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Metabolic And Kinetic Impacts Of The Auxiliary Energy Source In Model Chemolithoheterotrophic Bacteria, Caleb Yarnley Jan 2025

Metabolic And Kinetic Impacts Of The Auxiliary Energy Source In Model Chemolithoheterotrophic Bacteria, Caleb Yarnley

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Chemolithoheterotrophy describes a type of microbial metabolism by which organisms oxidise an inorganic electron donor to supplement the generation of an electrochemical gradient. This results in higher overall growth yields and maximum specific growth rates as the organism does not need to generate as many reducing equivalents to fuel the respiratory chain and can instead redirect that material into anabolic reactions to generate more biomass. Many aspects of this metabolism remain poorly understood due to the difficulty in observing genuine chemolithoheterotrophy, with significant increases in the maximum specific growth yield (YMAX) and maximum specific growth rate (µMAX) seen in continuous …

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Effects Of Host-Derived Probiotics On The Growth Performance And Health Of Tilapia And Carp, Sherilyn Abarra Jan 2025

Effects Of Host-Derived Probiotics On The Growth Performance And Health Of Tilapia And Carp, Sherilyn Abarra

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

To address the need for well-characterised probiotic strains for tilapia and carp aquaculture, this study investigated the isolation, characterisation, and application of host-derived candidate probiotics from Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio), and their influence on growth, feed utilisation, intestinal integrity and microbiome, and mucosal health of the host.A total of 263 intestinal bacterial isolates were screened in vitro for antagonism against Aeromonas hydrophila and Streptococcus iniae. The top 31 isolates with inhibitory effects underwent screening against three further fish pathogens and were assessed for haemolytic activity and extracellular enzyme production in …

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Evaluating The Efficacy Of Brewers’ Yeast-Derived Functional Feed Additives In Mitigating Soybean Meal-Induced Enteritis In Atlantic Salmon, Taofik Adeiza Momoh Jan 2025

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Brewers’ Yeast-Derived Functional Feed Additives In Mitigating Soybean Meal-Induced Enteritis In Atlantic Salmon, Taofik Adeiza Momoh

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Aquaculture continues to expand as a vital contributor to global food security, yet this growth introduces new challenges including the need to replace fishmeal with plant-based ingredients without compromising intestinal health. In Atlantic salmon aquaculture, one of the main constraints to plant protein inclusion is soybean meal-induced enteritis (SBMIE), a diet-related inflammatory condition that impairs mucosal function. Meanwhile, the use of functional feed additives such as those derived from brewers’ yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) have emerged as a promising strategy to mitigate such diet-induced pathologies and support immune regulation. This thesis investigates the efficacy of structurally distinct brewers’ yeast-derived additives, including …

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Promoting An Inclusive And Humanised Environment In The Intensive Care Unit: Shift Happens, Emilio Rodriguez-Ruiz, Jos M. Latour, Margo M.C. Van Mol Jan 2025

Promoting An Inclusive And Humanised Environment In The Intensive Care Unit: Shift Happens, Emilio Rodriguez-Ruiz, Jos M. Latour, Margo M.C. Van Mol

School of Nursing and Midwifery

No abstract provided.

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Trajectories Of Post Intensive Care Syndrome In Children During First Six Months Post-Discharge., Pei Fen Poh, Rehena Sultana, Joseph C. Manning, Matt Carey, Jos Latour Jan 2025

Trajectories Of Post Intensive Care Syndrome In Children During First Six Months Post-Discharge., Pei Fen Poh, Rehena Sultana, Joseph C. Manning, Matt Carey, Jos Latour

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background and Aims: Health outcome trajectories in critically ill children remain poorly described. We aimed to examine the trajectories of post-intensive care syndrome within six-months post-pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) discharge.Methods: Data were collected upon PICU admission, discharge and at 1-, 3-, and 6-months post-discharge using the Pediatric Quality-of-Life scale (PedsQL™), Young Child PTSD Screen, and Functional Status Scale. Group-based trajectory modelling was used to identify distinct longitudinal health outcome trajectories.Results: 135 children completed follow- up and were categorised into three trajectory groups based on their health outcomes. Theme an (SD) age was 5.6(5.5) years, with PIM III score of …

