Clinicians’ involvement in data collection for portfolio research: impact on their clinical practice and perception of research

Background/Aims: Physiotherapists generally have a positive view of research, but have identified a number of barriers to taking part, and have expressed challenges when attempting to integrate research findings into their practice. The aim of this study was to describe the self-reported impact of collecting data for a multicentre research study on physiotherapists’ clinical practice. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to select three of 11 NHS trusts involved in the original data collection. A questionnaire was emailed to the 28 of 34 physiotherapists working within these three Trusts who collected data and for whom contact details were available. Results: A total of 21 (75%) physiotherapists completed the questionnaire. Out of the 21 physiotherapists, 15 stated they were aware of the study results; all of whom reported subsequent changes in their beliefs about prognostic factors for shoulder pain (subject of the original study) and some alteration in clinical practice. However, barriers to integrating further changes into practice were reported, including lack of time and a perception that patients would not engage with a more (bio)psychosocial approach. Overall, 85% of responders stated data collection had changed their understanding of the research process. Conclusions: Clinicians’ participation in the research process positively influenced practice. However, 29% were unaware of the results and only 33% of physiotherapists accessed the published article. There were perceived barriers to integrating results into practic

Are stabilisation exercises different to other treatments in improving physical activity or reducing disability for people with persistent low back pain? A systematic literature review

Background/Aims Stabilisation exercises are commonly prescribed for people with persistent low back pain. However, for some patients, it has been hypothesised that stabilisation exercises could draw attention to protecting the core, promote hypervigilance and inhibit volitional movement. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness and reported adverse events, in particular fear avoidance, of stabilisation exercises compared with placebo or other treatments offered by physiotherapists on the outcome of disability and activity at 12- and 24-months' follow-up. Methods The following electronic databases were searched: Embase, Medline, AMED, CINAHL, from inception to June 2019. Only randomised controlled trails were included. Study selection, data extraction and appraisal of quality criteria using PEDro, were undertaken by two independent assessors. Results Seven studies (n=1820) were eligible. Of six studies that reported adverse effects in the group receiving stabilisation exercises, four reported none and two reported mild exacerbation of pain locally or elsewhere. Fear avoidance was not investigated in any of the studies. Across the studies, 12 analyses were reported and included seven different comparator groups and three outcome measures: Oswestry Disability Index (n=1), Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (n=5), Patient Specific Functional Scale (n=4). Two studies included a 24-month follow up in addition to a 12-month follow up. Of the 12 studies, nine reported no significant differences between the effectiveness of stabilisation exercises and comparator groups. Stabilisation exercises were more effective than comparator groups for the following three analyses: compared to manual therapy or education at 12 but not 24 months for the Oswestry Disability Index (15.71, 95% confidence interval 19.3-10.01); compared to placebo for the Patient Specific Functional Scale (1.5, 95% confidence interval 0.7-2.2) but not the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire; and compared to high load lifting for the Patient Specific Functional Scale (1.8 95% confidence interval 2.8-0.7). Conclusions Stabilisation exercises are safe and equally effective to other treatments, and possibly superior for some outcomes at some time points. No or only mild adverse effects were reported. However, none of the studies measured fear avoidance as an outcome and we recommend this be included in future randomised controlled trials measuring the effectiveness of stabilisation exercises

Predicting response to physiotherapy treatment for musculoskeletal shoulder pain: a systematic review

Abstract Background: People suffering from musculoskeletal shoulder pain are frequently referred to physiotherapy. Physiotherapy generally involves a multimodal approach to management that may include; exercise, manual therapy and techniques to reduce pain. At present it is not possible to predict which patients will respond positively to physiotherapy treatment. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify which prognostic factors are associated with the outcome of physiotherapy in the management of musculoskeletal shoulder pain. Methods: A comprehensive search was undertaken of Ovid Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and AMED (from inception to January 2013). Prospective studies of participants with shoulder pain receiving physiotherapy which investigated the association between baseline prognostic factors and change in pain and function over time were included. Study selection, data extraction and appraisal of study quality were undertaken by two independent assessors. Quality criteria were selected from previously published guidelines to form a checklist of 24 items. The study protocol was prospectively registered onto the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews. Results: A total of 5023 titles were retrieved and screened for eligibility, 154 articles were assessed as full text and 16 met the inclusion criteria: 11 cohort studies, 3 randomised controlled trials and 2 controlled trials. Results were presented for the 9 studies meeting 13 or more of the 24 quality criteria. Clinical and statistical heterogeneity resulted in qualitative synthesis rather than meta-analysis. Three studies demonstrated that high functional disability at baseline was associated with poor functional outcome (p ≤ 0.05). Four studies demonstrated a significant association (p ≤ 0.05) between longer duration of shoulder pain and poorer outcome. Three studies, demonstrated a significant association (p ≤ 0.05) between increasing age and poorer function; three studies demonstrated no association (p > 0.05)

