Challenges and strategies with international recruitment in early phase gene therapy trials

The Children's NIHR Clinical Research Facility at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital has been involved in numerous early phase gene therapy trials for diseases such as GM1 gangliosidosis, Gaucher disease, MPSIIIA and MPSII. These trials have necessitated international recruitment which brings challenges for both site and families. In addition, we also actively recruited participants during the Covid-19 global pandemic, amplifying these challenges. A typical patient journey on one of these trials would involve being approached soon after diagnosis due to the rapid progression of these diseases and the need for early intervention. The family would then relocate to the UK with relatively short notice and commence an intensive period of screening involving a lot of extensive information for them to retain and invasive procedures for the patient. Some of these families will speak no English at all which is an additional barrier to managing the parental anxiety and expectations of the trial and its outcome. Once eligibility is confirmed the families are then faced with an extended stay in the UK without the support of their extended family/community. This impacts parent's employment and other siblings who may or may not be with them and who may also be affected by the same disease. Following administration of the gene therapy, participants then commence intensive follow up often associated with immunosuppressants. Close working with the local clinicians is essential for patient safety and trial integrity. Good engagement with families once they have returned to their home country is vital in obtaining continuing trial data and ensuring retention and compliance with attending future visits. Follow up visits are essential for safety and efficacy data for the progression of gene therapy trials. Travel restrictions brought about by the covid 19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges but with good communication and engagement we have mostly overcome them.

Vaccine hesitancy: Opinion of people responsible for the care of infants in Barcelona

Objectives To describe the opinions regarding vaccination of parents of infants aged 0–7 years in Barcelona with different profiles of vaccine hesitancy;to describe the elements contributing to hesitancy;and to explore suggestions for improvement. Materials and methods Qualitative exploratory-descriptive and phenomenological study. Thirteen semi-structured individual interviews were carried out with parents of infants with vaccine hesitancy (12 mothers and one father). A thematic content analysis was performed. Data quality was ensured through triangulation strategies. Results Among the elements contributing to vaccine hesitancy, the participants highlighted the scarce information on vaccines provided by the health system, the variability in the treatment received at the consultation and their need to make informed decisions. Insufficient information contributes to their perception that the vaccination schedule is excessive, premature and rigid, and to the low risk perception of some diseases. Although they report trust in health services, many complement it with private or non-biomedical services. Mothers considered that the COVID-19 pandemic had little influence on their hesitancy. Conclusions The hesitancy identified among the informants is attributed to the lack of information provided by the health services, the communication and treatment received at the consultation and unresolved doubts regarding the vaccination schedule. It is recommended to increase the skills of the professional teams to improve communication with parents of infants and to increase the quality of the information provided by the National Health System. Resumen Objetivos Describir las opiniones respecto a la vacunación de las personas responsables de los cuidados de infantes de 0–7 años en Barcelona con diferentes perfiles de reticencia vacunal;describir los elementos que contribuyen a la reticencia y explorar sugerencias de mejora. Materiales y métodos Estudio cualitativo exploratorio–descriptivo y fenomenológico. Se realizaron 13 entrevistas individuales semiestructuradas con responsables de infantes con reticencia vacunal (12 madres y un padre). Se efectuó un análisis temático del contenido. La calidad de los datos se garantizó mediante estrategias de triangulación. Resultados Entre los elementos que contribuyen a la reticencia vacunal, las participantes destacaron la escasa información sobre vacunas aportada por el sistema sanitario, la variabilidad en el trato recibido en la consulta y su necesidad de tomar decisiones informadas. La información insuficiente contribuye a su percepción de que el calendario vacunal es excesivo, precoz y rígido, y a la baja percepción del riesgo de algunas enfermedades. Aunque reportan confianza en los servicios sanitarios, muchas lo complementan con servicios privados o no-biomédicos. Las madres consideraban que la pandemia de COVID-19 había tenido escasa influencia en su reticencia. Conclusiones La reticencia identificada entre las informantes se atribuye a la falta de información aportada por los servicios sanitarios, a la comunicación y el trato recibido en la consulta y a las dudas no resueltas respecto al calendario vacunal. Se recomienda incrementar las habilidades de los equipos profesionales para mejorar la comunicación con las personas responsables de infantes y aumentar la calidad de la información que ofrece el Sistema Nacional de Salud.

