Student nurses' gender-based accounts of men in nursing

Stereotypes of nursing as a female profession and of male nurses as gay can limit male recruitment. This UK-based focus-group study examines whether student nurses reproduce or challenge such views. Using discourse analysis, discussion transcript segments dealing with male nurses’ gender or sexuality were examined for turn design, sequential organization, and procedural relevance. Results showed participants characterized such stereotypical constructions of male nurses as held only by other people. They themselves, however, used gender-based distinctions to problematic male nursing. These findings indicate nursing students would benefit from training which emphasizes the positioning of men and women within society

Valuing and realising our natural capital assets : Tellus all about it

The 2011 White Paper ‘The Natural Choice: Securing the Value of Nature’ commits us to be the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than it inherited. The Tellus projects - a series of multi-partner environmental survey and research projects carried out in the UK and Ireland - have delivered innovative data and research that have successfully shaped policy and stimulated new investments in mineral, energy and infrastructure resources. On 12 May, at a meeting of the All Party Group on Earth and Environmental Sciences chaired by Martin Caton MP, Andy Howard, Mike Young and Marie Cowan explained how the Tellus Projects are transcending their original goals to contribute to the wider objective of measuring and realizing the value of our natural capital assets, and to help deliver the world-leading research needed to inform decisions and measure success in meeting the White Paper objectives

Does funded research reflect the priorities of people living with type 1 diabetes? A secondary analysis of research questions

© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. Objectives This study explored the divergence and convergence between funded research about type 1 diabetes and the research agenda of people living with the condition and their carers. Design, method, setting A secondary analysis was undertaken of existing data from two UK organisations who regularly work with patients and carers to identify research priorities. The research ideas of people with diabetes were identified in two ways: in 15 research question generation workshops involving approximately 100 patients and carers, and in a James Lind Alliance Type 1 Diabetes Priority Setting Partnership with approximately 580 patients, carers and clinicians (clinician question submissions were excluded from analysis). A total of 859 individual research questions were collected from patients and carers. Diabetes research funding activity was identified through extensive online searches which provided a total of 172 relevant research projects for analysis. Results The data were thematically analysed and areas of priority for research identified and compared between the patient and funded research agendas. The overall finding of this study is that there is substantial convergence between the two research agendas, alongside some important areas of divergence. The key areas of divergence were found in care delivery, injection issues, psychosocial impacts and women's health. We also demonstrate how an apparently convergent priority can host significant differences in emphasis between patientgenerated and funded research agendas. Conclusions We offer a comparison of a funded research agenda with one that has been derived directly from people with type 1 diabetes without initial framing by researchers. This provided a rare opportunity to explore the viewpoints of the end-users of research and compare them to realised research as determined by researchers and research organisations

Alcohol and older people: A systematic review of barriers, facilitators and context of drinking in older people and implications for intervention design.

BACKGROUND: Harmful alcohol consumption in older people has increased and effective approaches to understanding and addressing this societal concern are needed. METHODS: Systematic review of qualitative studies in older populations (55+ years) to identify barriers, facilitators or context of drinking in older people. Multiple databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Social Sciences Citation Index, York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, Cochrane database and grey literature) were searched from 2000 to February 2017 for studies in English, from OECD countries using MeSH terms and text words relating to alcohol combined with older age terms. Study quality was assessed using NICE methodology. The review is reported according to PRISMA. RESULTS: Drinking in older people is strongly linked to social engagement and there is scepticism about the health risks of alcohol. Drinking was also linked to difficulties such as social isolation, illness or bereavement. Alcohol can be related to routines and identity. However, older people often regulate their own drinking and strategies that emphasise the life experience of older people to drink wisely could be helpful. CONCLUSIONS: To be effective societal approaches need to take into account contexts of risks for harmful drinking. The evidence supports a strong social role for drinking alcohol which should be taken into account in any policy development with the potential benefits of social participation for cognitive health. Approaches to reducing alcohol use in older people need to avoid paradoxical harm, with a need for approaches that reduce harm from drinking alcohol but retain the benefit of socialising

