Explore the vast range of titles available.

Racialised exclusions pertaining to accessing and using healthcare services are systemic, consistent and prevalent within the contemporary landscape of health inequalities in UK cities (Wadhawan et al., 2023). Further, there is a concern that the rapid digital transformation of health services may exacerbate racialised exclusions for minoritised ethnic (ME) communities as a result of the digital divide, language barriers and digital literacy-related difficulties embedded in ethno-cultural differences (Topol, 2019). At present, there is limited understanding of the extent to which ME communities encounter systemic exclusions from digital healthcare services that require English language skills, literacy skills, accessibility to a device (e.g. a computer or smartphone) and mobile data and the skills and confidence to navigate digital platforms. Driven by a critical realist intersectional approach, our multidisciplinary research investigates the socio-technical challenges in accessing digitalised healthcare by exploring ME communities’ lived experiences. By deploying a two-tier qualitative methodology combining 100 in-depth narrative interviews with follow-up audio-visual interviews which draw on human computer interaction (HCI) methodologies, we explore how digitalised health services intersect with ethnicity and other ethnocultural dimensions to contribute to digital exclusion from healthcare services. The in-depth narrative interviews indicated how participants’ ethnicity interacted with multiple dimensions of identity as well as language, (digital) literacy, levels of informal support and income to influence access and use of digitalised primary care services. The follow-up HCI-influenced audio-visual interviews, meanwhile, enabled us to produce a more nuanced understanding of the barriers ME communities face in accessing digital healthcare, in particular, by enabling us to better explore the intersection of language barriers, digital literacy barriers and interface design. We also reflect on the challenges associated with conducting interdisciplinary research to explore the socio-technical barriers faced by different intersections of ME communities, which are often under-researched due to the linguistic or cultural diversity of ME communities.

The basis for the associations among anger, hostility, aggressive behavior, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains unclear. We suggest classifying aggressive behavior may elucidate the associations among these factors. On the basis of diagnostic and neurobiological similarities between impulsive aggression (IA) and PTSD, we proposed that IA was the predominant form of aggression in PTSD and that anger and hostility would not significantly predict PTSD when IA was also included as a predictor. We used cross-sectional self-report data obtained from two samples of male veterans (N = 136). Over 70% of veterans with PTSD reported IA compared to 29% of those without PTSD. IA, not anger, hostility, or premeditated aggression significantly predicted a diagnosis of PTSD. Associations between anger and PTSD may be unique to individuals with IA, and considering impulsive and premeditated aggressors separately may account for the heterogeneity found within samples of aggressive veterans with PTSD.

Spatial organization of the disease microenvironment informs patient prognosis. Key modalities for studying spatial biology include H&E images (WSIs) for tissue structure and spatial transcriptomics (ST) for transcriptome-level programs. Spatial analysis aims to (1) identify markers linked to clinical outcome, (2) understand functional programs driving these associations, and (3) guide targeted therapies. Current research addresses these topics but offers limited explainability across the full morphology - molecular mechanism - outcome axis. Further, given the abundance of WSIs and limited availability of ST, there is a need for analyses integrating these complementary datasets. We present an AI-driven framework combining foundation-model features, multiple-instance learning, unsupervised clustering, and molecular analyses to identify mechanisms underlying outcome associated patterns. Applied to HER2+ breast cancer, we identify CCND1 and PTK6 signaling in tumor regions linked to trastuzumab resistance, consistent with prior studies. Our approach offers interpretable insights for multi-level resistance mechanisms, tissue-specific drug targeting, and precision medicine.

