University of Leicester

Interventions to Support Parents Whose Babies Cry Excessively: Systematic Review

CONTEXT: Parents report that around 10% to 20% of babies cry a lot without an apparent reason during early infancy. This "excessive" infant crying can lead to adverse outcomes, including parental depression, breastfeeding cessation, impaired parent-child relationships, and, in ex...

Disentangling gender stereotypes and gender inequality in Africa's digital sector

Purpose This paper investigates how gender stereotypes evolve in Africa's digital space and how digital gender inequality can be collaboratively tackled. Design/methodology/approach A two-phase qualitative study was undertaken, involving consultations with 21 experts and intervie...

A scoping review of digital health technologies in glycogen storage diseases

Abstract Glycogen storage diseases (GSDs) are rare inherited metabolic disorders requiring complex management. Digital health technologies (DHTs) offer solutions for improving care delivery, yet their implementation remains poorly characterised. This scoping review systematically...

Billable Hours and Work Flexibility: Navigating the Paradox in Law Firms

ABSTRACT Flexible work promises control over where and when work is performed, yet organisations still need credible performance evidence at a distance. Drawing on 30 interviews with women lawyers in UK‐based international firms, we examine how billable hours mediate these demand...

Improving patient-reported outcome measure scoring in shoulder trials

Aims Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) underpin orthopaedic trials by capturing pain and function from the patient’s perspective. Traditionally, PROMs such as the Oxford Shoulder Score (OSS) are scored using classical test theory (CTT), which assumes equal item contributi...

Inadequate antibody validation places substantial numbers of animal and human tissue samples at risk of waste

Lack of antibody validation by researchers frequently misdirects biomedical research, yet the ethical consequences—particularly avoidable use of animal and human biological materials—remain unquantified. Using focus groups ( n = 12), surveys ( n = 107), and systematic analysis of...

Implementation of electronic signposting to interventions that prevent cancer: A realist review

Uptake of evidence-based interventions that prevent cancer is very low. Electronic signposting using digital messages sent via electronic healthcare systems is increasingly utilised to improve service reach and uptake. However, theory for optimising the implementation of electron...

Process mapping: finding new routes to guideline adherence

Invited commentary of Shaw, L., Wilson, C., Haskell, L. et al. Process mapping to design theory-informed strategies reducing inappropriate HFNC use in emergency bronchiolitis care. Pediatr Res (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-026-05304-w

Ionospheric currents and auroral signatures during successive earthward bursty bulk flows and dipolarization: a 7 December 2023 case study

Earthward bursty bulk flows (BBFs) in the central plasma sheet are frequently accompanied by dipolarization fronts, and together they account for a large fraction of the energy and momentum transported from the magnetotail to the high-latitude ionosphere through field-aligned cur...

Launching Expectations: Exploring the Role of the State in the Creation of New Space Launch Markets

Our article examines how UK Governmental entities set out to establish a space launch market, by locating an empirical analysis of policy documents, reports, and reviews published by various governmental agencies, Parliamentary hearings, media reports, and investment data, within...

Development and evaluation of a quality assessment tool for equality, diversity, and inclusion (QUALITY-EDI) within healthcare research

Implementing equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in healthcare research is critical to ensuring findings are translatable and provide the greatest benefit to patients who need it most. A quality assessment scoring tool (QUALITY-EDI) was developed to evaluate the conduct of E...

Effectiveness of Adding GLP ‐1 Receptor Agonists to SGLT2 Inhibitor Therapy in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Population Based Study

ABSTRACT Background Individually, sodium–glucose co‐transporter‐2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonists (GLP‐1RAs) have been shown to reduce major kidney and cardiovascular events in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, evidence support...

The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) Fast Analysis and Spectroscopy of Transients (FAST) Surveys

Abstract The study of young and fast astronomical transients is often limited by the difficulty of acquiring data, particularly spectra, within hours to days of explosion. Historically, follow-up programmes have rarely obtained spectra until many days after discovery; coupled wit...

ACTIVATE: A protocol for a randomised controlled evaluation of Thumos: A cognitive-behavioural intervention for medical students

Background Medical students experience high rates of burnout and mental health distress, with approximately half reporting burnout, one-third experiencing depression, and one-tenth having suicidal thoughts. These issues are exacerbated during clinical placements and contribute to...

Socioeconomic Status and Working Life Expectancy: A Swedish Cohort Study

Abstract Longer life expectancy and fertility decline raise several potential challenges for national economies and the security of welfare systems. Raising retirement ages, or ages of eligibility for state pension, is one strategy to offset rising costs. Yet, considerable subgro...

Transient Neonatal Uterine Bleeding Offers a Window to Understanding Uterine Development

The phenomenon of neonatal uterine bleeding was observed over centuries. It was dismissed as having no clinical relevance. Alternatively, it was hypothesized to be associated with early-onset endometriosis, but its exact clinical significance remains unknown. We conducted a narra...

Harnessing the Joys and Mitigating the Risks of Doing Co-Research: Reflections on a Study With Survivors of Sexual Violence

Background This article is by lived experience co-researchers and an academic research team. Co-research involves those with lived experience of a topic under investigation. It is an increasingly popular participatory, beneficial form of co-production that improves the integrity...

A novel framework to modelling regulation of prey populations by a generalist predator

Abstract Background In ecological communities, a predator often feeds on several food sources. Such a predator is known as a generalist, and its feeding is traditionally modelled by a functional response. However, the conventional concept of the functional response is not applica...

Survival benefit of deceased donor kidney transplantation versus continued dialysis: international target trial emulation

Abstract Objective To quantify the survival benefit of deceased donor kidney transplantation versus continued dialysis according to patients’ characteristics (age, diabetes, cardiovascular disease), donor quality (standard criteria donor or expanded criteria donor) and donor retr...

Interactions Between Health Inequalities on the Management and Outcomes of Thoracic Aortic Disease in England: A National Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the intersectionality between measured causes of health inequality and clinical factors that influence treatment decisions and regional variations in care and survival for people with thoracic aortic disease (TAD) in England. METH...