‘It’s all in your head’: the experiences of patients with functional neurological disorder
Danielle Varley

Summary

Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a condition where a person experiences unexplained neurological symptoms (such as seizures, difficulty swallowing, or tremors) that are not thought to be caused by a neurological or medical condition. Although we have been aware of FND for over two thousand years, and it is the second most common disorder seen in neurology clinics, FND is still relatively unknown to both the public and to healthcare workers.

As the symptoms of FND are so diverse, healthcare workers may struggle in diagnosing the condition. Diagnosing and treating FND patients can be especially difficult as there are currently no UK clinical guidelines to guide healthcare workers on the clinical management of FND. My PhD research aims to understand how FND is being diagnosed and treated in the NHS and explore the lived experiences of patients undergoing these diagnostic and treatment processes in the UK.

About Danielle

Danielle is a final-year PhD student based in the Department of Health Sciences. Danielle holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Health Psychology.

Previously, she worked as a clinical researcher in the NHS and in academia for 10 years, researching a wide range of mental and physical health conditions affecting people of all ages. Danielle’s PhD aims to investigate how functional neurological disorder (FND) is diagnosed and treated in the NHS and understand patient experiences.

DNA: Storing data for GENErations
Francisca D'Rozario

Summary

In today’s world, there is a never-ending need to store digital photos, documents, videos etc in devices such as smartphones, laptops, CDs, hard drives and the “cloud”. Data centres around the world consume a vast amount of electricity and their growth will be unsustainable beyond the next decade. Therefore, it is vital to switch to stable and environment-friendly data storage methods.

DNA, prepared in a laboratory, can solve these issues. DNA can store dense amounts of data, lasting up to 1,000 years and reduce the energy consumption by 1,000 times compared to present data centres. My research focuses on DNA structures called DNA switches, which can switch between two different structural forms when subjected to acids and bases, making one form data-readable and the other not. DNA switches, integrated into electronics, have the potential to serve as dense and durable data storage devices, saving energy and sparing the planet’s health!

About Francisca

Francisca is a second-year PhD student in the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology. Her research involves studying DNA bound to gold surfaces with potential applications in Electronics and Information Technology. Besides her research, Fran loves to dance, play korfball and go bouldering with her friends.

The 'Routine Data' Jigsaw: Completing the picture to improve health
Hollie Henderson

Summary

Routine data represents the information that is collected about us when we interact with public services, such as health, education and social care. The Born and Bred in (BaBi) network is a collection of studies that gain permission from pregnant women, to join together the data that are routinely collected about them and their baby for research. The aim is to build a picture of families' lives and inform local decision-making. The early years of life are a critical phase for child development and have been a key policy focus. However, there is limited evidence of routine data informing decision-making in this area. My research explores whether data from the BaBi studies can be used to inform early-years decisions. If we can understand the challenges of using routine data for decision-making, we can work to overcome these, to allow for better informed decisions around early life health.

About Hollie

Hollie is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Health Sciences and is funded by the White Rose Consortium. Her research focuses on how pieces of data that are routinely collected by public services can be linked together for research and used to inform decisions around early life health. Hollie is passionate about conducting research that can help reduce health inequalities and improve the lives of people on low incomes. 

Preventing Mental Ill-health in Refugee Girls through Social-Emotional Skills Education
Jessie shepherd

Summary

Approximately 1 in 6 UK school children are diagnosed with a mental health issue, a sharp rise from 5 years ago. Social and emotional skills education is one way to combat this crisis; with research suggesting social and emotional skills are tied to academic achievement, increased well-being, and decreased risk of mental ill-health. All primary schools in the UK teach social and emotional skills, but the effectiveness varies especially for some students, like refugee girls (who are five times as likely to develop a mental health disorder).

My research looks at teaching practices of social and emotional skills for refugee girls. By targeting one high-need group, my research hopes to understand how schools can adapt social and emotional skills education to support all high-need students. Ultimately this could improve social and emotional skills education and decrease mental ill-health for all students.

About Jessie

Jessie Shepherd is a licensed therapist from the USA and a PhD student in Psychology in Education. Jessie’s research focuses on issues of equity that impact well-being of high-risk groups and how to decrease mental ill-health. Her PhD research is on teaching practices influencing refugee and migrant girls' social and emotional skills education.

Thinking Differently: Autism in the Stone Age and evolution
Katharine Macy

Summary

Autism is a neurotype that is often seen as a disability. Japanese macaques and chimpanzees have genes and behaviours indicating autism, implying that autism has been around for thousands of years. Different neurotypes include autistic people and non-autistic, or neurotypical, people and each type has their own thing that they are good at. Along with all our individual differences, autistic people and neurotypical people also have differing behaviours. For example, neurotypical people prefer imitating, where they copy things precisely, and autistic people prefer emulating, which is where you do similar things but change things slightly. Sometimes, imitation is better and other times emulation is better. Having the option of both increases the success of a group, or in this case, humanity. Autistic people have been around for years, and are here to stay.

About Katharine

Katharine is a third-year archaeology PhD student at the University of York, where they also obtained their MA in Early Prehistory and Human Origins. Their research explores autism in the early Stone Age (Palaeolithic) and they use their own experience as an autistic person to make their research community-orientated. Katharine uses psychology and archaeology to bring together an understanding of autism in a new light and is a political activist in their spare time, working on autistic policy and more.

