13 research outputs found
Resource Needs, Availability and Use Amongst Children with Down Syndrome and their Caregivers in Galle, Sri Lanka
No full textBackground: Down Syndrome (DS) is the most commonly identified aneuploidy amongst children in Sri Lanka, with a prevalence of 76.3%. This study intended to determine the level of disability of children with DS aged 5-12, level of caregiver burden and impacts of family access to external services and social supports in Galle, Sri Lanka. Methods: A cross-sectional survey and interview study was conducted to determine caregiver burden, the level of disability for children with DS, and their access to social supports and external services. Within the study, 125 caregivers took the Caregiver Priorities and Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities (CP-CHILD) and Caregiver Difficulties Scale (CDS) assessments and 15 participated in interviews. Simple bivariate and multivariable regression were used to determine the impacts of resource usage on the child’s level of disability and caregivers burden. Results: The mean level of disability of children with DS was 64.8 and caregiver burden was 50.2. Positively associated predictors of the level of disability include school, type, caregiver gender and income level. Approximately one-third (36.8%) of caregivers reported receiving assistance from external supports, 20% received government assistance, and 92.8% of caregivers relied on assistance from friends and family. Conclusions: Assistance from external sources and behavior therapy was shown to negatively moderate the relationship between the level of disability of the child and caregiver burden. Future longitudinal research, alongside more resource promotion and creation could improve resource access, disability levels and caregiver burden.</p
Policy responses to COVID-19 present a window of opportunity for a paradigm shift in global health policy: An application of the Multiple Streams Framework as a heuristic
No full textDrawing on Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework as a heuristic, this article reviews the three streams – problems, policies, and politics – as applied to the adoption of economic policies in response to the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19. In doing so, we argue that we are currently presented with a window of opportunity to better address the social determinants of health. First, through assessing the problem stream, an understanding of inequity as a problem gained wider recognition through the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19. Second, in the policy stream, we demonstrate that appropriate and unprecedented policies can be enacted even in the face of changing evidence or evidentiary uncertainty, which are needed to address upstream factors that influence health. Lastly, in the politics stream, we demonstrate that addressing a public health ‘problem’ can be well-received by the public, making it politically viable. However, it is important to ensure the ‘problem’ is clearly relayed to the public and that this information is not perceived to change, as this can undermine trust. The social, political, and behavioural lessons presented by the COVID-19 pandemic should be drawn on in this pivotal moment for global public health
Revealing attributes of supportive healing environments in interior design: staff perceptions in healthcare design
No full text2013 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.People seeking healthcare anticipate an environment supportive of healing and wellness in acute and ambulatory facilities. Such environments synthesize psychological, social, and physical components shown to effect perceptions of healing (McCullough, 2010). "Well-designed physical environments... foster wellness, whereas poorly designed environments... make people frustrated and thereby contribute to the possibility of illness" (Dilani, 2001, p. 34). Wellness factors need to be clearly identified in designing healthcare facilities, becoming an integral part of the therapeutic process (Dilani, 2001). By observing actual healthcare environments, evidence-informed (Nussbaumer, 2009) design strategies can enlighten stress-free environments by emphasizing strategic opportunities to impact the design of healthy facilities (Ulrich, 2000). The purpose of this research study was to closely examine attributes and factors contributing to a healing environment from the perspective of healthcare staff in a campus ambulatory healthcare setting. The study sought to identify attributes critical to the process of designing healing environments and to examine the presence of a hierarchy of healing attributes to support healthcare designers in their problem-solving and design intentions. Data were collected using an e-survey to the population of healthcare staff, with a response rate of 41% (N = 57). Study findings confirm Dilani (2000) and Ulrich's (1991) theoretical framework but suggest duplicity in the initial conceptual model incorporating these attributes and factors, as derived from their research findings. As a result a revised conceptual model was developed, which needs to be tested in future research
Utilizing asynchronous email interviews for health research: overview of benefits and drawbacks
No full textAbstract
Objective
Through collating observations from various studies and complementing these findings with one author’s study, a detailed overview of the benefits and drawbacks of asynchronous email interviewing is provided. Through this overview, it is evident there is great potential for asynchronous email interviews in the broad field of health, particularly for studies drawing on expertise from participants in academia or professional settings, those across varied geographical settings (i.e. potential for global public health research), and/or in circumstances when face-to-face interactions are not possible (e.g. COVID-19).
