Friday 25 February 2011

Research Funding Update: Fellowships and Studentships


Photo by schrierc
Post by Anna
The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

Tuesday 22 February 2011

New Zealand

Our thoughts go out to our colleagues in New Zealand, particularly those in Christchurch in the aftermath of the recent earthquake.

ScHARR IR Group have links with New Zealand due to providing FOLIOz e-learning courses to NZ librarians in association with ALIA.

Posted by Anthea

Friday 18 February 2011

The Joy of Beautiful Statistics...



Not one, but two things to draw your attention to! First of all, the fantastic, pretty, clever and quite-cheap-depending-on-where-you-buy-it 'Information is Beautiful' by David McCandless- its a book and a website, so I'll let you find the book, but the website is at: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/ Basically, David is fascinated by the myriad of ways of displaying data visually- from nerve endings in the body to genome sequencing, via maping music and charting the causes of cancer. And his website allows you to 'play' with some of the visualisations for your own entertainment!



Which leads me nicely on to the marvellous Hans Rosling, Swedish statistician/doctor/genius and creator of some fantastically engaging visualisations of statistical trends which challenge our perceptions and preconcieved ideas about the world and how it is changing. Watch his seminal TED Lecture above and be converted.

Posted by Claire with thanks to Andy and Simon for bringing these to my attention.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Students record video of the Earth from edge of space



Posted by Andy

A little break from the normal but I thought I'd post this brilliant video made by two enterprising students from The University of Sheffield.
Alex Baker and Chris Rose, both PhD students from the University´s Department of Mechanical Engineering, sent a helium-filled balloon with two video cameras and a tracking device up into the atmosphere, filming video and taking pictures as it went.

The balloon was launched from Ashborne, Derbyshire on 17 December 2010, and was in flight for approximately two hours and 50 minutes, before landing in a field in Strethall, Cambridgeshire, a journey of over 100 miles. The location, which is Chris´ home town, was chosen specifically, as it was predicted that launching there would result in the device landing in a rural area.

The video footage, which lasts for two hours, shows the balloon being launched at sunrise and rapidly climbing above the clouds, filming the ground below and eventually showing the curvature of the Earth´s atmosphere. The balloon, after swelling to many times its original size, eventually burst, allowing the parachute to open and the box to descend back to Earth. It is thought that at its maximum height, the balloon reached an altitude of 37km.

The device, which was built by Alex and Chris in their spare time, consisted of a foam box, a parachute for the descent and the balloon. The electronic equipment had to be well insulated due to the extremely cold temperatures at such high altitudes, with duct tape and a small heat pad used to keep the cameras warm. A GPS tracking system, CATtrack, sent a text displaying its location when rung, allowing it to be collected. However, the whole device cost only £350 to build.

The video also shows the box being built from scratch, and the journey to collect the device from a snowy field in Cambridgeshire. 

Flight time: 2 hours, fifty minutes
Estimated maximum altitude: 37km
Distance travelled: 168km (104 miles)
Cost: £350
Estimated lowest temperature experienced: - 50 C



Thursday 10 February 2011

Latest Published Research from ScHARR Authors - January 2011


Posted by Andy

January has indeed been a busy month with 24 new papers featuring ScHARR authors.


Measuring patients' experiences and views of the emergency and urgent care system: psychometric testing of the urgent care system questionnaire.

O'Cathain A, Knowles E, Nicholl J
Qual Saf Health Care 05 Jan 2011 DOI

Predictive scoring in non-trauma emergency patients: a scoping review.

Challen K, Goodacre SW
Emerg Med J 06 Jan 2011 DOI

Preventative tele-health supported services for early stage Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial pilot

Fitzsimmons DA, Thompson J, Hawley M, Mountain GA
Trials 12:6 2011 DOI

The effectiveness of interventions to establish smoke-free homes in pregnancy and in the neonatal period: a systematic review.

Baxter S, Blank L, Everson-Hock ES, Burrows J, Messina J, Guillaume L, Goyder E
Health Educ Res 26 Jan 2011 DOI

Factors influencing the contribution of advanced practice nurses to promoting evidence-based practice among front-line nurses: findings from a cross-sectional survey.

Gerrish K, Guillaume L, Kirshbaum M, McDonnell A, Tod A, Nolan M
J Adv Nurs 13 Jan 2011 DOI

Further challenges to medical dominance? The case of nurse and pharmacist supplementary prescribing.

Cooper RJ, Bissell P, Ward P, Murphy E, Anderson C, Avery T, James V, Lymn J, Guillaume L, Hutchinson A, Ratcliffe J
Health (London) 13 Jan 2011 DOI

Can the impact of public involvement on research be evaluated? A mixed methods study

Barber R, Boote J, Parry G, Cooper C, Yeeles P, Cook S
Health Expectations 2011 Author weblink

Public Involvement in the Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials: A Review

Boote JD, Baird WO, Sutton A
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 2011 Author weblink

Uncertainty analysis is inherently Bayesian.

Stevens JW
Value Health 14(1):202-203 Jan 2011 DOI

Valuing child health utility 9D health states with a young adolescent sample: A feasibility study to compare best-worst scaling discrete-choice experiment, standard gamble and time trade-off methods

Ratcliffe J, Couzner L, Flynn T, Sawyer M, Stevens K, Brazier J, Burgess L
Applied Health Economics and Health Policy 9(1):15-27 2011

Predicting need for intervention in individuals with congestive heart failure using a home-based telecare system.

