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This project focuses on developing an online psychological prehabilitation programme for patients preparing for major cancer surgery. It addresses the gap in current prehabilitation programs, which mainly emphasise exercise, by providing expert psychological guidance to reduce acute distress and improve recovery outcomes. The project will follow the MRC Complex Intervention Framework, involving codesign, refinement through think-aloud interviews, and usability testing for online delivery. The aim is to produce a low-fidelity prototype that can be expanded for wider access after further evaluation of usability, theoretical relevance, and resolving uncertainties for larger-scale implementation. Dr Michael Baliousis, Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of Lincoln, School of Psychology; Mike Rennoldson & Chris Meek, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust; Dave Dawson & Nima Moghaddam, University of Lincoln, School of Psychology; Lauren Heathcote, King’s College London; Lynn Calman, University of Southampton...

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disabilities, with increasing prevalence worldwide. Low socioeconomic status is associated with an increased incidence of stroke, and socioeconomic factors can also contribute towards stroke recovery. The Lincolnshire coastline is in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in the country. Sedentary behaviour (SB) defined as any waking behaviour characterised by an energy expenditure ≤1.5 metabolic equivalent while in a sitting, reclining, or lying posture, is a unique predictor of metabolic risk alternative to physical activity (PA). Recently, there have been a significant increase in research studies developing interventions to break up sitting time, thus reducing SB across the lifespan. This project aims to be an initial exploration of 1) older adult stroke survivors’ overall perceptions and awareness of what SB is and how it can affect their health in deprived UK communities, 2) health professionals’ perceptions and awareness of SB and the provision of SB education and interventions. Findings will offer greater understanding of how survivors from deprived UK communities gain information, guidance, and support from relevant professionals regarding SB. Furthermore, findings will underpin and implement interventions targeted at breaking up sedentary time in stroke survivors....

Critical event reporting Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) applications need vital requirements (extended network lifetime, reliability, real time responsiveness, and scalability) to be met to ensure outstanding efficiency. Previous frameworks only consider few individual requirements, thus ignoring the other equally important ones. Ensuring that an active path is available at all times is crucial for enabling the timely transmission of critical data and maintaining the quality of service required to efficiently support delay-sensitive applications. This paper proposes an application-specific Routing Protocol based on Reinforcement Learning (RL) for Software Defined Network (SDN)-enabled WSN forest fire detection (RPLS). First, we designed a clustering algorithm that delays re-clustering to save energy by keeping the same topology for several rounds. Unlike existing works, this algorithm decreases the cluster radius based not only on the energy parameters but also on the quality of the links. After the network clustering, the power of the SDN controller is used to intelligently define using RL the optimal paths for the sensor nodes and accordingly reduce the load on these constrained nodes. For routing strategy, we formulate an RL-based reward function considering not only the energy efficiency parameters but also the anticipated and post-failure reliability parameters to ensure real time responsiveness and optimize energy consumption. Finally, we conducted comparisons by means of simulations in forest fires detection scenario. Compared to RL-SDWSN, the results show an improvement of 14.064 % in network operational lifetime and 16.41 % in response time....

Short tandem repeat (STR) markers are commonly used in forensic investigations and kinship testing due to their cost-effectiveness and high discriminatory power. In the United Kingdom, STR allele frequency databases are available for different population groups, including the White group, which includes individuals of both English and Irish ethnicity. However, considering differences in historical migrations and influences between England and Ireland, distinct genetic differences might exist between these populations. This study aimed to generate allele frequency data for English and Irish populations using the VeriFiler Express PCR Amplification Kit, which contains loci utilised in national databases. Buccal swabs were collected from 577 English and 500 Irish volunteers with self-proclaimed English and Irish ethnicity respectively. DNA profiling and statistical analyses were performed to assess allele frequencies and forensic parameters, and to perform population comparisons. The results showed minimal genetic differentiation (Fst = 0.0013) between the English and Irish populations. Comparison with other European populations revealed close genetic relationships between the English population and Scandinavian countries, while the Irish population displayed closer genetic links to Western European countries. These findings support historical influences such as Viking migrations and highlight the need for further research using additional markers to explore the genetic makeup and history of the English and Irish populations. Although a single allele frequency database may be suitable due to the observed genetic similarity, the establishment of separate databases should be considered to ensure maximum population representation....

