Digital Commons Network^™

Decades Of National Health Strategy In England On Intellectual Disability And The Drift From Evidence-Based Practice, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Explainable Ai For Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Detection From Chest X-Rays: Multi-Level Interpretability And Cross-Dataset Transfer Learning: Multi-Level Interpretability And Cross-Dataset Transfer Learning, Joan Mnyambo, Amir Aly, Emmanuel Ifeachor, Yinghui Wei

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) continues to pose a major global health challenge, with hundreds of thousands of new cases reported annually, resulting in a substantial mortality burden. Delayed or inaccurate diagnosis contributes to ongoing transmission, treatment failure, and increased deaths, highlighting the need for timely and dependable detection, particularly in low-resource healthcare settings. Although chest X-rays (CXRs) are widely available and commonly used for tuberculosis screening, reliable and interpretable approaches for distinguishing drug-resistant from drug-sensitive tuberculosis (DS-TB) remain limited. Despite recent advances in deep learning, explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) methods for DR-TB identification are still underexplored, thereby reducing clinical trust and …

The 2023 Mw 6.8 Al Haouz, Morocco Earthquake: A Multi-Layer Reconnaissance Framework For The Remote Sensing And Field Assessment Of Landslides, Building And Heritage Damage, And Road Access Disruption In The High Atlas Region, Viviana Novelli, Martin Stokes, Sarah Boulton

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

On 8 September 2023, a Mw 6.8 earthquake struck Morocco’s High Atlas region, causing nearly 3,000 fatalities and widespread damage across rural, mountainous settlements dominated by traditional and non-engineered construction, and affecting cultural heritage assets. The event triggered landslides that further increased the isolation of affected communities. This study presents findings from the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) mission. Different radar and optical remote sensing techniques were used to identify areas most affected by earthquake-induced landslides and building damage, guiding the field investigations. A total of 2,671 earthquake-induced landslides were identified; although relatively limited for an event of this …

Evidence Synthesis Of The Ethical And Legal Challenges Of Generative Artificial Intelligence In The Provision Of Patient Health Information, Krithika Anil, Inocencio Maramba, David Cook, Daniel Cyrus, Zhamayne Fakharuzi, Amir Hossein Namdar, Timothy West, Sandeep Shirgill

Peninsula Medical School

Large language model (LLM)-based generative AI offers the promise of responsive health information for patients and carers but presents ethical and legal challenges when used outside clinical oversight. This review maps these considerations for patients accessing information on long-term conditions in non-clinical settings. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Web of Science) between April and May 2025. The review synthesises 24 cross-sectional studies regarding patient-facing LLMs, excluding clinician-support tools. Results indicate that LLMs perform well on general topics but struggle with specialised information, often generating complex responses with unreliable citations. Ethical concerns highlight inaccuracy, insufficient empathy, …

Considering Participatory Illustration For Lgbtq+ Inclusion In Climate Discussions: Transformative Learning Theory And Identity, Devon Tipping

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Historically climate discussions have been influenced by dominant discourses that frequently overlook intersectional perspectives. To address this, this article explores how participatory illustration, as a process for listening, reflecting, and co-creating meaning, can enable individuals to consider alternative perspectives on climate discussions in inclusive and transformative ways. As a form of artistic research, illustration moves beyond visual representation to prioritise community-driven strategies for fostering climate solutions and amplifying marginalised voices. This research, formed of five participatory illustration-led workshops with LGBTQ+ individuals in the South-west of England, sought to explore how participatory illustration can foster inclusive climate discussions. Drawing upon transformative …

Learning From The Field: Reflections On The Use Of Theory, Mixed Methods And Case Study Design To Explore Implementation And Experience In Mental Health Crisis Services For Children And Young People, Aled Jones

School of Nursing and Midwifery

This article arises from a theory-informed, sequential, mixed methods project which combined a survey and multiple nested case studies to examine implementation and experience in the context of mental health crisis services for children and young people in England and Wales. Its primary contribution to mixed methods research is to show how theory, mixed methods and case studies can be practicably brought together to improve understanding of complex interventions introduced into complex systems. It makes a further contribution through a reflective exploration of the implementation of mixed methods research in sensitive fields involving vulnerable groups, by specifically exploring: participation and …

Coseismic Shallow Landslide Distributions Reveal Patterns Of Regolith Thickness In High Mountains, Suryodoy Ghoshal, Sarah Boulton, Tristram C. Hales, Georgina L. Bennett, Amy Beswick, Joshua N Jones, Shaun Lewin, Zoe Mildon, Martin Stokes, Michael Whitworth, Benjamin Campforts

