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ABSTRACTThis article presents key concepts for collaboration, participation and co-production in practice research, based on a cross-analysis of three research cases. The article aims to explore questions such as: 1) Who should be involved? 2) What preconditions are necessary from all participants? 3) What nuances arise in the process of becoming a partner? The article investigates how partnerships, participation and knowledge production can be performed in social work practice research, and highlights that any collaborative process is complex, and the questions may thus be intertwined. Such processes require researchers to be aware of the communicative, power-relational, dialogical and democratic processes involved. One of the key takeaways from the cross-analysis is that successful collaboration demands conscious attention and effort towards effective communication, power-sharing and democratic processes.

ABSTRACTThis article considers ethics in practice in social work research involving marginalized groups. Based on fieldwork experiences in four qualitative empirical studies of marginalized groups, the article identifies ethical dilemmas that arose during the research process. Through a cross-case analysis of the ethical dilemmas, the article points out how these were associated with the vulnerable positions of the research participants and trust-building during the entire research process. The analysis embraces three ethical challenging stages of trust: 1) building and gaining trust, 2) trust, unintended situations and unwanted insight, and 3) leaving the field but staying in touch. In each stage the article illustrates how the ethical codes were practised and discuss how and why they were not enough to rely on in ethic in practice. The examples show how the researchers during the process had to supply the codes with on-the-spot ethical decisions taking the vulnerability and social position of the participants in consideration. The article points out how navigating in and around the marginalized group’s vulnerability is an important approach to ethics in practice. It further concludes that ethic in practice is a relational and negotiated practice between the researcher and participant, where the participant influence how and when the researcher, for instance, leaves the field. By illustrating and discussing the researcher’s experiences with ethics in practice the article contributes to a focus on ethical awareness and offers reflections from practice on how to navigate the ethical minefield of researching marginalized groups

Background Extracellular vesicles are released upon cellular activation and mediate inter-cellular communication. Individual species of extracellular vesicles might have divergent roles in vascular homeostasis and may show different responses to therapies such as exercise training.Aims We examine endothelial effects of medium-size and small extracellular vesicles from the same individual with or without chronic coronary syndrome, and in chronic coronary syndrome patients participating in a four-week high-intensity interval training intervention.Methods Human aortic endothelial cells were exposed to medium-size extracellular vesicles and small extracellular vesicles isolated from plasma samples of study participants. Endothelial cell survival, activation and re-endothelialisation capacity were assessed by respective staining protocols. Extracellular vesicles were quantified by nanoparticle tracking analysis and flow cytometry. Extracellular vesicle microRNA expression was quantified by realtime-quantitative polymerase chain reaction.Results In patients with chronic coronary syndrome (n= 25), plasma counts of leukocyte-derived medium-size extracellular vesicles were higher than in age-matched healthy controls (n= 25; p= 0.04) and were reduced by high-intensity interval training (n= 15; p= 0.01 vs baseline). Re-endothelialisation capacity was promoted by medium-size extracellular vesicles from controls, but not by medium-size extracellular vesicles from chronic coronary syndrome patients. High-intensity interval training for 4 weeks enhanced medium-size extracellular vesicle-mediated support of in vitro re-endothelialisation. Small extracellular vesicles from controls or chronic coronary syndrome patients increased endothelial cell death and reduced repair functions and were not affected by high-intensity interval training.Conclusion The present study demonstrates that medium-size extracellular vesicles and small extracellular vesicles differentially affect endothelial cell survival and repair responses. This equilibrium is unbalanced in patients with chronic coronary syndrome where leukocyte-derived medium-size extracellular vesicles are increased leading to a loss of medium-size extracellular vesicle-mediated endothelial repair. High-intensity interval training partially restored medium-size extracellular vesicle-mediated endothelial repair, underlining its use in cardiovascular prevention and therapy to improve endothelial function.

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