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Student academic representation is a staple feature in UK and international higher education. It provides a vital quality function whereby students, who are elected representatives of their programme, canvas the opinions of peers to inform quality assurance processes. In the UK, there is increasing regulatory pressure for universities and student unions to be dual owners of representation activity and much work has been done to enact this model. Nonetheless, little is known about the experiences of those serving as student representatives, despite this being a community of thousands of students across the UK, who hold an instrumental position in institutional quality assurance. We developed an instrument (SARA) to evaluate experiences of 773 active student representatives from 15 UK HE institutions. It explored key areas, including recruitment, training, working approaches and development outcomes. Data indicated low engagement in training in some key areas (e.g., representation of diverse groups and data gathering) and a narrow range of working approaches. These patterns may compromise the value of student representation both from the institutional perspective and that of individual representatives seeking to enhance their skills. Recommendations are suggested for enhancing future practice.

This article supports the view that, while judges suppress dissent when dissenting is too costly, the cost of dissenting depends on the political dimension of the issue broached. It contends that judges who disagree may nevertheless try to safeguard integrity and legitimacy in political disputes by presenting a public impression of unity. We muster evidence from the United Kingdom, specifically, votes from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) between 1998 and 2011. We demonstrate through statistical analysis that judges are likelier to suppress dissent in devolution cases, which are characterized to be more political in character, than in Commonwealth appeals, which are more mundane in nature. We find that, while consensus on domestic issues reflects the absence of disagreement across judicial ideologies, judges have stronger conflicting positions on issues concerning devolution, but tend to suppress their propensity to dissent. This finding confirms that the JCPC wants to appear cohesive to give an image of greater authority on decisions of predominantly political content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Women with a prior pregnancy at term are generally considered to be at reduced risk for subsequent spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB), whereas a previous sPTB is a major predictor for a future sPTB. Aims: The objective of this study was to investigate the risk of recurrent sPTB in women with a prior term birth and a subsequent sPTB. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted at St Thomas' Hospital in London, UK. There were 430 women included: 230 with a term birth (caesarean section or vaginal delivery) preceding a sPTB (term + sPTB group) and 200 with a prior sPTB only (sPTB only group). The primary outcome was sPTB, <37 weeks gestation. Results: Of the term + sPTB group, 38.7% (89/230) had a recurrent sPTB compared to 20% (40/200) in the sPTB only group (P < 0.0001), with a relative risk (RR) of 1.9. Of women who had a term caesarean section and a subsequent PTB, 50% (30/60) had a further sPTB (RR 2.5 compared to the sPTB only group), while 34.7% (59/170) of women who had a term vaginal birth and subsequent sPTB, had a further sPTB (RR 1.7 compared to the sPTB only group). Conclusion: In women who have had a previous sPTB, the risk of a recurrence is much higher than in women with a prior term birth. The aetiology of PTB may be different in this subgroup of women and needs to be further elucidated to determine how best to identify and treat them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods are the most common and among the most severe natural disasters in many countries around the world. As global warming continues to exacerbate sea level rise and extreme weather, governmental authorities and environmental agencies are facing the pressing need of timely and accurate evaluations and predictions of flood risks. Current flood forecasts are generally based on historical measurements of environmental variables at monitoring stations. In recent years, in addition to traditional data sources, large amounts of information related to floods have been made available via social media. Members of the public are constantly and promptly posting information and updates on local environmental phenomena on social media platforms. Despite the growing interest of scholars towards the usage of online data during natural disasters, the majority of studies focus exclusively on social media as a stand-alone data source, while its joint use with other type of information is still unexplored. In this paper we propose to fill this gap by integrating traditional historical information on floods with data extracted by Twitter and Google Trends. Our methodology is based on vine copulas, that allow us to capture the dependence structure among the marginals, which are modelled via appropriate