Regional anaesthetic (RA), often referred to as 'awake surgery', is a method of administering local or regional anaesthesia instead of a general anaesthesia (GA) for certain surgical procedures. The relative benefits of using RA over GA include fewer life-threatening perioperative complications1 , reduced risk of blood clots, improved analgesia, reduced postoperative nausea2 ,shortened length of stay in post-anaesthesia care and increased operating room efficiency3 . Despite the well documented benefits and potential efficiencies of RA4 , the uptake challenges in the UK continue with only 14.5% of surgeries performed as awake surgeries5 . Given the potential benefits to patients, practitioners, and the healthcare system4 , there is a need to understand best practices for promoting the uptake of awake surgeries in the UK. Decision-making processes can be greatly supported by health psychology to target the underlying mechanisms of human behaviours6 and understand the aetiology, promotion, and maintenance of health to improve the quality of patient care7 . A range of psychological and attitudinal factors may contribute to the hesitation around awake surgeries among patients. These include anxiety about anaesthesia8 , patient-doctor trust 9 , sight and sounds of surgery10 and knowledge about the risks of GA11 . The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)12,13, focuses on attitudinal and social determinants of behaviour to predict, explain, and modify health behaviours14 . Personal attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control influence long-term behaviour12 . The TPB has been frequently applied to clinician and patient behaviour processes15 , and is a widely applied behavioural model used to influence health literacy, and decision-making16. Using the TPB, the overall aim of this study is to increase study participants' self-efficacy and decision-making confidence to undergo RA procedures.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

The demand for proteins has increased due to several reasons, among them a growing population, socio-economic changes (increase in income) and increased awareness of the contribution of proteins in healthy diet and aging. Sources for new proteins that are of interest for this project are UK-grown protein crops (cereals and legumes), quality protein from secondary streams (agro-industrial by-products), and products obtained from microorganisms (bacteria, fungi or microalgae). The aim of this project is to evaluate the potential of alternative protein sources for food product reformulation by assessing the impact of processing operations in the product properties (physical and nutritional properties) and consumer perception of its texture, taste and flavour.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a worldwide problem and has remained the largest global infectious killer known. In addition drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) continues to rise, limiting the ability to treat the disease, and is part of the research priority to understand and push back against antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The predominant bacteria associated with human TB is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In the UK over 4000 new cases of TB are recorded annually but in other countries the burden of disease is much higher. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium is a member of a larger group of related bacteria, the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex (MTC), that preferentially infect other mammals but some of the other MTC members can also cause TB in people. Concern in the UK and elsewhere around bovine TB is partly driven by the risk it poses to human health but in recent epidemiological studies in Asian and South-East Asian countries, a relatively poorly studied member of the MTC, Mycobacterium orygis, has been identified as an increasingly predominant cause of TB in both cattle and wild animals. There is concern that M. orygis is beginning to replace M. bovis as the major cause of zoonotic TB in humans, a major new challenge to the control of TB worldwide. Relatively little is known directly about M. orygis as a pathogen and there is an urgent need to explore its biology to learn more about how it causes disease and what the reasons are for its emergence. In this project we will compare M. tuberculosis, M. bovis and M. orygis to ascertain how the differences among them lead to their success as causes of TB disease in farmed animals and in people. An added concern is that M. orygis already appears somewhat resistant to the drugs currently used to treat TB so a particular dimension of our project will look at the way in which drug resistance works and how this may be circumvented to give effective control. This scientific project makes use of complementing scientific strengths in India and the UK and represents a critical component in the ongoing drive against TB and AMR in order to develop more effective TB control strategies.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.