The findings suggest that befriending shares commonalities with other types of psychological help. However, it is also characterized by some particular challenges, such as establishing an empathic relationship and managing boundaries and endings.

An imperative to develop the social experience of learning has led to the design of informal learning spaces within libraries. Yet little is known about how these spaces are used by students or how students perceive them. Field work in one such space is reported. The general private study practice of undergraduates was captured through audio diaries, while activity in the learning space was directly observed, and students provided reflective perspectives in focus groups and through spot conversations. Results suggest such spaces are popular and yet stimulate limited group work. Yet other, less intense, forms of productive collaboration did occur and a taxonomy of four such types of encounter is offered. Of particular importance to students was access to a 'social ambience' for study. The results encourage institutions to design for a mixed economy of student choice over learning spaces and to consider modes of encouraging diversity in their use. AMBIENCE IN SOCIAL LEARNING SPACES 2Ambience in social learning: student engagement with new designs for learning spacesAgendas for enriching the experience of formal education often consider refreshing the material design of those spaces in which students learn (Comber & Wall, 2001;Rudd, Morrison & Facer, 2006 Closer scrutiny of arguments for renewing learning spaces suggests that one recurring motive is the ambition to create more favourable conditions for learning that is social (Brown, 2005;Jamieson, Fisher, Gilding, Taylor & Trevitt, 2000). There are at least three arguments for strengthening the collaborative or interpersonal quality of educational practice.The first is promoted by many employers. They may claim that graduates enter the workplace poorly prepared for coordinating their thinking with others (CBI, 2009). This suggests a need for educational environments that support experience in team work. The second argument for extending the 'social' dimension of learning is suggested by young peoples' vigorous engagement with internet-based social media. As so much curricular material is now accessed through the internet, it is natural to consider whether networked social media could also animate communication for learning. Such ambitions would give educational practice a stronger social and 'participative' quality. Then, if learning is made social within the virtual learning spaces of the internet, it is natural to extend such design thinking to the morephysical spaces of the institutional campus: they also might become contexts for cultivating learning through social interaction and collaboration. Finally, the popular call for learning to have a more social quality resonates well with social constructivist theories of knowledge (Berger & Luckman, 1966) and with conceptions of knowing as cognitively and socially 'distributed ' (Clark, 1997). This perspective in turn complements psychological theories that stress the communual contexts of learning (Lave & Wenger, 1990;Rogoff, 2003). In this climate of thinking, educational institutions will consider how th...

The National Institutes of Health stopped the worldwide Moderate Alcohol and Cardiovascular Health (MACH) trial in 2018 because of institutional failings that led to the biased design of this major study. Drawing on e-mail correspondence among officials, researchers, and alcohol companies, we provide the first, to our knowledge, detailed analysis of alcohol industry involvement in the MACH trial. Alcohol companies agreed to fund the MACH trial to advance their commercial interests rather than to help answer a major scientific question. Alcohol industry executives seized opportunities presented by discussions of the MACH trial to try to influence this study and wider public health, research, and policy decision-making. The process of soliciting research funding from corporations, which included convincing alcohol companies that the study design supported their commercial interests, was intrinsically biased. Thus, the three parties—research funding officials, researchers, and industry executives—coproduced the biased trial design. A detailed understanding of this episode will be helpful in advancing efforts to protect public health research from biases associated with corporate donations.

Introduction A growing body of literature suggests alcohol industry corporate social responsibility activity, including the creation of ‘social aspects’ organisations (SAO), may harm rather than improve public health. We aimed to explore established researcher experiences of working with SAOs, and the factors informing their decisions to do so. Methods Qualitative interview study with senior alcohol researchers who had previous or ongoing connections to SAOs or their predecessors initiated when their careers were established (n = 16). Thematic analysis using NVivo software. Results Established researchers were recruited for their expertise by alcohol industry SAOs via employees who were previously academics or via academic colleagues with SAO connections. Motivated by the desire to improve public health and ‘reach out’ beyond academia, researchers were confident that they could maintain their independence when sharing their expertise with SAOs. Short‐term connections included attendance at SAO‐funded events and book chapter contributions. Sometimes, these led to long‐term relationships with SAOs, or researchers were invited to long‐term roles by a colleague. These included memberships of scientific advisory committees, board positions, or work as independent consultants. Most researchers reflected negatively on their experiences and had ended their associations, while some had positive experiences. Discussion and Conclusion Current and former researchers play key roles in initiating connections with SAOs, with industry‐funded events and invitations to long‐term roles by trusted colleagues, mechanisms used to facilitate the development of such relationships. Our study adds to existing evidence that SAO scientific activity does not contribute to public health goals, but does present industry with public relations opportunities.

This paper considers how shared parental leave could achieve its aim of encouraging fathers to provide care. I will argue that achieving this ambition is dependent upon the legislation continuing to be available only to those performing a parenting role, when two parents are providing childcare. Despite the problems with the two parent family model, it should be retained temporarily because it has unique potential to encourage men to care, as highlighted by Swedish legislation. This is the most effective way to challenge gender inequality. Shared parental leave should only be made available to a wider category of carers after men have been given a realistic chance to care. Widening access earlier risks reinforcing women's association with caring work.