The tight junction (TJ) is a structure composed of multiple proteins, both cytosolic and membranal, responsible for cell–cell adhesion in polarized endothelium and epithelium. The TJ is intimately connected to the cytoskeleton and plays a role in development and homeostasis. Among the TJ’s membrane proteins, claudins (CLDNs) are key to establishing blood–tissue barriers that protect organismal physiology. Recently, several crystal structures have been reported for detergent extracted recombinant CLDNs. These structural advances lack direct evidence to support quaternary structure of CLDNs. In this article, we have employed protein-engineering principles to create detergent-independent chimeric CLDNs, a combination of a 4-helix bundle soluble monomeric protein (PDB ID: 2jua) and the apical—50% of human CLDN1, the extracellular domain that is responsible for cell–cell adhesion. Maltose-binding protein-fused chimeric CLDNs (MBP-CCs) used in this study are soluble proteins that retain structural and functional aspects of native CLDNs. Here, we report the biophysical characterization of the structure and function of MBP-CCs. MBP-fused epithelial cadherin (MBP-eCAD) is used as a control and point of comparison of a well-characterized cell-adhesion molecule. Our synthetic strategy may benefit other families of 4-α-helix membrane proteins, including tetraspanins, connexins, pannexins, innexins, and more.

Under-recognition of somatic symptoms associated with panic in primary care settings results in unnecessary and costly diagnostic procedures and inappropriate referrals to cardiologists, gastroenterologists, and neurologists. In the current study specialists’ knowledge regarding the nature and treatment of panic were examined. One-hundred and fourteen specialists completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge about panic attacks, including their perceptions of psychologists’ role in treating panic. Respondents answered 51% of knowledge items correctly. Although most knew the definition of a panic attack, they knew less about clinical features of panic and its treatment. Specifically, whereas 97.4% believed medication effectively relieves panic symptoms, only 32.5% knew that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a first-line treatment. Only 6% reported knowing how to implement CBT, and only 56.1% recognized that psychologists could effectively treat panic. These findings demonstrate significant gaps in specialists’ knowledge about panic and the need to enhance physician knowledge about panic attacks and their treatment.

This thesis critically analyses the scholarly literature on the creation of human rights law in light of the author’s empirical investigation into the making of India’s ‘right to food act’. Human rights law is increasingly being used to combat poverty, but influential critics of human rights law are sceptical about the law’s capacity in this regard. Two critiques are of particular relevance to this study. The first is that human rights are minimalist i.e. they only provide for basic needs and do not address economic inequality (or, therefore, ‘relative poverty’). The second critique – which proceeds from the first – is that in contexts characterised by economic inequality, the poor are often unable to exercise their formally-accorded rights because they lack the ‘moral and material resources’ needed to do so. This thesis appraised these critiques and found that they are, in the main, valid. However, to reject human rights law on this basis is short-sighted. The construction of human rights law is a social process and it is argued in this study that there is no inherent reason why human rights law could not, in the future, develop in a manner which overcomes the problems presently associated with it. In order to gain insights into the reasons why human rights law is constructed in the way that it is, this thesis studied the social processes involved in the creation of India’s ‘Right to Food Act’. The findings shed new light on the potential and limitations of human rights. The content of the Act supports the contention that human rights are minimalist. However, an analysis of the social processes involved in its creation demonstrates that its content was not in some way ‘preordained’. It was shaped by a diversity of ideas and processes of contestation between a diversity of actors. It is conceivable that had particular circumstances been different, the Right to Food Act could have addressed at least some of the causes of economic inequality in India. This thesis therefore concludes that in order to meaningfully evaluate the potential and limitations of human rights law, further studies of the social processes involved in its creation need to be conducted.

Take Me With You consists of my novel, Take Me With You, and a critical commentary on the process and context of writing it. The novel is about Helena, who returns to the Orkney Islands to help look after her father who is ill. She has not been back for nearly a decade and her return coincides with a school reunion. Helena has to face the past she has been running away from, and deal with not just the death of her father during her visit, but the death, ten years earlier, of her best friend, Anastasia. She learns that friendship doesn't die, it waits. The novel centres around the relationship between Helena and Anastasia as adolescents and was written in response to three novels that have influenced my writing - Helena Dunmore's 'Talking to the Dead', Anne Fine's 'Tulip' and Michele Roberts' 'Daughters of the House'. All of these novels explore the moment of tension in pre-adolescence girls and the intense relationships girls form at this stage. I examine in detail how this schism in these friendships can be intensely destructive using Adrienne Rich's essay 'Compulsory Heterosexuality' (1980) as a theoretical model that informs my own core feminist beliefs and the writing of the novel.