Dying with Dignity : Is This a Universal Concept?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Tilting relationalities: Exploring the world through possible futures of agriculture

Demography has driven increases in agricultural productivity and is in the limelight once again with questions about how we intend to feed 9 billion people on the planet. The scale of this challenge and the ecological threat from collapsing resources has generated a sense of impending crisis, but remarkably little action. The frames of reference tend towards climate change and the Anthropocene, but perhaps a more fruitful approach is to reflect on developments in agriculture and agroecology to examine the scale and significance of the ecological challenges we face. In this article, we use agriculture as a nodal point through which to engage with the emerging and dislocating human–planetary relations of the contemporary world, reflecting on past, current and future notions of ‘progress’, and on how ongoing developments and experiments in making a living with others (human, non-human and more-than-human others) might offer potential pathways for positive social transformation and future flourishing. As we argue throughout the article, reassessing notions of progress does not mean the mere return to traditional forms of knowledge and practice, nor embracing a form of luddite politics absent of advances in modern science and technology. Instead, we propose this is about opening spaces where diversity, pluralism and contending perspectives and agencies are engaged on their own terms, creating and sharing alternative knowledge and ways of doing and being. Here, the role for the social sciences and humanities is not to describe or pretend to represent these emerging relationalities, but instead to enable and actively engage them. Doing this responsibly and effectively will require us to inhabit the disorienting and discomforting ruins of progress, eschewing the turn towards finalised solutions and outcomes

Tobacco use in the third trimester of pregnancy and its relationship to birth weight. A prospective study in Spain

Background Few studies have been carried out in Spain examining the use of tobacco amongst expectant mothers and its effect on birth weight. Aims To observe the proportion of expectant mothers who smoke during their pregnancy, and the impact of tobacco consumption on maternal and birth weight. We also aimed to identify the trimester of pregnancy in which tobacco use produced the greatest reduction in birth weight. Methods Prospective observational study in Spain. A random sampling strategy was used to select health centres and participant women. A total of 137 individuals were enrolled in the study. Exposure to tobacco was measured through a self-reported questionnaire. Regressions were performed to obtain a predictive model for birth weight related to smoking. Findings Overall, 35% of study participants were smokers during the pre-gestational period (27% in the first trimester, 21.9% in the second and 21.2% in the third). 38.7% of smoking cessation attempts took place in the third-trimester. Pregnant women who smoked up to the third trimester had a higher risk of giving birth to a baby under 3000 g, compared to non-smokers (OR = 5.94, CI 95%: 1.94–18.16). Each additional unit of tobacco consumed daily in the 3rd trimester led to a 32 g reduction in birth weight. Conclusion An important proportion of pregnant women in Spain smoke during pregnancy. Pregnant women exposed to tobacco have newborns with lower birth weight. Smoking during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy is associated with the greatest risk of lower birth weight

Identifying and understanding local priorities for developing an 'Economy of Belonging': A case study of eight areas in the UK

The recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has reanimated the discussion of socio-economic inequalities and livelihoods’ insecurity across the UK. There is a clear disconnect between policymaking frameworks, macroeconomic theories, and empirical exercises using national and regional statistical data, on the one hand, with the lived experiences of individuals and communities at the local level, on the other. In this paper, we conduct a mixed qualitative and quantitative comparative analysis of eight local areas across four regions in the UK to understand the interconnecting factors affecting individuals’ and communities’ quality of life and prosperity. First, we examine data from the Understanding Society survey between 2009-2018 for the same eight local areas in order to explore individuals’ lived experiences. Second, we examine the eight case study areas across a series of datasets and indices at the local authority (LA) and lower-local super output area (LSOA) levels using an integrated analytical framework based on life outcomes, life opportunities and life together (LOOT). This research approach allows us to gain a better understanding of the main drivers of intra-regional variation and its consequences for macroeconomic policy

Analysis of National Cancer Control Programmes in Europe

Working Pape

Stories of Change from the Connected Communities Inclusive Broadband Project: Research Evaluation of a Universal Basic Services Experiment

