A descriptive analysis of the drinking behaviour of the 1958 cohort at age 33 and the 1970 cohort at age 34

This paper provides a comparison of the drinking patterns of members of the 1958 British Birth Cohort at age 33 in 1991 and members of the 1970 British Birth Cohort at age 34 in 2004. In particular the focus is on the relationships between social class, gender and drinking behaviour and how these may have changed over time. In addition we exploit the detailed information available in the cohort studies about the kinds of alcohol that individuals drink to provide a description of how this varies between the two cohorts born twelve years apart. The paper also provides detailed descriptive analyses of the links between frequency of drinking and the number of units drunk for both cohorts. Results suggest that although the 1970 cohort report drinking more frequently than the 1958 cohort did at a similar age, there is only a modest increase in the average number of units of alcohol consumed per week for women and no increase for men. The paper also highlights some possible problems with data on alcohol consumption collected in the 2000 sweep of NCDS and BCS70 and concludes by making some comparisons between data collected in the cohort studies and data collected in the General Household Survey

Locus of control in children with emotional and behavioural difficulties : an exploratory study.

In 2 volsAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX178750 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

A cross-cultural study of High School teachers’ tacit knowledge of interpersonal skills

Effective teachers are characterized not only by pedagogical abilities and subject area mastery, but also by interpersonal skills. Using the Tacit Knowledge Inventory for High School Teachers (TKI-HS) – a situational judgement test consisting of 11 challenging interpersonal scenarios – this study compared how experienced teachers in England (n=108), Ireland (n=45) and Russia (n=492) rated seven possible response options for each scenario, to examine the extent to which the concept of “skilled interpersonal behavior” varies across cultures. The results indicate that judgments of “bad” responses are more similar across these three cultures, whereas there seems to be less agreement about what constitutes a “good” response. The importance of teachers’ tacit knowledge and how it varies across cultural contexts are discussed

La motivation des élèves : le rôle des facteurs sociaux

Cet article étudie des facteurs sociaux qui semblent déterminer les degrés de motivation et d’implication des élèves dans les études. En comparant des élèves de trois contextes culturels très différents, l’Angleterre, les États-Unis et la Russie, l’article met en lumière les différences de perception des finalités et de la valeur de l’éducation, et l’influence, tant négative que positive, qu’exercent les pairs sur le travail et la réussite scolaires. L’article conclut en remarquant que les élèves russes semblent de plus en plus adopter les perspectives occidentales.This paper considers some social factors that appear to underpin high levels of academic motivation and engagement. In comparing students from three very different cultural settings in England, the US and Russia, the paper highlights differences in the perceived purpose and value of education in each context, and the influence, both negative and positive, of peers in relation to educational striving and achievement. The paper concludes by noting that Russian students appear to be adopting more Western perspectives in respect of some of the themes identified and discussed.Este artículo estudia los factores sociales que parecen determinar los grados de motivación e implicación de los alumnos en los estudios. Al comparar alumnos de tres contextos culturales sumamente diferentes, Inglaterra, Estados Unidos y Rusia, el artículo revela las diferencias que caracterizan cada contexto en cuanto a la propia percepción de los fines y de los valores educativos, y la influencia tanto negativa como positiva que ejercen los semejantes en la labor y en el éxito educativo. El articulo concluye observando que los alumnos rusos parecen adoptar cada vez mas las perspectivas occidentales respecto a los temas analizados y discutidos

When ‘best practice’ meets the pedagogical nexus: recontextualisation, reframing and resilience

No abstract available

Facilitating Web-Based Collaboration in Evidence Synthesis (TaskExchange): Development and Analysis

Background: The conduct and publication of scientific research are increasingly open and collaborative. There is growing interest in Web-based platforms that can effectively enable global, multidisciplinary scientific teams and foster networks of scientists in areas of shared research interest. Designed to facilitate Web-based collaboration in research evidence synthesis, TaskExchange highlights the potential of these kinds of platforms.// Objective: This paper describes the development, growth, and future of TaskExchange, a Web-based platform facilitating collaboration in research evidence synthesis.// Methods: The original purpose of TaskExchange was to create a platform that connected people who needed help with their Cochrane systematic reviews (rigorous syntheses of health research) with people who had the time and expertise to help. The scope of TaskExchange has now been expanded to include other evidence synthesis tasks, including guideline development. The development of TaskExchange was initially undertaken in 5 agile development phases with substantial user engagement. In each phase, software was iteratively deployed as it was developed and tested, enabling close cycles of development and refinement.// Results: TaskExchange enables users to browse and search tasks and members by keyword or nested filters, post and respond to tasks, sign up to notification emails, and acknowledge the work of TaskExchange members. The pilot platform has been open access since August 2016, has over 2300 members, and has hosted more than 630 tasks, covering a wide range of research synthesis-related tasks. Response rates are consistently over 75%, and user feedback has been positive.// Conclusions: TaskExchange demonstrates the potential for new technologies to support Web-based collaboration in health research. Development of a relatively simple platform for peer-to-peer exchange has provided opportunities for systematic reviewers to get their reviews completed more quickly and provides an effective pathway for people to join the global health evidence community

