Open Research Exeter - University of Exeter
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Benchmarking Photolysis Rates with Socrates (24.11): Species for Earth and Exoplanets
No full textUsing the Socrates photolysis scheme, we present newly calculated photolysis rates under modern Earth atmospheric conditions for species directly relevant to Earth and species relevant to different atmospheric compositions. We compare to a previous photolysis comparison exercise, namely PhotoComp 2011. Overall, we find good agreement between our results and previous work, with discrepancies usually caused by the implementation of temperature or pressure dependent quantum yields and updated cross-section data. We provide a new set of benchmark photolysis rates for additional species both for Solar irradiance and when irradiated by an M dwarf host star. In general, the higher actinic flux at far-UV and shorter wavelengths of the M dwarf compared to the Sun drives increased photolysis rates for reactions with high threshold energies. This work provides an updated set of benchmark results for further studies of photolysis in the Earth’s atmosphere and that of other planets.</p
Molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of beta-cell viability by Signal Regulatory Protein-Alpha (SIRPα)
No full textType 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is characterised by pancreatic β-cell demise, resulting in a requirement for permanent insulin therapy. Pro-inflammatory cytokine pathways, acting via STAT1 and STAT2, contribute to β-cell death whereas anti-inflammatory mechanisms (operating via cytokines such as Interleukin-13 (IL-13)) are downregulated. IL-13 has been shown to protect β-cell viability via STAT6 signalling, and preliminary data suggested that Signal Regulatory Protein-α (SIRPα) also plays a vital part in this protective effect. However, the protective mechanisms by which SIRPα sustains β-cell viability are poorly understood. Recently, it has been proposed that histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) binds to SIRPα, and that this binding interaction suppresses the STAT1 mediated pro-apoptotic pathway, thus protecting β-cells against death by apoptosis. It is not known how this interaction is regulated. In this study, the aim was to explore the importance of tyrosine phosphorylation of SIRPα in maintaining the interaction with HDAC6 by replacing the cytoplasmic tyrosine residues with phenylalanine to block the phosphorylation events. Several molecular and cellular approaches were employed, including site-directed mutagenesis to generate single mutants of human SIRPα (Y429F, Y453F, Y470F, Y496F) and a quadruple mutant (FFFF) of rodent SIRPα to block tyrosine phosphorylation; use of INS-1E and HEK293T cells as experimental models, Western blotting, and Co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assays to detect the interaction between SIRPα and HDAC6. The results show that IL-13 stimulation led to STAT6 phosphorylation and upregulation of SIRPα expression in β-cells, linking the STAT6: SIRPα axis to β-cell viability. HDAC6 was found to co-immunoprecipitate with SIRPα, but, surprisingly, this interaction was independent of tyrosine phosphorylation under basal conditions. Overall, this study confirmed that the upregulation of SIRPα expression in pancreatic β-cells is mediated by the IL-13/STAT6 pathway and that this may lead to HDAC6 recruitment and thereby its sequestration. The binding interaction between SIRPα and HDAC6 was not tyrosine phosphorylation dependent. The work also underscores the importance of species-specific differences when using rodent versus human β-cell cells as species-specific structural differences were noted to impact the binding of HDAC6 to SIRPα. Together, these findings establish a framework for further investigation of SIRPα regulatory mechanisms in regulating β-cell viability and their relevance to T1DM pathogenesis.</p
Back to the Land Again: Environmentalism in English georgic life writing 1940-2023
No full textThis thesis is in two parts: a creative piece composed of four linked essays, entitled Red Earth, followed by a critical essay entitled Back to the Land Again: Environmentalism in English georgic life writing 1940-2023. The creative work is life writing based on my experience of living and working on a market garden, intertwined with nature writing, history, biography and other types of creative non-fiction. The critical essay examines the work of six georgic life writers whose work, the thesis argues, both reflects and helps create three distinct waves of counter-cultural environmentalism as it relates to land and farming in England during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Taken together, the creative work and the critical essay explore the role of the past in framing current environmental discourse. The thesis argues that contemporary georgic life-writing can be strengthened by an awareness of genealogical roots in the same way that counter-cultural georgic life writers use the past, mediated through a radical nostalgia, to ground their visions of sustainable futures.</p
