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The disruptive effects of pain on the early allocation of attentional resources: an attentional blink study
Get PDFRecent evidence suggests that pain dampens attentional processes. However, much of this work has been based on higher-order attentional tasks that involve only spatial attention. Other aspects of the process through which pain engages and holds attention are relatively understudied, in particular, temporal attention. The present set of studies explored how naturally occurring pain (i.e., acute headache) and pain-valenced stimuli affect ability to recall the second of two targets presented in rapid succession. Across both experiments participants were required to indicate the presence of a predefined probe (T2) and, in the dual task, identify a target (T1). The probe (T2) was placed in three different temporal proximities (ranging from 70ms to 1000ms) following presentation of the target (T1). In experiment 1, thirty-six participants completed a task that comprised a rapid stream of letters. Experiment 2 manipulated the threat value, and the complexity, of the stimuli by replacing letters with words. In the dual task condition, T1 was a word from one of four affect categories (neutral, positive, negative, pain). Being in acute pain reduced the accuracy of identification. This reduction in performance occurred regardless of the temporal positioning of the probe consistent with previous work that suggests pain has an overall dampening effect. Further, when the affect category of the word was pain-related, T2 accuracy performance was negatively affected. These findings add to the previous evidence that pain has a general dampening effect on attention and that pain-related stimuli are difficult to disengage from
Small hydro and environmental justice: lessons from the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh
Get PDFHimachal Pradesh, in the Western Himalaya, has significant hydropower potential and is rapidly developing the resource in conjunction with private developers. Due to the negative impacts associated with large-scale projects, Himachal Pradesh authorities have promoted small hydro, thought to have more abundant social and economic benefits for local residents and fewer adverse environmental impacts. This chapter examines the implications of small hydro development in Himachal Pradesh using a framework encompassing good governance, aspects of sustainable development and four dimensions of environmental justice (recognitional, procedural, distributive and restorative). The study conducted an inset appraisal of five projects in the Kullu District, using a combination of document review, field observations and semi-structured interviews with residents, activists, government officials and project proponents. Small hydro may enhance the state and regional economies but local environment-society cascading impacts are less well understood. The chapter analyses benefits such as job creation and improved infrastructure, as well as adverse impacts on aquaculture, traditional milling livelihoods, irrigation potential and river corridor ecology and hydrology. Good governance, sustainable development and environmental justice would be advanced by increased local involvement in planning and approvals, and if small hydro was subjected to periodic strategic assessments and catchment-based cumulative effects assessments
Engaging patients from minority ethnic groups with clinical trials for blood cancer
Get PDFClinical trials are centrally important to the process of developing new treatments and can
give some patients access to treatments that they would not otherwise have. However,
people from minority ethnic groups appear to be underrepresented in clinical trials. This
report, commission by Blood Cancer UK, examines the barriers to trial participation that
patients from minority ethnic groups may face, and potential strategies for addressing
these. It examines these issues in the context of blood cancer, where higher risks of multiple
myeloma, and slightly higher risks of leukaemia and lymphoma, have been reported among
particular minority ethnic groups in the UK.
While many factors influence the enrolment of patients into clinical trials, some of these
become especially salient when enrolling people from minority ethnic groups. This can
include eligibility criteria; the impact of biases and stereotypes on patient enrolment; access
to healthcare; and, the availability and appropriateness of information and communication,
especially in situations characterised by mistrust or language and cultural difference. In the
context of blood cancer, some patients experience difficulties due to the complexity and
‘invisibility’ of the disease, accessing care and the long-term nature of some conditions. For
blood cancer patients from minority ethnic groups, these difficulties could exacerbate the
above-noted factors that may limit clinical trials participation.
Strategies for increasing participation among patients from minority ethnic groups are
reported around the following themes: building trust, cooperation and understanding;
appropriate and accessible information; trial design and practice; developing person-
centred research and researcher competences; and research system issues. Some initiatives
and resources to support health researchers have been developed in the UK, and practices
to facilitate the involvement of people from minority ethnic groups in clinical trials are in
use, although these appear to be limited in scope and the effectiveness of different
strategies remains unclear. This report recommends that Blood Cancer UK develops the
work of its Clinical Trials Support Service to address potential barriers to patient enrolment,
and that it advocates for research and policies to better understand and address ethnic
differences in clinical trials participation
Can compassion provide a lifeline for navigating Coronavirus (COVID-19) in higher education?
