Theology at the coal-face of hospitalisation - the development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in Healthcare Chaplaincy

Healthcare chaplaincy is working towards recognition as a registered health profession. An accredited programme of professional education is part of that process. The University of Glasgow supported by NHS Education for Scotland have developed a programme of professional education for healthcare chaplains that is integrated into an MSc. (MedSci) in healthcare. This article outlines the commissioning, development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in healthcare chaplaincy by students, clinical mentors and experienced healthcare chaplains. It also highlights an innovative approach to practice development in spiritual and religious care in healthcare

Towards an expanded model of litigation

Introduction: The call for contributions for this workshop describes the important new challenges for the legal search community this domain brings. Rather than just understanding the challenges this domain poses in terms of their technical properties, we would like to suggest that understanding these challenges as socio-technical challenges will be important. That is, as well as calling for research on a technical level to address these challenges we are also calling for work to understand the social practices of those involved in e-discovery (ED) and related legal work. A particularly interesting feature of this field is that it is likely that search technologies will (at least semi-)automate responsiveness review in the relatively near term and this will change the way that the work is organised and done in many ways – offering new possibilities for new ways of organising the work. As well as designing those technologies for automating responsiveness review we need to be envisioning how the work will be done in the future, how these technologies will impact the organisation of the case and so on. In this position paper we therefore outline the importance of understanding the wider social context of ED when designing tools and technologies to support and change the work. We would like to reinforce and expand on Conrad’s call for IR researchers to understand just what ED entails [2], include the stages that come both before and after core retrieval activities. The importance of considering the social aspects of work in the design of the technology has been established for some time. Ushering in this ‘turn to the social,’ and focusing on interface design, Gentner and Grudin [4] described how the GUI has already changed from an interface for engineers, representing the engineering model of the machine to one that supported single ‘everyman’ users (based on ideas from psychology). From then onwards the interface has evolved to support groups of users, taking into account the social and organisational contexts of use. This has particular resonance for the design of ED technologies: during ED in particular and the wider legal process there are often many lawyers involved – reviewing documents, determining issues, etc. Even if the way that their work is organised currently is not seen as collaborative in the traditional sense – with individual lawyers working on individual document sets to review them - their work needs to be coordinated and it seems likely that their work could be enhanced by, for example, knowledge of what their colleagues had found, how the case was shaping up, new key terms and facts turned up and so on. Work is often modelled for the purposes of design using process models, but this misses out on the richness and variety actually found when one examines how the work is carried out [3]. Technologies which strictly enforce the process models can often hinder the work, or end up being worked around as was the case with workflow systems since people interpret processes very flexibly to get the work done ([1], [3]). Other studies in other fields have found similar problems when systems are designed on for example cognitive models of how the work is done; they often do not take into account the situated nature of the work and thus they can be very difficult to use [5]. We believe, like [2], that a clear understanding of the social practices of ED is vital for the creation of high-quality, meaningful tools and technologies. We furthermore propose that work practice studies, to be used in combination with other methods, are a central part of getting the detailed understanding of the work practices central to designing useful and intelligent tools. Work practice studies would involve ethnographies, consisting primarily of observation, undertaken of practitioners engaging in the work of ED

Canine dystocia in 50 UK first-opinion emergency-care veterinary practices: prevalence and risk factors

Dystocia can represent a major welfare issue for dogs of certain breeds and morphologies. First-opinion emergency-care veterinary caseloads represent a useful data resource for epidemiological research because dystocia can often result in emergency veterinary care. The study analysed a merged database of clinical records from 50 first-opinion emergency-care veterinary practices participating in the VetCompass Programme. Multivariable logistic regression modelling was used for risk factors analysis. There were 701 dystocia cases recorded among 18,758 entire female dogs, resulting in a dystocia prevalence of 3.7 per cent (95 per cent CI 3.5–4.0 per cent). Breeds with the highest odds of dystocia compared with crossbred bitches were French Bulldog (OR: 15.9, 95 per cent CI 9.3 to 27.2, P<0.001), Boston Terrier (OR: 12.9, 95 per cent CI 5.6 to 29.3, P<0.001), Chihuahua (OR: 10.4, 95 per cent CI 7.0 to 15.7, P<0.001) and Pug (OR: 11.3, 95 per cent CI 7.1 to 17.9, P<0.001). Bitches aged between 3.0 and 5.9 years had 3.1 (95 per cent CI 2.6 to 3.7, P<0.001) times the odds of dystocia compared with bitches aged under 3.0years. Certain breeds, including some brachycephalic and toy breeds, appeared at high risk of dystocia. Opportunities to improve this situation are discussed

