What makes Britons trust police to enforce the lockdown fairly?

What do people think about pandemic policing? Should the police get extra powers to enforce the lockdown? A survey by Krisztián Pósch (LSE), Julia Yesberg (UCL), Jonathan Jackson (LSE), Ben Bradford (UCL), Arabella Kyprianides (UCL) and Zoe Hobson (UCL) found some measures (such as checkpoints and issuing fines) are much more popular than others (like mobile phone and facial recognition tracking). Importantly, people’s perception of the legitimacy of the police is crucial in establishing public consent for enhanced police powers. In turn, legitimacy is rooted in people’s experience of everyday policing

Bridging the gap:a review of dose investigations in paediatric investigation plans

Aims In the EU, development of new medicines for children should follow a prospectively agreed paediatric investigation plan (PIP). Finding the right dose for children is crucial but challenging due to the variability of pharmacokinetics across age groups and the limited sample sizes available. We examined strategies adopted in PIPs to support paediatric dosing recommendations to identify common assumptions underlying dose investigations and the attempts planned to verify them in children. Methods We extracted data from 73 PIP opinions recently adopted by the Paediatric Committee of the European Medicines Agency. These opinions represented 79 medicinal development programmes and comprised a total of 97 dose investigation studies. We identified the design of these dose investigation studies, recorded the analyses planned and determined the criteria used to define target doses. Results Most dose investigation studies are clinical trials (83 of 97) that evaluate a single dosing rule. Sample sizes used to investigate dose are highly variable across programmes, with smaller numbers used in younger children (< 2 years). Many studies (40 of 97) do not pre-specify a target dose criterion. Of those that do, most (33 of 57 studies) guide decisions using pharmacokinetic data alone. Conclusions Common assumptions underlying dose investigation strategies include dose proportionality and similar exposure−response relationships in adults and children. Few development programmes pre-specify steps to verify assumptions in children. There is scope for the use of Bayesian methods as a framework for synthesizing existing information to quantify prior uncertainty about assumptions. This process can inform the design of optimal drug development strategies

Functional and dysfunctional fear of COVID-19: a classification scheme

Worry about COVID-19 is a central topic of research into the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we present a new way of measuring worry about catching COVID-19 that distinguishes between worry as a negative experience that damages people’s quality of life (dysfunctional) and worry as an adaptive experience that directs people’s attention to potential problems (functional). Drawing on work into fear of crime, our classification divides people into three groups: (1) the unworried, (2) the functionally worried (where worry motivates proactive behaviours that help people to manage their sense of risk) and (3) the dysfunctionally worried (where quality of life is damaged by worry and/or precautionary behaviour). Analysing data from two waves of a longitudinal panel study of over 1000 individuals living in ten cities in England, Scotland and Wales, we find differing levels of negative anxiety, anger, loneliness, unhappiness and life satisfaction for each of the three groups, with the dysfunctionally worried experiencing the most negative outcomes and the functionally worried experiencing less negative outcomes than unworried. We find no difference between groups in compliance and willingness to re-engage in social life. Finally, we show a difference between the dysfunctionally worried compared with functional and unworried groups in perceptions of risk (differentiating between likelihood, control and consequence). This finding informs what sort of content-targeted messaging aimed at reducing dysfunctional worry might wish to promote. We conclude with some thoughts on the applicability of our measurement scheme for future research

Policing the lockdown: compliance, enforcement and procedural justice

The problem Compliance with lockdown restrictions (e.g. social distancing) is important if the Covid-19 pandemic is to be brought under control. In a liberal democratic state,the bulk of such compliance has to be voluntary and consensual. Thus far, this seems to havebeen the case in the UK, with police intervention rarely necessary. However, police are needed in a minority of cases, and lockdown fatigue and the easing of restrictions over the coming weeks and months may pose significant challenges to police organisations tasked with both enforcement and maintaining widespread voluntary compliance

The Cummings row undermines the sense of collective solidarity on which the lockdown relies

The so-far widespread compliance with lockdown measures is driven by social identity and collective responsibility, new data confirms. This substantiates further the argument that by defending Dominic Cummings, the government risks undermining the fight against the virus, write Jonathan Jackson, Reka Solymosi, Chris Posch, Ben Bradford, Zoe Hobson, Arabella Kyprianides, and Julia Yesberg

Public compliance and COVID-19: did Cummings damage the fight against the virus, or become a useful anti-role model?

