The best marker for guiding the clinical management of patients with raised intracranial pressure: the RAP index or the mean pulse amplitude?

Raised intracranial pressure is a common problem in a variety of neurosurgical conditions including traumatic brain injury, hydrocephalus and intracranial haemorrhage. The clinical management of these patients is guided by a variety of haemodynamic, biochemical and clinical factors. However to date there is no single parameter that is used to guide clinical management of patients with raised intracranial pressure (ICP). However, the role of ICP indices, specifically the mean pulse amplitude (AMP) and RAP index [correlation coefficient (R) between AMP amplitude (A) and mean ICP pressure (P); index of compensatory reserve], as an indicator of true ICP has been investigated. Whilst the RAP index has been used both as a descriptor of neurological deterioration in TBI patients and as a way of characterising the compensatory reserve in hydrocephalus, more recent studies have highlighted the limitation of the RAP index due to the influence that baseline effect errors have on the mean ICP, which is used in the calculation of the RAP index. These studies have suggested that the ICP mean pulse amplitude may be a more accurate marker of true intracranial pressure due to the fact that it is uninfluenced by the mean ICP and, therefore, the AMP may be a more reliable marker than the RAP index for guiding the clinical management of patients with raised ICP. Although further investigation needs to be undertaken in order to fully assess the role of ICP indices in guiding the clinical management of patients with raised ICP, the studies undertaken to date provide an insight into the potential role of ICP indices to treat raised ICP proactively rather than reactively and therefore help prevent or minimise secondary brain injury

New opportunities for disadvantaged pupils: the step-up programme

In the UK, the link between low income and poor educational outcomes has been long established. The Step-Up programme, which was initiated in Northern Ireland in 2000, was conceived and developed as a specific response to the under achievement and non participation in higher education of socially and economically disadvantaged secondary school pupils.<p></p> In addition to raising educational aspirations, the programme aims to raise pupil and school performance in science in order to enable pupils to gain entry to and complete programmes of study at higher education institutions.<p></p> The programme actively involves the University, schools, industry, the local hospitals and government agencies in the delivery of a highly structured programme of academic and vocational science activities.<p></p> The pupils who have participated in the programme have achieved outstanding success with over 97 per cent progressing to universities across the UK. The retention/completion rate for students who have progressed to the University of Ulster stands at 95 per cent, which compares favourably with national and international retention rates.<p></p> The authors suggest that this level of success has been achieved through appropriate pre university preparation and post university support and they provide recommendation for the successful replication and implementation of the programme in other institutions.<p></p&gt

The Carnival of Popularity

This article illustrates a persistent recent strain in my research invoking the concept of 'carnival and carnivalesque' as a possible interface between art, politics, culture and society. Here, the argument lead into and refers to emergent issues of Nationalism and Populism and pits the artist's interest in Pop and Popularity againsth these more perncius manifestations. Numerous artists and theorists are referred to, covering a long historical arc, while always keeping the most recent developments in politics at the heart of the argument (this article also links to a series of related articles by the author for Third Text Online). 5,000 word article, based on Paul O'Kane's research and lecturing, published in the Online Supplement of Peer Reviewed journal Third Text

Godfried Donkor

Review of the Ghanaian artist Godfried Donkor, in a publication celebrating 20 years of the Camberwell Arts Festival

Post-Perspectival Art and Politics in Post-Brexit Britain: (Towards a Holistic Relativism)

Excerpt: At a Parliament Square rally held this summer in the immediate aftermath of the EU Referendum, several noble-minded, well-intentioned liberal speakers called upon the defeated, deflated and hugely disappointed crowd to ‘understand’ those who voted differently to ourselves, and to ‘empathise’ with working-class communities who, since the decline and demise of the New Labour project, have been gradually but comprehensively moved to think, act and vote with and for the centre-Right, hard-Right or far-Right. This political drift is likely to open a widening gap between core, middle class, fine art audiences and those deemed less or least likely to attend fine art events. So just how should we progress, contribute and critique meaningfully within ‘Post-Brexit’ Britain