Encouraging password manager adoption by meeting adopter self-determination needs

Password managers are a potential solution to the password conundrum, but adoption is paltry. We investigated the impact of a recommender application that harnessed the tenets of self-determination theory to encourage adoption of password managers. This theory argues that meeting a person's autonomy, relatedness and competence needs will make them more likely to act. To test the power of meeting these needs, we conducted a factorial experiment, in the wild. We satisfied each of the three self determination factors, and all individual combinations thereof, and observed short-term adoption of password managers. The Android recommender application was used by 470 participants, who were randomly assigned to one of the experimental or control conditions. Our analysis revealed that when all self-determination factors were satisfied, adoption was highest, while meeting only the autonomy or relatedness needs individually significantly improved the likelihood of adoption

Winter and Spring Cereal Production in the Maritimes

Organic producers have expressed an interest in diversifying their crop rotations through the inclusion of winter cereals. Winter cereals have many potential benefits, as they provide soil cover over the winter months, can often out-compete weeds in the spring and can be harvested earlier than other cereal crops. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of management history on the performance of winter cereals versus spring cereals

Investigating the tension between cloud-related actors and individual privacy rights

Historically, little more than lip service has been paid to the rights of individuals to act to preserve their own privacy. Personal information is frequently exploited for commercial gain, often without the person’s knowledge or permission. New legislation, such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation Act, has acknowledged the need for legislative protection. This Act places the onus on service providers to preserve the confidentiality of their users’ and customers’ personal information, on pain of punitive fines for lapses. It accords special privileges to users, such as the right to be forgotten. This regulation has global jurisdiction covering the rights of any EU resident, worldwide. Assuring this legislated privacy protection presents a serious challenge, which is exacerbated in the cloud environment. A considerable number of actors are stakeholders in cloud ecosystems. Each has their own agenda and these are not necessarily well aligned. Cloud service providers, especially those offering social media services, are interested in growing their businesses and maximising revenue. There is a strong incentive for them to capitalise on their users’ personal information and usage information. Privacy is often the first victim. Here, we examine the tensions between the various cloud actors and propose a framework that could be used to ensure that privacy is preserved and respected in cloud systems

Universal, school-based interventions to promote mental and emotional wellbeing. What is being done in the UK and does it work? A systematic review

Objectives: The present review aimed to assess the quality, content and evidence of efficacy of universally delivered (to all pupils aged 5–16 years), school-based, mental health interventions designed to promote mental health/well-being and resilience, using a validated outcome measure and provided within the UK in order to inform UK schools-based well-being implementation. Design: A systematic review of published literature set within UK mainstream school settings. Data sources: Embase, CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PsychArticles, ASSIA and Psychological and Behavioural Sciences published between 2000 and April 2016. Eligibility criteria: Published in English; universal interventions that aimed to improve mental health/ emotional well-being in a mainstream school environment; school pupils were the direct recipients of the intervention; pre-post design utilised allowing comparison using a validated outcome measure. Data extraction and synthesis: 12 studies were identified including RCTs and non-controlled pre-post designs (5 primary school based, 7 secondary school based). A narrative synthesis was applied with study quality check.1 Results: Effectiveness of school-based universal interventions was found to be neutral or small with more positive effects found for poorer quality studies and those based in primary schools (pupils aged 9–12 years). Studies varied widely in their use of measures and study design. Only four studies were rated ‘excellent’ quality. Methodological issues such as small sample size, varying course fidelity and lack of randomisation reduced overall study quality. Where there were several positive outcomes, effect sizes were small, and methodological issues rendered many results to be interpreted with caution. Overall, results suggested a trend whereby higher quality studies reported less positive effects. The only study that conducted a health economic analysis suggested the intervention was not cost-effective. Conclusions: The current evidence suggests there are neutral to small effects of universal, school-based interventions in the UK that aim to promote emotional or mental well-being or the prevention of mental health difficulties. Robust, long-term methodologies need to be pursued ensuring adequate recording of fidelity, the use of validated measures sensitive to mechanisms of change, reporting of those lost to follow-up and any adverse effects. Further high-quality and large-scale research is required across the UK in order to robustly test any longterm benefits for pupils or on the wider educational or health system

Production de cérérales d'hiver et de printemps dans les Maritimes

Des producteurs d’aliments biologiques souhaitent étendre la rotation de leurs cultures en ajoutant les céréales d’hiver à leur production. Les céréales d’hiver peuvent offrir bien des avantages : elles peuvent servir de couverture de sol durant les mois d’hiver, faire concurrence aux mauvaises herbes au printemps et être récoltées plus tôt par rapport à d’autres types de céréales. La présente étude vise à évaluer l’incidence de l’historique de gestion de cultures sur le rendement des céréales d’hiver par rapport aux céréales du printemps

