'You were quiet - I did all the marching': Research processes involved in hearing the voices of South Asian girls

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2011 A B Academic Publishers.This article provides insights into the outcomes of reflection following two interview approaches used to explore narratives of the lived, individual experiences of South-Asian girls living in West London. In attempting to illuminate and re-present the cultural experiences as told by these girls, the choice of interview approach became critical in allowing the voices to be effectively heard (Rogers, 2005). This article therefore considers how a semi-structured interview approach offered valuable insights into the girls' experiences but became constraining for both researcher and participant in unveiling the complexity and depth of their lives. These constraints emerged through reflection by both participants and researcher. As a result of reflexivity during the research process, the researcher moved towards the use of research conversations during the second phase of the study. Ultimately the study revealed how the girls felt empowered by the opportunity to narrate their individual experiences and tell of their lives. In narrating their reflections on being part of the research, there was a clear recognition that the process facilitated the articulation of new voices and ‘multi-voicedness’ (Moen, 2006

Language and rigour in qualitative research: Problems and principles in analyzing data collected in Mandarin

In collaborative qualitative research in Asia, data are usually collected in the national language, and this poses challenges for analysis. Translation of transcripts to a language common to the whole research team is time consuming and expensive; meaning can easily be lost in translation; and validity of the data may be compromised in this process. We draw on several published examples from public health research conducted in mainland China, to highlight how language can influence rigour in the qualitative research process; for each problem we suggest potential solutions based on the methods used in one of our research projects in China

Essential versus accessory aspects of cell death: recommendations of the NCCD 2015

Cells exposed to extreme physicochemical or mechanical stimuli die in an uncontrollable manner, as a result of their immediate structural breakdown. Such an unavoidable variant of cellular demise is generally referred to as ‘accidental cell death’ (ACD). In most settings, however, cell death is initiated by a genetically encoded apparatus, correlating with the fact that its course can be altered by pharmacologic or genetic interventions. ‘Regulated cell death’ (RCD) can occur as part of physiologic programs or can be activated once adaptive responses to perturbations of the extracellular or intracellular microenvironment fail. The biochemical phenomena that accompany RCD may be harnessed to classify it into a few subtypes, which often (but not always) exhibit stereotyped morphologic features. Nonetheless, efficiently inhibiting the processes that are commonly thought to cause RCD, such as the activation of executioner caspases in the course of apoptosis, does not exert true cytoprotective effects in the mammalian system, but simply alters the kinetics of cellular demise as it shifts its morphologic and biochemical correlates. Conversely, bona fide cytoprotection can be achieved by inhibiting the transduction of lethal signals in the early phases of the process, when adaptive responses are still operational. Thus, the mechanisms that truly execute RCD may be less understood, less inhibitable and perhaps more homogeneous than previously thought. Here, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death formulates a set of recommendations to help scientists and researchers to discriminate between essential and accessory aspects of cell death

Becoming a black researcher: reflections on racialised identity and knowledge production

Critical race theory (CRT) emerged from the U.S. context, and many question the validity of its application to spaces beyond the United States; however, for many black academics in the UK, it has a powerful resonance. Where many in the academy have dismissed the viability of the concept of race in favour of the term ethnicity – or they privilege class – in any discussion of inequalities, CRT recognises the salience of race, centralising it and analysing the ways in which race and racism continue to shape life experiences. CRT has provided an intellectual space for a growing community of academics in England to explore not only our own racial positioning within the academy and wider society but also that of the communities we work with in our research to achieve greater social justice. This paper explores the significance of CRT to the author’s biography and intellectual journey

Genome-wide trans-ancestry meta-analysis provides insight into the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes susceptibility.

To further understanding of the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes (T2D) susceptibility, we aggregated published meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), including 26,488 cases and 83,964 controls of European, east Asian, south Asian and Mexican and Mexican American ancestry. We observed a significant excess in the directional consistency of T2D risk alleles across ancestry groups, even at SNPs demonstrating only weak evidence of association. By following up the strongest signals of association from the trans-ethnic meta-analysis in an additional 21,491 cases and 55,647 controls of European ancestry, we identified seven new T2D susceptibility loci. Furthermore, we observed considerable improvements in the fine-mapping resolution of common variant association signals at several T2D susceptibility loci. These observations highlight the benefits of trans-ethnic GWAS for the discovery and characterization of complex trait loci and emphasize an exciting opportunity to extend insight into the genetic architecture and pathogenesis of human diseases across populations of diverse ancestry

Ion mobility mass spectrometry enhances low-abundance species detection in untargeted lipidomics

We describe a simple method for the detection of low intensity lipid signals in complex tissue samples, based on a combination of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and ion mobility mass spectrometry. The method relies on visual and software-assisted analysis of overlapped mobilograms (diagrams of mass-to-charge ratio, m/z, vs drift time, DT) and was successfully applied in untargeted lipidomics analyses of mouse brain tissue to detect relatively small variations in a scarce class of phospholipids (N-acyl phosphatidylethanolamines) generated during neural tissue damage, against a background of hundreds of lipid species. Standard analytical tools, including Principal Component Analysis, failed to detect such changes. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11306-016-0971-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Global variation in diabetes diagnosis and prevalence based on fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but these measurements can identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening, had elevated FPG, HbA1c or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardized proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed and detected in survey screening ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the age-standardized proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29–39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c was more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global shortfall in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance