Effectiveness of anonymised information sharing and use in health service, police, and local government partnership for preventing violence related injury: experimental study and time series analysis

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of anonymised information sharing to prevent injury related to violence. Design: Experimental study and time series analysis of a prototype community partnership between the health service, police, and local government partners designed to prevent violence. Setting: Cardiff, Wales, and 14 comparison cities designated "most similar" by the Home Office in England and Wales. Intervention After a 33 month development period, anonymised data relevant to violence prevention (precise violence location, time, days, and weapons) from patients attending emergency departments in Cardiff and reporting injury from violence were shared over 51 months with police and local authority partners and used to target resources for violence prevention. Main outcome measures: Health service records of hospital admissions related to violence and police records of woundings and less serious assaults in Cardiff and other cities after adjustment for potential confounders. Results: Information sharing and use were associated with a substantial and significant reduction in hospital admissions related to violence. In the intervention city (Cardiff) rates fell from seven to five a month per 100 000 population compared with an increase from five to eight in comparison cities (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.58, 95% confidence interval 0.49 to 0.69). Average rate of woundings recorded by the police changed from 54 to 82 a month per 100 000 population in Cardiff compared with an increase from 54 to 114 in comparison cities (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.68, 0.61 to 0.75). There was a significant increase in less serious assaults recorded by the police, from 15 to 20 a month per 100 000 population in Cardiff compared with a decrease from 42 to 33 in comparison cities (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.38, 1.13 to 1.70). Conclusion: An information sharing partnership between health services, police, and local government in Cardiff, Wales, altered policing and other strategies to prevent violence based on information collected from patients treated in emergency departments after injury sustained in violence. This intervention led to a significant reduction in violent injury and was associated with an increase in police recording of minor assaults in Cardiff compared with similar cities in England and Wales where this intervention was not implemented

AN INTERACTION BETWEEN RISK PERCEPTIPTON AND TRUST IN RESPONSE TO FOOD SAFETY EVENTS ACROSS PRODUCTS AND REGIONS, AND THEIR IMPLICAITONS FOR AGRIBUSINESS FIRMS

Food safety events receive substantial media coverage and can create devastating economics losses for agribusiness firms. It is unclear what factors influence consumers’ purchasing decisions before or after a food safety event occurs. The objectives of this study is to identify these factors that influence purchasing decisions, determine how consumers respond to hypothetical food safety events, and compare these findings across different products and geographical regions. The data for this research was obtained from two surveys. One survey concerned fresh produce while the second focused on meat products. The SPARTA model, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, is used to determine the impact of probable factors that influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. The result of this research suggests that consumers have clearly-defined levels of trust regarding sources of food safety information. In general, a food safety event occurring in the fresh produce market seems to affect purchasing decisions more than the same event occurring in the meat market. Comparison of findings across geographical regions is less clear. Agribusiness firms can use these results to form a base strategic response plan for food safety events

Assessing quality in systematic reviews of the effectiveness of health promotion: areas of consensus and dissension

Systematic reviews have played an increasingly important role in health promotion in recentyears. Yet there are debates about how they should be conducted, particularly about how thequality of evidence should be assessed. The aim of this research was to assess currentapproaches to, and general views on, the use of quality assessment in systematic reviews ofeffectiveness in health promotion, and to identify areas of consensus and dissension around thechoice of techniques, methods and criteria employed.There were two stages of data collection. The first was a structured mapping of a randomsample of 30 systematic reviews of the effectiveness of health promotion to identify and explaintrends and themes in methods and approaches to quality assessment. During the second stagesemi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 17 systematic reviewerswho had conducted at least one review of a health promotion topic, to investigate some of thesetrends and approaches in greater detail.The mapping found that the majority of systematic reviews had assessed the quality of theincluded studies, to varying degrees. However, procedures were not always explicitly reportedor consistent. There was some degree of consensus over criteria, with experimental evaluationmethods commonly favoured. Most frequently used quality assessment criteria includedparticipant attrition, the validity and reliability of data collection and analysis methods, andadequacy of sample sizes. External validity was commonly assessed, primarily in terms ofgeneralisability and replicability, but less so in terms of intervention quality.The interviews revealed some of the barriers to effective systematic reviewing, including: lackof time and resources, complexity of some health promotion interventions, inclusion ofobservational evaluation designs, and poor reporting of primary studies. Systematic reviewingwas commonly done in small teams, mostly comprising academics, sometimes withpractitioners. Interviewees learned systematic review skills through a combination of training,support from colleagues and mentors, literature and a strong emphasis on hands-on practicallearning. Subjective judgement was often required, contra to the popular belief that systematicreviews are wholly objective.The overall conclusions of this study are that systematic reviewing in health promotion is oftenchallenging due the complexity of interventions and evaluation designs. This places additionaldemands on reviewers in terms of knowledge and skills required, often exacerbated by finitetime scales and limited funding. Initiatives are in place to foster shared ways of working,although the extent to which complete consensus is achievable in a multi- disciplinary area suchas health promotion is questionable

