Digital Commons Network^™

Opportunities And Barriers Faced By Early-Career Civil Engineers Enacting Global Responsibility, Shannon Chance, Inês Direito, John Mitchell

Articles

The term ‘global responsibility’ projects a holistic sense of ethics, sustainability, and obligation. To achieve the long-term viability of human life on Earth, civil engineering must be conducted in increasingly responsible ways, and civil engineers must value and enact global responsibility in their work. Interviews conducted with nine civil engineers in London provide insight regarding engineers’ familiarity with the term, how they learned about it, what opportunities and barriers they face, and what might be done by professional and educational institutions to help them practice more responsibly. Results indicate: the term itself is novel but underlying concepts are not; continuing …

Automatically Generating Natural Language Descriptions Of Images By A Deep Hierarchical Framework, Lin Huo, Lin Bai, Shang Ming Zhou

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Automatically generating an accurate and meaningful description of an image is very challenging. However, the recent scheme of generating an image caption by maximizing the likelihood of target sentences lacks the capacity of recognizing the human–object interaction (HOI) and semantic relationship between HOIs and scenes, which are the essential parts of an image caption. This article proposes a novel two-phase framework to generate an image caption by addressing the above challenges: 1) a hybrid deep learning and 2) an image description generation. In the hybrid deep-learning phase, a novel factored three-way interaction machine was proposed to learn the relational features …

Will Treating Progressive Myopia Overwhelm The Eye Care Workforce? A Workforce Modelling Study, Gareth Lingham, James Loughman, Stella Kuzmenko, Matilda Biba, Daniel Ian Flitcroft

Articles

Purpose

Treatments for myopia progression are now available, but implementing these into clinical practice will place a burden on the eye care workforce. This study estimated the full-time equivalent (FTE) workforce required to implement myopia control treatments in the UK and Ireland.

Methods

To estimate the number of 6- to 21-year-olds with myopia, two models utilising separate data sources were developed. The examination-based model used: (1) the number of primary care eye examinations conducted annually and (2) the proportion of these that are for myopic young people. The prevalence-based model used epidemiological data on the age-specific prevalence of myopia. The …

An Examination Of The Impact Of Covid-19 On Assessment Practices In Higher Education, Ziene Mottiar, Greg Byrne, Geraldine Gorham, Emma Robinson

Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid pivot to online learning across many higher education institutions globally. This paper investigates to what extent assessment strategies changed as a result of this pivot. It explores the case of Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) in Ireland and finds that 95% of respondents altered their assessment practices in some way. Beyond identifying changing practice, the paper also develops a TARC (Typology of Assessment Responses to COVID-19) model which shows four categories of responses. Reactors are those academics who simply moved their assessments online. Adaptive Responders modified assessments slightly for the online environment. While …

Theory Protection: Do Humans Protect Existing Associative Links?, Stuart G. Spicer, Chris J. Mitchell, Andy J. Wills, Katie L. Blake, Peter M. Jones

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Patients With Moderate To Severe Covid-19 Have An Impaired Cytokine Response With An Exhausted And Senescent Immune Phenotype, Ashwin D. Dhanda, Dan Felmlee, Paula Boeira, Prebashan Moodley, Huey Tan, Leticia De Paula Scalioni, Kristen Lilly, David A. Sheridan, Matthew E. Cramp

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Post-Operative Goal-Directed Fluid Therapy (Gdft) On Organ Function After Orthotopic Liver Transplantation: Secondary Outcome Analysis Of The Colt Randomised Control Trial, Farid Froghi, Vignesh Gopalan, Zachos Anastasiou, Rahul Koti, Kurinchi Gurusamy, Christine Eastgate, Margaret Mcneil, Helder Filipe, Manuel Pinto, Jeshika Singh, Louise Longworth, Susan Mallett, Nick Schofield, Douglas Thorburn, Daniel Martin, Brian R. Davidson

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Past, Present And Future Of Conservative Oxygen Therapy In Critical Care, Daniel Martin, David Harrison, Paul Mouncey, B. Ronan O'Driscoll, Mike Grocott, Lorna Miller, Doug Gould, Alvin Richards-Belle, Kathryn Rowan

Peninsula Medical School

Conservative oxygen therapy (COT) is the administration lower levels of supplemental oxygen than usual in order to tolerate a lower level of arterial oxygenation (either the partial pressure (PaO2) or haemoglobin saturation (SaO2)) than normal. Its purpose is to reduce a patient’s overall exposure to additional oxygen in order to minimise the risk of oxyen toxicity.1 This approach to oxygen therapy has also been called permissive hypoxaemia (PH) and the terms are frequently used interchangeably; here, we refer to all efforts to reduce supplemental oxygen administration or arterial oxygenation as COT. Studies have been conducted across a wide range of …

