739 research outputs found

    Exploring the relationship between adolescent's reading skills, reading motivation and reading habits.

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    The present study examines the extent to which adolescents’ reading affect (reading motivation) and behaviour (reading habits) predict different components of reading (word reading, comprehension, summarisation and text reading speed) and also adds to the limited research examining group differences (gender, age, ability) in adolescents’ reading motivation and reading habits. A representative sample of three hundred and twelve students (aged 11–16) from the UK participated. Adolescents’ reading motivation predicted significant variance in their reading comprehension and summarisation skills, after accounting for word reading and text reading speed. Reading motivation also predicted significant variance in text reading speed after accounting for word reading. Notably, however, different dimensions of motivation predicted variance in different reading skills. Of all the reading habits, only fiction book reading emerged as a consistent predictor of variation in the different reading skills, after accounting for the other reading abilities. Group differences (gender, age and ability) were consistent with previous literature

    Practitioners’ ability to remotely develop understanding for personalised care and support planning: a thematic analysis of multiple data sources from the feasibility phase of the Dementia Personalised Care Team (D-PACT) intervention

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    Practitioner understanding of patients’ preferences, wishes and needs is essential for personalised health care i.e., focusing on ‘what matters’ to people based on their individual life situation. To develop such an understanding, dementia practitioners need to use communication practices that help people share their experiences, preferences, and priorities. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, dementia support is likely to continue to be delivered both remotely and in-person. This study analysed multiple sources of qualitative data to examine the views of practitioners, people living with dementia and carers, and researchers on how an understanding of what matters to people living with dementia can be developed remotely via telephone and video call. Access to environmental stimuli, the remote use of visual tools, peoples’ tendency to downplay or omit details about their troubles and carers’ ability to disclose privately were interpreted, through thematic analysis, to be factors affecting how practitioners sought to develop understanding remotely. Cumulatively, findings show that while remote support created unique challenges to practitioners’ ability to develop understanding for personalised care, practitioners developed adaptive strategies to overcome some of these challenges. Further research should examine how, when and for whom these adapted practices for remote personalised care work, informing the development of evidence-based guidance and training on how practitioners can remotely develop the understanding required for personalised care

    Practitioners' ability to remotely develop understanding for personalised care and support planning: a thematic analysis of multiple data sources from the feasibility phase of the Dementia Personalised Care Team (D-PACT) intervention

    Get PDF
    Practitioner understanding of patients' preferences, wishes and needs is essential for personalised health care i.e., focusing on 'what matters' to people based on their individual life situation. To develop such an understanding, dementia practitioners need to use communication practices that help people share their experiences, preferences, and priorities. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, dementia support is likely to continue to be delivered both remotely and in-person. This study analysed multiple sources of qualitative data to examine the views of practitioners, people living with dementia and carers, and researchers on how an understanding of what matters to people living with dementia can be developed remotely via telephone and video call. Access to environmental stimuli, the remote use of visual tools, peoples' tendency to downplay or omit details about their troubles and carers' ability to disclose privately were interpreted, through thematic analysis, to be factors affecting how practitioners sought to develop understanding remotely. Cumulatively, findings show that while remote support created unique challenges to practitioners' ability to develop understanding for personalised care, practitioners developed adaptive strategies to overcome some of these challenges. Further research should examine how, when and for whom these adapted practices for remote personalised care work, informing the development of evidence-based guidance and training on how practitioners can remotely develop the understanding required for personalised care

    Engaging stakeholders in realist programme theory building: insights from the prospective phase of a primary care dementia support study

