A tool to aid redesign of flexible transport services to increase efficiency in rural transport service provision

This research was supported by the Research Councils UK Digital Economy programme award (reference: EP/G066051/1) to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub, at the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The design, management and operation of flexible transport systems: Comparison of experience between UK, Japan and India

Flexible transport systems (FTS) can offer an alternative to fixed route fixed schedule bus services in situations of low and dispersed demand. Although it is widely recognised that these on-demand services provide a better level of service to passengers at a lower operating cost than the infrequent fixed route services which they often replace, they still require significant financial support to cover their costs. As local authority budgets to support public transport continue to be reduced the sustainability of these services is being brought into sharper focus. In this paper we compare and contrast the development of FTS in UK, Japan and India. In particular we examine the extent to which new technologies are being used to contribute to a reduction in operating costs in the UK and Japan and whether these developments point to a future model for sustainable flexible service provision in developing countries, using India as an example

Reducing asthma attacks in children using exhaled nitric oxide (RAACENO) as a biomarker to inform treatment strategy : a multicentre, parallel, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank all the children who took part in the study and their families. We are grateful to all the staff at recruitment sites that facilitated identification, recruitment and follow-up of study participants (listed below). We could not have completed the study without the ongoing support of local and primary care research networks. We are grateful for the primary care practices that acted as Participant Identification Centres and to the National Research Scotland Primary Care Network for facilitating this activity. The authors express their thanks to the staff in the primary care centres who provided primary outcome data. We are grateful to Andrea Fraser for her secretarial and data co-ordination support. We are grateful to Ruth Thomas for her help and advice in developing the grant proposal. We thank the Programming Team in CHaRT for developing and maintaining the study website and David Cooper for his statistical analysis advice. We also thank Juliette Snow and Rachael West for their help with contracting, and to Louise Cotterell, Helen Strachan, Blair Annandale and Anne Buckle for their help in managing the budget. We are very grateful for Dr Aileen Neilson for her work in establishing the Health Economic methodology. We also thank the Research Governance team (Louise King, Stacey Dawson, Lynn McKay) at the University of Aberdeen for their advice and support during the study. We acknowledge the funding provided by the National Institute of Health Research Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (Ref 15-18-14)Peer reviewedPostprin