Patient perceptions of epinephrine auto-injectors: Exploring barriers to use

Background: In recent years, government initiatives have proposed that patient self-care should serve as a key resource in response to the anticipated increase in global demand for health care. However, if patients are to be empowered as self-carers, barriers to engagement must be identified and overcome. Anaphylaxis is an increasingly common life threatening allergic reaction. Patients at risk of anaphylaxis are prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors and play a crucial role in delivering their own care and management of this condition. One key recommendation is that patients routinely carry an epinephrine auto-injector with them, and deploy the device when needed. However, only a small proportion of patients that require epinephrine actually receive it. Objective: To explore the reasons why patients who have been prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors fail to adhere to self-care and management recommendations. Methods: In-depth interviews with 15 adults who have been prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors were carried out to explore the barriers that exist in the provision of effective self-care and management of anaphylaxis. Results: Inconsistent health professional advice, perceived stigma of carrying a ‘weapon-like’ device, poor device design and limited patient training were identified as barriers to carriage or use. Patients were reluctant to carry devices in public because of perceived and observed stigma and suspicion. They were happy to ignore expiry dates and some participants were confident that the emergency services would provide them with the appropriate care they needed, and therefore did not carry the device in urban areas. Conclusions and clinical implications: Improved training of patients, the public and health professionals around both the carriage and use of auto-injectors are areas for urgent attention if improved levels of self-care are to be attained. The design of epinephrine auto-injectors should also receive attention as patients often fail to carry them due to size and aesthetics. Key words: Adherence, allergy, anaphylaxis, empowerment, epinephrine, self-care, self-management, patient perspectivesThis study was funded by grant number Ref: GR/S29874/01 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

The Musical Alternatives of Donizetti\u27s Lucia di Lammermoor: An Analysis and Guide for Performance Practice

Opera encompasses a long history of substitutions and alterations in its performance tradition. This dissertation compiles and analyzes alterations made in performances of one opera, Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), since its creation in 1835. The study focuses on the standard practices of cutting, sections of tacet, interpolated material (such as cadenzas and other ornaments/embellishments), and transpositions in the performance tradition of Lucia. Although portions of this information can be found in various sources, no current resource exists that compiles the data from these sources and presents information on more recent performance practices and resources. By offering a more thorough compilation of alterations and the resulting dramatic ramifications, this dissertation provides a resource to aid in the decision-making process of conductors, directors, coaches, teachers, and musicians who contribute to the production of this opera. Primary source materials consist of the following: information obtained from personal interviews with professionals in the industry who are intimately acquainted with the opera; newspaper, magazine, and journal articles; and an analysis of existing audio and video recordings and hand-marked scores. Consequences of alterations to the score are examined. The appendices provide reference guides to cadenza resources and to cut and tacet options for Lucia, as well as transcriptions of selected interviews conducted for this study. This study indicates that the nature of alterations, as well as the popular alterations themselves, integral to Lucia\u27s evolution may, in fact, be one of the contributing factors to the opera\u27s enduring longevity in the repertoire

Pengaruh Bahasa Ibunda dalam Proses Pembelajaran Bahasa Melayu Murid-Murid India

Penyelidikan ini dijalankan dengan tujuan meneliti pengaruh bahasa ibunda dalam proses pembelajaran bahasa Melayu murid-murid India di Pekan Buntung, Perak Darul Ridzuan. Kajian ditadbir ke atas sejumlah 180 murid tahun enam di SRJK(T) Sg. Pari dan SRJK(T) Methodist, Buntung, Perak Darul Ridzuan. Kajian ini menggunakan karangan murid-murid yang ditulis dalam situasi pembelajaran formal, pertuturan bahasa Melayu di dalam kelas dan jawapan-jawapan kepada soal selidik yang diberi di penghujung sesi kajian. Dapatan tentang analisis kandungan ke atas karangan murid yang dihasilkan dalam proses pembelajaran secara formal menunjukkan bahawa proses penggantian fonem vokal bahasa Melayu dalam aspek leksikal paling banyak dipengaruhi oleh bahasa ibunda. Dalam aspek ayat, pengaruh tersebut diwakili oleh binaan ayat penyata. Pengaruh seperti pemindahan bahasa ibunda paling ketara dalam aspek kata dasar yang menerima pengaruh bunyi vokal dan konsonan bahasa Tamil. Selanjutnya, pemerhatian ke atas aspek pertuturan bahasa Melayu murid-murid membuktikan bahasa memanjangkan bunyi vokal dalam kata pinjaman kerap terdapat pada kata dasar. Di samping itu fenomenon percampuran kod bahasa Melayu-Tamil terutama yang terdiri daripada jenis Ayat Penyata turut dikesan. Dalam proses pembelajaran secara tidak formal tinjauan telah dilakukan berdasarkan soal selidik. Dapatan soal selidik menunjukkan bahawa unsur ekstralinguistik bahasa ibunda yang paling dominan ialah sikap terhadap bahasa ibunda. Dengan kata lain, sikap terhadap bahasa ibunda sangat kukuh di kalangan pengguna menganggap bahasa ibunda perlu digunakan selalu

Black and minority ethnic trainees’ experiences of physical education initial teacher training

