Promoting resilience and protective factors in the Children's Fund: supporting children and young people's pathways towards social inclusion?

As part of the broader prevention and social inclusion agenda, concepts of risk, resilience, and protective factors inform a range of U.K. Government initiatives targeted towards children and young people in England, including Sure Start, the Children's Fund, On Track, and Connexions. This paper is based on findings from a large qualitative dataset of interviews conducted with children and their parents or caregiver who accessed Children's Fund services as part of National Evaluation of the Children's Fund research.1 Drawing on the notion of young people's trajectories, the paper discusses how Children's Fund services support children's and young people's pathways towards greater social inclusion. While many services help to build resilience and protective factors for individual children, the paper considers the extent to which services also promote resilience within the domains of the family, school, and wider community and, hence, attempt to tackle the complex, multi-dimensional aspects of social exclusion affecting children, young people, and their families

Hydroponic vs. Soilless Media: Interaction with Plant Density

Water stress can cause early heading in some plant species. ‘Super Dwarf’ rice was grown in hydroponic culture and soilless media to determine if a slight water stress, caused by the soilless media, would cause earlier heading

Fostering the exchange of real-life data across different countries to answer primary care research questions: a protocol for an UNLOCK study from the IPCRG

[Excerpt] This protocol describes a study that will explore the lessons of UNLOCK (Uncovering and Noting Long-term COPD and asthma to enhance Knowledge) over the past 5 years of sharing real-life primary care data from different countries to answer research questions on the diagnosis and management of chronic respiratory diseases. UNLOCK is an international collaboration between primary care researchers and practitioners to coordinate and share data sets of relevant diagnostic and follow-up variables for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma management in primary care. It was set up by members of the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) in response to the identified research need for research in primary care, which recruits patients representative of primary care populations, evaluates interventions realistically delivered within primary care and draws conclusions that will be meaningful to professionals working within primary care.1,2 [...]The IPCRG provided funding for this research project as an UNLOCK Group study for which the funding was obtained through an unrestricted grant by Novartis AG, Basel, Switzerland. Novartis has no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preventative tele-health supported services for early stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a protocol for a pragmatic randomized controlled trial pilot

Background Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a prevalent debilitating long term condition. It is the second most common cause of emergency admission to hospital in the UK and remains one of the most costly conditions to treat through acute care. Tele-health monitoring offers potential to reduce the rates of re-hospitalisation and emergency department visits and improve quality of life for people with COPD. However, the current evidence base to support technology adoption and implementation is limited and the resource implications for implementing tele-health in practice can be very high. This trial will employ tele-health monitoring in a preventative capacity for patients diagnosed with early stage COPD following discharge from hospital to determine whether it reduces their need for additional health service support or hospital admission and improves their quality of life. Methods/Design We describe a pilot study for a two arm, one site randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine the effect of tele-health monitoring on self-management, quality of life and patient satisfaction. Sixty patients who have been discharged from one acute trust with a primary diagnosis of COPD and who have agreed to receive community clinical support following discharge from acute care will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: (a) Tele-health supported Community COPD Service; or (b) Usual Care. The tele-health supported service involves the patient receiving two home visits with a specialist COPD clinician (nurse or physiotherapist) then participating in daily tele-monitoring over an eight week period. Usual care consists of six home visits to the patient by specialist COPD clinicians again over eight successive weeks. Health status and quality of life data for all participants will be measured at baseline, on discharge from the service and at six months post discharge from the service. Discussion The tele-health service under study is a complex service delivered through a collaboration between local authority and health care partners. The implementation of this service demanded significant changes to established working patterns and has been a challenging process requiring considerable planning - a challenge that many providers are likely to face in the future. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN6885601

Fostering the exchange of real world data across different countries to answer primary care research questions: an UNLOCK study from the IPCRG

There is growing awareness amongst healthcare planners, providers and researchers of the need to make better use of routinely collected health data by translating it into actionable information that improves efficiency of healthcare and patient outcomes. There is also increased acceptance of the importance of real world research that recruits patients representative of primary care populations and evaluates interventions realistically delivered by primary care professionals. The UNLOCK Group is an international collaboration of primary care researchers and practitioners from 15 countries. It has coordinated and shared datasets of diagnostic and prognostic variables for COPD and asthma to answer research questions meaningful to professionals working in primary care over a 6-year period. Over this time the UNLOCK Group has undertaken several studies using data from unselected primary care populations from diverse contexts to evaluate the burden of disease, multiple morbidities, treatment and follow-up. However, practical and structural constraints have hampered the UNLOCK Group's ability to translate research ideas into studies. This study explored the constraints, challenges and successes experienced by the UNLOCK Group and its participants' learning as researchers and primary care practitioners collaborating to answer primary care research questions. The study identified lessons for future studies and collaborations that require data sharing across borders. It also explored specific challenges to fostering the exchange of primary care data in comparison to other datasets such as public health, prescribing or hospital data and mechanisms that may be used to overcome these.The IPCRG provided funding for this research project as an UNLOCK Group study for which the funding was obtained through an unrestricted grant by Novartis AG, Basel, Switzerland. Novartis has no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscriptinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ABSORPTION OF CONTROLLED RELEASE MORPHINE SULPHATE IN THE IMMEDIATE POSTOPERATIVE PERIOD

The absorption of morphine sulphate, given orally as a controlled release preparation, was studied in 10 patients who had undergone peripheral vascular surgery with a standard opioid-based general anaesthetic technique. Serum morphine concentrations were measured (high pressure liquid chromatography) every 2 h for the first 16 h after surgery and the results were strongly suggestive of a decrease in the rate of absorption of morphine in this situatio

HPS vs. MH Lamps & Phasic Photoperiod Rep 2

\u27Super Dwarf’ rice was grown at four plant densities (50, 100, 200, and 600 plants m-2) in each of three growth chambers to replicate two previous trials involving lamp type (High Pressure Sodium; HPS and Metal Halide; MH) and photoperiod (12-h continuous and 12-h until anthesis then 24-h until harvest). Individual plots (0.2 m2) were separated by polished aluminum to minimize guard row effects

Carrot Cultivar Evaluation: Soilless Media vs. Hydroponics

Nine cultivars of carrots were grown in a growth chamber. Each cultivar was grown both in hydroponic and soil-less media root-zone for sixty days. Three 30L tubs were used for each root-zone treatment. Three cultivars were planted in each tub, initially at 180 plants m-2 then thinned to 90 plants m-2 on day 45