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

The Afterlives of Government Documents: Information Labor, Archival Power, and the Visibility of U.S. Human Rights Violations in the “War on Terror”

This dissertation is about access to information. It examines the different ways that access to U.S. government records related to the “War on Terror” is generated through the intersection of law, bureaucratic policy and procedure norms, and the everyday work of archivists and transparency advocates. I argue that, both through their labor pushing for access to government records via complex records searches, Freedom of Information Act requests, and legal action, and also through their labor layering those records with new forms of metadata in public digital circulation platforms, these individuals, in the context of their organizations, generate new forms of visibility of U.S. actions, including key evidence of state violence. Through their actions they support our Right to Information and Right to Truth. Although the new forms of visibility they generate may not result in immediate prosecution of “War on Terror” human rights violations by the U.S., such as torture and indefinite detention, they do fundamentally alter the possibility of citizen knowledge about these state actions, increasing the possibility of potential future accountability for individual government officials, as well as state agency policy reforms, by facilitating earlier, easier, and more complete access to key information. It is access to the truth that opens the possibility for action. My dissertation research is centered on two axes in this dynamic: one, the individuals engaged in this work and their multiple, complex actions that result in new forms of access; and, two, the new information structures these persons are generating and the ways in which those new structures then create a different landscape of access to government information for the rest of us. Thus, this dissertation has a dual subject, the loosely networked community of people who were my interlocutors and also the new digital archival forms that they are creating. Influenced by interdisciplinary and intersecting fields of archival studies, the anthropology of violence, memory studies, and human rights scholarship, I work with key concepts including: the afterlives of documents; translucency; “the FOIA effect”; metadata as narrative, dimensional form, and visibility; digital materiality and the materiality of redaction; document re-activation and re-composition; the presence of absence; and information/archival labor; engaging with these concepts as they relate to questions of power, technology, temporality, and transparency. The research centers on two projects: the ACLU’s Torture FOIA Database and the National Security Archive’s Torture Archive, along with the people, organizations, legal frameworks, and practices shaping these projects. In addition, U.S. records-related law and policy, particularly the evolution of the Freedom of Information Act and the National Archives and Records Administration’s impact on the definition of government records and records retention, are key in understanding access to U.S. government information. This dissertation highlights how the information labor of the document collectors at the two nongovernmental organizations works to “activate” not only individual documents but also government information access law and policy. I argue that, through gathering and interacting with documents, these archives break government records out of their original relationship to temporality, allowing them to move more easily into alternate relations with other documents, organizations, and events—relations that can make U.S. policy on torture and detention and incidents of abuse more visible and work toward undoing obfuscation of violent state actions. The proliferation of digitized government document copies through these projects highlights how reproducibility itself, as a digital-material property of the document when activated through the act of multiplying copies on publicly accessible platforms, can strengthen access to information. I also closely examine the metadata applied by these archive projects and how these metadata allow us to interact with the original government records in new ways, strengthening discoverability of the records and becoming a structure though which the document is accessed and understood by others. Extending the document access through metadata, echoing the documents, proliferating them across different contexts, audiences, and geographical scopes, acts as reverberation and amplification of the evidence of human rights violations—a kind of archival power. If the tendency of government records is to lie dormant until the evidence of human rights abuses is less likely to be acted upon or less likely to be incorporated into public understandings of government culpability, disruptions into that temporal pattern, such as the disruptions produced through these kinds of projects, are pivotal interventions. I approached this project as a researcher and a scholar. However, the subject matter of this research is one with which I also have a relationship as a citizen and an activist—as one interested in the potential of document access advocacy and information technology work to contribute to visibility of human rights violations, understandings of accountability, and action. How different technical and formal structures shape human interaction with information touches on exactly this question. The database structure, the search engine, the metadata category, and the keyword tag that attach to an archival government document become a part of our comprehension of the items in the archive themselves and shape the conditions of possibility for knowledge of the past. When such an archive consists of government documents that show evidence of human rights violations by the state, the projects and technologies through which we access and interpret those documents become a crucial site of the struggle for our understanding of our history, as well as for what we will do with that knowledge now

Silence, Screen, and Spectacle : Rethinking Social Memory in the Age of Information

https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/all_books/1247/thumbnail.jp

Behaviour Change Techniques to promote self-management and home exercise adherence for people attending physiotherapy with musculoskeletal conditions: A scoping review and mapping exercise

