University Of Leeds Research Articles

Introduction to the BASAS 2023 special section

ABSTRACT This special section of Contemporary South Asia brings together a curated selection of papers presented at the 2023 British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) Annual Conference, held at the University of Leeds. These papers explore enduring themes of memory politics, state power, and socio-spatial exclusion in South Asia, examining how colonial legacies shape contemporary dynamics. Collectively, the studies underscore the persistence of colonial pasts in modern India’s socio-political landscape and illuminate the creative strategies of resistance employed by marginalized groups. This section contributes to critical discussions on South Asia's politics of memory, space, and resistance, offering fresh insights into the ways power is exercised and contested.

‘Remember, remember the month of November’: Ahead of COP29

‘Remember, remember the month of November’: Ahead of COP29 Professor of International Relations at the University of Leeds, Richard Beardsworth, looks with concern to this November’s COP29 and the US elections. The issue is climate leadership. The next UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, COP29, begins in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 11th, six days after the U.S. general election. The conjuncture of these two dates is of critical importance for the future of climate action and the future of climate leadership driving it. This article rehearses what is at stake ahead of COP29 and where climate leadership stands in relation to it. Whatever the final plot, November is a month to be remembered.

Ready for school?

Dr Megan L. Wood of Leeds University shares more about research that has identified links between school readiness and later outcomes

FP5.5 - Simulated Abdominal Wall - a valuable educational tool for Abdominal Wall Reconstruction and Small Bite closure techniques.

Abstract Background Incisional hernia is a common complication following laparotomy (31.8% at 2 years, HART collaborative, 2022) and this may require complicated reconstructive techniques. Studies suggest that poor closure technique contributes to incisional hernia formation. Junior trainees are often left to close the abdominal wall. European and American guidelines have suggested closing the abdomen with the "small bites technique". Simulated training has gained traction. Reduction in theatre training hours necessitates simulated training. This study aims to:generate a synthetic model that anatomically represents the layers of the abdominal wall.use this model as a simulated training tool for general surgical and plastic surgical trainees who are often left to close the abdominal wall in laparotomy cases / abdominal wall reconstruction.use this model to teach reconstructive abdominal wall repair techniques. Methods 2021: literature search and research. Theatre observation of complex abdominal wall procedures and techniques. Cadaveric lab attendance at Leeds University. 2022: prototype - first model produced from medial grade silicone. 2022: amendments - alterations to the prototype. 2023: accreditation and delivery - Small Bites Course delivered and accredited by RCS Edinburgh. Results 86% of course attendees found the abdominal wall models "as realistic as possible". Attendees felt more confident to perform small bites closure and simple abdominal wall reconstruction. Total cost saving per model compared with competitors = £1109.50. Conclusions Our simulated abdominal wall model has proved to be realistic and cost effective. It is an ethical and improved way to train junior surgeons in the small-bites technique and some elements of abdominal wall reconstruction. These models have been implemented on training courses for surgical trainees within the deanery.

Authorship attribution, idiolectal style, and online identity

Assistant ProfessorDepartment of English LanguageCollege of Language SciencesKing Saud UniversityRiyadh 11495 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Awarding Institution: University of Leeds, UKDate of Award: 14 October 2022

Randomised controlled trial of a psychotherapeutic intervention to improve quality of life and other outcomes in people who repeatedly self-harm: FReSH START study protocol

BackgroundSelf-harm is a major public health challenge, and repeated self-harm is common in those attending hospital following an episode. Evidence suggests psychological interventions could help people who self-harm, but few definitive studies have assessed their clinical and cost-effectiveness. Repeated self-harm is associated with poor quality of life, depression, suicide and increased health service costs which justify the development of psychotherapeutic interventions tailored for people with repeated self-harm.MethodsFReSH START is a multicentre individually 1:1 randomised controlled trial evaluating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of standard care plus psychological therapy or standard care alone for adults (≥ 18 years) presenting at an emergency department (ED) with repeated self-harm. Recruiting 630 participants, it includes an internal pilot, economic evaluation and process evaluation. The intervention will be delivered by mental health staff working in acute settings, with experience of assessing and managing risk in people presenting to emergency services with self-harm. Staff will be trained and supervised to deliver one of three specially adapted therapies: psychodynamic interpersonal therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy. Participants allocated to the intervention will receive one of the adapted therapies according to therapist allocation for up to 6 months via 12 weekly, one to one, 45–50-min sessions. The primary outcome is quality of life measured by the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure at 12 months post-randomisation. Secondary outcomes include suicidal intent, depression and cost-effectiveness. Data are collected using hospital attendance records and online/postal/telephone questionnaires at 6 and 12 months post-randomisation, with resource use additionally collected at 3 and 9 months.DiscussionThis protocol outlines a randomised controlled trial to investigate whether modified therapies are cost-effective and improve quality of life for people who repeatedly self-harm. Few interventions are proven to be deliverable in the NHS for this population. This study is strengthened by the involvement of qualified mental health workers experienced in managing risk as therapists.Trial registrationRegistered on August 03, 2021.IRAS number: 297939.ISRCTN: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN73357210.REC reference: 21/EE/0145.Sponsor: University of Leeds.

Towards effective teaching assistants: From intent-based chatbots to LLM-powered teaching assistants

As chatbot technology undergoes a transformative phase in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), the integration of advanced AI models emerges as a focal point for reshaping conversational agents within the education sector. This paper explores the evolution of educational chatbot development, specifically focusing on building a teaching assistant for Data Mining and Text Analytics courses at the University of Leeds. The primary objective is to investigate and compare traditional intent-based chatbot approaches with the advanced retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) method, aiming to improve the efficiency and adaptability of teaching assistants in higher education. The study begins with the development of an Amazon Alexa teaching skill, assessing the efficacy of traditional chatbot development in higher education. To enrich the chatbot knowledge base, the research then employs an automated question–answer generation (QAG) approach using the QG Lumos Learning tool to extract contextually grounded question–answer datasets from course materials. Subsequently, the RAG-based system is proposed, leveraging LangChain with the OpenAI GPT-3.5 Turbo model. Findings highlight limitations in intent-based approaches, emphasising the need for more adaptive solutions. The proposed RAG-based teaching assistant demonstrates significant improvements in efficiently handling diverse queries, representing a paradigm shift in educational chatbot capabilities. These findings provide an in-depth understanding of the development phase, specifically illustrating the impact on chatbot performance by contrasting traditional methods with large language model-based approaches. The study contributes valuable perspectives on enhancing adaptability and effectiveness in AI-powered educational tools, providing essential considerations for future developments in the field.

Identifying Metrics for Measuring Research Culture at the University of Leeds

Identifying Metrics for Measuring Research Culture at the University of Leeds

CrimRxiv Consortium joined by University of Leeds, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies

CrimRxiv Consortium joined by University of Leeds, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies

‘ORIGEM’: Queering Indigeneity through Participatory (Audio)visual Methods in Northeastern Brazil

‘ORIGEM’ (2020) was a queer kind of research project from its inception. Its original funding was for research impact, yet no formal research project came before it. Instead, academics based at the University of Leeds (Paulo Pepe and Thea Pitman) used a modest pot of impact funding to support the work of two emerging artists (Laryssa Machada and Antônio Vital Neto Pankararu) with personal contacts in Queer Indigenous circles in Northeastern Brazil who set out to creatively honour and reflect on their relationships within those communities through digital photographic portraits and short video interviews. The UK-based researchers remained in the UK throughout the process, leaving the artists free to travel between the communities involved (the Pankararu community at Brejo dos Padres in southern Pernambuco, and the Tupinambá community at Olivença de Ilhéus in Southern Bahia) and explore the topic as they saw fit. Since then, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the results were circulated online via a website and promoted on social media, and, with the post-pandemic return to offline encounters, they were also exhibited at the Bolivia International Digital Art Fair in Cochabamba in September 2022. The present article seeks to showcase the project and the work that came out of it, interpreting it as a form of decolonial research using participatory, creative methodologies (arts-based Participatory Action Research), and to explore the perspectives of a cross-section of those involved in the project – the artists, their friends and relatives who agreed to be interviewed and photographed (including most notably Fykyá and Bia Pankararu) and the academics too – as they engaged in the original project and its subsequent exhibitions. In so doing, it seeks to reveal the deep learning to be derived from the project without shying away from any tensions that this form of working can engender.

