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Child Proton Beam Therapy: a qualitative study of parental views on treatment and information sources
No full textIntroduction:
Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) is often described as an advanced mode of radiotherapy. Whilst PBT offers an equivalent chance of cure to conventional radiotherapy, it is said to offer a theoretical reduction in long term side effects. NHS patients have had access to PBT since 2008 and approximately 65% of the 1144 approved referrals have been for paediatric cases. Yet, there is little research on how parents in these paediatric cases perceive their child’s PBT and the information sources they encounter.
Methods:
This is a qualitative inquiry informed by in-depth interviews carried out with 27 parents of children treated with PBT.
Results:
Parents primarily frame PBT as a form of radiation but one which is better than alternatives. Whilst medical professionals do play a role, wider sources of information – such as other families and the internet – are important to both initial decision-making and treatment/recovery experiences.
Conclusion:
Parents are faced with the challenge of a ‘fragmented expertise’ which comes with the ‘novelty’ of the radiation therapy, the ‘rare’ nature of the tumours and the remote location of clinical specialists.
Implications for Practice:
This article will prove useful for practitioners dealing with parents and care givers of children undergoing proton therapy, and is especially valuable and timely for practitioners based in the newly installed proton centres in the UK. Two high energy proton centres are expected to become fully operational in the UK by the end of 2020. Understanding parents’ experiences and perspectives can help avoid undue anxiety and lead to service improvements and overall satisfaction
Shahrazad's storytelling as postcolonial feminine writing in the novels of Hanan al-Shaykh and Elif Shafak.
No full textThis thesis explores how contemporary postcolonial women writers reclaim a new position of writing that I define as postcolonial feminine writing, which mirrors and transcends the storytelling of Shahrazad in terms of theme and structure. Postcolonial feminine writing as a concept is drawn out of Frantz Fanon’s ‘Algeria Unveiled’, Hélène Cixous’s ‘The Laugh of Medusa’ and Shahrazad’s storytelling. The intersection of these theories and narrative styles allows for an interrogation into how it is not only possible for women writers to operate within patriarchal narrative discourse, but also how it is possible to undo and re-imagine the very norms of the patriarchal discourse from within. Thus, this concept offers an alternative to colonial and patriarchal discourses by questioning how non-Western women are denied access to voice as well as different power structures such as honour and the gaze and by seeking ways to move beyond these restrictions. I question the extent to which Shahrazad is employed as a liberating figure in contemporary postcolonial women’s narratives.
The following chapters locate the potential of Shahrazadean narrative in Hanan al- Shaykh’s One Thousand and One Nights (2011), Elif Shafak’s The Gaze (2006), and Honour (2012) in order to challenge and re-imagine societal norms and structures. I argue that postcolonial feminine writing enables Shafak and al-Shaykh to re-create liberating spaces and rethink patriarchal literary discourses as embodied. By demonstrating how Shahrazad uses her body to access a narrative voice and intertwines narrative desire with sexual desire, I trace the potential of voice to the body through postcolonial feminine writing. Then, I identify how postcolonial feminine writing enables multiple and fluid gazing positions, allowing marginalised figures to be subjects of the gaze and re-define their gender and societal identities. By questioning the patriarchal binary oppositions of voice/silence and honour/shame, I explore how it is also possible for silence and shame to be alternative forms of communication. Consequently, I argue that postcolonial feminine writing enables temporary interventions into patriarchal and colonial discourses. It is the repetition of these interventions, albeit temporary, that undermines patriarchal power structures whilst re- inventing more subversive and liberating discourses as well as embodied potentialities
Functionality and acceptability of a novel non-invasive neonatal heart rate monitoring device: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals
No full textBackground Detecting neonatal heart rate
rapidly and accurately at birth is essential
if resuscitation is required. The Neo-Sense
prototype provides a quick, non-invasive
method to measure neonatal heart rate at birth based
on electric potential sensing technology. The
study aimed to inform the prototype design
process by exploring the required features and
usability of this novel device among healthcare
professionals.
Methods:
Face-to-face,semi-structured interviews
were conducted with healthcare professionals
involved in the immediate care of babies at
birth: paediatricians, midwives and neonatal
nurses.
Interviews were audio-recorded
and subsequently transcribed verbatim. Two
independent researchers coded and extracted
the emerging categories and performed a
thematic content analysis.
Results:
In total, 21 participants were
interviewed, 7 from each professional group.
Participants expressed a positive attitude
towards the novel prototype. The three main
themes extracted were anticipated limitations,
advantages and suggestions for development
and usage. Participants preferred a device that is
easy to use and attach, one which is positioned
in a mattress or pad, maintaining also the option
of being mobile. Education was considered to
have a key role in addressing staff anxiety. The
ideal features most frequently mentioned were
speed of assessment, reliability and accuracy.