Biddiss E, Brownsell S, Hawley MS
J Telemed Telecare 15(5):226-231 2009 DOI

The CHD challenge: Comparing four cost-effectiveness models.

Turner D, Raftery J, Cooper K, Fairbank E, Palmer S, Ward S, Ara R
Value Health 14(1):53-60 Jan 2011 DOI

Cost-effectiveness of MRI and PET imaging for the evaluation of axillary lymph node metastases in early stage breast cancer

Meng Y, Ward S, Cooper K, Harnan S, Wyld L
European Journal of Surgical Oncology 37(1):40-46 2011

Health care professionals' preferences for extending mammographic breast screening to the over 70s

Walters SJ, Winslow M, Collins K, Robinson T, Green T, Madan J, Reed MWR, Wyld L
Journal of Geriatric Oncology 2(1):1-10 2011

Molecular genetics and genetic variation.

Twfieg ME, Teare MD
Methods Mol Biol 713:3-12 2011 DOI

Terminology, concepts, and models in genetic epidemiology.

Teare MD, Koref MF
Methods Mol Biol 713:13-25 2011 DOI

Approaches to genetic linkage analysis.

Teare MD
Methods Mol Biol 713:55-67 2011 DOI

Candidate gene association studies.

Teare MD
Methods Mol Biol 713:105-117 2011 DOI

The cost-effectiveness of primary angioplasty reply

Wailoo A, Goodacre S, Sampson F
HEART 97(2):163-163 Jan 2011 DOI

The Randomised Assessment of Treatment using Panel Assay of Cardiac Markers (RATPAC) trial: A randomised controlled trial of point-of-care cardiac markers in the emergency department

Goodacre SW, Bradburn M, Cross E, Collinson P, Gray A, Hall AS
Heart 97(3):190-196 2011

The authors' reply

Wailoo A, Goodacre S, Sampson F
Heart 97(2):163-163 2011

Dorsal cortical comminution as a predictor of redisplacement of distal radius fractures in children

Sharma S, Bowe D, Walters SJ, Flowers MJ
Injury 42(2):173-177 2011

The role and effectiveness of public-private partnerships (NHS LIFT) in the development of enhanced primary care premises and services

Beck M, Toms S, Mannion R, Brown S, Fitzsimmons DA, Lunt N, Greener I
The role and effectiveness of public-private partnerships (NHS LIFT) in the development of enhanced primary care premises and services. Jan 2010. HMSO Publisher weblink

Assessing methods for dealing with treatment switching in randomised controlled trials: a simulation study

Morden JP, Lambert PC, Latimer NR, Abrams KR, Wailoo AJ
BMC Medical Research Methodology 4(11) 2011



ScHARR Bite Size - Spring/Summer programme - Learn Something New in 20 Minutes

Image used under Creative Commons Licence - By Attribution - © Leo Reynolds
Posted by Andy

We have programmed a wide variety of 20 minute Bite Size sessions at ScHARR to encourage innovative teaching, research and collaboration.  So if you've ever wanted to work and collaborate flexibly on-line, record your presentations, find funding or make your teaching interactive - read on.

Already the Autumn/Winter programme is being populated, but if you have any suggestions of sessions you'd like to see at ScHARR please feel free to contact either myself or Jenny Freeman j.v.freeman@shef.ac.uk

All start at 2.30pm and bite size cakes are available, just bring a hot drink :-)

15/02/2011    Revamped Senate Awards scheme    Nadine Wills    Eric Wilkes       
01/03/2011    Visual Social Bookmarks    Andy Tattersall    Eric Wilkes   
10/03/2011    Echo360    Graham McElearney    Eric Wilkes           
24/03/2011    Wikis    Anthea Sutton    Pemberton
29/03/2011    Electronic voting system    Graham McElearney    Eric Wilkes               
19/04/2011    Use the Social Web to promote your work    Andy Tattersall    Pemberton   
27/04/2011    Sympodium       Chris Clow    Pemberton       
11/05/2011   Screencasting - powerpoint recording    Claire Beecroft    Eric Wilkes
17/05/2011    Dissertation supervision    Alan O'Rourke    Eric Wilkes       
31/05/2011    Research Professional    Anna Cantrell    Pemberton   
08/06/2011   Assessment methods Luke Desforges  Pemberton   
22/06/2011    uSpace    Andy Tattersall    Pemberton   
28/06/2011    How (not) to display data Jenny Freeman Pemberton
 
 
 
 

Thursday 3 February 2011

ScHARR Library Bite Size #5 Professional Social Networks

Posted by Andy

The next Bite Size session for Research and Collaboration takes place on Wednesday 9th February in the Eric Wilkes Room.
This time we'll take a whistle stop tour of professional social networks. Find out about the connections you can make, groups you can form and research you can follow, whilst enhancing your own profile.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

February Take Five

Photo by kirstyhall
 Post by Anna Cantrell
 
The latest edition of Take Five is packed full of new websites, research funding opportunities,training courses and current awareness.
You can view it here

To join the Take Five distribution list please contact me, Anna Cantrell by email a.j.cantrell@sheffield.ac.uk or phone 0114 2220894

An archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here