The Egyptian Cardiothoracic Surgeon (ECTS - E-Journal)
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PRECiS (Patient Reported Evaluation of Cognitive State): psychometric evaluation of a new patient reported outcome measure of the impact of stroke
No full textObjective: Determine the psychometric properties of PRECiS (Patient Reported Evaluation of Cognitive State): A new patient-centred, patient reported outcome measure for perceived impact of cognitive problems, developed through qualitative work, systematic review and service user consultation.Design: An observational study exploring acceptability, internal consistency, construct validity, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability, with opportunistic qualitative data on sensitivity to change.Setting: Home visits in the community.Participants: Stroke survivors with self-reported cognitive difficulties and informal carers.Measures: The 27 item PRECiS was self-completed with support, and proxy completed by informal carers. We collected descriptive cognitive screening test data, and measures of overall stroke impact, mood and activities of daily living to explore construct validity.Results: Data were collected from 159 (visit 1) and 66 (visit 2) stroke survivors and 86 informal carers. PRECiS showed good acceptability (no missing values or floor/ceiling effects, minimal skewness); high internal consistency (α = 0.94, indicative of potential redundancy); with moderate to strong construct correlations in the directions hypothesised (0.40 to 0.74). An intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.85 indicated good test-retest reliability. Where self-reported change had occurred from visit 1 to 2, PRECiS appeared sensitive. Using carers as proxy respondents is not supported by this analysis (inter-rater ICC = 0.43).Conclusions: PRECiS is a patient-centred, practical and reliable measure assessing perceived impact of cognitive problems from the unique perspective of stroke survivors.<br/
Project Managers on the Edge: Liminality and Identity in the Management of Technical Work
No full textThis paper explores the consequences of 'corporate professionalisation' through an analysis of the experiences of technical specialists adopting the position of project manager. Shifts towards 'corporate professionalism'€™ in this and other occupations result in a tension between competing logics, the logic of the traditional profession versus another focused on delivery of market value for clients/employers. Living with this tension places project managers in a '€˜liminal'€™ position in two ways; they find themselves in a liminal position created first by the transition from a technical specialist role into a managerial role and second as they occupy the space between the often opposing institutions of profession and employing organisation. Drawing on empirical data gathered within a project-based industry and referring to Gouldner's '€˜cosmopolitan' and '€˜local' typologies, we explore the '€˜identity work' engaged in by project managers as they attempt to creatively negotiate the tensions inherent in the role
An Enzyme Cascade for Selective Modification of Tyrosine Residues in Structurally Diverse Peptides and Proteins.
No full textBioorthogonal chemistry enables a specific moiety in a complex biomolecule to be selectively modified in the presence of many reactive functional groups and other cellular entities. Such selectivity has become indispensable in biology, enabling biomolecules to be derivatized, conjugated, labelled or immobilized for imaging, biochemical assays or therapeutic applications. Methyltransferase enzymes (MTase) that accept analogs of the cofactor S adenosyl methionine have been widely deployed for al-kyl-diversification and bioorthogonal labelling. However, MTases typically possess tight substrate specificity. Here we introduce a more flexible methodology for selective derivatization of phenolic moieties in complex biomolecules. Our approach relies on the tandem enzymatic reaction of a fungal tyrosinase and the mammalian catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), which can effect the sequential hydroxylation of the phenolic group to give an intermediate catechol moiety that is subsequently O-alkylated. When used in this combination, the alkoxylation is highly selective for tyrosine residues in peptides and proteins, yet remarkably tolerant to changes in the peptide sequence. Tyrosinase-COMT are shown to provide highly versatile and regioselective modification of a di-verse range of substrates including peptide antitumor agents, hormones, cyclic peptide antibiotics and model proteins
Cross-border public care and adoption proceedings in the European Union
No full textThe free movement of persons within the EU has meant that children at risk of harm from family members may be living in a Member State of which they are not a national. The child may be made subject to legal measures under the national law of the host State for the protection of their welfare. This article explores the competence of the EU to protect children in these circumstances, and the scope of the Brussels IIa Regulation in governing jurisdiction over child protection proceedings. It discusses the difference between national child protection systems and the political controversy surrounding English law on adoption following care proceedings issued over a child who is a national of a different Member State. It suggests that further information sharing on national systems and cooperation between courts is necessary for the effectiveness of the law and to encourage understanding of legitimate variation in Member State national family law
