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Measurement of the branching fraction of the Λb0 → J/ψΛ decay and isospin asymmetry of B → J/ψK decays
Get PDFThis paper describes a measurement of the Λb0→J/ψΛ branching fraction using data collected with the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions from 2016 to 2018. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb−1. The branching fraction is determined relative to that of B0→J/ψKS0 decays,BΛb0→J/ψΛBB0→J/ψKS0=0.750±0.005±0.022±0.005±0.062, yielding BΛb0→J/ψΛ=3.34±0.02±0.10±0.08±0.28×10−4, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic, the third due to external inputs on branching fractions and the fourth due to the ratio of Λb0 baryon and B0 meson hadronisation fractions. In addition, the isospin asymmetry between the rates of B0→J/ψKS0 and B+→ J/ψK+ decays is measured to beAI=−0.0135±0.0004±0.0133, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic
Gender gap in entrepreneurship of education
No full textThis blog examines how gendered social conditioning shapes women students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship and constrains their career aspirations. It highlights a significant gender gap in entrepreneurship in Scotland, where women remain both underrepresented and underfunded. Student insights suggest that entrepreneurship is frequently perceived as male dominated and insufficiently visible or accessible within university education. More targeted educational methods and practices could play a critical role in addressing and reducing this gap
Measurement of CP asymmetry in D0 → KS0KS0 decays with Run 3 data
Get PDFA measurement of CP asymmetry in D0→KS0KS0 decays is reported, based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector in 2024 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.2 fb−1. The D0→KS0π+π− decay is used as calibration channel to cancel residual detection and production asymmetries. The time-integrated CP asymmetry for the D0→KS0KS0 mode is measured to be ACPD0→KS0KS0=1.86±1.04±0.41%, where the first uncertainty is statistical, and the second is systematic. This measurement represents the most precise single-experiment determination of this quantity to date
SOTL Journeys with Jenny Crow
No full textPhenomenography and belonging are two of the issues discussed when Jenny Crow paid a visit to our podcast editors Eilidh Soussi and Marie McQuade. Listen to find out more
Abstraction method shapes microbial ecology and pathogen risk in water from shallow aquifers
No full textShallow groundwater in semi-arid regions provides a critical year-round water source, naturally filtered and protected from evaporation. However, many communities continue to suffer from preventable diseases caused by waterborne pathogens. This study applies ecological theory to investigate the microbial ecology of shallow aquifers in southest Kenya. We used quantitative PCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing to characterize pathogenic indicator species and bacterial communities in three isolated sand dam aquifers across seasons and between various abstraction methods used by local communities, including sealed hand pumps (classified by the WHO as an improved source), open wells, scoop holes, and downstream surface water. Both faecal and opportunistic environmental pathogens were detected in all samples. However, our models indicate that contamination largely originates from unsealed abstraction points such as open wells and cracked hand pumps which expose water to the environment. In contrast, natural sand filtration effectively limited the dispersal of species between sample points. Abstraction method was the dominant factor shaping microbial community structure, exceeding seasonal or locational effects. Unimproved sources exhibited unstable, stressed ecosystems with reduced diversity and resilience, consistent with strong environmental selection pressures. Across all abstraction points, community composition reflected adaptation to local environmental niches that remained consistent between sites and seasons. Groundwater contained significantly fewer total microbes (16S rRNA copies) than surrounding surface water, and hand pump samples had the lowest abundance of pathogen indicators, suggesting growth-limiting conditions and effective in-dam filtration. Our findings reinforce the value of sealed, sanitary hand pumps for water abstraction from shallow sand aquifers. Ensuring robust construction and regular maintenance of such hand pumps is important for low-income regions relying on shallow groundwater for water with minimal secondary treatment. Potential contamination routes identified at all sites indicate the need for targeted infrastructure improvements and continual maintenance
Partner with Faith Leaders for Safer Youth Migration [Nigeria Policy Brief (RASTAY Project)]
Get PDFMany Nigerian young people are planning to migrate because they feel locked out of decent work, secure futures, and fair governance. In this context, religion and spirituality are not a side issue: churches, mosques, and African Traditional Religion (ATR) communities shape how young people interpret hardship, decide whether to migrate, and find practical help through networks that stretch across borders. Left-behind families often gain financially through remittances, but many experience loneliness, stigma, and emotional distress. Policy responses rarely work with trusted faith and youth actors, allowing unsafe migration narratives and misinformation to spread. **Three headline actions (next 6–12 months):** (1) set up an inter-faith, youth-led safe‑migration partnership platform; (2) co-design trusted information campaigns and referral pathways through faith spaces; (3) pilot support packages for left-behind youth and carers, including mental health and safeguarding links. **Expected benefit:** safer and better‑informed migration decisions, stronger protection for left‑behind families, and improved trust and coordination between government, faith bodies, and civil society