Chemical Contaminants in Botswana’s Fragile Aquatic Systems
Kgato Selwe

Summary

The occurrence of chemical contaminants in the environment is a global concern and it is essential that their levels are monitored closely as many of these compounds, eg pharmaceuticals, are designed to produce effects at very low concentrations. 

Monitoring of chemical pollutants has been possible due to increased capability of analytical instrumentation and methodology. However, one significant challenge in environmental monitoring of chemical contaminants is that investigations are limited to developed countries due to the availability of analytical instrumentation. To address this, we evaluate the presence of chemical pollutants in Botswana’s aquatic systems using state of the art instrumentation and methodologies.

About Kgato

Kgato Selwe is a final-year Chemistry PhD Student. His research investigates the occurrence of contaminants of emerging concern in the very fragile aquatic systems of Botswana with focus on the presence and fate of illicit drugs and anti-retroviral compounds. Kgato is an advocate for equality and diversity in the workplace and continues to dedicate efforts towards decolonisation of the Chemistry curriculum at the University of York.

Walk on the re-wild side: bringing back buffalo to benefit big beautiful birds
Louisa Mamalis

Summary

Human activities have irreversibly changed the world's natural environments putting almost all species at risk of extinction.

The giant ibis is one such threatened bird species, living solely within Cambodia, where there are around 200 individuals. This small population is declining due to hunting and the loss of forest habitat. The giant ibis relies on waterholes, which are also declining due to habitat destruction, climate change and loss of large mammals that historically maintained them. My research aims to explore rewilding techniques to restore waterholes to support the giant ibis and other species that rely on waterholes. We are introducing domestic buffalo to waterholes to try and recreate the natural processes lost through the decline of large mammals such as elephants and wild cattle in Cambodia. We are assessing the effectiveness of the wallowing and grazing actions of buffalo to improve waterhole conditions to support species such as the giant ibis.

About Louisa

Lou is a third-year biology PhD student at the University of York, working within the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity. Lou is interested in landscape level ecology and conservation, with a particular focus on birds. When not chipping away at her PhD she also enjoys bird and plant identification whilst hiking as well as running and swimming.

Providing early years support through volunteers: for whose benefit?
Louise Padgett

Summary

Volunteers play important roles in the delivery of our health services including those that support families in the early years of their infant’s life. These services are important in supporting the healthy development of children and preventing long term negative impacts on their health and prospects. But why should volunteers be considered to deliver these important services rather than paid staff or professionals? 

My research explores the wider consequences of volunteers delivering early years services on the volunteer, organisation and wider community, to determine if having volunteers provide the support can generate wider value. Through exploring the existing literature and interviewing volunteers, managers and funders of early years services, I am exploring how volunteer models can maximise the value of an early years service. The findings of this research are providing knowledge for those designing and funding early years services as to if and why volunteers models should be considered.

About Louise

Louise Padgett is a final-year PhD student in the Department of Health Sciences. Her research interests include the evaluation of public health interventions using qualitative and evidence synthesis research methods. Louise has experiences of working within the voluntary sector to support volunteer-led community health interventions and is now researching the role and impact of volunteers in the delivering of early years services. 

Thin films: tiny materials with tremendous potential
Matthew Hill

Summary

Semiconductors are the building blocks of modern technology. They contribute to almost every digital application you can think of, including laptops and mobile phones, and even social infrastructure such as the internet. As such, they have gone further than any other material in shaping the modern, interconnected world. Many semiconductors exist as thin films, which can be up to 4,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair! It is their conveniently tiny size that allows them to play their role in tackling global problems. One such problem is the ongoing climate crisis. My research involves creating semiconductor thin films for use as catalysts in producing clean, carbon-free hydrogen fuel from just water and sunlight. By developing a deeper understanding of the physics and chemistry behind the process used to create these thin films, we may be one step closer to clean, renewable hydrogen fuel production on a large scale.

About Matthew

Matthew Hill is a third-year PhD researcher in Physics at the University of York, and is based at the York Plasma Institute. His research interests lie in plasma physics, thin films, and plasma-based solutions to renewable energy sources. Outside of his research, he loves hiking, gaming, and playing guitar and saxophone.

Why can I count chairs, tables and sofas, but not furniture?
Victoria Noble

Summary

In English, I can count chairs, tables, and sofas: one chair, two tables, three sofas. However, I cannot count furniture - at least not in the same way that I count chairs: three furnitures? Similar patterns are seen in Welsh, but for nouns that refer to insects or seeds, and in Mandarin Chinese, all nouns are like furniture. Why should languages not let us count certain nouns whose referents are easily countable?

My research aims to figure out the extent to which our languages, a uniquely human trait, are shaped by the structure of the world. In this case, how groups of things (like furniture or insects) may bring a grouphood property from our senses into the structure of some - but not all - languages. After all, we're all interacting with the same world, so why should our languages choose whether or not human experiences are reflected in their structures?

About Victoria

Based in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science, Victoria's research interests are in formal semantics and the syntax-semantics interface, with a particular focus on countability, individuation and plurality across world languages. Keen on outreach, Victoria has led on various public engagement projects including gamifying her research for primary and secondary school children, with the aim of celebrating the rich diversity of world languages in fun and educational ways.