Perceptions of vision care following neurological impairment: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Visual impairment is a common consequence of neurological impairments, and can impact a person's ability to undertake everyday tasks, affecting their confidence and mental health. Previous qualitative research in the UK has shown inequalities to exist where patients are accessing vision care after stroke, but little is known around the experiences of accessing vision care following other neurological impairments, and a lack of national guidelines prevent standardised care planning. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the perceptions of vision care after neurological impairment, and to identify possible inequalities and support mechanisms, where it has been possible to access vision care.

METHODS

University ethical approval was obtained, and adults with a visual impairment as a result of a neurological impairment were offered an in-depth interview to explore their vision care experiences. Data were collected between April and November 2021 and analysed using iterative, thematic analysis (TA), informed by a social constructionist ideology.

RESULTS

Seventeen participants were recruited. Three overarching themes were conceptualised in relation to the participants' perception of vision care: Making sense of the visual impairment; The responsibility of vision care; and Influential factors in care quality perception.

CONCLUSION

Inequalities were noted by participants, with most reporting a lack of suitable vision care offered as part of their neurological rehabilitation. Participants were thus burdened with the task of seeking their own support online, and encountered inaccurate and worrying information in the process. Participants noted changes in their identity, and the identity of their family carers, as they adjusted to their vision loss. The findings from this research highlight a need for clinicians to consider the long-term impact of vision loss after neurological impairment, and ensure patients are provided with adequate support and information, and appropriate referral pathways, alleviating this patient burden.

Record DNA: reconceptualising digital records as the future evidence base

A major issue facing society is the extent to which the usability of the digital evidence base is at risk because, in the digital era, the concept of the record has been eroded. The nature and reality of a record are no longer agreed. Addressing the challenges that the digital presents for managing records and assuring their future usability is not one that records and archives scholars and professionals can tackle alone. This article argues that this is a 'grand challenge' which requires a broad range of perspectives and expertise and convergence research to resolve. It discusses findings from an international multidisciplinary research network established to critically explore, through a grounded theory approach, the nature of a digital record and the implications of the digital era for the usability and functionality of the future evidence base. A series of different visions of a digital record emerged alongside a wide-ranging set of research questions that form the basis of an agenda for future collaborative (convergence) research.

A critical review of the Online Safety Bill

The UK Parliament has tabled the Online Safety Bill to make the internet safer for users by requiring providers to regulate legal but harmful content on their platform. This paper critically assesses the draft legislation, surveying its rationale; its scope in terms of lawful and unlawful harms it intends to regulate; and the mechanisms through which it will be enforced. We argue that it requires further refinement if it is to protect free speech and innovation in the digital sphere. We propose four conclusions: further evidence is required to substantiate the necessity and proportionality of the Bill’s interventions; the Bill risks a democratic deficit by limiting the opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny; the duties of the bill may be too wide (in terms of burdening providers); and that enforcement of a Code of Practice will likely be insufficient.

This critical perspective makes a timely contribution to the tech policy debate concerning the monitoring and moderation of online content. Governments globally are currently considering a range of legislative interventions to limit online abuse, disinformation, and the dissemination of illegal content on social media platforms. These interventions will significantly impact online free speech, competition between platforms, and the democratic function of online platforms. By investigating the UK’s Online Safety Bill, comparing it with similar interventions, and considering the political impact of different digital tools for moderation, this perspective aims to inform the current policy debate by combining technical and political insight. It indicates the need for further research into the comparative efficacy of different methods of content monitoring and moderation.

The ethics of facial recognition technologies, surveillance, and accountability in an age of artificial intelligence: a comparative analysis of US, EU, and UK regulatory frameworks

