Cost of delivering the early education entitlement : Research report

© Nigel Lloyd NLH Partnership Ltd

Editorial: Back to the future

Editorial introducing a change in Editorship by looking back at the journal's history, and forwards to its future

Support for Children’s Protagonism: Methodological Moves towards Critical Children Rights Research Framed from Below

With notable exceptions, there is a lack of critique in existing approaches to children’s rights based research. Where children’s rights research is also co-research with children, a critical approach requires that children are enabled to challenge assumptions about, and definitions of, rights, as well as to lead the process and to try to bring about change. This paper argues that creative methods and structured intergenerational dialogue can support critical children rights research ‘from below’. We illustrate this approach using research by disabled children and young people, who reflected on their own experiences and the provisions of three international Conventions (UNCRC, UNCRPD and ICESCR). Effectively engaging with existing international Conventions meant matching children’s claims to rights in their everyday contexts with existing rights provisions. This framework was then used to analyse qualitative research with other disabled children and their families. The young co-researchers are now using the findings in their protagonism for social change

Protein disulfide isomerase acts as an injury response signal that enhances fibrin generation via tissue factor activation

The activation of initiator protein tissue factor (TF) is likely to be a crucial step in the blood coagulation process, which leads to fibrin formation. The stimuli responsible for inducing TF activation are largely undefined. Here we show that the oxidoreductase protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) directly promotes TF-dependent fibrin production during thrombus formation in vivo. After endothelial denudation of mouse carotid arteries, PDI was released at the injury site from adherent platelets and disrupted vessel wall cells. Inhibition of PDI decreased TF-triggered fibrin formation in different in vivo murine models of thrombus formation, as determined by intravital fluorescence microscopy. PDI infusion increased — and, under conditions of decreased platelet adhesion, PDI inhibition reduced — fibrin generation at the injury site, indicating that PDI can directly initiate blood coagulation. In vitro, human platelet–secreted PDI contributed to the activation of cryptic TF on microvesicles (microparticles). Mass spectrometry analyses indicated that part of the extracellular cysteine 209 of TF was constitutively glutathionylated. Mixed disulfide formation contributed to maintaining TF in a state of low functionality. We propose that reduced PDI activates TF by isomerization of a mixed disulfide and a free thiol to an intramolecular disulfide. Our findings suggest that disulfide isomerases can act as injury response signals that trigger the activation of fibrin formation following vessel injury

Derivation of a needs based capitation formula for allocation prescribing budgets

This document reports the results of a study commissioned by the NHS Executive to examine the determinants of the NHS practice level prescribing expenditures. The purpose was to develop a needs based capitation formula for allocating annually approximately £4.5 billion of NHS revenues to Health Authorities and thence Primary Care Groups in England. The work was reported to the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation and their technical advisory sub-group, TAG. The methods and modelling were therefore subject to a great deal of scrutiny with various sensitivity tests and alternative model specifications being proposed at almost every stage. This has resulted in the development of a robust model, but also explains some of the “stop-go” nature of the analysis reported in the text. The report sets out the background to the study, describes the data on which it is based, explains the statistical methodology used, and presents the finding. The implications for revenue allocations to Primary Care Groups are not discussed in this report.prescribing expenditure

CWRML: representing crop wild relative conservation and use data in XML

Background Crop wild relatives are wild species that are closely related to crops. They are valuable as potential gene donors for crop improvement and may help to ensure food security for the future. However, they are becoming increasingly threatened in the wild and are inadequately conserved, both in situ and ex situ. Information about the conservation status and utilisation potential of crop wild relatives is diverse and dispersed, and no single agreed standard exists for representing such information; yet, this information is vital to ensure these species are effectively conserved and utilised. The European Community-funded project, European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum, determined the minimum information requirements for the conservation and utilisation of crop wild relatives and created the Crop Wild Relative Information System, incorporating an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema to aid data sharing and exchange. Results Crop Wild Relative Markup Language (CWRML) was developed to represent the data necessary for crop wild relative conservation and ensure that they can be effectively utilised for crop improvement. The schema partitions data into taxon-, site-, and population-specific elements, to allow for integration with other more general conservation biology schemata which may emerge as accepted standards in the future. These elements are composed of sub-elements, which are structured in order to facilitate the use of the schema in a variety of crop wild relative conservation and use contexts. Pre-existing standards for data representation in conservation biology were reviewed and incorporated into the schema as restrictions on element data contents, where appropriate. Conclusion CWRML provides a flexible data communication format for representing in situ and ex situ conservation status of individual taxa as well as their utilisation potential. The development of the schema highlights a number of instances where additional standards-development may be valuable, particularly with regard to the representation of population-specific data and utilisation potential. As crop wild relatives are intrinsically no different to other wild plant species there is potential for the inclusion of CWRML data elements in the emerging standards for representation of biodiversity data

Whole Systems Approach to Diet and Healthy Weight – A longitudinal Process Evaluation in East Scotland

© Royal Society for Public Health 2023. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Aims: Obesity contributes to morbidity and early mortality, affecting people of all ages and socio-demographic backgrounds. Despite attempts to address obesity, efforts to date have only had limited success. Adopting a Whole Systems Approach (WSA) may potentially address obesity and emphasises complex inter-relating factors beyond individual choice. This study aimed to assess implementation of WSA to diet and healthy weight in two council areas of Scotland, longitudinally exploring enablers and barriers. One area followed a Leeds Beckett WSA model (LBM) of implementation, while the other used a hybrid model incorporating existing working systems. Methods: To assess the process of implementing a WSA, interviews and focus groups were conducted after initiation and one year later. Results: Main enablers included: belief in WSA effectiveness; positive relationships between key personnel; buying at community and national levels; funding availability; the working group responsible for coordinating the system development comprising individuals with diverse expertise; good communication; and existing governance structures. Barriers included: insufficient funding; high staff turnover; inadequate training in WSA methodology; engaging all relevant stakeholders and reverting to ‘old ways’ of non-WSA working. The LBM provided a framework for system setup and generating an action plan. Conclusion: This study provides the first independent longitudinal process evaluation of WSAs that have incorporated Leeds Beckett methodology, and offers insights into how a WSA can be implemented to address diet and healthy weight.Peer reviewe