Ascertaining the place of social media and technology for bariatric patient support: what do allied health practitioners think?

Abstract Background There is an increasing presence of patient-led social media, mobile apps and patient support technology, but little is known about the role of these in the support of bariatric surgery patients in the UK. This study aimed to seek the views of allied health professionals (AHPs) working in bariatric surgical teams to understand their current perceptions of the role of social media, mobile apps and patient-support technology within bariatric surgery in the UK. Methods A confidential, printed survey was distributed to the AHPs at the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS) 7th Annual Scientific Conference in January 2016. An email to AHPs who did not attend the conference was sent requesting voluntary participation in the same survey on-line through Survey Monkey® within two weeks of the conference. Results 95 responses in total were received, which was a 71% response rate (n= 134). Responses were from Nurses (34%, n= 46), Dietitians (32%, n=32), Psychologists (16%, n=12) and 1 Nutritionist, 1 Physiotherapist, 1 Patient Advocate, 1 surgeon and 9 respondents did not fill in their title. Conclusion The use of social media and mobile apps by patients is increasing, with AHPs concerned about misinformation; advice may differ from what is given in clinic. Technologies, e.g. telehealth and videoconferencing are not widely used in bariatric surgery in the UK. AHPs are unclear about the role of technologies for bariatric surgical patient support. Further discussions are needed to understand the potential of technology with AHPS supporting/facilitating patients as this becomes more commonplace

Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination

Wild and managed bees are well documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, among others. Here we focus on non-bee insects and synthesize 39 field studies from five continents that directly measured the crop pollination services provided by non-bees, honey bees, and other bees to compare the relative contributions of these taxa. Non-bees performed 25–50% of the total number of flower visits. Although non-bees were less effective pollinators than bees per flower visit, they made more visits; thus these two factors compensated for each other, resulting in pollination services rendered by non-bees that were similar to those provided by bees. In the subset of studies that measured fruit set, fruit set increased with non-bee insect visits independently of bee visitation rates, indicating that non-bee insects provide a unique benefit that is not provided by bees. We also show that non-bee insects are not as reliant as bees on the presence of remnant natural or seminatural habitat in the surrounding landscape. These results strongly suggest that non-bee insect pollinators play a significant role in global crop production and respond differently than bees to landscape structure, probably making their crop pollination services more robust to changes in land use. Non-bee insects provide a valuable service and provide potential insurance against bee population declines

FU19 Nephrops Grounds 2023 UWTV Survey Report and catch scenarios for 2024

This report provides the main results of the fourteenth underwater television survey of the various Nephrops patches in Functional Unit 19. The survey was multi disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV and other ecosystem data. In 2023 a total 42 UWTV stations were successfully completed. The mean density estimates varied considerably across the different patches. The 2023 raised abundance estimate showed a 15% decrease from the 2022 estimate and at 220 million burrows is below the MSY Btrigger reference point (430 million). Using the 2023 estimate of abundance and updated stock data implies catch in 2024 that correspond to the F ranges in the EU multi annual plan for Western Waters are between 224 and 248 tonnes (assuming that discard rates and fishery selection patterns do not change from the average of 2020–2022). One species of sea pen was observed; Virgularia mirabilis which has been observed on previous surveys of FU19. Trawl marks were observed at 10% of the stations surveyed.Marine Institut

Mortality Among Adults With Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy or Immunotherapy and Infected With COVID-19

Importance: Large cohorts of patients with active cancers and COVID-19 infection are needed to provide evidence of the association of recent cancer treatment and cancer type with COVID-19 mortality. // Objective: To evaluate whether systemic anticancer treatments (SACTs), tumor subtypes, patient demographic characteristics (age and sex), and comorbidities are associated with COVID-19 mortality. // Design, Setting, and Participants: The UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP) is a prospective cohort study conducted at 69 UK cancer hospitals among adult patients (≥18 years) with an active cancer and a clinical diagnosis of COVID-19. Patients registered from March 18 to August 1, 2020, were included in this analysis. // Exposures: SACT, tumor subtype, patient demographic characteristics (eg, age, sex, body mass index, race and ethnicity, smoking history), and comorbidities were investigated. // Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was all-cause mortality within the primary hospitalization. // Results: Overall, 2515 of 2786 patients registered during the study period were included; 1464 (58%) were men; and the median (IQR) age was 72 (62-80) years. The mortality rate was 38% (966 patients). The data suggest an association between higher mortality in patients with hematological malignant neoplasms irrespective of recent SACT, particularly in those with acute leukemias or myelodysplastic syndrome (OR, 2.16; 95% CI, 1.30-3.60) and myeloma or plasmacytoma (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.04-2.26). Lung cancer was also significantly associated with higher COVID-19–related mortality (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.11-2.25). No association between higher mortality and receiving chemotherapy in the 4 weeks before COVID-19 diagnosis was observed after correcting for the crucial confounders of age, sex, and comorbidities. An association between lower mortality and receiving immunotherapy in the 4 weeks before COVID-19 diagnosis was observed (immunotherapy vs no cancer therapy: OR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.31-0.86). // Conclusions and Relevance: The findings of this study of patients with active cancer suggest that recent SACT is not associated with inferior outcomes from COVID-19 infection. This has relevance for the care of patients with cancer requiring treatment, particularly in countries experiencing an increase in COVID-19 case numbers. Important differences in outcomes among patients with hematological and lung cancers were observed

Sustainable management in crop monocultures: the impact of retaining forest on oil palm yield.