Conclusions:
The study enabled a better
understanding of the perceived barriers and
facilitators to developing a new heart rate
monitoring device. The development of a quick
and accurate device would have immense
implications for clinical practice and the potential
to improve neonatal mortality and morbidity
Compact Patch Antenna with Vertical Polarization and Omni-Directional Radiation Characteristics
No full textThis communication proposes a compact, low-profile patch
antenna with omni-directional radiation pattern and vertical polarization. A pair of shorted patches are excited in-phase to achieve the omni-directivity and the vertical polarization, simultaneously. The
principle is to excite two back-to-back arranged shorted patches to generate symmetrical electric field (E-field) distributions normal to the ground plane. Analytical study on how to generate the omni-directional radiation pattern is carried out. Base on this study, we found the spacing
in-between the two patches have little influence on the radiation characteristics, which provides another flexibility in the design. In addition, the shape of the patch and the corresponding field distribution
are investigated to further improve the omni-directivity. To improve the impedance bandwidth, resonant structures are inserted in-between the patches, producing the 2nd order response in frequency. The antenna has been fabricated and characterized, and the measured results are in a
reasonable agreement with the simulations, showing that the proposed antenna is suitable for potential surface-mount wireless applications
Low-rank discriminative least squares regression for image classification
No full textDiscriminative least squares regression (DLSR) aims to learn relaxed regression labels to replace strict zero-one labels. However, the distance of the labels from the same class can also be enlarged while using the ε-draggings technique to force the labels of different classes to move in the opposite directions, and roughly persuing relaxed labels may lead to the problem of overfitting. To solve above problems, we propose a low-rank discriminative least squares regression model (LRDLSR) for multi-class image classification. Specifically, LRDLSR class-wisely imposes low-rank constraint on the relaxed labels obtained by non-negative relaxation matrix to improve its within-class compactness and similarity. Moreover, LRDLSR introduces an additional regularization term on the learned labels to avoid the problem of overfitting. We show that these two improvements help to learn a more discriminative projection for regression, thus achieving better classification performance. The experimental results over a range of image datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed LRDLSR method. The Matlab code of the proposed method is available at https://github.com/chenzhe207/LRDLSR
BRIGHTLIGHT researchers as ‘dramaturgs’: creating There is a Light from complex research data
No full textBackground:
BRIGHTLIGHT is a national evaluation of cancer services for young people aged 13-24 years in England. It is a mixed methods study with six interlinked studies aiming to answer the question: do specialist cancer services for teenagers and young adults add value? http://www.brightlightstudy.com/. Young people have been integral to study development and management, working as co-researchers, consultants and collaborators throughout. We aimed to share results in a way that was meaningful to young people, the public, and multidisciplinary professionals. This paper reports the development of ‘There is a Light: BRIGHTLIGHT’, a theatrical interpretation of study results by young people, and offers insight into the impact on the cast, researchers and audiences.
Methods:
The BRIGHTLIGHT team collaborated with Contact Young Company, a youth theatre group in Manchester. Twenty members of Contact Young Company and four young people with cancer worked together over an eight-week period during which BRIGHTLIGHT results were shared along with explanations of cancer, healthcare policy and models of care in interactive workshops. Through their interpretation, the cast developed the script for the performance. The impact of the process and performance on the cast was evaluated through video diaries. The research team completed reflective diaries and audiences completed a survey.
Results:
‘There is a Light’ contained five acts and lasted just over an hour. It played 11 performances in six cities in the United Kingdom, to approximately 1,377 people. After nine performances, a 30-minute talk-back between members of the cast, creative team, an expert healthcare professional, and the audience was conducted, which was attended by at least half the audience. Analysis of cast diaries identified six themes: initial anxieties; personal development; connections; cancer in young people; personal impact; interacting with professionals. The cast developed strong trusting relationships with the team. Professionals stated they felt part of the process rather than sitting on the periphery sharing results. Both professional and lay audiences described the performance as meaningful and understandable. Feedback was particularly positive from those who had experienced cancer themselves.
