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Background: Harmful Alcohol use is frequent among opioid dependents patients undergoing agonist maintenance treatment. The objective assessment of harmful alcohol use can be done using laboratory measures of serum biomarkers. For community-based patients, there is often a requirement of an alternative method due to lack of onsite laboratory services. The aim of the study was to examine filter paper as a matrix to measure serum biomarkers of harmful alcohol use. Methods: The initial phase involved standardization of the filter-paper-based assay. Conditions were optimised for extraction and estimation of alcohol biomarkers (Aspartate Aminotransferase; AST, Alanine Aminotransferase; ALT, Gamma Glutamyl transferase; GGT and Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin; CDT) from the filter paper. For clinical validation, serum samples were collected from community clinics. Biomarker levels obtained from both the methods were correlated using linear regression analysis. Limits of agreement between the two methods was estimated using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Results: The extraction of enzymes (AST, ALT and GGT) from filter paper was carried out using the substrate buffer available with the reagent kit (Randox, UK). CDT was readily extracted from filter paper using deionised water. Serum biomarker levels measured from samples collected from community clinics correlated well with filter paper extracted levels (ICC 0.97-0.99). More than 90% of alcohol biomarker levels were recovered from the filter paper matrix using this method. Conclusion: Filter paper has the potential to be used as a matrix to objectively measure alcohol biomarkers among opioid-dependent patients from community settings lacking onsite laboratory facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research presented in this paper supports claims by feminists and queer theorists that there are numerous and diverse sex/gender/desire categories (Bem, 1995). Taken from a broader digital ethnography of digital sex markets in the United Kingdom, the findings are based on ten in-depth interviews with those who identified as men or 'gender flexible' and who buy and/or sell sex within digital markets. The participants featured in this paper used digital sex markets as a space to explore and express non-normative/subversive sexual and gender identities. Yet for many of them, these subversive acts were bounded by the market, so they were able to uphold masculine heterosexual identities outside of sex markets. The relative privacy of digital sex markets empowered them to maintain heterosexist power, reducing the social risks of stigmatisation and ostracisation associated with subversive sexual and gender identities. The thematic analysis revealed the limitations of heteronormative and homonormative labels and assumptions of sex work relations, thus, prompting the need to write this paper. Framing sex markets in narrow binary terms, as either homosexual or heterosexual markets, or research participants as customers or workers do not reflect the fluidity and diversity evident in this small yet revealing sample. The study shows multiple and fluid expressions of sex/gender/desire; and a duality in market roles as workers and/or customers amongst men engaged in digital sex markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To explore any changes in the perceived gender and affiliation of first authors of papers published in the British Journal of Orthodontics (BJO) and Journal of Orthodontics (JO), over the last 50 years. Methods: Electronic hand searches of the BJO and JO from 1973 to 2021, were undertaken to identify research and clinical papers published the first volume of the BJO (1973-74) and then the first two volumes of each subsequent decade i.e. 1980-81; 1990-91 to 2020-21. Articles such as Editorials, Product Updates and Abstract summaries, were excluded. The perceived gender of the first author was identified from their forename, internet sources and/or personal knowledge, where possible. The country of the first author's affiliation was identified from the author details stated in the papers. The countries were then grouped into geographical areas. Results: A total of 385 papers were identified with a steady increase from 1973 to 2021. There was a statistically significant increase in papers published by authors who were perceived to be female (odds ratio 8.33; 95% CI 4.75, 14.64). The increase in papers published by non-UK affiliated first authors was significant (odds ratio 5.01; 95% CI 2.78, 9.02). Conclusions: The Journal has seen a significant change, over the last 50 years, in its authorship profile from nearly exclusively male, UK based authors to more than 60% of published papers having a first author who was perceived as being female and 37% originating from outside the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally there is a shortage of organs available for transplant resulting in thousands of lives lost as a result. Recently in the United Kingdom 457 people died as a result of organ shortage in just 1 year. 1 NHS Blood and Transplant suggest national debates to test public attitudes to radical actions to increase organ donation should be considered in addressing organ shortage. The selling of organs for transplant in the United Kingdom is prohibited under the Human Tissue Act 2004. This discussion paper considers five ethical objections raised in the United Kingdom to paid donation and discusses how these objections are addressed within the only legal and regulated paid living unrelated renal donation programme in the world in Iran, where its kidney transplant list was eliminated within 2 years of its commencement. This article discusses whether paid living unrelated donation in Iran increases riskier donations and reduced altruistic donation as opponents of paid donation claim. The paper debates whether objections to paid donation based upon commodification arguments only oppose enabling financial ends, even if these ends enable beneficent acts. Discussions in relation to whether valid consent can be given by the donor will take place and will also debate the objection that donors will be coerced and exploited by a paid model. This article suggests that exploitation of the paid donor within the Iranian model exists within the legally permitted framework. However, paid living kidney donation should be discussed further and other models of paid donation considered in the United Kingdom as a radical means of increasing donation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous literature has examined time discourses in social work and demonstrated that social work is predicated on linear understandings of time, one area that has received little theoretical and empirical attention in the literature on time and social work is what effects various social work temporalities exert on the lifeworld of social workers and how they shape their working days. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews with British social workers and employs an abductive approach to data analysis. By analysing the participants' experiences of time and work, the article identifies two temporalities that exist in social work practice, paperwork time and compassionate time. Paperwork time is linear, instantaneous and accelerated, requiring social workers to juggle multiple competing demands and needs. Compassionate time is more developmental and cyclical and requires slower engagement. The paper then discusses how social workers negotiated these contradictory temporalities and highlights the potentially negative effects of temporal conflicts on people's health, well-being and on social work practice at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2023, the U.K. government announced that misogyny would not be categorized as a hate crime stating that this "may prove more harmful than helpful." This article argues that before and beyond hate crime, misogyny, understood as the hatred of women (from the Greek misein [hate] gynae [women]), is the foundational logic of our legal, social, and political order in the west. This constitution of hate relies on the active dehumanization, exploitation, and ownership of women's bodies by the institution of white men through making women the object of the "colonization of the everyday." This exhausting hatred is enacted through repetitive, unceasing, and everyday violence toward women. Simply put, patriarchal, colonial, capitalist democracy is only sustained through violence against women. Hating women is, therefore, not a pathology of society but rather is the necessary existence condition of our legal-political constitution, clear to see yet hiding in plain sight. Misogyny ensures the precarity of women's bodies and women's status as trespassers in everyday spaces that are deliberately always already misogynistic. Given the foundational nature of misogyny, did the government have a point in excluding endemic violence against women from hate crime as "more harmful than helpful?" Is hate crime merely constitutive of a cultural matrix of misogyny? This paper enacts a decolonial feminist prism to disrupt the cultural condition of misogyny by thinking hate crime together with legal-political constitutional and cultural change. The paper explores violence against women set against the historical emergence of misogyny from Greek dehumanization, to medieval persecution of "witches," the muzzling and banning of women from public spaces, Shakespeare's "Taming," to contemporary femicide rates. Interrogating hate crime through this prism offers nuanced routes for how to disrupt the legal-political constitution of misogyny that is neither hidden nor new. Misogyny is enduring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the prevalence and challenges of diagnosing Long Covid Syndrome in children and adolescents, highlighting the varied symptoms, the scarcity of literature on the subject, and the potential risk factors, including age, gender, allergies, and persistent symptoms.

In a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Adamson et al. (2020) interpret data as showing that cognitive behavioural therapy leads to improvement in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic fatigue. Their research is undermined by several methodological limitations, including: (a) sampling ambiguity; (b) weak measurement; (c) survivor bias; (d) missing data and (e) lack of a control group. Unacknowledged sample attrition renders statements in the published Abstract misleading with regard to points of fact. That the paper was approved by peer reviewers and editors illustrates how non-rigorous editorial processes contribute to systematic publication bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autistic adults are at increased risk of both mental and physical health difficulties, and yet can face barriers to accessing healthcare. A meta-ethnographic approach was used to conduct a review of the existing literature regarding autistic adults' experiences of accessing healthcare. Four databases were systematically searched for qualitative and mixed-method studies reporting on the experiences of autistic adults without a co-occurring learning disability accessing adult healthcare services within the United Kingdom. Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria, and seven steps were used to systematically extract the data and then generate novel themes. Three superordinate themes were identified: Professionals' lack of knowledge can be damaging, Need to reduce processing demands and Adaptation to improve engagement. This review highlights the wide-reaching damaging impact misdiagnosis, inadequate or inappropriate treatment, overwhelming environments and inaccessible systems can have on the well-being and ability of autistic adults to engage with treatment. The lack of autism knowledge and understanding experienced in interactions with healthcare professionals, along with autistic adult's own communication and sensory processing differences, demonstrates the need for widely delivered training co-produced with autistic adults alongside bespoke and person-centred adaptations. Autistic adults are more likely to experience mental and physical health difficulties, and yet can find it difficult to get the support that they need. A meta-ethnographic approach was used to review the existing research on autistic adults' experiences of accessing healthcare. Four databases were searched for qualitative and mixed-method studies which looked at the experiences of autistic adults who did not also have a learning disability when using healthcare services in the United Kingdom. Fifteen papers met the criteria to be included, and seven steps were used to analyse the information and develop new themes. Three main themes were identified: Professionals' lack of knowledge can be damaging, Need to reduce processing demands and Adaptation to improve engagement. This review highlights how damaging misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, overwhelming environments and systems that are difficult to access can have on the well-being of autistic adults. Limited knowledge and understanding about autism knowledge among healthcare professionals along with autistic adult's own communication and sensory differences indicate that there is a need for improved training developed with autistic adults and adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access or assessment accommodations and arrangements exist to enable students with disabilities to be included in high stakes examinations, and to comply with Equality legislation and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This article explores the accessibility of digital versions of Question Papers offered by UK awarding bodies for high stakes externally assessed examinations. It raises concerns that question papers from five out of six providers are not adequately accessible for candidates with visual impairment who use screen reader technologies and so asks broader questions about ways in which, even in high income countries with a strong espoused commitment to equality, disadvantage can be compounded rather than addressed. Access arrangements offered by awarding bodies should reflect candidates' 'normal way of working'; this article presents original and unique data from a survey of Qualified Teachers of the Visually Impaired in respect of technologies and strategies used by 325 students with visual impairment and finds that up to 16% of these learners are using screen reader tools in school. These candidates may, therefore, be disadvantaged in examinations because the technology they use to access learning resources cannot be successfully utilised to access assessments. The article concludes with recommendations for regulators and providers of assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Birth of Energy (2019), Cara New Daggett offers an incisive critique of the dominant thermodynamic concept of energy. 