Lecanicillium fungicola is a pathogen of the commercial white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) and is the causal agent of dry bubble disease, which can cause severe economic losses to mushroom growers. Volatile compounds were measured by GC/MS techniques over pure cultures of mycelia on agars, over microcosms of growing mushrooms, and over harvested mushrooms to identify compounds that might give an early warning of the disease. The mushroom strain tested was Agaricus bisporus, strain Sylvan A15; either deliberately infected with L. fungicola or water as a control. Over microcosms, the appearance of β-copaene, β-cubebene, and α-cedrene coincided with, but did not precede, the earliest visual signs of the disease. Mushrooms with dry bubble symptoms also had high levels of β-barbatene and an unknown diterpene (UK 1821). Over some harvested mushroom sets, high levels of cis-α-bisabolene developed as a defence reaction to infection....

The RCGP has awarded a grant to a team at CaHRU who will work in collaboration with the MRCGP licensing examination to conduct a qualitative interview study of doctors undertaking speciality training for general practice on their experiences, perceived challenges and strategies for overcoming these, in all components of the Workplace-Based Assessment (WPBA) as part of the requirements for general practice licensing. https://www.cahru.org.uk/research/qoph/reliability-validity-and-fairness-in-the-mrcgp-licensing-examination/

ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA) was used to investigate the effect of roasting and wheat type on shortwave-infrared (SWIR) spectra of whole wheat and flour through assessment of statistical significance and characterisation of the contributing spectral features. The full factorial experimental design included two wheat types, three roasting temperatures and three roasting frequencies. SWIR spectral images were collected from the two roasted wheat types and their two milled samples. Three ASCA models, one for each wheat conformation (kernel, whole wheat flour, white flour) were investigated. It was evidenced that all factors and interaction in the whole wheat flour model had a significant (p ≤ 0.05) effect on spectral data. Only the factor roasting frequency was not significant in white flour model and only the interaction between roasting frequency and wheat type was not significant for the kernel model. The main variations in the loading line plots were identified and characterised by chemical structural differences that occur within the sample. The effect of roasting frequency had a more adverse effect on protein stability, moisture evaporation, water soluble carbohydrates and aromatic amino acids, compared to roasting temperature. A Rapid Visco-Analyser (RVA) was used to further investigate difference in wheat type as almost all spectral data sets differed significantly. The most prominent difference between the two wheat types was observed as differences in amylase activity and presence of lipids. ASCA applied to SWIR whole wheat and flour spectral data effectively characterised the significant effect of roasting on wheat starch and protein structures....

The project funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme aims to ascertain the feasibility of introducing gambling screening in mental health and drug and alcohol services and what the facilitators and barriers are in both screening and referral. It will also test if screening will identify substantial proportions of individuals who are experiencing harmful gambling. The 2-year project starting in January 2024 will run in full partnership with individuals from GamLEARN. The Gambling Lived Experience and Recovery Network (GamLEARN) supports and empowers those who have experienced gambling related harm.  ...

The project funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme aims to ascertain the feasibility of introducing gambling screening in mental health and drug and alcohol services and what the facilitators and barriers are in both screening and referral. It will also test if screening will identify substantial proportions of individuals who are experiencing harmful gambling. The 2-year project starting in January 2024 will run in full partnership with individuals from GamLEARN. The Gambling Lived Experience and Recovery Network (GamLEARN) supports and empowers those who have experienced gambling related harm.  ...

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded £8.5 million to an East Midlands partnership, including CaHRU and LinCTU, to deliver one of eight hubs of the new NIHR Research Support Service (RSS). The partnership will work with research teams across England to develop and deliver ground-breaking health and social care research. Prof Niro Siriwardena, Professor Graham Law, Dr Zahid Asghar, Dr Shihua Zhu, School of Health and Social Care https://www.cahru.org.uk/2023/07/24/cahru-and-lincoln-clinical-trials-unit-partners-in-new-nihr-research-support-service-rss-east-midlands/...

Using a psychological autopsy method, this 2-year project funded by Greo will fully examine the events and circumstances leading to gambling-related suicide including an in-depth exploration of significant risk factors, environmental factors, contextual factors and behaviours to provide a detailed socioecological understanding. A psychological autopsy study investigates suicide through a fully comprehensive review of a deceased person's history leading up to the suicide by interviewing people who knew them and fully assessing contextual information.  Partners on the project include six other Universities, as well as GamLEARN, Gambling with Lives, and GamFam. The charities will be instrumental in facilitating and fully supporting the active participation of the wider Lived Experience community at all stages of the project. https://www.greo.ca/en/index.aspx, https://www.gamlearn.org.uk/, www.gamblingwithlives.org, https://gamfam.org.uk/...