Results
Benefits of asynchronous email interviewing and additional considerations for researchers are discussed around: (i) access transcending geographic location and during restricted face-to-face communications; (ii) feasibility and cost; (iii) sampling and inclusion of diverse participants; (iv) facilitating snowball sampling and increased transparency; (v) data collection with working professionals; (vi) anonymity; (vii) verification of participants; (viii) data quality and enhanced data accuracy; and (ix) overcoming language barriers. Similarly, potential drawbacks of asynchronous email interviews are also discussed with suggested remedies, which centre around: (i) time; (ii) participant verification and confidentiality; (iii) technology and sampling concerns; (iv) data quality and availability; and (v) need for enhanced clarity and precision
Individual and household Life course explanation to entrepreneurial exit
No full textEntrepreneurial exit, a critical stage in the entrepreneurial process, happens when the venture creators disengage from ownership control and decision-making authority of the firm they helped to create. Until now, academic research delineating the role of individual and household level resources in explaining exit (or otherwise) are relatively sparse. Of the limited research that provided a resource-based explanation to exit, hardly any research has investigated the influence of a multitude of different resources on the exit process and the subsequent decision to exit. Moreover, the impact of resources on the exit decision has only been studied at the individual level of analysis, despite evidence suggesting an inextricably intertwined relationship between the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial households. Like the literature on entrepreneurship more broadly, research on entrepreneurial exit largely relies on cross-sectional data. Moving beyond the current understanding that exit is a dichotomous adverse event often equating to business failure, this research attempts to study the exit phenomenon factoring 'the time an individual takes to make the exit decision' to understand the influence of resources to determine (a) who experience an exit event (as opposed to who remain in business), (b) when in the business life course they make the exit decision, and (c) varying exit profiles for individuals. More specifically, this research study entrepreneurial exit from an entrepreneurial resource perspective, paying particular attention to human, financial and time as key resources to succeed, or otherwise, in the entrepreneurial journey. Drawing upon the UK longitudinal household survey (UKLHS), the thesis finds that a combination of human, financial and time resources determines one's faith in business. Overall, the author found support for the original thesis that household dynamics are highly influential in explaining the likelihood of the entrepreneur exiting from their business. The research findings also suggested that whether resources facilitate or constrain entrepreneurial practice, the effect of those resources in determining the exit outcome vary considerably.
The study has made several contributions to the entrepreneurial exit literature. First, this research extends the current knowledge base on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial exit with its exploration of the role of the resource in the entrepreneur's exit decision. Second, by adopting the entrepreneurial household as the framing context and positioning self-employed/business owners' resource base within the resource base of their household, this study has extended the resource definition to entrepreneur exit, which was earlier looked upon from an owner-centric perspective. Third, the life course analysis generated a more complex picture of entrepreneur exit than those provided by the existing literature. More specifically, by building the nuanced empirical understanding of resource demands, this research offers a broader conceptualisation of exit conditions that enable entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals to experience varying forms of exists. The typology that differentiates voluntary from non-voluntary and positive exit experience from negative experiences helps to respond to the call for reframing exit as an emergent opportunity-based decision rather than a one-off misfortune that often refers to in the exit literature as a ‘failure’ event. At the policy level, research findings challenge the policy discourse that anyone with access to minimum levels of resources and institutional support can start entrepreneurship by highlighting the importance of entrepreneurial capital. This research also challenges the policy understanding that household dynamics are separate from entrepreneurial/enterprise decisions, thereby overlooking the role of the household in entrepreneurial decisions, including exit
Healing environment: a contribution to the interior design and decor features in single occupancy hospital rooms in Libya.
No full textAn evaluation of optometric advanced skills within a UK tertiary based setting
No full textHospital-based optometrists are undertaking extended roles across ophthalmology that may require them to perform advanced skills (AS). Moorfields Eye Hospital (MEH) is the largest UK employer of hospital-based optometrists, it was sought to investigate which AS are being performed at this centre and how they align to the four pillars of advanced clinical practice (ACP). An online survey was sent to MEH optometrists in May 2022 that asked about professional status, sub-specialties worked, qualifications, acquisition and validation of AS, research and leadership. Ninety-six optometrists with mean post-qualification experience was 16.2 years (SD 10.4) responded to the survey. There were 84 AS that covered clinical, leadership and research, with respondents achieving a mean of 11.8 (SD 10.3). Those with independent prescribing (IP) qualifications (n = 52) had a higher number of AS compared to non-IP optometrists (p = 0.03). There were 68 clinical AS across the sub-specialties (23 clinical AS were common in ≥2 sub-specialties), 49 out of 120 clinical AS could be performed by at least 60% of staff. Twenty-six optometrists identified with leadership, 56 had undertaken research/audit, 27 had published within a peer-reviewed journal and half of the time spent in active research was funded. AS are being performed by optometrists within a tertiary eye hospital that supports ACP. IP optometrists had higher self-reported AS but current educational frameworks don't accommodate for some AS. Targeted AS courses with competency-based sign-off may further support high-quality patient care. Further research is required on how advanced care practitioners can support workforce transformation. [Abstract copyright: © 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Royal College of Ophthalmologists.
Abstract 4852: Multivalent peptoid conjugates suppress enzalutamide-resistant prostate cancer cellular proliferation
No full textSupplementary Table S2 from Multivalent Peptoid Conjugates Which Overcome Enzalutamide Resistance in Prostate Cancer Cells
No full textPrimer sequences for qRT-PCR.</p
Supplementary Figures S1-S5 from Multivalent Peptoid Conjugates Which Overcome Enzalutamide Resistance in Prostate Cancer Cells
No full textMPC6 inhibits AR transcriptional activity (S1); MPC6 treatment did not decrease AR protein level in prostate cancer cell lines (S2); MPC6's anti-proliferative effect in non-prostate cancer cell lines (S3); PK/PD analysis for plasma MPC6 concentration (S4); MPC6 treatment did not significantly reduce host body weight (S5).</p
