Research involving children : recent developments and current trends in thinking

Children today hold an important place in society and are valued for what they offer. They represent society’s hopes for the future. Children in the western world have rights today, but historically this has not always been the case. In the UK, children are protected by the Children Acts of 1989 and 2004, and by various other charters, guidelines and government policies concerning their health and welfare. Internationally, organisations such as UNICEF and Save the Children were set up to confer protection and oversee support to children as the most vulnerable group of a population in war or disaster zones (Greig et al, 2007). However, this happy state of affairs (the positive view) with regard to children is by no means universal. We need to be mindful that many children, both in the UK and further afield, still suffer the debilitating effects of poverty, hardship and hunger, they lack basic amenities such as water, sanitation and healthcare, or access to a basic education, and many are subject to violence, abuse and neglect

Qualitative research methods in psychology

In the scientific community, and particularly in psychology and health, there has been an active and ongoing debate on the relative merits of adopting either quantitative or qualitative methods, especially when researching into human behaviour (Bowling, 2009; Oakley, 2000; Smith, 1995a, 1995b; Smith, 1998). In part, this debate formed a component of the development in the 1970s of our thinking about science. Andrew Pickering has described this movement as the "sociology of scientific knowledge" (SSK), where our scientific understanding, developing scientific ‘products’ and 'know-how', became identified as forming components in a wider engagement with society’s environmental and social context (Pickering, 1992: 1). Since that time, the debate has continued so that today there is an increasing acceptance of the use of qualitative methods in the social sciences (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Morse, 1994; Punch, 2011; Robson, 2011) and health sciences (Bowling, 2009; Greenhalgh & Hurwitz, 1998; Murphy & Dingwall, 1998). The utility of qualitative methods has also been recognised in psychology. As Nollaig Frost (2011) observes, authors such as Carla Willig and Wendy Stainton Rogers consider qualitative psychology is much more accepted today and that it has moved from "the margins to the mainstream in psychology in the UK." (Willig & Stainton Rogers, 2008: 8). Nevertheless, in psychology, qualitative methodologies are still considered to be relatively 'new' (Banister, Bunn, Burman, et al., 2011; Hayes, 1998; Richardson, 1996) despite clear evidence to the contrary (see, for example, the discussion on this point by Rapport et al., 2005). Nicki Hayes observes, scanning the content of some early journals from the 1920s – 1930s that many of these more historical papers "discuss personal experiences as freely as statistical data" (Hayes, 1998, 1). This can be viewed as an early development of the case-study approach, now an accepted methodological approach in psychological, health care and medical research, where our knowledge about people is enhanced by our understanding of the individual 'case' (May & Perry, 2011; Radley & Chamberlain, 2001; Ragin, 2011; Smith, 1998)

Review : pearls of wisdom : using the single case study or ‘gem’ to identify strategies for mediating stress and work-life imbalance in healthcare staff

This paper […] reads well, offering a detailed exploration of one participant’s experiences of coping with stress, and the work-life balance, as a professional workingI read this paper with interest. It forms part of a larger qualitative study examining work-life balance among National Health Service (NHS) staff, through exploring a single case, Arial, using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). A strength of this paper is that it reads well, offering a detailed exploration of one participant’s experiences of coping with stress, and the work–life balance, as a professional working in today’s task-oriented NHS. in today’s task orientated NHS

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) : a qualitative methodology of choice in healthcare research

This paper focuses on the teaching of the qualitative method, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), to healthcare professionals (HCPs). It introduces briefly the philosophical background of IPA and how it has been used within healthcare research, and then discusses the teaching of IPA to HCPs within received educational theory. Lastly, the paper describes how IPA has been taught to students/trainees in some specific healthcare professions (clinical psychology, medicine, nursing and related disciplines). In doing this, the paper demonstrates the essential simplicity, paradoxical complexity, and methodological rigour that IPA can offer as a research tool in understanding healthcare and illness from the patient or service user perspective

Chirped-pulse interferometry with finite frequency correlations

Chirped-pulse interferometry is a new interferometric technique encapsulating the advantages of the quantum Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer without the drawbacks of using entangled photons. Both interferometers can exhibit even-order dispersion cancellation which allows high resolution optical delay measurements even in thick optical samples. In the present work, we show that finite frequency correlations in chirped-pulse interferometry and Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry limit the degree of dispersion cancellation. Our results are important considerations in designing practical devices based on these technologies.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Exam success at undergraduate and graduate-entry medical schools : is learning style or learning approach more important? : A critical review exploring links between academic success, learning styles, and learning approaches among school-leaver entry (“traditional”) and graduate-entry (“nontraditional”) medical students