Psychological analysis of injuries in a first category softball national championship in Cuba

Introduction: the systematic analysis of the relationships between relevant psychological variables for sports performance and injuries is essential to contribute to their prevention in specific sports. Material and methods: a descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study was carried out in the first category women's national softball championship in Cuba. 88 athletes participated with an average chronological age of 22.91 (SD=6.13) and a sports experience of 10.83 years (SD=4.92). A specific questionnaire, the Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory and the Psychological Inventory of Sport Execution was applied. Descriptive statistics and Kendall's Tau_b nonparametric correlation coefficient was used for data analysis. Results: A high injury load was verified with a low perception of the role of psychological factors in its etiology, as well as a notable occurrence of new injuries with negative emotional repercussions. Negative correlations of self-confidence, negative coping control, visual-imaginative control, positive coping control, and attitude control with history of injuries were obtained. The high anxiety showed significant relationships with previous injuries and new injuries during the analyzed competition. Conclusions: the findings are especially congruent with previous results in elite softball players, although new and greater relationships between variables were determined. All this means that stimulating psychological skills to control anxiety in competition could contribute to the prevention of injuries. However, longitudinal analyzes are required to confirm the predictive role of these variables before proposing psychological interventions in this regard.

Understanding the Relation of Psychological/Behavioral Factors and Cycling During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Iran

Previous research on travel behavior has concentrated on the behavior of traveling by cars, especially by private vehicles, while the research on cycling has focused on cycling infrastructure, the built environment, and the natural environment. Furthermore, the studies conducted during pandemics are mostly based on behavioral changes in motorized transportation. The present research tries to identify and evaluate the variables influencing cyclist behavior during covid-19 pandemic. In this research, the sample size retrieved from a survey of 375 participants was checked with Cronbach's alpha standard and estimated using confirmatory factor analysis. Results show that the variables related to health protocols can greatly impact knowing the behavior of cyclists in the time of Covid-19. Furthermore, the results show that the health issues of shared bikes can be an obstacle for people to use them more. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Intelligent Transportation Systems Japan.

COVID-19 clinical medical relationship extraction based on MPNet

With the rapid development of biomedical research and information technology, the number of clinical medical literature has increased exponentially. At present, COVID-19 clinical text research has some problems, such as lack of corpus and poor annotation quality. In clinical medical literature, there are many medical related semantic relationships between entities. After the task of entity recognition, how to further extract the relationships between entities efficiently and accurately becomes very critical. In this study, a COVID-19 clinical trial data relationship extraction model based on deep learning method is proposed. The model adopts MPNet model, bidirectional-GRU (BiGRU) network, MAtt mechanism and Conditional Random Field inference layer integration architecture and improves the problem that static word vector cannot represent ambiguity through pre-trained language model. BiGRU network is used to replace the current Bi directional long short term memory structure and simplify the network structure of Long Short Term Memory to improve the training efficiency of the model. Through comparative experiments, the proposed method performs well in the COVID-19 clinical text entity relation extraction task. © 2023 The Authors. IET Cyber-Physical Systems: Theory & Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Everyday mobility practices and the ethics of care: young women's reflections on social responsibility in the time of COVID-19 in three African cities

This paper draws principally from COVID-19 diaries written by young women whom we had previously trained as peer researchers in a mobility study of low-income neighbourhoods in Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. Some live with parents or older extended family members, others have children in their care, but concerns around avoiding contagion have forced all peer researchers to reflect on their everyday socio-spatial mobility practices. This includes whether/how much they need to travel or can substitute virtual for physical travel;which transport mode to take and when;what precautions they must take on the move;what strategies of engagement are required to cope with externally imposed rules and contingencies–and the potential impact of their negotiations, decisions and experiences on the health of those dear to them at home. Reflections on these pandemic-induced responsibilities range from social distancing and mask wearing to issues around handling cash, modes of greeting and travel to funerals. The personal interpretations of responsibility that are reported in individual diaries point to the complexity of entanglements between everyday mobility practices on city streets and negotiated relations of care within the household (and other relational settings) that have emerged and deepened as the COVID story unfolds. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Perspectives of non-expert users on cyber security and privacy: An analysis of online discussions on twitter

