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Review: Daniel Biltereyst and Ernest Mathijs, The Screen Censorship Companion: Critical Explorations in the Control of Film and Screen Media, Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2024.
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Nobody’s listening: evaluating the impact of immersive VR for engaging with difficult heritage and human rights
Get PDFImmersive virtual reality (VR) offers promising approaches for engaging with difficult heritage and human rights issues, potentially fostering deeper emotional connections than traditional media. This paper presents a mixed-methods evaluation of Nobody’s Listening, a VR experience documenting the Yazidi genocide in Iraq (2014–2017). Employing a historical empathy framework, the study analyses pre- and post-experience surveys, interviews, and observational data from 127 non-Yazidi participants across five Iraqi cities. It contributes a replicable framework for evaluating immersive heritage experiences, assessing how VR can foster emotional engagement, raise human rights awareness, and inspire positive action. Findings reveal substantial impact across cognitive, emotional, and behavioral domains: 85% reported increased awareness of the genocide, 71% gained new knowledge of Yazidi culture, and over 80% experienced intense emotional reactions, including empathy, grief, and shock. When describing what impressed them most, 57% demonstrated historical empathy (including contextualization, perspective taking, and affective connection). Notably, 92% believed justice had not been served, with many expressing intentions to support advocacy. Our findings suggest that VR’s impact in post-conflict contexts stems not solely from immersion, but from resonance with participants’ own trauma histories—activating empathy through analogical recognition and collective memory. The study offers key design and ethical principles, including cultural specificity, survivor testimony, community consultation, and trauma-informed evaluation. These insights contribute to inclusive heritage interpretation, reconciliation, and human rights education
Attending to the unsettled
Get PDFHow do critical urban researchers understand the possibility of social change when confronted with a situation that is as numbing as it is enraging? From the planetary climate crisis to the perniciousness of markets and technology to the dismantling of a (never just) global order, just change has rarely looked quite so foreclosed. Underpinning the hopelessness and anxiety of the current age is an apparent crisis of knowledge: how can we know the world in such turbulent times? How can we know how and what to commit to politically? How do we continue to believe in the potential of social movements to realize change? This article looks to the work of Roger Keil to take on a peripheral view—to focus on the edges of the urban, whether as physical territory, political economic process, or socionatural system. Giving in to the unsettlement and finding the possibility, it shows how an approach based on attending to the unsettled allows us to see and work through such disruptive conditions, and offers a renewed attention to the political in these times
Involved neck only versus mucosal radiotherapy for head and neck squamous cell cancer of unknown primary (HNSCCUP): a national retrospective multicentre cohort study
Get PDFIntroduction: Target volumes for irradiation remain ill-defined for head and neck squamous cell cancer of unknown primary (HNSCCUP). The aim of this study was to compare two commonly used radiotherapy strategies for patients diagnosed with HNSCCUP: ipsilateral or involved neck only (INO) versus bilateral neck and/or mucosal (MUC) radiotherapy, evaluating disease related outcomes and enteral feeding rates.
Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective, observational, multi-centre cohort study. Patients diagnosed with unilateral HNSCCUP between 2015 and 2023 who underwent radical (chemo) radiotherapy were eligible for analysis. All patients underwent FDG PET-CT. HNSCCUP was a diagnosis of exclusion made on the basis of negative investigations to detect a primary site. Patient and tumour characteristics, treatment details, toxicities and disease control were recorded and compared between the two radiotherapy strategies.
Results: 195 patients were eligible for analysis, 66% had human papillomavirus (HPV) associated disease. 73 patients received INO (37%) and 122 patients received MUC radiotherapy (63%). The median duration of follow up was 58 months (IQR 42-72 months). The rate of primary site emergence was 2.7% in the INO and 0.8% in the MUC cohorts, p=0.56. 5-year overall survival was 80% (95% CI 70-90%) for INO and 82% (95% CI 75-90%) for MUC radiotherapy, p=0.74. Those undergoing INO radiotherapy were more likely to die from HNSCCUP (17.8% vs 5.7%) and those receiving MUC to die from a non-HNSCCUP cause (15.6% vs 4.1%). The need for enteral feeding ≥ 12 months from radiotherapy was 5.7% for MUC vs 0% for INO, p=0.046.
