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A flexible framework for structural plasticity in GPU-accelerated sparse spiking neural networks
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Participatory systems mapping: a review of population health research practice
No full textBackground Participatory systems mapping (PSM), a systems thinking method, is increasingly applied in population health research to understand and address complex challenges. Despite its growing use, there remains limited understanding of how various PSM methods are implemented in practice. This systematic scoping review aimed to explore the application of PSM in population health research, identify methodological gaps, and highlight opportunities for advancing methods development and reporting standards, with particular attention to participatory approaches. Methods A systematic search of OVID MEDLINE and Scopus identified peer-reviewed papers published in English between January 2000 and September 2023 that: (1) applied and presented the results of PSM related to population health or health improvement questions; and (2) incorporated a participatory design. Two reviewers screened and assessed papers, extracting data on study characteristics, participatory approaches, map features, and integration of conceptual frameworks and methods not directly related to PSM. Results In the 123 included studies, involving stakeholders in building causal loop diagrams was the most commonly used approach. Variability was evident in geographical focus, study design, application, and reporting. Participant involvement was mostly limited to map-building, with less engagement in map validation. Significant gaps in reporting study samples and procedures were identified. A small number of studies involved end users or people with lived experiences in mapping processes. Only a few studies evaluated stakeholders’ experience with participatory processes. Lessons learnt on participatory processes include: PSM in population health benefits from cross-disciplinary, inclusive collaboration and capacity-building efforts that support meaningful involvement, shared ownership, and trust among diverse stakeholders. Adaptability in the design of PSM approaches, continuous reflection, and long-term partnerships are essential to maintaining relevance, enhancing impact, and fostering systemic change over time. Conclusions To advance participatory systems mapping in population health, there is a need for methodological innovation, stronger stakeholder engagement and more transparent, reflexive reporting practices. Building capacity through training, practical guidance, and cross-disciplinary communities of practice will also be essential to support rigorous and inclusive application of these methods.</p
Sustainability transition requires a nature-focused response to financial stress
No full textFinancial stress has marked implications on our transition to social and economic sustainability but its relationship with environmental sustainability is poorly understood. Here we discuss how financial stress impacts environmental sustainability, namely deforestation, air pollution and biodiversity, from local to global scales. Periods of financial crises can have both positive and negative environmental effects, but any beneficial effects that arise are short lived and disappear once economic growth returns. Even for a longer period of slower economic growth, environmental sustainability is not ensured. On this basis we argue for a new sustainability transition paradigm which moves away from current crisis management strategies towards ones that fully-integrate environmental sustainability and nature protection, into post-crisis support programmes.</p
Sabotaging hunting, prefiguring anti-speciesist futures
No full textNonhuman animals are regularly killed for pleasure / ‘bloodsport’ in England, both legally and illegally. This illustrates the deeply entrenched political acceptability of harming nonhuman animals for human enjoyment. Those who seek to destroy the physical infrastructures that uphold this harm, sabotaging the enactment of the killing are often physically assaulted by hunters and police officers, and frequently also face prosecution and criminalisation for their actions. Hunting and trapping themselves are hugely destructive and deadly enactments of the (classed, racialised and gendered) human supremacy that underpins the contemporary ecological social order. Against this backdrop and drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with eight hunt saboteurs/animal liberationists, we illustrate the productive potential of sabotage to enact different human-nonhuman and human relationships, to empower people to stand up to injustice and confront harm and configure futures of autonomy and direct action. We argue that sabotage acts as an embodied, affective politics of refusal and connection-building, that helps dismantle infrastructures of human supremacy in both material and psychological ways. In doing so sabotage prefigures anti-speciesist relations in the present. We therefore advocate for understanding sabotage as a legitimate political expression of revolutionary joy, closely connected to strategies of future-making.</p
Storing quantum coherence in a quantum dot nuclear spin ensemble for over 100 milliseconds
No full textStates with long coherence are a crucial requirement for qubits and quantum memories. Nuclear spins in epitaxial GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots are a great candidate, offering excellent isolation from external environments and on-demand coupling to optical flying qubits. However, coherence times are limited to ≲ 1 ms by the dipole-dipole interactions between the nuclei and by the nuclear quadrupolar coupling to inhomogeneous crystal strain. Here, we combine strain engineering of the nuclear spin ensemble and tailored dynamical decoupling sequences to achieve nuclear spin coherence times exceeding 100 ms. Recently, a reversible transfer of quantum information into nuclear spin ensembles has been demonstrated in quantum dots: our results provide a path to develop this concept into a functioning solid-state quantum memory suitable for quantum repeaters in optical quantum communication networks.</p
Evaluation Plan - Online Global Summer Internships Intervention
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