Many researchers have studied non-expert users' perspectives of cyber security and privacy aspects of computing devices at home, but their studies are mostly small-scale empirical studies based on online surveys and interviews and limited to one or a few specific types of devices, such as smart speakers. This paper reports our work on an online social media analysis of a large-scale Twitter dataset, covering cyber security and privacy aspects of many different types of computing devices discussed by non-expert users in the real world. We developed two new machine learning based classifiers to automatically create the Twitter dataset with 435,207 tweets posted by 337,604 non-expert users in January and February of 2019, 2020 and 2021. We analyzed the dataset using both quantitative (topic modeling and sentiment analysis) and qualitative analysis methods, leading to various previously unknown findings. For instance, we observed a sharp (more than doubled) increase of non-expert users' tweets on cyber security and privacy during the pandemic in 2021, compare to in the pre-COVID years (2019 and 2020). Our analysis revealed a diverse range of topics discussed by non-expert users, including VPNs, Wi-Fi, smartphones, laptops, smart home devices, financial security, help-seeking, and roles of different stakeholders. Overall negative sentiment was observed across almost all topics in all the three years. Our results indicate the multi-faceted nature of non-expert users' perspectives on cyber security and privacy and call for more holistic, comprehensive and nuanced research on their perspectives. © 2022

Adopting new technologies during the crisis: An empirical analysis of agricultural sector

Research and development in agricultural sector are becoming a crucial issue, especially to answer to growing global market needs and, in general, for rural innovation development. The innovation process involves stakeholders of all levels and rural development requires both personal farmers' characteristics along with favourable socio-political and infrastructural environment. Many countries and governments have executed innovation projects for agricultural firms, involving a number of actors from the public and private sectors. However, the literature lacks of studies that investigate the identification of the main factors that determine the agricultural entrepreneurs' probability to adopt new technologies during a crisis context. Thus, through the adoption of the Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study aims at filling this lack. More specifically, the exploratory empirical analysis focuses on a sample of 130 agricultural entrepreneurs operating in a rural developing Italian region, during the historical context of global pandemic crisis of COVID-19. The results provided several insights showing the factors that influence the adoption of technologies, such as the Attitude to Environmental-Economic Sustainability and the Planned Behavioural Control. An important role is also assumed by the past farmer's technological experience. The paper offers implications for entrepreneurs and public government. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

THE BACKSTAGE OF A STUDY DURING THE PANDEMIC: a trioethnography about collaborative dialogues

This paper arises from the authors' interest in understanding the creative dialogues established behind the scenes of a broader research study they are part of. This was a qualitative research involving researchers (PIBIC, university professors, and graduate students) from three countries -Brazil, Canada and England, who were focusing on digital culture in educational communities in Stricto Sensu Graduate programs. The methodological approach of this article starts from a trioethnographic perspective. This academic writing style is more , personalized and conversational. From the emerging data, we explored 3 (three) moments in particular: criticality, neoliberalism, and COVID-19 in the teaching reality and its implications for the development of this research;the role of linguistic competence and translation in the problematization of what we consider to be democratic and collaborative practices;and the (intercultural) renegotiation of research development. These moments are interpreted by the authors from their practices and experiences which are juxtaposed in this article to reflect the complexity of doing research from this dialogic and collaborative perspective in a pandemic context. The dialogues in this article deepen emerging discussions from a critical-reflexive perspective, bringing to light perceptions, views, feelings and implications of personal, affective, professional and academic-scientific interrelationships in the context of the development of this research. We understand, from the data produced in a rigorous but inconclusive way, that our analytical perspectives are loaded by different conceptions, contexts and life stories, and have approximations and distances which enrich this investigation process.

System approaches in governmental public health: Findings from an analysis of the literature

The U.S. public health enterprise is a complex system of public and private partners, loosely coupled, which work together to improve the public's health. This scoping review utilized peer-reviewed and grey literature to understand systems approaches may be used in the design or enhancement of public health governance structures and service delivery mechanisms. Titles and s were screened against the research question and retained materials were reviewed in full. The final analytic sample included 34 articles from an initial pool of 1128 unique citations that collectively described 25 systems approaches. The findings indicate that few avenues may be present to guide design or enhancement of public health systems when needs arise, such as in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scarcity of literature on this topic presents a challenge, and further analytical studies are needed to inform evidence-based systems design strategies and applications. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Online teaching during COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji: challenges, facilitators and improvement strategies

