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Data protection, information governance and the potential erosion of ethnographic methods in healthcare?
No full textWith the most recent developments to the European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) introduced in May 2018, the resulting legislation meant a new set of considerations for study approvers and healthcare researchers. Compared to previous legislation in the UK (The Data Protection Act, 1998), it introduced more extensive and directive principles, requiring anybody ‘processing’ personal data to specifically define how this data will be obtained, stored, used and destroyed. Importantly, it also emphasised the principle of accountability, which meant that data controllers and processors could no longer just state that they planned to adhere to lawful data protection principles, they also had to demonstrate compliance. New questions and concerns around accountability now appear to have increased levels of scrutiny in all areas of Information Governance (IG), especially with regards to processing confidential patient information. This article explores our experiences of gaining required ethical and regulatory approvals for an ethnographic study in a UK healthcare setting, the implications that the common law duty of confidentiality had for this research, and the ways in which IG challenges were overcome. The purpose of this article is to equip researchers embarking on similar projects to be able to navigate the potentially problematic and complex journey to approval
The developmental course of loneliness in adolescence: Implications for mental health, educational attainment and psychosocial functioning
No full textThe present study examined patterns of stability and change in loneliness across adolescence. Data were drawn from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a UK population-representative cohort of 2,232 individuals born in 1994 and 1995. Loneliness was assessed when participants were aged 12 and 18. Loneliness showed modest stability across these ages (r = .25). Behavioural genetic modelling indicated that stability in loneliness was explained largely by genetic influences (66%), while change was explained by non-shared environmental effects (58%). Individuals who reported loneliness at both ages were broadly similar to individuals who only reported it at age 18, with both groups at elevated risk of mental health problems, physical health risk behaviours, and education and employment difficulties. Individuals who were lonely only at age 12 generally fared better; however, they were still more likely to finish school with lower qualifications. Positive family influences in childhood predicted reduced risk of loneliness at age 12, while negative peer experiences increased the risk. Together, the findings show that while early adolescent loneliness does not appear to exert a cumulative burden when it persists, it is nonetheless a risk for a range of concomitant impairments, some of which can endure
Not apologising for a community: Young people’s responses to misrecognition and stigma
No full textThis article considers the experiences of four groups of young people (from Germany, Estonia, Russia and the UK) whose ‘mode of being’ is reduced or distorted in different ways as a result of misrecognition or stigmatisation. It argues that the responses young people make to this form of social subordination are enabled or constrained by the recognition status - misrecognition, absence of recognition or stigmatisation - they experience. It demonstrates that the experience of misrecognition and stigmatisation, in some cases, may constitute a resource to act and stimulate social change but that the institutional response to it may also work to re-embed the stigma or misrecognition that young people’s action sought to counter. It argues that stigmatisation and misrecognition are more than the accumulation of negative representations of individuals or groups. They reflect the configuration of power relations that underpin the institutionalisation of the labelling of specific groups as unworthy of respect and deny them the opportunity to participate equally in social life. The outcome of the struggle for recognition is thus not a matter of young people ‘choosing’ a positive identity or showing the desire to engage but the willingness of society to open itself to that engagement
Editorial: Introducing the British Psychological Society Journal’s Landmark Special Issue
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Sputtered Oxide Thin-Film Transistors with Tunable Synaptic Spiking Behavior at One Volt
