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Background: Lifestyle interventions can prevent type 2 diabetes (T2D) by successfully inducing behavioral changes (eg, avoiding physical inactivity and sedentariness, increasing physical activity and/or healthy eating) that reduce body weight and normalize metabolic levels (eg, HbA1c). For interventions to be successful, it is important to influence "behavioral mechanisms" such as self-efficacy, which motivate behavioral changes. Theory-based expectations of how self-efficacy, chronic stress, and mood changed over time were investigated through a group-based behavior change intervention (PREMIT). At 8 intervention sites, PREMIT was offered by trained primary care providers in 18 group-sessions over a period of 36 months, divided into 4 intervention phases. Adherence to the intervention protocol was assessed. Method: Participants (n = 962) with overweight and prediabetes who had achieved ≥8% weight loss during a diet reduction period and completed the intervention were categorized into 3 groups: infrequent, frequent, or very frequent group sessions attendance. The interactions between participation in the group sessions and changes in self-efficacy, stress, and mood were multivariate tested. Intervention sites were regularly asked where and how they deviated from the intervention protocol. Results: There was no increase in the participants' self-efficacy in any group. However, the level of self-efficacy was maintained among those who attended the group sessions frequently, while it decreased in the other groups. For all participants, chronic stress and the frequency of attending group sessions were inversely related. Significant differences in mood were found for all groups. All intervention centers reported specific activities, additional to intervention protocol, to promote participation in the group sessions. Conclusions: The results suggest that the behavioral changes sought by trained primary care providers are related to attendance frequency and follow complex trajectories. The findings also suggest that group-based interventions in naturalistic primary care settings aimed at preventing T2D require formats and strategies that encourage participants to attend group sessions regularly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity is increasing in parallel with greater all-day food availability. The latter may promote meal irregularity, dysregulation of the energy balance, and poor metabolic health. Objective: We investigated the effect of meal irregularity on the thermic effect of food (TEF), lipid concentrations, carbohydrate metabolism, subjective appetite, and gut hormones in healthy women. Design: Eleven normal-weight women (18-40 y of age) were recruited in a randomized crossover trial with two 14-d isoenergetic diet periods (identical foods provided and free living) that were separated by a 14-d habitual diet washout period. In period 1, participants followed a regular meal pattern (6 meals/d) or an irregular meal pattern (3-9 meals/d), and in period 2, the alternative meal pattern was followed. Before and after each period, when participants were fasting and for 3 h after intake of a test drink, measurements were taken of energy expenditure, circulating glucose, lipids (fasting only), insulin, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), peptide YY (PYY), and ghrelin. An ad libitum test meal was offered. Subjective appetite ratings were assessed while fasting, after the test drink, after the ad libitum meal, and during the intervention. Continuous interstitial glucose monitoring was undertaken for 3 consecutive days during each intervention, and the ambulatory activity pattern was recorded (ambulatory energy expenditure estimation). Results: Regularity was associated with a greater TEF (P, 0.05) and a lower incremental area under the curve (iAUC) for glucose after intake of the test drink (over 3 h) and, for some identical meals, during the 2 interventions (over 90 min) (day 7: after breakfast; day 9: after lunch and dinner). There was no difference between treatments for the test-drink gut hormone response. A time effect was noted for fasting GLP-1, fasting PYY, PYY responses, and hunger-rating responses to the test drink (P < 0.05). Lower hunger and higher fullness ratings were seen premeal and post-meal during the regular period while subjects were free living. Conclusion: Meal regularity appears to be associated with greater TEF and lower glucose responses, which may favor weight management and metabolic health. This trial was registered at clinical-trials.gov as NCT02052076. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The manipulation of the composition of foods consumed as between-meal snacks may aid daily energy restriction. Objectives: We compared the effects of the consumption of 2 energy-matched snack bars on appetite, energy intake (EI), and metabolic and endocrine responses. In addition, we investigated whether the acute effects of the consumption of snacks were maintained under free-living conditions and whether the habitual daily consumption of the snack over 14 d influenced these effects. Design: Ten lean men [mean ± SD age: 30.7 ± 9.7 y; body mass index (in kg/m²): 23.2 ± 2.8] consumed a whey protein and polydextrose (PPX) snack bar or an isoenergetic control snack bar as a midmorning, between-meal snack for 14 consecutive days in a double-blind, randomized, crossover design. The two 14-d intervention phases were separated by a 14-d washout period. On the first (day 1) and last (day 15) days of each intervention phase, appetite, food intake, and blood metabolite and endocrine responses were assessed under laboratory conditions. Free-living EI was recorded on days 4, 8, and 12 of interventions. Results: Total daily EI was significantly lower when the PPX snack was consumed during experimental days (10,149 ± 831 compared with 11,931 ± 896 kJ; P < 0.01), and daily EI remained lower when the PPX snack was consumed during the free-living part of the intervention (7904 ± 610 compared with 9041 ± 928 kJ; P < 0.05). The PPX snack was associated with lower glucose and ghrelin and higher glucagon-like peptide 1 and peptide tyrosine-tyrosine responses. Conclusion: The manipulation of the composition of foods consumed as snacks is an effective way to limit subsequent EI. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01927926. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media educators in the UK currently face a complex set of problems based around various divisions in our field. These observations follow from three articles in particular – Nils Lindahl Elliot's analysis of pedagogic discourse in theory-practice media courses in Screen (2000), Sue Thornham and Tim O'Sullivan's discussion of the perceptions and discourses about media employability and the curriculum, and Des Bell's commentary on research and creative practice teaching, both in Media Culture and Society (2004). My argument is that the common cause of our most awkward divisions can be described as a mindset which has particular characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the importance of theories to screenwriting practice in Great Britain. Factors to be considered in studying and teaching screenwriting; Efforts of British Film Council in addressing screenwriting as a social/industrial practice; Consequences of the establishment of criteria for accrediting screenwriting courses.