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore online teaching experiences of educators in Fiji National University (FNU). Although they quickly adapted to online teaching, their experiences are yet to be explored and documented, hence the relevance of this study. Design/methodology/approach: This study used phenomenological research design to understand the lived experiences of participants' regarding online teaching. A total of 58 in-depth interviews were conducted among educators, at various levels and analysed thematically using an inductive approach. Findings: The findings show online teaching challenges including difficulties maintaining students' engagement, teaching practically oriented courses, assessing students and embracing change, limited knowledge impact and output, anxiety and stress, inadequate teaching environment, increased workload and unstable Internet. The facilitators and enablers were flexibility, free Internet, creating conducive environment, Moodle training, skills acquisition and support from faculty members' and information technology team. Recommendations for improvement ranged from modifying course outline, summarising previous lessons, reducing course load, adequate assessment tools, incentives, guidelines enforcement to regular training. Originality/value: This is an original work carried out by the researchers in a specific context. The findings suggest the need to address various challenges for effective online teaching. School managers' and relevant key stakeholders need to understand educators' teaching experiences as well as their recommended improvement strategies, to enhance online teaching. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Interacting With COVID-19: How Population Behavior, Feedback and Memory Shaped Recurrent Waves of the Epidemic

Until the approval of vaccines at the end of 2020, societies relied on non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in order to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Spontaneous changes in individual behavior might have contributed to or counteracted epidemic control due to NPIs. For example, the population compliance to NPIs may have varied over time as people developed 'epidemic fatigue' or altered their perception of the risk and severity of COVID-19. Whereas official measures are well documented, the behavioral response of the citizens is harder to capture. We propose a mathematical model of the societal response, taking into account three main effects: the citizen response dynamics, the authorities' NPIs, and the occurrence of unpreventable events that significantly alter the virus transmission rate. A key assumption is that a society has a waning memory of the epidemic effects, which reflects on both the severity of the authorities' NPIs and on the citizens' compliance to the prescribed rules. This, in turn, feeds back onto the transmission rate of the disease, such that a higher number of hospitalizations decreases the probability of transmission. We show that the model is able to reproduce the COVID-19 dynamics in terms of hospital admissions for several European countries during 2020 over surprisingly long time scales. Also, it is capable of capturing the effects of disturbances (for example the emergence of new virus variants) and can be exploited for implementing control actions to limit such effects. A possible application, illustrated in this letter, consists of exploiting the estimations based on the data of one country, to predict and control the evolution in another country, where the virus spreading is still in an earlier phase. © 2017 IEEE.

Identifying factors that impact online teaching effectiveness during COVID-19

Purpose: This study aims to identify critical online teaching effectiveness factors from instructors' perspectives and experiences during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a qualitative phenomenology approach. In addition, the research used a snowball sample to identify faculty in the engineering and engineering technology fields with experience in online teaching and learning. All interviews were conducted online by the researchers. The interview questions were based on findings in the current literature. Further, the questions were open-ended. Findings: The analysis identified eight major themes that impact online teaching effectiveness: class recordings;course organization;collaboration;engagement;exam, assignment and quiz grades;games;valuable course content;and student timely feedback and response. Research limitations/implications: The study was not designed to be generalizable to the entire population of professors who teach online classes but to gain insights from faculty who taught online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical implications: Faculty can use the factors identified for online teaching effectiveness to enhance their course design and delivery while teaching online or blended courses. Originality/value: This research provides insights into factors that impact online teaching effectiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Innovative solutions in last mile delivery: concepts, practices, challenges, and future directions

In the last decade, e-commerce has been growing consistently. Fostered by the covid pandemic, online retail has grown exponentially, particularly in industries including food, clothing, groceries, and many others. This growth in online retailing activities has raised critical logistic challenges, especially in the last leg of the distribution, commonly referred to as the Last Mile. For instance, traditional truck-based home delivery has reached its limit within metropolitan areas and can no longer be an effective delivery method. Driven by technological progress, several other logistic solutions have been deployed as innovative alternatives to deliver parcels. This includes delivery by drones, smart parcel stations, robots, and crowdsourcing, among others. In this setting, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the latest trends in last-mile delivery solutions from both industry and academic perspectives (see Figure 1 for overview). We use a content analysis literature review to analyse over 80 relevant publications, derive the necessary features of the latest innovation in the last mile delivery, and point out their different maturity levels and the related theoretical and operational challenges. (Figure presented.). © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Participatory Relationships Matter: Doctoral Students Traversing the Academy

In this article, we take our thoughts for a walk through our three different doctoral journeys and experiences with the Post Philosophies and the Doing of Inquiry Webinar Series (2020–2021). The webinars presented an example of Slow scholarship, enabling us to think deeply and differently from others and develop new ideas to take further. The online connections offered opportunities for extending learning spaces beyond traditional bounded structures. Here we explore the rich learning gained from each other's experiences of research, learning, and teaching in different higher education settings and ways in which these intersected with the webinars during the global COVID-19 pandemic. We contend that the generosity of senior academics in leadership positions who embraced global networks of communication, connected students with experts, and learned with and from their students through communal egalitarian spaces has enormous potential to support students as they traverse often demanding and challenging doctoral journeys. © The Author(s) 2022.

