3G'S Development Trust

More and more research is being produced suggesting that peer-to-peer learning is an aid to learning in the classroom. It has shown to be effective in settings from high school to higher education. However, very little has been recorded regarding this approach in public engagement, specifically in regard to teenagers passing on knowledge to younger children. This would provide us with a unique opportunity and allow us to share our skills more widely. Therefore, would using peers to pass on this knowledge in a public engagement setting work? Would the peer practitioners themselves find any benefit to such an endeavour? In this study, we took a group of 14-year-olds from a local high school in a disadvantaged area and gave them training in public engagement techniques from experienced practitioners. These transferable skills were designed to enable the teenagers to not only grow in confidence but to think of more artistically about how they delivered information. Therefore, practitioners enlisted to teach these teenagers had a plethora of talents – such as a science magician and a poet. The teenagers were then given an opportunity to use these skills to teach 0 to 12-year-olds science activities about the human body at a unique science event. They were given the basic outline of these, which were a mixture of traditional science experiments (e.g. using vinegar to simulate stomach acid) and crafts (e.g. making edible blood). The teenagers were asked to go away and use their newly found skills to present this information. This was a huge success, and they came up with novel ways to deliver this information to younger children. For example, one group made up a dance for the children to remember the different parts of the brain. In this study, we take a look at this event from the teenager’s perspective and how this event has made a lasting impact.

A group of people with lived experience of mental health problems explored the archived records of a defunct ‘Lunatic Asylum’ and reported on their findings. This was a participant-led project with researchers supported by a tutor and a member of the archive staff. Participants controlled the whole project, choosing their own areas of investigation and how they would study these. They also designed and delivered a presentation of their findings to the public. A focus group, held to evaluate the project, found that the ‘group’, as an entity, was vital to the success of the project, which has uncovered much information about the lives of mentally ill ‘patients’ in the nineteenth century. It has also given the participants valuable research experience. Their control over the study led to increased confidence and empowered participant-researchers to consider routes for progression and increased aspirations for the future which can include recovery.

The principal aims of this retrospective study were to assess the prevalence and causes of laryngo-hyoid fractures found in coroners' adult postmortem examinations over a five-year period. In 78 of 1930 cases (4%), there was a fracture of the larynx (thyroid or cricoid cartilage) or hyoid bone. The thyroid cartilage alone was fractured in 38 cases; the hyoid bone alone was fractured in 19 cases; the larynx and hyoid bone were both fractured in 21 cases, including one which involved the cricoid cartilage. There was no evidence of surface injury to the neck in 14.1% of cases. The majority (44/78; 56.4%) involved classical manual or ligature 'pressure to the neck', i.e. hanging (32) or strangulation (12) but a significant minority (35.9%) involved other circumstances: road/rail traffic collision (12; 15.4%); falls (6; 7.7%); assaults involving blunt force trauma to the head and neck (4; 5.1%); incised wounds (3; 3.8%); gunshot wounds (2; 2.6%); and explosion (1; 1.3%). The circumstances of death and cause of fracture(s) were 'unascertained' in four cases (5.1%). Postmortem artefact accounted for two cases (2.6%).

The objective of the study was to measure the strength of association between protection motivation theory (PMT) factors (health threat, outcome and self-efficacy judgements) and adherence to preventive corticosteroid use in asthma patients. A cross-sectional design was employed. A random sample of 100 users of corticosteroid medication was obtained from a GP's (general practitioner) asthma patient register. Each was sent a questionnaire measuring self-report adherence, perceived morbidity and PMT variables. Of the 71 respondents, most were highly confident of the value of corticosteroids in preventing asthma attacks and in their ability to use the inhaler. However 22% of the variance in adherence was explained by only two PMT variables: (1) the perceived chronicity of asthma and (2) its severity and disruptiveness. Future educational programmes should emphasize the chronic nature of asthma as well as the benefits, and lack of health risks, associated with corticosteroid use.

SummaryThe results are reported of a controlled, double-blind, crossover trial of piperazine oestrone sulphate (‘Harmogen’) compared with ethinyl oestradiol and placebo in menopausal patients with features of endogenous oestrogen withdrawal. The oestro-genicity of both active substances was well substantiated by vaginal epithelial maturation indices. Piperazine oestrone sulphate was superior to ethinyl oestradiol, at the dosage levels used, in producing a more pronounced relief of menopausal symptoms without any notable adverse effects. The incidence of side-effects was greater during treatment with ethinyl oestradiol. Piperazine oestrone sulphate is considered to be at least as effective an oestrogenic substance as ethinyl oestradiol and worthy of further therapeutic evaluation.