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A Vision for Physics Higher Education Research in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
No full textNo abstract available
Halogens in proto-Iceland plume basalts
No full textMelt inclusions in olivine phenocrysts from high 3He/4He proto-Iceland plume (PIP) basalts from Baffin Island and West Greenland have elevated Br/Cl ratios, extending to values significantly above those found in mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)andoceanislandbasalt(OIB).Chlorineisotopecompositions areindistinguishable from MORB-source mantle and high Br/Cl occurs in the absence of geochemical indicators for serpentinite, altered oceanic crust or sediment. The highest Br/Cl occurs in melt inclusions from basalts with the highest 3He/4He. ThehighBr/Clratiosare atthehighendoftherangeofputativeEarth-sourcemeteorites (CI- and CM-type carbonaceous chondrites). The PIP melt inclusion compositions are consistent with the addition of a small volume of halogen-rich, high Br/Cl chondritic material to halogen-depleted, low Br/Cl mantle
Automatic Detection of Public Speaking Anxiety Through Linguistic Analysis
No full textThe automatic detection of Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA)
can facilitate prompt assistance for persons facing anxiety, enhancing
communicative abilities and mental health. While prior research investigated acoustics and visual features to automatically detect PSA, this
study investigates whether the textual modality can benefit PSA detection as well. We used Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) text
features with several machine learning models, including Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and
Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP). The SVM model using BERT features on
text chunks produced the best results, with an F1 score of 0.76. Although
the experiments employed a small dataset, the findings indicate that text
features may play an important role in identifying PSA. In future work,
we aim to investigate the respective information contained in textual vs
acoustic features using multimodal approaches such as LSTM models.
Our code available at:https://github.com/M23A?tab=repositorie
Equine fatalities in equestrian eventing
Get PDFBackground:
To date, industry and research outputs that have aimed to improve safety in equestrian eventing have tended to focus on identifying risk factors for horse falls during cross-country, which have been identified as the greatest risk of injury and fatality for riders. There is an absence of research that investigates fatalities of horses within the sport of eventing.
Objectives:
To use a combination of media reports and eventing federation databases to describe and document equine fatalities in equestrian eventing, including their context, location and a basic pathology.
Study Design:
Descriptive study.
Methods:
A study describing equine fatalities that occurred between 1998 and 2023. Study data were taken from a combination of media reports (to identify occurrences of equine fatalities) and federation databases (to confirm a fatality did indeed occur and validate data).
Results:
One hundred and ten equine fatality records were included. Median horse age was 12 years. 62.7% of equine fatalities were not associated with a report of a horse fall during the cross-country phase. Of all fatalities, 36.4% involved a musculoskeletal (MSK) injury, 36.4% were considered sudden death and 27.3% did not report the pathology (unknown). A total of 47.5% of MSK-related fatalities and 90% of sudden death fatalities occurred during cross-country but were unrelated to horse falls at cross-country fences.
Main Limitations:
The data presented within this study do not provide a complete picture of global equine eventing fatalities during the study period. Details around the context/pathology of fatalities are also limited because of the sources they are derived from.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that equine fatalities in eventing occur in contexts other than horse falls, including as a result of MSK injury and sudden death. Future research and risk management work in eventing should include work that investigates sudden death and MSK injury in eventing horses and their causative/associative factors
Pre-biologic assessment of adherence in severe asthma and association with biologic continuation: a UK Severe Asthma Registry Study
Get PDFBackground: Biologic therapies are approved for uncontrolled severe asthma despite good adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and additional controllers. We examined the adherence assessments used across UK Severe Asthma Centres (SACs) and their relationship with biologic continuation and response.
Methods: UK SACs completed a quantitative survey on adherence assessment practices in 2022. We included all adult patients with severe asthma patients on ICS starting biologic therapy from the UK Severe Asthma Registry, which collects pre-biologic adherence data, including medication possession ratio (MPR), fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) suppression testing and serum prednisolone levels. Biologic continuation and response were defined as continuation on any biologic and the same biologic after 1 year, respectively. Associations were determined using multivariable logistic regression.
Results: At 21 SACs, MPR for ICS was assessed at 19 (90%) centres, prednisolone and/or cortisol levels in patients on daily oral corticosteroids at 15 (71%), and FeNO suppression testing at 9 (43%). Of 3307 biologic-initiated patients, 1943 (59%) had MPR for ICS recorded, of which 1802 (93%) demonstrated good adherence (≥75% MPR). Only 110 (9%) and 272 (16%) had FeNO suppression and serum prednisolone results, respectively. Good ICS adherence was associated with 2.65-fold higher odds (95% CI 1.02 to 6.91) of biologic continuation, but not with biologic response (OR 1.37, 95% CI 0.50 to 3.76).
Conclusion: Good pre-biologic ICS adherence, measured using MPR, is associated with biologic continuation at 1 year. Further research is needed to determine whether baseline adherence predicts biologic response based on clinical and biologic criteria
Adherence to four dietary indices and the risk of all-cause and cause-specific dementia: findings from the UK biobank study
Get PDFAims:
Despite several modifiable risk factors for dementia being identified, diet is often excluded from consideration due to insufficient evidence. Although various healthy dietary indices have been associated with improved health outcomes, their link to dementia risk remains unclear. This study investigates the association between four dietary indices and dementia risk among UK Biobank participants.
Materials and Methods:
This study utilized data from the UK Biobank cohort. Dietary intake was self-reported using repeated 24-h recalls (up to five occasions), averaged for analysis. Adherence to a healthy diet was assessed using four dietary indices: the Recommended Food Score (RFS), Healthy Diet Indicator (HDI), Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) score. The primary outcome was incident all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease, vascular dementia, and non-vascular dementia extracted from hospital and primary care records using ICD-10 codes. Censored Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the risk of developing dementia and reported as hazard ratios (HRs) with their 95% confidence interval (CI). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, education and various lifestyle and health-related factors.
Results:
The analysis included 121 521 participants (mean age: 55.7 years; 53.5% women), followed for a median of 10.9 years. During follow-up, 621 participants developed dementia. Compared with individuals with the lowest dietary adherence (Quartile 1), those in the highest adherence group (Quartile 4) showed a lower risk of all-cause dementia for MDS (HR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.45–0.63), MIND (HR: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.48–0.78), and RFS (HR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.53–0.85). Similar associations were observed for Alzheimer disease and MDS (HR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.46–0.67), RFS (HR: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.47–0.80), and MIND (HR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.51–0.87). For vascular dementia, only MDS (HR: 0.46; 95% CI: 0.31–0.68) and MIND (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.40–0.97) showed a lower risk. These associations remained in a 5-year landmark analysis. No associations were observed for HDI with any dementia outcome. Our findings indicate that higher adherence to specific dietary patterns, particularly the Mediterranean, RFS and MIND diet, is associated with a lower risk of dementia.
Conclusions:
The Mediterranean Diet demonstrated the strongest association. These results highlight the potential of healthy dietary patterns to improve brain health in older adults
Non-suicidal self-harm among adolescents with substantiated childhood maltreatment: Findings from the Norwegian Triple-S Study
No full textBackground: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a well-established risk factor for psychological distress and self-harm in adolescence. However, few studies have examined how specific types of maltreatment, multivictimization, and familial factors jointly contribute to non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH).
Aims: To investigate the prevalence and correlates of NSSH among Norwegian adolescents with substantiated experiences of CM, including associations with specific subtypes, multivictimization, ethnicity, and family history of self-harm.
Method: We analysed self-reported data from 308 adolescents (aged 12–18 years; 81.2% girls) with substantiated maltreatment experiences who attended a national residential facility for children and young people with experience of abuse and violence between 2016 and 2024. Self-harm behaviours were assessed using validated items adapted from the CASE study. Associations were examined using Poisson regression, adjusting for age and sex.
Results: Overall, 52.8% reported a history of self-harm, with 35.8% reporting ≥10 episodes. Girls were more likely to report NSSH than boys (59.3% vs. 25.0%), although boys reported an earlier age of onset. One in six participants reported familial self-harm or suicide attempts. Self-harm prevalence increased with the number of maltreatment types experienced, from 42.4% (one type) to 61.0% (four or more types). All CM types were associated with high rates of NSSH. Ethnic Norwegian adolescents had higher self-harm prevalence than their immigrant-background peers.
Conclusions: NSSH is alarmingly common among adolescents exposed to CM, particularly among girls and those who have experienced multivictimization. These findings highlight the need for early, developmentally appropriate, and family-inclusive intervention strategies
Mental health discussions among rural residents: a social network approach
Get PDFIntroduction: Mental health in rural areas can be affected by a lack of available services, which highlights the need for alternative support. Social relationships are known to bolster mental health, yet discussions of mental health in rural areas may be hindered by concerns over stigma and anonymity. This study applies a novel social network design to identify characteristics of mental health discussion networks among rural residents in Scotland.
Methods: Data were collected on 505 social contacts of residents living in the Scottish Highlands. Study participants (n=20) completed a personal network interview, which captured information about their social relationships, including whether they would discuss their mental health with each individual. Multilevel models were used to parse characteristics of individuals (study participants and social contacts), aspects of relationships and social network structure associated with the discussion of mental health.
Results: The results show that 23% of social contacts were rated as someone with whom rural residents would speak about their mental health. Social contacts who were women (odds ratio (OR) 4.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.77–9.32) and younger (OR 0.71, 95%CI 0.54–0.94) were more likely to be engaged for mental health discussion. Occupying a more central position in the network increased the likelihood that a social contact would be a mental health discussion partner (ie betweenness; OR 1.03, 95%CI 1.01–1.05), but other aspects of network structure were not associated. Longer relationships (OR 2.33, 95%CI 1.40–3.87) and more frequent interactions (OR 5.05, 95%CI 3.12–8.17) increased the likelihood of mental health discussion, while higher mental health stigma (OR 0.38, 95%CI 0.17–0.85) of study participants lowered the likelihood of mental health discussion.
Conclusion: Findings demonstrate that personal attributes, relational characteristics and network properties can all affect the likelihood of mental health discussions. The study uncovers multiple processes through which social networks can support rural residents, including the promotion of frequent contact, and mixed age/gender relationships, as well as reductions in mental health stigma
Principalship Recruitment and Retention: Exploring Push and Pull Factors in Aspiration to School Leadership Roles in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland
Get PDFNo abstract available
Solar Sail Trajectory Cost Estimation with Transfer Learning
No full textMany future space missions will require evaluating a large number of orbital transfers to determine an optimal combination thereof (for instance for asteroid exploration or debris removal), likely using low-thrust propulsion such as solar sailing. Optimising individual trajectories is already a non-trivial process so evaluating millions for a multi-target mission can become prohibitively computationally expensive. This cost is further amplified if the spacecraft model changes as the mission design progresses, meaning that a previously computed set of trajectories may need to be re-evaluated. Artificial neural networks are often used to approximate the cost of optimal trajectories with a very fast inference time, but require upfront computational, including generating pre-optimised trajectories for training. This paper considers a scenario where two solar sail models need to be evaluated, and ANNs are trained to approximate the duration of minimum-time transfers. It is shown that an ANN does not need to be trained afresh (requiring an extensive training database) for both models---rather, an ANN trained to a good accuracy on one model can be fine-tuned on a smaller training database for the other model (and arbitrarily many others), saving a significant amount of time on database generation
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