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A referral to the Radiology department may be a very frightening, and at times a stressful experience for a child and their parents. The radiographer plays an important role as a healthcare professional to simultaneously produce high-quality diagnostic X-ray images and facilitate a high standard of care in a limited timeframe. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was thus to explore and describe parents' perceptions of paediatric care in two Radiology departments within Gauteng. A total of 12 semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with parents, until data saturation was achieved. Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis was used which unveiled three themes: 1) Recognition of overall positive, high standard of care received by paediatrics who underwent an X-ray examination 2) Limitations prohibiting a caring environment 3) The need for parent-centered paediatric care through the implementation of Family Centered Care (FCC). Overall, there was positive feedback from the parents' perspectives and general satisfaction with the quality of care received by the child whilst in the Radiology department. Although there were some negative categories particularly referring to an unknown environment, parents overall appreciated the qualities of caring and effective communication that the radiographers displayed during their visit. The lack of literature regarding parents' perceptions of paediatric care within the context of radiography led to the current study. Recommendations for future best practice would be incorporating the concept of FCC within the curriculum of the radiography degree to improve overall patient and parent satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Medical Imaging & Radiation Sciences is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Medical Imaging & Radiation Sciences is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Palaeoecological records can provide important information on past cultural and economic activities and landscape change. Wetland sites in particular provide remarkable depository opportunities for such remains. Yet these deposit and site types are often not fully appreciated and are undervalued in terms of their place in our culture and history. This article explores reasons for this and suggests ways in which better collaboration between disciplines and sectors can be achieved. We also highlight the work that Historic England has been carrying out and funding, signposting the organisation's publications and guidance. In doing so, we demonstrate that Historic England is an advocate of wetlands and their heritage values, and is concerned with their protection, rather than only historic buildings, scheduled monuments and other designated sites, as it is commonly perceived. Through this we hope to establish partnerships and develop networks across sectors with those who are interested in wetlands, leading to better integrated working practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Smallholder project design should support farm households in transitioning to the best livelihood options available. • Employ a holistic and dynamic view of the rural transformation process to develop a new typology of smallholder livelihood strategies. • Development projects should embrace significantly long-term timeframes in design and implementation for successful transitions. Agricultural projects typically aim to promote the uptake of project components amongst targeted small farm populations to improve their farm productivity and welfare. While this approach can be an important first step towards improving smallholder livelihoods, it ignores alternative and often superior livelihood options that might arise within the rural transformation process, particularly in commercial agriculture and the rural nonfarm economy. We argue that the design of smallholder projects implemented within regions already undergoing a dynamic transformation and/or projects which have significant value chain components, should be broadened to assist smallholders in making successful transitions to their best livelihood options. For such projects, monitoring and evaluation activities should track livelihood transitions as well as the usual assessments of productivity and welfare outcomes. To help operationalize such an approach, we propose a typology of smallholder livelihood strategies that can track transitions over time and illustrate its use with data from the Sustainable Agricultural Production Program (SAPP), an agricultural value chain project in Malawi. Using available household panel data and quasi-experimental econometric approaches, we find that the project helped smallholders transition out of subsistence farming to market-oriented farming and helped already existing market-oriented farmers remain as such. Even though the project did not have any specific components designed to promote off-farm incomes, nevertheless, it facilitated many farm household transitions to off-farm diversified livelihoods, possibly due to spillover benefits generated within the local nonfarm economy. All SAPP facilitated transitions led to increases in household incomes. We conclude with some lessons for designing, monitoring, and the evaluation of future agricultural projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactate has been implicated in exercise-induced appetite suppression though little work has explored the mechanisms underpinning its role. Recent work suggests lactate accumulation via exercise and intracerebroventricular injection can alter central appetite regulating pathways, though a supraphysiological dose of lactate was administered centrally and there was no assessment of peripheral appetite markers. Therefore, we examined how physiologically relevant lactate accumulation via exercise or intraperitoneal injection altered central and peripheral appetite signaling pathways and whether the lactate dehydrogenase inhibitor oxamate could blunt any exercise effect. Forty 10-week-old C57BL/6 J male mice (n = 10/group) were assigned to either: 1) sedentary (SED + SAL; saline); 2) exercise (EX+SAL; saline); 3) exercise with oxamate (EX+OX; 750 mg‧kg−1 body mass); or 4) lactate (SED + LAC; 1.0 g‧kg−1 body mass). Blood, stomach, and hypothalamus samples were collected ∼2 h post-exercise/injection. Though oxamate blunted exercise-induced lactate accumulation compared to the EX+SAL condition (P = 0.044, d = 0.73), there were no differences in circulating acylated ghrelin or stomach ghrelin O-acyltransferase content between groups (P > 0.213, η p 2 <0.125). There were also no differences in hypothalamic content for neuropeptide Y, proopiomelanocortin, agouti-related peptide, and alpha melanocyte-stimulating hormone (P > 0.150, η p 2 <0.170). Exercise did increase phosphorylated-total signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (pSTAT3) compared to EX+OX (p = 0.065, d = 1.23) but there were no differences in other markers of lactate signaling: phosphorylated-total adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase, and protein kinase b (P > 0.121, η p 2 <0.160). Our results suggest that lactate accumulation due to exercise or peripheral injection does not alter central or peripheral appetite signaling when measured 2 h post-exercise/injection, though pSTAT3 was blunted with oxamate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sibling-related investigations conducted within the first stage of a prospective study of the mental health of three hundred and forty-seven children in foster and kinship care in South Wales, Australia are described. The analyses include the distribution and stability of sibling placements, mental health and socialization estimates stratified by sibling placement status and a within-pairs comparison of oldest-younger sibling dyads in shared placements.

