Data protection, safeguarding and the protection of children's privacy: exploring local authority guidance on parental photography at school events

Should parents be allowed to take photographs at school events? Media reports suggest that increasingly schools are answering no to this question, either prohibiting or imposing stringent restrictions upon such photography. The legal justifications for such restrictions are, however, unclear. Accordingly, in 2013 freedom of information requests were sent to local education authorities across England, Scotland and Wales, the aim being to determine what advice local education authorities provide to schools in relation to parental photography at school events, and to identify how education authorities’ understandings of the law influence the advice they offer. That research reveals that local education authorities’ understandings of the law vary significantly and that where authorities do not fully appreciate the extent of the legal obligations arising this may have significant repercussions for the children concerned

On the distribution of maximum crest and wave height at intermediate water depths

We report new descriptions for the (probability) distributions of hourly maximum crest and wave height of water surface gravity waves for intermediate water depths. Estimated distributions are based on analysis of laboratory-scale measurements at the DHI wave basin. For a given sea state, the distribution of both hourly maximum crest and hourly maximum wave height, normalised by sea state significant wave height, is found to follow a generalised extreme value (GEV) distribution. Variation of the three parameters of the GEV distribution across sea states, is expressed in terms of a response surface model as a function of non-dimensional sea state Ursell number and wave steepness, and wave directional spreading angle. For inference, conventional Monte Carlo wave basin measurements are supplemented with measurements selected by means of a novel “pre-selection” sampling scheme using numerical simulations. This scheme effectively guarantees that extreme events from tails of distributions are produced, and reduces uncertainties associated with the estimated distributions. Estimation is performed using Bayesian inference, allowing uncertainties to be quantified, and providing estimates of posterior predictive tail distributions for sea states with arbitrary characteristics within the domain of sea state characteristics covered by the model

Association of genetic variants previously implicated in coronary artery disease with age at onset of coronary artery disease requiring revascularizations

BACKGROUND:The relation between burden of risk factors, familial coronary artery disease (CAD), and known genetic variants underlying CAD and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels is not well-explored in clinical samples. We aimed to investigate the association of these measures with age at onset of CAD requiring revascularizations in a clinical sample of patients undergoing first-time coronary angiography. METHODS:1599 individuals (mean age 64 years [min-max 29-96 years], 28% women) were genotyped (from blood drawn as part of usual clinical care) in the Copenhagen area (2010-2014). The burden of common genetic variants was measured as aggregated genetic risk scores (GRS) of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered in genome-wide association studies. RESULTS:Self-reported familial CAD (prevalent in 41% of the sample) was associated with -3.2 years (95% confidence interval -4.5, -2.2, p<0.0001) earlier need of revascularization in sex-adjusted models. Patients with and without familial CAD had similar mean values of CAD-GRS (unweighted scores 68.4 vs. 68.0, p = 0.10, weighted scores 67.7 vs. 67.5, p = 0.49) and LDL-C-GRS (unweighted scores 58.5 vs. 58.3, p = 0.34, weighted scores 63.3 vs. 61.1, p = 0.41). The correlation between the CAD-GRS and LDL-C-GRS was low (r = 0.14, p<0.001). In multivariable adjusted regression models, each 1 standard deviation higher values of LDL-C-GRS and CAD-GRS were associated with -0.70 years (95% confidence interval -1.25, -0.14, p = 0.014) and -0.51 years (-1.07, 0.04, p = 0.07) earlier need for revascularization, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:Young individuals presenting with CAD requiring surgical interventions had a higher genetic burden of SNPs relating to LDL-C and CAD (although the latter was statistically non-significant), compared with older individuals. However, the absolute difference was modest, suggesting that genetic screening can currently not be used as an effective prediction tool of when in life a person will develop CAD. Whether undiscovered genetic variants can still explain a "missing heritability" in early-onset CAD warrants more research

Local scour and erosion around low-crested structures

This paper summarizes the results of an experimental study on scour around submerged breakwaters. The objective of the study is to make a systematic study of scour around low-crested structures/submerged breakwaters. Both the trunk scour and the roundhead scour have been investigated. The breakwater models have a side slope of 1:1.5. To substantiate scour measurements, velocity measurements also were made. The latter data were used to obtain steady streaming in front of the breakwater. Regarding the trunk-scour study, the experiments indicated that substantial scour may occur at the toe of the structure. This is irrespective of whether the breakwater is impermeable or porous. The scour data (although very limited) indicated that the scour depth is in the same order of magnitude as in the case of emerged breakwaters. The trunk experiment further showed that scour/deposition bathymetry does not exhibit the pattern experienced in the case of emerged breakwaters where the scour and deposition areas are \u201dcorrelated\u201d with the nodal and antinodal points of the standing wave in front of the structure. Furthermore, it was found that scour occurs not only at the off-shore side of the breakwater but also at the onshore side. As for the roundhead-scour study, it was found that severe scour can be experienced at the roundhead. The scour can occur both at the off-shore side of the roundhead and at the back. The one at the off-shore side is caused by the combined effect of severe waves and the steady streaming and that at the back is caused by wave breaking/wave overtopping. It was found that the streaming-induced scour is governed by the free-board-to-wave-height ratio, F/H, and the Keulegan-Carpenter number, KC, while the plunging-breakerinduced scour is governed by the free-board-to-water-depth ratio, F/h, and the plunger parameter, Tw&#8730;gH/h (Tw being the wave period). The maximum scour depth at the toe of the structure and the plan-view extent of the scour hole are given in terms of the governing parameters. The results from the present laboratory tests (for the roundhead scour) are compared with prototype observations undertaken in the present study. Recommendations are made for toe protection for both the trunk scour and the roundhead scour