Transition from Children’s to Adult Services forYoung People with Life-limiting Conditions: Findings from a Questionnaire Survey in Northern Ireland

Research aims: 
To describe service provision for the transition from children’s to adult services for young people with life-limiting conditions in Northern Ireland, and to identify organisational factors that promote or inhibit effective transition. 
Study population: 
Health, social, educational and charitable organisations providing transition services to young people with life-limiting conditions in Northern Ireland. 
Study design and methods: 
A questionnaire has been developed by the research team drawing on examples from the literature and the advice of an expert advisory group. The questionnaire was piloted with clinicians,academics and researchers in June 2013. The questionnaire focuses on components of practice which may promote continuity in the transition from child to adult care for young people with a life-limiting condition. The survey will be distributed throughout Northern Ireland to an estimated 75 organisations, following the Dillman total design survey method. Numerical data will be analysed using PASW Statistical software to generate descriptive statistics along with a thematic analysis of data generated by open-ended questions. 
Results and interpretations: 
The survey will provide a description of services, transition policies, approaches to managing transition, categories of service users, the ages at which transition starts and completes, experiences with minority ethnic groups, the input of service users to the process, organisational factors promoting or hindering effective transition, links between services, and service providers’ recommendations for improvements in services.The outcomes will be an overview of the transition services currently provided in Northern Ireland identifying models of good practice and the key factors influencing the quality, safety and continuity of care. Survey results are due early in 2014.

Differential affinity of FLIP and procaspase 8 for FADD's DED binding surfaces regulates DISC assembly

Death receptor activation triggers recruitment of FADD, which via its death effector domain (DED) engages the DEDs of procaspase 8 and its inhibitor FLIP to form death-inducing signalling complexes (DISCs). The DEDs of FADD, FLIP and procaspase 8 interact with one another using two binding surfaces defined by α1/α4 and α2/α5 helices, respectively. Here we report that FLIP has preferential affinity for the α1/α4 surface of FADD, whereas procaspase 8 has preferential affinity for FADD's α2/α5 surface. These relative affinities contribute to FLIP being recruited to the DISC at comparable levels to procaspase 8 despite lower cellular expression. Additional studies, including assessment of DISC stoichiometry and functional assays, suggest that following death receptor recruitment, the FADD DED preferentially engages FLIP using its α1/α4 surface and procaspase 8 using its α2/α5 surface; these tripartite intermediates then interact via the α1/α4 surface of FLIP DED1 and the α2/α5 surface of procaspase 8 DED2.

What Went Wrong With the Mate-Tricks After-School Program, Which Increased Antisocial Behavior and Child/Parent Conflict?

This paper draws from an independent RCT evaluation on a behavior based afterschool intervention for called Mate-Tricks for 9-10 year old children and their families (N=592). This paper explores practical and theoretical issues that may have contributed to a range of iatrogenic effects found by the evaluation. To do this the paper focuses on key practical implementation factors such as: program exposure; engagement; and program quality. The paper also relates these results to popular theories of social development, including social interdependence theory. Finally, the paper discusses what the results suggest about the impact of cooperative/competitive goal structures in child and parent interventions of this type.

Relativistic theory for localized electrostatic excitations in degenerate electron-ion plasmas

A self-consistent relativistic two-fluid model is proposed for electron-ion plasma dynamics. A one-dimensional geometry is adopted. Electrons are treated as a relativistically degenerate fluid, governed by an appropriate equation of state. The ion fluid is also allowed to be relativistic, but is cold, nondegenerate, and subject only to an electrostatic potential. Exact stationary-profile solutions are sought, at the ionic scale, via the Sagdeev pseudopotential method. The analysis provides the pulse existence region, in terms of characteristic relativistic parameters, associated with the (ultrahigh) particle density.

Amplitude modulation of quantum-ion-acoustic wavepackets in electron-positron-ion plasmas: Modulational instability, envelope modes, extreme waves

A semirelativistic fluid model is employed to describe the nonlinear amplitude modulation of low-frequency (ionic scale) electrostatic waves in an unmagnetized electron-positron-ion plasma. Electrons and positrons are assumed to be degenerated and inertialess, whereas ions are warm and classical. A multiscale perturbation method is used to derive a nonlinear Schrödinger equation for the envelope amplitude, based on which the occurrence of modulational instability is investigated in detail. Various types of localized ion acoustic excitations are shown to exist, in the form of either bright type envelope solitons (envelope pulses) or dark-type envelope solitons (voids, holes). The plasma configurational parameters (namely, the relativistic degeneracy parameter, the positron concentration, and the ionic temperature) are shown to affect the conditions for modulational instability significantly, in fact modifying the associated threshold as well as the instability growth rate. In particular, the relativistic degeneracy parameter leads to an enhancement of the modulational instability mechanism. Furthermore, the effect of different relevant plasma parameters on the characteristics (amplitude, width) of these envelope solitary structures is also presented in detail. Finally, the occurrence of extreme amplitude excitation (rogue waves) is also discussed briefly. Our results aim at elucidating the formation and dynamics of nonlinear electrostatic excitations in superdense astrophysical regimes.

Biosecurity and Emerging Plant Health Problems in Turf Production and Maintenance

Recent research has supported the view that the distributions of many pests and diseases have extended towards higher latitudes over the last 50 years. Probably driven by a combination of climate change and trade, this extension to the ranges of hundreds of plant pathogens may have serious implications not only for agriculture, horticulture and forestry, but also for turf production &maintenance. Here we review our data relating to the current status of three emerging pest and disease problems across North West Europe (rapid blight, Labyrinthula sp. , the root knot nematode, Meloidogyne minor and the pacific stem gall nematode, Anguina pacificae ) and discuss the factors which may be involved in their spread and increasing impact on the turf industry. With turf production and maintenance becoming an increasingly international business, we ask if biosecurity and the promotion of plant health in turf production fields and associated sport facilities should be a greater priority for the industry. We also examine if a lack of effective biosecurity measures in the materials supply chain has led to increased plant health problems.