159370 research outputs found
Sort by
Patient and center factors in home dialysis therapy uptake: analysis of a UK renal registry cohort and a National Dialysis Center survey
No full textRATIONALE & OBJECTIVE: Variation in home dialysis therapy (HT) use across centers and geography may reflect the interplay between dialysis center services and patient characteristics. We examined direct and indirect associations between these factors and HT uptake in England.
STUDY DESIGN: UK Renal Registry (UKRR) cohort linked to a national survey of renal centers.
SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: Adults who initiated kidney replacement therapy (KRT) between 2015 and 2019 at 51 English renal centers, totalling 32,400 individuals identified through the UKRR, with center practices captured from a 2022 national survey of dialysis centers.
EXPOSURES: Patient- (demographics and clinical characteristics) and center-level (including availability of assisted peritoneal dialysis, quality improvement initiatives, and fostering staff engagement in research) factors. OUTCOMES: Use of HT (home haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis) within one year of starting KRT.
ANALYTICAL APPROACH: Sequences of regressions, an extension of path analysis, used to examine direct and indirect associations between patient- and center-level factors and the probability of HT uptake. RESULTS: Both center- and patient-level factors were significantly associated with the probability of HT uptake. Patients at centers conducting quality improvement projects, (OR [95% CI]) 1.94, [1.36-2.76]), offering assisted PD (1.89, [1.39-2.57]), fostering staff research engagement (1.35, [1.03-1.77]) or hosting HT roadshows (1.22, [1.05-1.41]) had higher odds of HT uptake. Centers with greater stress on staff capacity to deliver HT had lower uptake (0.60, [0.45-0.81]). Patients on transplant lists at KRT start (2.55, [2.35-2.77]) or who lived farther from a treatment center (1.10, [1.08-1.12] per 10km) had higher odds of HT uptake. Patients living in areas of higher deprivation or members of minority ethnic groups had lower HT uptake overall. However, some of these associations may have been indirectly mitigated in centers serving more diverse populations, as these centers were more likely to implement practices associated with higher HT uptake.
LIMITATIONS: Healthcare professional-reported and aggregated survey data.
CONCLUSIONS: This study identified modifiable center-level factors associated with HT uptake, informing potential opportunities to reduce ethnic and area-level disparities
Time orientation in languages and agency costs
Get PDFDespite growing interest in the institutional and cultural determinants of corporate governance, limited attention has been paid to how language structure, particularly Future Time Reference (FTR), shapes agency dynamics. This study addresses this gap by integrating agency theory with the principle of linguistic relativity to examine how FTR—a grammatical feature that affects how languages express the future—impacts agency costs across firms and countries. Building on the premise that language influences temporal cognition, we argue that weak-FTR environments reduce the salience of future outcomes, thereby increasing temporal ambiguity in managerial decision-making and elevating agency costs. Using a panel of 20,225 firm-year observations across 17 countries from 2008 to 2020, we find that firms operating in weak-FTR language contexts experience significantly higher agency costs. However, this effect is not deterministic: it is mitigated by two key governance mechanisms. First, managerial risk perception moderates the relationship by reducing ambiguity-driven discretion among risk-averse executives. Second, institutional ownership functions as an external control mechanism, attenuating the adverse cognitive effects of weak-FTR through enhanced monitoring and accountability. By establishing language as a structural yet overlooked antecedent of agency costs, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of cross-national governance variation. It expands agency theory beyond economic incentives to include cognitive-linguistic framing, offering practical implications for multinational firms and policymakers designing governance systems in linguistically diverse contexts
Mapping the margins: A decolonial exploration of Kenyan women’s encounters with violent extremism