This paper reports the performance of protective structure inspired by elasmoid fish scales, employing a combination of experimental and numerical techniques. The composite scale-tissue structures were fabricated using a 3D printer with a dual-material extruder. Each structure was subjected to low-velocity impact using a drop-weight tower system. Investigation of the progressive failure mechanisms relied on finite element analysis and high-speed photography. Geometrical parameters of fish scales, including scale volume fraction, scale overlapping angle, and radius of curved scales were studied for their influence on impact resistance. Further, using Taguchi's method for the design of experiments, it was determined that enhancing impact resistance was achievable through an increase in scale volume fraction (by 15.1 %) and a larger scale overlapping ratio (by 39.4 %). The outcomes suggest that using a composite scale-tissue structure can contribute to developing more effective protective structures. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injury scoring systems can be used for triaging, predicting morbidity and mortality, and prognosis in mass casualty incidents. Recent conflicts and civilian incidents have highlighted the unique nature of blast injuries, exposing deficiencies in current scoring systems. Here, we classify and describe deficiencies with current systems used for blast injury. Although current scoring systems highlight survival trends for populations, there are several major limitations. The reliable prediction of mortality on an individual basis is inaccurate. Other limitations include the saturation effect (where scoring systems are unable to discriminate between high injury score individuals), the effect of the overall injury burden, lack of precision in discriminating between mechanisms of injury, and a lack of data underpinning scoring system coefficients. Other factors influence outcomes, including the level of healthcare and the delay between injury and presentation. We recommend that a new score incorporates the severity of injuries with the mechanism of blast injury. This may include refined or additional codes, severity scores, or both, being added to the Abbreviated Injury Scale for high-frequency, blast-specific injuries; weighting for body regions associated with a higher risk for death; and blast-specific trauma coefficients. Finally, the saturation effect (maximum value) should be removed, which would enable the classification of more severe constellations of injury. An early accurate assessment of blast injury may improve management of mass casualty incidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation-based education (SBE) can replicate the challenging aspects of real-world clinical environments, while providing a safe and less intimidating setting. Literature supports its use within medical radiation science (MRS) training for safe practice of psychomotor skills, development of problem solving, team working, interpersonal and decision-making skills and embedding awareness of patient safety. This project aimed to quantify usage of SBE resources and activities internationally and to evaluate how this changed during COVID-19 restrictions. An anonymous online survey tool gathered data relating to programme demographics, simulation resources, simulation activities and future plans. A link to the survey was distributed to programme leads via social media, professional bodies and national networks. A total of 72 responses were received from a range of countries and representing a range of programme structures. Most respondents reported up to 100 h of SBE per student per year with low fidelity resources and image viewing software featuring most prominently. There was low reported engagement of service users within simulation activities. Respondents also indicated that COVID-19 had been a trigger for rapid uptake of simulation resources. SBE forms an important aspect of MRS training internationally with low-fidelity resources being widely deployed. Where available, high fidelity virtual reality and specialised profession-specific resources were used heavily. There was a low level of reported engagement with service users or expert patients in simulation activities. Future research will identify whether the rapid uptake of SBE during COVID-19 continues and clarify the role of service users in SBE provision. Increased collaboration between MRS education providers may help to improve parity of SBE provision and identify additional opportunities to engage service users within SBE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]