Barriers and Facilitators to the Uptake and Maintenance of Healthy Behaviours by People at Mid-Life: A Rapid Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: With an ageing population, there is an increasing societal impact of ill health in later life. People who adopt healthy behaviours are more likely to age successfully. To engage people in health promotion initiatives in mid-life, a good understanding is needed of why people do not undertake healthy behaviours or engage in unhealthy ones. METHODS: Searches were conducted to identify systematic reviews and qualitative or longitudinal cohort studies that reported mid-life barriers and facilitators to healthy behaviours. Mid-life ranged from 40 to 64 years, but younger adults in disadvantaged or minority groups were also eligible to reflect potential earlier disease onset. Two reviewers independently conducted reference screening and study inclusion. Included studies were assessed for quality. Barriers and facilitators were identified and synthesised into broader themes to allow comparisons across behavioural risks. FINDINGS: From 16,426 titles reviewed, 28 qualitative studies, 11 longitudinal cohort studies and 46 systematic reviews were included. Evidence was found relating to uptake and maintenance of physical activity, diet and eating behaviours, smoking, alcohol, eye care, and other health promoting behaviours and grouped into six themes: health and quality of life, sociocultural factors, the physical environment, access, psychological factors, evidence relating to health inequalities. Most of the available evidence was from developed countries. Barriers that recur across different health behaviours include lack of time (due to family, household and occupational responsibilities), access issues (to transport, facilities and resources), financial costs, entrenched attitudes and behaviours, restrictions in the physical environment, low socioeconomic status, lack of knowledge. Facilitators include a focus on enjoyment, health benefits including healthy ageing, social support, clear messages, and integration of behaviours into lifestyle. Specific issues relating to population and culture were identified relating to health inequalities. CONCLUSIONS: The barriers and facilitators identified can inform the design of tailored interventions for people in mid-life.This work was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), invitation to tender reference DDER 42013, and supported by the National Institute for Health Research School for Public Health Research. The scope of the work was defined by NICE and the protocol was agreed with NICE prior to the start of work.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.014507

First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is critically endangered (according to the most recent IUCN assessment) and has suffered a 95% decline in recruitment since the 1980s, attributed in part to factors occurring during the marine phases of its life-cycle. As an adult, the European eel undertakes the longest spawning migration of all anguillid eels, a distance of 5000 to 10,000 km across the Atlantic Ocean to the Sargasso Sea. However, despite the passage of almost 100 years since Johannes Schmidt proposed the Sargasso Sea as the breeding place of European eels on the basis of larval surveys, no eggs or spawning adults have ever been sampled there to confirm this. Fundamental questions therefore remain about the oceanic migration of adult eels, including navigation mechanisms, the routes taken, timings of arrival, swimming speed and spawning locations. We attached satellite tags to 26 eels from rivers in the Azores archipelago and tracked them for periods between 40 and 366 days at speeds between 3 and 12 km day(-1), and provide the first direct evidence of adult European eels reaching their presumed breeding place in the Sargasso Sea

Comparing nuclear power trajectories in Germany and the UK: from ‘regimes' to ‘democracies’ in sociotechnical transitions and Discontinuities

This paper focuses on arguably the single most striking contrast in contemporary major energy politics in Europe (and even the developed world as a whole): the starkly differing civil nuclear policies of Germany and the UK. Germany is seeking entirely to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Yet the UK advocates a ‘nuclear renaissance’, promoting the most ambitious new nuclear construction programme in Western Europe.Here,this paper poses a simple yet quite fundamental question: what are the particular divergent conditions most strongly implicated in the contrasting developments in these two countries. With nuclear playing such an iconic role in historical discussions over technological continuity and transformation, answering this may assist in wider understandings of sociotechnical incumbency and discontinuity in the burgeoning field of‘sustainability transitions’. To this end, an ‘abductive’ approach is taken: deploying nine potentially relevant criteria for understanding the different directions pursued in Germany and the UK. Together constituted by 30 parameters spanning literatures related to socio-technical regimes in general as well as nuclear technology in particular, the criteria are divided into those that are ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to the ‘focal regime configuration’ of nuclear power and associated ‘challenger technologies’ like renewables. It is ‘internal’ criteria that are emphasised in conventional sociotechnical regime theory, with ‘external’ criteria relatively less well explored. Asking under each criterion whether attempted discontinuation of nuclear power would be more likely in Germany or the UK, a clear picture emerges. ‘Internal’ criteria suggest attempted nuclear discontinuation should be more likely in the UK than in Germany– the reverse of what is occurring. ‘External’ criteria are more aligned with observed dynamics –especially those relating to military nuclear commitments and broader ‘qualities of democracy’. Despite many differences of framing concerning exactly what constitutes ‘democracy’, a rich political science literature on this point is unanimous in characterising Germany more positively than the UK. Although based only on a single case,a potentially important question is nonetheless raised as to whether sociotechnical regime theory might usefully give greater attention to the general importance of various aspects of democracy in constituting conditions for significant technological discontinuities and transformations. If so, the policy implications are significant. A number of important areas are identified for future research, including the roles of diverse understandings and specific aspects of democracy and the particular relevance of military nuclear commitments– whose under-discussion in civil nuclear policy literatures raises its own questions of democratic accountability