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The Moral Regime Of Midwifery Continuity Of Carer Implementation In England, Aimee Louise Middlemiss, Susan Channon, Julia Sanders, Heather Strange, Rebecca Milton, Sara Kenyon, Tina Prendeville, Susan Barry, Aled Jones Jan 2025

The Moral Regime Of Midwifery Continuity Of Carer Implementation In England, Aimee Louise Middlemiss, Susan Channon, Julia Sanders, Heather Strange, Rebecca Milton, Sara Kenyon, Tina Prendeville, Susan Barry, Aled Jones

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Since 2016, the National Health Service (NHS) in England has been aiming to implement midwifery continuity of carer (MCoC), a model of maternity care in which the same midwife or small group of midwives provides antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care for women, other birthing people and their babies. However, the implementation has faced significant difficulties. As part of a wider investigation into barriers to and facilitators of MCoC implementation, we carried out qualitative interviews with senior stakeholders involved in the implementation of MCoC at regional or national level in England. In this paper, we present an analysis of sociocultural values …

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The Impact Of Led Light Spectra On The Growth, Yield, Physiology, And Sweetness Compound Of Stevia Rebaudiana, Naofel Aljafer, Abdullah Alrajhi, Toby Anderson Von Trampe, William Vevers, Sophie Fauset, Hail Zuhir Rihan Jan 2025

The Impact Of Led Light Spectra On The Growth, Yield, Physiology, And Sweetness Compound Of Stevia Rebaudiana, Naofel Aljafer, Abdullah Alrajhi, Toby Anderson Von Trampe, William Vevers, Sophie Fauset, Hail Zuhir Rihan

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

This study investigated the effects of several light spectra on Stevia rebaudiana, analysing growth parameters, yield, and physiological responses within a controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) system. The experimental design involved different light treatments, including specific combinations of blue (435 nm and 450 nm), red (663 nm), and ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths (365 nm), to determine their impact on morphological development and biochemical properties, particularly focusing on the production of the sweetening compounds stevioside and rebaudioside A. Stevia rebaudiana plants cultivated from cuttings sourced from a reputable UK nursery (Gardener’s Dream Ltd., Glasgow, UK) were subjected to these spectral treatments over a period …

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Identifying Outcomes And Outcome Measures In Neonatal Family-Centered Care Trials: A Systematic Review, Cansel Kocakabak, Agnes Van Den Hoogen, Melissa Rothfus, Marsha Campbell-Yeo, Johanna Kostenzer, Anna Axelin, Patricia Schofield, Jos M. Latour Jan 2025

Identifying Outcomes And Outcome Measures In Neonatal Family-Centered Care Trials: A Systematic Review, Cansel Kocakabak, Agnes Van Den Hoogen, Melissa Rothfus, Marsha Campbell-Yeo, Johanna Kostenzer, Anna Axelin, Patricia Schofield, Jos M. Latour

School of Health Professions

Background: A wide range of outcomes for infants and parents has been reported in clinical trials testing FCC interventions. This systematic review aimed to identify outcomes, outcome measures, and time-points reported in experimental studies testing FCC interventions in neonatal care units. Methods: This review included experimental studies investigating FCC interventions in neonatal settings. Database searches were conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane, PsycINFO, Scopus, JBI, Lilacs, and SciELO, completed in December 2022 and updated in November 2023. Critical appraisal was performed using the JBI checklist for randomized controlled trials, and a narrative synthesis process was used. Outcomes were categorized into …

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Surf Stewardship And Coastal Change: A Combined Report For The North Devon Unesco Biosphere Reserve And The North Devon World Surfing Reserve, Kizzy Beaumont Jan 2025

