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Swatting flies: Biting insects as non-invasive samplers for mammalian population genomics
Get PDFAdvances in next-generation sequencing have allowed the use of DNA obtained from unusual sources for wildlife studies. However, these samples have been used predominantly to sequence mitochondrial DNA for species identification while population genetics analyses have been rare. Since next-generation sequencing allows indiscriminate detection of all DNA fragments in a sample, technically it should be possible to sequence whole genomes of animals from environmental samples. Here we used a blood-feeding insect, tsetse fly, to target whole genome sequences of wild animals. Using pools of flies, we compared the ability to recover genomic data from hosts using the short-read sequencing (Illumina) and adaptive sampling of long-read data generated using Oxford nanopore technology (ONT). We found that most of the short-read data (85%–99%) was dominated by tsetse fly DNA and that adaptive sampling on the ONT platform did not substantially reduce this proportion. However, once tsetse reads were removed, the remaining data for both platforms tended to belong to the dominant host expected in the tsetse fly blood meal. Reads mapping to elephants, warthogs and giraffes were recovered more reliably than for buffalo, and there was high variance in the contribution of DNA by individual flies to the pools, suggesting that there are host specific biases. For elephants, using short-read sequencing we were able to identify over 300,000 unfiltered SNPs, which we used to estimate the allele frequencies and expected heterozygosity for the population. Overall, our results show that at least for certain wild mammals, it is possible to recover genome-wide host data from blood-feeding insects
On the quality of relational justice
Get PDFBy emphasising the role of concepts like social status, power and respect, all relational egalitarians seek to demonstrate that there is more to the political concept of equality than the distribution of goods. While there is a broad consensus on the nature of equality, however, the nature of justice is a matter of internal dispute. The aim of this paper is to disentangle these argumentative threads, building on work in early relational egalitarian scholarship to develop a relational approach to justice, both distinct from the distributive approach to justice and isolated from the relational approach to equality. In doing so, I reveal possible and sometimes surprising alliances between relational egalitarians and other scholars on the nature of justice
Arithmetic geometry of character varieties with regular monodromy
Get PDFWe count points on a family of smooth character varieties with regular semisimple and regular unipotent monodromies. We show that these varieties are polynomial count and obtain an explicit expression for their
E-polynomials using complex representation theory of finite reductive groups. As an application, we give an example of a cohomologically rigid representation which is not physically rigid
A review on the effects of flavan-3-ols, their metabolites, and their dietary sources on gut barrier integrity
No full textImpairment of gut barrier integrity is associated with the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and coeliac disease. While many aspects of diet have been linked to improved barrier function, (poly)phenols, a broad group of bioactive phytochemicals, are of potential interest. The (poly)phenolic sub-class, flavan-3-ols, have been investigated in some detail owing to their abundance in commonly consumed foods, including grapes, tea, apples, cocoa, berries, and nuts. This review summarises studies on the effects of flavan-3-ols, their microbiome-mediated metabolites, and food sources of these compounds, on gut barrier structure. Extensive evidence demonstrates that flavan-3-ol rich foods, individual flavan-3-ols (e.g., (epi)catechin, epi(gallo)catechin-3-O-gallate, and pro(antho)cyanidins), and their related microbiota-mediated metabolites, could be effective in protecting and restoring the integrity of the gut barrier. In this context, various endpoints are assessed, including transepithelial electrical resistance of the epithelial layer and expression of tight junction proteins and mucins, in ex vivo, in vitro, and animal models. The differences in bioactivity reported for barrier integrity are structure–function dependent, related to the (poly)phenolic source or the tested compound, as well as their dose, exposure time, and presence or absence of a stressor in the experimental system. Overall, these results suggest that flavan-3-ols and related compounds could help to maintain, protect, and restore gut barrier integrity, indicating that they might contribute to the beneficial properties associated with the intake of their dietary sources. However, rigorous and robustly designed human intervention studies are needed to confirm these experimental observations
Accelerating federated codistillation via adaptive computation amount at network edge
Get PDFThe advent of Federated Learning (FL) empowers IoT devices to collectively train a shared model without local data exposure. In order to address the issue of Non-IID that causes model performance degradation, the recently proposed federated codistillation framework has shown great potential. However, due to the system heterogeneity of devices, the federated codistillation framework still faces a synchronization barrier issue, resulting in a non-negligible waiting time with a fixed computation amount (epoch or batch size) assigned. In this paper, we propose Adaptive Computation Amount Allocation (ACAA) to accelerate federated codistillation. Specifically, we leverage a criterion, solution inexactness, to quantify the computation amount. We dynamically adjust the solution inexactness of devices based on their computing power and bandwidth to enable them nearly simultaneous completion of training, reducing synchronization waiting time without sacrificing the training performance. The minimum required computation amount is determined by the coefficient of the distillation term and the gradient dissimilarity bound of Non-IID. We theoretically analyze the convergence of ACAA. Extensive experiments show that, compared to benchmark algorithms, ACAA can accelerate training by up to 5×