Briefing:Experimental and theoretical bending stiffness of cross-laminated timber panels
No full textCross-laminated timber (CLT) is an engineered timber product comprising boards of strength-graded timber glued together in laminae to form large plane sections. CLT sections are used to create structural elements including walls, floors and roofs. This briefing paper presents the results of a series of stiffness tests, including both composite sections and their constituent individual component boards. The composite results are compared with the output of three widely used design calculation methods: the shear analogy method, the gamma method and the K-method. This comparison demonstrates the sensitivity of the calculated stiffness to the variation in component stiffness between recorded and graded values. As there is a lack of readily available in-depth test data linking recorded component stiffness to recorded composite stiffness, this paper aims to improve the understanding of the link between these two values. The results have shown that the gamma method was the only design calculation that remained conservative, whether using characteristic properties or true recorded stiffnesses
Les occupations de la Grande Guerre et leurs héritières:en territoire ennemi, 1914-1954
No full textAn edited volume in French based on papers given at two conferences held at Lille and Paris in February and May 2015. General editing duties, introduction to third part of the book, and joint overall conclusion
Can people talk together about their practices? Focus groups, humour and the sensitive dynamics of everyday life
No full textThe exploration of everyday social practices related to sustainability often touches on the most invisible parts of peoples’ everyday lives. Given the multiple cultural forces that govern cleanliness and comfort, and the intimate spheres in which these practices are performed, practices associated with everyday water use (and associated energy consumption) bump up against ‘the taboo’. While it has been resolved that ‘people can talk about their practices’ in interviews, a range of other methods – including CCTV, video and other data to survey and document practices in homes – are increasingly being used. As we delve theoretically closer to these public/private boundaries with new studies on social practices and sustainability, greater attention to the ethics of methods is needed. Different ‘talk’ based methodologies such as focus groups that could allow researchers to work more ethically with the strong moral sensitivities of certain domestic practices have not yet been considered. This article explores 6 focus groups on ‘bodies, clothes, dirt, and cleanliness’ which took place in Lancaster, UK. Reflecting on researcher positionality, and results of a survey of focus group participants following the focus groups, the paper concludes that focus groups, humour and laughter enable intimately political conversations about aspects of everyday practices that might be difficult to access or articulate through other research methods. The implications of using conversational humour and laughter as a purposeful tools for exploring particular aspects of everyday social practices is also explored. This article responds to recent calls for greater consideration of fieldwork and methodologies ethics related to gender and embodiment within human geography, and on the ethics and politics of everyday life research
'"The World Rests on the Back of a Tortoise"; Science and Mythology in Indian History'
No full textThis paper traces the consilience of science and mythology in the history of fossil research in India; this is a narrative in which Indian fossil research met the Orientalist discovery of the Indian past. The paper demonstrates that in exploring the geological evolution of Indian fossils, British researchers such as Hugh Falconer invoked animals from the Puranas, picking up on a tradition of mythological hermeneutics first developed in India by the likes of William Jones. In elucidating the nuances of this intellectual approach, the paper thus identifies a hitherto obscured historical trajectory regarding the making of geology in colonial India
Professionals as knowledge brokers: The limits of authority in healthcare collaboration
No full textProfessionals with managerial responsibilities are often seen as natural boundary spanners, brokering knowledge between the professional and managerial domains. However, the tensions implicit in their knowledge brokering activities, especially when the latter are formalized, remain under-researched. Using interviews and observational data, we examine the case of an inter-organizational collaborative research partnership that deployed clinical professionals as designated knowledge brokers across multiple sites. We identify three strategies that such hybrid professionals utilized to surmount challenges associated with knowledge brokering in the fragmented healthcare context: (1) relying on additional boundary 'bridges'; (2) conforming to existing ways of doing things; and (3) shifting from 'facilitating' to 'doing'. An analysis of these strategies highlights the tensions between different dimensions of brokering reinforced by macro-level institutional arrangements, the intertwining of formalized and emergent elements of brokering as a collectively-enacted phenomenon, and the limitations of knowledge brokering professionals arising from their professional expertise and authority