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Earthquake-triggered landslides are a major source of sediment mobilization in steep mountain landscapes, yet the controls that organize regional patterns of coseismic shallow failure remain incompletely understood. Because shallow landslides occur within regolith, their initiation and magnitude depend strongly on near-surface material thickness, which is rarely measured directly in mountainous terrain. Here we introduce ShallowLandslider, a hybrid physical–statistical framework that combines critical-acceleration slope-stability calculations with stochastic realization of discrete landslide populations. We apply the model to two geomorphically distinct subregions affected by the 2015 ���� 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal and compare modeled and observed distributions of landslide area, elevation, …

Integrating Dietitians Into Primary Dental Care For Paediatric Populations: Developing A Conceptual Service Pathway Through A Professional Stakeholder Workshop, Lauren Hallewell, Raul Bescos, Zoe Brookes, Robert Witton, Patricia Casas-Agustench

School of Health Professions

BACKGROUND: Diet is a common risk factor influencing both oral and systemic health, yet dietary support within dental care is often limited to brief advice focused on sugar intake. Integrating dietitians into primary dental care for the paediatric population may support earlier identification of dietary concerns and provide the opportunity for dietetic care. However, no established integrated dietetic-dental service pathway for paediatric populations has been identified within primary dental care settings in the United Kingdom.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how selected full-consensus agreement statements could be configured into a conceptual dietetic-dental service pathway for paediatric populations attending primary dental care services …

The Soundscape Wheel: A Conceptual Map For Tourism Geographers, R. Keller, N. Wilsnach, U. Ruiz-Arana, G. Cerwén, J. Martin, C. Van Bendegom, Y. Hu

Professional Services

Soundscapes are receiving increasing attention in tourism studies. Much focus is given to noise generated by tourism, whereas the role of sound in experiences of place has received less attention. To address this gap, we introduce a ‘soundscape wheel’ as a theoretical and applied tool that can inform transdisciplinary work across tourism studies. The aim of this conceptual map is to discern the ways soundscapes are addressed in the literature spanning natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, with the hope of better informing tourism geographers’ engagement with sound and other sensorial elements of place. This conceptual map was derived by …

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, And Deep Learning Approaches For Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Diagnosis: Protocol For A Scoping Review, Benedict Onochie Ibe, Amir Aly, Shaymaa S Al-Juboori, Emmanuel Ifeachor, Rohit Shankar

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

BACKGROUND: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects over 366 million adults and 139 million children worldwide, yet diagnosis remains fundamentally subjective, relying on clinical interviews, behavioral observations, and rating scales that yield inconsistent results across practitioners and settings. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) offer a paradigm shift toward objective, data-driven diagnosis by detecting complex patterns across neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and digital biomarkers that elude conventional assessment. Although AI-based ADHD research has grown exponentially, no comprehensive synthesis examines the full spectrum of data modalities, validation practices, and clinical translation readiness. This gap limits our understanding of which approaches are …

Perspectives On Person‐Centred End‐Of‐Life Care In Care Homes: Findings From A Qualitative Secondary Analysis, Gary Hodge, Susie Pearce

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background: The number of older people dying in long-term care facilities (LTCF) is growing globally. This highlights an urgent need for high-quality and person-centred palliative and end-of-life care (PEoLC) to be incorporated in LTCFs’, such as care homes. Resident health and care complexities can lead to challenges around PEoLC decision-making and delays in pre-death discussions, ultimately impacting on a care home’s ability to provide a ‘good death’ for the resident and those caring for them. Aim: We aimed to explore what good person-centred end-of-life care might look like in a care home from the perspective of residents, family members and …

Timing Matters: Contrasting Public Sentiment During Wuhan’S And Shanghai’S Covid-19 Lockdowns, Xuanda Pei, Yuzuru Isoda, Tomoki Nakaya, Clive E. Sabel

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Optimal crisis management depends on how much the public can tolerate stringent measures. Using large-scale Weibo microblog data and two sentiment analysis models, this study investigated and compared public sentiment responses during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Wuhan and Shanghai, focusing on how residents’ emotional expressions evolved across different stages of the pandemic. Binary and six-emotion sentiment analysis models based on bidirectional encoder repre-sentations from transformers (BERT) were employed to examine how the two cities developed distinct emotional trajectories. Emotional responses in Wuhan followed emotional Phases of Disaster, with sharp tran-sitions from shock to solidarity, followed by disillusion-ment. Conversely, Shanghai’s residents …

Operationalising Equity In Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management, Riley Bibaud, Tom Mullier, Matthew Ashley, Holly Niner, Lauren Stewart, Siân Rees

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Equity is increasingly recognised as a critical dimension of sustainable ocean governance, yet operational frameworks for incorporating equity considerations into marine governance remain limited. Fisheries management practices have traditionally concentrated on stock sustainability and commercial extraction, often without fully addressing the broader ecosystem dynamics that underpin fish populations throughout key life stages. This study explores how Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) can support more equitable outcomes by applying a beneficiary-centric natural capital framework to the Celtic Sea and Western Channel Pelagic Fisheries Management Plan. A typology of beneficiaries was developed to assess the distribution of ecosystem service benefits, followed by a …

A Folk Taxonomy Of Magic, Gustav Kuhn, Cyril Thomas, Griffiths Thomas

School of Psychology

Magic tricks provide a uniquely powerful window onto the boundaries of what people consider possible, and the ways in which those boundaries can be challenged. Although there exists an effectively infinite variety of magic tricks, relatively little is known about how different magical effects relate to one another at a psychological level. Previous attempts to classify magic have largely relied on the judgments of a small number of expert magicians, rather than capturing people’s intuitive understanding of magical phenomena. Here, we introduce a new multi-dimensional taxonomy of magic that treats the observable effect (e.g., an object vanishing) and the attributed …

The Case For And Against Keeping Complete Denture Fabrication In The Uk Undergraduate Curriculum, James Puryer

Peninsula Dental School

As complete edentulism becomes less common, should complete denture fabrication remain at the heart of undergraduate dental training?

Demand-Side Measures Improve Long-Term Resilience To Supply Shocks Beyond Emergencies, Caroline Zimm, Benigna Boza-Kiss, Shonali Pachauri, Diana Uerge-Vorsatz, Souran Chatterjee, Alessio Mastrucci, Jihoon Min, Sascha Nick, Johannes Thema, Frauke Wiese, Bas Van Ruijven, Elena Verdolini, Carina Zell-Ziegler

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Recent energy supply disruptions have prompted some governments to deploy demand-side measures as emergency responses. These crises reveal that systems built on high and inflexible energy and material demand are structurally exposed to shocks. This vulnerability is rooted in earlier political, infrastructural, and economic choices that locked societies into resource-intensive mobility, housing, and production. Crises are not only moments requiring rapid response; they are junctures where structural weaknesses become available for reform. We argue that demand-side measures are essential for reducing the immediate pain of crises and for reconfiguring provisioning systems toward lasting resilience. Drawing on examples spanning oil, electricity, …

The Importance Of Community-Based Teaching, Casper Jonker, Abdulaziz Alawadhi, Guy Lambourn, Zoe Brookes, Marina Bozic, James Puryer

Peninsula Dental School

‘Dental deserts’ present clear challenges, but can they also offer unique opportunities for dental education and patient care?

Theatre Practitioners’ Knowledge And Practice Of The Management Of Local Anaesthetic Systemic Toxicity: Results Of A Service Evaluation, Adeola Adebisi

South West Clinical School Journal

No abstract provided.

Theatre Staff Knowledge And Confidence Of Surgical Robotics: A Service Evaluation Using A Survey, Sandhya Rani Sudhakar Puli

South West Clinical School Journal

No abstract provided.

Theatre Staff Knowledge, Confidence And Practice Of Surgical Robotics: A Service Evaluation Using Focus Group Discussions, Sandhya Rani Sudhakar Puli

South West Clinical School Journal

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Knowledge Of Operating Theatre Staff Regarding Safe Surgical Positioning Of Patients: Results Of A Service Evaluation, Naila Janifer

South West Clinical School Journal

No abstract provided.

Nurses’ Perceptions, Experiences And Emotional Responses To The Care Quality Metrics Programme: A Service Evaluation Project Proposal, Antonella Durante

South West Clinical School Journal

No abstract provided.

Recording Of Menopause Discussions With Women During Mental Health Assessment By Home Treatment Service Staff: A Service Evaluation, Carolyn Broome

South West Clinical School Journal

No abstract provided.

