Inconclusive evidence to support the use of minimally-invasive radiofrequency denervation against chronic low back pain

Low back pain (LBP), defined as the localized pain or discomfort between the costal margins and superior gluteal line, with or without associated lower limb pain, is one of the most commonly encountered pain syndromes in adults. It is considered chronic LBP (CLBP), when pain persists for more than three months (1). CLBP might be disabling with increased missing hours of productive work or of personal activities and it can also be associated with significant excess of healthcare costs (2). Commonly, CLBP also gives rise to the genesis or exacerbation of various psychiatric disorders, such as depression and/or anxiety (3)

Sense-it: A Smartphone Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning

We describe a toolkit for Android smartphones and tablets that enables a user to access all the sensors available on the device. Data from individual sensors can be viewed as dynamic graphs. Output from one or more sensors can be recorded to a spreadsheet, with the sampling rate set by the learner. As a tool for inquiry learning, the sensors can be linked to ‘missions’ on the nQuire-it website, allowing learners to sample and share data for collaborative crowd-sourced investigations. Four nQuire-it missions have employed the sensor toolkit for investigating environmental noise, sunlight levels, air pressure and rainfall, and the speed of lifts (elevators). These four investigations represent a variety of methods to initiate, orchestrate and conclude inquiry science learning. Two of the missions are in the context of a study to develop a community of inquiry around weather and meteorology. The others are intended to engage members of the public in practical science activities. Analysis of the missions and the associated online discussions reveals that the Sense-it toolkit can be adopted for practical and engaging science investigations, though the issue of calibrating sensors on personal devices needs to be addressed

Designing citizen science tools for learning: lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire

This paper reports on a 4-year research and development case study about the design of citizen science tools for inquiry learning. It details the process of iterative pedagogy-led design and evaluation of the nQuire toolkit, a set of web-based and mobile tools scaffolding the creation of online citizen science investigations. The design involved an expert review of inquiry learning and citizen science, combined with user experience studies involving more than 200 users. These have informed a concept that we have termed ‘citizen inquiry’, which engages members of the public alongside scientists in setting up, running, managing or contributing to citizen science projects with a main aim of learning about the scientific method through doing science by interaction with others. A design-based research (DBR) methodology was adopted for the iterative design and evaluation of citizen science tools. DBR was focused on the refinement of a central concept, ‘citizen inquiry’, by exploring how it can be instantiated in educational technologies and interventions. The empirical evaluation and iteration of technologies involved three design experiments with end users, user interviews, and insights from pedagogy and user experience experts. Evidence from the iterative development of nQuire led to the production of a set of interaction design principles that aim to guide the development of online, learning-centred, citizen science projects. Eight design guidelines are proposed: users as producers of knowledge, topics before tools, mobile affordances, scaffolds to the process of scientific inquiry, learning by doing as key message, being part of a community as key message, every visit brings a reward, and value users and their time

The design and evaluation of a sensor-based mobile application for citizen inquiry science investigations

Despite their advantages of portability and ease of use, mobile devices have not yet been used in their full potential in education to measure and investigate real world phenomena. While some existing applications exploit individual sensors on mobile devices, there is no current toolkit that combines and customises data from the full range of sensors, and makes these data available for import to citizen inquiry science projects. This pa-per presents such a toolkit, called the Sense-it app, which gives access to all sensors on Android smartphones and tablets and connects to new or existing citizen science projects. We describe the design and formative evaluation of the toolkit in collaboration with students and teachers from a city technology college

Facilitating the expression of learner voices in the participatory design of technology to support inquiry learning

