A qualitative assessment of using lay trainers with type 2 diabetes in an intervention programme for people at risk of type 2 diabetes

Objective: More knowledge is needed on the impact of expert patients within health intervention programmes. The University of East Anglia Impaired Fasting Glucose (UEA-IFG) feasibility programme was a structured dietary and exercise intervention to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in susceptible individuals. Lay volunteers with T2DM (T2 trainers) were recruited to support participants in adopting healthier lifestyles. This study aimed to explore the acceptability, perceived effectiveness and sustainability of lay trainers within the programme. Design: A qualitative focus group study. Setting: A clinical research unit in Norwich, United Kingdom (UK). Method: Focus groups were conducted with: (1) T2 trainers (n = 15); (2) programme participants who had received their support (n = 11); and (3) salaried staff facilitators who had worked alongside the T2 trainers (n = 3). Framework analysis was applied to identify the different experiences of the lay trainer role. Results: All groups perceived advantages for peer support, particularly in sharing the day-to-day experiences of living with T2DM. However, staff facilitators raised the importance of role boundaries, emphasizing that T2 trainers should not provide medical advice. Acceptability of T2 trainers was enhanced by contacting participants at a convenient time and before substantial lifestyle changes had been made. Conclusion: Lay trainers were seen as a complementary method to motivate individuals to reduce their risks of T2DM. A less prescriptive approach needs to be adopted to enable full integration of lay trainers, allowing them a greater level of contribution. To sustain effective use of lay trainers, health professionals need to work alongside volunteers and be trained to encourage peer involvement

STUDENT EVALUATION OF COURSES: PERCEPTIONS, ENGAGEMENT AND MOTIVATION

Live lectures and frequent, clear communications are key factors for keeping students engaged and motivated in online courses (Brew, 2008; Dixson, 2015; Murphy & Stewart, 2017). One area that has received less attention is that of inviting students to be partners in learning: of asking their opinions on the course and actively responding to this feedback during the teaching period to improve their online learning experience. This project aims to investigate how students perceive being asked for feedback in an online course and if this intervention increases their engagement with the course. Taking a phenomenographic approach to investigating students’ experiences and perceptions of giving feedback, a cohort of first-year chemistry students at The University of New South Wales were asked to evaluate their course twice during the teaching period via online questionnaires, with feedback summarised for lecturers to make course improvements. Qualitative questions on perceptions of evaluation and engagement were built into the questionnaires. At the end of the term, students were invited to participate in interviews to further understand their experiences of evaluating courses and being engaged as learning partners. Preliminary results from this study will be presented, with a focus on students’ understanding of engagement and evaluation, and their perceptions of how this intervention affected their engagement with an online course. REFERENCES Murphy, C. A., & Stewart, J. C. (2017). On-campus students taking online courses: Factors associated with unsuccessful course completion. Internet and Higher Education, 34, 1-9. Dixson, M. D. (2015). Measuring Student Engagement in the Online Course: The Online Student Engagement Scale (OSE). 2015, 19(4). doi:10.24059/olj.v19i4.561 Brew, L. S. (2008). The role of student feedback in evaluating and revising a blended learning course. The Internet and Higher Education, 11(2), 98-105

WHEN WRITING THE ASSESSMENT BECOMES THE ASSESSMENT

Some of the most sophisticated demonstrations of deep student understanding are the creation and evaluation of information, tasks that require developed cognitive and metacognitive skills (Herscovitz, Kaberman, Saar & Dori, 2012; Kay, Hardy & Galloway, 2020). In an approach to construct a deeper, more authentic assessment and challenge students to consider the wider context of theory, we designed an iterative assessment process in a first-year undergraduate chemistry course. Students authored practice questions and marking guides and provided and used peer feedback to improve these questions. An online, collaborative question-writing application, StudentQuiz, was used to facilitate the implementation of these activities in a HyFlex course. Working within a constructivist framework, students’ draft and final questions, as well as guided reflections on the assessment process, were collected and thematically analysed using grounded theory to investigate: 1) The level of sophistication to which students were able to formulate and critique chemical questions. 2) How students think about their learning during the question-writing process. 3) How students format feedback on other students’ questions and how this impacts their reflections on their own attempts. Emerging themes from this analysis will be presented with a focus on significant features of the artefacts produced and students’ metacognitive experience of formulating questions. REFERENCES Herscovitz, O., Kaberman, Z., Saar, L. & Dori, Y. J. (2012). The relationship between metacognition and the ability to pose questions in chemical education. In Zohar, A. & Dori, Y. J. (Eds.), Metacognition in Science Education: Trends in Current Research (pp. 165-195). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. Kay, A. E., Hardy, J., & Galloway, R. K. (2020). Student use of PeerWise: A multi-institutional, multidisciplinary evaluation. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(1), 23-35

