Digital Commons Network^™

The Future Of Transcranial Ultrasound As A Precision Brain Interface, Keith Murphy, Elsa Fouragnan

School of Psychology

Our understanding of brain circuit operations and disorders has rapidly outpaced our ability to intervene and restore them. Developing technologies that can precisely interface with any brain region and circuit may combine diagnostics with therapeutic intervention, expediting personalised brain medicine. Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a promising noninvasive solution to this challenge, offering focal precision and scalability. By exploiting the biomechanics of pressure waves on brain tissue, TUS enables multi-site targeted neuromodulation across distributed circuits in the cortex and deeper areas alike. In this Essay, we explore the emergent evidence that TUS can functionally test and modify dysfunctional regions, effectively …

Resilience In Nursing Medication Administration Practice: A Systematic Review With Narrative Synthesis, Pollyanna Lr Kellett, Bryony Dean Franklin, Susie Pearce, Jonathan Benn

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Resilience in nursing medication administration practice: a systematic review with narrative synthesis. OBJECTIVE: Little is known about how nurses adapt medication administration practices to preserve safety. The capacity to adapt and respond before harm occurs has been labelled 'resilience'. Current evidence examining medication safety largely focuses on errors and what goes wrong. This review aimed to synthesise evidence for the application of resilience principles and practices in nursing medication administration. DESIGN: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guided the review, which was registered with PROSPERO. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO and CINAHL databases were searched from 14 …

Evidencing The Challenges Of Care Delivery For People With Intellectual Disability And Epilepsy In England By Using The Step Together Toolkit, Rohit Shankar, Georgia Page, Bridie Kent

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundPeople with intellectual disability (PwID) and epilepsy have increased premature and potentially preventable mortality. This is related to a lack of equitable access to appropriate care. The Step Together guidance and toolkit, developed with patient, clinical, charity and commissioning stakeholders, allows evaluation and benchmarking of essential epilepsy service provision for PwID in eight key domains, at a care system level.AimsTo evaluate care provisions for adult PwID and epilepsy at a system level in the 11 integrated care systems (ICSs) of the Midlands, the largest NHS England region (population: approximately 11 million), using the Step Together toolkitMethodPost training, each ICS undertook …

Twenty Years Of Microplastic Pollution Research—What Have We Learned?, Richard C. Thompson, Winnie Courtene-Jones, Julien Boucher, Sabine Pahl, Karen Raubenheimer, Albert A. Koelmans

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Twenty years after the first publication that used the term microplastic, we review current understanding, refine definitions, and consider future prospects. Microplastics arise from multiple sources, including tires, textiles, cosmetics, paint, and the fragmentation of larger items. They are widely distributed throughout the natural environment, with evidence of harm at multiple levels of biological organization. They are pervasive in food and drink and have been detected throughout the human body, with emerging evidence of negative effects. Environmental contamination could double by 2040, and wide-scale harm has been predicted. Public concern is increasing, and diverse measures to address microplastic pollution are …

A Multiple Case Study Exploring Person‐Centred Care In Care Homes, Gary Hodge, Richard Byng, Georgia Page, Iain Lang, Susie Pearce

School of Nursing and Midwifery

No abstract provided.

Outcome Measures In Intellectual Disability: A Review And Narrative Synthesis Of Validated Instruments, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundOutcome measurement is essential to determine the effectiveness of health interventions and improve the quality of services. The interplay of social, individual, and biological factors makes this a complex process in the psychiatry of people with intellectual disability (PwID).AimReview of outcome measures which are validated in PwIDMethodsA PRISMA-guided review was conducted, using a predefined criteria and a relevant word combination on four databases: EMBASE, Medline, CINAHL and PsycINFO. Each included study was examined for relevance to intellectual disability psychiatry. The psychometric data of each tool was critically assessed. Findings were narratively synthesised.ResultsOf 1,548 articles, 35 met the inclusion criteria. Several …

The Phylogenetically Isolated South African Endemic Diving Beetle Caperhantus Cicurius (Fabricius, 1787): Redescription And Range Extensions (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Colymbetinae), David T Bilton, C.R. Turner, M.C. Mlambo

More Faculty of Science and Engineering Research

New distribution records and a redescription are presented for Caperhantus cicurius (Fabricius, 1787), a diving beetle endemic to the Cape region of South Africa, which is only distantly related to other Afrotropical dytiscids. We show that the species is much more widely distributed than previously recognized and present details of occupied habitats for the first time. Caperhantus cicurius occurs throughout the winter rainfall zone in South Africa, from Namaqualand to the Eastern Cape Province, particularly in temporary waters in the Fynbos and Succulent Karoo biomes.

