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Oats are undervalued in comparison with wheat, rice and barley, despite their unique composition that includes many of the nutrients required for health and a reduced risk of degenerative disease incidence. Furthermore, oats as whole grain and some of their associated products also contain β-glucan, a complex polysaccharide that has an approved health claim to reduce blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of CHD incidence if consumed at ≥ 3 g/d. At the agronomic level, oats exhibit optimal growth in regions of moderate temperature and long day length. In addition, they can tolerate wet weather and acidic soils more effectively than other cereals, such as wheat. Studies have shown that there is diversity in the content and composition of nutrients and health-beneficial components within the available wild and cultivated germplasm and that these are amenable to be enhanced by different agronomic practices as well as are susceptible to climatic variation. The advances in modern plant genetics, developed in sister cereals such as wheat, rice and barley, mean that oat development and exploitation should see an acceleration in the coming decade as they are adopted and applied. These advances include approaches such as genome sequencing, genotyping by sequencing and the allied next-level analytical approaches of RNA sequencing, transcriptome profiling and metabolomics. The collation and coordination of these approaches should lead to the generation of new, tailored oat varieties that are nutritionally enhanced and contain a greater proportion of health-beneficial components that can be translated through into a wide(r) range of consumer products with the ultimate hope of associated benefits to human health and nutrition.

Phase change memory (PCM) is a rapidly growing technology that not only offers advancements in storage-class memories but also enables in-memory data processing to overcome the von Neumann bottleneck. In PCMs, data storage is driven by thermal excitation. However, there is limited research regarding PCM thermal properties at length scales close to the memory cell dimensions. Our work presents a new paradigm to manage thermal transport in memory cells by manipulating the interfacial thermal resistance between the phase change unit and the electrodes without incorporating additional insulating layers. Experimental measurements show a substantial change in interfacial thermal resistance as GST transitions from cubic to hexagonal crystal structure, resulting in a factor of 4 reduction in the effective thermal conductivity. Simulations reveal that interfacial resistance between PCM and its adjacent layer can reduce the reset current for 20 and 120 nm diameter devices by up to ~ 40% and ~ 50%, respectively. These thermal insights present a new opportunity to reduce power and operating currents in PCMs. Designing efficient, fast and low power consumption phase change memories remains a challenge. Aryana et al. propose a strategy to reduce operating currents by manipulating the interfacial thermal resistance between the phase change unit and the electrodes without incorporating additional insulating layers.

More than one-third of cancer-related health information is unreliable or misleading. With increasing health information seeking, the risks of misinformation exposure are growing. Educational approaches that are delivered clearly and in accessible formats are a promising way to strengthen critical thinking and decision-making skills, thereby helping to reduce the exposure of those impacted by cancer to misleading cancer information. This pilot randomised trial will assess the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a larger definitive trial evaluating the Informed Health Choices-Cancer (IHC-C) programme. The IHC-C is an online evidence-based education programme co-designed by stakeholders, including public and patient partners. It aims to equip people impacted by cancer (i.e., current patients, survivors, caregivers, and loved ones) with the skills and knowledge necessary to think critically about the reliability of health information and claims and make informed health choices. Participants will be randomised to either the IHC-C intervention group or a waitlist control group. The primary outcome of this pilot trial are feasibility (recruitment and retention rates, etc.) and acceptability (participant satisfaction and perceived usefulness, etc.). Demographic and cancer-related data will be collected to characterise the sample and inform recruitment strategies for a future definitive trial. Preliminary measures of critical thinking and decision-making skills will also be gathered to support the selection of key outcomes for the future trial. This pilot trial will inform the design and conduct of a future definitive randomised trial. Insights gained will inform sample size estimations, refine recruitment strategies, optimise programme delivery, and improve data collection processes, ensuring a robust and scalable approach for the definitive trial.

