City flight migration patterns in the East Midlands

This paper investigates migration to and from the Three Cities of Derby, Leicester and Nottingham. It investigates whether these cities lose more migrants than they gain from more rural parts of the city-regions and the extent to which these flows impact on the demographic profiles of the Three Cities

The association between physical activity, substance use, educational satisfaction and academic achievement in higher education

Context: This study explores high profile aspects of student culture and educational satisfaction in a bespoke environment with a high sporting culture. It aims to add to the body of literature through its unique combination of factors and their relation to academic achievement in a sample from a specialist setting. Purpose: 1- To investigate the current levels of physical activity, alcohol consumption, substance use and educational satisfaction in a sample of UK university students. 2- To explore the associations of physical activity, alcohol consumption, substance use and educational satisfaction with academic achievement. Method: Sample- 339 students in the Faculty of Sport, Health and Social Care. Male 51.6% Female 48.4%, mean ages 22.3 (± 6.9). Data Collection- Data was collected via two questionnaires, the first covered health and lifestyle behaviours, the second educational satisfaction. Academic achievement was represented by module grade taken from the university system. Results: Many students were sedentary and physical activity levels varied greatly across the sample. Reports of alcohol consumption were high but substance use low. Educational satisfaction showed moderate to high levels in this sample. In order of statistical significance educational satisfaction, year of study, binge drinking, time spent sitting, age, and alcohol frequency were associated with module grade (p≥=0.05, R2 0.088). Conclusion: The findings of this study both support and contradict the previous literature surrounding academic achievement. There is a need for interventions on alcohol consumption and physical activity in this population. Investigations of expectations/importance and satisfaction should be carried out at a modular or course level and comparisons made between traditional and mature students to better understand factors of educational satisfaction and it's impact on academic achievement

Problem formulation in the environmental risk assessment for genetically modified plants

Problem formulation is the first step in environmental risk assessment (ERA) where policy goals, scope, assessment endpoints, and methodology are distilled to an explicitly stated problem and approach for analysis. The consistency and utility of ERAs for genetically modified (GM) plants can be improved through rigorous problem formulation (PF), producing an analysis plan that describes relevant exposure scenarios and the potential consequences of these scenarios. A properly executed PF assures the relevance of ERA outcomes for decision-making. Adopting a harmonized approach to problem formulation should bring about greater uniformity in the ERA process for GM plants among regulatory regimes globally. This paper is the product of an international expert group convened by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Research Foundation

“The future is unstable”: Exploring changing fertility intentions in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic

Acknowledgement: The Economic and Social Research Council funded data collection as part of the lead author's PhD studentship.Objective: To understand whether reproductive decision-making among United Kingdom (UK) respondents had changed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and, if so, why COVID-19 had led them to change their intentions. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey in January 2021. We asked survey participants if their fertility intentions had changed and to rate how aspects of their life had changed during COVID-19. We also included an open-ended question and asked participants to explain in their own words how COVID-19 had influenced their reproductive decision-making. We used descriptive and regression analyses to explore the quantitative data and thematically analyzed written responses. Results: Nine percent (n = 70) of our 789 UK respondents reported a change in fertility intention after the start of the pandemic. Changes in both pro-natal and anti-natal directions made the overall change in intentions small: there was a 2% increase across the sample in not intending a child between the two time points. Only increased financial insecurity was predictive of changing intentions. Responses to the open-ended question (n = 103) listed health concerns, indirect costs of the pandemic, and changing work-life priorities as reasons for changing their intentions. Conclusion: While studies conducted at the beginning of the pandemic found that fertility intentions became more anti-natal, we found little overall change in fertility intentions in January 2021. Our findings of small pro-natal and anti-natal changes in fertility intentions align with emerging UK birth rate data for 2021, which show minimal change in the total fertility rate in response to the pandemic.Economic and Social Research Council National Science Centre (Poland). Grant Number: 2018/30/E/HS4/0044

Assessing the ecological risks from the persistence and spread of feral populations of insect-resistant transgenic maize

