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Chapter 6: A General Public’s Perspective: Factors that Constrain Individual Trust in Science
No full textThis chapter explores factors that may constrain individual trust in science examined across a general, non-expert, public from a set of European contexts. The work is grounded in a rich qualitative dataset comprised of eight focus groups and one individual interview, conducted in Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland and France in the context of the VERITY project. The data were analyzed inductively using thematic analysis, and themes were identified and compared in iterative cycles. The chapter focuses on three themes that were identified in the data: (1) individual factors, including affect, competencies, as well as motivational and cognitive attributes; (2) socio-cultural factors, including social norms, social influence and the role that conflicts across different contexts play in hindering individual trust; (3) environmental factors, including the country-level educational system and
online information environments. The findings suggest how different mechanisms can shape individual trust in scientists and science, as an institution
Experimental evaluation of the impact of reduced anticontamination measures on the integrity of items sampled within mock crime scenes
No full textCrime Scene Investigators (CSIs) in the UK conduct extensive anticontamination measures to mitigate the risk of introducing extraneous DNA into forensic evidence. This study empirically evaluated the effectiveness and proportionality of such measures, focusing on equipment cleaning and glove-changing practices during evidence recovery in mock crime scenes. The experimental design deliberately introduced contamination risks, such as the use of contaminated equipment, transport containers, and gloves and included both standard and streamlined (reduced glove changes/cleaning) procedures. Six CSIs from two police forces recovered 24 biological samples (semen, blood, saliva, and touch DNA) from two mock scenes. Critically, no extraneous DNA profiles were detected in any evidential samples, even under deliberately compromised conditions or when streamlined practices halved the time required for recovery.
These findings indicate that many current anticontamination measures exceed what is necessary to protect evidential integrity. The results support a more proportionate, risk-based approach, suggesting that UK police forces could safely reduce certain anticontamination practices without compromising the quality of forensic evidence. Further research in real-world settings is recommended to confirm these conclusions and guide policy
Effect of Vibration on Automotive Transmission Radial Lip Seal Leakage
No full textThe European Union’s regulatory mandate requirements for vehicular components include the integrity of sealing performance, mitigating leaks from fuel tanks and transmission systems in order to guard against environmental pollution. Non-compliance can result in significant costs for the OEM and their supplier base. The majority of the reported research regarding leakage from radial lip seals focuses on static analysis of leakage under a given set of laboratory conditions. However, in practice, seal conjunctions are often subjected to significant excitations due to vehicular vibration. In the current study, the case of a front-wheel drive vehicle, equipped with three-axle accelerometers and subjected to a comprehensive road test, is used as the basis for the development of a realistic representative test rig. The test rig is developed using bespoke components from the vehicle under investigation to assess the impact of the encountered natural frequencies on sealing performance in controlled laboratory conditions, when the system is subjected to controlled excitation. Experiments are conducted to evaluate leakage at the transmission interface, focusing specifically on the sealing system’s performance. The influence of driveshaft manufacturing processes using corundum grinding and subsequent surface topography upon leakage performance are also considered. Identified modal response frequencies are imposed upon the test rig using a shaker, whilst the seal leakage is measured. The importance of shaft roughness characteristics, such as topographical skewness upon seal leakage rate under various resonant conditions, are ascertained. The results indicate potentially significant leakage rates under excitation conditions, with a non-optimised shaft roughness profile
Readiness for virtual experiential education: A qualitative study of PharmD students and faculty preceptor perspectives in a postgraduate program
No full textIntroduction
Disruptions to clinical training have prompted exploration of alternative experiential learning models, including virtual internships (VI). Understanding stakeholder perceptions and readiness determinants is important for evaluating the feasibility of VI and informing their structured integration within PharmD curricula. This study explored PharmD students' and faculty preceptors' perceptions of VI and examined factors shaping readiness for implementation within a postgraduate program.
Methods
A qualitative study was conducted within a one-year postgraduate PharmD program. All eligible students (n = 12) and faculty preceptors (n = 8) were invited to participate. Two focus groups were conducted with students (n = 10) and five semi-structured interviews with faculty preceptors. Data were analyzed thematically and interpreted using readiness to change framework.
Results
Participants recognized the necessity of transitioning to VI and described both enabling conditions and constraints. Virtual delivery supported continuity of experiential training and was perceived to facilitate clinical reasoning and self-directed learning. Faculty highlighted structured academic scaffolding, use of electronic health records, and leadership coordination as key implementation enablers. However, limitations related to direct patient interaction, interprofessional engagement, and applied clinical skill development were consistently identified. VI was perceived to be differentially suited to specific competencies and internship types, supporting selective rather than universal application.