Purpose Continuing professional development (CPD) is an approach for health professionals to preserve and expand their knowledge, skills, and performance, and can contribute to improving delivery of care. However, evidence indicates that simply delivering CPD activities to health professionals does not lead to a change in practice. This review aimed to collate, summarize, and categorize the literature that reported the views and experiences of health professionals on implementing into practice their learning from CPD activities. Methods This review was guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers’ Manual methodology for scoping reviews. Three databases, PubMed, Embase and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), were systematically searched in February 2023 for articles published since inception. Two independent reviewers screened the articles against the inclusion criteria, and completed the data extraction. Data were summarized quantitatively, and the findings relating to views and experiences were categorized into challenges and facilitators. Results Thirteen articles were included. Implementation of learning was not the primary focus in the majority of studies. Studies were published between 2008-2022; the majority were conducted in North America and nurses were the most common stakeholder group among Healthcare Professionals (HCPs). Five studies adopted qualitative methods, four quantitative studies, and four mixed-methods studies. The reported barriers of implementation included lack of time and human resource; the facilitators included the nature of the training, course content and opportunity for communal learning. Conclusion This review highlights a gap in the literature. Available studies indicate some barriers for health professionals to implement their learning from CPD activities into their practice. Further studies, underpinned with appropriate theory and including all relevent stakeholders are required to investigate strategies that may facilitate the integration of learning from CPD into routine practice.

Amorphous chalcogenide alloys are key materials for data storage and energy scavenging applications due to their large non-linearities in optical and electrical properties as well as low vibrational thermal conductivities. Here, we report on a mechanism to suppress the thermal transport in a representative amorphous chalcogenide system, silicon telluride (SiTe), by nearly an order of magnitude via systematically tailoring the cross-linking network among the atoms. As such, we experimentally demonstrate that in fully dense amorphous SiTe the thermal conductivity can be reduced to as low as 0.10 ± 0.01 W m −1 K −1 for high tellurium content with a density nearly twice that of amorphous silicon. Using ab-initio simulations integrated with lattice dynamics, we attribute the ultralow thermal conductivity of SiTe to the suppressed contribution of extended modes of vibration, namely propagons and diffusons. This leads to a large shift in the mobility edge - a factor of five - towards lower frequency and localization of nearly 42% of the modes. This localization is the result of reductions in coordination number and a transition from over-constrained to under-constrained atomic network. The reduction in thermal conductivity is usually achieved by increasing the scattering rate or localization of heat carriers. Here, the authors propose a mechanism to suppress the thermal transport in amorphous systems such as SiTe binary alloys via tailoring the cross-linking network between the atoms.

Oats are a uniquely nutritious food as they contain an excellent lipid profile and high amounts of soluble fibre. However, an oat kernel is largely non-digestible and thus must be utilised in milled form to reap its nutritional benefits. Milling is made up of numerous steps, the most important being dehulling to expose the digestible groat, heat processing to inactivate enzymes that cause rancidity, and cutting, rolling or grinding to convert the groat into a product that can be used directly in oatmeal or can be used as a food ingredient in products such as bread, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals and snack bars. Oats can also be processed into oat bran and fibre to obtain high-fibre-containing fractions that can be used in a variety of food products.

Drug-related problems (DRPs) are a major health concern. A better understanding of the characteristics of DRPs throughout the hospital stay may help to tailor pharmaceutical care services (PCS). This study aims to describe the characteristics of DRPs and to compare DRP pattern in different stages of hospital stay. DRPs were identified by clinical pharmacists as part of their routine services. Pharmacist assessed causality, severity and preventability of DRP. A total of 316 preventable DRPs occurred in 257 patients with the median of 1 (rang 1–3) DRPs per patient. 46.8% of DRPs occurred at discharge than at other stages. The most frequent cause of DRP was no drug treatment in spite of existing indication, accounting for 32.3% of all DRPs. No drug treatment with existing indication was detected frequently at discharge (56.1%) compared with other stages (p-value < 0.001). The common intervention to physician was starting a drug (34.0%) and the acceptance rate was 95.8%. DRPs in hospitalized patients occur at any stage of the hospital stay. Systematic identification of DRP characteristics enables pharmacists to tailor optimal type of PCS required and hence improve patient safety.

