Planning for healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Southeast of England: a system dynamics modelling approach.

Objectives: To develop, test, validate and implement a system dynamics model to simulate the pandemic progress and the impact of various interventions on viral spread, healthcare utilisation and demand in secondary care.

Design: We adopted the system dynamics model incorporating susceptible, exposed, infection and recovery framework to simulate the progress of the pandemic and how the interventions for the COVID-19 response influence the outcomes with a focus on secondary care.

Setting: This study was carried out covering all the local health systems in Southeast of England with a catchment population of six million with a specific focus on Kent and Medway system.

Social Integration and Sleep Quality during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prospective Evidence from a Study of Retired Older Adults.

Background: Growing evidence has documented the adverse impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on sleep quality among older adults. Given the negative consequences of poor sleep, it is critical to identify factors that provide older adults with resilience against worsening sleep quality. Social integration may represent one such resilience factor.

Embedding OR modelling as decision support in health capacity planning: insights from an evaluation.

Literature reviews over five decades have reported the paucity of examples of OR methods being routinely used to support decision-making in health and social care. This paper presents insights from an independent evaluation of a project intended to overcome some of the barriers to implementation by establishing a "community of practice" in Kent (England). The project itself was undertaken by practitioners, and had two main aims: providing training in system dynamics modelling to analysts, and making senior managers aware of the benefits of modelling.

Google is goodish: An information literacy course designed to teach users why Google may not always be the best place to search for evidence.

This article describes a course that was developed in response to health sector and local authority workers being reliant on Google and using it for their information needs regardless of whether it was the best place to search. The methodology for developing and structuring the course is explored, including details of the content included. The author concludes by asserting that teaching users about the effective use of Google is an important part of user education.

Can we improve coaches' injury prevention views and implementation practices in the community female Gaelic sport of camogie?

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of a nationwide coach education workshop on the attitudes towards, willingness and perceived ability of camogie coaches to implement a Camogie Injury Prevention Programme (CIPP) and their implementation of this programme 4 weeks after the workshop.

Methods: Coaches (n=98) from all four provinces in Ireland were recruited and completed a questionnaire prior to and immediately following a developed workshop on the CIPP. Four weeks later 40 of the 98 coaches completed a follow-up questionnaire.

Reticulon proteins modulate autophagy of the endoplasmic reticulum in maize endosperm.

Reticulon (Rtn) proteins shape tubular domains of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and in some cases are autophagy receptors for selective ER turnover. We have found that maize Rtn1 and Rtn2 control ER homeostasis and autophagic flux in endosperm aleurone cells, where the ER accumulates lipid droplets and synthesizes storage protein accretions metabolized during germination. Maize Rtn1 and Rtn2 are expressed in the endosperm, localize to the ER, and re-model ER architecture in a dose-dependent manner.

A 2-year prospective study of injuries and illness in an elite national junior tennis program.

: Injury and illness in elite national tennis programs can limit players' current and future performance. This study aimed to prospectively examine injuries and illnesses in an Irish elite national junior tennis program over 2 years. : All injuries and illnesses that led to missed tennis training and match play in the Irish national junior tennis program (n = 82) over 2 years were collected in a prospective cohort study.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, knowledge, and behaviors around their use and misuse in Irish collegiate student-athletes.

: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used by athletes to treat injuries but are also reportedly misused as performance or recovery aids. This study aimed to investigate NSAID use, knowledge, and behavior regarding use and misuse of NSAIDs in Irish student-athletes. : One hundred and forty-nine (21.

The Xenobiotic Transporter Mdr1 Enforces T Cell Homeostasis in the Presence of Intestinal Bile Acids.

CD4 T cells are tightly regulated by microbiota in the intestine, but whether intestinal T cells interface with host-derived metabolites is less clear. Here, we show that CD4 T effector (Teff) cells upregulated the xenobiotic transporter, Mdr1, in the ileum to maintain homeostasis in the presence of bile acids. Whereas wild-type Teff cells upregulated Mdr1 in the ileum, those lacking Mdr1 displayed mucosal dysfunction and induced Crohn's disease-like ileitis following transfer into Rag1 hosts.

Circulating cathelicidin levels correlate with mucosal disease activity in ulcerative colitis, risk of intestinal stricture in Crohn's disease, and clinical prognosis in inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Cathelicidin (LL-37) is an antimicrobial peptide known to be associated with various autoimmune diseases. We attempt to determine if cathelicidin can accurately reflect IBD disease activity. We hypothesize that serum cathelicidin correlates with mucosal disease activity, stricture, and clinical prognosis of IBD patients.

