Mitigating risk for graduates and potential employers: The moral imperative for students in delivering superior value for employers

By applying the conceptual model outlined in this paper, those charged with or concerned about graduate employability will find the transformation of a series of "employability" steps into a relevant and easy to communicate philosophy of Graduate Employability. Furthermore, the model affords the potential to generate a viable "added value" metric for employers applicable to assessing the impact of their graduate employee cohorts over non-graduate permanent staff

Development of a Systematic Review of Public Health Interventions to Prevent Children Drowning

Drowning is the leading cause of death from unintended injury in children globally. Drowning is preventable, and mechanisms exist which can reduce its impact, however the peer-reviewed literature to guide public health interventions is lacking. This paper describes a protocol for a review of drowning prevention interventions for children. Electronic searching will identify relevant peer-reviewed literature describing interventions to prevent child drowning worldwide. Outcome measures will include: drowning rates, water safety behaviour change, knowledge and/or attitude change, water safety policy and legislation, changes to environment and water safety skills. Quality appraisal and data extraction will be independently completed by two researchers using standardised forms recording descriptive and outcome data for each included article. Data analysis and presentation of results will occur after data have been extracted. This review will map the types of interventions being implemented to prevent drowning amongst children and identify gaps within the literature

Inflammatory bowel disease psychological support pilot reduces inflammatory bowel disease symptoms and improves psychological wellbeing

This prospective service evaluation aimed to determine if integrated psychological support for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients enhanced outcomes. 75 patients were assessed and treated by a specialist liaison psychiatric service between 2015 -2017; 43 received psychiatric intervention alone, 32 were referred for psychological intervention by clinical health psychologist; 26 completed this. Pre-post data (n=15 available) included: Global impression, quality of life, psychiatric and IBD symptom scores. Referrer/patient satisfaction and cost effectiveness were retrospectively calculated. Psychological intervention led to reductions in IBD symptoms (SIBD; p=0.003), alongside improvements in depression scores (PHQ-9, p=0.006) and global impression (CGI; p=0.046). Patient/referrer satisfaction was very high. Indicative data comparing service utilisation one year before and after engagement found reductions in outpatient appointments and in imaging. This small study suggests consideration of increased access to integrated psychological support services to improve outcomes and gather further evidence of efficacy

Spontaneous graft-induced dyskinesias are independent of 5-HT neurons and levodopa priming in a model of Parkinson's disease

Background The risk of graft-induced dyskinesias (GIDs) presents a major challenge in progressing cell transplantation as a therapy for Parkinson's disease. Current theories implicate the presence of grafted serotonin neurons, hotspots of dopamine release, neuroinflammation and established levodopa-induced dyskinesia. Objective To elucidate the mechanisms of GIDs. Methods Neonatally desensitized, dopamine denervated rats received intrastriatal grafts of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) differentiated into either ventral midbrain dopaminergic progenitor (vmDA) (n = 15) or ventral forebrain cells (n = 14). Results Of the eight rats with surviving grafts, two vmDA rats developed chronic spontaneous GIDs, which were observed at 30 weeks post-transplantation. GIDs were inhibited by D2-like receptor antagonists and not affected by 5-HT1A/1B/5-HT6 agonists/antagonists. Grafts in GID rats showed more microglial activation and lacked serotonin neurons. Conclusions These findings argue against current thinking that rats do not develop spontaneous GID and that serotonin neurons are causative, rather indicating that GID can be induced in rats by hESC-derived dopamine grafts and, critically, can occur independently of both previous levodopa exposure and grafted serotonin neurons

Addition of the mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor, Everolimus, to consolidation therapy in acute myeloid leukaemia: experience from the UK NCRI AML17 trial

As part of the UK NCRI AML17 trial, adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia in remission could be randomized to receive the mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor everolimus, sequentially with post-induction chemotherapy. Three hundred and thirty-nine patients were randomised (2:1) to receive everolimus or not for a maximum of 84 days between chemotherapy courses. The primary endpoint was relapse-free survival. At 5 years there was no difference in relapse-free survival [29% versus 40%; odds ratio 1.19 (0.9-1.59) P=0.2], cumulative incidence of relapse [60% versus 54%: odds ratio 1.12 (0.82-1.52): P=0.5] or overall survival [45% versus 58%: odds ratio 1.3 (0.94-1.81): P=0.11]. The independent Data Monitoring Committee advised study termination after randomization of 339 of the intended 600 patients because of excess mortality in the everolimus arm without any evidence of beneficial disease control. The delivery of the everolimus dose was variable, but there was no evidence of clinical benefit in patients with adequate dose delivery compared with no treatment. This study suggests that the addition of mammalian target of rapamycin inhibition to chemotherapy provides no benefit