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George Alfred Walker’s public health campaign for burial reform, 1839–1852
No full textNineteenth-century sanitary and burial reform were motivated by public health concerns and transformed the Victorian landscape with two forms of new infrastructure: sewers and out-of-town cemeteries. However, the history of burial reform ‘always sat awkwardly’ (in the words of Julie Rugg) with that of sanitary reform. In this article, we re-examine the campaigning career of George Alfred Walker (1807–84), a surgeon-apothecary who made public health the core of his argument for burial reform, to demonstrate that burial and sanitary reform were deeply intertwined via sanitary science, politics and science communication. We argue that Walker represented city graveyards as a nuisance similar to poor sewerage, utilising Thomas Southwood Smith’s heterodox fever theory to make his argument amenable to Edwin Chadwick’s goals and solutions: infrastructure ahead of poor relief. Walker’s solutions gave the medical profession positive reasons to support sanitary reform, as they proffered much-needed employment via burial reform. At the same time, his extremely active and varied campaigning throughout the 1840s took inspiration and strategy from the broader sanitation movement. By providing a comprehensive account of his campaigning for the first time, we show that sanitary reform politics was central to changing British burial management as a contested scientific theory was utilised to fit political ends
The logic of stability maintenance in China’s NGO governance:balancing <i>Weiwen </i>through incorporation and suppression
No full textThis paper proposes the concept of Social Unrest Non-Governmental Organizations (SUNGOs) to examine how the CCP governs civil society under the logic of stability maintenance. SUNGOs are defined as organizations perceived by the state as ideologically deviant, politically mobilizing, or structurally autonomous—regardless of legal status. Drawing on ethnographic and interpretivist methods, the paper analyzes five SUNGO types: value-driven, legal aid, cult-affiliated, virtual, and foreign-related NGOs. It argues that the Party-state adopts a dual strategy of selective incorporation and targeted suppression, constituting a form of differentiated authoritarianism. While this approach enhances short-term regime stability, it fragments civil society and constrains civic participation. The SUNGO framework offers a typology for understanding authoritarian NGO governance and contributes to broader debates on authoritarian resilience and state-society relations
East of Eden:parallel functional programming in Idris
No full textImplicit parallel programming models typically give less control to the programmer over the parallelism properties of the program, but require less specialisedexpertise. Explicit parallel models, on the other hand, give much greater control over the parallelism behaviour, but require much more significant expertisefrom the programmer. In this paper, we introduce a novel semi-implicit parallelmodel for an emerging class of languages known as dependently-typed languages.These dependently-typed languages encourage safer software via their ability toexpress strong logical guarantees, in the form of proofs, directly in code. Oursemi-implicit approach is based on a process model that uses dependent typesto guarantee parallelism properties. We demonstrate how we can use this semi-implicit process model to build common algorithmic skeletons, such as farms,pipelines and divide and conquer skeletons. We evaluate our process skeletonapproach on a number of examples, achieving speedups of up to 21.8 times on a28-core machine
Fundamentals of Stereopsis
No full textThe human brain is able to register slight differences in the position of the images of an object on the two retinas and uses this shift to compute precise estimates of relative depth. This binocular cue to depth, called stereopsis, is a fundamental source of information about the volume and separation of objects in our world, and the world’s three dimensional layout. It is used to make very fine depth judgments, as when threading a needle, and helps us navigate rough terrain. This entry summarizes the basic 3D viewing geometry underpinning stereopsis, its upper and lower limits and knowledge of its neural mechanisms
Behavioural interventions to increase uptake of FIT colorectal screening in Scotland (TEMPO):a nationwide, eight-arm, factorial, randomised controlled trial
