Big Picture Research Articles

Working towards consensus on the assessment of mood after severe acquired brain injury: Focus groups with UK-based professionals.

The assessment of mood after brain injury is more challenging when people have ongoing severe cognitive and receptive communication impairments. There is no gold standard on how these assessments should be undertaken. This study aimed to reach a consensus on this among specialists working with this population. Focus groups were completed using a structured nominal group technique. Groups were compared for overlapping themes and agreed processes. Five focus groups with a total of 14 participants who work with the population of interest were completed. Participants included 12 clinical psychologists, one psychiatrist and one consultant in rehabilitation medicine. Each of the five groups reached a consensus on a process for assessing mood in this population. Results overlapped and were combined into a proposed circular and iterative model of assessment that includes: (pre) information gathering, (peri) assessment processes, and (post) treatment; with formulation being seen as a vital part of the process. Standardised measures were not recommended for use with this population. Beyond the consensus processes, three implicit themes were identified: (1) depression is different after severe brain injury, (2) overlapping tasks and roles, and (3) looking at the bigger picture. A good level of consensus was achieved across the five groups on processes to follow when assessing mood when people have ongoing cognitive and receptive communication impairments after severe brain injury. We recommend that this formulation-based model be followed when assessing people in this clinical population.

Linguistic Analysis behind Innovative Renderings of אִישׁ‎ in a Newly Published Translation

The Revised Jewish Publication Society translation of the Hebrew Bible (RJPS, 2023), an adaptation of the meaning-based English version known as NJPS (1985, 1999), has changed many renderings of the personal noun אִישׁ‎ (usually glossed as “man; person”). This article explains the cognitively based, communication-oriented thinking behind seventy new renderings. In these cases, singular אִישׁ‎ appears in construct with a group name (most often יִשְׂרָאֵל‎ “Israel”) and refers to a specific plurality of persons regarded as a single body. The analysis views אִישׁ‎ as a situating noun, that is, its use profiles its referent in terms of the depicted situation. The proposed motivation for singular collective usage is to make a pragmatic contrast with אֲנָשִׁים‎ (the standard plural of אִישׁ‎) to situate the participant in the bigger picture. This situation-oriented approach readily yields coherent and informative texts while solving interpretive cruxes. Principles for translating a situating noun are also briefly discussed.

Unambiguous and High-Fidelity Backdoor Watermarking for Deep Neural Networks.

The unprecedented success of deep learning could not be achieved without the synergy of big data, computing power, and human knowledge, among which none is free. This calls for the copyright protection of deep neural networks (DNNs), which has been tackled via DNN watermarking. Due to the special structure of DNNs, backdoor watermarks have been one of the popular solutions. In this article, we first present a big picture of DNN watermarking scenarios with rigorous definitions unifying the black- and white-box concepts across watermark embedding, attack, and verification phases. Then, from the perspective of data diversity, especially adversarial and open set examples overlooked in the existing works, we rigorously reveal the vulnerability of backdoor watermarks against black-box ambiguity attacks. To solve this problem, we propose an unambiguous backdoor watermarking scheme via the design of deterministically dependent trigger samples and labels, showing that the cost of ambiguity attacks will increase from the existing linear complexity to exponential complexity. Furthermore, noting that the existing definition of backdoor fidelity is solely concerned with classification accuracy, we propose to more rigorously evaluate fidelity via examining training data feature distributions and decision boundaries before and after backdoor embedding. Incorporating the proposed prototype guided regularizer (PGR) and fine-tune all layers (FTAL) strategy, we show that backdoor fidelity can be substantially improved. Experimental results using two versions of the basic ResNet18, advanced wide residual network (WRN28_10) and EfficientNet-B0, on MNIST, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and FOOD-101 classification tasks, respectively, illustrate the advantages of the proposed method.

Seeing the bigger picture: an investigation into the impact of process mapping on the management of change in a university library

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of process mapping on the management of change in an academic library in a UK higher education institution. Book ordering has been highlighted by a group of subject librarians as being time-consuming and inefficient, detracting from their ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities. An action research approach is used to bring the subject librarians together to draw book ordering process maps, identify on the maps where perceived problem areas lie and discuss potential solutions. Analysis of the empirical data suggests that process maps used in an action learning setting are impactful in terms of demonstrating readiness for change, showing where change is needed and creating a vision for change. The value of investigating the impact of process mapping through the lenses of different change models is discussed and the applicability of this approach to other professional services settings in higher education is explored.

