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The Assessment Of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines In Extreme Conditions, Andre Onife Alwyn White

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The purpose of this research is to assess if a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) system that is suitable for the environmental conditions in the Scottish North Sea (SNS) is also suitable for the environmental conditions in the Jamaica Caribbean Sea (JCS). A FOWT within Jamaica is an important structure because it produces renewable energy which helps to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel as the primary source of energy. At the same time, it also contributes to reducing global warming caused by climate change effects. These structures, therefore, must be robust enough to withstand the most extreme environmental conditions …

Social Connections And Social Identity As A Basis For Learning And Support: Experiences Of Medical Students With Minoritised And Non-Minoritised Ethnic Identities, Stephanie Bull, Rohini Terry, Neil Rice, Daniele Carrieri, Mark Tarrant, Gerens Curnow

School of Psychology

Background: Social connections between medical students provide a key basis for learning and support. These connections, and associated social identity, may be patterned by ethnicity, and students often perform similarly academically to those they connect with. The mechanisms that underpin the formation of these connections and the role that they play are not fully understood. This study explored how medical students connect with each other, and the potential impact of this on their academic attainment and well-being, with a focus on students with minoritised ethnic identities. Methods: A mixed methods study combining (1) a survey to establish the number and …

Peer Inclusion And School Equality Norm Associations With Intergroup Contact, And Academic Self-Efficacy Amongst Ethnic Majority And Ethnic Minority Youth, Shelley Mckeown, Gian Antonio Di Bernardo, Jaysan Charlesford, Loris Vezzali, Thia Sagherian-Dickey

School of Psychology

Social norms are important predictors of youth attitudes and behaviours. There is substantial evidence that positive and meaningful intergroup contact supported by inclusive norms can have a range of benefits beyond prejudice reduction. The present research explores whether perceived peer inclusion norms and perceived norms of equality in school are associated with better quality and more frequent intergroup contact and in turn, whether these are associated with better academic self-efficacy. To test these assertions, we conducted a cross-sectional survey with ethnic majority and ethnic minority youth aged 11–12 (n = 629, 48% female, 43% minority ethnic) attending one of four …

Open‐Label, Clinical Trial Extension: Two‐Year Safety And Efficacy Results Of Seladelpar In Patients With Primary Biliary Cholangitis, Marlyn J. Mayo, John M. Vierling, Christopher L. Bowlus, Cynthia Levy, Gideon M. Hirschfield, Guy W. Neff, Michael R. Galambos, Stuart C. Gordon, Brian B. Borg, Stephen A. Harrison, Paul J. Thuluvath, Aparna Goel, Mitchell L. Shiffman, Mark G. Swain, David E.J. Jones, Palak Trivedi, Andreas E. Kremer, Richard J. Aspinall, David A. Sheridan, Yvonne Dörffel, Ke Yang, Yun Jung Choi, Charles A. Mcwherter

Peninsula Medical School

Background Seladelpar is a potent and selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-δ agonist that targets multiple cell types involved in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), leading to anti-cholestatic, anti-inflammatory and anti-pruritic effects. Aims To evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of seladelpar in patients with PBC. Methods In an open-label, international, long-term extension study, patients with PBC completing seladelpar lead-in studies continued treatment. Seladelpar was taken orally once daily at doses of 5 or 10 mg with dose adjustment permitted for safety or tolerability. The primary analysis was for safety and the secondary efficacy analysis examined biochemical markers of cholestasis and liver injury. …

Enhancing Pitch Stability In Floating Wind Platforms: The Hydrodynamic Effects Of Thin Plates, Ignacio Pregnan Johannesen

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT) technology is still at an early stage looking for ways to make it competitive. In the case of semi-submersible FOWT the large structure has been pointed as an option to tackle the final energy price and therefore, smaller/cheaper platforms are desired. However, this would have implications on the platform hydrodynamic performance. This thesis discusses the use of thin disks as pitch motion suppression surfaces for FOWT platforms, employing three methodologies; potential flow, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Experiments. With NEMOH a boundary element method code, the added mass and excitation forces/moments were calculated for …

