7 research outputs found
Time to act : The challenges of working during and after cancer, initiatives in research and practice
No full textPeer reviewe
Microarray studies on the effect of silencing tynA in Escherichia coli K-12
No full textAbstractTo study the biological role of the tynA gene product of Escherichia coli, a primary amine oxidase (ECAO, E.C. 1.4.3.21), the tynA gene was genetically silenced by conjugation with a kanamycin resistance cassette. We used a microarray method to compare the mRNA expression in the modified strain (ΔtynA) to that in the wild type (wt) strain at the time of induction of ECAO expression (0h) as well as 1h and 4h after the induction. These data in brief describe the different experimental conditions, sample preparation, data collection and analysis of the conducted microarray experiment. The differential expression of genes in the studied strains 1h after the induction of ECAO expression is described. The microarray data have been deposited in NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus and are accessible through GEO Series accession number GSE65385
Strategies to improve recruitment to randomised trials
No full textBackground
Recruiting participants to trials can be extremely difficult. Identifying strategies that improve trial recruitment would benefit both trialists and health research.
Objectives
To quantify the effects of strategies for improving recruitment of participants to randomised trials. A secondary objective is to assess the evidence for the effect of the research setting (e.g. primary care versus secondary care) on recruitment.
Search methods
We searched the Cochrane Methodology Review Group Specialised Register (CMR) in the Cochrane Library (July 2012, searched 11 February 2015); MEDLINE and MEDLINE In Process (OVID) (1946 to 10 February 2015); Embase (OVID) (1996 to 2015 Week 06); Science Citation Index & Social Science Citation Index (ISI) (2009 to 11 February 2015) and ERIC (EBSCO) (2009 to 11 February 2015).
Selection criteria
Randomised and quasi-randomised trials of methods to increase recruitment to randomised trials. This includes non-healthcare studies and studies recruiting to hypothetical trials. We excluded studies aiming to increase response rates to questionnaires or trial retention and those evaluating incentives and disincentives for clinicians to recruit participants.
Data collection and analysis
We extracted data on: the method evaluated; country in which the study was carried out; nature of the population; nature of the study setting; nature of the study to be recruited into; randomisation or quasi-randomisation method; and numbers and proportions in each intervention group. We used a risk difference to estimate the absolute improvement and the 95% confidence interval (CI) to describe the effect in individual trials. We assessed heterogeneity between trial results. We used GRADE to judge the certainty we had in the evidence coming from each comparison.
Main results
We identified 68 eligible trials (24 new to this update) with more than 74,000 participants. There were 63 studies involving interventions aimed directly at trial participants, while five evaluated interventions aimed at people recruiting participants. All studies were in health care.
We found 72 comparisons, but just three are supported by high-certainty evidence according to GRADE.
1. Open trials rather than blinded, placebo trials. The absolute improvement was 10% (95% CI 7% to 13%).
2. Telephone reminders to people who do not respond to a postal invitation. The absolute improvement was 6% (95% CI 3% to 9%). This result applies to trials that have low underlying recruitment. We are less certain for trials that start out with moderately good recruitment (i.e. over 10%).
3. Using a particular, bespoke, user-testing approach to develop participant information leaflets. This method involved spending a lot of time working with the target population for recruitment to decide on the content, format and appearance of the participant information leaflet. This made little or no difference to recruitment: absolute improvement was 1% (95% CI −1% to 3%).
We had moderate-certainty evidence for eight other comparisons; our confidence was reduced for most of these because the results came from a single study. Three of the methods were changes to trial management, three were changes to how potential participants received information, one was aimed at recruiters, and the last was a test of financial incentives. All of these comparisons would benefit from other researchers replicating the evaluation. There were no evaluations in paediatric trials.
We had much less confidence in the other 61 comparisons because the studies had design flaws, were single studies, had very uncertain results or were hypothetical (mock) trials rather than real ones.
