35 research outputs found
Supplementary_table_S1 – Supplemental material for A worked example of initial theory-building: PARTNERS2 collaborative care for people who have experienced psychosis in England
No full textSupplemental material, Supplementary_table_S1 for A worked example of initial theory-building: PARTNERS2 collaborative care for people who have experienced psychosis in England by Ruth Gwernan-Jones, Nicky Britten, Jon Allard, Elina Baker, Laura Gill, Helen Lloyd, Tim Rawcliffe, Ruth Sayers, Humera Plappert, John Gibson, Michael Clark, Maximillian Birchwood, Vanessa Pinfold, Siobhan Reilly, Linda Gask and Richard Byng in Evaluation</p
What are the main inefficiencies in trial conduct:a survey of UKCRC registered clinical trials units in the UK
No full textBACKGROUND: The UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) registered Clinical Trials Units (CTUs) Network aims to support high-quality, efficient and sustainable clinical trials research in the UK. To better understand the challenges in efficient trial conduct, and to help prioritise tackling these challenges, we surveyed CTU staff. The aim was to identify important inefficiencies during two key stages of the trial conduct life cycle: (i) from grant award to first participant, (ii) from first participant to reporting of final results. METHODS: Respondents were asked to list their top three inefficiencies from grant award to recruitment of the first participant, and from recruitment of the first participant to publication of results. Free text space allowed respondents to explain why they thought these were important. The survey was constructed using SurveyMonkey and circulated to the 45 registered CTUs in May 2013. Respondents were asked to name their unit and job title, but were otherwise anonymous. Free-text responses were coded into broad categories. RESULTS: There were 43 respondents from 25 CTUs. The top inefficiency between grant award and recruitment of first participant was reported as obtaining research and development (R&D) approvals by 23 respondents (53%), contracts by 22 (51%), and other approvals by 13 (30%). The top inefficiency from recruitment of first participant to publication of results was failure to meet recruitment targets, reported by 19 (44%) respondents. A common comment was that this reflected overoptimistic or inaccurate estimates of recruitment at site. Data management, including case report form design and delays in resolving data queries with sites, was reported as an important inefficiency by 11 (26%) respondents, and preparation and submission for publication by 9 (21%). CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations for improving the efficiency of trial conduct within the CTUs network include: further reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in approvals and contracting; improving training for site staff; realistic recruitment targets and appropriate feasibility; developing training across the network; improving the working relationships between chief investigators and units; encouraging funders to release sufficient funding to allow prompt recruitment of trial staff; and encouraging more research into how to improve the efficiency and quality of trial conduct
The Europeanization of Interest Representation: A Strategic Decision-Making Analysis of UK Business and Environmental Interests
No full textThe point of departure for this paper is that the European Union (EU) has affected national politics, policies and polities. This process, labelled Europeanization, has led to changes in two interconnected political dimensions. First, it has led to modifications in the relationships between state and non-state actors within the national arena. Second, it has changed the interactions between the sub-national, national and supranational actors (state and non-state). To explore these propositions the paper conducts an analysis of the interest representation patterns exhibited by non-state actors. The paper compares firms (in the telecommunications, gas and electricity sectors) and environmental groups (focused on nature conservation or biodiversity policy), both based in the United Kingdom (UK), in order to determine how, to what extent and why Europeanization has affected their interest representation behaviour. The activities displayed by the two sets of interests are compared and contrasted in terms of chosen lobbying targets (i.e. national government departments and EU institutions), routes and allies (i.e. direct contact or via intermediaries such as Euro-groups) and the timing and character of the contact. Ideas and tools drawn from management science (i.e. strategic decision making analyses) are employed to assist in deriving the causal explanations for the Europeanized patterns of behaviour. It is argued that a combination of the three strategic decision making factors (i.e. internal organizational resources, objectives (and perceived rewards) and external political environments explain the contrasting behaviour of the firms and environmental groups
The reactions of loaded carbon nanotubes studied by novel electron microscope techniques