Voicing Experiences Of Family Members Providing Care To Loved Ones With A Pituitary Condition, Carly Ellicott, Alyson Norman, Sue Jackson

School of Psychology

Introduction: This paper draws upon lived experiences of family members caring for a relative with a pituitary condition. The rationale for the study stems from the crucial role provided by informal, unpaid carers. Yet in the specific domain of pituitary care, they remain overlooked within empirical research. Therefore, the current study aimed to understand 1) the experiences of family members whose loved ones have a pituitary condition and 2) the information and support needs of family members. Materials and methods: Adopting a qualitative participatory approach, the study involved six family members, each of whom provided care for a loved one …

Co-Creation Of Social Innovations For Healthy Ageing In Rural Europe–A Process Evaluation Of A Volunteer-Led Guided Conversation Toolkit Using Normalisation Process Theory (Npt), Mahrukh Mirza, Basharat Hussain, Shukru Esmene, Catherine Leyshon, Michael Leyshon, Arunangsu Chatterjee

Peninsula Medical School

We critically explored the use of Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) in the evaluation of a co-designed intervention toolkit for Healthy Ageing through Innovation in Rural Europe (HAIRE). The toolkit was co-designed and implemented in rural communities in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. NPT was applied as a novel analytical framework to shed light on key practices and processes that supported implementation. Further, the paper discusses how social innovation research helps frame co-designing such interventions with local communities. During the study, 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted with project partners and volunteers who were involved in toolkit co-design and …

Plymouth University Dental Therapy Careers Conference, Maia Haydock, Maryama Osman, Anna Smith, Eve Wilson, Morag Powell

Peninsula Dental School

Peninsula Dental School (PDS) hosted its third annual student-led Dental Therapy Careers Conference in March 2024, after the resounding success of the previous conferences in 2022 and 2023. This day truly celebrates dental therapists and hygienists (DTH) and provides the students with relevant lectures, workshops and trade stands from esteemed companies in the dental world. The commitment and support of this event every year is incredible, bringing together second- and third-year DTH students to organise the day, alongside support from the year 3 DTH lead Morag Powell.

The Socioeconomic And Environmental Niche Of Protected Areas Reveals Global Conservation Gaps And Opportunities, David Mouillot, Laure Velez, Camille Albouy, Nicolas Casajus, Joachim Claudet, Vincent Delbar, Rodolphe Devillers, Tom B Letessier, Nicolas Loiseau, Stéphanie Manel, Laura Mannocci, Jessica Meeuwig, Nicolas Mouquet, Ana Nuno, Louise O'Connor, Valeriano Parravicini, Julien Renaud, Raphael Seguin, Marc Troussellier, Wilfried Thuiller

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The global network of protected areas has rapidly expanded in the past decade and is expected to cover at least 30% of land and sea by 2030 to halt biodiversity erosion. Yet, the distribution of protected areas is highly heterogeneous on Earth and the social-environmental preconditions enabling or hindering protected area establishment remain poorly understood. Here, using fourteen socioeconomic and environmental factors, we characterize the multidimensional niche of terrestrial and marine protected areas, which we use to accurately establish, at the global scale, whether a particular location has preconditions favourable for paestablishment. We reveal that protected areas, particularly the most …

Objective Quality Assessment Of Medical Images And Videos : Review And Challenges, Rafael Rodrigues, Lucie Lévêque, Jesús Gutiérrez, Houda Jebbari, Meriem Outtas, Lu Zhang, Aladine Chetouani, Shaymaa Al-Juboori, Maria G. Martini, Antonio M.G. Pinheiro

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Quality assessment is a key element for the evaluation of hardware and software involved inimage and video acquisition, processing, and visualization. In the medical field, user-basedquality assessment is still considered more reliable than objective methods, which allow theimplementation of automated and more efficient solutions. Regardless of increasing researchon this topic in the last decade, defining quality standards for medical content remains a nontrivial task, as the focus should be on the diagnostic value assessed by expert viewers ratherthan the perceived quality from naïve viewers, and objective quality metrics should aim atestimating the first rather than the latter. In this paper, …

Editorial: Artificial Intelligence And Cybersecurity In Pervasive Computing, Ji-Jian Chin

