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Design and characterization of a miniature microwave dielectric biosensor based on distributed microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transmission lines (DMTL) is reported in this paper. The biosensor has been realized by bonding the DMTL device with an acrylic fluidic channel. In order to demonstrate the sensing mechanism, the sensor is used to detect the small variation of the concentration of aqueous glucose solutions by measuring the electromagnetic resonant frequency shift of the device. It is observed from the results that the second notch of the reflection coefficient (S-11) varies from 7.66 to 7.93 GHz and the third notch of the reflection coefficient varies from 15.81 to 15.24 GHz when the concentration of the glucose solution ranges from 0 to 347 mg/ml, which indicates that higher order notches have higher sensitivities if looking at the absolute change in frequency.

International audience; The problem of variational data assimilation for a nonlinear evolution model is formulated as an optimal control problem to find some unknown parameters of the model. The equation for the error of the optimal solution is derived through the statistical errors of the input data (background, observation, and model errors). A numerical algorithm is developed to construct an a posteriori covariance operator of the analysis error using the Hessian of an auxiliary optimal control problem based on the tangent linear model constraints.

There is considerable policy interest in exploring the overall value of higher education to society and in how higher education can support wider economic growth and development through 'knowledge transfer' from higher education institutions. Until fairly recently consideration of 'knowledge transfer' activity has tended to be mainly focussed on those HEI outputs that are commercial or market-based, relate to interaction with businesses and which are also relatively easy to measure (licensing, patents, consultancy contracts and so on). However it is beginning to be recognised that non-market outputs of higher education institutions (such as community interactions) could also have significant economic and social value linked to their support of knowledge flow to the wider community. This paper presents a new perspective on knowledge transfer from institutions. It demonstrates the application of welfare economic principles to estimate the value of non-market outputs of higher education institutions and It presents the results of a pilot study of 3 areas of non-market activity of Scottish higher education institutions, namely community engagement, cultural outreach and public policy advisory activity.

One of the key issues facing the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council is how to assess the contribution made to Scotland's economy by Scotland's higher education sector. Higher Education's contribution to the economy and society at large is viewed as providing one of the most important justifications for government expenditure on higher education. However there is a paucity of robust quantitative evidence against which related resource allocation decisions aimed at encouraging economically valuable activity can be made. Taking higher education activity as a whole there has been no practical, valid, way to analyse the economic value of what universities do, or to compare the value thus created with that generated by other activities in the economy. The overall objective of this paper is to show how the development of a framework with comprehensive and detailed quantitative measures of the outputs of HEIs in both volume and value terms can enable a holistic analysis of higher education institutions' economic value. The present paper draws on initial case study research supported by the Nuffield Foundation which was further elaborated in two substantive reports to the Scottish Funding Council.

Funding: Review conducted under the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) PhD scholarship at the University of St-Andrews. The increasing burden of chronic diseases, and shortage of health care workers especially in Low and Middle Income countries (LMICs) requires greater collaborative working between health professions. There is a growing body of evidence that interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional continuous education (IPCE) can improve collaborative practice thus strengthening health care delivery in low resource settings. The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes this educational strategy in these regions as part of wider programs to improve health care. The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize IPE and IPCE activities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and its outcomes; including practice, service and patient outcomes. Standard guidelines for conducting and reporting systematic reviews were followed. The online databases searched included MEDLINE, Embase, Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC), the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Science Direct. The Kirkpatrick model was used to classify IPE outcomes reported from literature. Following full text screening, 41 articles were selected for data extraction. It was found that IPE/IPCE is still a relatively new concept in SSA with 93% of studies published after 2012. Furthermore, IPE is concentrated predominantly in undergraduate institutions and mainly implemented to improve collaborative practice and address important public health concerns. Positive reaction and outcomes of IPE/IPCE were reported in terms of change of attitude and perception toward collaborative practice as well as knowledge and skills acquisition. Few studies in SSA sought to understand and measure the outcomes of IPE/IPCE relating to health care practice. More work in this important potential outcome of IPE/IPCE is recommended. Publisher PDF

