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Stress among UK consultant urologists and factors influencing when they leave full-time NHS practice
Full text linkObjective: The UK medical workforce is in crisis. The number of surgeons in National Health Service (NHS) practice has decreased, partly because newly qualified doctors withdraw from the workforce, and partly because of the early retirement of experienced surgeons. The reasons for urological trainee loss are largely known, but stress factors influencing the retirement of consultants before state pension age (SPA) are not. Methods: An online survey of the consultant membership of the British Association of Urological Surgeons was carried out over a 12-week period starting in September 2020. Information was sought regarding stresses at work and home, together with factors affecting retirement decisions. Data analysis was performed if > 90% of questions were complete. Results: Overall, 36.5% of 1374 invitees completed the survey. Workplace-based issues were the main causes of stress: on-call, an unsupportive working environment, complaint handling and poor relations with hospital managers were predominant factors which were exacerbated by punitive taxation. Experienced urologists ameliorated these factors by reducing their contracted activity, increasing part-time working and, ultimately, retiring before SPA. Conclusions: Workplace-based factors are associated with stress reported by consultant urologists. Alleviation of stressor factors, especially those related to on-call activity, should be explored to reduce the erosion of the senior workforce. Level of evidence: Not applicable
Gender matters: exploring the role of gender in drowning prevention strategies
Full text linkTo explore the gendered nuances of drowning prevention, highlighting disparities in risk, behavioural responses to water safety messaging, and the broader social impact of male-dominated drowning statistics on women and families. The session aims to discuss the matters to inform future interventions and improve the effectiveness of water safety campaigns
Preventing sport-acquired brain damage in children: ‘If in doubt, sit them out’ on its own is not good enough
Full text linkConcerns for the health problems related to sport-acquired brain damage have grown in recent decades (Malcolm, 2019). Much of this has been associated with impact-sports, defined here as those wherein rapid acceleration or de-acceleration of the brain occurs within the rules of play, thus making brain damage an anticipated consequence of participation. Such damage and subsequent injuries occur most obviously in combat sports, where participants are struck in the head, but also occurs in absence of the head being struck directly, such as during tackling in rugby or being ‘checked’ in ice-hockey.
Brain damage in impact-sports, specifically, has garnered considerable attention amongst medical experts, academics, journalists, activists, athletes and the public, as well as there being ongoing civil litigation against sporting organisations for alleged malpractice (Kilgallon, 2024). While there are various brain health issues associated with impact-sport participation, two that dominate popular discourse are: 1) Traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and 2) Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease associated with repetitive head impacts.
Within this broad context, there have been limited policy responses from governments and sporting governing bodies in relation to primary prevention of sport-acquired brain damage and injuries. That is, actions that aim to prevent injury, illness and harm before it occurs. For impact-sports, this approach would mean eliminating exposure by removing aspects known to be the cause of TBI, such as the tackle in rugby Hancock et al. (2024). A preventative approach would be the most effective method of reducing TBIs specifically (Cross et al., 2019), and brain damage generally, in impact-sports.
Yet, this approach would threaten what are perceived to be integral parts of these sports and are the source of enjoyment for many (spectators and participants). Primary prevention would also undermine corporate interests through disrupting the professional codes of impact-sports (Piggin et al., 2023). Likely in part because of these points, combined with the often-unquestioned cultural belief that all sport is always straightforwardly ‘healthy’ (Waddington, 2000), many of the organisational actions toward dealing with brain damage have been oriented around secondary and tertiary health care. This approach accepts some level of brain damage as inevitable and therefore actions have mostly focused on: 1) identifying and managing TBIs after they occur, and 2) increasing education on the risks associated with such injuries
Climate Change and Tourism Work
Full text linkPurpose: This perspective paper argues that a consideration of climate change and tourism work is an important research line of enquiry. It highlights aspects of tourism work that need to be considered in relation to the climate effects on work and health, offering a potential future research agenda.
Design/Methodology: This perspective commentary draws from secondary literature sources primarily on climate change and health, and climate change and tourism. This points towards an omission in research specifically on regarding tourism work and climate change, leading to this viewpoint.
Findings: That indicators of climate change along with adaptative measures of climate change should be considered in relation to the specific conditions and contexts of tourism work.
Originality: The climate change effects on tourism workers is an underrepresented area within the discourse of climate change and tourism. This perspective is the first to point out this omission. As the first steps to moving forward in this area, a research agenda is proposed
Evaluation framework for domain-specific digital twin platforms.
