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The dependence of urban tick and Lyme disease hazards on the hinterlands
Get PDFWithin- and between-city contexts and interactions shape our experiences of city life. However, a gap in understanding is how the wider landscape context of cities and the interactions with hinterlands influence urban ecology and health hazards. Using a meta-ecosystem framework, we fill this gap for the tick-borne Lyme disease ecological system by comparing the tick and Lyme disease hazards of urban and hinterland sites for 16 UK cities. We discover that the environmental hazards of ticks and Lyme disease of urban greenspaces are two- and threefold lower, respectively, than those of hinterland woodlands. Crucially, urban tick and Lyme disease hazards are shaped by tick abundance and the landcover (woodland and built-up) of hinterlands, but not of cities themselves. This highlights how rural–urban interactions form meta-ecosystems, and urban eco-epidemiology can depend on the characteristics of the surrounding rural landscape. Therefore, to better understand urban ecological processes and to mitigate disease risk in cities, it may be necessary to consider environmental factors in the hinterland such as landcover and disease hazard outside cities
Assessment of disaster resilience performance of structural systems in relation to design response spectrum
Get PDFThe system-reliability-based resilience analysis facilitates the investigation of the joint capability of structural components to resist system failures. This approach has recently been extended to evaluate the resilience of structures subjected to stochastic excitations, such as earthquakes, based on the concept of reliability and redundancy curves. The reliability and redundancy curves are evaluated in a manner similar to traditional seismic fragility curves and are, therefore, capable of capturing the site-to-site variability of hazard characteristics, such as frequency content and duration. To quantitatively examine these aspects, the present study conducts a comparative analysis of two structures with identical designs but located at two different sites: Gyeongju, Korea, and Vancouver, Canada. The excitation properties at the two sites, which exhibit different frequency characteristics, are described using site-specific design response spectrum curves. Subsequently, a set of ground motion acceleration time histories is generated using a spectrum-compatible ground motion modeling approach. The generated ground motion sets for each site are applied to a 6-story frame structure, and a resilience analysis is performed. The numerical study demonstrates that the system-reliability based resilience analysis successfully captures site-specific characteristics and that these characteristics can significantly influence resilience evaluation results
Chip-scale electrically driven superconducting coherent photon sources for quantum information processing
No full textLasers and superconductors both rely on macroscopic quantum coherence. In lasers, coherence arises through stimulated emission, whereas in superconductors, it results from spontaneous symmetry breaking of the quantum ground state. This coherence underpins superconducting devices such as Josephson junctions, which generate electromagnetic radiation under an applied voltage. The emission frequency is governed by the superconducting energy gap, allowing operation across the microwave to terahertz regimes. High-temperature superconductors extend this range up to 15 THz. Furthermore, hybrid superconductor–semiconductor platforms, such as superconducting light-emitting diodes, open pathways to optical photon generation, including single- and entangled- photon emission. Here, I highlight how superconducting materials and Josephson junction-based hybrid devices enable compact, chip-scale, electrically driven, electrically tunable, power-efficient coherent light sources that span the microwave, millimetre-wave, terahertz and optical regimes and explore their potential for emerging quantum technologies and scalable quantum information processing
Keeping the wheel turning: an ongoing critical reflection on the Summer Pre-sessional
Get PDFThe Summer Pre-sessional (SPS) can be a difficult place to operate. Intensive working environments; tight turnarounds; unpaid overtime - these realities are revealed in the casual language of recovery that the EAP community instinctively reaches for when describing our signature summer programmes and which provided the initial inspiration for a talk at the 2023 BALEAP Conference: a critical reflection on the SPS. This paper offers an extended and ongoing reflection, incorporating the essential content of that original paper as well as the wider conference tone where uncertainty over the longer-term health of the SPS was evident. It is hoped that, with reflective distance and modest adjustments, some sense of a more hopeful future for the Pre-sessional may emerge, one that recentres community and exercises some quiet resistance to prevailing metrics of success
A holistic approach to colostrum management: enrichment of maternal colostrum combined with extended colostrum feeding as control measures for bovine rotavirus-associated neonatal calf diarrhoea
Get PDFBovine rotavirus A (BRV-A) genotype G6P11 was identified as a cause of neonatal calf diarrhoea (NCD) in a 600-cow autumn block calving herd. Dry cows were vaccinated prior to calving. Calf faecal sample (n = 6) microbiology from calves 8‒21 days of age identified BRV-A. Colostrum sample analysis for protective antibodies to BRV-A demonstrated optimal vaccine efficacy. Sixteen clinically healthy 1‒4-day-old calves were blood sampled for serum total protein analysis, revealing sub-optimal concentrations less than 5.2 g/dL in seven of 16 calves (43.8%). A holistic approach to changes in colostrum management protocols included a reduction in calves’ time to first feed post calving, improvement in colostrum immunoglobulin G concentration to 30% Brix by enrichment with whole bovine colostrum powder, and implementation of extended colostrum feeding using whole bovine colostrum powder to supplement the commercial milk replacer ration. These changes effectively reduced the incidence of NCD in this herd from 100% (n = 430/430) measured over 10 weeks of calving to 8.6% (n = 6/70) measured over the last 4 weeks of calving, with mortality in calves less than 21 days of age reduced from 6% to 3% in the last 4 weeks of the calving block
