Surviving in Manchester: Naratives on Movement from the Men's Room

The Men’s Room is an arts and social care agency that works creatively with young men, offering them opportunities to get involved in arts projects whilst accessing support for challenges they may be facing in their lives. The project engages different constituencies of young men experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage, including those involved with sex work or with experience of sexual exploitation, and those with experience of homelessness and/or the criminal justice system. ‘Surviving in Manchester’ was commissioned by the Lankelly Chase Foundation (LCF) and aimed to explore young men’s routes into the Men’s Room as well as how they defined successful service provision. The research included ethnographic fieldwork, walking tours led by young men to sites that they connected with their survival in the city, and a Visual Matrix conducted with staff and volunteers. It argues that the relational approach of the Men’s Room is a key organisational strength. This approach combines informal and formal support, unconditional acceptance, clear ground rules, and gauging of supportive interventions in ways that are sensitive to the young men’s readiness and ability to ‘move on’. It also includes valuable opportunities for social gathering, creative expression and public storytelling and image-making that extend the artistic and imaginative capacities of the young men and celebrate their abilities and experiences

An Unusual case of flaccid Quadriplegia

This case describes a 47 years old Obese post menopausal lady with sudden onset flaccid quadriparesis with sparing of posterior column sensation .She has a prior history of Diabetes mellitus ,systemic hypertension ,Dyslipidemia , and hypothyroidism on regular .She was admitted for 1 day history of fever and malaise, laboratory parameters suggestive of a Possible a viral ethnology .She developed sudden onset of weakness, initially started on her Lower limb and progressing to her upper limb within few hours along with bladder involvement which appeared on the next day of hospitalisation prompt thinking of a demyelination like pattern after ruling out mechanical causes with a radiograph .In the background of a fever prompted thinking of a fast progressing demyelination like a GBS/ADEM and even started IVIG as there is always some time delay for MRI to arrive. The MRI report suggested of Thrombosis of ASA territory involving the anterior paramedian aspect of Medulla extending up to the upper cervical cord. She remained quadriplegic thereafter and 6 months later despite receiving antiplatelets, Physiotherapy and other supportive treatments. The case described here elaborates the clinical presentation and outcome of ASA thrombosis. ASA thrombosis though rare is be thought as a differential of acute onset flaccid quadriparesis in an acute setting .The clinical course and devastating nature of illness should be aware off. Its necessary to diagnose this syndrome in the earliest when patient presents with acute onset of motor weakness sparing the posterior column sensatio

Street-scale air quality modelling over the West Midlands, United Kingdom:Effect of idealised traffic reduction scenarios

Air pollution is the major environmental risk to human health. Road transport is one of the major sources for air pollution, particularly nitrogen dioxide, in urban areas, and hence traffic control is an important measure in air quality management. A street-scale air quality model, ADMS-Urban, was configured for a case study of the West Midlands, UK to represent a baseline year (2019). Model outputs were evaluated using hourly air pollutant measurement data, and the model demonstrates good performance overall. This modelling tool was then used to explore the effect of five hypothetical traffic reduction scenarios, ranging from 10% to 90% reduction in traffic activity; scenario impacts were analysed over a range of spatial resolutions. The impacts of traffic reduction are highly dependent on spatial resolution (i.e. street scale, electoral ward level and local authority level), which has to be taken into account when formulating policies for managing air quality on local and city-wide scales. There was an almost linear relationship between the predicted annual concentration and traffic reduction for both NO2 and PM2.5. Traffic reduction would principally reduce NO2 concentrations, with even very substantial changes in traffic having more limited effects on reducing PM2.5 concentrations reflecting the importance of regional and non-traffic PM2.5 sources.</p

Estimation of salivary glycoconjugates and salivary ros levels in chronic periodontitis: a clinico-biochemical study

Background: Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of periodontal tissue, characterized by persistent inflammation of the connective tissue and alveolar bone destruction. Patients with periodontal disease show the differences in the composition of saliva. Newer diagnostic tools based on analysis of body fluids such as saliva, GCF and serum are found to be useful for diagnosis as well as monitoring the disease activity. Thus, aim of the study was to estimate the concentration of salivary glycoconjugates (sialic acid, total protein) and salivary ROS in unstimulated whole saliva of subjects with chronic periodontitis and to compare the concentration with healthy/gingivitis subjects.Methods: The study sample consisted of 60 subjects (33 males and 27 females) with age ranging from 30-60 years. A detailed case history was taken from all the subjects and periodontal disease parameters (bleeding on probing, probing pocket depth and clinical attachment levels) were recorded at baseline and subjects were divided into 2 groups. Group I- control group (healthy/gingivitis subjects) and Group II -test group (chronic periodontitis). Saliva samples were collected from the subjects and stored at -700 ºC.  Periodate Resorcinol Assay was done to estimate the levels of sialic acid, Biuret test was done to assess the levels of total protein and  d-ROMs test was done to assess the level of ROS. Statistical analysis was done using students unpaired ‘t’ test and Pearsons correlation test. Results: It was found that the levels of salivary glycoconjugates and ROS are increased in subjects with chronic periodontitis when compared to healthy/gingivitis subjects. Thus it can reflect the clinical status of gingival and periodontal tissues.Conclusions: Estimation of the levels of glycoconjugates and ROS may be used as one of the reliable biomarkers to assess the severity of periodontal disease and to monitor the disease progression

Development and Dissemination of a New Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Curriculum in Digital Forensics

