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Airtightness retrofit and construction practices, unintended consequences, and ventilation practices: Gathering evidence to improve airtightness in the UK housing stock
No full textAirtightness retrofit and construction practices influence airtightness, but more research is needed to quantify the effect of a range of airtightness measures across a range of dwellings.Most unintended consequences of more airtight dwellings are ameliorated with sufficient ventilation. Fire risk is an exception to this rule, and is poorly researched.Ventilation practices are driven by several stimuli and differ based on the type of ventilation in place, be that natural or mechanical. There is no evidence to suggest that a practically relevant difference in airtightness exists in new dwellings based on ventilation type.Research purposeThe first aim of this research is to understand the construction practices related to airtightness: the effect of airtightness improvements, airtightness failure points, ways to address airtightness failure points, the relationship between airtightness and build quality, and the influence of PAS 2035:2023 and PAS 2030:2023 in driving higher airtightness standards.The second aim of this research is to understand the unintended consequences of more airtight dwellings in the UK.The third aim is to understand how and why occupants ventilate their homes, to know if they do so sufficiently and appropriately, and if they have the knowledge to do so efficiently.Research methodologyThree Rapid Evidence Assessments were carried out. The first Rapid Evidence Assessment, which screened 1,497 documents for quality and relevance, and subsequently reviewed 26, reviewed research on airtightness construction practices and risks that relate to airtightness in the UK housing stock. The second Rapid Evidence Assessment screened 75 documents and reviewed 36 on the risks and unintended consequences of more airtight dwellings. The third Rapid Evidence Assessment screened 266 documents and reviewed 40 on ventilation practices.Analysis of secondary data from the Retrofit Revisit project investigated the durability of airtightness over time. Analysis of over 5,000 airtightness tests from existing GB dwellings investigated the presence of clustering around compliance thresholds to detect in-test temporary sealing.Construction practices, unintended consequences, and ventilation practices© Crown copyright 2025</p
Project summary and options for future work: Gathering evidence to improve airtightness in the UK housing stock
No full textThis report summarises the Gathering evidence to improve airtightness in the UK housing stock project and provides options for future research. The project used literature reviews and secondary data analysis to produce four reports. Future work could follow from, and aim to fill, the literature and data gaps that have been highlighted in this project.© Crown copyright 2025</p
Meta-analysis of reference values of cardiorespiratory fitness and impact of interventions in patients with cirrhosis
No full textIntroduction: Cirrhosis is associated with significant risk of comorbidity and early mortality. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing has the advantage of allowing cardiac, pulmonary and muscle function assessment and could have a better prognosis value than the usual assessment of cardiorespiratory function often evaluated at rest in patients with cirrhosis.Methods: We reviewed electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Google Scholar) for relevant literature running up to April 2024.Results: This review gathers the data from 3,029 patients with cirrhosis from 62 studies. Patients with cirrhosis had lower cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) than age-matched healthy subjects and reference values were meta-analyzed. VO2Peak (mL.min-1.kg-1) and anaerobic threshold (mL.min-1.kg-1) were significantly lower in Child-Pugh C compared to A (p=0.009) and B (ppp=0.569). Liver transplantation initially (at three months) results in a minor decrease in CRF, but over time (at 12 months) leads to an improvement in CRF.Conclusion: This meta-analysis provides reference values for CRF in patients with cirrhosis and shows the benefits of supervised physical exercise before and after liver transplantation. CRF could help clinicians to prioritize patients on the LT waiting list.</p
Balancing recognition and novelty: exploring the brand architecture of integrated football clubs in the English women’s super league
No full textResearch has demonstrated that integrated women’s football teams which exist within pre-established team brand architecture create associations with the men’s team in the same club. Emerging evidence also supports that fans of women’s football hold unique brand associations with the women’s team in comparison to men’s football. The decision-making process informing the degree of differentiation within integrated club brand architecture has not been studied. This is an important gap given the centrality of marketing and sponsorship to team revenue. Through a qualitative study of the English Women’s Super League (WSL) undertaken between 2022-2023, this research aimed to explore the brand architecture decisions made by integrated women’s football clubs and adopted brand extension theory. Based on analysis of 20 interviews with industry stakeholders from the WSL, which examined how and why integrated club brand architecture influences WSL team sub-brand decisions, two key dimensions were created. First, the decision to strategically align with the master brand (i.e., recognition) is motivated by helping fans and sponsors associate the women’s club with professional sport and club heritage. Second, the decision to promote novel associations (i.e., differentiation) to access new fan segments and commercial opportunities. Practically, our findings contribute to the commercialisation of women’s football through an enhanced understanding of branding complexities and strategy. Theoretically, we further develop the factors that influence the tensions within pre-established team brand architecture.</p
Pilkington Library Visual Story
No full textThe Pilkington Library’s visual story guides users through its spaces and services, helping everyone navigate with confidence. Designed for potential visitors to view before their visit, it prepares them for what to expect through a series of images and short descriptions. The story highlights key areas such as study zones, amenities, accessibility features, and support points, creating a welcoming and accessible environment for all.© the author</p
Strengthening the KLEIN cipher
No full textIn 2011, Gong, Nikova, and Law introduced the lightweight block cipher KLEIN, designed for efficient encryption both in hardware and software implementations. Since then, several attacks on KLEIN have been published, most notably truncated differential cryptanalysis that exploits the weak mixing of higher and lower nibbles in the cipher's diffusion layer. The weakness stems from the combination of the byte-oriented AES MixColumns operation together with 4-bit S-boxes. The branch number of the AES MixColumns is 5, which is optimal for byte-oriented designs, but insufficient in a nibble-oriented setting, where the upper bound is 9. To address this vulnerability, we evaluate the implementation cost of four MDS and near-MDS matrices over GF(2^4), which improve diffusion due to having branch numbers 9 and 8, respectively. We select an involutory near-MDS matrix for which we present an implementation with s-XOR count of 135, the lowest reported for an involutory near-MDS matrix of order 8 over GF(2^4). By pairing the new mixing step with a modified key schedule, we obtain a variant of KLEIN that is secure against previously published attacks and offers comparable efficiency.</p
Associations of episodic and tonic appetite-related signals with malnutrition and appetite dysregulation in end-stage liver disease.