Systematic identification of cis-silenced genes by trans complementation

A gene’s transcriptional output is the combined product of two inputs: diffusible factors in the cellular milieu acting in trans, and chromatin state acting in cis. Here, we describe a strategy for dissecting the relative contribution of cis versus trans mechanisms to gene regulation. Referred to as trans complementation, it entails fusing two disparate cell types and searching for genes differentially expressed between the two genomes of fused cells. Any differential expression can be causally attributed to cis mechanisms because the two genomes of fused cells share a single homogenized milieu in trans. This assay uncovered a state of transcriptional competency that we termed ‘occluded’ whereby affected genes are silenced by cis-acting mechanisms in a manner that blocks them from responding to the trans-acting milieu of the cell. Importantly, occluded genes in a given cell type tend to include master triggers of alternative cell fates. Furthermore, the occluded state is maintained during cell division and is extraordinarily stable under a wide range of physiological conditions. These results support the model that the occlusion of lineage-inappropriate genes is a key mechanism of cell fate restriction. The identification of occluded genes by our assay provides a hitherto unavailable functional readout of chromatin state that is distinct from and complementary to gene expression status

A systematic scoping review of community‐based interventions for the prevention of mental ill‐health and the promotion of mental health in older adults in the UK

Abstract: Background: Mental health concerns in older adults are common, with increasing age‐related risks to physical health, mobility and social isolation. Community‐based approaches are a key focus of public health strategy in the UK, and may reduce the impact of these risks, protecting mental health and promoting wellbeing. We conducted a review of UK community‐based interventions to understand the types of intervention studied and mental health/wellbeing impacts reported. Method: We conducted a scoping review of the literature, systematically searching six electronic databases (2000–2020) to identify academic studies of any non‐clinical community intervention to improve mental health or wellbeing outcomes for older adults. Data were extracted, grouped by population targeted, intervention type, and outcomes reported, and synthesised according to a framework categorising community actions targeting older adults. Results: In total, 1,131 full‐text articles were assessed for eligibility and 54 included in the final synthesis. Example interventions included: link workers; telephone helplines; befriending; digital support services; group social activities. These were grouped into: connector services, gateway services/approaches, direct interventions and systems approaches. These interventions aimed to address key risk factors: loneliness, social isolation, being a caregiver and living with long‐term health conditions. Outcome measurement varied greatly, confounding strong evidence in favour of particular intervention types. Conclusion: The literature is wide‐ranging in focus and methodology. Greater specificity and consistency in outcome measurement are required to evidence effectiveness – no single category of intervention yet stands out as ‘promising’. More robust evidence on the active components of interventions to promote older adult's mental health is required

Normal Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines Exhibit Pervasive Mosaic Aneuploidy

Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines have been considered to be homogeneously euploid. Here we report that normal hPSC – including induced pluripotent - lines are karyotypic mosaics of euploid cells intermixed with many cells showing non-clonal aneuploidies as identified by chromosome counting, spectral karyotyping (SKY) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) of interphase/non-mitotic cells. This mosaic aneuploidy resembles that observed in progenitor cells of the developing brain and preimplantation embryos, suggesting that it is a normal, rather than pathological, feature of stem cell lines. The karyotypic heterogeneity generated by mosaic aneuploidy may contribute to the reported functional and phenotypic heterogeneity of hPSCs lines, as well as their therapeutic efficacy and safety following transplantation