A Computational Method To Track The Evolution Of Business Models In The Digital Economy, Z Wood, D Walker, G Parry

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Companies within the Digital Economy are evolving their business models as they take advantage of the opportunities afforded by emerging digital technologies. There is a need to develop methods that will allow researchers and policy makers to understand the existence of, and relationships between, the different business models within the Digital Economy and track their evolution. Such methods could also help quantify the size and growth of the Digital Economy. This paper presents a computational method, which utilizes machine learning and web scraping, to identify new business models, and a taxonomy of organisations, through the analysis of a firm's webpage. …

Long‐Term Effects Of Artificial Nighttime Lighting And Trophic Complexity On Plant Biomass And Foliar Carbon And Nitrogen In A Grassland Community, Vinka Anic, Kevin J. Gaston, Thomas W. Davies, Jonathan Bennie

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Invasive Coronary Angiography As A Tool In Cardiac Evaluation For Liver Transplant Candidates, Js Nayagam, Bc Norton, S Belete, J Rosinhas, K Ramos, Me Cramp, R O'Kane, Wj Cash, Z Milan, C Nicholson, K Menon, A Prachalias, P Srinivasan, G Auzinger, J Byrne, Pa Maccarthy, N Melikian, K Agarwal, Vr Aluvihare, D Joshi, Ma Heneghan

Peninsula Medical School

Background Cardiovascular assessment is central to evaluation of liver transplant (LT) candidates. However, there is a lack of consensus on the diagnostic algorithm for screening for coronary artery disease (CAD), and the place for invasive coronary angiography (ICA) remains undefined. Methods We retrospectively analysed 1201 adults who underwent elective LT assessment over a 5-year period. For patients who underwent LT, survival data to 5 years post-LT was collected. Results ICA was performed in 259 (21.6%): 134 no CAD, 58 mild, 33 moderate, and 34 severe. Detection of CAD was associated with age (OR 1.08, P < 0.01), current smoking (OR 4.92, P < 0.01) and prior CAD (OR 8.93, P < 0.001). Poor performance on cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) was associated with age (OR 1.02, P < .05) and diabetes mellitus (OR 1.54, P < 0.05). 122 (10.2%) patients were declined due to severity of cardiovascular disease. 169/779 (21.7%) patients listed for LT had undergone ICA, and CAD was present in 73/169 (43.2%). The non-risk-adjusted all-cause post-LT 5-year survival was 82.6%, with no difference in survival in those with and without CAD on ICA. In patients with CAD, diabetes was associated with reduced survival (OR 3.78, P < 0.05). Conclusions Multi-modality cardiac evaluation is useful in high-risk patients undergoing LT assessment. ICA can be used with non-invasive assessments and risk factors to delineate candidacy. In selected patients with CAD, LT has been undertaken with comparable post-LT survival.

Cost-Effectiveness Of Mirtazapine For Agitated Behaviors In Dementia: Findings From A Randomized Controlled Trial, Catherine Henderson, Martin Knapp, Susan Stirling, Lee Shepstone, Juliet High, Clive Ballard, Peter Bentham, Alistair Burns, Nicolas Farina, Chris Fox, Julia Fountain, Paul Francis, Robert Howard, Iracema Leroi, Gill Livingston, Ramin Nilforooshan, Shirley Nurock, Jt O’Brien, Annabel Price, Ann Marie Swart, Naji Tabet, Tanya Telling, Alan J. Thomas, Sube Banerjee

Peninsula Medical School

Objectives: To examine the costs and cost-effectiveness of mirtazapine compared to placebo over 12-week follow-up. Design: Economic evaluation in a double-blind randomized controlled trial of mirtazapine vs. placebo. Setting: Community settings and care homes in 26 UK centers. Participants: People with probable or possible Alzheimer’s disease and agitation. Measurements: Primary outcome included incremental cost of participants’ health and social care per 6-point difference in CMAI score at 12 weeks. Secondary cost-utility analyses examined participants’ and unpaid carers’ gain in quality-adjusted life years (derived from EQ-5D-5L, DEMQOL-Proxy-U, and DEMQOL-U) from the health and social care and societal perspectives. Results: One hundred …

