RadioActive Europe: promoting engagement, informal learning and employability of at risk and excluded people across Europe through internet radio and social media (RadioActive101)

RadioActive is an innovative education project that has developed and implemented a radical technology-enabled pedagogy to promote the inclusion, engagement and informal learning of excluded people, or those at-risk of exclusion, across Europe. It does this through harnessing primarily internet radio and also social media, or, as our motto states: "RadioActive101: Learning through radio, learning for life!" The project developed, implemented and is sustaining a pan-European Internet Radio platform, incorporating Web 2.0 ideas and features. This is linked to innovative community based pedagogies to address inclusion, employability and active citizenship in an original and exciting way, whilst recognising informal learning through electronic Open badges. The consortium was led by the University of East London (UK), with other partners from Portugal (CIMJ), Germany (UKL), the UK (Pontydysgu), Romania (ODIP) and Malta (KIC). These partners have direct links and ongoing collaborations with 13 primary Associate Partner organisations and a network of 39 mostly grass-roots organisations that facilitate access to the RadioActive101 participants, or 'radio-activists' as we define them. So the Associate Partners perform and deliver RadioActive 'on the ground' and are the vehicle for the learning experiences required for their production. These represent a particularly diverse range of groups and this was deliberate to allow us to test and refine our model, and show that it potentially works with virtually all excluded groups, and across Europe. We actively developed, implemented and ran five national RadioActive 'stations' (or hubs) that are accessible via the European Support Hub (ESH). Through making the radio shows the target groups (schools, vocational education, Higher Education, informal and adult education) are developing digital competencies and employability skills 'in vivo' that are transferable to the 21st Century workplace. These competencies and skills align with six of the EU Key Competencies for Lifelong Learning and we have developed a progression and accreditation model linking the key competencies to RadioActive activities and performances that are recognised through Open electronic 'badges'. These badges provide concrete recognition measures and represent proficiencies that are relevant to further education or employment in particular related to the knowledge and creative and digital industries. Evaluation findings were obtained through conducting a phased evaluation incorporating a full in depth ‘prototype’ evaluation in the UK during year one, a similar evaluation in Portugal and a smaller one in Germany in year two, that were followed by a broader and larger international survey of radio-activists (subjects) towards the end of the project. All these showed particularly positive and interesting results, such as the delivery of additional impact and value beyond the informal learning of technical and employability skills. Additionally, we found improvements in confidence, self-esteem and general self-efficacy of individuals, plus additional improvements in groups and organisations. It appears that once our excluded groups developed the confidence and competence to perform activities they often thought were beyond them, they seem then empowered, to learn many other things and to develop a number of key competencies. At the European and national levels we have produced an extensive amount of dissemination activities to make the RadioActive Europe project public and well known, and also won two additional funding awards towards the end of the project.Other exploitation activities include embedding locally and internationally, with the latter being realised through the establishment of an international Foundation that will also support and advise about funding models to support further expansion at the European level

Brown and white adipose tissues: intrinsic differences in gene expression and response to cold exposure in mice

Brown adipocytes dissipate energy, whereas white adipocytes are an energy storage site. We explored the plasticity of different white adipose tissue depots in acquiring a brown phenotype by cold exposure. By comparing cold-induced genes in white fat to those enriched in brown compared with white fat, at thermoneutrality we defined a "brite" transcription signature. We identified the genes, pathways, and promoter regulatory motifs associated with "browning," as these represent novel targets for understanding this process. For example, neuregulin 4 was more highly expressed in brown adipose tissue and upregulated in white fat upon cold exposure, and cell studies showed that it is a neurite outgrowth-promoting adipokine, indicative of a role in increasing adipose tissue innervation in response to cold. A cell culture system that allows us to reproduce the differential properties of the discrete adipose depots was developed to study depot-specific differences at an in vitro level. The key transcriptional events underpinning white adipose tissue to brown transition are important, as they represent an attractive proposition to overcome the detrimental effects associated with metabolic disorders, including obesity and type 2 diabetes

