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Association Between Area-Level Deprivation and Hospital Dental Admissions in Children Under Five
No full textAim:To quantify the association between area-level socioeconomic deprivation and hospital admissions for dental caries among children aged under five years in England, and to assess whether this association remains robust after accounting for spatial autocorrelation.Methods:An ecological cross-sectional analysis was conducted using publicly available data. Socioeconomic deprivation was measured using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2019 and aggregated to upper-tier local authority level by calculating the mean IMD decile across constituent Lower-layer Super Output Areas. Hospital admission rates for dental caries (0–5 years) were obtained from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Fingertips platform for the 2021/22–23/24 rolling three-year period. Linear regression (ordinary least squares) examined associations between rounded mean IMD decile and admission rates. Residual spatial autocorrelation was assessed using Moran’s I, and a spatial error model was fitted to evaluate robustness. Analyses were restricted to authorities with complete data (n = 116).Results:A clear deprivation gradient was observed. Each one-decile increase in IMD decile (indicating lower deprivation) was associated with approximately 40 fewer hospital admissions per 100,000 children aged under five years (β = −40.38; 95% CI −64.70 to −16.06; p = 0.0013). Deprivation explained 8.7% of between-authority variation (R² = 0.087). Residual spatial autocorrelation was present (Moran’s I = 0.41; permutation p = 0.0001). In a spatial error model, the association remained statistically significant (β = −38.80; p = 0.00023), indicating that the deprivation gradient was robust to spatial adjustment.Conclusions:Substantial oral health inequalities persist across England. Higher levels of area-level deprivation are strongly associated with increased hospital admissions for dental caries in young children. The observed socioeconomic gradient remains robust after accounting for geographic clustering, underscoring the need for proportionate universalism and upstream preventive strategies
A Transmedial Perspective on Humor:Jokes in Greek Comedy and on Vases
No full textThis article examines jokes in Greek Old Comedy, and on black- and red-figure vaseware. It argues that jokes operate along similar conceptual and even philosophical lines across these two different media. The article makes no case for a relationship of influence between these media, but rather suggests that jokes’ tendency toward metarepresentationality arises independently in different artistic media and forms. The article also suggests that the prevalence of jokes problematizing the relationship between sign and meaning in the Archaic and Classical periods may hint at an underlying cultural anxiety about the relationship between art and reality
Ships Still Passing In The Night? The Deepening European-US Divide On Regulating The Online Public Sphere
No full textThis chapter argues that long-standing doctrinal, conceptual and constitutional divides between European and US approaches to free speech law have only been deepened by the emerging, sharply-divergent approaches to regulating the online public sphere. It expounds this thesis via comparative analysis of constitutional design, influence of 'the marketplace of ideas' theory, privacy and the right to be forgotten, defamation and disinformation, hate speech, terrorism-related material and regulation of social media. It argues that Europe has taken important steps to empower individuals against corporate media power, in stark contrast to the US, which continues to place enormous faith in the marketplace to restrain corporate abuses and neglect. It concludes that US and European scholars can nevertheless fruitfully engage with each other: recent European experience can inform current US debates about Sullivan and reforming CDA 230; European scrutiny of its regulations on offensive and hate speech should be influenced by the US constitutional prohibition against viewpoint discrimination
Lanthionine synthetase C-like protein 1 (LanCL1):a therapeutic target for neuropathic pain
No full textSince the discovery of the mammalian lanthionine synthetase C-like (LanCL) proteins, there has been considerable interest in identifying their functions. Using LAT8881, a novel peptide ligand for LanCL1, we confirm a key role for LanCL1 in chronic neuropathic sensitisation, with little effect on inflammatory hypersensitivity or physiological nociception. LAT8881 reversed mechanical allodynia in multiple rodent neuropathic models, including chronic constriction injury (CCI), where it suppressed spontaneous ectopic firing in vivo at the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), wind-up and spontaneous activity in wide dynamic range (WDR) neurons in the dorsal horn. It also induced membrane potential hyperpolarisation and suppressed spontaneous and primary-afferent-mediated excitatory eventsin ex vivo spinal cord. To identify protein targets of LAT8881, a photo-affinity conjugate of the active metabolite was used to pull-down LanCL1 as the binding target in spinal cord. This was validated with siRNA knockdown of LanCL1 in DRG, which blocked LAT8881 activity. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a functional re-organisation of LanCL1 in neuropathic models, with a reduced cytosolic expression in the DRG and increased expression in satellite glia. These findings establish LanCL1 as a critical mediator of neuropathic hypersensitivity and a prime target for clinical translation
