Digital Commons Network^™

The Evolution And Continued Monitoring Of Seagrass Meadows In Higher Town Bay, Isles Of Scilly, United Kingdom, Alex Mallinson

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The pressures of modern society have been proven to have widespread negative effects on worldwide seagrass meadows, thus necessitating an increased need for the accurate and long-term monitoring of sites of special interest. These monitoring programs have typically relied on the in-situ measurement of individual seagrass plants. However, technological advancements have increased the prevalence of new surveying techniques, including satellite imagery, aerial photography and bathymetric measurement. With the advent of machine learning, the processing of these methods has increased in efficiency and become more objective in nature, transforming the way surveys are being undertaken. This study focuses on the unique …

Benchmark Workshop On Application Of Stock Synthesis (Ss3) On Selected Stocks​ (Wkbss3), Mikel Aristegui-Ezquibela, Bryce Stewart

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Drivers Of Vegetation Structure Differ Between Proposed Natural Reference Conditions For Temperate Europe, Elena A. Pearce, Charles W. Davison, Florence Mazier, Signe Normand, Ralph Fyfe, Maria Antonia Serge, Paolo Scussolini, Jens Christian Svenning

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Aim: Pre-degradation baseline conditions (references) provide crucial context for restoration actions. Here, we compare vegetation structure and its driving processes across the main pre-agricultural references discussed for temperate Europe: the Last Interglacial and the early-mid Holocene—before and after the arrival of Homo sapiens, respectively. Location: Temperate Europe. Time Period: The first ~4000–6000 years, excluding the initial early-successional phases, of the Last Interglacial (PAAZ III) and Holocene (8700–5700 BP). Major Taxa Studied: Plants. Methods: We use large datasets of pollen-based vegetation reconstructions (REVEALS) to compare open vegetation, light woodland and closed forest between the two periods. We use Random Forest modelling …

Developing Capacity For Transdisciplinary Studies Of Changing Ocean Systems, Paul E. Renaud, Andrea Belgrano, Sam Dupont, Philip W. Boyd, Sinead Collins, Thorsten Blenckner, Michael Drexler, Jason M. Hall-Spencer, Carol Robinson, Charlotte T. Weber, Cristian A. Vargas

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Methods For Setting Thresholds For Good Status In Marine Ecosystems, Lorna Mckellar, Abigail Mcquatters-Gollop, Tomas Chaigneau, Cristina Vina-Herbon, Sebastian Valanko, Jan Geert Hiddink

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Estimating thresholds to distinguish between good and degraded ecosystem states is key for assessing and managing marine environments. Numerous methods are used to estimate thresholds; however, there is no standardized framework to evaluate their accuracy and reliability, which reduces the consistency and transparency of thresholds estimated for 'good' status. Statistical robustness of four methods was evaluated by varying stochastic noise, sample size, and shape of the pressure-state relationship of simulated indicator data. Range of natural variation and statistically detectable change methods, which quantify natural variation in undisturbed reference conditions, reliably estimated status thresholds for noisy, small datasets, but thresholds were …

A Practical Guide To Transcranial Ultrasonic Stimulation From The Ifcn-Endorsed Itrusst Consortium, Keith R. Murphy, Tulika Nandi, Benjamin Kop, Takahiro Osada, Maximilian Lueckel, W. Apoutou N'Djin, Kevin A. Caulfield, Anton Fomenko, Hartwig R. Siebner, Yoshikazu Ugawa, Lennart Verhagen, Sven Bestmann, Eleanor Martin, Kim Butts Pauly, Elsa Fouragnan, Til Ole Bergmann

School of Psychology

Low-intensity Transcranial Ultrasonic Stimulation (TUS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique enabling cortical and deep brain targeting with unprecedented spatial accuracy. Given the high rate of adoption by new users with varying levels of expertise and interdisciplinary backgrounds, practical guidelines are needed to ensure state-of-the-art TUS application and reproducible outcomes. Therefore, the International Transcranial Ultrasonic Stimulation Safety and Standards (ITRUSST) consortium has formed a subcommittee, endorsed by the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (IFCN), to develop recommendations for best practices in human TUS applications. The practical guide presented here provides a brief introduction into ultrasound physics and sonication parameters. It …

The Feasibility Of Ambulatory Heart Rate Variability Monitoring In Non‐Suicidal Self‐Injury, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