One or many labels? a longitudinal qualitative study of patients' journey to diagnosis at a specialist NHS Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) clinic.

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) is a poorly understood syndrome of multiple disabling symptoms. This study explored the process of seeking a diagnosis of PoTS. Analysis focused on changes before and after participants' first appointment with a national PoTS clinic, and explored whether a diagnosis is beneficial in the context of multiple co-occurring conditions and an absence of licenced treatments. A longitudinal, qualitative study. Participants (n = 15) in this nested qualitative study were recruited from a larger study of people who had been newly referred to a National specialist NHS Cardiology PoTS service. Semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely before, and 6 months after their first appointment with the clinic. Data was analysed longitudinally and inductively using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Three overarching themes were identified: "Slowly moving forward and finding positive gains", "Needing more pieces of the puzzle to see the bigger picture", and "The value and impact of investigations". Findings suggested that not much had changed in the 6 months between interviews. Participants were moving forward in terms of diagnoses, treatment and adjustment following their appointment, but many were still seeking further clarity and possible diagnoses. Investigations, appointments, and new-found problems, continued to have a substantial impact over time. The journey to diagnosis for patients with suspected PoTS appeared to promote acceptance of self, and of limitations posed by symptoms. However, many participants continued their search for an explanation for every symptom experience, and this may become increasingly complex, the more labels that have been acquired. Lack of clarity contributed to ongoing difficulties for this patient group alongside fraught relations with health care professionals (HCPs). A more coherent, integrated approach which is communicated clearly to patients is recommended.

Training as imagined? A critical realist analysis of Scotland’s internal medicine simulation programme

BackgroundEvaluating the impact of simulation-based education (SBE) has prioritised demonstrating a causal link to improved patient outcomes. Recent calls herald a move away from looking for causation to understanding ‘what else happened’. Inspired by Shorrock’s varieties of human work from patient safety literature, this study draws on the concept of work-as-done versus work-as-imagined. Applying this to SBE recognises that some training impacts will be unexpected, and the realities of training will never be quite as imagined. This study takes a critical realist stance to explore the experience and consequences, intended and unintended, of the internal medicine training (IMT) simulation programme in Scotland, to better understand ‘training-as-done’.MethodsCritical realism accepts that there is a reality to uncover but acknowledges that our knowledge of reality is inevitably our construction and cannot be truly objective. The IMT simulation programme involves three courses over a 3-year period: a 3-day boot camp, a skills day and a 2-day registrar-ready course. Following ethical approval, interviews were conducted with trainees who had completed all courses, as well as faculty and stakeholders both immersed in and distant from course delivery. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using critical realist analysis, influenced by Shorrock’s proxies for work-as-done.ResultsBetween July and December 2023, 24 interviews were conducted with ten trainees, eight faculty members and six stakeholders. Data described proxies for training-as-done within three broad categories: design, experience and impact. Proxies for training design included training-as-prescribed, training-as-desired and training-as-prioritised which compete to produce training-as-standardised. Experience included training-as-anticipated with pre-simulation anxiety and training-as-unintended with the valued opportunity for social comparison as well as a sense of identity and social cohesion. The impact reached beyond the individual trainee with faculty development and inspiration for other training ventures.ConclusionOur findings highlight unintended consequences of SBE such as social comparison and feeling ‘valued as a trainee, valued as a person’. It sheds light on the fear of simulation, reinforcing the importance of psychological safety. A critical realist approach illuminated the ‘bigger picture’, revealing insights and underlying mechanisms that allow this study to present a new framework for conceptualising training evaluation.

