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Trust and Mistrust in Premodern Europe and the Mediterranean
No full textThis volume uncovers the ways in which trust and mistrust affected people’s lives in premodern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Trust is a fundamental part of human relationships. It forms the basis of our connections with people and institutions in a variety of ways. But without reference to the great variety of meanings and experiences of trust in history, particularly the premodern past, we fail to grasp both the subtleties and the true significance of the topic. Through exploration of the nuances of the construction, maintenance, and breakdown of trust and trusting relationships, this volume demonstrates that trust functions in different ways in different contexts. It illuminates how the study of trust today points to new interpretations of life in the past, and how study of the past can offer valuable perspectives on life in the present
The relationship between expelled eggs, morbidity and age in a Schistosoma mansoni endemic setting in Uganda: Implications for current elimination policies
Get PDFDirect morbidity assessments are rarely included in monitoring and evaluation of Schistosoma mansoni mass drug administration programmes. This is despite morbidity reduction being the leading objective of control and elimination as a public health problem in the World Health Organization (WHO) targets. Instead, the number of eggs-per-gram (EPG) of faeces are used as a morbidity proxy. Furthermore, current WHO guidelines use infection intensity thresholds to determine where and when MDA is to be implemented. However, recent work has begun to question this assumption of a direct association between infection intensity in intestinal schistosomiasis and host morbidity. Here we aimed to examine the potential association between S. mansoni infection intensity and morbidity from pre-school-aged children (PSAC) through to elderly individuals, living in Bugoto, Uganda. Prevalence and intensities of S. mansoni infection were diagnosed by Kato-Katz and point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen tests (POC-CCAs) in 287 individuals aged 3-74 years, from Bugoto, Uganda. In addition to data on anaemia and self-reported symptoms, abdominal ultrasound examinations were conducted to identify liver parenchyma image pattern (IP), portal vein dilation (PVD) and left parasternal line (PSL) enlargement. Malaria status was determined using rapid diagnostic testing. Generalised additive models estimated associations between morbidity outcomes and infection intensity/presence, diagnostic method, co-infections, age and sex. The prevalence of positive IP scores, dilated PVD, enlarged PSL and anaemia were 9%, 34%, 33% and 13% respectively. Neither S. mansoni infection intensity or status were significantly associated with PVD, PSL, or anaemia. Age was the most consistent predictor of morbidity, with the highest burden of PVD, PSL and anaemia in PSAC. Malaria infection was also positively associated with PVD and anaemia. A positive POC-CCA predicted only self-reported blood in stool. Our findings add to growing evidence that current infection intensity is an inappropriate proxy for schistosomiasis morbidity, urging a revaluation of tools and targets. The observed prevalence of morbidities in PSAC evidence a need to elucidate the impact of less-specific morbidities, past S. mansoni and other parasitic infections on host health, and adds urgency to the on-going roll out of treatment to this age group
The role of large ungulate grazers on Ixodes ricinus and tick-borne pathogens in the New Forest - a case study for future rewilded landscapes
Get PDFLarge ungulate grazers can manage habitats via conservation grazing, a practice using livestock to control vegetation growth, which has many ecological benefits but has the potential to provide additional hosts for ticks and consequently have an impact on tick-borne disease risk. Cattle and sheep are suspected to be transmission hosts for several tick-transmitted pathogens, so the presence of livestock could increase disease hazard. However, some ungulate species do not transmit other pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.), so conservation grazing could reduce prevalence of these pathogens, and thus environmental disease hazard, by diverting ticks from feeding on transmission hosts. To better understand these dynamics, we used a paired experiment in the New Forest in southern England. Questing ticks were collected at 20 sites between 2021 and 2023. Ten sites were inside “inclosures” (New Forest term for fenced woodlands to exclude livestock) and the remaining ten were not fenced, which permitted livestock grazing. Grazing led to significantly shorter ground vegetation and fewer questing Ixodes ricinus nymphs. We tested 2974 nymphs for multiple pathogens and determined there were no significant differences in nymphal infection prevalence or density of infected nymphs for B. burgdorferi s.l. and Anaplasma phagocytophilum between sites. However, we found that the density of infected nymphs for Borrelia garinii and Borrelia valaisiana was lower where there was grazing. In this study, we show that conservation grazing by ponies and cattle could lower tick density, probably by affecting the vegetation understory, and could potentially lower disease hazard for some genospecies of B. burgdorferi s.l. but not A. phagocytophilum
Schools and food
No full textThis entry aims to provide an overview of critical debates about school food across the globe with reference to equity and social justice. In the Global North, the number of households where children are experiencing food insecurity has doubled. In the Global South, efforts to transform the lives of children continue to rise. Providing nutritious food for children in school is a way to address social inequities, particularly for those who may be going hungry. Whilst research on school food has been conducted at length from a nutritional perspective, the subject of school food has still not evolved in educational studies. Critical debates in social justice and education have the potential to make key contributions
Exploring player experience factors for designing persuasive recruitment games
