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The Political Determinants of Oral Health Inequalities: Lessons in Policy Development and Implementation From Six Case Studies
Get PDFObjectives
Oral diseases are the most prevalent diseases globally, affecting almost half of the world's population with a disproportionate burden on the most vulnerable groups. Despite growing attention on the social and commercial determinants of health, there is still a largely unexplored area in understanding the political determinants of health and oral health. The aim of this paper is to describe national policy development processes for policies impacting population oral health.
Methods
A multiple case study approach was used to analyse six case studies focused on national policy development processes targeting oral health. Kingdon's Multiple Streams Model was used to examine how problems, policy solutions, and political factors aligned to influence policymaking.
Results
Some of the most common barriers to policy adoption and implementation were misinformation strategies, legal challenges, industry lobbying, ideological opposition to state intervention, and lack of transparency regarding conflicts of interest. Important common facilitators included robust scientific evidence presented in an accessible manner to the appropriate audiences, identification of key decision-makers, support from parties from across the political spectrum, intersectoral collaboration, and ongoing policy monitoring and evaluation.
Conclusions
This study provides novel insights into how political determinants influence social and commercial determinants of health, demonstrating how political contexts and power dynamics shape national public health policy development processes. Understanding these dynamics is essential for ensuring that evidence-based public health interventions are politically feasible and resilient to opposition from certain private industry and ideological interests. In a time of growing inequalities, neutrality in the face of structural injustice risks entrenching a status quo that favours those with the greatest influence. To address these problems sustainably, public health practitioners must recognise and engage with the political nature of policymaking
Highly efficient cellulose nanofiber/halloysite nanotube separators for sodium-ion batteries
Get PDFAs a fundamental component of sodium-ion batteries, separators are considered to isolate two electrodes and simultaneously allow for the transport of ions. Cellulose separators have attracted widespread interest for their remarkable properties. In this study, we prepared composite separators comprising cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) for sodium-ion batteries. When the content of the HNT was up to 60%, the tensile strength and elongation at break of the composite separator (denoted as C/H-60) were 24.39 MPa and 2.22%, respectively. Importantly, the C/H-60 separator demonstrated a high porosity (69.08%), improved ionic conductivity (1.142 mS/cm), decent thermal stability, and good electrolyte retention (91.3% electrolyte uptake). The assembled sodium-ion battery containing the composite separators had an excellent rate capacity and cycling property. The proposed composite separators are expected to be applied in high-performance sodium-ion batteries
Life bio-graphics: design-based exploratory research for methodological innovation in urban climate governance research
Get PDFIndividual actions of practitioners and activists are crucial to achieving carbon emission reductions and improving resilience to climate change impacts. However, policy narratives have overlooked people’s complex engagements with climate change in professional settings. Few scholarly accounts of individual experiences of working to address climate change in cities inform climate policy because ethnographic and sociological accounts of climate change experiences do not lend themselves easily to actionable policy narratives. This article reflects on the potential of design-oriented tools we developed to research and communicate in the context of policymaking situated accounts of climate change experiences. We call this experimental methodological approach ‘life bio-graphics’. ‘Life bio-graphics’ combines biographic interviews with designerly thinking in a unique way to visualise life narratives. We demonstrate the application of this method in an analysis of four selected situated experiences of the development of professional careers in urban climate change governance. The use of life bio-graphics reveals the influence of place-based interactions on professional practice, as well as the generation of motivations through the multiple connections generated in diverse life experiences. The visual representation of life bio-graphics challenges linear narratives of biography, focusing instead on the salient moments (nodes) that get sedimented through experiences. Thus, life bio-graphics offer new methods to study how experience, meaning, and materiality become intertwined and impact professional practices, in this case, in climate change governance
Low-cost neutron-gamma borehole detectors for hydrogen content prediction
Get PDFIn an oil well, high hydrogen content within the surrounding rocks is one indicator of the presence of hydrocarbons. Nuclear well-logging entails the deployment of a detector tool and neutron source downhole to characterise the strata properties as a function of depth. After neutron bombardment, the resulting distribution of radiation is sensitive to the hydrogen content. Current detectors favour use of radioisotopes, such as Am-Be or Cf-252 sources. Potential improvements in both safety and data collection capabilities are possible using Deuterium-Tritium Pulsed Neutron Generators (D-T PNGs) as an alternative neutron source when coupled with fast timing and position sensitive detectors. We propose a low-cost, modular detector system, that can measure the flux of thermal neutrons and gammas at various distances from a pulsed fast neutron source. The detector modules consist of in-house manufactured plastic scintillator coupled to BN:ZnS(Ag) thermal neutron converter foils. These mixed-field detectors show good figure of merit for neutron-gamma discrimination at low-cost, allowing us to construct positional and temporal distributions of detected neutrons and gammas. Based upon early simulations, these distributions are sensitive to the hydrogen content
Research priorities for cancers of the oesophagus and stomach: recommendations from a UK and Ireland patient and healthcare professional partnership exercise
Get PDFBackground Cancers of the oesophagus and stomach are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Research is crucial to improving outcomes. However, to maximise value and impact, areas of focus should be prioritised in partnership with patients.
Objective We undertook a comprehensive analysis of UK and Ireland patient and healthcare professional (HCP) priorities for research into oesophagogastric cancers across the domains of prevention, diagnosis and staging, treatment, palliative care and survivorship.
