696 research outputs found
Podwalking: A framework for assimilating mobile methods into action research
This article brings together action research and mobile methods to demonstrate how the processes and assumptions that underpin participatory inquiry may be open to critical consideration. The concept of the podwalk, a phased mobile method, is introduced within a project oriented around the development of digital life story work with adolescents living in state care. Adopting an interactive researcher stance in relation to the discursive analysis of material gathered as the research unfolded, we demonstrate that a phased method can frame the entry and exit from the field and that mobile methods can provide a basis for illuminating the research process, especially the way in which power and participation are negotiated
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Optimising the analysis of transcript data using high density oligonucleotide arrays and genomic DNA-based probe selection
Background: Affymetrix GeneChip arrays are widely used for transcriptomic studies in a diverse range of species. Each gene is represented on a GeneChip array by a probe-set, consisting of up to 16 probe-pairs. Signal intensities across probe-pairs within a probe-set vary in part due to different physical hybridisation characteristics of individual probes with their target labelled transcripts. We
have previously developed a technique to study the transcriptomes of heterologous species based
on hybridising genomic DNA (gDNA) to a GeneChip array designed for a different species, and subsequently using only those probes with good homology.
Results: Here we have investigated the effects of hybridising homologous species gDNA to study the transcriptomes of species for which the arrays have been designed. Genomic DNA from Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa) were hybridised to the Affymetrix Arabidopsis ATH1 and Rice Genome GeneChip arrays respectively. Probe selection based on gDNA hybridisation
intensity increased the number of genes identified as significantly differentially expressed in two
published studies of Arabidopsis development, and optimised the analysis of technical replicates obtained from pooled samples of RNA from rice.
Conclusion: This mixed physical and bioinformatics approach can be used to optimise estimates of gene expression when using GeneChip arrays
Social media, social capital and adolescents living in state care: A multi-perspective and multimethod qualitative study
Social media are used daily by billions to communicate. Adolescents living in state care are no different, yet the potential implications of their social media use are. Despite the global use of social media and evidence highlighting their role in social capital cultivation, how adolescents living in state care make use of social media remains unknown with discussions tending to focus exclusively on risk. Using data from a four-year Digital Life Story work (DLSW) research programme, this paper explores adolescentsâ and social care professionalâs (n=45) perspectives on the everyday use of social media by adolescents living in state care. Using an ethnographic multimethod approach, extracts of conversations from the four English residential homes engaged in the DLSW programme were thematically analysed. Three major themes emerged; contacts as currency, promoting and protecting the self and transitions. Analysis illustrate how adolescents living in state care use social media as active digital agents and the need to reframe this usage to enable benefits to be enacted. The paper concludes that urgent research is needed to enable practitioners and policy makers to show a deeper appreciation of the potentials of social media enabling a more balanced approach to succeed in practice
Royal Society Discussion Meeting: Utilising the Genome Sequence of Parasitic Protozoa
Protozoan parasites cause some of the worldâs most important diseases. Genome
sequencing information is rapidly being acquired and combined with new developments in
functional genome analysis to transform our understanding of parasites, and to enable new
approaches to combating the diseases they cause
Phenotypic Plasticity in Uveal Melanoma Is Not Restricted to a Tumor Subpopulation and Is Unrelated to Cancer Stem Cell Characteristics
Purpose: Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults and approximately half of those diagnosed will die of metastasis. This study investigates whether UM progression is driven by a subpopulation of stem-like cells, termed âcancer stem cellsâ (CSCs).
Methods: Expression of postulated stem cell markers aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), CD44, and CD133 was analyzed in UM cell lines and primary UM short-term cultures (STCs) established from tumor samples. Additionally, the notion of a âcellular hierarchyâ within UM was investigated. Finally, the phenomenon of phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental factors was explored.
Results: We demonstrate that expression of ALDH, CD44, and CD133 does not select for a subpopulation of stem-like cells in either UM cell lines or UM STCs. Furthermore, there is an absence of a cellular hierarchy in cell lines and all cells in culture are able to drive tumor progression. Last, we show that established UM cell lines and UM STCs are plastic in nature and switch their phenotype in response to environmental stimuli.
