Using Photovoice to explore adults' perceptions towards obesity and factors influencing food choice and physical activity in North Lebanon

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society.OBJECTIVE: To explore adults' perceptions towards obesity and factors influencing eating behaviour and physical activity in North Lebanon, using a variation of the Photovoice method. DESIGN: This research is part of a broader qualitative study exploring factors influencing the rising levels of obesity and understanding the barriers and enablers for effective policy for obesity prevention using a socio-ecological model as a guiding framework. For this study, a variation of "Photovoice" was used to collect photographs to explore participants' perspectives of obesity and its causes in Lebanon, using these photographs to generate discussion in one-to-one face-to-face interviews. Inductive and deductive thematic analyses were used to analyse the transcribed interviews. SETTING: Tripoli, North Governorate, Lebanon. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty Lebanese adults aged 20-64 years were recruited. RESULTS: The participants (n=20) generated 257 photographs representing various factors perceived to be associated with rising obesity in Lebanon: changes in the food and eating landscape, sedentary behaviours, food environments, eating out, and food marketing on social media platforms. Several themes specific to Lebanon were also identified, including the perceptions towards obesity, the central role of women in Lebanese food preparation and the family, and the sociocultural importance of food and social gatherings. CONCLUSION: This study highlights how influences across the five levels of the socio-ecological model shaped the participants' food choices and physical activity levels. Collaborative initiatives and public policies are necessary to address the identified barriers and curb the increasing prevalence of obesity in Lebanon.Unfunde

Perceptions of social care

The initial findings of a study evaluating the perspectives of learners and educators in higher education institutions (HEIs) in England.Unfunde

A new age of leadership in academia: Need for change and innovation during COVID-19

© The Author(s) 2025.The aim of this study is to explore the role of academic leadership and adaptive leadership on organizational readiness for change. During times of pandemic, adaptive leadership has emerged as a vital leadership discipline along with academic leadership due to uncertainty and sensitivity of situation. In addition, demand of innovative behavior has also increased over the years particularly during Covid-19. The study has been carried out in Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan where the data was collected from deans, directors and head of departments in two phases. Quantitative research strategy was opted for the study. Survey research design was followed to respond objectives of the study. The purpose behind the selection of senior academicians is to draw empirical results from the perspective of all the heads of their relevant departments. The data was collected from seven public sector universities across Pakistan. About 251 responses were found valid. Covariance based SEM was used to analyze the data. Analysis reveals a positive and direct relationship between academic and adaptive leadership and organizational readiness for change and similar results were found by placing innovative behavior as a mediator leading to the acceptance of all developed hypotheses. This study is unique in nature and has implications for leaders in academia in terms of unleashing the potential toward uncertain situation in higher education institutions. Study’s major limitation include less representation of the Pakistan as whole country as it included Punjab province only for data collection.Unfunde

Book Review: Comrades Betrayed: Jewish World War I Veterans Under Hitler

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in [German History] following peer review. The version of record [Grady, T. (2021). [Review of the book Comrades Betrayed: Jewish World War I Veterans Under Hitler by M. Geheran]. German History, 39(3), 478–479] is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/gh/article/39/3/478/6308748Book review of Comrades Betrayed: Jewish World War I Veterans Under HitlerUnfundedAAM out of embargo 24/06/2023, output uploaded to CR 30/01/202

Evaluation of serum and tissue biochemical assays of Rattus norvegicus after sub-acute oral administration of ethyl acetate sub-fraction of Spilanthes filicaulis