No full textA novel electron microscope technique, controlled environment transmission electron microscopy (CETEM), has been used to investigate the reaction of materials loaded within the internal cavities of carbon nanotubes. CETEM allows the introduction of up to 20 mbar of gas around an electron microscope sample, while maintaining a high resolution imaging capability. The microscope is stable, flexible and reliable under these conditions and high resolution images of encapsulated transmission metal oxide reduction have been recorded at 460 deg. C. Recently discovered carbon nanotubes have in theory many applications, many of which will require controlled reliable loading of the internal cavity. However, at present, there is little experimental evidence to confirm theoretical descriptions of the fundamental mechanisms which govern both the extent of loading and the state in which it is found. Similarly, reaction within the cavity and the effect of encapsulation on the nano-scale particle distribution must also be understood, and CETEM proves to be an ideal technique for the study of these processes. Nanotubes have been loaded from aqueous solution with (NH_4)_2IrCI_6 and with molten MoO_3 or K_2WO_4/WO_3. Bulk samples of the first salt are known to decompose spontaneously in air at 200 deg. C, and the bulk oxides are partially reduced at temperature under hydrogen to give potentially useful conducting phases. Comparing the reaction of these materials it is thus possible to: investigate the effect of loading on their reaction; compare the reaction of these materials in- and out-side the tube cavity; and assess the result of violent loading processes on the tubes themselves. Fortuitously, a spontaneous decomposition, a solid-gas reduction and a phase rearrangement were all recorded, allowing mechanistic implications of encapsulation to be considered for each of these reactions. Perhaps surprisingly, the results can be largely interpreted using the reported bulk chemistry of the materials, though the role of the microscope, in particular electron beam effects, in initiating reaction is discussed. CETEM allows nano-chemistry to be viewed in real-time under high resolution conditions and mechanisms can be proposed for the reactions outlined above. In particular, the complicated reduction of industrially important K_2WO_4/WO_3 has been studied, which is not yet fully understood. (author)Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:D205963 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
A Narrative Account of an Arts Psychotherapies Service Response to the COVID-19 crisis: Challenges and Recommendations
No full textAvailable for purchase at: https://www.amazon.com/Living-Fear-Reflections-Ade-Odunlade/dp/1838536035 .This chapter describes perspectives from the academic and practice arts psychotherapies leads within a large NHS Trust in the UK. This was written from the perspective two leads with experience in senior management, research and clinical practice. The first author is an art therapist and a consultant and the second author is a music therapist and Head of Profession. As part of the core psychological provision, the arts psychotherapies service employs arts psychotherapists, arts psychotherapies trainees and honorary professionals to deliver specialist care and treatment for patients across mental health services. The chapter is written during the time of crisis, when the peak has been reached but the end of the crisis and lockdown remains unclear. The authors take stock of the changes that have taken place to a community arts psychotherapies service during the COVID-19 crisis, making reference to the changes in staff provision and practice. During this time, clear lessons have already been learnt, observations made, and inquiries have resulted in broad recommendations which are relevant to health services where there may be similar events taking place. These recommendations relate to how at an operational level the clinical work, staff capability and capacity to adapt are kept in mind and responded to during and after a pandemic
The "Philomena" of John Bradmore and its Middle English derivative : a perspective on surgery in Late Medieval England
No full textThis thesis is a study of two related surgical texts produced in England in the fifteenth
century. The Latin treatise entitled Philomena, British Library MS. Sloane 2272, was
compiled by a London surgeon, John Bradmore, who died in 1412. British Library MS.
Harley 1736 contains a Middle English version of part of Bradmore's treatise on ff.2-167.
The relationship of the texts is discussed in the Introduction. Bradmore's authorship of
the Latin text is established, and the mistaken attribution of the Middle English text, to
surgeon Thomas Morstede, is refuted. Details of Bradmore's life, status, wealth, and
associates, are given in Chapter 1.
Chapters 2-3 concentrate on the form of Bradmore's Latin text, and his intentions and
methods as its compiler. The manuscript is described, and is shown to be Bradmore's
holograph. Many of the earlier authorities used by Bradmore as sources are identified,
and his adaptation of them discussed. Chapter 4 gives a detailed study of cases
Bradmore describes, drawn from his own experience, and attempts to show the rational
basis for his treatments. These cases, though few in number, demonstrate the wide
social range of Bradmore's patients, and the variety of conditions treated, with techniques
and applications sometimes of Bradmore's own devising.
Chapters 5-6 describe the Middle English version of Bradmore's work, and show that it
is an adaptation as much as a translation of the Latin text. The intentions of the author
are considered in order to assess his selectivity and to understand how the nature of his
text differs from that of the Latin original.
