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Flow laws for ice constrained by 70 years of laboratory experiments
Full text linkFlow laws for ice predict rates of deformation (strain) and are fundamental to modelling glacier and ice-sheet dynamics. Here we apply Bayesian inference to laboratory measurements accumulated over 70 years to constrain flow laws for ice-sheet modelling. At low strains, commonly used flow laws—derived from individual experimental datasets with narrow stress, temperature and grain-size ranges—fail to capture the full complexity of ice behaviour. We show that a multicomponent flow law that sums strain rates from different deformation mechanisms is needed to capture grain-size and temperature sensitivities observed in the full set of experiments. This multicomponent flow law is applicable to natural scenarios where the anisotropy of ice is weak or where the deformation kinematics differ from those that formed the crystallographic preferred orientation, making the ice more viscous. Low-strain flow laws, including this multicomponent flow law, have limited validity at high strain, where viscosity evolves and anisotropy develops, making ice less viscous. A one-component, grain-size insensitive flow law gives a reasonable fit to high-strain experimental data and is better suited to modelling the large-scale flow behaviour of ice sheets
Comparative stability of the solid electrolyte interphase in potassium and sodium batteries
Full text linkSodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) are potential alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. However, knowledge about the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in SIBs and PIBs is still limited. Here, the formation and stability of SEI in SIBs and PIBs are compared to understand ageing related to SEI characteristics in electrolyte solutions based on 1 M KPF6 or 1 M NaPF6 in ethylene carbonate:diethyl carbonate (EC:DEC). Galvanostatic cycling coupled with pause testing was used to quantify the amount of charge consumed for electrolyte reduction for initial SEI formation and for SEI reformation required due to the dissolution of SEI. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy was used to reveal changes in the composition of electrolyte solutions due to SEI formation and dissolution. 1H-NMR findings were supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showing the evolution of SEI composition during a 50 h pause
Stoma intubation, isolation and negative pressure wound therapy for complex stoma-associated wounds: new technique and case series
No full textBackground:
The use of negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) in colorectal surgery has been demonstrated for treating perineal defects, enterocutaneous fistula and stoma dehiscence. Here we describe a technique for closure of complex stoma-associated wounds using a novel commercial intubation device alongside NPWT to protect the surrounding wound from the stoma effluent. Clinically the patients were managed by an MDT approach including specialist nurse practitioners, dieticians, colorectal nurses, stoma nurses and critical care. The device has previously described for use with enterocutaneous fistula. We present two cases that have been successfully treated with this technique.
Technique and Cases:
The first case is of an 88 year-old women with a retracted loop ileostomy and the second a 48 year-old male with a retracted end colostomy. Both patients underwent significant emergency peristomal debridement and in both cases the commercial device was deployed to intubate the stoma. VAC foam and standard adhesive dressings were used to form a quality seal and the pressure set to 125mmHg. In both cases near complete healing was achieved to the point that standard stoma bags and management could be used.
Conclusion:
This is the first description of the use of an isolation device in complex stoma associated wounds. We have found the Fistula Funnel to be safe in this context
Two cultures of interdisciplinarity
Full text linkAbstract
The two cultures described in 1959 by C.P. Snow still haunt the University where he developed his reputation. While the policy legacy of that debate is often reduced to concerns about numeracy skills and the supposed objectivity of quantitative evidence, the class distinctions of sophisticated culture versus lowly trade are again being blurred by social media and generative AI. Working in the other Cambridge, at the MIT AI Lab, Philip Agre advocated
critical technical practice
. Amid widespread anxiety about the ethics of AI, this is often taken to be an appeal for engineers to be guided by the humanities, and for interdisciplinary centres to focus on the ends rather than the means of AI research. However, in the machine learning era, that agenda can easily become statistically reactive rather than analytically descriptive. In this paper, I argue from the perspective of craft and design, that the most significant distinction, and opportunity for collaborative endeavour, is not between the disciplinary differences between the sciences and humanities, but between interdisciplinary cultures of making and of observational critique.
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Objective functions: (In)humanity and inequity in artificial intelligence
Full text linkThis paper explores the ways that artificial intelligence, as a technological imaginary, implicitly constructs its epistemological status. That status arises from the need to define knowledge as both a human and a mechanical / mathematical phenomenon. Furthermore, the imagination of artificial intelligence has become not only an academic endeavour, or philosophical enquiry, but also a business proposition. As a result, relations between consumers, workers and investors also become implicated in the global enterprise of AI
Neoadjuvant Therapies for Prostate Cancer-Current Paradigms and Future Directions.
No full textHigh-risk and locally advanced prostate cancer represents 20-25% of new diagnoses of prostate cancer and is associated with high rates of recurrence, morbidity, and mortality. The neoadjuvant window provides a unique opportunity for systemic control prior to definitive therapy with radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy (RT). Early trials with first-generation androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) achieved pathological downstaging but no survival benefit. In the 2000s, the advent of chemohormonal regimes using docetaxel provided excitement but mixed results tempered expectations and is now not recommended prior to surgery. Second-generation androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPIs) combined with ADT have demonstrated significant survival benefit in metastatic prostate cancer and are currently being evaluated in large phase III trials in the neoadjuvant setting. RT remains an alternative curative modality, and recent data highlights similar issues to surgery in eradicating micrometastatic disease despite excellent local control. This has driven parallel efforts to evaluate intensified systemic therapy in the pre-RT/neoadjuvant settings. In addition to the excitement surrounding ARPIs, radioligand therapy, such as [177Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 has shown promise in the neoadjuvant setting and continues to be investigated. Future research aims to incorporate genomic and molecular factors to enable personalised neoadjuvant therapies by identifying damage immunologically responsive subtypes that may derive greater benefit from immune-directed therapies in the peri-operative setting. This narrative review synthesises current evidence for neoadjuvant therapies in high-risk prostate cancer and future directions
GOFlowLLM-curating miRNA literature with large language models and flowcharts.
No full textMOTIVATION: The exponential growth of non-coding RNA research-with over 230 000 papers published since 2000-has created an urgent knowledge management crisis in molecular biology. Despite their crucial regulatory roles, microRNAs (miRNAs) face a significant curation bottleneck, with only 1400 articles manually curated to the Gene Ontology (GO) knowledgebase over a decade. This highlights the critical need for automated systems that can accelerate biocuration while maintaining high-quality standards. RESULTS: We present GOFlowLLM, an automated curation pipeline powered by reasoning-enabled Large Language Models (LLMs) that follows established GO curation flowcharts to extract and structure miRNA-mediated gene silencing data at scale. When evaluated on existing curation, GOFlowLLM selects the correct GO term in 90% of cases, with curators agreeing with 95% of the system's reasoning steps and 90% of the evidence selected. Applied to 6996 previously uncurated articles using the Qwen QwQ-32B model, our system identified 2538 new candidate GO annotations on 1785 articles in just 58 hours-potentially doubling the available miRNA GO curation. Manual review shows curators agreed with the selected term in 87% of cases, the model's reasoning in 92% of cases, and the extracted evidence in 93%. The integration of reasoning traces provides transparent justification for annotations that can be reviewed by human curators, addressing a key challenge in adopting AI for scientific curation. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: GOFlowLLM is implemented as an automated pipeline that follows expert-designed reasoning frameworks to maintain curation quality. The system is available on GitHub: https://github.com/RNAcentral/GO_Flow_LLM
On the connection between nitrogen-enhanced field stars and the Galactic globular clusters
No full textAbstract As sites of some of the most efficient star formation in the Universe, globular clusters (GCs) have long been hypothesized to be the building blocks of young galaxies. Within the Milky Way, our best tracers of the contribution of GCs to the proto-Galaxy are stars with such anomalous overabundance in nitrogen and depletion in oxygen (‘high-[N/O] stars’) that they can be identified as having originated in a cluster long after they have escaped. We identify associations between these high-[N/O] field stars and GCs using integrals of motion and metallicities and compare to chemically typical halo stars to quantify any excess association, enabling a population-level exploration of the formation sites of the nitrogen-enhanced stars in the field. Relative to the halo as a whole, high-[N/O] stars show stronger associations with the most initially massive, inner Galaxy GCs, suggesting that many nitrogen-rich stars formed in these environments. However, when compared to a sample matched in orbital energy, the excess largely disappears: high-[N/O] stars are, on average, no more associated with surviving GCs than energy-matched halo stars, despite their [N/O] abundances indicating GC origins, consistent with a scenario in which a substantial fraction of low-energy inner-halo stars originate in GCs, so an energy-matched control dilutes any differential excess. We argue that associations between high-[N/O] stars and their parent GCs are further weakened because dynamical friction and the Galactic bar have altered integrals of motion, limiting the reliability of precise present-day associations and, especially, individual star-to-cluster tagging
