Barriers and facilitators to implementing a cancer risk assessment tool (QCancer) in primary care: a qualitative study.

Aim: We aimed to explore service users' and primary care practitioners' perspectives on the barriers and facilitators to implementing a cancer risk assessment tool (RAT), QCancer, in general practice consultations.

Background: Cancer RATs, including QCancer, are designed to estimate the chances of previously undiagnosed cancer in symptomatic individuals. Little is known about the barriers and facilitators to implementing cancer RATs in primary care consultations.

Molecular Modeling of the Serogroup 3 and 5 O-Antigens and Conformational Relationships for a Vaccine Containing Serotypes 2a and 3a.

The pathogenic bacterium is a leading global cause of diarrheal disease. The O-antigen is the primary vaccine target and distinguishes the 30 serotypes reported. Except for serotype 6, all serotypes have a common backbone repeating unit (serotype Y), with variations in substitution creating the various serotypes.

Communicating cancer risk in the primary care consultation when using a cancer risk assessment tool: Qualitative study with service users and practitioners.

Background: Cancer risk assessment tools are designed to help detect cancer risk in symptomatic individuals presenting to primary care. An early detection of cancer risk could mean early referral for investigations, diagnosis and treatment, helping to address late diagnosis of cancer. It is not clear how best cancer risk may be communicated to patients when using a cancer risk assessment tool to assess their risk of developing cancer.

An exploration on the relationship between traffic flow and the rate of surgical site infections: A literature review.

Surgical site infections are the second most frequent type of health-care associated infections in Europe and America. Public Health England's data on 139,691 operations at 209 hospitals reported 1,635 surgical site infections between April 2012 and March 2017. Patients with a surgical site infection are twice as likely to die, five times more likely to be readmitted after discharge and are likely to have a prolonged hospitalization.

Engaging offenders on probation in health research: lessons from the field.

Background Offenders on probation are considered to be 'hard to reach' by researchers because probation is a 'closed setting' and engaging offenders in research can be problematic due to issues such as return to custody and chaotic lifestyles. Aim To share learning about the challenges encountered when undertaking research with offenders on probation in the UK, strategies for overcoming them and the implications for research design and outcomes. Discussion The authors identify challenges in gaining and maintaining access; recruitment; ethics; data collection and analysis; and dissemination of findings.

Probation's role in offender mental health.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the role in offender mental health for the probation service described in policy translates into practice through exploring staff and offenders' perceptions of this role in one probation trust. In particular, to examine barriers to staff performing their role and ways of overcoming them. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative secondary analysis of data from semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 11 probation staff and nine offenders using the constant comparative method.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis of Patients' Experiences and Perceptions of Seeking and Using Benzodiazepines and Z-Drugs: Towards Safer Prescribing.

Background: Benzodiazepines and Z-drugs are used to treat complaints like insomnia, anxiety and pain. These drugs are recommended for short-term use only, but many studies report long-term use, particularly in older people.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify and synthesise qualitative studies exploring patients' experiences and perceptions of receiving benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, and through this identify factors which perpetuate use of these drugs, and strategies for achieving safer prescribing.

An Evaluation of Root Phytochemicals Derived from Althea officinalis (Marshmallow) and Astragalus membranaceus as Potential Natural Components of UV Protecting Dermatological Formulations.

As lifetime exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation has risen, the deleterious effects have also become more apparent. Numerous sunscreen and skincare products have therefore been developed to help reduce the occurrence of sunburn, photoageing, and skin carcinogenesis. This has stimulated research into identifying new natural sources of effective skin protecting compounds.

The construction of context-mechanisms-outcomes in realistic evaluation.

Aim: To discuss the construction of context-mechanisms-outcomes (CMOs) developed as part of a realistic evaluation study of two aggression management training programmes.

Background: Realistic evaluation draws on theories and methods derived from the social sciences. It provides a distinctive account of the nature of programmes and how they work.

Coblation vertebroplasty for complex vertebral insufficiency fractures.

Objectives: Coblation to create a cavity in the affected vertebral body was performed for complex fractures and/or when there was a posterior wall defect. This permitted a low-pressure injection and potentially reduces the risk of extravasation of cement into the spinal canal.

Methods: Prospective audit for outcome measures and complications allowed retrospective review of cases treated by coblation.

Towards a gendered perspective for Irish mental health policy and service provision.

Background: The Irish Government has adopted "Gender Mainstreaming" as a strategy to promote equal opportunities between women and men in its National Development Plan. While current mental health policy addresses the principle of partnership and social inclusiveness as a way forward for mental health service provision, it still does not explicitly deal with the notion of gender and gender sensitivity. Indeed, Irish mental health policy and service provision is criticised for being gender-neutral.

Facet joint injections as a means of reducing the need for vertebroplasty in insufficiency fractures of the spine.

Objectives: Recent publications compared treatment of vertebral fractures reporting improvement in the majority but with no significant difference between the local anaesthetic and vertebroplasty groups. Potential explanations include placebo response or therapeutic response to the "control procedure". We investigated whether preliminary facet joint injection can identify those patients whose pain arises from paravertebral structures rather than the vertebral insufficiency fracture itself.

Relating realist metatheory to issues of gender and mental health.

This paper seeks to advance the debate that considers critical realism as an alternative approach for understanding gender and mental health and its relatedness to mental health research and practice. The knowledge base of how 'sex' and 'gender' affect mental health and illness is expanding. However, the way we conceptualize gender is significant and challenging as quite often our ability to think about 'gender' as independent of 'sex' is not common.

A randomized trial of vertebroplasty for osteoporotic spinal fractures.

Background: Vertebroplasty is commonly used to treat painful, osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.

Methods: In this multicenter trial, we randomly assigned 131 patients who had one to three painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures to undergo either vertebroplasty or a simulated procedure without cement (control group). The primary outcomes were scores on the modified Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ) (on a scale of 0 to 23, with higher scores indicating greater disability) and patients' ratings of average pain intensity during the preceding 24 hours at 1 month (on a scale of 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating more severe pain).

Critical realism: a philosophical framework for the study of gender and mental health.

This paper explores gender and mental health with particular reference to the emerging philosophical field of critical realism. This philosophy suggests a shared ontology and epistemology for the natural and social sciences. Until recently, most of the debate surrounding gender and mental health has been guided either implicitly or explicitly within a positivist or constructivist philosophy.

Sublingual Immunotherapy: Past, present, paradigm for the future? A review of the literature.

Since the early 1900s, allergen immunotherapy has been recognized as an effective treatment option for patients with inhalant allergies. Subcutaneous injection has traditionally been the main route of antigen delivery for immunotherapy in the United States. Over the past 15 years, sublingual administration of allergen extract has become a widely used method of immunotherapy in other countries, particularly in Europe.

Addressing diversity in mental health care: a review of guidance documents.

Discriminated against and marginalised groups of people within our communities continue to be over represented within mental health services and frequently their particular needs are not met. Challenging discrimination and working towards more equitable services are a vital part of anyone's role working within mental health services. This paper provides a review of guidance documents on diversity issues with a particular focus on ethnicity, gender, sexuality, learning disability, spirituality, homelessness and age.