Chin (2004) argues that in order for technology to become embedded into curricula activities, it is important that institutional contexts, as well as pupil needs, are considered in the design process. However, this can be a significant challenge as opportunities for learners to express opinions are bound by institutional and research parameters, such as the curriculum, assessment criteria, organisational logistics, technology, pedagogical method and research agenda. So, how can learners voice their opinions and contribute to participatory design? The question is of fundamental concern in the Personal Inquiry project, funded by the EPSRC/ESRC. Its goal is to develop an innovative toolkit, running on an Ultra-Mobile PC, which provides ‘scripts’ in the form of dynamic lesson plans that guide the learners through the inquiry. Both the scripts and their implementation are designed in participation with pupils and teachers. In this paper, we present the findings from our research to date. Four participatory design workshops have been carried out with two schools in Nottingham and Milton Keynes. Each had a teacher and 6-8 pupils (in single year grouping from years 8-10). Two workshops were designed to provide pupils’ reflective accounts of their inquiry-based experiences with prototypes. Two workshops were more forward thinking as pupils were invited to think of interesting ways to investigate their subject and to help create a framework for the inquiry process. These workshops have enabled us to explore several ways to facilitate the expression of learner voices in the participatory design of technology to support inquiry learning. The outcomes of the workshops have informed the design of ongoing inquiry-based activities and technologies and are being implemented in future studies. Chin, G. (2004), A case study in the participatory design of a collaborative science-based learning environment, unpublished PhD thesis, Blacksburg, Virginia

Seamless learning despite context

The chapter examines seamless learning, where the aim is to enable a continuous flow of meaning-making despite changes in the physical and social context. One way to achieve this is by inducing a flow state, such that learners are so engaged in a mobile learning activity that they lose awareness of their surroundings. Mobile educational games may be one way to achieve such flow, but this is neither easy to achieve, nor necessarily effective for learning. Another approach is to connect learning across contexts such as classroom and home. This approach requires careful orchestration of the learning, to enable the learning in one setting to be integrated into another. Seamless learning despite context is a fundamental skill that integrates self-directed learning, teacher guidance and the support of a mobile technology toolkit

A Challenge to Enhance the System of Education—a Comment from a Researcher Perspective

Technology-enhanced learning is a complex dynamic system of technologies and practices, informed by pedagogy. Aspects of this system are very difficult to change because they are bound together in an interlocking set of curricula, standards and examining processes. Thus, an overarching Grand Challenge is for educational institutions to break this deadlock and become learning systems, with educational technology as the mechanism for institutional development as well as for enhancing learning. This creates a productive cycle where analyses of current practices, using learning analytics, inform objectives and strategies that are put into practice through a process of technology-enhanced learning design

Moderating nutritious habits in psychiatric patients using transtheoretical model of change and counseling

Motivational Interviewing provides the opportunity to health professionals to have an effective strategy to increase the level of readiness to change health behaviors. Along with the Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change Model) compose the theoretical base of intervention in psychiatry settings. Objective: This study was aimed to change nutritious behavior of psychiatric patients using a specific Model of Change and Counseling implementing a health education program. Methodology: A quasi-experimental design was adopted on a random sample of 60 psychiatric patients at Military Hospital of Athens. Patients were divided into two groups as follows; (a) Intervention Group (four sessions of counseling and encouraging motivation for modification of their nutritious habits), and (b) Control Group (simple information sessions about the principles of healthy alimentation). Results: The mean age of Intervention Group (IG) was 43.9 ± 9.5 and Control Group (CG) 46.1 ± 9.1, ranging from 40 to 55 years old. Also, 26.7% of the participants were female, 23.3% were married and, 10% divorced. Our analyses showed that IG patients were significantly loss weight post-intervention compared to CG patients. Specifically, IG patients were significantly moderated the intake of starchy foods in every meal (p < 0.001) and the intake of fruits and vegetables (p < 0.001). Similarly, IG patients were moderated the intake of low fat dairy foods while they changed the full fat dairy foods with low fat (p < 0.001). Also important, IG patients showed significant enhance (80%) regarding drugs compliance, suggesting that 34% of the CG patients often forgot to take their medication. Finally, IG patients reported a positive attitude towards moderating unhealthy nutritious behaviors (p = 0.032). Conclusions: Our results confirms that health educational and promotional Interventions may change behavior of psychiatric patients and thus may positively influence their nutritious habits. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017