University of Warwick

Universal mental health screening (UMHS) in schools has strong potential to support early identification of mental health problems in young people. Despite likely benefits implementation remains low, with the lack of evidence regarding acceptability of screening to key stakeholders a contributing factor. We systematically assessed the current evidence base for acceptability of UMHS in schools and its status within key stakeholder groups. MEDLINE, Embase, PyschINFO, Education Research Complete, ASSIA, and Web of Knowledge were searched for relevant articles. All study types collecting acceptability UMHS in schools were included spanning three key stakeholder groups as informants. Articles were assessed for quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool with outcome data assessed via narrative synthesis and standardised scoring employing the Theoretical Framework for Acceptability Questionnaire. Our review identified 28 studies representing 11,854 informants providing acceptability data on universal mental health screening in schools. Quality of studies varied and designs heterogenous, with wide variation in how acceptability was defined and measured resulting in a weak evidence base. Only 8 studies employed validated acceptability measures. We found some evidence of moderate to high acceptability for all stakeholders, especially school staff, however overall data on acceptability is limited. Of particular concern is a paucity of acceptability data for young people, especially primary school pupils. Schools should consider assessing pupil perspectives on acceptability outside of screening to further understand drivers of non-participation and mitigate any risks of exacerbating health inequalities.

Recent months have witnessed an increase in suggested applications for large language models (LLMs) in the social sciences. This proof-of-concept paper explores the use of LLMs to improve text quality and to extract predefined information from unstructured text. The study showcases promising results with an example focussed on historical newspapers and highlights the effectiveness of LLMs in correcting errors in the parsed text and in accurately extracting specified information. By leveraging the capabilities of LLMs in these straightforward, instruction-based tasks, this research note demonstrates their potential to improve on the efficiency and accuracy of text analysis workflows. The ongoing development of LLMs and the emergence of robust open-source options underscores their increasing accessibility for both, the quantitative and qualitative, social sciences and other disciplines working with text data.

Background The impact of having a disabled brother or sister on siblings' psychological well‐being and sibling relationships has been the subject of several research studies. However, research which focuses on the relationship between siblings and their autistic brother or sister with an intellectual disability and complex care needs is rare. We explored siblings' views and experiences of their sibling relationship with their autistic brother or sister with complex care needs. Method Eleven children and early adolescents (4 male/7 female) between the ages of 8 and 14 years took part in semi‐structured interviews with questions focussing on their relationship with their autistic brother or sister who had complex care needs. Reflexive thematic analysis was used as a guide to analyse the data. Results Four themes are presented: positive interactions bring joy, sibling conflict is driven by verbal interactions, behaviours may have different meanings for the sibling, perceptions of change in the sibling relationship. Conclusions The siblings of autistic brothers and sisters with an intellectual disability and complex care needs described warmth and positivity. Siblings of autistic children, who have complex care needs, deeply valued their interactions with their brother or sister despite reciprocity being on their terms. When autistic brothers and sisters had some functional spoken language, this often changed the context for the siblings relationship; perhaps leading to an increased chance of conflict or perceived negative experiences. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual meaning of these sibling relationships.

Zinc is the fifth most electrically conductive metal and is available at a fraction of the cost of the most widely used transparent electrode materials; silver, indium‐tin oxide, and poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate, but has been surprisingly overlooked as a current carrying element in organic photovoltaics. Here, a transparent flexible electrode based on an embedded zinc grid with ≈1 µm linewidth is reported and its utility as a drop‐in replacement for indium‐tin oxide coated glass electrodes in model organic photovoltaic devices is demonstrated. The zinc grids are fabricated using the unconventional approach of condensation coefficient modulation, using a micro‐contact printed patterned layer of poly(perfluorooctylmethylmethacrylate) to resist zinc condensation in the gaps between grid lines, together with a copper acetylacetonate seed layer to nucleate zinc condensation where grid lines are required. Density functional theory calculations of the strength of the interaction between zinc atoms and this fluorinated polymer provide fundamental insight into why the latter is so effective at resisting zinc condensation. The resulting zinc grid is embedded in a flexible polymer support and transferred to a flexible plastic substrate by delamination, which enables recovery and reuse of the fluorinated polymer.

Communication comprises a wealth of multimodal signals (e.g., gestures, eye gaze, intonation) in addition to speech and there is a growing interest in the study of multimodal language by psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists and computer scientists. The ECOLANG corpus provides audiovisual recordings and ELAN annotations of multimodal behaviours (speech transcription, gesture, object manipulation, and eye gaze) by British and American English-speaking adults engaged in semi-naturalistic conversation with their child (N = 38, children 3-4 years old, face-blurred) or a familiar adult (N = 31). Speakers were asked to talk about objects to their interlocutors. We further manipulated whether the objects were familiar or novel to the interlocutor and whether the objects could be seen and manipulated (present or absent) during the conversation. These conditions reflect common interaction scenarios in real-world communication. Thus, ECOLANG provides ecologically-valid data about the distribution and co-occurrence of multimodal signals across these conditions for cognitive scientists and neuroscientists interested in addressing questions concerning real-world language acquisition, production and comprehension, and for computer scientists to develop multimodal language models and more human-like artificial agents.

