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Riding the sustainable wave: Surfing and environmentalism
Get PDFThere is a myriad of reasons why the relationship between surfing and sustainability is an attractive focus for academic study. The relationship between cultural and subcultural dynamics, the transition of the multibillion-pound surfing industry to sustainable business models, or
the technological developments that create artificial wave environments that challenge our very perception of what is natural are just a few deep academic topics to dive in to
Retraining spelling and writing for conversation: a group intervention approach for people with aphasia and dysgraphia
No full textHow patient participation was used to develop a questionnaire that is fit for purpose for assessing quality of life in severe asthma
Get PDFBackground
Previous research shows that existing asthma quality of life questionnaires fail to measure the burden of oral corticosteroids that can be used to treat severe asthma, and are therefore not fit for purpose for severe asthma according to the USA’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) criteria for content validity. Patient input and documentation of that input is key to achieving content validity according to FDA guidelines. This paper describes the process of constructing a new questionnaire to measure the burden of asthma symptoms and burden of treatment in severe asthma, using criteria specified by the FDA.
Methods
A draft severe asthma questionnaire (SAQ) was constructed using qualitative input from severe asthma patients who took part in an earlier study. The aim of this study was to improve that draft questionnaire using a further group of patients. In four iterative focus groups, 16 people with severe asthma completed the draft questionnaire, discussed the wording and structure and suggested changes that were incorporated into the final version.
Results
The original intention to ask patients to identify whether problems were caused by asthma symptoms or side effects of medication was abandoned as the attribution of cause was found to be difficult and inconsistent. The recall period of 2 weeks was acceptable but fails to reflect the patients’ desire to express the variability of severe asthma. Patients suggested improvements to the wording of the draft questionnaire, including splitting some items in two, combining two items in one, and changes to some of the words in individual items and the response scale.
Conclusions
The final version of the questionnaire was substantially different from one constructed using only qualitative reports from patients about the quality of life deficits of severe asthma. Patients make a valuable contribution to the questionnaire if they are asked to comment and improve an initial draft and where patients are treated as partners in the process of questionnaire construction, rather than only as a source of information to experts who construct the questionnaire
Effectiveness of home-based exercise in older patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A 3-year cohort study
Get PDFAim
To determine whether home‐based exercise can improve clinical outcomes in older patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using long‐term oxygen therapy.
Methods
Information was provided to improve chronic obstructive pulmonary disease self‐management before the onset of the present prospective 3‐year cohort study. Patients selected either home‐based exercise using a lower‐limb cycle machine (ergo‐bicycle; group E), or usual exercise (group U). To assess self‐management, the Lung Information Needs Questionnaire was evaluated every 6 months. Clinical outcomes included the 6‐min walk test, pulmonary function tests, the body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea and exercise index, St. George's respiratory questionnaire, and the number of exacerbations and hospitalizations.
Results
A total of 136 patients (group E = 72; group U = 64), with a mean age of 74.2 years were enrolled. Total Lung Information Needs Questionnaire scores improved over 3 years for group E (P = 0.003). The distance of the 6‐min walk test was well maintained in group E, but significantly decreased in group U (P < 0.001). The percentage of forced expiratory volume in 1 s at baseline was lower in group E (P = 0.016), but was maintained over 3 years, whereas a significant reduction was seen in group U (P = 0.001). The body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea and exercise index significantly worsened in both groups over 3 years (group E: P = 0.011; group U: P < 0.001), whereas a significant decrease in the number of exacerbations was noted in group E (P = 0.009).
Conclusions
Patients who undertook home‐based exercise using an ergo‐bicycle were able to maintain clinical outcomes including 6‐min walk test distance and percentage of forced expiratory volume in 1 s predicted, and recorded fewer exacerbations over 3 years
Makerspaces as a form of business incubation system: evidence from the UK and abroad
No full textIt is well documented in entrepreneurial research that new businesses face considerable difficulties in getting established and statistically are unlikely to survive. It is against this backdrop that a wide range of incubation services aimed at improving survival possibilities have been created and offered to new businesses. Although many of these models have received some consideration in the academic literature, makerspaces have not received a proportionate amount of academic interest. This paper seeks to investigate the manner in which incubation services are offered to new businesses by makerspaces. The methodology utilised includes a systematic literature review and an open-access database made up of data on makerspaces operating within the United Kingdom. A convenience sample of both corporate and traditional makerspaces was also used. The paper identifies considerable over-lap between makerspaces and more established models of incubation support. However it is clear that although corporate supported makerspaces provide extensive, integrated incubation support, this is not true in the case of more traditional makerspaces where the communitarian ethos remains dominan
The Formation Mechanism and Evaluation of Social Enterprises Oriented by Social Entrepreneurship
No full textA critique of “Forest School” or something lost in translation
No full textThis is a critique of an approach to outdoor education experienced in the UK as Forest School. Forest School came to the UK primarily from Scandinavia, where early years education conducted in the outdoors is a widely accepted practice. In its move to the UK, however, three major issues have arisen. The first concerns how Forest School as a form of outdoor education is culturally, socially and historically situated. This suggests that its adoption in the UK must navigate cultural differences, acknowledging that Forest School is a social construction. Secondly, the pedagogy of Forest School, relevant as it is to early years education, is undertheorised in the outdoor education literature. This especially relates to considerations of play as a central tenet of Forest School pedagogy. Thirdly, the expansion of Forest School in the UK has taken a particularly corporate turn, resulting in a rapid institutionalization and commodification of Forest School practices. The need to situate claims made for and about Forest School in well designed and conducted research is crucial to substantiating what can degenerate into market based promotion. Finally, some of the very positive contributions Forest School is making to the development of contemporary practices of outdoor and environmental education are introduced. This critique is written in the spirit of engaging in robust discussion and debate around Forest School in order to see the difficulties addressed and the positive contributions continue
Chapter 6: Telling the Self or Performing Another: The Exploration of Identity through Storytelling, Role and Analogy in West Hill, HMP Winchester
No full textDo infants understand false beliefs? We don’t know yet – A commentary on Baillargeon, Buttelmann and Southgate’s commentary
Get PDFThe commentary by Baillargeon, Buttelmann and Southgate raises a number of crucial issues concerning the replicability and validity of measures of false belief in infancy. Although we agree with some of their arguments, we believe that they underestimate the replication crisis in this area. In our response to their commentary, we first analyze the current empirical situation. The upshot is that, given the available evidence, it remains very much an open question whether infants possess a rich theory of mind. We then draw out more general conclusions for future collaborative studies that have the potential to address this open question
Beyond Boundaries: The Development and Potential of Ethnography in the Study of Sport and Physical Culture
Get PDFEthnographic approaches to the study of sport and physical culture have developed primarily within physical education and kinesiology programs and are typically framed in dialogue with sociological theorizing of agency, structure, power, and inequality. Beginning with reference to anthropology and sociology, we review the emergence, development, and subsequent transdisciplinary travels of ethnographic study of sport and physical culture. In doing so, we underscore the importance of theory, context, and disciplinary tradition in the development of sporting ethnographies. We then critically outline the place of ethnography in physical cultural studies (PCS). Rather than exhuming existing debates about the originality and uniqueness of the PCS enterprise, we highlight the need to decenter the hyper-reflexive researcher and advocate for the consideration of pleasure in ethnographic studies to achieve the interventionist goals PCS protagonists set themselves