ComTax: community-driven curation for taxonomic databases

This poster presents the work of the ComTax project to develop a community-driven curation process among practicing scientists and citizen scientists. The project provides tools to help scientists identify and validate appropriate taxonomic names from the scanned historical literature. The system operates on scanned documents, typically taken from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, although documents sourced from other repositories could be used. The system is intended to be used on uncorrected text after optical character recognition (OCR) on the scanned images. The key stages are: 1. Identify possible taxonomic names in the scanned text using machine learning techniques. 2. Verify the extracted names against existing databases. If present, the source scanned text can be automatically marked-up with the name. 3. Unverified names might mean they are not currently recorded in the verification databases, typically because the old name in the literature has been reclassified, or because erroneous OCR means that the name is incorrectly transcribed in the scanned text. In either case: 3.1. Present the proposed name to domain experts or citizen scientists for validation or correction, potentially through a voting mechanism to collect expert judgments on the putative taxonomic name. 3.2. Mark-up the scanned text with the corrected spelling of the name and offer validated taxonomic names for further use by the community. This poster will describe the technical challenges facing the ComTax project, and highlight potential extensions of the work to the curation of other entities of interest in the legacy literature or of different disciplines

Anne Edna Willis Lewis Collection - Accession 1209

The Anne Edna Willis Lewis Collection consists of materials collected by Anne Edna Willis Lewis (1902-2001) during her academic career at Winthrop College from 1921-1925. She graduated as part of the Winthrop Class of 1925. Her collection consists of 11 reports cards, 2 photographs taken at her 50th reunion, and a scrapbook containing photographs, programs, correspondence, tickets, invitations, newspaper clippings memorabilia, and commencement programs. A Winthrop scholarship was named in her and her husband’s honor titled the Anne W. Lewis and Robert M. Lewis Endowed Scholarship to assist academically talented students with financial need.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/1963/thumbnail.jp

The experience of facilitators and participants of long term condition self-management group programmes: a qualitative synthesis

Objective: Our aim was to systematically review the qualitative literature about the experiences of both facilitators and participants in a range of group-based programmes to support the self-management of long-term conditions. Methods: We searched 7 databases using the terms ‘self-management’, ‘group’ and ‘qualitative’. Full text articles meeting the inclusion criteria were retrieved for review. A thematic synthesis approach was used to analyse the studies. Results: 2126 articles were identified and 24 were included for review. Group participants valued being with similar others and perceived peer support benefits. Facilitators (HCP and lay) had limited group specific training, were uncertain of purpose and prioritised education and medical conformity over supportive group processes and the promotion of self-management agency and engagement. Overall, studies prioritised positive descriptions. Conclusion: Group programmes’ medical self-management focus may reduce their ability to contribute to patient-valued outcomes. Further research is needed to explore this disconnect. Practice implications: This review supports broadening the scope of group-based programmes to foreground shared learning, social support and development of agency. It is of relevance to developers and facilitators of group self-management programmes and their ability to address the burden of long-term conditions

How do facilitators of group programmes for long-term conditions conceptualise self-management support?

Objectives: Increasing self-management skills in people with long-term conditions is widely advocated in policies and guidelines. Group programmes are a common format; yet, how self-management support objectives are enacted in their delivery is poorly understood. Our aim is to explore the perspectives of group programme facilitators. Methods: We undertook thematic analysis of transcribed data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with health professional facilitators (n = 13) from six diverse self-management support group programmes (of obesity, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Results: Facilitators viewed group programmes as responses to health system pressures, e.g. high patient demand. They focussed on providing in-depth education and instruction on physical health, risks and lifestyle behaviour change and emphasised self-responsibility for behaviour change whilst minimising goal setting and support amongst group participants. There were tensions between facilitators’ professional identity and group leader role