Design A scoping exercise sourced research questions from patients and HCPs. These were consolidated and then confirmed by systematic review to represent a true research uncertainty. Research questions were scored on potential impact by an interdisciplinary group of HCPs and prioritised using a weighting derived from a patient survey.
Results There were 835 (395 HCP, 440 patient) respondents to the scoping (n=455) and prioritisation (n=380) surveys. Across these, 4295 suggested research uncertainties were consolidated to 92 uncertainties that were prioritised. HCP respondents represented 25 professional groups from community and hospital settings. Patient weighting changed 22.2–46.3% of priority rankings established by HCPs. All domains were represented by the 20 highest priority questions, 5 of which focused on personalising and optimally combining treatment modalities. Two other key themes related to optimising nutrition and improving quality of life during and after treatment, including in patients not cured of their cancer.
Conclusion This work highlights the impact of patient input on HCP-ranked research priorities and provides a robust list of priorities to guide funders, policymakers and researchers to support and undertake impactful research
413P Mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd) in esophagogastric adenocarcinoma (ADC) following chemotherapy for resectable disease: Correlation with survival and recurrence patterns from ST03 and OE05 trials
No full textStatement on academic freedom in geography
Get PDFA short statement on academic freedom in the current political climate as it relates to academic geographers, from representatives of the RGS-IBG RHE Committee and the Editors of TIBG
Barriers and facilitators to formal dementia care use among UK South Asians: A systematic review
Get PDFBackground:
This qualitative systematic review aims to identify, analyse and discuss barriers and facilitators to formal dementia services for South Asians in the UK with dementia. South Asian individuals in the UK are more likely to face a dementia diagnosis than the White British demographic; a trend which is expected to grow over the following decades. Despite this greater need for support, the UK South Asian demographic is less likely to access formal dementia services.
Methods:
MODEM, Web of Science, PubMed, CINAHL via EBSCO, The Cochrane Library, and Scopus were searched (22nd July 2025) using a SPIDER search strategy and included studies’ bibliographies were checked, in addition to existing review literature. Data on included studies was extracted using an adapted Cochrane Library data collection form and quality assessed using the JBI critical appraisal instrument for qualitative research. Themes were extracted and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Ten articles were found to meet the inclusion criteria and therefore included in this systematic review. While this review is framed as considering UK South Asians, data was only available from Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani individuals. However, much literature which claims ‘South Asian’ only defines South Asia as consisting of these three countries. Therefore, calling this paper a review of the ‘South Asian’ demographic allows us to critique this homogenisation.
Results:
Five main themes were identified: Lack of Knowledge, Racism/Culturally Inappropriate Care, Stigma, a Familial Duty of Care and Service Delivery. There was disagreement in the literature regarding the existence of stigma. Previously unrecognised interrelations between these themes were identified, as a lack of knowledge had a potentially causal effect on both stigma and a familial duty of care.
Conclusion:
The results indicate a need for review of current policy and practice, however further research is needed, particularly with regard to facilitators, which lacked data in comparison to barriers
Quantitative proteomics analysis reveals the metabolic response of H2 photoproduction by Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 under different anaerobic sulfur-deprived substrate stress conditions
No full textSynechocystis sp. PCC 6803, a model cyanobacterium, produces H2 by photosystem II-independent pathway under sulfur-deprived anaerobic conditions by inactivating photosystems II. To study anaerobic H2 photoproduction, it was grown aerobically until late exponential phase, then switched to four anaerobic substrate-stress conditions of sulfur-deprived media (SDM) only (control) or supplemented with a carbon source in autotrophic CO2 or fermentation (either glucose or acetate) conditions. Changes in H2 photoproduction, cell growth (OD), pH, and chlorophyll content (Chl a) were monitored. Key metabolic changes and altered protein expressions were identified using an 8-plex iTRAQ-based proteomics method. Acetate as a carbon source significantly increased H2 yield to 605.8 μL mg Chl a−1, but stabilized pH, and inhibited cell growth. Control conditions yielded 279 μL mg Chl a−1, while CO2 and glucose conditions had different yields, 72.6 and 35.7 respectively. Under (glucose) conditions, cell growth increased, but pH dropped to 4.9, reducing H2 photoproduction. Proteomic analysis identified 1713 proteins at a false discovery rate (FDR) of ≤1 %. In acetate conditions, proteins related to glycolysis, Calvin cycle, photosystems, and pyruvate metabolism were down-regulated, suggesting inactivation of photosystems (including D1 protein (PsbA)). Notably, the absence of detectable D1 protein (a core component of PSII) in the differential expression analysis across all conditions suggests functional deactivation of PSII, leading to increased H2 production via PSII-independent pathway and relatively stabilized Chl a content after 24 h. Glucose conditions down-regulated glycolysis and TCA cycle but upregulated photosynthesis through PSI, PSII, and RuBisCo. Despite the upregulation of H2-inducing proteins (such as lexA, sll1626, sll0359, Ferredoxin-1, petF, and Flavodoxin) in CO2 and glucose conditions, H2 production was lower than acetate conditions. The study offers the first comprehensive view of the molecular mechanisms of H2 regulation, providing a list of potential gene targets for further engineering of H2 photoproduction by Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
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