A European spectrum of pharmacogenomic biomarkers: Implications for clinical pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics aims to correlate inter-individual differences of drug efficacy and/or toxicity with the underlying genetic composition, particularly in genes encoding for protein factors and enzymes involved in drug metabolism and transport. In several European populations, particularly in countries with lower income, information related to the prevalence of pharmacogenomic biomarkers is incomplete or lacking. Here, we have implemented the microattribution approach to assess the pharmacogenomic biomarkers allelic spectrum in 18 European populations, mostly from developing European countries, by analyzing 1,931 pharmacogenomics biomarkers in 231 genes. Our data show significant interpopulation pharmacogenomic biomarker allele frequency differences, particularly in 7 clinically actionable pharmacogenomic biomarkers in 7 European populations, affecting drug efficacy and/or toxicity of 51 medication treatment modalities. These data also reflect on the differences observed in the prevalence of high-risk genotypes in these populations, as far as common markers in the CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP3A5, VKORC1, SLCO1B1 and TPMT pharmacogenes are concerned. Also, our data demonstrate notable differences in predicted genotype-based warfarin dosing among these populations. Our findings can be exploited not only to develop guidelines for medical prioritization, but most importantly to facilitate integration of pharmacogenomics and to support pre-emptive pharmacogenomic testing. This may subsequently contribute towards significant cost-savings in the overall healthcare expenditure in the participating countries, where pharmacogenomics implementation proves to be cost-effective

Adjunctive rifampicin for Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (ARREST): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is a common cause of severe community-acquired and hospital-acquired infection worldwide. We tested the hypothesis that adjunctive rifampicin would reduce bacteriologically confirmed treatment failure or disease recurrence, or death, by enhancing early S aureus killing, sterilising infected foci and blood faster, and reducing risks of dissemination and metastatic infection. METHODS: In this multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, adults (≥18 years) with S aureus bacteraemia who had received ≤96 h of active antibiotic therapy were recruited from 29 UK hospitals. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) via a computer-generated sequential randomisation list to receive 2 weeks of adjunctive rifampicin (600 mg or 900 mg per day according to weight, oral or intravenous) versus identical placebo, together with standard antibiotic therapy. Randomisation was stratified by centre. Patients, investigators, and those caring for the patients were masked to group allocation. The primary outcome was time to bacteriologically confirmed treatment failure or disease recurrence, or death (all-cause), from randomisation to 12 weeks, adjudicated by an independent review committee masked to the treatment. Analysis was intention to treat. This trial was registered, number ISRCTN37666216, and is closed to new participants. FINDINGS: Between Dec 10, 2012, and Oct 25, 2016, 758 eligible participants were randomly assigned: 370 to rifampicin and 388 to placebo. 485 (64%) participants had community-acquired S aureus infections, and 132 (17%) had nosocomial S aureus infections. 47 (6%) had meticillin-resistant infections. 301 (40%) participants had an initial deep infection focus. Standard antibiotics were given for 29 (IQR 18-45) days; 619 (82%) participants received flucloxacillin. By week 12, 62 (17%) of participants who received rifampicin versus 71 (18%) who received placebo experienced treatment failure or disease recurrence, or died (absolute risk difference -1·4%, 95% CI -7·0 to 4·3; hazard ratio 0·96, 0·68-1·35, p=0·81). From randomisation to 12 weeks, no evidence of differences in serious (p=0·17) or grade 3-4 (p=0·36) adverse events were observed; however, 63 (17%) participants in the rifampicin group versus 39 (10%) in the placebo group had antibiotic or trial drug-modifying adverse events (p=0·004), and 24 (6%) versus six (2%) had drug interactions (p=0·0005). INTERPRETATION: Adjunctive rifampicin provided no overall benefit over standard antibiotic therapy in adults with S aureus bacteraemia. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment

Inventory of current EU paediatric vision and hearing screening programmes

Background: We examined the diversity in paediatric vision and hearing screening programmes in Europe. Methods: Themes relevant for comparison of screening programmes were derived from literature and used to compile three questionnaires on vision, hearing and public-health screening. Tests used, professions involved, age and frequency of testing seem to influence sensitivity, specificity and costs most. Questionnaires were sent to ophthalmologists, orthoptists, otolaryngologists and audiologists involved in paediatric screening in all EU fullmember, candidate and associate states. Answers were cross-checked. Results: Thirty-nine countries participated; 35 have a vision screening programme, 33 a nation-wide neonatal hearing screening programme. Visual acuity (VA) is measured in 35 countries, in 71% more than once. First measurement of VA varies from three to seven years of age, but is usually before the age of five. At age three and four picture charts, including Lea Hyvarinen are used most, in children over four Tumbling-E and Snellen. As first hearing screening test otoacoustic emission (OAE) is used most in healthy neonates, and auditory brainstem response (ABR) in premature newborns. The majority of hearing testing programmes are staged; children are referred after one to four abnormal tests. Vision screening is performed mostly by paediatricians, ophthalmologists or nurses. Funding is mostly by health insurance or state. Coverage was reported as >95% in half of countries, but reporting was often not first-hand. Conclusion: Largest differences were found in VA charts used (12), professions involved in vision screening (10), number of hearing screening tests before referral (1-4) and funding sources (8)

Genome-wide association analyses for lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease identify new loci and potential druggable targets

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by reduced lung function and is the third leading cause of death globally. Through genome-wide association discovery in 48,943 individuals, selected from extremes of the lung function distribution in UK Biobank, and follow-up in 95,375 individuals, we increased the yield of independent signals for lung function from 54 to 97. A genetic risk score was associated with COPD susceptibility (odds ratio per 1 s.d. of the risk score (∼6 alleles) (95% confidence interval) = 1.24 (1.20-1.27), P = 5.05 × 10‾⁴⁹), and we observed a 3.7-fold difference in COPD risk between individuals in the highest and lowest genetic risk score deciles in UK Biobank. The 97 signals show enrichment in genes for development, elastic fibers and epigenetic regulation pathways. We highlight targets for drugs and compounds in development for COPD and asthma (genes in the inositol phosphate metabolism pathway and CHRM3) and describe targets for potential drug repositioning from other clinical indications.This work was funded by a Medical Research Council (MRC) strategic award to M.D.T., I.P.H., D.S. and L.V.W. (MC_PC_12010). This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under application 648. This article presents independent research funded partially by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the UK Department of Health. This research used the ALICE and SPECTRE High-Performance Computing Facilities at the University of Leicester. Additional acknowledgments and funding details can be found in the Supplementary Note

10th Malta Medical School Conference : conference abstract book

Once again, it is my privilege and pleasure as Chairman of the 10th Malta Medical School Conference to extend a very warm welcome to all the international and local participants. This triennial conference has become a regular, major academic activity feature in the Malta Medical School calendar and is now in its 10th edition. Since its inception in 1988, it has evolved and its success and popularity have increased due to the tireless work and dedication of many people. The importance of this medical conference, in our local scenario, is once again evident with over 800 abstracts submitted. This certainly confirms the extent and quality of ongoing academic research taking place locally in the various disciplines, as well as the growing popularity of this triennial event. It is the responsibility of our profession towards our patients to keep abreast of new developments in the various medical fields, and this conference will certainly contribute towards this. The Scientific Committee, most ably chaired by Professor P. Schembri Wismayer, has produced a vibrant and exciting scientific programme, which I am sure, will generate a lot of interest. This programme will follow the general format of the previous conferences in that it will consist of a compilation of multi-disciplinary sessions and plenary lectures. Five parallel sessions will be running concurrently throughout the whole three-day programme to be able to give adequate exposure to all our participants. Two poster sessions will also be organised. This is my third time as Chairman of the Malta Medical School Conference and once again, I was extremely fortunate to have a dedicated team of colleagues who worked assiduously together. Their enthusiasm and fervent support has made this event possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their excellent work and support throughout. Invaluable help was provided by Ms Christianne Mizzi and Ms Zvetlana Zerafa, the Conference Secretaries, the staff at the Medical School, competently lead by Ms Doris Mangion and various other individuals who supported and helped us with organising this event. For this I thank them all. I must also thank all the Pharmaceutical Exhibitors and Conference Sponsors without whose financial support this event would not have been possible. A particular word of thanks goes to Professor Godfrey LaFerla, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery for his continuous support and encouragement and for entrusting me with the organisation of this important conference. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank you, the participants, who will be participating in this event. May I wish you all an enjoyable and successful conference. [excerpt from the Foreword]N/