Searching for Dead Sea Scribes:a study on using Artificial Intelligence and palaeography for writer identification in correlation with spelling and scribal practices, codicology, handwriting quality, and literary classification systems for Dead Sea Scrolls

My study explores the Dead Sea Scrolls through the lens of individual scribes. Specifically, the practices of individual scribes responsible for penningtwo or more of the Oumran manuscripts. It utilises innovative digital palaeographic methods alongside traditional palaeographic approaches for scribalidentification. It gathers previously un-gathered data on the handwriting, spelling practices, codicological features and literary content of individual scribes. The study explores how this data on scribes both supports and challenges various aspects of theories in the field of Dead Sea Scroll studies, which accept a a sectarian origin for the Qumran manuscripts

The role of self-concept clarity in adult attachment, adverse childhood experiences and psychotic like experiences.

Self-concept clarity (SCC) is defined as the “extent to which the contents of an individual's self-concept (e.g., perceived personal attributes) are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and temporally stable” (Campbell et al., 1996, p.141). This thesis set out to identify and explore the role of SCC and its associations with adult attachment, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the development of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). Section 1 describes a systematic literature review examining whether there is an association between SCC and close interpersonal relationships. Four subject databases (PsychINFO; CINAHL plus; PsychArticles; Academic Search Complete) were searched to identify relevant literature. Eight papers met the inclusion criteria, reporting on 15 studies. These explored romantic, parental and peer relationships in addition to global measures of attachment within adult and adolescent populations. There was strong evidence to support the association between SCC and close relationships, whereby high levels of SCC were association with greater relationship quality/satisfaction. Section 2 described a study which aimed to explore whether SCC mediated the relationship between anxious and avoidant attachment styles and PLEs, along with ACEs and PLEs. Participants from the general population were recruited via social media and completed measures via an online survey which aimed to capture data on SCC, ACEs, adult attachment and PLEs. Analyses revealed that SCC was a significant mediator of insecure attachment styles and PLEs, and ACEs and PLEs, indicating the importance in considering the role of SCC in psychological intervention for individuals who experience distress as a result of PLEs. Limitations of the study are discussed as well as considerations for future research and clinical practice. Section 3 describes a critical and reflective appraisal of aspects of the whole thesis. This includes an overview of the main findings, personal reflections, and further discusses the strengths and limitations of the research

Association between visual impairment and psychosis: A longitudinal study and nested case-control study of adults

BACKGROUND: Theories propose that visual impairment might increase the risk of psychosis, and vice versa. We aimed to investigate the relationship between visual impairment and psychosis in the UK Biobank cohort. STUDY DESIGN: In a nested case control study of ~116,000 adults, we tested whether a Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder (SSD) diagnosis as exposure was associated with visual impairment. We also tested longitudinally whether poorer visual acuity, and thinner retinal structures on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scans in 2009 were associated with psychotic experiences in 2016. We adjusted for age, sex, depression and anxiety symptoms; and socioeconomic variables and vascular risk factors where appropriate. We compared complete case with multiple imputation models, designed to reduce bias potentially introduced by missing data. RESULTS: People with visual impairment had greater odds of SSD than controls in multiply imputed data (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] 1.42, 95 % Confidence Interval [CI] 1.05–1.93, p = 0.021). We also found evidence that poorer visual acuity was associated with psychotic experiences during follow-up (AOR per 0.1 point worse visual acuity score 1.06, 95 % CI 1.01–1.11, p = 0.020; and 1.04, 95 % CI 1.00–1.08, p = 0.037 in right and left eye respectively). In complete case data (15 % of this cohort) we found no clear association, although confidence intervals included the multiple imputation effect estimates. OCT measures were not associated with psychotic experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the importance of eye care for people with psychotic illnesses. We could not conclude whether visual impairment is a likely causal risk factor for psychosis

Interferon gamma replacement as salvage therapy in chronic pulmonary aspergillosis: effects on frequency of acute exacerbation and all-cause hospital admission.

Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is often poorly responsive to antifungal treatment; secondary infections increase morbidity/mortality, particularly in progressive cases. Interferon gamma (IFNγ) has been implicated in not only Aspergillus control but also bacterial clearance. Clinical notes of patients with CPA treated with IFNγ (2011-2018) were retrospectively hand-searched. In patients treated for >12 months (n=20), the frequency of acute exacerbation reduced from 3.1 to 1.4 episodes/year (p=0.006) in the 12 months after treatment initiation compared with the 12 months before. A significant reduction in the frequency of hospital admissions/year was also observed (0.8 to 0.3, p=0.04). These findings support further prospective studies

Investigating the association between schizophrenia and distance visual acuity: Mendelian randomisation study

