Protect My Future: The Links Between Child Protection and Equity

The lack of care and protection facing children is a global crisis with billions of children experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation, and many millions growing up outside of families, on the streets or in harmful institutional care. This lack of adequate care and protection is commonly the result of inequalities.Gender norms make girls especially vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation, early marriage and domestic work, and boys to hazardous child labour and detention. Children with disabilities, from ethnic minorities or living with or affected by HIV are more likely than their peers to suffer from a loss of care and protection, and income inequalities increase exposure to child labour and institutionalisation.Children without adequate care and protection are commonly stigmatised, and have inequitable access to education, health, social protection and justice. Combined with the long lasting impacts of neglect, abuse and institutionalisation, this lack of access to basic services severely diminishes life chances, creating a spiral of disadvantage.In order to break this spiral, a three-pronged strategy is required which sees: reductions in social and economic inequalities that have a major impact on children's care and protection; increased investments in strong and equitable national child protection systems and efforts to address the stigma and discrimination faced by children without adequate care and protection

Do implementation issues influence the effectiveness of medications? The case of nicotine replacement therapy and bupropion in UK Stop Smoking Services

Background: Effective pharmacotherapies are available for smoking cessation but their efficacy is established through randomised controlled trials where the medication is supplied direct to subjects. In health care settings patient access to medicines is often less direct. The process for obtaining supplies of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is relatively easy for smokers attending National Health Service (NHS) Stop Smoking Services in the UK, whilst this is not necessarily the case for those wishing to using prescription only medicines (e. g. bupropion and varenicline). This study was a direct comparison of the short-term validated abstinence rates of NRT and bupropion in a clinical setting.Methods: Data were routinely collected from 2626 clients setting a quit date (82% of those registering) with two London NHS Stop Smoking Services that offered behavioural support combined with pharmacotherapy (NRT and bupropion).Results: Contrary to what would be expected from multiple randomised controlled trials, the CO-validated 3-4 week abstinence rate in clients using NRT was higher than for bupropion (42% versus 34%, p = .003). This difference persisted even when controlling for smoking characteristics, demographic variables and treatment variables 1.40 (95% CI = 1.08-1.83).Conclusion: Given that the level of behavioural support received by clients on each medication was identical, the most plausible explanation for the difference in effectiveness between NRT and bupropion perhaps lies with how clients of the Stop Smoking Services obtained their medications. Obtaining NRT was relatively easy for clients throughout the study period whilst this was not the case for bupropion. This study suggests that implementation issues and/or self-selection may influence the effectiveness of medications in health care, as opposed to research, settings

Hydrological controls of in situ preservation of waterlogged archaeological deposits

Environmental change caused by urban development, land drainage, agriculture or climate change may result in accelerated decay of in situ archaeological remains. This paper reviews research into impacts of environmental change on hydrological processes of relevance to preservation of archaeological remains in situ. It compares work at rural sites with more complex urban environments. The research demonstrates that both the quantity and quality of data on preservation status, and hydrological and chemical parameters collected during routine archaeological surveys need to be improved. The work also demonstrates the necessity for any archaeological site to be placed within its topographic and geological context. In order to understand preservation potential fully, it is necessary to move away from studying the archaeological site as an isolated unit, since factors some distance away from the site of interest can be important for determining preservation. The paper reviews what is known about the hydrological factors of importance to archaeological preservation and recommends research that needs to be conducted so that archaeological risk can be more adequately predicted and mitigated. Any activity that changes either source pathways or the dominant water input may have an impact not just because of changes to the water balance or the water table, but because of changes to water chemistry. Therefore, efforts to manage threatened waterlogged environments must consider the chemical nature of the water input into the system. Clearer methods of assessing the degree to which buried archaeological sites can withstand changing hydrological conditions are needed, in addition to research which helps us understand what triggers decay and what controls thresholds of response for different sediments and types of artefact

Restricting mutualistic partners to enforce trade reliance

Mutualisms are cooperative interactions between members of different species, often involving the trade of resources. Here, we suggest that otherwise- cooperative mutualists might be able to gain a benefit from actively restricting their partners’ ability to obtain resources directly, hampering the ability of the restricted partner to survive and/or reproduce without the help of the restricting mutualist. We show that: (i) restriction can be favoured when restricting individuals increase their comparative advantage and thus receive more favourable terms of trade; (ii) restriction maintains cooperation in conditions where cooperative behaviour would otherwise collapse; and (iii) restriction can lead to either an increase or decrease in a restricted individual’s fitness. We discuss the applicability of this scenario to mutualisms such as those between plants and mycorrhizal fungi. These results identify a novel conflict in mutualisms as well as several public goods dilemmas, but also demonstrate how conflict can help maintain cooperation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Efficacy of exercise counselling as an aid for smoking cessation: a randomized controlled trial.

To examine whether exercise counselling increases smoking abstinence and reduces tobacco withdrawal and gains in weight and body fat

Fish recolonization in temperate Australian rockpools: a quantitative experimental approach

Understanding recolonization processes of intertidal fish assemblages is integral for predicting the consequences of significant natural or anthropogenic impacts on the intertidal zone. Recolonization of experimentally defaunated intertidal rockpools by fishes at Bass Point, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, was assessed quantitatively by using one long-term and two short-term studies. Rockpools of similar size and position at four sites within the intertidal zone were repeatedly defaunated of their fish fauna after one week, one month, and three months during two shortterm studies in spring and autumn (5 months each), and every six months for the long-term study (12 months). Fish assemblages were highly resilient to experimental perturbations—recolonizing to initial fish assemblage structure within 1−3 months. This recolonization was primarily due to subadults (30−40 mm TL) and adults (>40 mm TL) moving in from adjacent rockpools and presumably to abundant species competing for access to vacant habitat. The main recolonizers were those species found in highest numbers in initial samples, such as Bathygobius cocosensis, Enneapterygius rufopileus, and Girella elevata. Defaunation did not affect the size composition of fishes, except during autumn and winter when juveniles (<30 mm TL) recruited to rockpools. It appears that Bass Point rockpool fish assemblages are largely controlled by postrecruitment density-dependent mechanisms that indicate that recolonization may be driven by deterministic mechanisms

Misconceptions on the application of biological market theory to the mycorrhizal symbiosis

PostprintPeer reviewe

Conceptual design analysis for a two-stage-to-orbit semi-reusable launch system for small satellites

This paper presents the conceptual design and performance analysis of a partially reusable space launch vehicle for small payloads. The system employs a multi-stage vehicle powered by rocket engines, with a reusable first stage capable of glided or powered flight, and expendable upper stage(s) to inject 500 kg of payload into low Earth orbits. The space access vehicle is designed to be air-launched from a modified aircraft carrier. The aim of the system design is to develop a commercially viable launch system for near-term operation, thus emphasis is placed on the efficient use of high TRL technologies and on the commercial potential of the technical design. The vehicle design is analysed using a multi-disciplinary design optimisation approach to evaluate the performance, operational capabilities and design trade-offs. Results from two trade-off studies are shown, evaluating the choice wing area and thus aerodynamic characteristics, and the choice of stage masses and engines selection on the mission performance

Impact Lessons: Engaging Marginalised Communities in National Policy Formation

Explores six key benefits of involving marginalised groups in national policy formation which emerged from the Impact Initiative's ‘Engaging Marginalised Communities in National Policy Formation’ virtual event in June 2020. The event explored how researchers can engage marginalised groups in national policy processes and the different strategies for engaging with policy and practice that are employed in a range of research programmes.ESRC-FCD