© The Author(s) 2025.Background: Plants medicinal potential is well established, yet unregulated use can lead to health risks without proper toxicological assessments. This study aimed to evaluate the sub-acute toxicity of the ethyl acetate sub-fraction of Spilanthes filicaulis (ESSF) in Rattus norvegicus. Methods: Seventy-two male Wistar rats (148 ± 8.0 g) were randomly divided into groups. Group I (control) received 0.5 ml of distilled water, and Groups II–VI were administered ESSF orally at 62.5, 125, 250, 500, and 750 mg/kg body weight, respectively. Serum along with tissue (liver, kidney, and brain) biochemical assays were analysed after 14 and 28 days. Results: The results showed no significant differences (p > 0.05) in total protein, albumin, serum electrolytes, creatinine, urea, or total and conjugated bilirubin between treatment and control groups. However, minor elevations were noted in some biomarkers at specific doses after 14 and 28 days of treatment, though these remained within normal physiological ranges. A significant increase in serum glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) was observed after 14 days in treated groups compared to controls (p < 0.05), but this were normalised by day 28, suggesting a reversible effect. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), GDH, and creatinine kinase (CK) activities in tissues showed no significant differences between treated and control groups after 28 days of treatment, indicating no long-term tissue damage. Conclusions: These findings suggest that sub-acute oral administration of ESSF does not induce significant biochemical abnormalities. This implies that ESSF is relatively safe at the tested doses and supports its potential for therapeutic development. However, further long-term studies are necessary to establish its safety profile fully.Unfunde

Sustainable manufacturing of a Conformal Load-bearing Antenna Structure (CLAS) using advanced printing technologies and fibre-reinforced composites for aerospace applications

Conformal load-bearing antenna structures (CLAS) offer significant advantages in aerospace by reducing drag and weight through highly integrated designs. However, challenges remain in manufacturing, as traditional PCB methods create discontinuous arrays, while directly printed antennas on flexible substrates often lack mechanical strength. Additionally, neither approach integrates well with fibre-reinforced composites, which are widely used in modern aircraft. To address this, the next generation of CLAS must employ continuous surface substrates to maintain aerodynamic profiles and embed antenna systems within composite structures. This research introduces an innovative CLAS manufacturing method that integrates inkjet-printed silver nanoparticle antennas with composite fabrication. The antenna is printed onto Kapton film, which is then co-cured with woven glass fibre composites to ensure mechanical robustness and compatibility with aerospace materials. Flat and 100mm curvature samples were fabricated to investigate electromagnetic performance, with curvature effects analysed. Results confirm that the proposed method achieves both reliability and sustainability, producing smoothly curved CLAS with embedded antenna elements. However, frequency shifts and impedance mismatches were observed, attributed to discrepancies in dielectric constants and substrate volume variations. The conformality study revealed that curvature lowers resonant frequencies due to extended effective electric fields. This research establishes a promising CLAS fabrication approach, integrating sustainable printing with composites. The findings provide a benchmark for future conformal antenna studies and support industry-level advancements in high-integration aerospace antenna systems

A figurational examination of the working lives of backroom staff in men’s professional football clubs in the United Kingdom

Backroom staff have various important roles in supporting professional footballers and first team managers. Over time, the number of support staff in football clubs has grown, as the game has become increasingly professionalised and commodified to ensure athletes are provided the most effective support. Yet, what we know about their working lives is limited. Given the growth in academic research related to those who backroom staff support, who could not do the job without them, it is also important to explore their working lives. Therefore, this study examines the working lives of backroom staff in the first team at men’s professional football clubs in the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 51 backroom staff, exploring their football background, employment within the industry, aspects of their working day and relationships with key stakeholders. The study tested a figurational sociological perspective for its adequacy to make sense of their experiences. Working in men’s professional football involved accepting challenges, such as excessive working hours, work-life imbalances, job insecurity, relocation, workplace transitions and familial sacrifices, which participants felt meant the role was more akin to a lifestyle choice. Many were motivated to work in football due to their love of the game, contributing to their perseverance through the challenges experienced. Alongside their emotional motivations, constant job insecurity and a saturated job market meant staff felt they had to accept the sacrifices until they started questioning the long-term sustainability of a career in football. The relationship with the first team manager impacted participants’ current roles and future job opportunities. Backroom staff were split into the manager’s staff, referred to as the inner circle, and club staff. The inner circle was seen as a double-edged sword, as it appeared to come with greater influence and responsibility within their roles. However, such roles came with greater job insecurity during managerial change. The inner circle represents the importance of interdependent relationships in understanding the structure and functioning of football clubs as workplaces. Backroom staff developed close, personal relationships with players. Some backroom staff offered a ‘safe-haven’ to players to speak about personal issues, who would not speak to teammates or the manager about these issues through concerns of stigmatisation and risking their place in the team. Participants explained the balance they had to strike between having personal relationships to support players and ensuring their professional position would not be compromised. This provides greater insight into relationships and workplace dynamics characterised by unequal power balances. Overall, this study has provided insight into the working lives of backroom staff and developed a greater understanding of these workplaces from the unique perspective of those perceived to be lower down the organisational hierarchy

The evolution and implementation of Norway’s ultimate penalty: An exceptional approach to life imprisonment?

