Evaluating multiagency interventions for children living with intimate partner violence in Birmingham

This research endeavour was born out of the need for a systematic evaluation of the efficacy of the multiagency Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment tool, which necessitates that all incidents of ‘domestic abuse’ (any incident within the family domain) reported to West Midlands Police, where a child or unborn child resides within that home, are scrutinised by Police and Social Care (and partners from Health, Education and the voluntary sector where possible) using a joint protocol. The primary purpose of the protocol is to promote safeguarding and provide a timely and appropriate response to children at risk following domestic abuse. The protocol incorporates the Banardos’ Multiagency Domestic Violence Risk Identification Threshold Scales (MDVRITS), which aids decision making about appropriate interventions based on predicted risk to children using a four level scale

Clinical and demographic characteristics of adult ventilator-associated pneumonia patients at a tertiary care hospital system

Background: When a mechanical ventilator is used, the endotracheal tube can act as a track for pathogens to follow into the patient’s lungs where pneumonia can develop. This project evaluates reported Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) events at an academic tertiary care hospital (TCH) system. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to: 1.) Identify epidemiological data related to VAP, 2.) Identify the prevalence of possible (ps) and probable (pr) VAP, and 3.) Compare similar hospital groups for factors influencing cases and outcomes. Methods: This project utilized data from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the TCH medical record system between January 1, 2013 and August 31, 2014. Only adult VAP patients were included in the study. Demographic and clinical data were analyzed using SAS 9.3 software. Results: White men between 50-70 years of age were the majority of persons to develop VAP while at the TCH system. Most patients were diagnosed with psVAP, but had no major differences from prVAP patients. This review shows that daily PEEP values are not being monitored by hospitals. All hospitals had both a high mortality and a high readmission rate. Suburban facilities accounted for 76% of psVAP cases, 41% of mortalities, and 60% of all readmissions. Conclusions: Infection Prevention teams, especially in suburban hospitals, must identify the cause of high VAP complications and adverse outcomes within the dominant population. It is important that practice and procedure match to ensure patient safety. Public Health Significance: Every community trusts healthcare facilities to provide safe and effective treatment. However, Healthcare-Acquired Infections (HAI) deter individuals from optimal health, and may lead to increased antibiotic use and resistance. Mechanical ventilation, while essential, breaches protective barriers and increases the risk for potential HAI. Infection Preventionists aid patients on their journey to better health by working to eliminate HAIs. This study is the first step to aid Infection Prevention teams throughout the healthcare system in encouraging continued surveillance, evaluation of practice and procedure, and decreasing hospital-acquired infections overall to reinforce community safety

Responding to COVID-19 in the National Health Service in England: positive changes and learning for Knowledge for Healthcare

The article provides an overview of the response from the Health Education England library and knowledge services team to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article covers activity and initiatives that were put in place in England from March 2020 to address challenges and issues arising for library and knowledge services delivering to the National Health Service. The article reflects on the learning from the developments that have been implemented to date and considers the positive changes that have arisen in the continued delivery against five national, strategic drivers

Regeneration-led culture: cultural policy in Glasgow 1970-1989

1990 is significant as the year in which Glasgow hosted the European City of Culture (ECOC), the first UK city and first ‘post-industrial’ city to do so. Glasgow has subsequently been regarded as constituting a ‘model’ of culture-led regeneration. While much has been written about the impacts of ECOC 1990, comparatively little is known about the emergence of cultural policy in Glasgow in the decades leading to 1990. With reference to new archival research and oral history interviews conducted with some of the key decision-makers, this thesis will trace the development of cultural policy in Glasgow during the period 1970 to 1989. It will examine the key actors, the prompting and facilitating factors, critical events and obstacles encountered in the ‘cultural turn’ in Glasgow’s policy making during these two decades. Viewing 1986 as a turning point, it will investigate in particular the strategies employed by Glasgow in developing its ECOC 1990 bid that year. It will examine the decision-making process and consider the roles played by key actors in central government which resulted in Glasgow winning the competition to be the UK’s nomination for ECOC 1990. Taking into account developments such as the concept of the cultural industries, this thesis will discuss the extent to which an explicit cultural policy emerged which encompassed the production and consumption of culture. It will also investigate the extent to which a replicable model of culture-led regeneration developed in Glasgow during the years leading to 1990. The thesis will show that that in 1970, at the start of the period of study, Glasgow did not have a formal cultural policy, nor were the arts and culture explicitly or formally connected to aspirations to regenerate the city. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, while the city faced severe socio-economic problems, a thriving cultural infrastructure emerged in Glasgow without an explicit, overarching cultural policy to direct its development. In 1986, when the opportunity to bid to host ECOC 1990 arose, the lack of an explicit cultural policy in Glasgow created a strategic vacuum in Glasgow’s bid, which was filled by the increasingly coherent economic development strategies developed for the city in the preceding years. The development of cultural policy in Glasgow was led by the development of the city economy: rather than culture leading regeneration, regeneration led culture

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a telehealth intervention to support the management of long-term conditions:study protocol for two linked randomized controlled trials

As the population ages, more people are suffering from long-term health conditions (LTCs). Health services around the world are exploring new ways of supporting people with LTCs and there is great interest in the use of telehealth: technologies such as the Internet, telephone and home self-monitoring

Is magnetic topology important for heating the solar atmosphere?

CEP and JT acknowledge the support of STFC through the St Andrew’s SMTG consolidated grant. JEHS is supported by STFC as a PhD student. SJE is supported STFC through the Durham University Impact Acceleration Account.Magnetic fields permeate the entire solar atmosphere weaving an extremely complex pattern on both local and global scales. In order to understand the nature of this tangled web of magnetic fields, its magnetic skeleton, which forms the boundaries between topologically distinct flux domains, may be determined. The magnetic skeleton consists of null points, separatrix surfaces, spines and separators. The skeleton is often used to clearly visualize key elements of the magnetic configuration, but parts of the skeleton are also locations where currents and waves may collect and dissipate. In this review, the nature of the magnetic skeleton on both global and local scales, over solar cycle time scales, is explained. The behaviour of wave pulses in the vicinity of both nulls and separators is discussed and so too is the formation of current layers and reconnection at the same features. Each of these processes leads to heating of the solar atmosphere, but collectively do they provide enough heat, spread over a wide enough area, to explain the energy losses throughout the solar atmosphere? Here, we consider this question for the three different solar regions: Active regions, open-field regions and the quiet Sun. We find that the heating of active regions and open-field regions is highly unlikely to be due to reconnection or wave dissipation at topological features, but it is possible that these may play a role in the heating of the quiet Sun. In active regions, the absence of a complex topology may play an important role in allowing large energies to build up and then, subsequently, be explosively released in the form of a solar flare. Additionally, knowledge of the intricate boundaries of open-field regions (which the magnetic skeleton provides) could be very important in determining the main acceleration mechanism(s) of the solar wind.PostprintPeer reviewe