The rapid development of facial recognition technologies (FRT) has led to complex ethical choices in terms of balancing individual privacy rights versus delivering societal safety. Within this space, increasingly commonplace use of these technologies by law enforcement agencies has presented a particular lens for probing this complex landscape, its application, and the acceptable extent of citizen surveillance. This analysis focuses on the regulatory contexts and recent case law in the United States (USA), United Kingdom (UK), and European Union (EU) in terms of the use and misuse of FRT by law enforcement agencies. In the case of the USA, it is one of the main global regions in which the technology is being rapidly evolved, and yet, it has a patchwork of legislation with less emphasis on data protection and privacy. Within the context of the EU and the UK, there has been a critical focus on the development of accountability requirements particularly when considered in the context of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the legal focus on Privacy by Design (PbD). However, globally, there is no standardised human rights framework and regulatory requirements that can be easily applied to FRT rollout. This article contains a discursive discussion considering the complexity of the ethical and regulatory dimensions at play in these spaces including considering data protection and human rights frameworks. It concludes that data protection impact assessments (DPIA) and human rights impact assessments together with greater transparency, regulation, audit and explanation of FRT use, and application in individual contexts would improve FRT deployments. In addition, it sets out ten critical questions which it suggests need to be answered for the successful development and deployment of FRT and AI more broadly. It is suggested that these should be answered by lawmakers, policy makers, AI developers, and adopters.

Dissemination of a dissonance-based body image promotion program in church settings: A preliminary controlled pilot study with adult women

Adult women report significant body dissatisfaction yet are often overlooked in body image promotion programs. Although few venues afford opportune settings for intervening with adult women, the church serves as a regular meeting place for many in the South of the United States. This study tested a dissonance-based body image program, Reclaiming Beauty (RB), adapted for adult women in church settings. Six groups (n = 30) were led by two trained church leaders (peer-led) and three groups (n = 21) were led by a trained peer leader and a researcher (researcher-co-led). RB participants, aged 30-77 years (M = 53.1 ± 12.7), completed assessments pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Waitlist-controls (n = 31) completed assessments at time intervals consistent with intervention participants. RB participants reported significantly decreased thin-ideal internalization, body surveillance, and eating psychopathology at post-intervention and at 6 months post-intervention relative to controls. RB participants also reported significantly increased body satisfaction immediately post-intervention relative to controls, but this was not significant at 6 months post-intervention. Peer-led groups outperformed researcher-co-led groups on body surveillance at 6 months, but RB conditions did not otherwise differ. Our findings provide preliminary support for the dissemination of a culturally-modified dissonance-based body image program to adult women in church settings.

Towards a human-centred participatory approach to child social care recordkeeping

In 2019, there were over 75,000 children and young people in out-of-home care in England and Wales. Recent estimates suggest that up to half a million British people were in state or voluntary care as children, around 1% of the adult population. While individual experiences vary enormously by time and place, care-experienced people share in common the intensive documentation of their lives by social workers, educators, health professionals and associated practitioners. A complex, fragmented legislative and regulatory framework governs the creation and use of these records at the national level. Under UK law, a ‘care file’ must be retained for at least 75 years, so that a substantial legacy of care data is held across the public, voluntary and private sectors. MIRRA: Memory—Identity—Rights in Records—Access, a participatory research project co-produced with care leavers, investigated recordkeeping practices in child social care from multiple perspectives. Interviews, focus groups and workshops with stakeholders identified critical failings in the creation, use, management and access to care records, which do not account for the needs and capabilities of multiple stakeholders. These failings have a direct impact on the well-being and health of care-experienced people throughout their lives. MIRRA researchers developed a human-centred participatory recordkeeping approach to child social care, which this article describes. The approach combines the participatory continuum model (Rolan in Arch Sci 17(3):195–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-016-9267-7, 2017) and the capabilities approach to social work, rooting child social care recordkeeping in information rights principles. The article makes a contribution to the literature that discusses archival science within a human rights and ethics framework and reflects on trauma-informed practice for information professionals. It also provides guidance on practice improvements for child social care recording.

Engaging with change: Information and communication technology professionals' perspectives on change at the mid-point in the UK/EU Brexit process

BACKGROUND

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been a key agent of change in the 21st century. Given the role of ICT in changing society, this research explores the responses and attitudes to change over time from ICT professionals and ICT academics in dealing with the potentially far reaching political challenge triggered by the UK's 2016 European Union Referendum and its decision to leave the European Union (Brexit). Whilst the vote was a UK based decision its ramifications have global implications and as such the research was not confined to the UK. This article presents the second phase of the research at the mid-point in the UK/European Union (EU) Brexit process, thus complementing the findings gathered immediately after the Referendum decision. The fundamental question being researched was: What are ICT professionals' personal and professional perspectives on the change triggered by Brexit in terms of opportunities and threats?