Conclusions: This is the largest series to date of patients with unilateral HNSCCUP treated radically with radiotherapy in the HPV and FDG PET-CT era. Acceptably low rates of primary site emergence, lower toxicity and no difference in overall survival when compared with prophylactic mucosal radiotherapy suggests that involved neck only radiotherapy in HNSCCUP may be a feasible alternative in contemporary practice
My Diabetes & Me: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial to test the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a diabetes self-management education programme for adults with intellectual disabilities
Get PDFBackground International guidelines recommend structured diabetes education to empower individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). While DESMOND is an effective programme for T2D management, it is often inaccessible to people with intellectual disabilities (ID) due to their unique needs. There is limited evidence on the effectiveness of adapted T2D education for this group, despite the importance of tailored support in preventing complications and early mortality. We previously adapted the DESMOND programme for adults with ID, creating DESMOND-ID. A feasibility study showed it is possible to recruit and deliver the programme to adults with ID and their carers, who found it valuable. Initial findings suggest DESMOND-ID may improve blood glucose control, warranting further investigation through a large-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT). Methods The "My Diabetes & Me" study will be conducted in two stages: an internal pilot and a main RCT. The pilot will recruit 108 participants over 10 months to assess recruitment and retention, using glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c, mmol/mol) at six months as the primary outcome. This will inform the design of the main study. Across both stages, 450 participants will be randomly assigned to receive either the DESMOND-ID intervention or treatment as usual (TAU). The intervention group, with their carers, will attend weekly sessions for seven weeks, plus two booster sessions at one and three months post-programme. Primary outcome is HbA1c at six months. Secondary outcomes include HbA1c at 12 and 18 months (pilot only), anthropometric data, self-reported outcomes, and other risk factors. A process evaluation will explore barriers and facilitators to implementation using qualitative and quantitative methods. Conclusion DESMOND-ID is the first structured T2D education programme tailored for adults with ID, and this RCT is the first to evaluate its clinical and cost-effectiveness
A cradle of support as you emerge from the darkness of mental illness: Participant experiences of Common Wheel’s community music group
No full textThis study explores how participants experience Common Wheel’s community music group and perceive its influence on their well-being. Five adults (aged 20–70) with pre-existing mental health conditions, each of whom had completed at least one six-week block, were interviewed using semi-structured interviews incorporating music elicitation. Three key themes were developed: the rhythm and routine of recovery; how staff and facilitators orchestrate support and the perks of public performance. Participants described perceived improvements in well-being through regular structure, strength-based support from facilitators and the confidence gained from performing in public. These findings align with Common Wheel’s facilitation aims and the pillars of Seligman’s PERMA model. The use of music elicitation helped capture participants’ experiences in depth, offering insight into how creative, socially inclusive interventions can support mental health recovery. Further research into similar programmes across Glasgow is recommended to assess broader outcomes and inform practice
HDL protein composition differs between young white European and South Asian men before and after weight gain
No full textSouth Asians (SAs) in the UK are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), develop type 2 diabetes mellitus at a lower age and body mass index, and have a lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentration than their white European (EU) counterparts. The failure of HDL-C raising therapies for CVD risk reduction has turned attention to its composition and function. A previous study comparing the effect of moderate weight gain on SA and EU men found baseline and weight gain-induced ethnic differences in body composition, adipocyte function and insulin resistance (ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT02399423). This study investigated differences in HDL protein composition, subclass distribution and in vitro vascular functions at baseline and after weight gain in the same cohort of men. HDL protein composition was determined by nano liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry using label-free