Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition (NEON) programme: qualitative study of drivers of infant feeding and care practices in a British-Bangladeshi population

OBJECTIVES: To explore optimal infant feeding and care practices and their drivers within the British-Bangladeshi population of East London, UK, as an exemplar to inform development of a tailored, coadapted participatory community intervention. DESIGN: Qualitative community-based participatory research. SETTING: Community and children's centres and National Health Service settings within Tower Hamlets, London, UK. PARTICIPANTS: 141 participants completed the community study including: British-Bangladeshi mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers of infants and young children aged 6-23 months, key informants and lay community members from the British-Bangladeshi population of Tower Hamlets, and health professionals working in Tower Hamlets. RESULTS: 141 participants from all settings and generations identified several infant feeding and care practices and wider socioecological factors that could be targeted to optimise nutritional outcomes. Our modifiable infant feeding and care practices were highlighted: untimely introduction of semi and solid foods, overfeeding, prolonged parent-led feeding and feeding to 'fill the belly'. Wider socioecological determinants were highlighted, categorised here as: (1) society and culture (e.g. equating 'chubby baby' to healthy baby), (2) physical and local environment (e.g. fast food outlets, advertising) and (3) information and awareness (e.g. communication with healthcare professionals around cultural norms). CONCLUSIONS: Parenting interventions should be codeveloped with communities and tailored to recognise and take account of social and cultural norms and influence from different generations that inform infant feeding and care practices and may be of particular importance for infants from ethnically diverse communities. In addition, UK infant feeding environment requires better regulation of marketing of foods for infants and young children if it is to optimise nutrition in the early years

Towards the development of data governance standards for using clinical free-text data in health research: a position paper

Background: Free-text clinical data (such as outpatient letters or nursing notes) represent a vast, untapped source of rich information that, if more accessible for research, would clarify and supplement information coded in structured data fields. Data usually need to be de-identified or anonymised before they can be reused for research, but there is a lack of established guidelines to govern effective de-identification and use of free-text information and avoid damaging data utility as a by-product. / Objective: We set out to work towards data governance standards to integrate with existing frameworks for personal data use, to enable free-text data to be used safely for research for patient/public benefit. / Methods: We outlined (UK) data protection legislation and regulations for context, and conducted a rapid literature review and UK-based case studies to explore data governance models used in working with free-text data. We also engaged with stakeholders including text mining researchers and the general public to explore perceived barriers and solutions in working with clinical free-text. / Results: We propose a set of recommendations, including the need: for authoritative guidance on data governance for the reuse of free-text data; to ensure public transparency in data flows and uses; to treat de-identified free-text as potentially identifiable with use limited to accredited data safe-havens; and, to commit to a culture of continuous improvement to understand the relationships between efficacy of de-identification and re-identification risks, so this can be communicated to all stakeholders. / Conclusions: By drawing together the findings of a combination of activities, our unique study has added new knowledge towards the development of data governance standards for the reuse of clinical free-text data for secondary purposes. Whilst working in accord with existing data governance frameworks, there is a need for further work to take forward the recommendations we have proposed, with commitment and investment, to assure and expand the safe reuse of clinical free-text data for public benefit

Levels of organochlorine pesticides are associated with amyloid aggregation in apex avian brains

Organochlorine (OC) pesticides pose a significant environmental risk to wildlife and humans and have been associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study aims to spectroscopically analyse brains from free-flying birds and link the results to OC exposure and consequent amyloid aggregation. As long-lived apex predators, predatory birds represent a sentinel species similar to humans. Therefore, the results have implications for both species and may also add to our understanding of the role OC pesticides play in the development of AD. Brains of wild sparrowhawks were analysed using ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopy and Congo red staining; results were correlated with OC pesticide concentrations in livers. Effects of OC exposure were sex and age dependant and associated alterations were seen in lipids and protein secondary structure. A shift from α-helix to β-sheet conformation of proteins indicated that concentrations of OC pesticides > 7.18 µg/g may lead to cerebral amyloid aggregation

Linking pre- and post-adoption records for research in anonymised form in a data safe haven:

Introduction: The long-term health and wellbeing of adoptees is under-researched. One reason for this has been limited data accessibility regarding the adoption process, and another is a practice common in some UK jurisdictions of changing the NHS number (or equivalent) at adoption, as part of creating the new identity. The SAIL Databank holds data from the Wales Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass Cymru), together with children’s social care data, and can link these with routine health and administrative data in anonymised form. However, because the linkage key at SAIL is based on an encryption of the NHS number, working with pre- and post-adoption records for longitudinal research remains a major challenge. We set out to explore the legal implications of, and social support for, linking these records for use in anonymised form for longitudinal research. Methods: We reviewed the main legislation and regulations governing the use of data about adoptees in England and Wales. We gauged support for a social licence in Wales by carrying out interviews with individuals who had been involved in the adoptions process, and by engaging with general public groups for their views. We drew out the main emerging themes and, in combination with the review, propose a way forward. Results: The legal review indicated that there are provisions in the Family Procedure Rules (England and Wales) and the General Data Protection Regulation that can be relied upon for the lawful processing of adoption data into anonymised form for research. The main points of concern about linking pre- and post-adoption records were privacy, data security, the need to limit the number of organisations involved in data sharing, and re-identification risk. The over-riding message was favourable with longitudinal research seen as strongly beneficial. Conclusion: This study has indicated that in Wales, there is no legal impediment, nor major objection from individuals involved in the adoptions process, as well as the general public for the use of adoption data in anonymised form, in a data safe haven. This includes the linkage of pre- and post‑adoption records to enable novel longitudinal research to take place. The provisos were that robust safeguards must be in place, and that the research should aim to benefit adoptees and to improve policy and practice. We conclude that it is reasonable to proceed with caution to develop practical ways to link pre- and post‑adoption records in a data safe haven

