University of Birmingham

Improving the management of leprosy ulcers through a community self-care intervention using a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial in South-East Nigeria

Background Self-care is used to promote leprosy ulcer healing and reduce recurrence. RedAid Nigeria in South-East Nigeria adapted and implemented a recently developed international guideline for self-care of leprosy ulcers. We report a prospective, mixed methods evaluation of thi...

International consensus guidance for general population screening for islet autoantibodies to diagnose early-stage type 1 diabetes: a nominal group technique process

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that targets and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreatic islets. The incidence of type 1 diabetes is rising globally. At the clinical diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, between 20% and 67% of children and adolescents present wit...

Analysing patient experiences: a comparison of qualitative thematic analysis and collaborative arts-based enquiry methodologies in the case of living with a progressive lung condition

Arts-based health research is gaining traction for its ability to enhance participation, elicit diverse data, and engage audiences. While content-based qualitative analysis approaches are well established and valued for their structured, auditable processes, the analytical founda...

Powerless and overlooked: a longitudinal examination of marginalised communities in major sport events

The agenda of hosting major sport events (MSEs) has long been a political priority, promising transformation for host communities, yet the experiences of vulnerable and marginalised populations within this agenda remain understudied. This study examines how marginalisation is man...

Management of Acute Periodontal Conditions—The EFP S2k Level Clinical Practice Guideline

BACKGROUND: The European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) has developed Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) for the treatment of periodontitis and for the management of peri-implant diseases. In accordance with the 2018 Classification, acute periodontal conditions are character...

Enhancing Urban Air Quality Mapping through Novel Measurement and Modelling approaches, and Citizen Science: Actionable Insights from the RI-URBANS Project

Air Quality is among the most pressing environmental issues impacting upon urban populations. Traditional air quality networks can assess time trends and assess compliance to air quality regulations, but lack the spatial and temporal resolution to understand individual exposure t...

Bio-interfacial engineering of electrophoretic coacervate microcapsules for cytocompatible on-skin displays

Electrophoretic ink (e-ink) holds significant potential for energy-efficient displays and sustainable alternatives to print media. However, their use in wearables is hindered by hazardous materials which are cytotoxic and sensitizing to human tissue. While commercial e-inks encap...

Living in a material world? Regulatory challenges of software as a medical device

Abstract Software as a medical device (SaMD) offer significant promise for care and have become near ubiquitous within healthcare and medicine. Yet, the regulation of SaMD in the UK and Europe has not kept up with the technological state-of-the-art. In this paper we argue that th...

Perceived pleasantness mediates the effects of high-arousal and emotionally complex music on pain

ABSTRACT: Music effectively reduces pain, yet the mechanisms underlying music-induced hypoalgesia remain poorly understood. We investigated how latent perceptual dimensions of music influence pain by examining both stimulus properties and subjective evaluations of those propertie...

Symbiont effectors modulate plant signalling to increase host stress resilience

Abstract Plant colonizing mutualistic symbionts confer beneficial effects to their hosts, which often includes increased growth, and biotic and abiotic stress resilience. How these benefits are activated on a molecular level is mostly unknown. Here, we describe effector candidate...

The making of digital rangelands: Navigating the implications of rangeland datafication and smartification in Kenya

A shift is occurring in how the global environmental community understands and talks about rangelands. Long seen as economically unproductive and environmentally degraded environments, rangelands are now being recast as sources of untapped ecological benefit and climate optimism....

Neural sharpening of object categories through parafoveal priming

Abstract During natural vision, humans make saccades approximately every 250–300 ms to fixate on important objects in a scene. Given this rapid succession of eye movements, it has been proposed that visual processing begins in the parafovea, prior to fixation. Such parafoveal pre...

Pyridinium Cations Act as Charge Reservoirs in Expanded Halide Perovskite Analogs at High Pressure

ABSTRACT Introducing charge reservoirs within semiconductors is a promising strategy for controlled electronic doping. We previously showed that dmpz 2+ ( N , N ’‐dimethylpyrazinium) molecules placed within the cavities of an expanded analog of halide perovskites, (dmpz)[Sn 2 I 6...

CD248/Endosialin regulates synovial fibroblast state to control coupling of inflammation and bone damage in murine models of immune‐mediated inflammatory arthritis and ageing

Objective Synovial fibroblasts directly contribute to inflammation and damage in immune‐mediated inflammatory arthritis. CD248/Endosialin is expressed by fibroblasts in the synovium, is highly upregulated during inflammation and has been proposed as a potential therapeutic target...

Re-setting education: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education was felt throughout the world, and there was significant pressure to return to normal. The acceptability of the supposedly normal has, however, been challenged by Ladson-Billings and others who have called for a re-set o...

Mechanism of miR-217 in suppressing pancreatic cancer progression by targeting ENO1

Abstract Objective This research was designed to investigate the functional impact of miR-217 in modulating proliferative activity and apoptotic processes in pancreatic carcinoma cells and to investigate its associated molecular mechanisms. Methods Five matched pairs of pancreati...

GENERIC Formulation and Small-Angle Limit for Kinetic Wave Equations

Abstract In this paper, we formulate the three-wave and four-wave kinetic equations into the GENERIC framework and formally derive a small-angle limit for the four-wave equation. This limit is akin to the well-known grazing limit from the kinetic Boltzmann equation to the kinetic...

Breast cancer risk, epigenetic aging and DNA methylation clocks

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States, and is globally a common and impactful cancer. Its distinct molecular subtypes, each defined by characteristic genomic and epigenomic profiles, var...

Six-Dimensional Norms for Metaphorical Expressions in European Portuguese: The ME6D-PT Database

Conceptual metaphors structure abstract domains through concrete, perceptual, affective, or bodily experience, but they are accessed through metaphorical expressions. Controlled experimental work requires normed materials characterizing expressions, not only the conceptual mappin...

Rituximab therapy achieves comparable remission to cyclophosphamide in ANCA-associated vasculitis with severe KIDNEY involvement

Abstract Introduction The RAVE/RITUXIVAS trials established rituximab (RTX) therapy in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). However, RAVE excluded patients with severe renal involvement (creatinine > 354 µmol/L). Whilst RITUXIVAS did not, treatment included RTX with 2 cyclophosphami...