Sheffield City Research Articles

Possible Evidence for a Fall in the Prevalence of High-Functioning Pervasive Developmental Disorder with Age?

A survey was undertaken to investigate the prevalence of high-functioning pervasive developmental disorder (HFPDD) in a community sample of teenagers and adults aged 13 and above in the city of Sheffield, UK. 112 possible and definite cases were found, of whom 65 (57%) had a previous diagnosis. The detected prevalence of possible or definite HFPDD was found to be 0.24 per 1000 of the population of Sheffield city aged 13 or over, but the prevalence by year of age fell from a maximum of 1.1 per 1000 in the group aged 13 to 14 years old (1 young adult in every 900 in this age group) to 0.03 per 1000 in the over 60s (1 person in every 38500 in this age group). The results of this study are preliminary and need follow-up investigation in larger studies. We suggest several explanations for the findings, including reduced willingness to participate in a study as people get older, increased ascertainment in younger people, and increased mortality. Another contributory factor might be that the prevalence of high-functioning pervasive development disorder may decline with age. This raises the possibility that AS symptoms might become subclinical in adulthood in a proportion of people with HFPDD.

A comparison of the occupant comfort in a conventional high-rise office block and a contemporary environmentally-concerned building

A comparative study of the occupant comfort (neutral) in a conventional high-rise office block and a contemporary environmentally-concerned building for Sheffield UK climate conditions was carried out. A questionnaire was designed for occupants to rate their workplace environment in terms of the thermal, visual, acoustic and overall perception and satisfaction level. The basic physical parameters were measured at the same time, e.g. air temperature, humidity, illuminance and sound level. It is inferred that (1) There is a noticeable difference between the conventional building and environmentally-concerned building in terms of their thermal and visual environment. (2) A clear distinction of the occupant sensation and satisfaction level towards their thermal and visual environment is presented between these two buildings. (3) The effect of basic physical variables on the occupants’ perception and satisfaction level becomes less significant when minimal standards are attained. (4) The acoustic satisfaction level however, was not perceived differently by the occupants of the two building types.

A randomised controlled trial and cost-effectiveness evaluation of "booster" interventions to sustain increases in physical activity in middle-aged adults in deprived urban neighbourhoods

BackgroundSystematic reviews have identified a range of brief interventions which increase physical activity in previously sedentary people. There is an absence of evidence about whether follow up beyond three months can maintain long term physical activity. This study assesses whether it is worth providing motivational interviews, three months after giving initial advice, to those who have become more active.Methods/DesignStudy candidates (n = 1500) will initially be given an interactive DVD and receive two telephone follow ups at monthly intervals checking on receipt and use of the DVD. Only those that have increased their physical activity after three months (n = 600) will be randomised into the study. These participants will receive either a "mini booster" (n = 200), "full booster" (n = 200) or no booster (n = 200). The "mini booster" consists of two telephone calls one month apart to discuss physical activity and maintenance strategies. The "full booster" consists of a face-to-face meeting with the facilitator at the same intervals. The purpose of these booster sessions is to help the individual maintain their increase in physical activity. Differences in physical activity, quality of life and costs associated with the booster interventions, will be measured three and nine months from randomisation. The research will be conducted in 20 of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Sheffield, which have large, ethnically diverse populations, high levels of economic deprivation, low levels of physical activity, poorer health and shorter life expectancy. Participants will be recruited through general practices and community groups, as well as by postal invitation, to ensure the participation of minority ethnic groups and those with lower levels of literacy. Sheffield City Council and Primary Care Trust fund a range of facilities and activities to promote physical activity and variations in access to these between neighbourhoods will make it possible to examine whether the effectiveness of the intervention is modified by access to community facilities. A one-year integrated feasibility study will confirm that recruitment targets are achievable based on a 10% sample.DiscussionThe choice of study population, study interventions, brief intervention preceding the study, and outcome measure are discussed.Trial RegistrationCurrent Controlled Trials: ISRCTN56495859; ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00836459.