The Semiotics of Solidarity: Reinterpreting Artefacts of Latin American Resistance in Contemporary Leeds

This paper examines reinterpretations of solidarity with Latin America through a student-led project at the University of Leeds. The project, ‘Thinking Inside the Box: 1973’ (hereafter, TITB), was a collaboration between the University of London – specifically, King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, and the London School of Economics – and the Universities of Leeds and Liverpool in 2023. The broader framework of TITB seeks to generate liberatory and transformative learning by approaching the educative process with students as co-creators and co-curators of knowledge. The approach draws from decolonial theory by seeking to challenge the hierarchical practices of mainstream education in which the teacher imposes knowledge on the student. In dialogue with Freirian concepts of collective interpretation and ‘conscientisation’ (Freire, 1968), scholars and students involved in the project used archives to run a series of events and public engagements. It connects students to each other and to a range of archival materials, broadly themed around 20th century Latin America, to inspire them in designing, developing and delivering an output of significant impact by engaging with local communities; in this case, the Chilean diaspora of the dictatorship. The project promotes the co-curation of knowledge, teaching and learning, and supports students to practice autonomy in their journeys of content and skills acquisition (Grimaldi, Carvalho and Natale, 2022; Grimaldi and Rofe, 2023).

¿Why Leeds?

The following piece was written by Elisa Martinez Relano in 2023. Inspired by a student-led project exploring past and present solidarities with Latin America, Elisa, now completing an MA in the History of Art and Social History at the University of Leeds, wrote the following text. Her reflection on archival research around Chilean exile in the 1970s takes place in 2023, fifty years after the infamous coup, and is guided by a simple question: how and why would Leeds engage in solidarity activism with a place as seemingly distant as Chile?

Communicating educational innovation projects in Latin America mediated by the scaling of complex thinking: Contribution of the UNESCO-ICDE Chair in Mexico

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair in the open educational movement for Latin America aims to promote scientific, technological, entrepreneurial, and innovative development. In Mexico, face-to-face bootcamps occur every two years, where prototypes of high-value solutions for education are developed using design and active learning methodologies, with the aim of scaling complex thinking and sustainable development. In the 2023 edition, 94 academicians from 12 countries participated (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Spain, the Dominican Republic, and the United Kingdom). Experts from Tecnológico de Monterrey, the Open University, the University of Leeds, and Siemens Stiftung supervised the process. This article presents the prototyped proposals and the results of applying the Play2Train4C methodology, enabling participants to develop educational innovation projects under the paradigm of complex thinking. The results indicate that (1) the participants managed to prototype ten proposals validated by experts and (2) their perceptions of their systemic, critical, scientific, and innovative thinking (sub-competencies of complex thinking) improved by the end of the bootcamp. The conclusion was that the UNESCO Chair boosted solution-building skills for the complex problems arising in Latin America and enabled key agents in education to improve their complex thinking skills for quality education, as promulgated by sustainable development goal 4.

Developing a predictive model for low-temperature Laval nozzles with applications in chemical kinetics

Laval nozzles are used in the CRESU (“Cinétique de Réaction en Écoulement Supersonique Uniforme”) method to generate a collimated low temperature (5–200 K), low pressure (30–500 Pa), high Mach number (1 < M < 20) supersonic jet. Laval nozzles have been designed using the Method of Characteristics (MOC) since the development of CRESU, which is an analytical method that assumes inviscid, isentropic flow, and is routinely used to design nozzle profiles for a particular gas and temperature with a uniform shock free exit. This study aims to provide a robust computational framework to overcome the limitations of the MOC while also providing recommendations on the numerical model setup required to model a low-temperature supersonic jet. It also discusses the blockage effects when using the Pitot tube method for flow characterization, the influence of inlet turbulence and reservoir size. Numerical results are validated using two different experimental apparatuses from research groups at the University of Leeds and the University of Birmingham. Finally, a MATLAB framework was developed and has been provided as an open source toolbox to allow any user to perform computational fluid dynamics on any Laval nozzle, with the ability to change nozzle geometry, operating conditions and bath gas. The toolbox has been rigorously tested against many benchmark cases, which shows that steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes with the k-omega-shear stress transport turbulence model can be used to accurately predict global quantities, such as average temperature in the stable region of the supersonic jet.

Aftermath: Radical Doubt; Radical Hope

Preti Taneja taught creative writing as part of Learning Together, Cambridge University’s prison education programme which took students into high-security prison to learn alongside incarcerated men. One of her first prison students was Usman Khan. Released on licence two years later, he went on to perpetrate the 2019 London Bridge terror attack in which Taneja’s Learning Together colleague Jack Merritt, and Saskia Jones were killed. Aftermath is Taneja’s 2021 award-winning work of abolitionist, lyric non-fiction about the attack: a searching lament on institutional violence and structural harm, Islamophobia, trauma and terror, prison and grief. This article presents two extracts from parts one and three of the book, Radical Doubt and Radical Hope, which were included in Taneja’s 2022 British Academy Lecture at the University of Leeds.

P182 Exercise and activity in polymyalgia rheumatica: co-creating an education resource acceptable to patients and health professionals

Abstract Background/Aims People with PMR report experiencing pain, stiffness and weakness, often impacting everyday tasks. Many fear exercise will exacerbate symptoms and need reassurance that exercise is helpful and not harmful. However, no PMR-specific, exercise educational resource currently exists. The aim of this funded study was to co-create an exercise educational resource for, and with, people with PMR that would be acceptable to both patients and health professionals. Methods A steering group of people with PMR and UK clinicians/academics from Keele and Leeds universities was identified. People with PMR and clinical/academic health professionals with specific interest in PMR were invited to participate in a one-hour online focus group (FG), recruited via social media, the PMRGCAuk charity and professional networks. Ethical approval was obtained. Separate FGs (four with patient participants and two with multi-disciplinary health professionals), held during the summer of 2023, were facilitated by steering group members over two rounds. Exemplars of non-PMR health education literature were shared with participants in round 1 to prompt discussion and invite participant opinions about what might be essential exercise content and the optimal format of the new PMR educational resource. Summaries of proposed content and resource format suggestions were collated after each FG and informed the next iteration of the exercise and physical activity educational resource. In the final round 3 a prototype version of the educational booklet was shared with all FG participants via email. All participants were invited to provide final feedback and comments, after which the booklet was finalised. Results Participants desired a visually appealing pocket-size (A5), multiple-page, patient education booklet suitable for either printing or reading online. Colour-themed text and images with logos of PMRGCAuk and contributing universities were requested. Positive messaging promoting movement and physical activity, as well as exercise, were considered important. Feedback following draft booklet iterations concluded “a self-help guide” title was valuable, as were starter and progression instructions to accompany exercise illustrations. Participants desired explanation of prioritised “top tips”, including keeping moving, listening to your body, balancing rest and activity, and the physical and mental health benefits of exercising. Patient quotations were included with permissions together with signposting to other resources. Conclusion An exercise-focused education booklet, acceptable to both people with PMR and UK expert health professionals, has been co-created and professionally designed. Future research plans include piloting the feasibility of using this resource to support people living with PMR to engage and continue with exercise, and to evaluate the impact of people with PMR exercising. Disclosure A.V. O’Brien: Grants/research support; This project was funded by Polymyalgia Rheumatica, Giant Cell Arteritis UK charity - PMRGCAuk. S. Eng: None. S.L. Mackie: Consultancies; Roche/Chugai, Sanofi, AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Pfizer. Grants/research support; chief investigator on STERLING-PMR trial, funded by NIHR; patron of the charity PMRGCAuk. NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre. Investigator on clinical trials for Sanofi, GSK, Sparrow. N. Scrafton: None. S. Hider: None. A. Tan: None. C. McClean: None. J. Barber: None. J. Gundle: None. M. Lonsdale: None. M. Baxter: None.