'Energy', Daggett shows, is inextricably tied to an exploitative productivist politics that extols the virtues of work and the sins of waste. In this paper, I seek to develop new conversations between Daggett's account in The Birth of Energy and an important empirical development within the energy industry that Daggett herself does not consider: the smart grid. The paper draws upon a mixed-methods research project, investigating a UK smart grid trial called 'OpenDSR' devised and implemented by Manchester-based co-operative Carbon Co-op, with funding from the UK government. I draw on my research within OpenDSR to make two interconnected arguments. Firstly, I argue that the smart grid sees an intensification of the energy-as-work logic that Daggett opposes, taking pre-existing preoccupations with calculation and measurement within the energy system to new extremes in pursuit of the maximisation of efficiency and the minimisation of waste. I then proceed to think through the political implications of this argument, contending that while the smart grid reproduces the dominant energy logic that Daggett critiques, it might still have a part to play within an emancipatory environmental politics. In making this claim, a second argument emerges, constituting a sympathetic critique of Daggett's account more broadly. Daggett offers an incisive and important contribution that does much to develop debates within the energy social sciences and humanities. However, I suggest that her account risks obscuring some important political differences between variegated forms of work and waste: while she makes a persuasive case for an anti-work conceptualisation of energy that portends liberation from waged labour, her analysis of the kinds of 'efficiency' that pertain to the energy system seems less compelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how solicited paper diaries, and the accompanying materials, are carefully handled over the course of one research project. It foregrounds the value of attending to mundane moments with research materials, by tracing tangible material encounters together with intimate fieldnote reflections. Through drawing upon theories of materiality with feminist and relational ethics of care, this article centralises paper diaries as a key mediator of relationships and care within research. It considers the micro processes of choosing diaries, posting them, receiving and storing them and tracing the emotionally charged moments as a researcher in everyday research situations. Such reflections, from the perspective of the researcher, look to offer insights into research relationalities and care. It argues that these momentary fieldwork reflections extend understandings of material methodologies by emphasising relational intimacies as a researcher and connects material and sensory understandings with feminist ethics of care and researcher reciprocities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that trust cannot be taken for granted in long-term participatory research and promotes greater consideration to conceptualizing the trusting process as fluid and fragile. This awareness by researchers can reveal to them how the passing of time shapes and reshapes the nature of trusting relationships and their constant negotiation and re-negotiation. The paper draws together literature from different disciplines on the themes of trust, temporality and participatory research and outcomes from interviews and workshops undertaken for The Trust Map project to focus on two key moments that reveal the fragility of trust. These are the subtlety of disruption and trust on trial and trust at a distance. We discuss how trust was built over time through processes of interaction that were continually tested, incremental and participatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State labour inspection has been relatively underresearched in economic and labour geography, despite its prospective role in tackling worker exploitation as part of national state regulatory strategies. This paper seeks to address this gap by critically examining state labour inspection as a government function capable of upholding labour standards within and across economic space. A key contribution of the paper is to make stronger connections between workers' spatial strategies and their ability to shape how labour inspection and standards enforcement is carried out. Focusing upon the UK and Ireland, we examine different ways in which some labour-friendly groups have sought to contest but also to support state labour inspection efforts with a view to protecting workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the benefits which digital technology offers to all aspects of dental practice and education. This paper provides an overview of how digital technology has enhanced clinical and administrative procedures within dental practice, including computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacture (CAD/CAM), digital radiography, 3D printing, patient records, electronic patient referrals and electronic communications from dental practices. It then considers the development of teledentistry (mHealth) and its benefits in enabling distant consultations with patients, who for one reason or another are unable to visit dental practices easily. It then goes on to consider how and why digital dental distance learning materials were provided to general dental practitioners in England by the Department of Health (DoH) (England) and how they evolved. Finally, this paper considers the use of digital technology in dental education by dental schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbes are increasingly central to visions of sustainable and healthy futures, including in farming movements such as regenerative agriculture. In social science and environmental humanities scholarship, (re)connecting with microbes is seen as a way to challenge, conceptually and practically, the very ontology of human-nature separation which underpins the destruction and violence in human relations with other living beings and with environments. The crux of this onto-ethical potential is a shift towards relational modes of knowing microbes, rooted in localised, proximate, and sensuous practice, and expressed in embodied expertise. This paper engages critically with this promise by calling attention to persistence of calculability to people's self-governance within current microbiopolitics. Through a case study of regenerative agriculture in the United Kingdom, I argue that while embodied expertise of soil microbes is seen as crucial to soil health-oriented farming, it is also dismissed as an insufficient in guiding farmers and shaping future practice, including by farmers themselves. Regenerative agriculture continues to function within "farming by numbers", an agri-biopolitical regime in which farmers' and advisors' subjectivity is that of calculating managers situated in calculable environments. As a result, calculability acts as a 'break' on the development of alternative microbial onto-ethics, and regenerative agriculture practitioners look for ways to bring soil microbes into the realm of calculability (e.g., through metagenomics). Consequently, the way microbes are being incorporated into future agri-environmental relations reinforces rather than threatens existing structures of biopolitical power. Overall, I argue that human-microbe research, potentially due to its empirical focus on alternative practices, has underplayed the importance of calculability to people's self-governance in relations with microbes. The struggle for a new microbiopolitics, especially in agriculture and environmental management, will require addressing the continued importance of calculability, and a creative and socially relevant experimentation with alternative forms of expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically fitness testing has been identified as a common but controversial physical education (PE)-for-health practice across the globe. Despite this, little is known about the current prevalence and implementation of fitness testing. This paper therefore reports on findings from a survey which gathered both quantitative and qualitative data to explore the 'if?', 'why?' and 'how?' of fitness testing and provide new insights into teachers' learning intentions, pedagogical practices, and attitudes towards it. The survey was distributed to PE departments in secondary schools across the UK, and responses were analysed and reported descriptively and thematically. Responses from 260 schools highlighted that fitness testing remains a common practice in PE, with 80% of PE teachers reporting it to feature in their curriculum. There was less consensus surrounding the 'why?' and 'how?' of testing, with variation evident