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Articles by David Parkins
Le Petit ogre veut aller à l'école de Marie-Agnès Gaudrat et David Parkins
La vie du petit ogre n'est pas bien gaie. Chez lui, ça sent la chair fraîche et l'ennui. Mais, un jour, le petit ogre va à l'école. Et le voilà qui découvre le plaisir de plonger dans les livres, et qu'il y entraîne ses parents... Dès lors, tout va changer : chez lui, ça ne sent plus la chair fraîche, mais le clafoutis ! Moyenne 14.4 10 votes - EXCELLENT TRES BON BON MOYEN FAIBLE MAUVAIS
The Children's Novels Chibundu Onuzo Would Like to Book-Jump On
You would think that I would be prepared to answer the question: ‘What book would you logosalter on?’ After all, I did write a whole middle-grade adventure, where the main character, Mayowa, is a logosalter, which means she can jump on a book with her bare feet and unleash the emotions stored inside. And yet, every time I get asked this question, I’m completely stumped. There are so many amazing books to choose from. How to pick?
Deprivation and NHS General Ophthalmic Service sight testing activity in England in 2022-2023
The association between socioeconomic deprivation and eye disease is well established, with previous research also highlighting those least deprived being more likely to access National Health Service funded sight-tests than those more deprived. Investigating sight-testing uptake in post-pandemic England in 2022–2023, we find significant inequality remains, with those in the most affluent areas being more than five times more likely to access sight-testing than those in the most deprived areas.
Optometrist referral accuracy: Addressing the root causes of unwarranted variation
No abstract is available for this article. REFERENCES 1, , , , . Assessment of optometrists' referral accuracy and contributing factors: a review. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2023; 43: 1255–1277. 2 NHS England. General ophthalmic services contract. 2023. Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/PRN00242-General-ophthalmic-mandatory-services-model-contract-September-2023.pdf. Accessed 27 September 2023. 3, , . Optometric referrals: towards a two way flow of information?
A catalyst for change
Managing need and demand for health services equitably remain fundamental requirements of an NHS facing increasing capacity pressures [1]. This is acutely evident for hospital eye services [2, 3]. In England, timely delivery and continuity of NHS eye care is dependent on specific local commissioning (and subsequently provision) of primary and community eye services, in addition to specialist ophthalmic services (hospital sector), and general ophthalmic services (optical sector).
How nurses can help realise the link between eye health and patient care
Key learning points - The interplay between vision and long-term conditions - Types of eye conditions that may affect sight - How primary care nurses can help patients with their vision You will have seen many patients like Eileen before. She is older, lives on her own and has recently had a fall. She is frail and has to live with several long-term conditions. Her fracture is being cared for and she is getting help with her pain and breathing.
The relationship between unwarranted variation in optometric referrals and time since qualification
To gain insight into unwarranted variation in referral activity in the United Kingdom (UK): (1) triage data were audited to investigate source of referral, provisional diagnosis, and outcome; (2) an online system was developed to present two sets of 10 vignettes, designed to avoid prompting answers. Participating optometrists completed 10 pre‐CET vignettes, recording their tests and management decisions.
Stop blocking postdocs’ paths to success
Illustration by David Parkins Postdocs are the engines of scientific progress. Typically poorly paid despite their three to seven years of doctoral training, they might labour in a postdoc lab for another four to nine years before moving to a more independent and remunerative career. What are they owed in return?
Show drugs work before selling them
Illustration by David Parkins Under US President Donald Trump, defunct economic arguments about prescription drugs are coming to the fore. His advisers contend that today's system is a bad deal. They want to undo regulations that require companies to show that a medical product actually works before it is sold. The advisers argue that removing the burden of large, lengthy clinical trials will cut costs and reduce delays, and that the marketplace can be trusted to sort good drugs from bad ones.
No publication without confirmation
Illustration by David Parkins Concern over the reliability of published biomedical results grows unabated. Frustration with this 'reproducibility crisis' is felt by everyone pursuing new disease treatments: from clinicians and would-be drug developers who want solid foundations for the preclinical research they build on, to basic scientists who are forced to devote more time and resources to newly imposed requirements for rigour, reporting and statistics.