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    ‘Dementia - Personalised Care Team’ (D-PACT) is a five-year NIHR funded programme, using realist methods to develop and evaluate a complex, person-centred intervention for people with dementia and their carers. During the early project stages, we engaged with multiple stakeholders, including people with dementia and their carers, to develop an initial programme theory (IPT) – into an elaborated programme theory (EPT), by helping to uncover intervention mechanisms leading to outcomes in specific contexts. Realist research methods for developing programme theories are under-reported. In addition, there is a paucity of practical guidance on how to engage underserved and vulnerable populations in complex interventions programme theory development. We attend to these gaps, providing a worked example of how we meaningfully engaged people living with dementia and carers, alongside field experts, as stakeholders in this process. Our IPT theory building included multi-stakeholder primary research exercises and meetings with PPI contributors and an Expert Reference Group. We adapted interview schedules, and used visual resources and scenario-based activities, to support stakeholders to think in a ‘realist’ way. Using realist and thematic analyses led to hypothesis-building of causal mechanisms. Sharing findings with stakeholders led to further refinement of the intervention design, ready for testing in a subsequent feasibility study. We found that, despite the cognitive challenges associated with dementia, innovative methods of engagement can enable this stakeholder group to understand the realist approach and provide a platform through which to share their experiences. Taking a highly flexible and unhurried approach, led to novel insights into the complexities of person-centred dementia support. We argue for more detailed methodological guidance, based on realist principles, on how to collaborate with underrepresented populations to rigorously gain insights as to what is likely to make a difference and refine initial programme theory

    Sexualisation, or the queer feminist provocations of Miley Cyrus

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    Miley Cyrus has increasingly occupied debates at the centre of feminist engagements with popular culture. Evoking concerns around young women and ‘sexualisation’, Cyrus emerges as a convergent signifier of sexualised media content and the girl-at-risk. As Cyrus is repeatedly invoked in these debates, she comes to function as the bad object of young femininity. Arguing, however, that Cyrus troubles the sexualisation thesis in the provocations of her creative practice, I suggest that this contested media figure exceeds the frames through which she is read. Thus, I ask: what kinds of insights might be possible if we were to transform the terms on which we approach this figure? Considering a selection of the images and performances that constitute the Cyrus archive, this article proposes a reading of Cyrus as performative provocation. Mobilising an existing sensibility of queer feminist struggle, Cyrus emerges as a disruptive, albeit contradictory, figure. Questions of privilege, limit and possibility emerge in this discussion, as well as what constitutes feminist struggle

    Oceanographic features and limited dispersal shape the population genetic structure of the vase sponge Ircinia campana in the Greater Caribbean

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    Understanding population genetic structure can help us to infer dispersal patterns, predict population resilience and design effective management strategies. For sessile species with limited dispersal, this is especially pertinent because genetic diversity and connectivity are key aspects of their resilience to environmental stressors. Here, we describe the population structure of Ircinia campana, a common Caribbean sponge subject to mass mortalities and disease. Microsatellites were used to genotype 440 individuals from 19 sites throughout the Greater Caribbean. We found strong genetic structure across the region, and significant isolation by distance across the Lesser Antilles, highlighting the influence of limited larval dispersal. We also observed spatial genetic structure patterns congruent with oceanography. This includes evidence of connectivity between sponges in the Florida Keys and the southeast coast of the United States (>700 km away) where the oceanographic environment is dominated by the strong Florida Current. Conversely, the population in southern Belize was strongly differentiated from all other sites, consistent with the presence of dispersal-limiting oceanographic features, including the Gulf of Honduras gyre. At smaller spatial scales (<100 km), sites showed heterogeneous patterns of low-level but significant genetic differentiation (chaotic genetic patchiness), indicative of temporal variability in recruitment or local selective pressures. Genetic diversity was similar across sites, but there was evidence of a genetic bottleneck at one site in Florida where past mass mortalities have occurred. These findings underscore the relationship between regional oceanography and weak larval dispersal in explaining population genetic patterns, and could inform conservation management of the species

    Findability of UK health datasets available for research: a mixed methods study

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    Objective How health researchers find secondary data to analyse is unclear. We sought to describe the approaches that UK organisations take to help researchers find data and to assess the findability of health data that are available for research.Methods We surveyed established organisations about how they make data findable. We derived measures of findability based on the first element of the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reproducible). We applied these to 13 UK health datasets and measured their findability via two major internet search engines in 2018 and repeated in 2021.Results Among 12 survey respondents, 11 indicated that they made metadata publicly available. Respondents said internet presence was important for findability, but that this needed improvement. In 2018, 8 out of 13 datasets were listed in the top 100 search results of 10 searches repeated on both search engines, while the remaining 5 were found one click away from those search results. In 2021, this had reduced to seven datasets directly listed and one dataset one click away. In 2021, Google Dataset Search had become available, which listed 3 of the 13 datasets within the top 100 search results.Discussion Measuring findability via online search engines is one method for evaluating efforts to improve findability. Findability could perhaps be improved with catalogues that have greater inclusion of datasets, field-level metadata and persistent identifiers.Conclusion UK organisations recognised the importance of the internet for finding data for research. However, health datasets available for research were no more findable in 2021 than in 2018

