Modelling Radiatively Active Water Ice Clouds in the Martian Water Cycle

The aim of this project is to model the Martian water cycle, including radiatively active water ice clouds, to interpret new observations from Mars Climate Sounder. We will be using the latest version of the LMD MGCM, which includes the new LMD physics routines. A unique data assimilation system will be used to obtain a complete, dynamically self-consistent reconstruction of the entire global circulation for the complete period of the MCS mission to date. From the produced records, a series of diagnostic studies will then be made to characterise the climatology and synoptic meteorology of Mars over seasonal and interannual timescales, including detailed case studies of events such as the formation of cyclonic weather systems. The assimilation results can be used to test the validity of the new cloud schemes introduced to the model, which will improve our understanding of the Martian water cycle

Intussusception secondary to retroflexion of a proximal jejunal diverticulum, leading to Type 3 vagal indigestion with severe hypochloraemia in an adult Simmental bull (Bos taurus)

Intussusception is a rare but well described cause of intestinal obstruction in several species, including cattle, and is often associated with enteritis, intestinal parasitism or intestinal neoplasia. Clinical signs are non-specific and include anorexia with reduced faecal output.This report describes a four-year-old Simmental bull that presented with anorexia and reduced faecal output, along with severe ruminal bloat and a large, dilated intestinal loop palpated rectally. Serum biochemistry identified severe hypochloraemia, consistent with proximal intestinal obstruction and a poor prognosis. Although supportive and symptomatic treatment was provided, the bull died before a definitive diagnosis could be made.Post-mortem examination identified a segmental intestinal intussusception, within the proximal jejunum, which had resulted in intestinal obstruction. The primary cause of this intussusception was a retroflexed intestinal diverticulum, which formed the intussusceptum.<br/

Interactive Reading Using Low Cost Brain Computer Interfaces

This work shows the feasibility for document reader user applications using a consumer grade non-invasive BCI headset. Although Brain Computer Interface (BCI) type devices are beginning to aim at the consumer level, the level at which they can actually detect brain activity is limited. There is however progress achieved in allowing for interaction between a human and a computer when this interaction is limited to around 2 actions. We employed the Emotiv Epoc, a low-priced BCI headset, to design and build a proof-of-concept document reader system that allows users to navigate the document using this low cast BCI device. Our prototype has been implemented and evaluated with 12 participants who were trained to navigate documents using signals acquired by Emotive Epoc

How effective is Virtual Reality as a research tool for simulating gambling environments in psychological studies?

The work presented in this thesis aims to design, develop and investigate the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality (VR) tool for conducting research in gambling behaviour. The majority of existing gambling studies are conducted in laboratories, rather than in vivo, raising questions over the generalisability of results [1]. VR is well established as an effective tool for exposure therapy, often motivated by an ability to create ecologically valid conditions whilst retaining experimental control, which is difficult to do in vivo. Whilst VR has also been used in some gambling studies, no work has considered how VR environments should be designed to best create ecological validity, and the differences in experience between laboratory and VR conditions. This thesis presents the process of designing and developing a VR tool, featuring a gambling task and VR environment to create an experience of gambling in a betting shop. A prototype artefact was tested within a pilot study to identify and fix bugs prior to starting user studies. Approached from the perspective of immersion, arousal and user experience; a within-subjects study (N = 48) was conducted. During this, participants were tasked with playing through the gambling task on a touch-screen tablet in a laboratory, before repeating the same task on a Virtual Gambling Machine (VGM) within the VR simulation of a betting shop. Subjective measures were applied to measure immersion, emotional involvement and workload. The results of user studies show that participants reported higher levels of arousal, in addition to higher levels of immersion in the gambling game when playing in VR. There was also a significant difference in self-reported physical task load in VR. These findings suggest that VR offers high levels of immersion which enable a user to better engage and focus on a research task, without a negative impact upon cognitive workload due to the VR equipment. Increased levels of arousal in the VR condition also mirror affects observed in existing work comparing in vivo conditions to laboratory-based methods [2], [3]. Based on these findings, we argue that VR should see wider use within gambling research, and propose that future work should compare VR with in vivo methods. This thesis also details the design and development steps required to create a tool which can effectively combine ecological validity and experimental control, demonstrating how key challenges were tackled and offering insight for future work. Additionally, the work presented in this thesis resulted in the creation of a VR environment which was designed and implemented to accommodate any gambling task. This VR tool offers psychology researchers the opportunity to create a game suited to their research needs and easily integrate it into a VR environment, offering ecological validity for experiments with little additional effort. This integration system can be ported into any VR environment created within the Unity engine to help suit the needs of specific research

Imagined Steps: Mental Simulation of Coordinated Rhythmic Movements Effects on Pro-Sociality

Rhythmically coordinating with a partner can increase pro-sociality, but pro-sociality does not appear to change in proportion to coordination success, or particular classes of coordination. Pro-social benefits may have more to do with simply coordinating in a social context than the details of the actual coordination (Cross, Wilson, & Golonka, 2016). This begs the question, how stripped down can a coordination task be and still affect pro-sociality? Would it be sufficient simply to imagine coordinating with others? Imagining a social interaction can lead to many of the same effects as actual interaction (Crisp & Turner, 2009). We report the first experiments to explore whether imagined coordination affects pro-sociality similarly to actual coordination. Across two experiments and over 450 participants, mentally simulated coordination is shown to promote some, but not all, of the pro-social consequences of actual coordination. Imagined coordination significantly increased group cohesion and deindividuation, but did not consistently affect cooperation

Progressive intellectual impairment in children with encephalopathy related to status epilepticus during slow sleep

We investigated whether Encephalopathy related to Status Epilepticus during slow Sleep (ESES) in childhood was associated with progressive intellectual decline. Participants were identified from the caseload of a single paediatric neurosciences centre and EEG department. A retrospective review of overnight sleep EEG reports (n=2200) over a five-year period identified twenty-two children as having the neurophysiological characteristics of ESES. All had repeat neuropsychological assessment using the WISC-III (UK) and/or WPPSI-R (UK). There was a statistically significant reduction in Full-Scale IQ and Performance IQ across a mean and median time interval of two years. Around a third of the participants showed a clinically significant regression in intellectual functioning evidenced by =&gt;12-point reduction in IQ. These patients were not distinguishable from the rest of the cohort in terms of clinical history, imaging or duration of ESES. The reduction in IQ reflected reduced processing speed, working memory and overall cognitive efficiency. Children with a history of ESES require close monitoring in order to support educational planning and provide families with accurate information about prognosis

A critical review of current progress in 3D kidney biomanufacturing: advances, challenges, and recommendations

The widening gap between organ availability and need is resulting in a worldwide crisis, particularly concerning kidney transplantation. Regenerative medicine options are becoming increasingly advanced and are taking advantage of progress in novel manufacturing techniques, including 3D bioprinting, to deliver potentially viable alternatives. Cell-integrated and wearable artificial kidneys aim to create convenient and efficient systems of filtration and restore elements of immunoregulatory function. Whilst preliminary clinical trials demonstrated promise, manufacturing and trial design issues and identification of suitable and sustainable cell sources have shown that more development is required for market progression. Tissue engineering and advances in biomanufacturing techniques offer potential solutions for organ shortages; however, due to the complex kidney structure, previous attempts have fallen short. With the recent development and progression of 3D bioprinting, cell positioning and resolution of material deposition in organ manufacture have never seen greater control. Cell sources for constructing kidney building blocks and populating both biologic and artificial scaffolds and matrices have been identified, but in vitro culturing and/or differentiation, in addition to maintaining phenotype and viability during and after lengthy and immature manufacturing processes, presents additional problems. For all techniques, significant process barriers, clinical pathway identification for translation of models to humans, scaffold material availability, and long-term biocompatibility need to be addressed prior to clinical realisation

Transformation of Sitka spruce plantations to continuous cover forestry at Dunranhill Forest, County Wicklow, Ireland

peer-reviewedThis case study describes recent developments at Dunranhill Forest, County Wicklow, Ireland. The forest was established in the early 1980s as a commercial Sitka spruce plantation. Currently it is being transformed to continuous cover forestry (CCF). The owners are among the first to join the new CCF Woodland Improvement Scheme launched in 2019 by the Irish Forest Service