Get PDFThe Coronavirus pandemic has caused considerable challenges for the higher education sector, leaving many students and staff to experience a sense of liminality as they cope with these challenges. This article, written by three disabled academics based in the UK, reports how during the Coronavirus pandemic, compassion and compassionate spaces could be nurtured when students and staff took the opportunity to recognise their common existence. We share insights from focus groups held with seven disabled academics and learners on their encounters with the pandemic, such as managing the complexities of studying and working from home. We demonstrate that acknowledging and responding compassionately to feelings of vulnerability can offer a lifeline for individuals. Specifically, we propose the application of the social model of disability when seeking to embed compassion in the neoliberal academy. By so doing, the higher education sector can benefit in terms of navigating our extraordinary Coronavirus circumstances, and in building a future inclusive post-pandemic academy
Digitization bolstering self-directed learning for information literate adults – a systematic review
Get PDFLearning skills are fundamental 21st century skills that enable people to thrive in an increasingly uncertain future. Digitization and the current COVID-19 pandemic have been key drivers of uncertainty and changing conditions. In the face of change and uncertainty, self-directed learning is a fundamental competence. However, to date there is a dearth of understanding regarding how digital technologies are supporting or affecting self-directed learning in adulthood. In order to address this, the objective of the present study was to examine through a systematic literature review what is known to date regarding – how can digital technologies support self-directed learning in adult learning and education? The novel findings of the present study suggest digitization has transformed opportunities for self-directed learning in informal, non-formal, and in formal educational settings. However, a key finding of this present study was that the affordances of digital technologies might be described as a double edged sword: (1) digital technologies provide convenient accessibility to information, which acts as an enabler of self-directed learning; but (2) the increasing volume of available information demands additional learner skill in information literacy – part of being a competent self-directed learner – in order to navigate information in a meaningful way. These two concomitant phenomena might in part explain the widening digital divide that has been recorded in recent years
Translating historical figures into literary characters: the challenge of writing 'They will remember us'
No full textThis practice-based research is comprised of two strands. The first is an historical novel entitled 'They Will Remember Us', which fictionalises the relationship between the German writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich von Schiller. The second strand is a work of contextual research that explores the four main challenges that arose for me in the course of writing the novel. The first of these challenges has been the most personal: my own position as a writer who straddles three languages - Catalan, Spanish and English - in a context of social and political tensions between Spain and Catalonia. The second challenge concerns the translation of real authors into characters. To address this, I explore the techniques through which Penelope Fitzgerald, Helen Dunmore, Christopher Nicholson and Maggie Gee create fiction about real authors. In the process, I delve into my own motivations and methods for doing this. The third and fourth challenges arise from the difficulties of ensuring my novel has enough conflict and tension to sustain the reader's attention, while at the same time skirting the problematic boundary between fiction and historical fact. I utilise three main strategies to achieve this: the introduction of multiple voices, the addition of different time lines in the plot, and the use of figurative language and images.
I offer this novel and critical work as part of a growing conversation between writers, and, I hope, to elaborate upon and enrich the resources that are available to writers who may encounter similar challenges in their practice or circumstances
Climate migration is about people, not numbers
Get PDFIt has become increasingly common to argue that climate change will lead to mass migrations. In this chapter, we examine the large numbers often invoked to underline alarming climate migration narratives. We outline the methodological limitations to their production. We argue for a greater diversity of knowledges about climate migration, rooted in qualitative and mixed methods. We also question the usefulness of numbers to progressive agendas for climate action. Large numbers are used for rhetorical effect to create fear of climate migration, but this approach backfires when they are used to justify security-oriented, anti-migrant agendas. In addition, quantification helps present migration as a management problem with decisions based on meeting quantitative targets, instead of prioritising peoples’ needs, rights, and freedoms
'Stitched up' in the 'Conversengine': using expressive processing and multimodal languages to create a character-driven interactive digital narrative
Get PDFMy practice-based research, which this thesis supports, explores the question: How can a convincing interactive character, with apparent psychological depth, be modelled in a playable digital narrative that adapts to reader choice? To this end I am building my own platform, the 'Conversengine', for authoring and, in future, publishing and playing text-driven interactive narratives that rely on enactment rather than narration. Currently, the platform consists of the 'Convowriter', the authoring tool, which I am using to develop 'Stitched Up', an interactive psychological thriller.
Using the concept of the black box from second-order cybernetics with possible worlds and theory of mind from narratology, I show how combining these theories, mapping one onto another, provides a framework for not only thinking about the character-driven interactive narrative, but also a methodology for authoring one, in both natural language and computer code, and designing its richly responsive visual interface. This incorporates a unique emotional data visualisation system ('emoviz') to dynamically represent interactive fictional characters. This system is built upon the Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance Emotional State Model (Russell and Mehrabian, 1977) and informed by existing psychological research into colour, shape and motion. I contend that abstract visualisations, coupled with the characters' text-based thoughts and/or speech, can eloquently express convincing mental and emotional behaviour. This provides the feedback in my cybernetic 'steering-a-course' game engine, which, whilst maintaining narrative coherence, allows the reader-player to steer their own course through the narrative.
Creating an interactive narrative of this kind, which simulates psychological rather than physical action, requires a different approach to game writing, development and design. In part two of this thesis, I explore how the distinction between story and narrative discourse has practical implications for the creation of interactive digital narratives. I discuss how using existing game engines and tools can be limiting, and how this led to building my own interactive narrative engine with its own expressive domain-specific language. I show how the combined features of the 'Conversengine' offer a new way of representing complex interactive characters with psychological depth