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[Letter] Leading order effective operators in quantum gravity
No full textWe explore the nature of higher dimensional operators generated by quantum gravity. Calculating the tree-level and one-loop effective operators generated by graviton exchange between fields of the standard model and those of a hidden sector, we show that the leading order operators generated by quantum gravity are non-local dimension 6 operators. Dimension 5 operators are not generated by perturbative (weak field) effects, although they might be generated by strong field effects such as Planck-scale fluctuations in spacetime. We investigate the consequences of our findings for models of ultralight scalar dark matter.</p
Measuring depression and anxiety with 4 items? Adaptation of the PHQ-4 to increase its sensitivity to subclinical variability
No full textThe PHQ-4 is an ultra-brief (4 items) screening questionnaire for depression and anxiety. In this brief report, we test the benefits of adding one additional response option (“Once or twice”, in between “Not at all” and “Several days”) to improve the scale’s sensitivity to milder alterations, and thus increase its usefulness in subclinical populations. A first pilot study (N=485) showed a prevalent usage of the new response option by participants. Its utility was confirmed in a follow-up validation study (N=836), where we that the refined version offers an improved sensitivity to subclinical variability in depression (indexed by the BDI-II) as compared to the original version. In conclusion, adding the “once or twice” response option is a low-cost way of increasing the PHQ-4’s sensitivity to subclinical variability, making it a tool of choice for general population research.</p
Elucidating white matter contributions to the cognitive architecture of affective prosody recognition: evidence from right hemisphere stroke
No full textBackground/Objectives: Successful discourse relies not only on linguistic but also on prosodic information. Difficulty recognizing emotion conveyed through prosody (receptive affective aprosodia) following right hemisphere stroke (RHS) significantly disrupts communication participation and personal relationships. Growing evidence suggests that damage to white matter in addition to gray matter structures impairs affective prosody recognition. The current study investigates lesion–symptom associations in receptive affective aprosodia during RHS recovery by assessing whether disruptions in distinct white matter structures impact different underlying affective prosody recognition skills. Methods: Twenty-eight adults with RHS underwent neuroimaging and behavioral testing at acute, subacute, and chronic timepoints. Fifty-seven healthy matched controls completed the same behavioral testing, which comprised tasks targeting affective prosody recognition and underlying perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic skills. Linear mixed-effects models and multivariable linear regression were used to assess behavioral performance recovery and lesion–symptom associations. Results: Controls outperformed RHS participants on behavioral tasks earlier in recovery, and RHS participants’ affective prosody recognition significantly improved from acute to chronic testing. Affective prosody and emotional facial expression recognition were affected by external capsule and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus lesions while sagittal stratum lesions impacted prosodic feature recognition. Accessing semantic representations of emotions implicated the superior longitudinal fasciculus. Conclusions: These findings replicate previously observed associations between right white matter tracts and affective prosody recognition and further identify lesion–symptom associations of underlying prosodic recognition skills throughout recovery. Investigation into prosody’s behavioral components and how they are affected by injury can help further intervention development and planning.</p
Levelling the playing field? How social class and internships influence perceived employability amongst UK university students
No full textDebates about the value of higher education are more vivid than ever. Policymakers and employers increasingly demand that universities produce graduates who can make an immediate contribution in the workplace. However, such discussions overlook significant inequalities in participation, particularly those rooted in socioeconomic disparities. In this research, we explored how students’ social class backgrounds and their participation in internships and work placements shape their perceptions of employability. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theoretical framework of capital, a survey of university students in the United Kingdom revealed that students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds exhibited greater perceived employability due to their greater access to social capital. Additionally, participation in internships and work placements was positively associated with students’ perceptions of employability by increasing their social capital. Importantly, this relationship held true for students from all social class backgrounds. These findings point to internships and work placements as valuable mechanisms for universities to enhance students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds perceived employability while promoting greater equity in outcomes. We discuss practical strategies for Higher Education institutions to implement these findings and emphasise the need for policymakers to address broader structural inequalities to diversify access to internships and professional networks, particularly for underrepresented groups.</p
Rainbows in my ears - Synesthetic color perception with partial-reduced and morphed musical instrument timbres
