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\"The experience of interacting with the newest Virtual Reality technologies is profoundly affected by the extent to which we feel ourselves to be 'present' in computer-generated worlds. This edited volume, featuring contributions from internationally renowned scholars, provides a comprehensive introduction to and overview of the topic of mediated presence and the emerging field of presence research.\"--From Publisher.

Background Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are typically designed to determine beneficial intervention effects. In addition, an important aspect of every trial is to collect data on any potential harmful effects, with the aim of ensuring that the benefit-risk balance is appropriate. The language used by trialists to describe these potential harmful effects is inconsistent. In pharmacological trials, researchers collect adverse events; when a causal relationship is suspected adverse events are further classified as adverse reactions. Academic researchers have moved to collectively refer to these as harm outcomes; the pharmaceutical industry refer to these events as safety outcomes. In trials of complex interventions, phrases such as unintended consequences or effects are used. With the inconsistent use of terminology by researchers and the potential benefits to be gained from harmonising communications, we sought public opinion on terminology used to describe harmful effects and how these outcomes are communicated in the scientific literature, as well as in public facing material on medications. Methods We held two in-person public involvement meetings with public partners, in London and Aberdeen in 2023. Both meetings followed a pre-specified format. We provided a background to the topic including the information researchers collect on potential harms in clinical trials and shared examples on how this information gets presented in practice. We then discussed public partners’ perspectives on terminology used and communication of intervention harm in academic journals and in public facing materials. A summary of these discussions and the main topics raised by public partners are presented. Results Public partners endorsed the use of different terms for different situations, preferring the use of ‘side-effect’ across all contexts and reserving the use of ‘harm’ to indicate more severe events. Generally, public partners were happy with the type of information presented in public facing materials but discussions revealed that presentation of information on public NHS websites led to misconceptions about harm. Conclusion This work provides a starting point on preferred terminology by patients and the public to describe potential harmful intervention effects. Whilst researchers have tried to seek agreement, public partners endorsed use of different terms for different situations. We highlight some key areas for improvement in public facing materials that are necessary to avoid miscommunication and incorrect perception of harm.

The experience of using and interacting with the newest Virtual Reality and computing technologies is profoundly affected by the extent to which we feel ourselves to be really ‘present’ in computer-generated and -mediated augmented worlds. This feeling of 'Presence’, of “being inside the mediated world”, is key to understanding developments in applications such as interactive entertainment, gaming, psychotherapy, education, scientific visualisation, sports training and rehabilitation, and many more. This edited volume, featuring contributions from internationally renowned scholars, provides a comprehensive introduction to and overview of the topic of mediated presence - or ‘tele-presence’ - and of the emerging field of presence research. It is intended for researchers and graduate students in human-computer interaction, cognitive science, psychology, cyberpsychology and computer science, as well as for experienced professionals from the ICT industry. The editors are all well-known professional researchers in the field: Professor Giuseppe Riva from the Catholic University of Milan, Italy; Professor John Waterworth from Umeå University, Sweden; Dianne Murray, an HCI Consultant and editor of the journal “Interacting with Computers”.

The United Kingdom National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) recommends that patients who require ≥3 courses of oral corticosteroids (OCS) for exacerbations in the past year or those on British Thoracic Society (BTS) Step 4/5 treatment must be referred to a specialist asthma service. The aim of the study was to identify the proportion of asthma patients in primary care that fulfil NRAD criteria for specialist referral and factors associated with frequent exacerbations. A total of 2639 adult asthma patients from 10 primary care practices in Glasgow, UK were retrospectively studied between 2014 and 2015. Frequent exacerbators and short-acting β2-agonist (SABA) over-users were identified if they received ≥2 confirmed OCS courses for asthma and ≥13 SABA inhalers in the past year, respectively. Community dispensing data were used to assess treatment adherence defined as taking ≥75% of prescribed inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) dose. The study population included 185 (7%) frequent exacerbators, 137 (5%) SABA over-users, and 319 (12%) patients on BTS Step 4/5 treatment. Among frequent exacerbators, 41% required BTS Step 4/5 treatment, 46% had suboptimal ICS adherence, 42% had not attended an asthma review in the past year and 42% had no previous input from a specialist asthma service. Older age, female gender, BTS Step 4/5, SABA over-use and co-existing COPD diagnosis increased the risk of frequent exacerbations independently. Fourteen per 100 asthma patients would fulfil the NRAD criteria for specialist referral. Better collaboration between primary and secondary care asthma services is needed to improve chronic asthma care.

To investigate how bone architecture is modulated by growth rate, morphometric, biochemical and genetic comparisons were made between tibiae from broiler chickens with either fast or slow growth potentials. Both strains of chickens were kept under identical conditions, and fed ad-libitum standard broiler feed. Tibiae were removed and tested by three-point bending to determine stiffness and breaking strength and cross sections of the tibia were examined histomorphologically. Bone stiffness and breaking strength were higher in the rapidly growing birds, but after adjustment for body weight the bones were inherently weaker. Cortical porosity periosteally, but not endosteally, was increased. Sections reacted for ALP and TRAP activity, and others stained for cement (reversal) lines indicated the absence of primary osteon remodelling in the periosteal region. This suggests that the increased periosteal porosity is due to slower infilling of the primary osteons in the rapidly growing birds. To directly quantify the rate of osteon infilling, tibiae were removed from 21-day-old chicks, which had been double labelled with calcein (80 and 8 h before death). The mineral apposition rate was higher in the slow growing chickens, and confirmed the previous histomorphometry results. Osteocyte density within the circumferential lamellae of the cortical bone was higher in the rapidly growing birds but unchanged within the newly laid down bone of the primary osteons. Immunohistochemical staining of cortical bone sections from chickens injected with bromodeoxyuridine located proliferating pre-osteoblast cells to the osteogenic layer of the periosteum. A lower labelling index in the rapidly growing birds was seen across four circumferential areas of the periosteum (anterior = fast growing area, posterior = slow growing area, medial and lateral = intermediate growing areas), even though the osteogenic layer of the periosteum was thicker in the fast strain. Blood vessel numbers within the periosteum was similar between strains but differed between regions habitually loaded in tension (anterior) or in compression (posterior).

An action research study was undertaken in April to June of 2004 to determine what staff thinks can be clone to improve morale at William Head Institution (WHI) a Federal prison on Vancouver Island. WHI underwent considerable change over the last few years, adding to the already declining morale. WHI was reclassified to a minimum-security institution and, approximately 40% of the staff needed to be relocated. Stakeholders were invited to participate in a presentation on action research, followed by small group discussions to confirm whether morale was an issue at WHI. A focus group was formed to create questions for the questionnaire, using the information gleaned from the small groups at the presentation. Leadership issues were identified and recommendations made for the overall good of the organization.