This study explores experiences of authentic care among practitioners and young people at The House Project, an organization supporting young people leaving care in the United Kingdom. We conducted observations, interviews and focus groups with a total of 41 practitioners and 37 young people in multiple local projects over the course of 2 years. The study offers three main findings. First, practitioners and young people place significant value on relationships of authentic care and perceive these as characterized by mutual self‐disclosure, genuine emotional investment and practitioners' willingness to ‘go above and beyond’ in their work. Second, the provision of authentic care in a professional setting is subject to several challenges for practitioners: managing the heightened emotional impact of caring authentically for young people, maintaining balance and boundaries between work and home lives and navigating career transitions. Third, practitioners responded to these challenges through what we call ‘flexible boundary setting’ and by cultivating networks of support. Further research is needed to determine how to best support staff in the provision of authentic care.

Water pollution is a critical environmental issue affecting ecosystems and human health worldwide. Contaminants such as heavy metals, dyes, antibiotics, and microplastics enter water bodies from the disposals of industrial, agricultural, and domestic waste. The development of new and advanced technologies for addressing water remediation has turned out to be a dire need. Protein‐inorganic hybrid materials have emerged as innovative solutions for water remediation, leveraging the unique properties of both the proteins and the inorganic components. These hybrid materials connect the biocompatibility and specificity of proteins with that of the structural stability and catalytic capability of the inorganic frameworks. In recent times, protein inorganic hybrids are gaining importance in water remediation due to their ease of synthesis and chemical modification, stability, biocompatibility and biodegradability. This article brings out the recent advancements in the development of two major kinds of protein inorganic hybrid materials, viz., metal phosphate nanoflowers and gels in the context of water purification. The effect of major factors, like, morphology, porosity, pore size and nature, surface area, and the nature of the composite were systematically compared and analyzed to make it beneficial for future researchers in the development of such hybrid materials for water remediation in a sustainable manner. For this, the article addresses the current trends and draws conclusions on future perspectives to support the topic on providing clean and potable water for everyone on the globe.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae causes atypical pneumonia in children and young adults. Its lack of a cell wall makes it resistant to beta-lactams, which are the first-line treatment for typical pneumonia. Current diagnostic tests are time-consuming and have low specificity, leading clinicians to administer empirical antibiotics. Using a LASSO regression simulation approach and blood microarray data from 107 children with pneumonia (including 30 M. pneumoniae) we identify eight different transcriptomic signatures, ranging from 3-10 transcripts, that differentiate mycoplasma pneumonia from other bacterial/viral pneumonias with high accuracy (AUC: 0.84–0.95). Additionally, we demonstrate that existing signatures for broadly distinguishing viral/bacterial infections and viral/bacterial pneumonias are ineffective in distinguishing M. pneumoniae from viral pneumonia. The new signatures are successfully validated in an independent RNAseq cohort of children with pneumonia, demonstrating their robustness. The high sensibility of these signatures presents a valuable opportunity to guide the treatment and management of M. pneumoniae pneumonia patients.

Modern management has much to learn from ancient wisdoms. Management structures based on corporate trends were transferred from business to services such as healthcare to promote cost-efficiency and productivity. In this article, I argue that the short-term approach of corporate leaders being brought into healthcare for ‘transformation’ has led to a trail of service dismemberment with no discernible clinical gain for those we seek to serve. Bhagwad Gita , the ancient Hindu scripture on right conduct, is an exemplar of how the primary aim of leaders should be to provide better service rather than serve personal interests or those of the ‘business’ of healthcare.

Objectives The research objectives were to identify and synthesise prevailing definitions and indices of resilience in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and propose a harmonised definition of resilience in MNCH research and health programmes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Design Scoping review using Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and a Delphi survey for consensus building. Participants Mothers, new-borns, and children living in low- and middle-income countries were selected as participants. Outcomes Resilience as defined by the authors was deduced from the studies. Results Twenty-two out of 76,566 cited studies published between 2006 and 2010 were included in the review. Thirteen (59.1%) examined maternal resilience, and nine (40.9%) examined newborn and child health resilience; most of the included studies were quantitative (n = 17; 81%). Seven studies defined ‘resilience’ in the context of maternal health, most of which described the term at the individual level. ‘Maternal resilience’ was measured using validated scales in five studies; another five defined newborn and child resilience. Only one reviewed study used maternal characteristics to identify newborn and child resilience. The synthesised consensus definition of ‘maternal, newborn, and child resilience’ is ‘A woman’s ability to prevent or adapt to significant and challenging circumstances including threats, tragedy, and trauma to herself during pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium and to her neonates or children five years or younger’. Conclusion The information identified was limited but included a few definitions of resilience in MNCH and an index of child resilience in LMICs. The proposed definition is useful for MNCH programme implementation and interventions in LMICs. Scoping review registration: The protocol for this review was registered in the open science framework at the registered address (https://osf.io/jt6nr).

To understand the neural mechanism of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental delay/intellectual disability (DD/ID) that can be associated with ASD, it is important to investigate individuals at an early stage with brain, behavioural and also genetic measures, but such research is still lacking. Here, using the cross-sectional sMRI data of 1030 children under 8 years old, we employed developmental normative models to investigate the atypical development of gray matter volume (GMV) asymmetry in individuals with ASD without DD/ID, ASD with DD/ID and individuals with only DD/ID, and their associations with behavioral and clinical measures and transcription profiles. By extracting the individual deviations of patients from the typical controls with normative models, we found a commonly abnormal pattern of GMV asymmetry across all ASD children: more rightward laterality in the inferior parietal lobe and precentral gyrus, and higher individual variability in the temporal pole. Specifically, ASD with DD/ID children showed a severer and more extensive abnormal pattern in GMV asymmetry deviation values, which was linked with both ASD symptoms and verbal IQ. The abnormal pattern of ASD without DD/ID children showed higher and more extensive individual variability, which was linked with ASD symptoms only. DD/ID children showed no significant differences from healthy population in asymmetry. Lastly, the GMV laterality patterns of all patient groups were significantly associated with both shared and unique gene expression profiles. Our findings provide evidence for rightward GMV asymmetry of some cortical regions in young ASD children (1–7 years) in a large sample (1030 cases), show that these asymmetries are related to ASD symptoms, and identify genes that are significantly associated with these differences.

Currently, statistical models are vital instruments for examining and forecasting diverse environmental variables, including air quality analysis. With the development of big data, foundational statistical techniquesincluding regression and time series analysisare adapting to manage larger datasets and complex environmental dynamics. This paper examines the recent applications of statistical models used to assess and forecast air quality in Chinese cities based on existing literature and data research. By focusing on various modeling approaches, such as Poisson regression, grey correlation, and neural networks, it discusses the advantages and drawbacks of each model. Furthermore, it examines the enhancement of classical analytical methodologies inside a big data framework to augment the accuracy of air quality analysis and forecasting. The result shows that although datasets have been more extensive, to increase the accuracy of pollution forecasting, diverse data and more excellent computational capabilities are still needed. Advances in machine learning and optimisation algorithms show promise for overcoming these challenges in the future

Objectives Standardisation of medical examinations involves minimising assessor stereotyping and bias for a fair process. This study aimed to determine whether being a non-white candidate affected scoring by simulated patients, compared with a white candidate, at three different performance grades in the same history-taking station. Design Single-blinded, video-based, randomised study. Participants 163 simulated patients watched a randomly allocated set of six videos. Each set consisted of three white and three non-white (South Asian, black and Chinese) candidates performing at either fail, borderline or pass grades. Therefore, each simulated patient assessor observed one white and one non-white candidate at each grade and scored communication and professionalism domains. Main outcome measure The median and interquartile range of the difference between total scores for the white and non-white candidates were compared at all three performance grades. Results The black fail candidate scored statistically significantly lower than their white fail counterpart. The black borderline and Chinese borderline candidates scored significantly higher than their white counterparts. No other differences were statistically significant at p<0.0057. Conclusions Being a black candidate at the fail level of performance was associated with a lower score than being a white candidate at the fail level of performance, thereby indicating a negative stereotype against black students. However, being black or Chinese at a borderline grade was associated with higher scores than being white candidate at the same grade potentially due to self-awareness of potential bias when there is uncertainty regarding the performance.

We prove an exact control theorem, in the sense of Hida theory, for the ordinary part of the middle degree étale cohomology of certain Hilbert modular varieties, after localizing at a suitable maximal ideal of the Hecke algebra. Our method of proof builds upon the techniques introduced by Loeffler–Rockwood–Zerbes (2023, Spherical varieties and p-adic families of cohomology classes); another important ingredient in our proof is the recent work of Caraiani–Tamiozzo (2023, Compositio Mathematica 159, 2279–2325) on the vanishing of the étale cohomology of Hilbert modular varieties with torsion coefficients outside the middle degree. This work will be used in forthcoming work of the author to show that the Asai–Flach Euler system corresponding to a quadratic Hilbert modular form varies in Hida families.