8364 research outputs found
Sort by
A–Z of prescribing for children: I – Immunisations
Get PDFThis series focuses on aspects of prescribing for neonates, children and young people, from A–Z. Aspects of pharmacokinetics will be considered, alongside legal considerations, consent and medications in schools
Quantifying Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions from Retail Refrigeration in the UK
No full textFood retail is a key sector of the UK economy, representing nearly a third of the Gross Value Added (GVA) from the agri-food chain, which equated to 6% of the national GVA in 2020. This makes the retail sector a heavy energy user and a significant emitter, with most greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (scope 1&2) originating from refrigeration. Quantifying these impacts is therefore critical to better understand the environmental footprint of food retail and to support national decarbonisation ambitions. As most UK studies to date have relied on data from the early 2010s, this investigation is aimed at updating current estimations of energy consumption and GHG emissions from retail refrigeration in the UK, based on a comprehensive review of current literature and Government databases. Findings indicate that retail refrigeration, which encompasses convenience stores and supermarkets, accounts for 3.28 TWh of electricity consumption (ca. 1% of UK demand) and emits 2.27 MtCO2e annually (ca. 0.5% of UK emissions)
Assessment and problem-based learning in the law curriculum: the PREPS framework [book review]
Get PDFBook review for 'Assessment and problem-based learning in the law curriculum: the PREPS framework' by Anil Balan, London, London Publishing Partnership, 2023, 1st edition, ISBN 978-1-913019-94-
Evaluation of a novel co‐designed and co‐delivered training package to de‐escalate violence and aggression in UK acute inpatient, PICU and forensic mental health settings
Get PDFBackground
Evidence suggests a discrepancy between recommended and routine practice in de-escalation in mental health settings, suggesting a lack of impact of existing training.
Aim
To investigate the acceptability and perceived impact of a co-designed/delivered training intervention on a trauma-informed approach to de-escalation on mental health wards.
Methods
Trainees were invited to complete the Training Acceptability Rating Scale (TARS) post-training. Responses to the quantitative items were summarized using descriptive statistics, and open-text responses were coded using content analysis.
Results
Of 214 trainees, 211 completed the TARS. The trainees rated the training favourably (median overall TARS = 55/63), as acceptable (median 33/36) and impactful (median 23/27). There were five qualitative themes: modules of interest; multiple perspectives; modes of delivery; moulding to context; and modifying other elements.
Discussion
The EDITION training was found to be acceptable and impactful, with trainees particularly valuing the co-delivery model. Trainees suggested several ways in which the training could be improved, particularly around the need for further moulding of the intervention to the specific ward contexts/teams.
Implications for Practice
We recommend co-designing and co-delivering staff training to mental health professionals that tackles restrictive practices.
Relevance Statement
This research is relevant to lived experience practitioners who want to be involved in training mental health professionals around restrictive practices, demonstrating the value and importance of their voice. It is relevant to current providers of de-escalation training, and to staff receiving training, outlining a novel, but acceptable and impactful, form of training on a key area of mental health practice. It is relevant to anyone with an interest in reducing restrictive practice via co-delivered training
Experiments and modelling of soil biocementation using the carbonic anhydrase metabolic pathway
No full textBiocementation, i.e., the soil cementation using cements produced biomimetically, has recently been introduced as a method of ground improvement, which is potentially more eco-friendly than conventional ground improvement methods. To date, the vast majority of researchers have used the urea hydrolysis metabolic pathway to biocement soils. We present instead work focusing on a less researched and potentially more interesting pathway, the carbonic anhydrase route, which produces biocement while sequestering CO2. In this paper we present experimental results of bioprecipitate analysis and biocementation using CA producing bacteria; indicative results using the same bacteria though the ureolytic pathway are also shown; their modelling is then discussed instructed by studies on the ureolytic pathway. The results of this study based on bioprecipitate characterisation prove the precipitation of calcium carbonate using the CA pathway. The biocementation by biostimulation of the soil using the CA pathway was also proven, based on the unconfined compressive strengths of the treated soil ranging 0.5-1 MPa depending on cementing solution molarity vs the zero unconfined compressive strength of the untreated soil
The challenge of ammonia free soil bio-cementation and recent breakthroughs: A review of phospate minerals for soil biocementation
No full textIn biogeotechnical research, microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) technique has emerged as an effective means of enhancing soil engineering. Through the microbial activity, MICP application has produced several benefits such as enhancing the bearing capacity of soil, stabilizing slopes, liquefaction mitigation, and preventing erosion in geotechnical engineering. To date, ureolysis based metabolic process of urease producing bacteria is the most widely used approach due to rapid and controlled precipitation of calcium carbonate as a cementing agent in soil improvement. Despite significant developments with ureolytic-based MICP, ammonia production (NH4+ (aq) & NH3 (g)) due to enzymatic hydrolysis of urea is still a major issue posing threat to underground water and environment. In this comprehensive review, phosphate biomineralization as an alternative and efficient breakthrough in ammonia free bio-cementation is presented. Phosphate biomineralization approach will give direction towards the up scaling of soil improvement
The "housewife as expert": re-thinking the experiential expertise and welfare activism of housewives' associations in England, 1960-1980
Get PDFThis chapter contests long-held assumptions that housewives lost status as experiential experts in the wake of the Second World War and with the coming of the British Welfare State. It has been suggested that from the 1960s housewives no longer influenced policy debates or engaged in effective activism. Indeed, by the 1970s housewives were more likely to be portrayed as beleaguered and subservient than as experts and activists. Drawing on the idea that experiential expertise emerges from “communities of experience”, which in turn enables activism, this chapter offers an original and alternative viewpoint. Instead of fading into the background during the 1960s and 1970s housewives’ associations became even more outspoken about the right of wives and mothers to “fare well”. The chapter highlights the success of their activism but also considers its limitations by asking whose experience and expertise was foregrounded. Re-conceptualising the expertise and activism of housewives’ associations during these years challenges the demise of the “housewife as expert” construct. It reveals for the first time the impact housewives’ associations had on welfare policy and offers a new analysis of the women’s movement during these two transformative decades.