Authors' conclusions
The literature on interventions to improve recruitment to trials has plenty of variety but little depth. Only 3 of 72 comparisons are supported by high-certainty evidence according to GRADE: having an open trial and using telephone reminders to non-responders to postal interventions both increase recruitment; a specialised way of developing participant information leaflets had little or no effect. The methodology research community should improve the evidence base by replicating evaluations of existing strategies, rather than developing and testing new ones
Workplace policy and management practices to improve the health of employees Evidence Review 1
No full textThe National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been asked by the Department of Health to develop guidance on management practices to improve the health of employees, with a particular emphasis on the role of line managers and organisational context. The guidance will cover support for managers, their training, and awareness of employee health issues including managing sickness absence, as well as policies and the organisational context. The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) in partnership with The Work Foundation (TWF) and Lancaster University have been contracted to undertake a series of evidence reviews of relevant effectiveness and qualitative studies and an economic analysis to support the production of this guidance. This report is the first of these evidence reviews. It covers studies which examine the effectiveness of interventions taken by supervisors that could enhance the wellbeing of the people they manage. Subsequent reviews will focus on the effectiveness of organisational interventions and qualitative research about the workplace factors that facilitate or constrain the ability of line managers to enhance the wellbeing of the people they manage
Interventions to enhance return-to-work for cancer patients
No full textCancer patients are 1.4 times more likely to be unemployed than healthy people. Therefore it is important to provide cancer patients with programmes to support the return-to-work (RTW) process. This is an update of a Cochrane review first published in 2011. To evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at enhancing RTW in cancer patients compared to alternative programmes including usual care or no intervention. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, in the Cochrane Library Issue 3, 2014), MEDLINE (January 1966 to March 2014), EMBASE (January 1947 to March 2014), CINAHL (January 1983 to March, 2014), OSH-ROM and OSH Update (January 1960 to March, 2014), PsycINFO (January 1806 to 25 March 2014), DARE (January 1995 to March, 2014), ClinicalTrials.gov, Trialregister.nl and Controlled-trials.com up to 25 March 2014. We also examined the reference lists of included studies and selected reviews, and contacted authors of relevant studies. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of the effectiveness of psycho-educational, vocational, physical, medical or multidisciplinary interventions enhancing RTW in cancer patients. The primary outcome was RTW measured as either RTW rate or sick leave duration measured at 12 months' follow-up. The secondary outcome was quality of life. Two review authors independently assessed trials for inclusion, assessed the risk of bias and extracted data. We pooled study results we judged to be clinically homogeneous in different comparisons reporting risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We assessed the overall quality of the evidence for each comparison using the GRADE approach. Fifteen RCTs including 1835 cancer patients met the inclusion criteria and because of multiple arms studies we included 19 evaluations. We judged six studies to have a high risk of bias and nine to have a low risk of bias. All included studies were conducted in high income countries and most studies were aimed at breast cancer patients (seven trials) or prostate cancer patients (two trials).Two studies involved psycho-educational interventions including patient education and teaching self-care behaviours. Results indicated low quality evidence of similar RTW rates for psycho-educational interventions compared to care as usual (RR 1.09, 95% CI 0.88 to 1.35, n = 260 patients) and low quality evidence that there is no difference in the effect of psycho-educational interventions compared to care as usual on quality of life (standardised mean difference (SMD) 0.05, 95% CI -0.2 to 0.3, n = 260 patients). We did not find any studies on vocational interventions. In one study breast cancer patients were offered a physical training programme. Low quality evidence suggested that physical training was not more effective than care as usual in improving RTW (RR 1.20, 95% CI 0.32 to 4.54, n = 28 patients) or quality of life (SMD -0.37, 95% CI -0.99 to 0.25, n = 41 patients).Seven RCTs assessed the effects of a medical intervention on RTW. In all studies a less radical or functioning conserving medical intervention was compared with a more radical treatment. We found low quality evidence that less radical, functioning conserving approaches had similar RTW rates as more radical treatments (RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.96 to 1.09, n = 1097 patients) and moderate quality evidence of no differences in quality of life outcomes (SMD 0.10, 95% CI -0.04 to 0.23, n = 1028 patients).Five RCTs involved multidisciplinary interventions in which vocational counselling was combined with patient education, patient counselling, and biofeedback-assisted behavioral training or physical exercises. Moderate quality evidence showed that multidisciplinary interventions involving physical, psycho-educational and vocational components led to higher RTW rates than care as usual (RR 1.11, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.16, n = 450 patients). We found no differences in the effect of multidisciplinary interventions compared to care as usual on quality of life outcomes (SMD 0.03, 95% CI -0.20 to 0.25, n = 316 patients). We found moderate quality evidence that multidisciplinary interventions enhance the RTW of patients with cance