Health inequalities and health equity challenges for victims of modern slavery

AbstractBackgroundModern slavery is a serious organized crime, with severe consequences for the physical and mental health of victims, and so has public health implications. Anecdotally many victims of sex slavery experience difficulties accessing healthcare. Public Health England recently articulated the importance of health engagement to address modern slavery but little is known about the experiences of the survivors.MethodsWe conducted in depth interviews with Albanian female survivors of sex slavery who all displayed significant and complex health needs. Interviews were conducted between July 2017 and January 2018. Thematic analysis identified four primary themes: (i) barriers to access, (ii) negotiating access, (iii) health needs and care received and (iv) overall experience of primary care.ResultsSurvivors experienced repeated challenges accessing healthcare, for themselves and their children, and initially could not access GP services. When accompanied by an advocate they reported qualitatively and quantitatively improved experiences resulting in improved permeability. Confusion surrounding eligibility criteria and a lack of understanding of modern slavery emerged as the primary barriers, fueling biased adjudications.ConclusionsThe importance of advocates, enabling rights-based approaches, improving understanding about access to health services for vulnerable groups, and a need for education across health service settings are discussed

A universally delivered CBT based intervention in a Scottish secondary school: a pilot feasibility study

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of a universally delivered CBT-based programme for pupils within a Scottish secondary school setting. Design: A pre-post, within and between groups design was utilised. Setting: Religious Moral Citizenship and Education (RMCE) classes in a Scottish secondary school. Participants: Four (n = 103) classes of third year secondary school pupils were arbitrarily allocated to two conditions: RMCE-as usual (RMCE-AU) controls, and LLTTF intervention. Intervention: Living Life to the Full (LLTTF) is a series of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)-based booklets and accompanying 8 classes to improve coping skills. An adolescent version of LLTTF was recently developed. This was delivered over nine weeks by school teachers trained in the approach. Outcome measures: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Locus of Control scale were administered at baseline and 9 week follow-up. To determine acceptability and utility of the materials course feedback was gathered weekly from the intervention group and a focus group (n=5) was conducted at 3 month follow up. Results: Outcome measures showed no significant improvement in overall wellbeing of those in the intervention group compared with that of the control group. Weekly feedback suggested that the majority of pupils found the materials useful and relevant. Focus group feedback suggested that pupils found the intervention useful, had utilised strategies in everyday life and would welcome recurring provision of such interventions within the school setting. Conclusions: Universally delivered CBT intervention is acceptable and feasible within the secondary school environment. However, objective measurement using standardised tools does not adequately corroborate qualitative feedback from pupils. Issues relating to measurement, study design and implementation of future interventions are discussed

Peptide immunotherapy for childhood allergy - addressing translational challenges

Allergic sensitisation usually begins early in life. The number of allergens a patient is sensitised to can increase over time and the development of additional allergic conditions is increasingly recognised. Targeting allergic disease in childhood is thus likely to be the most efficacious means of reducing the overall burden of allergic disease. Specific immunotherapy involves administering protein allergen to tolerise allergen reactive CD4+ T cells, thought key in driving allergic responses. Yet specific immunotherapy risks allergic reactions including anaphylaxis as a consequence of preformed allergen-specific IgE antibodies binding to the protein, subsequent cross-linking and mast cell degranulation. CD4+ T cells direct their responses to short "immunodominant" peptides within the allergen. Such peptides can be given therapeutically to induce T cell tolerance without facilitating IgE cross-linking. Peptide immunotherapy (PIT) offers attractive treatment potential for allergic disease. However, PIT has not yet been shown to be effective in children. This review discusses the immunological mechanisms implicated in PIT and briefly covers outcomes from adult PIT trials. This provides a context for discussion of the challenges for the application of PIT, both generally and more specifically in relation to children

Peptide immunotherapy in models of allergic airways disease

Allergen-reactive CD4+ T cells are implicated in the pathogenesis of allergic disease. Peptide immunotherapy (PIT) involves therapeutic administration of short immunodominant peptides from within the protein allergen to which CD4+ T cell responses are directed. This approach can induce tolerance of allergen-reactive CD4+ T cells, while negating the risk of severe allergic reactions associated with whole allergen specific immunotherapy. PIT therefore holds promise as a diseasemodifying treatment for allergic patients. However, further information regarding the mechanisms of action of PIT are required to aid translation to the allergy clinic. Chicken ovalbumin (OVA) is a commonly used model allergen in mouse models of allergic airways inflammation (AAI). Trackable, T cell receptor transgenic T cells recognizing the immunodominant 323-339 peptide of OVA (pOVA) allow mechanistic investigation of PIT in response to pOVA. This thesis investigated the hypothesis that strong, systemic T cell responses induced by intravenous administration of soluble pOVA will induce i) tolerance to pOVA and ii) linked suppression to any additional OVA T cell epitopes, hence improving OVA-induced AAI. Contrary to the hypothesis, intravenous pOVA PIT did not improve disease in a C57BL/6 model of OVA-induced AAI. Models of OVA-induced allergic sensitisation and AAI were therefore developed incorporating trackable CD4+ pOVA-reactive T cells (OT-II cells). pOVA PIT induced tolerance of these cells in an allergic sensitisation setting, but had limited impact on the overall OVA response. Yet, in a model of AAI driven solely by Th2 polarised CD4+ OT-II cells, pOVA PIT did improve disease. It was concluded that, in non-transgenic C57BL/6 mice, CD4+ T cells responding to additional epitope(s) within OVA were important in driving disease and that these T cells were not subject to linked suppression following pOVA PIT. Using a panel of overlapping peptides constituting the sequence of OVA, a novel CD4+ epitope within OVA was characterised. The effects of PIT using pOVA in combination with a peptide containing this additional epitope on OVA-induced AAI were then assessed. Findings from this project therefore hold importance for future mechanistic work surrounding PIT in allergic disease