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An RF-switch-enabled low-power dual-mode reconfigurable reflective surface
Full text linkThis paper presents a novel reconfigurable reflective surface capable of selective magnitude control at sub-6 GHz frequencies. Each unit cell integrates a low-power single-pole double-throw (SPDT) RF switch beneath the ground plane, providing two distinct impedance states that govern the reflection coefficient of the unit cell. The proposed configuration enables dynamic switching between reflective and absorptive modes at 5.50 GHz. A full system prototype comprising an 8 × 8 unit cells was fabricated and tested, the measured results exhibit good agreement with full-wave simulations, with the 1-bit (0°-180°) reflection phase control at 5.05 GHz and reflection magnitude switching between -2.4 dB and -26 dB at 5.50 GHz under TE-polarized excitation. In addition, various geometric coding patterns were explored and implemented to further assess the surface’s capability for a thinned reconfigurability and improved power efficiency. Three sets of ring-based surface configurations were investigated in detail, demonstrating that the surface is capable of selective magnitude control at both 5.05 GHz and 5.50 GHz under these pattern configurations. Specifically, these configurations enable quantized reflection magnitude control at 5.05 GHz, with an average step size of circa 5 dB. The results confirm the surface’s flexible reconfigurability and reveal that activating only 75% of the available switches achieves performance comparable to full-surface operation, effectively reducing control complexity and overall power consumption
Genome anchoring, retention, and release by neck proteins of Staphylococcus phage 812
Full text linkThe virion of Staphylococcus phage 812 is formed by a capsid and a contractile tail joined together by neck proteins. The neck proteins are crucial for virion assembly, DNA packaging, and the regulation of genome release, but their functions are not completely understood. Here, we show that the neck of phage 812 consists of portal, adaptor, stopper, tail terminator, and two types of decoration proteins. A dodecameric DNA-binding site at the surface of the portal complex anchors the phage genome inside the capsid. The adaptor complex induces a local B-to-A form transition of the DNA in the neck channel that could slow or pause genome translocation during ejection. The central channel of a stopper complex that is not attached to the tail terminator complex is closed by gating loops. In contrast, in the phage 812 virion, the gating loops are in an open conformation, and the DNA extends into the tail. The structure of neck proteins is not affected by tail sheath contraction. Therefore, the expulsion of tail tape measure proteins triggers the genome release. (Figure presented.
English reading expectations in Swedish higher education
Full text linkIn higher education, students’ learning conditions are shaped in no small part by the reading they are expected to do. This study documents the scope of English reading assigned in Swedish-medium undergraduate education. Although instruction is conducted in Swedish, students are nevertheless frequently required to engage with English texts, a practice long established in non-Anglophone contexts but not previously mapped in detail. Drawing on an extensive sample of reading lists from 2,225 Swedish-medium undergraduate courses across major disciplines, the study shows that students are often expected to manage substantial volumes of English reading, frequently without clear alignment to course credits or realistic consideration of workload. There is also considerable variation in academic reading expectations, reflected for example in the weekly English reading load both across and within disciplines. The study is descriptive by design: establishing a baseline of English reading load is a necessary first step toward theorizing reading practices in higher education and preparing interventions. At the same time, the results highlight the need for reflection and adjustment: ensuring that English reading demands are transparent, purposeful, and balanced across the curriculum will make them more manageable for students and support a more effective use of English texts in Swedish higher education
Severe and widespread coral reef damage during the 2014-2017 Global Coral Bleaching Event
Full text linkOcean warming is increasing the frequency, extent, and severity of tropical-coral bleaching and mortality. During 2014–2017, marine heatwaves caused the Third Global Coral Bleaching Event. We analyze data from 15,066 reef surveys globally during 2014–2017. Across all surveyed reefs, 80% and 35% experienced moderate or greater (affecting >10% of corals) bleaching and mortality, respectively. We assess the global extent of coral bleaching and mortality by applying bleaching response curves calibrated from surveyed reefs to predict bleaching globally, based on comprehensive remote-sensing of heat stress. These models predict that 51% and 15% of the world’s coral reefs suffered moderate or greater bleaching and mortality, respectively, during one or multiple years, surpassing damage from any prior global coral bleaching event. Our findings demonstrate that the impacts of ocean warming on coral reefs are accelerating, with the near certainty that ongoing warming will cause large-scale, possibly irreversible, degradation of these essential ecosystems. With heat stress levels during this event surpassing those observed previously, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed more extreme Bleaching Alert levels that are now being used during the ongoing Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event
The Lancet Commission on improving population health post-COVID-19
No full textAn increasing number of national and international commitments have failed to reduce three intimately interconnected major global threats to population health: non-communicable diseases, outbreaks of infectious diseases, and environmental degradation.
