The involvement of nurses and midwives in screening and brief interventions for hazardous and harmful use of alcohol and other psychoactive substances

This report provides details of a review of the literature on the involvement of nurses and midwives in screening and brief interventions for hazardous and harmful use of alcohol and other psychoactive substances

Open Design & Citizen-Centered Innovation at Tate Exchange 2019

A case study report about the EU Open Design and Manufacturing (OD&M) project at Tate Exchange, in association with the University of the Arts London (UAL) Digital Maker Collective (DMC) and Beta Society. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. Since September 2018 the Digital Maker Collective (DMC), a group of University of the Arts London (UAL) staff, students, alumni, have been developing a project titled ‘Beta Society’. The project aimed to establish an open and collaborative community to raise awareness and support greater diversity and equality of opportunity in technology, education and the arts. Beta Society is a collaboration between the DMC and community/industry partners (see below) that supports projects exploring the impacts of technology on society. Working across public, private and industry sectors, it champions diversity and equality of opportunity in the technology industries, education and the arts. This case study highlights the contribution of the Open Design and Manufacturing Project to the development of Beta Society and the launch event at the Tate Exchange (5-10 March 2019). Beta Society has been developed in collaboration with the project partners

Robotic geometric and volumetric inspection of high value and large scale aircraft wings

Increased demands in performance and production rates require a radical new approach to the design and manufacturing of aircraft wings. Performance of modern robotic manipulators has enabled research and development of fast automated non-destructive testing (NDT) systems for complex geometries. This paper presents recent outcomes of work aimed at removing the bottleneck due to data acquisition rates, to fully exploit the scanning speed of modern 6-DoF manipulators. The geometric assessment of the parts is carried out with a robotised dynamic laser scanner encoded through an absolute laser tracker. This method allows scanning speeds up to 330mm/s at 1mm pitch. State of the art ultrasonic instrumentation has been integrated into a large robot cell to enable fast data acquisition, high scan resolutions and accurate positional encoding. A fibre optic connection between the ultrasonic instrument and the server computer enables data transfer rates up to 1.6 GB/s. The robotic inspection system presented herein is currently being tested for industrial exploitation. The adopted system integration strategies allow traditional ultrasonic phased array scanning as well as full matrix capture (FMC) and other novel scanning approaches (e.g. multi-Tx phased array). Scan results, relative to a 1.2m x 3m carbon fibre sample, are presented. The system shows a reference scanning rate of 25.3m2/hour with an 8Tx/8Rx PA approach and an ultrasonically reachable scanning rate over 100m2/hour with the novel techniques

The effect of distance on reaction time in aiming movements

Target distance affects movement duration in aiming tasks but its effect on reaction time (RT) is poorly documented. RT is a function of both preparation and initiation. Experiment 1 pre-cued movement (allowing advanced preparation) and found no influence of distance on RT. Thus, target distance does not affect initiation time. Experiment 2 removed pre-cue information and found that preparing a movement of increased distance lengthens RT. Experiment 3 explored movements to targets of cued size at non-cued distances and found size altered peak speed and movement duration but RT was influenced by distance alone. Thus, amplitude influences preparation time (for reasons other than altered duration) but not initiation time. We hypothesise that the RT distance effect might be due to the increased number of possible trajectories associated with further targets: a hypothesis that can be tested in future experiments

Robotic geometric and volumetric inspection of high value and large scale aircraft wings

Increased demands in performance and production rates require a radical new approach to the design and manufacturing of aircraft wings. Performance of modern robotic manipulators has enabled research and development of fast automated non-destructive testing (NDT) systems for complex geometries. This paper presents recent outcomes of work aimed at removing the bottleneck due to data acquisition rates, to fully exploit the scanning speed of modern 6-DoF manipulators. The geometric assessment of the parts is carried out with a robotised dynamic laser scanner encoded through an absolute laser tracker. This method allows scanning speeds up to 330mm/s at 1mm pitch. State of the art ultrasonic instrumentation has been integrated into a large robot cell to enable fast data acquisition, high scan resolutions and accurate positional encoding. A fibre optic connection between the ultrasonic instrument and the server computer enables data transfer rates up to 1.6 GB/s. The robotic inspection system presented herein is currently being tested for industrial exploitation. The adopted system integration strategies allow traditional ultrasonic phased array scanning as well as full matrix capture (FMC) and other novel scanning approaches (e.g. multi-Tx phased array). Scan results, relative to a 1.2m x 3m carbon fibre sample, are presented. The system shows a reference scanning rate of 25.3m2/hour with an 8Tx/8Rx PA approach and an ultrasonically reachable scanning rate over 100m2/hour with the novel techniques

Antibody correlates of protection from SARS-CoV-2 reinfection prior to vaccination : a nested case-control within the SIREN study

Funding: This study was supported by the U.K. Health Security Agency, the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care (with contributions from the governments in Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland), the National Institute for Health Research, and grant from the UK Medical Research Council (grant number MR/W02067X/1). This work was supported by the Francis Crick Institute which receives its core funding from Cancer Research UK (CC2087, CC1283), the UK Medical Research Council (CC2087, CC1283), and the Wellcome Trust (CC2087, CC1283).Objectives To investigate serological differences between SARS-CoV-2 reinfection cases and contemporary controls, to identify antibody correlates of protection against reinfection. Methods We performed a case-control study, comparing reinfection cases with singly infected individuals pre-vaccination, matched by gender, age, region and timing of first infection. Serum samples were tested for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike (anti-S), anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (anti-N), live virus microneutralisation (LV-N) and pseudovirus microneutralisation (PV-N). Results were analysed using fixed effect linear regression and fitted into conditional logistic regression models. Results We identified 23 cases and 92 controls. First infections occurred before November 2020; reinfections occurred before February 2021, pre-vaccination. Anti-S levels, LV-N and PV-N titres were significantly lower among cases; no difference was found for anti-N levels. Increasing anti-S levels were associated with reduced risk of reinfection (OR 0·63, CI 0·47-0·85), but no association for anti-N levels (OR 0·88, CI 0·73-1·05). Titres >40 were correlated with protection against reinfection for LV-N Wuhan (OR 0·02, CI 0·001–0·31) and LV-N Alpha (OR 0·07, CI 0·009–0·62). For PV-N, titres >100 were associated with protection against Wuhan (OR 0·14, CI 0·03–0·64) and Alpha (0·06, CI 0·008–0·40). Conclusions Before vaccination, protection against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection was directly correlated with anti-S levels, PV-N and LV-N titres, but not with anti-N levels. Detectable LV-N titres were sufficient for protection, whilst PV-N titres >100 were required for a protective effect. Trial registration number ISRCTN11041050Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Internet-based interventions for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease

Background The Internet could provide a means of delivering secondary prevention programmes to people with coronary heart disease (CHD). Objectives To determine the effectiveness of Internet-based interventions targeting lifestyle changes and medicines management for the secondary prevention of CHD. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, in December 2014. We also searched six other databases in October 2014, and three trials registers in January 2015 together with reference checking and handsearching to identify additional studies. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating Internet-delivered secondary prevention interventions aimed at people with CHD. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently assessed risk of bias and extracted data according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. We assessed evidence quality using the GRADE approach and presented this in a 'Summary of findings' table