Conclusion
VI were perceived as a feasible strategy for maintaining experiential training during disruption and may serve as a complementary adjunct to traditional placements when selectively aligned with appropriate competencies and supported by institutional structures. Further research is warranted to evaluate sustainable integration of virtual components and their impact on competency development in evolving practice settings
Dark Tourism: Commodifying Atrocity as Difficult Heritage
No full textDark tourism encapsulates travel to sites of death, disaster, and atrocity where remembrance and commercialization intersect. Framed as both a multidisciplinary field and an interpretive lens, it examines how visitor economies curate the “significant dead” through memorials, museums, exhibitions, and themed attractions; mediating difficult heritage while revealing contemporary attitudes toward mortality, identity, and collective memory. The entry distinguishes consumption-focused analyses of dark tourism from production-oriented perspectives on dark or difficult heritage and situates debate within postdisciplinary conversations across archaeology, heritage studies, and cultural sociology. It traces how “deathscapes” and “traumascapes” acquire meaning through social negotiation and models developmental trajectories via Foote’s continuum of rectification, designation, sanctification, and obliteration, noting the contingent roles of stakeholders, policy, and public sentiment. These sites are politically and morally charged: They embody dissonant narratives, selective silences, and shifting ideologies, and they must manage dialogic, inclusive interpretation for diverse audiences while resisting erasure. Ultimately, dark tourism domesticates death within culturally sanctioned spaces, retailing tragic memories yet often telling us more about the living than about the dead. As heritage systems globalize, dark tourism’s consumption will increasingly operate alongside heritage production, democratizing and internationally circulating narratives of the noteworthy dead within contemporary visitor economies
How do staff and team characteristics relate to ward safety incidents in adult inpatient mental health settings? A protocol for a systematic integrative review.
No full textIntroductionA neglected area of patient safety research is how the characteristics of mental health staff and teams may influence incidents, specifically, through unintended and harmful consequences of clinical care. While the research literature into patient safety has increased, there is still a need to further consider safety on mental health wards, for example, the role of the staff team in containment and conflict. This review aims to explore the question, 'How do staff and team characteristics relate to safety incidents in adult inpatient mental health settings?'.Methods and analysisThe review will follow Whittemore and Knafl's integrative review framework. CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science will be searched. Literature published after 1999, that includes extractable quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods data exploring the relationship between staff and team characteristics on incidents in adult inpatient mental health settings, will be suitable for inclusion. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool will be used for quality appraisal and data analysis and will comprise data reduction, display and comparison.Ethics and disseminationNo new data or access to participants will be involved in this review. As such, ethical review will not be required. Dissemination will include publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at national and international conferences.Prospero registration numberThis review has been registered on PROSPERO (ref. CRD420251119981; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420251119981)
293 Quality of life after radiotherapy treatment for patients with stage IIIB, IIIC, and IV non-small cell Lung cancer: QUARTZ LUNG a Candidate-Specific Trial within the TOURIST Platform
No full textIntroduction
Current palliative thoracic radiotherapy practice is still based on dose fractionations studied in the 1990s. The symptomatic benefits demonstrated in those trials are widely assumed to be transferable to late-stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients with poor performance status who are considered unfit for systemic treatment. When considered how palliative care has evolved over the past three decades, the benefits of this practice must be re-assessed in the current setting.
Aims
QUARTZ LUNG is a candidate-specific trial within the TOURIST platform evaluating the role of low-dose, palliative thoracic radiotherapy as a single-modality treatment for stage IIIB, IIIC, and IV NSCLC patients who have no planned systemic therapy.
Methods
Patients receive their standard of care supportive and palliative care to alleviate symptoms and are randomised (1:1) to the control arm or the addition of low-dose thoracic radiotherapy. The primary objective is to assess clinical effectiveness of the additional radiotherapy on health utility. Secondary objectives are to determine the clinical effectiveness of the additional radiotherapy on overall survival, quality of life, lung cancer symptoms, and toxicity. Economic evaluations are to be undertaken, alongside process evaluations via interviews with patients, their primary carers and healthcare professionals. Trial Update We currently have 30 sites open across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with recruitment expected to end in March 2029. 20 patients have been recruited to date. Early recruitment has been challenging; recent changes have been introduced to improve accrual, including extending the inclusion criteria to patients with stage IIIB and IIIC, as well as those who have received prior systemic therapy. We have strong PPI representation, who contribute to trial design and oversight. They also contribute in various ways to raise trial awareness, for example participating in interviews alongside our Chief Investigator
.
