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(Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses)
WIRE is an open access repository for the research publications and other outputs from postgraduate students and staff at the University of Wolverhampton.
Wolverhampton staff: to deposit your publication to WIRE, go to: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/research/wire/
Use the search box above or the browse function on the left to discover publications from the research community at the University of Wolverhampton.
University students and staff can also search WIRE using LibrarySearch
For further information or help, contact the Scholarly Communications Team at wire@wlv.ac.uk
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Magnitude and sources of proactive interference in visual memoryProactive interference – the disruptive effect of old memories on new learning – is a long-established forgetting mechanism, yet there are doubts about its impact on visual working memory and uncertainty about the kinds of information that cause proactive interference. The present study aimed to assess these issues in three experiments using a modified recent probes task. Participants encoded four target images on each trial and determined whether a probe matched one of those targets. In Experiment 1, probes matching targets from trial N-1 or N-3 damaged responding in relation to a novel probe. Proactive interference was also produced by probes differing in state to a previously experienced target. This was further assessed in Experiments 2 and 3. Here, probes differing in colour to a previous target, or matching the general target category only, produced little proactive interference. Conversely, probes directly matching a prior target, or differing in state information, hindered task performance. This study found robust proactive interference in visual working memory that could endure over multiple trials, but it was also produced by stimuli closely resembling an old target. This challenges the notion that proactive interference is produced by an exact representation of a previously encoded image.
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Exploring the efficacy and safety of cannabis in the management of fibromyalgiaFibromyalgia is a chronic health condition characterized by chronic pain fatigue, sleep disturbances and many other symptoms affecting a patient’s quality of life. Patients with fibromyalgia often visit rheumatology outpatients with a long list of symptoms and often receive multiple medications. Many have seen multiple specialists and have done a lot of reading about alternative modalities of treatment. The limited effectiveness of conventional therapy coupled with widespread media attention raises the question of cannabis use. This review examines the literature on cannabinoid use in fibromyalgia against the context of the international variation in legal frameworks, the available products and the outcomes reported. A detailed review was performed using the EMBASE and PUBMED databases. It was concluded that despite the interest in the use of cannabinoids in the management of fibromyalgia, there is insufficient evidence to prescribe the currently available licensed medicines or to recommend the complementary health products available for legal purchase. There is a need for more global clinical randomised trials to accurately determine medicinal cannabis short and long-term long efficacy and safety for its acute and chronic use.
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England local community pharmacists opinions on independent prescribing trainingThe National Health Service has recognized an increasing need for pharmacists to upskill as an advanced clinical practitioners to practice as part of the wider multi-disciplinary team in primary care but outside of the community pharmacy. This explored community pharmacists’ opinions on independent prescribing training that can equip them to meet the workforce needs. Two activities have undertaken an audit of the independent prescribing pharmacists’ current employability in Wolverhampton and community pharmacists opinion online survey. Only 21 out of 57 surgeries (37%) in Wolverhampton employed an IP. With only 7 out of 57 (12%) surgeries employing an IP on an FTE basis, the remaining employed IP mainly part-time. There were 70 IPs employed a total of 50.2 FTE. The most selected areas as highly confident were public health knowledge 19.6%, followed by pharmacology and routine biochemistry equally at 17.65%. There were 23.5% who reported not being confident in interpreting highly specialized diagnostics, followed by anatomy at 18%. The most selected as the first option of course of future studies was 1-2 days continuous professional development (42.55%), where Masters, professional doctorate and doctor od philosophy were selected as least favorable options (53%, 63%, 72% respectively) indicating that the majority prefer a maximum of 6 month PT studies. This study confirmed the need for rethinking the current postgraduate pharmacy independent prescribing education, the pharmacists’ independent prescribers’ integration into primary care, and the need to redistribute resources and responsibilities.
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Impacts of depression subcase and case on all-cause mortality in older people: The findings from the multi-centre community-based cohort study in ChinaObjectives: It is unclear whether and to what extent depression subcases and cases in older age were associated with all-cause mortality. Little is known about gender differences in the associations. We assess these in older Chinese. Methods: We examined a random sample of 6124 participants aged ≥60 years across five provinces in China. They were interviewed using a standard method of the GMS-AGECAT to diagnose depression subcase and case and record sociodemographic and disease risk factors at baseline, and to follow up their vital status. We employed Cox regression models to determine all-cause mortality in relation to depression subcases and cases, with adjustment for important variables, including social support and co-morbidities. Results: Over the 10-year follow-up, 928 deaths occurred. Compared to those without depression at baseline, participants with depression subcase (n = 196) and case (n = 264) had increased risk of mortality; adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were 1.46 (95% CI 1.07–2.00) and 1.45 (1.10–1.91). The adjusted HRs in men were 1.15 (0.72–1.81) and 1.85 (1.22–2.81), and in women 1.87 (1.22–2.87) and 1.22 (0.83–1.77) respectively. In participants aged ≥65 years, the adjusted HRs were 1.12 (0.68–1.84) and 1.99 (1.28–3.10) in men, and 2.06 (1.32–2.24) and 1.41 (0.94–2.10) in women. Increased HR in depression subcases was higher in women than man (ratio of HRs was 1.84, p = 0.034). Conclusions: Older people with depression subcase could have increased all-cause mortality to a similar extent to those with depression case. More attention should be paid to subcases of depression in women to tackle gender inequalities and improve survival.
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Impact of air pollution exposure on the risk of Alzheimer's disease in China: A community-based cohort studyAlzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. Impact of air pollution (AP) on the risk of AD is unclear. It is unknown which air pollutants are independently associated with AD and whether fish consumption mitigated the association. We carried out a community-based cohort of 6115 participants aged ≥60 years in China to examine the association of PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, SO2 and O3 exposure with AD, and differences in the association between people with low and high consumption of fish. The participants were randomly recruited from six counties in Zhejiang province for health survey to document socio-demographic and disease risk factors in 2014, and were followed up to diagnose AD in 2019. A total of 986 cohort members were diagnosed with AD. Based on the daily mean air pollutants monitored in 2013–2015 in the counties, participants were divided into low, middle and high AP exposure groups for subsequent analysis. The multiple adjusted odds ratio (OR) of AD in participants living with the middle and high levels of PM2.5 exposure versus the low exposure were 1.50 (95% CI 0.90–2.50) and 3.92 (2.09–7.37). The increased ORs were also with PM10 (1.74, 0.65–4.64; 3.00, 1.22–7.41) and CO (2.86, 1.32–6.20; 1.19, 0.45–3.18), but not with NO2 (0.63, 0.17–2.27; 0.95, 0.28–3.19), SO2 (0.44, 0.19–1.001; 1.21, 0.56–2.62), and O3 (0.38, 0.20–0.74; 0.50, 0.21–1.21). There were no significant interaction effects of AP with fish consumption on AD. However, participants with low consumption of fish appeared to have higher ORs in PM2.5 exposure (1.80, 1.39–2.33; 5.18, 3.93–6.82) than those high consumption (1.38, 0.78–2.47; 2.89, 1.50–5.59). Our findings of PM2.5, PM10 and CO exposure significantly increased the risk of AD and the potential mitigating effect of fish consumption on the association provide evidence for developing effective strategies for AD reduction and air pollution control.
