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Marburg and Sudan virus outbreaks: are we any closer to a pan-filovirus vaccine?
Full text linkFiloviruses, including Ebola, Marburg, and Sudan viruses, cause severe hemorrhagic fevers with high mortality rates and outbreaks. While recent vaccine developments such as the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine for Ebola have marked important progress and is now licensed by the FDA and the EMA, they remain virus-specific and limited in scope. The urgent need for a broad, cross-protective pan-filovirus vaccine is clear, especially considering recurring outbreaks and the potential for global spread. This paper reviews the current landscape of filovirus vaccine research, highlighting promising platforms, challenges in achieving cross-species protection, and lessons learned from past public health responses. It also emphasizes the scientific and logistical hurdles, such as antigenic diversity and the sporadic nature of outbreaks, which complicate vaccine development. Recommendations include sustained investment, collaborative research, and flexible trial designs. Ultimately, a pan-filovirus vaccine would be a vital tool in global health preparedness and reaching that goal will require long-term vision and commitment from the international community
The Floodport App for Interactive Coastal Flood Risk Training
Full text linkCoastal flooding can result from multiple interacting drivers and can be a complex, challenging topic for learners to grasp. Interactive learning with apps offers new opportunities for improving comprehension and engagement. We present the Floodport app, an educational interactive tool that puts students in the role of coastal risk analysts exploring how natural hazards threaten port safety. Users have to adjust key parameters, including high tides, storm surges, terrestrial rainfall contribution, sea-level rise, and engineered features such as dock height. These forces, individually or jointly, result in water-level rises that may flood the app’s port. The app supports exploration of mitigation designs for the port. Developed in Excel and Python 3.11.4 and deployed as an R/Shiny application, Floodport was used as a classroom game by 153 students with no prior knowledge on coastal flooding concepts. Pre–post survey statistical analysis showed significant learning gains and positively correlation with willingness to engage further. Floodport was found to be a useful tool for basic introduction to flooding concepts. The results indicate strong pedagogical promise and potential for using the app beyond the classroom, in contexts such as stakeholder engagement and training
Maturation of GABAergic signalling times the opening of a critical period in Drosophila melanogaster.
Full text linkCritical periods (CPs) during the development of neural networks are widely documented. Activity manipulation during open CPs leads to debilitating effects to the mature neural network. Detailed understanding of the contribution of CPs to network development, however, remains elusive. This is partly because mammalian CPs are present in complex sensory networks (e.g., visual), making focused experimental manipulation challenging. It is significant, therefore, that CPs have been identified in simpler models. An embryonic CP occurs during locomotor network development in Drosophila melanogaster. Perturbation of neuronal activity during this period destabilises the larval locomotor network: rendering it seizure prone. Given the role of GABA in the timing of the mammalian CP of ocular dominance, we investigated whether a similar role exists for the Drosophila CP. Utilising GABA pharmacology and genetics, we manipulated the embryonic GABAergic system and measured an induced seizure phenotype in third-instar larvae. Potentiating GABAergic signalling, via exposure to diazepam (agonist) or overexpression of the GABAA receptor rdl, induced precocious opening of the CP. By contrast, exposure to gabazine (antagonist), or knockdown of the GABA-synthetic enzyme Gad1, delayed opening. Thus, we show that CP timing within the Drosophila CNS is dictated by GABAergic signalling, indicating a phylogenetically conserved role
Solving the sulfur isotope discrepancy in Central America
Full text linkSulfur has considerable leverage on the redox budget of subducted materials due to its presence as both sulfide (S2−) and sulfate (S6+). Recent work has revealed a discrepancy: arc magmas have positive δ34S values, while much of the S entering subduction zones should be hosted in pyrite, which is likely to have negative sulfur isotopic values. To address this discrepancy, we focus on the Central American subduction zone, where previous work has revealed positive δ34S values in parental arc magmas. We report the first comprehensive study of the sedimentary S input to any subduction zone with S concentration and sulfur-isotopic measurements of ODP Site 1040 sediments. Sedimentary S input for Central America is greater than previously thought (1.71 ± 0.38 × 108 mol S/yr/100 km), although insufficient to supply the S output from the arc without contributions from subducting oceanic crust. Furthermore, ~90 % of the sedimentary S input is hosted in pyrite, leading to a bulk sedimentary δ34S of −19.5 ‰. In assessing the mass balance for Central America, we find that selective removal of sulfate does not provide enough S to support arc output and thus, additional S must be mobilized by the oxidation of pyrite with several per mil rock-fluid δ34S fractionation to positive values. Our results agree with existing evidence that subduction zones act as efficient redox reactors, with oxidized portions of the slab (e.g., altered oceanic crust) providing the oxidizing power to supply sulfate to the arc, while a reduced and 32S-enriched complement sinks into the deeper mantle