One source of potential harm from the cultivation of transgenic crops is their dispersal, persistence and spread in non-agricultural land. Ecological damage may result from such spread if the abundance of valued species is reduced. The ability of a plant to spread in non-agricultural habitats is called its invasiveness potential. The risks posed by the invasiveness potential of transgenic crops are assessed by comparing in agronomic field trials the phenotypes of the crops with the phenotypes of genetically similar non-transgenic crops known to have low invasiveness potential. If the transgenic and non-transgenic crops are similar in traits believed to control invasiveness potential, it may be concluded that the transgenic crop has low invasiveness potential and poses negligible ecological risk via persistence and spread in non-agricultural habitats. If the phenotype of the transgenic crop is outside the range of the non-transgenic comparators for the traits controlling invasiveness potential, or if the comparative approach is regarded as inadequate for reasons of risk perception or risk communication, experiments that simulate the dispersal of the crop into non-agricultural habitats may be necessary. We describe such an experiment for several commercial insect-resistant transgenic maize events in conditions similar to those found in maize-growing regions of Mexico. As expected from comparative risk assessments, the transgenic maize was found to behave similarly to non-transgenic maize and to be non-invasive. The value of this experiment in assessing and communicating the negligible ecological risk posed by the low invasiveness potential of insect-resistant transgenic maize in Mexico is discussed

Structural diversity of B-cell receptor repertoires along the B-cell differentiation axis in humans and mice

Most current analysis tools for antibody next-generation sequencing data work with primary sequence descriptors, leaving accompanying structural information unharnessed. We have used novel rapid methods to structurally characterize the complementary-determining regions (CDRs) of more than 180 million human and mouse B-cell receptor (BCR) repertoire sequences. These structurally annotated CDRs provide unprecedented insights into both the structural predetermination and dynamics of the adaptive immune response. We show that B-cell types can be distinguished based solely on these structural properties. Antigen-unexperienced BCR repertoires use the highest number and diversity of CDR structures and these patterns of naïve repertoire paratope usage are highly conserved across subjects. In contrast, more differentiated B-cells are more personalized in terms of CDR structure usage. Our results establish the CDR structure differences in BCR repertoires and have applications for many fields including immunodiagnostics, phage display library generation, and “humanness” assessment of BCR repertoires from transgenic animals. The software tool for structural annotation of BCR repertoires, SAAB+, is available at https://github.com/oxpig/saab_plus

Environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants - concepts and controversies

Background and purpose: In Europe, the EU Directive 2001/18/EC lays out the main provisions of environmental risk assessment (ERA) of genetically modified (GM) organisms that are interpreted very differently by different stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to: (a) describe the current implementation of ERA of GM plants in the EU and its scientific shortcomings, (b) present an improved ERA concept through the integration of a previously developed selection procedure for identification of non-target testing organisms into the ERA framework as laid out in the EU Directive 2001/18/EC and its supplement material (Commission Decision 2002/623/EC), (c) describe the activities to be carried out in each component of the ERA and (d) propose a hierarchical testing scheme. Lastly, we illustrate the outcomes for three different crop case examples. Main features: Implementation of the current ERA concept of GM crops in the EU is based on an interpretation of the EU regulations that focuses almost exclusively on the isolated bacteria-produced novel proteins with little consideration of the whole plant. Therefore, testing procedures for the effect assessment of GM plants on non-target organisms largely follow the ecotoxicological testing strategy developed for pesticides. This presumes that any potential adverse effect of the whole GM plant and the plant-produced novel compound can be extrapolated from testing of the isolated bacteriaproduced novel compound or can be detected in agronomic field trials. This has led to persisting scientific criticism. Results: Based on the EU ERA framework, we present an improved ERA concept that is system oriented with the GM plant at the centre and integrates a procedure for selection of testing organisms that do occur in the receiving environment. We also propose a hierarchical testing scheme from laboratory studies to field trials and we illustrate the outcomes for three different crop case examples. Conclusions and recommendations: Our proposed concept can alleviate a number of deficits identified in the current approach to ERA of GM plants. It allows the ERA to be tailored to the GM plant case and the receiving environment

The Gaming Problem: A Latent Class Analysis of DSM-5 Criteria For Internet Gaming Disorder In A Non-Clinical Sample

Background: In this study we aimed to test whether suggested DSM-5 criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) share a similar latent structure to formally recognised addiction. Methods: We used latent class analysis on a dichotomous measure of IGD. The data was collected from a convenient general population sample (500) and a targeted gaming forum sample (236). Results: We found a four or six-class model to be most appropriate, ranging from ‘ casual/non-gamer’ to ‘ potentially disordered’ with increasing symptom severity. The majority of ‘ potentially disordered’ gamers (5+ criteria) were found to be 18-30 years old, and no ‘ potentially disordered’ gamers were over 42. Conclusions: The results suggest that gaming may share a similar latent structure to established addictions, with adolescents and young adults being more at risk. Studies replicating these results would be beneficial, with further emphasis on a critical evaluation of the criteria and symptom cut-off point