in teachers' stated learning intentions, pedagogical practices, and attitudes. Despite its prevalence, PE teachers expressed concerns over negative pupil outcomes potentially arising from fitness testing, and over 60% of teachers were uncertain or agreed that fitness testing can have a negative impact on pupils' psychological health. Given the findings and the reported widespread prevalence of fitness testing, further research should explore pupils' perspectives, responses, and outcomes of fitness testing, including their motivational and emotional responses to testing. Working with teachers and encouraging them to critically reflect on the 'if?', 'why?' and 'how?' of fitness testing is recommended and will hopefully help to bridge the gap between research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies evaluating the impact of electronic prescribing on prescribing safety have used comparatively weak study designs such as uncontrolled before-and-after studies. This study aimed to apply a more robust naturalistic stepped wedge study design to compare the prevalence and types of prescribing errors for electronic prescribing and paper prescribing. Data were collected weekly during a phased electronic prescribing implementation across 20 wards in a large English hospital. We identified 511 (7.8%) erroneous orders in 6523 paper medication orders, and 312 (6.0%) in 5237 electronic prescribing orders. Logistic regression suggested no statistically significant effect of electronic prescribing use or of study week; patient and ward had significant effects. Errors involving incorrect doses and illegible or incomplete orders were less common with electronic prescribing; those involving duplication, omission, incorrect drug and incorrect formulation were more common. Actions are needed to mitigate these error types; future studies should give more consideration to the effects of patient and ward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the UK economy's slow and unbalanced growth, this paper discusses the degree to which recent Conservative Governments in the UK have moved towards the adoption of a strategic and coherent set of industrial policies to enhance economic performance across the country. It starts by outlining the priorities and principles of new forms of industrial strategy which emphasises the importance of cross-sectoral goals, intensive dialogue between government and the private sector, co-ordination between different policies and levels of government, directions to address societal and environmental challenges and the role of place-based policy making. The paper discusses the degree to which these principles have shaped, or been largely absent from, recent industrial policy development in the UK and particularly the interface between industrial and regional policies. It discusses the May Government's move to set up an Industrial Strategy with a place 'pillar' and the influence of a mission approach. It then reviews the Johnson's Government's 'Plan for Growth' industrial policy agenda, focussing on the recent Levelling Up White Paper and examines how far and in what ways it has embedded these reforming principles. It finds that despite reflecting some of these principles in its rhetoric, the current government programme has substituted innovation and infrastructure policies for an actual industrial strategy, and continues to rely mainly on a top-down and technologically driven type of approach. The agenda lacks the capacity to deliver its levelling up goals due to inadequate funding, an incomplete devolution agenda and insufficiently developed place-based capacities and policies. Future development needs to move the principles from rhetoric into industrial policy direction and design, and to remedy the continuing lack of local and regional collaboration and co-ordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred years have passed since the founding of the first independent market research firm in the UK in 1921. This important milestone inspired this special issue of the International Journal of Market Research that explores the role and importance of market research through a historical lens. A historical approach enables recognising and (re)framing both academic and practitioner contributions to market research through the years. Knowing the past allows better understanding and appreciation of the present, while simultaneously enabling envisioning of the future. In this introduction, we briefly review the origins and development of market research before introducing the three papers that comprise the special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prevent Duty requires universities in the United Kingdom to identify and report students who might be seen as 'vulnerable' to radicalisation. Since its introduction in 2015, the duty has been subject to increasing empirical research in the education sector. However, there has been limited research that specifically explores Muslim students' perceptions of Prevent in British universities. This paper directly addresses this gap in research by drawing upon the qualitative experiences of 25 university students who self-identified as 'British Muslims'. Individual, semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Analysis. The findings demonstrate the securitisation of higher education and 'policing' of Muslim students. The paper draws on Pantazis and Pemberton's use of the 'new suspect community' thesis in order to examine participants' views and experiences. When analysing the data, three particular themes are especially prominent: as a tool of 'surveillance', Prevent hampers freedom of speech, threatens student activism and forces Muslim students to hide their Muslim identity to avoid being labelled as 'radical' or 'vulnerable' to terrorism. It will be concluded that the 'surveillance' function of Prevent is problematic on the grounds that it renders universities 'modern-day panopticons'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Sino-UK financial relations in the fintech sector. Through an empirical focus on fintech payments systems, the analysis locates fintech within broader research on the internationalisation of Chinese finance. Conceptually, the paper responds to calls for more attention to be paid to state actors in fintech development. By examining the relationship between the UK and China in fintech, as part of the UK's wider role in Chinese financial internationalisation, I argue that such a focus on the state needs to be expanded beyond the current focus on domestic policy to include wider questions regarding how fintech sits alongside overseas and international policy concerns. I suggest that one productive way of doing this is to understand fintech as a monetary infrastructure. In so doing, the paper argues that fintech needs to be understood as much as a monetary geography as it is a financial geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary reflects on the strengths of the paper by Warde et al. entitled "Situated drinking: the association between eating and alcohol consumption in Great Britain". It suggests that practice-theoretical approaches towards studying contemporary connections between foods, food events and alcoholic drinks provides an excellent basis for overcoming the analytical limits of fields such as food studies, drinks studies, alcohol studies and related areas. This is especially so if Warde et al.'s quantitative methodology were to be yoked to two further sources of inspiration, namely Mary Douglas's structuralist analysis of food combinations within food events and Stephen Mennell's utilisation of the concepts and concerns of Norbert Elias to produce a systematic historical sociology of food. An extended inter-paradigmatic approach to the study of how alcoholic drinks relate to foods and eating practices emerges as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agencies and analysts attribute the current volatility