Funding: British Heart Foundation (BHF): Research Excellence Award RE/13/3/30183; Kidney Research UK: Innovation Grant IN_001_201703 Postdoctoral Fellowship PDF_008_20151127; Scottish Funding Council (SFC): St Andrews Restarting Research Funding Scheme; Society for Endocrinology (SFE): Early Career Grant. We report the transcriptomes associated with acute corticosteroid regulation of ENaC activity in polarised mCCDcl1 collecting duct cells. 9 genes were regulated by aldosterone (ALDO), 0 with corticosterone alone and 151 with corticosterone when 11βHSD2 activity was inhibited. We validated 3 novel ALDO-induced genes: Rasd1, Sult1d1 and Gm43305 in primary cells isolated from a novel collecting duct reporter mouse. Background Corticosteroids regulate distal nephron and collecting duct Na+ reabsorption, contributing to fluid-volume and blood pressure homeostasis. The transcriptional landscape underpinning the acute stimulation of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) by physiological concentrations of corticosteroids remains unclear. Methods Transcriptomic profiles underlying corticosteroid-stimulated ENaC activity in polarised mCCDcl1 cells were generated by coupling electrophysiological measurements of amiloride-sensitive currents with RNAseq. Generation of a collecting-duct specific reporter mouse line, mT/mG-Aqp2Cre, enabled isolation of primary collecting duct cells by FACS and ENaC activity was measured in cultured primary cells following acute application of corticosteroids. Expression of target genes was assessed by qRT-PCR in cultured cells or freshly isolated cells following acute elevation of steroid hormones in mT/mG-Aqp2Cre mice. Results Physiological relevance of the mCCDcl1 model was confirmed with aldosterone-specific stimulation of SGK1 and ENaC activity. Corticosterone only modulated these responses at supraphysiological concentrations or when 11βHSD2 was inhibited. When 11βHSD2 protection was intact, corticosterone caused no significant change in transcripts. We identified a small number of aldosterone-induced transcripts associated with stimulated ENaC activity in mCCDcl1 cells and a much larger number with corticosterone in the absence of 11βHSD2 activity. Cells isolated from mT/mG-Aqp2Cre mice were validated as collecting duct-specific and assessment of identified aldosterone-induced genes revealed that Sgk1, Zbtbt16, Sult1d1, Rasd1 and Gm43305 are acutely upregulated by corticosteroids both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions This study reports the transcriptome of mCCDcl1 collecting duct cells and identifies a small number of aldosterone-induced genes associated with acute stimulation of ENaC, including 3 previously undescribed genes. Postprint

Funding: The work was supported by the Folke Bernadotte Academy, the Swedish government agency for peace, security and development, under Grant 20-00280; and the Scottish Funding Council under Grants SFC/AN/12/2017, SFC/AN/02/2018, SFC/AN/04/2019 and SFC/AN/18/2020. This article deploys the language, narratives and proposed solutions of research participants to conceptualise peace research as a representational and relational process of recognition. To do so, it draws from a multi-year research project on the economic livelihood and social integration strategies of conflict-affected youth in Liberia’s commercial motorcycling sector. Its starting point is reflexive engagement with participants’ own frequent question: ‘What is the benefit of this project?’ It advocates for participatory approaches to the time-spaces that ex-combatant and conflict-affected youth actually inhabit (rather than those scripted or desired for them by more traditional forms of peace research). It applies critical peace-building insights about time to contribute to conceptualisations of post-conflict ‘reintegration trajectories’ that question ideas about who builds peace, and how. It argues that participatory research brings issues of social stigma, objectification and marginalisation to the fore. And, it explores the methodological implications of participatory research, identifying the ways in which sited ethnography, relational interviewing and narrative approaches can centre research-as-recognition. Participatory approaches make peace researchable not just to collect lived experiences (treating research as transactional data collection) but to implement participants’ own ideas about peace-building strategies and solutions (treating peace research as relational recognition and something that is mutually beneficial). Publisher PDF

