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Leicestershire Food and Land Use Summit 2025
No full textThe Leicestershire Food and Land Use Summit 2025 convened experts to explore sustainable and resilient food systems in the Midlands. The event highlighted the urgent need to transform land use to meet greenhouse gas reduction, nature recovery, and food security goals. Key insights included: Integrated Land Use: Moving beyond “one-size-fits-all” approaches toward multifunctional, locally tailored land management. Technology: Satellite-based Earth Observation can provide precise data to guide agricultural and land use decisions. Policy Alignment: National frameworks and Local Nature Recovery Strategies must work together to enable effective local implementation. Industry Engagement: The Food and Drink Federation’s Ambition 2030 program addresses sustainability across the supply chain and decarbonization challenges. Challenges: Knowledge gaps, post-Brexit funding shifts, governance trust issues, and fragmented data systems remain barriers. Midlands as a Living Lab: Its diverse habitats and networks make the region ideal for piloting national policy. Strategic Recommendations: Coordinated efforts are needed to encourage large landowners to adopt regenerative agriculture and strengthen local producer–manufacturer collaborations.</p
Application of continuous glucose monitoring and automated insulin delivery technologies for pregnant women with type 1, type 2, or gestational diabetes: an international consensus statement.
No full textInsulin resistance increases after the first trimester of pregnancy, leading to glycaemic challenges for women with pregestational type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes. Additionally, insulin resistance can promote hyperglycaemia in pregnant women without type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes, who develop gestational diabetes. Although most (>95%) women with diabetes deliver healthy babies, maternal dysglycaemia can have consequences for the mother and child, including prenatal, perinatal, immediate, and long-term postnatal complications. Diabetes technologies, such as continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and automated insulin delivery (AID) systems can aid in optimising glycaemia outside of pregnancy. These novel technologies have not been extensively tested in large randomised controlled trials before and during pregnancy. However, compelling data report the benefits of CGM in type 1 diabetes, and increasing data report on AID systems in pregnancies complicated by type 1 diabetes. Appropriate CGM glucose thresholds for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes and the recommended time in range treatment targets for the routine management of gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes still need to be determined. The recommendations in this Consensus Statement emphasise the value of CGM during preconception and pregnancy for women with pregestational type 1 diabetes in reducing pregnancy complications. Recommendations also include the use of AID systems in women with pregestational type 1 diabetes to improve glycaemic management during preconception, during pregnancy and delivery, and in the postpartum period. This Consensus Statement has been endorsed by 24 societies and groups.</p
The Ethical and Legal Implications of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing
No full textThis thesis critically evaluates the regulation of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. The regulatory status quo is based in an individualistic conception of autonomy: this is contrasted with the egalitarian and solidarity principles underpinning the NHS. The latter are incompatible with a market in DTC genetic testing which benefits only a privileged group of test users while creating disadvantage for the worst-off through overuse of shared resources. This thesis concludes that the risk of detrimentally affecting public healthcare provision can be mitigated by ensuring that test users have legal recourse against DTC test providers and by establishing population genetic screening programmes.</p
In Our Own Words: Exploring Linguistic Practices And Language And Identity In A Multilingual Minority Community
No full textIn Macao, a historically multilingual space, the Macanese community navigates complex and dynamic linguistic practices shaped by colonial history, globalisation, and language policies. This research examines the linguistic practices and the relationship between language and identity in this multilingual minority community in Macao. Specifically, it explores the factors which affect the language choice and the extent to which the linguistic practices align with the official language policy in Macao. In addition, it explores what identities are constructed and how these identities are constructed in the spoken discourse of this community. Adopting a linguistic ethnographic approach, this research employs a qualitative research method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, public signs in the online space of the community, and a naturally occurring conversation. Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the interview data, while linguistic landscape methods was used to examine the online public signs. Further, ethnographically-informed conversation analysis was employed as the analytical approach to analyse the naturally occurring conversation. This research contributes to a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of linguistic practices in multilingual minority communities by highlighting the complex, dynamic, and context-bound linguistic practices in the Macanese community in Macao. By foregrounding the interactional, dynamic, and context-dependant nature of identity construction and negotiation in spoken discourse of the community, the findings move beyond fixed categorisations. The findings have implications for Macao’s language policy, suggesting that the Macao SAR government should develop a balanced language policy in Macao that promotes equal bilingualism in Portuguese and Chinese. Theoretically, this research contributes to sociolinguistics, linguistic land scape, language and identity, and conversation analysis inmultilingual minority contexts by proving that this community is engaging in emerging hybrid communicative practices where translanguaging coexists with language separation in different domains, challenging traditional views of multilingualism which often assume clear-cut linguistic boundaries.</p
The Exhibitionary Form: Tentacular notes on the exhibition, its design, and world-building in the ruins of representation
No full textThis PhD explores what I call ‘the exhibitionary form’ and posits that any exhibition’s design generates political, social and ontological affects. I argue that the modern exhibition’s form was designed in order to help further modernity’s conception of the world based on binary separation. The subject-object binary was not invented in an exhibition space, but the exhibition has been a vehicle through which it has settled into social culture. Surrounded by forms that respond to a particular understanding of reality, what we believe is possible becomes circumscribed to what the activation and usage of those forms permit. The aim of conceptualising exhibitionary forms is suffused by the hope that, by analysing them as microontological agents, I might shed light on how modernity as a socio-cultural phenomenon is unraveling. I explore eight contemporary examples where the form and design digress from a modern agenda: I study these with the practitioners that helped create them and together, we tentacularly shape the contours of what a different, more-than-modern exhibitionary form could be like. My research question has led me to conclude that in employing morethanmodern exhibitionary forms, society constructs and furthers more-than-modern worldviews, where the so-called subjects and objects of representation are indistinct and shapeshifting.</p
Towards Personal Integration in Higher Education Religious Studies: an autoethnographical approach
No full textThis thesis is my story. It is an autoethnographic exploration of the dissonance between my life experience, my experience as a student and as a teacher of theology and religious studies in higher education. It documents the challenges of integrating academic perspectives with my own experience and the transition from disassociation to integration.On the way I challenge the use of critical reflection as a tool to enhance self-awareness, highlighting the limitations of objective-rational approaches. I explore the potential and limitations of insights from theological reflection to offer a more personally integrating approach, to balance intellect and emotion in religious studies in its broadest sense.I suggest an additional methodology, an autoethnographic three-fold framework of learning, based on the goal of personal human flourishing, which situates the learner’s own context and experience at the heart of the learning process. The framework proposes that freedom to learn in personally meaningful ways, developing critical self-awareness and sharing stories of learners’ experiences as part of the academic process, can help develop a more integrative approach to learning in the context of religious studies.It provides insight into my own journey to find an authentic autoethnographical approach to robust academic research which begins with the learner and then explores theoretical perspectives through an ongoing conversation between experience, academic resources, interviews with peers, poetry and novels.The purpose of this particular stage of the journey: to find a place of learning about religious studies in higher education that thrives on complexity and unknowing.</p
Minding the complexity gap? A corpus-based analysis of subject-verb
No full textScientific English writing proficiency is vital for Chinese biomedical PhD candidates. In scientific writing, complexity is central to writing proficiency development and readability, with its measurement including both large-grained and fine-grained metrics. Scientific texts have grown more complex, especially in specialist journals, partly due to the increased use of noun phrases with elaborate postmodification. However, postmodification of noun phrases is a locus of complexity and readability that has been overlooked in scientific writing. In noun phrases where the head is the subject of a verb, postmodification will necessarily intervene between that subject and verb. Longer distances between syntactically dependent words increase complexity and reading difficulty. This study hypothesises that generalist journal texts are less complex than specialist journal texts in respect to subject-verb dependency distance. To inform the study, a 190,000-word corpus of generalist and specialist scientific writing was collected from published research articles in 1960 and 2020. A coding system was used to measure both the length and complexity of material intervening between subjects and verbs. Results generally support the above hypothesis and show that subject-verb complexity has generally declined over time. The data also confirm the central role of NP prepositional postmodification in subject-verb dependency distance and demonstrate a proliferation in the use of these structures. The implications of the study’s findings are discussed with reference to theory and pedagogy, including writing development frameworks which posit that the use of complex noun phrase postmodification marks advanced levels of proficiency. It is argued that this study supports the inclusion of subject-verb dependency distance in the suite of fine-grained measures of complexity and readability.</p