Impact of LSP Character on Slepton Reach at the LHC

Searches for supersymmetry at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have significantly constrained the parameter space associated with colored superpartners, whereas the constraints on color-singlet superpartners are considerably less severe. In this study, we investigate the dependence of slepton decay branching fractions on the nature of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). In particular, in the Higgsino-like LSP scenarios, both decay branching fractions of $\tilde\ell_L$ and $\tilde\nu_\ell$ depend strongly on the sign and value of $M_1/M_2$, which has strong implications for the reach of dilepton plus MET searches for slepton pair production. We extend the experimental results for same flavor, opposite sign dilepton plus MET searches at the 8 TeV LHC to various LSP scenarios. We find that the LHC bounds on sleptons are strongly enhanced for a non-Bino-like LSP: the 95% C.L. limit for $m_{\tilde\ell_L}$ extends from 300 GeV for a Bino-like LSP to about 370 GeV for a Wino-like LSP. The bound for $\tilde\ell_L$ with a Higgsino-like LSP is the strongest (~ 490 GeV) for $M_1/M_2$ ~ $-\tan^2\theta_W$ and is the weakest (~ 220 GeV) for $M_1/M_2$ ~ $\tan^2\theta_W$. We also calculate prospective slepton search reaches at the 14 TeV LHC. With 100 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity, the projected 95% C.L. mass reach for the left-handed slepton varies from 550 (670) GeV for a Bino-like (Wino-like) LSP to 900 (390) GeV for a Higgsino-like LSP under the most optimistic (pessimistic) scenario. The reach for the right-handed slepton is about 440 GeV. The corresponding 5$\sigma$ discovery sensitivity is about 100 GeV smaller. For 300 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity, the reach is about 50 - 100 GeV higher.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figure

Do fluid inclusions preserve δ18O values of hydrothermal fluids in epithermal systems over geological time? : evidence from paleo- and modern geothermal systems, Milos island, Aegean Sea

Stable isotope compositions of quartz (δ18Oquartz) and fluid inclusion waters (δ18OFI and δDFI) were analysed from Profitis Ilias, a low-sulphidation epithermal gold mineralisation deposit on Milos island Greece, to establish if δ18OFI preserve a record of paleo-geothermal processes. Previous studies show that mineralisation at Profitis Ilias resulted from extreme boiling and vaporisation and a zone located at approximately 430 m asl represents the transition between a liquid- and vapour-dominated system [Mineral. Dep. 36 (2001) 43]. The deposit is also closely associated with an active geothermal system, whose waters have a well-characterised stable isotope geochemistry [Pagel and Leroy (1991) Source, transport and deposition of metals. Balkema, Rotterdam, 107–112]. The samples were collected over an elevation interval of 440 m (210 to 650 m asl) to give information on the liquid- and vapour-segments of the paleo-system. The data show systematic variations with sample elevation. Samples from the highest elevations (c. 650 m asl) have the lightest δ18OFI (–7.3 ‰) and δDFI (–68.0 ‰) whilst the deepest (c. 210 m asl) are isotopically heavier (δ18OFI –3.7 ‰; δDFI –19.0 ‰). Relative changes in δ18OFI closely parallel those in δDFI. δ18Oquartz shows an opposite trend, from the lightest values (+13.9 ‰) at the lowest elevations to the heaviest (+15.1 ‰) at the highest. δ18OFI show correlations with other parameters. For example, variable fluid inclusion homogenisation temperatures in the vapour-dominated part of the system, correlate with a rapid shift in δDFI (–33.3 to –50.5 ‰) and δ18OFI (–4.1 to –6.2 ‰) and gold contents also increase in the same zone (up to 50 ppm). Comparable correlations in δ18Oquartz or δ18Ocalculated (estimated geothermal fluid from fluid inclusion homogenisation data) are absent. δ18Ocalculated are always 5 to 10 ‰ heavier than δ18OFI. Comparison with the modern geothermal system shows that δDFI–δ18OFI are similar. Isotope data for the modern system and fluid inclusion waters fall on linear trends sub-paralleling the meteoric water line and project towards seawater values. Numerical modelling favours kinetically controlled fractionation to explain differences in δ18Ocalculated and δ18Ofluid rather than diffusive post-trapping equilibration. The evidence suggests, that in low-temperature epithermal systems, δ18OFI may represent a better record of fluid process and the isotopic composition of the geothermal fluid than temperature-corrected quartz data

Patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials of inhaled asthma medications: systematic review and research needs

Numerous validated PRO instruments are available but it is unclear why few are used in asthma clinical trials. Problems include poor reporting, and uncritical analysis and interpretation of PRO scores. Research needs include identifying and recommending a set of PROs for use in asthma clinical research and providing guidance for researchers on the application, analysis and interpretation of PRO measures in clinical trials

A rank based social norms model of how people judge their levels of drunkenness whilst intoxicated

Background: A rank based social norms model predicts that drinkers’ judgements about their drinking will be based on the rank of their breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the immediate environment, rather than their actual breath alcohol level, with lower relative rank associated with greater feelings of safety. This study tested this hypothesis and examined how people judge their levels of drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking whilst they are intoxicated in social drinking environments. Methods: Breath alcohol testing of 1,862 people (mean age = 26.96 years; 61.86 % male) in drinking environments. A subset (N = 400) also answered four questions asking about their perceptions of their drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking (plus background measures). Results: Perceptions of drunkenness and the health consequences of drinking were regressed on: (a) breath alcohol level, (b) the rank of the breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the same environment, and (c) covariates. Only rank of breath alcohol level predicted perceptions: How drunk they felt (b 3.78, 95 % CI 1.69 5.87), how extreme they regarded their drinking that night (b 3.7, 95 % CI 1.3 6.20), how at risk their long-term health was due to their current level of drinking (b 4.1, 95 % CI 0.2 8.0) and how likely they felt they would experience liver cirrhosis (b 4.8. 95 % CI 0.7 8.8). People were more influenced by more sober others than by more drunk others. Conclusion: Whilst intoxicated and in drinking environments, people base judgements regarding their drinking on how their level of intoxication ranks relative to that of others of the same gender around them, not on their actual levels of intoxication. Thus, when in the company of others who are intoxicated, drinkers were found to be more likely to underestimate their own level of drinking, drunkenness and associated risks. The implications of these results, for example that increasing the numbers of sober people in night time environments could improve subjective assessments of drunkenness, are discussed