time series methods, in a very flexible way. We apply our methodology to data related to three different coastal locations on the South coast of the United Kingdom (UK). The results show that our approach, based on the integration of social media data, outperforms traditional methods in terms of evaluation and prediction of flood events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Being a prey species, horses evolved to rapidly react to potential danger and loud noises may be perceived as such. Therefore, they can exhibit several anxiety behaviors during noisy events, including sweating, trembling and escape attempts, which may cause severe accidents for the horse and the rider/handler. Since noise anxiety can significantly impact on horse welfare, the aim of the present study was to investigate owners' perception of noise anxiety severity in their horses, their management strategies and perceived efficacy. In a survey, 409 out of 1836 owners reported that their horse shows unusual behavior during a noise event. Among those, two noise anxiety clusters could be identified: very and slightly anxious horses. Very anxious horses were reported to have higher frequency of all anxiety behaviors and higher frequency of signs of noise reactivity; furthermore, their anxiety did not improve with time. The most frequently used management strategies were providing hay throughout the night or turning out or moving horses to a paddock; though, most of these techniques were reported to be effective only in the slightly anxious subjects. Our results confirmed that noise anxiety is a widespread behavioral problem (22% of our respondents reported that their horse had ever shown any unusual behavior in relation to loud noises) that can lead to negative welfare consequences for horses. Noise anxiety is an over-reaction to loud noises commonly detected among pets and can greatly impact on their welfare and on their management. When exposed to noisy events, horses can show intense escape attempts, which may cause severe accidents for the horse and the rider/handler. The aim of the present study was to investigate, through a web survey, UK and US owners' perception of noise anxiety severity in their horses, their management strategies and perceived efficacy. The questionnaire was shared via social networking and advertised as "What is your horse afraid of?". Over a total of 1836 questionnaires filled out; 409 owners reported that their horse has shown unusual behavior during a noise event. A two-step cluster analysis identified two groups: very anxious (VA) and slightly anxious (SA). VA horses were reported to have higher frequency of anxiety behaviors; higher frequency of signs of noise reactivity; and their anxiety did not improve with time. The most used management strategies consisted in providing hay throughout the night, turning in/out their horse or moving it to a paddock. A binomial logistic regression identified that horses that have reported injuries during noise events were more likely to be clustered as VA (OR = 0.24, 95% CI: 0.08–0.76); while providing hay throughout the night was more likely to be very effective management strategy in SA horses (OR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.16–1.01). Our results confirmed that noise anxiety is a growing behavioral problem that can lead to important welfare concerns for horses. New management strategies, including the use of medicinal products, should be considered to reduce behavioral and physiological signs and help horses to cope with noisy events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by a social media "infodemic": an overabundance of information whose authenticity may not always be guaranteed. With the potential to lead individuals to harmful decisions for the society, this infodemic represents a severe threat to information security, public health and democracy. In this paper, we assess the interplay between the infodemic and specific aspects of the pandemic, such as the number of cases, the strictness of containment measures, and the news media coverage. We perform a comparative study on three countries that employed different managements of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020—namely Italy, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. We first analyze the three countries from an epidemiological perspective to characterize the impact of the pandemic and the strictness of the restrictions adopted. Then, we collect a total of 6 million posts from Facebook to describe user news consumption behaviors with respect to the reliability of such posts. Finally, we quantify the relationship between the number of posts published in each of the three countries and the number of confirmed cases, the strictness of the restrictions adopted, and the online news media coverage about the pandemic. Our results show that posts referring to reliable sources are consistently predominant in the news circulation, and that users engage more with reliable posts rather than with posts referring to questionable sources. Furthermore, our modelling results suggest that factors related to the epidemiological and informational ecosystems can serve as proxies to assess the evolution of the infodemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the sensitivity of road pavement design and predicted life to pavement layer thickness, accounting for the variations which commonly occur between the pavement design thickness specified and that actually constructed. The approach adopted in this research is to characterise the as-built pavement layer thickness variation, obtained from Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys, for lane 1 of a UK motorway site with flexible pavement construction. Firstly, an analysis is conducted for the selected UK motorway to explore the relationship between the specified construction tolerances and the actual thickness variability. Secondly, the paper proves how variability of layer thickness – while keeping all the other design parameters unchanged – affects the design life probability distribution. The results from this study show that asphalt layer thickness variation significantly affects the pavement performance, even when such variations are within the tolerances allowed by UK construction specifications. On the other hand, layer thickness variations in granular sub-base, within allowed limits, do not significantly affect the pavement performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Most children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are diagnosed between 11 and 16 years of age, commonly presenting with features of typical IBD. Children with onset of gut inflammation under 5 years of age often have a different underlying pathophysiology, one that is genetically and phenotypically distinct from other children with IBD. We therefore set out to assess whether children diagnosed after the age of 5 years, but before the age of 11, have a different clinical presentation and outcome when compared to those presenting later.Methods: Retrospective cohort study conducted at two European Paediatric Gastroenterology Units. Two cohorts of children with IBD (total number = 160) were compared: 80 children diagnosed between 5 and 10 years (Group A), versus 80 children diagnosed between 11 and 16 (Group B). Statistical analysis included multiple logistic regression.Results: Group A presented with a greater disease activity (p = 0.05 for Crohn's disease (CD), p = 0.03 for Ulcerative Colitis (UC); Odds Ratio 1.09, 95 % Confidence Interval: 1.02-1.1), and disease extent (L2 location more frequent amongst Group A children with CD (p = 0.05)). No significant differences were observed between age groups in terms of gastro-intestinal and extra-intestinal signs and symptoms at disease presentation, nor was there a difference in the number of hospitalisations due to relapsing IBD during follow-up. However, children in Group A were treated earlier with immunosuppressants and had more frequent endoscopic assessments.Conclusion: While clinicians feel children between 5 and 10 years of age have a more severe disease course than adolescents, our analysis also suggests a greater disease burden in this age group. Nevertheless, randomized trials to document longer-term clinical outcomes are urgently needed, in order to address the question whether a younger age at disease onset should prompt per se a more "aggressive" treatment. We speculate that non-clinical factors (e.g. genetics, epigenetics) may have more potential to predict longer term outcome than simple clinical measures such as age at diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prognosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma is not affected by HIV serostatus, yet people living with HIV (PLWH) are frequently excluded from clinical trials in lymphoma.Methods: The UK NIHR Clinical Research Network Study Portfolio website was used to identify all the open clinical trials in lymphoma in the United Kingdom in January 2015. Trials that excluded PLWH were further investigated to evaluate if the exclusion was justified by scientific evidence.Results: We identified 56 multicentre open clinical trials in lymphoma including 46 interventional trials. People living with HIV were excluded from 32 interventional trials (70%). We identified a biologically valid reason (a potential increased risk of greater immunosuppression) for excluding PLWH from one trial and possibly for one optional arm in another study.Conclusions: There was no scientific or safety justification for excluding PLWH from most lymphoma clinical trials included on the NIHR portfolio. A clear justification for excluding PLWH was not offered in the available protocols. The exclusion of PLWH should be explicitly justified on scientific grounds in protocols to minimise stigmatisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) belongs to the group of animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). BSE epidemic in the UK and elsewhere in Europe has been linked to the use of bovine meat and bone meals (MBM) in the feeding of cattle. There is concern that pigs, poultry and fish bred for human consumption and fed with infected MBM would eventually develop BSE or carry residual infectivity without disease. Although there has been no evidence of infection in these species, experimental data on the susceptibility to the BSE agent of farm animals other than sheep and cow are limited only to pigs and domestic