No full textBackground: Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which sensory inputs automatically elicit consistent additional sensations. Sound-color synesthesia, one of the most widely recognized forms, involves experiencing colors and shapes in response to auditory stimuli. Within this, timbre-color synesthesia, reported in 26% of music-color synesthetes, has rarely been studied in depth, particularly regarding how specific timbre manipulations influence color perception. Methods: This study investigated whether changes in timbre-induced color perception occur continuously or abruptly as sound parameters are altered, and whether generalizable patterns can be identified. For the first time, ΔE color similarity calculations were applied to objectively assess participants' timbre-color synesthesia. Participants listened to loudness-matched single tones (flute, oboe, French horn, violin, and piano) from the Vienna Symphonic Library, presented both in their original form and with manipulated timbres. Manipulations included partial reduction (removing partials from the first to the tenth) and morphing between instrument pairs across seven stages (from 100:0% to 0:100%). After each sound, participants described their color perception using a color selection field, generating RGB and HSL values of the chosen colors. Results: Findings revealed correlations between the individual color perceptions. Increasing partial reduction was associated with decreased saturation and increased lightness, particularly for flute, oboe, violin, and piano. Using audio features such as spectral centroid, harmonicity strength, and percussive loudness, generalizable rules for the perception of timbre-induced colors in timbre-color synesthetes could be observed. For morphed sounds, perceived colors shifted progressively from those associated with the initial instrument toward those associated with the target instrument across the morphing stages. Here, too, spectral centroid, harmonicity strength, and percussive loudness showed strong overall correlations between instrumental sounds and the colors they induce. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that manipulating musical instrument timbre through partial reduction and morphing induce clear but individual patterns of color perception in timbre-color synesthetes, which differ significantly from the responses of non-synesthetes.</p
Adapting to extremes, managing the shallow - pathways to climate-resilient water supplies in tropical drylands
No full textTropical drylands are home to some of the world’s poorest and most marginalized communities. Progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including SDG6 (Ensure access to water and sanitation for all) in these environments is vital yet also challenging in the context of increasing freshwater demand. Groundwater plays a central role in sustaining water supplies and livelihoods that include smallholder irrigation due to its resilience to seasonal and inter-annual climate variability; groundwater is often the only perennial source of freshwater in drylands. As our planet warms, rising evapotranspiration, the amplification of rainfall extremes, and the heightened unpredictability in the timing of rainfall, magnify the importance of groundwater’s climate-resilient properties yet also expose its vulnerability to contamination. Drawing upon transdisciplinary research under the CLARITY consortium addressing acute and complex water-supply challenges in peninsular India, the central Sahel of Niger and Nigeria, and central Tanzania, we identify emerging lessons to support pathways towards more sustainable and climate-resilient water supplies in tropical drylands. Adapting to Extremes reflects evidence from CLARITY observatories and beyond that shows how episodically heavy, extreme rainfall is associated with major groundwater recharge events and can create opportunities for freshwater capture from enhanced surface runoff. Managing the Shallow was inspired by the scale of groundwater depletion observed most pronouncedly in weathered hard rock aquifer systems of peninsular India, whereby small-scale irrigators of paddy rice drill progressively deeper wells (i.e. 300 to 500 m) to tap increasingly precarious and dwindling groundwater storage. This ‘race to the bottom’ undermines the equity and sustainability of groundwater withdrawals. More sustainable and equitable groundwater use in tropical drylands needs to consider both demand-side and supply-side interventions and be reconciled to water budgets generated from increasingly variable monsoonal surpluses over decadal scales rather than deplete speculative and highly uncertain deep groundwater storage.</p
Manifestations of (Mis)Recognition Amongst Germany-based Refugee Women from Ukraine
No full textThis research focuses on 10 case studies drawn from a corpus of 50 interviews with displaced Ukrainian women based in Berlin and Frankfurt/Oder and considers the extent to which Ukrainian refugee women arriving in Germany over the last two years might have experienced misrecognition within their everyday experiences. Following Honneth’s (1996) understanding of recognition in terms of self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem, manifestations of recognition and misrecognition are centered around our Ukrainian interlocutors’ communicated experiences. Recognition or the lack thereof impacts our interlocutors’ sense of self and belonging in their new environments. According to our analysis, recognition manifested as ambivalent inclusion through recognition via [potential] employers, government officials or within interlocutors’ personal lives; it was equally highly contingent on interlocutors’ self-identification–personally (e.g. by their region of origin) or professionally (e.g. as activists, [prospective] employees), with obvious material (e.g. economic) and symbolic (communicative) components.</p
Meat, The Future: The Role Of Regulators In The Lab-Grown Revolution
No full textThe United States is one of the largest consumers of meat globally. The production of meat contributes substantially to climate change due to the levels of greenhouse gasses emitted and the amount of land, water, feed, and other natural resources required to raise animals used for meat. Traditional meat production is another major source for the emergence of zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Nevertheless, Americans consume more meat now than at any time in the nation’s history.
Advocates for policy change aimed at addressing the risks associated with meat production have typically focused on reducing meat consumption, alternatives to meat, or improving the standards of traditional meat production. These are laudable goals, but an emerging technology now promises meat production that may avoid these risks entirely. Enter “lab-grown meat”; meat cultivated in an efficient and controlled laboratory environment without the need for fields, feed, or even animals.
The technology has been in development for over 100 years but has seen exponential growth in the past 5 years. What was previously considered a science fiction fantasy became a reality in the US in 2023 when UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat receivedSuggeste