Data Security And User Authentication In Public Cloud Computing Environments, Nelson Vasconcelos Soares Dos Santos

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Cloud computing has become a prevalent paradigm for organisations and individuals, offering a range of services and resources that enable the efficient management, processing and storage of large quantities of data. However, despite its numerous advantages, cloud computing also presents significant challenges related to data security and user authentication. The distributed nature of cloud environments, coupled with the relinquishment of control over data to cloud service providers, has raised concerns regarding data vulnerability to various types of attacks, such as data breaches, malware injection, and denial of service. Moreover, traditional password and token-based authentication methods have been shown to be …

Cheating And The Effect Of Promises In Indian And German Children, Patricia Kanngiesser, Jahnavi Sunderarajan, Jan K. Woike

School of Psychology

Cheating is harmful to others and society at large. Promises have been shown to increase honesty in children, but their effectiveness has not been compared between different cultural contexts. In a study (2019) with 7- to 12-year-olds (N = 406, 48% female, middle-class), voluntary promises reduced cheating in Indian, but not in German children. Children in both contexts cheated, but cheating rates were lower in Germany than in India. In both contexts, cheating decreased with age in the (no-promise) control condition and was unaffected by age in the promise condition. These findings suggest that there may exist a threshold beyond …

The Importance Of Acoustic Output Measurement And Monitoring For The Replicability Of Transcranial Ultrasonic Stimulation Studies, Miriam C. Klein-Flügge, Elsa F. Fouragnan, Eleanor Martin

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Facial First Impressions Following A Prison Sentence: Negative Shift In Trait Ratings But The Same Underlying Structure, Coral M. Coutts, Chris Longmore, Mila Mileva

School of Psychology

The first impressions we form of unfamiliar others can often guide many important decisions such as whether someone is guilty of a crime or the severity of their sentence, even in the presence of more relevant information. While most of the current work in this context has focused on their impact during trial proceedings and sentencing, little is known about the potential impact of first impressions following a guilty sentence and the success of the subsequent reintegration into society. Here, we used a data-driven approach to address this question by first collecting unconstrained spontaneous impressions from two groups of perceivers …

Gendered Violence And Sexualized Representations In Video Games: (Lack Of) Effect On Gender-Related Attitudes, Liam Cross, Linda K. Kaye, Juris Savostijanovs, Neil Mclatchie, Matthew Johnston, Liam Whiteman, Robyn Mooney, Gray Atherton

School of Psychology

This research explored how gender portrayals in video games affect gender-related attitudes. Two hundred participants from the United Kingdom and Malaysia participated across three experiments, where the appearance and behaviour of video game characters were manipulated with regard to target (enemy) gender (Study 1), sexually explicit attire (Study 2) and level of character agency (Study 3). We found minimal evidence that exposure to gender-stereotyped content resulted in differential gender-related attitudes (implicit associations, hostile and benevolent sexism, or rape myth acceptance). However, Study 1 findings showed that individuals who played a first-person shooter with male enemies showed lower endorsement of some …

Reward Count(S): Negative Recency In Probabilistic Experience-Based Learning, Andy Wills, René Schlegelmilch, Bettina Von Helversen

School of Psychology

Learning how to make decisions from experience is often studied using probabilistic outcome prediction or choice tasks, asin conditioning, reward learning, or risky gambles (e.g., response A provides reward in 75% of the cases, response B in25% over repeated trials with feedback). One debated phenomenon in such tasks is that of negative recency, describingthat learners expect the rare event after observing a streak ofcommon events (e.g., Gamblers fallacy). Here, we show thatthis behavior, despite instructing participants to use a visualstimulus, also occurs in probabilistic single-cue conditioningtraining, where participants predicted whether digging at a specific location on a plane (visual cue) …

Association Of Life History Strategy And Mate Retention Behavior In Men And Women, Sepide Pazhouhi, Ray Garza, Farid Pazhoohi