Superhydrophobic coatings for drag reduction and noise control of circular cylinders in air flow
No full textA superhydrophobic coating has been assessed for its ability to reduce both aerodynamic drag and aeroacoustic noise for a cylinder in a cross-flow of air. Drag contributes significantly to the operation costs of transportation vehicles as well as to greenhouse gas and dangerous NOx emissions. In addition, pervasive noise pollution threatens public health, socio-economic development, and ecological systems. Many technological solutions to reduce both drag and noise from bodies moving through either air or water have been researched and developed to date. In the current work, a superhydrophobic coating, which is typically used for the reduction of hydrodynamic drag in water was assessed in air in an attempt to identify a cross-disciplinary opportunity. A polymer coating containing S iO2@TiO2 coreshell nanoparticles in a solvent-based polyurethane binder was applied to a 22 mm diameter aluminium cylinder and tested in aerodynamic and aeroacoustic wind tunnels. Free-stream velocities were varied from 10 m/s to 60 m/s, corresponding to a Reynolds number range of 1.4×104 to 8.4×104 based on the cylinder diameter. Drag reductions of up to 11% and noise reductions of 3-4 dB were measured compared to reference uncoated and smooth cylinders
Family strategies for socialisation in minority languages in informal social settings:The creation of ex novo networks in Elx (País Valencià) and Encamp (Andorra)
No full textThe Risk of Writing:Disobedient Scribes in Medieval Monasteries
No full textThis article investigates an important but hitherto little studied aspect of medieval monasticism and manuscript culture by discerning and analysing four ways in which writing (or not writing) could constitute disobedience: refusal, deviation, subversion, and presumption. Aiming to establish a working typology of scribal disobedience, the author offers a conceptual and terminological framework for discussing and distinguishing different strategies of negotiating, circumventing, and undermining abbatial authority and control through acts of writing, each with its own implications. Drawing on a wide range of published and unpublished sources from across the Latin West with a focus on the area North of the Alps in the period c.1000–1250, the article hopes to both broaden and nuance our understanding of the risks taken by medieval monastic scribes, and of the severe consequences and punishments they faced for their lack of obedience
A cross-disciplinary way forward in the study of movement
No full textMotion is intertwined with all living and non-living entities. It impacts on a myriad of processes across spatial, temporal and organisational scales. Within life sciences, the mechanisms underlying the vast array of observed movement behaviours have created a community of modellers conversing through a common language. This language, born from the fusion of concepts, tools and techniques to study the motion of biological organisms in all its shapes and forms, is collectively called the mathematics of movement. The language vocabulary has steadily expanded in recent times, thanks in part to modern tracking technologies that allow the recording of movement paths with an ever increasing resolution of an ever expanding number of species. While these empirical advances and the parallel progress in the analysis of tracking data and their underlying models have been instrumental to understand the challenges that our ecosystem and our health face, their increased sophistication have created semantic barriers between movement modellers across disciplines. In the spirit of Newton’s tradition, as we draw near the third century anniversary of his passing, we lessen these barriers by highlighting within a past, present and future perspective the value and opportunities in employing a shared approach with common metrics for the study of movement
The Problem of Digital Trade Regulation:Silences Regarding Labour and their Potential Disruption by a Sustainability Agenda
No full textThe growing impact of digital trade on work in global supply chains is readily detectable but there are curious regulatory silences on labour-related issues. The key problem identified in digital trade law is national obstruction to the free flow of data needed to promote online ordering and delivery of goods and services. In comparison, the concerns of those whose work is constitutive of digital trade, such as platform workers, are largely overlooked. Arguably, provisions often found in trade agreements relating to digital privacy and the effects of algorithmic management could be utilised by those at work. However, there remain uncertainties regarding their scope and therefore their effect on labour markets. Meanwhile, other labour-related issues concerning migration have not even entered the digital trade governance discourse. The case for addressing these silences is presented here, alongside exploration of the potential for a sustainability agenda to disrupt and reshape this representation of the digital trade problem. In this respect, reference to ‘digital inclusion’ in trade agreements seems to suggest that no one should be left behind, including those in the world of work. Sustainability objectives can also be linked to ‘digital product passports’ which could address breaches of fundamental international labour standards associated with production and disposal of digital hardware in the circular economy. However, it is much too early to say that we have witnessed a genuine revolution in the dominant perception of what it is appropriate to regulate in the sphere of digital trade. Labour remains marginalised