Non-communicable diseases cause more than 43 million deaths globally every year, of which 18 million are of people younger than 70 years. More than 70% of these deaths occur in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). To date, the official number of COVID-19 cases globally is more than 775 million, with more than 7 million deaths, although the absolute figures are likely to be far higher due to under-reporting. Environmental degradation is unravelling complex ecosystems, setting the world on a path to mass extinction, with the climate crisis creating an existential threat to human survival.
The Lancet Commission on improving population health post-COVID-19 was established to draw attention to the interactions between these three threats, the frequently shared structural factors underpinning them, and the opportunities for synergistic actions to address them. Having identified that the three systems of physical environment and transport, agriculture and food, and energy, underpin the three primary threats to population health, the Commissioners agreed upon three aims for the Commission to generate and synthesise evidence on actions needed to achieve: (1) healthy and sustainable physical environment and transport systems; (2) healthy and sustainable agriculture and food systems; and (3) healthy and sustainable energy systems.
These aims were used to create a framework to agree a set of objectives via a two-stage survey and modified Delphi exercise that resulted in a final list of ten objectives which were clustered under each of the three aims. In addition, we conducted supporting work: a rapid review of the evidence on drivers of, and policy levers for addressing, the three threats of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), communicable disease, and environmental degradation; an expert elicitation exercise using semi-structured interviews with 26 international experts to identify potential actions; and two pieces of economic modelling on the impact of carbon pricing on agriculture and land use, as well as land use and transport. By synthesising evidence obtained from each of these sources we identified a set of recommendations for actions to take place within and, in many cases, across the three systems of physical environment and transport, agriculture and land use, and energy.
Equity is a central concern of our Commission, and all actions were considered in terms of their potential effects on inequalities, as well as risks of other harmful unintended consequences. Where this was the case, we identified potential ways in which any such harms could be mitigated.
We identified that these three threats to population health are caused by many shared and interacting factors. For example, the clearance of vast areas of land globally to support high levels of palm oil production reduces the capacity of the land to retain carbon, and excessive consumption of ultraprocessed foods containing palm oil contributes to non-communicable diseases (such as obesity and type 2 diabetes), which are major risk factors for morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Simultaneously, the destruction of ecosystems and the loss of habitats increase the likelihood of interactions between wild animals and humans, which in turn increase the risk of new zoonotic diseases transferring from animals to humans. Simultaneously, global heating drives an increase in disease vectors, such as those for malaria and dengue, and air pollution creates an epidemic of respiratory disease.
The drivers of these threats are underpinned by political systems that prioritise economic growth over population health and the natural environment, undermining economies through increased health-care costs and reduced human productivity. Across these threats, people with the lowest income experience the greatest harms.
Reducing these threats requires a global shift in the behaviour of populations, including eating healthier and more sustainable diets, drinking less or no alcohol, not smoking, and increasing levels of physical activity. These behaviours are largely cued, reinforced, and maintained by physical, economic, digital, and social environments over which individuals have little control. Exhorting individuals to change their behaviour is therefore an ineffective strategy for the magnitude and scale of change that is required. Changing these behaviours necessitates changing the environments that shape them, requiring action largely by governments and business actors to transform the conditions that determine population health.