Several coastal ecosystems—most notably mangroves and tidal marshes—exhibit biogenic feedbacks that are facilitating adjustment to relative sea-level rise (RSLR), including the sequestration of carbon and the trapping of mineral sediment1. The stability of reef-top habitats under RSLR is similarly linked to reef-derived sediment accumulation and the vertical accretion of protective coral reefs2. The persistence of these ecosystems under high rates of RSLR is contested3. Here we show that the probability of vertical adjustment to RSLR inferred from palaeo-stratigraphic observations aligns with contemporary in situ survey measurements. A deficit between tidal marsh and mangrove adjustment and RSLR is likely at 4 mm yr−1 and highly likely at 7 mm yr−1 of RSLR. As rates of RSLR exceed 7 mm yr−1, the probability that reef islands destabilize through increased shoreline erosion and wave over-topping increases. Increased global warming from 1.5 °C to 2.0 °C would double the area of mapped tidal marsh exposed to 4 mm yr−1 of RSLR by between 2080 and 2100. With 3 °C of warming, nearly all the world’s mangrove forests and coral reef islands and almost 40% of mapped tidal marshes are estimated to be exposed to RSLR of at least 7 mm yr−1. Meeting the Paris agreement targets would minimize disruption to coastal ecosystems....

Michael Baliousis, Dave Dawson, along with the NUH clinical psychology team have just published a paper describing the results of their feasibility study in group psychological preparation for haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The study highlights what clinicians and researchers should pay attention to when designing RCTs and group interventions to support patients' psychological readiness. The paper is available here: Group psychological intervention for emotional distress in haematopoietic stem cell transplantation: A feasibility randomised clinical trial - European Journal of Oncology Nursing (ejoncologynursing.com)...

Sleep restriction, a key element of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, involves considerable behavioural changes in patients' lives, leading to side-effects like increased daytime sleepiness. Studies on sleep restriction rarely report adherence, and when assessed it is often limited to the average number of therapy sessions attended. This study aims to systematically evaluate different measures of adherence to cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia and their relationship with treatment outcome. This is a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial investigating cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (Johann et al. (2020) Journal of Sleep Research, 29, e13102). The sample included 23 patients diagnosed with insomnia according to DSM-5 criteria who underwent 8 weeks of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. The following adherence measures based on sleep diary data were used: number of sessions completed; deviations from agreed time in bed; average percentage of patients deviating from bedtime by 15, 30 or 60 min; variability of bedtime and wake-up time; change in time in bed from pre- to post-assessment. Treatment outcome was assessed using the Insomnia Severity Index. Multiple regression models were employed, and insomnia severity was controlled for. Results showed that none of the adherence measures predict insomnia severity. Baseline insomnia severity, dysfunctional thoughts and attitudes about sleep, depression or perfectionism did not predict adherence. The limited variance in the outcome parameter due to most patients benefiting from treatment and the small sample size may explain these findings. Additionally, using objective measures like actigraphy could provide a better understanding of adherence behaviour. Lastly, the presence of perfectionism in patients with insomnia may have mitigated adherence problems in this study....

Flotation tailings from South Africa’s platinum group minerals (PGM) represent complex polymetallic orebodies comprising a low-grade platinum group elements (PGE) content and complex mineralogical composition. Nevertheless, given the valuable mineral potential in the tailings, it is understandable that the substantial historic tailings deposits and sizeable annual production volume from primary processes represent a potential secondary resource. For several decades, valorising the PGM tailing materials received very little interest due to limitations associated with extractive metallurgical technology to achieve economically viable PGE extraction. The early 21st century saw the coming online of technologies, including but not limited to ultrafine grinding, suitable to meet challenges in primary metallurgical treatment processes to recover valuable minerals from ultrafine particle fractions, which could not otherwise be recovered. More so, such processes were critical in improving the liberation of partially liberated particles without compromising additional ultrafine generation. These technologies led to the development of re-treatment pilot tests and subsequent industrial re-treatment recovery processes. The current industrial re-treatment approach – via tertiary scavenging flotation circuits – renders profit in small increments up to 1 ∼ 2% additional recovery relative to the primary plant head grade. These small increments relate to about ∼12–30% PGE recovery of the feed grade to the re-treatment circuit, thereby enhancing the primary plant's overall economics as well as aiding the supply of critical metals to meet global demands. With a focus on South Africa, this review provides an overview of (a) the current and future drivers of the precious metals global demand; (b) proffers discussion on the PGM characteristic mineralogy and the metallurgical value chain; (c) relates the parent orebodies (“reefs”) mineral characteristics to the inherent processed tailings; (d) estimates the economic potential these massive processed waste materials contain, (e) provides an overview of existing technologies that are industrially used in tailing re-treatment plants; and (f) outlines a comprehensive understanding of the nature of value minerals rejection to tailings....

Nima Moghaddam, Dave Dawson, along with two of their previous Trainees (Katrina Bayliss and Lucy Morris) have just published a paper describing the development and psychometric validation of a new short-form version of their psychological flexibility measure (the CompACT-10). Psychological flexibility is a central component of psychological health and wellbeing, and this new measure should be useful to both clinicians and researchers working with this key process. The paper is available here: The CompACT-10: Development and validation of a Comprehensive assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy processes short-form in representative UK samples - ScienceDirect

Illusory body resizing typically uses multisensory integration to change the perceived size of a body part. Previous studies associate these multisensory body illusions with frontal theta oscillations and parietal gamma oscillations for dis-integration and integration of multisensory signals, respectively. However, recent studies also support illusory changes of embodiment from unimodal visual stimuli. This preregistered study (N = 48) investigated differences between multisensory visuo-tactile and unimodal visual resizing illusions using EEG, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the neural underpinnings of resizing illusions in a healthy population. We hypothesised (1) stronger illusion in multisensory compared to unimodal, and unimodal compared to incongruent (dis-integration) conditions, (2) greater parietal gamma during multisensory compared to unimodal, and (3) greater frontal theta during incongruent compared to baseline conditions. Subjective Illusory results partially support Hypothesis 1, showing a stronger illusion in multisensory compared to unimodal conditions, but finding no significant difference comparing unimodal to incongruent conditions. Results partially supported EEG hypotheses, finding increased parietal gamma activity comparing multisensory to unimodal visual conditions, happening at a later stage of the illusion when compared to previous rubber hand illusion EEG findings, whilst also finding increased parietal theta activity when comparing incongruent to non-illusion conditions. While results demonstrated that only 27% of participants experienced the stretching illusion with unimodal visual stimuli compared to 73% of participants experiencing the stretching illusion in the multisensory condition, further analysis suggested that those who experience visual-only illusions exhibit a different neural signature to those who do not, with activity focussed around frontal and parietal regions early on in the illusory manipulation, compared to activity focussed more over parietal regions and at a later point in the illusory manipulation for the full sample of participants. Our results replicate previous subjective experience findings and support the importance of multisensory integration for illusory changes in perceived body size, whilst adding to our understanding of the temporal onset of multisensory integration within resizing illusions, differing from that of rubber hand illusions....

This study investigated the metabolite signatures and distribution in cooked whole wheat pasta enriched with Bambara groundnut using gas chromatography high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-HRTOF-MS). Before pasta production, whole wheat grains were fractionated using mechanical sieves of different aperture sizes (112, 300, 350, and 500 µm) and each fraction was enriched with Bambara flour. A total of 45 volatile metabolites were found in the cooked pasta and classified into different metabolite groups of esters (18%), miscellaneous compounds (13%), fatty acids (9%), amides and amines (7%), aromatic compounds (7%), and pharmaceuticals (7%). Other metabolites found included ketones (4%), furans (4%), methyl ester (4%), phthalates and plasticizers (4%), phenolic compounds (4%), terpenes and triterpene (4%), alcohols (4%), benzene-related compounds (2%), monoacylglycerols (2%), phthalic acids (2%), surfactants (2%), and vitamins (2%). Similar (8) metabolites were observed across the four pasta samples using the Venn diagram to show the relationship between the samples, while pasta from sieve of particle size 350 and 300 µm showed higher numbers of unique metabolites, 8 and 7, respectively compared to pasta from sieve of particle size 112 µm (4) and 500 µm (3). The information from this study can be used as biomarkers for pasta enriched with pulses....

Jenny Hamilton has a new paper in the Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Journal, published this week:  Hamilton, J. (2023). Movies on the couch: The MOVIE model of film therapy. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 00, 1– 5. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12658 ...

Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): A feasibility trial Funded by NIHR Research for Patient Benefit. Key contact: Dr Moghaddam....

Over the last few decades, research has largely focused on the processes and practices that act against women in male-dominated industries and the effect this has on their career progression. However, men’s careers are under analysed. This paper flips the gaze, applying a feminist institutionalist lens to examine the practices and rules that shape and enable men’s career progression. This is critical if we are to understand how men’s power in organizations is maintained and perpetuated, arguably at the expense of women’s careers. It draws on data from a rapid ethnographic study of the Australian construction industry, specifically of construction professionals working in two multinational Australian construction companies. The paper finds that men’s career progression routinely operates through homosociality, instrumentally and expressively, via a “sponsor-mobility” principle whereby selected individuals receive higher levels of guidance, access to opportunities and advocacy from their managers....