Bradmore's Latin text and its Middle English derivative offer a fascinating insight into
the practice of surgery in the fifteenth century. Furthermore, the existence of Philomena
in Bradmore's holograph provides a unique opportunity to see a compiler at work on his
text
‘Synge we now alle and sum’: three Fifteenth-Century collections of communal song: a study of British Library, Sloane MS 2593; Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet. e.1; and St John’s College, Cambridge, MS S.54
No full textThe manuscripts British Library, Sloane MS 2593, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet. e.1, and St John’s College, Cambridge, MS S.54 are compact collections of song lyrics written during the fifteenth century, largely without notation. My thesis seeks to develop responsive ways of reading these anthologies and uses the manuscripts to illumine the creative processes that produced and circulated their songs. I integrate attention to song lyrics within the material books and exploration of wider textual networks. As many of the anthologies’ texts are in
carol form, a combination of refrain parts and stanzas, the books provide an opportunity to examine the form’s identity and significance within fifteenth-century English songwriting.
The thesis is in three parts and the first introduces critical approaches to the manuscripts and the carol, followed by an examination of the books and their contexts, especially manuscripts with which the anthologies have textual connections. The central section investigates the songs’ production and circulation by examining textual networks, how the anthologies were written, how the songs may have been performed, and the role of memory in shaping the songs and anthologies. The final part explores women’s role in the songs, the range of forms used, and the centrality of the many imagined voices and performances within the texts.
This is the first extended study focused upon these three sources, which as anthologies offer insight into ways songs were shared and organised. I investigate the role of short collections and booklets in the construction of longer
anthologies, and the possibility of an especially productive song culture within fifteenth-century East Anglia. Rather than repeating assertions familiar from
earlier studies of carols that the anthologies’ songs are either popular or clerical productions, I suggest how the anthologies engage with communal performance cultures and participate in varied song traditions, from liturgy to lullaby
CETGI : an assessment tool for global concurrent engineering : executive summary
No full textIndustrial globalisation and the increased complexity of products promote new
product development (NPD) by distributed teams. These teams facilitate the transfer
of designs to manufacturing facilities, the adaptation of products to local markets and
the access to engineering design talents. However, there are many industrial
experiences of under performing distributed teams, such as the development of the
Ford Mondeo which ran a year late and cost £4 billion. This Engineering Doctorate
project CETGI (Concurrent Engineering and Teamwork across Global Industries)
aimed to investigate and advise companies on the enabling practices of global
concurrent engineering (GCE). An assessment tool for GCE was developed,
embedding its enabling practices in a knowledge base and providing structured advice
to manufacturing companies of electro-mechanical products.
Preliminary investigation was conducted towards the development of the CETGI tool:
literature review on GCE; a benchmark study of nine current concurrent engineering
assessment tools; a comparative analysis of NPD practices in the UK and the USA; a
survey of NPD practices of global companies developing products in the UK; and
thirteen case studies of GCE projects. The CETGI tool was then developed, consisting
of an assessment process involving multifunctional teams and executives. CETGI is
different to previous tools because of its knowledge base of GCE practices and its
three analytical algorithms: the first, aggregates the individual answers; the second,
provides a customised list of prioritised actions; and the third, generates maturity
charts, providing a performance perspective and supporting benchmarking. Another
novel feature of CETGI is the Internet enabled software application that supports its
assessment process. The latter software is a multi-participant decision-making support
system. The CETGI tool has been applied to three first tier supplier companies, two
from the automotive industry and one from the transport industry aimed at fine-tuning
and validating the tool. The work focused on evaluating the reliability of the
questionnaire (constructed on the knowledge base) and establishing the validity and
the industrial usefulness of the CETGI tool. On average, the NPD executives
considered 90% of the suggested actions appropriate, selected 70% of the actions for
implementation and implemented 51% of the selected actions (based on a post-assessment
review at one company). The actions were estimated to reduce time-to-market
and product-unit costs by the NPD executives and they rated CETGI highest
in terms of promoting global product development, followed by providing an overall
picture of the current product development process.
Further research opportunities have been identified such as using the CETGI tool to
assess other business areas apart from GCE. This would require investigating best
practices in these areas and embedding the results in specific knowledge bases. The
assessment method, the structure of the knowledge base and the analytical algorithms
would remain the same
