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Index estimates for constant mean curvature surfaces in three-manifolds by energy comparison
No full textWe prove a linear upper bound on the Morse index of closed constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in orientable three-manifolds in terms of genus, number of branch points and a Willmore-type energy
Preparation of microcapsules using a poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(benzyl methacrylate) diblock copolymer emulsifier
Get PDFMost encapsulation techniques require suitable polymers or surfactants to stabilize the microcapsule suspension. Typically, such stabilizers are present in excess in the aqueous continuous phase. In this study, the use of a poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)-poly(benzyl methacrylate) (PDMA-PBzMA) diblock copolymer is examined as an efficient stabilizer for the preparation of three types of methacrylic microcapsules with different morphologies. Unlike conventional water-soluble stabilizers, this amphiphilic copolymer is dissolved directly in the dispersed organic phase. This approach minimizes the amount of stabilizer present in the aqueous continuous phase and hence maximizes the formulation efficiency. This new PDMA-PBzMA stabilizer enables either poly(benzyl methacrylate) (PBzMA) or poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microcapsules to be prepared with excellent colloidal stability and shell integrity, comparable to that previously achieved using poly(vinyl alcohol). Such formulations can produce (i) monolithic microcapsules, (ii) oil-core microcapsules via internal phase separation, or (iii) aqueous-core microcapsules via water-in-oil-in-water (w1/o/w2) double emulsification. In particular, PBzMA microcapsules exhibited an exceptionally slow release of the encapsulated hydrophobic model active pyrene. Diffusivities of the encapsulated active species on the order of 1 × 10-20 m2 s-1 were determined by fitting release data to appropriate models assuming Fickian diffusion. For such microcapsules, the PBzMA shell matrix acted as the primary release-rate-limiting factor. Given that PDMA-PBzMA diblock copolymers can be conveniently prepared via polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA), this study highlights their potential as a versatile, efficient stabilizer for a broad range of microcapsule formulations
Community-based interventions for management of antimicrobial resistance in Europe: a systematic review
Get PDFAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health problem. Several public interventions have been designed to increase AMR knowledge and awareness. This review assesses the availability and effectiveness of community-based AMR interventions in Europe. Four databases—Medline (OVID), Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science- and grey literature were searched for AMR interventions in community settings in Europe between 2000 and 2024. Studies reporting empirical findings in English were considered. A narrative synthesis was performed, and findings were presented in text and tables. Forty-nine studies were eligible for inclusion from 14 European countries. Interventions were primarily educational to raise awareness, targeting individuals, small groups, or the general public through mass campaigns, school-based programmes, online games, and pledges. Some interventions also monitored adherence, consumption, and doctor consultation. The majority of interventions reported increased knowledge and awareness of antibiotics and AMR; reduced antibiotic prescription, purchase, use, and non-compliance; reduced respiratory incidence and doctor consultations, and increased overall adherence. Fluctuations in knowledge over time were observed, but evidence was insufficient to analyse the long-term sustainability of outcomes of the interventions. Our findings show that community-based interventions can enhance knowledge and awareness of appropriate antibiotic use and AMR risks among different population groups. These can also positively improve adherence, expectation, and prescribing. However, long-term engagement and interventions are needed to attain sustainability and bring behavioural changes
Five Steps to Inclusive and Sustainable Regeneration
Get PDFA one page policy brief by University of York/HDRC Bradford researchers working with the Healthy that identified five core pathways to create inclusive and sustainable regeneration
Radially trapped overstable convective modes within a polytropic solar interior
Get PDFWe study overstable and unstable gravito-inertial waves in a weakly unstable polytropic atmosphere representing solar convection zone. We consider wave modes propagating at a small angle to the zonal direction near the equatorial region of the Sun. We find that the coriolis force plays an important role in stabilizing low radial order, long wavelength convective modes which otherwise would be unstable in the absence of rotation. Focusing solely on naturally trapped waves in the radial direction, we also compare the properties of these low frequency gravito-inertial wave modes with corresponding wave modes in a neutrally stable polytropic atmosphere in different sized finite domain. We find that the eigenfrequencies of gravito-inertial wave modes in a weakly unstable polytropic atmosphere are lower than those in a neutrally stable atmosphere, and that their propagation is confined to a narrower wavenumber range. These eigenfrequencies and the range of wavenumbers increase slightly as the angle of propagation increase