Associations between lifetime fitness and social bonds in female red deer
Full text linkAbstract Social connections affect important components of fitness above and beyond environmental or morphological effects. In some primates and carnivores, females live in stable groups, supporting each other in competitive interactions and breeding within their birth groups. Social status and breeding success are linked to close social connections. However, it is unclear how important social bonds are in open membership fission–fusion societies. Recent work suggests that the strength of social bonds and the centrality of individuals within groups in these types of societies might be equally beneficial and important as in closed-membership groups, influencing population dynamics on par with morphological or environmental effects. Using social network analysis, we studied free-ranging adult female red deer (Cervus elaphus) on the Isle of Rum, confirming that they preferentially associate with relatives while forming open groups. It turned out that the strength of close social bonds in female red deer is a vital fitness correlate. Females’ lifetime breeding success and lifetime reproductive success positively correlated with the strength of their associations, as did female survival. Although home range overlap, matriline size and spatial measures were included in models of social network measures and fitness, the strength of social bonds was more crucial for fitness than spatial variables, except for calf survival, which was not linked to the strengths of associations between females. This study suggests that social bonds among female red deer are essential for reproductive success and survival, highlighting the importance of social network analysis in understanding fitness correlates in species with open group structures
‘Where’s the money coming from?’ Tracing the history of manifesto costings in UK elections, 1955–2019
Full text linkDr Peter Sloman looks through the history of manifesto costing in the UK to answer questions on the politics of spending promises.
"It should be clear from this historical survey that manifesto costings have been a ritual feature of British general elections for more than sixty years. Tax and spending lie at the heart of British political debate, and recent contests in other Westminster democracies such as Australia and Canada show a similar pattern. The Westminster model of majoritarian, single-party government forces parties to aggregate their policies before each election and draws the electorate into the budgetary process.
Measurement of the top-quark Yukawa coupling from tt¯ production in the lepton+jets final state using pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
Full text linkThe top-quark Yukawa coupling is extracted from the distribution of the top-quark pair (tt¯) invariant mass in proton-proton collisions using 140 fb−1 of data at s=13 TeV collected in 2015–2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. In the region near the production threshold, the tt¯ invariant mass spectrum is sensitive to electroweak virtual corrections, including contributions from Higgs boson exchange, thereby providing sensitivity to the top-quark Yukawa coupling. This is the first measurement in ATLAS that aims to obtain this coupling exploiting this approach. The tt¯ system is reconstructed in the single-lepton final state, requiring exactly one isolated electron or muon and at least four jets with at least two identified as originating from b-quarks. The measured Yukawa coupling is found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction. An upper limit on the top-quark Yukawa coupling strength of Yt< 2.1 relative to the Standard Model prediction is observed at 95% confidence level, consistent with the expected sensitivity
3D Surface Profiling via Direct End‐to‐End Regression With a Photonic Geometric Sensor
Full text linkABSTRACT
Measurements of microscale surface patterns are essential for process and quality control in industries across semiconductors, micro‐machining, and biomedicine. However, the development of miniaturized and intelligent profiling systems remains a longstanding challenge, primarily due to the complexity and bulkiness of existing benchtop systems required to scan large‐area samples. A real‐time, in situ, and fast detection alternative is therefore highly desirable for predicting surface topography on the fly. In this paper, we present an ultracompact geometric profiler based on photonic integrated circuits, which directly encodes the optical reflectance of the sample and decodes it with a neural network. This scheme avoids explicit recovery of complex interferometric spectra and the associated fitting algorithms. We show that an integrated programmable circuit can generate pseudo‐random kernels to project input data into higher dimensions, enabling efficient feature extraction via a lightweight one‐dimensional convolutional neural network. Our device is capable of reliable, fast‐scanning‐rate thickness identification for both smoothly varying samples and intricate 3D printed emblem structures, paving the way for a new class of compact geometric sensors.</jats:p
The influence of age and the presence of prostate cancer on prostate volume, PSA and PSA density
Full text linkObjective
To assess prostate volume (PV) changes with age in symptomatic and asymptomatic men with and without clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa). In symptomatic patients, we additionally analysed the effect of age and csPCa on PSA and PSA‐density (PSA‐D) and compared these to current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended PSA age‐range thresholds.
Patients and Methods
This single‐centre retrospective cross‐sectional study included 2512 men: 760 asymptomatic, disease‐free men and 1752 patients referred on a PCa diagnostic pathway. Magnetic resonance imaging‐derived whole‐gland PV was recorded for all patients. A machine‐learning pipeline with k‐fold cross validation modelled relationships between PV and age.
Results
In asymptomatic men (median PV 25.4 mL), the mean PV per age‐group increased non‐linearly with age, from 18.7 mL at an increase of 0.10 mL/year aged 18 years, to 41.3 mL at 0.68 mL/year aged 89 years, with increased rate of change from the age of 48.9 years. Significant positive relationships were shown between PSA and age in patients with and without csPCa (r2 = 0.09 vs 0.13, respectively), with PSA increasing by mean 0.17 ng/mL/year across groups. Patients with csPCa had consistently higher PSA levels. PSA‐D showed significant age‐related linear increases in patients with csPCa but remained consistently lower in those without csPCa at all ages (0.10–0.11 ng/mL2), allowing differentiation at a threshold of >0.15 ng/mL2.
Conclusion
In asymptomatic men, PV changed non‐linearly with age. Age‐related PSA thresholds are supported; however, a static PSA‐D threshold of 0.15 ng/mL2 can be applied across all age ranges
Post-Fire Forest Pulse Recovery: Superiority of Generalized Additive Models (GAM) in Long-Term Landsat Time-Series Analysis.
Full text linkWildfires are increasing globally and pose major challenges for assessing post-fire vegetation recovery and ecosystem resilience. We analyzed long-term Landsat time series in two contrasting fire-prone ecosystems in the United States and Australia. Vegetation area was extracted using the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) with Otsu thresholding. Recovery to pre-fire baseline levels was modeled using linear, logistic, locally estimated scatterplot smoothing (LOESS), and generalized additive models (GAM), and their performance was compared using multiple metrics. The results indicated rapid recovery of Australian forests to baseline levels, whereas this was not the case for forests in the United States. Among climatic factors, temperature was the dominant parameter in Australia (Spearman ρ = 0.513, p < 10-8), while no climatic variable significantly influenced recovery in California. Methodologically, GAM consistently performed best in both regions due to its success in capturing multiphase and heterogeneous recovery patterns, yielding the lowest values of AIC (United States: 142.89; Australia: 46.70) and RMSE_cv (United States: 112.86; Australia: 2.26). Linear and logistic models failed to capture complex recovery dynamics, whereas LOESS was highly sensitive to noise and unstable for long-term prediction. These findings indicate that post-fire recovery is inherently nonlinear and ecosystem-specific and that simple models are insufficient for accurate estimation, with GAM emerging as an appropriate method for assessing vegetation recovery using remote sensing data. This study provides a transferable approach using remote sensing and GAM to monitor forest resilience under accelerating global fire regimes