The mental health effects of pet death during childhood: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? (2020)
Journal Article

Pet ownership is common. Growing evidence suggests children form deep emotional attachments to their pets. Yet, little is known about children’s emotional reactions to a pet’s death. The goal of this study was to describe the relationship between exp... Read More about The mental health effects of pet death during childhood: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?.

Population implications of cessation of IVF during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020)
Journal Article

Research question: Discontinuation of IVF cycles has been part of the radical transformation of healthcare provision to enable reallocation of staff and resources to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to estimate the impact of cessati... Read More about Population implications of cessation of IVF during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Manometry performed at indwelling pleural catheter insertion to predict unexpandable lung (2020)
Journal Article

Background: The finding of unexpandable lung (UL) at an early timepoint is of increasing importance in guiding treatment decisions in patients with malignant pleural effusion (MPE). Pleural manometry is the most common technique to delineate UL, howe... Read More about Manometry performed at indwelling pleural catheter insertion to predict unexpandable lung.

Adversity exposure during sensitive periods predicts accelerated epigenetic aging in children (2019)
Journal Article

Objectives: Exposure to adversity has been linked to accelerated biological aging, which in turn has been shown to predict numerous physical and mental health problems. In recent years, measures of DNA methylation-based epigenetic age––known as “epig... Read More about Adversity exposure during sensitive periods predicts accelerated epigenetic aging in children.

Preliminary testing: The devil of statistics? (2019)
Journal Article

In quantitative research, the selection of the most appropriate statistical test for the comparison of two-independent samples can be problematic. There is a lack of consensus in the Statistics community regarding the appropriate approach; particular... Read More about Preliminary testing: The devil of statistics?.

Parametric and non-parametric tests for the comparison of two samples which both include paired and unpaired observations (2019)
Journal Article

Samples that include both independent and paired observations cause a dilemma for researchers that covers the full breadth of empirical research. Parametric approaches for the comparison of two samples using all available observations are considered,... Read More about Parametric and non-parametric tests for the comparison of two samples which both include paired and unpaired observations.

Young carers in England: Findings from the 2018 BBC survey on the prevalence and nature of caring among young people (2019)
Journal Article

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Background: Many young people are involved in caring for parents, siblings, or other relatives who have an illness or disability. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of caring by young people in England... Read More about Young carers in England: Findings from the 2018 BBC survey on the prevalence and nature of caring among young people.

Social flocculation in plant–animal worms (2019)
Journal Article

Individual animals can often move more safely or more efficiently as members of a group. This can be as simple as safety in numbers or as sophisticated as aerodynamic or hydrodynamic cooperation. Here, we show that individual plant–animal worms (Syms... Read More about Social flocculation in plant–animal worms.

Sensitive periods for the effect of childhood adversity on DNA methylation: Results from a prospective, longitudinal study (2019)
Journal Article

Background: Exposure to "early life" adversity is known to predict DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns that may be related to psychiatric risk. However, few studies have investigated whether adversity has time-dependent effects based on the age at exposu... Read More about Sensitive periods for the effect of childhood adversity on DNA methylation: Results from a prospective, longitudinal study.

Asymmetric ommatidia count and behavioural lateralization in the ant Temnothorax albipennis (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018 The Author(s). Workers of the house-hunting ant Temnothorax albipennis rely on visual edge following and landmark recognition to navigate their rocky environment, and they also exhibit a leftward turning bias when exploring unknown nest sites.... Read More about Asymmetric ommatidia count and behavioural lateralization in the ant Temnothorax albipennis.

Feeding tube securement in critical illness: Implications for safety (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018 MA Healthcare Ltd Over 50% of tape-secured feeding tubes are inadvertently lost. The impact of nasal bridle securement on nasogastric (NG) and nasointestinal (NI) tube loss, outcome and duration of use was determined from 1 October 2014 (NG) a... Read More about Feeding tube securement in critical illness: Implications for safety.

An outlier in an independent samples design (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

There is a flaw with some of the most commonly performed statistical tests. A paradox of the one sample t-test is the contrariwise decrease in the p-value as the value of an outlier increases in the direction of the overall effect. Demonstration of t... Read More about An outlier in an independent samples design.

Methods for comparing the responses from a Likert question, with paired observations and independent observations in each of two samples (2018)
Journal Article

Assesses the robustness of the partially overlapping samples t-tests for ordinal samples.

Introduces the Derrick-White Type I error robustness criteria.

Establishing the usefulness of the GO-QOL in a UK hospital-treated population with thyroid eye disease in the CIRTED trial (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Thyroid eye disease (TED) is a potentially sight-threatening and cosmetically disfiguring condition arising in 25–50% of patients with Graves’ hyperthyroidism. CIRTED is the fir... Read More about Establishing the usefulness of the GO-QOL in a UK hospital-treated population with thyroid eye disease in the CIRTED trial.

Results of a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, crossover trial of melatonin for treatment of Nocturia in adults with multiple sclerosis (MeNiMS) (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Nocturia is a common urinary symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS) which can affect quality of life (QoL) adversely. Melatonin is a hormone known to regulate circadian rhythm and reduce smooth muscle activity such as in... Read More about Results of a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, crossover trial of melatonin for treatment of Nocturia in adults with multiple sclerosis (MeNiMS).

Time to Initial Debridement and wound Excision (TIDE) in severe open tibial fractures and related clinical outcome: A multi-centre study (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Background: Recent national (NICE) guidelines in England recommend that initial debridement and wound excision of open tibial fractures take place within 12 h of the time of injury, a change from the previous target of 24 h. This... Read More about Time to Initial Debridement and wound Excision (TIDE) in severe open tibial fractures and related clinical outcome: A multi-centre study.

To preliminary test or not to preliminary test, that is the question (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Despite the consequences of violations to the assumptions of statistical tests, there is often neglect in published works to report on the assumptions of the tests performed. Preliminary testing the assumptions prior to preforming the test is done ro... Read More about To preliminary test or not to preliminary test, that is the question.

Recurrence rates in primary spontaneous pneumothorax: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2018)
Journal Article

Copyright ©ERS 2018 Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) recurrence rates vary widely in the published literature, with limited data describing the factors that influence recurrence. The aims of this systematic review were to determine an estimati... Read More about Recurrence rates in primary spontaneous pneumothorax: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Preschool children’s communication, motor and social development: Parents’ and educators’ concerns (2018)
Journal Article

© 2017, © 2017 The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited. Purpose: During early childhood, it is important to identify which children require intervention before they face the increased demands of school. This study aimed to: (1) compare... Read More about Preschool children’s communication, motor and social development: Parents’ and educators’ concerns.

Plant-animal worms round themselves up in circular mills on the beach (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018 The Authors. Collective motion is a fascinating and intensely studied manifestation of collective behaviour. Circular milling is an impressive example. It occurs in fishes, processionary caterpillars and army ants, among others. Its adaptive s... Read More about Plant-animal worms round themselves up in circular mills on the beach.