The impact of study support : a report of a longitudinal study into the impact of participation in out-of-school-hours learning on the academic attainment, attitudes and school attendance of secondary school students

Study support makes a difference. It has an impact on three key aspects of students’ school careers: • attainment at GCSE and KS3 SATs; • attitudes to school; • attendance at school. These findings were consistent for all groups of students in all schools in the study. - Study support can help to improve schools and can influence the attitudes to learning of teachers and parents as well as students

Acceptability of prison-based take-home naloxone programmes among a cohort of incarcerated men with a history of regular injecting drug use

Background: Take-home naloxone (THN) programmes are an evidence-based opioid overdose prevention initiative. Elevated opioid overdose risk following prison release means release from custody provides an ideal opportunity for THN initiatives. However, whether Australian prisoners would utilise such programmes is unknown. We examined the acceptability of THN in a cohort of male prisoners with histories of regular injecting drug use (IDU) in Victoria, Australia. Methods: The sample comprised 380 men from the Prison and Transition Health (PATH) Cohort Study; all of whom reported regular IDU in the 6 months prior to incarceration. We asked four questions regarding THN during the pre-release baseline interview, including whether participants would be willing to participate in prison-based THN. We describe responses to these questions along with relationships between before- and during-incarceration factors and willingness to participate in THN training prior to release from prison. Results: Most participants (81%) reported willingness to undertake THN training prior to release. Most were willing to resuscitate a friend using THN if they were trained (94%) and to be revived by a trained peer (91%) using THN. More than 10 years since first injection (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.22, 95%CI 1.03-4.77), having witnessed an opioid overdose in the last 5 years (AOR 2.53, 95%CI 1.32-4.82), having ever received alcohol or other drug treatment in prison (AOR 2.41, 95%CI 1.14-5.07) and injecting drugs during the current prison sentence (AOR 4.45, 95%CI 1.73-11.43) were significantly associated with increased odds of willingness to participate in a prison THN programme. Not specifying whether they had injected during their prison sentence (AOR 0.37, 95%CI 0.18-0.77) was associated with decreased odds of willingness to participate in a prison THN training. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that male prisoners in Victoria with a history of regular IDU are overwhelmingly willing to participate in THN training prior to release. Factors associated with willingness to participate in prison THN programmes offer insights to help support the implementation and uptake of THN programmes to reduce opioid-overdose deaths in the post-release period

The Impact of Technostress on Users’ Responses to Security Warnings: A NeuroIS Study

Although technostress has clear implications for security behavior, little is known about how it influences the effectiveness of security warnings. The research objective of this study is to examine how responses to security warnings are affected by and may result in technostress. We use self-reported and neurophysiological (NeuroIS) measures in a series of laboratory experiments. In this study we use salivary stress hormones to measure stress, a leading method of measuring stress physiologically._x000D_ We expect our results will make several contributions. First, the methodological precision of physiological measures is likely to objectively show how technostress in the environment affects recipients’ processing of security warnings. Second, we intend to show how security warnings themselves induce stress in recipients. Finally, we anticipate that our findings will reveal under what conditions technostress improves responses to security warnings, and when it is detrimental. The findings of this study have potential to improve security practice._x000D

The interaction between safety culture and degraded modes: a survey of national infrastructures for air traffic management

This paper presents the initial results from a study into the interaction between safety culture and degraded modes of operation in European Air Traffic Management (ATM). Degraded modes occur when operators struggle to maintain levels of service eventhough key elements of their infrastructure have failed. Safety culture can be simply described as ‘the way safety is done around here’ – emphasizing that it is concerned with the realities of safety, and not necessarily what people say should be done. Although safety culture therefore deals necessarily with attitudes, beliefs and even feelings – so-called ‘soft’ phenomena – it does not mean that these are any less important than more objective and visible safety management artifacts such as standards and procedures, and so on. Poor safety culture is often linked to the causes of major accidents and incidents. Recent initiatives in ATM, including the European Safety Programme and its precursor, the Strategic Safety Action Plan, have also recognized that degraded modes of operation played a significant role in previous adverse events. Operators often reveal a high degree of tolerance for degraded infrastructures. There is a ‘can do’ attitude, whereby staff struggle to maintain operations when it might be more prudent to reduce the level of service or even close airspace in order to maintain levels of safety. The high level objectives of this project are: (1) to identify safety cultural aspects that influence tolerance to degraded modes and (2) to identify ‘best practices’ that Air Navigation Service Providers can apply to deal with degraded mode of operations