School of Psychology

From an evolutionary perspective, both men and women use a variety of guarding tactics to keep their romantic partners in the relationship. For men, these benefits increase paternity certainty, while for women, they guarantee male investment in the woman and her children. The current research aimed to explore the association between life history strategy (LHS) and mate retention behaviors in men and women from Iran and the UK. We hypothesized that individuals with a slower life history strategy will show a positive association with benefit-provisioning mate retention (e.g., gift-giving, affection), and a negative association with cost-inflicting mate retention (e.g., emotional …

Loss Of The Scavenger Receptor Marco Results In Uncontrolled Vomocytosis Of Fungi From Macrophages, Chinaemerem U. Onyishi, Yusun Jeon, Gyorgy Fejer, Subhankar Mukhopadhyay, Siamon Gordon, Robin C. May

School of Biomedical Sciences

Vomocytosis, also known as nonlytic exocytosis, is a process whereby fully phagocytosed microbes are expelled from phagocytes without discernible damage to either the phagocyte or microbe. Although this phenomenon was first described in the opportunistic fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans in 2006, to date, mechanistic studies have been hampered by an inability to reliably stimulate or inhibit vomocytosis. Here we present the fortuitous discovery that macrophages lacking the scavenger receptor MAcrophage Receptor with COllagenous domain (MARCO), exhibit near-total vomocytosis of internalised cryptococci within a few hours of infection. Marco^−/− macrophages also showed elevated vomocytosis of a yeast-locked C. albicans strain, …

Co-Producing Ethics Guidelines Together With People With Learning Disabilities, Mary Bottomley, Jodie Bradley, Lisa Clark, Bryan Collis, Bojana Daw Srdanovic, Victoria Farnsworth, Annie Ferguson, Dan Goodley, Andrew Fox, Nikita K. Hayden, Charlotte Lawthom, Rebecca Lawthom, Claudia Magwood, Robert Mclean, Ian Middleton, Alison Owen, Matty Prothero, Simon Rice, Simon Richards, Katherine Runswick-Cole, Kelly Scargill, Rohit Shankar, Toni Ann Wood

Peninsula Medical School

Background: We are a research team of clinical, academic and advocacy-based researchers with and without learning disabilities, working on the Humanising Healthcare (for people with learning disabilities) project. The project is dedicated to finding and sharing healthcare practices that enhance the lives of people with learning disabilities. As part of our ethics applications to access National Health Service study sites for fieldwork, we worked together to write guiding principles for co-producing research ethics with researchers with learning disabilities. In this paper, we introduce these Participatory Ethics Good Practice Guidelines and reflect on our collaboration. Methods: We reflect on developing the …

The Cost Of Providing Care By Family And Friends (Informal Care) In The Last Year Of Life: A Population Observational Study, Miriam J. Johnson, David C. Currow, Jade Chynoweth, Helen Weatherly, Gamze Keser, Ann Hutchinson, Annie Jones, Laurie Dunn, Victoria Allgar

Peninsula Medical School

Introduction: Little is known about replacement costs of care provided by informal carers during the last year of life for people dying of cancer and non-cancer diseases. Aim: To estimate informal caregiving costs and explore the relationship with carer and decedent characteristics. Design: National observational study of bereaved carers. Questions included informal end-of-life caregiving into the 2017 Health Survey for England including estimated recalled frequency, duration and intensity of care provision. We estimated replacement costs for a decedent’s last year of life valuing time at the price of a substitutable activity. Spearman rank correlations and multivariable linear regression were used …

Improved Structure And Function In Early-Detected Second-Eye Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Fasbat/Early Detection Of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration Report 1, Fasbat Study Group, Richard P Gale, Archana Airody, Sobha Sivaprasad, Rachel L W Hanson, Victoria Allgar, Martin Mckibbin, Antony B Morland, Tunde Peto, Mia Porteous, Usha Chakravarthy

Peninsula Medical School

PURPOSE: Visual acuity (VA) and structural biomarker assessment before and 24-months after early detection and routine treatment of second-eye involvement with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and additional comparison with the first eye affected.

DESIGN: Prospective, 22-center observational study of participants with unilateral nAMD in the Early Detection of Neovascular AMD (EDNA) study, coenrolled into the Observing Fibrosis, Macular Atrophy and Subretinal Highly Reflective Material, Before and After Intervention with anti-VEGF Treatment (FASBAT) study for an additional 2-year follow-up.

