The quality of group childcare settings used by 3-4 year old children in Sure Start local programme areas and the relationship with child outcomes (Research report DFE-RR068)

"Influenced by research indicating long-term benefits of early childhood programmes for disadvantaged children, the Government of the time set up Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) from 1998 to reduce child poverty and social exclusion. By 2004, 524 SSLPs targeted families with children 0-4 years of age in the 20% most deprived communities. In 2005 it was decided to develop SSLPs further by turning them into children’s centres and roll out the programme nationally, ensuring that comprehensive early education and family support services are available for every community. The National Evaluation of Sure Start has been undertaking research relevant to the development of SSLPs since 2001. This part of the study focuses on 150 SSLP areas from the first four rounds of SSLPs, which are all in deprived areas." - Page iii

A protocol for a systematic review of clinical guidelines and published systematic reviews on the early detection of oral cancer

Background: The predicted increase in incidence of oral cavity cancer (OCC) coupled with high mortality and poor prognosis – particularly when diagnosed at a late/advanced stage – highlights the need for prevention and early detection/screening to reverse these trends. Dental healthcare professionals in primary care settings have a pivotal role in this effort. Aim: The aim of this protocol is to detail the process for assessing the evidence for the best practice and methods of early detection/screening for OCC in primary care dental settings by undertaking a systematic review of global clinical guidelines and published systematic reviews. Method: Searches for clinical guidelines and systematic reviews will be conducted in the following databases: Cochrane library, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Ovid), Excerpta Medical dataBASE, PubMed, Turning Research into Practice, SCOPUS and Web of Science Core Collection. Our search will extend to include Google Scholar and international professional organizations/associations websites. In addition, we will handsearch the bibliographies and undertake citation searches of the selected papers. Quality appraisal will be undertaken using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation version II instrument for the clinical guidelines and both A MeaSurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews and Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews tools for the systematic reviews. A narrative synthesis approach will be used to assess the evidence of extracted data, primarily taking account of quality appraisal and recency of publication. Discussion: The synthesis of evidence will determine best practice for OCC early detection/screening by primary care dental healthcare professionals and will evaluate the relationship between clinical guidelines and the evidence base available from systematic reviews in this area

The mucosal firewalls against commensal intestinal microbes

Mammals coexist with an extremely dense microbiota in the lower intestine. Despite the constant challenge of small numbers of microbes penetrating the intestinal surface epithelium, it is very unusual for these organisms to cause disease. In this review article, we present the different mucosal firewalls that contain and allow mutualism with the intestinal microbiot

The Suprafroth (Superconducting Froth)

The structure and dynamics of froths have been subjects of intense interest due to the desire to understand the behaviour of complex systems where topological intricacy prohibits exact evaluation of the ground state. The dynamics of a traditional froth involves drainage and drying in the cell boundaries, thus it is irreversible. We report a new member to the froths family: suprafroth, in which the cell boundaries are superconducting and the cell interior is normal phase. Despite very different microscopic origin, topological analysis of the structure of the suprafroth shows that statistical von Neumann and Lewis laws apply. Furthermore, for the first time in the analysis of froths there is a global measurable property, the magnetic moment, which can be directly related to the suprafroth structure. We propose that this suprafroth is a new, model system for the analysis of the complex physics of two-dimensional froths

Methods for network meta-analysis of continuous outcomes using individual patient data : a case study in acupuncture for chronic pain

Background: Network meta-analysis methods, which are an extension of the standard pair-wise synthesis framework, allow for the simultaneous comparison of multiple interventions and consideration of the entire body of evidence in a single statistical model. There are well-established advantages to using individual patient data to perform network meta-analysis and methods for network meta-analysis of individual patient data have already been developed for dichotomous and time-to-event data. This paper describes appropriate methods for the network meta-analysis of individual patient data on continuous outcomes. Methods: This paper introduces and describes network meta-analysis of individual patient data models for continuous outcomes using the analysis of covariance framework. Comparisons are made between this approach and change score and final score only approaches, which are frequently used and have been proposed in the methodological literature. A motivating example on the effectiveness of acupuncture for chronic pain is used to demonstrate the methods. Individual patient data on 28 randomised controlled trials were synthesised. Consistency of endpoints across the evidence base was obtained through standardisation and mapping exercises. Results: Individual patient data availability avoided the use of non-baseline-adjusted models, allowing instead for analysis of covariance models to be applied and thus improving the precision of treatment effect estimates while adjusting for baseline imbalance. Conclusions: The network meta-analysis of individual patient data using the analysis of covariance approach is advocated to be the most appropriate modelling approach for network meta-analysis of continuous outcomes, particularly in the presence of baseline imbalance. Further methods developments are required to address the challenge of analysing aggregate level data in the presence of baseline imbalance

A bivariant Yoneda lemma and (∞,2)(\infty,2)-categories of correspondences

Everyone knows that if you have a bivariant homology theory satisfying a base change formula, you get an representation of a category of correspondences. For theories in which the covariant and contravariant transfer maps are in mutual adjunction, these data are actually equivalent. In other words, a 2-category of correspondences is the universal way to attach to a given 1-category a set of right adjoints that satisfy a base change formula . Through a bivariant version of the Yoneda paradigm, I give a definition of correspondences in higher category theory and prove an extension theorem for bivariant functors. Moreover, conditioned on the existence of a 2-dimensional Grothendieck construction, I provide a proof of the aforementioned universal property. The methods, morally speaking, employ the `internal logic' of higher category theory: they make no explicit use of any particular model.Comment: 60 page