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Evaluating the Government response to the House of Lords inquiry into preterm birth: A commentary on the gaps in maternal mental healthcare
Get PDFPreterm birth is a significant public health concern. In England, 8.1% of all births in 2023 were classified as premature. The psychological impact of preterm birth on parents has become of increasing interest to researchers. However, the long-term psychological impact on preterm babies, the effect prematurity has on wider family units, and the effect of working with preterm babies on healthcare professionals remains under investigated. Preterm birth remains the leading cause of neonatal death in the UK, but with improvements in survival rates of extremely preterm infants, and their associated short- and long-term developmental challenges, mothers and the wider family can experience profound psychological difficulties, particularly postpartum anxiety.
In 2017, the UK Government aimed to reduce both the rate of preterm birth to 6% by 2025 – and its associated adverse consequences. In 2024, the House of Lords commissioned an inquiry into the incidence and impact of preterm birth, to identify priority areas for research and clinical intervention. This report, published in November 2024, confirmed that the government’s targets are not on track, and made numerous recommendations. In January 2025, the UK Government responded. This commentary critically assesses the governmental response to Recommendation 7, regarding equitable access to neonatal outreach and perinatal mental health services for all families who experience preterm birth
Reimagining the World Wildlife Gallery, Kendal Museum: A Community Engagement and Reinterpretation Project
Get PDFFounded in 1796, Kendal Museum is a small public museum in the northwest of England. The museum’s collections reflect both the social history of the area and the connections between the district and the wider world. Particularly significant, in this respect, is the museum’s “World Wildlife Gallery,” a permanent display of hundreds of taxidermy animal and pinned insect specimens, arranged thematically by continent in “naturalised” dioramas. In 2023/2024 Kendal museum began a project to “reimagine” the World Wildlife Gallery, through engagement with regular museum visitors and the local community more broadly. Project and Community Officer, Ila Colley; local artist and community contributor Lavinia Haslam; academic and researcher Joe Rigby, and friend of the museum and contributor to a recent reinterpretation of the museum’s geological collection, Peter Lincoln, reflect on their experiences of the “Reimagining the World Wildlife Gallery” (RWWG) project
Soft tissue attachment of human gingival fibroblasts to titanium dioxide nanotubes compared to commercially pure titanium and its alloys: a systematic review
Get PDFObjective: This systematic review was conducted to evaluate the attachment of human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) of the soft tissue, to titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNTs) compared to commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) and its alloys, in in-vitro studies. It is postulated that the nanotopography of the TNTs provide cells with a biomimetic environment, allowing HGFs to form more focal adhesion (FA) attachment sites at the tubule edges. Method: A comprehensive literature search was conducted on MEDLINE, DOSS, EMBASE and Google Scholar from January 2012 to January 2022. The identified studies were screened based on titles and abstracts for inclusion criteria. The relevant studies underwent data extraction. The risk of bias was assessed through the Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) tool. Results: This systematic review included four studies evaluating cell proliferation, protein expression, gene expression and cell morphology of HGFs evocative of stronger and mature soft tissue attachment. A significant increase in the cell proliferation at TNTs compared to cp-Ti, at day 7 for three studies and at day 14, for one study was evident. In addition, a significant increase in the type 1 collagen protein expression at TNTs compared to cp-Ti, at day 6 for one study and day 7 for two studies. Enhanced cellular extensions from HGFs attached onto TNTs, compared to cp-Ti was observed in all four studies. All the primary effects evaluated suggest the formation of better interlaced fibers giving a stronger adhesion than the parallel ones which is the most relevant outcome of this research. Conclusion: HGFs showed enhanced contact guidance onto TNTs but a true biological attachment was not confirmed. This review involved invitro studies which lack methodological rigor to compare among studies, lack information and have small sample sizes limiting effectiveness of parametric tests. The results may be unpredictable when translated to in-vivo studies mainly affected by confounding factors. Further research is needed to determine the precise mechanism of mechanical attachment between the soft tissue and the transmucosal surfaces
Using the STRIDE algorithm for compression selection in upper-body lymphoedema
No full textThis second iteration of STRIDE is an evidence-based algorithm for compression selection, extended to cover the upper limb, trunk and breast. The STRIDE algorithm is patient-centred and complexity-informed, encompassing the site, shape and size of oedematous swelling; impact of tissue texture on textile types; 24-hour refill patterns; patient-specific issues; pressure dosage among other textile characteristics; and oedema etiology and staging. This article details the elements of the STRIDE algorithm and presents practical tools for its application
Strong laws of large numbers for lightly trimmed sums of generalized Oppenheim expansions
Get PDFIn the framework of generalized Oppenheim expansions, almost sure convergence results for lightly trimmed sums are proven. First, a particular class of expansions is identified for which a convergence result is proven assuming that only the largest summand is deleted from the sum; this result generalizes a strong law recently proven for the Lüroth digits and also covers some new cases that have never been studied before. Next, any assumptions concerning the structure of the Oppenheim expansions are dropped and a result concerning trimmed sums is proven when at least two summands are trimmed; combining this latter theorem with the asymptotic behavior of the r-th maximum term of the expansion, a convergence result is obtained for the case in which only the largest summand is deleted from the sum
Does meaningful background speech modulate predictability effects during Chinese reading?