CHEMISTRY STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES OF THE SHIFT TO ONLINE LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

There have been major disruptions to all parts of everyday life due to the impact of the illness COVID 19. This was especially true for students and staff at universities in the first half of 2020. The sudden shift to remote teaching and learning meant that classes never intended for the digital space (e.g. labs and tutorials) had to be reimagined and redesigned. Students were left facing diminished peer interaction and a need to adapt their study strategies on the fly. This study follows the experiences of first year chemistry students who favour in-person attendance for classes, from three different institutions. Three online interviews were conducted with the students across the teaching period. A qualitative thematic review of student experiences revealed that first-year students use face-to-face lectures to provide a structure to their study plans during a week. This was now missing. Students were struggling to keep to a study plan when the material was presented only online – synchronously or asynchronously. Moreover, students were conscious that they did not form the social connections with their peers that they would have done in a face-to-face setting. This research emphasises the need for online courses to be scaffolded to provide students with a structured study plan, which facilitates online social interactions between students (Salmon, 2002; Seery, 2012). REFERENCES Salmon, G., (2002). E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning. London; Kogan Page Limited. Seery, M. K. (2012) Moving an in-class module online: a case study for chemistry. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 13(1), 39-46

Recovering from destruction: the conservation, reintegration and perceptual analysis of a flood-damaged painting by John Martin

This paper describes treatment issues surrounding John Martin’s epic Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum (1821). The painting experienced such extensive structural damage following the 1928 Thames flood that it was considered destroyed. Despite major water damage affecting all layers of the painting and the loss of approximately one-fifth of the canvas, recent examination revealed the work to be in restorable condition. However, the extreme nature of the damages necessitates special ethical and technical considerations with regard to treatment, especially for the reintegration of the large missing portion. A consideration of viewer perception of the digitally simulated options for reintegration and their influence on viewer gaze behaviour, monitored via novel eye-tracking methods, was used to inform the treatment process

New genus of Late Cretaceous angel shark

29 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.Three-dimensional Late Cretaceous elasmobranch endoskeletal elements (including palatoquadrates, ceratohyals, braincase fragments, and a series of anterior vertebrae) are described from the Late Cretaceous University of Alabama Harrell Station Paleontological Site (HSPS), Dallas County, Alabama. The material is referred to the extant elasmobranch Family Squatinidae on the basis of several distinctive morphological features. It also exhibits features not shared by any modern or fossil Squatina species or the extinct Late Jurassic squatinid Pseudorhina. A new genus and species is erected, despite there being some uncertainty regarding potential synonymy with existing nominal species previously founded on isolated fossil teeth (curiously, no squatinid teeth have been documented from the HSPS). A preliminary phylogenetic analysis suggests that the new genus falls on the squatinid stem, phylogenetically closer to Squatina than Pseudorhina. The craniovertebral articulation in the new genus exhibits features considered convergent with modern batomorphs (skates and rays), including absence of contact between the posterior basicranium and first vertebral centrum, and a notochordal canal which fails to reach the parachordal basicranium. Supporting evidence that similarities in the craniovertebral articulation of squatinoids and batomorphs are convergent rather than synapomorphic (as "hypnosqualeans") is presented by an undescribed Early Jurassic batomorph, in which an occipital hemicentrum articulates with the first vertebral centrum as in all modern sharklike (selachimorph) elasmobranchs. The fossil suggests instead that the batomorph synarcual evolved by fusion of the anterior basiventral and basidorsal cartilages prior to the reduction of the anterior centra and loss of the occipital hemicentrum, not afterward as predicted by the hypnosqualean hypothesis

Evaluation of children's centres in England: strand 2 - baseline survey of families using children's centres in the most disadvantaged areas