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Pervasive computing, or ubiquitous computing, is rapidly increasing in capacity and capabilities. With the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming an integral part of daily life and the growing availability of edge computing resources, automation guided by data is advancing applications in healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, and other areas. It's natural that pervasive computing will intersect with artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. AI can improve detection, prediction, and anticipative responses to human needs, while cybersecurity addresses topics like misuse prevention, ethics, policies, and governance. This issue features seven articles on these intersections, including four AI articles exploring natural language processing and computer …

Knowledge Discovery Of Patients Reviews On Breast Cancer Drugs: Segmentation Of Side Effects Using Machine Learning Techniques, Mehrbakhsh Nilashi, Hossein Ahmadi, Rabab Ali Abumalloh, Mesfer Alrizq, Abdullah Alghamdi, Sultan Alyami

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Breast cancer stands as the most frequently diagnosed life-threatening cancer among women worldwide. Understanding patients' drug experiences is essential to improving treatment strategies and outcomes. In this research, we conduct knowledge discovery on breast cancer drugs using patients’ reviews. A new machine learning approach is developed by employing clustering, text mining and regression techniques. We first use Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) technique to discover the main aspects of patients' experiences from the patients’ reviews on breast cancer drugs. We also use Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to segment the data based on patients’ overall satisfaction. We then use the Forward Entry Regression …

Cyber-Securing Medical Devices Using Machine Learning: A Case Study Of Pacemaker, Shaymaa Al-Juboori, Suliat Jimoh

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This study aims to enhance the cybersecurity framework of pacemaker devices by identifying vulnerabilities and recommending effective strategies. The objectives are to pinpoint cybersecurity weaknesses, utilize machine learning to predict security breaches, and propose countermeasures based on analytical trends. The literature review highlights the transformation of pacemaker technology from basic, fixed-rate devices to sophisticated systems with wireless capabilities, which, while improving patient care, also introduce significant cybersecurity risks. These risks include unauthorized entry, data breaches, and life-threatening device malfunctions. The methodology in this study utilizes a quantitative research approach using the WUSTL-EHMS-2020 dataset, which includes network traffic features, patients' biometric …

The Impact Of Virtual Reality Exposure On Ocean Connectedness And Consumer Responses To Single-Use Packaging, Sohvi Nuojua, Sabine Pahl, Kayleigh Wyles, Richard Thompson

School of Psychology

Efforts to mitigate plastic packaging pollution include behavioural strategies aimed at shifting consumer perceptions and behaviour. Connectedness to nature, and more recently ocean connectedness, has been associated with pro-environmental intentions regarding single-use packaging. Two experimental studies were conducted to examine the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies in promoting ocean connectedness and shifting consumer perceptions around packaging and its environmental qualities. To assess the influence of the VR content, in Study 1 (n = 94), participants were briefly exposed to an oceanic VR environment or an urban VR experience. Levels of ocean connectedness, both explicit and implicit, were measured after …

Participatory Design Of An Embodied Mixed Reality Experience Aimed To Assessing Individual And Collaborative Behaviors Of Children, Olga Gali, Gözde Tüter, Sena Beste Ercan, Óscar Delgado, Gray Atherton, Liam Cross, Narcis Pares

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Healthcare Education On Preferences For Electronic Health Records: Results From National Survey Of Patient Users In Sweden, Anna Kharko, Jamie Linnea Luckhaus, Charlotte Blease, Åsa Cajander, Josefin Hagström, Bridget T. Kane, Gunnar O. Klein, Sari Kujala, Jonas Moll, Isabella Scandurra, Maria Hägglund

School of Psychology

Electronic health records (EHR) are continuously evolving to better meet user needs, but the process is complicated by healthcare professionals and patients often disagreeing on priority areas of development. While this may be due to differences between professional and personal experiences, little is known whether specialist healthcare knowledge also affects user needs when using EHRs as patients. To investigate this, we analysed the responses of patient users in Sweden from the NORDeHEALTH 2022 Patient Survey. In the survey, respondents indicated whether they had healthcare education, and rated how useful various EHR information types and functions are. Average ratings were comparable …

Perceived Employability Of International Doctoral Students In The Uk: Applying Bronfenbrenner’S Ecological Systems Theory, Fa Wang, Rong Huang, Wai Mun Lim, Jinhua Zhang

Plymouth Business School

The quality of the UK’s doctorate training system plays a fundamental role in fostering vibrant research outputs and attracting global talent. However, while maintaining a consistently high standard of quality remains static and challenging, little is known about how the employability of international doctorate students is shaped and at what juncture it is opportune to support their employability during their research studies. This paper aims to understand the employability of international doctoral students within business schools at British universities, drawing on Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory as a framework. The qualitative study involves 15 international doctoral students from 9 business …