of natural gas prices to a temporary convergence of exogenous shocks such as the post-COVID-19 economic recovery and the conflict in Ukraine. This paper hypothesizes that long-term structural and policy factors endogenous to the energy sector also play a relevant role. Through a case study of three major gas markets – UK, US, and EU – the paper finds that countries characterized by abundant domestic production are less exposed to price volatility as they benefit from lower market uncertainty and asset specificity. This encourages energy firms to outsource production and rely on more flexible and shorter-term contracts. A structural condition of abundance supported by liberalization policies and a developed infrastructure network allows energy firms to easily switch suppliers or buyers without being exposed to the opportunistic behavior of the commercial counterparty, increasing market competition and reducing prices. By contrast, import-dependent countries face greater uncertainty and asset specificity, as supplies and prices are not guaranteed and they heavily depend from trends in international markets. In this context, the contractual and structural flexibility brought about by liberalization policies may expose to further insecurity of supply and volatility of prices, as exporters are contractually disengaged from commitments on volumes and prices. In periods of international scarcity, they may redirect supplies to importers that offer a premium in price. This suggests that import-dependent countries could reduce their exposure to price volatility (i) by increasing domestic production (ii) while envisaging the coexistence of contractual models based on both market competition and vertical integration, to take advantage from low spot prices in periods of international abundance and contain the surge in periods of scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the heightened risk that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses to the health and lives of people with obesity, in 2020 the U.K. government launched a new package of policies intended to stimulate weight loss among the country's population. In this article, I present a critical discourse analysis of the policy paper which announced these new measures. I identify the discourses that are used to represent things, people, and processes in this policy text. These discourses are interpreted in terms of broadly neoliberal ideologies of public health management. Taken together, the discourses identified contribute to a broadly neoliberal ideology of public health management. It is argued that the policy paper represents an instance of "lifestyle drift," as it initially appears to engage with social and economic determinants of health but ultimately neglects these in favor of focusing on individual lifestyle factors, particularly in the shape of individuals' "choices." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on newspapers coverage of 2016 Brexit referendum. Topics discussed include relevance of the referendum for democracy of Great Britain, as published in the newspaper "The Sun," relevance of the voting for unity of Great Britain, as published in "The Guardian" and contribution of the referendum in resignation of David Cameron, British prime minister, as published in "The Guardian."

The article presents stories concerning market research as of September 2015. A paper by Andrew Cleary and Nigel Balmer has been selected as the winner of the 2015 Collaborative Award from the "International Journal of Market Research." The 2015 spring conference of the Association for Survey Computing (ASC) was held at Imperial College in London, England. The MRS ADAN Advanced Analytics Innovation Symposium was held in London.

This paper examines the growth of the UK coworking space (CWS) sector in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on data from a multi-year study comprising 44 interviews with CWS owners, managers, and other key economic actors. The paper offers a novel contribution by drawing on critical political economy to conceptualise CWS as capitalist enterprises providing fixed capital of an independent kind in competitive markets increasingly shaped by changing urban commercial real estate dynamics which necessitate that CWS adapt their business models to remain economically viable. The paper finds the entry of large corporate actors in the CWS sector is forcing smaller independent CWS to diversify to remain competitive. This pressure inhibits the ability of CWS to adhere to – and offer services matching – the aims of early CWS, namely the cultivation of a community of like-minded individuals who cowork to reduce rental costs and social isolation. These findings are theoretically and empirically significant as they illustrate how rapid sectoral shifts are driven by business decisions with structural causes, rather than being due to the actions of individual users of CWS or the communities they serve. These findings have implications for understanding the future of coworking and provide new insights into how competition shapes and changes the business models and competitive strategies of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the literature on state capacity in financialized political economies by studying the market-based investment setting for the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a £4.2 billion sewer, built underneath central London to prevent raw sewage from spilling into the River Thames. Most analyses conclude that financial statecraft undermines state capacities, as it empowers finance and exposes states to uncontrollable risks. This article moves beyond these accounts by arguing that public policy officials engage with finance instrumentally, taking on risks to solve the governing challenges they face. It demonstrates that state action can build islands of state capacity with financial statecraft in fragmented policy environments. Based on expert interviews and documentary analysis, the article traces how the UK's Ministry of the Environment experimented with a policy instrument and used investment capacities from different levels of government, to implement the Thames Tideway Tunnel through institutional equity investment and share risks in the privatized and financialized environmental sector. The paper concludes that under the current conjuncture, financial statecraft will play an important role in addressing the climate crisis. Therefore, further comparative research is required to explore its normative paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is limited scholarship on artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education governance, despite the growing prevalence of AI-powered technologies in many fields, including education. However, as the technology is still nascent and has yet to reach its full potential, ideas and arguments abound, championing or cautioning against the use of these technologies. Design/Approach/Methods: To fill this gap in research on policy networks and AI in British higher education, this article employs network ethnography and discourse analysis to study how ideas about AI-powered technologies in higher education circulate in policy networks in the United Kingdom. Findings: The findings evidence a policy network showing signs of a heterarchy permeated by neoliberal rationales and populated by policy actors actively promoting artificial intelligence technologies to be used in education. Originality/Value: This paper builds on existing research by looking at the university and not-for-profit sectors, in addition to the governmental and educational technology sectors. Using network ethnography, this article expands our understanding of the policy actors involved and critically analyzes ideas regarding the use of AI in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I develop a new explanation that furthers our understanding of why whistleblowers are frequently hated and