Achieving the necessary political action in the face of growing political populism and geopolitical instability globally is a major challenge. There are, however, some positive signs, including: increases in the affordability of public transport in cities around the world; restrictions on advertising and marketing of ultra-processed foods coupled with mandatory warning labels led by countries in Latin America; and increases in renewable energy generation globally. However, these changes are not occurring at either the large scale or the rapid speed that is needed.
This Commission provides a set of recommendations that, if implemented, could have a major impact on increasing both the scale and speed of action necessary to address some of the greatest threats to population health (panel 1)
Digitalizing Newspaper Journalism: Instituting and Negotiating New Temporalities in the Digital Workplace
Full text linkDigitalization of the labour process has occasioned the emergence of new temporal orders at work. For newspaper journalists, it has resulted in a radical reorganization of newsrooms and the temporalities of news production, offering a key site for studying this process of temporal reordering. This article develops Orlikowski and Yates' (2002) concept of temporal structuring as an active and intentional process in which journalists have enacted the emergent temporal order. Drawing on observations of the temporal practices of journalists in a London-based newsroom, including 28 in-depth interviews, the article demonstrates how the temporal structuring conditions which shape journalists' action within the labour process emerge from the temporal ruptures and conflict resulting from digitalisation as journalists accommodated, negotiated and resisted the new temporal order. The role of objectification is identified as a strategy used by managers and workers to resolve these tensions
Understanding the Non-Urgent Use of Emergency Care in Yorkshire and the Humber: An Integrated Care Board Level Analysis
Full text linkPublic green space adaptation and real estate market dynamics: the politics of designing resilient and just green spaces
No full textAs climate resilience becomes central to urban planning, cities increasingly use urban greening to mitigate climate risks. Integrating nature into urban environments–especially through public green spaces–provides substantial environmental and health benefits. However, these interventions also reshape urban space and property values, often reinforcing socio-spatial inequalities by favouring affluent areas or displacing vulnerable communities. While scholars highlight the role of real estate dynamics in these processes, little is known about how local governments address them. This study examines how municipalities account for real estate market dynamics in the planning and management of green spaces, drawing on case studies from three Spanish cities: Bilbao, Valladolid, and Málaga. Using policy document analysis and interviews with urban planners and policymakers, we identify three key challenges to just urban greening: (1) siloed and reactive planning focused narrowly on redistributing green cover (organizational challenge); (2) funding models dependent on adjacent real estate development, tying green space provision to market dynamics (financial challenge); and (3) the alignment of greening initiatives with urban competitiveness agendas, often prioritizing economic gains over citizen well-being (strategic challenge). By situating urban greening within critical political ecology debates, this study highlights governance gaps undermining socially just climate adaptation and outlines pathways toward more equitable urban greening practices
Can small and reasoning large language models score journal articles for research quality and do averaging and few-shot help?
No full textPrevious research has shown that journal article quality ratings from the cloud based Large Language Model (LLM) families ChatGPT and Gemini and the medium sized open weights LLM Gemma3 27b correlate moderately with expert research quality scores. This article assesses whether other medium sized LLMs, smaller LLMs, and reasoning models have similar abilities. This is tested with Gemma3 variants, Llama4 Scout, Qwen3, Magistral Small and DeepSeek R1 on a dataset of 2780 medical, health and life science papers in 6 fields, with two different gold standards, one novel. Few-shot and score averaging approaches are also evaluated. The results suggest that medium-sized LLMs have similar performance to ChatGPT-4o mini and Gemini 2.0 Flash, but that 1b parameters may often, and 4b sometimes, be too few. Reasoning models did not have a clear advantage. Moreover, averaging scores from multiple identical queries seems to be a universally successful strategy, and there is weak evidence that few-shot prompts (four examples) tend to help. Overall, the results show, for the first time, that smaller LLMs > 4b have a substantial capability to rate journal articles for research quality, especially if score averaging is used, but that reasoning does not give an advantage for this task; it is therefore not recommended because it is slow. The use of LLMs to support research evaluation is now more credible since multiple variants have a similar ability, including many that can be deployed offline in a secure environment without substantial computing resources
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