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Bar FoundationThough formal life sentences have been abolished in Norway, forvaring (post-conviction indefinite preventive detention) – a type of informal life sentence – can be imposed on individuals convicted of certain offenses who are considered to be at high risk of future offending. While great attention has been paid to Norway as an “exceptional” penal outlier globally, there is a notable lack of comprehensive knowledge about its indefinite penal sanction. Drawing on extensive historical research and legal and policy documentary analysis as well as leveraging a unique national dataset on the total forvaring population, this article provides the first international in-depth assessment of the evolution and implementation of Norway’s ultimate penalty. In so doing, it highlights significant disparities between policy ambitions and current practice and questions the extent to which the sanction of forvaring can be considered an “exceptional” approach to life imprisonment. It is argued that the development and growth of this type of informal life sentence can be seen as the epicenter of the impact of a more punitive ideology in Norway, emphasizing the need to move away from the concept of penal exceptionalism to better understand the full spectrum and practice of Norwegian and Nordic penality.Unfunde

Protein backbone flexibility pattern is evolutionarily conserved in the Flaviviridae family: A case of NS3 protease in Flavivirus and Hepacivirus

Viruses belonging to the Flaviviridae family have been an important health concern for humans, animals and birds alike. No specific treatment is available yet for many of the viral infections caused by the members of this family. Lack of specific drugs against these viruses is mainly due to lack of protein structure information. It has been known that protein backbone fluctuation pattern is highly conserved in protein pairs with similar folds, in spite of the lack of sequence similarity. We hypothesized that this concept should also hold true for proteins (especially enzymes) of viruses included in different genera of the Flaviviridae family, as we know that the sequence similarity between them is low. Using available NS3 protease crystal structures of the Flaviviridae family, our preliminary results have shown that the Cα (i.e. backbone) fluctuation patterns are highly similar between Flaviviruses and a Hepacivirus (i.e. hepatitis C virus, HCV). This has to be validated further experimentally.N/

The Physical Behaviour Intensity Spectrum and Body Mass Index in school-aged youth: A compositional analysis of pooled individual participant data

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.We examined the compositional associations between the intensity spectrum derived from incremental acceleration intensity bands and the body mass index (BMI) z-score in youth, and investigated the estimated differences in BMI z-score following time reallocations between intensity bands. School-aged youth from 63 schools wore wrist accelerometers, and data of 1453 participants (57.5% girls) were analysed. Nine acceleration intensity bands (range: 0−50 mg to ≥700 mg) were used to generate time-use compositions. Multivariate regression assessed the associations between intensity band compositions and BMI z-scores. Compositional isotemporal substitution estimated the differences in BMI z-score following time reallocations between intensity bands. The ≥700 mg intensity bandwas strongly and inversely associated with BMI z-score (p < 0.001). The estimated differences in BMI z-score when 5 min were reallocated to and from the ≥700 mg band and reallocated equally among the remaining bands were −0.28 and 0.44, respectively (boys), and −0.39 and 1.06, respectively (girls). The time in the ≥700 mg intensity band was significantly associated with BMI z-score, irrespective of sex. When even modest durations of time in this band were reallocated, the asymmetrical estimated differences in BMI z-score were clinically meaningful. The findings highlight the utility of the full physical activity intensity spectrum over a priori-determined absolute intensity cut-point approaches.Funding for the selected contributing studies was provided by the Waterloo Foundation (#1669/3509), West Lancashire Sport Partnership, West Lancashire Leisure Trust, Edge Hill University, and Wigan Council. Alex Rowlands is supported by the Lifestyle Theme of the Leicester NHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre and NIHR Applied Research Collaborations East Midlands (ARC-EM). Dorothea Dumuid is supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship APP1162166 and by the Centre of Research Excellence in Driving Global Investment in Adolescent Health funded by NHMRC APP1171981