The polyvagal theory proposes that the autonomic nervous system influences affective systems and top-down emotional regulation.Vagal tone, as indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), is a measure of emotion regulation capacity. It is possible that non-suicidalself-injury (NSSI) occurs at times of low vagal tone and that NSSI may increase it. Little is known about the feasibility of collectingambulatory HRV data in the context of NSSI. This prospective observational study examined the feasibility of ambulatory HRVmonitoring during NSSI. Ten participants wore a chest-based heart rate monitor and used a diary app for 1 week. Baselinecharacteristics were collected. Heart rate monitoring duration, …

Iegenes: A Machine Learning Method For Selecting Differentially Expressed Genes In Cancer Studies, Xiao-Lei Xia, Shang-Ming Zhou, Yunguang Liu, Na Lin, Ian Overton

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Gene selection is crucial for cancer classification using microarray data. In the interests of improvingcancer classification accuracy, in this paper, we developed a new wrapper method called ieGENES for geneselection. First we proposed a parsimonious kernel machine regularization (PKMR) model by usingridge regularization in kernel machine driven classification to tackle multi-collinearity for the sake of stableestimates in high-dimensional settings. Then the ieGENES algorithm was developed to optimally identifyrelevant genes while iteratively eliminating redundant ones based on leave-one-out cross-validation accuracy.In particular, we developed a new methodology to optimally update model parameters upon gene removal.The ieGENES algorithm was evaluated on six cancer …

Fungi And Fungi-Like Entities, Claudia Pogoreutz, Miriam Reverter, Nathalia Delgadillo-Ordonez, Anna Roik

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Coral microbiology research has long focused on the composition and functional roles of prokaryotic organisms, but microeukaryotic communities, including the enigmatic fungi remain a poorly understood “black box” within coral and other holobionts. Here, we summarise what is known and hypothesised about the diversity, functional traits and potential, and chemodiversity of coral- and reef-associated fungi and fungi-like organisms (FLOs). Finally, we briefly outline the challenges associated with the characterization of marine fungi and provide a perspective for future studies to elucidate the biology, chemical ecology, and organismal interactions of marine fungi and FLOs within coral reef holobionts and their potentially …

Unlocking Opportunities To Transform Patient Care: An Expert Insight On Limitations And Opportunities In Patient Monitoring, Maurizio Cecconi, Ana L. Hutanu, John Beard, Patricio Gonzalez-Pizarro, Marlies Ostermann, Anna Batchelor, Jos M. Latour, Jörn Grensemann, Michele Giovanni Mondino, Jesus Caballero, Manfred Blobner, Finn M. Radtke

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background: Current patient monitoring technologies are crucial for delivering personalised and timely care and are critical in achieving the best health outcomes while maintaining high care standards. However, these technologies also present several challenges affecting patients and healthcare professionals. Information overload: Healthcare providers often deal with excess data, making it challenging to identify the most critical patient information quickly. This may lead to delays in necessary interventions and potentially poorer patient outcomes. Alarm fatigue: Many patient monitoring systems trigger frequent false alarms. This high incidence can cause healthcare providers to become desensitised, potentially leading to slower response times or overlooked …

The Effects Of Major Abdominal Surgery On Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Respiration In Relation To Systemic Redox Status And Cardiopulmonary Fitness, Jia L. Stevens, Daniel Martin, Helen Mckenna, Magdalena Minnion, Andrew Murray, Martin Feelisch

Peninsula Medical School

More complex surgeries are being performed in increasingly sicker patients, resulting in a greater burden of postoperative morbidity. Delineating the metabolic and bioenergetic changes that occur in response to surgical stress may further our understanding about how humans respond to injury and aid the identification of resilient and frail phenotypes. Skeletal muscle biopsies were taken from patients undergoing hepato-pancreatico-biliary surgery at the beginning and end of the procedure to measure mitochondrial respiration and thiol status. Blood samples were taken at the same timepoints to measure markers of inflammation and systemic redox state. A sub-group of patients underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing …

Future Climate-Driven Habitat Loss And Range Shift Of The Critically Endangered Whitefin Swellshark (Cephaloscyllium Albipinnum), Kerry Brown, Robert Puschendorf