Prognosis and scientific imagination in the work of Jane Webb Loudon (1800–1858)
No full textPrognosis is an important aspect of any scientific culture. Speculation and imagination about future knowledge, social organization and technology pervade the practice of science and lend it aim and direction (or at least the appearance of direction). This article is about the development of prognosis in the fiction and popular-scientific writing of Jane Webb Loudon (1800–58), a writer familiar within the history of science for her publications in botany and gardening, if not for her romantic novel The Mummy!, one of the earliest examples of the genre later known as science fiction. I argue that Webb Loudon viewed scientific activity as declining and flourishing throughout human history, and that she anticipated the science of her time would ‘resuscitate’ knowledge and even political structures of past eras (like ancient Egypt). Following the work of Jim Endersby and other historians of science who have worked to reintegrate the role of fiction in our understanding of science culture, I argue that Webb Loudon’s efforts to promote and diffuse her understanding of science and its relation to the future (and past) ought be viewed as informing the cultural meaning of science in the nineteenth century.</p
Spin–Orbit Interaction Enabled Nonlinear Metasurface Holography
No full textNonlinear optical metasurfaces have emerged as a powerful platform for efficient and multi‐dimensional manipulation of harmonic waves, offering distinct advantages such as high‐integration capability and phase‐matching‐free operation. Spin and orbital angular momentum (SAM and OAM) provide rich degrees of freedom for advanced light field control. While SAM‐ and OAM‐multiplexing metasurface holograms have been realized in the linear optical regime, their performance is hindered by a low signal‐to‐noise ratio stemming from residual light mode conversion. Nonlinear OAM holography has recently been demonstrated; however, its practicality remains limited by reliance on bulky nonlinear optical crystals that exhibit only intrinsic spin–orbit interaction (SOI). Here, we introduce nonlinear SOI holography via second harmonic generation on optical metasurfaces composed of gold plasmonic meta‐atoms. By controlling the local rotational symmetry and topological charges, these metasurface holograms can fully harness optical SOI through both intrinsic and extrinsic angular momentum mode conversions. Information hidden in second harmonic holographic images can only be reconstructed from the spin–orbit tomography of the fundamental waves, ensuring high‐security nonlinear optical encryption. The proposed approach offers promising applications in optical communications, optical information processing, high‐dimensional optical storage, and so on.</p
EFL Teacher Stress in Saudi Higher Education: A Critical Narrative Research
No full textThis study critically examines how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers experience and respond to workplace stress in Saudi higher education. In the context of Vision 2030 reforms, research on teacher stress in Saudi higher education remains limited and predominantly quantitative, often foregrounding individual factors rather than institutional conditions. Addressing this gap, the study explores the primary workplace stressors perceived by EFL teachers, how these stressors shape personal well-being, how occupational stress influences professional practices and career trajectories, and the coping strategies teachers employ within and beyond the workplace.
Using a critical narrative research design, data were collected from 15 EFL teachers (13 females, 2 males) across four Saudi state universities, with varied nationalities, qualifications (BA, MA, PhD), and academic ranks. Participants were recruited through purposive, convenience, and voluntary sampling. Semi-structured interviews and reflective journals were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, informed by the Job Demands–Resources model and the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping.
Findings are organised into three overarching themes and suggest that EFL teachers’ workplace stress is predominantly institutional and systemic. Workplace Stressors highlights policy instability, administrative opacity, constrained autonomy, and career barriers as dominant sources of strain. The Impact of Stress on Well-being and Professional Life illustrates emotional and physical costs, spillover into home life, and consequences for professional practice, including diminished motivation, more detached pedagogy, and uncertainty about promotion and longer-term trajectories. Coping Mechanisms shows the use of cognitive reframing, faith, and social support, alongside avoidant responses, which are often insufficient in the absence of institutional care.</p
When Trial Interventions Are Likely to Reduce the Impact of Rape Myths on Juror Decisions: A Mechanism-Informed Evidence Synthesis
No full textResearch suggests that there is, at least, a risk that problematic viewpoints about rape (and other serious sexual offences) (rape myths) are influencing decisions made by jurors in cases involving alleged sexual offending. Research has examined whether any impact of such viewpoints can be minimised through providing correct information to jurors, either through judicial directions or expert testimony. However, findings in this research appear inconsistent, and while existing evidence syntheses have noted this inconsistency, they have not explained it. In this paper, we adopt a new approach to evidence synthesis, integrating evidence relating to mechanism (e.g., mechanisms of belief updating) with literature directly examining relationships between interventions and decisions in the mock jury context, in order to explain apparent inconsistency in the existing literature and draw robust conclusions in relation to when interventions are likely to be effective. We find that short and superficial statements of fact are unlikely to influence juror decision making, and, as such, potential interventions tested in much of the existing associative literature are impoverished versions of the optimal intervention. However, we also find that interventions have the potential to be reliably effective when they include more detailed information, particularly when they target broad schemas of rape myths rather than individual beliefs. These findings have the potential to inform more effective intervention in the trial context to reduce the likelihood of rape myths feeding through into legal decision making. As such they may be helpful in improving the effective prosecution of rape and serious sexual offending.</p
Co-becomings in Creative Music Workshop Practices: Audio and Video Files
No full textThis data comprises the video, audio and mixed media artefacts which are integral to the thesis: 'Co-becomings in Creative Music Workshop Practices' submitted by Ursula Crickmay to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, September 2025.Audio 1, A sonic exploration: the researchers' music-making performances over the course of one week, sampled and mixed according to aleatoric processes as part of an autoethnographic research method.Audio 2, Gamelan rehearsal: short illustrative extract from autoethnographic field recording.Audio 3, Clap for the NHS: autoethnographic field recording from COVID lockdown.Audio 4, Co-becoming with voices: Musical transcription of data extract from a pre-school music project.Audio 5-7: Music/sound pieces co-created by the author with a neurodivergent music making group.Audio 8, Sense: Spoken data from participant with young onset dementia, mixed with samples of music improvised by the researcher using piano, exploring dementia and affect.Audio 9, Present moment unfolding: Field recording of musician on Zoom playing Astor Piazolla, 'Oblivion' during music workshop.Audio 10, Co-becoming in liminal spaces: Field recording of space prior to music improvisation beginning.Video 1, Lockdown at home, lockdown in the woods: Researcher's autoethnographic recordings of COVID lockdown.Video 2, Chop chop: Extract of Zoom video recording of young children making music during COVID lockdown.Video 3, Silence of Zoom: Visuals of young children dancing to music and musicians playing on Zoom; audio created by researcher using xylophones and sequencing processes.Video 4, Co-Becoming with a Piano: Creative artefact exploring music and materiality. Includes home video of piano being dismantled and burnt, extract from Brahms Intermezzo in Am, Op. 76, plus improvised sounds with partially dismantled piano played by the researcher.Videos 5-15: Extracts from video and audio recordings of group improvisations from music workshops on Zoom with young musicians with autism, also featuring professional musicians plus the researcher; various exploratory visuals utilising data extracts from the same workshops.Video 16, Dancing assemblage: Video extract from music workshop on Zoom with a group of people with young onset dementia and family members; shows a 'found dance performance' captured during one session.Video 17, Workshop as assemblage: Audio recording of improvisation by professional musicians (violin, viola, harp plus ocean drum) in workshop debrief session, utilising playing to reflect on use of the ocean drum during the workshop; visuals are slow-motion recording of an ocean drum played by the researcher.Video 18, This was the piece: Audio extract from music improvisation with a group including people with young onset dementia, family members and professional musicians, demonstrating growth of an improvisation from a single note; visual is a sketch created by a musician in a feedback workshop.Video 19, Affect is persistent proof: Video/audio collage including sonic extracts from music workshop including people with young onset dementia and professional musicians, inspired by reference to Vaughan Williams and affective responses to this. Visuals devised from drawn materials created by researcher.Figure 17, A Screen Play, PDF plus .wav files: Recreation of Sway document featuring text, images and sounds from a music making project with young children, early years staff, and music leaders on Zoom; explores theatrical character of workshops on Zoom, and