Recruiting children into cancer trials–role of the United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group (UKCCSG)

The UK Children's Cancer Study Group (UKCCSG), established in 1977, provides a highly organised structure for both service provision and research, and represents the model to which the adult cancer community is currently aspiring. Since childhood cancer is so rare, it is both essential and feasible for the vast majority of children to be referred into the network of specialist centres, and also for the maximum number of children to be recruited into national and international clinical trials. Over the last 30–40 years there have been major advances in treatment, such that now approximately 70% of children diagnosed with cancer will be cured of their disease. The conduct of clinical trials in this patient population does, however, raise a number of specific issues and these are discussed in the paper. Copyright 2003 Cancer Research UK All rights reserved

Examining Women’s Experiences on the Campaign Trail: Campaign Ethnographies in English Local Elections 2022 & a Parliamentary By-Election. A Pilot Study for TWICEASGOOD

This is the final version.Local elections are an important feature of the electoral calendar. The provide an opportunity for voters to express preferences for local leaders, to hold incumbent councils and councilors accountable and they can also serve as referendums on the national government. To be a candidate in a local election requires a great deal of commitment, long hours of campaigning, contesting a local party selection process and negotiating often fractious local politics. During the campaign leading up to the 2022 English local elections, we conducted a pilot study for our European Commission funded project on women’s political leadership. Our objective was to establish whether quick campaign ethnographies (e.g., shadowing candidates, observing campaign events) was feasible, identify challenges and opportunities and assessing whether candidates would engage with our research. This report summarises our methods and initial key findings. We are grateful to our participants as through their engagement we were able to meet our objectives. Additionally, they also lead us to a deeper understanding of the campaign process which we would not have achieved without their participation.European Union Horizon 202

The influences of quality attributes and socio-demographics on Chinese consumers' general and online consumptions of Canadian, US and Australian lobsters

Purpose This study explores the influence of quality attributes and socio-demographics on Chinese consumers' general and online consumption of three origin-specific lobsters: Canadian, United States and Australian. Design/methodology/approach A web-based survey was administrated to 981 consumers from two cities in China: Shanghai and Qingdao. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were used in the data analysis. Findings Chinese consumers were more willing to pay for the lobster quality attributes vitality, meat content, texture, size and safety. Their general and online consumption of three origin-specific lobsters is significantly linked to the following quality attributes and socio-demographics: meat content, size, shell hardness, texture, safety, nutrition, age, income, education, occupation, residential place and marital status. Originality/value This is the first study to explore the influence of quality attributes and socio-demographics on consumers' online consumption of luxury seafood

CeRu4_4Sn6_6: a strongly correlated material with nontrivial topology

Topological insulators form a novel state of matter that provides new opportunities to create unique quantum phenomena. While the materials used so far are based on semiconductors, recent theoretical studies predict that also strongly correlated systems can show non-trivial topological properties, thereby allowing even the emergence of surface phenomena that are not possible with topological band insulators. From a practical point of view, it is also expected that strong correlations will reduce the disturbing impact of defects or impurities, and at the same increase the Fermi velocities of the topological surface states. The challenge is now to discover such correlated materials. Here, using advanced x-ray spectroscopies in combination with band structure calculations, we infer that CeRu$_4$Sn$_6$ is a strongly correlated material with non-trivial topology.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Scientific Report

Pressure evolution of electronic and crystal structure of non-centrosymmetric EuCoGe3_3

We report on the pressure evolution of the electronic and crystal structures of the noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnet EuCoGe3. Using a diamond anvil cell, we performed high pressure fluorescence detected near-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Eu L3, Co K, and Ge K edges and synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction. In the Eu L3 spectrum, both divalent and trivalent Eu peaks are observed from the lowest pressure measurement (~2 GPa). By increasing pressure, the relative intensity of the trivalent Eu peak increases, and an average Eu valence continuously increases from 2.2 at 2 GPa to 2.31 at~50 GPa. On the other hand, no discernible changes are observed in the Co K and Ge K spectra as a function of pressure. With the increase in pressure, lattice parameters continuously decrease without changing I4mm symmetry. Our study revealed a robust divalent Eu state and an unchanged crystal symmetry of EuCoGe3 against pressure.Comment: Accepted in PRB https://journals.aps.org/prb/accepted/b2073O6fL9e1ca40307905b1de5bf05de12d8fc1

Anticholinergic burden in middle-aged women and recurrent falls in later life : findings from the Aberdeen Prospective Osteoporosis Screening Study (APOSS)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND FUNDING The Aberdeen Prospective Osteoporosis Screening Study (APOSS) was funded by the Grampian Osteoporosis Trust. SRN received an Aberdeen Summer Research Scholarship supported by funding from the Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK. The funder had no role in design, analysis, interpretation or reporting of the work presented. We gratefully acknowledge the Steering Committee of APOSS for their permission to conduct this research.Peer reviewedPublisher PD