Funding: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - EP/M506631/1, EP/J500549/1, EP/K016342/1; Leverhulme Trust - RPG-2015-042; Army Research Office - W911NF-20-1-0233; University of St Andrews; Fundación para el Fomento en Asturias de la Investigación Científica Aplicada y la Tecnología - AC17-14; European Commission - AC17-14. In spite of widespread interest in the unique size-dependent properties and consequent applications of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), synthetic protocols that reliably allow for independent tuning of surface chemistry and core size, the two critical determinants of AuNP properties, remain limited. Often, core size is inherently affected by the ligand structure in an unpredictable fashion. Functionalized ligands are commonly introduced using postsynthesis exchange procedures, which can be inefficient and operationally delicate. Here, we report a one-step protocol for preparing monolayer-stabilized AuNPs that is compatible with a wide range of ligand functional groups and also allows for the systematic control of core size. In a single-phase reaction using the mild reducing agent tert-butylamine borane, AuNPs that are compatible with solvents spanning a wide range of polarities from toluene to water can be produced without damaging reactive chemical functionalities within the small-molecule surface-stabilizing ligands. We demonstrate that the rate of reduction, which is easily controlled by adjusting the period over which the reducing agent is added, is a simple parameter that can be used irrespective of the ligand structure to adjust the core size of AuNPs without broadening the size distribution. Core sizes in the range of 2–10 nm can thus be generated. The upper size limit appears to be determined by the nature of each specific ligand/solvent pairing. This protocol produces high quality, functionally sophisticated nanoparticles in a single step. By combining the ability to vary size-related nanoparticle properties with the option to incorporate reactive functional groups at the nanoparticle–solvent interface, it is possible to generate chemically reactive colloidal building blocks from which more complex nanoparticle-based devices and materials may subsequently be constructed. Publisher PDF

This study was funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund through the Scottish Funding Council administered via the University of St Andrews reference SFC/AN/18/2020, and the EDCTP2 programme supported by the European Union (grant number TMA2016CDF-1580). Additional research support was provided by the Fogarty Interntional Centre, National Institutes of Health (grant # 2D43TW009771-06 "HIV and co-infections in Uganda." Background Completion of tuberculosis (TB) treatment presents several challenges to patients, including long treatment duration, medication adverse-effects and heavy pill burden. WHO emphasize the need for patient-centered TB care, but such approaches require understanding of patient experiences and perceptions. Methods In 2020, we nested a qualitative study within a clinical trial that recruited 128 HIV-TB co-infected adults in Kampala receiving rifampicin-based TB treatment, alongside anti-retroviral therapy. A purposively selected sub-sample of 46 trial participants contributed to nine gender segregated focus group discussions. Of these, 12 also participated in in-depth interviews. Sessions were recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated from local languages into English. Thematic analysis focused on drug adverse-effects, use of self-prescribed medications and barriers to treatment adherence. Results Patients seemed more concerned about adverse effects that clinicians sometimes overlook such as change in urine color. Those who remembered pre-treatment counselling advice were disinclined to manage adverse-effects by self-prescription. Difficulty in accessing a medical practitioner was reported as a reason for self-medication. Obstacles to adherence included stigma (especially from visible adverse-effects like “red urine”), difficulties with pill size and number, discomfort with formulation and medication adverse effects. Conclusion Tailored pre-treatment counselling, improved access to clinical services, and simpler drug administration will deliver more patient-centered care. Publisher PDF

Funding: Scottish Funding Council (SEF0XFC020), Royal Society of Edinburgh (1041). Group-based parent training programmes present an affordable means to influence the early experiences of children at scale. This paper reports evidence on the effectiveness of a practice-led intervention piloted in rural Tanzania evaluated through a matched control study design. The core of the programme is an 8–10 week caregiver training course led by local facilitators, built around early stimulation and nurturing care. After two years of implementation, the intervention led to improvements in the development of 3-year olds of 0.29 standard deviations. Detailed data on caregivers indicates that these improvements are due to changes in the type and frequency of caregiver-child interactions for both mothers and fathers, as well as the quality of play materials in the home. Publisher PDF

