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Realistic data bank of aerodynamic and stability derivatives is still missing for hybrid buoyant aerial vehicles. Such vehicles take-off and land similar to an aircraft with their partial weight balanced by the aerostatic lift. The purpose of this paper is to use wind tunnel testing for a better understanding of the aerodynamic and static stability behavior of such vehicles.

The effect of wing on the aerodynamic and static stability characteristics of a clean configuration hybrid buoyant is analyzed. The free stream velocity is 20 m/s, and ranges of angle of attack and side slip angle are from −8° to 12° and ±16°, respectively. Data are corrected to account for the effect of strut interference and zero load condition. The maximum blockage of the model with respect to the cross-section area of the test section is about 2.7 per cent.

A hybrid model manufactured by using wood and metal is an optimum solution with less number of parts. The vehicle is statically, longitudinally and directionally stable. Wings designed to fulfill the partial requirement of lift contribute significantly to counter the huge moment generated by the voluminous hull for centre of gravity location ahead of the leading edge of the wing.

There are number of manufacturing constraints for scaling down a model of a hybrid buoyant aerial vehicle configuration. Specially, the thickness of the wing limits the testing envelop of angle of attack and free stream velocity.

The data presented here are a preliminary guide for further work on larger size models. The data may also be used to build and perform flight tests on small full-scale instrumented models and to obtain flight dynamics data.

The estimated aerodynamic and stability derivatives and slopes can be utilized in future for multidisciplinary design.

Service user and carer involvement in all aspects of the health and care research process, from co-applicant on funding applications to active engagement in a research study, is now a requirement for most research funders. However, as co-production increases and service users and carers take on more responsibilities, this involvement has legal, governance and ethical implications. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the issues and consider potential solutions.

Experiences of engagement as co-applicants in research funding applications, of involvement as research study team members, and as co-researchers were gathered from a range of service user and carer experts. Consultation and a workshop gathered further evidence from a range of stakeholders across the research management community.

Service users and carers, who contribute to the research protocol and process, feel a strong sense of responsibility to ensure the high quality of a research study. However, they may be new to their roles, status and key responsibilities when acting as project team members, co-researchers or co-applicants engaging in funding applications. The responsibility of sponsors, grant holding organisations, funders and other members of the research community is to communicate with and support service users and carers in those roles. More needs to be done to understand the contractual, a legal and governance issues and responsibilities that are specific to service user and carer co-applicants, project team members and co-researchers, from both an organisational and individual service user and carer perspective.

The implications of the findings are to raise awareness of the practical, legal and ethical issues arising from this type of involvement and the potential risks arising from lack of cohesion or understanding. The review also highlights the concerns and barriers service users and carers may find in becoming involved.

The findings highlight a range of issues for research regulators, sponsors and investigators to consider to ensure service users and carers can fulfil their responsibilities and be supported in doing so.

Research suggests that 85 per cent of health research is avoidably wasted. The research and development management community has an important role in the research process and can contribute to improving the quality and value of research. Al-Shahi Salman et al. (2014) identified ways in which the community can contribute towards the reduction of research waste by increasing the efficiency of recruitment and retention of research participants, data management and data sharing in studies, and promoting the integration of research into practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A project undertaken between May 2016 and May 2017 explored the perspective, and contribution, towards reducing research waste amongst the research and development management community. The study identified those categories of research waste the community felt were the most important and of the most value to address. It also examined spheres of influence and barriers to addressing research waste.

The most important and highest value categories of research waste to address were: implementation of research in practice, prioritisation of research, and design, conduct and analysis of research. The research and development management community’s level of influence in those areas was low. The categories where the community felt they had most influence, with the exception of design, conduct and analysis of research, were generally those they thought were less important and valuable, i.e. research taking place to time and target, public and patient involvement, and administration.

Waste in research is a significant area of waste in health care expenditure. This study has provided a better understanding of research waste for the research management community. The research and development management community can take a leadership role in formulating an action plan and identifying measures of success in reducing waste in research.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of a training package for service users and carers with an interest in NHS health and social care research. It demonstrates how the developers used their unique experience and expertise as service users and carers to inform their work.

Service users and carers, NHS Research and Development Forum working group members, supported by health professionals, identified a need for research training that was tailored to other service user and carer needs. After reviewing existing provision and drawing on their training and support experience, they developed a training package. Sessions from the training package were piloted, which evaluated positively. In trying to achieve programme accreditation and training roll-out beyond the pilots, the group encountered several challenges.

The training package development group formed good working relationships and a co-production model that proved sustainable. However, challenges were difficult to overcome owing to external factors and financial constraints.

Lessons learnt by the team are useful for other service users and carer groups working with health service professionals. Training for service users and carers should be designed to meet their needs; quality and consistency are also important. The relationships between service user and carer groups, and professionals are important to understanding joint working. Recognising and addressing challenges at the outset can help develop strategies to overcome challenges and ensure project success.

The training package was developed by service users and carers for other service users and carers. Their unique health research experience underpinned the group’s values and training development.

Previous research has highlighted the importance of engaging people with lived experience (PWLE) in the knowledge creation process. However, diverse approaches to engagement exist. In addition, tensions remain in community-engaged research (CER), including how to address structural inequalities in research settings. This study aims to consider how CER interacts with citizenship within and beyond the research context.

This study discusses the authors’ experiences as a majority-PWLE of psychosis research team in Canada, including successes and challenges the authors experienced building their team and navigating research institutions. This study also reflects on the authors’ pathways through citizenship, prior to and during the research process. This study discusses divergent models of CER and their applicability to the cyclical process of citizenship and community participation.

Relationships between academic and peer researchers developed organically over time. However, this study was limited by structural barriers such as pay inequality and access to funding. The authors recognize that there are barriers to full citizenship and acknowledge their resources and privilege of being well supported within their communities. Team members built on a foundation of citizenship to access participation in research. This led to opportunities to engage in community spaces, and for PWLE to participate in research as partners and leaders. This study also found that citizenship is a way of giving back, by building a sense of social responsibility.

Academic and peer researchers can reflect on the authors’ experiences to build more inclusive research teams and communities by using a citizenship approach to research participation.

A growing literature reports the benefits and challenges of patient and public involvement (PPI) in research; nevertheless, understanding PPI in research design remains under-developed. The purpose of this paper is to report learning experiences from involving service users as research partners in two projects that developed and evaluated guidelines for good practice in this regard. The main objective was to evaluate these guidelines.

PPI research guidelines were developed through five workshops involving service users/patients, carers, health and social care professionals/managers and academics. Using a participatory qualitative approach, these guidelines were evaluated through mapping them against the two service user research partners’ experience within another project.

The guidelines were found to be fit for purpose, as they allowed problems to be easily identified and reassurance that required standards were being met. Both academic and service user research partners learned and gained relevant skills. Two service user research partners also found their daily living skills unexpectedly enhanced by project participation.

The PPI guidelines, the authors developed were produced by consensus involving several stakeholders. Service users involved as research partners in the project experienced unanticipated personal benefits.