This report provides a qualitative research evaluation of the first phase of the Connected Communities Inclusive Broadband project launched in June 2020 by Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association (HARCA) in partnership with LETTA Trust Schools, Tower Hamlets Council, East End Community Foundation, and Internet provider Community Fibre. The project which will run for two years, is currently targeting 100-200 low-income households in Poplar, Tower Hamlets London borough. Each household family participating in the project is being provided with free broadband Internet connection, a Google Chromebook digital device, and basic information and communications technology (ICT) training and support. The Institute for Global Prosperity at UCL was invited to support Poplar HARCA to research and evaluate the impacts of the first phase of the project. The objective of the research is to collect ‘stories of change’ through personal accounts exploring the expectations and short-term impacts of the project. The findings of this research are intended for both policy, academic and wider public audiences, and will serve to build evidence for a system of Universal Basic Services (UBS) a radical, yet feasible and sustainable policy framework proposal developed by IGP’s Social Prosperity Network (SPN) to re-design a welfare system fit for the 21st century. This study, and the SPN, are part of IGP’s Prosperity Co-Lab (ProCol) UK initiative whose work is focused on rethinking prosperity and the future of the welfare state through citizen-led research and cross-sectoral collaborations

Intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy for choroidal neovascularisation secondary to pathological myopia: 4-year outcome

OBJECTIVE: To report the visual outcome after 4-year follow-up in a series of highly myopic eyes with choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) treated with antivascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drugs. METHODS: A retrospective, non-randomised, multicentre, consecutive, interventional case series study was performed. 92 highly myopic eyes with subfoveal CNV were treated with intravitreal injection (IVI) of anti-VEGF. The initial protocol (1 vs 3 injections) was dictated by surgeons' preferences and followed by an as-needed monthly regime. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was evaluated at baseline and then monthly. The primary aim was to analyse BCVA changes. The effect of age, spherical equivalent (SE) and treating drug were evaluated as secondary objectives. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 57 years (SD 14, range 30-93). The mean number of letters read was 46.1 (SD 16.8, range 5-70) at baseline, 55.5 (SD 18.6, range 10-85) at 12 months, 50.1 (SD 20.1, range 5-82) at 24 months, 54.2 (SD 21.9, range 2-85) at 36 months and 53.1 (SD 22.5, range 1-83) at 48 months (p=0.000, initial vs 12, 24 and 36 months; p=0.01 initial vs 48 months; Student t test for paired data). The mean total number of IVI was 4.9 (SD 5.4, range 1-29). SE and treating drug had no influence on the final visual outcome and number of injections required. CONCLUSIONS: Intravitreal bevacizumab and ranibizumab are effective therapies and show similar clinical effects in highly myopic CNV. Visual acuity gain is maintained at 4-year follow-up

An overview of the lower cretaceous dinosaur tracksites from the mirambel formation in the iberian range (ne spain)

Up to now, the ichnological vertebrate record from the Barremian Mirambel Formation (NE Spain) has remained completely unknown despite the fact that osteological findings have been reported in recent years. Here we provide an overview of 11 new dinosaur tracksites found during a fieldwork campaign in the year 2011. The majority of these tracksites (seven) preserve small- to medium-sized tridactyl tracks here assigned to indeterminate theropods. Only one footprint presents enough characters to classify it as Megalosauripus isp. Ornithopod tracks identified as Caririchnium isp. and Iguanodontipodidae indet. and sauropod tracks are recorded at two tracksites. The footprints are preserved in a variety of paleoenvironmental conditions and thus display different kinds of preservation (true tracks, shallow undertracks, natural casts and undertrack casts). The ichnological record from the Mirambel Formation seems to be theropod dominated. This is a clear discrepancy with the osteological record identified in this formation, which shows a predominance of ornithopod dinosaurs

Regulation of pancreatic cancer aggressiveness by stromal stiffening

No abstract available