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To explore longer-term health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and participation outcomes and goals of children and young people (CYP) with acquired brain injuries (ABI) and their families in a region of the UK and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-sectional survey of (5-18 CYP) and their parent-carers 12–43 months following ABI. Included measures of HRQoL, participation, family function and parental wellbeing and demographic and free text questions. Ninety-five responses (30% response) were received. 67% of CYP were at risk of impaired HRQoL, 72% had severely impaired participation. 53% of parent-carers reported reduced HRQoL and family functioning, 37% of parent-carers screened positive for anxiety/depression. Relationships exist between CYP participation and HRQoL and parental HRQoL and family functioning. Goals were overwhelmingly activity and participation focused. Participants described the global impact of an ABI on the CYP and family as well as the additional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on CYP and family wellbeing. ABI significantly impacts CYP participation and both CYP and parent-carer wellbeing in the long-term, potentially further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rehabilitation interventions should address both participation and the psychological wellbeing of CYP with ABI and their parent-carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storm surges are coastal sea-level variations caused by meteorological conditions. It is vital that they are forecasted accurately to reduce the potential for financial damage and loss of life. In this study, we investigate how effectively the variational assimilation of sparse sea level observations from tide gauges can be used for operational forecasting in the North Sea. Novel data assimilation ideas are considered and evaluated: a new shortest-path method for generating improved distance-based correlations in the presence of coastal boundaries and an adaptive error covariance model. An assimilation setup is validated by removing selections of tide gauges from the assimilation procedure for a North Sea case study. These experiments show widespread improvements in RMSE and correlations, reaching up to 16 cm and 0.7 (respectively) at some locations. Simulated forecast experiments show RMSE improvements of up to 5 cm for the first 24 h of forecasting, which is useful operationally. Beyond 24 h, improvements quickly diminish however. Using the setup based on the shortest path algorithm shows little difference when compared to a simpler Euclidean method at most locations. Analysis of this event shows that improvements due to data assimilation are bounded and relatively short lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]