The position of perinatal services to support parents and detect parental distress

Background: Positive father involvement has important implications for fathers, mothers, and children. Perinatal services are well-positioned to detect difficulties in fathers. However, fathers report marginalisation, while staff report limited resources for father-inclusion. Objectives: To explore fathers’ perinatal experiences, and support from professionals (midwives and health visitors); professionals’ experiences and understanding of fathers; both groups’ ideas for paternal perinatal support; and areas of between-group agreement and disagreement. Method: A three-round Delphi method was employed. Thematic analysis of first-round focus groups informed the development of a second-round quantitative online survey – completed by 24 fathers and 22 healthcare professionals. A third-round survey finalised within- and between-group consensus. Results: Both groups strongly agreed on the importance of fathers. Participants endorsed service improvement ideas, such as being more family-centred, and supporting mothers and fathers with relational and psychological changes that can occur. Groups disagreed on whether fathers should receive 10-minutes alone. Discussion: The findings support the rationale for perinatal services to include fathers and focus on the family system. This could be facilitated by greater partnership working with clinical psychology, and the provision of necessary resources by wider organisational structures. Limitations include low participant diversity and possible selection bias. Implications for further research are discussed

Competing mechanisms of stress-assisted diffusivity and stretch-activated currents in cardiac electromechanics

We numerically investigate the role of mechanical stress in modifying the conductivity properties of the cardiac tissue and its impact in computational models for cardiac electromechanics. We follow a theoretical framework recently proposed in [Cherubini, Filippi, Gizzi, Ruiz-Baier, JTB 2017], in the context of general reaction-diffusion-mechanics systems using multiphysics continuum mechanics and finite elasticity. In the present study, the adapted models are compared against preliminary experimental data of pig right ventricle fluorescence optical mapping. These data contribute to the characterization of the observed inhomogeneity and anisotropy properties that result from mechanical deformation. Our novel approach simultaneously incorporates two mechanisms for mechano-electric feedback (MEF): stretch-activated currents (SAC) and stress-assisted diffusion (SAD); and we also identify their influence into the nonlinear spatiotemporal dynamics. It is found that i) only specific combinations of the two MEF effects allow proper conduction velocity measurement; ii) expected heterogeneities and anisotropies are obtained via the novel stress-assisted diffusion mechanisms; iii) spiral wave meandering and drifting is highly mediated by the applied mechanical loading. We provide an analysis of the intrinsic structure of the nonlinear coupling using computational tests, conducted using a finite element method. In particular, we compare static and dynamic deformation regimes in the onset of cardiac arrhythmias and address other potential biomedical applications

Towards operational measures of computer security

Ideally, a measure of the security of a system should capture quantitatively the intuitive notion of ‘the ability of the system to resist attack’. That is, it should be operational, reflecting the degree to which the system can be expected to remain free of security breaches under particular conditions of operation (including attack). Instead, current security levels at best merely reflect the extensiveness of safeguards introduced during the design and development of a system. Whilst we might expect a system developed to a higher level than another to exhibit ‘more secure behaviour’ in operation, this cannot be guaranteed; more particularly, we cannot infer what the actual security behaviour will be from knowledge of such a level. In the paper we discuss similarities between reliability and security with the intention of working towards measures of ‘operational security’ similar to those that we have for reliability of systems. Very informally, these measures could involve expressions such as the rate of occurrence of security breaches (cf rate of occurrence of failures in reliability), or the probability that a specified ‘mission’ can be accomplished without a security breach (cf reliability function). This new approach is based on the analogy between system failure and security breach. A number of other analogies to support this view are introduced. We examine this duality critically, and have identified a number of important open questions that need to be answered before this quantitative approach can be taken further. The work described here is therefore somewhat tentative, and one of our major intentions is to invite discussion about the plausibility and feasibility of this new approach

Assessing Young Children from Diverse Backgrounds: Novel Ways to Measure Language Abilities and Meet the Requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage

This paper examines the communication, language and literacy assessment required by the 2017 Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the challenges from this mandate in particular: ‘If a child does not have a strong grasp of English language, practitioners must explore the child’s skills in the home language with parents and/or carers, to establish whether there is cause for concern about language delay’ (p. 9). • If there is cause for concern, practitioners face three challenges: o Challenge 1: Providing consistent and objective assessment when relying on parental reports; o Challenge 2: Assessing children’s skills in the 300-plus home languages of the one million children in English primary schools who do not have English as their first language (DfE, 2019); o Challenge 3: Determining whether low performance on English assessments is due to (a) limited English language exposure, likely to be resolved through additional exposure in primary school and not requiring specialist intervention, or (b) an underlying language disorder that cannot be resolved through additional exposure alone. • To address these challenges, we argue for a policy that utilises a small range of evidence-based and easily-administered tests that evaluate language-learning skills, focusing on skills needed to learn word forms (the sounds that make up a word) and word meanings

ELECTRODYNOGRAM FORCE ANALYSIS IN CROSSCOUNTRY SKIING

Effectiveness of the Langer Electrodynogram (EDG) force analysis system in the cross country ski diagonal stride was tested in a preliminary study. The objective was to utilize the EDG to investigate temporal patterns of the stride performed on level terrain

Updating Prior Beliefs based on Ambiguous Evidence

This paper investigates a problem where the solver must firstly determine which of two possible causes are the source of an effect where one cause has a historically higher propensity to cause that effect. Secondly, they must update the propensity of the two causes to produce the effect in light of the observation. Firstly, we find an error commensurate with the ‘double updating’ error observed within the polarisation literature: individuals appear to first use their prior beliefs to interpret the evidence, then use the interpreted form of the evidence, rather than the raw form, when updating. Secondly, we find an error where individuals convert from a probabilistic representation of the evidence to a categorical one and use this representation when updating. Both errors have the effect of exaggerating the evidence in favour of the solver’s prior belief and could lead to confirmation bias and polarisation

The role of collider bias in understanding statistics on racially biased policing

7 pages, 5 figuresContradictory conclusions have been made about whether unarmed blacks are more likely to be shot by police than unarmed whites using the same data. The problem is that, by relying only on data of 'police encounters', there is the possibility that genuine bias can be hidden. We provide a causal Bayesian network model to explain this bias, which is called collider bias or Berkson's paradox, and show how the different conclusions arise from the same model and data. We also show that causal Bayesian networks provide the ideal formalism for considering alternative hypotheses and explanations of bias

Public Authorities as Defendants: Using Bayesian Networks to determine the Likelihood of Success for Negligence claims in the wake of Oakden

Several countries are currently investigating issues of neglect, poor quality care and abuse in the aged care sector. In most cases it is the State who license and monitor aged care providers, which frequently introduces a serious conflict of interest because the State also operate many of the facilities where our most vulnerable peoples are cared for. Where issues are raised with the standard of care being provided, the State are seen by many as a deep-pockets defendant and become the target of high-value lawsuits. This paper draws on cases and circumstances from one jurisdiction based on the English legal tradition, Australia, and proposes a Bayesian solution capable of determining probability for success for citizen plaintiffs who bring negligence claims against a public authority defendant. Use of a Bayesian network trained on case audit data shows that even when the plaintiff case meets all requirements for a successful negligence litigation, success is not often assured. Only in around one-fifth of these cases does the plaintiff succeed against a public authority as defendant