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Development of a pilot equation using mid-upper-arm circumference for estimating energy requirements in place of weight-based equations
No full textBackground:
Measurement of height and body weight in critical illness remains challenging however despite this, the use of prediction equations to assess energy expenditure are based on body weight. Mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) has been determined as a good marker of nutritional status and can identify deteriorations over time (1,2). The need for the development of non-weight based equations in this population is evident. MUAC may be easier to obtain in a critical care setting where weight measurements may not be possible and be unreliable (3).
Aims:
This study aimed to conduct preliminary analysis of a pilot equation created using mid-upper-arm-circumference (MUAC) in conjunction with measured total energy expenditure (TEE) from indirect calorimetry (IC) measurements.
Methods:
Forward regression was performed using IC with added Physical Activity Level (PAL) factor and MUAC measurements to create pilot equation for this population group predicting energy expenditure across three stages of their hospital stay; pre-operative, post-operative and rehabilitation. Following achievement of equation, Bland Altman plots determined the level of agreement between measured TEE (from IC), predicted TEE (from pilot equation) and TEE from validated prediction equations (Mifflin St. Jeor (MSJ), ESPEN 22.5kcal/kg, ESPEN 27.5kcal/kg and ESPEN ventilated) to determine the potential for this equation to be considered for validation.
Results:
A significant regression equation was found for the rehabilitation stage only (F(1,7) = 6.123, p =0.043, with r2 = 0.467), measured TEE increased by 64.360kcal for each cm of MUAC and found to be a significant predictor of TEE (1 –β =0.67). The pilot equation showed higher accuracy in calculating TEE when compared to MSJ and ESPEN 27.5kcal and lower degree of overestimation of TEE than MSJ and ESPEN 27.5kcal/kg.
Conclusions:
The need for a non-weight based alternative to measuring energy requirements is clear, with the solution to this potentially including the use of this pilot equation discovered using MUAC. However, a larger study is required with minimum 26 participants in line with power calculation including diverse population to assess the suitability of a non-weight based predictor of TEE in patients within critical care
Stories of hope: reimagining education
Get PDFHigher education is in crisis. Students are disengaged, lecturers are burned out, and universities seem more preoccupied with rankings and revenue than with knowledge and wellbeing. But rather than dwell on the problems, this book focuses on solutions—on hope.
Bringing together a diverse range of educators and practitioners, this collection showcases real-world innovations that challenge the status quo and offer glimpses of a more humane and inspiring educational future. From rethinking systems and curriculum design to fostering imaginative collaboration and exploring the role of technology, the book highlights practical, hopeful interventions that are already making a difference.
This is not a manifesto of complaints but an invitation to reimagine education. The contributors offer fresh perspectives from around the world, illustrating how small but meaningful changes can transform learning spaces, empower educators, and inspire students. For academics, teachers, administrators, and anyone invested in the future of education, this book serves as both a source of inspiration and a call to action. It is an evolving ecosystem of ideas - grounded in practice, rich with possibility, and rooted in radical hope. Now is the time to create the change we wish to see
H∞ control co-design for uncertain polytopic systems
Get PDFControl Co-design (CCD) refers to approaches that fully integrate plant and control system interactions, using an optimisation-based methodology where physical and control system designs are addressed simultaneously. In this process, the design of physical systems and their controllers are typically interdependent tasks. This study explores a bi-level(nested) control co-design approach integrated with robust H∞ control for the combined design of both the physical system and its controller. While the nested approach is well-established in the literature, with the linear quadratic regulator commonly used for controller optimisation, this work introduces a novel approach by focusing on minimising the H∞ norm/guaranteed cost as the controller optimisation problem instead. The proposed method seeks to bridge the fields of control co-design and robust control, extending the application of control co-design to systems subject to disturbances and parametric uncertainties. It assumes that any uncertain system parameter can be described as a subset of a polytopic domain, and that a feedback-stabilising control can be synthesised to ensure the H∞ norm/guaranteed cost of the system is bounded, thus minimising the impact of exogenous inputs on the system's output. The synthesis conditions are demonstrated through linear matrix inequalities and an adaptation of traditional Lyapunov stability conditions. To illustrate the method presented, this study revisits two previously addressed control co-design problems in the literature: a scalar plant and an active car suspension system. The results indicate that the integration of CCD with robust control strategies not only guarantees system performance and disturbance rejection but also provides a systematic approach for managing uncertainties within a polytopic framework
High-risk neuroblastoma stage 4 (NBS4): developing a medicinal chemistry multi-target drug approach
Get PDFChildhood neuroblastoma (NB) is a malignant tumour that is a member of a class of embryonic tumours that have their origins in sympathoadrenal progenitor cells. There are five stages in the clinical NB staging system: 1, 2A, 2B, 3, 4S, and 4. For those diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma (NBS4), the treatment options are limited with a survival rate of between 40 and 50%. Since 1975, more than 15 targets have been identified in the search for a treatment for high-risk NBS4. This article is concerned with the search for a multi-target drug treatment for high-risk NBS4 and focuses on four possible treatment targets that research has identified as having a role in the development of NBS4 and includes the inhibitors Histone Deacetylase (HDAC), Bromodomain (BRD), Hedgehog (HH), and Tropomyosin Kinase (TRK). Computer-aided drug design and molecular modelling have greatly assisted drug discovery in medicinal chemistry. Computational methods such as molecular docking, homology modelling, molecular dynamics, and quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSAR) are frequently used as part of the process for finding new therapeutic drug targets. Relying on these techniques, the authors describe a medicinal chemistry strategy that successfully identified eight compounds (inhibitors) that were thought to be potential inhibitors for each of the four targets listed above. Results revealed that all four targets BRD, HDAC, HH and TRK receptors binding sites share similar amino acid sequencing that ranges from 80 to 100%, offering the possibility of further testing for multi-target drug use. Two additional targets were also tested as part of this work, Retinoic Acid (RA) and c-Src (Csk), which showed similarity (of the binding pocket) across their receptors of 80–100% but lower than 80% for the other four targets. The work for these two targets is the subject of a paper currently in progress
