Prevalence of gambling behaviours and their associations with socioemotional harm among 11-16 year olds in Wales: findings from the School Health Research Network survey

This is the final version. Available on open access from OUP via the DOI in this recordBACKGROUND: Gambling opportunities are increasingly available and acceptable to many adolescents. Adolescent problem gambling has been associated with poor outcomes, such as lower reported physical and mental health. While much research has focussed on 'problem' gambling, analysing the distribution and determinants of experimentation with gambling is important in order to understand its normalization and population level consequences. This study describes the distribution of inequalities and socioemotional harms associated with adolescent gambling. METHODS: Data were drawn from a subsample of students (N = 37 363) who completed gambling questions as part of the 2017 School Health Research Network Student Health and Wellbeing Survey, representing 193 secondary schools in Wales. Using imputations, we estimated a series of single-predictor and multi-predictor regressions for count of gambling behaviours, any gambling in the past 12 months and socioemotional harms of gambling. RESULTS: Approximately two-fifths (41.0%) of respondents reported gambling in the past 12 months, of whom 16.2% reported feeling bad as a result of their own gambling. We found significant sex differences in gambling, with boys gambling more frequently than girls. Adolescents from more affluent families reported a higher count of gambling behaviours and socioemotional harms, although paradoxically, increasing affluence was also associated with lower prevalence of gambling in the last year. Non-White British ethnicities and students who felt less connected to school were more likely to engage in gambling and experience socioemotional harms. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide important new insights regarding risk factors in adolescence associated with gambling behaviours and socioemotional harms.British Heart FoundationCancer Research UKEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Medical Research Council (MRC)Welsh GovernmentWellcome Trus

Airway tissue engineering for congenital laryngotracheal disease

Regenerative medicine offers hope of a sustainable solution for severe airway disease by the creation of functional, immunocompatible organ replacements. When considering fetuses and newborns, there is a specific spectrum of airway pathologies that could benefit from cell therapy and tissue engineering applications. While hypoplastic lungs associated with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) could benefit from cellular based treatments aimed at ameliorating lung function, patients with upper airway obstruction could take advantage from a de novo tissue engineering approach. Moreover, the international acceptance of the EXIT procedure as a means of securing the precarious neonatal airway, together with the advent of fetal surgery as a method of heading off postnatal co-morbidities, offers the revolutionary possibility of extending the clinical indication for tissue-engineered airway transplantation to infants affected by diverse severe congenital laryngotracheal malformations. This article outlines the necessary basic components for regenerative medicine solutions in this potential clinical niche

Improving Vitamin D Intake in Young Children—Can an Infographic Help Parents and Carers Understand the Recommendations?

Vitamin D deficiency is a serious public health issue in the United Kingdom. Those at increased risk, such as pregnant women, children under 5 years and people from ethnic groups with dark skin, are not all achieving their recommended vitamin D. Effective vitamin D education is warranted. A qualitative study was undertaken to evaluate the acceptability and understanding of a vitamin D infographic, developed using recommendations from previous research. Fifteen parents/carers, recruited through local playgroups and adverts on popular parent websites, participated in focus groups and telephone interviews. The majority were female, White British and educated to degree level. A thematic analysis methodology was applied. The findings indicated that understanding and acceptability of the infographic were satisfactory, but improvements were recommended to aid interpretation and create more accessible information. These included additional content (what vitamin D is; other sources; its health benefits; methods/doses for administration and scientific symbols used) and improved presentation (eye-catching, less text, simpler language, more images and a logo). Once finalized, the infographic could be a useful tool to educate families around vitamin D supplementation guidelines, support the UK Healthy Start vitamins scheme and help improve vitamin D status for pregnant and lactating women and young children

Reduction of T-Helper Cell Responses to Recall Antigen Medicated by Codelivery with Peptidoglycan via the Intestinal Nanomineral-Antigen Pathway

Naturally occurring intestinal nanomineral particles constituently form in the mammalian gut and trap luminal protein and microbial components. These cargo loaded nanominerals are actively scavenged by M cells of intestinal immune follicles, such as Peyer’s patches and are passed to antigen-presenting cells. Using peripheral blood mononuclear cell populations as an in vitro model of nanomineral uptake and antigen presentation, we show that monocytes avidly phagocytose nanomineral particles bearing antigen and peptidoglycan (PGN), and that the presence of PGN within particles downregulates their cell surface MHC class II and upregulates programmed death receptor ligand 1. Nanomineral delivery of antigen suppresses antigen-specific CD4+ T cell responses, an effect that is enhanced in the presence of PGN. Blocking the interleukin-10 receptor restores CD4+ T cell responses to antigen codelivered with PGN in nanomineral form. Using human intestinal specimens, we have shown that the in vivo nanomineral pathway operates in an interleukin-10 rich environment. Consequently, the delivery of a dual antigen–PGN cargo by endogenous nanomineral in vivo is likely to be important in the establishment of intestinal tolerance, while their synthetic mimetics present a potential delivery system for therapeutic applications targeting the modulation of Peyer’s patch T cell responses