An audit of the use and utility of erlotinib at Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield UK

An audit of the use and utility of erlotinib at Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield UK

Special Issue Editorial

This special issue of the Health Informatics Journal arises from the 13th International Symposium for Health Information Management Research (ISHIMR 2008) hosted by Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand in collaboration with the University of Sheffi eld, 16–18 October 2008. The ISHIMR conference is organized annually by the Centre for Health Information Management Research (CHIMR) at the University of Sheffi eld, and this was the fi rst time that the conference had been held in the southern hemisphere. Copyright © 2009 by SAGE Publications

Life satisfaction, appraisals and functional outcomes in spinal cord-injured people living in the community

Multi-centre, single cohort. To assess the relationship between cognitive appraisals in a spinal cord-injured population living in the community, and examine how these factors affect social participation, life satisfaction and functional outcomes. The National Spinal Injuries Centre, Stoke Mandeville, UK; Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre, Sheffield UK; Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries, Oswestry, UK. Participants (n=81) sustaining injury aged 18 or above were recruited from one of three spinal cord injuries units 3-18 months after discharge. Postal packs containing questionnaires, consent forms and information were distributed and a 2-week reminder sent. Participation was found to be strongly related to life satisfaction, negative appraisals of disability were found to explain 12.9% of the variance in total participation scores. The variance in scores on Life Satisfaction Questionnaires was explained by appraisals, participation and secondary complications to a total of 69.6%. Functional Independence Scores were explained by negative perceptions of disability, growth and resilience and total secondary complication scores, explaining 49.4% of the variance in this measure. Participation, functional independence and life satisfaction were significantly related to appraisal styles in this population. Negative perceptions of disability, fearful despondency and overwhelming disbelief were themes that impacted on the likelihood of participation and independence and involved in expressed levels of life satisfaction. Our results suggest the need to tackle cognitive styles of SCI patients before discharge to improve the rehabilitation process.

Planning through conflict: the genesis of Sheffield's post‐war reconstruction plan

This paper charts recent research findings on the preparation of the 1945 Plan for Sheffield's City Centre, and argues that the story of the plan's genesis encapsulates trends within British planning during this period.

Public library services and the Polish community in England: case study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the needs of the Polish community (established and newly arrived Poles) and how those needs are met by the public library service.Design/methodology/approachA case study method was used in partnership with Sheffield City Libraries. The methodology included interviews with library professionals and interviews and questionnaires targeted at members of the Polish community.FindingsThe Polish community are generally satisfied with the service they receive from libraries. The needs of sections of the Polish community are different dependent on their time in the country. Main concerns were with regard to the collection and their desire for good quality Polish materials including works by Polish authors (not just translations into Polish).Research limitations/implicationsThis study is a single case study giving a snapshot of the library services to Polish users.Practical implicationsThis study highlighted the need for increased community engagement with this particular ethic group. There is a need for collection development for this group of users. This can be facilitated by co‐operation with other libraries that are engaging in best practice and also specialist services such as the Polish Library in London.Originality/valueThis study is of practical value to public libraries meeting the needs of the Polish Community that is a growing and transient user group. There is little other literature that considers the needs of Poles newly arrived in this country.

How many birds are there in a city of half a million people?

ABSTRACTAim Urban environments are often characterized as supporting a few abundant, generalist species best adapted to living alongside humans, and as such, cities are seen as agents of biotic homogenization. However, there are surprisingly few descriptions of biological populations found in cities. Here, we provide the first complete citywide population estimates of birds for any UK city, and examine the conservation status of the assemblage in comparison with the country's avifauna at large.Location Sheffield city, central UKMethods We surveyed birds in every 500 m × 500 m square across the 160 km2of the city. Using a Distance sampling protocol, we estimated bird population sizes for the city and compared these with the size of the human population. We also compared the conservation status of the city's avian population with that of birds across the UK as a whole.Results Aggregation of population estimates for the 77 species observed during the surveys produced a total estimate of 602,995 (95% confidence interval (CI): 404,565–942,573) breeding birds, equating to 1.18 birds per person. The size of the non‐breeding population was similar at 578,603 (464,396–728,574) individuals, or 1.13 birds per person. Surveys revealed only three non‐native species, but relatively few species of national conservation concern. However, some species of conservation concern achieved very high population densities within the city, and the overall density of birds was more than six times that of the nation at large.Main conclusions If declines in some species are to be arrested or reversed, conservation effort will need to focus much more strongly on understanding and managing urban populations, because these might buffer some species against wholesale regional population depletion, particularly where intensive agriculture in the surrounding hinterland has led to declines in bird populations at large. Such a focus will require a significant increase in the priority and resources devoted to conservation activities in urban areas.