stigmatized. I call into question the implicit assumption in the literature that whistleblowers are hated and stigmatized exclusively because they represent the 'other'. Instead, I take a different view and argue that, especially where staff have a moral commitment to their work, whistleblowers may also be felt to be problematic because they unconsciously represent the lost good 'self' of staff members. I draw on Kleinian psychoanalytic ideas in developing theory, and use the crisis at the Mid Staffordshire National Health Service Trust in the UK as a contemporary case illustration. This paper contributes to the whistleblower literature as well as to the literature that applies psychoanalytic ideas to the study of management and organization, and it also identifies areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this issue examine various aspects of ethnic differences in higher education. The first three papers, all of which focus on Britain, attempt to explain the very high motivation behind enrollment in higher and further education by ethnic minority students. These papers argue that investment in higher education is a defiance strategy that is used by ethnic minorities to counterbalance the effect of ethnic penalties. It seems that aspirations are still significant in shaping the educational attainment and are fuelled by the grim structural barriers facing ethnic minorities. The anticipation of labour market discrimination on the one hand, and the belief in the value of education as the main means for social mobility on the other hand, lead ethnic minorities in Britain to over-invest in education. The fourth paper tells a different story, in that immigrant students experience systematic disadvantages throughout their school careers including a much lower enrollment in higher education. These young immigrants hold more negative perceptions towards the value of education, not only in comparison with their Italian counterparts, but it seems also in comparisons with minority young people in Britain. However, in the last paper, the results resemble the British case, in that the second generation students hold higher academic expectations than their non-immigrant origin peers, and that these higher expectations are associated with higher levels of persistence and attainment. The authors here highlight the importance of the theory of immigrant optimism in explaining the between-groups differences. However, this theory does not seem to have strong explanatory power in the Italian case, if anything, perhaps ‘immigrant pessimism’ is a better theory to explain the low aspirations for higher education and poor educational attainment among immigrants in Italy. Of course, further evidence is required to substantiate this claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Allotment gardening is a popular pastime which anecdotally contributes to health and wellbeing, although the extent of supportive research evidence is unclear. This systematic review investigates the question: Does allotment gardening contribute to health and wellbeing? Method: A systematic search was conducted, including the terms 'allotment', 'garden', 'health' and 'wellbeing'. Abstracts of identified papers were compared with inclusion criteria, and 10 papers were finally selected. Critical appraisal and data extraction were conducted simultaneously. Qualitative research papers predominated and were analysed thematically. Resultant themes were compared and integrated with the findings of quantitative research papers. Findings: Thematic analysis of the qualitative and quantitative papers' findings revealed five distinct health and wellbeing themes. Allotment gardening provides a stress-relieving refuge, contributes to a healthier lifestyle, creates social opportunities, provides valued contact with nature, and enables self-development. Conclusion: This review suggests that allotment gardening does indeed impact health and wellbeing. It is therefore recommended as occupational therapy for people with health problems, and as a health promoting occupation for the general population. Research particularly focused on the impact of group and therapeutic allotment gardening, so further investigations are recommended to explore the health promoting influences of everyday allotment gardening for individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on an article published within the issue which explores the gap between how marketing research is taught in business schools in Great Britain and how the practitioner world of market research is evolving. Topics covered include the challenge of re-aligning the academic and practitioner communities in marketing research, and the need to change in the curriculum as well as a new name for the sector that reflects the trend from surveys to big data.

This paper examines the relationship between the critique of civilization, anti-imperialism, gender and representative government in the political thought of the neglected communist, environmentalist, and gay liberationist Edward Carpenter (1844–1929). In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth in the historical literatures on anti-imperialism and representative government, yet these two topics are rarely connected. Meanwhile, a voluminous literature on the concept of civilization and its role in British imperialism has largely ignored its role in justifying social and political domination in Britain itself. Carpenter's writings on these topics are important because he offers a defense of the value of representative government that is grounded in his anti-imperialism. Furthermore, his critique of civilization led him to connect problems of social domination in India to the struggles of women, homosexuals, and the working class. These groups ought in turn to be enfranchised and given roles in the functioning of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of research that focuses on the lived experiences of British Yemeni young people in the UK as they pertain to their learning and development. This paper aims to bridge the gap by exploring the case of Nuha, an 18-year-old British Yemeni young woman, as she navigates the conduct of her everyday life. The paper presents a developed conceptual model and associated methodological approach for exploring Nuha. It does so by first reviewing what might be viewed as dominant approaches to the study of ethnic young people's experiences that advocate a social identity theory. A critique of such thinking is developed that takes issue with much of this writing that has the potential for an essentialised abstracted approach. The paper instead advocates the use of a subjectively focused, practice orientated and yet culturally sensitive approach to exploring human behaviour in the context of the conduct of everyday life. Based on an analytical matrix that is developed from such thinking, I examine Nuha's life experiences using Dreier's theory of a person. In doing so, I recognise the additional importance of personhood in practice that provide a reference point for exploring more deeply the learning and development of Nuha. The research is generated through a case study narrative that is analysed dialectically through theory, recognising how theory is simultaneously driven by the data. The paper concludes with arguments made about the centrality of an extended and developed sense of the conduct of everyday life to get at the nuanced evolving sense of being and doing for British Yemeni young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support for school-age children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) usually takes place within the school setting. Successful outcomes for children with SLCN rely on effective collaborative working between speech and language therapists (SLTs), school staff and families. We need to understand the current evidence regarding the joint working practices, relationships and collaboration experiences of SLT and teaching staff within mainstream primary schools, in order to identify whether sufficient research exists for a systematic review within this field, and to inform practice. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify what research currently exists regarding collaboration, roles and relationships of SLTs and teaching staff within mainstream UK primary schools, and clarify the nature, participants and concepts described within this literature. A scoping review framework was used, consisting of identification of the review objectives, identification of relevant studies, study selection and iterative searches, data charting and reporting of the results. Information regarding research question, participants, data collection and analysis and terms used for key concepts was extracted. This scoping review identified 14 papers, however, collaboration was the primary focus of only 5 of these. Clarity and perceptions of roles were key themes within six of the papers. Whilst facilitators and barriers to collaboration are discussed in all 14 papers, only 4 studies aimed to investigate barriers and facilitators. Teaching assistant (TA) views are underrepresented within the research. Drawing conclusions from the body of research is challenging due to the varied ways in which the key concept 'collaboration' is used. Currently, there is insufficient literature to carry out a systematic review. This scoping review highlights the need for research that considers collaboration within the complex social network of school staff (including TAs) and SLTs, in order to ensure that future guidance is rooted in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using one sex worker-led collective as a case example, this paper explores how feminism, precarious work and entrepreneurialism coexist together in contradictory ways. I begin by highlighting how freelance work within UK strip clubs creates precarity and hostile work environments for sex workers when coupled with exploitative managerial practices; however, when similar, equally precarious gig work and promotional activities are combined with sex worker-led collectivist practices, they can instead be used to advance feminist politics. The paper then shifts to a discussion of how the transformative potential of the sex worker collective and their efforts to fight for labour rights and safer working conditions are continually and violently undermined by the feminism of those outside the stripping industry and with access to more privilege, power, and resources. While there are many different feminisms, the article ends by arguing for the ongoing need to seek some reconciliation within the movement to ensure that the voices and concerns of those most marginalised remain at the centre of politics and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the working practices of several feminist creative and cultural enterprises in London (which I term 'feminist CCIs'). In particular, it shows how pandemic precarity has driven feminist CCIs towards more entrepreneurial, self-promotional, and self-branding practices in order to sustain their work. Drawing on both digital ethnographic material and interviews with 12 workers in feminist CCIs conducted online between 2020 and 2022, the article provides insights into the landscape and contemporary realities of arts and cultural funding within these fields. It considers how decades of austerity measures and cuts have forced some feminist CCIs to operate independently outside of the UK public sector funding models. Survival tactics include adopting corporate funding models, subscription and membership schemes, platformisation and digitalisation. Focusing on funding, money and subjectivity, it unpacks the contradictions these imperatives bring to feminist politics: tensions about which some feminist CCI workers themselves are aware of and critical of. In the process, this paper considers how activism, feminism, entrepreneurialism, and precarity are fused together and negotiated in this form of 'freelance feminism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the factors that influence domestic violence and abuse (DVA) victims to withdraw from the Criminal Justice System globally continues to be a key focus for professionals and academics working within this area. There is a dearth of extant literature examining the motivations behind victim withdrawal, particularly retraction occurring post provision of an initial statement. This paper examines the phenomenon of retraction, by thematically analysing N = 60 police retraction statements (PRS) collected by police officers in a large suburban police force in the North West of England. In examining these statements, insight can also be garnered from those victims still in an active relationship with their abusers. Findings highlight female victims' motivations for retraction and are framed around victim problem solving including: a) accepting the relationship which resulted in a discordance in proceeding with the prosecution of the abuser b) rejecting the relationship thereby rendering the prosecution as redundant c) engaging in procedural problem solving where alternative measures such as civil actions were sought to substitute a CJS prosecution and d) the effect of children where motivations were split between retracting to return to the complete family unit including the victim as the mother and retracting due to recognising the importance of the father's role without involvement from the mother. Notwithstanding limitations, this paper demonstrates that there is significant value in conducting an analysis of PRSs in furthering the understanding of why victims choose to retract at this point in their prosecution journey. The extracts from this dataset add insight and understanding into DVA female victim motivations to retract post-initial statement provision and highlight the differences within victim populations who retract their original statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper explores the theoretical and empirical capacity of developmental and life-course criminology (DLC) to further our understanding of non-lethal intimate partner violence (IPV) and femicide. Drawing on Sampson and Laub's age-graded theory and Moffitt's dual taxonomy, the paper delves into empirical research that has identified and examined the overlap between general offending and IPV, highlighting how these DLC theoretical frameworks could provide insight into non-lethal IPV and femicide. We also outline the ways in which these DLC perspectives are challenged to fully address the gendered nature of IPV and less able to provide an empirical and theoretical understanding of the role of power and control by men over their women partners. We then place these frameworks within the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender-based violence, including femicide. While the COVID-19 lockdowns increased vulnerability to IPV and increased homicide in the United States, the expected rise in femicide did not materialize—at least within the United States, prompting questions about the extent to which existing criminological theories are able to provide a framework for these types of crime trends during unprecedented events. We examine the way non-lethal and lethal IPV are shaped by different factors as outlined in Moffitt's dual taxonomy. The pandemic for example did not create increased psychopathy (i.e., affective and personality disorders) associated with the risk for femicide, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns did create increased economic and family stressors, which placed many at-risk women and children in further social isolation, and reduced access to victim services. We conclude a need for further theoretical development surrounding femicide, integrating developmental and life-course perspectives, thereby emphasizing the need for refined frameworks to address the intricate dynamics of violence