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Climate change is driving many species to shift their geographical ranges poleward to maintain their environmental niche. However, for endemic species with restricted ranges, like the Critically Endangered whitefin swellshark (Cephaloscyllium albipinnum), endemic to southeastern Australia, such dispersal may be limited. Nevertheless, there is a poor understanding of how C. albipinnum might spatially adjust its distribution in response to climate change or whether suitable refugia exist for this species in the future. Therefore, to address this gap, this study utilised maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modelling to determine the potential distribution of suitable habitat for C. albipinnum under present-day (2010–2020) climate conditions …

Enhancing Diagnostic Accuracy Of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis On Chest X-Rays Using Data-Efficient Image Transformers, Joan Mnyambo, Amir Aly, Shang-Ming Zhou, Yinghui Wei, Stephen Mullin, Emmanuel Ifeachor

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease with increasing fatalities around the world. The diagnosis of the diseaseis a major challenge to its control and management due to the lack of adequate diagnostic tools, contributingsignificantly to the prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) modelshave recently been developed to detect drug-resistant tuberculosis by analyzing chest radiograph images fromthe TB portal, but the classification results are low. This is because CNNs struggle to capture complex globaland overlapping features in medical imaging, such as chest radiographs of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Incontrast, transformers excel in these areas by utilizing self-attention mechanisms that detect inherent subtle …

Techno-Economic Analysis For Floating Offshore Wind And Offshore Green Hydrogen, David Pegler, Deborah Greaves, Robert Rawlinson-Smith, Simone Michele, Daniel Conley, James Benhin

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This paper describes a techno-economic model for exploiting the Celtic Sea wind resource through direct productionof hydrogen offshore. The model conceives a modular approach with eight 510 MW floating windfarms,each with an electrolyser system and export compressor mounted on a jacket. The model ensures an uninterruptedhydrogen supply to an industrial cluster (16.4 te.H2/h) by incorporating salt cavern hydrogen storage.During periods of no power generation, baseload power is provided from hydrogen fuel cells. The base-casemodel with a Discount Rate of 6% returned an Levelised Cost of Hydrogen (LCoH) of £7.25 per kg of hydrogen in2023. The LCoH shows strong sensitivity to …

Social Comfort And Attractiveness Perception: Impact Of Prosthetics, Physical Disability And Comfort Distance On Interpersonal Interactions, Farid Pazhoohi, Samantha Wing, Alan Kingstone

School of Psychology

Derived from the disease-avoidance model is the hypothesis that people may direct negative cognitive and behavioural responses towards individuals with physical disfiguring conditions, including physical disabilities. According to the behavioral immune system, physical disability—a non-contagious physical disfigurement—may falsely activate cognitive disease-avoidance processes, resulting in prejudicial or negative responses toward individuals with physical disabilities. For the first time this hypothesis is put to the test by investigating whether ratings of attractiveness and comfort for a social interaction vary systematically with physical disability (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, we tested whether these ratings were associated with individual differences in pathogen disgust …

Beyond Lectures: Leveraging Competition, Peer Discussion And Real-World Scenarios In A Digital Card Game To Enhance Learning Of Microbiology And Immunology Concepts, Michael Dillon, James Edwards, Alexandra Hughes, Holly Stephenson

Peninsula Medical School

Teaching the complex interactions between hosts and pathogens is a fundamental yet educationally challenging aspect of life science and healthcare education. The intricate mechanisms of the immune system can pose significant barriers to students’ understanding of infectious disease diagnosis and treatment. To address this, we used a web-based digital whiteboard platform to design a card-based competitive game called Micro-Immune Battles, aimed at more actively engaging students with microbiology and immunology to better develop their knowledge and underlying concepts. The game facilitates learning through a series of infectious disease scenarios, providing student teams with ‘immune system response cards’ that represent various …

Exploring Experience Of Autism Among School Staff And Parents Of Autistic Children, And The Relevance Of Totalising And Non-Totalising Approaches To Facilitate Understandings., Emin Cetinbas

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

This thesis explored how the parents and school staff (teachers and teaching assistants) of primary aged autistic children understand and experience autism, including observation of the children they care for and educate. Totalising was used as a framework for conceptualising their understanding and use of non-totalising approaches such as externalising was also explored. Specific questions centred on a) how parents and teaching staff understand and experience autism in terms of the child being similar or different to other children, b) how relevant totalising is as a concept to aid in understanding of how the parents and teaching staff view autistic …

