A pan-European review of good practices in early intervention safeguarding practice with children, young people and families : evidence gathering to inform a multi-disciplinary training programme (the ERICA project) in preventing child abuse and neglect in seven European countries

Funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission (European Commission 2019–2021).Child maltreatment has detrimental social and health effects for individuals, families and communities. The ERICA project is a pan-European training programme that equips non-specialist threshold practitioners with knowledge and skills to prevent and detect child maltreatment. This paper describes and presents the findings of a rapid review of good practice examples across seven participating countries including local services, programmes and risk assessment tools used in the detection and prevention of child maltreatment in the family. Learning was applied to the development of the generic training project. A template for mapping the good practice examples was collaboratively developed by the seven participating partner countries. A descriptive data analysis was undertaken organised by an a priori analysis framework. Examples were organised into three areas: programmes tackling child abuse and neglect, local practices in assessment and referral, risk assessment tools. Key findings were identified using a thematic approach. Seventy-two good practice examples were identified and categorised according to area, subcategory and number. A typology was developed as follows: legislative frameworks, child health promotion programmes, national guidance on child maltreatment, local practice guidance, risk assessment tools, local support services, early intervention programmes, telephone or internet-based support services, COVID-19 related good practices. Improved integration of guidance into practice and professional training in child development were highlighted as overarching needs. The impact of COVID-19 on safeguarding issues was apparent. The ERICA training programme formally responded to the learning identified in this international good practice review.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The effect of a preparation of minerals, vitamins and trace elements on the cardiac gene expression pattern in male diabetic rats

BACKGROUND: Diabetic patients have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death in developed countries. Although multivitamin products are widely used as dietary supplements, the effects of these products have not been investigated in the diabetic heart yet. Therefore, here we investigated if a preparation of different minerals, vitamins, and trace elements (MVT) affects the cardiac gene expression pattern in experimental diabetes. METHODS: Two-day old male Wistar rats were injected with streptozotocin (i.p. 100 mg/kg) or citrate buffer to induce diabetes. From weeks 4 to 12, rats were fed with a vehicle or a MVT preparation. Fasting blood glucose measurement and oral glucose tolerance test were performed at week 12, and then total RNA was isolated from the myocardium and assayed by rat oligonucleotide microarray for 41012 oligonucleotides. RESULTS: Significantly elevated fasting blood glucose concentration and impaired glucose tolerance were markedly improved by MVT-treatment in diabetic rats at week 12. Genes with significantly altered expression due to diabetes include functional clusters related to cardiac hypertrophy (e.g. caspase recruitment domain family, member 9; cytochrome P450, family 26, subfamily B, polypeptide; FXYD domain containing ion transport regulator 3), stress response (e.g. metallothionein 1a; metallothionein 2a; interleukin-6 receptor; heme oxygenase (decycling) 1; and glutathione S-transferase, theta 3), and hormones associated with insulin resistance (e.g. resistin; FK506 binding protein 5; galanin/GMAP prepropeptide). Moreover the expression of some other genes with no definite cardiac function was also changed such as e.g. similar to apolipoprotein L2; brain expressed X-linked 1; prostaglandin b2 synthase (brain). MVT-treatment in diabetic rats showed opposite gene expression changes in the cases of 19 genes associated with diabetic cardiomyopathy. In healthy hearts, MVT-treatment resulted in cardiac gene expression changes mostly related to immune response (e.g. complement factor B; complement component 4a; interferon regulatory factor 7; hepcidin). CONCLUSIONS: MVT-treatment improved diagnostic markers of diabetes. This is the first demonstration that MVT-treatment significantly alters cardiac gene expression profile in both control and diabetic rats. Our results and further studies exploring the mechanistic role of individual genes may contribute to the prevention or diagnosis of cardiac complications in diabetes

Considerations on assessment of crisis management process in the context of ensuring public safety in Poland - contribution to designing method of assessing crisis management process

