Incorporating parent, former patient and clinician perspectives in the design of a national UK double-cluster, randomised controlled trial addressing uncertainties in preterm nutrition

BackgroundComparative effectiveness randomised controlled trials are powerful tools to resolve uncertainties in existing treatments and care processes. We sought parent and patient perspectives on the design of a planned national, double-cluster randomised controlled trial (COLLABORATE) to resolve two longstanding uncertainties in preterm nutrition.MethodsWe used qualitative focus groups and interviews with parents, former patients and clinicians. We followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist and conducted framework analysis, a specific methodology within thematic analysis.ResultsWe identified support for the trial’s methodology and vision, and elicited themes illustrating parents’ emotional needs in relation to clinical research. These were: relieving the pressure on mothers to breastfeed; opt-out consent as reducing parent stress; the desire for research to be a partnership between clinicians, parents and researchers; the value of presenting trial information in a collaborative tone; and in a format that allows assimilation by parents at their own pace. We identified anxiety and cognitive dissonance among some clinicians in which they recognised the uncertainties that justify the trial but felt unable to participate because of their strongly held views.ConclusionsThe early involvement of parents and former patients identified the centrality of parents’ emotional needs in the design of comparative effectiveness research. These insights have been incorporated into trial enrolment processes and information provided to participants. Specific outputs were a two-sided leaflet providing very brief as well as more detailed information, and use of language that parents perceive as inclusive and participatory. Further work is warranted to support clinicians to address personal biases that inhibit trial participation.

Teaching ability evaluation of ideological and political teachers based on big data fuzzy clustering

To improve the accuracy and utilization of the evaluation of ideological and political teachers’ teaching ability, this study proposes an evaluation method of ideological and political teachers’ teaching ability based on big data fuzzy clustering. According to the detected information resources and the characteristics that the smaller the average square residual value in the clustering is, the higher the similarity of information required by users is, the user needs to solve the minimum mean square residual value problem and information of given double cluster. The problem of information resource detection was transformed, and the missing features of the data were supplemented. The clustering minimum means square residual value problem with missing data was solved by using the idea of quadratic function, to realize the detection of information resources needed by ideological and political teachers in big data. Through the optimization process of the evaluation model of ideological and political teachers’ teaching ability, the method of big data fuzzy clustering and information fusion was used to cluster and fuse the information resources needed by teachers, to realize the evaluation of ideological and political teachers’ teaching ability. Results show that through the evaluation test of ideological and political teachers’ teaching ability, the evaluation accuracy and utilization rate of this method is higher than 95% in the evaluation cycle. The filling principle of multi-dimensional data missing features is better in the detection of information resources needed by users and promotes the improvement of Ideological and political teachers’ teaching ability.

Epenthetic Vowels and Phonemic Vowels: Same or Different?

Purpose This study was designed to further investigate epenthetic vowels produced by Persian second language speakers of English. Specifically, the purpose was to compare epenthetic and phonemic vowels to determine if acoustic differences existed or if the epenthetic vowels were quantitative “copies” of their phonemic counterparts. Method Twenty Persian speakers each produced 120 target words. The target words were composed of two different double cluster compositions (obstruent + glide and obstruent + liquid) as well as obstruent + liquid triple clusters and obstruent + glide triple cluster combinations. The target words occurred in a phonetic environment that was either preceded by a consonant /t/ or occurred in isolation. This resulted in 2400 tokens. The tokens underwent Linear Predictive Coding to determine the F1 and F2 formant measurements as well as the durations of the epenthetic and phonemic vowels. Formants are the resonance of the vocal tract. F1 is the lowest-frequency formant while F2 is the next highest ( Kent & Read, 2002 ). Linear Predictive Coding allows for the acoustic signal to be represented spectrally for analysis. Results A total of 236 epenthetic voamp'wels and their phonemic counterparts were acoustically analyzed. The phonemic vowels were found to be significantly longer than the epenthetic vowels. The epenthetic vowels were also found to have significantly lower F1 values. As a group, the mean F2 values were not significantly different from the F2 values of the phonemic vowels. However, significant differences in F2 values were found when specific vowel comparisons were made. Conclusions The data indicate that prothetic epenthetic vowels are not copies of the phonemic vowels that they precede. They differ quantitatively in terms of durations, F1, and F2 values. The findings of this study coincide with the findings of other researchers concerning the acoustic characteristics of anaptyctic epenthetic vowels. These results indicate similarities between prothetic and anaptyctic epenthetic vowels.

Dispersion of Defects in TiO2 Semiconductor: Oxygen Vacancies in the Bulk and Surface of Rutile and Anatase

Oxygen deficiency (O-vacancy) contributes to the photoefficiency of TiO2 semiconductors by generating electron rich active sites. In this paper, the dispersion of O-vacancies in both bulk and surface of anatase and rutile phases was computationally investigated. The results showed that the O-vacancies dispersed in single- and double-cluster forms in the anatase and rutile phases, respectively, in both bulk and surface. The distribution of the O-vacancies was (roughly) homogeneous in anatase, and heterogenous in rutile bulk. The O-vacancy formation energy, width of defect band, and charge distribution indicated the overlap of the defect states in the rutile phase and thus eased the formation of clusters. Removal of the first and the second oxygen atoms from the rutile surface took less energy than the anatase one, which resulted in a higher deficiency concentration on the rutile surface. However, these deficiencies formed one active site per unit cell of rutile. On the other hand, the first O-vacancy formed on the surface and the second one formed in the subsurface of anatase (per unit cell). Supported by previous studies, we argue that this distribution of O-vacancies in anatase (surface and subsurface) could potentially create more active sites on its surface.