The Sailor King - Estrenyon 1 - Estrenyon 2
No full textArt Installation: The Sailor King. Includes two films: Estrenyon 1 screened online 4th February 2025 and Estrenyon 2 screened in person 1st June 2025. Launceston Poetry Festival 2025. This work was funded by the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies
Beyond mute and block: adoption and effectiveness of safety tools in social VR, from ubiquitous harassment to social sculpting
Get PDFHarassment in Social Virtual Reality (SVR) is a growing concern. The current SVR landscape features inconsistent access to non-standardised safety features, with minimal empirical evidence on their real-world effectiveness, usage and impact. We examine the use and effectiveness of safety tools across 12 popular SVR platforms by surveying 100 users about their experiences of different types of harassment and their use of features like muting, blocking, personal spaces and safety gestures. While harassment remained common-including hate speech, virtual stalking, and physical harassment-many find safety features insufficient or inconsistently applied. Reactive tools like muting and blocking are widely used, largely driven by users' familiarity from other platforms. Safety tools are also used to proactively curate individual virtual experiences, protecting users from harassment, but inadvertently leading to fragmented social spaces. We advocate for standardising proactive, rather than reactive, anti-harassment tools across platforms, and present insights into future safety feature development
Pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: a systematic review
Get PDFBackground:
Long term glucocorticoid treatment in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is associated with a high incidence of fragility fractures. This systematic review aims to assess the current evidence for pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment for osteoporosis in children and adults with DMD.
Methods:
Three online databases (Embase, Medline, Cochrane Library) were searched for studies that evaluated interventions for treatment or prevention of osteoporosis in DMD. Included studies had to report changes in bone mineral density (BMD) or bone mineral content (BMC) Z-scores or fracture incidence.
Results:
Nineteen studies were identified, including twelve that evaluated bisphosphonate, three evaluated testosterone (2 studies of the same patient group), one evaluated vitamin D/calcium, one teriparatide, and two evaluated vibration therapy. Only two randomised-controlled trials were found, one of intravenous bisphosphonate and one of vibration therapy. Changes in lumbar spine BMD ranged from −0.3 to +1.3 in studies of bisphosphonate and − 0.2 to 0.0 with vibration therapy, whereas this was +0.38 with testosterone and + 0.9 with vitamin D/calcium. There was limited information on impact on fracture in all studies. None of the pharmacological studies involved a fracture naïve group at baseline. In addition, none addressed a group of individuals over 18 years at baseline.
Conclusion:
This systematic review provides evidence for the effectiveness of bisphosphonate therapy in improving bone density in children and adolescents with DMD. However, there is less information on the impact on fracture. The review did not find studies exclusively in those over 18 years old with DMD and limited information on non-bisphosphonate pharmacological agents
Assessment of temperature dynamics during methane oxidation in a pilot scale compost biofilter
Get PDFExploring Peer Evaluation Methods in Group Projects of Software Engineering Education
Get PDFThis Innovative Practice category full paper proposes an innovative approach to enhance peer evaluations in group-based learning. It aims at enhancing the overall peer assessment experience for students in software engineering education. In the software industry, it is all about teamwork for software development projects. There is a need to nurture students to work collaboratively in group-based learning. The collaborative milieu inherent in group projects has long been acknowledged within the sphere of software engineering education. In our university, students are cultivated the effective teamwork within the purview of CSC2101 - Professional Software Development and Team Projects (PSD & TP1), an undergraduate course in the domain of software engineering. The terrain of software group projects still presents its own array of obstacles, such as unequal contributions, internal conflicts, peer evaluation mechanism, etc. This paper first discusses the limitations of the current peer evaluation methods in this course. Next, the proposed methodology is presented that embodies four key elements: transparency, anonymity, structured assessment, and qualitative feedback. The implementation details of the proposed approaches are then described consisting of the following features and mechanisms: online platform, anonymous profiles, public results, and structured evaluation forms. The rationales for the proposed peer evaluation techniques are discussed. The experiment studies are conducted involving 40 students in our university. It includes numerous characteristics of the peer evaluation experience in order to gain a full picture of existing peer evaluation approaches within software engineering education. The survey results show a generally positive mentality toward the proposed features
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