No full textPersuasive games, designed to change attitudes and inspire behavior change, have attracted significant interest. In particular, persuasive recruitment games are increasingly in demand due to under recruitment in many occupations. However, research on persuasive games often lacks clear design guidance and tends to focus on individual player experience factors, rather than identifying and prioritizing the most influential ones that should shape design decisions. Our study (n = 957) examined how player experience impacts recruitment interventions aimed at encouraging careers in teaching. We compared three approaches; a persuasive game, a “realistic job preview” (RJP) and a control game. Effectiveness was measured by increases in Interest (in teaching), Person-vocation (PV) fit and Self-efficacy. Results showed that the persuasive game was the most effective at increasing Interest, while the RJP had the greatest impact on PV fit and Self-efficacy. Interest was primarily influenced by experiences of meaning, followed by mastery. Conversely, mastery followed by meaning were the strongest influences on PV fit and Self-efficacy. Experiences of immersion or autonomy had no significant effect on persuasion. We discuss how understanding which aspects of game experience have most impact can aid the design of persuasive games for recruitment and other purposes
New approach to supporting stakeholders in English medium instruction through a global online community
No full textWith the internationalisation of higher education, English medium instruction (EMI) has become increasingly common
in non-English-speaking contexts. However, research highlights a range of challenges in EMI implementation, including
insufficient collaboration between content and language teachers, limited professional development opportunities for teachers,
and inadequate support for early career researchers (ECRs). In response, this study explores how an online global network—
The education, languages and internationalisation network (ELINET)—supports various stakeholders involved in EMI and
related fields. The study employs a mixed-methods design, combining an online questionnaire (n = 103) and follow-up semistructured interviews (n = 10) with ELINET users. Findings indicate that stakeholders perceive ELINET as useful in three
main areas: providing accessible resources, fostering a supportive community, and enabling professional development. However,
data also reveal limitations with engagement across different stakeholder groups, particularly between researchers and teaching
practitioners. The study contributes to the understanding of how global online communities may function as platforms for
addressing the bottom-up needs of EMI stakeholders and offers practical insights into the design of similar networks
Enhancing network performance in structured geometric network topologies: strategies for quality-of-service optimisation
No full textThe topology of a computer network is the basis for building a high-capacity, low-congestion network infrastructure. At present, the research on computer network topologies rests mainly on typically unstructured networks such as mesh networks. Our initial research presented in [1] explored the potential of using structured geometric network infrastructure designs to improve network performance. In this paper, we take our study forward to evaluate the performance of structured geometric network infrastructure designs under three QoS disciplines, namely weighted fair queuing (WFQ), priority queuing (PQ) and modified weighted round robin (MWRR). In this paper, we simulate structured geometric and unstructured network structures using Riverbed Modeler 18.9 to evaluate network performance. The simulation results illustrate that the structured geometric network topologies have better results than the unstructured network in response time and network delay under a high-load configuration, and the QoS algorithm provides advantages for voice services by prioritising the transmission of vital services
Deterioration of a compacted soil due to suction loss and desiccation cracking
No full textThis paper presents the results of laboratory testing of a clayey soil taken from a road subgrade in Tanzania. The results revealed a reduction in the soil water retention capacity, accompanied by shifts in the water retention curves with successive cycles. These changes affected the soil response to shear loading, resulting in decreased shear strength and stiffness with hydraulic cycles. While the soil experienced suction losses due to desiccation cracks and hysteresis effects, these suction variations alone could not account for the observed changes in shear strength, implying that the development of desiccation cracks contributed to reduced strength and stiffness. The results showed that the degradation effect of crack development on the shear strength and elastic modulus of the soil during hydraulic cycles could be justified using a macroscopic degree of saturation, i.e., the degree of saturation of large pores external to the aggregates, through a microstructural-based effective stress approach. This allowed the increase in the large pores resulting from crack development to be accounted for and hence the successive reductions in shear strength and stiffness with drying-wetting cycles. These deterioration effects need to be considered for design of geotechnical infrastructure to ensure stability and resilience of infrastructure over time
Generative deep learning for designing printable multifunctional microstructural materials: application to piezocomposites
No full textThis study presents a novel generative deep learning framework tailored to design printable, multifunctional microstructural materials. Our approach integrates a custom-developed voxelized microstructure generator, HetMiGen, with a new machine learning model, TransVNet, which together facilitates the rapid and accurate design of materials with desirable multifunctional properties, especially those showing competing properties with microstructural changes, such as being soft and piezoelectrically sensitive concurrently. Keys to our methodology are the efficient computational homogenization using fast Fourier transform (FFT) techniques and a bi-directional establishment of structure-property relationships that significantly condenses the design cycle. The effectiveness of our framework is validated through the experimental manufacture and testing of piezocomposite microstructures, confirming computational predictions. Results demonstrate the framework's capability to expedite the development of materials with tailored functionalities, offering significant implications for advancing material design technologies
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