Disclosure
No significant relationship
Intraday and Interday Reliability of Horizontal Upper Body Push and Pull Isometric Strength Qualities Using the VALD DynaMo Max Dynamometer
No full textBackground/Objectives: To evaluate the intraday and interday reliability of seated horizontal upper body (UB) isometric push and pull tests performed with the VALD DynaMo Max dynamometer. Methods: Fifty-two recreationally active individuals (41 men, 11 women; 25.0 ± 6.1 years) completed two sessions 48 h apart, each comprising three maximal-effort push and pull trials at 90° elbow flexion using a custom-built rig with the attached dynamometer. Peak force (PF), peak rate of force development (RFD), impulse, and time-to-PF were extracted from 1200 Hz force–time data. Reliability was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation (CV%), standard error of measure (SEM) and minimal detectable change (MDC). Results: PF demonstrated excellent reliability (ICC = 0.97–0.99) with low absolute error (CV 24%; MDC = 1.5–1.7 s). Conclusions: Horizontal isometric push and pull tests using the VALD DynaMo Max dynamometer provide reliable measures of PF and impulse for athlete profiling and tracking substantial longitudinal changes. Peak RFD may be cautiously used for broad cross-sectional comparisons, although its higher variability limits precision in distinguishing smaller inter-individual differences and appears less sensitive to within-individual changes. Time-to-PF demonstrated insufficient reliability for practical application
Earthworms are sustained in a 116-year rye monoculture with ploughing by provision of soil organic carbon from farmyard manure
No full textIn arable fields, earthworm abundance declines with the level of intensification, due to soil disturbance and reduced food resources. In this context, continuous cropping of monocultures and removed plant residues are drivers for a decline in earthworm populations. Therefore, the earthworm communities of the 'Eternal rye', a 116-year field trial, were investigated. The Eternal rye was instigated in 1906 Vienna, Austria, mainly to compare the application of mineral fertiliser, farmyard manure (FYM) and no fertiliser application (unfertilised). A two-factorial design with factor fertiliser comprised of FYM, mineral fertiliser and unfertilised and factor crop rotation with levels crop rotation of winter rye (Secale cereale L.) – spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) – bare fallow) versus continuous cropping of winter rye. All plots were ploughed (25-30 cm) at the same time, after the application of FYM and before sowing of rye in late October. Earthworms were investigated for continuous rye and rye in crop rotation in April 2020-2022 by hand sorting. Results show that only fertilisation treatments impacted earthworm communities with highest total abundances under FYM (120 ± 92.9 m−2) followed by mineral fertiliser (27.6 ± 21.4 m−2) and unfertilised (9.55 ± 9.27 m−2). The most abundant species was Allolobophora chlorotica under FYM and mineral fertiliser, followed by small numbers of Aporrectodea caliginosa, Aporrectodea rosea and Lumbricus terrestris. Interestingly, L. terrestris was observed only under FYM (2.69 ± 7.81 m−2). Similar to earthworm parameters, soil organic carbon, NO3−-N and leaf area index were highest for FYM compared to mineral and unfertilised within and across cropping systems, while soil decomposition rate was highest for FYM only in continuous rye. The application of FYM compensated the effect of conventional management practices, such as monoculture and ploughing on earthworms and enhanced numbers of endogeic earthworm and L. terrestris compared to mineral and unfertilised treatments
AI-driven aphasia-friendly communication tool to enhance perioperative consent and patient understanding
No full textAim: Aphasia affects approximately one-third of stroke survivors, significantly impairing their ability to process written and verbal information. This creates barriers in surgical pathways where informed consent and patient-clinician communication are essential. Current solutions, such as static communication boards, are limited and lack adaptability. We aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that automatically converts standard medical text into an aphasia-friendly format to improve accessibility and patient understanding.
Method: We designed a prototype AI program that reformats conventional text into simplified language, guided by the Accessible Information Guidelines published by Stroke UK. To enhance comprehension, the tool integrates pictorial support by sourcing images from the Participics library (aphasia.ca/participics). The system was developed to generate aphasia-accessible documents such as patient information leaflets, perioperative instructions, and consent forms. Results: The prototype tool successfully converts medical text into aphasia-friendly versions with simplified language and contextual images. Text transformation occurs within 30 seconds, offering a time-efficient and standardised approach compared to manually producing easy-read documents. Although formal usability testing has not yet been conducted, the tool demonstrates proof-of-concept and feasibility for clinical application.
Conclusion: This AI-driven aphasia communication tool represents an early-stage innovation with the potential to improve perioperative communication and informed consent in patients with aphasia. A functional online prototype has already been developed, underscoring feasibility and readiness for future validation. Next steps will focus on clinician and patient testing, integration into surgical pathways, and evaluation of its impact on patient safety and autonomy