Literature Review Of Maritime Cyber Security: The First Decade, Avanthika Vineetha Harish, Kimberly Tam, Kevin Jones

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This is a comprehensive review of the current body of work for cyber security in the marine and maritime sectors. Reviews are useful as a field develops, both for those new to the field, and those contributing to a section of the existing body of work. This looks at the phases of research, from exploratory and positional papers in the early 2010s, to the more recent experimental research, and how ``maritime cyber security" has branched into subtopics addressing human factors, policy, law, cyber-physical security, and more. In addition to different topics of research, this comprehensive review summaries the focus of …

Whole Genome Analyses Of Introgression In British And Irish Apis Mellifera Mellifera, Victoria G. Buswell, J. Vanessa Huml, Jonathan S. Ellis, Andrew Brown, Mairi E. Knight

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The Western honey bee, Apis mellifera (A. mellifera) Linnaeus, is one of the world’s most economically important pollinators. Conserving genetic resources in this species is therefore of significant value. Despite this, little attention has been paid to the potential erosion of locally adapted genetic variants by transhumance of particular subspecies favoured by beekeepers. In particular, introgression and hybridisation by repeated backcrossing can disrupt naturally-selected allele combinations and therefore erode local adaptation. Here we use whole genome sequencing (WGS) to assess levels of introgression in the native subspecies Apis mellifera mellifera (A. m. mellifera) across a wide geographical scale in Britain …

Status Epilepticus A Risk Factor For Sudden Unexpected Death In Epilepsy (Sudep): A Scoping Review And Narrative Synthesis, Rohit Shankar, Zygimantas Puras, Saffron Richardson, Lance Watkins

Peninsula Medical School

Background: Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) is a leading cause of mortality among people withepilepsy (PWE). Risk factors such as increased seizure frequency, drug-resistant epilepsy, and early epilepsy onsetare well recognised. However, little evidence of the role of seizure severity, specifically Status Epilepticus (SE) onSUDEP risk exists.Objective: To identify mechanisms, risk factors and clinical characteristics overlap between SE and SUDEP.Methods: A scoping review using the PRISMA-ScR model was performed by two reviewers using suitable searchterms. The PubMed Advanced Search tool along with the ancestry method was utilised to identify suitable articles published between 06/1992 and 05/2023. Quantitative, qualitative and …

Self-Management Systems For Patients And Clinicians In Parkinson's Disease Care: A Scoping Review, Selina Boege, Madison Milne-Ives, Ananya Ananthakrishnan, Camille Carroll, Edward Meinert

Peninsula Medical School

Background: Digital self-management tools including mobile apps and wearables can enhance personalized care in Parkinson's disease, and incorporating patient and clinician feedback into their evaluation can empower users and nurture patient-clinician relationships, necessitating a review to assess the state of the art and refine their use. Objective: This review aimed to summarize the state of the art of self-management systems used in Parkinson's disease management, detailing the application of self-management techniques and the integration of clinicians. It also aimed to provide a concise synthesis on the acceptance and usability of these systems from the clinicians' standpoint, reflecting both patient engagement …

Understanding Students` Attitude And Intention Towards Vocational Education And Training (Vet) In The Sultanate Of Oman, Shweta Belwal, Fatma Rashid Al Moqbali, Rakesh Belwal

Plymouth Business School

The current study investigates the influence of attitudes, subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioural control (PBC) in understanding the intentions of Grade 11 and Grade 12 (N = 376) students in Oman to join vocational education and training (VET) institutions. The study’s objectives were twofold: to assess secondary-school students’ attitudes toward vocational education and to investigate their intentions to join VET. A quantitative approach following the partial least square-based structural equation modelling was used. According to the findings, attitudes, PBC, and SNs, exhibit a significant favourable influence on students’ intention to join VET. However, some partial invariance to the relationship …

Primary Care Experiences Of Adults Reporting Learning Disability: A Probability Sample Survey, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: Adults with learning disability face multiple adversities, but evidence on their needs and primary care experiences is limited.

AIM: To compare the characteristics and primary care experiences of adults reporting learning disability with those who did not.

DESIGN AND SETTING: This was an analysis of the 2022 General Practice Patient Survey, a national probability sample survey conducted in 2022 with people registered with NHS primary care in England.