The Effect of Leucine-Enriched β-Lactoglobulin Versus an Isonitrogenous Whey Protein Isolate on Skeletal Muscle Protein Anabolism in Young Healthy Males
No full textBACKGROUND: β-lactoglobulin (BLG) is a protein found within whey protein (WP) that is rich in essential amino acids, most notably, leucine (LEU). LEU is considered the most potent EAA in the postprandial stimulation of muscle protein synthesis (MPS), such that suboptimal protein/essential amino acid (EAA) doses containing higher LEU content elicit muscle anabolism comparable to larger protein doses. Our objective was to test the effects of naturally LEU-rich BLG (~10 g protein) versus isonitrogenous whey protein isolate (WPI, ~10 g) on MPS. METHODS: Ten healthy young men (26 ± 2 y; 179 ± 2 cm; 81 ± 3 kg) received BLG (1.57 g LEU) or WPI (1.02 g LEU) in a randomised double-blind cross-over fashion. A primed constant intravenous infusion of [1,2 13C2] LEU was used to determine MPS (isotope ratio mass spectrometry) at baseline and in response to feeding (FED) and feeding-plus-exercise (FED-EX; 6 × 8 unilateral leg extensions; 75% 1-RM). Plasma insulin and EAA's were quantified. RESULTS: Plasma EAA, branched-chain amino acid (BCAA), and LEU concentrations increased rapidly following both protein supplements but exhibited a significantly greater EAA/BCAA/leucinemia following BLG (p </p
Dietary protein intake and overall diet quality in adults with cystic fibrosis following elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor therapy
No full textThe RDA for dietary protein is likely insufficient for individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). This study sought to characterise protein intake and diet quality in adults with cystic fibrosis (awCF), before and after elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) therapy, compared with healthy controls. Dietary intake was assessed by diet diary in awCF at baseline (BL, n 40) and at follow-up > 3 months post ETI therapy (follow-up (FUP), n 40) and in age-matched healthy controls (CON, n 80) free from known disease at a single time point. Protein intake dose and daily distribution, protein quality, protein source and overall diet quality were calculated for each participant. Both CON (1·39 (sd 0·47) g·kg-1·day-1) and CF (BL: 1·44 (sd 0·52) g·kg-1·day-1, FUP: 1·12 (sd 0·32) g·kg-1·day-1) had a higher mean daily protein intake than the protein RDA of 0·75g·kg-1·day-1. There was a significant reduction in daily protein intake in the CF group at FUP (P = 0·0003, d = 0·73), with levels below the alternative suggested dietary intake of ≥ 1·2 g·kg-1·day-1. There were no sex differences or noticeable effects on protein quality or source following the commencement of ETI therapy when compared with CON (all P > 0·05), although overall diet quality decreased between time points (P = 0·027, d = 0·57). The observed reduction in daily protein intake in the present cohort emphasises the importance of ensuring appropriate dietary protein intake to promote healthy ageing in adults with CF. More research is needed to evidence base dietary protein requirements in this at-risk population.</p
A Phase 3 Trial of Atacicept in Patients with IgA Nephropathy
No full textBACKGROUND: IgA nephropathy, the most common primary glomerulopathy worldwide, is a kidney disorder of B-cell origin characterized by mesangial accumulation of IgA-containing immune complexes. In at least 50% of patients, IgA nephropathy leads to kidney failure or death within 10 to 20 years after diagnosis. Atacicept is a native human transmembrane activator and calcium-modulator and cyclophilin-ligand interactor (TACI)-Fc fusion protein that inhibits two key immunoregulatory cytokines - B-cell activating factor (BAFF) and a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) - that are thought to be central to the pathophysiology of IgA nephropathy. METHODS: In this ongoing, phase 3, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we assigned patients with IgA nephropathy in a 1:1 ratio to receive atacicept at a dose of 150 mg once weekly, administered subcutaneously by patients at home, or matching placebo. The primary end point was the percentage change from baseline in the 24-hour urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio at week 36. Safety was also evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 203 patients were included in the prespecified interim analysis: 106 patients in the atacicept group and 97 in the placebo group. At week 36, the percentage reduction from baseline in the urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio was 45.7% in the atacicept group and 6.8% in the placebo group, with a geometric mean between-group difference of 41.8 percentage points (95% confidence interval, 28.9 to 52.3; P</p