The impact of value-based healthcare for inflammatory bowel diseases on healthcare utilization: a pilot study.

Background And Objectives: Value-based healthcare (VBHC) is considered to be the solution that will improve quality and decrease costs in healthcare. Many hospitals are implementing programs on the basis of this strategy, but rigorous scientific reports are still lacking. In this pilot study, we present the first-year outcomes of a VBHC program for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) management that focuses on highly coordinated care, task differentiation of providers, and continuous home monitoring.

Informatics-Based Discovery of Disease-Associated Immune Profiles.

Advances in flow and mass cytometry are enabling ultra-high resolution immune profiling in mice and humans on an unprecedented scale. However, the resulting high-content datasets challenge traditional views of cytometry data, which are both limited in scope and biased by pre-existing hypotheses. Computational solutions are now emerging (e.

Optimization of human mesenchymal stem cell manufacturing: the effects of animal/xeno-free media.

Due to their immunosuppressive properties, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been evaluated for the treatment of immunological diseases. However, the animal-derived growth supplements utilized for MSC manufacturing may lead to clinical complications. Characterization of alternative media formulations is imperative for MSC therapeutic application.

The British Lexicon Project: lexical decision data for 28,730 monosyllabic and disyllabic English words.

We present a new database of lexical decision times for English words and nonwords, for which two groups of British participants each responded to 14,365 monosyllabic and disyllabic words and the same number of nonwords for a total duration of 16 h (divided over multiple sessions). This database, called the British Lexicon Project (BLP), fills an important gap between the Dutch Lexicon Project (DLP; Keuleers, Diependaele, & Brysbaert, Frontiers in Language Sciences. Psychology, 1, 174, 2010) and the English Lexicon Project (ELP; Balota et al.

A dynamic hydrological Monte Carlo simulation model to inform decision-making at Lake Toolibin, Western Australia.

Lake Toolibin, an ephemeral lake in the agricultural zone of Western Australia, is under threat from secondary salinity due to land clearance throughout the catchment. The lake is extensively covered with native vegetation and is a Ramsar listed wetland, being one of the few remaining significant migratory bird habitats in the region. Currently, inflow with salinity greater than 1000 mg/L TDS is diverted from the lake in an effort to protect sensitive lakebed vegetation.

Early intervention service for psychosis: views from primary care.

Aim: Although General Practitioners (GPs) have a pivotal role in early detection and treatment of psychosis, there is sparse information on their views of early intervention (EI) services and how information related to EI should be delivered.

Method: Since inception, DETECT (Dublin East Treatment and Early Care Team), Ireland's pilot EI project, mailed information packs and provided information through the local GP continuing medical education (CME) network. After 1 year, we surveyed GPs within DETECT's catchment area for their views on the service being provided.

Preparation and resolution of a modular class of axially chiral quinazoline-containing ligands and their application in asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed olefin hydroboration.

The preparation and resolution of a series of axially chiral quinazoline-containing ligands is described in which the key steps are the metal-catalyzed naphthyl-phosphorus bond formation, the naphthalene-quinazoline Suzuki coupling, and the preparation of the Suzuki electrophilic components from the corresponding imidate and anthranilic acid. Diastereomeric palladacycles derived from the racemic phosphinamines and (+)-di-mu-chlorobis[(R)-dimethyl(1-(1-naphthyl)ethyl)aminato-C2,N]dipalladium(II) were separated by fractional crystallization. The configuration of the resulting diastereomers was determined by X-ray crystallographic analysis.

Are decisions by purchasers in an English health district evidence-based?

Objectives: First, to investigate how many decisions by one commissioning body (district health authority) were based on evidence of effectiveness from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews of RCTs. Second, to investigate whether other types of quantitative studies and qualitative studies could be used as evidence to support commissioning decisions.

Method: From three planning documents (for 1997-1998), all statements were identified.

Helicopter transport of patients to tertiary care centers after cardiac arrest.

Air transport is commonly used to transfer survivors of cardiac arrest from rural hospitals to large tertiary-care centers, presumably to improve outcome. To examine this issue, a retrospective review of patients stabilized after a cardiac arrest was conducted; 157 transports were reviewed. The mean age of patients was 37.

46,XX, inv(6)(p21.1p23) in a pedigree with hereditary haemochromatosis.

Hereditary haemochromatosis (HFE) is a recessive genetic disease of iron overload which has been shown by linkage analysis to reside on the short arm of chromosome 6, close to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Positional cloning of the putative HFE locus has been hampered, in part, by the lack of a structural alteration on 6p. In this report, we describe a pedigree with HFE which carries a balanced paracentric inversion of chromosome 6, inv(6)(p21.