Correspondence: British Thoracic Society guideline on pulmonary rehabilitation in adults: Does objectivity have a sliding scale?

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright © 2014 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Thoracic Society. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is noncommercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/No abstract available (Letter

Mouse Models of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Infection and Shiga Toxin Injection

Escherichia coli O157:H7 has been responsible for multiple food- and waterborne outbreaks of diarrhea and/or hemorrhagic colitis (HC) worldwide. More importantly, a portion of E. coli O157:H7-infected individuals, particularly young children, develop a life-threatening sequela of infection called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Shiga toxin (Stx), a potent cytotoxin, is the major virulence factor linked to the presentation of both HC and HUS. Currently, treatment of E. coli O157:H7 and other Stx-producing E. coli (STEC) infections is limited to supportive care. To facilitate development of therapeutic strategies and vaccines for humans against these agents, animal models that mimic one or more aspect of STEC infection and disease are needed. In this paper, we focus on the characteristics of various mouse models that have been developed and that can be used to monitor STEC colonization, disease, pathology, or combinations of these features as well as the impact of Stx alone

University Writing Centre Tutoring Handbook

This handbook is designed with two audiences in mind. The first of these is tutors working in the Maynooth University Writing Centre; the second is any writing centre director who may wish to produce or revitalise a handbook for writing centre tutors. With regards to the latter, we hope that this modest offering might prevent colleagues in other setting from having to start from scratch should they wish to develop a handbook for their tutors. The handbook has been compiled by existing Maynooth University Writing Centre staff and staff who have since moved on from the Writing Centre

University Writing Centre Tutoring Handbook

This handbook is designed with two audiences in mind. The first of these is tutors working in the Maynooth University Writing Centre; the second is any writing centre director who may wish to produce or revitalise a handbook for writing centre tutors. With regards to the latter, we hope that this modest offering might prevent colleagues in other setting from having to start from scratch should they wish to develop a handbook for their tutors. The handbook has been compiled by existing Maynooth University Writing Centre staff and staff who have since moved on from the Writing Centre

Help seeking, trust and intimate partner violence: Social connections amongst displaced and non-displaced Yezidi women and men in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq

Replaced AM with VoR 2020-08-31.Background: Conflict and displacement impact the social fabric of communities through the disruption of social connections and the erosion of trust. Effective humanitarian assistance requires understanding the social capital that shapes patterns of help seeking in these circumstances - especially with stigmatised issues such as violence against women (VAW) and intimate partner violence (IPV).Methods: A novel social mapping methodology was adopted amongst a Yezidi population displaced by ISIS occupation and a neighbouring settled Yezidi population in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq in late 2016. Six participatory workshops were conducted to identify available resources with respect to: meeting basic needs, dispute resolution and VAW. Subsequently, 51 individual interviews were conducted (segmented by gender and settlement status) to identify connectedness to, and trust in, the resources identified, with a focus on IPV against women.Results: 90% of participants reported God as a key source of help in the previous six months, representing the most widely cited resource. Following God, the most accessed and trusted resources were family and community, with NGO (non-governmental organisation) provision being the least. Women drew more strongly upon familial resources than men (Χ2=5.73, df=1, p=0.017). There was reduced trust in resources in relation to seeking help with IPV. A distinction between trust to provide emotional support and trust to resolve issues was identified. Settled women were 1.6 times more likely to trust community members and government services and 3.7 times more likely to trust NGOs than displaced women.Conclusions: Mapping social connections and trust provides valuable insight into the social capital available to support help seeking in populations of humanitarian concern. For these Yezidi populations, family, religious and community resources were the most widely utilised and trusted. Trust was mostly reserved for family and their main religious leader regarding IPV against women. Lack of trust appeared to be a major barrier to stronger engagement with available NGO provision, particularly amongst displaced women. The role of faith and religious resources for this population is clearly significant, and warrants an explicitly faith-sensitive approach to humanitarian assistance.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-020-00305-w14pubpu

The feasibility and acceptability of a psychosocial intervention to support people with dementia with Lewy bodies and family care partners

OBJECTIVES: Psychosocial support for people with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and family care partners is frequently lacking, despite the need expressed by those with lived experience. Our objective was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of an intervention designed to build coping capability. DESIGN: The design was non-randomised with all participants receiving the intervention. SETTING: The setting was a Memory Assessment and Management Service in the Northeast of England. PARTICIPANTS: Participants comprised 19 dyads consisting of a person with DLB and a family care partner. INTERVENTION: The intervention was group-based, with weekly sessions attended for up to four successive weeks. It was informed by Social Cognitive Theory. MEASUREMENTS: Data were collected on recruitment, attendance and attrition, self-efficacy, mood, stress and participant experience. RESULTS: Recruitment was achieved with minimal attrition and three successive groups were delivered. Care partners felt more in control and able to cope in at least 3 of 13 areas with 73% feeling this way in eight or more areas. Three themes were identified from post-intervention interviews: people like us, outcomes from being a group member and intervention design. CONCLUSIONS: A DLB-specific group intervention is acceptable to people with DLB and family care partners, and recruitment is feasible within a specialist service. Participation may enhance understanding of this condition and reduce social isolation. It may improve care partners' coping capability particularly if targeted towards those with low prior understanding of DLB and more stress. Means of evaluating outcomes for people with DLB need further development

Refugee integration: local perspectives in contrasting European contexts.

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Conversation Analysis Based Simulation (CABS): A method for improving communication skills training for healthcare practitioners

Background: Actors portraying simulated patients are widely used in communication skills training in healthcare, but debates persist over the authenticity of these interactions. However, healthcare professionals value simulation-based training because of the opportunity to think and react in real time, which alternatives cannot provide. // Objective: To describe a method for the use of simulation which maximises authenticity by grounding training in real, observed, patterns of patient communication. // Design: Naturally occurring care interactions were video recorded and analysed using conversation analysis (CA) to identify communication patterns. We focused on sites of recurring interactional trouble as areas for training, and identified more and less effective ways of dealing with these. We used the CA findings to train actors portraying simulated patients, based on the observed interactional patterns. // Settings and Participants: Patients living with dementia and healthcare practitioners (HCPs) on two acute healthcare of the elderly wards in the English East Midlands. // Outcome Measures: One month later HCPs reported using the skills learned in clinical practice. Masked-ratings of before and after simulated patient encounters confirmed these self-reports in relation to one key area of training. // Results: The Conversation Analysis Based Simulation (CABS) method used in this setting showed positive results across a range of quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. What is significant for the transferability of the method is that qualitative feedback from trainees highlighted the ability of the method to not only illuminate their existing effective practices, but to understand why these were effective and be able to articulate them to others. // Discussion/Conclusion: While the CABS method was piloted in the dementia care setting described here, it has potential applicability across healthcare settings where simulated consultations are used in communication skills training. Grounding simulated interaction in the observed communication patterns of real patients is an important means of maximising authenticity. // Patient and Public Contribution: The VideOing to Improve dementia Communication Education (VOICE) intervention which piloted the CABS method was developed by a multidisciplinary team, including three carers of people with dementia. People living with dementia were involved in the rating of the before and after video simulation assessments