Adaptation Of The Stride Dementia Survey Into The Indonesian Context In North Sumatra, Fasihah Irfani Fitri, Ika Mariana Gultom, Eka Mahendrayana, Engki Irawan, Aldy S. Rambe, Tara Puspitarini Sani, Yuda Turana, Imelda Theresia, Nicolas Farina, Sube Banerjee

Peninsula Medical School

Background: North Sumatra is one of two provinces in Indonesia in which the prevalence and costs of care of dementia has been completed as part of the STrengthening Responses to dementia In Developing countries (STRiDE) program. The toolkit used in the study was developed in English and thus needed to be cross-culturally adapted into Bahasa Indonesia. Part of this process involved pre-testing as a way to maximize the cultural appropriateness of the toolkit, especially in a multi- ethnic province like North Sumatra. Here we report the adaptation process. Methods: The translated toolkit consisted of measures needed within the prevalence survey …

Heat Shock Protein Amplification Improves Cerebellar Myelination In The Npc1nih Mouse Model, James Gray, María E. Fernández-Suárez, Maysa Falah, D Smith, C Smith, Ecem Kaya, Ashley M. Palmer, Cathrine K. Fog, Thomas Kirkegaard, Frances M. Platt

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a rare prematurely fatal lysosomal lipid storage disease with limited therapeutic options. The prominent neuropathological hallmarks include hypomyelination and cerebellar atrophy. We previously demonstrated the efficacy of recombinant human heat shock protein 70 (rhHSP70) in preclinical models of the disease. It reduced glycosphingolipid levels in the central nervous system (CNS), improving cerebellar myelination and improved behavioural phenotypes in Npc1nih (Npc1-/-) mice. Furthermore, treatment with arimoclomol, a well-characterised HSP amplifier, attenuated lysosomal storage in NPC patient fibroblasts and improved neurological symptoms in Npc1-/- mice. Taken together, these findings prompted the investigation of the effects …

The Application Of Precaution In Elasmobranch Conservation And Management In The Mediterranean Sea, Lydia Koehler, Ioannis Giovos, Jason Lowther

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Resilient Placement Of Vnfs And Distributed Mano Components In A Wmn-Based Nfv Infrastructure, G Frick, U Trick, A Lehmann, B Ghita

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Policy Making For Sharks And The Role And Contribution Of Non-Governmental Organisations In The Fulfilment Of International Legal Obligations, Lydia Koehler, Jason Lowther

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

We propose a policy cycle for elasmobranch conservation and management and assessed the role and contribution of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) within this cycle on a case study basis for the Mediterranean region. Following a review of shark-related and relevant legal obligations under international and regional instruments, we classified them into ten focus areas: Capacity building, Conservation measures, Cooperation, Education and Awareness, Monitoring, Policy development and integration, Regulation, Reporting, Research, and Sustainable Management. Based on surveys and a supplementary, web-based research, we found that NGOs contribute substantially to the implementation stage of the proposed policy cycle and fulfil obligations under various …

Performance Of An Adaptive Aggregation Mechanism In A Noisy Wlan Downlink Mu-Mimo Channel, Lemlem Kassa, Mark Davis, Jianhua Deng, Jingye Cai

Articles

This paper investigates an adaptive frame aggregation technique in the medium access control (MAC) layer for the Wireless Local Area Network (WALN) downlink Multi-User–Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MU-MIMO) channel. In tackling the challenges of heterogeneous traffic demand among spatial streams, we proposed a new adaptive aggregation algorithm which has a superior performance over the baseline First-in–First-Out (FIFO) scheme in terms of system throughput performance and channel utilization. However, this earlier work does not consider the effects of wireless channel error. In addressing the limitations of this work, this study contributes an enhanced version of the earlier model considering the effect of channel …

Impact Of Water-Sediment Diversion And Afflux On Erosion-Deposition In The Luoshan-Hankou Reach, Middle Yangtze River, China, Boyuan Zhu, Jianhao Qin, Yitian Li, Gexuanzi Luo, Qi Xu, Lingfeng Liu, Alistair G.L. Borthwick

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

It is not yet fully understood how water-sediment diversion and afflux along a mainstream reach of a river affect erosion-deposition in downstream reaches. This study focuses on the Luoshan-Hankou mainstream reach of the middle Yangtze River, China. The Luoshan-Hankou reach is vitally important for flood control, being located downstream of three diversion mouths and an afflux outlet along the Jingjiang reach. We establish empirical formulae for sediment transport rates at boundary cross-sections, and hence estimate the amount and proportion of erosion-deposition and its relative increase (termed erosion-deposition promotion) in the Luoshan-Hankou reach. We then propose critical net water supplies from …

Labouring Together: Women's Experiences Of “Getting The Care That I Want And Need” In Maternity Care, Vanessa Watkins, Cate Nagle, Bridie Kent, Maryann Street, Alison M. Hutchinson

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Poor interprofessional collaboration and lack of decision-making with women have been identified as being detrimental to the quality, safety, and experience of maternity care. The aim of the Labouring Together study was to explore childbearing women's preferences for and experiences of collaboration and control over decision-making in maternity care. Design A sequential, mixed-method, multi-site case study approach was used to explore the perceptions and experiences of childbearing women regarding collaboration and decision-making. Women's preferred role for decision-making compared to the actual experiences, and the influences upon their preferences and experiences of collaboration were explored using semi-structured interviews. An inductive approach …

Human Affinity For Rivers, Yichu Wang, Alistair G.L. Borthwick, Jinren Ni

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Human civilization prospers along rivers worldwide. Here, we investigated human–river relations by revealing the linkage between water and habitability for human settlements, and socioeconomic and cultural development across China. We found that human–water co-occurrence relationships are self-similar over sub-basins for different scales of stream-order in the river networks. According to the earlier complete demographic census conducted during the reign of the Qing Dynasty (1776), there has been a general tendency for inhabitants to live close to rivers, characterized by population density associated with habitability cored by water under a near-natural state, which still remains to date (2019) even after long-term …

Synchronized Seed Germination And Seedling Growth Of Black Cumin, Mohammed Elsayed El-Mahrouk, Mossad Khairy Maamoun, Yaser Hassan Dewir, Antar Nasr El-Banna, Hail Z. Rihan, Ahmed Salamh, Ahmed A. Al-Aizari, Michael P. Fuller

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Black cumin (Nigella sativa) is an important medicinal plant in the pharmacological industry. It is cultivated on a commercial scale, but its seeds have a slow, unsynchronized germination rate. Enhancing seed germination is crucial for improving the production of black cumin. The influence of presowing treatments [gibberellic acid (GA3), potassium nitrate, salicylic acid, and stratification at 4 °C] on seed germination was assessed. Seed germination was determined daily for 30 days, and germination parameters, including final germination percentage (FGP), corrected germination rate, number of days to reach 50% of FGP, and seedling length vigor index, were evaluated. Endogenous contents of …

Complex Urban Environments Provide Apis Mellifera With A Richer Plant Forage Than Suburban And More Rural Landscapes, Graeme Fox, Latha R. Vellaniparambil, Loreto Ros, Joshua Sammy, Richard F. Preziosi, Jennifer K. Rowntree

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Growth in the global development of cities, and increasing public interest in beekeeping, has led to increase in the numbers of urban apiaries. Towns and cities can provide an excellent diet for managed bees, with a diverse range of nectar and pollen available throughout a long flowering season, and are often more ecologically diverse than the surrounding rural environments. Accessible urban honeybee hives are a valuable research resource to gain insights into the diet and ecology of wild pollinators in urban settings. We used DNA metabarcoding of the rbcL and ITS2 gene regions to characterize the pollen community in Apis …

Water Table Depth Modulates Productivity And Biomass Across Amazonian Forests, Thaiane R. Sousa, Juliana Schietti, Io Ribeiro, Thaise Emílio, Rafael Herrera Fernández, Steege H Ter, Carolina V. Castilho, A Esquivel‐Muelbert, Timothy Baker, A Pontes‐Lopes, Cvj Silva, Jm Silveira, Géraldine Derroire, Wendeson Castro, Am Mendoza, Ademir Ruschel, Adriana Prieto, Adriano José Nogueira Lima, Agustín Rudas, A Araujo‐Murakami, Alexander Parada Gutierrez, Ana Andrade, Anand Roopsind, Angelo Gilberto Manzatto, Fiore A Di, A Torres‐Lezama, Aurélie Dourdain, B Marimon, Bh Marimon, Benoit Burban

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Aim: Water availability is the major driver of tropical forest structure and dynamics. Most research has focused on the impacts of climatic water availability, whereas remarkably little is known about the influence of water table depth and excess soil water on forest processes. Nevertheless, given that plants take up water from the soil, the impacts of climatic water supply on plants are likely to be modulated by soil water conditions. Location: Lowland Amazonian forests. Time period: 1971–2019. Methods: We used 344 long-term inventory plots distributed across Amazonia to analyse the effects of long-term climatic and edaphic water supply on forest …