Normal industrial practice in selecting new film and TV drama is to read various texts that describe a screen fiction idea (from a one-line concept to a full screenplay) and to evaluate them as potential screenworks. It appears that no systematic study has been made of the practices of those who read screen ideas professionally. A sample survey of 52 professional screenplay readers within the UK was conducted across winter and spring 2000/01. This attempted to identify a profile of readers, clarify common practice and test a number of hypotheses based around the broad question of what readers seek when evaluating screen ideas. Results show that 90% of readers are white, 62% are male and 48% are over 40; 50% claim to have had over ten years experience in reading scripts; the average reader will see 200-300 ideas per year, but believe only between 1% and 2% of all proposals they see reach production; 83% of readers often or always find the screen idea unattractive; 84% attach little or no importance to adaptations of previously published work. The survey aims to explore the nature of the reading and evaluation process, to establish relevant data, and to suggest further research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the inadequate protection given either by legislation or the common law on the rights of cohabitees over the family home in the Great Britain. Use of the contract law in claiming a share; Chance of the Law Commission to make recommendation for the regulation of property rights; Adoption of legislative model to provide legal equality to cohabitees.

This technical report describes the identification of shift systems worked by industrial shiftworkers in England, Scotland and Wales. A diverse range of shift systems were reported to be in operation across 27 industrial sectors. Companies employed up to 14 different shift systems at a particular site. The numbers of shiftworkers on a given shift schedule ranged from 1 to 2977. Most systems employed fewer than 100 people. The majority of rotas were regular, rotating systems. The most common shift durations were 8 or 12 h. Compared to earlier surveys of shiftwork prevalence in certain industries there appeared to be a substantial increase over the past 3 decades in the proportion of the workforce who work shifts. Information about the average numbers of hours worked per week on major system types is given. In addition, data for the range of shifts per cycle, the distribution of shifts and distributions of their start and end times are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview concerning the case of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome in Great Britain. The literature concerning on Gilles de la Tourette syndrome has been mainly descriptive since it was first being mentioned. In the typical case, the disorder commences between the ages of 4 and 10 years. There is a good evidence that the treatment carried out has produced the considerable personality improvement and the loss of symptoms which have maintained over a period of four and one-half years.

Compared to elite athletes, elite performers, especially musicians and dancers, invariably lack expert medical backup even though their needs are just as great as the sportspeople. In some countries, this is now being realised and addressed. It is hoped that a new MSc in Performing Arts Medicine, recently introduced in the UK, will go some way towards correcting this, and its syllabus has provided the catalyst for this themed issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NHS is a major purchaser of IT goods and services but for various reasons, in the past, has not implemented a suitable and uniform IT infrastructure. One might describe the many parts of the Service as being semi-autonomous and the level of IT expertise and IT penetration varies considerably between these parts. The STEP project aims to solve some of these problems [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Objective: To investigate the prevalence of symptoms attributed to hypoglycaemia that are reported by a general female population of the UK. Method: A health and well-being questionnaire, including questions relating to symptoms of low blood ‘sugar’, medical history and anthropometry, was administered by post to 2000 randomly selected women (17–50 years) in Nottinghamshire. To avoid biasing responses, participants were not made aware of the specific focus of the study. Results: One thousand one hundred and thirty-six women returned the questionnaire (56.8% response rate). After exclusions, 37.9% of respondents reported symptoms that they attributed to hypoglycaemia, with a median of four episodes reported per month. A significant variation in the reporting of symptoms was found across body mass index (BMI) categories, with the highest prevalence of symptomatic subjects being found at the lowest BMI range (P<.05). Conclusion: More than a third of women in the UK report experiencing symptoms that they attribute to hypoglycaemia. Body mass index appears to be related to the experiencing of symptoms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]