A Survey of Parental Knowledge of Asthma

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of parents\u27 knowledge regarding asthma. Twenty-five parents of children who have asthma were interviewed during their child\u27s hospitalization for status asthmaticus. Adequate knowledge about environmental control and medication was noted in the majority of the subjects but over half were unable to explain the pathological changes which caused wheezeing. While most parents appear to have adequate knowledge of medications and environmental control on which to base their decisions about their child’s care there appears to be a need for more information regarding the pathophysiology

Biodiversity Quality: a paradigm for biodiversity

The internationally accepted definition of biodiversity creates difficulty in measuring difference and change. The authors suggest that well-sampled data can be used to generate a range of numerical indices reflecting species group characteristics/functionality (Species Richness, Simposons Index, Population Density, Biomass and Species Conservation Value) that can be viewed in combination to create a picture of biodiversity quality. This overall approach has considerable advantages over the currently accepted Convention on biological Diversity definition based on the "variability" of genes, species and ecosystems, since the numerical expression of the indices allows the probability of difference between biodiversity quality trends and values over time and between sites or taxonomic groups, to be assessed for statistical inference

GLADNET: Promise and Legacy

[Excerpt] The Global Applied Disability Research and Information Network on Employment and Training (GLADNET) was launched by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1995, in cooperation with over 50 social policy research centres, governmental and non- governmental organizations involved in disability-related employment programmes from over thirty countries around the world. Major organizations of persons with disabilities were also represented – the World Blind Union, the World Federation of the Deaf, Inclusion International (formerly the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap (ILSMH)) and Disabled Peoples International (DPI). GLADNET’s lifespan was little more than a generation (1995 – 2018). What’s of interest is that it survived beyond its first few years of existence. It could easily have died early on, given a significant change in nature of support from its initiating body. That it didn’t speaks to the aspirational nature and relevance of the vision prompting its formation. It’s in pursuit of that vision where GLADNET left its mark. This document focuses on its legacy, beginning with a brief review of context within which it was initiated

Pentecostalism in Britain today: making up for failures of the past

This weekend a Pentecostal symposium and celebration will take place in London profiling the diversity that exists in British Pentecostalism today. Almost seventy years after Windrush, Bishop Dr Joe Aldred argues that the symposium is a way to reclaim ground lost when White British Pentecostals failed along with the rest of the British church to welcome migrating Black Pentecostals and other Christians from Africa and the Caribbean

Reframing safety: An analysis of perceptions of cycle safety clothing

This article contributes to debates around cycle safety clothing, specifically helmets and high-visibility clothing. In England such items are widely promoted in safety campaigns and in broader cycling publicity, particularly for children. However, the impact of this approach on cycling safety and cycling uptake is unclear and contested. This article uses a combined analysis of three sets of qualitative interview data to explore talk about cycle helmets and high-visibility clothing. A thematic analysis involved coding all references to such safety clothing, and within that coding meanings, experiences, interactions, and links to other safety equipment. Reported use of safety clothing was strongly associated with perceived threat from motor vehicles, but accompanied by scepticism about effectiveness. Many interviewees felt and/or exerted social pressure to wear a helmet, and, to a lesser extent, high-visibility clothing. Analysis identified a widespread dislike of safety clothing, sometimes linked to cycling less. We found evidence of resistance to social pressure, expressed in complaints about inconvenience, discomfort (helmets), and personal appearance. More interdisciplinary research is needed to explore the complex relationships between cycling safety, the promotion of safety clothing, and cycling uptake. However, our findings suggest that, policy-makers and practitioners should carefully consider how promoting safety clothing might impact cycling uptake and experiences. Policy goals of increasing cycling and making it more 'normal' and subjectively safer might imply reducing or even avoiding the use of such accessories in everyday utility cycling contexts.The Changing Commutes project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Grant number ES/K004549/1. The projects from which the interviews come were funded as detailed in the appendix. The work was undertaken under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence which is funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2015.05.00

Attitudes to telecare among older people, professional care workers and informal carers: a preventative strategy or crisis management?

This paper reports findings from an attitudinal survey towards telecare that emerged from twenty-two focus groups comprising ninety-two older people, fifty-five professional stakeholders and thirty-nine carers. These were convened in three different regions of England as a precursor to telecare service development. The results from this study suggest that informants’ views were shaped by prior knowledge of conventional health and social care delivery in their locality and the implication is that expectations and requirements in respect of telecare services in general are likely to be informed by wider perceptions about the extent to which community care should operate as a preventative strategy or as a mechanism for crisis management

Inequalities in self-report road injury risk in Britain: A new analysis of National Travel Survey data, focusing on pedestrian injuries

In 2007, Britain's (since 2013 England's) National Travel Survey started asking respondents about experiences of ‘road accidents’. This paper conducts new injury analysis using NTS data from 2007-15. The resultant dataset contains 147,185 adult individuals (weighted), of whom 17,990 reported experiencing one or more ‘road accidents’ in the three years prior to the survey date. This dataset includes incidents involving other road users and those that did not, less likely in general to be included in police injury data, and not at all in the case of pedestrian falls. The paper firstly compares this self-report injury data with police data, including comparisons for different user groups such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. Most studies of under-reporting focus on deaths and serious injuries, due to lack of other data on slight injuries. Self-report data enables a focus on that majority of injuries which are slight but may impact people's experiences of travel. The paper then compares the frequency of different types of pedestrian injury incident and finds that collisions in which a cyclist injures a pedestrian remain in this dataset very infrequent compared either to falls or to pedestrian injuries involving motor vehicles. Finally, characteristics of pedestrians injured by motor vehicles and in falls are examined. A binary logistic regression analysis examines odds of being injured as a pedestrian either by a motor vehicle, or in a fall, controlling for self-report walking frequency. Disabled pedestrians, those living in low-income households, and in London are at higher risk of being injured by a motor vehicle, while older and disabled pedestrians and women are at higher risk of being injured in a fall. Implications for policy and research are discussed