Phenomenon: The literature on learning styles over many years has been replete with debate and disagreement. Researchers have yet to elucidate exactly which underlying constructs are measured by the many learning styles questionnaires available. Some academics question whether learning styles exist at all. When it comes to establishing the value of learning styles for medical students, a further issue emerges. The demographics of medical students in the United Kingdom have changed in recent years, so past studies may not be applicable to students today. We wanted to answer a very simple, practical question: what can the literature on learning styles tell us that we can use to help today's medical students succeed academically at medical school? Approach: We conducted a literature review to synthesise the available evidence on how two different aspects of learning—the way in which students like to receive information in a learning environment (termed learning “styles”) and the motivations that drive their learning (termed learning “approaches”)—can impact on medical students' academic achievement. Findings: Our review confirms that although learning “styles” do not correlate with exam performance, learning “approaches” do: those with “strategic” and “deep” approaches to learning (i.e., motivated to do well and motivated to learn deeply respectively) perform consistently better in medical school examinations. Changes in medical school entrant demographics in the past decade have not altered these correlations. Optimistically, our review reveals that students' learning approaches can change and more adaptive approaches may be learned. Insights: For educators wishing to help medical students succeed academically, current evidence demonstrates that helping students develop their own positive learning approach using “growth mind-set” is a more effective (and more feasible) than attempting to alter students' learning styles. This conclusion holds true for both “traditional” and graduate-entry medical students

Metabolic responses of a phototrophic sponge to sedimentation supports transitions to sponge-dominated reefs

Declines in coral abundance have been linked to increased sedimentation at many locations across the world and at some of these locations there have been subsequent increases in sponge abundance. These shifts appear counterintuitive as sponges are suspension feeders and many rely on photosymbionts for carbon. At a sedimented reef in Indonesia (Wakatobi) corals have declined and the photoautotrophic sponge Lamellodysidea herbacea is now abundant. We hypothesise that this is partly due to L. herbacea's ability to clear its tissues of high levels of settled-sediment and compensate for associated metabolic demands by altering its respiration rate. Negligible detrimental effects to sponge tissue were observed after treatments up to five times the sedimentation rate of the highly sedimented reef. Rapid sediment clearance occurred that was potentially aided by mucus production. Finally, high sediment exposure caused an immediate reduction in respiration rate, likely due to reduced pumping to prevent clogging, whereas sustained high sedimentation caused an increase in respiration rate, potentially due to the energetic cost of mucus production. Our study provides evidence that some sponges can tolerate environments that appear unsuitable to many corals and with increased sedimentation this acclimation may support further transitions to sponge dominated reefs in the future

Aerobic Energy Expenditure Comparisons Between One Traditional and CrossFit-Based Exercise Session

This study sought to compare aerobic energy expenditure, recovery VO2, peak heart rate, and peak VO2 achieved across 45 min of exercise and 15 min of recovery performing both traditional and CrossFit®-based exercise. Thirty healthy, physically active participants of both genders (15 men, 15 women) performed a workout following the guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine (traditional) and a workout following the CrossFit® method. Each workout consisted of a 5 min warm-up (light aerobic exercise and stretching), resistance exercise (both focused on leg exercises), cardiorespiratory exercise (a treadmill run for the traditional exercise and circuit training for the CrossFit®-based exercise) and 5 min cool-down (walking). The cool-down was followed by 10 min of sitting to record recovery values. During each workout the participants wore a K4b2 Cosmed unit to measure energy expenditure and VO2, and a Polar heart rate monitor to measure heart rate. Each measure was compared using a Dependent t-Test. Energy expenditure (468 ± 116 vs. 431 ± 96 kcal, p\u3c0.001), peak heart rate (189 ± 8 vs. 172 ± 8 bpm, p\u3c0.001), peak VO2 (3.22 ± 0.73 vs. 2.81 ± 0.63 L/min, p\u3c0.001) and average 15 min recovery VO2 (0.89 ± 0.24 vs. 0.78 ± 0.18 L/min, p\u3c0.001) were significantly greater in the CrossFit®-based workout. The present study suggests that CrossFit®-based exercise may result in greater aerobic energy expenditure than traditional exercise