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The insights of people who have experienced mental health issues are at the core of recovery frameworks. The inclusion of peer support workers in clinical care teams is crucial to a recovery-supportive focus. Peer support workers facilitate egalitarian spaces for non-peer staff and consumers to frankly discuss the lived experience of mental illness. This study was part of a larger evaluation study which aimed to explore the implementation of a newly formed community-based mental health team in South-East Queensland, Australia. The paper reports the role of peer support workers and answers two research questions: "How is peer support work constructed in an interprofessional clinical care team?" and (2) "How do interprofessional mental health clinical care teams respond to the inclusion of peer support workers as team members?" Three themes were identified: peer support worker' ability to navigate a legitimate place within care teams, their value to the team once they established legitimacy and their ability to traverse the care landscape. Ultimately, successful integration in interprofessional teams was dependent upon the ability of clinical staff to focus on unique strengths that peer support workers bring, in addition to lived experience with mental illness as a carer or consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Understanding patients' experiences and preferences for health care is important with respect to informing how to provide best-practice, patient-centred care. The present study aimed to explore the perceptions of patients who have been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes regarding nutrition care received from dietitians. Methods Ten individuals recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes participated in three individual semi-structured qualitative telephone interviews: at baseline, then at 3 and 6 months after recruitment. Data were analysed using content analysis at each time point and meta-synthesis of findings over time. Results Participants' initial interactions with dietitians were challenging and overwhelming as a result of the instructional nature of consultations. Many participants questioned the use of dietary guidelines to inform nutrition care because this was not adapted to the individual. Some participants valued receiving education on topics such as label reading and serving sizes; however, others considered that the nutrition care was rushed and overly directive. Very few participants perceived that an ongoing relationship with a dietitian would be useful, and limited interaction was planned beyond 6 months after diagnosis. Conclusions These findings suggest that there is considerable opportunity for dietitians to enhance the nutrition care provided to patients with type 2 diabetes. Tailoring of dietary guidelines to individuals, utilising supportive counselling styles, and focusing on open communication in consultations that facilitate ongoing, useful care for patients, may help patients with type 2 diabetes achieve and maintain healthy dietary behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Numerous research articles dealing with Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) in occupational health because epidemiological studies reveal an association between RCS-dust and the development of silicosis as well as an increased probability of developing lung cancer. Research activities about RCS in ambient air are known from US-measurements. However there is a lack of knowledge regarding RCS-emissions in several industrial sectors. Industrial sources of crystalline silica include construction, foundries, glass manufacturing, abrasive blasting or any industrial or commercial use of silica sand, and mining and rock crushing operations. This paper describes a RCS-emission measurement method for stack gases and report results from the German RCS-emission measurement programmes which were used to identify installations and types of industries with the highest concentration levels of RCS in stack gases. A two-stage cascade impactor was used for the measurements which separate particles into the following size fractions: >10 μm, 10–4 μm und <4 μm of aerodynamic diameter. The measurements were carried out according to international sampling standards. The size of crystalline silica particles of most concern are those respirable particles that are smaller than four microns (millionths of a metre), also called particulate matter 4 (PM4). The analytical procedure of determining crystalline silica in emission samples (in the fraction below 4 μm) consists of using x-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy methods which are the same methods as used in the field of occupational health. A total of 37 emission measurement campaigns were assessed (112 RCS-samples in nine industrial sectors). The investigated plants are located in different German states such as Bavaria, North Rhine Westphalia, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. The results of the measurements show that most of the investigated plants can achieve compliance with the newly developed German emission limit value (ELV) of 1 mg m−3. The ELV is expressed as the concentration of RCS in stack emissions. According to the German emission minimising principle and the precautionary principle it is assumed that by complying with the RCS-ELV there is no ambient air health risk for people living these plants. In the case of increased total dust concentration in the stack gas (more than 20 mg m−3) combined with increased percentage of crystalline silica in PM4 dust, a violation of the above mentioned ELV is more likely. This applies mostly to installations in the silica sand processing industry. To comply with the ELV of 1 mg m−3, efficient emission control technology should be implemented and should be well maintained. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Emission measurement programmes were carried out at industrial plants in several regions of Germany to determine the fine dust in the waste gases; the PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0 fractions were sampled using a cascade impactor technique. The installations tested included plants used for: combustion (brown coal, heavy fuel oil, wood), cement production, glass production, asphalt mixing, and processing plants for natural stones and sand, ceramics, metallurgy, chemical production, spray painting, wood processing/chip drying, poultry farming and waste treatment. In addition waste gas samples were taken from small-scale combustion units, like domestic stoves, firing lignite briquettes or wood. In total 303 individual measurement results were obtained during 106 different measurement campaigns. In the study it was found that in more than 70% of the individual emission measurement results from industrial plants and domestic stoves the PM10 portion amounted to more than 90% and the PM2.5 portion between 50% and 90% of the total PM (particulate matter) emission. For thermal industrial processes the PM1.0 portion constituted between 20% and 60% of the total PM emission. Typical particle size distributions for different processes were presented as cumulative frequency distributions and as frequency distributions. The particle size distributions determined for the different plant types show interesting similarities and differences depending on whether the processes are thermal, mechanical, chemical or mixed. Consequently, for the groups of plant investigated, a major finding of this study has been that the particle size distribution is a characteristic of the industrial process. Attempts to correlate particle size distributions of different plants to different gas cleaning technologies did not lead to usable results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The use of controlled-clearance piston gauges as highly accurate primary pressure standards is well established. However, the operation of a controlled-clearance gauge is more complicated than that of the familiar simple or reentrant designs. An investigation has been performed on a modified design of a piston gauge for which the same piston/cylinder can be operated in either the controlled-clearance, simple, or reentrant modes, to determine the degree of degradation in accuracy of measured pressure using the gauge in either the simple or reentrant modes as a standard. How the particular characterization of the standard gauge affects the calibration parameters of a test gauge is also explored. The effective areas of the test gauge are within 4.5 parts per million (ppm) when the standard is used in the simple mode instead of the controlledclearance mode, up to a pressure of 28 MPa, whereas in the case of the reentrant mode this deviation increases from 2.5 ppm at 7 MPa to 14 ppm at 26 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]