A 15-year partnership between UK coastal scientists and the international beach lifeguard community

Drowning is a leading cause of unintentional fatalities around the world, yet on beaches is often preventable through public education campaigns and intervention activities from lifeguards. In 2006, the UK beach lifeguarding community approached the Coastal Processes Research Group (CPRG) at University of Plymouth, UK, with a need to better understand the key hazards on UK beaches and how to foresee and manage the associated risks. In some cases there simply was not sufficient scientifically-robust understanding of certain hazards (for example rip currents) available for lifeguard managers to make objective, data-driven decisions on how to manage them. This paper documents the resulting 15-year body of work, and reflects upon the education, outreach, and other research impacts that have been created, and lessons learned along the way. By furthering fundamental coastal processes understanding of such things as beach classification and rip current dynamics, as well as applying science to challenges such as predicting beach life-risk and times of peak bathing hazard, the ongoing collaboration between lifeguards and academics continues to inform beach safety management in a number of countries around the world. Initiating research with clear aims and objectives that are driven by, and developed in conjunction with, the end-user, as opposed to starting with outcomes prescribed to the end-user by academics, has been an important factor in the success (or failure) of these scientific ventures. CPRG's research activities in the field of beach safety has been scientifically rewarding and have achieved significant impacts. We attribute this to: (1) sustained level of high-quality research; (2) continued effort spent on building long-term relationships with end-users; (3) co-creation of dissemination material and tools; (4) acceptance that it takes time and effort to achieve research impact; and (5) critically evaluating and reflecting on the research impacts. Ultimately, the ongoing collaboration has contributed to a ‘continuing trend of decline in accidental fatalities around our coastlines’, and such collaborations in other parts of the world continue to play a vital role in reducing coastal drowning globally

First demonstration of 2μm data transmission in a low-loss hollow core photonic Bandgap fiber

The first demonstration of a hollow core photonic bandgap fiber suitable for high-rate data transmission at 2µm is presented. Using a custom built Thulium doped fiber amplifier, error-free 8Gbit/s transmission in an optically amplified data channel at 2008nm is reported for the first time

The impact of immediate breast reconstruction on the time to delivery of adjuvant therapy: the iBRA-2 study

Background: Immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) is routinely offered to improve quality-of-life for women requiring mastectomy, but there are concerns that more complex surgery may delay adjuvant oncological treatments and compromise long-term outcomes. High-quality evidence is lacking. The iBRA-2 study aimed to investigate the impact of IBR on time to adjuvant therapy. Methods: Consecutive women undergoing mastectomy ± IBR for breast cancer July–December, 2016 were included. Patient demographics, operative, oncological and complication data were collected. Time from last definitive cancer surgery to first adjuvant treatment for patients undergoing mastectomy ± IBR were compared and risk factors associated with delays explored. Results: A total of 2540 patients were recruited from 76 centres; 1008 (39.7%) underwent IBR (implant-only [n = 675, 26.6%]; pedicled flaps [n = 105,4.1%] and free-flaps [n = 228, 8.9%]). Complications requiring re-admission or re-operation were significantly more common in patients undergoing IBR than those receiving mastectomy. Adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy was required by 1235 (48.6%) patients. No clinically significant differences were seen in time to adjuvant therapy between patient groups but major complications irrespective of surgery received were significantly associated with treatment delays. Conclusions: IBR does not result in clinically significant delays to adjuvant therapy, but post-operative complications are associated with treatment delays. Strategies to minimise complications, including careful patient selection, are required to improve outcomes for patients

Up to 64QAM (30 Gbit/s) directly-modulated and directly detected OFDM at 2µm wavelength

We report a novel OFDM-transmitter operating in the emerging 2µm waveband. Sub-FEC limit transmission of a 32QAM signal over 500m of both solid and hollow-core fiber was achieved and the generation of 30Gbits 64QAM demonstrated