‘I Felt Welcomed in Like They’re a Little Family in There, I Felt Like I Was Joining a Team or Something’: Vape Shop Customers’ Experiences of E-Cigarette Use, Vape Shops and the Vaping Community

Background: Specialist electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) shops, known as vape shops, provide access to a less harmful alternative to smoking. This study aimed to understand customers’ experiences of vaping and vape shops, and the extent to which smoking cessation advice is and should be provided in these shops. Methods: We conducted telephone interviews with 22 customers recruited in vapeshops in the East Midlands region of England. Interviews explored participants’ smoking histories, reasons for using e-cigarettes, the role of vape shops in their e-cigarette use, and whether smoking cessation was discussed in vape shops. Interviews were analysed following framework approach principles. Results: Most respondents regarded e-cigarettes as a quitting tool and reported very positive experiences of vaping. Vape shops were central to participants’ positive experiences, in that they provided access to a wide variety of high-quality products and reliable product information and advice. The shop staff engendered a sense of loyalty in customers which, together with the community of other vapers, created a network that helped to support e-cigarette use. Vape shops were not regarded as a setting in which cessation advice was generally provided but were acknowledged as potentially appropriate places to provide quitting support. Conclusions: Vape shops have the potential to play an important role in tobacco harm reduction, which could be increased if their service model were to extend to help smokers to quit

Foxes, voles and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes

Impacts of generalist predators on declining prey populations are a major conservation issue, but management of this situation is constrained by limited knowledge of the factors influencing predator distribution and activity. In many declining populations of ground-nesting waders, high levels of nest and chick predation are preventing population recovery. Red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, are the main predator but their primary prey is small mammals. On wet grasslands managed for breeding waders, small mammals are concentrated in tall vegetation outside of fields, and nests closer to these patches are less likely to be predated. To assess whether these patterns result from fox attraction to small mammals, and thus the potential for management of tall vegetation to influence nest predation rates, we quantify seasonal and spatial variation in fox and small mammal activity in relation to tall vegetation patches. Across wet grassland sites, tall vegetation patches of any size (> 0.05 ha) supported small mammals and small mammal activity increased throughout the wader breeding season, while the use of fox track plots within fields declined seasonally. Although within field fox track plot use did not vary with distance to tall vegetation, over the 1064 nights of trail camera recording, foxes were seen in areas with tall vegetation on 13 nights compared with short vegetation on only two nights. These findings suggest that lower predation rates of lapwing nests close to tall vegetation could reflect fox attraction to areas with small mammal activity, but any such effects would primarily operate later in the breeding season, and may therefore primarily influence late nests and chicks

Advantages and disadvantages of reciprocal peer-to-peer interviewing

© 2020 The Author(s). All rights reserved. Originally published in Social Research Practice Volume 10: Winter 2021: https://the-sra.org.uk/common/Uploaded%20files/Social%20Research%20Practice%20Journal/social-research-practice-journal-issue-10-winter-2021.pdfThe advantages and disadvantages of reciprocal peer-to-peer interviewing as a data collection approachare presented in this paper. Reciprocal peer-to-peer interviewing is a research technique whereparticipants interview each other rather than a member of a research team. Reciprocal peer-to-peerinterviewing was undertaken in a small qualitative study between healthcare practitioners to reflect onwhether, and how, their breastfeeding experiences had influenced their professional practice. Four pairsof healthcare practitioners were recruited from an online Parenting Science Gang group. They interviewedeach other via online teleconferencing which also recorded the interviews. The interviews were analysedby volunteers from the same sub-group. Benefits of the technique included: ease of building rapportand finding common ground; open discussion of difficult topics; and freeing up research organiser time.Disadvantages were: difficulties clarifying unclear interview content; an inability to redirect the interview ifit goes off-topic; and unawareness of technology failure. Social researchers are advised to weigh up thebenefits of the technique against the risks, and possibly adapt the method.Peer reviewe

Frequency of reporting on patient and public involvement (PPI) in research studies published in a general medical journal : a descriptive study