Advanced practice nurses’ experiences of patient safety: a focus group study

Background: Patient harm from unsafe care is an increasingly global phenomenon leading to death or disability. Drawing on their expertise, Advanced Practice Nurses provide the opportunity to improve care quality and safety. Aim: To explore Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Consultants’ experiences in patient safety. Design: A qualitative design was used involving six audio-visually recorded focus group interviews. Participants working in an acute or community adult nursing speciality were involved. Methods: Twenty-eight Advanced Practice Nurses (female 82.1%, mean age 47.5 ± 10 years) were recruited by convenience and snowball sampling. After transcription of interview data, qualitative content analysis was conducted. Results: Six categories were identified: patient safety as the highest priority (1), special contribution to patient safety (2), patients/relatives role in safety (3), multidisciplinary team approach (4), government regulation in safety (5), and further needs to improve safety (6). Advanced Practice Nurses saw themselves as role models and leaders for other healthcare staff through their expertise and professional experience and thus able to see the bigger picture in health. They identified as change agents at the system-level due to their decision-making ability and multi-professional team connectivity. Conclusions: This study emphasises the key position of extended nursing roles and the need for future development of patient safety strategies in hospitals and community care. As influential leaders, Advanced Practice Nurses are best placed to identify improvements. They play a central role in guiding the multi-professional team, the patient and their family, educating nursing staff, and identifying and addressing system-wide safety gaps to improve patient safety.

Defining migrants

Abstract In contemplating multilingualism and mobility in the 21st century, several dimensions warrant attention in the emerging field of migration linguistics. First is the move beyond migration to thinking about mobilities, in particular, the new mobilities paradigm in the social sciences which views human mobility as entailing a complex assemblage of movement, social imaginaries, and experience. Second, a study of the different waves of migration in a particular society, as well as concomitant and official language policies – using Singapore as a case in point – distinguishes the layers of, on the one hand, the older, and thus established migrants, versus newer migrants, in particular, transient populations of foreign workers, and, crucially, the differential statuses that these communities and their languages hold in society – including a potential invisibility of authentic multilingualisms. Such an examination allows the development of a typology of migrants in a statal narrative. Where lines are drawn is dependent on circumstance, with the periphery positioned differentially in times of celebration versus crisis, for example, in risk communication in this pandemic era. This holds significant implications for access and appropriation, and consequent (im)mobilities, and, in the bigger picture, for the crucial intersections – including how society is responding to the role of indigenous languages for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. This is particularly timely for this International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032), noted to not be addressing the interactions between language and migration, as well as the challenge of migrant intergration, recognised as a central and important driver of sustainable development.

A Qualitative Investigation of Parent Perceptions of Home Exercises for Congenital Muscular Torticollis.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe parent perceptions of the home exercise program (HEP) for infants with congenital muscular torticollis (CMT), and how these perceptions evolved over a physical therapy (PT) plan of care. Twelve participants were recruited from a pediatric PT clinic, and nine completed interviews at three time points. Qualitative description and an iterative approach for thematic analysis of 27 interviews yielded three themes that corresponded to the research questions. The participants' responses were categorized into three main themes: (1) parents' perceptions of three key exercises within the HEP, (2) internal and external sources of stress, and (3) sources of empowerment and disempowerment. Regarding the HEP, parents articulated common sentiments for three frequently prescribed exercises for the management of CMT: (1) tummy time was the fast favorite, (2) ipsilateral cervical rotation was perceived as stressful, and (3) contralateral cervical lateral flexion felt uncomfortable. Additionally, participants disclosed internal and external sources of stress (guilt, uncertainty, and the demands of returning to work) and sources of disempowerment (inconsistent messaging frompractitioners, feeling overwhelmed) and empowerment (being able to see the bigger picture and clear communication and education about the diagnosis) with respect to managing their infant's CMT. These themes provide insight into the evolution of parent perceptions over a PT plan of care for CMT. Participants' insights suggest a need for consistent messaging regarding the diagnosis and evidence-based management of CMT, addressing parent stress, and modifying how exercises are taught. This study contributes updated research on parents' experiences with physical therapy and the HEP for their infant's CMT.

Good and bad days at work: A descriptive review of day‐level and experience‐sampling studies

SummaryWorkdays are the main temporal building blocks of people's experiences at work, and many factors potentially contribute to having a good versus a bad day at work. Still, empirical findings on these ingredients are scattered and a bigger picture is missing. This article reviews day‐level and experience‐sampling studies (k = 382 studies) to describe what makes for a good versus bad day at work. We derive outcome criteria for good versus bad days from the circumplex model of effect and identify specific pre‐work factors (sleep, pre‐work events, and pre‐work experiences) and at‐work factors (situational conditions, states and experiences, behaviors, results of one's actions, and work breaks) as their core ingredients. We highlight temporal trends in this rapidly growing research area and critically assess the current state of the literature with respect to theoretical and methodological issues. We link empirical findings that have emerged from our literature review to a homeostatic human sustainability perspective, offer directions for future research, and discuss the practical implementation of research findings.

Daytime Sleepiness and Affect in Middle-aged Adults Who Engage in Daytime Sleep Practice

This study examines how daytime sleepiness and negative emotions relate in middle-aged adults who nap during the day. Surprisingly, we found a slight negative link between daytime sleepiness and feeling down, suggesting daytime naps might help regulate emotions. However, more research is needed to fully grasp this connection. Our findings highlight the complexity of mood regulation and stress the importance of looking at the bigger picture when it comes to emotional well-being. We suggest future studies use longer-term observations and broader assessments to uncover the full story. Ultimately, understanding these links could lead to targeted strategies for improving sleep quality and emotional health in our modern lives.

Intravenous cyclizine: expression of concerns on the gastroenterology ward round post-Christmas and the bigger picture at a university hospital

Intravenous cyclizine: expression of concerns on the gastroenterology ward round post-Christmas and the bigger picture at a university hospital

ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP AND WELL-BEING: A REVIEW OF THE ROLE OF TRUST, LOVE EXPRESSION, COMMITMENT

While there is consensus that romantic relationships are important for personal growth and can potentially lead to positive emotions including happiness. Limited studies have looked at the specific mechanisms in which the relationship can contribute to well-being. This review is part of the attempt to further understand how romantic relationships can contribute to well-being by focusing on specific elements of the relationships namely trust, love expression, and commitment. Trust, love expression and commitment are arguably key aspects about romantic relationships that contribute well-being and therefore become the key focus in this review. A total of 48 studies were included in this review. This review emphasizes the importance of romantic relationships for well-being and highlights the role of trust, love expression, and commitment as key elements that should be focused on by future research in this area. In addition, this paper also discusses two Social Exchange Theory and PERMA as main theoretical framework in explaining the relationships between romantic relationships and well-being and the role of trust, love expression and emotions as elements in romantic relationships. This review highlights the need for more studies to look at these aspects from a bigger picture and to include sample from broader cultural context.

A Book Review of Becoming a Reading Teacher: Connecting Research and Practice

The book Becoming a Reading Teacher: Connecting Research and Practice aims to encourage readers to regard reading as a lifelong habit. To bridge the gap between teachers and researchers, this book is structured around four parts: reading as a linguistic process, reading as a personal experience, reading as a collective experience, and reading as a classroom practice. The definition of a reading teacher can be interpreted in two ways: the teacher who builds readings into the lesson and the teacher who provides the opportunity for learners to be readers, but who is a reader themselves. Such teachers regard reading as a lifelong learning habit and pass on the enthusiasm to learners, eventually creating a reading culture beyond the classroom. However, the necessity for reading teachers to participate in the research may be explained as follows. Firstly, new research may change one’s mind. What’s more, research allows teachers to turn their difficulties, surprises, and challenges into questions, and to seek answers to those questions. In addition, research helps teachers overcome the challenges in teaching by discovering new strategies. Research can also help to prove teachers’ choices and decisions in teaching. Secondly, research allows teachers to see the role they play in the bigger picture. Research connects teachers with others and gives them a broader and shared perspective on their questions and experiences. Last but not least, research informs and promotes changes in policy, thinking, and so on.

A Semantic-Spatial Aware Data Conflation Approach for Place Knowledge Graphs

Recent advances in knowledge graphs show great promise to link various data together to provide a semantic network. Place is an important part in the big picture of the knowledge graph since it serves as a powerful glue to link any data to its georeference. A key technical challenge in constructing knowledge graphs with location nodes as geographical references is the matching of place entities. Traditional methods typically rely on rule-based matching or machine-learning techniques to determine if two place names refer to the same location. However, these approaches are often limited in the feature selection of places for matching criteria, resulting in imbalanced consideration of spatial and semantic features. Deep feature-based methods such as deep learning methods show great promise for improved place data conflation. This paper introduces a Semantic-Spatial Aware Representation Learning Model (SSARLM) for Place Matching. SSARLM liberates the tedious manual feature extraction step inherent in traditional methods, enabling an end-to-end place entity matching pipeline. Furthermore, we introduce an embedding fusion module designed for the unified encoding of semantic and spatial information. In the experiment, we evaluate the approach to named places from Guangzhou and Shanghai cities in GeoNames, OpenStreetMap (OSM), and Baidu Map. The SSARLM is compared with several classical and commonly used binary classification machine learning models, and the state-of-the-art large language model, GPT-4. The results demonstrate the benefit of pre-trained models in data conflation of named places.

Predicting Construction Company Insolvent Failure: A Scientometric Analysis and Qualitative Review of Research Trends

The construction industry is infamous for its high insolvent failure rate because construction projects require complex processes, heavy investment, and long durations. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive framework and a requirement for such a framework in predicting the financial distress of construction firms. This paper reviews relevant literature to summarize the existing knowledge, identify current problems, and point out future research directions needed in this area using a scientometric analysis approach. Based on a total of 93 journal articles relating to predicting construction company failure extracted from multiple databases, this study conducts a holistic review in terms of chronological trends, journal sources, active researchers, frequent keywords, and most cited documents. Qualitative analysis is also provided to explore the data collection and processing procedures, model selection and development process, and detailed performance evaluation metrics. Four research gaps and future directions for predicting construction company failure are presented: selecting a broader data sample, incorporating more heterogeneous variables, balancing model predictability and interpretability, and quantifying the causality and intercorrelation of variables. This study provides a big picture of existing research on predicting construction company insolvent failure and presents outcomes that can help researchers to comprehend relevant literature, directing research policy-makers and editorial boards to adopt the promising themes for further research and development.

Food marketing communication targeting children: A content analysis of research literature (2000–2023)

ABSTRACT This study provides a big picture of research in the field of food marketing communication targeting children. It aims to identify conceptual and methodological gaps, and set future research agenda for investigating less-explored aspects of food marketing communication effects on children’s food choices. A content analysis of the most influential scientific literature related to food marketing communication targeting children was conducted. Each eligible paper was analyzed based on lines of research and methodology. Analysis of 495 eligible papers revealed that “advertising” was the dominant line of research, followed by “sales promotion”. The most common research method was content analysis, and the most common analysis technique was comparison tests. Among data gathering methods, two categories of “structured questionnaires and surveys” and “nonreactive measures” had the most frequencies. One of the main findings of this study is the scarcity of research within the domains of “personal selling”, “direct marketing” and “public relations”, all of which have significant potential in influencing children’s food behaviors, both unhealthy and healthy. Additionally, there is the lack of studies using methods to consider children’s voices that will be discussed based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Belonging in the “Big Picture”

What makes recognition of veterans “authentic,” and how does authentic recognition shape and establish “war veteranship” among wounded veterans? Through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this article explores how Danish wounded veterans experience and evaluate official recognition ceremonies. We demonstrate that recognition ceremonies alone do not establish effective recognition. Rather, for recognition to be perceived as authentic, it must be mutual, grounded in the moral originality of the recognizers, and manifested in words as well as actions. Authentic recognition, we argue, establishes a reciprocal relationship between wounded veterans and the state, which positions veterans as valuable contributors to society. Conversely, the absence of authentic recognition generates experiences of misrecognition and invisibility, leading in some cases to wounded veterans feeling “like immigrants” in their own country.

The molecular and metabolic events behind different germination stages of rice seeds: A metabolomics perspective

AbstractSeed germination is a crucial stage for the completion of plants' life cycle. The process of seed germination is a very important phenomenon for agricultural food and crop production and to understand the underlying food chemistry. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) being easy to grow and cheap source of phytonutrients is a fundamental food crop across the world. Several researches are going on for years to improve the production of rice, ameliorate the deadly bacterial or fungal diseases utilizing genetics, transcriptomics, and proteomics aspects. Metabolomics is a very new arena of research in this field. With the help of modern‐day metabolomic tools and technologies, researchers are incessantly trying to unveil the metabolic construction of rice seeds, and new to this topic is seed germination. The principal aim of this review on metabolomics of germinating rice seeds is to have a big picture on the key molecular, cellular, and metabolic events of germination. This review tries to summarize all the available data to fulfill the aforesaid aim.

From Language Arts to Learning Communities: Seeing the Bigger Picture with Multimodal Texts

Exploring the intersections of critical literacies and visual literacies to increase opportunities for deepening comprehension across multimodal texts.