Las especies amenazadas son indicadoras de los puntos calientes de la regulación trófica en sentido descendente

Se ha considerado la introducción de mesopredadores y herbívoros extranjeros como el principal desencadenante de la extinción de mamíferos australianos. Estudios recientes sugieren que los efectos devastadores de las especies invasoras quedan mitigados por los superpredadores. Por lo tanto, la supervivencia de muchas especies amenazadas puede depender de la presencia y funcionalidad ecológica de los grandes predadores. El superpredador australiano, el dingo (Canis lupus dingo) ha sido muy perseguido por todo el continente, y es extremadamente raro encontrar poblaciones de dingos que no estén sujetas a un control letal. En este estudio pronosticamos que la presencia de especies amenazadas señala los lugares donde las poblaciones de dingos están relativamente intactas, y que su ausencia puede indicar que los dingos son raros o que sus poblaciones están socialmente fracturadas. La comparación entre un lugar que alberga a un marsupial amenazado, el kowari o rata marsupial de cola de pincel (Dasyuroides byrnei), y un lugar vecino, de donde falta el kowari, es concordante con el patrón que sugerimos. Palabras clave: Envenenamiento con 1080, Canis lupus dingo, Dasyuroides byrnei, Especie invasora, Control por predador, Superpredador.The introduction of alien mesopredators and herbivores has been implicated as the main driver of mammalian extinction in Australia. Recent studies suggest that the devastating effects of invasive species are mitigated by top–order predators. The survival of many threatened species may therefore depend on the presence and ecological functioning of large predators. Australia’s top predator, the dingo (Canis lupus dingo), has been intensively persecuted across the continent and it is extremely rare to find dingo populations that are not being subjected to lethal control. We predicted that the presence of threatened species point out places where dingo populations are relatively intact, and that their absence may indicate that dingoes are either rare or socially fractured. A comparison of a site which harbors a threatened marsupial, the kowari (Dasyuroides byrnei), and a neighboring site where the kowari is absent, offers support for this suggested pattern. Key words: 1080 poison–baiting, Canis lupus dingo, Dasyuroides byrnei, Invasive species, Predator control, Top predator.Se ha considerado la introducción de mesopredadores y herbívoros extranjeros como el principal desencadenante de la extinción de mamíferos australianos. Estudios recientes sugieren que los efectos devastadores de las especies invasoras quedan mitigados por los superpredadores. Por lo tanto, la supervivencia de muchas especies amenazadas puede depender de la presencia y funcionalidad ecológica de los grandes predadores. El superpredador australiano, el dingo (Canis lupus dingo) ha sido muy perseguido por todo el continente, y es extremadamente raro encontrar poblaciones de dingos que no estén sujetas a un control letal. En este estudio pronosticamos que la presencia de especies amenazadas señala los lugares donde las poblaciones de dingos están relativamente intactas, y que su ausencia puede indicar que los dingos son raros o que sus poblaciones están socialmente fracturadas. La comparación entre un lugar que alberga a un marsupial amenazado, el kowari o rata marsupial de cola de pincel (Dasyuroides byrnei), y un lugar vecino, de donde falta el kowari, es concordante con el patrón que sugerimos. Palabras clave: Envenenamiento con 1080, Canis lupus dingo, Dasyuroides byrnei, Especie invasora, Control por predador, Superpredador

Threatened species indicate hot-spots of top-down regulation

The introduction of alien mesopredators and herbivores has been implicated as the main driver of mammalian extinction in Australia. Recent studies suggest that the devastating effects of invasive species are mitigated by top-order predators. The survival of many threatened species may therefore depend on the presence and ecological functioning of large predators. Australia’s top predator, the dingo (Canis lupus dingo), has been intensively persecuted across the continent and it is extremely rare to find dingo populations that are not being subjected to lethal control. We predicted that the presence of threatened species point out places where dingo populations are relatively intact, and that their absence may indicate that dingoes are either rare or socially fractured. A comparison of a site which harbors a threatened marsupial, the kowari (Dasyuroides byrnei), and a neighboring site where the kowari is absent, offers support for this suggested pattern