A physical model of the atmospheric aerosol turbidity for estimating the illuminance of direct sunlight

The aerosol turbidity index is the key variable in simple parameterisation models of direct normal solar radiation on a plane perpendicular to the direction of the sun. Techniques that use fixed design standard values of the turbidity index do not adequately account for variations in aerosol attenuation. This study presents a simple physical model to estimate the Unsworth—Monteith illuminance turbidity index TUi, using aerosol mass concentration (PM10) data that are routinely available from air pollution monitoring stations. TUi is parameterised in terms of the aerosol scale height and the ground level aerosol extinction coefficient. A measured set of hourly average `clear sun' direct normal illuminances, and PM10 data for the urban location of Sheffield UK was used to validate the proposed model.

A man who brought the war home with him

Department of General Internal Medicine and Nephrology (F W Ballardie FRCP, R Cowley PhD), Department of Pathology (A Curry PhD, H Denley FRCPath), and Department of Laboratory Medicine (J Denton MSc), University of Manchester and Manchester Royal Infi rmary, Manchester, UK; Department of Neurosciences (J Dick FRCP) and Department of Undergraduate Medical Education (A Redmond FRCP), Hope Hospital, Manchester, UK; Centre for Analytical Sciences, University of Sheffi eld, Sheffi eld, UK (A Cox MPhil); and Curie Research Institute, Paris, France (J-L Guerquin-Kern PhD)

City centre masterplanning and cultural spaces: A case study of Sheffield

This paper presents a case study of Sheffield city centre's masterplan, focusing on the Heart of the City civic core. Sheffield was one of the first city councils to use culture as a basis for economic regeneration. The literature argues that while early regeneration was economically driven, under New Labour cultural planning has become more focused on creating inclusive spaces. The new developments in Sheffield associated with the masterplan have been in two stages. The first created award winning public cultural spaces, including the Millennium Galleries and Winter Garden. The second phase has led to private, commercial developments, which this paper argues have impacted negatively on the public spaces. The public spaces do not meet the inclusive aspirations of either Sheffield's local strategic partnership or cultural policy. The Sheffield case, however, demonstrates how all regeneration is located within local economic realities. As a secondary city within its region, in terms of office rents, there is a limit to what the public sector in Sheffield can demand from the private sector. The masterplan's developments are ongoing and there is evidence that as office rentals are increasing the public sector could exert more power in the future.

New build or conversion?

PurposeThis research aims to analyse the preferences within key groups for the conversion of existing buildings or the construction of new buildings for private residential purposes in Sheffield city centre.Design/methodology/approachA literature review analysed the factors which have increased in importance and influenced the choice between city centre private residential conversion and new build. Interviews with professionals including developers, planners and property agents, the key stakeholders and in this case, practitioners within Sheffield, examined the sustainability, technical and financial issues in the residential property development.FindingsThe results revealed that developers preferred new build for city centre private residential development. Though the urban planners of Sheffield had no preferences, they encouraged the reuse of buildings, but due to a scarcity of suitable redundant buildings for conversion it is inevitable that the city will see new build on the cityscape in future.Practical implicationsAs the housing market loses the impetus of recent years the predictions made in this paper will provide useful advice to property developers in avoiding costly investment mistakes.Originality/valueThis study provides a case study upon which to base similar studies of residential urban regeneration projects in other locations.

