Some aspects of the sedimentology of the superficial deposits of the Eden estuary, Fife

Little attention has previously boon given to the sediments of the Eden estuary, Fife, Scotland. This research was performed in order to identify, delineate and account for the observed sedimentary facies in the superficial sediments of the intertidal zone

Responses to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Australia

Perception of risk affects compliance with public health control measures

Household disaster preparedness and information sources: Rapid cluster survey after a storm in New South Wales, Australia

Background: A storm-related disaster in New South Wales, Australia in June 2007 caused infrastructure damage, interrupted essential services, and presented major public health risks. We investigated household disaster preparedness and information sources used before and during the disaster.\ud \ud Methods: Rapid cluster survey of 320 randomly selected households in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.\ud \ud Results: 227 households (71%) responded to the survey. By the day before the storm, 48% (95%CI 40–57%) of households were aware of a storm warning, principally through television (67%; 58–75%) and radio (57%; 49–66%) announcements. Storm preparations were made by 42% (28–56%) of these households.\ud \ud Storm information sources included: radio (78%; 68–88%); family, friends, colleagues and neighbours (50%; 40–60%); and television (41%; 30–52%). Radio was considered more useful than television (62%; 51–73% vs. 29%; 18–40%), even in households where electricity supply was uninterrupted (52%; 31–73% vs. 41%; 20–63%).\ud \ud Only 23% (16–30%) of households were aware that the local government-operated radio network has a designated communication role during disasters. A battery-operated household radio and appropriate batteries were available in 42% (34–50%) of households, while only 23% (16–29%) had all of: a torch, battery-operated radio, appropriate batteries, mobile phone, emergency contact list and first aid equipment.\ud \ud Conclusion: Broadcast media are important information sources immediately before and during disasters. Health services should promote awareness of broadcast networks' disaster role, especially the role of radio, and encourage general household disaster preparedness. A rapid cluster survey conducted shortly after a natural disaster provided practical, robust information for disaster planning

Canadian Approaches to Optimizing Quality of Administrative Data for Health System Use, Research, and Linkage

Theme: Data and Linkage Quality Objectives: • To define health data quality from clinical, data science, and health system perspectives • To describe some of the international best practices related to quality and how they are being applied to Canada’s administrative health data. • To compare methods for health data quality assessment and improvement in Canada (automated logical checks, chart quality indicators, reabstraction studies, coding manager perspectives) • To highlight how data linkage can be used to provide new insights into the quality of original data sources • To highlight current international initiatives for improving coded data quality including results from current ICD-11 field trials Dr. Keith Denny: Director of Clinical Data Standards and Quality, Canadian Insititute for Health Information (CIHI), Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON. He provides leadership for CIHI’s information quality initiatives and for the development and application of clinical classifications and terminology standards. Maureen Kelly: Manager of Information Quality at CIHI, Ottawa, ON. She leads CIHI’s corporate quality program that is focused on enhancing the quality of CIHI’s data sources and information products and to fostering CIHI’s quality culture. Dr. Cathy Eastwood: Scientific Manager, Associate Director of Alberta SPOR Methods & Development Platform, Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. She has expertise in clinical data collection, evaluation of local and systemic data quality issues, disease classification coding with ICD-10 and ICD-11. Dr. Hude Quan: Professor, Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Director Alberta SPOR Methods Platform; Co-Chair of Hypertension Canada, Co-Chair of Person to Population Health Collaborative of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute in Calgary, AB. He has expertise in assessing, validating, and linking administrative data sources for conducting data science research including artificial intelligence methods for evaluating and improving data quality. Intended Outcomes: “What is quality health data?” The panel of experts will address this common question by discussing how to define high quality health data, and measures being taken to ensure that they are available in Canada. Optimizing the quality of clinical-administrative data, and their use-value, first requires an understanding of the processes used to create the data. Subsequently, we can address the limitations in data collection and use these data for diverse applications. Current advances in digital data collection are providing more solutions to improve health data quality at lower cost. This panel will describe a number of quality assessment and improvement initiatives aimed at ensuring that health data are fit for a range of secondary uses including data linkage. It will also discuss how the need for the linkage and integration of data sources can influence the views of the data source’s fitness for use. CIHI content will include: • Methods for optimizing the value of clinical-administrative data • CIHI Information Quality Framework • Reabstraction studies (e.g. physician documentation/coders’ experiences) • Linkage analytics for data quality University of Calgary content will include: • Defining/measuring health data quality • Automated methods for quality assessment and improvement • ICD-11 features and coding practices • Electronic health record initiative

Cross sectional survey of human-bat interaction in Australia: public health implications

