192815 research outputs found
Sort by
Countryside champions or urban allies? What rural and urban citizens want from elected representatives
Get PDFThe rural-urban divide plays an increasingly clear role in many democracies. Theories suggest institutions and politicians are judged partially based on how people perceive them to represent their kinds of communities. However, the criteria they use for rural/urban representation, and the weight they give it in political choice, remain obscure. What do rural and urban citizens want from their elected representatives? Do rural voters prefer rural ‘champions’ as their representatives? Are urbanites equally drawn to ‘pro-urban’ politicians? We use a pre-registered candidate choice conjoint experiment in Britain with a large rural oversample (n = 3270), varying politicians' residential history, engagement with rural/urban interest groups, affective stance towards rural/urban areas, and advocacy on behalf of rural/urban areas beyond the constituency. Consistent with theory, ruralites generally place greater emphasis on place-based representation. They reward candidates with histories of rural residence (while urbanites do not value urban residence), and for advocating for similar areas outside the locality. They place greater value on politicians working with interest groups representing their area type. Ruralites are also more rewarding of positive in-group affect and unlike urbanites, do not punish candidates for negative, resentful affect about outgroup areas. These effects are pronounced among resentful ruralites, as they tend to favour candidates with an explicitly rural focus of representation
Measurement of the Lund jet plane in hadronic decays of top quarks and W bosons with the ATLAS detector
Get PDFThe Lund jet plane (LJP) is measured for the first time in tt ¯ events, using 140 fb−1 of √s = 13 TeV pp collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The LJP is a two-dimensional observable of the sub-structure of hadronic jets that acts as a proxy for the kinematics of parton showers and hadron formation. The observable is constructed from charged particles and is measured for R = 1.0 anti-kt jets with transverse momentum above 350 GeV containing the full decay products of either a top quark or a daughter W boson. The other top quark in the event is identified from its decay into a b-quark, an electron or a muon and a neutrino. The measurement is corrected for detector effects and compared with a range of Monte Carlo predictions sensitive to different aspects of the hadronic decays of the heavy particles. In the W-boson-initiated jets, all the predictions are incompatible with the measurement. In the top quark initiated jets, disagreement with all predictions is observed in smaller subregions of the plane, and with a subset of the predictions across the fiducial plane. The measurement could be used to improve the tuning of Monte Carlo generators, for better modelling of hadronic decays of heavy quarks and bosons, or to improve the performance of jet taggers
Promising results but caution needed in GLP-1RA large scale epidemiology
Get PDFInvestigating the association between glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RAs) and incident disease across 175 health outcomes in US Veterans with diabetes, Xie et al. recently reported lower risk for cardiokidney disease and substance use disorders, but higher risk for pancreatitis, gastrointestinal disorders, and arthritis. However, many apparent novel findings need testing or validation in randomized trials
Lactams exhibit potent antifungal activity against monospecies and multispecies interkingdom biofilms on a novel hydrogel skin model
Get PDFInfections of intact and damaged skin barriers and keratin are frequently associated with complex biofilm communities containing bacteria and fungi, yet there are limited options for successful management. This study intended to focus on the utility of some novel proprietary lactam molecules, quorum sensing (QS)–derived halogenated furanones, which act to block the QS pathway, against key fungal pathogens of the skin (Candida albicans, Malassezia furfur and Microsporum gypseum). Moreover, we aimed to assess how these actives performed against complex interkingdom biofilms in a clinically relevant model. Two lactam derivatives were tested against a panel of important fungal pathogens and then quantitatively assessed against simple and increasingly complex interkingdom biofilm models on polystyrene coverslips and a novel keratin hydrogel system. The lactams were shown to be effective against a wide range of fungal species in the planktonic and biofilm forms, with no ability to regrow. The fungal component of the multispecies biofilm models was significantly reduced with lactam treatment. Lactam treatment was also comparably effective compared to the non-prescription topical antifungal ‘Lamisil’ against C. albicans early and late biofilms. This study highlights the effectiveness of lactams as a novel antimicrobial for the management of the polymicrobial and interkingdom multispecies biofilms
Beyond GWTC-3: analyzing and verifying new gravitational-wave events from community catalogues
Get PDFThe public release of data from the LIGO and Virgo detectors has enabled the identification of potential gravitational wave signals by independent teams using alternative methodologies. In addition to the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration's GWTC-3 catalogue there have been several additional works claiming the detection of signals in the data from the first three observing runs. In this paper we present an analysis of these new signals using the same analysis workflow which was used to generate the GWTC-2.1 and GWTC-3 catalogues published by the LVK, matching the analysis configuration as closely as possible, and we provide our parameter estimation results in a format comparable to those of the GWTC-3 data release for 57 events not previously analyzed in LVK analyses. We find our results to be broadly consistent with those published by other groups. We also include a discussion of the workflow developed for this analysis
Refining paleoelevation estimates of the European Alps by simulating Middle Miocene climate and δ 18 O responses to diachronous surface uplift scenarios
Get PDFEstimates of past surface elevations are essential for understanding the evolution of the Earth’s physiography and
biodiversity distribution. Stable isotope paleoaltimetry is widely used to infer paleoelevation due to a robust
systematic inverse relationship between elevation and isotopic composition (δ18O, δD) of meteoric waters (i.e.,
isotopic lapse rate). The difference in δ18O of paleo-meteoric water reconstructed from coeval proxy materials
between adjacent low- and high-elevation sites (Δδ18Op) is transformed into paleoelevation changes using such
isotopic lapse rates (δ-δ approach). Most often, the isotopic lapse rate is assumed to be stationary through time
and space and, therefore, relies on modern estimates to constrain paleoelevation changes. This study employs
model-based sensitivity analysis to assess the spatio-temporal variability of the isotopic lapse rate of the European Alps and to quantify the magnitude of uncertainties in paleoelevation estimates associated with the use of
modern isotopic lapse rates. We use the high-resolution isotope-tracking climate model to simulate the δ18O in
precipitation (δ18Op) response to Middle Miocene conditions (e.g., atmospheric CO2, palaeogeography) and
diachronous west-to-east surface uplift propagating along the Alpine orogen. The simulated isotopic lapse rates
become shallower by ∼1.0 ‰ km− 1 in response to Middle Miocene conditions compared to the Pre-Industrial
period and vary within the range of ±1.5 ‰ km− 1 for the diachronous surface uplift scenarios of the Alps.