No full textThis article explores violent extremism (VE) through an embodied, bottom-up lens, using body-mapping with Muslim women in Kenya. Drawing on two selected body maps, we critically interrogate the use of VE is as a framework for analysing the harm experienced by women. Our participants used the terminology of VE to refer to not only Al-Shabaab–related violence but also gender-based violence, gang violence, and state violence. These insights highlight a key tension in critical scholarship on VE: while often critiqued from a distance, VE is actively reappropriated by those most affected. We argue that, as a community disproportionately targeted by countering violent extremism (CVE) initiatives, our participants employed the language of VE as a form of adaptive resistance – challenging both the violent policing of CVE and the patriarchal violence embedded in their daily lives. This article contributes to feminist decolonial critiques of VE by centring the voices of those most impacted, and by questioning critiques that overlook lived experiences. Additionally, by sharing our arts-based methodology, we contribute to emerging literature on decolonial research practices. Finally, we raise critical questions about the intersections of gender-based violence, gang violence, state violence, and VE in Kenya and beyond
The solution of ordinary differential equations using genetic programming with constant tuning
Get PDFIn this paper we report the solution of a benchmark set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using genetic programming (GP) within a collocation framework using tuning of the embedded tree constants. We report statistical comparison with a baseline GP approach without constant tuning that indicates that parameter tuning produces statistically superior results. We obtain highly accurate solutions for almost all the benchmark ODEs, but identify a hitherto unreported issue with GP finding trivial solutions. The characteristics of the individual ODEs appear to dictate whether or not solution is problematic
Characterisation of an oat protein-beta-glucan co-extract
Get PDFWe characterise a novel, dilute protein concentrate produced via alkaline extraction of defatted oat flour (DOF) without additional protein purification and identify a self-assembly of oat protein and dietary fibre (primarily oat β-glucan). The oat protein-β-glucan co-extract (OPBG) was characterised using sodium dodecyl-sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and showed multiple protein bands, with major bands assigned to oat 12S globulin monomers (65-67 kDa) and its subunits (45 and 22 kDa). Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy revealed high quantities of β-sheet and random coil structures with evidence of partial protein unfolding at pH 2.0. The co-extract showed various degrees of aggregation when subjected to different pH (pH 2.0-10.0) and ionic strength (0-1.0 M added NaCl) conditions. At pH 2.0, β-glucan-β-glucan aggregates appeared dispersed in a continuous protein phase. At pH 7.0, OPBG displayed a compact aggregated microstructure with a hydrodynamic diameter (dH) of ∼100-150 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.28, where binary protein-β-glucan clusters co-existed with singular entities, i.e. protein-protein and β-glucan-β-glucan aggregates. Complementary ζ-potential measurements confirmed a negative surface charge at pH 7.0 and isoelectric point (pI) of 4.0-4.5. As the pH increased to 10.0, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) images revealed strong colocalisation of the protein and β-glucan, with consequent evolution of a smaller peak (dH ∼ 20 nm) resembling oat 12S globulin hexamers. Overall, hydrogen bonding appeared to dominate the protein-polysaccharide interactions in OPBG, whilst its colloidal properties, including responsiveness to pH and added salt, seemed to be largely governed by the proteinaceous fraction
Diversity in Crisis: Race, Media and Popular Superdiversity in Authoritarian Times
No full textThis article examines the unfolding crisis of diversity in Western media and society. Once a benign, even banal, concept, ‘diversity’ is now attacked from both left and right: for the former, as a performative gesture masking structural racism; for the latter, as a threat to meritocracy and national identity. Today, it is the far right that is most forcefully shaping public discourse, reframing diversity as a symbol of cosmopolitan elitism and white marginalisation. Yet media culture remains ‘super-diverse’. In the UK, people of colour are more visible on screen than ever before, represented through seemingly complex and varied characterisations. Even as diversity discourse becomes increasingly embattled, this multiracial media form appears largely intact. Focusing on British media, the article traces the unravelling of diversity as a governing logic. It asks how we can make sense of the coexistence of popular superdiversity and the mainstreaming of far-right populism. Its central contention is that understanding the politics of diversity – in all its contradictory forms – is essential to grasping the current conjuncture, and may even point toward how to resist the reactionary forces that define it
Equity Finance and the UK Regions