PARTICIPANTS: Older adults (> 50 years) with new onset nAMD in the first eye.

METHODS: Assessment of both eyes with OCT, …

Transformation Of Autophagic Sqstm1 Droplets To Sqstm1-Dependent P-Bodies, Evelina Valionyte, Elizabeth R. Barrow, Chris R. Baxter, Sharon Herath, Shouqing Luo

Peninsula Medical School

SQSTM1/p62 droplets play crucial roles in droplets-based macroautophagy/autophagy including selective autophagy and bulk autophagy. We observed that under several stress milieus, SQSTM1 droplets entirely colocalize with P-body markers, and these stress-induced SQSTM1 droplets contain mRNAs. We thus determined that under certain stress conditions, autophagic SQSTM1 droplets are converted to a type of enlarged P-bodies, designated SQSTM1/p62-dependent P-bodies (pd-PBs). Stress-enhanced SQSTM1 droplet formation drives the nucleation of pd-PBs through the interaction between SQSTM1 and the RNA-binding protein DDX6. Furthermore, pd-PBs sequester PYCARD, facilitating the assembly of NLRP3 inflammasomes, and in turn induce inflammation-related cytotoxicity. Our study suggests that under stress settings, …

Effect Of Skin Tone On The Accuracy Of The Estimation Of Arterial Oxygen Saturation By Pulse Oximetry: A Systematic Review, Daniel Martin, Chris Johns, Lexy Sorrell, Eugene Healy, Mandeep Phull, Segun Olusanya, Mark Peters, Jeremy Fabes

Peninsula Medical School

Background: Pulse oximetry-derived oxygen saturation (SpO₂) is an estimate of true arterial oxygen saturation (SaO₂). The aim of this review was to evaluate available evidence determining the effect of skin tone on the ability of pulse oximeters to accurately estimate SaO₂. Methods: Published literature was screened to identify clinical and non-clinical studies enrolling adults and children when SpO₂ was compared with a paired co-oximetry SaO₂ value. We searched literature databases from their inception to March 20, 2023. Risk of bias (RoB) was assessed using the QUADAS-2 tool. Certainty of assessment was evaluated …

Perioperative Oxygenation—What's The Stress?, Joseph Larvin, Mark Edwards, Daniel S. Martin, Martin Feelisch, Michael P.W. Grocott, Andrew F. Cumpstey

Peninsula Medical School

Oxygen is the most used drug in anaesthesia. Despite such widespread use, optimal perioperative oxygen administration remains highly controversial because of concerns about the competing harms of both hyperoxia and hypoxia. Notwithstanding a Cochrane review concluding that routinely administering a fractional inspired oxygen concentration (FiO₂) >0.6 intraoperatively might increase postoperative morbidity and mortality, the World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommends all anaesthetised patients receive 0.8 FiO₂ during and immediately after surgery to reduce surgical site infections. Results from the largest trial available at the time of these two reviews (suggesting long-term survival may be worse with high …

Training Needs For Staff Providing Remote Services In General Practice: A Mixed-Methods Study, Trisha Greenhalgh, Rebecca Payne, Nina Hemmings, Helen Leach, Isabel Hanson, Anwar Khan, Lisa Miller, Emma Ladds, Aileen Clarke, Sara E. Shaw, Francesca Dakin, Sietse Wieringa, Sarah Rybczynska-Bunt, Stuart D. Faulkner, Richard Byng, Asli Kalin, Lucy Moore, Joseph Wherton, Laiba Husain, Rebecca Rosen

Peninsula Medical School

Background Contemporary general practice includes many kinds of remote encounter. The rise in telephone, video and online modalities for triage and clinical care requires clinicians and support staff to be trained, both individually and as teams, but evidence-based competencies have not previously been produced for general practice. Aim To identify training needs, core competencies, and learning methods for staff providing remote encounters. Design and setting Mixed-methods study in UK general practice. Method Data were collated from longitudinal ethnographic case studies of 12 general practices; a multi-stakeholder workshop; interviews with policymakers, training providers, and trainees; published research; and grey literature (such …