Surf Stewardship And Coastal Change: A Combined Report For The North Devon Unesco Biosphere Reserve And The North Devon World Surfing Reserve, Kizzy Beaumont

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Executive summaryNorth Devon’s coastline sits within a layered governance setting, including statutory marine plans, inshore fisheries management, coastal and shoreline planning, protected areas, and seasonal bathing water monitoring, led by national regulators and local authorities. Within this wider context, this study focuses on how two non-statutory designations, the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the North Devon World Surfing Reserve (WSR), canwork together. The work forms part of a PhD on Transformative Ocean Governance and was motivated by the North Devon WSR’s designation and the opportunity to understand how the two designations might complement each other in practice. We convened …

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Numerical Modelling Of Gravel Transportation By A Tsunami With The Extended Xbeach-G, Masashi Watanabe, Gerd Masselink, Daisuke Ishimura, Masaki Yamada, Adam D. Switzer Jan 2025

Numerical Modelling Of Gravel Transportation By A Tsunami With The Extended Xbeach-G, Masashi Watanabe, Gerd Masselink, Daisuke Ishimura, Masaki Yamada, Adam D. Switzer

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Estimating coastal erosion by a tsunami is essential for land use planning, assessing hazards for current structures (e.g., coastal nuclear power plants), and for paleotsunami reconstruction. Such estimations are currently available only for sandy beaches, using sand sediment transport models, which are not applicable to gravel beaches, which are the most common beach type in high-latitude settings. This study extended the one-dimensional cross-shore XBeach-G model to account for two-dimensional gravel transport by a tsunami. First, this study confirmed that the extended XBeach-G model can simulate a time series of waveforms of solitary waves during laboratory experiments. The proposed model was …

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Tolerance Of Ambiguity And Psychological Wellbeing In Newly Qualified Doctors: An Analysis Over Multiple Time Points, Tom Gale Jan 2025

Tolerance Of Ambiguity And Psychological Wellbeing In Newly Qualified Doctors: An Analysis Over Multiple Time Points, Tom Gale

Peninsula Medical School

Introduction: There is evidence of an association between tolerance of ambiguity and psychological wellbeing in doctors, but this relationship is not well understood. We explored this relationship, and the individual or workplace factors moderating it, in a population of newly qualified doctors. Methods: We examined the experiences of newly qualified doctors in the UK as they started a novel interim role (Time 1) and later moved into foundation year 1 roles (Times 2 and 3) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors completed the Tolerance of Ambiguity of Medical Students and Doctors scale (TAMSAD Range: 0–100), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS: 0–40), …

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An Immanent Postfoundational Methodology For Researching The Violent Trans-Sections Of Ableism, Classism And Sexism, Elizabeth Done, Cara Baer Jan 2025

An Immanent Postfoundational Methodology For Researching The Violent Trans-Sections Of Ableism, Classism And Sexism, Elizabeth Done, Cara Baer

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper charts the unfolding of a small-scale qualitative study, presented at institutional ethical approval stage as drawing on posthumanist theorising and seeking to (re)configure the concept of intersectionality, and focusing on the lived experience of postgraduate students of lower socio-economic status with disabilities. The self-selected sample comprised six women, three of whom volunteered accounts of sexual violence that complicated their experiences of dis-ability and class, and highlighted the complexity of their lived experience of intersectionality. We describe a research process in which interviewing became intra-viewing, lived experience came to be understood through Deleuzian and Deleuzo-guattarian concepts and intersectionality became …

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Shedding Light To The Rights To Light In England And Wales: The Need For Reform, Goodtime Okara Jan 2025

Shedding Light To The Rights To Light In England And Wales: The Need For Reform, Goodtime Okara

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

The right to light is unarguably a right that could hinder the development of the servient land. Owing to the possibility of granting a mandatory injunction when breached, this right could lead to extra costs and delays in the efficient development of the servient land by real property developers, even when the dominant tenement does not wish to enjoy the right. Hence, this paper critically reflects on rights to light in England and Wales to determine the impact of this right on the servient land. It explores the direction of travel across the Courts – by briefly examining rights to …

