NIHRDataInsights/HRCSData huggingface dataset:
Title: Residential support workers meeting the health needs of older people with learning disabilities: An exploration of their developmental support needs
Funder: Division for Social Care and Health Research (Wales)

Abstract: Aim: to explore the experiences of residential support workers meeting the health needs of older people with learning disabilities. Purpose: to identify developmental and support needs so that the health needs of older people with learning disabilities may more effectively be met. Participants will be recruited via third sector organisations providing housing / residential support within Wales. Stage 1: semi-structured interviews with 10 – 15 residential support workers/ house managers to explore experiences of supporting older people with learning disabilities who develop significant health problems Interviews will be transcribed, and analysed to identify recurring themes. These themes will inform development of the Stage 2 questionnaire comprising both fixed response and open questions. This will be piloted outside of Wales and then circulated to 1,500 support workers and house managers in Wales. Responses will be anonymous via a prepaid envelope. Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics to illustrate the nature of the sample and to identify associations between variables, and differences between groups within the dataset. Qualitative data will be entered into NVivo to support further thematic analysis. Dissemination will be via a project report, web based information, papers submitted to professional and academic journals and conferences.


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: The development and evaluation of an online emotional wellbeing module in the Champions for Health programme to complement and enhance lifestyle improvements
Funder: Division for Social Care and Health Research (Wales)

Abstract: Unhealthy lifestyles and behaviours are often used to manage stress, anxiety and depression. Such poor mental wellbeing can have serious costs to the individual and society. Those affected find it harder to function physically and socially, which impacts on them, their families, friends and colleagues. Anxiety and depression account for over 30% of work days lost due to ill health and 20% of visits to the GP. At any time around 30% of people are affected. Lifestyle change programmes that are easily accessible over the internet provide a potential high reach, low cost solution to improve both emotional wellbeing and physical wellbeing. This proposal would develop and evaluate a new wellbeing module within an already existing online health improvement programme, ‘Champions for Health’. To date the technical design and evaluation of the first phase of ‘Champions for Health’ has been under the aegis of one of the applicants, who is based in Public Health Wales. The other applicants will contribute mental health and computer-human interface expertise to ensure the academic and technical excellence of the project. The existing platform offers five independent modules related to healthy lifestyle: alcohol, diet, weight optimisation, smoking and physical activity. A 6-month trial of the website showed that participants who engaged with the programme make significant changes in their lifestyle, particularly with regard to physical activity. This study will assess, in a randomised controlled trial, whether the inclusion of an emotional health module improves emotional wellbeing, using a range of tools building on evidence-based techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness and stress reduction techniques. However, the unique contribution of this research project will be the investigation of interaction between the emotional wellbeing module and other modules in the programme. This will test the hypothesis that a multifaceted intervention designed to promote emotional wellbeing positively impact on other behaviours. We believe the inclusion of emotional wellbeing module alongside other behaviour related problems can also improve retention, a topic that has been widely overlooked in the behaviour change literature.


Research activity codes: 6.6 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIOURAL
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Investigating neural transposition.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The ability to appropriately direct behaviour using our memories is something we take for granted. However, in certain disease-states, such as affective disorders and addiction, our motivational control goes awry and behaviour runs amok. My goal is to understand detailed neural mechanisms of memory and motivation. We will use state-of-the-art genetics, physiology and behaviour to interrogate the relatively simple nervous system of the fruit fly Drosophila at the molecular, cellular and neural ne twork level. We will identify and characterize neural circuits that are modified by experience, and that are required for memory formation, consolidation and retrieval. We will profile gene expression in the relevant neurons before and after training using microarrays and will use neuron-specific transgenic RNA-interference with behavioural assays to find conserved memory-relevant genes. Appetitive memory is only efficiently retrieved in hungry flies and we have discovered the neurons that are c ritical for this motivational control. We will use a combination of genetics, behaviour and physiology to understand the detailed mechanisms that the motivational states of hunger and satiety utilize to conditionally alter neural circuit properties and expression of adaptive behaviour.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Developing models of thalamocortical unsupervised attentional selection and competitive learning
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The project will aim to establish the following. (1) The characteristics of a modular neural network architecture for unsupervised learning in which each module receives weighted predictions (expectations) and bottom-up activation, calculating a 'performance' output and a mismatch error. (2) The impact of introducing global competition for learning based on locally derived prediction error. (3) The subsequent effects on learning rates of introducing biologically based synaptic autostabilization mechanisms. (4) The networks' performance in simple learning-theory paradigms and in perceptual identification with prior information. (5) The unification of such models with methods for implementing high-speed dynamic binding. (6) The effects of network-wide parameter manipulations, including manipulations relevant for psychopathological states such as hallucinations. (7) The simulation of a large-scale version of the computational network and analysis of its topological and statistical properties, for comparison with existing MRI analyses. (8) The simulation of a three-dimensional version of the network and the derivation of predictions relating to surprise in learning, for comparison of the model's predictions with MEG experiments in normal humans and then patient groups.


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Cell Biology: Decision-making in yeast carbohydrate metabolism: from single-cells to populations.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The project will investigate decision-making in budding yeast carbohydrate metabolism at the single-cell and population level. Inference in multiple-carbohydrate environments Following the demonstration of statistical inference by biological systems [1, 2], we will investigate the information processing properties of biochemical networks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae carbohydrate metabolism. We will start with the well-studied regulatory network for galactose metabolism [3]; following that, we will apply the lessons learned to the more complicated glucose network [4]. In parallel, we will investigate the network for (at least) a third carbohydrate - possibly maltose [5], or raffinose, or melibiose [6]. Our analysis will progress from inference in a single-carbohydrate to multiple-carbohydrate environments. Quantifying costs and benefits: effects on fitness Following previous work on bacteria [7, 8] we will quantify the costs and benefits to fitness of activating each of the metabolic pathways in different environments by manipulating their respective regulatory networks. Decision-making at the single-cell level Having established the sensing and information-processing properties of single cells, and the relevant costs and benefits of activating metabolisms, we will integrate information- and decision-theory into a predictive model for determining a single cell's optimal response in mixed carbohydrate environments - beginning with static environments and then moving to fluctuating environments. Decision-making at the population level In the next stage of the project, we will investigate decision-making in isogenic and perhaps mixed-strain populations of S. cerevisiae cells. We will extend our predictive model to account for the actions of neighboring cells. By varying the degree of genetic relatedness, we will investigate if cells maximize their inclusive fitness - and what constraints this imposes on maximizing the short-term fitness of the individual. Competition and cooperation in carbohydrate metabolism Following previous work [9], and having established our predictive single-cell and population decision-making models, we will investigate how cells decide to cooperate or defect when determining to contribute or not to a common pool of secreted enzymes that initiate the metabolism of a polysaccharide.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Interoceptive awareness in health and disease
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The aim of this research proposal is to construct a novel framework for understanding psychosomatic disease and its relationship with normal interoception (the processing of internal bodily sensations). There are three experimental strands to the proposed research: 1) Learning about symptoms through Pavlovian conditioning mechanisms 2) Perceptual limitations on interoceptive processes 3) The relationship between interoception and higher cognitive function, in particular metacognition (the awareness of perceptual limitations). The general research framework is best construed as cognitive neuroscience; I am interested in the neural mechanisms that underpin constructs that might traditionally be viewed as psychological. The key goals are to: ? Experimentally test the hypothesis that symptoms can be engendered by Pavlovian conditioning and describe the neuroanatomical systems that subserve such processes ? Characterise limitations on interoceptive processing that are predicted from psychophysics research in the exteroceptive domain such as the absence of absolute value and the effects of sequence on perception ? Compare perceptual metacognition in the interoceptive and exteroceptive domains, explore whether the neural substrates underpinning metacognitive ability are unitary across distinct sensory domains, and test metacognitive ability in patients with psychosomatic disease