Keywords; Housewives’ associations, Activism, Welfare, Experiential expertise, Women’s movement
"Not as simple as right or wrong": A themed report on social care and support for disabled people in the UK
No full textFor disabled people to have fair social care and support, we need to understand disabled people’s experiences of these services. In this project, we studied the lived experiences of disabled people in the UK when they used social care and support.
We wrote a report based on a catalogue of articles, books and reports that were published between 2010 and 2021. For this catalogue, we selected hundred and thirty-two articles, books and reports for our report.
We found three main themes which were “Experience of social care and support”, “Experience of access to social care” and “Experience of care relationships”.
The theme of “Experience of social care and support” describes how disabled people have different experiences of social care and support. Many disabled people want to be independent, enjoy meeting people for activities and manage their own finances.
The next theme was “Experience of access to social care” and this theme talks about how it is difficult for disabled people to get information, especially when their circumstances change. This information is also difficult to find because it can come from many sources, such as healthcare professionals, carers and the internet. This theme also found that disabled people like help when they make important decisions.
The theme of “Experience of care relationships” describes how disabled people find it even more difficult to have social care and support when they do not speak English as a first language. This theme also considers how many disabled people build meaningful relationships with personal assistants and other disabled people in support groups. These relationships help disabled people deal with what they feel when they are treated badly in everyday life.
Overall, social care and support is more than just meeting health needs, but helping disabled people to build meaningful lives
Investigations of visual changes associated with the menstrual cycle and pregnancy
Get PDFBackground: There is a paucity of information on visual effects associated with the menstrual cycle and pregnancy and the current literature is equivocal. There are currently no guidelines for eyecare professionals on when it is appropriate to prescribe spectacles.
Aim: To investigate, through scoping literature reviews and quantitative data analyses, possible visual changes and dry eye symptoms which are associated with the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.
Setting: The COVID pandemic only permitted online self-reported measurements using validated vision and dry eye questionnaires and a visual acuity test at peak progesterone, peak oestrogen, and menstruation stages of the menstrual cycle.
Methods: Scoping literature reviews provided an update on current knowledge. Novel online methodologies were developed, including use of eConsent and Web Apps for collecting data from the RAND NEI RQL 42, Sande dye questionnaires and the FrACT visual acuity test.
Participants: Despite wide promotion through multiple routes, only 44 participants were recruited of which only 15 completed data collection at 2 or more stages of the menstrual cycle.
Results: Baseline data on menarche and menstrual cycle duration is consistent with current literature. No statistically significant effects (tested using Wilcoxon’s Signed Rank test) were found for five NEI RQL 42 subscales, Sande Dry questionnaire or the FrACT visual acuity measurements studied. Using Cohens d values for effect sizes, the far vision and Sande dry eye question 2 subscales, for the 2 questionnaires only completed cohort, had large effect sizes with the Sande dry eye question 2 subscale having a medium effect size for the all 3 questionnaires completed cohort. There was a trend suggesting greater visual difficulties and dry eye symptoms around the time of peak oestrogen which reduce towards menstruation.
Conclusion: Despite the disappointing lack of statistically significant findings, possibly due to insufficient data, the observed effect sizes for the far vision, glare and dry eye subscales indicate that future research in these areas might be most fruitful when considering visual changes associated with the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. This thesis provides the latest knowledge together with novel online methodologies that would enable further practice-based study of this topic and many others like it
Exploring Constructions of Commitment for Women in Mid and Later Life Aged 50 to 65
Get PDFThis thesis explores the way women in mid and later life understand commitment to men in heterosexual relationships. Commitment in relationships is central to human experience but is greatly under-theorised in sociological literature. This lack of knowledge is even more pronounced in relation to women in mid and later life. To date there is no empirical research which specifically addresses this area of study and generational cohorts. Over the last 40 years the Office for National Statistics has recorded a steady increase in divorce, separation and the numbers of women living alone. This research is made more significant given the size of baby boomer and generation X cohorts.
The overarching aim of this research is to explore how women in mid and later life understand commitment to men. I specifically explore the ways duty, obligation and personal choice impact women’s perceptions of commitment. I also consider the way women’s situatedness in time influences their perceptions of commitment.
Situating myself as a baby boomer feminist I selected snowballing as the method of recruitment. The chosen methodology for the study was a combination of secondary-source research and semi-structured interviews of fourteen women.
I found that commitment for women is undergoing a steady transformation, informed by what I argue is the gendered nature of commitment. Women in the study reached what I have termed ‘a pivotal moment’. This represents a time in the relationship where women participants made the decision that something must change for the relationship to continue. The pivotal moment can be aligned with a form of raised consciousness, where participants were able to recognise inequality and oppression within their relationship. Once reached, the pivotal moment leads onto a new form of commitment which I term ‘curated’, where women are more able to prioritise their own needs