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How Epilepsy Risks Might Be Introduced And Discussed In Clinical Consultations, Rohit Shankar Jan 2025

How Epilepsy Risks Might Be Introduced And Discussed In Clinical Consultations, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

AbstractAdverse impacts of epilepsy (e.g., injury, depression, and Sudden Unexpected Death from Epilepsy (SUDEP) can be mitigated by factors that patients may control, such as medication adherence, improved sleep and diet, reduced alcohol and taking care around pregnancy. New guidelines state that risk should be discussed at the time of diagnosis but some clinicians express concern about not wanting to raise anxiety.ObjectiveTo explicate practices by which epilepsy expert clinicians broach discussions of risk in specialist epilepsy clinics.Methods24 recordings of initial telephone appointments at specialist clinics where epilepsy is diagnosed from two specialist outpatient epilepsy services in England were subjected to …

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“Being Away From Everything”: Exploring The Importance Of Access To Nature For Individuals Living With Chronic Low Back Pain, Alexander Smith, Kayleigh Wyles, Patricia Schofield, Sam Hughes Jan 2025

“Being Away From Everything”: Exploring The Importance Of Access To Nature For Individuals Living With Chronic Low Back Pain, Alexander Smith, Kayleigh Wyles, Patricia Schofield, Sam Hughes

School of Psychology

Chronic low back pain is a persistent and debilitating condition, and therapeutic outcomes in the long term are generally poor. There is growing evidence to support the ineffectiveness of ‘one-size-fits-all’ pharmacological approaches to pain management. To that end, alternative non-pharmacological therapies such as green social prescribing and time spent in nature are gaining popularity. But it is imperative to understand to what extent these potential interventions are viable by gaining a deeper insight into the lived experiences of the chronic low back pain community. The present qualitative cross-sectional study employed ten semi-structured interviews (9 women, M age = 50.1, M …

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Epistolary Technologies Of Separation And Archives Of Emotion, James Daybell Jan 2025

Epistolary Technologies Of Separation And Archives Of Emotion, James Daybell

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Transatlantic Solidarity In The Shadow Of The Russian–Ukrainian War: A Neorealist Explanation, Lorenzo Cladi Jan 2025

Transatlantic Solidarity In The Shadow Of The Russian–Ukrainian War: A Neorealist Explanation, Lorenzo Cladi

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

The threat posed by Russia, which was exposed most clearly following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, provided the impetus to strengthen solidarity among the transatlantic allies. Notable consequences included a renewed sense of purpose for NATO and the strengthening of the EU’s resolve in responding to a crisis in its backyard and a willingness by many European states to do more to contribute to defence. Whilst there is apparent unity of intent in supporting Ukraine in the long term, this article argues that solidarity rests upon a familiar working pattern in transatlantic relations. This can be elucidated most …

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Exploring Islamophobia Through Intersectionality., Suparna Bagchi Jan 2025

Exploring Islamophobia Through Intersectionality., Suparna Bagchi

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

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A Mapping Review Of Studies Exploring The Barriers And Facilitators To A Dementia Diagnosis Through An Intersectionality Lens, Ben Hicks, Katherine Wheatley, Emma Porter, Nicolas Farina, Sube Banerjee Jan 2025

A Mapping Review Of Studies Exploring The Barriers And Facilitators To A Dementia Diagnosis Through An Intersectionality Lens, Ben Hicks, Katherine Wheatley, Emma Porter, Nicolas Farina, Sube Banerjee