The South Yorkshire Steel Industry and the Industrial Revolution

Sheffield was famous for its cutlery long before it became Steel City. By the early modern period Hallamshire cutlers were importing steel from the Continent. The earliest reference to cementation steel making in South Yorkshire is from 1642. The Sheffield steelmaking district had little or no reputation outside the area before Benjamin Huntsman invented crucible steel in 1742. The early steelmakers simply supplied the cutlers, but by the mid nineteenth century nearly half the European output of steel was made in the Sheffield district. The population of Sheffield grew from 14,531 in 1736 to 135,310 in 1851. Yet the scale of the steel industry in the classic period of the Industrial Revolution was still small compared with that of Victorian times, and it depended on the handicraft skills of its workers. A new era began in 1837 with the giant steel works of the East End, which soon used Bessemer converters to manufacture railway rolling stock and then armaments. The cutlers were no longer the major customers of the steelmen. At the end of the nineteenth century Sheffield remained the leading world centre for special steels, and its population had risen to over 400,000.

Serum iron indices in blood donors: relationship to haemochromatosis (GH) genotype, age and number of blood donations: Karren Palmer, Vanessa Chambers, Ann Dalton, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Robert Sokol, Trent Regional Blood Transfusion Service, Sheffield Uk; Rodney Pollitt, Stuart Tanner, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching

Serum iron indices in blood donors: relationship to haemochromatosis (GH) genotype, age and number of blood donations: Karren Palmer, Vanessa Chambers, Ann Dalton, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Robert Sokol, Trent Regional Blood Transfusion Service, Sheffield Uk; Rodney Pollitt, Stuart Tanner, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching

Interleukin - 6 and interleukin - 10 gene polymorphisms in decompensated alcoholic liver disease (ALD): Dermot Gleeson, Martin Bradley, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Julian Sorrell, Division of Molecular and Genetic Medicine, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Robert Peck, Department of Radiology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Gordon Duff, Division of Molecular and Genetic Medicine, University

Interleukin - 6 and interleukin - 10 gene polymorphisms in decompensated alcoholic liver disease (ALD): Dermot Gleeson, Martin Bradley, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Julian Sorrell, Division of Molecular and Genetic Medicine, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Robert Peck, Department of Radiology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Gordon Duff, Division of Molecular and Genetic Medicine, University

Haemochromatosis-associated HFE genotypes in blood donors: age-related frequency and phenotypic expression: Karren Palmer, Vanessa Chambers, Ann Dalton, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Robert Sokol, Trent Regional Blood Transfusion Service, Sheffield Uk; Rodney Pollitt, Stuart Tanner, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk

Haemochromatosis-associated HFE genotypes in blood donors: age-related frequency and phenotypic expression: Karren Palmer, Vanessa Chambers, Ann Dalton, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Robert Sokol, Trent Regional Blood Transfusion Service, Sheffield Uk; Rodney Pollitt, Stuart Tanner, Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Uk; Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk

Epidemiology of primary biliary cirhosis (PBC) in Sheffield updated: Demographics and relationship to water supply: Dominic Ray-Chaudhuri, Elizabeth Rigney, Keith McCormack, Nigel Trudgill, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Asha Dube, Department of Pathology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Tony Milford-Ward, Department of Immunology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals

Epidemiology of primary biliary cirhosis (PBC) in Sheffield updated: Demographics and relationship to water supply: Dominic Ray-Chaudhuri, Elizabeth Rigney, Keith McCormack, Nigel Trudgill, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Asha Dube, Department of Pathology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Tony Milford-Ward, Department of Immunology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk; Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals

Audit of short and medium term outcome of patients with decompensated alcoholic liver disease (ALD): Dominic Ray-Chaudhuri, Elaine McFarlane, Martin Bradley, Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk

Audit of short and medium term outcome of patients with decompensated alcoholic liver disease (ALD): Dominic Ray-Chaudhuri, Elaine McFarlane, Martin Bradley, Dermot Gleeson, Liver Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust, Sheffield Uk

Comments on the paper 'Systematic errors in flow stress measurement for the hot plane strain compression test' by R. W. Evans and P. J. Scharning

Mr Lacey and Professor Sellars (c.m.sellars@sheffield.ac.uk) are in the Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK and Dr Mirza is with Materials Engineering Research Laboratory Ltd, Tamworth Road, Hertford SG13 7DG, UK. Received 9 June 2004; accepted 29 July 2004. # 2004 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute.