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‘Mum feels that the decision has already been made’:From shared decision-making to negotiated compromise in Adult Social Care
No full textAdult social care policies in England promise people choice and control over their care and support, often via a process of shared decision-making (SDM). An adult social care initiative – ‘single-handed care’ – involves care provided by two workers changing to a single worker using advanced equipment and techniques. We carried out interviews with key stakeholders (n=26) involved in single-handed care. This included people providing (homecare workers), assessing for (occupational therapists and social workers), and receiving single-handed care as well as family members. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using standard qualitative processes and thematic analysis. We identified that the people receiving the service, family members and homecare workers sometimes felt that the decision to move to single-handed care had been made by the assessors before the SDM process began. The successful organisation of single-handed care required SDM to be balanced with competing responsibilities towards professional authority and accountability, and fiscal responsibility. Where there was a disagreement between stakeholders about a move to single-handed care tensions between these three responsibilities emerged. We argue that social care policies and procedures need to be more explicit about the extent to which decisions can be shared and that there may need to be a process of ‘negotiated compromise’ which sometimes allows other responsibilities to prevail
The Holocene evolution of a sinkhole on the Southeast Red Sea Shelf:From saline palaeolake to stratified marine setting
No full textThe submerged coastal landscapes of the southern Red Sea preserve key archives of postglacial environmental change, shaped by sea-level rise and shifting hydroclimatic regimes. On the southeast shelf, the Farasan Deep—a deep, morphologically isolated sinkhole—records a rare transition from a saline palaeolake to a stratified marine setting. We present a new multiproxy record from sediment core FA24, integrating lipid biomarkers (branched and isoprenoid glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers [GDGTs]), XRF-core scanning, LOI, sedimentology, and micropalaeontology to reconstruct water-column structure, redox dynamics, and microbial and faunal shifts over the past 11.8 kyr. Results reveal three distinct phases. Phase I (11.8–8.7 ka) reflects hydrographic isolation, strong stratification, and sustained bottom-water anoxia. Laminated organic-rich sediments, diatom mats, low foraminiferal counts, and biomarker evidence indicate persistent oxygen depletion and a distinct microbial ecology. Phase II (8.7–6.7 ka) captures transitional dynamics, marked by episodic marine incursions, fluctuating redox conditions, rising GDGT inputs, and sporadic foraminiferal reappearances. Phase III (post-6.7 ka) signals full marine reconnection with stable stratification, persistent bottom-water anoxia, increased microbial lipid production, and benthic foraminiferal assemblages dominated by infaunal taxa. The Farasan Deep record sheds light on the timing and feedbacks of postglacial marine reconnection in marginal basins. Beyond its regional context, it provides a globally relevant analogue for redox-sensitive carbon cycling, stratification feedbacks, and GDGT proxy behavior in semi-enclosed systems. These findings further underscore the geoarchaeological significance of submerged landscapes and support improved palaeoclimate reconstructions in hydroclimatically sensitive marine settings
New age‐estimate data and implications for marine isotope stage 7 and 5e sea levels in Fenland, eastern England
No full textOnly one last interglacial relative sea-level indicator point (SLIP) has been recognised for Fenland, eastern England, and the nearest penultimate interglacial SLIP is located on the north Norfolk coast. Such limited information restricts the regional input to, and hence the relevance of, global reconstructions of late Middle and Late Pleistocene sea level. Marine-influenced deposits without such relevant data are known in Fenland, but their age and connection to past relative sea level (RSL) were largely uncertain. To improve this situation, new age-estimate data are presented and assessed in combination with existing age-estimate and new and existing palaeoecological data. Sea level relative to the marine-influenced deposits of Fenland is approximated based on brackish-marine faunal analyses. Results distinguish between marine-influenced deposits of penultimate and last interglacial sites. Fenland marine-influenced deposits of both interglacial stages share similar altitudinal envelopes (between a few metres above and below present ordnance datum (OD)), in common with Kirmington to the north and those of the British south coast, the Channel Islands and northwest France. Peak Fenland minimum RSL approximation (RSLA) of 2.5 m OD in the penultimate interglacial is commensurate with the north Norfolk coast SLIP but contrasts with the below OD peak of the global record. Timing of the peak Fenland maximum RSLA of 3.75 m OD late in the last interglacial at 116 ± 16 ka is commensurate with the Dutch record (116–105 ka), but contrasts with the early peak of some global records
Nudging urban travellers towards greener travel modes: A virtual reality experiment
No full textCities worldwide face increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions from transportation systems, yet implementing new transport policies often involves high costs and uncertainties. This study introduces an immersive virtual reality (VR) tool as a flexible, low-cost approach for evaluating travel demand management (TDM) strategies before real-world deployment. In a repeated discrete choice experiment (1,260 observations), participants chose between a taxi (high carbon) and a bus (low carbon) across multiple scenarios, each featuring variations in cost, travel time, and carbon attribute levels. Three nudge interventions were designed to highlight environmental impacts at three different decision points. The findings demonstrate that strategically timed nudges offer policymakers a scalable tool to promote sustainable urban mobility by integrating salient environmental feedback into decision-making contexts. These results underscore VR’s potential to simulate realistic policy interventions and generate inputs to quantify the impact of different types of interventions alongside travel attributes
Integrated in-situ imaging and diffraction flow cell technology (NX-DRT) for advanced corrosion studies
No full textDynamic imaging and mechanistical investigations are crucial in the development of new materials, in understanding degradation and offer significant opportunity across diverse areas of materials research. Here we demonstrate the integration of a sample corrosion environment with imaging through low energy neutrons and synchrotron X-rays, and demonstrate this using steel, which is commonly used in the oil and gas industries. The novel flow cell technology, incorporating three-electrodes to link corrosion with imaging (2D and 3D with neutrons and X-rays) is unique and operates in-situ overcoming limitations around manipulating the environment around the sample. The compact flow cell enabled imaging of thin films of a few microns thickness. The combination of imaging and diffraction data are useful to characterize the degradation mechanism qualitatively and quantitatively over time with 3D tomography used to provide visual and volumetric information on film growth, porosity and pitting position. This work demonstrates the unprecedented capability of the in-situ flow cell to conduct degradation studies and elucidate mechanisms in ways never before possible
Estimating the age of ice in a Martian mid-latitude debris-covered glacier from numerical modelling and particle tracking
No full textMars' mid latitudes contain thousands of ‘viscous flow features’ (VFFs), akin to debris-covered glaciers on Earth. They are thought to have formed during martian ‘ice ages’, driven by variations in Mars' spin-axis obliquity. Key to understanding the nature and timing of such glacial cycles, and the palaeoclimate histories they reflect, is knowledge of the emplacement age of ice within VFFs. Current methods to estimate VFF surface ages, which place VFF formation broadly within the last few Myr to 100 s Myr, predominantly rely on the size-frequency distributions of impact craters across their surfaces. However, these ‘impact crater retention ages’ likely reflect the time since the emplacement or last major modification of the surficial debris layer; they implicitly assume a uniform age across the sampled area. They also provide no direct information about the emplacement ages of the underlying ice layers, the configurations (and hence age distributions) of which are likely to have been modified during transit by ice flow. Here, we develop a new, physically-based method to reconstruct the flow paths and transit times of ice within VFFs, and hence estimate variations in the minimum age of ice across their (now debris-covered) surfaces, and with depth. We use 3-dimensional ice flow modelling and particle tracking, and apply our method to a small VFF in Mars' southern mid-latitudes. Our method produces spatially-variable near-surface ice age estimates which range from very young ( 2 orders of magnitude) to ice temperature and grain size, which emerge as the main controls on modelled ice flow velocities, and hence the estimated ages. Our results have significant implications for identifying landing sites and ice sampling strategies for future missions which could extract climate records potentially hosted within glacial ice layers on Mars. The significant variations we find in the age of ice across the VFF surface, arising from the flow-induced deflection of ice layers up to the surface, suggest that such missions could access ice with a large range of ages (and hence potentially longer-timespan climate records) by sampling from shallow depths across the surface a single VFF
Wood ants on the edge:How do the characteristics of linear edges effect the population dynamics of an edge specialist?
No full textLandscape structure modulates species dispersal by presenting barriers or opportunities. Slow-dispersing edge specialists, e.g. the northern hairy wood ant (Formica lugubris), are likely to be most affected by topography and land management practices, because they require adjacent contrasting habitats, e.g. to access both food and sunlight. In managed forests, canopy gaps are often linear and anthropogenic, such as paths, firebreaks, and roads (collectively ‘rides’), and their orientation determines shade distribution. Using data spanning 10 years, we ask how ride orientation and width affect the distribution and dispersal of three F. lugubris populations in the North York Moors, UK. Ride orientation clearly affected nest abundance, with a higher nest density on rides oriented north-south (N-S) or east-west (E-W) (cardinal directions) than on those oriented NE-SW or NW-SE (intercardinal directions). Conforming to predictions based on sunlight availability, N-S oriented rides were occupied more symmetrically than E-W ones, where the north side was used predominantly. Nests were generally larger on narrower rides. Ride orientation also clearly affected dispersal: wood ants dispersed c15 m/year along rides oriented in cardinal directions, compared with only c5 m/year on rides oriented intercardinally. Our results show that ride characteristics (width, orientation), resulting directly from forestry practices, influence the distribution and dispersal of an ecosystem engineer woodland species; this may also apply to other forest-edge specialists. As wood ants can suppress defoliating pests, these findings could benefit forest management; forest planners could encourage wood ant colonisation of plantation forest by ensuring linear features contribute to north-south and east-west connectivity
Lithium-ion battery thermal runaway propagation prevention — predicting critical parameters considering uncertainty
No full textLi-ion batteries (LIBs) are integral to modern society, driving the electrification of transport and supporting renewable energy generation to meet Net Zero. However, LIBs suffer from the potential to undergo thermal runaway (TR) which can lead to fire and explosions. Computational modelling of TR is essential to understanding its hazards, and to accurately quantify risks there is a need to account for the uncertainty in TR behaviour. To adequately predict the safe limits of battery operation we incorporate the stochasticity of thermo-physical and kinetic reaction parameters in module thermal runaway propagation (TRP) analysis. A 0-dimension heat transfer model for TRP predictions is validated against experimental findings. From this, Monte Carlo simulations are undertaken to determine the uncertainty in the predicted cell temperatures, times to cell TR and times to TRP. The critical heat dissipation coefficient to prevent TRP considering cell uncertainty was found to be 2.5 and 4.6 times larger for LFP and NMC stacks, respectively, compared to the scenario where cell uncertainty was not considered. For the LFP stack, the less severe TR events mean, in theory, that TRP can be prevented by heat pipe or submersion cooling thermal management systems. Without considering cell stochasticity there is a significant overestimate of TRP time and an underestimate of critical heat dissipation coefficient to prevent TRP. Hence, the predicted safe time for evacuation and appropriate thermal management methods are inaccurate. This work highlights the need to incorporate uncertainty in predictions of risk
Tailoring neutron-shielding boron-metakaolin geopolymers with B4C filler: surfactant-driven interfacial and microstructural control
No full textThe incorporation of boron (B) as a neutron absorber into metakaolin-based geopolymers for the remediation of radioactive debris following nuclear accidents has attracted considerable attention. In this study, boron carbide (B4C) was employed as a functional filler, while cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) acted as both a dispersant and a stabiliser to enhance the neutron shielding properties of metakaolin-based geopolymers. Although the addition of B4C improved processability via a “roller-ball” effect and had no discernible impact on the geopolymerisation process, its weakly polar, negatively charged surface led to the formation of a loose, weak-shell interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between the filler and the matrix, thereby reducing mechanical strength and chemical stability. In contrast, CTAB self-assembled into an interdigitated monolayer on the B4C surface, reversing its surface charge to positive and promoting its uniform dispersion within the matrix. While CTAB slightly inhibited the dissolution of metakaolin, it preferentially interacted with B4C, thereby mitigating the adverse effects on the geopolymerisation process. Moreover, CTAB promoted gelation within the ITZ surrounding B4C, facilitating the development of a dense, potassium-deficient, yet electrostatically stabilised microstructure. This synergistic interaction enhanced interfacial bonding between the filler and the matrix, enabled efficient stress transfer, and significantly improved mechanical performance and chemical stability. Furthermore, the B4C–CTAB-modified geopolymers demonstrated enhanced neutron shielding performance. Overall, this work offers a promising approach for engineering high-performance, multifunctional geopolymer composites for nuclear and environmental applications
How has the cost-of-living crisis impacted the transition to healthy diets from sustainable food systems?
No full textThe need for a transition towards healthy diets from sustainable food systems links into a multitude of accelerating social and environmental grand challenges including climate emergency, biodiversity loss and obesity. Governance for sustainable food systems is dominated by market-based approaches focusing on incremental change and centred on the idea of nudges, i.e., behaviour change interventions to promote pro-environmental minority behaviours. Yet, product price is often the primary driver for consumers, especially considering a highly volatile market environment, with a succession of major disruptions that have put additional strains on global food systems and have triggered Cost-Of-Living (COL) crises in many economies. This raises the question whether relative price increases have incentivized sustainable food consumption, or whether they have effectively served as a barrier for the transition to sustainability. Hence, we track prices of food products included in the UK consumer price inflation basket over a nine-year period. We develop two indices: the Environmental Impact Price Index and the Nutrition Impact Price Index to monitor the affordability of a healthy and sustainable diet. The indices provide a means of assessing the impact of changing prices on the nutritional value and sustainability of different food products. We select the food products found in the standard UK Consumer Price Index basket used to calculate inflation. We find the COL crisis period (2021–23) to have nudged UK consumers towards healthy and sustainable diets, but this is embedded in a long-term trend that has disincentivized healthy and sustainable food consumption