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundPromoting a ‘timely’ diagnosis is a global policy directive.AimsThis review adopts an intersectional approach, visually mapping the existing literature to highlight gaps in the evidence base on barriers and facilitators to dementia diagnosis.MethodA systematic approach was undertaken, following the PRISMA guidelines, updating previous reviews. The literature search was conducted on PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL Complete and Scopus. In line with mapping review methodology, we report the current state of the literature by describing the number of studies that outline barriers and facilitators to seeking help for a dementia diagnosis, split by social categorisation.ResultsOn the 7 June 2024, a total of 45 …

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Baseline Assessments Of Research Capacity, Capability And Culture In Uk Local Authorities: Reflections From Evaluators Embedded In Health Determinants Research Collaborations, Lauren Bell, Rachel Chapman, Charlotte Ashton, Claire Batey, Jack Brazier, Elizabeth Castle, Arundeep Chaggar, Julian Elston, Faye Esat, Hannah Goldwyn Simpkins, Leonard Ho, Cath Quinn, Jessica Sheringham, Demelza Smeeth, Irene Stylianou, Simon Twite, James Woodall, Beck Taylor Jan 2025

Baseline Assessments Of Research Capacity, Capability And Culture In Uk Local Authorities: Reflections From Evaluators Embedded In Health Determinants Research Collaborations, Lauren Bell, Rachel Chapman, Charlotte Ashton, Claire Batey, Jack Brazier, Elizabeth Castle, Arundeep Chaggar, Julian Elston, Faye Esat, Hannah Goldwyn Simpkins, Leonard Ho, Cath Quinn, Jessica Sheringham, Demelza Smeeth, Irene Stylianou, Simon Twite, James Woodall, Beck Taylor

Peninsula Medical School

Background: In the United Kingdom, local government is well placed to conduct and apply research regarding the wider determinants of health. However, local authorities often lack sufficient research infrastructure to support research capacity, capability and culture. Since 2022, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research has funded 30 Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) to develop this infrastructure. HDRCs are hosted by local authorities collaborating with universities and other partners to strengthen a culture of evidence-informed decision-making. HDRCs are conducting local evaluations, including baseline assessments of local authority research capacity, capability and culture. Methods: A national peer-support group was …

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More Than A ‘Decorative Frill’: Meaningful Engagement With Feminism In International Law, Nienke Grossman, Jaya Ramji-Nogales Jan 2025

More Than A ‘Decorative Frill’: Meaningful Engagement With Feminism In International Law, Nienke Grossman, Jaya Ramji-Nogales

Articles

No abstract provided.

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Digital Passivity-Based Control Of Underactuated Mechanical Systems, Mattia Mattioni, Pablo Borja Jan 2025

Digital Passivity-Based Control Of Underactuated Mechanical Systems, Mattia Mattioni, Pablo Borja

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Most sensors and controllers are discrete-time devices, which may have a detrimental impact on the performance of continuous-time control laws, even leading to unstable behaviors. This paper proposes a sampled-data passivity-based control approach that solves the regulation problem for discrete-time underactuated mechanical systems. Moreover, in contrast to other discrete-time controllers for these systems, the proposed control design method does not require the solution of partial differential equations. To illustrate the approach, we consider three case studies with computational details and simulations.

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Artificial Intelligence Powered System For Epilepsy Detection Using Eeg Biomarkers, Ali H. Al-Nuaimi, Shaymaa Al-Juboori Jan 2025

Artificial Intelligence Powered System For Epilepsy Detection Using Eeg Biomarkers, Ali H. Al-Nuaimi, Shaymaa Al-Juboori

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

One of the most prevalent neurological disorders is epilepsy. Epileptic seizures can occurrepeatedly in people with the condition for no recognisable reason. The diagnostic methodsdependent on EEG are promising. EEG has uncovered the dynamic functioning of all brain areasthroughout time. Its low cost, non-invasiveness, and simply make it crucial for clinicalevaluations of brain function. Integrating multiple EEG biomarkers as a compound biomarkercould provide a high performance that may accelerate the diagnosis speeds. Artificial intelligencetechniques such as machine learning and deep learning provide a significant result in healthcareapplications. Logistic Regression (LR), Naive Bayes (NB), and Neural Network (NN) wereevaluated using a …