against women globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the current and future dynamics of energy consumption in modern economies such as the UK is crucial. This paper predicts the UK's energy consumption using data spanning January 1995 to March 2022 by comparing and evaluating the forecast performance of machine learning, dynamic regression, time series and combination modelling techniques. The analysis reveals that the seasonal ARIMA and TBATS hybrid models yield the lowest forecast errors in predicting the UK's electricity and gas consumption. Although the combination forecasts performed poorly relative to other models, machine learning techniques such as neural network and support vector regression produced better results compared to the dynamic regression models, whereas the seasonal hybrid model performed better than the machine learning and time series models. The results indicate that the UK's electricity consumption would either stabilise or decline over the forecast horizon, suggesting that it will take some years for electricity consumption to attain pre-2019 levels. For gas consumption, the results indicate that consumption would either maintain current levels or increase over the forecast period. We also show that combination forecasts do not often generate the best predictions, and therefore, choice of methodology matters in energy consumption forecasting. Overall, changing seasonal patterns, energy efficiency improvements, shift to renewable sources and uncertainties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and the Russia–Ukraine crisis appear to be significant drivers of energy consumption in the UK in recent times. These findings are expected to help in designing more effective energy policies as well as guide investor decisions in the energy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most significant episode in the assetisation of housing (underpinning its financialisation) is often understood to be the economic restructuring that took place during the 1980s – particularly deregulation of the banking sector and credit liberalisation. Research has reported on the housing 'investor subject' that emerged during this time, as an integral part of the transition towards financialised economies. This article provides new evidence about the housing consumer subject, and its place in this transition, by drilling into UK housing policy history and its discourses around the consumer relationship with housing. Using archive data from the Parliamentary and National Archives alongside interviews with key informers, we illustrate three cases of housing policy development in which the consumer demand for, and relationship with, housing is discursively reconditioned. We conclude that the housing investor subject was pursued in housing policy reform and its discourses well before the 1980s and the economic reforms commonly identified as the causes of financialisation. In addition, these discourses are found to have been reconditioned in order to align with broader macroeconomic policy concerns of the time. The article therefore provides a rare view of assetisation from within the state apparatus, revealing how housing policy and its discourses around consumption became functionally integrated within wider macroeconomic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The roles digital media-technologies play in raising public issues relating to emerging technologies and their potential for engaging publics with science and policy assessments is a lively field of inquiry in Science and Technology Studies (STS). This paper presents an analysis of controversies over proposals for the large-scale removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CDR). The study combines a digital method (web-querying) with document analysis to map debates about two CDR approaches: bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and afforestation. In the first step, we locate actors using the web to engage with BECCS and afforestation and map their alignments in relation to competing framings of CDR. In a second step, we examine the devices deployed by UK-based actors to evidence and contest the feasibility of BECCS and afforestation. Our analysis shows that policy distinctions between "natural" and "engineered" CDR are used flexibly in practice and do not map neatly onto actor engagement with BECCS and afforestation. We highlight the predominance of cross-cutting techno-economic expertise and argue that framings of CDR as a solution to governing climate change may contribute to public disengagement from climate policy processes. The paper reflects on methods for studying controversies, publics, and issues emerging around processes of technoscientific assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores Polish experiences of lived diversities in the UK through the lens of their precarious socio-economic status and ambivalent racial identity. Using the concept of conditional citizenship, the article explores how being only tentatively accepted in British society affects Polish migrants' understandings of British diversity. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of Polish migrants' lived diversities, this paper exposes the repertoires of actions that individuals apply in different social contexts in the process of learning to live with diversity. It advances the academic debate on everyday multiculturalism through an exploration of the relationship between conditional citizenship and lived diversities and contributes to an understanding of migrants' racism by contextualising it within national hierarchies of belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within multi-national research collaborations, power dynamics often shape who is involved in which parts of the research process. The analysis phase of research has historically been framed as requiring expert perspective, excluding national or local researchers whose role is often limited to collecting data and transferring it to others to analyze. In this paper, we describe and reflect on the process of collaborative coding across a multi-national team based in Lebanon and the United Kingdom, as part of a broader approach to co-production. We explore the value and benefit of collaborative coding, reflecting on how coding together enabled greater inclusion, teamwork, improved analysis as well as improved future data collection. We also discuss the technical and logistical challenges we faced in coding within a team and using internet-based software, including the complications involved in navigating power dynamics between researchers and coming to final decisions about codes. Over time, we found collaborative coding became a smoother process, however working in this way is not straight-forward. Our paper contributes a reflexive analysis on the power dynamics and decision-making complexities involved in collaborative coding. It emphasizes the importance of investing in interpersonal relationships over time and prioritizing less-centralized decision-making within research collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topics relating to race and experiences of racism are made visible through literary texts such as Carol Anderson's White Rage and Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race. This paper examines the ways in which the two texts address historical trajectories of racism and how they suggest these histories should be dealt with in the present, drawing on Michael Rothberg's theory of implication in oppressive and unjust pasts. The paper engages with these notions while also exploring Eddo-Lodge's and Anderson's critique of color-blindness and post-racialism. The two texts provide an opportunity to examine potential avenues for and ways of dealing with legacies of racial inequality; legacies that inevitably persist in the present moment, taking new shapes and forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]