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Masculinity, Health and Home in Postwar Britain: The Emotional Role of the Home in the Health of Men.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: By emotional health, I refer to the minor and supposedly more transient mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress; their management outside of the medical context; and the role of care-giving/support networks in coping with physical or mental ill-health more broadly. My first goal is to analyse published reports concerning emotional and physical ill-health amongst men. Analysis shall centre on how men were discursively constructed in such literature, and how this intersected wit h discussions of the home and understandings of ill-health. Secondly, I intend to capture the ways in which the home figured in subjective experiences of emotional distress or physical ill-health by men. I will utilise oral histories to achieve this. These will be complimented by an analysis of campaign groups/societies which offered advice on coping with ill-health or with rehabilitation to the lay public, alongside advice literature. Finally, I intend to undertake around thirty of my own oral history interviews, with my intention to interview men from two areas - South Wales mining communities and new towns developed in the south-east in the 1950s/60s. These interviews will allow me to explore experiences of emotional distress and will also provide insight into the relationship between masculinity and domesticity more broadly.


Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS;2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Exploiting genomic approaches to identify the environmental basis of depression
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Despite major advances in our understanding of depression’s genetic architecture, there remain major gaps in our understanding of its environmental risk factors that impede prevention. Using studies of both related and unrelated individuals, I will identify the genetic changes and behaviours in those individuals that lead to depression in those individuals, as well as in their relatives. I will compare these changes with the genetic signatures of lifestyle factors (e.g. obesity) and behaviours, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, to identify if they are environmental risk factors for depression. In a complimentary approach, I will measure epigenetic changes in DNA methylation associated with depression and its risk factors. I will use optimise these epigenetic measures to improve the prediction of depression and the measurement of its risk factors. Finally, I will optimise the prediction of depression and its risk factors by applying these findings to prospective longitudinal dataset where depression and environmental risk factors have been measured on multiple occasions. These studies will be used to refine the accuracy of each predictor and estimate how it would behave in unseen samples of individuals, in whom it may be applied for prevention in future studies.

Lay abstract: Despite advances in our understanding of depression’s genetic basis, there remain gaps in our understanding of its risk factors that impede prevention. In a series of linked studies, I will identify the genetic and behavioural changes in individuals and their close relatives that lead to depression through habits and lifestyle, spouses and early family environment. I will compare these findings with the genetic changes that lead to behaviours, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, to identify if these environmental factors also increase the risk of depression. I will also measure 'epigenetic' changes to the surface of DNA that affect its function and use these measures as a means of improving the prediction of depression and the measurement of its risk factors. I will then optimise the prediction of depression and its risk factors by applying these findings to unaffected and depressed individuals studied over many years.

Research activity codes: 2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;CANCER AND NEOPLASMS
Title: Randomising within the GP Research Database.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Randomised controlled trials are the gold-standard evidence on which treatment is best for a patient. However they are often too brief, have problems recruiting patients, and are performed on unrepresentative and idealised patient populations. This means the evidence gathered may not be applicable to real-world treatment decisions. Potentially, trials could be integrated seamlessly into everyday clinical activity: wherever there is uncertainty about which treatment is best for a patient, t hose who consent could be automatically randomised to receive one or another, and their progress measured unobtrusively, using only routinely collected computerised information. This fellowship will develop and evaluate this new approach to undertaking randomised clinical trials, using a pilot study to see if they are practical, cheaper, recruit more patients more easily, recruit more typical patients than current trials, recruit more clinicians more easily, and achieve better long-term fol low up of patients progress. If successful, the development of this new method would have major implications for health research, as trials could be done on any question cheaply and easily. A series of other smaller projects will also be pursued around gathering information on treatment uncertainties, linking together researchers and study participants, disseminating evidence, and facilitating recruitment into trials.