Funding: The Holistic Approach to Unravel Antibacterial Resistance in East Africa is a Global Context Consortia Award (MR/S004785/1) funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Medical Research Council, and the Department of Health and Social Care. The award is also part of the EDCTP2 programme supported by the European Union. This work is supported in part by the Makerere University-Uganda Virus Research Institute Centre of Excellence for Infection and Immunity Research and Training (MUII). MUII is supported through the DELTAS Africa Initiative (grant number 107743). The DELTAS Africa Initiative is an independent funding scheme of the African Academy of Sciences and Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa and is supported by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency with funding from the Wellcome Trust (grant number 107743) and the UK Government. This paper was funded in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (grant number U01CA207167), and a Scottish Funding Council GCRF Consolidator Award. BACKGROUND A key factor driving the development and maintenance of antibacterial resistance (ABR) is individuals' use of antibiotics (ABs) to treat illness. To better understand motivations and context for antibiotic use we use the concept of a patient treatment-seeking pathway: a treatment journey encompassing where patients go when they are unwell, what motivates their choices, and how they obtain antibiotics. This paper investigates patterns and determinants of patient treatment-seeking pathways, and how they intersect with AB use in East Africa, a region where ABR-attributable deaths are exceptionally high. METHODS The Holistic Approach to Unravelling Antibacterial Resistance (HATUA) Consortium collected quantitative data from 6,827 adult outpatients presenting with urinary tract infection (UTI) symptoms in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda between February 2019- September 2020, and conducted qualitative in-depth patient interviews with a subset (n = 116). We described patterns of treatment-seeking visually using Sankey plots and explored explanations and motivations using mixed-methods. Using Bayesian hierarchical regression modelling, we investigated the associations between socio-demographic, economic, healthcare, and attitudinal factors and three factors related to ABR: self-treatment as a first step, having a multi-step treatment pathway, and consuming ABs. RESULTS Although most patients (86%) sought help from medical facilities in the first instance, many (56%) described multi-step, repetitive treatment-seeking pathways, which further increased the likelihood of consuming ABs. Higher socio-economic status patients were more likely to consume ABs and have multi-step pathways. Reasons for choosing providers (e.g., cost, location, time) were conditioned by wider structural factors such as hybrid healthcare systems and AB availability. CONCLUSION There is likely to be a reinforcing cycle between complex, repetitive treatment pathways, AB consumption and ABR. A focus on individual antibiotic use as the key intervention point in this cycle ignores the contextual challenges patients face when treatment seeking, which include inadequate access to diagnostics, perceived inefficient public healthcare and ease of purchasing antibiotics without prescription. Pluralistic healthcare landscapes may promote more complex treatment seeking and therefore inappropriate AB use. We recommend further attention to healthcare system factors, focussing on medical facilities (e.g., accessible diagnostics, patient-doctor interactions, information flows), and community AB access points (e.g., drug sellers). Publisher PDF

Existing whaling historiography frames the end of the traditional whaling era in the Arctic along established interpretational and methodological paradigms. These perspectives consider the industry almost entirely within the context of ships, men, whales and the sea. This thesis shifts its attention to the industry’s historical peripheries to examine the people, connections and spaces which existed within Dundee’s widening scope of Arctic commercial activities from 1858 to 1922. As bowhead whale populations diminished, the trade began to diversify its financial base of support, explore additional natural resource to exploit on an industrial scale, and change the dynamics of its labour requirements. Going beyond the men on whaling ships, the thesis seeks to identify what other people and activities defined this enterprise. Research therefore introduces the term ‘Arctic trade’ to comprehend its investigation into this transitive era more fully. The thesis adopts a transnational/global history approach, enabling it to shift from a national perspective to a changing mix of local, regional and transoceanic historical scales. This makes it possible for research to recognise the various social and spatial boundaries within the Arctic trade and study where they can be found. Research also considers the ways in which the industry became a variable social anchor within the transmaritime communities it engaged. "This work was supported through an Applied Research Collaborative Scholarship administered by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) from 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2018. Under the terms of the studentship agreement, financial support came from three institutions under one grant number. These were the Scottish Funding Council (50 per cent), University of St Andrews (25 per cent) and University of Dundee (25 per cent) [grant number AH/L503915/1]." --Funding