No full textThis report examines regional disparities in UK equity finance using data covering 60,543 deals totaling £145.3bn invested across 25,002 companies from 2011 to 2025 Q3. We document intensifying geographic concentration, with London capturing 47.2% of deals and 57.0% of invested value, while concentration indices rose 74% between 2011 and 2024. Econometric analysis using propensity score matching reveals persistent regional disadvantages beyond firm characteristics. Regional firms secure 8-18% smaller deal sizes than comparable London firms, with largest discounts in Yorkshire and the Humber (-17.8%) and the Midlands. We estimate the UK's 2024 equity gap at £8.1bn unadjusted, compressing to £0.75bn after incorporating behavioural frictions, with approximately 72% concentrated in growth-stage rather than seedstage finance. Regional proportional gaps remain elevated in thinner markets-East Midlands (22%), West Midlands (11%)-versus London (3%), demonstrating persistent place-based constraints. The findings indicate the binding constraint has shifted to scale-up capital and inform policy interventions targeting regional equity market development
Departures from health universalism? A value set of AP-7D in Japan as an attempt to develop a “culture-specific” preference-based measure
Get PDFHealth universalists believe that preference-based measure (PBM) instruments can be applied across cultures because they share similar health concepts in the world. This is the prevailing policy in PBM development. However, health pluralists refute this idea, as they argue that the concept and components of health differ depending on culture. To incorporate the pluralist view, we developed the Asian Preference-Based Measure-7 Dimensions (AP-7D), a “culture-specific” PBM for Asian countries. This survey aimed to address cultural differences in utility measurement by developing an AP-7D value set in Japan, as part of a series of AP-7D developments. This study used a web-based survey to evaluate AP-7D health states with a triplet discrete choice experiment (DCE). The design followed an established international protocol. We conducted the web-based survey and data collection in October 2024. Respondents aged 20–79 were recruited via quota sampling based on sex and age. A total of 2681 individuals were included in the DCE analysis. We applied a mixed logit model to the DCE data and obtained decrements for each level in each domain. The worst health state had an AP-7D value of −0.448. Pain/discomfort, mobility, and burden to others were the most influential items on AP-7D values. Only one non-monotonicity were observed. Our survey successfully created the first AP-7D culture-specific PBM value set, and we can convert responses to AP-7D value for QALY calculation. We believe that our pluralistic approach is a novel and important attempt to reconsider health universalism and inform the future development of PBMs
Foreign Affiliate Performance: independence, location and parental control
No full textThis paper examines the causes of foreign affiliate performance, exploring the importance of the relationships between affiliates and parents in explaining apparent performance differences. By making use of a large firm level database, linking firm level data to numerous sources of official country level data, we explore the importance of headquarters effects, affiliate level effects, and location effects in terms of firm performance. Further, we contrast the effects in terms of both productivity and profitability. Affiliate-level factors explain most of affiliate performance. There are parent-level influences on affiliate performance, but not from the parent’s location. Our analysis provides insights into the interaction of parent (i.e. HQ) attributes with those of the foreign affiliate, as well as the locations of both HQ and affiliate, and thus provides insights into the complexity of these relationships
PyTransHelio: A Python tool for analyzing magnetic flux-weighted centroids of active regions and trans-equatorial loop footpoints in full-disk solar photospheric magnetograms
Get PDFThis paper introduces PyTransHelio, a Python-based graphical interface tool designed for solar physics research, which automates the calculation of magnetic flux-weighted centroid coordinates of active regions in full-disk magnetograms and supports the identification and analysis of footpoints in trans-equatorial loops. The tool addresses the operational complexity and lack of dedicated graphical user environments in traditional Interactive Data language/SolarSoftWare workflows by integrating modules for magnetogram header parsing, three-coordinate system conversions (pixel/Stonyhurst/Carrington coordinates), automatic magnetic pole detection, and footpoint distance calculation, enabling end-to-end automation. Users can swiftly obtain active region centroid positions and trans-equatorial loop footpoint spacings through an intuitive three-step workflow: “Load → Click → Results.” Its modular architecture balances flexibility and extensibility as an open-source tool, significantly lowering the barrier to solar photospheric magnetogram analysis
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Open Research Online? Become a CORE Member to access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard! 👇