The Mini-Cog: A Community Screening Tool For Dementia In Indonesia, Yuda Turana, Nicolas Farina, Imelda Theresia, Tara Puspitarini Sani, Ika Suswanti, Fasihah Irfani Fitri, Emiliano Albanese, Adelina Comas-Herrera, Martin Knapp, Sube Banerjee

Peninsula Medical School

Background: Early detection of dementia enables more effective planning and can enable access to treatment and support. The Mini-Cog is a widely used screening instrument in Indonesia; however, this instrument has never undergone a translation and cultural adaptation process. Currently, there is no data on how accurate the tool is against diagnostic criteria, particularly in low-education. Methods: Embedded within the community-based dementia prevalence study was the Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries (STRiDE) project; older adults (aged ≥ 65 years) were randomly recruited from sites in Jakarta and North Sumatra, Indonesia. All participants were asked to complete the Mini-Cog …

Editorial: Bacteriocins And Other Ribosomally Synthesised And Post-Translationally Modified Peptides (Ripps) As Modulators Of The Microbiome, Harsh Mathur, Des Field, Caitriona Guinane, Maire Begley, Mathew Upton, Hilario C. Mantovani, Paul D. Cotter

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

Quality Assessment Of Esg Reporting Among Listed Maritime Companies: Quality Assessment Of Esg Reporting…: M. Tsatsaronis Et Al., M. Tsatsaronis, T. Syriopoulos, S. Karamperidis, G. Boura, A. Dimopoulos

Plymouth Business School

Regulatory obligations and market trends connected to environmental sustainability issues have lately intensified their effect on the shipping industry. New standards are continuously being established, such as IMO’s 2050 aim of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared to 2008 levels. These rules have an impact on capital markets and on investors’ ship financing decisions. The standards now include Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) components. These are not only concerned with the environmental impact of shipping, but also with the social and governance dimensions of firms, which are typically associated with maritime transport risks, such as accidents, ship reservations, and …

The Tourism Demarketing Mix: Working To Reduce Revisits To Egyptian Nature Reserves, Ahmed M. Elsetouhi, Mohamed E. Elshourbagi, Ahmed A. Hammad, Alaa A. Elnazer

Plymouth Business School

This study tests the impact of the tourism demarketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) on tourists’ intention to reduce revisits to nature reserves in Egypt. In particular, this work focuses on the moderating role of switching cost. Data were collected from 401 tourists of the Wadi Degla and Petrified Forest nature reserves in Egypt. Path analysis is employed to test the research hypotheses using WarpPLS 6. Findings confirm that the tourism demarketing mix significantly affects tourists’ perception and intention to reduce revisits to the nature reserves. Lower switching cost partially enhanced the relationship between the tourism demarketing mix and tourists’ …

Undergraduate Dental Curricula In Middle Eastern And Arabic-Speaking African Nations − A Cross-Sectional Study, Lovely Muthiah Annamma, Jumma Al Khabuli, Sabrin Ali Azim, Huda Abutayyem, Mohamed Alkhuboli, A. Subaveerapandiyan, Rebecca Glanville, Kamran Ali

Peninsula Dental School

Purpose: To evaluate the design of undergraduate curricula, teaching and learning practices, assessments, admission criteria and quality assurance in dental schools across Middle Eastern and Arab-speaking African nations. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was sent to 40 dental colleges in the Middle East and African Arabic-speaking countries. A purposefully designed proforma consisting of 21 items divided into five sections based on admission criteria, curriculum delivery, teaching and learning practices, assessment methods, and quality assurance was used for data collection on Google forms. Participation in the survey was voluntary and all participants were consented before data collection. The data was analysed for …

Shipwrecks Act As De Facto Marine Protected Areas In Areas Of Heavy Fishing Pressure, Jenny Hickman, Joe Richards, Adam Rees, Emma V. Sheehan

