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The Idea of the Good Society: Essays in Honour of Raymond Plant
No full textThis volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the political thought and practice of Raymond Plant (Professor Lord Plant of Highfield) and celebrates the three aspects of his public life which speak to his idea of the good society: scholarship, politics, and civil society. Firstly, Plant's scholarship was remarkable in its breadth including philosophy, social work, political studies, social policy, theology, and jurisprudence. In particular, Plant's work on Hegel, the New Liberals, social democracy, Hayek, and Rawls has had significant impact. Secondly, Plant's long association with the Labour Party which began in Grimsby in his youth through his friendship with the local MP Tony Crosland. He later chaired the Party's commission into electoral reform, took a seat on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, and chaired the Fabian Society commission into taxation and citizenship. Thirdly, his work with civil society including time as President of the NCVO, as chair of Centrepoint, as a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and appointment as a lay canon of Winchester Cathedral. This collection brings together distinguished scholars and contemporaries on all of the main aspects of Plant's thought and practical work and honours the remarkable scope and influence of his life
Camlipixant in Refractory Chronic Cough: A Phase 2b, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial (SOOTHE)
Get PDFRationale: There is no broadly accessible treatment for patients with refractory chronic cough, a disease characterized by chronic cough that persists despite treatment for other cough-related etiologies or has no identified underlying cause. Objectives: SOOTHE (NCT04678206), a phase 2b, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, evaluated the efficacy and safety of P2X3 antagonist camlipixant in adults with refractory chronic cough (cough duration, ⩾1 yr; baseline awake cough frequency, ⩾25 coughs/h). Methods: After a single-blind, 16-day placebo run-in, patients were randomized (1:1:1:1) to receive camlipixant 12.5, 50, or 200 mg twice daily or placebo for 4 weeks. The primary endpoint was change from baseline to Day 28 in objective 24-hour cough frequency. Secondary endpoints included cough severity and cough-related quality of life. Measurements and Main Results: Overall, 310 patients were randomized. A statistically significant reduction in placebo-adjusted 24-hour cough frequency was seen in the 50 mg (-34.4%; 95% confidence interval, -50.5 to -13.3; P = 0.0033) and 200 mg (-34.2%; 95% confidence interval, -50.7 to -12.2; P = 0.0047) camlipixant arms. All camlipixant arms showed a trend for greater improvement in cough severity visual analog scale and Leicester Cough Questionnaire scores over placebo. Camlipixant was well tolerated with no serious treatment-emergent adverse events reported. Taste alteration occurred in 4.8-6.5% of patients in camlipixant arms (vs. 0% with placebo); these were usually mild-moderate. Conclusions: Camlipixant treatment reduced cough frequency and improved patient-reported outcomes in patients with refractory chronic cough, with an acceptable safety profile. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04678206)
Creatine kinase and neuromuscular fatigue responses following differing spells of simulated cricket fast bowling
Get PDFThe fast-bowling action demands repetitive high-intensity whole body movements, imposing complex physical and perceptual demands on players that vary significantly throughout the season. This study aimed to assess and establish practical methods and metrics for quantifying fatigue after four simulated fast bowling spells. Eleven senior club male fast bowlers (age 27.3 ± 7.0 y; body mass 83.7 ± 11.6 kg; height 1.80 ± 0.06 m) completed four different bouts of the modified Cricket Australia-Australian Institute of Sport bowling skills test over consecutive weeks. Neuromuscular function (countermovement jump [CMJ]) and creatine kinase (CK) levels were assessed at baseline, immediately post- (+0 h), and +24 h post-simulation. Perceptual measures (session rating of perceived exertion [sRPE]) and well-being were recorded pre and post fast-bowling simulations, with physical demands (PlayerLoad™) recorded throughout each simulation. Significant reductions in CMJ height were observed at +0 hours (t = 9.789, P < 0.01, d = 0.50) and +24 hours post-simulation (t = 4.051, P < 0.01, d = 0.21) compared to baseline. Moderate correlations were found between deliveries bowled (r = 0.48, P < 0.01), simulation duration (r = 0.49, P < 0.01), PlayerLoad™ (r = 0.41, P < 0.01), sRPE (r = 0.48, P < 0.01), and the change in CK concentration at +24 hours post-simulation. These findings suggest that lower-body neuromuscular function may be compromised following spells of fast bowing for up to 24 hours. Moreover, a ‘dose-response’ relationship was observed between the change in CK concentrations and PlayerLoad™, sRPE and number of deliveries bowled at +24 hours post-bowling spell. Coaches and support staff could use a combination of tools to monitor training and playing to enhance their ability to make informed decisions about a player’s readiness to perform
Does team size affect Scottish male academy soccer player technical, locomotor and psychosocial outcomes during age and maturity bio-banded small-sided games?
