224092 research outputs found
Sort by
Optimal design of dynamic experiments for scalar-on-function linear models with application to a biopharmaceutical study
No full textA Bayesian optimal experimental design framework is developed for experiments where settings of one or more variables, referred to as profile variables, can be functions. For this type of experiment, a design consists of combinations of functions for each run of the experiment. Within a scalar-on-function linear model, profile variables are represented through basis expansions. This allows finite-dimensional representation of the profile variables and optimal designs to be found. The approach enables control over the complexity of the profile variables and model. The method is illustrated on a real application involving dynamic feeding strategies in an Ambr250 modular bioreactor
Effect of hypertension on long-term adverse clinical outcomes and liver fibrosis progression in MASLD
No full textBackground & aims: hypertension is common in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), but its impact on long-term clinical outcomes and disease progression remains unclear. This study investigated the association of hypertension and risk of adverse clinical outcomes and progression of liver stiffness/fibrosis in MASLD.Methods: three multicenter prospective cohorts were analyzed: the UK BioBank (UKBB) cohort to assess the risk of adverse clinical outcomes, the VCTE-Prognosis cohort to assess liver stiffness/fibrosis progression, and the Paired Liver Biopsy cohort to assess histologic liver fibrosis progression. Adverse clinical outcomes were defined as all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, and/or liver-related events. Liver stiffness progression was defined as an increase in liver stiffness measurement (LSM) from <10 kPa to ≥10 kPa or an increase of ≥20% for baseline LSM ≥10 kPa. Liver fibrosis progression was defined as a 1-stage fibrosis stage increase. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to evaluate the impact of baseline hypertension on the outcomes.Results: 107,316 adults from the UKBB cohort, 8,169 from the VCTE-Prognosis cohort, and 1,670 from the Paired Liver Biopsy cohort were included. Hypertension rates were 37.1%, 33.4%, and 48.9%, respectively. In the UKBB cohort, hypertension was associated with long-term adverse clinical outcomes (adjusted HR=1.30, 95%CI 1.26-1.33, P<0.001). In the VCTE-Prognosis cohort, hypertension was associated with a higher risk of liver stiffness progression (adjusted HR=1.57, 95%CI 1.30-1.90, P<0.001), while in the Paired Liver Biopsy cohort, hypertension was associated with a greater risk of histologic liver fibrosis progression (adjusted HR=1.41, 95%CI 1.12-1.78, P=0.004). Subgroup and sensitivity analyses supported these findings.Conclusions: hypertension is a modifiable risk factor and increases risk of adverse clinical outcomes and progression of liver stiffness/fibrosis
ICT knowledge absorptive capacity: a critical factor for technology integration in schools
No full textThis study examines if and how a school´s information and communication technology (ICT) knowledge absorptive capacity (ACAP) affects technology integration in schools. In addition, it investigates the influence of various contextual factors on the degree of contingency of ACAP, such as activation triggers, social integration mechanism, and regimes of appropriability. The study is based on a random sample of N = 411 schools representative of Germany. Structural equation modeling and machine learning were employed. The findings indicate that ICT ACAP has a positive impact on technology integration in schools, and serves as a mediator in the relationship between external knowledge and technology integration. The impact of ICT ACAP on technology integration is contingent upon the presence and efficacy of knowledge-sharing mechanisms within the school, as well as the extent to which schools engage in collaborative efforts with competitors (coopetition). The insights of this study have implications for policymakers and educational leaders, who could prioritize building ACAP and fostering collaborative networks to create more adaptable and innovative school environments
Gain of visceral adipose tissue rather than low skeletal muscle mass is associated with overall survival in patients with colorectal liver metastases; results from the NewEPOC study