Camouflaging Autistic Traits Is Not A Consequence Of Conformist Tendencies, Alastair Smith, Rhiannon Walsh

School of Psychology

Social camouflaging behaviours are often used by people with high autistic traits to negotiate a predominantly neurotypical social world. Previous discussion has associated camouflaging with a tendency to conform, although it has also been suggested that masking autistic tendencies may be a more specific motivating factor. The relationship between autistic traits and conformity is itself equivocal, suggesting that it may not necessarily be a driving force for social camouflaging in this group. To better characterise the relationship between these factors, we conducted an exploratory questionnaire study comprising measures of social conformity (Tendency to Conform Questionnaire), autistic traits (AQ), social camouflaging …

Shallow Margin Fish Biomass Estimates In Lake Victoria Using Horizontal-Beam Acoustics, Yang Yang, Roland Proud, Robert Kayanda, Collins Ongore, Mboni Elison, Hillary Mrosso, Benedicto B Kashindye, Andrew S Brierley, Alina M Wieczorek

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Digital Infrastructure For The Inclusion Of Small And Medium Enterprises (Smes) In Design For Distributed Manufacturing And Assembly Construction Ecosystems, Alejandro Veliz Reyes, Duhan Olmez, Alastair Parvin, Clayton Prest, Gabriele Granello, Amber Richardson, Alex Tempest, Kester Hoefkens, Louisa Knowles, Silas Fowler

School of Art, Design and Architecture

The construction sector faces growing pressure to meet net-zero targets while addressing skills shortages, fragmented supply chains, and the limited participation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), despite SMEs delivering most UK construction output. Existing centralised models of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) often exclude SMEs, highlighting the need for alternative approaches that support inclusive, low-carbon industrial transformation. This paper presents a Design for Distributed Manufacturing and Assembly (DfDMA) framework that develops the shared digital and organisational infrastructure required for SME participation in timber-based MMC. Using a mixed-method approach combining co-design, research-in-residence, prototyping, and a full-scale demonstrator, the study developed …

Pyrolysis Of Biomass Feedstocks For Hydrogen-Enriched Syngas Production: Cold Gas Efficiency Modelling, Latin Hypercube Uncertainty Analysis, And Parametric Stress Analysis, Hadi Taghavifar, Thomas Allison, Hao Chen, Dibyendu Roy, Abdullah Malik, Yaodong Wang, Anthony Paul Roskilly, K.V. Shivaprasad

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Biomass-derived syngas offers a viable pathway for producing renewable, hydrogen-rich fuel gas. However, its conversion performance is influenced by feedstock type, temperature, feed rate, and moisture content. This study develops a Cold Gas Efficiency (CGE) model for four agricultural feedstocks: wheat, barley, oilseed rape, and beans. Temperature-dependent regression correlations are developed for the main syngas components and gas flow rate using experimental data. Results show that CGE is highly sensitive to temperature, with low-temperature stress (0–5th percentile) reducing mean CGE by up to 22%. High-moisture stress (95–100th percentile) produced an even larger decline, lowering mean CGE from ∼44% to ∼35% …

‘I’Ve Always Been On Call For My Sister’: An Exploration Of The Impact Of Having A Sibling With A Life Limiting Condition On The Experience Of Education, Emily Joanne Pinn

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

There are currently approximately 99,000 babies, children and young people living with life-limiting conditions (LLCs) in the UK alone (Together for Short Lives, 2025b). Many of these young people will have siblings who are navigating the opportunities and challenges of having a sibling with an LLC. Despite this, there is a stark lack of research investigating the impact of being one of these siblings. As a result, this combined autoethnographic and qualitative enquiry will aim to provide an insight into how young people’s experiences of being a young carer to a sibling with an LLC impacted different elements of their …

Microbiome Dynamics During Translocation Of The Critically Endangered Frog Craugastor Ranoides, Xavier A. Harrison, Katherine Herborn, Gilbert Alvarado, Maria Marta Chavarria, Kirtsy J. Marsh, Alexander Wilson, Alexandra North, Vikki Wakeham, Roberto Fernández Ugalde, Héctor Zumbado-Ulate, Jon Bielby, Robert Puschendorf

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Amphibian populations are declining, and species are going extinct due to habitat loss, climate change, and emerging infectious disease, prompting the increasing use of translocations as a conservation tool. Skin-associated bacterial communities play a key role in amphibian health, particularly in protecting hosts from pathogenic infection. However, to date weknow relatively little about the impact of translocation on the dynamics of skin-associated bacteria, or the consequences oftranslocation-mediated disturbance of the microbiome for amphibian health. We investigated the skin microbiome of the critically endangered frog Craugastor ranoides, now restricted to a fraction of its historical range in Costa Rica. We first …

Bouldering The Academic Wall, Alicja Syska

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.