Jonathan Hutchinson – A multispecialist of medicine

Sir Jonathan Hutchinson was a renowned dermatologist, surgeon, syphilologist, neurologist, and medical educator. Although his fields of interest were medicine, surgery, and ophthalmology, he contributed tremendously in the field of dermatology. He had made many original observations and published articles; many of the signs and diseases are named after him. A few to name are Hutchinson teeth, triad, nail sign, facies. Along with being a prolific author, he was a collector and teacher of many subjects. He had a feather on cap of publishing more than 600 articles and case reports in dermatology. He wrote the 10 volumes of Archives of Surgery, a remarkable singlehanded labor. He had earned honorary degrees from Universities of Glasgow, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, Dublin, and Leeds. He was knighted in 1908.

How can we support research participants who stop taking part? Communications guidance developed through public-researcher collaboration.

Research study participants can stop taking part early, in various circumstances. Sometimes this experience can be stressful. Providing participants with the information they want or need when they stop could improve participants' experiences, and may benefit individual studies' objectives and research in general. A group of public contributors and researchers at the Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Leeds, aimed to develop a communication template and researcher guidance. This would address how to provide information sensitively around the time when participants stop or significantly reduce their level of participation. The project lead used scoping review methods to identify relevant prior evidence and derive a list of potential information topics to communicate to participants who stop taking part. The topic list was reviewed by research professionals and public contributors before finalisation. Further public contributors were identified from a range of networks. The contributors formed a 'development group', to work on the detail of the planned resources, and a larger 'review group' to review the draft output before finalisation. The involvement was planned so that the development group could shape the direction and pace of the work. The literature review identified 413 relevant reports, resulting in 94 information topics. The review suggested that this issue has not been well explored previously. Some evidence suggested early-stopping participants are sometimes excluded from important communications (such as study results) without clear justification. The development group agreed early to focus on guidance with reusable examples rather than a template. We took time to explore different perspectives and made decisions by informal consensus. Review group feedback was broadly positive but highlighted the need to improve resource navigability, leading to its final online form. We co-developed a resource to provide support to research participants who stop taking part. A strength of this work is that several of the public contributors have direct lived experience of stopping research participation. We encourage others to review the resource and consider how they support these participants in their studies. Our work highlights the value of researchers and participants working together, including on complex and ethically challenging topics.

To live and die in an age of extinction: a conversation with Juno Salazar Parreñas

ABSTRACT This article is a conversation between Marie-Thérèse Talensby, a doctoral student with the Extinction Studies doctoral training programme at the University of Leeds, and Dr Juno Salazar Parreñas, Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Cornell University. Talking over Skype in July 2023, Dr Parreñas reflects on her current research, exploring the death of a tropical polar bear in Singapore Zoo, her work on Orangutan conservation, and the violence inherent in many methods of animal conservation. In doing so, she highlights the entanglements of human and more-than-human lives in what is being described by scientists and conservation organisations as the sixth mass extinction event. Weaving throughout the conversation are more personal reflections on loss and grief, vicarious trauma, and the transformative potential in moments of decolonisation. This article offers a rich reflection on the experience and impact of researching death and loss, encompassing themes of positionality, boundaries, and the broader socio-cultural context of fieldwork encounters, topics highly relevant to Mortality readers.

Sir Oliver Style, his Verse, and the Smyrna Earthquake of 1688

ABSTRACT Oliver Style, the son of a Kentish baronet, was working in Smyrna, Turkey, when in 1688 the port city was devastated by an earthquake. Thousands were killed. Style survived (though apparently seriously injured), returned to England, and wrote a descriptive, deeply personal ‘Advice to a painter’ poem about the event. Over the years until his death in 1703 he composed more than twenty other poems, which reflect on his life and inevitable death, and, with considerable bitterness, survey the folly, cruelty and suffering of mankind. This body of work, scarcely studied, survives in a single contemporary manuscript held in Leeds University Library. The essay discusses Style’s life and family background, describes the manuscript, appraises the poems in some detail, and places Style’s description of the Smyrna earthquake in the context of contemporary prose accounts. It concludes with an annotated edition of his 139-line earthquake poem.