Patterned Assembly of Transition Metal Dichalcogenide/Graphene Heterostructures via Direct Laser Writing

Connecting two-dimensional (2D) material layers via interface linkers represents a new avenue for fabricating 2D heterostructures. Utilizing light to remotely modulate this interface function allows for seamless assembly and patterning in a single run. Here, an efficient method for fabricating patterned 2D heterostructures using direct laser writing is demonstrated, drawing a conceptual parallel to laser printing. In the approach, functionalized transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) dispersions serve as inks, graphene as the substrate, and a Raman laser as the patterning tool. Unlike laser printing's electrostatic interactions, the method achieves patterned assembly through covalent bonding between TMDs and graphene. Selective Raman laser irradiation of functionalized TMD/graphene heterostructures triggers localized reactions, forming chemically modified domains exclusively in the laser-irradiated regions, as confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Experimental and theoretical analyses of the interface composition and structure provide new insights into laser-induced chemistry. The work demonstrates the potential for high-throughput assembly of customizable 2D heterostructures, with enhanced compatibility for subsequent patterning through photolabile linkers and photoinduced coupling. Additionally, the results provide deeper insights into chemistry within confined 2D spaces, offering a novel approach to nanoscale heterostructure engineering

Online Real Estate Agencies and their Impact on the Housing Market

Online platforms have transformed many markets, as evidenced by the rise of firms such as Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb. However, the recent emergence of online real estate agencies has not yet received much attention. We investigate the impact of online agencies on the housing market. Our dataset consists of 1,274,792 properties in England and Wales, for which we have matched Zoopla listings with actual transactions from the Land Registry. Using an instrumental variable approach, we find that time on market (TOM) is shorter by about 80 days and the sale-list price ratio is smaller by about 2.4% for properties listed with online agencies. These findings, combined with an average fee of less than one-third of that charged by traditional agencies, explain why online agencies have rapidly gained market share. Their share has risen particularly for properties in the mid-price range and in regions with younger demographics. Moreover, we find that the rise of online agencies has caused traditional agencies to change their behavior - TOM and the sale-list price ratio are lower for traditional agencies in regions with a higher share of online agencies

Sport-related concussion research agenda beyond medical science: culture, ethics, science, policy

The Concussion in Sport Group guidelines have successfully brought the attention of brain injuries to the global medical and sport research communities, and has significantly impacted brain injury-related practices and rules of international sport. Despite being the global repository of state-of-the-art science, diagnostic tools and guides to clinical practice, the ensuing consensus statements remain the object of ethical and sociocultural criticism. The purpose of this paper is to bring to bear a broad range of multidisciplinary challenges to the processes and products of sport-related concussion movement. We identify lacunae in scientific research and clinical guidance in relation to age, disability, gender and race. We also identify, through multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary analysis, a range of ethical problems resulting from conflicts of interest, processes of attributing expertise in sport-related concussion, unjustifiably narrow methodological control and insufficient athlete engagement in research and policy development. We argue that the sport and exercise medicine community need to augment the existing research and practice foci to understand these problems more holistically and, in turn, provide guidance and recommendations that help sport clinicians better care for brain-injured athletes

Hospital to community in Wales: What is the value of optometrists playing a greater role in managing neovascular AMD and glaucoma in primary care?

Purpose: To evaluate the value of enhanced optometric services for managing neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (nAMD) and glaucoma in primary care optometry services, instead of hospital eye services (HES). Methods: Seven enhanced optometric service pathways in primary care in Wales were assessed with a mixed‐methods approach: three for nAMD and four for glaucoma. The methods were a patient‐related experience measure (PREM), a Realist Review and Evaluation involving both patients and staff, a discrete event simulation model estimating the economic impact of the pathways and a workforce survey of optometrists to gauge capability and capacity. Results: Patient‐related experience measure responses (802) indicated that primary care experience was comparable to that of HES. Utilising enhanced optometric services in primary care resulted in reduced wait times compared with HES, with suspected nAMD shortened to 4–5 days and glaucoma monitoring to 5 days. Waiting lists were dramatically reduced with primary care‐based services to just three people waiting for nAMD and five for glaucoma, compared with 216 and 5691 people, respectively, in HES. Consultant ophthalmologist time was reduced from 57% to 15%–16% for nAMD services and from 48% to 22%–23% for glaucoma services. Integrating enhanced optometric services into primary care incurred a similar cost. The workforce survey confirms that optometrists possess the skills and qualifications and are willing to deliver these enhanced optometric services. The Realist Review and Evaluation revealed that clear patient communication, effective coordination and strong interprofessional communication between optometrists and ophthalmologists along with a shared electronic record are crucial to the success of this change. Conclusion: Providing enhanced optometric services in primary care for nAMD and glaucoma brings substantial benefits for the UK National Health Service and patients, including reduced waiting times, waiting lists and released HES capacity. The success of this transition hinges on clear patient communication, administrative co‐ordination and effective interprofessional communication

Developing a prototype for federated analysis to enhance privacy and enable trustworthy access to COVID-19 research data