Patient and public involvement in research helps to make it more relevant and useful to the end-users. Involvement influences the design, delivery and dissemination of research, ultimately leading to better services, treatments and care. Researchers are therefore keen to involve patients, carers and public in their work, but are sometimes uncertain about who to involve. Some confusion may arise from the terms used. The UK’s catch-all term ‘patient and public involvement’ suggests this is a single activity, that perhaps both ‘patient’ and ‘public’ input are needed, or that either will do. The terms ‘patient’, ‘carer’ and ‘public’ have been defined, but are not used consistently. In fact there are many different contexts for involvement and many different kinds of decisions made, which then determine whose input will be most valuable. Clarity about the ‘why’ can help answer the ‘who’ question. However, not all researchers are clear about the purpose of involvement. While it is often understood to have a moral purpose, or to improve research quality, this doesn’t always identify who needs to be involved. When learning is understood to be the purpose of involvement, then the most appropriate people to involve are those with relevant experiential knowledge. In research projects, these are people with lived experience of the topic being investigated. This could be patients, carers, members of the public or health professionals. In this article we discuss how involving people who do not have the relevant experiential ‘lived’ knowledge may contribute to ineffective or tokenistic involvement. These people are as likely as researchers to make assumptions, risking missing key insights or resulting in outcomes that are off-putting or even harmful to research participants. We conclude that greater attention needs to be given to the question of who to involve. Raising awareness of the significance of experiential knowledge and the contextual factors that determine whose input will be most useful will help everyone to understand their roles and improve the quality of involvement. It will help to maximise the opportunities for learning, increasing the likelihood of impact, and helping to achieve the ultimate goal of improved health and services. Plain English summary Patient and public involvement in research helps to make it more relevant and useful to the end-users. Researchers are therefore keen to involve people but are sometimes uncertain about who to involve. Some confusion comes from the terms used. The UK’s term ‘patient and public involvement’ suggests there is only one activity and that both inputs are needed or either will do. The terms ‘patient’, ‘carer’ and ‘public’ are not used in the same way by everyone. Involvement happens in many different situations, influencing different kinds of decisions, which then determines whose input will be most valuable. Being clear about the ‘why’ can help answer the ‘who’ question. However, not all researchers are clear about the purpose of involvement. When learning is understood to be the purpose, the most appropriate people to involve are those with relevant experiential knowledge. They provide insights based on their lived experience. In research projects, this is experience of the topic being studied. This could be patients, carers, public or health professionals. We discuss how involving people who do not have relevant experiential knowledge may limit impact. These people may be as likely as researchers to make wrong assumptions. This risks missing key insights or making unhelpful decisions. We conclude that greater attention should be given to the question of who to involve. Raising awareness of the importance of relevant experiential knowledge and other factors that determine whose input will be most useful, will help maximise opportunities for learning and increase the potential for impact.

Vaccination against COVID-19 is the cornerstone of controlling and mitigating the ongoing pandemic. Thrombotic adverse events linked to Moderna, Pfizer and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been documented and described as extremely rare. While the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has received much of the attention, the other vaccines should not go unchallenged. This study aimed to determine the frequency of reported thrombotic adverse events and clinical outcomes for these three COVID-19 vaccines, namely, Moderna, Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca. A retrospective descriptive analysis was conducted of spontaneous reports for Moderna, Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines submitted to the EudraVigilance database in the period from 17 February to 14 June 2021. There were 729,496 adverse events for the three vaccines, of which 3420 were thrombotic, mainly Oxford-AstraZeneca (n = 1988; 58.1%) followed by Pfizer (n = 1096; 32.0%) and Moderna (n = 336; 9.8%). As serious adverse events, there were 705 reports of pulmonary embolism for the three vaccines, of which 130 reports (18.4%) were for Moderna, 226 reports (32.1%) for Pfizer and 349 (49.5%) for Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. The occurrence of pulmonary embolism is significantly associated with a fatal outcome (p ≤ 0.001). Sixty-three fatalities were recorded (n = 63/3420; 1.8%), of which Moderna (n = 6), Pfizer (n = 25) and Oxford-AstraZeneca (n = 32).

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder affecting millions of people worldwide for which there are only symptomatic therapies. Small molecules able to target key pathological processes in PD have emerged as interesting options for modifying disease progression. We have previously shown that a (poly)phenol-enriched fraction (PEF) of Corema album L. leaf extract modulates central events in PD pathogenesis, namely α-synuclein (αSyn) toxicity, aggregation and clearance. PEF was now subjected to a bio-guided fractionation with the aim of identifying the critical bioactive compound. We identified genipin, an iridoid, which relieves αSyn toxicity and aggregation. Furthermore, genipin promotes metabolic alterations and modulates lipid storage and endocytosis. Importantly, genipin was able to prevent the motor deficits caused by the overexpression of αSyn in a Drosophila melanogaster model of PD. These findings widens the possibility for the exploitation of genipin for PD therapeutics. In this work, the authors identify Genipin as a small iridoid able to prevent alpha-synuclein aggregation and toxicity by affecting endocytosis, metabolism and lipid storage.