Research activity codes: 8.4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGIES (HEALTH SERVICES);6.1 PHARMACEUTICALS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;CARDIOVASCULAR
Title: Men, masculinities, deprivation and sexual health: a qualitative study
Funder: Chief Scientist Office (Scotland)

Abstract: This proposal aims to bring together three key areas of research that focus respectively on: adult heterosexual men, deprivation and sexual health. We aim to: explore how prevailing constructions of masculinity in the most socio-economically deprived areas of Scotland are related to sexual health attitudes and behaviours in adult heterosexual men; examine whether/how these are related to adverse sexual, physical or mental health consequences for men, their female sexual partners, and other women; and use the findings to develop interventions to improve sexual health for those in areas of high deprivation. We will conduct focus groups and individual interviews with men (aged 18-40) in areas of high deprivation within Scotland. Focus groups and individual interviews with women will be conducted sequentially to validate, nuance or challenge the men’s accounts of prevailing masculine cultures and their relationship to men’s sexual health-related attitudes and behaviours.


Research activity codes: 3.1 PRIMARY PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO MODIFY BEHAVIOURS OR PROMOTE WELL-BEING;2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;INFECTION
Title: Rapidly formed COVID-19 teams in the NHS: implications for leadership, team-working, career intentions and individual mental health.
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: 1) Investigate the non-technical factors for healthcare delivery (leadership, social support & cohesion, communication, shared mental models, co-ordination) and expected moderating factors (occupational background, preparedness, work-life balance and home situation, proximity, workforce allocation models) and how they impact on perceived teamworking and performance, individual team member well-being, resilience and team member employment retention intentions for NHS COVID-team members. 2) Investigate how individual experiences from NHS COVID-team membership impact on next destinations after re-deployment and what are the longer-term outcomes from the COVID-team experiences on mental health and retention? 3) Collate and identify in conjunction with NHS partners the appropriate lessons and workforce guidance for fluid teams that can be identified for theory, practice and policy from this research.

Lay abstract: A key component of the NHS (and global) response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been to reinforce acute and critical care capacity, through an unprecedented re-deployment of personnel from different care pathways into fluid teams consisting of volunteers, student doctors and nurses, and in some cases military personnel [1-4]. These COVID-teams provide a unique opportunity to examine the interaction of many of the established factors for successful delivery of medical teamwork and care. Current evidence suggests that without common teamwork, shared communication patterns and clear leadership structures, the ad-hoc and fluid nature of these COVID-teams increases risk to patient outcomes, delivery of care [5-9] and team member resilience, mental-health and retention [10,11]. This project will examine how non-technical factors for healthcare delivery (leadership, social support & cohesion, communication, shared mental models, co-ordination) and expected moderating factors (occupational background, preparedness, work-life balance, home situation, proximity, workforce allocation models) impact on perceived COVID-teamworking and performance, individual team member well-being and team member employment retention intentions. It will be a mixed methods cross-sectional exploratory study of COVID-team members, clinical directors and senior hospital managers across a wide range of partnered NHS Trusts. Qualitative interviews will identify key themes and will be followed up by a more widely recruited confirmatory survey examining longer term individual well-being and retention intentions. Throughout, there will be a high emphasis on rapid dissemination of results to NHS partners and wider medical and other stakeholders to inform evidence-based workforce guidance and accelerate team-working theory, practice and policy.

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;INFECTION
Title: Moving functional brain imaging into the real world: A wearable, cryogen-free, magnetoencephalography (MEG) system
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Children with epilepsy, their parents, play specialists, researchers and clinicians will have co-produced, and together feel ownership of, the design and implementation of new child-friendly wearable scanners, interactive games and tasks, and an engaging room interior. Working alongside an artist and designer, we will have successfully run several diverse focus groups, workshops and interactive sessions for different cohorts of children and their families/carers. We will have used the feedback from these sessions to design and build prototype room interiors, interactive tasks and scanner helmets to be used in a clinical setting. We will have demonstrated that, through engagement, this project has increased our ability to effectively scan very young children within a stimulating environment. Our success will be measured through compliance rate and typical scan duration achievable for the child patients in the new OPM system at Young Epilepsy.


Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;NEUROLOGICAL