Genetic, environmental and stochastic factors in monozygotic twin discordance with a focus on epigenetic differences

PMCID: PMC3566971This 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

Using appreciative inquiry to develop, implement and evaluate a multi-organisation ‘Cultivating Compassion’ programme for health professionals and support staff

The ‘Cultivating Compassion’ project was developed in response to a research and innovation call relating to compassion training for National Health Service staff in the South East of England. The project aims included the following: the use of Appreciative Inquiry to develop, implement and evaluate a sustainable and evidence-based programme of compassion awareness training through engaging with a diverse group of health professionals and support staff; an evaluation of a ‘train the trainers’ approach; and an evaluation of ‘compassion lead’ roles and a multi-modal compassion toolkit. The project team included academics from two universities and one medical school, NHS staff from three separate organisations and service users. The participants recruited to the study included doctors, nurses, receptionists, chaplains and others working in close contact with service users from within four NHS organisations in the South East of England. The main findings from the project using thematic analysis from participant focus groups and interviews identified project enablers and inhibitors, the value of project resources, and shifts in perspectives. Project conclusions highlighted the importance of effective senior-level support and organisational leadership in cultivating compassion within a healthcare organisation and the importance of the integration of compassion-promoting resources within existing staff development initiatives

Partial credit in mathematics exams - a comparison of traditional and CAA exams

With the growing trend in many subjects to deliver at least some part of examinations by computer, it is important to know whether there are any differences in the results obtained by candidates sitting examinations taken by computer compared to those obtained by candidates sitting conventional examinations using pen and paper. The purpose of this paper is to describe a pilot project to compare the traditional type of assessment with assessment done by computer in mathematics examinations and in particular to investigate the role of partial credit in these examinations. In paper based examinations full marks are awarded for a completely correct answer. If, however, a student obtains an incorrect answer but gets some parts of the working correct then in mathematics examinations partial credit is normally awarded. In a computer examination an incorrect answer to a question is normally awarded no marks with no consideration of any partial credit. The mechanism for giving partial credit in the computer examinations of this project was to break the question down into Steps. The project compared results of students taking computer tests in three different formats (either no Steps, compulsory Steps or optional Steps) and the partial credit they would have obtained by taking the corresponding examinations on paper. The tests were at the level of Scottish Higher school examinations and were taken by school students who were about to sit their Higher examinations. This level was chosen as it was high enough to test the students on strategy and mathematical working, while the questions were not too long so that a clearer analysis of the results was possible