Supporting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals: reconceptualising a 'sustainable development assessment tool' for the health and care system in England

Aims: As one of the biggest organisations in the world, the NHS in England can contribute considerably to the United Nations’ Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to optimise this, this study evaluated and reconceptualised a sustainable development assessment tool for health and care settings in England. Methods: A quantitative survey and user/expert discussion panels were conducted to evaluate and reconceptualise the existing sustainable development assessment tool used by the NHS in England, the so-called ‘Good Corporate Citizenship Assessment Tool’, between 2007 and 2016 including potential improvements such as the integration of the UN SDGs. Results: A reconceptualised self-assessment tool integrating the UN’s SDGs was developed and implemented online as the ‘Sustainable Development Assessment Tool (SDAT)’. Further improvements included a process orientated redesign and the creation of new modules and cross-sections aligning them with the leads responsible for the implementation of key initiatives in NHS organisations, which would contribute to achieving the targets of the SDGs. Conclusions: User/expert involvement has enabled an informed approach to a reconceptualisation of a sustainable assessment tool for health and care settings. The tool will support organisations to build their mandatory Sustainable Development Management Plans, as part of the national Public Health Outcomes Framework. Alignment of the tool to the UN Sustainable Development Goals provides an opportunity for health and care organisations to demonstrate accountability and progress against the UN’s set of transformational goals. Furthermore, the tool could be adapted to other public service providers

The Relationship Between HR Practices and Firm Performance: Examining Causal Order

Significant research attention has been devoted to examining the relationship between HR practices and firm performance, and the research support has assumed HR as the causal variable. Using data from 45 business units (with 62 data points), this study examines how measures of HR practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational performance measures. The results indicate that correlations with performance measures at all three times are both high and invariant, and that controlling for past or concurrent performance virtually eliminates the correlation of HR with future performance. Implications are discussed

Prioritising surveillance for alien organisms transported as stowaways on ships travelling to South Africa

The global shipping network facilitates the transportation and introduction of marine and terrestrial organisms to regions where they are not native, and some of these organisms become invasive. South Africa was used as a case study to evaluate the potential for shipping to contribute to the introduction and establishment of marine and terrestrial alien species (i.e. establishment debt) and to assess how this varies across shipping routes and seasons. As a proxy for the number of species introduced (i.e. 'colonisation pressure') shipping movement data were used to determine, for each season, the number of ships that visited South African ports from foreign ports and the number of days travelled between ports. Seasonal marine and terrestrial environmental similarity between South African and foreign ports was then used to estimate the likelihood that introduced species would establish. These data were used to determine the seasonal relative contribution of shipping routes to South Africa's marine and terrestrial establishment debt. Additionally, distribution data were used to identify marine and terrestrial species that are known to be invasive elsewhere and which might be introduced to each South African port through shipping routes that have a high relative contribution to establishment debt. Shipping routes from Asian ports, especially Singapore, have a particularly high relative contribution to South Africa's establishment debt, while among South African ports, Durban has the highest risk of being invaded. There was seasonal variation in the shipping routes that have a high relative contribution to the establishment debt of the South African ports. The presented method provides a simple way to prioritise surveillance effort and our results indicate that, for South Africa, port-specific prevention strategies should be developed, a large portion of the available resources should be allocated to Durban, and seasonal variations and their consequences for prevention strategies should be explored further. (Résumé d'auteur

The lncRNA HOTAIR transcription is controlled by HNF4α-induced chromatin topology modulation

The expression of the long noncoding RNA HOTAIR (HOX Transcript Antisense Intergenic RNA) is largely deregulated in epithelial cancers and positively correlates with poor prognosis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma and gastrointestinal cancers. Furthermore, functional studies revealed a pivotal role for HOTAIR in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, as this RNA is causal for the repressive activity of the master factor SNAIL on epithelial genes. Despite the proven oncogenic role of HOTAIR, its transcriptional regulation is still poorly understood. Here hepatocyte nuclear factor 4-α (HNF4α), as inducer of epithelial differentiation, was demonstrated to directly repress HOTAIR transcription in the mesenchymal-to epithelial transition. Mechanistically, HNF4α was found to cause the release of a chromatin loop on HOTAIR regulatory elements thus exerting an enhancer-blocking activity