Objectives While documented plans for patient and public involvement (PPI) in research are required in many grant applications, little is known about how frequently PPI occurs in practice. Low levels of reported PPI may mask actual activity due to limited PPI reporting requirements. This research analysed the frequency and types of reported PPI in the presence and absence of a journal requirement to include this information. Design and setting A before and after comparison of PPI reported in research papers published in The BMJ before and 1 year after the introduction of a journal policy requiring authors to report if and how they involved patients and the public within their papers. Results Between 1 June 2013 and 31 May 2014, The BMJ published 189 research papers and 1 (0.5%) reported PPI activity. From 1 June 2015 to 31 May 2016, following the introduction of the policy, The BMJ published 152 research papers of which 16 (11%) reported PPI activity. Patients contributed to grant applications in addition to designing studies through to coauthorship and participation in study dissemination. Patient contributors were often not fully acknowledged; 6 of 17 (35%) papers acknowledged their contributions and 2 (12%) included them as coauthors. Conclusions Infrequent reporting of PPI activity does not appear to be purely due to a failure of documentation. Reporting of PPI activity increased after the introduction of The BMJ ’s policy, but activity both before and after was low and reporting was inconsistent in quality. Journals, funders and research institutions should collaborate to move us from the current situation where PPI is an optional extra to one where PPI is fully embedded in practice throughout the research process

Provision of peer support at the intersection of homelessness and problem substance use services: a systematic 'state of the art' review

Background: Peer support refers to a process whereby individuals with lived experience of a particular phenomenon provide support to others by explicitly drawing on their personal experience. It has been adopted in a variety of service contexts including homelessness, substance use, mental and physical health. Those who experience homelessness have some of the most complex intersecting health and social challenges. This ‘state of the art’ review provides a systematic search and synthesis of literature examining use of peer support models within services for people impacted by homelessness and problem substance use. Methods: A systematic search using six databases (CINAHL, SocINDEX, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Scopus and Web of Knowledge) was conducted in August 2019 and identified 2,248 papers published in English after the year 2000. After de-duplication and scanning titles/abstracts, 61 papers were deemed relevant. Three more papers (including one grey literature report) were identified via references, but two papers were later excluded due to relevance. The final 62 papers included studies conducted in five countries. A thematic analysis approach was used to compare and contrast the study findings and provide a synthesis of the main learning points. Results: In recent years there has been a substantial increase in research examining the utility of peer support yet there is significant variation across this field. Alongside profiling the range of settings, aims, populations, and main outcomes of these studies, this paper also provides an overview of overarching themes: the overall effectiveness and impact of peer-staffed or peer-led interventions; and challenges commonly faced in these roles. Five themes relating to the challenges faced by peers were identified: vulnerability, authenticity, boundaries, stigma, and lack of recognition. Conclusions: While our findings provide support for current efforts to involve individuals with lived experience in providing peer support to those experiencing concurrent problem substance use and homelessness, they also urge caution because of common pitfalls that can leave those providing the support vulnerable. We conclude that peers should be respected, valued, supported, and compensated for their work which is often profoundly challenging. Suggested guidelines for the implementation of peer involvement in research studies and service delivery are presented

Accuracy and Reliability of Examiners’ Observations of Pre-Practice Warm-Up and FIFA 11+ Injury Prevention Program Exercises

Background: The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) 11+ is an injury prevention program that decreases the incidence of lower extremity injuries. The purpose of the current study was to understand what specific exercises prevented injury from occurring. We thus developed and tested a form to identify these exercises. We hypothesize that trained examiners could accurately and reliably use this form to identify and record individual exercises performed during preparticipation warm-up. Methods: A repeated-measures study design was used in this investigation. After observing five prepractice warm-up videos obtained from multiple high schools, 11 examiners observed and recorded performed exercises at two different times. The videos included four soccer teams and one American football team. Accuracy, interexaminer reliability, and intraexaminer reliability were assessed. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and percent agreement with a FIFA 11+ expert were measured for each exercise component. Results: The intraclass correlation coefficients between examiners and individually ranged from 0.22 to 1.00 and 0.58 to 1.00, respectively. Reliability was lowest for exercises with similar movements. The percent agreement across all examiners for individual exercises ranged from 20% to 100%. Additionally, the percent agreement between each examiner and the “gold standard” examiner was high (range, 69.6% to 90.4%). For exercises with similar movements, accuracy and reliability were considerably improved (97%) when combined into one category. Conclusion: We determined that trained examiners with different backgrounds and experience can make accurate and reliable observations of most exercises observed in warm-up programs. Using the proposed form, researchers can accurately record exercises and perform quality and fidelity assessments of warm-up exercise routines

STUDY OF SYNTHETIC DYE REMOVAL USING FENTON/TiO2, FENTON/UV, AND FENTON/TiO2/UV METHODS AND THE APPLICATION TO JUMPUTAN FABRIC WASTEWATER

