The idea that the UK’s intelligence agencies have an anti-Labour bias runs deep – but it is false

The myth that the UK’s intelligence agencies have an anti-Labour bias certainly runs deep, writes Dan Lomas. But while the history of the Labour Party’s relationship with intelligence is beset by periods of intimacy and paranoia, the view that the country’s agencies are ‘the enemy’ of the Labour Party are false

Sikap Masyarakat Terhadap Diare dan Hasil Pemeriksaan Bakteriologik Tinja Penderita di Yogyakarta"

ABSTRACT: Trihendrokesowo, Moh. Amin Komas & Tjarkiah Apandi Societal attidude toward diarrhoeal diseases and bacteriological lest results of faeces in Yogyakarta Nine-hundred eighty eight diarrhoeal disease patients of general hospitals, Public Health services and physicians in Yogyakarta during the period of January to October 1985 have been investigated. The results indicated that 75.20% of the patients were suffering diarrhoea of more than one day, and 83.10% with more than three times diarrhoea frequency in one day. In addition to diarrhoea symptoms, in more than 50% patients they were accompanied by abdominal pain and fever. Four point two percent of the patients received electrolyte and sugar solution before treatment. Examinations of faecal materials uncovered the presence of various bacteria suspected to be the causative agents of diarrhoea] diseases namely Vibrio parahaemolyticu.s, Vibrio choleree, Shigella flexneri, Salmonella enteritidis and E. coll. Key Words: diarrhoea] disease â abdominal pain â fever -- electrolyte solution â bacteriolog

Acute mountain sickness.

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is a clinical syndrome occurring in otherwise healthy normal individuals who ascend rapidly to high altitude. Symptoms develop over a period ofa few hours or days. The usual symptoms include headache, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, unsteadiness of gait, undue dyspnoea on moderate exertion and interrupted sleep. AMS is unrelated to physical fitness, sex or age except that young children over two years of age are unduly susceptible. One of the striking features ofAMS is the wide variation in individual susceptibility which is to some extent consistent. Some subjects never experience symptoms at any altitude while others have repeated attacks on ascending to quite modest altitudes. Rapid ascent to altitudes of 2500 to 3000m will produce symptoms in some subjects while after ascent over 23 days to 5000m most subjects will be affected, some to a marked degree. In general, the more rapid the ascent, the higher the altitude reached and the greater the physical exertion involved, the more severe AMS will be. Ifthe subjects stay at the altitude reached there is a tendency for acclimatization to occur and symptoms to remit over 1-7 days

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Supplementary Material: Overheating Adaptive Opportunities, Actions and Barriers Survey Tool (OAST)

The Overheating Adaptive Opportunities, Actions and Barriers Survey Tool (OAST) was developed specifically for the research presented in: Wright, D. L., Haines, V. J., & Lomas, K.J. (2018). Overheating in UK homes: Adaptive opportunities, actions and barriers, in Proceedings of the 10th Windsor Conference: Rethinking thermal comfort, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, UK, 12-15 April 2018. <br><br>The items selected for inclusion in the OAST were compiled from the Energy Use Follow-Up Survey (Hulme, Beaumont and Summers, 2013), the English Housing Survey (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2015), DEFRA nuisance smells guidance (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, 2015) and the AECOM guidance for typical noise levels and subjective evaluation (AECOM, 2010) as well as other study-specific items. Completion of the survey was supported using secondary data, such as digital maps (Alphabet, 2017) to ascertain roof type if not clearly visible when on site and the orientation of the main façade, and estate agent websites to research construction date of dwellings.<br

Research use in children's mental health policy in Canada: Maintaining vigilance amid ambiguity

Many researchers hope to see the best available research evidence used in policy-making to address important public problems. However, policy often appears to be based on anything but the research evidence, as the problem of conduct disorder (or severe antisocial behaviour in children) shows. In Canada, few children receive effective prevention or treatment programs, and incarceration is overused, despite evidence that it is ineffective and potentially harmful. Using the example of conduct disorder, we investigated why policy-making has not reflected the research evidence, examining research use in the context of competing influences on the policy process. Qualitative methods were used to analyze data from interviews with thirty-two politicians and senior civil servants. Our allegiance to rationality wavered as we listened to policy-makers who contended with the inherent ambiguity in the policy process. They told us that they managed institutional constraints including fragmentation across levels and sectors of government, and the long-term effects of fiscal restraint. They also reconciled the competing interests of stakeholders' priorities, the public's response to negative events involving children and the media's role in shaping this response. Ideas about youth violence were morally charged, but policy-makers remained committed to improving children's lives. Day-to-day, policy-makers obtained most of their information internally and informally. Research evidence was valued and used, but as just one source of ideas and information among many. In this environment of ambiguity, creative civil servants formed partnerships with trusted researchers in order to change policy. Our findings suggest that the use of research evidence in policy-making could be enhanced if researchers learned about the competing influences on the policy process, formed research-policy partnerships, challenged the incentives within research institutions, and engaged in public debates about important problems, such as child antisocial behaviour.Health policy Knowledge transfer Knowledge utilization Children's mental health Antisocial behaviour Canada

The DEFACTO Field Trial: Methodology and Data Sets

The DEFACTO Field Trial was undertaken as part of a 6-year EPSRC-funded research project (grant EP/K00249X/1) from 1 November 2012 to 31 October 2018, aimed at measuring the energy saving capability of so-called ‘smart’ heating controls when used with gas-fired, low-pressure hot water central heating systems. This report describes the conduct of the field trial, the methodology adopted for its execution, the data that were collected and the cleaning of those data. Materials used in the field trial are presented in Appendix A (Pilot Study) and Appendix B (Main Study) to this report