Background Flying foxes (megachiroptera) and insectivorous microbats (microchiroptera) are the known reservoirs for a range of recently emerged, highly pathogenic viruses. In Australia there is public health concern relating to bats\u27 role as reservoirs of Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV), which has clinical features identical to classical rabies. Three deaths from ABLV have occurred in Australia. A survey was conducted to determine the frequency of bat exposures amongst adults in Australia\u27s most populous state, New South Wales; explore reasons for handling bats; examine reported practices upon encountering injured or trapped bats or experiencing bat bites or scratches; and investigate knowledge of bat handling warnings. Methods A representative sample of 821 New South Wales adults aged 16 years and older were interviewed during May and June 2011, using a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) method. Frequencies, proportions and statistical differences in proportion were performed. Using an alpha-value of 0.05 and power of 80%, it was calculated that a sample size of 800 was required to provide statistical significance of +/- 5% for dichotomous variables. Results One-hundred-and-twenty-seven (15.5%) respondents indicated that they had previously handled a bat, being 22% (48/218) rural and 13% (78/597) urban respondents (chi2 = 9.8, p = 0.0018). Twenty one percent of males (63/304) had handled bats compared with 12% (64/517) of females (chi2 = 10.2, p = 0.0014). Overall, 42.0% (n = 345) of respondents reported having seen or heard a warning about handling bats. If faced with an injured or trapped bat, 25% (206/821) indicated that they would handle the bat, with 17% (36/206) saying that they would use their bare hands. For minor scratches, 14% (117/821) indicated that they would ignore the injury while four respondents would ignore major scratches or bites. Conclusions Previous human-bat interactions were relatively common. Bat exposures most frequently occurred with sick or injured bats, which have the highest risk of ABLV. On encountering an injured or sick bat, potentially high risk practices were commonly reported, particularly among rural males. It is important to understand why people still handle bats despite public health warnings to inform future communication strategies

Surveillance system enhancements for Q fever in NSW, 2005-2015.

Q fever remains an important notifiable, zoonotic disease in Australia. Previous epidemiological reviews have noted increased importance of non-abattoir contact with livestock and native/feral animals. Changes to surveillance in New South Wales (NSW) have provided enhanced surveillance data with which to examine exposure pathways. Descriptive analysis of NSW Q fever notification data for the period 2005-2015, with detailed analysis of exposures for the period 2011-2015 (after introduction of improvements to surveillance). Between 2005 and 2015, 1,653 confirmed cases of Q fever were notified in NSW residents who acquired the disease in this state. For the period 2011-2015, a high-risk occupation was reported in 345/660 (52.3%) of notifications with a known occupation. Of 641 cases with a known animal exposure, 345 (53.8%) had direct contact with livestock, while 62 (9.7%) had indirect contact with livestock (e.g. proximity to livestock, livestock holding areas or trucks). Direct or indirect contact with native/feral animals was reported in 111/641 (17.3%) cases. Mowing and close proximity to kangaroos/wallabies were commonly reported indirect exposure pathways, particularly in urban areas. Enhancements to the state based surveillance database in NSW introduced in 2010 have resulted in improved collection of surveillance data for Q fever. Further refinement of Q fever surveillance can be achieved through continuing to improve data quality, standardising data collection and better elucidating exposure pathways of cases

ESA Nanosatellites for D3S (Distributed Space Weather Sensor System)

In early 2021, SSTL was selected to be the prime contractor for an ongoing 18 month ESA-funded Phase 0/A study titled “SSA P3-SWE-LIII Nanosatellites for D3S”. The objective of the study is to assess the feasibility of using nanosatellites for future operational space weather monitoring missions as part of ESA's Distributed Space Weather Sensor System (D3S). The Phase 0 study initially involved an analysis of science measurement requirements and space weather instruments as well as an analysis of recent relevant nanosatellite missions and nanosatellite technologies which could be used on future ESA D3S Nanosatellites. This was followed by an initial trade-off of a range of high-level mission architecture concepts, eventually converging down to two mission architecture concepts proposed for further analysis during the remainder of the Phase 0 study. The aim of the first mission architecture concept is to provide near-real time measurements of radiation, thermal plasma and Ionospheric neutrals/plasma, via a constellation of 20x SSTL-21 satellites. The objective of the second mission architecture concept is to provide near-real time measurements of radiation, the Ionosphere and the Thermosphere, via a constellation of 6x 16U SSTL-Cube satellites. ESA selected the second mission architecture concept to take through into the Phase A study. This paper will mainly describe the details of the Phase 0 study, as well as touching on the current status of the Phase A study

English secondary students’ thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just ‘an idea someone has’

Teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is seen as a priority for science education in many national contexts. The present paper focuses on one central issue in learning about NOS: understanding the nature and status of scientific theories. A key challenge in teaching about NOS is to persuade students that scientific knowledge is generally robust and reliable, yet also in principle always open to challenge and modification. Theories play a central role, as they are a form of conjectural knowledge that over time may be abandoned, replaced, modified, yet sometimes become well established as current best scientific understanding. The present paper reports on findings from interviews with 13–14 year olds in England where target knowledge presents theories as ‘consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world’. Student thinking reflected a two-tier typology of scientific knowledge in which largely unsupported imaginative ideas (‘theories’) became transformed into fairly definitive knowledge (such as laws) through relatively straightforward testing. These results are considered in relation to research into intellectual development which indicates that effective teaching in this area requires careful scaffolding of student learning, but has potential to contribute to supporting intellectual development across the curriculum.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2015.104392

A global phylogeny of butterflies reveals their evolutionary history, ancestral hosts and biogeographic origins

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera. Our phylogeny has strong support for nearly all nodes and demonstrates that at least 36 butterfly tribes require reclassification. Divergence time analyses imply an origin similar to 100 million years ago for butterflies and indicate that all but one family were present before the K/Pg extinction event. We aggregated larval host datasets and global distribution records and found that butterflies are likely to have first fed on Fabaceae and originated in what is now the Americas. Soon after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, butterflies crossed Beringia and diversified in the Palaeotropics. Our results also reveal that most butterfly species are specialists that feed on only one larval host plant family. However, generalist butterflies that consume two or more plant families usually feed on closely related plants