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Ubiquitous, industrial use of bottom‐towed fishing gear since the 1800s has altered marine communities and ecosystem services. Outside of legal protection, only areas inaccessible to trawlers are offered any protection. Shipwrecks present hazards to fishing gear and are rarely subject to trawling pressure. As many have been in situ for >100 years, they offer a baseline of ecological potential when trawling pressure is reduced or removed. Five shipwrecks were surveyed off the Berwickshire coast, some within the Static Gear Reserve and others outside. Video transects were collected of shipwrecks, the surrounding 50 m radius and control locations >150 m from …

Double Testing With Lateral Flow Antigen Test Devices For Covid-19: Does A Second Test In Quick Succession Add Value?, Matthias E Futschik, Sarah A Tunkel, Elena Turek, David Chapman, Zareen Thorlu-Bangura, Raghavendran Kulasegaran-Shylini, Edward Blandford, Andrew Dodgson, Paul E Klapper, Malur Sudhanva, Derrick Crook, John Bell, Susan Hopkins, Tim Peto, Tom Fowler

School of Biomedical Sciences

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: We investigated if performing two lateral flow device (LFD) tests, LFD2 immediately after LFD1, could improve diagnostic sensitivity or specificity for detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigen.

STUDY DESIGN: Individuals aged ≥16 years attending UK community testing sites (February-May 2021) performed two successive LFD tests and provided a nose-and-throat sample for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Using the PCR result as the reference diagnosis, we assessed whether improvements could be achieved in sensitivity (by counting a positive result in either LFD as a positive overall test result) or specificity (by using LFD2 as confirmatory test). …

Optimizing Group Work Strategies In Virtual Dissection, Lily Evans, Lauren Singer, Daniel Zahra, Ifeoluwa Agbeja, Siobhan M. Moyes

Peninsula Medical School

Due to its haptic and interactive nature, virtual anatomy provides an opportunity for small-group learning, enabling students to develop their group work skills before they graduate. However, there is currently little practical guidance supported by pedagogic principles detailing how to incorporate it into curricula. Anatomy educators at the University of Plymouth conducted action research aiming to capture students' overall perceptions of the virtual anatomy platform Anatomage. Questioning the benefits and challenges students face while interacting with Anatomage prompted the creation of evidence-based interventions to be later evaluated. Although a plethora of themes were identified, this report specifically examines those relating …

Ship Recycling In Developing Economies Of South Asia: Changing Liability To A Commodity, Bisma Mannan, Md Jahir Rizvi, Yong Ming Dai

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

The end-of-life (EOL) of ships which is neglected and considered a liability by developed economies of the western world. However, it has become a commodity in the developing economies of South Asian countries. Ship recycling activities are considered extremely dangerous by the International Labour Organization (ILO); however, if ship recycling operations are well-managed then they can play a vital role in achieving circular economy and UN sustainable development goals. This study critically examines recent developments in key ship recycling nations, shedding light on both opportunities and challenges faced by this evolving industry. By delving into the socio-economic benefits and presenting …

Collaborative Care Intervention For Individuals With Severe Mental Illness: The Partners2 Programme Including Complex Intervention Development And Cluster Rct, Humera Plappert, Richard Byng, Siobhan Theresa Reilly, Charley Hobson-Merrett, Jon Allard, Elina Baker, Nicky Britten, Melanie Calvert, Michael Clark, Siobhan Creanor, Linda Davies, Rebecca Denyer, Julia Frost, Linda Gask, Bliss Gibbons, John Gibson, Laura Gill, Ruth Gwernan-Jones, Joanne Hosking, Peter Huxley, Alison Jeffery, Benjamin Jones, Tom Keeley, Richard Laugharne, Steven Marwaha, Claire Planner, Tim Rawcliffe, Ameeta Retzer, Debra Richards, Ruth Sayers

Peninsula Medical School

Background and aims: Individuals living with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar can have significant emotional, cognitive, physical and social challenges. Most people with severe mental illness in the United Kingdom do not receive specialist mental health care. Collaborative care is a system of support that combines clinical and organisational components to provide integrated and person-centred care. It has not been tested for severe mental illness in the United Kingdom. We aimed to develop and evaluate a primary care-based collaborative care model (PARTNERS) designed to improve quality of life for people with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar or other …