No full textMalnutrition is highly prevalent in end-stage liver disease (ESLD), while being strongly associated with sarcopenia and poor prognosis in this population. The physiological regulation of energy intake is influenced by tonic signals, reflecting body composition and metabolic demands, and episodic signals, arising from gastrointestinal peptides, that remain to be better explored in the context of ESLD. The present narrative review analyzed 94 studies that characterises circulating concentrations of ghrelin, CCK, PYY, GLP-1 and leptin in cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Overall, in patients with ESLD, orexigenic signaling, particularly from ghrelin and Fat-Free Mass (FFM) appears blunted, while anorexigenic peptides (CCK, PYY, GLP-1) are frequently elevated, prolonging satiety. Leptin regulation is inconsistent, reflecting both inflammation-driven increases and fat mass-related decreases. These disturbances converge toward a mismatch between elevated metabolic requirements and insufficient energy intake. Understanding how ESLD disrupts appetite-regulating pathways may help design new strategies to restore nutritional balance and improve clinical outcomes.</p
Repeatability of metrics of skin microvascular function at pressure injury-prone sites using a direct pressure and heating protocol
No full textIntroduction: This study evaluated the repeatability of a heating and pressure protocol using laser Doppler flowmetry to measure the full dynamic range of skin microvascular responses at the sacrum and heel - key sites for pressure injury risk.Methods: Twelve healthy participants (10 male, 2 female; mean age 28 ± 4 years; stature 1.77 ± 0.11 m; body mass 72.6 ± 11.9 kg; body mass index 23 ± 3 kg/m²) completed sacrum assessments. Eleven participants (9 male, 2 female; mean age 28 ± 4 years; stature 1.77 ± 0.57 m; body mass 79.5 ± 9.8 kg; body mass index 20.4 ± 4.5 kg/m²) completed heel assessments. Each participant underwent three identical experimental sessions comprising four phases: baseline, local heating, loading, and pressure release. Skin blood flow was measured continuously. Repeatability was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), with an ICC of 0.75 as a minimum threshold for acceptable repeatability. Four methods were tested to identify the pressure at which blood flow ceased: segmental regression, visual analysis of the initial plateau in blood flow, visual analysis of the final cessation of blood flow, and the plateau that corresponds the final-minute mean.Results: The protocol showed good to excellent repeatability for baseline flow, settled flow at 42°C, and post direct-pressure reactive hyperaemia. Maximum combined thermal and reactive hyperaemia demonstrated excellent repeatability at the sacrum (ICC = 0.93) and heel (ICC = 0.91), while the area under the curve showed good repeatability at the sacrum (ICC = 0.81) and excellent at the heel (ICC = 0.90). Segmental regression showed the strongest repeatability (ICC = 0.90 at the sacrum; ICC = 0.84 at the heel). Visual inspection of the initial plateau in blood flow and absolute cessation of blood flow also exceeded the threshold for acceptable repeatability.Conclusion: This study presents a reproducible protocol for assessing pressure-induced microvascular compromise, capturing responses from complete vascular occlusion to peak thermal-pressure hyperaemic vasodilation. Applied at the sacrum and heel, it offers a quantifiable, non-invasive tool to investigate pressure injury risk in vulnerable populations. It also supports future evaluations of support surfaces, offloading strategies, and novel therapeutic interventions to improve tissue pressure tolerance.</p
Outdoor dining area at Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
No full textAn outdoor dining area with patrons seated under the shaded section of Nelson Mandela Square, a bustling area for social gatherings and dining.</p
Supplementary information files for "Experimental and computational study of Zn doping in Li5+xLa3Nb2−xZrxO12 garnet solid state electrolytes"
No full textSupplementary files for article "Experimental and computational study of Zn doping in Li5+xLa3Nb2−xZrxO12 garnet solid state electrolytes"While garnet Li ion conductors are attracting considerable interest as potential solid state electrolytes for Li ion batteries, a key challenge is to improve the conductivity, which is associated with the Li content in the structure, and the density of the sintered electrolyte membranes. In this work we show that Zn can be doped on the 16a octahedral Nb site increasing the Li content, while also leading to substantially improved sintering in Li5+xLa3Nb2−xZrxO12. As a result of the enhanced sintering, and the increase in Li content, the conductivities were significantly enhanced on Zn doping, up to 2.1 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 25 °C for Li6.6La3ZrNb0.8Zn0.2O12. Computational modelling supports favourable doping of Zn on the Nb site with 3 Li interstitials as per experimental findings. Furthermore, it suggests Li ion diffusion via a knock-on mechanism, but crucially the saturation of sites closest to the Zn means that migration barriers are similar for doped and pure systems, with the increased Li ion conductivity attributed to larger pre-factors due to increased number of Li ions in the doped material. A challenge with these Zn doped garnet is the reduction of Zn in contact with Li metal. Nevertheless, surface fluorination or employing the Zn doped garnet as a buffer layer with an alternative garnet electrolyte is shown to be effective to inhibit dendrite growth, and stable cycling exceeding 250 hours is demonstrated.© The Authors, CC BY 3.0</p