Use of external evidence for design and Bayesian analysis of clinical trials:a qualitative study of trialists’ views

Abstract Background Evidence from previous studies is often used relatively informally in the design of clinical trials: for example, a systematic review to indicate whether a gap in the current evidence base justifies a new trial. External evidence can be used more formally in both trial design and analysis, by explicitly incorporating a synthesis of it in a Bayesian framework. However, it is unclear how common this is in practice or the extent to which it is considered controversial. In this qualitative study, we explored attitudes towards, and experiences of, trialists in incorporating synthesised external evidence through the Bayesian design or analysis of a trial. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 trialists: 13 statisticians and three clinicians. Participants were recruited across several universities and trials units in the United Kingdom using snowball and purposeful sampling. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and techniques of constant comparison. Results Trialists used existing evidence in many ways in trial design, for example, to justify a gap in the evidence base and inform parameters in sample size calculations. However, no one in our sample reported using such evidence in a Bayesian framework. Participants tended to equate Bayesian analysis with the incorporation of prior information on the intervention effect and were less aware of the potential to incorporate data on other parameters. When introduced to the concepts, many trialists felt they could be making more use of existing data to inform the design and analysis of a trial in particular scenarios. For example, some felt existing data could be used more formally to inform background adverse event rates, rather than relying on clinical opinion as to whether there are potential safety concerns. However, several barriers to implementing these methods in practice were identified, including concerns about the relevance of external data, acceptability of Bayesian methods, lack of confidence in Bayesian methods and software, and practical issues, such as difficulties accessing relevant data. Conclusions Despite trialists recognising that more formal use of external evidence could be advantageous over current approaches in some areas and useful as sensitivity analyses, there are still barriers to such use in practice

Chronic white matter lesion activity predicts clinical progression in primary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Chronic active and slowly expanding lesions with smouldering inflammation are neuropathological correlates of progressive multiple sclerosis pathology. T1 hypointense volume and signal intensity on T1-weighted MRI reflect brain tissue damage that may develop within newly formed acute focal inflammatory lesions or in chronic pre-existing lesions without signs of acute inflammation. Using a recently developed method to identify slowly expanding/evolving lesions in vivo from longitudinal conventional T2- and T1-weighted brain MRI scans, we measured the relative amount of chronic lesion activity as measured by change in T1 volume and intensity within slowly expanding/evolving lesions and non-slowly expanding/evolving lesion areas of baseline pre-existing T2 lesions, and assessed the effect of ocrelizumab on this outcome in patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis participating in the phase III, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind ORATORIO study (n = 732, NCT01194570). We also assessed the predictive value of T1-weighted measures of chronic lesion activity for clinical multiple sclerosis progression as reflected by a composite disability measure including the Expanded Disability Status Scale, Timed 25-Foot Walk and 9-Hole Peg Test. We observed in this clinical trial population that most of total brain non-enhancing T1 hypointense lesion volume accumulation was derived from chronic lesion activity within pre-existing T2 lesions rather than new T2 lesion formation. There was a larger decrease in mean normalized T1 signal intensity and greater relative accumulation of T1 hypointense volume in slowly expanding/evolving lesions compared with non-slowly expanding/evolving lesions. Chronic white matter lesion activity measured by longitudinal T1 hypointense lesion volume accumulation in slowly expanding/evolving lesions and in non-slowly expanding/evolving lesion areas of pre-existing lesions predicted subsequent composite disability progression with consistent trends on all components of the composite. In contrast, whole brain volume loss and acute lesion activity measured by longitudinal T1 hypointense lesion volume accumulation in new focal T2 lesions did not predict subsequent composite disability progression in this trial at the population level. Ocrelizumab reduced longitudinal measures of chronic lesion activity such as T1 hypointense lesion volume accumulation and mean normalized T1 signal intensity decrease both within regions of pre-existing T2 lesions identified as slowly expanding/evolving and in non-slowly expanding/evolving lesions. Using conventional brain MRI, T1-weighted intensity-based measures of chronic white matter lesion activity predict clinical progression in primary progressive multiple sclerosis and may qualify as a longitudinal in vivo neuroimaging correlate of smouldering demyelination and axonal loss in chronic active lesions due to CNS-resident inflammation and/or secondary neurodegeneration across the multiple sclerosis disease continuum