What scientists should focus on - and fear - under Trump
How should researchers prepare for the presidency of Donald Trump? Nature asked nine experts in science and the humanities to lay out their advice and concerns ahead of the next US administration. Douglas Sipp: Beware of plans to lower drug standards Daniel M.
Reviewers are blinkered by bibliometrics
There is a disconnect between the research that reviewers purport to admire and the research that they actually support. As participants on multiple review panels and scientific councils, we have heard many lament researchers' reluctance to take risks. Yet we've seen the same panels eschew risk and rely on bibliometric indicators for assessments, despite widespread agreement that they are imperfect measures1–6.
Coca-Cola: Sales Decline, Health Concerns Spur Relaunch
Illustration by David Parkins Illustration by David Parkins Sandy Douglas drinks one Coca-Cola every day. He likes it early, before noon, sometimes accompanied by a cup of coffee.
Fewer numbers, better science
Redefine excellence Fix incentives to fix science | Do judge Treat metrics only as surrogates An obsession with metrics pervades science. Our institution, the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, is not exempt. On our website, we proudly declare that we publish about 2,500 peer-reviewed scientific publications per year, with higher than average citation rates.
Let’s make peer review scientific
Illustration by David Parkins Peer review is touted as a demonstration of the self-critical nature of science. But it is a human system. Everybody involved brings prejudices, misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge, so no one should be surprised that peer review is often biased and inefficient. It is occasionally corrupt, sometimes a charade, an open temptation to plagiarists. Even with the best of intentions, how and whether peer review identifies high-quality science is unknown.
2015 in ten cartoons
Philip Ball ponders the many reasons that chemists make molecules, and weighs what is lost, and gained, when they don't. Policymakers are ignoring evidence on how advisers make judgements and predictions, warn William J. Sutherland and Mark A. Burgman. Crowdsourcing research can balance discussions, validate findings and better inform policy, say Raphael Silberzahn and Eric L. Uhlmann.
All together now
When more than 190 nations gather in Paris on 30 November to broker an agreement to mitigate climate change, it will be a turning point for the planet. A successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol has been a long time coming. A previous attempt to shape a global agreement fell apart in 2009, at talks in Copenhagen. Now the world is ready to try again, and for the first time, all countries are poised to take action (see page 418).
Policy advice: Use experts wisely
Many governments aspire to evidence-based policy and practice. The predominant, conventional approaches to using experts are either to seek the advice of one highly regarded individual, or to convene a panel with diverse expertise across relevant areas. For example, quarantine services worldwide routinely rely on expert judgement to estimate the probability of entry, establishment and spread of pests and diseases.
Informatics: Make sense of health data
If you are wondering whether exposure to some chemical could increase your chances of getting colon cancer, you could easily find supportive evidence from animal experiments. You might then discover that epidemiological studies tell a different story. There have never been more options when it comes to measuring factors relevant to health. We can sequence our entire genomes and those of our bacteria, viruses and tumours.
Lifelong learning: Science professors need leadership training
Education does not stop. Professors must update and develop their technical skills throughout their careers. But as they progress, few take the time — or are offered the opportunity — to become educated in how to be an effective leader. As a consequence, academic teams waste time dealing with unproductive interpersonal issues, lack of motivation and unnecessary conflict. When things do not run smoothly, the costs in terms of money, productivity and retention of talent are high1.
Reproducibility: Don't cry wolf
Illustration by David Parkins The past few years have seen a slew of announcements of major discoveries in particle astrophysics and cosmology. The list includes faster-than-light neutrinos; dark-matter particles producing γ-rays; X-rays scattering off nuclei underground; and even evidence in the cosmic microwave background for gravitational waves caused by the rapid inflation of the early Universe.
Chemistry: Why synthesize?
Why do chemists make molecules? The obvious (and true) answer is: because we need them. That is why chemical synthesis is still vibrant, and will continue to supply the drugs, materials and commodities of the twenty-first century. Every year brings its bounty. In 2015, chemists published a new and elegant route to the anticancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol)1, and syntheses of a nodulisporic acid that might act as an insecticide2 and, in this journal, of an anti-HIV alkaloid3.
Climate policy: Ditch the 2 °C warming goal
Illustration by David Parkins For nearly a decade, international diplomacy has focused on stopping global warming at 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. This goal â bold and easy to grasp â has been accepted uncritically and has proved influential.
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