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Virtual museum infrastructure:support for heritage engagement and sustainable development
No full textOften digital exhibits are special, often commissioned from specialist organisations for a premium price and only available to prestigious national and international organisations that have the budget to match. Yet, development in underlying technologies, mean commodity computers, mobiles, and networks are increasingly capable. Consequently, the possibility of immersive and mobile technologies being practical alternatives for community museums is becoming practical. At the same time, we are seeing increasing threats to heritage including climate, disasters and conflicts, and the need for sustainable development that is relevant to communities.This paper explores the ways emergent immersive technologies have been used by community museums, to address different aspects of sustainable development and how two Horizon Europe projects CULTURALITY and HERITALISE will help develop tools and platforms that enable community museums to work with virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence to address the preservation and promotion of heritage and in so doing address climate action and wider sustainable development goals
Psychological processes underlying normative transformation and social change
No full textThere have been widespread social changes in the past decade, including changes in gender norms, increases in political polarization and populism, and noticeable shifts toward sustainability. In this Review, we analyze the psychological processes that drive social change, considering factors at the group and individual levels of analysis. We center our analysis around the concept of social norms—socially shared views of what is common or desirable—and argue that the processes that trigger social change often begin when there is a substantive tension between norms within society. Normative tension can occur vertically between norms at the societal level and the norms that emerge at the group level, or between individuals’ normative preferences and the norms of their groups. Normative tension can also occur horizontally between the norms that different groups have regarding their values, preferences, behaviors. We explain how normative tension mobilizes individuals to engage in collective action and how conflicting social norms are contested at the group level. We also highlight individual differences that predispose people to challenge or defend existing social norms. Together, our Review highlights the complex interactions between societal, group and individual-level variables in societal transformations.<br/
Variation in wood density across South American tropical forests
No full textWood density is a critical control on tree biomass, so poor understanding of its spatial variation can lead to large and systematic errors in forest biomass estimates and carbon maps. The need to understand how and why wood density varies is especially critical in tropical America where forests have exceptional species diversity and spatial turnover in composition. As tree identity and forest composition are challenging to estimate remotely, ground surveys are essential to know the wood density of trees, whether measured directly or inferred from their identity. Here, we assemble an extensive dataset of variation in wood density across the most forested and tree-diverse continent, examine how it relates to spatial and environmental variables, and use these relationships to predict spatial variation in wood density over tropical and sub-tropical South America. Our analysis refines previously identified east-west Amazon gradients in wood density, improves them by revealing fine-scale variation, and extends predictions into Andean, dry, and Atlantic forests. The results halve biomass prediction errors compared to a naïve scenario with no knowledge of spatial variation in wood density. Our findings will help improve remote sensing-based estimates of aboveground biomass carbon stocks across tropical South America
Teaching humanities in UK medical schools:towards community-building and coherence
No full textMedical humanities teaching in UK medical schools has lacked cohesion, having developed opportunistically in different locations. Cohesion is necessary to develop an identifiable community of practice, but within that community there can be multiple readings of what ‘medical humanities’ are and how they may develop. This article details discussions held by medical humanities scholars teaching in UK medical schools at a workshop in January 2025 at the University of Oxford covering five key areas: the role of humanities scholars in medical schools, patients as partners in medical education, core curriculum teaching, intercalated teaching, and assessment. Our discussion highlights opportunities and challenges facing humanities teaching in UK medical schools today and calls for the creation of a community of medical humanities scholars working in UK medical education embracing diversity of opinion and practices. The article is specifically written as a synopsis of a brainstorming symposium
The Doctrine of God and the Crisis of Modernity
No full textIn this incisive work, Michelson traces contemporary debates on the doctrine of God back in time to the philosophical critiques of Hume and Kant. Schleiermacher and Barth each offered accounts of the doctrine of God. This book offers a critical evaluation of these accounts and demonstrates how they were responding to early modern critiques of the possibility of knowing God
Plague masks: a visual representation of personal protective equipment in epidemic prevention
No full textIsolation and identification of cis-2,5-diketopiperazine from a novel <i>Bacillus </i>strain and synthesis of its 4 stereoisomers
No full textThe Bacillus horneckiae-like strain 2011SOCCUF3 was isolated from the marine sponge Spongia officinalis and its metabolome was studied for secondary metabolites with antimicrobial activity. Culturing in the presence of Diaion HP-20 resin and purifying the culture extract identified cyclo-phenylalanine-proline (cyclo-(Phe-Pro)), a 2,5-diketopiperazine (2,5-DKP), isolated as a major metabolite. Further, LCMS analysis of the extract showed the presence of two isomers of the molecule in the culture broth. To confirm the stereochemistry of the isomers observed in the natural extract, all four stereoisomers of cyclo-(Phe-Pro) were synthesised. NMR and LCMS studies identified the presence of both cis- and trans-cyclo-(Phe-Pro) isomers. Stability and epimerisation studies on synthetic isomers and the effect of culturing conditions suggested that the less stable cis isomer was naturally produced, which epimerised in culture broth
The UAP assessment matrix:a framework for evaluating evidence and understanding regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
No full textOver recent years the issue of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) has increasingly captivated attention and even concern, as reflected in the US military establishing a UAP Task Force in 2020. By their very definition however, such phenomena present an epistemological challenge to observers and analysts, raising questions such as what does it mean for something to be unidentified or anomalous, and relatedly, what kind of evidence and understanding would it take for the phenomenon to become identified and explained. This paper aims to help address these issues by providing a UAP Assessment Matrix that would allow observers to appraise a given UAP event/case, featuring two main dimensions: evidence (i.e., the quality of the data pertaining to it); and understanding (i.e., the extent to which the data align with various theories and explanations). Moreover, both dimensions feature numerous sub-dimensions (which is what makes the framework a matrix), allowing more nuanced and fine-grained assessments to be made. We also demonstrate the matrix using a little-known but significant UAP case study from 1953. The matrix will ideally provide a foundation for more rigorous and considered analyses of UAP events and stimulate further understanding of this vitally important topic.</p