Evaluating genetic traceability methods for captive-bred marine fish and their applications in fisheries management and wildlife forensics

Growing demands for marine fish products is leading to increased pressure on already depleted wild populations and a rise in aquaculture production. Consequently, more captive-bred fish are released into the wild through accidental escape or deliberate releases. The increased mixing of captive-bred and wild fish may affect the ecological and/or genetic integrity of wild fish populations. Unambiguous identification tools for captive-bred fish will be highly valuable to manage risks (fisheries management) and tracing of escapees and seafood products (wildlife forensics). Using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from captive-bred and wild populations of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. and sole Solea solea L., we explored the efficiency of population and parentage assignment techniques for the identification and tracing of captive-bred fish. Simulated and empirical data were used to correct for stochastic genetic effects. Overall, parentage assignment performed well when a large effective population size characterized the broodstock and escapees originated from early generations of captive breeding. Consequently, parentage assignments are particularly useful from a fisheries management perspective to monitor the effects of deliberate releases of captive-bred fish on wild populations. Population assignment proved to be more efficient after several generations of captive breeding, which makes it a useful method in forensic applications for well-established aquaculture species. We suggest the implementation of a case-by-case strategy when choosing the best method.

Preconception counselling resource for women with diabetes

Women with diabetes need to plan for pregnancy if they are to reduce their risk of poor pregnancy outcome. While care providers have focused on setting up specialist pre-pregnancy planning clinics to help women prepare for pregnancy, the majority of women do not attend, entering pregnancy unprepared. A major barrier to accessing this care, and a consequence of poor preconception counselling, is a lack of knowledge as to the need to plan and the reasons why. This project addressed an urgent need to raise awareness of the importance of planning for pregnancy among women with diabetes and among the healthcare professionals (HCPs) caring for them. Focus groups with the target groups informed the development of a preconception counselling resource for women with diabetes. Originally produced as a DVD (Diabetes UK funding), this resource has been embedded in routine care in Northern Ireland (NI) since 2010. A subsequent service evaluation of pregnancy planning indicators undertaken across all five antenatal-metabolic clinics in NI indicated that women who viewed the resource were better prepared for pregnancy. In order to increase the positive impact of the resource and to ensure longer term sustainability the DVD was converted to a website, http://www.womenwithdiabetes.net (Public Health Agency NI funding). The evaluation also highlighted that women with type 2 diabetes were a hard to reach group. As these women are often cared for outside of specialist clinics, it is pertinent that all HCPs caring for women with diabetes are aware of the importance of preconception counselling. Funding also supported the development of an e-learning continuing professional development (CPD) resource within the website. The e-learning resource has since been embedded into existing CPD programmes and is an important tool to ensure that all HCPs caring for women with diabetes are empowered to provide preconception counselling at every opportunity.

An optimized reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method for evaluating percutaneous absorption of glucosamine hydrochloride

A relatively simple, selective, precise and accurate high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method based on a reaction of phenylisothiocyanate (PITC) with glucosamine (GL) in alkaline media was developed and validated to determine glucosamine hydrochloride permeating through human skin in vitro. It is usually problematic to develop an accurate assay for chemicals traversing skin because the excellent barrier properties of the tissue ensure that only low amounts of the material pass through the membrane and skin components may leach out of the tissue to interfere with the analysis. In addition, in the case of glucosamine hydrochloride, chemical instability adds further complexity to assay development. The assay, utilising the PITC-GL reaction was refined by optimizing the reaction temperature, reaction time and PITC concentration. The reaction produces a phenylthiocarbamyl-glucosamine (PTC-GL) adduct which was separated on a reverse-phase (RP) column packed with 5 microm ODS (C18) Hypersil particles using a diode array detector (DAD) at 245 nm. The mobile phase was methanol-water-glacial acetic acid (10:89.96:0.04 v/v/v, pH 3.5) delivered to the column at 1 ml min-1 and the column temperature was maintained at 30 degrees C. Galactosamine hydrochloride (Gal-HCl) was used as an internal standard. Using a saturated aqueous solution of glucosamine hydrochloride, in vitro permeation studies were performed at 32+/-1 degrees C over 48 h using human epidermal membranes prepared by a heat separation method and mounted in Franz-type diffusion cells with a diffusional area 2.15+/-0.1 cm2. The optimum derivatisation reaction conditions for reaction temperature, reaction time and PITC concentration were found to be 80 degrees C, 30 min and 1% v/v, respectively. PTC-Gal and GL adducts eluted at 8.9 and 9.7 min, respectively. The detector response was found to be linear in the concentration range 0-1000 microg ml-1. The assay was robust with intra- and inter-day precisions (described as a percentage of relative standard deviation, %R.S.D.) <12. Intra- and inter-day accuracy (as a percentage of the relative error, %RE) was <or=-5.60 and <or=-8.00, respectively. Using this assay, it was found that GL-HCl permeates through human skin with a flux 1.497+/-0.42 microg cm-2 h-1, a permeability coefficient of 5.66+/-1.6x10(-6) cm h-1 and with a lag time of 10.9+/-4.6 h.

Personal and Public Involvement and its impact - Monitoring, measuring and evaluating the impact of Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) in Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.

Introduction
This report details the findings from research conducted across Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Trusts during 2015 which examines the current state of Personal and Public Involvement (PPI). This is about how service users, carers and patients engage with staff, management and directors of statutory health and social care organisations. Most statutory health and social care organisations must, under legislation, meet the requirements of PPI. PPI has been part of health and social care policy in Northern Ireland since 2007 and became law two years later with the introduction of the Health and Social Care Reform Act (2009). It is, therefore, timely that PPI is now assessed in this systematic way in order to both examine the aspects which are working well and to highlight those areas where improvements need to be made. As far as possible, this Summary Report is written in an accessible way, avoiding jargon and explaining key research terms, so as to ensure it is widely understood. This is in keeping with established good practice in service user involvement research. This summary, therefore, gives a picture of PPI in Northern Ireland currently. There is also a fuller report which gives a lot more details about the research and findings. Information on this is available from the Public Health Agency and/or the Patient and Client Council.