The case of privatisation in China’s hospital sector: neoliberalisation under state capitalism
Get PDFPrivatisation of previously public industries and services is part of the ideological shift associated with the global neoliberal turn of the past 40 years. This article examines such a change within the healthcare system in China: specifically, the formation and development of a private hospital sector, which by 2015 surpassed the number of public hospitals for the first time. We draw on documentary and interview-based data, both English-language and Chinese-language to examine the privatisation process in this setting. We show that while the re-establishment of the private hospital sector in China followed a relatively well-trodden path wherein government policy shifts to sanction private-for-profit sector growth in the social sectors, several context-specific features reflect China’s contemporary state capitalism as the Chinese state has chosen to actively direct infrastructure formation in the private hospital sector and finance it through state-owned enterprises and investments. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of approaches to studying social policy that build nuanced understanding of public-private relations and state restructuring, and how these materialise in different settings
Breaking the ceiling: Interest rate deregulation and liquidity creation
Get PDFThis paper exploits the 1999 Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, which eliminated Arkansas’s longstanding interest rate cap for Arkansas-headquartered banks, to identify how releasing a strict pricing constraint alters bank liquidity creation. We find clear differences across bank size: large banks increase liquidity creation after deregulation, while small banks reduce it, a pattern consistent with established differences in how banks of different sizes adjust to regulatory constraints. The composition of liquidity creation also changes, with large banks shifting toward commercial, industrial, and mortgage lending and small banks increasing individual loans. Competitive pressures intensify once the ceiling is lifted, contributing to the divergent responses among banks. We further show that the ceiling muted the responsiveness of liquidity creation to monetary policy and that this friction disappears following deregulation. Overall, the findings advance the literature by connecting interest rate (de)regulation to core banking functions and the effectiveness of monetary policy, with broader implications for regulated credit markets across countries
On what can we agree?: principles endorsed by facial affect researchers across theoretical perspectives and subdisciplines of psychology and neuroscience
No full textResearch linking facial muscle movement to emotion and other affective experience has been central to affective science throughout the field’s history. Though the study of facial affect has often been contentious, it is possible that researchers currently working in this field agree on more than is commonly recognized. In the present study, 55 actively publishing facial affect researchers indicated their agreement, agreement with reservations, or disagreement with 23 statements regarding the nature of and best practices for research on facial affect, generated through a process akin to the Delphi method for developing consensus statements. Agreement (with or without reservations) exceeded 95% of participants for 11 statements, and 90% for four more. Participants also provided thoughtful, nuanced, mechanism-oriented comments on the statements, indicating strikingly high agreement on many fundamental theoretical and methodological issues. Implications for future research are discussed
Genre bleed, reproduction, and the climate crisis in Louisa Hall’s Reproduction (2023)
Get PDFThis paper argues that Louisa Hall’s Reproduction (2023) represents an example of genre bleed; a text that engages with multiple genres in order to represent the crisis of the contemporary moment. It argues that pregnancy should be read as a form with specific affordances (following Caroline Levine’s work), and that such a position has implications for the wider field of medical humanities and specifically literature and medicine where texts are often grouped on the basis of illnesses, disabilities or medical conditions. The paper situates science fiction as a genre that has always had birth and creation at its heart and explores the importance of birth as a metaphor in science fiction, before turning to examine the depiction of birth (as metaphor and as itself) in Reproduction. Reproduction is a contemporary retelling of Frankenstein that uses a number of genre conventions in order to navigate its subject matter including science fiction, dystopia and autofiction. Through a reading of Hall’s novel, this paper argues that the apocalyptic themes that characterise the contemporary landscape—most centrally the climate crisis and the precarity of the future—are provoking contemporary reflections on reproduction and its complications. The provisional nature of the future—the unlikeliness that the future will take place, the inability to imagine a stable future—creates a generic pressure on science fiction, a genre which has always relied on the fantasy of a future, particularly the future as a space for technological development. This pressure on the genre results in the kind of self- conscious genre- bleeding to be found in Reproduction
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