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Speech-Aided Facial Video Super Resolution With Accurate Lip Motion And Enhanced Frequency Details, Shailza Sharma, Vivek Singh, Abhinav Dhall, Vinay Kumar Jan 2025

Speech-Aided Facial Video Super Resolution With Accurate Lip Motion And Enhanced Frequency Details, Shailza Sharma, Vivek Singh, Abhinav Dhall, Vinay Kumar

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Despite recent breakthroughs in face hallucination, video face hallucination remains a challenging task due to the issue of consistency across video frames. The temporal dimension in videos makes it difficult to learn facial motion and maintain color uniformity throughout the sequence. To address these challenges, we propose a novel audio-visual cross-modality support based video face hallucination network. The framework excels in learning fine spatiotemporal motion patterns by leveraging the correlation between movement of the facial structure and associated speech signal. Another significant challenge generic to face hallucination is blurriness around the key facial regions, such as mouth and lips. These …

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Determination Of Titanium Speciation In Consumer Plastics By Raman Microspectroscopy, Johanna Brazard, Takuji B.M. Adachi, Andrew Turner, Montserrat Filella Jan 2025

Determination Of Titanium Speciation In Consumer Plastics By Raman Microspectroscopy, Johanna Brazard, Takuji B.M. Adachi, Andrew Turner, Montserrat Filella

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The main component of objects made of plastic is an organic polymer matrix, but plastics also contain a wide range of other chemicals, such as additives, processing aids and unintentionally added substances. At present, the scientific and regulatory communities face challenges due to the lack of access to basic information on their quantity and identity, which is crucial in relation to potential toxicity, management, recycling, environmental fate and resource uses. Moreover, an additional problem is that some additives, such as titanium oxide (TiO2), can be present in different crystallographic forms, which makes it necessary to characterise not only …

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Interactions Of Anthropogenic Microfibres With The Marine Macroalga, Ulva Lactuca, Adam Collins, Andrew Turner Jan 2025

Interactions Of Anthropogenic Microfibres With The Marine Macroalga, Ulva Lactuca, Adam Collins, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Little information exists on the interactions between microfibres (MFs) and marine macroalgae. In this study, the translucent green seaweed, Ulva lactuca, has been exposed to ∼2 mg L−1 suspensions of MFs prepared from dryer lint under controlled conditions, with MFs on the alga surface and remaining in seawater subsequently counted and characterised. MFs were mainly <2 mm and cellulosic, and contained various additives and chemicals used in textile treatment. Interactions of MFs with U. lactuca were spatially heterogeneous but correcting for pre-existent MFs on the surface, mean trapping efficiencies on a dry mass and surface area basis were 252 mL g−1 and 0.858 mL cm−2, respectively. Despite this heterogeneity, there was evidence of differential trapping based on fibre colour and length. Interactions between the amphiphilic algal surface and MFs are likely both hydrophobic and electrostatic and are not fully reversible, with only …

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Care‐Ful Encounters: A Case For Empathetic Youthful Encounters With Coastal Environments, Mark Holton Jan 2025

Care‐Ful Encounters: A Case For Empathetic Youthful Encounters With Coastal Environments, Mark Holton

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This paper extends discourse of environmental stewardship and coastal management by examining the intersecting and overlapping relationships between notions of care and encounter in generating and maintaining forms of environmental empathy among young people at various socio-spatial scales. Exploring ‘care-ful encounters’ matters in terms of developing new ways of understanding how the choreographies of care and self-care shape, and are shaped by, encounters with human and non-human others, and prompts critical engagement and reflection with care as felt and experienced, that could otherwise be considered as distanced and ‘over there‘. Two key contributions emerge – first, that the combined role …

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Relationships Between Sediment Size Distribution And Microplastic Abundance And Characteristics Along The Strandline Of A Sandy Embayment (Whitsand, Southwest England), Oliver J. Fenn, Edward J. Walklett, Andrew Turner Jan 2025

