Yes / Studies of nanosized forms of bismuth (Bi)-containing materials have recently expanded from optical, chemical, electronic, and engineering fields towards biomedicine, as a result of their safety, cost-effective fabrication processes, large surface area, high stability, and high versatility in terms of shape, size, and porosity. Bi, as a nontoxic and inexpensive diamagnetic heavy metal, has been used for the fabrication of various nanoparticles (NPs) with unique structural, physicochemical, and compositional features to combine various properties, such as a favourably high X-ray attenuation coefficient and near-infrared (NIR) absorbance, excellent light-to-heat conversion efficiency, and a long circulation half-life. These features have rendered bismuth-containing nanoparticles (BiNPs) with desirable performance for combined cancer therapy, photothermal and radiation therapy (RT), multimodal imaging, theranostics, drug delivery, biosensing, and tissue engineering. Bismuth oxyhalides (BiOx, where X is Cl, Br or I) and bismuth chalcogenides, including bismuth oxide, bismuth sulfide, bismuth selenide, and bismuth telluride, have been heavily investigated for therapeutic purposes. The pharmacokinetics of these BiNPs can be easily improved via the facile modification of their surfaces with biocompatible polymers and proteins, resulting in enhanced colloidal stability, extended blood circulation, and reduced toxicity. Desirable antibacterial effects, bone regeneration potential, and tumor growth suppression under NIR laser radiation are the main biomedical research areas involving BiNPs that have opened up a new paradigm for their future clinical translation. This review emphasizes the synthesis and state-of-the-art progress related to the biomedical applications of BiNPs with different structures, sizes, and compositions. Furthermore, a comprehensive discussion focusing on challenges and future opportunities is presented. / M.-A. Shahbazi acknowledges financial support from the Academy of Finland (grant no. 317316). P. Figueiredo acknowledges the Finnish Cultural Foundation for its financial support (decision no. 00190246). H. A. Santos acknowledges financial support from the HiLIFE Research Funds, the Sigrid Juse´lius Foundation, and the Academy of Finland (grant no. 317042). / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Jan 2020.

Yes / This paper presents the development of a new chatter model using measured cutting forces instead of a mathematical model with empirical nature that describes them. The utilisation of measured cutting forces enables the prediction of real-time chatter conditions and stable machining. The chatter model is validated using fast Fourier transform (FFT) analyses for detection of chatter. The key contribution of the developed chatter model is that it can be incorporated in digital twins for process monitoring and control in order to achieve greater material removal rates and improved surface quality in future industrial applications involving machining processes. / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Sep 2020.

Yes / Herein, we report a catalyst-free ‘click’ reaction: metal-free [2 + 2] cycloaddition–retro-electrocyclisation (CA–RE) of arylynamines with the sluggish acceptor tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) to provide orthogonal electron-push–pull light-harvesting small molecules: N-heterocyclic dicyanoquinodimethane-substituted methylene malononitriles. Ynamines are reactive alkynes and tend to induce over-reactions with the CA–RE adducts. The reactivity of arylynamines was balanced properly by ensuring the electrondensity of the nitrogen atom was delocalised more over the aromatic rings than the triple bond. / This work was supported by Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (2020JJA120032). / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, April 2022.

Yes / In this conceptual paper, we respond to the calls for broader theoretical approaches that can coherently demonstrate a high degree of conceptual sensitivity to multiple combinations of institutional factors influencing women's informal entrepreneurship (WIE) and related agency. We do so by integrating constructs of gender and gender inequality with those of institutional logics and institutional voids. We find that a refined understanding of institutional voids is required to pave the way for a meaningful theoretical integration and empirical application of the related conceptualizations. We offer such a revised definition by placing formal and informal logics (rather than institutions) at the heart of it. In our theorizing, we propose that gender interplaying with formal and informal institutional logics create varying degrees of obscure and unique institutional voids that shape WIE prevalence. The proposed harmonized theoretical lens provides researchers with flexible yet consistent guidance for conducting context-specific empirical work that can coherently advance understanding of underlying logics shaping WIE and related agency. / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Jan 2023.