No full textIntroduction: sarcopenia and adiposity at diagnosis are important prognostic factors in cancer. Ongoing changes in body composition during chemotherapy treatment may have additional prognostic relevance. This study aimed to investigate the association between body composition changes during neoadjuvant treatment and survival in patients with colorectal liver metastases.Materials and methods: in this subgroup analysis of the newEPOC RCT (NCT00482222), pre- and post-treatment CT-scans of patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy for colorectal liver metastases were studied. The total cross-sectional area of skeletal muscle tissue (SM), Visceral Adipose Tissue (VAT), Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue (SAT), Intra-Muscular Adipose Tissue (IMAT), and radiation attenuation for skeletal muscle (SM-RA) were determined.Results: during neoadjuvant therapy, SM-index decreased from 50.6 ± 8.7 to 47.6 ± 8.6 cm2/m2, p < 0.001 for men and 40.5 ± 6.1 to 37.7 ± 5.9 cm2/m2, p = 0.002, for women. SM-RA decreased from 37.7 ± 7.8 to 36.0 ± 7.6 HU, p < 0.001 for men. VAT- and SAT-indices did not change significantly during treatment. Sarcopenia, SM-loss, SM-RA as baseline as well as change in SM-RA were not associated with overall survival, while intervention arm (HR1.96, 95 %CI1.21-3.19, p = 0.009), undergoing resection of the metastases (HR0.19, 95 %CI0.09-0.40, p < 0.001) and gaining >2 % VAT-index over 12 weeks (HR2.05, 95 %CI1.12-3.76, p = 0.025) were.Conclusions: the body composition features SM and SM-RA decreased during chemotherapy, but were not associated with survival. On the contrary, although VAT did not significantly change, the gain of VAT was an independent prognostic factor for survival. These results should be validated in independent cohorts but may indicate that in this selected patient group, adipose tissue might be a more important prognostic factor than sarcopenia.</p
Perspectives on Place: what the English think about their local area
No full textThis briefing summarises findings from a survey conducted by YouGov in England in September 2025 which sought to measure and track how people view their local area (relative to other areas and the past) and understand the connection between those perceptions of place (and place-based attitudes towards government and politics) and material conditions – measured across a range of domains (e.g. crime, high streets, housing, health). The survey interviewed 2,610 adults online in England between 18 and 19 September 2025. It also asked about what people thought the most important issue was locally, what specific improvement(s) might make places better, prioritisation between growing the economy as a whole vs improving ‘left behind’ areas, and support for a range of proposals to tackle policy issues (such as on transport, high streets, education and skills). The survey included a number of items that previously had been fielded in surveys by UK in a Changing Europe (with KCL) and the Centre for the South at the University of Southampton in 2022 and 2024 respectively. This enables us to determine how perceptions of place have changed over the past three years, and in particular since Labour took office in July 2024. Our data also enables us to link respondents to contextual data at constituency or local authority level (e.g. English Indices of Deprivation), such as on crime, health, housing or employment outcomes, so that we can determine if people’s perceptions of their area correspond to objective measures of conditions or outcomes
Magnet4Europe Intervention to Improve Clinician and Patient Well-Being: A Quasi-Experimental Study of 56 Hospitals in 6 European Countries
No full textBACKGROUND: Descriptive studies have documented high hospital nurse burnout and turnover but there are few, if any, large-scale evaluations of organizational interventions to improve clinician retention. The Magnet model is an organizational hospital intervention associated with better clinician and patient outcomes but there is insufficient evidence as to whether the Magnet model based on structural empowerment of clinicians results in better outcomes or rewards hospitals with good work environments, and whether the Magnet model can be implemented at scale outside the United States.OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether Magnet4Europe-a multiyear organizational intervention of European hospitals-could be implemented and would result in improvements in nurse well-being, care quality, and patient safety.DESIGN: Quasi-experimental longitudinal evaluation of 56 European intervention hospitals in 6 countries. Hospital-level implementation of the intervention measured by changes (from baseline to follow-up) in 77 Magnet model intervention targets. Outcome measures (eg, nurse burnout, intent to leave, quality of care, patient safety) were derived from surveys of nurses (4546 nurses at baseline; 3171 at follow-up).FINDINGS: Hospitals that implemented intervention targets during the study period observed reductions in nurse burnout, nurses' intentions to leave their jobs, and unfavorable care quality. Each 10-percentage-point increase in intervention target implementation was associated with 2.7%-point