Encoded

ENCODED is an immersive aerial dance performance and installation that uses the latest interactive technologies to build a projected digital environment that responds to the movements of the performers

Feasibility study for a community based intervention for adults with severe chronic fatigue syndrome/ME

Background: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME (CFS/ME) is characterised by debilitating fatigue with many bedbound patients. The study aims were: to determine whether a new intervention could be successfully delivered; to collect quantitative outcome data to guide the design of future studies; to explore qualitatively the experience of patients, carers and clinicians. Methods: Mixed-methods feasibility study with qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Participants: 12 UK patients who were housebound with severe CFS/ME. Intervention: Based on recovery skills identified through a 2.5 year Patient and Public Involvement development process involving individuals with first-hand experience of recovery from CFS/ME, as well as current patients and clinicians. The resulting one year intervention, delivered by a multi-disciplinary team, included domiciliary therapy visits and optional peer support group. Quantitative outcome measures: Patient-reported and therapist-reported outcome measures (including fatigue, physical function, anxiety, depression and other variables) and electronic activity measurement. Results: The study recruited and engaged twelve participants with no serious adverse events or dropouts. At end of intervention, 5/12 participants had improved in fatigue, physical function. Group mean scores improved overall for fatigue (Chalder fatigue scale), physical function (activity and physical function scale) and anxiety. Qualitative interviews suggested that the intervention was acceptable to patients, whilst also highlighting suggestions for improvement. Participants will be followed up for a further year to find out if improvements are sustained. Conclusion: This is the largest study ever conducted in severe CFS/ME and shows significant recovery suggesting further studies are indicated. Treatment is uniquely based on a patient inspired intervention

Reading Videogames as (authorless) Literature

This article presents the outcomes of research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in England and informed by work in the fields of new literacy research, gaming studies and the socio-cultural framing of education, for which the videogame L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, 2011) was studied within the orthodox framing of the English Literature curriculum at A Level (pre-University) and Undergraduate (degree level). There is a plethora of published research into the kinds of literacy practices evident in videogame play, virtual world engagement and related forms of digital reading and writing (Gee, 2003; Juul, 2005; Merchant, Gillen, Marsh and Davies, 2012; Apperley and Walsh, 2012; Bazalgette and Buckingham, 2012) as well as the implications of such for home / school learning (Dowdall, 2006; Jenkins, 2006; Potter, 2012) and for teachers’ own digital lives (Graham, 2012). Such studies have tended to focus on younger children and this research is also distinct from such work in the field in its exploration of the potential for certain kinds of videogame to be understood as 'digital transformations' of conventional ‘schooled’ literature. The outcomes of this project raise implications of such a conception for a further implementation of a ‘reframed’ literacy (Marsh, 2007) within the contemporary curriculum of a traditional and conservative ‘subject’. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Firstly, students contributing to a gamplay blog requiring them to discuss their in-game experience through the ‘language game’ of English Literature, culminating in answering a question constructed with the idioms of the subject’s set text ‘final examination’. Secondly, students taught their teachers to play L.A. Noire, with free choice over the context for this collaboration. Thirdly, participants returned to traditional roles in order to work through a set of study materials provided, designed to reproduce the conventions of the ‘study guide’ for literature education. Interviews were conducted after each phase and the outcomes informed a redrafting of the study materials which are now available online for teachers – this being the ‘practical’ outcome of the research (Berger and McDougall, 2012). In the act of inserting the study of L.A. Noire into the English Literature curriculum as currently framed, this research moves, through a practical ‘implementation’ beyond longstanding debates around narratology and ludology (Frasca, 2003; Juul, 2005) in the field of game studies (Leaning, 2012) through a direct connection to new literacy studies and raises epistemological questions about ‘subject identity’, informed by Bernstein (1996) and Bourdieu (1986) and the implications for digital transformations of texts for both ideas about cultural value in schooled literacy (Kendall and McDougall, 2011) and the politics of ‘expertise’ in pedagogic relations (Ranciere, 2009, Bennett, Kendall and McDougall, 2012a)