Yes / The northern and western isles of Scotland have proved fertile ground for archaeological investigation over the last 100 years. However, the nature of the landscape with its rugged coastlines and irregular topography, together with rapid peat growth rates, make for challenging surveying. Commonly, an archaeological monument or series of monuments is identified but little is known about the surrounding areas and, in particular, the palaeo-landscapes within which the monuments are located. This situation is exemplified by the standing stones of Calanais in Lewis. Here, surrounding peat bogs have buried a significant portion of the landscape around which the stones were first erected. This project identifies remote sensing geophysical techniques that are effective in mapping the buried (lost) landscape and thus aid better contextualisation of the stone monuments within it. Further, the project demonstrates the most appropriate techniques for prospecting across these buried landscapes for as yet unidentified stone features associated with the lives of the people who constructed the monuments. / Scottish Enterprise / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, December 2019.

Yes / The geographically restricted Mycobacterium africanum lineages (MAF) are primarily found in West Africa, where they account for a significant proportion of tuberculosis. Despite this phenomenon, little is known about the co-evolution of these ancient lineages with West Africans. MAF and M. tuberculosis sensu stricto lineages (MTB) differ in their clinical, in vitro and in vivo characteristics for reasons not fully understood. Therefore, we compared genomes of 289 MAF and 205 MTB clinical isolates from the 6 main human-adapted M. tuberculosis complex lineages, for mutations in their Electron Transport Chain and Central Carbon Metabolic pathway in order to explain these metabolic differences. Furthermore, we determined, in silico, whether each mutation could affect the function of genes encoding enzymes in these pathways. We found more mutations with the potential to affect enzymes in these pathways in MAF lineages compared to MTB lineages. We also found that similar mutations occurred in these pathways between MAF and some MTB lineages. Generally, our findings show further differences between MAF and MTB lineages that may have contributed to the MAF clinical and growth phenotype and indicate potential adaptation of MAF lineages to a distinct ecological niche, which we suggest includes areas characterized by low oxygen tension. / European Research CouncilINTERRUPTB starting grant nr. 311725 (to BdJ, FG, CM, LR, BO, MA) and The UK Medical Research Council and the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) Grant No. CB. 2007. 41700.007. / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, January 2020.

Yes / PURPOSE. Glaucoma raises contrast detection thresholds, but our natural visual environment is dominated by high contrast that may remain suprathreshold in early to moderate glaucoma. This study investigates the effect of glaucoma on the apparent contrast of visible stimuli. METHODS. Twenty participants with glaucoma with partial visual field defects (mean age, 72 ± 7 years) and 20 age-similar healthy controls (mean age, 70 ± 7 years) took part. Contrast detection thresholds for Gabor stimuli (SD, 0.75°) of four spatial frequencies (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 c/deg) were first measured at 10° eccentricity, both within and outside of visual field defects for participants with glaucoma. Subsequently, the contrast of a central Gabor was matched to that of a peripheral Gabor with contrast fixed at two times or four times the detection threshold. Data were analyzed by linear mixed modelling. RESULTS. Compared with controls, detection thresholds for participants with glaucoma were raised by 0.05 ± 0.025 (Michelson units, ± SE; P = 0.12) and by 0.141 ± 0.026 (P < 0.001) outside and within visual field defects, respectively. For reference stimuli at two times the detection contrast, matched contrast ratios (matched/reference contrast) were 0.16 ± 0.039 (P < 0.001) higher outside compared with within visual field defects in participants with glaucoma. Matched contrast ratios within visual field defects were similar to controls (mean 0.033 ± 0.066 lower; P = 0.87). For reference stimuli at four times the detection contrast, matched contrast ratios were similar across all three groups (P = 0.58). Spatial frequency had a minimal effect on matched contrast ratios. CONCLUSIONS. Despite decreased contrast sensitivity, people with glaucoma perceive the contrast of visible suprathreshold stimuli similarly to healthy controls. These results suggest possible compensation for sensitivity loss in the visual system. / Supported by a College of Optometrists PhD Scholarship. / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, June 2020