Synthesis of critical factors influencing indoor environmental quality and their impacts on building occupants health and productivity

Purpose: The present shift and change in the human lifestyle across the world are undeniable. Currently, individuals spend a substantial amount of time indoors due to the global COVID-19 pandemic that strikes the entire world. This change in human lifestyle has devastating effects on human health and productivity. As a result, the influence of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) on the health and productivity of building users becomes a critical field of research that requires immediate attention. As a result, the purpose of this study is to review the state-of-the-art literature by establishing a connection between the factors that influence health and productivity in any given indoor environment. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology involves a thorough review of selected published journals from 1983 to 2021, and the result was analysed through content analysis. The search included journal articles, books and conference proceedings on the critical factors influencing IEQ and their impact on building occupants, which was sourced from different databases such as ScienceDirect, Taylor, GoogleScholar and Web of Science. Findings: The findings from the 90 selected articles revealed four critical factors influencing the quality of the indoor environment and are categorised into;indoor air quality, indoor thermal comfort, visual comfort and acoustic comfort. The findings suggested that when developing a system for controlling the quality of the indoor environment, the indoor air quality, indoor thermal comfort, visual comfort and acoustic comfort should be taken into account. Originality/value: The indoor environment deeply impacts the health of individuals in their living and work environments. Industry must have a moral responsibility to provide health facilities in which people and workers feel satisfies and give conditions for prosperity. Addressing these essential aspects will not only help the decision-making process of construction professionals but also encourages innovative construction techniques that will enhance the satisfaction, wellness and performance of building occupants. © 2023, Modupe Cecilia Mewomo, James Olaonipekun Toyin, Comfort Olubukola Iyiola and Olusola Raphael Aluko.

Social service providers under COVID-19 duress: adaptation, burnout, and resilience

Summary : This article examines the response of social services organizations and their workers to the COVID-19 pandemic in a northeastern U.S. state. Using an exploratory, cross-sectional survey design with a convenience sample (N = 1472), we ask: (1) how did agencies and social service workers manage service disruptions associated with COVID-19;(2) how did social service workers perceive shifts in clients' needs;(3) how did social service workers experience the transition to remote interactions with clients;and (4) how did social service workers cope with COVID-related transitions and demands. Findings : Our findings tell a story of unprecedented crises alongside powerful attempts at adaptation, innovation, and resilience. Faced with extraordinary need among their clients, fears for their own health, and a breakdown of organizational and community functioning and guidance, social workers were able to learn and implement new technologies, adapt to increasing demands, manage new work-life boundaries, and find ways to address gaps in service while experiencing symptoms of burnout. Application : The impact of supervisory and administrative fragmentation and communication breakdowns in the face of crisis put social workers in an untenable position despite surprising abilities to adapt, innovate, and manage their professional lives while under duress. Assuring better supervisory/administrative infrastructure to support workers as they deliver services during crises will help in future crises.

Reflective monitoring as an iterative process in clinical teaching: lessons from online undergraduate psychiatry teaching during COVID-19

Purpose: During the COVID-19 outbreak, clinical schools across the UK were forced to switch their learning from face-to-face to online platforms. This paper aims to describe the experiences of psychiatry teachers and medical students at Cambridge University of the online psychiatry case-based tutorials during the COVID-19 outbreak and the lessons learned from this implementation. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted qualitative focus groups with students followed by in-depth individual interviews with students and teachers. Findings: In a data-led systematic text condensation analysis, this study found seven themes: the COVID-19 context, the structure of the course, teachers' educational ethos, beyond the (teaching) script, possibilities for learning or teaching reflective practice, attitudes to online learning and suggestions for future development. The authors then applied the normalisation process theory (NPT) as the theoretical frame of reference. This model has previously been applied to the implementation of telemedicine in psychiatry, to understand how new technology can become embedded in clinical care. Originality/value: This study's results show how the NPT model can be modified to support the delivery of medical education online, including reflective learning and practice as an iterative process at every stage of the implementation and delivery of the teaching. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.