YYS acknowledges support from the Funds for Women Graduates (GA-00558). FG and CJB acknowledge support from EPSRC through Grants EP/M029077/1 and EP/S027270/1. RS acknowledges financial support from the Scottish Funding Council through SRD-Grant HR07003. On-surface synthesis with designer precursor molecules is considered an effective method for preparing graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) of well-defined widths and with tunable electronic properties. Recent reports have shown that the band gap of ribbons doped with heteroatoms (such as boron, nitrogen, and sulfur) remains unchanged in magnitude in most cases. Nevertheless, theory predicts that a tunable band gap may be engineered by hydrogenation, but experimental evidence for this is so far lacking. Herein, surface-confined hydrogenation studies of 7-armchair graphene nanoribbons (7-AGNRs) grown on Au(111) surfaces, in an ultrahigh vacuum environment, are reported. GNRs are first prepared, then hydrogenated by exposure to activated hydrogen atoms. High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images reveal a self-limited hydrogenation process. By means of a combination of bond-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy (BRSTM) imaging and tip-induced site-specific dehydrogenation, the hydrogenation mechanism is studied in detail, and density-functional theory (DFT) calculation methods are used to complement the experimental findings. In all cases, the results demonstrate the successful modification of the electronic properties of the GNR/Au(111) system by edge and basal-plane hydrogenation, and a mechanism for the hydrogenation process is proposed. Publisher PDF

Funding: This work was supported by a Laidlaw Scholarship to YB and a St Andrews Restarting Research Funding Scheme (SARRFS) to IJ. Detriments to performance under pressure are common in many performance settings, from public speaking to skilled sports or music performances. In the last few decades, sports scientists have suggested that the quality and accuracy of movements can depend on what the performer attends to while executing the action, with an external focus of attention directed at the effects of the movement on the environment resulting in better performance than an internal focus, where attention is directed at the performer’s own body movements. Here we investigated the effects of attention focus instruction on the accuracy of piano performance. Amateur pianists were asked to practice a set piano piece for 7 days and then perform it to the experimenter under different performance instructions (no instruction, internal focus, external focus). An external focus of attention resulted in more accurate performance compared to an internal focus instruction, as evaluated by the difference in the number of note pitch errors and note corrections between the two conditions. Importantly, the advantage of an external over internal focus did not depend on pianistic expertise in our sample. Our research supports the idea that an external attention focus can improve music performance and should be considered in music teaching practice. Publisher PDF

This project received funding from the European Union's 8th Framework Programme, Horizon 2020 (grant agreement number: 802719) and the St Andrews Restarting Research Funding Scheme (2020). 1. Studying animal behaviour allows us to understand how different species and individuals navigate their physical and social worlds. Video coding of behaviour is considered a gold standard: allowing researchers to extract rich nuanced behavioural datasets, validate their reliability, and for research to be replicated. However, in practice, videos are only useful if data can be efficiently extracted. Manually locating relevant footage in 10,000 s of hours is extremely time-consuming, as is the manual coding of animal behaviour, which requires extensive training to achieve reliability. 2. Machine learning approaches are used to automate the recognition of patterns within data, considerably reducing the time taken to extract data and improving reliability. However, tracking visual information to recognise nuanced behaviour is a challenging problem and, to date, the tracking and pose-estimation tools used to detect behaviour are typically applied where the visual environment is highly controlled. 3. Animal behaviour researchers are interested in applying these tools to the study of wild animals, but it is not clear to what extent doing so is currently possible, or which tools are most suited to particular problems. To address this gap in knowledge, we describe the new tools available in this rapidly evolving landscape, suggest guidance for tool selection, provide a worked demonstration of the use of machine learning to track movement in video data of wild apes, and make our base models available for use. 4. We use a pose-estimation tool, DeepLabCut, to demonstrate successful training of two pilot models of an extremely challenging pose estimate and tracking problem: multi-animal wild forest-living chimpanzees and bonobos across behavioural contexts from hand-held video footage. 5. With DeepWild we show that, without requiring specific expertise in machine learning, pose estimation and movement tracking of free-living wild primates in visually complex environments is an attainable goal for behavioural researchers. Publisher PDF

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency threaten progress in reaching many of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by 2030. The under-5 mortality and maternal mortality rates are well below the targets, and if we progress at the current pace, there is a high risk of not meeting the 2030 goals. Furthermore, the initial progress in the decline in child and maternal mortality since 1990 is likely to be eroded. Much of this progress has resulted from increased sanitation, drinking water, education, and health service coverage. The adequate provision of public services is possible if there is sufficient government funding. When governments have more income, they spend more on public services, which increases access to fundamental economic and social rights and, thus, contributes to the SDGs. One of the key drivers of government financing, taxation, constitutes 70% of government revenue in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Corporate income tax constitutes 18.8% of tax revenue in African countries compared to 10% of tax revenue in OECD countries. Therefore, it plays a critical role in SDG progress. This paper aims to quantify the contribution of one large taxpayer, that publishes their tax payments, (Vodafone Group Plc) on progress towards SDGs in six African countries. We use econometric modelling to estimate the impact of an increase in government revenue equivalent to Vodafone's average tax paid between 2007–2017. Results We find that government revenue equivalent to Vodafone’s taxes made a significant contribution to progress in attaining selected SDGs. We found that the revenue equivalent to Vodafone’s taxes allowed 966,188 people to access clean water and 1,371,972 people to access basic sanitation each year. Over the time period studied, 858,054 children spent an extra year in school and 54,275 children under five years and 3,655 mothers survived. In just one of these countries, Tanzania, the revenue equivalent to Vodafone's tax contribution allowed 174,121 people to access clean water and 223,586 to access sanitation each year. Over the time studied 187,023 children spent an additional year at school, 6,569 additional children under five and 625 additional mothers survived. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that the reported contributions from a single multinational corporation drive SDG progress. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of transparent taxes and explores the responsibilities of global institutions, governments, investors, and multinational corporations.

AKG is grateful to the Royal Society for Newton International Fellowship NF171163. We acknowledge support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK (grants EP/P010482/1 and EP/L017008/1). We are also grateful for financial support from the University of St Andrews Restarting Research and Restarting Interdisciplinary Research Funding Schemes (SARRF and SARIRF) which are funded through the Scottish Funding Council grant reference SFC/AN/08/020. We have designed a highly twisted small TADF emitter PXZ-α-DK based on an a-diketone (α-DK) as a strong acceptor and phenoxazine (PXZ) as a strong donor to obtain red-shifted emission in comparison to the equivalent a-diketone linked to 9,9-dimethyl-9,10-dihydroacridine (DMAC). The PXZ-α-DK shows emission at 586 nm and DMAC-α-DK shows emission at 548 nm in 1,3-bis(N-carbazolyl)benzene (mCP) host at 1.5 wt% doping of the emitter, with short-delayed lifetimes of 6.9 μs for PXZ-α-DK and 7.6 μs for DMAC-α-DK. OLEDs fabricated using these emitters show green electroluminescence at 555 nm for DMAC-α-DK, with a maximum external quantum efficiency, EQEmax, of 6.3%, and orange electroluminescence at 585 nm for PXZ-α-DK, with an EQEmax of 0.8%. We corroborate the optoelectronic properties of these emitters with DFT calculations. Postprint