Tackling health inequalities: what exactly do we mean? Evidence from health policy in England

Objectives To develop a model to support health systems in clarifying how they might target action to reduce health inequalities, and to use it to understand current policy on health inequalities in England. Methods We used the wider literature on the definitions of health inequalities to draw together a schematic model which attempts to link together the different conceptualisations of health inequalities present in the literature with potential sites of action that could be taken by local health systems. We then undertook a document analysis of the policy documents and programmes underlying the recent reorganisation of the NHS in England. Results The need to tackle health inequalities is cited as one of the main rationales underlying the changes. However, there is a lack of clarity within the documents around: the type of inequality being addressed; the identification of the group(s) suffering from inequalities; and the ways in which the assumed ameliorative mechanisms will work in practice. The documents place considerable emphasis on the assumption that closer partnership working will address inequalities, although the mechanisms by which this will be achieved are not specified and previous research demonstrates how difficult this can be. Conclusions The aspiration to tackle health inequalities through newly constituted Integrated Care Systems and Boards is welcome. However, it is well known that the contribution that health care services can make to addressing inequalities is relatively limited. Greater clarity is required of policy and local strategy if efforts are to be appropriately targeted

Ring the changes: the cult of Saint Edward the Confessor in Kent

Since the discovery of a monumental wall painting of Saint Edward the Confessor enacting the so-called Legend of the Ring on the south wall of the Thomas Becket Chapel, Saint Mary's Church, Faversham, Kent in 1851, little has been done to evaluate its style and composition, nor its meaning for the patron, Robert Dod and his community. Depicting the most famous of Saint Edward's miracles and dating to c. 1307, this Gothic painting depicts King Edward presenting his royal ring to Saint John the Evangelist who is disguised as a pilgrim. The pictorial use of this miracle was somewhat "commonplace" amongst the radius of Westminster Abbey and the court of King Henry III. However, because of scant evidence otherwise, scholarship has often determined that this image, and Edward's cult, was confined to Henry's court and Westminster Abbey, and/or that interest in Saint Edward waned after Henry's death in 1272, albeit with a brief revival during the reign of Richard II. This fourteenth century painting in a parish church in Kent, therefore, challenges these assumptions and has presented an opportunity to shed new light on the cult of Saint Edward the Confessor. In 1874 another monumental painting was discovered in the same chapel: That of a life-sized martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket that was coeval to Saint Edward's and positioned directly opposite it. This is a seemingly "unusual" pairing: A saint king opposite an archbishop murdered by royal knights allegedly on the orders of Henry II. Evidence is presented here for the first time to show that the cults of Saint Edward and Becket were commingled in Kent with a focus on Canterbury Cathedral, Saint Mary's Church, Faversham and the Maison Dieu at Ospringe. Structured across five chapters, this thesis aims to offer fresh perspectives on the enduring popularity of the cult of Saint Edward the Confessor - highlighting East Kent as an additional cult centre - while also exploring its intersections with the cult of Saint Thomas Becket and contributing to broader understandings of the cult of saints

PAMS: The Perseus Arm Molecular Survey – I. Survey description and first results

The external environments surrounding molecular clouds vary widely across galaxies such as the Milky Way, and statistical samples of clouds are required to understand them. We present the Perseus Arm Molecular Survey (PAMS), a James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) survey combining new and archival data of molecular-cloud complexes in the outer Perseus spiral arm in 12CO, 13CO, and C18O (J = 3–2). With a survey area of ∼8 deg2, PAMS covers well-known complexes such as W3, W5, and NGC 7538 with two fields at ≈ 110◦ and ≈ 135◦. PAMS has an effective resolution of 17 arcsec, and rms sensitivity of Tmb = 0.7–1.0 K in 0.3 km s−1 channels. Here we present a first look at the data, and compare the PAMS regions in the Outer Galaxy with Inner Galaxy regionsfrom the CO Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey (CHIMPS). By comparing the various CO data with maps of H2 column density from Herschel, we calculate representative values for the CO-to-H2 column-density X-factors, which are X12CO (3−2) = 4.0 × 1020 and X13CO (3−2) = 4.0 × 1021 cm−2 (K km s−1) −1 with a factor of 1.5 uncertainty. We find that the emission profiles, size–linewidth, and mass–radius relationships of 13CO-traced structures are similar between the Inner and Outer Galaxy. Although PAMS sources are slightly more massive than their Inner Galaxy counterparts for a given size scale, the discrepancy can be accounted for by the Galactic gradient in gas-to-dust mass ratio, uncertainties in the X-factors, and selection biases. We have made the PAMS data publicly available, complementing other CO surveys targeting different regions of the Galaxy in different isotopologues and transitions

Pangolin hunting in Southeast Nigeria is motivated more by local meat consumption than international demand for scales

Thousands of species are threatened by overexploitation, often driven by a complex interplay of local and global demand for various products—a dynamic frequently overlooked in wildlife trade policies. African pangolins, regarded as the world’s most trafficked wild mammals, are a heavily exploited group for different reasons across geographic scales. However, it remains unclear how far the burgeoning trafficking of their scales to Asia for medicine drives their exploitation compared with local meat demand. Here, using data collected from questionnaires distributed to 809 hunters and meat vendors in Nigeria, the world’s biggest hub for pangolin trafficking, we show that targeted pangolin hunts are uncommon in the country’s largest pangolin stronghold. Instead, 97% of pangolins are captured opportunistically or during general hunting, with 98% of these caught for meat and mostly either eaten by hunters (71%) or traded locally (27%), potentially due to the meat’s exceptionally high palatability. Meanwhile, around 70% of scales are discarded, with less than 30% sold. In addition, local meat prices are three to four times higher than those for scales. Our findings highlight the need to consider entire wildlife trade chains in international policies

Intergroup and intragroup dynamics of communication: Identity validation, trust, and action

A key function of communication is to signify values and norms. In this paper, we tour some of our recent research as well as new evidence on social psychological processes affecting the impacts of group communication and its implications for so-called Intergroup Communication Principles. We contend that communication within and between groups is subjectively interconnected, specifically through the process of subjective group dynamics. These dynamics affect how groups respond to leaders (or groups) that depart from prevailing norms, when these communications initiate a norm shift rather than inviting opprobrium, and whether communication by outgroup members can break down prejudice. Using new evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic, we examine which communications are most trusted in an intergroup hierarchy, showing the critical role of local identity. Finally, we describe field studies demonstrating how group norm communications can promote prosocial environmental behavior. We conclude that group-based communication is likely to be strongly directed toward occupying the center ground of communicative practice that groups’ responses to their members are motivated by the desire to reinforce the validity of the group’s norms, and their receptiveness toward leaders is dependent on the leader’s advancement of the group’s subjective validity

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Early Modern Authorship

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Early Modern Authorship draws together leading and emerging scholars of Shakespeare and early modern literature to consider anew how authorship worked in the time in which Shakespeare wrote, and to interrogate the construction of the Shakespeare-as-author figure. Composed of four main sections, it offers fresh analysis of the literary and cultural influences and forces that 'formed' authors in the period; the 'mechanics' of early modern authorship; the 'mediation' of Shakespeare and others' works in performance, manuscript, and print; and the critical and popular reimagining across times of Shakespeare as an author figure. Diving into modern debates about early modern authorship, authority, and identity politics, contributors supply rich new accounts of the wider scene of professional authorship in early modern England, of how Shakespeare's writings contributed to it, and of what made him distinctive within it. Looking beyond Shakespeare, the Handbook seeks to provide a vital testing ground for new research into early modern literature and culture more broadly

Leveraging Pretrained Language Models for Maternal Health Monitoring in Online Communities