Jonathan Jackson, Ben Bradford, Julia Yesberg, Zoe Hobson, Arabella Kyprianides, Krisztián Pósch and Reka Solymosi discuss the latest findings of their 10-city longitudinal panel study on compliance with lockdown measures. They find that adherence continues to be rooted in widespread social norms, but provide supporting data and evidence of how the Cummings affair has produced cynicism around the measures

Modulation of microbial predator-prey dynamics by phosphorus availability: Growth patterns and survival strategies of bacterial phylogenetic clades

We simultaneously studied the impact of top-down (protistan grazing) and bottom-up (phosphorus availability) factors on the numbers and biomasses of bacteria from various phylogenetic lineages, and on their growth and activity parameters in the oligo-mesotrophic Piburger See, Austria. Enhanced grazing resulted in decreased proportions of bacteria with high nucleic acid content (high-NA bacteria) and lower detection rates by FISH. There was a change in the composition of the bacterial assemblage, whereby Betaproteobacteria were heavily grazed while Alphaproteobacteria and Cytophaga—Flavobacterium—Bacteroides were less affected by predators. Changes in bacterial assemblage composition were also apparent in the treatments enriched with phosphorus, and even more pronounced in the incubations in dialysis tubes (allowing relatively free nutrient exchange). Here, Betaproteobacteria became dominant and appeared to act as successful opportunistic competitors for nutrients. In contrast, Actinobacteria did not respond to surplus phosphorus by population growth, and, moreover, maintained their small size, which resulted in a very low biomass contribution. In addition, significant relationships between high-NA bacteria and several bacterial phylogenetic clades were found, indicating an enhanced activity status. By combining several single-cell methods, new insight is gained into the competitive abilities of freshwater bacteria from a variety of phylogenetic lineages under contrasting sets of bottom-up and top-down constraint

Modulation of microbial predator-prey dynamics by phosphorus availability: Growth patterns and survival strategies of bacterial phylogenetic clades

We simultaneously studied the impact of top-down (protistan grazing) and bottom-up (phosphorus availability) factors on the numbers and biomasses of bacteria from various phylogenetic lineages, and on their growth and activity parameters in the oligo-mesotrophic Piburger See, Austria. Enhanced grazing resulted in decreased proportions of bacteria with high nucleic acid content (high-NA bacteria) and lower detection rates by FISH. There was a change in the composition of the bacterial assemblage, whereby Betaproteobacteria were heavily grazed while Alphaproteobacteria and Cytophaga—Flavobacterium—Bacteroides were less affected by predators. Changes in bacterial assemblage composition were also apparent in the treatments enriched with phosphorus, and even more pronounced in the incubations in dialysis tubes (allowing relatively free nutrient exchange). Here, Betaproteobacteria became dominant and appeared to act as successful opportunistic competitors for nutrients. In contrast, Actinobacteria did not respond to surplus phosphorus by population growth, and, moreover, maintained their small size, which resulted in a very low biomass contribution. In addition, significant relationships between high-NA bacteria and several bacterial phylogenetic clades were found, indicating an enhanced activity status. By combining several single-cell methods, new insight is gained into the competitive abilities of freshwater bacteria from a variety of phylogenetic lineages under contrasting sets of bottom-up and top-down constraint

Performance d’engraissement de poulets mâles nourris avec différentes sources de protéines

Les performances de croissance de mâles d’hybrides de ponte recevant une alimentation comportant des sources et des teneurs différentes en protéines ont été étudiées dans trois essais d’engraissement. Par rapport aux hybrides d’engraissement Hubbard JA 757 (HUB), les poulets mâles des génotypes Lohmann Braun (LB) et Lohmann Selected Leghorn (LSL) présentent une moins bonne performance d’engraissement. Le poids vif, la prise de poids journalière et le poids à l’abattage sont influencés par le génotype. Les mâles LB présentent cependant de nets avantages en termes de performance par rapport aux mâles LSL. Le remplacement partiel du soja par de la farine de luzerne verte dans les rations, qui s’accompagne d’une réduction de l’apport en protéines, entraîne une perte de rendement, en particulier pour la lignée HUB. À l’inverse, le passage à des rations à plus faible teneur en protéines s’est avéré avantageux pour le génotype LB, ce qui offre la possibilité pour l’engraissement de poulets mâles de compenser, par la composition de la ration, la moindre efficacité alimentaire des mâles

Mastleistung von Bruderhähnen bei Fütterung mit unterschiedlichen Proteinquellen

In drei Mastversuchen wurden die Wachstumsleistungen männlicher Legehybriden bei Fütterung mit unterschiedlichen Proteinquellen und -gehalten untersucht. Der Vergleich der Genotypen Lohmann Braun (LB) und Lohmann Selected Leghorn (LSL) mit dem Masthybriden Hubbard JA 757 (HUB) zeigte, dass die Bruderhähne erwartungsgemäss geringere Mastleistungen aufwiesen. Sowohl die Lebendgewichte und täglichen Zunahmen als auch die Schlachtgewichte wurden vom Genotyp beeinflusst. Die LB-Hähne wiesen jedoch deutliche Vorteile in den Leistungen gegenüber den LSL-Tieren auf. Der partielle Ersatz von Soja durch Luzernegrünmehl in den Rationen, der mit einer Proteinreduktion einhergeht, führte vor allem bei HUB zu Leistungseinbussen. Im Gegensatz dazu konnten für den Genotyp LB Vorteile in der Umsetzung von Rationen mit reduziertem Proteingehalt festgestellt werden, was für die Mast der Bruderhähne die Möglichkeit bietet, mit der Rationsgestaltung der niedrigen Effizienz der Tiere entgegenzuwirken