METHODS AND FINDINGS

Data was collected through a survey launched in March 2018, one year on from the UK's triggering of Article 50 and marking the mid-point in the two-year Brexit process. The survey replicated the one delivered at the point of the Referendum decision in 2016 with some developments. In addition, two appreciative inquiry focus groups were conducted. The research sought to understand any shifting perspectives on the opportunities and threats that would exist post-Brexit for ICT professionals and academics. 59% of survey participants were negative regarding the Brexit decision. Participants noted the position post-Brexit for the UK, and the remaining 27 EU Member States (EU27), was still very uncertain at this stage. They observed that planned change versus uncertainty provides for very different responses. In spite of the uncertainty, the participants were able to consider and advocate for potential opportunities although these were framed from national perspectives. The opportunities identified within the appreciative inquiry focus groups aligned to those recorded by survey participants with similar themes highlighted. However, the optimum conditions for change have yet to be reached as there is still not an informed position, message and clear leadership with detailed information for the ICT context. Further data will be gathered after the UK exit from the EU, assuming this occurs.

Philosophical Foundations for the Organization of Religious Knowledge: Irreconcilable Diversity or a Unity of Purpose?

: We examine the way in which religion is managed in the major library classification schemes and in archival practice and how and why bias and misrepresentation occur. Broad definitions of what is meant by diversity and religious pluralism and why it is a cause for concern precede a discussion of the standard model of interreligious attitudes (exclusivism/inclusivism/pluralism) with particular reference to the philosophy of John Hick. This model is used as a lens through which to evaluate knowledge organization systems (KOSs) for evidence of comparable theoretical positions and to suggest a possible typology of religious KOSs. Archival and library practice are considered, and, despite their very different approaches, found to have some similarities in the way in which traditional societal structures have affected bias and misrepresentation of religious beliefs. There is, nevertheless, evidence of a general move towards a more pluralistic attitude to different faiths.

Open government data: critical information management perspectives

Purpose

Open government data and access to public sector information is commonplace, yet little attention has focussed on the essential roles and responsibilities in practice of the information and records management professionals, who enable public authorities to deliver open data to citizens. This paper aims to consider the perspectives of open government and information practitioners in England on the procedural and policy implications of open data across local public authorities.

Design/methodology/approach

Using four case studies from different parts of the public sector in England (local government, higher education, National Health Service and hospital trust), the research involved master’s level students in the data collection and analysis, alongside academics, thus enhancing the learning experience of students.

Findings

There was little consistency in the location of responsibility for open government data policy, the range of job roles involved or the organisational structures, policy and guidance in place to deliver this function. While this may reflect the organisational differences and professional concerns, it makes it difficult to share best practice. Central government policy encourages public bodies to make their data available for re-use. However, local practice is very variable and perhaps understandably responds more to local organisational strategic and resource priorities. The research found a lack of common metadata standards for open data, different choices about which data to open, problems of data redundancy, inconsistency and data integrity and a wide variety of views on the corporate and public benefits of open data.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited to England and to non-national public bodies and only draws data from a small number of case studies.

Originality/value

The research contributes to the debate about emerging issues around the complexities of open government data and its public benefits, contributing to the discussions around technology-enabled approaches to citizen engagement and governance. It offers new insights into the interaction between open data and public policy objectives, drawing on the experience of local public sectors in England.

Engaging with change: Information and communication technology professionals' perspectives on change in the context of the 'Brexit' vote

Background

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been a key agent of change in the 21^st century. Given the role of ICT in changing society this research sought to explore the responses and attitudes to change from ICT professionals and ICT academics in dealing with the potentially far reaching political challenge triggered by the UK’s 2016 European Union Referendum and its decision to leave the European Union (referred to as Brexit). Whilst the vote was a UK based decision its ramifications have global implications and as such the research was not confined to the UK.

Methods and findings

Data was collected through a survey launched on the first working day after the Brexit referendum vote to leave the EU and kept open for four weeks. The survey contained qualitative and quantitative questions. It sought to understand the opportunities and threats that would exist post-Brexit for ICT professionals and academics triggered by the decision. The research captured a complex rich picture on ICT professionals’ responses to the potential challenge of change triggered by the Brexit vote. Immediately after the Brexit decision the research reveals uncertainties amongst ICT professionals regarding what the decision would mean, with just under half of the participants not identifying any opportunities or threats. For those who did, threats outweighed opportunities by just more than double. Whilst understanding the global possibilities and dangers, participants saw their position from national and organizational perspectives. The highest frequency coded threats related to areas outside the participants’ control and the highest frequency opportunities related to areas where there was the potential for ICT interventions. This survey is part of longitudinal piece of research. Using the same methodological approach two further surveys are planned. The second survey will be one year after Article 50 was triggered on 29 March 2017. The final survey will be one year after the UK exit from the EU, assuming this occurs.

Opening research data: issues and opportunities

Purpose

– This paper aims to explore the issues, the role of research data management (RDM) as a mechanism for implementing open research data and the role and opportunities for records managers. The open data agenda is premised on making as much data as possible open and available. However, in the context of open research data there are methodological, ethical and practical issues with this premise.

Design/methodology/approach

– Two collaborative research projects focusing on qualitative health data were conducted. “DATUM for Health” designed and delivered a tailored RDM skills training programme for postgraduate research students in health studies. “DATUM in Action” was an action research project between researchers from information sciences, health, mathematics and computing, looking at planning and implementing RDM.

Findings

– Three key issues emerged about what research data is appropriate to make open/accessible for sharing and reuse: re-using qualitative data conflicts with some of the epistemological and methodological principles of qualitative research; there are ethical concerns about making data obtained from human participants open, which are not completely addressed by consent and anonymisation; many research projects are small scale and the costs of preparing and curating data for open access can outweigh its value. In exploring these issues, the authors advocate the need for effective appraisal skills and researcher-focused RDM with records managers playing a useful role.

Research limitations/implications

– The findings come from two small-scale qualitative projects in health studies. Further exploration of these issues is required.

Practical implications

– Records managers have new crucial opportunities in the open data and RDM contexts, bringing their expertise and experience in managing a wider range of data and information. They can help realise the benefits of multiple perspectives (researcher, data manager, records manager and archivist) on open research data.

Social implications

– Researcher-focused RDM offers a mechanism for implementing open research data.

Originality/value

– It raises complex issues around open research data not found in the records management literature, highlights the need for researcher-focussed RDM and research data appraisal skills and a not yet fully recognised role for records managers.

The practitioners' perspective on records management research

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce this dedicated research issue of the Records Management Journal

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides a brief viewpoint on records management research.

Findings

This issue should clearly demonstrate why research is so critical.

Originality/value

This paper provides a brief viewpoint on records management research.

Characterization of the G91del CRYBA1/3-crystallin protein: a cause of human inherited cataract

Congenital cataract is a leading cause of visual disability in children. Inherited isolated (non-syndromic) cataract represents a significant proportion of cases and the identification of genes responsible for inherited cataract will lead to a better understanding of the mechanism of cataract formation at the molecular level both in congenital and age-related cataract. Crystallins are abundantly expressed in the developing human lens and represent excellent candidate genes for inherited cataract. A genome-wide search of a five-generation family with autosomal dominant lamellar cataract demonstrated linkage to the 17p12-q11 region. Screening of the CRYBA1/3 gene showed a 3 bp deletion, which resulted in a G91del mutation within the tyrosine corner, that co-segregated with disease and was not found in 96 normal controls. In order to understand the molecular basis of cataract formation, the mutant protein was expressed in vitro and its unfolding and refolding characteristics assessed using far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy. Defective folding and a reduction in solubility were found. As the wild-type protein did not refold into the native conformation following unfolding, a corresponding CRYBB2 mutant was genetically engineered and its refolding characteristics analysed and compared with wild-type CRYBB2. Its biophysical properties support the hypothesis that removal of the glycine residue from the tyrosine corner impairs the folding and solubility of beta-crystallin proteins. This study represents the first comprehensive description of the biophysical consequences of a mutant beta-crystallin protein that is associated with human inherited cataract.