BACKGROUND: Increased rates of visual impairment are observed in people with schizophrenia. AIMS: We assessed whether genetically predicted poor distance acuity is causally associated with schizophrenia, and whether genetically predicted schizophrenia is causally associated with poorer visual acuity. METHOD: We used bidirectional, two-sample Mendelian randomisation to assess the effect of poor distance acuity on schizophrenia risk, poorer visual acuity on schizophrenia risk and schizophrenia on visual acuity, in European and East Asian ancestry samples ranging from approximately 14 000 to 500 000 participants. Genetic instrumental variables were obtained from the largest available summary statistics: for schizophrenia, from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; for visual acuity, from the UK Biobank; and for poor distance acuity, from a meta-analysis of case-control samples. We used the inverse variance-weighted method and sensitivity analyses to test validity of results. RESULTS: We found little evidence that poor distance acuity was causally associated with schizophrenia (odds ratio 1.00, 95% CI 0.91-1.10). Genetically predicted schizophrenia was associated with poorer visual acuity (mean difference in logMAR score: 0.024, 95% CI 0.014-0.033) in European ancestry samples, with a similar but less precise effect that in smaller East Asian ancestry samples (mean difference: 0.186, 95% CI -0.008 to 0.379). CONCLUSIONS: Genetic evidence supports schizophrenia being a causal risk factor for poorer visual acuity, but not the converse. This highlights the importance of visual care for people with psychosis and refutes previous hypotheses that visual impairment is a potential target for prevention of schizophrenia

Personalizing Actions in Context for Risk Management using Semantic Web Technologies

International audienceThe process of managing risks of client contracts is manual and resource-consuming, particularly so for Fortune 500 companies. As an example, Accenture assesses the risk of eighty thousand contracts every year. For each contract, different types of data will be consolidated from many sources and used to compute its risk tier. For high-risk tier contracts, a Quality Assurance Director (QAD) is assigned to mitigate or even prevent the risk. The QAD gathers and selects the recommended actions during regular portfolio review meetings to enable leadership to take the appropriate actions. In this paper, we propose to automatically personalize and contextualize actions to improve the efficacy. Our approach integrates enterprise and external data into a knowledge graph and interprets actions based on QADs' profiles through semantic reasoning over this knowledge graph. User studies showed that QADs could efficiently select actions that better mitigate the risk than the existing approach

Study protocol for a Randomised controlled trial of EArly transjugular intrahepatiC porTosystemic stent–shunt in Acute Variceal Bleeding (REACT-AVB trial)

Introduction: In liver cirrhosis, acute variceal bleeding (AVB) is associated with a 1-year mortality rate of up to 40%. Data on early or pre-emptive transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent–shunt (TIPSS) in AVB is inconclusive and may not reflect current management strategies. Randomised controlled trial of EArly transjugular intrahepatiC porTosystemic stent–shunt in AVB (REACT-AVB) aims to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of early TIPSS in patients with cirrhosis and AVB after initial bleeding control.Methods and analysis: REACT-AVB is a multicentre, randomised controlled, open-label, superiority, two-arm, parallel-group trial with an internal pilot. The two interventions allocated randomly 1:1 are early TIPSS within 4 days of diagnostic endoscopy or secondary prophylaxis with endoscopic therapy in combination with non-selective beta blockers. Patients aged ≥18 years with cirrhosis and Child-Pugh Score 7–13 presenting with AVB with endoscopic haemostasis are eligible for inclusion. The primary outcome is transplant-free survival at 1 year post randomisation. Secondary endpoints include transplant-free survival at 6 weeks, rebleeding, serious adverse events, other complications of cirrhosis, Child-Pugh and Model For End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) scores at 6 and 12 months, health-related quality of life, use of healthcare resources, cost-effectiveness and use of cross-over therapies. The sample size is 294 patients over a 4-year recruitment period, across 30 hospitals in the UK.Ethics and dissemination: Research ethics committee of National Health Service has approved REACT-AVB (reference number: 23/WM/0085). The results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. A lay summary will also be emailed or posted to participants before publication.Trial registration number: ISRCTN85274829; protocol version 3.0, 1 July 2023

Microphase separation induced in the melt of Pluronic copolymers by blending with a hydrogen bonding urea–urethane end-capped supramolecular polymer

Blending with a hydrogen-bonding supramolecular polymer is shown to be a successful novel strategy to induce microphase-separation in the melt of a Pluronic polyether block copolymer. The supramolecular polymer is a polybutadiene derivative with urea–urethane end caps. Microphase separation is analysed using small-angle X-ray scattering and its influence on the macroscopic rheological properties is analysed. FTIR spectroscopy provides a detailed picture of the inter-molecular interactions between the polymer chains that induces conformational changes leading to microphase separation

The Overlapping Area of Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) and Wheat-Sensitive Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS): An Update

Gluten-related disorders have recently been reclassified with an emerging scientific literature supporting the concept of non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). New research has specifically addressed prevalence, immune mechanisms, the recognition of non-immunoglobulin E (non-IgE) wheat allergy and overlap of NCGS with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-type symptoms. This review article will provide clinicians with an update that directly impacts on the management of a subgroup of their IBS patients whose symptoms are triggered by wheat ingestion