Mapping The Numbers Of Dementia In Brazil: A Delphi Consensus Study, Márlon Juliano Romero Aliberti, Claudia Kimie Suemoto, Jerson Laks, Paulo Caramelli, Sonia Maria Dozzi Brucki, Nicolas Farina, Daniel Apolinario, Einstein Francisco Camargos, Eleonora D'Orsi, Gilberto Sousa Alves, Karolina Gouveia César-Freitas, Luís Fernando Rangel, Márcia Lorena Fagundes Chaves, Marcos Antonio Lopes, Marcus Vinicius Della Coletta, Matheus Ghossain Barbosa, Norberto Anizio Ferreira Frota, Ricardo Nitrini, Cleusa Pinheiro Ferri

Peninsula Medical School

OBJECTIVES: As the global dementia crisis intensifies, especially in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is a pressing need for comprehensive prevalence data across diverse regions, including Brazil, where studies have been predominantly limited to affluent urban centers. This study aimed to conduct an expert consensus to determine the prevalence of all-cause dementia in Brazil, considering various age groups, sexes, and geographical areas.

METHODS: A Delphi consensus process with clinical and academic experts from across Brazil was conducted to provide dementia prevalence estimates in people aged ≥ 60 years living throughout Brazil for 2019. Each round consisted of answering structured questionnaires …

Overview Of Findings From The North Devon World Surfing Reserve Focus Group, Kizzy Beaumont, Greg Borne

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The North Devon World Surfing Reserve (NDWSR) focus group, held on the 19th June, 2024,brought together members of the Local Stewardship Council and key community representatives to reflect on past achievements, discuss current challenges, and envision future opportunities for the region. The focus group is part of a collaborative research project developed and run by researchers from the University of Plymouth and Falmouth University. Discussions revolved around technological advancements, community engagement, environmental concerns, and the socio-economic impacts of surfing tourism. This interim summary presents a high-level summary of initial findings, emphasising participant perspectives and the implications for future strategies.

Large Range Sizes Link Fast Life Histories With High Species Richness Across Wet Tropical Tree Floras, Timothy R. Baker, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Shin-Ichiro Aiba, Sophie Fauset, Perpetra Akite, Miguel Alexiades, Everton Almeida, Edmar Almeida De Oliveira, Esteban Alvarez Davila, Christian Amani, Ana Andrade, Luiz Aragao, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Eric Arets, Luzmila Arroyo, Peter Ashton, Suspense A. Averti Ifo, Gerardo A. C. Aymard, Michel Baisie, William Balee, Michael Balinga, Lindsay F. Banin, Olaf Banki, Christopher Baraloto, Jorcely Barroso, Hans Beeckman, Jean-Francois Bastin, Serge Begne, Natacha Nssi Bengone

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Understanding how the traits of lineages are related to diversification is key for elucidating the origin of variation in species richness. Here, we test whether traits are related to species richness among lineages of trees from all major biogeographical settings of the lowland wet tropics. We explore whether variation in mortality rate, breeding system and maximum diameter are related to species richness, either directly or via associations with range size, among 463 genera that contain wet tropical forest trees. For Amazonian genera, we also explore whether traits are related to species richness via variation among genera in mean species-level range …

Legal Dimensions Of Rights Of Nature Applied In The Context Of The River Plym: River Plym Project Phase 1 Appendix, Jason Lowther

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This review of the literature and legal framing of so-called river rights – loosely understood by reference to the extension of certain characteristics or a particular status upon the river – has been collated in the context of the River Plym-citizenship advocacy project. It aims to examine the legal and policy potential for the attribution of ‘rights’ upon the River Plym. It does so by outlining the challenges facing the waterway, in common with many others, and noting the limitations of the current regulatory systems applied to it. The paper then offers a commentary of legal alternatives to the current …

Beyond The Closed-Forest Paradigm: Cross-Scale Vegetation Structure In Temperate Europe Before The Late-Quaternary Megafauna Extinctions, Elena A. Pearce, Florence Mazier, Charles W. Davison, Oliver Baines, Szymon Czyzewski, Ralph Fyfe, K Binka, Steve Boreham, Jacques Louis De Beaulieu, Cunhai Gao, Wojciech Granoszewski, Anna Hrynowiecka, Małgorzata Malkiewicz, Tim Mighall, Bożena Noryśkiewicz, Irena Agnieszka Pidek, Jaqueline Strahl, Hanna Winter, Jens Christian Svenning