No full textBackground: Uptake of colorectal cancer screening is suboptimal. The TEMPO trial evaluated the impact of two evidence-based, theory-informed, and co-designed behavioural interventions on uptake of faecal immunochemical test (FIT) colorectal screening.Methods: TEMPO was a 2 × 4 factorial, eight-arm, randomised controlled trial embedded in the nationwide Scottish Bowel Screening Programme. All 40 000 consecutive adults (aged 50-74 years) eligible for colorectal screening were allocated to one of eight groups using block randomisation: (1) standard invitation; (2) 1-week suggested FIT return deadline; (3) 2-week deadline; (4) 4-week deadline; (5) problem-solving planning tool (no deadline); (6) planning tool plus 1-week deadline; (7) planning tool plus 2-week deadline; (8) planning tool plus 4-week deadline. The primary outcome was the proportion of FITs returned correctly completed to be tested by the colorectal screening laboratory providing a positive or negative result, within 3 months of the FIT being mailed to a person. The trial is registered with clinicaltrials.gov, NCT05408169.FINDINGS: From June 19 to July 3, 2022, 5000 participants were randomly assigned per group, with no loss to follow-up. 266 participants met the exclusion criteria; 39 734 (19 909 [50·1%] female and 19 825 [49·9%] male; mean age 61·2 [SD 7·3] years) were included in the analysis. The control group (no deadline, and no planning tool) had a 3-month FIT return rate of 66·0% (3275 of 4965). The highest return rate was seen with a 2-week deadline without the planning tool (3376 [68·0%] of 4964; difference vs control of 2·0% [95% CI 0·2 to 3·9]). The lowest return rate was seen when the planning tool was given without a deadline (3134 [63·2%] of 4958; difference vs control of -2·8% [-4·7 to -0·8]). The primary analysis, assuming independent effects of the two interventions, suggested a clear positive effect of giving a deadline (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1·13 [1·08 to 1·19]; p<0·0001), and no effect for use of a planning tool (aOR 0·98 [0·94 to 1·02]; p=0·34), though this was complicated by an interaction between the two interventions (pinteraction=0·0041); among those who were given a deadline, there was no evidence that receiving a planning tool had any effect (aOR 1·02 [0·97 to 1·07]; p=0·53), but in the absence of a deadline, giving the planning tool appeared detrimental (aOR 0·88 [0·81 to 0·96]; p=0·0030). In the absence of the planning tool, there was little evidence that the use of a deadline had any effect on return rates at 3 months. However, secondary analyses indicated that the use of deadlines boosted earlier return rates (within 1, 2, and 4 weeks, particularly around the time of the deadline), and reduced the need to issue a reminder letter after 6 weeks, with no evidence that the planning tool had any positive impact, and without evidence of interactions between interventions.Interpretation: Adding a single sentence suggesting a deadline for FIT return in the invitation letter to FIT colorectal screening resulted in more timely FIT return and reduced the need to issue reminder letters. This is a highly cost-effective intervention that could be easily implemented in routine practice. A planning tool had no positive effect on FIT return.<p/
Prevalence and patterns of pre-existing multimorbidity in pregnancy in Northern Ireland:a population-based, retrospective study using linked routinely collected healthcare data
No full textBackground: Multimorbidity in pregnancy increases health risks to women and babies, and creates challenges for services. The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence and patterns of maternal multimorbidity in a UK population.Methods: This population-based, retrospective study used individual-level, linked, routinely collected health data accessed via The Health and Social Care Northern Ireland Business Service Organisation Honest Broker Service within a Trusted Research Environment following the Five Safes Framework. Pregnancy episodes were ascertained from the Northern Ireland Regional Maternity Service Database and linked via unique Health and Care Number to secondary care diagnoses and primary care medications. Yearly prevalence (2012-2020) of multimorbidity (≥ 2 physical or mental health conditions) and complex multimorbidity (involvement of ≥ 3 organ systems) were calculated for the full cohort and stratified by age, deprivation, body mass index (BMI) and gravida. Cross-sectional analyses of prevalence and exploration of unique combinations of conditions and organ system involvement across strata were performed during a period of stability in detection rates (2014-2019).Results: The annual number of pregnancies ranged from n = 24,403 (2012) to n = 19,504 (2020). Prevalence of maternal multimorbidity ranged from 18.2% (95%CI: 17.7-18.7%) (2012) to 22.8% (95% CI: 22.3-23.4%) (2016) and mostly involved coexistence of physical and mental health conditions (range: 13.0-17.4%). Complex multimorbidity ranged from 4.0% (2012) to 6.1% (2017). The mental health system demonstrated the highest prevalence compared to all other organ systems (range: 18.6-26.2%). Multimorbidity was higher at extremes of maternal age (< 25y: 24.15%; 25-34y: 21.20%; ≥ 35y: 23.39%), and increased with deprivation (least deprived:19.61%; most deprived:25.78%), BMI (healthy: 18.37%; obesity III: 39.18%), and gravida (first pregnancy: 19.18%; ≥ 5 pregnancies: 30.69%). Mental health multimorbidity most impacted the youngest group (< 25y: 4.60%; 25-34y: 1.36%; ≥ 35y: 0.85%) and those who were underweight (3.73% vs 1-2% in other categories). Mental health represented the most common organ system involved in multimorbidity (18.6% of the total study population), followed by respiratory (7.3%) and dermatology (7.2%).Conclusions: Multimorbidity impacts over 1 in 5 pregnant women in NI, with complex multimorbidity affecting over 1 in 20. This may present challenges across public health, primary and community care and maternity services which offer support to women with multimorbidity throughout their reproductive journeys, from preconception through to long-term postnatal follow-up.</p