Get PDFThe timing of the adolescent growth spurt (i.e. peak height velocity [PHV]) varies greatly, causing significant differences in maturity-related anthropometric and physical development among chronologically age-categorised youth soccer players. These differences can lead to a maturity-selection bias favouring early maturing players. Using fifty-three players from two professional Scottish soccer academies, this study examined the effects of team size (4v4, 5v5, and 6v6) and bio-banding (i.e. grouping players by maturity status) on players technical (i.e. touches, releases, possessions), physical (i.e. distance covered, accelerations/decelerations), and psychological (i.e. confidence, competitiveness, positive attitude) performance during small-sided games, using foot-mounted inertial measurement units (F-IMU) and coach observations. Data were analysed using multivariate ANOVA. During maturity-matched games, technical actions decreased as team size increased. More mature players displayed greater technical actions in 4v4 compared to 6v6. Maturity-mismatched games revealed significant technical action differences for less mature players, particularly in 4v4 formats. More mature players covered greater high-intensity distances in maturity-matched and mismatched 6v6 games. Psychological scores were higher for more mature players in smaller team sizes (4v4), whereas less mature players showed consistent psychological scores across all formats. Smaller team sizes and maturity-matched bio-banding formats enhanced technical actions and psychological characteristics, particularly for more mature players
Multi-head spatial-spectral mamba for hyperspectral image classification
Get PDFSpatial-Spectral Mamba (SSM) improves computational efficiency and captures long-range dependencies, addressing the limitations of transformers. However, traditional Mamba models often overlook the rich spectral information in hyperspectral images (HSIs) and struggle with high dimensionality and sequential data. To address these challenges, we propose the Spatial-Spectral Mamba with Multi-Head Self-Attention and Token Enhancement (MHSSMamba). This model integrates spatial and spectral information by enhancing spectral tokens and employing multi-head self-attention to capture complex relationships between spectral bands and spatial locations. It effectively manages long-range dependencies and the sequential nature of HSI data, preserving contextual information across spectral bands. MHSSMamba achieved classification accuracies of 98.56% on the Pavia University dataset, 99.00% on the University of Houston dataset and 98.54% on the Salinas dataset. The source code is available at https://github.com/mahmad000/MHSSMambaGitHub
Employee ownership and workplace democracy: Antidotes to labour market monopsony?
Get PDFPurpose: We show that employee ownership is more efficient than control by external capital owners/employers. This complements the empirical evidence for benefits of employee ownership surveyed by Mygind and Poulsen (2021), Kruse (2022) and Dow (2003), and the normative political case for democratising work made by Ellerman (1975, 2022), Ferreras etal. (2022), Piketty (2022) and others. Of course, efficiency issues are usually important in economic evaluation. Design/methodology/approach: Worker mobility or “exit” is generally costly, so employers with residual control have monopsony power to exploit workers with non-contractible job utility – who are thus less than perfectly mobile and, in the absence of collective bargaining, lack countervailing “voice”. Findings: The potential for wasteful conflict and exploitation is inherent in the employment relationship, and socially optimal effort is unlikely to be achieved. We show that economic efficiency in a “sticky” world (Banerjee and Duflo, 2019) with imperfect information and incomplete contracting actually requires residual control by workers rather than just capital-labour parity in “democratic socialism”, so labour should hire capital rather than vice versa. Originality/value: The “labour hires capital” allocation of rights contrasts with the traditional power of capital-owning employers who claim the firm’s residual income and control of hired employees. Such shareholder primacy not only deprives employees of their rights of self-determination and generates conflict, but also, and less obviously, generally fails to attain the efficient effort-output trade-off
The effectiveness of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation on endurance capacity, performance, and neuromuscular fatigue in cyclists.