No full textIndium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) gated with sputtered silicon dioxide dielectric were fabricated. Under different sputtering pressure of the silicon dioxide, the device is able to produce transfer curves from clockwise hysteresis to anti-clockwise hysteresis, corresponding to different operation modes and thus adding complementary performance by the same material system and device structure. In the interface-trapping mode, the transistor exhibited inhibitory synaptic spiking behavior induced by positive stimuli. In the electric-double-layer coupling mode, positive stimuli led to excitatory synaptic spiking behavior while negative stimuli resulted in inhibitory synaptic spiking behavior. All the transistor and synaptic spiking behaviours are conducted within ±1 V range. Enriched functionality and ultra-low operation voltage makes sputtered SiO2 gated IGZO TFTs promising candidate for neuromorphic applications
Hepatic Scaling Factors for In Vitro-In Vivo Extrapolation (IVIVE) of Metabolic Drug Clearance in Patients with Colorectal Cancer with Liver Metastasis
No full textIn vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) linked with physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling is used to predict the fates of drugs in patients. Ideally, the IVIVE-PBPK models should incorporate “systems” information accounting for characteristics of the specific target population. There is a paucity of such scaling factors in cancer, particularly microsomal protein per gram of liver (MPPGL) and cytosolic protein per gram of liver (CPPGL). In this study, cancerous and histologically normal liver tissue from 16 patients with colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) were fractionated to microsomes and cytosol. Protein content was measured in homogenates, microsomes and cytosol. The loss of microsomal protein during fractionation was accounted for using corrections based on NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase activity in different matrices. MPPGL was significantly lower in cancerous tissue (24.8 ± 9.8 mg/g) than histologically normal tissue (39.0 ± 13.8 mg/g). CPPGL in cancerous tissue was 42.1 ± 12.9 mg/g compared with 56.2 ± 16.9 mg/g in normal tissue. No correlations between demographics (sex, age and BMI) and MPPGL or CPPGL were apparent in the data. The generated scaling factors together with assumptions regarding the relative volumes of cancerous versus non-cancerous tissue were used to simulate plasma exposure of drugs with different extraction ratios. The PBPK simulations revealed a substantial difference in drug exposure (AUC), up to 3.3-fold, when using typical scaling factors (healthy population) instead of disease-related parameters in cancer population. These indicate the importance of using population-specific scalars in IVIVE-PBPK for different disease states
Impact of COVID-19 on diagnoses, monitoring and mortality in people with Type 2 diabetes in the UK
No full textSwitching Contexts: Transportability Measures for NLP
No full textThis paper explores the topic of transportability, as a sub-area of generalisability. By proposing the utilisation of metrics based on well-established statistics, we are able to estimate the change in performance of NLP models in new contexts. Defining a new measure for transportability may allow for better estimation of NLP system performance in new domains, and is crucial when assessing the performance of NLP systems in new tasks and domains. Through several instances of increasing complexity, we demonstrate how lightweight domain similarity measures can be used as estimators for the transportability in NLP applications. The proposed transportability measures are evaluated in the context of Named Entity Recognition and Natural Language Inference tasks
The efficacy of interactive group psychoeducation for children with leukaemia: A randomised controlled trial
No full textObjective To evaluate an interactive group psychoeducation programme for children treated for leukaemia. Methods A longitudinal randomised controlled study across four UK hospitals with an immediate (N=26) and delay control group (N=32). The intervention covered the pathophysiology of leukaemia, its treatment, side effects and the importance of positive health behaviours. Primary outcomes were parent-reported child health related quality of life (HRQoL) and behavioural difficulties. Secondary outcomes were child-reported HRQoL, cancer-specific HRQoL, child confidence, caregiver burden, and treatment anxiety. Measures were completed pre- and immediately post-intervention, and at 13 and 26-weeks follow-up. Change over time was analysed using multilevel modelling. Acceptability questionnaires rated the intervention on benefits, recommendations, and barriers to participation. Results The intervention significantly improved parent-reported child HRQoL but did not have a significant effect on other outcomes. Acceptability of the intervention was high. Conclusions This study provides initial evidence that interactive group psychoeducation is acceptable to families and improves HRQoL in children with leukaemia. Difficulties with recruitment removed power to detect effect sizes that are plausible for psychoeducational interventions. Practise implications Further studies to explore the potential of psychoeducation to improve outcomes for children with leukaemia and an examination of barriers to participation within this population are warranted