Deprescribing Medicines In Older People Living With Multimorbidity And Polypharmacy: The Tailor Evidence Synthesis, Joanne Reeve, Michelle Maden, Ruaraidh Hill, Amadea Turk, Kamal Mahtani, Geoff Wong, Dan Lasserson, Janet Krska, Dee Mangin, Richard Byng, Emma Wallace, Ed Ranson

Peninsula Medical School

Background Tackling problematic polypharmacy requires tailoring the use of medicines to individual needs and circumstances. This may involve stopping medicines (deprescribing) but patients and clinicians report uncertainty on how best to do this. The TAILOR medication synthesis sought to help understand how best to support deprescribing in older people living with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Objectives We identified two research questions: (1) what evidence exists to support the safe, effective and acceptable stopping of medication in this patient group, and (2) how, for whom and in what contexts can safe and effective tailoring of clinical decisions related to medication use work …

Adapting And Validating The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Version 2 For Use With Deaf Children And Young People, Barry Wright, Helen Phillips, Victoria Allgar, Helen Mcconachie, Jennifer Sweetman, Rebecca Hargate, Rachel Hodkinson, Martin Bland, Hannah George, Anna Hughes, Emily Hayward, Las Heras Vfg De, Couteur A Le

Peninsula Medical School

We report a Delphi Consensus modification and first validation study of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – 2 with deaf children and young people (ADOS-2 Deaf adaptation). Validation included 122 deaf participants (aged 2–18 years), 63 with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This was compared to a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guideline standard clinical assessment by blinded independent specialist clinicians. Results showed overall sensitivity 73% (95%CI 60%, 83%); specificity 71% (95%CI 58%, 82%), and for the more common modules 1–3 (combined as in previous studies) sensitivity 79% (95% CI 65–89%); specificity 79% (95% CI 66–89%) suggesting …

Adapting And Validating The Autism Diagnostic Interview - Revised For Use With Deaf Children And Young People, Barry Wright, Helen Phillips, Victoria Allgar, Jennifer Sweetman, Rachel Hodkinson, Emily Hayward, Amelia Ralph-Lewis, Catarina Teige, Martin Bland, Couteur A Le

Peninsula Medical School

A Delphi consensus methodology was used to adapt the Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised for the assessment of deaf children with suspected autism spectrum disorder. Each Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised item was considered by a panel of nine international experts in terms of relevance and acceptability. Modifications were proposed and agreed by the expert panel for 45% of items. The pre-specified criterion for agreement between experts was set at 80% for each item. A first validation of the revised version, adapted for deaf children (Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised Deaf Adaptation), was undertaken with a UK sample of 78 parents/carers of deaf children with autism …

A Magnetic Nanoparticle-Doped Photopolymer For Holographic Recording, Muhammad Irfan, Suzanne Martin, Muhammad Ahmed Obeidi, Scott Miller, Frank Kuster, Dermot Brabazon, Izabela Naydenova

Articles

Functionalised holograms are important for applications utilising smart diffractive optical elements for light redirection, shaping and in the development of sensors/indicators. This paper reports on holographic recording in novel magnetic nanocomposites and the observed temperature change in dry layers and liquid samples exposed to alternating magnetic field (AMF). The nanocomposite consists of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA)-based polymer doped with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), and local heating is achieved through magnetic induction. Here, volume transmission holographic gratings (VTHGs) are recorded with up to 24% diffraction efficiency (DE) in the dry layers of magnetic nanocomposites. The dry layers and liquid samples are then exposed to …

Evaluation Of Small‐Scale Yielding Boundary Using Digital Image Correlation Results, Jm Vasco‐Olmo, Fa Díaz, Dm Neto, Er Sérgio, Fv Antunes, Mn James

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Experimental Evaluation Of Plastic Wake On Growing Fatigue Cracks From The Analysis Of Residual Displacement Fields, Jm Vasco‐Olmo, Francisco A. Díaz, A Camacho‐Reyes, Neil James, Fernando V. Antunes

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

A growing fatigue crack gives rise to a plastically deformed wake of material that envelops the crack. In this work, the plastic wake extent during fatigue crack growth is experimentally quantified by analyzing the crack tip displacement fields measured with digital image correlation. A novel technique based on use of a yield criterion is proposed that uses the undamaged state of the specimen as the reference state in the image processing. The plastic wake was identified by differentiation of the residual displacement fields obtained with a near-zero load level to avoid any rigid body motion. The plastic wake extent was …