53,496 research outputs found
Project Retrosight. Understanding the returns from cardiovascular and stroke research: Case Studies
No full textCopyright @ 2011 RAND Europe. All rights reserved. The full text article is available via the link below.This project explores the impacts arising from cardiovascular and stroke research funded 15-20 years ago and attempts to draw out aspects of the research, researcher or environment that are associated with high or low impact. The project is a case study-based review of 29 cardiovascular and stroke research grants, funded in Australia, Canada and UK between 1989 and 1993. The case studies focused on the individual grants but considered the development of the investigators and ideas involved in the research projects from initiation to the present day. Grants were selected through a stratified random selection approach that aimed to include both high- and low-impact grants. The key messages are as follows: 1) The cases reveal that a large and diverse range of impacts arose from the 29 grants studied. 2) There are variations between the impacts derived from basic biomedical and clinical research. 3) There is no correlation between knowledge production and wider impacts 4) The majority of economic impacts identified come from a minority of projects. 5) We identified factors that appear to be associated with high and low impact. This report presents the key observations of the study and an overview of the methods involved. It has been written for funders of biomedical and health research and health services, health researchers, and policy makers in those fields. It will also be of interest to those involved in research and impact evaluation.This study was initiated with internal funding from RAND Europe and HERG, with continuing funding from the UK National Institute for Health Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the National Heart Foundation of Australia. The UK Stroke Association and the British Heart Foundation provided support in kind through access to their archives
Evaluation of subcutaneous proleukin (Interleukin-2) in a randomized international trial (ESPRIT): Geographical and gender differences in the baseline characteristics of participants
No full textBackground: ESPRIT, is a phase III, open-label, randomized, international clinical trial evaluating the effects of subcutaneous recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) plus antiretroviral therapy (ART) versus ART alone on HIV-disease progression and death in HIV-1-infected individuals with CD4+ T-cells ≥300 cells/μL. Objectives: To describe the baseline characteristics of participants randomized to ESPRIT overall and by geographic location. Method: Baseline characteristics of randomized participants were summarized by region. Results: 4,150 patients were enrolled in ESPRIT from 254 sites in 25 countries. 41%, 27%, 16%, 11%, and 5% were enrolled in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Australia, respectively. The median age was 40 years, 81% were men, and 76%, 11%, and 9% were Caucasian, Asian, and African American or African, respectively. 44% of women enrolled (n = 769) were enrolled in Thailand and Argentina. Overall, 55% and 38% of the cohort acquired HIV through male homosexual and heterosexual contact, respectively. 25% had a prior history of AIDS-defining illness; Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, M. tuberculosis, and esophageal candida were most commonly reported. Median nadir and baseline CD4+ T-cell counts were 199 and 458 cells/μL, respectively. 6% and 13% were hepatitis B or C virus coinfected, respectively. Median duration of antiretroviral therapy (ART) was 4.2 years; the longest median duration was in Australia (5.2 years) and the shortest was in Asia (2.3 years). 17%, 13%, and 69% of participants began ART before 1995, between 1996 and 1997, and from 1998 onward, respectively. 86% used ART from two or more ART classes, with 49% using a protease inhibitor-based regimen and 46% using a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based regimen. 78% had plasma HIV RNA below detection (<500 cp/mL). Conclusion: ESPRIT has enrolled a diverse population of HIV-infected individuals including large populations of women and patients of African-American/African and Asian ethnicity often underrepresented in HIV research. As a consequence, the results of the study may have wide global applicability
Unlocking the mysteries of the past: Searching for clues in medieval manuscripts
No full textThis project looks at the reproduction of one mid-12th-century Roman text by analyzing sixteen versions of it that still exist, copied from c. 1160 through c. 1325. The author was Nicolaus Maniacutius, a cleric at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. That original copy is lost, but versions quickly appeared in monasteries and cathedrals in Italy, Germany, France, and England. Somehow, through networks of communication and travel, reproductions were made and collected by prominent monasteries and churches, and by the Guildhall, a secular institution in the City of London
Regulatory approvals in a large multinational clinical trial: the ESPRIT experience
No full textWhile accepted as serving an important function to safeguard human subjects, the process of obtaining regulatory approvals to conduct clinical trials is generally regarded as cumbersome and time-consuming. For large multinational trials, U.S. federally sponsored human subject research abroad involves specific U.S. regulatory requirements, in addition to those of the host country, that act as further hurdles. These requirements may include obtaining an Assurance of Protection for Human Subjects from the Office of Human Research Protection of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, maintaining specific Ethics Committee/Institutional Review Board (EC/IRB) composition, and incorporating mandated elements in informed consents, all of which may differ from local policies and guidelines. Specific examples of issues that led to delays in regulatory approvals for sites participating in the multinational clinical trial entitled Evaluation of Subcutaneous Proleukin in a Randomized International Trial (ESPRIT) are presented here. While the goal of these requirements is to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects, they may create substantial delays and engender resentment over the notion of lack of respect for individual country sovereignty. Substudies within ESPRIT have been undertaken to obtain feedback from EC/IRB chairpersons, site personnel responsible for processing the required assurances, ESPRIT investigators, and study participants regarding aspects of current U.S. regulatory requirements related to human subject protection and ethical issues in multinational research. The purpose of these substudies is to compare the attitudes and experiences across countries regarding important ethical issues associated with conducting ESPRIT. One objective of the substudies is to gather additional insight to the impact of U.S. regulatory processes. Another is to help to inform the debate about how to best maximize the rights and welfare of clinical trial participants without delaying the initiation of research, while respecting the importance of national sensitivities
Dissemination of research: Author bibliometrics (EMRSG project)
No full textThis unit is part of a collaboratively produced set of 5 units, created using the Xerte toolkit, aimed at academic researchers to enable them to enhance the dissemination of their research outputs. Through a mixture of text, videos and reflective activities, 'Author bibliometrics' allows participants to undertstand the different metrics available; recognise the advantages and disadvantages of using bibliometric data; reflect on the uses of bibliometric data; recognise some of the available sources to search for this type of data.