Remote sensing data is a cheap form of surficial geoscientific data, and in terms of veracity, velocity and volume, can sometimes be considered big data. Its spatial and spectral resolution continues to improve over time, and some modern satellites, such as the Copernicus Programme's Sentinel-2 remote sensing satellites, offer a spatial resolution of 10 m across many of their spectral bands. The abundance and quality of remote sensing data combined with accumulated primary geochemical data has provided an unprecedented opportunity to inferentially invert remote sensing data into geochemical data. The ability to derive geochemical data from remote sensing data would provide a form of secondary big geochemical data, which can be used for numerous downstream activities, particularly where data timeliness, volume and velocity are important. Major benefactors of secondary geochemical data would be environmental monitoring and applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in geochemistry, which currently entirely relies on manually derived data that is primarily guided by scientific reduction. Furthermore, it permits the usage of well-established data analysis techniques from geochemistry to remote sensing that allows useable insights to be extracted beyond those typically associated with strictly remote sensing data analysis. Currently, no generally applicable and systematic method to derive chemical elemental concentrations from large-scale remote sensing data have been documented in geosciences. In this paper, we demonstrate that fusing geostatistically-augmented geochemical and remote sensing data produces an abundance of data that enables a more generalized machine learning-based geochemical data generation. We use gold grade data from a South African tailing storage facility (TSF) and data from both the Landsat-8 and Sentinel remote sensing satellites. We show that various machine learning algorithms can be used given the abundance of training data. Consequently, we are able to produce a high resolution (10 m grid size) gold concentration map of the TSF, which demonstrates the potential of our method to be used to guide extraction planning, online resource exploration, environmental monitoring and resource estimation....

Stone tools are the result of goal-oriented actions involving cognitive processes. Because visual attention is a requirement in accurate tool-making, visual exploration can provide information about the relationship between perception and technological evolution. The purpose of this study is to analyse visual behaviour while an expert knapper produces different stone tools, using a portable eye tracking device. To understand where gaze was directed moment by moment, different areas of interest were defined. The preliminary results show that the most observed areas were the middle region, the knapped surface, the first face of the tool being struck and the next point of percussion. There were differences in visual exploration between choppers and handaxes during knapping. The distal position, upper region, cortex and the first face of the tool being struck were more explored in choppers, while the base, knapped surface and first tool’s face knapped were more viewed for handaxes. These areas can be considered to be the most salient features needed to control knapping, hence constituting action affordances for the successful production of stone tools....

Having left the European Union, the UK Fisheries Act (hereafter referred to as the Act) provides a framework that may advance sustainable marine resource management. This requires the bias towards social-economic concerns to be recognised, and greater emphasis to be placed on securing the natural capital to support fisheries. A Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) to be published in 2022 by the UK’s devolved fisheries authorities will set out how the objectives of the Act will be achieved. While recognising the value of principles of the Act, this article challenges the current management framework in light of the wider challenges in fisheries practice. It argues for more emphasis on ecological and fisheries regeneration, and maximising societal benefits rather than yields. Three recommendations are provided: (1) an integrated and more holistic Fisheries-Energy-Environment Nexus resource management approach would better utilise systems thinking to optimise trade-offs and synergies between competing domains to achieve fisheries, conservation and other environmental goals (e.g. delivering the national net zero strategy); (2) the use of best available technologies as is reasonably practicable to monitor compliance and facilitate enforcement should be a regulatory requirement under the JFS; (3) the fisheries and marine conservation science community should work with other stakeholders to change the media narrative, public opinion, and political direction away from a “business-as-usual” model that risks long-term degradation of the marine fisheries resource....

There are many definitions of recovery in mental health. Community Rehabilitation Teams (CRTs) aim to support the mental health recovery of people. The Individual Recovery Outcomes Counter (I.ROC) is a way to measure recovery. To determine if being supported by a CRT helps mental health recovery for people transitioning from an inpatient service to the community. Individual reliable and clinically meaningful change indices were calculated for a total of 31 people. Two I.ROC questionnaires were completed by 31 people. Of these 31 people, 14 people had three completed I.ROC questionnaires. Of the 31 people, 17 showed a positive reliable change and three people made a clinically meaningful change. Of the 14 people, one had a positive reliable change, two had a negative reliable change, and no-one had a clinically meaningful change. The I.ROC shows the CRT to successfully support recovery in people with mental health difficulties....