Yes / Approximately half the care for people with dementia is provided by families. It is therefore imperative that research informs ways of maintaining such care. In this study we propose that a needs-led approach can provide a useful, novel means of conceptualising the impact of caring on the lives of family carers. Our aim was to develop and present a needs-led framework for understanding how providing care impacts on carers’ fulfilment of needs. In this qualitative study we conducted 42 semi-structured interviews with a purposively diverse sample of family carers to generate nuanced contextualised accounts of how caring impacted on carers’ lives. Our inductive thematic analysis focused upon asking: ‘What need is being impacted here?’ in order to generate a needs-led framework for understanding. In this qualitative study we conducted 42 semi-structured interviews with a purposively diverse sample of family carers to generate nuanced contextualised accounts of how caring impacted on carers’ lives. Our inductive thematic analysis focused upon asking: ‘What need is being impacted here?’ in order to generate a needs-led framework for understanding. Nine themes were widely endorsed. Each completed the sentence: “Being a carer impacts on fulfilling my need to/for….”: Freedom; feel close to my relative; feel in control of my life; be my own person; protect my relative; share/express my thoughts and feelings; take care of myself; feel connected to the people around me; get things done. These needs echo those from other research areas, with relational needs emerging as particularly central. The needs-led approach offers a perspective that is able to capture both stresses and positives aspects of caregiving. We recommend that clinical interviewing using Socratic questioning to discover human needs that are being impacted by caring would provide a valuable starting point for care planning. / Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Grant title: HQLC Dementia Carers Instrument Development: DECIDE (MR/M025179/1) / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, August 2018.

No / Global concern about feminicide -- the killing of girls or women for reasons related to gender roles – started in Latin America with the epidemic of sexualised murders and disappearances in Central America and Mexico. There, the killers walked free due to state indifference and an incompetent criminal justice system. But this book tells a more positive story from the region. Brazil has high numbers of feminicides, mostly committed by intimate partners. Yet, the state’s responses to this crime have been transformed in recent years. This is the first country study to examine in detail how strategic action by the women’s movement has resulted in significant improvements in the investigation, prosecution and prevention of domestic violence and of feminicide. This study traces the interaction between the main contributory factors to that transformation. Innovation and capacity-building in the criminal justice system has been driven by the development of norms and protocols at the inter-American level, by changes in Brazilian law and jurisprudence, and by policy entrepreneurs within the police and justice sector. Executive branch investment since the early 2000s in tackling gender-based violence created a propitious political environment. Coalitions of interest involving feminist academics, NGOs, local campaigners, bureaucrats within the state machineries for women, politicians, journalists, and criminal justice professionals were able to identify, create and use institutional spaces for change and diffuse good practices. / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Mar 2021.

Yes / The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on delivery of social support services. This might be expected to particularly affect older adults and people living with dementia (PLWD), and to reduce their well- being. Aims: To explore how social support service use by older adults, carers and PLWD, and their mental well-being changed over the first 3 months since the pandemic outbreak. Methods: Unpaid dementia carers, PLWD and older adults took part in a longitudinal online or telephone survey collected between April and May 2020, and at two subsequent timepoints 6 and 12 weeks after baseline. Participants were asked about their social support service usage in a typical week prior to the pandemic (at baseline), and in the past week at each of the three timepoints. They also completed measures of levels of depression, anxiety and mental well-being. Results: 377 participants had complete data at all three timepoints. Social support service usage dropped shortly after lockdown measures were imposed at timepoint 1 (T1), to then increase again by T3. The access to paid care was least affected by COVID-19. Cases of anxiety dropped significantly across the study period, while cases of depression rose. Well-being increased significantly for older adults and PLWD from T1 to T3. Conclusions: Access to social support services has been significantly affected by the pandemic, which is starting to recover slowly. With mental well-being differently affected across groups, support needs to be put in place to maintain better well-being across those vulnerable groups during the ongoing pandemic. / University of Liverpool COVID-19 Strategic Research Fund, National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast, The University of Bradford QR Research Fund / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Jan 2021.