Myths about autism: an exploratory study using focus groups

Individuals with autism are often stigmatised and isolated by their typically developing peers according to parental, teacher and self-reports. Whilst quantitative studies often report negative attitudes towards individuals with autism, it is still unclear how understandings of autism influence attitudes. In this exploratory study, misconceptions or myths about autism, i.e. the cognitive component of attitudes, were examined using focus groups. Purposive sampling was used to recruit undergraduate and postgraduate students, and adults with and without experience of autism, to one of five focus groups (n = 37). Content analysis was used to identify emergent themes. The data identified seven commonly held beliefs about individuals with autism. The first four were related to social interaction, such as that people with autism do not like to be touched. The fifth reflected the view that all individuals with autism have a special talent and the final two concerned beliefs that people with autism are dangerous. The findings from this study demonstrate that people with varying experience or knowledge of autism often hold inaccurate beliefs about autism. These findings improve our understandings of lay-beliefs about autism, and will aid the development and implementation of interventions designed to improve lay-knowledge of autism

Improving the feasibility of household and community energy storage : a techno-enviro-economic study for the UK

Rooftop photovoltaics (PV) have become widely adopted by domestic customers in tandem with energy storage systems to generate clean energy and limit import from the grid, however most applications struggle to achieve profitability. The level at which energy storage is deployed, be it household energy storage (HES), or as a community energy storage (CES) system, can potentially increase the economic feasibility. Furthermore, the introduction of a Time-of-Use (TOU) tariff enables households to further reduce their energy costs through demand side management (DSM). Here we investigate and compare the performance of HES and CES with DSM. The results suggest that TOU tariffs can effectively shave peak demand by up to 30% and lower energy bills by at least 20%, but do not improve self-consumption or selfsufficiency rate. This study indicates that all cases considered are environmentally friendly and can pay back the total CO2 emissions associated with the manufacturing within 8 years. However, the levelised cost of storage (LCOS) is still beyond a household’s affordability, ranging from £0.4 to £2.03 kWh-1, though CES is proven more effective at improving self-consumption for consumers and shaving peak demand for network operators. The feasibility can be improved by 1) combining different services and tariffs to obtain more revenues for households; 2) more legislative and financial support to reduce system costs; and 3) more innovative business models and policies to optimise revenues with existing resourc

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

The immunosuppressant drug FTY720 inhibits cytosolic phospholipase A2 independently of sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors

FTY720 is a potent immunomodulator drug that inhibits the egress of lymphocytes from secondary lymphoid tissues and thymus. FTY720 is phosphorylated in vivo by sphingosine kinase 2 to FTY720-phosphate, which acts as a potent sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor agonist. However, in contrast to S1P, FTY720 has no effect on mast-cell degranulation, yet significantly reduces antigen-induced secretion of PGD(2) and cysteinyl-leukotriene. Unexpectedly, this effect of FTY720 was independent of its phosphorylation and S1P receptor functions. The rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of all eicosanoids is the phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2))–mediated release of arachidonic acid from glycerol phospholipids. Although FTY720 also reduced arachidonic acid release in response to antigen, it had no effect on translocation of cPLA(2) or ERK1/2 activation, suggesting that it does not interfere with FcϵRI-mediated events leading to cPLA(2) activation. Remarkably, however, FTY720 drastically inhibited recombinant cPLA(2)α activity, whereas FTY720-phosphate, sphingosine, or S1P had no effect. This study has uncovered a unique action of FTY720 as an inhibitor of cPLA(2)α and hence on production of all eicosanoids. Our results have important implications for the potential therapeutic mechanism of action of FTY720 in eicosanoid-driven inflammatory disorders such as asthma and multiple sclerosis