Group interaction as the crucible of social identity formation : a glimpse at the foundations of social identities for collective action
No full textThis research was supported by the Australian Research Council (DE120101029 to the first author and DP0770731 to the second author).Many of the world’s biggest problems are being tackled through the formation of new groups yet very little research has directly observed the processes by which new groups form to respond to social problems. The current paper draws on seminal research by Lewin (1947) to advance a perspective as to how such identities form through processes of small group interaction. Multi-level structural equation modelling involving 58 small group discussions (with N = 234) demonstrates that focused group discussion can boost the commitment to take collective action, beliefs in the efficacy of that action and members’ social identification with other supporters of the cause. The results are consistent with the new commitment to action flowing from emergent social identities.Peer reviewe
Medieval Pottery Research Group Bibliography
No full textThe MPRG Bibliography is an on-line national bibliography of published reports, books and articles on post-Roman ceramics. The on-line, searchable version of this bibliography as released by the ADS in 2010 contains nearly 13000 entries covering the whole of the British Isles, including the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Searches into the bibliography can be carried out on a number of fields including author, title, publication date, site type, period, county and ceramic category
Mapping 50 Years of Small Group Research Through Small Group Research
No full textThis is the Accepted Manuscript version of Emich, K. J., Kumar, S., Lu, L., Norder, K., & Pandey, N. (2020). Mapping 50 Years of Small Group Research Through Small Group Research. Small Group Research, 51(6), 659–699. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496420934541. This article was originally published in Small Group Research. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496420934541. © The Author(s) 2020.At its 50-year milestone, we assess the Small Group Research (SGR) corpus to reflect on the development of group research over the past half century. To do this, we examine the evolution of the corpus’s context and content. We examine its context by assessing its impact, which journals it communicates with, and the internationality of its authors. We examine its content—the topics discussed in its articles—using keyword clustering and co-occurrence network analysis. We identify 10 research communities and track their relationships over the four editorial periods associated with the SGR corpus (lagged 2 years for influence): 1970–1981, 1982–1991, 1992–2010, and 2011–2019. Our analyses indicate that the global and local study of group dynamics has fluctuated over time and that phenomenologically based topics connect theoretical topics and stimulate theoretical development. We also provide three criteria to identify communities and topics of group research most likely to benefit from future integration.The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article
Research methodology of grazing
No full textThroughout Europe, grass is the main feed for dairy cattle. This report presents the main results of the first meeting of the European Grassland Federation (EGF) Working Group Grazing in Kiel on 29 August 2010. The theme of the meeting was "Research methodology of grazing". There were three sessions: - setting the scene; - modelling of grazing; and - field measurements
Assessing the scientific integrity of the collected work of one author or author group
No full textObjectives: No published methods for research integrity review include both statistical techniques applied to groups of randomized trials and individual assessment of papers. We propose a method based on practical experience of investigating data integrity across the collected papers of an author or author group. Study Design and Setting: We report our approach to investigating the collected papers of an author or author group suspected of academic misconduct. Results: In the investigation of the work of an author or author group, we recommend a systematic search for the work of the involved authors in PubMed, Google Scholar, and the Retraction Watch database, as well as a search of trial registries for unpublished clinical trials. Summary information from studies should be tabulated to assess consistency between study registration, execution, and publication. Each paper should be investigated for unfeasible features of the governance, methodology, execution, results, and reporting of the study. Pairwise comparison of baseline and outcome tables between papers may reveal data duplication or unfeasibly large differences between baseline characteristics in similar studies. Assessment of baseline characteristics from multiple randomized trials using Carlisle’s method can determine whether the data are consistent with a properly executed randomization process, as can checking whether reported baseline characteristics follow expected patterns for random variables such as Benford’s law. If serious concerns are raised, a more thorough investigation should be performed by journals, publishers, and institutions. Conclusion: These methods provide a systematic and reproducible way to assess the collected work of an author or group of authors.Jeremy Nielsena, Esmée M. Bordewijka, Lyle C. Gurrinc, Siddharth Shivanthad, Madeline Flanagana, Sue Liud, May M. Linna, Kelly X. Zhoua, Rik van Eekelenb, Nicholas J.L. Browne, Jim Thorntonf, Ben W. Mo
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