The use of federated networks can reduce the risk of disclosure for sensitive datasets by removing the requirement to physically transfer data. Federated networks support federated analytics, a type of privacy-enhancing technology, enabling trustworthy data analysis without the movement of source data. To set out the methodology used by the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) and its partners, the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank and Aridhia Informatics in piloting a federated network infrastructure and consequently testing federated analytics using test data provided from an ICODA project, the International Perinatal Outcome in the Pandemic (iPOP) Study. To share the challenges and benefits of using a federated network infrastructure to enable trustworthy analysis of health-related data from multiple countries and sources. This project successfully developed a federated network between the SAIL Databank and the ICODA Workbench and piloted the use of federated analysis using aggregate-level model outputs as test data from the iPOP Study, a one-year, multi-country COVID-19 research project. This integration is a first step in implementing the necessary technical, governance and user experiences for future research studies to build upon, including those using individual-level datasets from multiple data nodes. Creating federated networks requires extensive investment from a data governance, technology, training, resources, timing and funding perspective. For future initiatives, the establishment of a federated network should be built into medium to long term plans to provide researchers with a secure and robust data analysis platform to perform joint multi-site collaboration. Federated networks can unlock the enormous potential of national and international health datasets through enabling collaborative research that addresses critical public health challenges, whilst maintaining privacy and trustworthiness by preventing direct access to the source data

Exploring interaction effects of social determinants of health with hospital admission type on academic performance: a data linkage study

Objective: To investigate the moderating effects of socio-demographic social determinants of health (SDH) in the relationship between types of childhood hospitalisation (ie, none, injury, non-injury, injury+non-injury) and academic performance. Design, setting and patients: Children residing in Wales 2009–2016 (N=369 310). Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank linked Tagged Electronic Cohort Cymru (five data sources) from the Wales Electronic Cohort for Children. Main outcome measure: Binary educational achievement (EA) measured across three key educational stage time points: grade 6 (mean age 11 years, SD 0.3), 9 (mean age 14 years, SD 0.3) and 11 (mean age 16 years, SD 0.3). Results: Of the 369 310 children, 51% were males, 25.4% of children were born in the lowest two Townsend deciles. Females were more likely to meet EA than males (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) (95% CI): 1.047 (1.039, 1.055)). EA was lower for injury admissions in males and any admission type in females (interactions: female×non-injury 0.982 (0.975, 0.989); female×injury+non-injury 0.980 (0.966, 0.994)). Children born into a more deprived decile were less likely to achieve EA (0.979 (0.977, 0.980)) and worsened by an injury admission (interactions: townsend×injury 0.991 (0.988, 0.994); Townsend×injury+non-injury 0.997 (0.994, 1.000)). Children with special educational needs (SEN) were less likely to meet EA (0.471 (0.459, 0.484) especially for an injury admission (interactions: SEN×injury 0.932 (0.892, 0.974)). Conclusion: SDH moderated the impact of hospital admission type on educational outcomes prompting future investigation into the viability of in-hospital routine screening of families for SDH and relevant post-hospital interventions to help reduce the impact of SDH on educational outcomes post-hospitalisation

Not always as advertised: Different effects from viewing safer gambling (harm prevention) adverts on gambling urges

Public concern around gambling advertising in the UK has been met not by government action but by industry self-regulations, such as a forthcoming voluntary ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship in Premier League soccer. “Safer gambling” (harm prevention) adverts are one recent example, and are TV commercials which inform viewers about gambling-related harm. The present work is the first independent evaluation of safer gambling adverts by both gambling operators and a charity called GambleAware. In an online experiment, we observed the change in participants’ (N = 2,741) Gambling Urge Scale (GUS) scores after viewing either: a conventional financial inducement gambling advert, a gambling operator’s safer gambling advert, an advert from the GambleAware “bet regret” campaign, an advert from the GambleAware “stigma reduction” campaign, or a control advert that was not about gambling. Relative to a neutral control advert, GUS scores increased after viewing a financial inducement or an operator’s safer gambling advert. In comparison to the neutral control condition, GUS score changes were similar after viewing a bet regret advert, but showed a significant decrease after viewing a stigma reduction advert. Those at higher risk of harm reported larger decreases in GUS after watching a bet regret or stigma reduction advert. Overall, this study introduced a novel experimental paradigm for evaluating safer gambling adverts, uncovered a potential downside from gambling operators’ safer gambling adverts, and revealed variation in the potential effectiveness of charity-delivered safer gambling adverts

