ArtWorks Evaluation Final Report

This summary provides an overview of the Final Evaluation Report for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation's (PHF) Special Initiative, ArtWorks. The Evaluation has been undertaken by DHA and the Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester

ArtWorks Development Grants, Year 2 Evaluation

Following the end of the ArtWorks initiative, Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) has continued to fund a range of activity to explore how artists could be better supported in developing their practice in participatory settings. In 2013, as part of the initiative, PHF funded seven projects through small development grants; in 2015 PHF decided to fund a further group of six projects, all with activity taking place between July 2015 and March 2016 (and some with activity continuing beyond this time). Each of the projects has received between £3,200 and £3,500. In addition, Creative Scotland funded a project which had applied through the PHF funding process, at a similar amount.The projects largely focus on one or two of three things: supporting new or enhancing existing networks; trialling models of continuing professional development (CPD) for artists working in participatory settings; and developing improved circumstances for collaboration and/or new work. Over the seven projects, two have established new networks of artists, and three sought to build on or extend the activities of existing networks (though all involved some artists who were 'new' to the network). Six projects undertook formal CPD programmes, ranging from self/co-facilitated networks involving peer support and exchange through to formal placements attached to 'live' projects. One project focused particularly on the ways in which artists/arts organisations and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) could collaborate to support training and research for and by artists, and several projects sought to explore how employers, funders and commissioners could be brought together with artists.The key findings of the evaluation, looking across the different projects, are discussed below. This Executive Summary considers: the approaches used with and impact upon participating artists; how projects have sought to engage with actors in the system who are not artists; how the projects have managed their resources; and what questions and issues have emerged as a result of the Development Grants

‘Evidence of Things That Appear Not’? - A Critical Review of the Role of Arts and Culture in the Regeneration of Urban Places and Urban Communities

This review examines the propositions made regarding the role arts and culture may play in the regeneration of urban places and urban communities. It explores both the evidence available to support these propositions, and the methods employed to produce this evidence. This study builds upon previous analysis of this topic to understand the contemporary state of knowledge and practice in this area. It considers the relationship between the stated purposes of cultural interventions, and the conditions under which knowledge generation around such interventions take place. As such, it seeks to explain why particular methodological approaches are employed in given circumstances. The review focuses on practice in the UK, but also considers examples from further afield, including the European Capital of Culture programme. By way of an overview, the review provides a pair of typologies which have emerged from the evidence reviewed. Firstly, a typology of the ways in which interventions may seek to achieve ‘regenerative’ outcomes, and secondly a typology of methods employed for evaluating programmes, outlining the different data sources and approaches to analysis commonly employed. The review also considers how far such evaluations establish whether these regenerative outcomes have been achieved and identifies a number of shortfalls in this area. As such, a number of common challenges and contextual issues are identified to attempt to explain the quality of evidence currently available. Finally, the review considers what possibilities there are for improving the current state of knowledge production, and likely future directions in this area

The social life of measurement:How methods have shaped the idea of culture in urban regeneration

Although ‘culture-led regeneration’ has been critiqued as both a concept and practice, it is clear that policy-makers continue to make efforts to use cultural activity of varying forms to achieve ends which could be (and are) described in terms of urban ‘regeneration’. Whilst the idea of culture-led urban regeneration had gained considerable prominence in a range of policy by the early twenty-first century, many questions have remained over how exactly such ‘regenerative’ outcomes could be convincingly demonstrated, despite much activity to attempt such demonstration over the course of preceding years. The desire for convincing evidence can be seen in a continued, and increasing, focus on evaluation, and methods aimed at providing evidence of impact and outcomes. In light of the renewed political focus in recent years on ‘proving’ the effects and value of cultural activity, this paper considers the continuation of practice in this area, and asks what lessons, if any, have been learned in evaluative practice which seeks to demonstrate the regenerative effects of culture. In light of the continuation of apparently problematic practices, the paper seeks to delineate and account for what has been learned, and what has not

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Increasing frailty is associated with higher prevalence and reduced recognition of delirium in older hospitalised inpatients: results of a multi-centre study

Purpose: Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder delineated by an acute change in cognition, attention, and consciousness. It is common, particularly in older adults, but poorly recognised. Frailty is the accumulation of deficits conferring an increased risk of adverse outcomes. We set out to determine how severity of frailty, as measured using the CFS, affected delirium rates, and recognition in hospitalised older people in the United Kingdom. Methods: Adults over 65 years were included in an observational multi-centre audit across UK hospitals, two prospective rounds, and one retrospective note review. Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), delirium status, and 30-day outcomes were recorded. Results: The overall prevalence of delirium was 16.3% (483). Patients with delirium were more frail than patients without delirium (median CFS 6 vs 4). The risk of delirium was greater with increasing frailty [OR 2.9 (1.8–4.6) in CFS 4 vs 1–3; OR 12.4 (6.2–24.5) in CFS 8 vs 1–3]. Higher CFS was associated with reduced recognition of delirium (OR of 0.7 (0.3–1.9) in CFS 4 compared to 0.2 (0.1–0.7) in CFS 8). These risks were both independent of age and dementia. Conclusion: We have demonstrated an incremental increase in risk of delirium with increasing frailty. This has important clinical implications, suggesting that frailty may provide a more nuanced measure of vulnerability to delirium and poor outcomes. However, the most frail patients are least likely to have their delirium diagnosed and there is a significant lack of research into the underlying pathophysiology of both of these common geriatric syndromes