chicken. In the framework of a EU-granted project we have challenged two species of fish largely used in human food consumption, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), with a mouseadapted TSE strain (scrapie 139A), to assess the risk related to oral consumption of TSE contaminated food. In trout, we also checked the "in vitro" ability of the pathological isoform of the mouse prion protein (PrPSc) to cross the intestinal epithelium when added to the mucosal side of everted intestine. Results: Fish challenged with a large amount of scrapie mouse brain homogenate by either oral or parenteral routes, showed the ability to clear the majority of infectivity load. None of the fish tissues taken at different time points after oral or parenteral inoculation was able to provoke scrapie disease after intracerebral inoculation in recipient mice. However, a few recipient mice were positive for PrPSc and spongiform lesions in the brain. We also showed a specific binding of PrPSc to the mucosal side of fish intestine in the absence of an active uptake of the prion protein through the intestinal wall. Conclusion: These results indicate that scrapie 139A, and possibly BSE, is quickly removed from fish tissues despite evidence of a prion like protein in fish and of a specific binding of PrPSc to the mucosal side of fish intestine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the outcomes in cancer patients during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 in Europe from the retrospective, multi-center observational OnCovid study. We identified 204 cancer patients from eight centers in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain aged >18 (mean = 69) and diagnosed with COVID-19 between 26 February and 1 April 2020. A total of 127 (62%) were male, 184 (91%) had a diagnosis of solid malignancy, and 103 (51%) had non-metastatic disease. A total of 161 (79%) had >1 co-morbidity. A total of 141 (69%) patients had >1 COVID-19 complication. A total of 36 (19%) were escalated to high-dependency or intensive care. A total of 59 (29%) died, 53 (26%) were discharged, and 92 (45%) were in-hospital survivors. Mortality was higher in patients aged >65 (36% vs. 16%), in those with >2 co-morbidities (40% vs. 18%) and developing >1 complication from COVID-19 (38% vs. 4%, p = 0.004). Multi-variable analyses confirmed age > 65 and >2 co-morbidities to predict for patient mortality independent of tumor stage, active malignancy, or anticancer therapy. During the early outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Europe co-morbid burden and advancing age predicted for adverse disease course in cancer patients. The ongoing OnCovid study will allow us to compare risks and outcomes in cancer patients between the initial and later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nicholas A Walton, Silvia Dalla, Eduardo Gonzalez-Solarez, Anita Richards and Jonathan Tedds show off the fast-developing astronomical applications of the UK's virtual observatory service. AstroGrid has moved a few steps closer to the ideal virtual observatory and the latest release provides easy access to a range of international data sources and relevant astrophysical tools. Here we demonstrate the capabilities of this single interface for a variety of astrophysical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly visible across the globe, awareness of the need for cleaner energy and demand reduction is growing. Energy literacy offers a strong potential for explaining and predicting energy-related behaviours, yet research and policies focused on this topic remain limited. In this study, energy literacy was measured in a sample of 2806 university students in the United Kingdom and China, in addition to their wider environmental attitudes using the New Ecological Paradigm scale. Findings indicate that energy literacy was relatively high overall, but there were significant differences between the knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions of participants in the two countries. Whilst the UK respondents rated themselves significantly more highly on perceived knowledge of energy issues, Chinese respondents provided significantly more correct answers in a knowledge test. UK respondents demonstrated more positive attitudes towards energy conservation than those from China, and were more likely to report energy-saving behaviours. However, Chinese respondents exhibited higher levels of trust in government and businesses to take action on energy issues. This paper provides a novel insight into cultural differences which may be crucial to policy and practice, and evidences the potential benefits of utilising a combination of educational and structural change to support transition to a cleaner, low-energy society. Image 1 • Significant differences in energy literacy arose in 1806 students in UK and China. • Chinese respondents demonstrated more knowledge about energy than UK respondents. • UK respondents demonstrated more positive attitudes and energy saving behaviours. • Cultural context, including trust in government impacts on energy-saving behaviours. • Combining educational and structural change will aid transition to a cleaner world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]