Photovoice and refugee research: The case for a ‘layers’ versus ‘labels’ approach to vulnerability

‘Vulnerability’ is a key concept used to understand the ethical implications of conducting refugee-focused research. This case study illustrates the need to follow Luna’s (2009) call for a shift from a ‘labels’ to a ‘layers’ approach to vulnerability by analysing how two university ethics committees responded to issues of informed consent in two similar refugee research projects using the PhotoVoice method. The following commentary argues that, when driven by a research governance regime, ethics review risks viewing refugees through a static label of vulnerability, negatively affecting research viability and data quality. In contrast, a layers approach opens space for understanding the potential for vulnerability amongst refugee research participants while supporting PhotoVoice’s goals of empowerment and facilitating agency. The case study highlights the need for national-level ethics statements that encourage a more flexible approach within research institutions

Design of financial incentive interventions to improve lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes: A systematic review [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Background: Financial incentives may improve the initiation and engagement of behaviour change that reduce the negative outcomes associated with non-communicable diseases. There is still a paucity in guidelines or recommendations that help define key aspects of incentive-oriented interventions, including the type of incentive (e.g. cash rewards, vouchers), the frequency and magnitude of the incentive, and its mode of delivery. We aimed to systematically review the literature on financial incentives that promote healthy lifestyle behaviours or improve health profiles, and focused on the methodological approach to define the incentive intervention and its delivery. The protocol was registered at PROSPERO on 26 July 2018 (CRD42018102556). Methods: We sought studies in which a financial incentive was delivered to improve a health-related lifestyle behaviour (e.g., physical activity) or a health profile (e.g., HbA1c in people with diabetes). The search (which took place on March 3rd 2018) was conducted using OVID (MEDLINE and Embase), CINAHL and Scopus. Results: The search yielded 7,575 results and 37 were included for synthesis. Of the total, 83.8% (31/37) of the studies were conducted in the US, and 40.5% (15/37) were randomised controlled trials. Only one study reported the background and rationale followed to develop the incentive and conducted a focus group to understand what sort of incentives would be acceptable for their study population. There was a degree of consistency across the studies in terms of the direction, form, certainty, and recipient of the financial incentives used, but the magnitude and immediacy of the incentives were heterogeneous. Conclusions: The available literature on financial incentives to improve health-related lifestyles rarely reports on the rationale or background that defines the incentive approach, the magnitude of the incentive and other relevant details of the intervention, and the reporting of this information is essential to foster its use as potential effective interventions

Mobile-based and open-source case detection and infectious disease outbreak management systems: a review [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]

In this paper we perform a rapid review of existing mobile-based, open-source systems for infectious disease outbreak data collection and management. Our inclusion criteria were designed to match the PANDORA-ID-NET consortium’s goals for capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa, and to reflect the lessons learned from the 2014–16 West African Ebola outbreak. We found eight candidate systems that satisfy some or most of these criteria, but only one (SORMAS) fulfils all of them. In addition, we outline a number of desirable features that are not currently present in most outbreak management systems

Comparison of engagement and emotional responses of older and younger adults interacting with 3D cultural heritage artefacts on personal devices

The availability of advanced software and less expensive hardware allows museums to preserve and share artefacts digitally. As a result, museums are frequently making their collections accessible online as interactive, 3D models. This could lead to the unique situation of viewing the digital artefact before the physical artefact. Experiencing artefacts digitally outside of the museum on personal devices may affect the user's ability to emotionally connect to the artefacts. This study examines how two target populations of young adults (18–21 years) and the elderly (65 years and older) responded to seeing cultural heritage artefacts in three different modalities: augmented reality on a tablet, 3D models on a laptop, and then physical artefacts. Specifically, the time spent, enjoyment, and emotional responses were analysed. Results revealed that regardless of age, the digital modalities were enjoyable and encouraged emotional responses. Seeing the physical artefacts after the digital ones did not lessen their enjoyment or emotions felt. These findings aim to provide an insight into the effectiveness of 3D artefacts viewed on personal devices and artefacts shown outside of the museum for encouraging emotional responses from older and younger people