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Last Interglacial (∼129,000–116,000 years ago) provides key insights into temperate European vegetation dynamics before significant anthropogenic impacts. Using LOVE (Local Vegetation Estimates) and REVEALS (Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites) models, this study reconstructs vegetation patterns across local (∼9 km²) and regional (∼100 km²) scales. Local landscapes presented a heterogeneous mosaic, with averages of 17 % open vegetation, 21 % closed forests, and 63 % light woodlands, reflecting high fine-scale heterogeneity. Importantly, weak local-regional correlations highlight the importance of localised drivers. Longitude and, to a lesser extent, precipitation explained some variation in local vegetation openness, but heterogeneity …

Exenatide Once A Week Versus Placebo As A Potential Disease-Modifying Treatment For People With Parkinson's Disease In The Uk: A Phase 3, Multicentre, Double-Blind, Parallel-Group, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Trial, Nirosen Vijiaratnam, Christine Girges, Grace Auld, Rachel Mccomish, Alexa King, Simon S Skene, Steve Hibbert, Alan Wong, Sabina Melander, Rachel Gibson, Helen Matthews, John Dickson, Camille Carroll, Abigail Patrick, Jemma Inches, Monty Silverdale, Bethan Blackledge, Jessica Whiston, Michele Hu, Jessica Welch, Gordon Duncan, Katie Power, Sarah Gallen, Jacqueline Kerr, K Ray Chaudhuri, Lucia Batzu, Silvia Rota, Edwin Jabbari, Huw Morris, Patricia Limousin

Peninsula Medical School

Background: GLP-1 receptor agonists have neurotrophic properties in in-vitro and in-vivo models of Parkinson's disease and results of epidemiological studies and small randomised trials have suggested possible benefits for risk and progression of Parkinson's disease. We aimed to establish whether the GLP-1 receptor agonist, exenatide, could slow the rate of progression of Parkinson's disease. Methods: We did a phase 3, multicentre, double-blind, parallel-group, randomised, placebo-controlled trial at six research hospitals in the UK. Participants were aged 25–80 years with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, were at Hoehn and Yahr stage 2·5 or less when on dopaminergic treatment, and were on …

Sustainability Considerations For End-Of-Life Fibre-Reinforced Plastic Boats, Ruadan Geraghty, Jasper Graham-Jones, Richard Pemberton, John Summerscales, Simon Bray

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

In the 1950s, glass fibre-reinforced polyester resin (GRP, also known as fibreglass or glassfibre) composites replaced wood and metal as the material for small recreational and work boats. The changes resulted from relative ease of manufacture, durability, and low maintenance. New fibres and resins then became available to create a wider range of Fibre-Reinforced Plastics (FRP). Vessels remain serviceable beyond design life: 10 years for inflatables, 20 years for motorboats and 30 years plus for sailboats. Many vessels have now reached end-of-life (EoL) and become Abandoned or Derelict Vessels (ADV). Given that thermosetting resin is not easy to recycle, these …

The Influence Of Climate On The Invasion Of The Asian Hornet (Vespa Velutina) To Guernsey, Channel Islands: Citizen Science And Misidentified Aliens, Laura C. Wade, Francis J. Russell, Ashwitha L. Aranha, Mairi E. Knight, Jonathan S. Ellis

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Vespa velutina is an Asian bee-hawking hornet that has rapidly colonised continental Europe since its accidental introduction in 2004. Its range continues to expand with the first confirmed sightings in Guernsey in 2017. This study aimed to analyse local weather variables over three years to assess their importance for predicting Asian hornet occurrences. We also investigated citizen science reporting to ascertain which species the public most commonly misidentify as Asian hornets. Weather analysis using zero-inflated negative binomial regression showed that Asian hornet observations are more likely in warmer weather (air temperature > 12 °C). The year 2019 significantly affected the likelihood …

Looking Out For Danger: Theoretical And Empirical Issues In Translating Human Attention Bias Tasks To Assess Animal Affective States, Sarah Kappel, Sarah Collins, Michael Mendl, Carole Fureix

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Understanding animal emotional (affective) state is highly relevant to various disciplines (e.g., animal welfare, neuroscience, comparative psychology), and has been significantly advanced by translating affect-induced cognitive bias paradigms rooted in human psychology to non-human animal studies. Attention bias (i.e., preferential attention allocation, AB) tests are increasingly used as more practical substitutes to commonly used judgement bias tests. Yet, evidence that AB reflects affective valence in animals is still limited. We review in-depth the concept of attention and AB described in humans and discuss utilising human-derived AB paradigms for measuring animal affective states. We describe key concepts and functions of attention …

Positive Species Interactions Structure Rhodolith Bed Communities At A Global Scale, Fabio Bulleri, Nadine Schubert, Jason M. Hall-Spencer, Daniela Basso, Heidi L. Burdett, Ronaldo B. Francini-Filho, Jacques Grall, Paulo A. Horta, Nicholas A. Kamenos, Sophie Martin, Matteo Nannini, Pedro Neves, Irene Olivé, Viviana Peña, Federica Ragazzola, Cláudia Ribeiro, Eli Rinde, Marina Sissini, Fernando Tuya, João Silva

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Rhodolith beds are diverse and globally distributed habitats. Nonetheless, the role of rhodoliths in structuring the associated species community through a hierarchy of positive interactions is yet to be recognised. In this review, we provide evidence that rhodoliths can function as foundation species of multi-level facilitation cascades and, hence, are fundamental for the persistence of hierarchically structured communities within coastal oceans. Rhodoliths generate facilitation cascades by buffering physical stress, reducing consumer pressure and enhancing resource availability. Due to large variations in their shape, size and density, a single rhodolith bed can support multiple taxonomically distant and architecturally distinct habitat-forming species, …

Instrument Adaptation For Measuring Early Child Language Development Across Multilingual And Sociocultural Diverse Settings, Heather Brookes, Frenette Southwood, Martin Mössmer, Patricia Makaure, Michelle J. White, Carmen Coetsee, Sefela L. Yalala, Helena Kruger, Mikateko Ndhambi, Sibusiso Ndlangamandla, Monicca T. Bhuda, Nina Brink, Nomfundo Buthelezi, William Jiyana, F. Portia Khumalo, Babalwa Ludidi, Muzi Matfunjwa, Lufuno Miriri, Nomsa Skosana

School of Psychology

This article describes the adaptation of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) for South Africa’s 11 official spoken languages. The CDI is a parent-report tool that measures early language development from 8 to 30 months. We developed cross-linguistically comparable CDIs, representing two distinct language families, West Germanic and southern Bantu, using a common protocol. We describe our approach to item construction and harmonization across languages and to obtaining sociodemographic information in different cultural settings. Issues such as language contact and variation, sampling, data collection, and quality control are discussed as well as item selection and instrument reliability and validity. This …

Ai And Mental Healthcare - Opportunities And Delivery Considerations, Hannah Gardiner, Natasha Mutebi

School of Health Professions

Overview• Mental healthcare provision in the UK faces rising demand and workforcecapacity issues. Evidence indicates artificial intelligence (AI) could supportadministrative tasks and provide direct support to service users.• Innovations within ‘precision psychiatry’ appear to show promise for precisediagnosis, monitoring, and risk prediction of mental health conditions.• Trials and use of AI are ongoing across the UK and internationally, withimportant distinctions between: AI tools built for mental healthcare in theNHS that are subject to standards and regulation; consumer products forwellbeing with less regulatory oversight; and AI tools not intended formental health but used by people with mental health challenges.• Stakeholders suggest …

One Health Investigation Following A Cluster Of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, North Macedonia, July To November 2023, Dejan Jakimovski, Pavle Banović, Katerina Spasovska, Goran Rangelov, Marija Cvetanovska, Fadil Cana, Verica Simin, Ivana Bogdan, Dragana Mijatović, Aleksandar Cvetkovikj, Igor Djadjovski, Iva Christova, Eleftherios Meletis, Polychronis Kostoulas, Brigitta Zana, Zsófia Lanszki, Tamás Görföl, Zsófia Tauber, Gábor Kemenesi

School of Biomedical Sciences

Background: Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever(CCHF) is a severe illness characterised by fever,bleeding and high case-fatality rates. The disease iscaused by CCHF virus (CCHFV), transmitted by ticksand infectious body fluids and tissues. Aim: After CCHFwas diagnosed in three persons in 2023, we aimed toinvestigate the presence of antibodies against CCHFVin healthcare workers (HCW), sheep and goats, andof CCHFV in ticks, in an area in North Macedonia andcharacterise virus strains. Methods: In 2023, we collected blood samples from HCWs involved in treating CCHF patients and sera and ticks from sheep andgoats in the village in North Macedonia where theindex case resided. The blood …