Full text linkAs digital twin (DT) applications continue to proliferate across diverse industries, a noticeable gap exists in the availability of evaluation methods or frameworks to aid in the selection and development of DT platforms, particularly for Domain-Specific applications. To address this gap, this paper proposes a comprehensive evaluation framework for DT platforms, with a focus on Domain-Specific applications. The framework uses the Best-Worst Method and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation method (BWM-FCE) to assess the performance, user experience, and economic effects of DT platforms. The proposed framework is applied to a case study of a high-speed train DT platform and compared with other evaluation methods AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) and BWM-SPA (Best-Worst Method-Set Pair Analysis). The results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework and highlight its potential for guiding the development and selection of DT platforms for Domain-Specific applications
A mixed methods study exploring food insecurity and diet quality in households accessing food clubs in England
Full text linkFood clubs are a higher-agency food aid intervention that charge a small fee for a set number of items. Some incorporate longer-term solutions such as budgeting support and cooking skills. These are in place in England to help address inadequate reliable access to affordable, nutritious food. We used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to describe the food insecurity households accessing food clubs experience and to assess diet quality and wellbeing at the start and after at least three months of using food clubs in the South of England
Instructional Insights: Learnings from a Case Study of Collaborating with an Individual with Lived Experience in Occupational Therapy Education
Full text linkThis case study shares the knowledge gained from working with an individual having lived experience of a health condition contributing toward an occupational therapy education module through the reflections of an occupational therapy academic and an individual with lived experience working in a university. The primary goal is to establish an empirical evidence base for involvement of people with lived experience in occupational therapy education and to encourage other educators and individuals with lived experience to follow this model of teaching and learning in their curricula. Based on the belief that teaching and learning through co-production creates a ‘triangle’ of benefit for individuals with lived experience, students and academics. Individuals with lived experience are seen as powerful, independent, and strong despite their medical condition. Students learn more about important aspects of service provision beyond direct medical and therapy knowledge and academics learn about and model this new way of working. The aim is to promote development of co-production learning activities in occupational therapy education
How do gender and age similarities with a potential social engineer influence one’s trust and willingness to take security risks?
Full text linkThis study investigates how age and gender similarity between individuals and potential social engineers affect the individuals’ trust and risk-taking behaviors. We crafted and face validated 16 personas, varying in demographics and visual cues, and inquired whether participants would agree to use each persona’s offer to connect to the internet via their personal mobile hotspot, as well as the degree of trust they placed in the persona’s intentions. Individuals were informed about the potential risks associated with using another person’s mobile hotspot and that the person offering can be, but not necessarily, malicious. Data from 635 participants (322 Arabs and 313 British) were collected through an online survey. Participants were categorized by gender into male and female groups, and by age into two groups: early adulthood (18–35 years) and middle adulthood (36–59 years). Our results showed a correlation between trust and offer acceptance across all participant groups except for British females in middle adulthood. Additionally, participants, regardless of their gender and age groups, exhibited greater trust and acceptance towards personas who were female or older. Arab sample did not indicate a significant gender preference in aged personas; however, the British early adulthood group displayed a significant inclination towards accepting the offer from aged female personas over aged male personas. While demographic similarity between the potential manipulator personas and participants did not significantly impact the participants trust and risk-taking, our study uncovered differences in trust and offer acceptance when both age and gender demographics were considered together, suggesting nuanced effects of demographic matching and mismatching on taking security risks. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating bias awareness and debiasing techniques to reduce high reliance on demographic or cultural stereotypes
Graveyard symphony: A study investigating the effectiveness of a prototype music game
Full text linkLearning to play a musical instrument, particularly the keyboard, can be challenging for adults who are beginners or have previously given up due to a lack of foundational skills and engaging practice methods. To address this issue, we have developed prototype games aimed at honing specific musical skills. Through several pilot studies, it became evident that assessing the effectiveness of video game experiences in skill acquisition compared to traditional practice methods was essential. Therefore, we hypothesised that video games could encourage sustained practice and reduce dropout rates among beginners. Consequently, our focus shifted to creating games centred on sheet music reading, specifically matching musical staff positions to keyboard keys.
This article presents a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a specific prototype game in enhancing musical notation reading skills. Additionally, we assessed the game’s engagement, educational value and usability in comparison to a conventional practice tool. The results indicated that the game was equally or potentially more effective than the practice tool in improving the targeted skill. Furthermore, participants perceived the practice game as having greater educational value, although it did not surpass the practice tool in terms of engagement. Further discussion is provided to elucidate the reasons behind this finding
Graphene Applications in Composites, Energy, and Water Treatment
Full text linkGraphene, the 2D material and the basic building block of the sp2 carbon family has received enormous attention from research and industrial communities due to its remarkable properties. Graphene's potential to be implemented is limitless and it varies from medical, water, energy, composites sectors, etc. In this paper, graphene potential in composites, energy storage, and water purification are highlighted. Reviewing, in particular, the crucial role of graphene/polymer interface in improving the mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites and the effect of constitutive parameters such as graphene lateral size and surface chemistry. Moreover, the latest contributions of graphene and graphene derivatives in functional composites, such as sensors, actuators, hydrogels, and aerogels, are reviewed. This is followed by reviewing graphene and its derivatives for energy storage such as in lithium-ion batteries, metal–air batteries, and graphene-based supercapacitors. Finally, reporting the latest advances in graphene for water treatment, reviewing the different filtration/treatment methods, and the importance of graphene selective permeability properties