Niniejszy artykuł nie oferuje kompleksowego rozwiązania problemu oceny procesu zarządzania kryzysowego w kontekście zapewnienia bezpieczeństwa publicznego, ani nie prezentuje całościowej metodyki postępowania w tym względzie, a jest jedynie próbą wywołania dyskusji, w jaki sposób podchodzić do problemu oceny procesu zarządzania kryzysowego w kontekście zapewnienia bezpieczeństwa publicznego. Umiejętność dokonania oceny jest bowiem warunkiem doskonalenia rozwiązań w omawianym zakresie, a te – jak pokazały doświadczenia ostatniej powodzi w Polsce – są wciąż jeszcze niedoskonałe. Należy przy tym podkreślić, że każdorazowo odnoszono się do działań (funkcji) kierowniczych, mających na celu radzenie sobie z sytuacjami kryzysowymi wywołanymi przez zagrożenia o charakterze niemilitarnym. W artykule sprecyzowano pojęcie zarządzania kryzysowego i przedstawiono poszczególne fazy procesu zarządzania kryzysowego. Omówiono krótko kształt współczesnego modelu systemu zarządzania kryzysowego w Polsce, wskazując poszczególne szczeble zarządzania w strukturze tego systemu. Przedstawiono problem oceny procesu zarządzania kryzysowego jako zagadnienie wielokryterialne. W tym kontekście przedyskutowano możliwe kryteria i wymiary jego oceny. Zaproponowano sposób postępowania zmierzający do uzyskania syntetycznej oceny procesu zarządzania kryzysowego i wskazano na możliwość tworzenia rozwiązań alternatywnych. Zaakcentowano takSe niektóre problemy dokonywania oceny procesu zarządzania kryzysowego.Neither does this paper offer a complex solution to the problem of assessing the crisis management process in the context of ensuring public safety, nor does it present the holistic procedure in this regard. It is only a contribution to the discussion on how to evaluate the crisis management process in the context of ensuring public safety. Being able to do this seems to be the main condition for its improvement, which – as the last instances of flood in Poland showed – is necessary. It seems to be stressed in the paper that the non-military treatment of public safety was taken into consideration. In particular, the notion of crisis management was specified and the phases of the crisis management process were described. The current model of crisis management in Poland was also briefly presented, indicating major management levels. The problem of evaluating the crisis management process was described as a multidimensional issue. In that context possible criteria and dimensions of its evaluation were discussed. A course of action aiming at achieving a synthetic assessment of the crisis management process was proposed and possibilities of creating other solutions were pointed out. Some problems of assessing the crisis management process in the context of ensuring public safety were emphasised as well

Measurement and evaluation of luminous flux maintenance of LED lamps

Jednym z parametrów decydujących o trwałości użytkowej lamp LED jest spadek strumienia świetlnego w trakcie eksploatacji. Znajomość spadku strumienia świetlnego jest ważna również ze względu na dobór odpowiedniej wartości cząstkowego współczynnika utrzymania strumienia świetlnego lampy (LLMF), uwzględnianego w trakcie projektowania oświetlenia. Ze względu na bardzo dużą trwałość źródeł ledowych, wynoszącą kilkadziesiąt tysięcy godzin, trwałość deklarowana przez producenta jest najczęściej trwałością wyznaczoną na podstawie metody prognozowania spadku strumienia świetlnego. W artykule opisano wyniki pomiarów spadku strumienia świetlnego w czasie 9000 godzin świecenia wybranych, bezkierunkowych lamp LED do użytku domowego, będących zamiennikami żarówek tradycyjnych 60 W.One of the parameters determining the life of LED lamps is the decrease in luminous flux during operation. Knowledge of the decrease in the luminous flux is also important due to the selection of lumen maintenance lamp factor (LLMF), taken into account in the design of lighting. Due to the very high life of LED sources, amounting to tens of thousands of hours, the life declared by the manufacturer is most often durability determined on the basis of the method of projecting the luminous flux decline. The article describes the results of studies on the luminous flux of selected non-directional LED lamps for home use, replacing traditional 60W incandescent lamps with 9,000 hours of operation