Conclusions: We hypothesize that this capacity to undergo phenotypic plasticity may be a consequence of neural crest lineage and renders the exploration of the CSC hypothesis extremely challenging in UM
Mind Your Outcomes: The âQSD Paradigm for Quality-Centric Systems Development and Its Application to a Blockchain Case Study
This paper directly addresses a long-standing issue that affects the development of many complex distributed software systems: how to establish quickly, cheaply, and reliably whether they can deliver their intended performance before expending significant time, effort, and money on detailed design and implementation. We describe ÎQSD, a novel metrics-based and quality-centric paradigm that uses formalised outcome diagrams to explore the performance consequences of design decisions, as a performance blueprint of the system. The distinctive feature of outcome diagrams is that they capture the essential observational properties of the system, independent of the details of system structure and behaviour. The ÎQSD paradigm derives bounds on performance expressed as probability distributions encompassing all possible executions of the system. The ÎQSD paradigm is both effective and generic: it allows values from various sources to be combined in a rigorous way so that approximate results can be obtained quickly and subsequently refined. ÎQSD has been successfully used by a small team in Predictable Network Solutions for consultancy on large-scale applications in a number of industries, including telecommunications, avionics, and space and defence, resulting in cumulative savings worth billions of US dollars. The paper outlines the ÎQSD paradigm, describes its formal underpinnings, and illustrates its use via a topical real-world example taken from the blockchain/cryptocurrency domain. ÎQSD has supported the development of an industry-leading proof-of-stake blockchain implementation that reliably and consistently delivers blocks of up to 80 kB every 20 s on average across a globally distributed network of collaborating block-producing nodes operating on the public internet.publishedVersio
Mental health, identity and informal education opportunities for adolescents with experience of living in state care: a role for digital storytelling
The mental health difficulties and educational trajectories of adolescents with care-experience is a pervasive international concern. This article explores how digital technologies can facilitate self-reflective dialogues and informal education opportunities for adolescents with care-experience. Extracts from vlogs created during an ethnographic project working with adolescents (n = 10, six males and four females, M age = 15.3 years, age range: 14â18 years) and carers (n = 35, ages and gender not sought) in four English residential homes are thematically analysed. Three major themes were constructed: richness of everyday identity; complexities of in care identity; and renegotiating narrative traumas. Themes illustrated how engagement with a blended intervention (featuring digital and face-to-face elements) created opportunities for trusted adults to support the mental health, identity and educational needs of adolescents with care-experience. The paper concludes by critically discussing the educational implications for those working with this group
Improving the mental health and mental health support available to adolescents in out-of-home care via Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity Life Story Work: a realist review
Objectives: Life Story Work (LSW) is used to promote the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents living in out-of-home care. LSW should be offered to all but is conventionally delivered in high-intensity ways. Low-intensity approaches are more accessible but there is significant variation and little guidance for supporting adolescents. We aimed to create guidance for Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW.
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Design: Realist review.
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Data sources: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Sociology Collection (ProQuest), CINAHL, CDAS, Web of Science (SCIE, SSCI), Social Care Online and grey literature sources. Searches were performed between December 2021 and March 2022.
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Eligibility criteria: Documents on children and adolescents in care, LSW and/or low-intensity interventions to improve mental health were included. Documents focusing on parenting style and contact with birth family were excluded.
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Analysis: Documents were analysed using a realist logic of analysis. In consultation with Content Expert Groups (comprising professionals and care leavers), we developed an initial programme theory. Data relating to and challenging the initial programme theory were extracted and context-mechanism-outcome-configurations developed, critiqued and refined in an iterative fashion. Interpretations were drawn from context-mechanism-outcome-configurations to enhance the programme theory.
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Results: 75 documents contributed to the analysis. Generally, studies were small-scale and lacked in-depth methods and evaluation descriptions. Findings indicated important factors contribute to the development of high-quality Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW. Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW should be person-centred, begin in the now, involve co-construction, record everyday positive life events and be supported by trained carer(s). Context-mechanism-outcome-configurations relating to these themes are reported.
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Conclusions: Using this knowledge we developed initial practice guidance to support social care to deliver better quality Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW more consistently. To address gaps in our knowledge about the impact of Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW, further primary research is needed to strengthen understandings of how this intervention works (or not) in different contexts.
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PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021279816
Algebraic Reasoning About Timeliness
Designing distributed systems to have predictable performance under high load
is difficult because of resource exhaustion, non-linearity, and stochastic
behaviour. Timeliness, i.e., delivering results within defined time bounds, is
a central aspect of predictable performance. In this paper, we focus on
timeliness using the DELTA-Q Systems Development paradigm (DELTA-QSD, developed
by PNSol), which computes timeliness by modelling systems observationally using
so-called outcome expressions. An outcome expression is a compositional
definition of a system's observed behaviour in terms of its basic operations.
Given the behaviour of the basic operations, DELTA-QSD efficiently computes the
stochastic behaviour of the whole system including its timeliness.
This paper formally proves useful algebraic properties of outcome expressions
w.r.t. timeliness. We prove the different algebraic structures the set of
outcome expressions form with the different DELTA-QSD operators and demonstrate
why those operators do not form richer structures. We prove or disprove the set
of all possible distributivity results on outcome expressions. On our way for
disproving 8 of those distributivity results, we develop a technique called
properisation, which gives rise to the first body of maths for improper random
variables. Finally, we also prove 14 equivalences that have been used in the
past in the practice of DELTA-QSD.
An immediate benefit is rewrite rules that can be used for design exploration
under established timeliness equivalence. This work is part of an ongoing
project to disseminate and build tool support for DELTA-QSD. The ability to
rewrite outcome expressions is essential for efficient tool support.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2023, arXiv:2308.0892
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