quantification. HDL subclass distribution was measured by native gel electrophoresis. HDL in vitro paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) activity was measured by monitoring the PON-1 mediated hydrolysis of phenylacetate. In vitro HDL anti-inflammatory function was assessed in an endothelial cell assay of adhesion molecule inhibition. SAs had higher levels of immunity- and inflammation-related proteins and a detrimental profile of lipid metabolism-related proteins at baseline and with weight gain (including lower apolipoprotein (apo) A-IV and apoF and higher apoC-III) compared with EU. HDL subclass distribution and in vitro vascular function were not different between EUs and SAs. HDL protein composition reflects systemic physiology and acts as a mechanistic marker of impaired lipid metabolism in SAs
Outcome measures for randomised clinical trials and multicentre observational studies of cardiovascular diseases published in major clinical journals: systematic review and evidence mapping
No full textBackground: Outcome measure choice and definition can determine the result of the study. We describe outcome measures and their definitions for cardiovascular studies in highly cited medical journals. Methods: Cardiovascular phase III or IV randomised clinical trials (RCTs) or multicentre observational studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet or Journal of the American Medical Association between 1 January 2013 and 6 June 2024 from Embase and Ovid Medline were included. Two independent reviewers selected the studies and extracted the primary and secondary outcome measures from each publication. Results: 386 studies (83% RCTs; 17% observational) representing 10 699 147 participants were included. Studies investigated coronary heart disease (51%), cardiomyopathy/heart failure (22%), heart rhythm disease (15%), valvular heart disease (11%) and ‘other’ cardiovascular diseases (1%), with 45% investigating a device and 48% funded by industry. The most frequently reported primary outcome measure was a composite (63%), the most frequent component of which was myocardial infarction (58%). The use of a composite for the primary outcome measure increased from 49% of studies in 2013 to a peak of 85% in 2018. From 2013 to 2023, the median number of secondary outcome measures per study increased for RCTs (3–8) and observational studies (0–7). Definitions for cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction and stroke varied across the studies. Conclusions: For cardiovascular studies published in highly cited journals, there has been an expansion in the use of primary composite outcome measures and secondary outcome measures, with heterogeneity in the definition of primary outcome measures. A standardised approach to the use of cardiovascular outcomes measures is required
ProActLLM: Proactive Conversational Information Seeking with Large Language Models
Get PDFLarge Language Models (LLMs) have transformed information access by enabling human-like text understanding and generation.
This workshop explores the next step for conversational AI: building
proactive information-seeking assistants that go beyond reactive
question answering. We aim to investigate how LLMs can anticipate user needs, model complex context, support mixed-initiative
interactions, integrate retrieval and external tools, personalize responses, adapt through feedback, and ensure fairness, transparency,
and cognitive grounding. Bringing together experts from NLP, IR,
HCI, and cognitive science, the workshop will serve as a timely
forum for advancing intelligent, proactive dialogue systems. It will
also foster interdisciplinary collaboration
Human rights during the 1848 Revolutions
No full textThis chapter argues that the 1848 Revolutions can profitably be understood through the prism of arguments over rights. It highlights a series of contests between those who championed a “thin” conception of individual civil and political rights and those who defended a variety of “thicker” understandings: whether of rights as belonging to collectives, especially national minorities; as protecting cultural, linguistic, or gender identities and differences; or as demands for extensive state action to challenge economic domination of workers by landowners and capitalists. The offer of individual rights under a “thinner” constitutional order in the Habsburg monarchy was insufficient to address conflicts between the dominant Magyar nation and the claims of the regime’s other national groups; at the same time, these conflicts generated nuanced efforts to theorize individual and collective rights by figures such as József Eötvös. Ostensibly “thin” demands for individual equality under the law proved unable to protect individuals – particularly emancipated slaves, peasants, laborers, and women – from domination deep-seated in existing social structures
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