Dyeing Insects for Behavioral Assays: the Mating Behavior of Anesthetized Drosophila

Mating experiments using Drosophila have contributed greatly to the understanding of sexual selection and behavior. Experiments often require simple, easy and cheap methods to distinguish between individuals in a trial. A standard technique for this is CO2 anaesthesia and then labelling or wing clipping each fly. However, this is invasive and has been shown to affect behavior. Other techniques have used coloration to identify flies. This article presents a simple and non-invasive method for labelling Drosophila that allows them to be individually identified within experiments, using food coloring. This method is used in trials where two males compete to mate with a female. Dyeing allowed quick and easy identification. There was, however, some difference in the strength of the coloration across the three species tested. Data is presented showing the dye has a lower impact on mating behavior than CO2 in Drosophila melanogaster. The impact of CO2 anaesthesia is shown to depend on the species of Drosophila, with D. pseudoobscura and D. subobscura showing no impact, whereas D. melanogaster males had reduced mating success. The dye method presented is applicable to a wide range of experimental designs

The use of data in resource limited settings to improve quality of care

Quality improvement is driven by benchmarking between and within institutions over time and the collaborative improvement efforts that stem from these comparisons. Benchmarking requires systematic collection and use of standardized data. Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have great potential for improvements in newborn outcomes but serious obstacles to data collection, analysis, and implementation of robust improvement methodologies exist. We review the importance of data collection, internationally recommended neonatal metrics, selected methods of data collection, and reporting. The transformation from data collection to data use is illustrated by several select data system examples from LMIC. Key features include aims and measures important to neonatal team members, co-development with local providers, immediate access to data for review, and multidisciplinary team involvement. The future of neonatal care, use of data, and the trajectory to reach global neonatal improvement targets in resource-limited settings will be dependent on initiatives led by LMIC clinicians and experts

First-Order System Least Squares and the Energetic Variational Approach for Two-Phase Flow

This paper develops a first-order system least-squares (FOSLS) formulation for equations of two-phase flow. The main goal is to show that this discretization, along with numerical techniques such as nested iteration, algebraic multigrid, and adaptive local refinement, can be used to solve these types of complex fluid flow problems. In addition, from an energetic variational approach, it can be shown that an important quantity to preserve in a given simulation is the energy law. We discuss the energy law and inherent structure for two-phase flow using the Allen-Cahn interface model and indicate how it is related to other complex fluid models, such as magnetohydrodynamics. Finally, we show that, using the FOSLS framework, one can still satisfy the appropriate energy law globally while using well-known numerical techniques.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures submitted to Journal of Computational Physic

Neutral processes dominate microbial community assembly in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar

In recent years a wealth of studies have examined the relationships between a host and its microbiome across diverse taxa. Many studies characterise the host microbiome without considering the ecological processes that underpin microbiome assembly. In this study, the intestinal microbiota of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, sampled from farmed and wild environments was first characterised using 16s rDNA MiSeq sequencing analysis. We used neutral community models to determine the balance of stochastic and deterministic processes that underpin microbial community assembly and transfer across lifecycle stage and between gut compartments. Across gut compartments in farmed fish, neutral models suggest that most microbes are transient with no evidence of adaptation to their environment. In wild fish, we find declining taxonomic and functional microbial community richness as fish mature through different lifecycle stages. Alongside neutral community models applied to wild fish, we suggest declining richness demonstrates an increasing role for the host in filtering microbial communities that is correlated with age. We find a limited subset of gut microflora adapted to the farmed and wild host environment among which Mycoplasma sp. are prominent. Our study reveals the ecological drivers underpinning community assembly in both farmed and wild Atlantic salmon and underlines the importance of understanding the role of stochastic processes such as random drift and small migration rates in microbial community assembly, before considering any functional role of the gut microbes encountered

Searching for life with rovers: exploration methods and science results from the 2004 field campaign of the “Life in the Atacama” project and applications to future Mars Missions

LITA develops and field tests a long-range automated rover and a science payload to search for microbial life in the Atacama. The Atacama's evolution provides a unique training ground for designing and testing exploration strategies and life detection methods for the search for life on Mars