Urine output on an intensive care unit: case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare urine output between junior doctors in an intensive care unit and the patients for whom they are responsible. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: General intensive care unit in a tertiary referral hospital. PARTICIPANTS: 18 junior doctors responsible for clerking patients on weekday day shifts in the unit from 23 March to 23 April 2009 volunteered as "cases." Controls were the patients in the unit clerked by those doctors. Exclusion criteria (for both groups) were pregnancy, baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate <15 ml/min/1.73 m(2), and renal replacement therapy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Oliguria (defined as mean urine output <0.5 ml/kg/hour over six or more hours of measurement) and urine output (in ml/kg/hour) as a continuous variable. RESULTS: Doctors were classed as oliguric and "at risk" of acute kidney injury on 19 (22%) of 87 shifts in which urine output was measured, and oliguric to the point of being "in injury" on one (1%) further shift. Data were available for 208 of 209 controls matched to cases in the data collection period; 13 of these were excluded because the control was receiving renal replacement therapy. Doctors were more likely to be oliguric than their patients (odds ratio 1.99, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 3.68, P=0.03). For each additional 1 ml/kg/hour mean urine output, the odds ratio for being a case rather than a control was 0.27 (0.12 to 0.58, P=0.001). Mortality among doctors was astonishingly low, at 0% (0% to 18%). CONCLUSIONS: Managing our own fluid balance is more difficult than managing it in our patients. We should drink more water. Modifications to the criteria for acute kidney injury could be needed for the assessment of junior doctors in an intensive care unit

PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM A EUROPEAN SAFETY R&amp;D PROGRAM

Eurocontrol is the Agency concerned with the safety of air navigation in European airspace. It works with most European countries to help improve Air Traffic Management (ATM) and harmonize best practices, including those relating to safety. The research arm of Eurocontrol is based in its Experimental Centre (the EEC) near Bretigny, South of Paris, where future ATM concepts, including new airspace designs and tools to help augment controller performance and ATM efficiency, are explored. Research there is coordinated with Eurocontrol Headquarters (EHQ) in Brussels, as well as the Eurocontrol training Institute in Luxembourg, and Eurocontrol’s operational ATM centre in Maastricht. Following two severe accidents which involve

High rates of resumption of injecting drug use following release from prison among men who injected drugs before imprisonment.

AIMS: To estimate incidence of post-release injecting drug use (IDU) among men who injected drugs before imprisonment and determine factors associated with post-release IDU frequency. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: Prospective cohort study of men reporting monthly IDU before a period of sentenced imprisonment in Victoria, Australia, recruited between September 2014 and May 2016 (n = 195). MEASUREMENTS: Any post-release IDU and IDU frequency was measured via self-report at 3-month follow-up interview. IDU frequency, measured over the preceding month, was categorised as no IDU, irregular IDU (1-4 days IDU) and regular IDU (≥5 days IDU). Incidence of any IDU was calculated at 3 months post-release. Factors associated with IDU frequency were estimated using ordinal logistic regression. FINDINGS: Most (83%) participants reported post-release IDU; with half (48%) reporting regular IDU, 23% irregular IDU and 29% no IDU in the month preceding follow-up. Poorer psychological well-being at follow-up and post-release unemployment were associated with increased IDU frequency. Retention in opioid agonist treatment was associated with reduced IDU frequency. Non-linear (inverted-u) associations between IDU frequency and age and pre-imprisonment IDU frequency were found, with odds peaking at age 39 and 19 days IDU, respectively. Longer baseline sentence length was associated with reduced odds of irregular and regular IDU. CONCLUSION: Among Australian men who inject drugs before imprisonment, resumption of injecting drug use after release from prison appears to be common, with imprisonment seeming to have little impact on reducing injecting drug use behaviour