reduction in nurses who intend to leave (β -2.66; 95% CI: -4.74, -0.58, P<0.05). Hospitals which implemented more than 25% of intervention targets observed 6.3%-point reduction in nurse burnout, 7.6%-point reduction in intent to leave, 6.4%-point reduction in unfavorable care quality, and 3.7%-point reduction in unfavorable patient safety. Improvements in hospital percentages of nurses reporting staffing adequacy were associated with reductions in burnout, intentions to leave, unfavorable care quality, and patient safety.CONCLUSION: Successful implementation of Magnet4Europe demonstrates promise for international adoption at scale of Magnet as an organizational intervention for improving clinician well-being, care quality, and patient safety.</p
The association between maternal adiposity and breastfeeding initiation and duration: evidence from the Southampton Women's Survey
No full textBackground: most mothers in the UK are not meeting the breastfeeding recommendations set by the World Health Organisation (WHO, Breastfeeding - Recommendations. https://www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_2, 2023). Maternal obesity has variably been associated with lower initiation and shorter duration of breastfeeding, but few studies have examined the impact of maternal adiposity estimated from skinfold thicknesses.Aim: to investigate the relationship between maternal adiposity and breastfeeding initiation and duration.Methods: data from 2,873 mother-offspring pairs in the Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS) mother-offspring cohort study were used to assess the relationship between a mother’s adiposity and breastfeeding initiation and duration. The exposure variables were body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage, calculated from 4-site skinfold thickness measurements measured prior to conception. The outcome variables were breastfeeding initiation and duration. All analyses were adjusted for confounders identified using a Directed Acyclic Graph.Results: after adjustment for confounders, no associations were found between maternal BMI (RR 0.99 per 5 kg/m2, 95% CI 0.97, 1.01) or body fat percentage (RR 0.99 per 5%, 95% CI 0.97, 1.00) and initiation of breastfeeding. After adjustment for confounders, amongst women who initiated breastfeeding, higher maternal BMI (β −0.09 SDs per 5 kg/m2, 95% CI −0.13, −0.04) and body fat percentage (β −0.10 SDs per 5%, 95% CI −0.16, −0.04) were associated with shorter breastfeeding duration.Conclusions: in this study maternal adiposity had little impact on breastfeeding initiation but higher maternal adiposity was associated with shorter breastfeeding duration. This study suggests that more support should be given to mothers with overweight and obesity to promote longer duration of breastfeeding
Pro-life policy preferences partly reflect desires to suppress casual sexual behavior, not solely sanctity of life concerns
No full textPro-life individuals often emphasize sanctity-of-life concerns as driving their opposition to abortion. This implies the straightforward prediction that the more strongly people oppose abortion for such reasons (e.g., “abortion is murder”), the more they will endorse policies preventing abortions (face-value account). An alternative suggests that typically nonconscious reproductive goals (e.g., discouraging casual sex) influence policy preferences; this strategic account predicts a different pattern of policy endorsement: all else equal, abortion opponents will prioritize abortion-preventing policies discouraging casual sex. A pilot study and two preregistered U.S. experiments (N = 1,960) provide relatively greater support for the strategic account: the strongest abortion opponents more strongly endorse policies that prevent abortions by discouraging casual sex (e.g., abortion bans, abstinence-only sex education) over policies that do not (comprehensive sex education)—even controlling for conservatism and religiosity. Commonly voiced arguments against abortion may be more rhetorically effective but less reflective of genuine drivers underlying arguers’ beliefs.</p
Information walls and norm-dependent abilities
No full textThe article studies the interplay between obligations, knowledge, and abilities. It introduces the notion of norm-dependent abilities--something that an agent knows how to achieve using a knowingly allowed action and assuming that the other agents also use only knowingly allowed actions. The main technical contribution is a sound and complete logical system that describes the interplay between the modalities representing knowledge, obligations, and norm-dependent abilities in the presence of information walls between the agents
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage e-Prints Soton? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!