SimBoolNet—a Cytoscape plugin for dynamic simulation of signaling networks

Summary: SimBoolNet is an open source Cytoscape plugin that simulates the dynamics of signaling transduction using Boolean networks. Given a user-specified level of stimulation to signal receptors, SimBoolNet simulates the response of downstream molecules and visualizes with animation and records the dynamic changes of the network. It can be used to generate hypotheses and facilitate experimental studies about causal relations and crosstalk among cellular signaling pathways

Landmarking the brain for geometric morphometric analysis: An error study

Neuroanatomic phenotypes are often assessed using volumetric analysis. Although powerful and versatile, this approach is limited in that it is unable to quantify changes in shape, to describe how regions are interrelated, or to determine whether changes in size are global or local. Statistical shape analysis using coordinate data from biologically relevant landmarks is the preferred method for testing these aspects of phenotype. To date, approximately fifty landmarks have been used to study brain shape. Of the studies that have used landmark-based statistical shape analysis of the brain, most have not published protocols for landmark identification or the results of reliability studies on these landmarks. The primary aims of this study were two-fold: (1) to collaboratively develop detailed data collection protocols for a set of brain landmarks, and (2) to complete an intra- and inter-observer validation study of the set of landmarks. Detailed protocols were developed for 29 cortical and subcortical landmarks using a sample of 10 boys aged 12 years old. Average intra-observer error for the final set of landmarks was 1.9 mm with a range of 0.72 mm-5.6 mm. Average inter-observer error was 1.1 mm with a range of 0.40 mm-3.4 mm. This study successfully establishes landmark protocols with a minimal level of error that can be used by other researchers in the assessment of neuroanatomic phenotypes. © 2014 Chollet et al

Ambient temperature CO oxidation using palladium-platinum bimetallic catalysts supported on tin oxide/alumina

A series of Pt-based catalysts were synthesised and investigated for ambient temperature CO oxidation with the aim to increase catalytic activity and improve moisture resistance through support modification. Initially, bimetallic PtPd catalysts supported on alumina were found to exhibit superior catalytic activity compared with their monometallic counterparts for the reaction. Following an investigation into the effect of Pt/Pd ratio, a composition of 0.1% Pt/0.4% Pd was selected for further studies. Following this, SnO2/Al2O3 supports were synthesised from a variety of tin oxide sources. Catalytic activity was improved using sodium stannate and tin oxalate precursors compared with a traditional tin oxide slurry. Catalytic activity versus tin concentration was found to vary significantly across the three precursors, which was subsequently investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX)

Young people today: news media, policy and youth justice

The new sociology of childhood sees children as competent social agents with important contributions to make. And yet the phase of childhood is fraught with tensions and contradictions. Public policies are required, not only to protect children, but also to control them and regulate their behaviour. For children and young people in the UK, youth justice has become increasingly punitive. At the same time, social policies have focused more on children's inclusion and participation. In this interplay of conflict and contradictions, the role the media play is critical in contributing to the moral panic about childhood and youth. In this article, we consider media representations of “antisocial” children and young people and how this belies a moral response to the nature of contemporary childhood. We conclude by considering how a rights-based approach might help redress the moralised politics of childhood representations in the media

The apparatus composition and architecture of Erismodus quadridactylus and the implications for element homology in prioniodinin conodonts

The apparatus composition and architecture of prioniodinin conodonts is poorly understood, largely because few prioniodinin taxa are represented by articulated oral feeding apparatuses (natural assemblages) in the fossil record, but also due to the highly variable gradational morphology of their constituent elements that makes apparatus reconstruction problematic. We describe here a natural assemblage of Erismodus quadridactylus (Stauffer), a prioniodinin, from the Sandbian (Late Ordovician) of North Dakota, USA. The assemblage demonstrates that the apparatus architecture of Erismodus is similar to those of late Palaeozoic prioniodinins namely, Kladognathus Rexroad and Hibbardella Bassler, but also has similarities with ozarkodinin apparatuses. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that E. quadridactylus shares topological similarities to balognathid architecture, with respect to the position of its inferred P elements. The apparatus composition and architecture presented here indicate that, at least with respect to the M–S array, an ‘ozarkodinin‐type’ bauplan is probably more widely representative across prioniodontids. The assemblage demonstrates that element morphotypes traditionally considered to lie within the S array are M elements, whereas others traditionally interpreted as P elements are found in the S array. These observations are used as a basis for refining concepts of element homology among prioniodinin conodonts and their closest relatives