Origin of ferroelectricity in the multiferroic barium fluorides BaMF4

We present a first principles study of the series of multiferroic barium fluorides with the composition BaMF4, where M is Mn, Fe, Co, or Ni. We discuss trends in the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties, and we show that the ferroelectricity in these systems results from the "freezing in" of a single unstable polar phonon mode. In contrast to the case of the standard perovskite ferroelectrics, this structural distortion is not accompanied by charge transfer between cations and anions. Thus, the ferroelectric instability in the multiferroic barium fluorides arises solely due to size effects and the special geometrical constraints of the underlying crystal structure.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

Pilot testing of a nudge-based digital intervention (Welbot) to improve sedentary behaviour and wellbeing in the workplace

Welbot is a nudge-based digital intervention that aims to reduce sedentary behaviour and improve physical and mental wellbeing at work. The purpose of this study was to pilot test the Welbot intervention. Forty-one (6M/35F) University staff (M age = 43-years) participated in this study, which was a single arm repeated measures trial conducted over three weeks of intervention. The primary outcome was sedentary behaviour (measured subjectively and objectively) and secondary outcomes included: mental wellbeing, procrastination, depression, anxiety and stress, and work engagement. A subset of participants (n = 6) wore an ActivPAL to objectively measure activity data, while another subset of participants (n = 6) completed a qualitative semi-structured interview to ascertain experiences of using Welbot. Following the intervention, a Friedman non-parametric test revealed that participants self-reported significantly less time sitting and more time standing and objectively recorded more steps at the week-1 follow-up. A series of paired t-tests exhibited that changes in all secondary outcomes were in the expected direction. However, only improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress were significant. After using Welbot, thematic analysis demonstrated that participants perceived they had a positive behaviour change, increased awareness of unhealthy behaviours at work, and provided suggestions for intervention improvement. Overall, findings provided indications of the potential positive impact Welbot may have on employees’ wellbeing, however, limitations are noted. Recommendations for intervention improvement including personalisation (e.g., individual preferences for nudges and the option to sync Welbot with online calendars) and further research into how users engage with Welbot are provided

Pilot testing of a nudge-based digital intervention (Welbot) to improve sedentary behaviour and wellbeing in the workplace

Welbot is a nudge-based digital intervention that aims to reduce sedentary behaviour and improve physical and mental wellbeing at work. The purpose of this study was to pilot test the Welbot intervention. Forty-one (6M/35F) University staff (M age = 43-years) participated in this study, which was a single arm repeated measures trial conducted over three weeks of intervention. The primary outcome was sedentary behaviour (measured subjectively and objectively) and secondary outcomes included: mental wellbeing, procrastination, depression, anxiety and stress, and work engagement. A subset of participants (n = 6) wore an ActivPAL to objectively measure activity data, while another subset of participants (n = 6) completed a qualitative semi-structured interview to ascertain experiences of using Welbot. Following the intervention, a Friedman non-parametric test revealed that participants self-reported significantly less time sitting and more time standing and objectively recorded more steps at the week-1 follow-up. A series of paired t-tests exhibited that changes in all secondary outcomes were in the expected direction. However, only improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress were significant. After using Welbot, thematic analysis demonstrated that participants perceived they had a positive behaviour change, increased awareness of unhealthy behaviours at work, and provided suggestions for intervention improvement. Overall, findings provided indications of the potential positive impact Welbot may have on employees’ wellbeing, however, limitations are noted. Recommendations for intervention improvement including personalisation (e.g., individual preferences for nudges and the option to sync Welbot with online calendars) and further research into how users engage with Welbot are provided.</p

Antibiotic resistance among clinical Ureaplasma Isolates Recovered from Neonates in England and Wales between 2007 and 2013

Ureaplasma spp. are associated with numerous clinical sequelae with treatment options being limited due to patient and pathogen factors. This report examines the prevalence and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance among clinical strains isolated from 95 neonates, 32 women attending a sexual health clinic, and 3 patients under investigation for immunological disorders, between 2007 and 2013 in England and Wales. MICs were determined by using broth microdilution assays, and a subset of isolates were compared using the broth microdilution method and the Mycoplasma IST2 assay. The underlying molecular mechanisms for resistance were determined for all resistant isolates. Three isolates carried the tet(M) tetracycline resistance gene (2.3%; confidence interval [CI], 0.49 to 6.86%); two isolates were ciprofloxacin resistant (1.5%; CI, 0.07 to 5.79%) but sensitive to levofloxacin and moxifloxacin, while no resistance was seen to any macrolides tested. The MIC values for chloramphenicol were universally low (2 μg/ml), while inherently high-level MIC values for gentamicin were seen (44 to 66 μg/ml). The Mycoplasma IST2 assay identified a number of false positives for ciprofloxacin resistance, as the method does not conform to international testing guidelines. While antibiotic resistance among Ureaplasma isolates remains low, continued surveillance is essential to monitor trends and threats from importation of resistant clones

Paired peers: Moving on up? Project Report

Paired Peers Phase 2 (August 2014 - July 2017)followed up Paired Peers: Class and the Student Experience, also funded by Leverhulme Trust, which ran from September 2010 to August 2013. This project followed a cohort of students from Bristol’s two universities through three years of their degree. The students were drawn from eleven different disciplines (which had to be taught at both universities) and were matched by class: for example, we recruited four Law students from each university, two we identified as working-class and two as middle-class

The Paired Peers project report

Paired Peers is three-year qualitative longitudinal project following a cohort of students drawn from two universities in the same English city, the University of Bristol (UoB) and the University of the West of England (UWE), through three years of their undergraduate degree (2010-2013. The overall aims of the project were to discover:1. How the experiences of students were differentiated by class2. What kind of capitals students brought into university with them (economic, social and cultural) and what capitals they acquired during their university years3. In this way, to begin to explore in what ways university might promote, or not promote, social mobility

Towards a microscopic theory of toroidal moments in bulk periodic crystals

We present a theoretical analysis of magnetic toroidal moments in periodic systems, in the limit in which the toroidal moments are caused by a time and space reversal symmetry breaking arrangement of localized magnetic dipole moments. We summarize the basic definitions for finite systems and address the question of how to generalize these definitions to the bulk periodic case. We define the toroidization as the toroidal moment per unit cell volume, and we show that periodic boundary conditions lead to a multivaluedness of the toroidization, which suggests that only differences in toroidization are meaningful observable quantities. Our analysis bears strong analogy to the modern theory of electric polarization in bulk periodic systems, but we also point out some important differences between the two cases. We then discuss the instructive example of a one-dimensional chain of magnetic moments, and we show how to properly calculate changes of the toroidization for this system. Finally, we evaluate and discuss the toroidization (in the local dipole limit) of four important example materials: BaNiF_4, LiCoPO_4, GaFeO_3, and BiFeO_3.Comment: replaced with final (published) version, which includes some changes in the text to improve the clarity of presentatio

Annual Research Planning with Eprints at The Glasgow School of Art

GSA’s EPrints repository, RADAR, is active and extensively used by their researchers. The Annual Research Planning (ARP) feature is an extension to RADAR, which allows researcher focused information to be collected and curated, highlighting the current and planned research activities for the individual, as well as the impact of their activities. ARP is supplied by EPrints Services