Relationships Between Sediment Size Distribution And Microplastic Abundance And Characteristics Along The Strandline Of A Sandy Embayment (Whitsand, Southwest England), Oliver J. Fenn, Edward J. Walklett, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Beach sediments taken from 1 m2 areas of strandline across an embayment in southwest England (Whitsand) have been analysed for grain size distribution and elemental content. Large (1–5 mm) and small (< 1 mm) microplastics were isolated by sieving and flotation in NaBr solution, respectively, and characterised by size, shape, colour and polymeric makeup. Sediments displayed varying median diameters and degrees of sorting but distributions were always positively skewed. Concentrations of Fe, K, Mn and Ti were relatively invariant, but Ca concentrations exhibited heterogeneous distributions across the bay. Large microplastics were largely composed of polyolefin-based pre-production pellets, bio-beads and fragments whose numbers were correlated with each other. Positive and inverse relationships between beads and sediment skewness and sorting, respectively, suggests that deposition of this type of plastic is favoured where sediment is well-sorted and contains a high proportion of fine material. Small microplastics were dominated by fragments and fibres <200 μm in size composed of a broader array of polymers (including epoxy resin, polyetherimide and polyvinyl alcohol). Fibres exhibited an inverse relationship with bead and pellet abundance but there was no evidence of dependency on grain size distribution, and their presence is attributed to entrapment in interstitial spaces between sediment grains. Compositional differences between large (1–5 mm) and small (< 1 mm) microplastic fragments suggests they are derived from different sources, with the former coupled with pellet and bead deposition and the latter small enough to be retained in interstitial spaces with fibres. However, a positive relationship between mean (small) fragment size and median sediment diameter suggests that their retention is more constrained by interstitial space than fibres. The study provides evidence that microplastics of different size and shape behave differently but are, ultimately, related to or controlled by sediment size distribution in the coastal littoral zone.

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A Systematic Review Of Biomonitoring Microplastics In Environmental Matrices: Emphasis On Airborne Particles, Dry Deposits, And Comparative Analysis With Traditional Methods, Faezeh Jahedi, Neamatollah Jaafarzadeh Haghighi Fard, Andrew Turner Jan 2025

A Systematic Review Of Biomonitoring Microplastics In Environmental Matrices: Emphasis On Airborne Particles, Dry Deposits, And Comparative Analysis With Traditional Methods, Faezeh Jahedi, Neamatollah Jaafarzadeh Haghighi Fard, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The use of plastics continues to rise each year due to their versatility and essential role in industries like manufacturing, agriculture, and food packaging. However, plastics present a serious environmental challenge because they take over 500 years to decompose. During this time, they break down into tiny particles known as microplastics (MPs), which are now found everywhere, water, soil, and even the air we breathe. Recently, researchers have even detected MPs in clouds, making their presence in the atmosphere a growing concern for both the environment and public health. Traditional methods for sampling MPs in the air, such as active …

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The State Of Temperate Rainforest In South West England, Thomas Murphy, Katerina Chernyuk, Marcin Roszkowski, Shaun Lewin, Paul Lunt, James Buckley Jan 2025

The State Of Temperate Rainforest In South West England, Thomas Murphy, Katerina Chernyuk, Marcin Roszkowski, Shaun Lewin, Paul Lunt, James Buckley

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Temperate Rainforest is a biome of global significance which is rare and declining, yet supports endemic biodiversity and offers a range of co-benefits including carbon sequestration, natural flood management, climate moderation, and human well-being. The UK hosts a very large proportion of European bioclimatic space suitable for the development of Temperate Rainforest, yet very little of this woodland remains. In SW England, Temperate Rainforest habitat is mostly dominated by oak woodland (NVC communities W11 and W17) and occupies a broad but fragmented distribution across the region. SW temperate rainforest is exposed to a range of current and future threats and …

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