Differential roles of push and pull factors on escape for travel: Personal and social identity perspectives

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd This study examines the effects of push and pull motivations linked to an individual\u27s personal and social identities as key antecedents to escape for travel. In terms of push factors, escape for travel is driven from a personal identity perspective by the need for evaluation of self and regression and from a social identity perspective by the need for social interaction but not enhancement of kinship. Cultural motives that reflect personal identity positively influence escape for travel than destination pull factors linked to social identity. Overall, the study contributes to the existing knowledge on push and pull tourist motivations

Beta-lactam antibiotics: from antibiosis to resistance and bacteriology

This review focuses on the era of antibiosis that led to a better understanding of bacterial morphology, in particlar the cell wall component peptidoglycan. This is an effort to take readers on a tour de force from the concept of antibiosis, to the serepidity of antibiotics, evolution of betalactam development, and the molecular biology of antibiotic resistance. These areas of research have culminated in a deeper understanding of microbiology, particularly in the area of bacterial cell wall synthesis and recycling. In spite of this knowledge, which has enabled design of new even more effective therapeutics to combat bacterial infection and has provided new research tools, antibiotic resistance remains a worldwide health care problem

Developing Student Engagement in China Through Collaborative Action Research

As its market and society open up, China has transformed itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an urban state and an economic force. This has released accumulated tourism demand, led to the development of a diversified industry, and the spread of university and vocational courses in this field. However, the industry faces challenges to recruit and retain staff, with tourism education in higher education blamed for the shortfall in numbers and quality of candidates with suitable purpose, knowledge, and passion to serve. This chapter provides a background to the development of and problems facing tourism education in China, and suggests how to support student engagement and hence the future workforce

BHPR research: qualitative1. Complex reasoning determines patients' perception of outcome following foot surgery in rheumatoid arhtritis

Background: Foot surgery is common in patients with RA but research into surgical outcomes is limited and conceptually flawed as current outcome measures lack face validity: to date no one has asked patients what is important to them. This study aimed to determine which factors are important to patients when evaluating the success of foot surgery in RA Methods: Semi structured interviews of RA patients who had undergone foot surgery were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore issues that were important to patients. Results: 11 RA patients (9 ♂, mean age 59, dis dur = 22yrs, mean of 3 yrs post op) with mixed experiences of foot surgery were interviewed. Patients interpreted outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, frequently positive change in one aspect contrasted with negative opinions about another. Overall, four major themes emerged. Function: Functional ability & participation in valued activities were very important to patients. Walking ability was a key concern but patients interpreted levels of activity in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on change in functional ability more than overall level. Positive feelings of improved mobility were often moderated by negative self perception ("I mean, I still walk like a waddling duck”). Appearance: Appearance was important to almost all patients but perhaps the most complex theme of all. Physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet patients saw these as distinct separate concepts. Patients need to legitimize these feelings was clear and they frequently entered into a defensive repertoire ("it's not cosmetic surgery; it's something that's more important than that, you know?”). Clinician opinion: Surgeons' post operative evaluation of the procedure was very influential. The impact of this appraisal continued to affect patients' lasting impression irrespective of how the outcome compared to their initial goals ("when he'd done it ... he said that hasn't worked as good as he'd wanted to ... but the pain has gone”). Pain: Whilst pain was important to almost all patients, it appeared to be less important than the other themes. Pain was predominately raised when it influenced other themes, such as function; many still felt the need to legitimize their foot pain in order for health professionals to take it seriously ("in the end I went to my GP because it had happened a few times and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who was quite dismissive of it, it was like what are you complaining about”). Conclusions: Patients interpret the outcome of foot surgery using a multitude of interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than other factors in the overall outcome of the surgery. Future research into foot surgery should incorporate the complexity of how patients determine their outcome Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes