8,786 research outputs found
Patient-reported outcome measures for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: the exclusion of people with low literacy skills and learning disabilities
<p>Background: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)
are intended to reflect outcomes relevant to patients. They are
increasingly used for healthcare quality improvement. To
produce valid measures, patients should be involved in the
development process but it is unclear whether this usually
includes people with low literacy skills or learning disabilities.
This potential exclusion raises concerns about whether these
groups will be able to use these measures and participate in
quality improvement practices.</p>
<p>Methods: Taking PROMs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as an exemplar condition, our review
determined the inclusion of people with low literacy skills and
learning disabilities in research developing, validating, and
using 12 PROMs for COPD patients. The studies included in
our review were based on those identified in two existing
systematic reviews and our update of this search.
Results People with low literacy skills and/or learning
disabilities were excluded from the development of
PROMs in two ways: explicitly through the participant
eligibility criteria and, more commonly, implicitly through
recruitment or administration methods that would require
high-level reading and cognitive abilities. None of the
studies mentioned efforts to include people with low literacy skills or learning disabilities.</p>
<p>Conclusion: Our findings suggest that people with low
literacy skills or learning disabilities are left out of the
development of PROMs. Given that implicit exclusion was
most common, researchers and those who administer
PROMs may not even be aware of this problem. Without
effort to improve inclusion, unequal quality improvement
practices may become embedded in the health system.</p>
The role of institutional and family embeddedness in the failure of Sub-Saharan African migrant family businesses
There is considerable interest among European politicians and policymakers in how to integrate migrants in the local and national economy. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 owners of Sub-Saharan African migrant family businesses (SSAMBs) in the United Kingdom, this article critically examines why SSAMBs fail or underperform. This investigation draws upon three streams of literature – notably migrant business failure, institutional theory and family embeddedness. The findings highlight the challenges of doing business and the reasons for business failure among this group. These are different from other small businesses and include culture, family interference and ethnicity. The main contribution of the article lies in the development of a conceptual model that highlights the relationships between institutional contexts and migrant family business outcomes. The model proposes that institution and family embeddedness results in the enactment of ethnic behaviours that drive migrant businesses into cultural markets leading to business underperformance or failure
The cognitive consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic: collateral damage?
Recovery from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) will be principally defined in terms of remission from respiratory symptoms; however, both clinical and animal studies have shown that coronaviruses may spread to the nervous system. A systematic search on previous viral epidemics revealed that while there has been relatively little research in this area, clinical studies have commonly reported neurological disorders and cognitive difficulties. Little is known with regard to their incidence, duration or underlying neural basis. The hippocampus appears to be particularly vulnerable to coronavirus infections, thus increasing the probability of post-infection memory impairment, and acceleration of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Future knowledge of the impact of COVID-19, from epidemiological studies and clinical practice, will be needed to develop future screening and treatment programmes to minimize the long-term cognitive consequences of COVID-19
The cognitive consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic: collateral damage?
Recovery from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) will be principally defined in terms of remission from respiratory symptoms, however both clinical and animal studies have shown that coronaviruses may spread to the nervous system. A systematic search on previous viral epidemics revealed that while there has been relatively little research in this area, clinical studies have commonly reported neurological disorders and cognitive difficulties. Little is known with regard to their incidence, duration or underlying neural basis. The hippocampus appears to be particularly vulnerable to coronavirus infections, thus increasing the probability of post-infection memory impairment, and acceleration of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Future knowledge of the impact of COVID-19, from epidemiological studies and clinical practice, will be needed to develop future screening and treatment programmes to minimize the long-term cognitive consequences of COVID-19
An Effective Membrane Model of the Immunological Synapse
The immunological synapse is a patterned collection of different types of
receptors and ligands that forms in the intercellular junction between T Cells
and antigen presenting cells (APCs) during recognition. The synapse is
implicated in information transfer between cells, and is characterized by
different spatial patterns of receptors at different stages in the life cycle
of T cells. We obtain a minimalist model that captures this experimentally
observed phenomenology. A functional RG analysis provides further insights.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted for publicatio
Constant amplitude and post-overload fatigue crack growth behavior in PM aluminum alloy AA 8009
A recently developed, rapidly solidified, powder metallurgy, dispersion strengthened aluminum alloy, AA 8009, was fatigue tested at room temperature in lab air. Constant amplitude/constant delta kappa and single spike overload conditions were examined. High fatigue crack growth rates and low crack closure levels compared to typical ingot metallurgy aluminum alloys were observed. It was proposed that minimal crack roughness, crack path deflection, and limited slip reversibility, resulting from ultra-fine microstructure, were responsible for the relatively poor da/dN-delta kappa performance of AA 8009 as compared to that of typical IM aluminum alloys
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