the role of pitch.Figure 18, Tales of Enchantment, PDF and MP4 files: Recreation of Sway document featuring text, images and sounds from a music making project with young children, early years staff, and music leaders on Zoom; explores positive affective responses to music workshops.Figure 21, Material Encounters collage, PDF and MP3 files: Recreation of Sway document featuring text, sketches, and sounds from a music making project with young autistic people and professional musicians on Zoom; explores concept of material encounter in music workshops.Figure 25, Music workshop as assemblage, PDF, MP4 and .mov files: Recreation of Sway document featuring text, sketches, photos, and sounds from a music making project with people with young onset dementia, their family members and professional musicians and facilitators on Zoom; explores concept of assemblage in music workshops.Figure 27, Difference and diffraction, PDF and MP4 files: Recreation of Sway document featuring text, sketches, photos, and sounds from a music making project with people with young onset dementia, their family members, and professional musicians and facilitators on Zoom; explores concept of music workshop as diffraction.</p
Physical activity interventions for older adults – an overview of systematic reviews
No full textBackgroundThe proportion of people meeting recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines declines with age. Older adults who are physically inactive have an increased risk of: all-cause mortality; chronic diseases; injury and reduced cognitive functioning. Multiple systematic reviews aim to understand the effectiveness of PA interventions but the evidence is fragmented and it is unclear how well the research reflects the needs of older people. We conducted an overview of existing systematic reviews (PROSPERO reference: CRD42015023796) to map evidence on interventions to encourage older people to be more active.MethodsNine electronic databases were searched, most recently in October 2023. Older people were defined as those aged 50+, with physical activity including active daily living (walking the dog, gardening, etc.), organised activities and clubs and more formal exercise or sport. Screening of records, data extraction, and assessments of quality (using AMSTAR-2) and inequality (using Progress-Plus) were completed independently by two reviewers.ResultsA total of 35 reviews (reported in 36 papers) published between 2002 and 2023 were included. Reviews included between 3 and 79 studies (total 480 unique studies) with a median of 162 and 184 participants per study in meta-analyses (overall AMSTAR-2 median quality low) and narrative syntheses (median quality critically low) respectively. Eighteen included a mixture of interventions (e.g. supporting lifestyle change, walking groups, exercise classes), nine focussed on remote delivery, six on wearable devices, five on 1-to-1 interventions, two on walking, and two focussed on group-based interventions. Interventions to increase physical activity in older people were shown to be effective in the short term (ConclusionsA range of interventions are effective in increasing PA in older adults. Newer research highlights the usefulness of technology - including wearable devices, social media, text messaging - as useful tools. Improved effectiveness seems to relate to theory-based interventions, but without further research, caution should be taken when interpreting the effectiveness of individual behaviour change techniques. Identifying and resolving wider barriers and facilitators, social and environmental interactions influencing PA may improve future interventions. Better reporting of equity by future studies will improve understanding of who benefits from such interventions. Increased knowledge of potential wider social, economic and environmental determinants of physical activity in older adults, and specifically more vulnerable and minority populations, will help policy makers and practitioners develop more effective interventions.</p
Dataset for the article: “Harms and benefits of discussing the brain disease model of addiction in therapeutic settings"
No full textDataset for the article: “Harms and benefits of discussing the brain disease model of addiction in therapeutic settings" (abstract below), accepted on the 3rd March 2026 by the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. ABSTRACTIntroduction: Discussion of the brain disease model of addiction in clinical settings could harm or benefit the expectations held by treatment-engaged persons who use drugs (PWUD) regarding their therapeutic outcomes, but no study has experimentally tested this.Methods: Thirty-four PWUD who were engaged with Waythrough drug and alcohol recovery services were interviewed. Utilising methods from consumer psychology, PWUD were asked to imagine the brain disease and social stress models of addiction being discussed in two hypothetical therapist led support groups (in counterbalanced order within-subjects) and rate the therapeutic outcomes they expected would arise from each group.Results: Participants agreed less with the brain disease model (d=0.37) and expected its discussion would reduce their likelihood of recovery (d=0.57), their therapeutic alliance with the facilitator and group peers (d=0.43), and self-blame for their addiction (d=0.40), compared to if the social stress model was discussed. Differences between conditions in expected quitting effort (d=0.29), adaptive coping (d=0.28), and negative self-perception (d=0.05) were not statistically significant.Conclusions: Treatment-engaged PWUD expected that discussion of the brain disease model of addiction in a hypothetical support group, compared to the social stress model, would harm their recovery chances and therapeutic alliance but benefit them by reducing self-blame for their addiction. Numeric effects on quitting effort and adaptive coping need replication with a larger sample. The null effect on negative self-perception informs theories of self-stigma. The study provokes reflection on how scientific addiction models are incorporated into clinical discourse to maximise clients’ recovery capital and avoid inadvertent epistemic harms.</p