The official published version can be accessed at the link below.This report draws together the findings of research that aimed to explore black and minority ethnic (BME) trainees’ experiences of Physical Education (PE) initial teacher training (ITT). Although the numbers of BME trainees opting to enter teaching have improved considerably over the last few years, PE remains one of three specific subject areas where they remain significantly under-represented. Current figures suggest that PE attracts approximately 3% of trainees from BME backgrounds, compared with 11% for new entrants into teaching overall. The relative lack of success in attracting BME trainees into PE teaching compared to other subject areas suggests that the subculture of the subject may be a compounding factor. Over the last decade or so, a number of studies have explored the impact of ethnicity on teachers’ professional socialisation and their experiences as teachers in school, but none have focused on experiences within specific subject cultures. The centrality of the body in PE, and the link between this and the perceived low status of the subject, are influencing factors highlighted in the broader literature, including sports studies. For example, research exploring racism and the under-representation of BME participants in sport has highlighted the prevalence of stereotypical attitudes about their physicality and abilities held by coaches, administrators and spectators. Other research has suggested that some minority ethnic groups favour higher status, better paid, careers in areas such as law or medicine rather than teaching. As yet, there has been little attention to ‘race’ and ethnicity within PEITT, although studies have shown the impact of gender on trainees’ developing professional identities, and how teachers’ gendered bodies are important ‘tools’ of their work. In addition, there has been little research that has acknowledged trainees’ multiple identities, or the complex ways in which ‘race’, ethnicity, class and gender and other identity markers intersect to impact on the professional socialisation process. The research on which this report is based sought to fill some of these gaps in our understandings of BME trainees’ experiences of PEITT, and to identify strategies that might help in their recruitment and retention in the longer term. The research was funded through a small Recruitment and Retention Challenge Grant from the Teacher Development Agency (TDA). These grants form part of the TDA’s wider policy agenda to widen the diversity of new intakes opting into teaching. Higher education institutions have been encouraged, through targets and financial support and incentives, to develop specific strategies aimed at widening the diversity of their cohorts. Examples of such strategies include the provision of specialist admission help for BME prospective trainees; opportunities to gain experience in schools; open days and ‘taster’ events; advertising in the ethnic minority media, and the development of good practice guides and staff training to help ITT providers address issues of ‘race’ and ethnicity. 5 The impetus for this research resulted, in part, from presentations and discussions at a one day PEITT Network1 staff seminar on diversity held in October, 2007. The quantitative research conducted by the Association for Physical Education (AfPE) and the Ethnic Minority Foundation (EMF) presented here, showed the extent of the national under-representation of BME students in PEITT. Although the day focused on addressing reasons for BME under representation and strategies that might be used for improving recruitment, we felt it was also important to learn about the qualitative experiences of trainees that have been attracted into PEITT. Understanding the experiences of our current BME trainees might offer useful insights into how we might recruit and retain future such trainees. Our choice of qualitative research was supported by a national study published shortly after the network day, investigating the links between gender, ethnicity and degree attainment (Higher Education Academy, HEA, 2008), which specifically calls for further qualitative studies of students’ experiences of different subject areas.Funding from the Training and Development Agency (TDA

ELVIS: Entertainment-led video summaries

© ACM, 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications, 6(3): Article no. 17 (2010) http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1823746.1823751Video summaries present the user with a condensed and succinct representation of the content of a video stream. Usually this is achieved by attaching degrees of importance to low-level image, audio and text features. However, video content elicits strong and measurable physiological responses in the user, which are potentially rich indicators of what video content is memorable to or emotionally engaging for an individual user. This article proposes a technique that exploits such physiological responses to a given video stream by a given user to produce Entertainment-Led VIdeo Summaries (ELVIS). ELVIS is made up of five analysis phases which correspond to the analyses of five physiological response measures: electro-dermal response (EDR), heart rate (HR), blood volume pulse (BVP), respiration rate (RR), and respiration amplitude (RA). Through these analyses, the temporal locations of the most entertaining video subsegments, as they occur within the video stream as a whole, are automatically identified. The effectiveness of the ELVIS technique is verified through a statistical analysis of data collected during a set of user trials. Our results show that ELVIS is more consistent than RANDOM, EDR, HR, BVP, RR and RA selections in identifying the most entertaining video subsegments for content in the comedy, horror/comedy, and horror genres. Subjective user reports also reveal that ELVIS video summaries are comparatively easy to understand, enjoyable, and informative

Big Data and Analytics: Issues and Challenges for the Past and Next Ten Years

In this paper we continue the minitrack series of papers recognizing issues and challenges identified in the field of Big Data and Analytics, from the past and going forward. As this field has evolved, it has begun to encompass other analytical regimes, notably AI/ML systems. In this paper we focus on two areas: continuing main issues for which some progress has been made and new and emerging issues which we believe form the basis for near-term and future research in Big Data and Analytics. The Bottom Line: Big Data and Analytics is healthy, is growing in scope and evolving in capability, and is finding applicability in more problem domains than ever before

Big Data Redux: New Issues and Challenges Moving Forward

As of the time of this writing, our HICSS-46 proceedings article has enjoyed over 520 Google Scholar citations. We have published several HICSS proceedings, articles and a book on this subject, but none of them have generated this level of interest. In an effort to update our findings six years later, and to understand what is driving this interest, we have downloaded the first 500 citations to our article and the corresponding citing article, when available. We conducted an in-depth literature review of the articles published in top journals and leading conference proceedings, along with articles with a high volume of citations. This paper provides a brief summary of the key concepts in our original paper and reports on the key aspects of interest we found in our review, and also updates our original paper with new directions for future practice and research in big data and analytics