This is the final version of the report. Available from the Department for Education via the link in this recorThe evaluation of children’s centres in England is a large scale, six year study that looks at Sure Start children’s centres (SSCCs) in the most disadvantaged areas of England. These are centres that were set up in the first two phases of the programme. The evaluation, from a survey of families who were using children’s centres when their child was 9- to 18-months-old, will provide a very detailed picture of children’s centre services. This includes how effective they are when they use different approaches in their management and when delivering services and activities for parents and children. It also looks at the cost of delivering different types of services

FDG–PET in the prediction of survival of patients with cancer of the pancreas: a pilot study

Carcinoma of the pancreas is an aggressive tumour with an extremely poor prognosis. Recent studies have shown that chemotherapy can improve survival as well as quality of life. Since the prognosis is generally poor, the identification of early responders to chemotherapy is important to avoid unnecessary toxicity in patients who are not responding. Response assessment by conventional radiographic methods is problematical because treatment induces fibrosis and makes tumour measurements difficult. The aim of this pilot study was to assess 18-fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) as an early marker of the benefit of chemotherapy. Eleven patients with histologically proven adenocarcinoma of the pancreas were treated with protracted venous infusional 5-fluorouracil (PVI 5-FU) alone or PVI 5-FU and mitomycin C (MMC). FDG-PET scans were performed prior to and at 1 month following the commencement of chemotherapy. FDG uptake was compared with the tumour dimensions measured on a computer tomographic (CT) scan. Patients were followed up for relapse, death and symptomatic response. Three of the 11 patients had no measurable FDG uptake prior to chemotherapy. Of the eight patients who had measurable uptake prior to treatment, seven had a reduction in uptake at 1 month. Six out of the 11 patients had no measurable FDG uptake at 1 month. The overall survival (OS) in these patients ranged from 124 to 1460 days, with a median of 318.5 days. This was superior in comparison to patients who had residual FDG uptake at 1 month (median survival 318.5 days vs 139 days;P = 0.034) and there was a trend to improved symptoms (84% [5/6] vs 20% [1/5];P = 0.13). There was no statistically significant correlation between best CT response and FDG uptake at 1 month. These results suggest that the absence of FDG uptake at 1 month following chemotherapy for carcinoma of the pancreas is an indicator of improved overall survival. This suggests that FDG-PET may be superior to response assessment by conventional radiographic methods and FDG-PET may have the potential to help make difficult treatment decisions in the management of pancreatic cancer. Larger prospective studies are required to confirm this finding. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

First shark from the late Devonian (Frasnian) gogo formation, Western Australia sheds new light on the development of tessellated calcified cartilage

Background: Living gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) comprise two divisions, Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes, including euchondrichthyans with prismatic calcified cartilage, and extinct stem chondrichthyans) and Osteichthyes (bony fishes including tetrapods). Most of the early chondrichthyan (‘shark’) record is based upon isolated teeth, spines, and scales, with the oldest articulated sharks that exhibit major diagnostic characters of the group—prismatic calcified cartilage and pelvic claspers in males—being from the latest Devonian, c. 360 Mya. This paucity of information about early chondrichthyan anatomy is mainly due to their lack of endoskeletal bone and consequent low preservation potential. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we present new data from the first well-preserved chondrichthyan fossil from the early Late Devonian (ca. 380–384 Mya) Gogo Formation Lägerstatte of Western Australia. The specimen is the first Devonian shark body fossil to be acid-prepared, revealing the endoskeletal elements as three-dimensional undistorted units: Meckel’s cartilages, nasal, ceratohyal, basibranchial and possible epibranchial cartilages, plus left and right scapulocoracoids, as well as teeth and scales. This unique specimen is assigned to Gogoselachus lynnbeazleyae n. gen. n. sp.Conclusions/Significance: The Meckel’s cartilages show a jaw articulation surface dominated by an expansive cotylus, and a small mandibular knob, an unusual condition for chondrichthyans. The scapulocoracoid of the new specimen shows evidence of two pectoral fin basal articulation facets, differing from the standard condition for early gnathostomes which have either one or three articulations. The tooth structure is intermediate between the ‘primitive’ ctenacanthiform and symmoriiform condition, and more derived forms with a euselachian-type base. Of special interest is the highly distinctive type of calcified cartilage forming the endoskeleton, comprising multiple layers of nonprismatic subpolygonal tesserae separated by a cellular matrix, interpreted as a transitional step toward the tessellated prismatic calcified cartilage that is recognized as the main diagnostic character of the chondrichthyans