Building a cell-factory in <i>Crithidia fasciculata</i>:a bio-sustainable system to produce high-value polyunsaturated fatty acids
No full textFatty acids (FAs) are a class of diverse biomolecules that are essential for a wide variety of biological processes. Recently, ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated FAs (PUFAs) have received a lot of attention for their benefit and essentiality to human health. Their demand is constantly increasing alongside the ever-decreasing availability of sources of natural PUFAs, such as some plants and marine ecosystems, which are now endangered by agribusiness and climate change. Most of the novel microbial synthetic platforms for the production of ω-3 and ω-6 PUFAs (e.g.yeast, microalgae, oleaginous microorganisms, bacteria etc.) are costly. On the other hand, industrial processes based on chemical total synthesis of PUFAs is often challenging. Here, we propose an innovative and bio-sustainable method to make ω-3 and ω-6 PUFAs by building a cell-factory in Crithidia fasciculata, using genetic manipulation of endogenous FA desaturases and elongases, supplementation of the culture media with cheap sources of fats (such as used cooking oils), and culturing temperature reduction. In these unusual environments, C. fasciculata show high adaptability: the cells grow rapidly producing large biomass from small volumes of culture, scavenge and remodel unusual fat sources, as well as biosynthesising high value FAs and PUFAs de novo. By genetic manipulation, allowing overexpression of either the endogenous Δ6-desaturases or Δ4-desaturases, in conjunction with the endogenous elongase Elo4, high value ω-6 and ω-3 PUFAs were yielded to a maximum of 50% of the total FA content of the cells. These bioengineered C. fasciculata provides a low-cost and bio-sustainable platform to increase the production of essential PUFAs which can be introduced into the food chain at lower costs
Echo mapping of the black hole accretion flow in NGC 7469
No full textReverberation mapping (RM) can measure black hole accretion disc sizes and radial structure through observable light travel time lags that should increase with wavelength as τ ∝ λ4/3 due to the disc’s T ∝ r−3/4 temperature profile. Our 250-d RM campaign on NGC 7469 combines sub-day cadence 7-band photometry from the Las Cumbres Observatory robotic telescopes and weekly X-ray and UVOT data from Swift. By fitting these light curves, we measure the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the variable accretion disc, and inter-band lags of just 1.5 d across the UV to optical range. The disc SED is close to the expected fν ∝ ν1/3, and the lags are consistent with τ ∝ λ4/3, but three times larger than expected. We consider several possible modifications to standard disc assumptions. First, for a 9 × 106 M☉ black hole and two possible spins a* = (0, 1), we fit the X-ray-ultraviolet (UV)-optical SED with a compact relativistic corona at height Hx ∼ (46, 27) Rg irradiating a flat disc with accretion rate ṁEdd ∼ (0.23, 0.24) inclined to the line of sight by i < 20°. To fit the lags as well as the SED, this model requires a low spin a* ≈ 0 and boosts disc colour temperatures by a factor fcol ≈ 1.8, which shifts reprocessed light to shorter wavelengths. Our Bowl model with fcol = 1 neglects relativity near the black hole, but fits the UV-optical lags and SEDs using a flat disc with ṁEdd < 0.06 and a steep outer rim at Rout/c ∼ 5 − 10 d with H/R < 1 per cent. This rim occurs near the 103K dust sublimation temperature in the disc atmosphere, supporting models that invoke dust opacity to thicken the disc and launch failed radiatively driven dusty outflows at the inner edge of the broad line region (BLR). Finally, the disc lags and SEDs exhibit a significant excess in the u and r bands, suggesting Balmer continuum and Hα emission, respectively, from the BLR
Three Notes
No full textI will attempt to take inspiration from, almost by free association, three ancient brass instruments and how they stimulate nascent thoughts relating to the (dis)continuity of tradition, resistance (both physical and cerebral) and creative motivation
As Above, So Below
No full textThe two works on this disc are groundbreaking landmarks in new composition for brass band. From 2017, Jay Capperauld’s visionary masterpiece – As Above, So Below – extends composition for brass band into the realms of spatial quasi-religious experience. With the quintet elevated and spaced around the band, the band responds with a new vista of sound: everything from distant murmurings to cataclysmic rending of the air. From 1975, the Derek Bourgeois Concerto for Brass Quintet and Brass Band introduces a concertante quintet of orchestral instruments into the brass band milieu. Derek’s masterly exploitation of the increased palette of colour and texture results in a work of towering power and passion.Credits:Jay Capperauld (composer) | The Wallace Collection | The cooperation band | Bede Williams (conductor