors and patients systematically differ in their preferences towards risk. We find, however, robust evidence that differences between doctors’ and patients’ risk preferences associate with patients’ decision to look for a second opinion: the more diverse preferences are, the more likely patients are to seek a second opinion

How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Students’ Online Social Presence?

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected higher education institutions worldwide as they had to switch from face-to-face to online teaching almost overnight. This abrupt change made a huge impact on teaching, learning, and particularly, student engagement. This paper focuses on online social presence as an element of student engagement, which represents how students feel under synchronous online teaching. A survey was conducted among 244 first-year students to evaluate the impact of online social interaction, online collaboration, online contact with staff, online engagement, and online active learning on online social presence. Structural equation modeling was used to test and evaluate these multivariate relationships. Our study illustrates that all variables have a significant positive relationship with online social presence. In particular, online social interaction and online collaboration show a more powerful relationship with student online social presence. Thus, digital technologies should be adopted in a way that encourages students to actively interact with their peers

Acceptability and feasibility of an isometric resistance exercise program for abdominal cancer surgery: An embedded qualitative study

Although it is recognized in the early stages of cancer recovery that changes in lifestyle including increases in physical activity improves physical function, there are no clear findings whether low versus moderate intensity activity or home or gym exercise offer optimal benefit. Isometric-resistance exercises can be carried out with very little equipment and space and can be performed while patients are bed-bound in hospital or at home. This embedded qualitative study, based in an English hospital trust providing specialist cancer care, was undertaken as a component of a feasibility trial to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of an isometric-resistance exercise program and explore the suitability of functional assessments by drawing from the experiences of abdominal cancer patients following surgery. Telephone interviews were undertaken with 7 participants in the intervention group, and 8 interviews with the usual care group (n¼ 15). The gender composition consisted of 11 females and 4 males. Participants’ ages ranged from 27 to 84 (M¼ 60.07, SD ¼ 15.40). Interviews were conducted between August 2017 and May 2018, with audio files digitally recorded and data coded using thematic framework analysis. Our results show that blinding to intervention or usual care was a challenge, participants felt the intervention was safe and suitable aided by the assistance of a research nurse, yet, found the self-completion questionnaire tools hard to complete. Our study provides an insight of trial processes, participants’ adherence and completion of exercise interventions, and informs the design and conduct of larger RCTs based on the experiences of abdominal cancer surgery patients