Conclusions:
Using theatre to present research enabled BRIGHTLIGHT results to be accessible to a larger, more diverse audience
Optimized foam-assisted CO2 enhanced oil recovery technology in tight oil reservoirs
No full textIn this paper, foam-assisted CO2 EOR and anti-gas channelling technology are investigated and optimized to enhance tight oil recovery. A series of laboratory experiments, including pressure−volume−temperature, foam generation and evaluation, and coreflood tests, and phase behaviour theoretical mathematical models are performed to evaluate foam agent, analyze anti-gas channelling mechanisms and influential factors, and optimize foam-assisted CO2 EOR technique. The specific CO2 bulk fluid behaviour and phase behaviour in wellbore are determined through experimental and theoretical models. Two distinct stages are found to be divided prior to and after the CO2 gas breakthrough. Most oil productions, which is in the range of 28–40%, occur prior to the gas breakthrough, whereas only additional 5–8% oil is produced after the gas breakthrough. A higher injection rate and/or permeability ratio result in an earlier gas breakthrough and causes less oil to be produced before gas breakthrough while the oil recovery factor slightly increases after the breakthrough by increasing injection rate. Gas diffusion in water-saturated core reach equilibrium faster than that in the oil-saturated core. An overall evaluation parameter is developed to select foam agent. The optimized static condition for the selected foam agent here is approximately 9 MPa at low temperatures while dynamic performance is improved at a higher gas but lower liquid injection rate. The simultaneous water-alternating-gas injection scheme in subsequent of an initial gas injection with liquid−gas ratio of 1:1 performs better than the water-alternating-gas scheme, which is proven to be effective for the core samples with fracture width of 82.67 μm. Finally, the oilfield surface foaming operational system is designed to upscale laboratory research to practical applications with specific operating setup and procedures, which has been applied in the target oil reservoir and performs well as expected
The need to disentangle assessment and feedback in higher education
No full textIn contemporary higher education systems, the processes of assessment and feedback are often seen as coexisting activities. As a result, they have become entangled in both policy and practice, resulting in a conceptual and practical blurring of their unique purposes. In this paper, we present a critical examination of the issues created by the entanglement of assessment and feedback, arguing that it is important to ensure that the legitimate purposes of both feedback and assessment are not compromised by inappropriate conflation of the two. We situate our argument in the shifting conceptual landscape of feedback, where there is increasing emphasis on students being active players in feedback processes working with and applying information from others to future learning tasks, rather than regarding feedback as a mechanism of transmission of information by teachers. We surface and critically discuss six problems created by the entanglement of assessment and feedback: students’ focus on grades; comments justifying grades rather than support learning; feedback too late to be useful; feedback subordinated to all other processes in course design; overemphasis on documentation of feedback; and the downgrading of feedback created by requirements for anonymous marking. We then propose a series of strategies for preserving the learning function of feedback, through models that give primacy to feedback within learning cycles. We conclude by offering suggestions for research and practice that seek to engage with the challenges created by the entanglement of assessment and feedback, and that maintain the unique purposes of assessment and feedback
Compact Source-Gated Transistor Analog Circuits for Ubiquitous Sensors
No full textSilicon-based digital electronics have evolved
over decades through an aggressive scaling process
following Moore’s law with increasingly complex device
structures. Simultaneously, large-area electronics have
continued to rely on the same field-effect transistor structure with minimal evolution. This limitation has resulted in less than ideal circuit designs, with increased complexity to account for shortcomings in material properties and process control. At present, this situation is holding back the development of novel systems required for printed and flexible electronic applications beyond the Internet of Things.
In this work we demonstrate the opportunity offered by the
source-gated transistor’s unique properties for low-cost,
highly functional large-area applications in two extremely
compact circuit blocks. Polysilicon common-source
amplifiers show 49 dB gain, the highest reported for a twotransistor
unipolar circuit. Current mirrors fabricated in
polysilicon and InGaZnO have, in addition to excellent current copying performance, the ability to control the temperature dependence (degrees of positive, neutral or negative) of
output current solely by choice of relative transistor
geometry, giving further flexibility to the design engineer.\ud
Application examples are proposed, including local
amplification of sensor output for improved signal integrity, as well as temperature-regulated delay stages and timing circuits for homeostatic operation in future wearables. Numerous applications will benefit from these highly competitive compact circuit designs with robust performance, improved energy efficiency and tolerance to geometrical variations: sensor front-ends, temperature sensors, pixel drivers, bias analog blocks and high-gain amplifiers
Effects and moderators of coping skills training on symptoms of depression and anxiety in patients with cancer: Aggregate data and individual patient data meta-analyses
No full textPurpose
This study evaluated the effects of coping skills training (CST) on symptoms of depression and anxiety in cancer patients, and investigated moderators of the effects.
Methods
Overall effects and intervention-related moderators were studied in meta-analyses of pooled aggregate data from 38 randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Patient-related moderators were examined using linear mixed-effect models with interaction tests on pooled individual patient data (n = 1953) from 15 of the RCTs.
Results
CST had a statistically significant but small effect on depression (g = −0.31,95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.40;-0.22) and anxiety (g = −0.32,95%CI = -0.41;-0.24) symptoms. Effects on depression symptoms were significantly larger for interventions delivered face-to-face (p = .003), led by a psychologist (p = .02) and targeted to patients with psychological distress (p = .002). Significantly larger reductions in anxiety symptoms were found in younger patients (pinteraction ˂ 0.025), with the largest reductions in patients ˂50 years (β = −0.31,95%CI = -0.44;-0.18) and no significant effects in patients ≥70 years. Effects of CST on depression (β = −0.16,95%CI = -0.25;-0.07) and anxiety (β = −0.24,95%CI = -0.33;-0.14) symptoms were significant in patients who received chemotherapy but not in patients who did not (pinteraction ˂ 0.05).
Conclusions
CST significantly reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety in cancer patients, and particularly when delivered face-to-face, provided by a psychologist, targeted to patients with psychological distress, and given to patients who were younger and received chemotherapy.</p
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