Get PDFPrevious research indicates that background speech disrupts reading comprehension processes, but it remains unclear whether the disruption derives from semantic or phonological speech properties, and whether it affects early lexical processing or later sentence integration. Native Chinese speaking participants read sentences containing high- or low-predictability words under meaningful Chinese speech, meaningless Uyghur speech or silence conditions. Results showed that Chinese but not Uyghur speech produced increased total fixations compared to reading in silence, suggesting disruption was semantic in nature. While a standard predictability effect was comparable across background speech conditions in target word analyses, this effect disappeared in the Chinese speech condition in later measures and regions. The findings suggest that Chinese background speech may delay higher order (post-lexical) processing associated with sentence integration during reading, with implications for the Interference-by-Process hypothesis
Intermediately trimmed sums of Oppenheim expansions: A strong law
No full textThe work of this paper is devoted to obtaining strong laws for intermediately trimmed sums of random variables with infinite means. Particularly, we provide conditions under which the intermediately trimmed sums of independent but not identically distributed random variables converge almost surely. Moreover, by dropping the assumption of independence we provide a corresponding convergence result for a special class of Oppenheim expansions. We highlight that the results of this paper generalize the results provided in the recent work of [13] while the convergence of intermediately trimmed sums of generalized Oppenheim expansions is studied for the first time
Uncovering the truth about M101, NGC 3938, and their significant others through radiative transfer
Get PDFSolving the inverse problem in spiral galaxies, that allows the derivation of the spatial distribution of dust, gas and stars, together with their associated physical properties, directly from panchromatic imaging observations, is one of the main goals of this work. To this end we used radiative transfer models to decode the spatial and spectral distribution of the nearby face-on galaxies M101 and NGC 3938. In both cases we provide excellent fits to the surface-brightness distributions derived from GALEX, SDSS, 2MASS, Spitzer and Herschel imaging observations. Together with previous results from M33, NGC 628, M51 and the Milky Way, we obtain a small statistical sample of modelled nearby galaxies that we analyse in this work. We find that in all cases Milky Way-type dust with Draine-like optical properties provide consistent and successful solutions. We do not find any ”submm excess”, and no need for modified dust-grain properties. Intrinsic fundamental quantities like star-formation rates (SFR), specific SFR (sSFR), dust opacities and attenuations are derived as a function of position in the galaxy and overall trends are discussed. In the SFR surface density versus stellar mass surface density space we find a structurally resolved relation (SRR) for the morphological components of our galaxies, that is steeper than the main sequence (MS). Exception to this is for NGC 628, where the SRR is parallel to the MS
Intelligence led policing in the 21st Century: How increased mobility requires new paradigms of information sharing.
Get PDFThe challenge posed by mobile criminality to law enforcement has increased in the 21st Century, as technology and digital communication have accelerated. This study examines the threat by analysing foreign national suspects data (arrested in a UK police force, n=293) and UK-based practitioner interviews (n=36). The evidence reveals the threat from offenders who travel between countries is growing, in quantity and sophistication. To keep pace with this evolution, law enforcement must develop new paradigms of information sharing, using technological advances and machine learning to their benefit and relying less on resource-intensive human practice. It suggests such a change will create cultural challenges