Get PDFCycling performance requires the optimisation of physiological, psychological, biomechanical and aerodynamic factors. Research pertaining to success in road cycling indicates that physiological variables such as maximal oxygen uptake and lactate threshold are key performance indicators. Additionally, sustaining high power output over prolonged periods can lead to exercise-induced fatigue and muscle damage. To mitigate these effects, omega-3 fatty acids, known for their anti-inflammatory properties, have been proposed as a potential ergogenic aid, with some evidence suggesting it may reduce muscle damage and perceived muscle soreness in athletes. The aim of this thesis was to quantify the effectiveness of omega-3 supplementation on endurance performance, recovery and neuromuscular fatigue (NMF) in cyclists. Initially a systematic review was conducted (n = 11), which identified that ~1.05 g.day-1 was the lowest dose to begin demonstrating positive results within endurance performances and during the recovery post performances. However, due to the limited number of studies that utilised NMF tests or endurance protocols, no definitive conclusions can be made regarding the effectiveness of omega-3.From these findings, we sought to investigate whether a high dosage (1600 mg) of omega-3 ingested daily for 8-weeks within a commercially available beverage, could enhance endurance performance and reduce NMF in well-trained cyclists. Six non-professional road cyclists and triathletes (age 45.7 [34.8] years; height 182.5 [176.7] cm; body mass 80.0 [4.5] kg) participated in the study, attending the laboratory on four separate occasions over a 10-week period. The first two visits included: (1) an 8-site skinfold assessment and a maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) test on a cycle ergometer (week 1 [visit 1]), and (2) a 75-minute steady-state cycle (SSC) proceeded by a 16.1 km time-trial (TT) in week 2 (visit 2). During visit 2, NMF was assessed using a countermovement jump (CMJ) protocol at baseline (after SSC warm-up), post-SSC, and post-TT. Following visit 2, participants consumed the commercially available omega-3 beverage, daily for 8-weeks. Visit 3 was a repeat of visit 2 at week 9, followed by visit 4 which was a repeat of visit 1 in week 10. Throughout the supplementation period, a food diary, training log, and athlete well-being questionnaire were completed.No significant differences were found from pre- to post- omega-3 supplementation in VO2max measures, mean sum of 8 skinfolds, SSC performances, TT performances, or CMJ (p > 0.05). Dietary analysis identified that participants failed to consume enough carbohydrate and fat intakes to meet their performance demands, based on widely accepted sport nutrition guidelines. However, omega-3 supplementation significant reduced perceived fatigue (p < 0.001), stress levels (p =0.05), and mood (p = 0.04). These findings suggest that omega-3 supplementation has no significant effect on endurance capacity, performance, or NMF in well-trained athletes. However, given the limited sample size in this study coupled with the available literature on omega-3 supplementation in endurance sports, further research, with a larger sample size (n = 44, based on Post hoc Power calculation) is required for more direct comparisons
Novel urinary biomarkers for the non-invasive detection of endometriosis.