METHOD: This analysis reports descriptive profiles, weighted and with 95% confidence intervals. Logistic regression models adjusting for gender, age, ethnicity, and area-level deprivation compared experiences of adults reporting learning disability with …

Questionnaire-Based Subjective Evaluation And Analysis Of Factors Influencing The Effectiveness Of Treatment With The Vacuum Bell In Children With Pectus Excavatum: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study, Lihuan Zhou, Fang Deng, Yunfei Tian, Jiayi Lin, Guihong Yang, Yunfei Li, Jos M. Latour, Xicheng Deng

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background: Vacuum bell (VB) is a technique to treat pectus excavatum in children. Its effectiveness and influencing factors, however, remain under investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the therapeutic effect and its influencing factors of VB in children with pectus excavatum. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted. Parents of children with pectus excavatum who underwent treatment with a VB between January 2018 and December 2019 were recruited. A survey was designed based on previously related studies and delivered to the parents in September–October 2021. The therapeutic effect was analyzed using subjective experiences by parents. Factors related …

A Geospatial Approach To Landscape Gaze Using Social Media To Evaluate How People Value Landscapes In An Urban Context, Riley Bibaud, Eva Mcgrath, Zoe Sydenham, Richard Yarwood, Tom Mullier, Siân Rees

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Urban park management generally prioritises green spaces and activities within park boundaries, rather than landscape interactions. Understanding how people experience and connect with broader landscapes is essential for improving societal environmental, economic and wellbeing outcomes. A geospatial and discourse analysis of three urban parks was conducted in Plymouth, UK. The predominant landscape gaze at each park revealed strong social ties to blue spaces–namely the coast and sea–indicating an interconnectedness between parks and coastal spaces beyond park boundaries. Textual analysis emphasised the beauty of nature, the expanse of the ocean, and the health and wellbeing benefits of blue and green spaces. …

The Biad Standards: Recommendations For Archaeological Data Publication And Insights From The Big Interdisciplinary Archaeological Database, Samantha S. Reiter, Robert Staniuk, Jan Kolář, Jelena Bulatović, Helene Agerskov Rose, Natalia E. Ryabogina, Claudia Speciale, Nicoline Schjerven, Bettina Schulz Paulsson, Victor Yan Kin Lee, Elisabetta Canteri, Alice Revill, Fredrik Dahlberg, Serena Sabatini, Karin M. Frei, Fernando Racimo, Maria Ivanova-Bieg, Wolfgang Traylor, Emily J. Kate, Eve Derenne, Lea Frank, Jessie Woodbridge, Ralph Fyfe, Stephen Shennan, Kristian Kristiansen, Mark G. Thomas, Adrian Timpson

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This article presents a series of recommendations for the publication of archaeological data, to improve their usability. These 12 recommendations were formulated by archaeological data experts who mined thousands of publications for different data types (including funerary practices, accelerator mass spectrometry dating, stable isotopes, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany and pathologies) during the initial construction of the Big Interdisciplinary Archaeological Database (BIAD). We also include data harmonisation vocabularies utilised for the integration of data from different recording systems. The case studies we cite to illustrate the recommendations are grounded in examples from the published literature and are presented in a problem/solution format. Though …

Illustrated Stories Of Severe Asthma: A Case Study., John Kilburn, Darren Aoki, Rupert Jones, Alice Inman, Isabel Keen, Devon Tipping, Danielle Glover, Joseph Lanario

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This is a critical account of a project in which Illustration and oral history students developed demonstration graphic medicine artworks in response to interviews with people with severe asthma. The people with severe asthma collaborated with the students to produce the illustrated narratives as comics. The graphic medicine outputs tell the stories of how two lives changed due to new medications. This paper uses the student projects as a case study to explore the novel methodological approach. The comics demonstrate a shift in narrative authority towards the interviewees and the reader, and away from the artists who had no medical …

'How Far I'Ve Come': The Value Of Reviewing Past Written Reflections, Rachel Leyland, Miranda Heath, Tracey Collett, Elizabeth Drake, Hilary Neve

Peninsula Medical School

Promoting reflection on experience and developing students’ reflectiveskills is an important element of curricula across the health professions.Students often do not find reflection easy and educators usea range of approaches to facilitate this. This qualitative study analysedfinal year medical students’ written reflections about important anddifficult concepts they had encountered at medical school and personalchange. As part of this, students were expected to look back ontheir written reflections from earlier years of the undergraduate programme.An initial analysis identified ‘learning from past reflections’ asan important theme. Here we report an in-depth analysis of this theme.Thirty-six final year volunteer students’ reflections were analysed …