Tropical agriculture is expanding rapidly at the expense of forest, driving a global extinction crisis. How to create agricultural landscapes that minimise the clearance of forest and maximise sustainability is thus a key issue. One possibility is protecting natural forest within or adjacent to crop monocultures to harness important ecosystem services provided by biodiversity spill-over that may facilitate production. Yet this contrasts with the conflicting potential that the retention of forest exports dis-services, such as agricultural pests. We focus on oil palm and obtained yields from 499 plantation parcels spanning a total of ≈23,000 ha of oil palm plantation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. We investigate the relationship between the extent and proximity of both contiguous and fragmented dipterocarp forest cover and oil palm yield, controlling for variation in oil palm age and for environmental heterogeneity by incorporating proximity to non-native forestry plantations, other oil palm plantations, and large rivers, elevation and soil type in our models. The extent of forest cover and proximity to dipterocarp forest were not significant predictors of oil palm yield. Similarly, proximity to large rivers and other oil palm plantations, as well as soil type had no significant effect. Instead, lower elevation and closer proximity to forestry plantations had significant positive impacts on oil palm yield. These findings suggest that if dipterocarp forests are exporting ecosystem service benefits or ecosystem dis-services, that the net effect on yield is neutral. There is thus no evidence to support arguments that forest should be retained within or adjacent to oil palm monocultures for the provision of ecosystem services that benefit yield. We urge for more nuanced assessments of the impacts of forest and biodiversity on yields in crop monocultures to better understand their role in sustainable agriculture

Investigation of Two-Higgs-Doublet Models

Much of our knowledge of particle physics has been incorporated into the Standard Model (SM), which is a gauge field theory that describes 17 fundamental, structureless particles. While the SM has been extremely successful, it leaves some striking deficiencies which we aim to address. The Two-Higgs-Doublet model (2HDM) is a simple extension of the SM with an additional Higgs doublet. Electroweak symmetry breaking in the 2HDM reveals a total of 5 massive scalar bosons including 2 CP-even scalars, a CP-odd scalar, and 2 degenerate charged scalars. We consider three types of 2HDMs; namely, the Type-I 2HDM, Type-II 2HDM and the Inert Doublet Model (IDM). The former two have additional flavour-changing charged currents which may help explain anomalies in flavour observables, while the latter includes a suitable dark matter (DM) candidate. Global fits are performed using the GAMBIT software at tree-level with results presented as frequentist profile likelihood ratio plots. The 2HDM was previously implemented in GAMBIT, but is further enhanced with new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements. Separate plots are presented for a variety of different theoretical and experimental constraints. The theoretical constraints we consider are S-matrix unitarity, perturbativity and vacuum stability, whereas the experimental constraints arise from measurements of the electroweak S, T, and U parameters; dark matter direct and indirect detection; flavour physics observables; and measurements of Higgs signal rates from collider experiments. Results are found to favour an SM-like scenario in general. The Type-II 2HDM provides the strongest lower bounds on the scalar masses due to flavour constraints, while the Type-I 2HDM has weaker limits which arise only from collider constraints. This is a result of a particular SM-like limit in Type-I model which weakens the flavour constraints. Results for the hidden-Higgs scenario, where the heavier CP-even scalar is considered to be SM-like, are presented separately. The main difference is that the scalar masses have a strict upper limit of 600 GeV set by the theoretical constraints. In the Type-II 2HDM, we find that this conflicts with the lower bound for charged scalar mass set by flavour constraints. Preliminary results using the 2-loop-level FlexibleSUSY spectrum generator are also presented with the main difference being a stricter limit on the couplings. The IDM is initially generated by the GUM software which writes the required code into GAMBIT to implement the new model. New features are also added to GUM and further additions are made in the IDM implementation in GAMBIT, including a tree-level spectrum generator, theoretical constraints and new bases. Results for the IDM scans are presented at tree-level. We apply the observed relic density as an upper bound, to allow the possibility of other dark matter candidates. We find lower bounds on the scalar masses arising from experimental constraints except when the DM-SM couplings are close to zero, or near the Higgs resonance.Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Adelaide, School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, 202