Maggots on BBC Casualty: Evaluating the impact of a Television storyline on awareness and public perceptions of Maggot Therapy

Maggot Therapy is an established, effective treatment for chronic infected wounds. Despite its worldwide success, it suffers from poor public regard and acceptance. In 2019, the primetime BBC Medical Drama, Casualty, decided to run a Maggot Therapy storyline over four episodes of its recent series (series 33). Our study focusses on an evaluation of the impact of this storyline on changes in public awareness and acceptability of Maggot Therapy. The evaluation comprised an online questionnaire (administered through an independent private research company). Our results showed that exposure to the BBC Casualty maggot storyline was associated with a significant increased awareness of Maggot Therapy. Additionally, this resulted in a more positive perception and general acceptability of the treatment, and a decrease in negative responses towards it. Post-wave participants were also more likely to find Maggot Therapy acceptable for their own wound. Our findings suggest that television storylines and narratives are a useful route to raise awareness, inform and educate viewers about important health-related issues. Our study supports the notion that for effective treatments like Maggot Therapy, which often evoke feelings of disgust and reluctance, the persuasive effects of entertainment education could help to transform perception and acceptability.

Neuropathic pain in the IMI-APPROACH knee osteoarthritis cohort: prevalence and phenotyping

ObjectivesOsteoarthritis (OA) patients with a neuropathic pain (NP) component may represent a specific phenotype. This study compares joint damage, pain and functional disability between knee OA patients with a likely NP component, and those without a likely NP component.MethodsBaseline data from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Applied Public-Private Research enabling OsteoArthritis Clinical Headway knee OA cohort study were used. Patients with a painDETECT score ≥19 (with likely NP component, n=24) were matched on a 1:2 ratio to patients with a painDETECT score ≤12 (without likely NP component), and similar knee and general pain (Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score pain and Short Form 36 pain). Pain, physical function and radiographic joint damage of multiple joints were determined and compared between OA patients with and without a likely NP component.ResultsOA patients with painDETECT scores ≥19 had statistically significant less radiographic joint damage (p≤0.04 for Knee Images Digital Analysis parameters and Kellgren and Lawrence grade), but an impaired physical function (p<0.003 for all tests) compared with patients with a painDETECT score ≤12. In addition, more severe pain was found in joints other than the index knee (p≤0.001 for hips and hands), while joint damage throughout the body was not different.ConclusionsOA patients with a likely NP component, as determined with the painDETECT questionnaire, may represent a specific OA phenotype, where local and overall joint damage is not the main cause of pain and disability. Patients with this NP component will likely not benefit from general pain medication and/or disease-modifying OA drug (DMOAD) therapy. Reserved inclusion of these patients in DMOAD trials is advised in the quest for successful OA treatments.Trial registration numberThe study is registered under clinicaltrials.gov nr: NCT03883568.

Sociodynamics of Students’ Digital Capital in the Context of the COVID-19 Epidemiological Crisis: an Experience of a Mixed Strategy of Empirical Research

Introduction. The sociodynamics of students’ digital capital in the context of an epidemiological crisis has acquired special characteristics. The speed, focus and technologies for the formation of digital capital have changed significantly and are expressed in new content features and characteristi cs of sociodynamics.Methodology and sources. An integrative approach to the study and analysis of the digital capital sociodynamics is used, which consists a set of theoretical and methodological positions in the study of digital capital proposed by resea rchers earlier. An approach to the sociological interpretation of the concept of digital capital, which is characterized by systemic and integrative characteristics, is presented. The formed theoretical and methodological platform served as the basis for c onstructing an empirical research methodology.Results and discussion. Methodological approaches to the digital capital definition as an object of research are generalized. The contradictions and fragmentation in the interpretation of digital capital in private research and the relevance of sociological understanding of the essence of digital capital are shown. The tendencies and trends of the sociodynamics of digital capital during the pandemic have been empirically confirmed.Conclusion. The article presents some trends in the sociodynamics of students’ digital capital in a pandemic: first, the stimulating role of the pandemic in the development of digital competencies; secondly, changes in the direction of mastering digital competencies; third, analysis of the activity and intensity of changes in digital competencies; fourth, the intensification of the development of digital technologies related to the social aspects of interaction in the context of a lockdown.

Baseline clinical characteristics of predicted structural and pain progressors in the IMI-APPROACH knee OA cohort

ObjectivesTo describe the relations between baseline clinical characteristics of the Applied Public-Private Research enabling OsteoArthritis Clinical Headway (IMI-APPROACH) participants and their predicted probabilities for knee osteoarthritis (OA) structural (S) progression and/or pain (P) progression.MethodsBaseline clinical characteristics of the IMI-APPROACH participants were used for this study. Radiographs were evaluated according to Kellgren and Lawrence (K&L grade) and Knee Image Digital Analysis. Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) were used to evaluate pain. Predicted progression scores for each individual were determined using machine learning models. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to evaluate correlations between scores for predicted progression and baseline characteristics. T-tests and χ2 tests were used to evaluate differences between participants with high versus low progression scores.ResultsParticipants with high S progressions score were found to have statistically significantly less structural damage compared with participants with low S progression scores (minimum Joint Space Width, minJSW 3.56 mm vs 1.63 mm; p<0.001, K&L grade; p=0.028). Participants with high P progression scores had statistically significantly more pain compared with participants with low P progression scores (KOOS pain 51.71 vs 82.11; p<0.001, NRS pain 6.7 vs 2.4; p<0.001).ConclusionsThe baseline minJSW of the IMI-APPROACH participants contradicts the idea that the (predicted) course of knee OA follows a pattern of inertia, where patients who have progressed previously are more likely to display further progression. In contrast, for pain progressors the pattern of inertia seems valid, since participants with high P score already have more pain at baseline compared with participants with a low P score.

Financial system specialization and private research and development expenditure: research for OECD countries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role that different financial sources and financial specialization have on private research and development (R&D) activity in OECD countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed several panel regressions choosing as a final model a two-way random effects regression to understand which funding sources are related to the R&D expenditure, and how financial specialization has links to the private portion of R&D aggregated expenditure. The authors include data from the years 2000 to 2016 for OECD countries. Findings The results reinforce the critical role that stock markets have in enhancing private R&D and that bond markets have an inverse relationship with private R&D national expenditures. The authors do not find evidence of a link between bank sources and private R&D. Specialized financial systems (banking or market) support innovation in a better way than a mixed arrangement of those two systems. Practical implications The findings of this study have considerable policy implications. Policymakers need to be aware of these results, given that some variables related to financial markets, seems to boost the inputs for R&D. In the long term, this could be a signal that national and regional systems of innovation need a broad view of the factors hampering scientific activity, and also a signal that there are other ways to impact the results of the complex innovation activity through the development of stronger financial systems backing up national systems of innovation. Originality/value The authors found that the long discussion about the financial system that a country has to choose to enhance growth with R&D&I may have been misleading the public policy. The findings show that rather than a bank or a stock market financial system, economies looking to boost R&D&I, must specialize in one of the two systems, deepen these and generate the appropriate policies to promote science, technology and innovation using those financial markets.

Reshaping R&D Tax Incentive Policy in Terms of International Tax Competition

Policies to stimulate research and development are significant in the government’s agenda and affect businesses growing internationally. The article highlights the role of tax incentives in the policy mix to promote private research and development (R&D). It discusses evolution and recent trends in R&D tax incentive schemes in European countries. The impact of international tax competition on their adoption and generosity is investigated. Moreover, a decision-making model on implementation and generosity of R&D tax incentives is introduced.

Common Factors of Stress Change under the First COVID-19 Outbreak as Observed in Four Global Cities

Research focusing on stress change comparing before and after being affected by the first COVID-19 outbreak is still limited. This study examined the model between the stress changes during the first COVID-19 outbreak and social attributes (age, sex, occupation, etc.) among residents of four cities around the globe. We obtained 741 valid responses from the residents of London (11.5%), New York (13.8%), Amsterdam (11.7%), and Tokyo (53.4%), through a web-based questionnaire survey conducted in collaboration with a private research firm. We identified 16 statistically significant variables out of 36 explanatory variables, which explained a significant stress change compared to the pre-outbreak period. This result showed that whether living alone or not and the number of times going out for walk or jogging during the first COVID-19 outbreak were the explanatory variables with higher significance for the reduced stress. In addition, those who lived in a place different from their hometowns, who were dissatisfied with their work or their family relationships were more stressed, with statistically significant differences.