Improving recruitment to occupational health professions through highlighting intrinsic rewards.

Background: There are currently 2.5 million people economically inactive in the UK due to sickness. The government is considering a range of new initiatives to bring them back into the workforce; however, a lack of occupational health (OH) professionals, who play an important part in the recovery of physical and mental conditions that would otherwise inhibit employees from working, is hindering these efforts.

Goal setting as part of a holistic intervention to promote independence in older people with mild frailty: a process evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Frailty is a condition resulting from a decline in physiological reserves caused by an accumulation of several deficits, which progressively impairs the ability to recover from health adverse events. Following a promising feasibility study, the HomeHealth trial assessed a holistic tailored intervention for older adults with mild frailty to promote independence in their own homes, compared with usual care. We aimed to understand how goal setting worked among older people with mild frailty.

A qualitative study of handovers at shift changeovers in five care homes for older people in England.

Background: It is widely acknowledged that inadequate handovers are associated with putting patients at risk in clinical settings; however, handover practices have received little attention in other 24-hr settings such as long-stay residential care facilities.

Aim: This study aimed to explore the perceived purpose and organisational processes involved in the handover of information between shifts of staff caring for older residents in five care homes in England.

Methods: The study took an ethnographic approach to fieldwork, undertaken between February and June 2016.

Older care home residents' and their relatives' knowledge, understanding and views of shift handovers: an exploratory, focused-ethnographic qualitative study using interviews and observations.

Objectives: To investigate residents' and relatives' views and experiences of handovers in care homes. This paper reports residents' and relatives' awareness of handovers, knowledge of and views on handover practices and purpose, and views on handover effectiveness. Outcomes, safety and satisfaction in clinical settings are influenced by shift handovers.

Health promotion for mild frailty based on behaviour change: Perceptions of older people and service providers.

Mild frailty is common among older people, but it is potentially reversible with health promotion interventions. Behaviour change may be a key to preventing progression of frailty; however, we know little about what interventions work best and how a behaviour change approach would be perceived by this group. The aim of this study was to explore how mildly frail older people perceive health promotion based on behaviour change and what factors affect engagement with this approach.

Quality assessment of biobanked nucleic acid extracts for downstream molecular analysis.

Sample quality is of major importance when conducting molecular analysis of nucleic acids, and factors such as degradation, presence of impurities, and enzymatic inhibitors may have a significant impact on the quality of data. Issues of quality assessment become more important as the increased use of biobanking means that whole blood samples are being stored for longer periods. A range of commercially available kits/methods have been specifically developed for extraction of high quality nucleic acids from a variety of clinical samples, including blood, but there is limited information on how best to quality assess the extracts to determine their fitness for purpose in specific downstream applications.

Applicability of RNA standards for evaluating RT-qPCR assays and platforms.

The availability of diverse RT-qPCR assay formats and technologies hinder comparability of data between platforms. Reference standards to facilitate platform evaluation and comparability are needed. We have explored using universal RNA standards for comparing the performance of a novel qPCR platform (Fluidigm® BioMark™) against the widely used ABI 7900HT system.

Evaluation of external RNA controls for the standardisation of gene expression biomarker measurements.

Background: Gene expression profiling is an important approach for detecting diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, and predicting drug safety. The development of a wide range of technologies and platforms for measuring mRNA expression makes the evaluation and standardization of transcriptomic data problematic due to differences in protocols, data processing and analysis methods. Thus, universal RNA standards, such as those developed by the External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC), are proposed to aid validation of research findings from diverse platforms such as microarrays and RT-qPCR, and play a role in quality control (QC) processes as transcriptomic profiling becomes more commonplace in the clinical setting.

Isolation of a yeast artificial chromosome contig spanning the Greig cephalopolysyndactyly syndrome (GCPS) gene region.

Disruption of the zinc finger gene GLI3 has been shown to be the cause of Greig cephalopolysyndactyly syndrome (GCPS), at least in some GCPS translocation patients. To characterize this genomic region on human chromosome 7p13, we have isolated a YAC contig of more than 1000 kb including the GLI3 gene. In this contig the gene itself spans at least 200-250 kb.

Human immunoglobulin VH and D segments on chromosomes 15q11.2 and 16p11.2.

In addition to the major human immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus on chromosome 14q32.3, VH and D segments are known to be present on chromosomes 15 and 16. We have now amplified and sequenced 24 such VH segments from somatic cell hybrids and have assigned them to 15q11.

Gene therapy for cystic fibrosis in humans by liposome-mediated DNA transfer: the production of resources and the regulatory process.

The number of clinical trials using gene transfer technology, either active or under discussion, is increasing rapidly. However, little information is available describing the regulatory procedures or safety specifications that must be considered before initiation of such trials in Europe. We describe the procedure used by our group to produce resources for the first stage of a phase I trial of liposome-mediated gene therapy for cystic fibrosis.