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Risk management in the water utility sector is fast becoming explicit. Here, we describe application of a capability model to benchmark the risk management maturity of eight water utilities from the UK, Australia and the USA. Our analysis codifies risk management practice and offers practical guidance as to how utilities may more effectively employ their portfolio of risk analysis techniques for optimal, credible, and defensible decision making. For risk analysis, observed good practices include the use of initiation criteria for applying risk assessment techniques; the adoption of formalised procedures to guide their application; and auditing and peer reviews to ensure procedural compliance and provide quality assurance. Additionally, we have identified common weaknesses likely to be representative of the sector as a whole, in particular a need for improved risk knowledge management and education and training in the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many British schools, A-level Mathematics students are advised to purchase graphics calculators at the start of their Mathematics course, and there has been considerable research into the effectiveness of the use of graphics calculators in developing mathematical understanding. Recent UK examination regulations have prohibited the use of graphics calculators in certain module examinations but allowed them to be used in others. This study set out to investigate how a small group of students actually used their graphics calculators under examination conditions. The students sat an externally set practice examination paper for a statistics module. The examination paper was analysed by the research team in order to identify the potential use that the students could have made of the graphics calculators in each question. When they took the examination the students were provided with specially adapted calculators; these calculators were virtually identical to the students' own calculators but contained specially written software which enabled the students' keystrokes to be captured and saved. After the examination the keystrokes were replayed and studied by the research team with reference to the students' examination scripts. Each of the students was interviewed. The interviews were based on the students' use of calculators on the examination paper and more generally in their study of mathematics. The research found that very little use was made of the graphics calculator in the examination, with most of the students using a scientific calculator in preference to their graphics calculator, unless a graph was specifically requested in the question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the trial of three-day and ten-day courses of amoxycillin in children with otitis media in Great Britain. Measurement of symptoms and signs on admission to the trial; Difference in the speed of resolution of symptoms and signs between the treatment and the control groups; Complications on either group.

A simulation study of the importance of the choice of demand forecasting method in the aggregate capacity planning of the UK electricity supply industry is reported. Using a financial performance measure rather than the conventional measures of accuracy, some of the univariate or extrapolative forecasting methods employed were found to perform surprisingly well over a six year time horizon, suggesting that such methods may merit a greater role in aggregate capacity planning than they appear to be accorded in current practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infections carried in milk, particularly salmonellosis and campy-lobacter enteritis, have continued to feature in Great Britain in recent years. Less commonly reported infections included an outbreakin 1984 in England due to Streptococcus zooepidemicus, in which 12 people, eight of whom died, were admitted to hospital. The implementation of legislation in 1983 requiring heat treatment of cows' milk for sale to the public reduced the incidence of milkborne infection in Scotland compared with previous years and compared with England and Wales, where, without legislative control, outbreaks continue to occur. Until compulsory pasteurisatinn is introduced throughout Britain and dairy farming communities can be persuaded to drink only heat treated milk outbreaks of milkborne infection will continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the safety of an intensive cataract surgery training programme., Methods: An intensive cataract surgery training programme was implemented in August 2010 for year 3 ophthalmology trainees in the East Midlands Deanery North Rotation (United Kingdom). Trainees participated in extra-ocular surgery and 50 h of virtual reality cataract surgery simulator training over a 2-year period. Their third year comprised 6 months of intensive phacoemulsification training in a tertiary centre followed by a 6-month period of consolidation in a district general hospital. The complication rates and case numbers were evaluated after the first 2 years of implementation., Results: At 2 years, three trainees had completed a full year of intensive training. In the first 6 months of training, Trainee 1 completed 156 cases, Trainee 2 completed 194 cases, and Trainee 3 completed 151 full cases as primary surgeons with an average rate of posterior capsule rupture (PCR) of 1%. At 12 months, Trainee 1 completed 291, Trainee 2 completed 318, and Trainee 3 completed 294 cases, with an average PCR rate of 0.66%. The trainees required 84 lists on average to complete 150 full cataract procedures., Conclusion: The combination of simulation and the new intensive training programme is safer than the traditional programme for cataract surgery training.

Recent studies report association and linkage between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the 7-repeat allele of a 48 base-pair repeat in the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4). We examined the frequency of this allele in a sample of probands with DSM-IV ADHD using a case-control design, as well as the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) and haplotype-based haplotype relative risk (HHRR) in the subset of probands with DNA available from both parents. One hundred and thirty-two ADHD probands were compared with 189 controls (chi(2) = 6.17, 1 df, P = 0.01, OR = 1.73, 95% CI = 1.11--2.71). A total of 85 complete trios were available for within-family tests of association and linkage. Fifty-two heterozygous parents carrying one copy of the 7-repeat were informative for the TDT (29 transmitted vs 23 non-transmitted, chi(2) = 0.69). Analysis of the entire sample of 132 probands using TRANSMIT provided no additional evidence for excess transmission of the 7-repeat allele (58 transmitted vs 54 non-transmitted). HHRR gave similar results. We conclude that the case-control findings are likely to be falsely positive, resulting from genetic stratification. However we can not rule out alternative explanations of low statistical power and gene-environment correlation.

Molecular genetic studies in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have focussed on candidate genes within the dopamine system, which is thought to be the main site of action of stimulant drugs, the primary pharmacological treatment of the disorder. Of particular interest are findings with the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1), since stimulant drugs interact directly with the transporter protein. To date, there have been eight published association studies of ADHD with a 480 base-pair allele of a variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region of the gene, five that support an association and three against. We have analysed the same VNTR marker in a dataset of UK Caucasian children and an independent dataset of Turkish Caucasian children with DSM-IV ADHD, using the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT). Results from the UK (chi(2) = 8.97, P = 0.001, OR = 1.95), but not the Turkish sample (chi(2) = 0.93, P = 0.34) support association and linkage between genetic variation at the DAT1 locus and ADHD. When considered alongside evidence from other published reports, there is only modest evidence for the association, consistent with a very small main effect for the 480-bp allele (chi(2) = 3.45, P = 0.06, OR = 1.15), however we find significant evidence of heterogeneity between the combined dataset (chi(2) = 22.64, df = 8, P = 0.004).