Research disruption during PhD studies and its impact on mental health: Implications for research and university policy

Research policy observers are increasingly concerned about the impact of the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on university research. Yet we know little about the effect of this disruption, specifically on PhD students, their mental health, and their research progress. This study drew from survey responses of UK PhD students during the Covid-19 pandemic. We explored evidence of depression and coping behaviour (N = 1780), and assessed factors relating to demographics, PhD characteristics, Covid-19-associated personal circumstances, and significant life events that could explain PhD student depression during the research disruption (N = 1433). The majority of the study population (86%) reported a negative effect on their research progress during the pandemic. Results based on eight mental health symptoms (PHQ-8) showed that three in four PhD students experienced significant depression. Live-in children and lack of funding were among the most significant factors associated with developing depression. Engaging in approach coping behaviours (i.e., those alleviating the problem directly) related to lower levels of depression. By assessing the impact of research disruption on the UK PhD researcher community, our findings indicate policies to manage short-term risks but also build resilience in academic communities against current and future disruptions

Chronic exposure to stressors has a persistent effect on feeding behaviour but not cortisol levels in sticklebacks

Animals are often exposed to changes in their environment that may be perceived as stressful, leading to an acute stress response, but to which they can eventually habituate. However, if habituation is prevented, for example due to the stressors being diverse and unpredictable in the timing and sequence of their appearance, a state of chronic stress may ensue. Organisms exposed to chronic stressors may show altered patterns of glucocorticoid hormone synthesis as well as changes in behaviour (e.g. activity and feeding), but the exact phenotypic effects of chronically stressful environments remain poorly understood. In this study, we exposed adult three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, to an unpredictable chronic stress protocol over a period of 67 days and measured their response in terms of water-borne cortisol levels and behavioural patterns. We quantified activity and feeding behaviour in two contexts: (1) when the stressors were applied and (2) during the resting period between stressors. We did not observe a significant cortisol elevation following a period of chronic exposure nor any change in cortisol levels in response to an acute stressor. The exposure of fish to chronic stressors led to a decline in latency to feed during the resting periods, indicative of an anticipation of future stressors. We observed an increase in activity levels of the stress-exposed fish, but only during the presentation of the stressors. Organismal response to protracted exposure to stressors is energetically expensive; thus, our results may indicate a trade-off between energy-demanding activities in fish subjected to a chronically unpredictable environment

Timing of reproduction modifies transgenerational effects of chronic exposure to stressors in an annual vertebrate

Stressful environmental conditions can shape both an individual's phenotype and that of its offspring. However, little is known about transgenerational effects of chronic (as opposed to acute) stressors, nor whether these vary across the breeding lifespan of the parent. We exposed adult female (F0 generation) three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) to chronic environmental stressors and compared their reproductive allocation with that of non-exposed controls across early, middle and late clutches produced within the single breeding season of this annual population. There was a seasonal trend (but no treatment difference) in F0 reproductive allocation, with increases in egg mass and fry size in late clutches. We then tested for transgenerational effects in the non-exposed F1 and F2 generations. Exposure of F0 females to stressors resulted in phenotypic change in their offspring and grandoffspring that were produced late in their breeding lifespan: F1 offspring produced from the late-season clutches of stressor-exposed F0 females had higher early life survival, and subsequently produced heavier eggs and F2 fry that were larger at hatching. Changed maternal allocation due to a combination of seasonal factors and environmental stressors can thus have a transgenerational effect by influencing the reproductive allocation of daughters, especially those born late in life

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

Youth environmental science learning and agency: A unifying lens across community and citizen science settings

This study addresses an existing gap in our understanding of how participation in environmental Community and Citizen Science (CCS) projects may impact young volunteers’ environmental science learning across a wide variety of settings. We examined youth learning across four settings which we represented as cases: 5 short-term field-based events (BioBlitzes), 3 longer-term field-based monitoring programs, fully online projects (Zooniverse), and a hybrid format that combines participation in the field and online spaces (iNaturalist). This multiple-case study uses the Environmental Science Agency framework to interpret learning evidence of 33 young CCS volunteers (aged 10-13 years) in post-participation surveys, semi-structured interviews, and in ethnographic field notes for the field-based participants. Across the cases, we found particular features of the CCS projects and the scientific framings that may have encouraged aspects of ESA. Design features such as access to new knowledge, training, and scientific tools provided by the CCS projects encouraged youth to learn rich and varied understandings of disciplinary content, scientific skills and practices. An increased sense of confidence and competence in youth around the scientific practices of the projects were stimulated by scientific framing of CSS and ongoing participation. Overall, these aspects also supported small manifestations of youth agency with science

Combined photorefractive keratectomy and cross-linking. Pushing the limits

Correction of refractive error through laser-assisted means has soared in popularity in recent years, allowing it to become an increasingly routine surgical procedure. Technique refinement and adjustments resulted in laser-assisted refractive surgery to be combined with treatments such as collagen cross linking (CXL). This has broadened safety parameters and widened the treatment boundaries. Laser correction combined with CXL has been advocated in the treatment of high refractive errors as a safe option for full refractive correction while increasing corneal biomechanical stability. We present a complicated case where a young female patient with a preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/20 in each eye was fully corrected by excimer laser followed by CXL. Factors potentially leading to inflammation, such as ocular surface disease, in addition to laser treatment and CXL, resulted in persistent epithelial defect followed by corneal melt and subsequent thinning. After the treatment, the patient relies on rigid gas-permeable contact lenses, achieving a BCVA of 20/25 and 20/23 in the right eye and left eye, respectively. © 2019 Taiwan J Ophthalmol | Published by Wolters Kluwer-Medknow