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This study evaluated the impact of baseline injury characteristics and one-year functional level on the 10-year community integration outcomes for working-age patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Patients aged 16–55 and diagnosed with moderate-to-severe TBI within 24 h of injury were eligible for the study. Multivariable hierarchical linear regression was utilized to assess the impact of baseline characteristics and one-year functional measures on the mean Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ) scores 10 years after injury. Of 133 original study participants, 97 survived 10 years, and 75 were available for this study. The mean total CIQ score changed positively from one to 10 years post-injury, from 18.7 (±5.5) to 19.8 (±4.8) (p = 0.04). The results suggested that age (β = −0.260, p = 0.013), FIM-Cognitive subscale (β = 0.608, p = 0.002), and the bodily pain subscale (BP) (β = 0.277, p = 0.017) of the SF-36 were significantly associated with the mean CIQ scores. In conclusion, this study demonstrated improved community integration from one to 10 years in a sample of working-age patients with moderate-to-severe TBI. The findings also showed that age, cognitive function, and bodily pain were significant predictors of long-term community integration, suggesting post-acute rehabilitation should focus on factors related to long-term risk and protective factors to improve long-term outcomes.

This study examines the use of a digital Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ), which was originally developed by Professor Stephen Brookfield, to extract perspectives of students on the lecture/lesson they had just conducted. Three FE colleges in the UK took part in the study and utilised a blog for students to post their comments. Students conducting media production courses at level three and four were the focus groups that submitted approaching two thousand CIQ responses over two academic years. The aim of utilising the CIQ was for a course tutor to receive additional perspectives on their practice and instant on-event feedback, resulting in identifying whether the learners mimicked the course tutor’s perspective. The findings indicate that the other perspectives gathered from the CIQ provided the course tutor with a greater understanding of their practice and assisted them in becoming more critically reflective. Additionally, some CIQ comments were different from the assumptions of the course tutor, which allowed them to adapt the delivery of the programme. Furthermore, utilising the data from the CIQ has identified that some of the comments students provide to the course tutor in-class do not mimic the comments of the CIQ. Moreover, comments received through the CIQ identify that there are also managerial implications, such as the usefulness and reliability of teaching observations, student induction and exit questionnaires. Utilising a blog format allowed students to submit their responses on a variety of digital devices, but some problems remained similar to Brookfield’s carbon paper-based system. There appears to be a definite place for using the CIQ in FE educational practice, and many best practice recommendations are constructed.

NMDA Receptors (NMDARs) play key roles in synaptic physiology and NMDAR hypofunction has been implicated in various neurological conditions. In recent years an increasing number of positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of NMDARs have been discovered and characterized. These diverse PAM classes vary not only in their binding sites and GluN2 subunit selectivity profiles, but also in the nature of their impacts on channel function. Major differences exist in the degree of slowing of channel deactivation and shifting of apparent agonist affinity between different classes of PAMs. Here we review the diverse modes of potentiation by the currently known classes of NMDAR PAMs and discuss the potential consequences of different types of potentiation in terms of desirable and undesirable effects on brain function.This article is part of the Special Issue entitled ‘Ionotropic glutamate receptors’.

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University The classical pathway of complement system, activated by immune complexes, involves binding of globular heads of C1q to the Fc regions of aggregated IgG or IgM. At the C-terminal region of C1q, is globular head region (gC1q) where each globular head is composed of one A (ghA), one B (ghB) and one C (ghC) chain. In order to understand modularity of gC1q region of mouse C1q and to generate useful reagents for in vivo studies, we have expressed these recombinant individual heads of mouse C1q in Escherichia coli as soluble proteins linked to maltose-binding protein (MBP). This included RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis from mouse spleen, using appropriate primers, full-length mouse C1q A, B and C chains were amplified first. Following this, using the appropriate full length C1q chains, globular heads of mouse C1q A, B and C chains were amplified (mghA, mghB and mghC respectively). We have examined their interaction with heat-aggregated mouse IgG. These fusion proteins (MBP-ghA, -ghB, and -ghC) were found to bind differentially to mouse IgG. ghA and ghB were found to bind highest with IgG. IgG subtypes were purified and their interaction with native human C1q was also studied. Dose-dependent binding was observed. Interaction of recombinant globular heads of C1q with mouse IgM was also examined. ghC was found to bind highest with IgM although ghB and ghA also showed binding to IgM. The ability of these recombinant heads to inhibit complement-mediated lysis was also examined. Both MBP-ghA and MBP-ghB also inhibited C1q-dependent hemolysis of IgG sensitized sheep erythrocytes. Interaction and binding of these globular heads with recombinant prion peptide was also studied. The individual globular heads of mouse C1q were also found to bind to recombinant mouse PrP peptide which will aid in better understanding of pathogenesis of prion disease. Further studies involved interaction of recombinant mouse globular heads of C1q (mghA, mghB and mghC) with pentraxin PTX-3. mghB and mghC showed highest binding (mghB>mghC) to PTX3 as compared to mghA. The study of recombinant gC1q region heads will help in understanding the effects of PTX3 activation on the complement system. Collaborative studies examined the most variable residues in mouse gC1q region as well as alignment of mouse gC1q region with human gC1q region. The expression and functional characterisation of individual mouse gC1q domains has allowed to examine specificity and selectivity of individual globular heads of mouse C1q to known ligands. Production of mouse gC1q domains will be helpful in antibody mapping of anti-C1q autoantibodies recognising gC1q region.

Objective. Otitis media in children may have a considerable impact on caregiver quality of life. The disease-specific Caregiver Impact Questionnaire is designed to assess caregiver quality of life in relation to child otitis media. Assessment of the psychometric properties of this instrument is limited. This study assesses the psychometric properties of this instrument including validity, reproducibility, responsiveness, and interpretability.Study Design. Longitudinal validation study.Setting. Secondary care units.Conclusion. The modified Danish version of the Caregiver Impact Questionnaire is a valid and reproducible measurement tool that is also sensitive to measuring change in the current setting. A change score representing minimal important change as perceived by the respondent is proposed. Results of this study support the use of this instrument.Methods. Analyses were based on data from 435 families. Validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, and hypothesis testing. Test-retest reliability and measures of smallest detectable change were investigated in the assessment of reproducibility. Responsiveness was investigated by means of hypothesis testing and receiver operating characteristic analysis. An anchor-based distribution method was applied for determining minimal important change as perceived by the respondent.Results. Factor analysis confirmed the hypothesized 1- factor structure with an acceptable fit. Cronbach's alpha was .90. In the analysis of construct validity, 88.9% of the hypothesized correlations were correctly predicted. Intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.87 and smallest detectable change corresponded to approximately onefourth of the scale. Responsiveness was found to be good and a change score of 13.8 represented minimal important change.