A new sand and gravel map for the UK Continental Shelf to support sustainable planning

The planning framework for the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is undergoing significant change. An integrated plan-led process, similar to that undertaken onshore, is now being applied offshore. It is vital that marine mineral resources are adequately considered in this process. In order to facilitate this, the first ever sand and gravel mineral resources map of the entire UKCS has been created. Offshore resources have been defined by integrating geological mapping data and the British Geological Survey’s extensive collection of core, sea bed sample and geophysical records. A spatial model has been developed that highlights the location and likely composition of sand and gravel deposits with the results undergoing geological review to ensure different sea-bed features have been adequately represented. Results are presented as a series of four maps covering the entire UKCS. With increasing pressure on marine space it is important to balance the competing demands and needs from different use sectors. Identification of the distribution of sand and gravel resources at a national scale and presentation in a consistent fashion allows planners to adequately consider minerals in the planning process and permits more effective and sustainable sea-use management strategies to be developed

Sedimentological archives of coastal storms in South-West Wales, UK

High magnitude coastal storms have persistently threatened human communities and environments. In the British Isles their frequency and magnitude are predicted to increase in the future with advancing climate change. This study analyses sedimentological evidence from south-west Wales to assess the impacts of high magnitude coastal storms in vulnerable coastal saltmarshes in the Three Rivers Estuarine Complex, Carmarthen Bay. Storm surge saltmarsh deposits were identified following geochemical and particle size analyses and dated using radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb. The sedimentological evidence is compared with regional tidal gauge and meteorological records to assess variability in storm recording and corroborate the storms which produced the sedimentological deposits. Three episodes of high magnitude saltmarsh storm surge deposition are identified in 1954, 1977 and 1981. Evidence of storm erosion or alternative forms of storm deposition were not present. The sedimentological evidence highlights the comparative rarity of major depositional events in the saltmarshes between 1929 and 2019. The recorded depositional events combined with organic accretion have contributed to maintaining saltmarsh elevation relative to sea level. There remains uncertainty surrounding the storm impacts on the saltmarshes of the Three Rivers Estuarine Complex. When the future 21st century threats of increasing regional atmospheric storminess and sea level rise are considered along with predictions of saltmarsh degradation, this study suggests further research is required to explore the sedimentological storm impacts. This could contribute to sustaining the vulnerable coastal saltmarsh environments and the important ecosystem services they provide

Safe Beacon: A Bluetooth Based Solution to Monitor Egress of Dementia Sufferers within a Residential Setting

The global population is ageing, as a consequence of this there will be a greater incidence of ageing related illnesses which cause cognitive impairment–such as Alzheimer’s disease. Within residential care homes, such cognitive impairment can lead to wandering of individuals beyond the boundaries of safety provided. This wandering, particularly in urban areas can be life threatening. This study introduces a novel solution to detect, and alert caregivers of, egress of at-risk inhabitants of a care home. This solution operates through a combination of wearable Bluetooth beacons and beam-formed listening devices. In an evaluation process involving 275 egress events, this solution proved to offer accurate operation with no incidence of false positives. Notably, this solution has been deployed within a real residential care home environment for over 12 months. Proposed future work discusses improvements to this solution

Machine Learning for COVID-19 Diagnosis and Prognostication: Lessons for Amplifying the Signal While Reducing the Noise.

Funder: Wellcome Trus

How can clinical research improve European health outcomes in cancer?

We review the mechanisms by which clinical cancer research can improve health outcomes and argue that this should be central to the development of policy. Recent series of major international studies have analysed large, often nationwide, datasets for cancer patient outcomes and participation in clinical research. They have evaluated and quantified the impact of new evidence generated by randomised controlled trials on cancer survival. They show a strong and probably causal relationship between the participation in clinical research in hospitals and the outcomes for patients with the disease under study in those hospitals. Also, institutions that are active in clinical trials appear to take up well evidenced innovations more rapidly than those which are not so engaged. Further work is necessary to confirm and examine the generalisability of these findings but we argue that all of these mechanisms are likely to lead to improved outcomes for patients as a consequence of the conduct of clinical research. The size of the benefit appears to be substantial and an active programme to promote clinical research across cancer care systems should be a part of National Cancer Plans and Cancer Control Strategies

ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care: Primary care.

ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care (ERQCC) are checklists and explanations of organisation and actions that are necessary to give high-quality care to cancer patients. They are written by European experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care. This paper concerns the integration of primary care into care for all cancers in Europe. Primary care integration

Imaging Light-Induced Migration of Dislocations in Halide Perovskites with 3D Nanoscale Strain Mapping

In recent years, halide perovskite materials have been used to make high performance solar cell and light-emitting devices. However, material defects still limit device performance and stability. Here, we use synchrotron-based Bragg Coherent Diffraction Imaging to visualise nanoscale strain fields, such as those local to defects, in halide perovskite microcrystals. We find significant strain heterogeneity within MAPbBr$_{3}$ (MA = CH$_{3}$NH$_{3}^{+}$) crystals in spite of their high optoelectronic quality, and identify both $\langle$100$\rangle$ and $\langle$110$\rangle$ edge dislocations through analysis of their local strain fields. By imaging these defects and strain fields in situ under continuous illumination, we uncover dramatic light-induced dislocation migration across hundreds of nanometres. Further, by selectively studying crystals that are damaged by the X-ray beam, we correlate large dislocation densities and increased nanoscale strains with material degradation and substantially altered optoelectronic properties assessed using photoluminescence microscopy measurements. Our results demonstrate the dynamic nature of extended defects and strain in halide perovskites and their direct impact on device performance and operational stability.Comment: Main text and Supplementary Information. Main text: 15 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary Information: 16 pages, 27 figures, 1 tabl

ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care : Prostate cancer

Background ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care (ERQCC) are written by experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care in Europe. They give oncology teams, patients, policymakers and managers an overview of essential care throughout the patient journey. Prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the second most common male cancer and has a wide variation in outcomes in Europe. It has complex diagnosis and treatment challenges, and is a major healthcare burden. Care must only be a carried out in prostate/urology cancer units or centres that have a core multidisciplinary team (MDT) and an extended team of health professionals. Such units are far from universal in European countries. To meet European aspirations for comprehensive cancer control, healthcare organisations must consider the requirements in this paper, paying particular attention to multidisciplinarity and patient-centred pathways from diagnosis, to treatment, to survivorship.Peer reviewe

Data harmonisation for information fusion in digital healthcare: A state-of-the-art systematic review, meta-analysis and future research directions.

Removing the bias and variance of multicentre data has always been a challenge in large scale digital healthcare studies, which requires the ability to integrate clinical features extracted from data acquired by different scanners and protocols to improve stability and robustness. Previous studies have described various computational approaches to fuse single modality multicentre datasets. However, these surveys rarely focused on evaluation metrics and lacked a checklist for computational data harmonisation studies. In this systematic review, we summarise the computational data harmonisation approaches for multi-modality data in the digital healthcare field, including harmonisation strategies and evaluation metrics based on different theories. In addition, a comprehensive checklist that summarises common practices for data harmonisation studies is proposed to guide researchers to report their research findings more effectively. Last but not least, flowcharts presenting possible ways for methodology and metric selection are proposed and the limitations of different methods have been surveyed for future research