Parent expectations of teaching and caring at different kinds of higher education institutions
No full text2014 Spring.Today's college students arrive at higher education institutions with parents who remain involved well beyond the admissions and financial aid processes. Many of these parents attended college themselves and have strong beliefs about what the college experience is like or should be. Some of these parents will not hesitate to negotiate grades with professors or intervene on behalf of their student when issues arise (Coburn, 2006; Henning, 2007; Wartman & Savage, 2008). Many of today's college students are happy with the amount of parental involvement in their college experience and welcome it (Shoup, Gonyea, & Kuh, 2009). Today's college parent is involved in a myriad of ways with their college student's experience as well as the institution. What remains unclear is what parent expectations are of the college or university and of their involvement in their student's college experience. Understanding parent expectations may help staff and administrators better support and encourage appropriate parental involvement in the student's college experience. This study examined parent expectations of teaching and caring at eleven different institutions, utilizing the Parent Expectations of Collegiate Teaching and Caring (PECTAC) survey created by Wayne Young (2006). The sample included a total of 3,378 participants. The intent of the study was to compare parent expectations regarding the teaching and caring functions of several kinds of institutions, which were grouped by two variables: Sponsorship (public, private non-sectarian, or private religious) and Institution Type (research/PhD or liberal arts). One purpose of the study was to compare expectations of parents who graduated from college with those who did not graduate or attend college. Another purpose of this study was to compare parent expectations of teaching and caring results based on parent gender, parent race/ethnicity, parent education and student classification. The participants in this study were majority female, married, Caucasian, and had a college degree. At least half were first time college parents and were very involved in their student's college choice. Parents continue to play an important role in the relationship between the student, parent, and institution. Their expectations influence how they interact with their student as well as the institution that their student attends. The results of this study suggest that parents have specific expectations of higher education. Mothers, non-college graduates, African American, and Latino parents had higher expectations of overall teaching and caring. Parents of students who attend religious institutions had higher expectations of the overall caring but not the overall teaching functions of the institution. Parents of freshmen students had higher expectations of the overall caring but not the overall teaching of the institution. In general the effect sizes were small to medium but African American parents differed from Caucasian parents with large effect sizes on both the overall caring and teaching functions of the institution. Female parent gender, non-college graduate and non-white race/ethnicity combined to significantly predict parent expectations related to the overall teaching functions of the institution. Parent gender, education, and ethnicity as well as religious institutional sponsorship combined to significantly predict parent expectations of the overall caring functions of the institution, although the effect sizes of the multiple regressions were small. The current study adds to the research conducted on parent expectations and may help administrators and institutions to better understand how parent expectations differ among the various kinds of institutions. Additionally, results of this study may help administrators improve or create services and programs to better serve parents
GPT-4 Technical Report
No full textWe report the development of GPT-4, a large-scale, multimodal model which can
accept image and text inputs and produce text outputs. While less capable than
humans in many real-world scenarios, GPT-4 exhibits human-level performance on
various professional and academic benchmarks, including passing a simulated bar
exam with a score around the top 10% of test takers. GPT-4 is a
Transformer-based model pre-trained to predict the next token in a document.
The post-training alignment process results in improved performance on measures
of factuality and adherence to desired behavior. A core component of this
project was developing infrastructure and optimization methods that behave
predictably across a wide range of scales. This allowed us to accurately
predict some aspects of GPT-4's performance based on models trained with no
more than 1/1,000th the compute of GPT-4.Comment: 100 pages; updated authors list; fixed author names and added
citatio
