A low cost direct writing process for flexible circuit and interconnect fabrication

This thesis investigates the development of a low cost fabrication process for flexible electronics and interconnects. By using a ‘direct writing’ process, the use of vacuum-­‐based metal evaporation and photoresist steps is not necessary and so less complex equipment is needed. The process forms silver embedded on top of a polyimide substrate and was first tested using a UV laser to perform writing before switching to a blue laser due to excessive substrate degradation observed from UV exposures. The blue light was combined with a biologically friendly photo reducing agent, which was found to be much more efficient at the creation of silver. The methods of silver formation by various means are the main focus of investigation in this thesis but process expansion and improvement were the main goals. To this end, a chemical, rather than light-­‐based, process for silver creation was found to produce more consistent silver coatings, however the patterning by this method was found to be more challenging. The process was also extended to a different substrate in polyetherimide

Barriers and facilitators to model replication within health economics

Objective: Model replication is important as it enables researchers to check research integrity, transparency and, potentially, to inform the model conceptualisation process when developing a new or updated model. The aim of this study was to evaluate the replicability of published decision analytic models, and to identify the barriers and facilitators to replication. Methods: Replication attempts of five published economic modelling studies were made. The replications were conducted using only publicly available information within the manuscripts and supplementary materials. The replicator attempted to reproduce the key results detailed in the paper, for example the total cost, total outcomes and if applicable, the incremental cost effectiveness ratio reported. Whilst a replication attempt was not explicitly defined as a success or failure, the replicated results were compared in terms of percentage difference to the original results. Results: In conducting the replication attempts, common barriers and facilitators emerged. For the majority of the case studies, the replicator needed to make additional assumptions when recreating the model. This was often exacerbated by conflicting information being presented in the text and the tables. Across the case studies, the variation between original and replicated results ranged from -4.54% to 108.00% for costs and -3.81% to 0.40% for outcomes. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that whilst models may appear to be comprehensively reported, it is often not enough to facilitate a precise replication. Further work is needed to understand how to improve model transparency and in turn to increase the chances of replication, thus ensuring future usability

Tri-Response Police, Ambulance, Mental Health Crisis Models in Reducing Involuntary Detentions of Mentally Ill People: A Systematic Review

Police, ambulance, and mental health tri-response services are a relatively new model of responding to people experiencing mental health crisis in the community, though limited evidence exists examining their efficacy. Reducing unnecessary involuntary detentions and emergency department presentations is believed to be a benefit of this model. A systematic review was performed to review the evidence base around the relationship between the police, ambulance, mental health tri-response models in reducing involuntary detentions of people experiencing mental health crisis. We searched key health databases for clinical studies and grey literature as per a previously published protocol. Two researchers completed title and abstract screening and full text screening. Our search identified 239 citations. No studies or grey literature met the inclusion criteria. We report an empty review. It is recommended that further investigation of the tri-response mental health crisis model be undertaken to determine its effectiveness and value as a health and emergency service initiative

Trade-offs between overall survival and side-effects in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer : eliciting preferences of patients with primary and metastatic breast cancer using a discrete choice experiment

Acknowledgements We thank all the patients and volunteers who agreed to participate in this study and the study contributors.Peer reviewe

Real-world evidence was feasible for estimating effectiveness of chemotherapy in breast cancer; a cohort study

Objective: Evidence-based guidelines recommend adjuvant chemotherapy in early stage breast cancer whenever treatment benefit is considered sufficient to outweigh the associated risks. However, many groups of patients were either excluded from or underrepresented in the clinical trials that form the evidence base for this recommendation. This study aims to determine whether using administrative healthcare data – Real World Data (RWD) - and econometric methods for causal analysis to provide ‘Real World Evidence’ (RWE) are feasible methods for addressing this gap.Methods: Cases of primary breast cancer in women from 2001 to 2015 were extracted from the Scottish cancer registry (SMR06) and linked to other routine health records (inpatient and outpatient visits). Four methods were used to estimate the effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on disease-specific and overall mortality: (1) regression with adjustment for covariates (2) propensity score matching (3) instrumental variables analysis and (4) regression discontinuity design. Hazard ratios for breast cancer mortality and all-cause mortality were compared to those from a meta-analysis of randomised trials.Results: 39,805 cases included in the analyses. Regression adjustment, propensity score matching and instrumental variables were feasible while regression discontinuity was not. Effectiveness estimates were similar between RWE and randomised trials for breast cancer mortality but not for all-cause mortality.Conclusions: RWE methods are a feasible means to generate estimates of effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy in early stage breast cancer. However, such estimates must be interpreted in the context of the available randomised evidence and the potential biases of the observational methods.<br/

Costs and Treatment Pathways for Type 2 Diabetes in the UK:A Mastermind Cohort Study

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.INTRODUCTION: Medication therapy for type 2 diabetes has become increasingly complex, and there are few reliable data on the current state of clinical practice. We report treatment pathways and associated costs of medication therapy for people with type 2 diabetes in the UK, their variability and changes over time. METHODS: Prescription and biomarker data for 7159 people with type 2 diabetes were extracted from the GoDARTS cohort study, covering the period 1989-2013. Average follow-up was 10 years. Individuals were prescribed on average 2.4 (SD: 1.2) drugs with average annual costs of £241. We calculated summary statistics for first- and second-line therapies. Linear regression models were used to estimate associations between therapy characteristics and baseline patient characteristics. RESULTS: Average time from diagnosis to first prescription was 3 years (SD: 4.0 years). Almost all first-line therapy (98%) was monotherapy, with average annual cost of £83 (SD: £204) for 3.8 (SD: 3.5) years. Second-line therapy was initiated in 73% of all individuals, at an average annual cost of £219 (SD: £305). Therapies involving insulin were markedly more expensive than other common therapies. Baseline HbA1c was unrelated to future therapy costs, but higher average HbA1c levels over time were associated with higher costs. CONCLUSIONS: Medication therapy has undergone substantial changes during the period covered in this study. For example, therapy is initiated earlier and is less expensive than in the past. The data provided in this study will prove useful for future modelling studies, e.g. of stratified treatment approaches.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Association of the British Pharma Industry (ABPI) for “Mastermind” (MRC APBI STratification and Extreme Response Mechanism IN Diabetes–MASTERMIND. Grant Ref.: MRIK005707/1). ERP holds Wellcome Trust New Investigator award 102820/Z/13/Z. GoDARTS was funded by the Wellcome Trust as the Wellcome Trust Type 2 diabetes case control study

STRATHcube : a CubeSat against space debris

The responsible management of space debris is critical for the continued use of space. The STRATHcube project purposes a CubeSat which focusses on two issues of space debris - detection and removal. There is an increasing need to detect, track and catalogue debris in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The first payload tracks orbital debris by using Passive Bistatic Radar (PBR). The project purposes to launch the CubeSat into LEO as a PBR technology demonstrator, where a signal processor algorithm developed at the University of Strathclyde to detect debris will be tested. If debris were to pass between the CubeSat and the transmitting satellite, this signal would be disturbed, indicating the presence of debris. If adopted in industry, this method can be upscaled to provide data at increased accuracy, reduced cost, and higher availability. As a secondary payload, the STRATHcube project aims to provide data on fragmentation of solar panels upon re-entry into the atmosphere. To reduce the volume of debris in low orbits, the Design for Demise (D4D) initiative champions removal of debris via uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry in which satellites completely demise. Current D4D analysis tools under-predict the effectiveness of break up upon re-entry due to a lack of re-entry data – in particular fragmentation data. With this flight data, STRATHcube aims to provide greater validation and verification of satellite re-entry modelling tools that currently exist, as well as providing the framework for future fragmentation studies. To verify the life cycle of the CubeSat, an Integrated Systems Tool (IST) has been developed. Using MATLAB code, the IST creates a digital twin of the CubeSat which provides a high-fidelity simulation of the propagation as well as interlinking subsystems of STRATHcube (mission analysis, AOCS, power, thermal). This provides an important initial step to verify the component and orbit selection prior to product procurement and launch of the STRATHcube mission. The IST uses a Runge-Kutta 4th Order (RK4) numerical integrator, which currently includes the core mechanics (idealised control, actuator control) and determination (Wahba’s problem with two separate methods) of the orientation of the CubeSat, with the power profile developed, but not integrated. Some results have been confirmed with additional resources to verify their accuracy, and any future results are recommended to have validation. Notable considerations for further development include integrating the power profile, developing the thermal model, and creating a GUI

Perspectives on laser-plasma physics in the relativistic transparency regime

With the advent of multi-petawatt lasers, the relativistic transparency regime of laser-plasma interactions becomes readily accessible for near-solid density targets. Initially opaque targets that undergo relativistic self-induced transparency (RSIT) have already shown to result in promising particle acceleration and radiation generation mechanisms, as well as relativistic optical and photonics phenomena that modify the spatial, temporal, spectral and polarization properties of the laser pulse itself. At the maximum laser intensities currently available, this opaque-to-RSIT transition regime can be achieved through ultrafast ionization, heating and expansion of initially ultrathin foil targets. Here, we review findings from our programme of work exploring this regime experimentally and numerically, including changes to the laser energy absorption, mechanisms for laser-driven particle acceleration and the generation of a relativistic plasma aperture. New physics induced by this aperture, such as the production of intense light with higher order spatial modes and higher harmonics, and spatially-structured and temporally-varying polarization states, is summarized. Prospects for exploring the physics of the RSIT regime with higher intensity and high repetition rate lasers, including expected new phenomena such as high-field effects and the application of new techniques such as machine learning, are also discussed; outlining directions for the future development of this promising laser-plasma interaction regime

Removal of steroid estrogens in carbonaceous and nitrifying activated sludge processes

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Chemosphere. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.A carbonaceous (heterotrophic) activated sludge process (ASP), nitrifying ASP and a nitrifying/denitrifying ASP have been studied to examine the role of process type in steroid estrogen removal. Biodegradation efficiencies for total steroid estrogens (ΣEST) of 80 and 91% were recorded for the nitrifying/denitrifying ASP and nitrifying ASP respectively. Total estrogen biodegradation (ΣEST) was only 51% at the carbonaceous ASP, however, the extent of biodegradation in the absence of nitrification clearly indicates the important role of heterotrophs in steroid estrogen removal. The low removal efficiency did not correlate with biomass activity for which the ASPcarbonaceous recorded 80 μg kg−1 biomass d−1 compared to 61 and 15 μg kg−1 biomass d−1 at the ASPnitrifying and ASPnitrifying/denitrifying respectively. This finding was explained by a moderate correlation (r2 = 0.55) between total estrogen loading (ΣEST mg m−3 d−1) and biomass activity (μg ΣEST degraded kg−1 d−1) and has established the impact of loading on steroid estrogen removal at full-scale. At higher solids retention time (SRT), steroid estrogen biodegradation of >80% was observed, as has previously been reported. It is postulated that hydraulic retention time (HRT) is as important as SRT as this governs both reaction time and loading. This observation is based on the high specific estrogen activity determined at the ASPcarbonaceous plant, the significance of estrogen loading and the positive linear correlation between SRT and HRT.Public Utilities Board of Singapore, Anglian Water Ltd., Severn Trent Water Ltd., Thames Water Utilities Ltd., United Utilities Plc., and Yorkshire Water Services Ltd