Digital maternity support communities are growing in popularity, offering valuable peer support throughout pregnancy and postpartum experiences. These platforms also generate rich textual data that can be leveraged for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This study applies pretrained language models (PLMs) to classify and analyse 270,195 posts collected from the subreddit “BabyBumps” between 2010 and 2022. Focusing on posts that reflect personal experiences related to pregnancy, postpartum, and related events (85.9%), the analysis reveals that the majority (62.6%) centre on physical health concerns, while nearly half (48.9%) express negative sentiment. Notably, both mental health and negative sentiment–related discussions show a marked resurgence during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings underscore the evolving emotional and informational needs of expectant and new mothers in online spaces and highlight the potential of AI-driven tools in supporting digital maternal health monitoring

Boosting global time series forecasting models: a two-stage modelling framework

A time series forecasting model---which is typically built on a single time series---is known as a local time series model (tsLM). In contrast, a forecasting model trained on multiple time series is referred to as a global time series model (tsGM). tsGMs can enhance forecasting accuracy and improve generalisation by learning cross-series information. As such, developing tsGMs has become a prominent research focus within the time series forecasting community. However, the benefits of tsGMs may not always be realised if the given set of time series is heterogeneous. While increasing model complexity can help tsGMs adapt to such a set of data, it can also increase the risk of overfitting and forecasting error. Additionally, the definition of homogeneity remains ambiguous in the literature. To address these challenges, this paper explores how to define data heterogeneity and proposes a two-stage modelling framework: At stage one, a tsGM is learnt to identify homogeneous patterns; and at stage two, tsLMs (e.g., ARIMA) or sub-tsGMs tailored to different groups are learnt to capture the heterogeneity. Numerical experiments on four open datasets demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly outperforms six state-of-the-art models. These results highlight its effectiveness in unlocking the full potential of global forecasting models for heterogeneous datasets. \end{abstract

Gender-Based Hate Crimes: A Contested Socio-Legal Terrain

Across the UK, socio-political debates are ongoing around whether to formally recognise gender-based hate crime. Consultations have determined that gender hostility is on par with bias or prejudice towards race, religion, sexual identity, disability, and transgender identity. Reasons for its continued exclusion include potential overlaps with existing gender-based violence laws, definitional difficulties regarding gender-based hate crimes, and evidential complexities in demonstrating gendered hostility. More recently, hate crime debates have focused more specifically on the potential inclusion of misogyny and misogynistic violence. This chapter explores the separate political paradigms of gender-based violence, hate crime, and misogyny to examine the cultures of prejudice fuelling hatred towards women

Elucidating the mode of action of Occidiofungin - a current first in class antifungal

Fungal infections are responsible for an approximate 1.5 million deaths annually, with there being no licensed vaccines or vaccines currently in clinical study for fungal disease. This combined with the increasing resistance to the current antifungals in clinical use, highlights an ever increasing need for new antifungal research. My research aims to elucidate the mode of action of a current first in class antifungal known as Occidiofungin. This antifungal is currently undergoing clinical trials and has shown potent broad spectrum activity in the treatment of pathogenic yeast. My aim was to determine the mechanism that this drug uses in order to kill fungal cells. Previous research suggested that Occidiofungin may target the Actin cytoskeleton and as Actin is essential to cell function this may represent a plausible mode of action. I employed a range of techniques to investigate whether Occidiofungin inhibits the function of Actin and whether recognised Actin-related modes of cell death were activated. My findings suggest that Actin is not targeted but rather Occidiofungin induces necrosis in cells in a gradual manner. This finding was strengthened by observations that a fluorescent tagged Occidiofungin (Alkyne Occidiofungin) was not internalised but accumulated at the outer surface of the yeast cell. The fungal specificity of Occidiofungin was also investigated through the use of haemolysis assays and the Galleria mellonella infection model. This pre-clinical data suggested that Occidiofungin is indeed fungal specific and so is a promising candidate for use as a future therapeutic. Future research will determine the fungal specific target of Occidiofungin that is responsible for the induction of necrosis which may in turn lead to the expansion of this class of antifungal. If targeting the fungal cell wall, upon recognition of the target component, this would have broad applications both in the knowledge of the drug and proof that is has fungal specificity, it could also indicate a novel site that could be used in drug design and development