‘My visage will be deemed a prize’: a painting of Robert Fergusson recently made public
No full textThere has long been an entangled set of puzzles over the portraiture of Robert Fergusson (1750–1774). Provenance of paintings of the poet involving the artists Alexander Runciman and Henry Raeburn as well as various poetry-edition frontispieces makes for an intriguing search for the best likeness of Fergusson. This essay recounts the difficult provenance of Fergusson portraiture drawing also on his associations, especially the likely artist of his drawing in Cape Club records. Examining also the frame of the ‘third’ painting at Barnbougle Castle acquired many decades ago by the the 5th Earl of Rosebery, and which has not been fully revealed or written about until the present essay, a likely artist is here identified for what may be the truest depiction of Fergusson we have
Signal selection and model-independent extraction of the neutrino neutral-current single π + cross section with the T2K experiment
Get PDFThis article presents a study of single π + production in neutrino neutral-current interactions (NC1π +) using the FGD1 hydrocarbon target of the ND280 detector of the T2K experiment. We report the largest sample of such events selected by any experiment, providing the first new data for this channel in over four decades and the first using a sub-GeV neutrino flux. The signal selection strategy and its performance are detailed together with validations of a robust cross section extraction methodology. The measured flux-averaged integrated cross-section is σ = (6.07 ± 1.22) × 10−41 cm2 /nucleon, 1.3 σ above the NEUT v5.4.0 expectation
What does being “research active” mean in public health practice? Exploring behavioural and motivational dimensions of research activity in English local government through perceptions from embedded researchers
Get PDFAim:
Developing policies and services to address health inequalities occurs within highly complex, political environments, and the literature points to an underutilisation of research. This ineffective mobilisation of evidence is a result of challenges emerging from both research and practice organisations. In response, many interventions have been funded to enhance “research activity” in public health decision-making, but we lack a holistic understanding of what characterises research activity in these settings. Addressing this gap, we explored behavioural and motivational dimensions that are viewed as comprising research activity in public health practice.
Subject and methods:
We undertook seven semi-structured interviews with researchers embedded in local government settings in England. As change agents holding dual affiliations with research and practice organisations, embedded researchers are ideally placed to develop comparative insights on the processes through which research activity is manifested in these contexts and to identify disparities inhibiting the flow of research evidence into practice.
Results:
We found that research activity is manifested through a variety of behaviours relating to accessing, conducting, and contributing to research, and evidence use. Motivational dimensions underlying engagement with research institutions include concerns around capability, capacity, and local value. Many of these concerns stem partly from narrow conceptualisations of the term “research” which are held by academics and decision-makers alike.
Conclusion:
Interventions seeking to enhance research activity in public health decision-making could benefit from flexibility in their language and application to build cross-organisational understanding of pressures and priorities and to account for variation in research capacity, interest, and skillsets
Delivery of care, anti-seizure medication adherence and factors affecting seizure outcomes in women with epilepsy during pregnancy: a retrospective cohort study
Get PDFObjective:
The rate of maternal mortality and obstetric complications amongst women with epilepsy during pregnancy is higher than that of the general population. The reason for this remains unclear but poor access to epilepsy specialist in a timely manner, poor medication adherence and falling levels of ASM are often stated within the published literature. We aim to explore whether this assumption is correct and consider the influence that clinical and epidemiological factors have on outcomes.
Methods:
Pregnant women with epilepsy were identified between January 2015 and June 2022 from the local obstetric register. Key clinical features were identified following a manual review of patient records. Demographic information, scheduled and unscheduled secondary care contact, maternity care and medication dispensing history were obtained from routinely collected health datasets. An adverse outcome was defined as a reported seizure or epilepsy-related hospital contact during pregnancy or within 12-weeks postpartum.
Results:
We identified 458 pregnancies from 336 WWE. An adverse epilepsy related outcome was observed in 212/458 (46%) pregnancies. Review during the pre-booking period was noted in 189/458 (41.2%) cases and during pregnancy in 302/458 (65.9%). The most common ASM monotherapy was levetiracetam (LVT)(152/285 pregnancies, 53.3%) followed by lamotrigine (LTG) (110/285 pregnancies, 38.6%). Overall, exposure to polytherapy, LTG exposure, a seizure during the preconception period and low socioeconomic status were associated with an adverse outcome.
Conclusion:
An epilepsy related admission or reported seizure was commonly experienced in WWE during pregnancy and in a small proportion of women this came after a period of seizure freedom. There is much work to be done to improve outcomes in women with epilepsy during pregnancy and the low rates of pre-conception care remain a concern. Routine preconception care would potentially allow complex issues such as ASM adherence, potential falling levels of ASM in pregnancy, driving and teratogenicity to be considered. Although seizure freedom is not possible for a significant proportion of women (both during the preconception period and pregnancy) early review in the preconception period and throughout pregnancy is likely to ensure epilepsy control is optimum and all potentially modifiable factors are considered
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