Background Many patients with musculoskeletal problems do not adhere to home exercises or self-management advice provided by physiotherapists. This is due to numerus factors, many of which can be targeted by Behaviour Change Techniques. Objectives 1) Undertake a scoping review to identify the modifiable determinants (barriers and facilitators) of home exercise adherence and self-management for the physiotherapy management of people with musculoskeletal problems and map them to the Theoretical Domains Framework and Behaviour Change Techniques. 2) For determinants with supporting evidence from ≥2 studies, provide examples of Behaviour Change Techniques for clinical practice. Design This review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. Method Four electronic databases were searched from inception to December 2022. Two independent reviewers carried out manuscript selection, data extraction, quality assessment, and mapping, the latter using the Theory and Techniques Tool. Results Thirteen modifiable determinants were identified in 28 studies. The most frequently identified were self-efficacy, social support, and task appreciation. Determinants were mapped to 7 of 14 Theoretical Domains Framework categories, which in turn mapped onto 42 of 93 Behaviour Change Techniques, the most common being problem solving and instruction on how to perform behaviour. Conclusions By identifying determinants to home exercise adherence and self-management and mapping these to Behaviour Change Techniques, this review has improved understanding of their selection, targeting, and potential application to musculoskeletal physiotherapy practice. This provides support for physiotherapists targeting the determinants of importance for the patient in front of them

Predicting response to physiotherapy treatment for musculoskeletal shoulder pain : A systematic review

© 2013 Chester et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: People suffering from musculoskeletal shoulder pain are frequently referred to physiotherapy. Physiotherapy generally involves a multimodal approach to management that may include; exercise, manual therapy and techniques to reduce pain. At present it is not possible to predict which patients will respond positively to physiotherapy treatment. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify which prognostic factors are associated with the outcome of physiotherapy in the management of musculoskeletal shoulder pain. Methods. A comprehensive search was undertaken of Ovid Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and AMED (from inception to January 2013). Prospective studies of participants with shoulder pain receiving physiotherapy which investigated the association between baseline prognostic factors and change in pain and function over time were included. Study selection, data extraction and appraisal of study quality were undertaken by two independent assessors. Quality criteria were selected from previously published guidelines to form a checklist of 24 items. The study protocol was prospectively registered onto the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews. Results: A total of 5023 titles were retrieved and screened for eligibility, 154 articles were assessed as full text and 16 met the inclusion criteria: 11 cohort studies, 3 randomised controlled trials and 2 controlled trials. Results were presented for the 9 studies meeting 13 or more of the 24 quality criteria. Clinical and statistical heterogeneity resulted in qualitative synthesis rather than meta-analysis. Three studies demonstrated that high functional disability at baseline was associated with poor functional outcome (p ≤ 0.05). Four studies demonstrated a significant association (p ≤ 0.05) between longer duration of shoulder pain and poorer outcome. Three studies, demonstrated a significant association (p ≤ 0.05) between increasing age and poorer function; three studies demonstrated no association (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Associations between prognostic factors and outcome were often inconsistent between studies. This may be due to clinical heterogeneity or type II errors. Only two baseline prognostic factors demonstrated a consistent association with outcome in two or more studies; duration of shoulder pain and baseline function. Prior to developing a predictive model for the outcome of physiotherapy treatment for shoulder pain, a large adequately powered prospective cohort study is required in which a broad range of prognostic factors are incorporated.Peer reviewe

Frontier basins of the West Australian continental margin : post-survey report of marine reconnaissance and geological sampling survey GA2476

This report (Record 2009/38) contains the description and preliminary analysis of datasets acquired during Geoscience Australia marine reconnaissance survey GA2476 to the west Australian margin. The survey, completed as part of the Federal Government's Offshore Energy Program, was undertaken between 25 October 2008 and 19 January 2009 using the German research vessel RV Sonne. The survey acquired geological, geophysical, oceanographic and biological data over poorly known areas of Australia's western continental margin. Data from the marine reconnaissance survey (GA2476) and the concordant regional seismic survey (GA0310) will improve knowledge of frontier sedimentary basins and marginal plateaus and allow assessment of their petroleum prospectivity and environmental significance. These data will be used to improve resource management and underpin decisions regarding future acreage release in offshore Western Australia and marine zone management. Four key areas were targeted: the Zeewyck and Houtman sub-basins (Perth Basin), the Cuvier margin (northwest of the Southern Carnarvon Basin), and the Cuvier Plateau (a sub-feature of the Wallaby Plateau). Over the duration of the survey a total of 229,000 km2 (26,500 line-km) of seabed was mapped with the multi-beam sonar, 25,000 line-km of digital shallow seismic reflection data and 25,000 line-km of gravity and magnetic data. A variety of sampling equipment was deployed over the duration of the survey, including ocean floor observation systems (OFOS), deep-sea TV controlled grab (BODO), boxcores, rock dredges, conductivity-temperature-depth profilers (CTD) and epibenthic sleds. A total of 62 stations were examined throughout the survey, including 16 over the Houtman Sub-basin, 16 over the Zeewyck Sub-basin, 13 in the Cuvier margin, 12 over the Cuvier Plateau and four in the Indian Ocean. This report is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the survey activities, equipment used and preliminary results form survey GA2476