The Information Trust Institute (ITI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is developing an entirely new multidisciplinary undergraduate curriculum on the topic of digital forensics, and this paper presents the findings of the development process, including initial results and evaluation of a pilot offering of the coursework to students. The curriculum consists of a four-course sequence, including introductory and advanced lecture courses with parallel laboratory courses, followed by an advanced course. The content has been designed to reflect both the emerging national standards and the strong multidisciplinary character of the profession of digital forensics, and includes modules developed collaboratively by faculty experts in multiple fields of computer science, law, psychology, social sciences, and accountancy. A preliminary plan for the introductory course was presented to a workshop of digital forensics experts in May 2013 and received their strong approval. Pilot versions of the introductory and introductory lab courses were taught to a mixture of computer science and law students at the University of Illinois in the fall of 2013, and were very positively received by the students, who made it clear that they appreciated the multidisciplinary approach. The curriculum, which is designed to obviate the need for expensive labs or team-teaching by specialized faculty, will be made available to other colleges and universities in order to improve the content and quality of existing digital forensics programs, to inspire and greatly facilitate the creation of new programs, and, ultimately, to increase the number of educated practitioners. The developed resources can be used as the basis for future academic programs, distance learning, and multidisciplinary, multi-institutional programs that meet evolving digital forensics educational standards. Much of the material, including a virtual laboratory, will be provided on-line. Introductory course materials will be distributed to other institutions beginning in the summer of 2014; advanced course materials should be available for distribution in 2015. Related outreach activities have been undertaken and will be continued. Keywords: Digital forensics, Computer forensics, Curriculum development, Curriculum standards, Education standards, Training standards, Undergraduate education, Interdisciplinary studie

Going 'off script': the influence of instrument constituencies on the Europeanisation of Turkish water policy

The European Union (EU) has established a major role in directing policy change, both internally and beyond its borders: a phenomenon known as ‘Europeanisation’. This article examines the Europeanisation of water policy in Turkey in relation to implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Although some principles of EU water policy have been adopted in Turkey, the WFD has also been subject to significant domestic modification, prompting questions about how and why such patterns of partial implementation occur. In this respect, learning and socialisation within transnational ‘instrument constituencies’ (ICs) is shown to be an important explanatory factor. It follows that diffusion of the EU’s water policy and the WFD beyond its borders may be enhanced by promoting the capacity for instrument constituency learning (or the ‘cognitive environment’) in non-EU countries

European Paediatric Formulation Initiative (EuPFI)-Formulating Ideas for Better Medicines for Children.

© American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists 2016, published by Springer US, available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-016-0584-1The European Paediatric Formulation Initiative (EuPFI), founded in 2007, aims to promote and facilitate the preparation of better and safe medicines for children through linking research and information dissemination. It brings together the capabilities of the industry, academics, hospitals, and regulators within a common platform in order to scope the solid understanding of the major issues, which will underpin the progress towards the future of paediatric medicines we want.The EuPFI was formed in parallel to the adoption of regulations within the EU and USA and has served as a community that drives research and dissemination through publications and the organisation of annual conferences. The membership and reach of this group have grown since its inception in 2007 and continue to develop and evolve to meet the continuing needs and ambitions of research into and development of age appropriate medicines. Five diverse workstreams (age-appropriate medicines, Biopharmaceutics, Administration Devices, Excipients and Taste Assessment & Taste Masking (TATM)) direct specific workpackages on behalf of the EuPFI. Furthermore, EuPFI interacts with multiple diverse professional groups across the globe to ensure efficient working in the area of paediatric medicines. Strong commitment and active involvement of all EuPFI stakeholders have proved to be vital to effectively address knowledge gaps related to paediatric medicines, discuss potential areas for further research and identify issues that need more attention and analysis in the future.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Geometric Analysis of the Gore Excluder Conformable Endoprosthesis in the Infrarenal Aortic Neck: One Year Results of the EXCeL Registry

Objective: The Gore Excluder Conformable Endoprosthesis (CEXC) is designed to treat challenging infrarenal anatomy because of its active angulation control, repositionability, and enhanced conformability. This study evaluated 30 day and one year position and apposition of the CEXC in the infrarenal neck. Methods: Patients treated with the CEXC between 2018 and 2022 with an available 30 day computed tomography angiogram (CTA) were selected from four hospitals in a prospective registry. Endograft apposition (shortest apposition length [SAL]) and position (shortest fabric distance [SFD]) were assessed on the 30 day and one year CTAs. Maximum infrarenal aortic curvature was compared between the pre- and post-operative CTAs to evaluate conformability of the CEXC. Results: There were 87 patients with a 30 day CTA, and for 56 of these patients the one year CTA was available. Median (interquartile range [IQR]) pre-operative neck length was 22 mm (IQR 15, 32) and infrarenal angulation was 52° (IQR 31, 72). Median SAL was 21.2 mm (IQR 14.0, 29.3) at 30 days for all included patients. The SAL in 13 patients (15%) was &lt; 10 mm at 30 days, and one patient had a SAL of 0 mm and a type Ia endoleak. There was no significant difference in SAL between patients within and outside instructions for use. The SAL significantly increased by 1.1 mm (IQR −2.3, 4.7; p =.042) at one year. The SAL decreased in seven patients (13%), increased in 13 patients (23%), and remained stable in 36 patients (64%). Median SFD was 2.0 mm (IQR 0.5, 3.6) at 30 days, which slightly increased by 0.3 mm (IQR −0.5, 1.8; p =.019) at one year. One patient showed migration (SFD increase ≥ 5 mm). Median endograft tilt was 15.8° (IQR 9.7, 21.4). Pre-operative maximum infrarenal curvature was 36 m −1 (IQR 26, 56) and did not significantly change thereafter. Conclusion: In most patients, the CEXC was implanted close to the renal arteries, and sufficient (≥ 10 mm) post-operative apposition was achieved at 30 days, which slightly increased at one year. Post-operative endograft tilt was relatively low, and aortic geometry remained unchanged after implantation of the CEXC, probably due to its high conformability.</p