Mapping benthic biodiversity to facilitate future sustainable development
Get PDFHuman activities in the marine environment are expanding rapidly, with much of the growth in the Northeast Atlantic driven by offshore wind development. While offshore wind is critical for achieving net zero carbon targets, planning decisions must also address the twin challenge of conserving and restoring biodiversity. We combined open-access data from hundreds of grab and core surveys with random forest modeling to provide new insights into patterns of benthic biodiversity across the Northeast Atlantic continental shelf. Multiple dimensions of biodiversity were mapped using Hill numbers (q = 0, 1, 2) and raw abundance, assessed within the Whittaker framework (alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity) to reveal patterns at different spatial scales. These metrics were synthesized into a single biodiversity map using clustering, delineating areas of seabed with shared biodiversity characteristics. This analysis offers an evidence-based framework for safeguarding benthic biodiversity and informing management decisions in an era of rapidly expanding offshore development. Our results also highlight key environmental drivers, with higher biodiversity consistently associated with greater gravel coverage and moderate to high current speeds
Life on New Earth:Biodiversity change and humanity in a novel future
Get PDFAccounting for ecological novelty, gains, and past human experiences through social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) can help society navigate accelerating global biodiversity change. Popular narratives stress escalating loss of species and ecosystems, and the potential collapse of the benefits they provide to people. In the public sphere, this can present the spectre of an uninhabitable Earth and the extinction of the human species. Research suggests these crisis narratives can raise awareness, but are counterproductive in stimulating mitigating or adaptive action. They also omit evidence of biodiversity gains and ongoing adaptation alongside losses. Archaeological evidence also highlights the human ability to take advantage of and thrive under an extremely wide range of changing and challenging ecological conditions and the provisioning opportunities these provide. This perspective provides an evidenced counterargument to claims of civilisational collapse amid environmental change. Projections show that rather than universal ecological decline, a cosmopolitan biosphere of losses and gains will likely emerge. Distilled, these insights provoke a new research agenda, centred on how we measure, frame, and imagine alternative futures so that we can systematically explore pathways and scenarios for a just thriving humanity on a climatically and ecologically transforming Earth
Editorial: Celebrating women researchers and a focus on non-invasive modalities and innovation
Get PDFEscaping the forest: a sparse, interpretable, and foundational neural network alternative for tabular data
Get PDFTabular datasets are pervasive across biomedical research, powering applications from genomics to clinical prediction. Despite recent advances in neural architectures for tabular learning, there remains no consensus on models that balance performance, interpretability, and efficiency. Here, we introduce sTabNet, a meta-generative framework that automatically constructs sparse, interpretable neural architectures tailored to tabular data. The model integrates two key components. First, automated architecture generation leverages unsupervised, feature-centric Node2Vec random walks to define network connectivity, introducing a priori sparsity and improving generalisation while mitigating overfitting. Second, a dedicated attention layer jointly learns feature importance with model parameters during training, providing intrinsic interpretability. Evaluated across diverse biomedical tasks-including RNA-Seq classification, single-cell profiling, and survival prediction, sTabNet achieves performance on par with, or exceeding, leading tree-based models such as XGBoost, while remaining computationally efficient and CPU-trainable. Our experiments show that sTabNet generalises effectively across in-domain and out-of-domain datasets, yielding biologically consistent insights and surpassing post-hoc explainability methods such as SHAP in stability and clarity. Together, these results establish sTabNet as a foundational and versatile framework for data-efficient, interpretable neural learning on tabular data
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