Trajectories of alcohol consumption up to 30 years before and after the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases: a longitudinal case-control study of 12 502 participants

BACKGROUND: To examine the longitudinal trajectories of alcohol consumption prior to and following the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). METHODS: We conducted a case–control study of 2501 incident cases of angina, myocardial infarction or stroke and 10 001 matched controls without the condition. Repeated measures of alcohol were centred on the date of diagnosis, spanning up to 30 years before and after CVD onset. Mean trajectories of weekly consumption were estimated using growth curve models. RESULTS: For trajectories prior to diagnosis, mean volume of alcohol consumed among male cases increased over time, peaking at around 8 years before diagnosis at 95 (95% CI 60 to 130) g/week and declining afterwards. Trajectories following diagnosis showed mean consumption in male cases dropped from 87 (95% CI 54 to 120) g/week to 74 (95% CI 45 to 102) g/week after the date of diagnosis and then slightly rose to 78 (95% CI 40 to 116) g/week at the subsequent 3.5 years, before gradually declining to 31 (95% CI 2 to 61) g/week at 30 years after diagnosis. Mean consumption among female cases remained stable prior to diagnosis (at about 30 g/week), fell marginally to 25 (95% CI 20 to 30) g/week after the date of diagnosis and kept decreasing afterwards. Similar trajectories were obtained in cases and controls. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first attempt to show how patients with CVD change their drinking volume over such a wide time span. Future research needs to establish insight into drinking behaviour in other ways (such as frequency and context) and address the impact of changes in drinking on patients with CVD

Necrosis of a Guinea Pig Stomach after Contact with Povidone-Iodine: a Case Report

Rodents are the most frequently used animals in surgical experimentation. It is estimated that guinea pigs in particular are the third most commonly used species in this context. To disinfect guinea pigs’ skin, either alcohol or surgical iodine are most often used. In the context of an animal research project, a Nissen operation was performed in an adult male guinea pig. Because of accidental contamination of the operative field, a 10% povidone-iodine cutaneous solution was applied to the serosa of the anterior wall of the stomach and to the gastric fundus. The guinea pig died 12 hours after surgery due to an acute necrotizing hemorrhagic gastritis. Although there have been a few reports of povidone-iodine toxicity in the guinea pig, as far as the authors could determine, this is the first time that such a serious abdominal complication is reported. The authors believe that the possibility of a similar event should be taken into consideration when planning, executing and interpreting experiments in the guinea pig

Longevity and mortality in Kennel Club registered dog breeds in the UK in 2014

Abstract Background The domestic dog is one of the most diverse mammalian species, exhibiting wide variations in morphology, behaviour and morbidity across breeds. Therefore, it is not unexpected that breeds should also exhibit variation in mortality and longevity. While shorter longevity per se may not necessarily be a welfare issue, a generally foreshortened lifespan in a breed that is accompanied by a high prevalence of a particular cause of death may reveal potentially serious welfare concerns and highlight scope to improve breed welfare. Survey data gathered directly from owners offer useful insights into canine longevity and mortality that can support the overall evidence base for welfare reforms within breeds. Results Mortality data on 5663 deceased dogs registered with the UK Kennel Club were collected from an owner-based survey. The most commonly reported causes of death were old age (13.8%), unspecified cancer (8.7%) and heart failure (4.9%); with 5.1% of deaths reported as unknown cause. Overall median age at death was 10.33 years (interquartile range: 7.17–12.83 years). Breeds varied widely in median longevity overall from the West Highland Terrier (12.71 years) to the Dobermann Pinscher (7.67 years). There was also wide variation in the prevalence of some common causes of death among breeds, and in median longevity across the causes of death. Conclusion Substantial variation in the median lifespan and the prominent causes of death exists across breeds. This study has identified some breeds with both a low median lifespan and also a high proportional mortality for one or more specific causes of death that should be considered as both potential welfare concerns as well as opportunities for improvement