New Generation Insulation Materials for use within the Building Envelope

The aim of this thesis was to study the development of a limited combustible insulation material with properties and performance comparable to the current polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam manufactured at Tata Steel. The target specifications included a density below 50 kg/m3, thermal conductivity under 0.035 W/mK, structural properties equivalent to PIR foam, and limited combustibility. Two approaches were investigated: an organic route and an inorganic route.The organic dominated composite route focused on developing 9 foam formulations with additions of inorganic components, namely, expanded perlite, sieved expanded perlite, powdered aerogel, or a 50/50 w/w mixture of expanded perlite and powdered aerogel at different weight ratios to replace the current flame retardant, tris (1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP). Thermal properties were evaluated by developing two methods: a radiant heat furnace test to simulate conditions surrounding a fire and a single-flame source test combined with thermography to monitor real-time heat transfer to replicate the exposure to a direct flame. Of these variants, the optimal formulation incorporated sieved perlite (particle size distribution of 750-800 microns)into the PIR foam matrix at a 1:1 w/w ratio to TCPP. This material exhibited a 40 kg/m3 density, a thermal conductivity of 0.021 W/mK, a compressive strength of 336 kPa, and a 21% residual mass recorded at 600°C under radiant heat. The sieved perlite formulation demonstrated superior fire resistance, showing no ignition during the single-flame source test and achieving the lowest cursor temperature range after 15 seconds of flame exposure. These results highlight the potential of sieved perlite as a promising additive to improve the fire resistance of PIR foam while maintaining desirable thermal and structural properties.The inorganic incorporated various organic binders into an inorganic matrix to develop an inorganic dominated composite matrix. However, this approach failed to achieve an optimal matrix, as the data suggested that structural integrity and low density could not be balanced simultaneously

Earthbound & The Greatest Story Ever Told (Resolving Narrative Error in the Bible)

How would the narrative told over the 66 canonical books of the Christian Bible (73 in the case of Catholicism) be received if it were presented to us now, for the first time, as a piece of contemporary fiction? This work suggests that such a novel or screenplay would be heavily critiqued for the presence of plot-holes, or narrative errors. Then, having categorised these narrative errors, it examines the extent to which the superimposition of a new, parallel narrative can contextualise or reframe said errors to provide, where possible, resolutions. The superimposed narrative, Earthbound, explores whether or not it can provide a resolving context by explaining the most pertinent errors – those instances where the supposedly benevolent God character either directly mandates or just tacitly approves of various, unnecessary pain and suffering, or simply behaves in ways which undermine claims of his omniscience and omnipotence – in the same way as the suffering visited upon the eponymous character in The Book of Job is explained: as being the consequences of a wager made between God and Satan. Retelling core events of the biblical narrative through this lens - The Fall, The Flood, The Crucifixion, Revelation – the enclosed novel, Earthbound, endeavours to improve the overall cohesion of the narrative, while preserving as much of the original detail as possible. The analysis that follows, The Greatest Story Ever Told? will examine the successes and failures of that project

Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes

The online presence of right wing extremists has been the subject of renewed academic and journalistic enquiry since the mid-2010s when it became clear that right wing extremists were utilising social media platforms to recruit and radicalise new members, run hate campaigns targeting members of minority or marginalised groups, and influence national elections. Contemporary research conceptualises this online activity of right wing extremists as an ecosystem of interconnected websites, forums, social media, and alternative media that can be studied from a range of different perspectives and entry points. Two things have been lacking in the studies that utilise this framework: systematic empirical research on the role of extremist websites in the ecosystem and how the movements within the ecosystem understand gender and gender-related issues. This study addresses this gap via the analysis of data collected through the development and deployment of a custom built webcrawler. The crawler was deployed on 11 websites, each one representing a right wing extremist movement. These movements were Christian Identity, Creativity, Ku Klux Klan, militia, neo-confederate, neo-Nazi, racist nationalist, racist patriot, Pagan neo-Nazi, white power music, and white supremacist/skinhead. Websites were selected for inclusion in this seedset based on having the highest number of total visitors in the months prior to data collection. Selecting websites in this manner resulted in an American dataset and an according analysis of primarily American discursive interests. The final ecosystem contained 4,490 unique domains with 7,284 hyperlinks between them. Hyperlink network analysis was then used to identify core websites within this ecosystem. The statistical measures used as part of this showed both extreme and far right websites to be influential, popular, and usefully connected within the network and, as well as linking to other reactionary websites, they also linked frequently to mainstream news sources. This tripartite identification of websites significant in the data leant itself to a three level analysis of extreme right discourse, far right discourse, and mainstream discourse. Textual content hosted on the websites that had been linked to by other websites in the network was used for a content analysis that aimed to understand what the far and extreme right communicate online about gender and gender-related issues. Relevant content was identified via wordsearches of key terms and the content with the highest number of instances of the keywords was used in this systematic content analysis. It was found that the extreme and far right discussed gender-related issues very infrequently, but where they did, they were primarily concerned with the threats they alleged trans people pose to white society. The extreme right saw trans people as being pawns in a Jewish plot to undermine white western society by bringing instability to gendered social relations and family formation.1 The far right saw trans people as having too much influence in society as the result of the liberal agenda of governmental and public institutions. Mainstream news articles were generally utilised to “evidence” these beliefs or to launder the image of extreme and far right organisations through the practise of linking to reputable outlets. This lack of discussion of gendered issues reflects mainstream societal sexism and the interest in trans people shows dangerous reactionary actors to be interacting with current political events. Future research should investigate this link between the mainstream and the extreme and how the former can influence and legitimise the latter