Book review : Estate regeneration: learning the lessons
No full textThis is a book review of: Estate regeneration: learning the lessons / by Paul Watt. Bristol : Policy Press, 2021
Westminister in Uk context
No full textThe UK comprises of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and operates under the doctrine of Westminster's parliamentary sovereignty. However, the constitutional context has changed dramatically since devolution. Initiated in 1998, devolution transferred certain powers to legislatures in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, enabling a degree of self-rule over domestic affairs. Though subordinate to Westminster, these legislatures are now integral to the UK’s parliamentary system. Devolution introduced institutional diversity, with devolved legislatures often diverging from Westminster practices. This chapter examines their unique features, including representation, the interplay of national and devolved law-making, and accountability mechanisms, highlighting the evolving complexity of of the parliamentary context since devolution
Millimeter‑wave MIMO array with low interactions between its antenna elements for fifth generation wireless communication networks
Get PDFThis paper presents a novel, compact eight-port circular MIMO antenna system designed for millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G communication, offering a wide impedance bandwidth and high isolation. The proposed antenna array operates over a broad measured frequency range of 25–35 GHz, achieving a 10 GHz bandwidth through a unique integration of circular and rectangular slots in the ground plane. Fabricated on a low-loss Rogers RT5880 substrate (εr = 2.2, thickness = 0.8 mm, tanδ = 0.0009), the design demonstrates excellent performance without requiring additional decoupling structures. The antenna achieves high isolation greater than 28 dB and a peak gain of 9.65 dB at 26 GHz and 28 GHz, enabling effective operation in high-attenuation mmWave environments. Compared to prior art, the presented system supports more antenna elements within a compact footprint while maintaining low Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC < 0.05) and high diversity gain, making it ideal for enhanced MIMO performance. Comprehensive analysis of S-parameters, radiation patterns, surface currents, and efficiency validates its suitability for next-generation 5G mmWave applications. The combination of compact geometry, high port count, wideband coverage, and exceptional isolation constitutes the core novelty of this work
A lifecycle analysis of complex public procurement: an agency-institutional theory perspective
Get PDFPurpose: The study sets out to demonstrate how a lifecycle perspective on complex, public-sector procurement projects can be used for making qualitative assessments of procurement policy and practice and reveal those procurement capabilities that are most impactful for operating effectively.
Design/Methodology/Approach: An agency-institutional theoretic perspective and a lifecycle analysis technique are combined to abductively develop a framework to identify, analyse and compare complex procurement policies and practices in public sector organisations. Defence is the focal case and is compared with cases in the Nuclear, Local Government and Health sectors.
Findings and practical implications: The study provides a framework for undertaking a lifecycle analysis to understand the challenges and capabilities of complex, public-sector buyers. Eighteen hierarchically-arranged themes are identified and used in conjunction with agency and institutional theories to explain complex procurement policy and practice variation in some of the UK’s highest-profile public buyers. Our findings provide a classification of complex buyers and offer valuable guidance for practitioners and researchers navigating complex procurement contexts.
Originality/Value: The lifecycle approach proposed is a new research tool providing a bespoke application of theory by considering each lifecycle phase as an individual but related element that is governed by unique institutional pressures and agency-theoretic relationships.
Keywords: Procurement lifecycle analysis; Procuring complex performance; Complex procurement; Agency theory; Institutional theory
Paper type: Research pape
On refactorization problems and rational Lax matrices of quadrirational Yang-Baxter maps
Get PDFWe present rational Lax representations for one-component parametric quadrirational Yang–Baxter maps in both the abelian and non-abelian settings. We show that from the Lax matrices of a general class of non-abelian involutive Yang–Baxter maps (K-list), by considering the symmetries of the K-list maps, we obtain compatible refactorization problems with rational Lax matrices for other classes of non-abelian involutive Yang–Baxter maps (Λ, H and F lists). In the abelian setting, this procedure generates rational Lax representations for the abelian Yang–Baxter maps of the F and H lists. Additionally, we provide examples of non-involutive multi-parametric Yang–Baxter maps, along with their Lax representations, which lie outside the preceding lists
The end of the “time of the streets”: temporality in the life course of a Russian ex-gangster
Get PDFWe present the analysis of two biographical narratives by Tzigan, an ex-gangster from the Russian city of Kazan. Using the methodological approaches developed in qualitative longitudinal research, we explore his journey in and out of the gang as a part of the collective biography of a generation that came of age at a time of catastrophic collapse of the Soviet social order and a difficult transition to market economy, and who elected to join the alternative social order of street gangs. His decision to leave the gang was also conditioned by the macro-changes in the post-Soviet society, which reverberated through the world of the streets. We address the different times in Tsigan’s life – his childhood, youth and adulthood, his time on the streets, his decision to leave the gang and his reflexions and memories of his past as reconstructed through the narratives presented at two different points of his biography. We show how his memory of the time in the gang has dramatically changed between the first and the second interviews, as he looked retrospectively on his former self from the vantage point of his current law-abiding life. In our analysis, we use the theoretical and conceptual framework of sociology of time and processual sociology and Bakhtin’s concept of chronotope