    Efficacy of early PET-CT directed switch to carboplatin and paclitaxel based definitive chemoradiotherapy in patients with oesophageal cancer who have a poor early response to induction cisplatin and capecitabine in the UK: a multi-centre randomised controlled phase II trial induction cisplatin and capecitabine in the UK: a multi-centre randomised controlled phase II trial

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    Background: The utility of early metabolic response assessment to guide selection of the systemic component of definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) for oesophageal cancer is uncertain.// Methods: In this multi-centre, randomised, open-label, phase II substudy of the radiotherapy dose-escalation SCOPE2 trial we evaluated the role of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) at day 14 of cycle 1 of three-weekly induction cis/cap (cisplatin (60 mg/m2)/capecitabine (625 mg/m2 days 1–21)) in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) or adenocarcinoma (OAC). Non-responders, who had a less than 35% reduction in maximum standardised uptake value (SUVmax) from pre-treatment baseline, were randomly assigned to continue cis/cap or switch to car/pac (carboplatin AUC 5/paclitaxel 175 mg/m2) for a further induction cycle, then concurrently with radiotherapy over 25 fractions. Responders continued cis/cap for the duration of treatment. All patients (including responders) were randomised to standard (50Gy) or high (60Gy) dose radiation as part of the main study. Primary endpoint for the substudy was treatment failure-free survival (TFFS) at week 24. The trial was registered with International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number 97125464 and ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02741856.// Findings: This substudy was closed on 1st August 2021 by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee on the grounds of futility and possible harm. To this point from 22nd November 2016, 103 patients from 16 UK centres had participated in the PET-CT substudy; 63 (61.2%; 52/83 OSCC, 11/20 OAC) of whom were non-responders. Of these, 31 were randomised to car/pac and 32 to remain on cis/cap. All patients were followed up until at least 24 weeks, at which point in OSCC both TFFS (25/27 (92.6%) vs 17/25 (68%); p = 0.028) and overall survival (42.5 vs. 20.4 months, adjusted HR 0.36; p = 0.018) favoured cis/cap over car/pac. There was a trend towards worse survival in OSCC + OAC cis/cap responders (33.6 months; 95%CI 23.1-nr) vs. non-responders (42.5 (95%CI 27.0-nr) months; HR = 1.43; 95%CI 0.67–3.08; p = 0.35).// Interpretation: In OSCC, early metabolic response assessment is not prognostic for TFFS or overall survival and should not be used to personalise systemic therapy in patients receiving dCRT

    Using genetics to inform restoration and predict resilience in declining populations of a keystone marine sponge

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    Genetic tools can have a key role in informing conservation management of declining populations. Genetic diversity is an important determinant of population ftness and resilience, and can require careful management to ensure sufcient variation is present. In addition, population genetics data reveal patterns of connectivity and gene fow between locations, enabling mangers to predict recovery and resilience, identify areas of local adaptation, and generate restoration plans. Here, we demonstrate a conservation genetics approach to inform restoration and management of the loggerhead sponge (Spheciospongia vesparium) in the Florida Keys, USA. This species is a dominant, habitat-forming component of marine ecosystems in the Caribbean region, but in Florida has sufered numerous mass mortality events. We developed microsatellite markers and used them to genotype sponges from 14 locations in Florida and a site each in The Bahamas, Belize and Barbuda. We found that genetic diversity levels were similar across all sites, but inbreeding and bottleneck signatures were present in Florida. Populations are highly structured at the regional scale, whilst within Florida connectivity is present in a weak isolation by distance pattern, coupled with chaotic genetic patchiness. Evidence of a weak barrier to gene fow was found in Florida among sites situated on opposite sides of the islands in the Middle Keys. Loggerhead sponge populations in Florida are vulnerable in the face of mass mortalities due to low connectivity with other areas in the region, as well as distance-limited and unpredictable local connectivity patterns. However, our discovery of Florida’s high genetic diversity increases hope for resilience to future perturbations. These results provide valuable insight for sponge restoration practice in Florida. for sponge restoration practice in Florida
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