Synthetic dyes were commonly used in textile industries such as Jumputan fabric industries in South Sumatera. Most of these industries were categorized as a home industry without a wastewater treatment plant, so the wastewater is released directly into waterbody. In general, the wastewater contains synthetic dyes, which are harmful to the environment and human body. Therefore, the wastewater needs to be treated before its release into the environment. Reactive Red 2 (RR2) is one of important synthetic dyes usually applied for colouring textile materials such as Jumputan fabric. The RR2 was used as a pollutant model in this research. The objective of the study is to compare the removal of RR2 by using Fenton/TiO2, Fenton/UV, and Fenton/TiO2/UV methods. Furthermore, the optimum conditions obtained were applied for the treatment of wastewater from Jumputan fabric industry. As a conclusion, the highest RR2 degradation of 100% was reached by using the Fenton/TiO2/UV method after 5 minutes of reaction. It was discovered that the optimum conditions were found when using [Fe2+]/[H2O2] molar ratio of 1:80, pH of 3, and TiO2 concentration of 0.4% (w/v). However, the application of the condition to the Jumputan wastewater treatment leads to Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal of 94% within 120 minutes of reaction

World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2019, Durban, South Africa

No Abstract

Perspectives on involvement in the peer-review process : surveys of patient and public reviewers at two journals

Objective In 2014/2015, The BMJ and Research Involvement and Engagement (RIE) became the first journals to routinely include patients and the public in the peer review process of journal articles. This survey explores the perspectives and early experiences of these reviewers. Design A cross-sectional survey. Setting and participants Patient and public reviewers for The BMJ and RIE who have been invited to review. Results The response rate was 69% (157/227) for those who had previously reviewed and 31% (67/217) for those who had not yet reviewed. Reviewers described being motivated to review by the opportunity to include the patient voice in the research process, influence the quality of the biomedical literature and ensure it meets the needs of patients. Of the 157 who had reviewed, 127 (81%) would recommend being a reviewer to other patients and carers. 144 (92%) thought more journals should adopt patient and public review. Few reviewers (16/224, 7%) reported concerns about doing open review. Annual acknowledgement on the journals’ websites was welcomed as was free access to journal information. Participants were keen to have access to more online resources and training to improve their reviewing skills. Suggestions on how to improve the reviewing experience included: allowing more time to review; better and more frequent communication; a more user-friendly process; improving guidance on how to review including videos; improving the matching of papers to reviewers’ experience; providing more varied sample reviews and brief feedback on the usefulness of reviews; developing a sense of community among reviewers; and publicising of the contribution that patient and public review brings. Conclusions Patient and public reviewers shared practical ideas to improve the reviewing experience and these will be reviewed to enhance the guidance and support given to them

Patient, family members and community pharmacists’ views of a proposed overdose prevention intervention delivered in community pharmacies for patients prescribed high strength opioids for chronic non-cancer pain : an explorative intervention development study

Funding: This project was funded/supported by a research bursary from NHS Fife R&D&I department.Introduction: Despite opioid prescribing for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) having limited therapeutic benefits, recent evidence indicates significant increases in the prescribing of high-strength opioids for individuals with CNCP. Patients prescribed opioids for CNCP have overdose risk factors but generally have low opioid overdose awareness and low perceptions of risk related to prescribed opioids. Currently there are few bespoke overdose prevention resources for this group. Methods: This qualitative study investigated views on a naloxone intervention for people prescribed high-strength opioids for CNCP delivered via community pharmacies. The intervention included overdose risk awareness and naloxone training and provision. Interviews were conducted with eight patients, four family members, and two community pharmacists. Participants were convenience sampled and recruited through networks within the Scottish pain community. The Framework approach was used to analyse findings. Results: All participants had positive attitudes towards the intervention, but patients and family members considered risk of overdose to be very low. Three themes were identified: potential advantages of the intervention; potential barriers to the intervention; and additional suggestions and feedback about the intervention. Advantages included the intervention providing essential overdose information for CNCP patients. Barriers included resource and time pressures within community pharmacies. Discussion and conclusion: While patients had low overdose knowledge and did not see themselves as being at risk of opioid overdose, they were receptive to naloxone use and positive about the proposed intervention. A feasibility trial is merited to further investigate how the intervention would be experienced within community pharmacy settings.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe