Explicating the role of partnerships in changing the health and well-being of local communities: a profile of neighbourhood renewal activity focused on promoting health and well-being in Salford and the north west region and the north east of England

This scoping and mapping report is one of three outputs from a project: Explicating the role of partnerships in changing the health and well-being of local communities, one of a number of projects in a larger Higher Education Funding Council Strategic Development Fund project ( HEFCE ) entitled: Urban Regeneration: Making a Difference. This was a collaborative venture between Manchester Metropolitan University, Northumbria University, University of Salford and University of Central Lancashire. Bradford University was an affiliated partner

A Community Academic Partnership Approach to Addressing Health Needs of the Local Refugees: Participants’ Perspectives and Recommendations for Developing New Partnerships

Community-academic partnerships have demonstrated how collaboration can provide academic healthcare workers and non-medical community providers such as educators and social services with a comprehensive view of issues affecting refugee populations. The ICIH (Interagency Council on Immigrant Health) is a physician-community partnership consisting of healthcare professionals, non-medical educators, social workers, early childhood services and other community agencies. It was formed to address the well-being of a local immigrant population, strengthen bonds between the community and healthcare system, and educate and empower pediatricians to provide culturally aware services. The collaboration has been very successful as demonstrated by the production of multiple collaborative products in a very short time period with minimal funding. This article explores the experiences of community and physician members in order to share insights and recommendations for others working in small cities who wish to start such a collaborative. We collected data from 17 of 30 ICIH members through focus groups, interviews, and a survey and conducted a qualitative analysis using transcripts from these sessions. From our analysis, the following themes emerged: 1) increased awareness of challenges faced by refugee families, 2) making connections and collaborating with a diverse group of agencies, 3) improvement of care for the population using knowledge learned through the ICIH, 4) expanding perspectives through the sharing of information between agencies, 5) the importance of education for providers and community members about the refugee population, and 6) relational support gained through interaction with other service providers struggling to overcome similar obstacles. Results support the ideals of a productive community-academic partnership. With this information, we present recommendations for others working to establish similar community-academic collaboration efforts

Irrigated greywater in an urban sub-division as a potential source of metals to soil, groundwater and surface water

Increased water demands in dry countries such as Australia, have led to increased adoption of various water reuse practices. Irrigation of greywater (all water discharged from the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen apart from toilet waste) is seen as a potential means of easing water demands; however, there is limited knowledge of how greywater irrigation impacts terrestrial and aquatic environments. This study compared four greywater irrigated residential lots to adjacent non-irrigated lots that acted as controls. Accumulation and potential impacts of metals in soil, groundwater and surface water, as a result of greywater irrigation, were assessed by comparing measured concentrations to national and international guidelines. Greywater increased concentrations of some metals in irrigated soil and resulted in As, B, Cr and Cu exceeding guidelines after only four years of irrigation. Movement of metals from the irrigation areas resulted in metal concentrations in groundwater (Al, As, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn) and surface water (Cu, Fe and Zn) exceeding environmental quality guidelines again within four years. These results are unlikely to be universally applicable but indicate the need to consider metals in greywater in order to minimize potential adverse environmental effects from greywater irrigation

Proposal of a Selection Protocol for Replication of Studies in Sports and Exercise Science

To improve the rigor of science, experimental evidence for scientific claims ideally needs to be replicated repeatedly with comparable analyses and new data to increase the collective confidence in the veracity of those claims. Large replication projects in psychology and cancer biology have evaluated the replicability of their fields but no collaborative effort has been undertaken in sports and exercise science. We propose to undertake such an effort here. As this is the first large replication project in this field, there is no agreed-upon protocol for selecting studies to replicate. Criticism of previous selection protocols include claims they were non-randomised and non-representative. Any selection protocol in sports and exercise science must be representative to provide an accurate estimate of replicability of the field. Our aim is to produce a protocol for selecting studies to replicate for inclusion in a large replication project in sports and exercise science

Distinct contributions of the fornix and inferior longitudinal fasciculus to episodic and semantic autobiographical memory

Autobiographical memory (AM) is multifaceted, incorporating the vivid retrieval of contextual detail (episodic AM), together with semantic knowledge that infuses meaning and coherence into past events (semantic AM). While neuropsychological evidence highlights a role for the hippocampus and anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in episodic and semantic AM, respectively, it is unclear whether these constitute dissociable large-scale AM networks. We used high angular resolution diffusion-weighted imaging and constrained spherical deconvolution-based tractography to assess white matter microstructure in 27 healthy young adult participants who were asked to recall past experiences using word cues. Inter-individual variation in the microstructure of the fornix (the main hippocampal input/output pathway) related to the amount of episodic, but not semantic, detail in AMs e independent of memory age. Conversely, microstructure of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, linking occipitotemporal regions with ATL, correlated with semantic, but not episodic, AMs. Further, these significant correlations remained when controlling for hippocampal and ATL grey matter volume, respectively. This striking correlational double dissociation supports the view that distinct, large-scale distributed brain circuits underpin context and concepts in AM

Ordered groupoids and the holomorph of an inverse semigroup

We present a construction for the holomorph of an inverse semigroup, derived from the cartesian closed structure of the category of ordered groupoids. We compare the holomorph with the monoid of mappings that preserve the ternary heap operation on an inverse semigroup: for groups these two constructions coincide. We present detailed calculations for semilattices of groups and for the polycyclic monoids.Comment: 16 page

Benefits of using biosolid nutrients in Australian agriculture - a national perspective.

Increased nutrient levels in inland waterways have led to algal blooms and eutrophication in many agricultural regions. To ensure fertiliser inputs are managed more effectively, the source of contamination needs to be tracked and identified. Point sources could include inorganic fertilisers, livestock excreta, or more recently biosolids. The presence of faecal indicator microorganisms has been widely used to identify the presence of faeces, however, these methods cannot distinguish between human and animals samples. This study investigated PCR amplification as a molecular method to distinguish biosolids from livestock faeces of biosolids, cattle, sheep, poultry and kangaroo. This was achieved using published priming sequences and restriction site profiling of amplified DNA across the 16S rRNA gene of anaerobic gastrointestinal bacteria Bacteroides spp and Bifidobacteria spp. Preliminary investigation showed that of the three Bacteroides spp primer pairs investigated, two were useful for cow faecal material; though at lower annealing temperatures were also applicable to biosolids and sheep faecal material. The third primer pair was specific only for biosolids. All three primer pairs were unable to PCR-amplify Bacteroides spp sequences in faecal material of kangaroo. Of the three Bifidobacteria spp primer pairs, one was useful for sheep faecal material; though at lower annealing temperature was also applicable to biosolids and cow and kangaroo faecal material. The Bifidobacterium angulatum specific primer pair enabled the PCR detection of anaerobes only in biosolids and faecal material of kangaroo. The third, a Bifidobacterium catenulatum specific primer pair was suitable for faecal material of cow and at lower annealing temperatures was also applicable to the sample from sheep. Varying degrees of success were observed in faecal material from other animals. Generally, biosolids tested positive for Bacteroides and Bfidobacteria with all primers except for those specific for B. angulatum. For some primer sets, PCR amplification alone could not differentiate biosolids from other faecal samples. The serial dilution of water contaminated by a range of livestock excreta and biosolids is being examined further to enable the sensitivity of this method to be applied in the field.Soil acidification is an increasing problem throughout many agricultural regions in Australia typically on lighter-textured soils that have a low buffering capacity to changes in soil pH and/or that may be naturally acidic. Crops and pastures grown on acidic soils are subject to problems such as aluminium toxicity (particularly in the subsoil), nodulation failure in legumes and a reduced availability of some nutrients. Lime and dolomite are products that are commonly applied to neutralise soil acidity and improve plant productivity with application rates often determined by their neutralising value and particle size of the product, and the pH buffering capacity (lime requirement) of the soil. To investigate the effect of lime amended biosolids (LAB) as a product for neutralising soil acidity and for improving crop growth, four rates of LAB (0, 5, 10 and 15 t DS/ha) and four equivalent rates of lime product (0, 2.3, 4.6 and 6.7 t/ha) were applied to an acidic red/brown sandy loam in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia. In addition, one rate of dewatered biosolids cake (DBC) at 7 t DS/ha was included to enable comparison to be made to this product. The experiment was conducted over three years and sown to wheat (Triticum aestivum), canola (Brassica napus) and then wheat in 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively. Plants were sampled at 8 weeks and at harvest to determine the effect of LAB, lime and DBC on crop growth, nutrient uptake and grain yield. Samples of surface soil (0-10 cm) were collected and analysed at harvest for pH and major nutrients. Soil pH increased significantly with increasing rates of LAB or lime at the end of the first year, with similar values recorded between equivalent values of lime product. There was no significant change in soil pH following the addition of the DBC treatment. No further changes in soil pH had occurred by the end of the second year. The growth of both wheat and canola in the first two years was affected to a greater extent by nutrients (typically nitrogen) in the LAB than by the reduction in soil acidity. Measurements on wheat yield in the third year of the experiment and changes in soil pH in the surface (0-10 cm) and subsoil (10-20 cm) will provide further information as to the long term effects of LAB in agriculture and allow recommendations to be made regarding best practise land application rates

Biological and chemical assessment of zinc ageing in field soils

As zinc (Zn) is both an essential trace element and potential toxicant, the effects of Zn fixation in soil are of practical significance. Soil samples from four field sites amended with ZnSO4 were used to investigate ageing of soluble Zn under field conditions over a 2-year period. Lability of Zn measured using 65Zn radioisotope dilution showed a significant decrease over time and hence evidence of Zn fixation in three of the four soils. However, 0.01 M CaCl2 extractions and toxicity measurements using a genetically modified lux-marked bacterial biosensor did not indicate a decrease in soluble/bioavailable Zn over time. This was attributed to the strong regulatory effect of abiotic properties such as pH on these latter measurements. These results also showed that Zn ageing occurred immediately after Zn spiking, emphasising the need to incubate freshly spiked soils before ecotoxicity assessments. Ageing effects were detected in Zn-amended field soils using 65Zn isotopic dilution as a measure of lability, but not with either CaCl2 extractions or a lux-marked bacterial biosensor