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Professional doctorates in health and social care: A qualitative exploration of their impact and outcomes by two northern universities
No full textCopyright © 2025 Chapman Hazel M. et al. Health & Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Aim: To explore the experiences, outcomes and impact identified by current and past students of undertaking a professional doctorate (PD) in health and/or social care on themselves, their employing organisations and their professional domain.
Background: Professional Doctorates are intended to equip graduates with critical and creative thinking skills, and the ability to understand, question and produce evidence relevant to health and social care policy, practice and education. They are costly in terms of time, effort and resources for student and employer, but there is little empirical evidence to support these claims.
Methodology: This modified constructivist grounded theory study used a qualitative methods approach, that included both questionnaires (mainly free text answers with a few demographic and numerical questions) and in-depth semi-structured interviews. Current (n=42), graduate (n=4) and previous (2) professional doctorate students completed the questionnaires. The interviews were conducted online with 12 current students from three different health and/or social care programmes from two universities in England. Descriptive demographic and numerical student experience and outcome data were presented to provide context for the study. The qualitative data from both datasets were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2022) thematic analysis.
Results/Findings: Ten themes were identified, five relating to individual impact. These included: positive outcomes on personal growth and validation; improved ability to deal with complexity; more mixed effects from both challenges and support in academia; as well as some career development opportunities. Frustrations were found by some in their current role. Employers were seen as gaining employees with enhanced assessment skills, making a stronger contribution to organisational development. Doctoral students also brought esteem to employing organisations by virtue of their academic status. Professional impact could be limited by the expectations, support and culture of their employing organisation and in the way doctorates are viewed by the profession. Policy development was evidenced, but it was often a slow process, needing opportunity, mentorship and time to be fully realised.
Conclusions/Recommendations: Participants valued their professional doctorate experience and the way it transformed their world view, professional knowledge and confidence. Some students felt conflict between their developing professional self-concept and the support, recognition and scope for development on the part of their employer, although some evidenced career progression. Employers should engage with staff undertaking professional doctorates in order to provide support and optimise organisation benefits. More research is needed to explore the perspectives of employers and professional organisations. It is also necessary to evaluate longer-term outcomes for the postdoctoral professional.UnfundedGold OA via TA funding - AAM archived and VoR uploaded to CR 21/11/202
Impact of endophytic colonization by entomopathogenic fungi on the behavior and life history of the tobacco peach aphid Myzus persicae var. nicotianae
Get PDF© 2022 Wilberts et al.Entomopathogenic fungi can adopt an endophytic lifestyle and provide protection against insect herbivores and plant pathogens. So far, most studies have focused on Beauveria bassiana to increase plant resistance against abiotic and biotic stresses, while only little is known for other entomopathogenic fungi. In this study, we investigated whether root inoculation of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) by the entomopathogenic fungi Akanthomyces muscarius ARSEF 5128 and B. bassiana ARSEF 3097 can improve resistance against the tobacco peach aphid Myzus persicae var. nicotianae. First, dual-choice experiments were performed to test the hypothesis that the fungi deter aphids via modifying plant volatile profiles. Next, we tested the hypothesis that endophytic colonization negatively affects aphid life history traits, such as fecundity, development and mortality rate. Aphids were significantly attracted to the odor of plants inoculated with A. muscarius over non-inoculated plants. Plants inoculated with A. muscarius emitted significantly higher amounts of β-pinene than non-inoculated plants, and significantly higher amounts of indole than B. bassiana-inoculated and non-inoculated plants. Inoculation with the fungal strains also caused significantly higher emission of terpinolene. Further, both aphid longevity and fecundity were significantly reduced by 18% and 10%, respectively, when feeding on plants inoculated with A. muscarius, although intrinsic rate of population increase did not differ between inoculated and non-inoculated plants. Sweet pepper plants inoculated with B. bassiana ARSEF 3097 did not elicit a significant behavioral response nor affected the investigated life history traits. We conclude that endophytic colonization by entomopathogenic fungi has the potential to alter olfactory behavior and performance of M. persicae var. nicotianae, but effects are small and depend on the fungal strain used.This study was supported by Research Foundation Flanders (FWO; grant to L.W. (1S79919N); https://www.fwo.be/) and KU Leuven (grant to B.L. (C24E/19/052)
Behavioural and electrophysiological responses of female Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes to volatiles from a mango bait
Get PDF© The Author(s) 2020.The version of record of this article, first published in [Journal of Chemical Ecology], is available online at Publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10886-020-01172-8Attractive Toxic Sugar Baits (ATSB) are used in a “lure-and-kill” approach for management of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, but the active chemicals were previously unknown. Here we collected volatiles from a mango, Mangifera indica, juice bait which is used in ATSBs in Tanzania and tested mosquito responses. In a Y-tube olfactometer, female mosquitoes were attracted to the mango volatiles collected 24–48 h, 48–72 h and 72–96 h after preparing the bait but volatiles collected at 96–120 h were no longer attractive. Volatile analysis revealed emission of 23 compounds in different chemical classes including alcohols, aldehydes, alkanes, benzenoids, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and oxygenated terpenes. Coupled GC-electroantennogram (GC-EAG) recordings from the antennae of An. gambiae showed robust responses to 4 compounds: humulene, (E)-caryophyllene, terpinolene and myrcene. In olfactometer bioassays, mosquitoes were attracted to humulene and terpinolene. (E)-caryophyllene was marginally attractive while myrcene elicited an avoidance response with female mosquitoes. A blend of humulene, (E)-caryophyllene and terpinolene was highly attractive to females (P < 0.001) when tested against a solvent blank. Furthermore, there was no preference when this synthetic blend was offered as a choice against the natural sample. Our study has identified the key compounds from mango juice baits that attract An. gambiae and this information may help to improve the ATSBs currently used against malaria vectors.This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship (Grant Number: 208322/Z/17/Z)
Effectively supporting widening participation learners in medical education through a capability approach lens
Get PDF© 2024 Pirashanthie Vivekananda-Schmidt et al.EditorialUnfunde
Decision-making of educational leaders: New insights from the Iowa gambling task
Get PDFCopyright © 2025, Steve LambertPURPOSE: Middle leadership in education is often considered one of the most challenging roles within educational leadership, and it is often under-conceptualised and theorised. A key role of a middle leader is making decisions. This paper presents some initial findings from a study of 22 middle leaders in England, exploring their decision-making ability.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This study uses the Iowa gambling task (IGT), a commonly used psychological tool designed to assess decision-making through risk-based activities. All participants were asked to complete the IGT online. They were asked to select one of four cards from a virtual deck. The decks yielded either a positive gain (a financial win) or a net (financial) loss. Participants repeated the selection of a card 100 times.
FINDINGS: Participants quickly learned which decks provided a positive net gain. However, what was apparent was that between cards 40 and 60, there was a significant spike in their ability to gain net wins in the cards selected. This suggests that middle leaders are more risk-seeking when they are trying to minimise losses, as in blocks 1 to 3 in the experiment. However, once they have reached a self-determined threshold, they become risk-averse to maintaining the potential gains they have made.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Understanding how leaders make decisions is particularly important if staff are to be encouraged to take responsibility and make decisions within their roles as middle leaders. However, this study has limitations, notably that only 22 participants participated.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This paper offers a contemporary review underpinned by a preliminary study of middle leaders' decision-making ability against a backdrop of the limited literature on this topic.Unfunde
Proteomic analysis and effects on osteogenic differentiation of exosomes from patients with ossification of the spinal ligament
Get PDF© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.Lay Summary: Ossification of ligamentum flavum (OLF) is a hyperostotic spinal condition that compresses the spinal cord, leading to progressive motor and sensory dysfunction. Progression of ossification varies widely among individuals, making it important to identify factors that regulate disease activity. The study focused on exosomes, crucial for intercellular communication during disease development and progression. By comparing exosomes from patients with and without OLF, the study identified specific proteins that may play a role in spinal ligament ossification. These findings could help identify new markers to track disease progression and potential targets for treatment.This study was supported by Uehara Memorial Foundation Research grants (Grant Number 202220132), grants-in-aid for Scientific Research (Grant Number JP22K09327), Grant of Japan Orthopaedics and Traumatology Research Foundation No. 494, and the Investigation Committee on Ossification of Spinal Ligaments, Public Health Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Labor, Health, and Welfare
EffUnet-SpaGen: An efficient and spatial generative approach to glaucoma detection
Get PDF© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Current research in automated disease detection focuses on making algorithms "slimmer" reducing the need for large training datasets and accelerating recalibration for new data while achieving high accuracy. The development of slimmer models has become a hot research topic in medical imaging. In this work, we develop a two-phase model for glaucoma detection, identifying and exploiting a redundancy in fundus image data relating particularly to the geometry. We propose a novel algorithm for the cup and disc segmentation "EffUnet" with an efficient convolution block and combine this with an extended spatial generative approach for geometry modelling and classification, termed "SpaGen" We demonstrate the high accuracy achievable by EffUnet in detecting the optic disc and cup boundaries and show how our algorithm can be quickly trained with new data by recalibrating the EffUnet layer only. Our resulting glaucoma detection algorithm, "EffUnet-SpaGen", is optimized to significantly reduce the computational burden while at the same time surpassing the current state-of-art in glaucoma detection algorithms with AUROC 0.997 and 0.969 in the benchmark online datasets ORIGA and DRISHTI, respectively. Our algorithm also allows deformed areas of the optic rim to be displayed and investigated, providing explainability, which is crucial to successful adoption and implementation in clinical settings.Unfunde
Fruit and vegetable intake in minority ethnic groups in the UK: Analysis from ‘Understanding Society’ and UK Biobank
Get PDF© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition SocietyObjective: To examine differences in fruit and vegetable intake and food insecurity between Black African and Caribbean and South Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) ethnic minority groups with a White (British) reference population in the UK. This study was part of the TANGERINE project (nuTritional heAlth aNd aGeing in oldER ethnIc miNoritiEs).
Design: Longitudinal analysis using multilevel logistic regression from Understanding Society, and a cross-sectional comparison with UK Biobank.
Setting: Understanding Society waves 2 (2010-2012), 5 (2013-2015), 7 (2015-2017), 9 (2017-2019) 11 (2019-2021), and 13 (2021-2023). UK Biobank baseline data (2006-2010).
Participants: Understanding Society: adults aged 16 years and above (approximately 44,000 households). UK Biobank: participants aged 37-73 years (n=502,412).
Results: At wave 2, African, Caribbean, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi participants in Understanding Society had lower odds of daily vegetable intake than White British/Irish participants, with Pakistanis showing the lowest intake. These disparities persisted after adjusting for socioeconomic position (SEP) at individual and area level, particularly for Caribbean and Pakistani groups. Indians consistently had higher odds of vegetable intake. Ethnic differences in fruit intake were smaller and largely attenuated by SEP adjustment. Food insecurity was more prevalent in all ethnic minority groups (except Indians) and associated with lower vegetable and fruit intake, though SEP explains more of the ethnic difference.
Conclusions: Ethnic differences in fruit and vegetable intake are at least partially explained by SEP, with persistent vegetable consumption disparities after adjustment. Culturally tailored interventions addressing affordability, accessibility, and SEP disparities are needed to improve dietary behaviours among minority ethnic groups.This work was supported by funding from the Medical Research Council – UK Research and Innovation (Reference number: MR/Y010752/1)AAM removed and archived and VoR uploaded to CR 23/09/202
A comparison of methods to predict ovulation day, menstrual cycle characteristics and variability in professional female soccer players
Get PDF© 2025 The Author(s). Experimental Physiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Physiological Society.This study aimed to compare three methods of predicting ovulation day: (1) a positive urinary luteinising hormone test (LH), (2) a sustained rise in salivary progesterone above critical difference (SP), and (3) a countback regression equation (CB), to determine variability in the menstrual cycle (MC) lengths and reproductive hormone concentrations of professional female soccer players. Eight players provided daily morning saliva samples for three consecutive cycles. Samples were analysed for oestradiol and progesterone concentrations. Each MC was separated into the follicular (FP) and luteal (LP) phases relative to the day of ovulation, using the three different methods. MC length ranged from 24 to 32 days (28.3 ± 2.4 days); intra‐assay coefficient of variation (7.5%) exceeded inter‐assay coefficient of variation (4.6%). Ovulation estimated using SP (15.4 ± 3.0 days) occurred later than LH (13.3 ± 2.0 days) (P = 0.017). The CB method (14.1 ± 1.8 days) did not differ from SP (P = 0.102) or LH (P = 0.262). Oestradiol and progesterone levels varied significantly between sub‐phases (P < 0.001). Inter‐variability surpassed intra‐variability for both hormones. Differences in methods for predicting ovulation indicate the need for standardised protocols. Individual variation in MC length and hormone concentrations challenges the narrative for group‐level MC recommendations, emphasising the need for individualised hormone monitoring across multiple cycles.This project was jointly funded by the University of Chester and the Gatorade Sports Science Institute as part of the Sustainable Futures Scholarship programme
Artmaking in the outdoor environment: Negotiating experiential and material complexities
Get PDFThis practice-based research project uses a new materialist approach to investigate the relationship between the geological, biological and meteorological activities of the outdoor world and the dynamics of a creative arts practice. It asks the question how the relationship between the self and the outdoor environment might manifest in a creative arts practice in the British Peak District.
The project has produced a new approach to arts practice based on the development of a mobile artmaking kit made from string, fabric, paper and wood, and in response to the topography and the wind and rain of Bakestonedale Moor. This mobile working kit (MWK) has been used to make site-specific drawings and temporary installations and provide artefacts for indoor exhibition displays.
The research understands outdoor environments as an intra-active process (Barad, 2003) and the activity of its material components as a performance. The arts practice produces meaning for the artist and audiences due to the aesthetic changes that MWK installations bring to the environment. Such meaning-making processes are based on an individual’s subjective engagement with the artwork (Dewey, 1994). The emerging practice operates as an epistemic practice that creates and captures knowledge in the experience of the particularity of artmaking events, and such knowledge also accumulates in ‘techniques’ (Spatz, 2015) regarding the use of the MWK.
The development of the arts practice has revealed a range of dynamic relationalities between artmaking materials, the outdoor environment and the artist. Such relationalities are exemplified by the connection between emerging material properties in moments of creative experimentation and their implementation in the design and outdoor use of the MWK modules. My engagement with many outdoor artmaking situations prompted the formulation of a number of experiential schemas as a way of describing the experience of the outdoor world, for example the relationality of distance versus proximity. It has also led me to understand the outdoor environment and its plants, rocks, valleys, hills and animals as a material complexity that is similar to the material complexity within artmaking.
Considering both, the outdoor processes and actions of artmaking, as a performance, led to the conclusion that this arts practice operates as a form of non-verbal, gestural transaction between the self and the other
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