No full textIntroduction: Endometriosis affects 190 million women worldwide, yet there are no accurate non-invasive diagnostic tests that have been shown able to alleviate the average 8-year diagnostic delay. Phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1) has been identified as a candidate urine biomarker and this study aims to assess its diagnostic accuracy.Methods: Patients with symptoms of endometriosis undergoing elective laparoscopy were recruited into this prospective observational study. Patients were allocated into deep (DE), superficial (SE) or symptomatic control groups (SC) by a BSGE-accredited endometriosis surgeon. Healthy volunteers (HV) were carefully screened and recruited. Urinary PGAM1 expression was determined by ELISA (Abbexa) and normalised to specific gravity.Results: 190 participant samples were analysed: 152 women with endometriosis, 19 symptomatic controls and 19 healthy volunteers. Mean age of participants was 33 (range 19-49) and BMI 27 (range 16-44). There was no difference between groups for age (p=0.15) or BMI (p=0.07). PGAM1 was detectable in every sample with a mean level of 13.8 ng/ml (range 0.25-54.22).The highest urinary PGAM1 levels were seen in HV, with significantly lower levels in women with endometriosis compared to controls (Kruskal Wallis p=0.008). In participants not taking hormonal contraception, PGAM1 levels were significantly lower in participants with DE compared to SE (Mann Whitney (MW) p=0.02), SC (MW p=0.05) and HV (MW p<0.0001). There was no association with PGAM1 levels and either age or BMI.PGAM1 can detect deep endometriosis with an AUC 0.76 and likelihood ratio (LR) of 9.8 in participants not taking hormonal medications. When participants with a pre-operatively diagnosed endometrioma were excluded this rose to AUC 0.91 and LR of 17.45 making PGAM1 a promising marker of DE.Conclusion: PGAM1 is detectable in the urine of reproductive age women and is a promising marker of DE. Further work is required to understand its clinical utility together with associations with other medical conditions, menstrual cycle and hormonal treatments
Lab on Chip Microfluidic Buried Channel Architectures for Cell Sorting Applications
Get PDFMicrofluidics is a fascinating field of science that deals with manipulating small amounts of fluids and particles on the microscale. It has a wide range of applications, from microbiology to microelectronics. Microfluidic devices separate or mix microparticles and nanoparticles in small volumes of fluid. We demonstrate the experiment of microparticle filtration in the Poly Dimethyl Siloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device with two buried channel architectures (connected by a common reservoir) and (Transition Electron Microscope) TEM grid filter. We developed the buried channels by dissolving 3D-printed (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) ABS ridges designs with acetone inside PDMS. The syringe pump calibration enables the controlled flow of microparticles in deionized water. In this microfluidic device, the step-by-step filtration processes filter microparticles of diameter sizes (5μm, 10μm and 20μm) sequentially through a combination of the under-gravity particle separation, Inertial focusing and centrifugal force effect with particle mass incorporation. The TEM grid filter is outside the microfluidic device and is the last stage of filtration process of microparticles to sieve microparticles according to mesh hole size (10.5μm). We demonstrated a successful study with working buried microfluidic channels and TEM grid filtration without damaging mesh. This study demonstrated 90% polystyrene microparticle (comparative diameter sizes of cancer cells) filtration using this device. We have tested this prototype microfluidic device with polystyrene microparticles that aim for future use as an application of this device in separating cancer cells from blood cells
NIFTy: near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging to prevent postsurgical hypoparathyroidism (PoSH) after thyroid surgery—a phase II/III pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial protocol in patients undergoing a total or completion thyroidectomy
Get PDFIntroduction Postsurgical hypoparathyroidism (PoSH) is an iatrogenic condition that occurs as a complication of several different procedures with thyroid surgery being the most common. PoSH has significant short- and long-term morbidities. The volume of thyroid surgery is increasing, and PoSH is therefore likely to increase. Some studies have shown promising results using near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging in reducing the risk of PoSH which has the potential to significantly reduce morbidity and costs associated with monitoring and treatment. Methods and analysis NIFTy is an unblinded, parallel group, multicentre, seamless phase II/III randomised controlled trial in patients undergoing total or completion thyroidectomy. The trial incorporates a process evaluation (IDEAL (Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment and Long-term follow-up framework) 2a) to inform the trial protocol, a phase II (IDEAL 2b) analysis using a surrogate primary outcome of 1 day transient hypocalcaemia to determine early futility and phase III (IDEAL 3) assessment of the primary outcome of PoSH at 6 months after surgery. 454 participants will be randomised on a 1:1 basis to evaluate thyroid surgery with NIRF and indocyanine green against standard thyroid surgery in reducing PoSH at 6 months after surgery, with the phase II analysis occurring once data are available for 200 participants. Analysis in both phases will be using multilevel logistic regression incorporating random effects with respect to surgeon and adjusting for minimisation factors. Phase III secondary outcomes include protracted hypoparathyroidism, hypercalcaemia, complications, length of stay, readmissions and patient reported quality of life using the Short Form 36 Health Survey Questionnaire and Hypoparathyroid Patient Questionnaire instruments. Ethics and dissemination NIFTy is funded by National Institute for Health and Care Research Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme (Grant Ref: 17/11/27) and approved by a Research Ethics Committee (reference: 21/WA/0375) and Health Research Authority (HRA). Trial results will be disseminated through conference presentations, peer-reviewed publication and through relevant patient groups