Applying the simulated isotopic lapse rates to Miocene Δδ18Op proxy reconstructions suggests an overestimation
of Central Alps paleoelevation by ∼1.5 km when using modern rainfall-based isotopic lapse rate across the Alps.
However, the simulated Miocene isotopic lapse rates estimate aligns more closely with modern global river-based
lapse rates, suggesting they are more suitable than rainfall-based estimates when a paleoclimate-constrained
isotopic lapse rate is unavailable
A selective history of Scottish PEN from 1950 to 1997
Get PDFThis short history of post-World War II Scottish PEN, based on the PEN archives in Edinburgh and London, discusses Scottish involvement in the first post-War PEN congresses; the Edinburgh PEN congress in 1950, and Hugh MacDiarmid's protest against UNESCO's involvement; the Frederick Niven Prize, as an indicator of Scottish PEN's relation to current Scottish writing from the 1950s to Alasdair Gray's Lanark (1981); the Edinburgh PEN International Congress in 1997; and the role of the Scottish ex-diplomat Paul Henderson Scott in the 1990s in PEN International's policies towards small nations, ethnic conflicts, and minority cultures and languages, and in the creation of Makars’ Court, Edinburgh
CONSORT 2025 statement: updated guideline for reporting randomised trials
Get PDFWell designed and properly executed randomised trials are considered the most reliable evidence on the benefits of healthcare interventions. However, there is overwhelming evidence that the quality of reporting is not optimal. The CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement was designed to improve the quality of reporting and provides a minimum set of items to be included in a report of a randomised trial. CONSORT was first published in 1996, then updated in 2001 and 2010. Here, we present the updated CONSORT 2025 statement, which aims to account for recent methodological advancements and feedback from end users. We conducted a scoping review of the literature and developed a project-specific database of empirical and theoretical evidence related to CONSORT, to generate a list of potential changes to the checklist. The list was enriched with recommendations provided by the lead authors of existing CONSORT extensions (Harms, Outcomes, Non-pharmacological Treatment), other related reporting guidelines (TIDieR) and recommendations from other sources (eg, personal communications). The list of potential changes to the checklist was assessed in a large, international, online, three-round Delphi survey involving 317 participants and discussed at a two-day online expert consensus meeting of 30 invited international experts. We have made substantive changes to the CONSORT checklist. We added seven new checklist items, revised three items, deleted one item, and integrated several items from key CONSORT extensions. We also restructured the CONSORT checklist, with a new section on open science. The CONSORT 2025 statement consists of a 30-item checklist of essential items that should be included when reporting the results of a randomised trial and a diagram for documenting the flow of participants through the trial. To facilitate implementation of CONSORT 2025, we have also developed an expanded version of the CONSORT 2025 checklist, with bullet points eliciting critical elements of each item. Authors, editors, reviewers, and other potential users should use CONSORT 2025 when writing and evaluating manuscripts of randomised trials to ensure that trial reports are clear and transparent
Red Pockets: An Offering
No full textEvery spring during the Qingming Festival, people return to their home villages in China to sweep the tombs of their ancestors, making offerings of food and incense to prevent them from becoming hungry ghosts that could cause misfortune. Yet for the past century, a time ruptured by war and revolution, many tombs have been left unattended. Following a record year of wildfires, Alice Mah returns to her family’s rice village in South China, and discovers that her ancestors are almost forgotten, and there are no tombs left to sweep. Instead, there are incalculable clan debts to be paid.
Here Mah chronicles her journey from the rice villages of South China to her home in post-industrial England, through the Chinatowns of Western Canada where she grew up, to the isles and industry of Scotland where she now lives. As years pass and fires rage on, she becomes increasingly troubled by her ancestors’ neglected graves. Her research on pollution gives way to growing eco-anxiety, culminating in a crisis of spiritual belief.
A haunting blend of memoir, cultural history and environmental exploration, Red Pockets confronts the hungry ghosts of our neglected ancestors, while searching for an acceptable offering. What do we owe to past and future generations? What do we owe to the places that we inhabit
The genome sequence of the harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758)
Get PDFWe present a genome assembly from a female specimen of Phocoena phocoena (harbour porpoise; Chordata; Mammalia; Artiodactyla; Phocoenidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 2,512.71 megabases. Most of the assembly (94.41%) is scaffolded into 22 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the X sex chromosome. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled, with a length of 16.38 kilobases
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Open Research Online? Become a CORE Member to access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard! 👇