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The Archaeology of Prehistory in the Contemporary World: Deep Time in Global Urban Spaces
No full textThis book is a roadmap for navigating the legacies of prehistory which we live with today. There will be reflection on the nature of temporality in archaeology, a toolkit for navigating the present and future of prehistory, and caution for those who imagine prehistory is consigned to the deep time of the past. Through a series of case studies, field observations, and real-world scenarios, from a decade of my journey as the urban prehistorian, I will argue that thinking and doing a contemporary archaeology of prehistory can be transformative not only in terms of how we practice, but also think about archaeology and the past. There will be warnings too, about what happens when prehistory is used and abused, politicised carelessly or with malicious intent. There will be inspiring tales too of communities engaging with their prehistory, of cities organised on prehistoric principles, of the resilience of the past against all odds
Barrow-born: archaeological practice as a literary device to evoke horror in the works of Nigel Kneale
No full textWe will explore how Nigel Kneale used archaeological and prehistoric sites and practices to evoke a sense of dread and horror in his writing and in translations of this work for film and television. The focus of the paper will be his use of the trope of archaeologists uncovering things that should have been left undisturbed – the dangers of deep time – and the ways that archaeological practices and research seem to have informed his work. It started, as it usually always does, with an excavation, in this case in Hobbs End underground station in London. Not only was this archaeological procedure the catalyst for the events in Quatermass and the Pit (1958-59 and 1967) but it was the arena within which horror played itself out until it could no longer be contained within the trench. Subsequently a whole host of instances of what Adam Scovell has termed ‘ancient evil’ escaping or extracted appeared in Kneale’s works. Prehistoric and ancient evils were unleashed in various ways: initially by more scientists, essentially aural archaeologists, in The Stone Tape (1972), but increasingly by others – a vet (the Beasts episode Baby, 1976), youths (Quatermass IV, 1977), a deranged entrepreneur (Halloween 3 Season of the Witch, 1982). This shows a progression from the dangers of doing archaeology towards the dangers of the archaeology itself. Moshenska has called this the ‘archaeological uncanny’, a general fictionalised unease with what archaeologists might be uncovering. This is also a recurring theme in the horror writing of MR James and HP Lovecraft, and more recently has found itself expressed in folk horror film and TV. Francis Young has termed this ‘archaeophobia’ defined as “the terrifying consequences of dabbling in archaeology”. Therefore, in our chapter, Kneale’s work will be situated in broader discourse about caricatures of our discipline especially within fiction, film, and TV of the horror genre. We will also explore Kneale’s descriptions and depictions of archaeologists at work, and what might have informed his writing about megaliths and pagan rites. This will be the first assessment of Kneale’s works from an academic archaeological perspective
High-resolution TEM imaging of polymer crystals using 2D-class averaging methods
Full text linkHigh-resolution imaging of polymer crystals has so far been a challenge for transmission electron microscopy because of their high sensitivity to radiation. However, with the development of new camera systems, it is now possible to push the dose-limited resolution limit far enough to directly image previously inaccessible systems. Using the example of solution-grown polyethylene single crystals, we demonstrate how HR imaging can be achieved despite a low critical electron dose in conjunction with a small lattice spacing and how imaging can be further improved with the aid of methods from single particle analysis and subsampling image reconstruction
Material decomposition in photon-counting computed tomography with diffusion models: comparative study and hybridization with variational regularizers
Full text linkPhoton-counting computed tomography (PCCT) has emerged as a promising imaging technique, enabling spectral imaging and material decomposition (MD). However, images typically suffer from a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to constraints such as low photon counts and sparse-view settings which provoke artifacts. To prevent this, variational methods minimize a data-fit function coupled with handcrafted regularizers that mimic a prior by enforcing image properties such as gradient sparsity. In the last few years, diffusion models (DMs) have become predominant in the field of generative models and have been used as a learned prior for image reconstruction. This work investigates the use of DMs as regularizers for MD tasks in PCCT, specifically using diffusion posterior sampling (DPS) guidance. Three DPS-based approaches–image-domain two-step DPS (im-TDPS), projection-domain two-step DPS (proj-TDPS), and one-step DPS (ODPS)–are evaluated. The first two methods achieve MD in two steps by performing reconstruction and MD separately. The last method, ODPS, samples the material images directly from the measurement data. The results indicate that ODPS achieves superior performance compared to im-TDPS and proj-TDPS, providing sharper, noise-free and crosstalk-free images. Furthermore, we introduce a novel hybrid method for scenarios involving materials absent from the training dataset. This method combines DM priors with standard variational handcrafted regularizers for the materials unknown to the DM. This hybrid method demonstrates improved MD quality compared to a standard variational method and does not require additional training of the DM neural network (NN)
Taste of the isles: community engagement and digital innovation in rural food and drink services
Full text linkPurpose: This article reports on three collaborative digital initiatives co-developed with the Outer Hebrides Tourism Community, reflecting on process, challenges, and community impact.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Practice-based development of three digital innovation initiatives, namely, Food with a View, Taste of the Outer Hebrides, and Bùth Hebrides, in collaboration with the Outer Hebrides Tourism Community.
Findings: The initiatives have improved visibility of service providers, producers, and crofters, also have enhanced community engagement, and access to digital markets. Together, these outcomes contribute to economic and social resilience across the isles of the Outer Hebrides.
Research Implications: This paper contributes practical results to the extant theoretical understanding of digital innovation of services in rural contexts and community engagement, and shows how community engagement and digital innovation can be adapted to tackle limited digital infrastructure and financial challenges.
Practical Implications: We provide guidance for rural service providers on adopting digital innovation by demonstrating how combining visual storytelling with community co-design can enhance engagement, visibility, and inclusion.
Societal Implications: The initiatives show how community engagement can help strengthen rural economies and lead to more participation in digital innovation practices.
Originality/Value: This paper contributes new insights into the intersection of rural food and drink services, digital innovation, and community engagement for sustainable development in the food and drink services
Predictive modeling and statistical inference for commodity trading advisors
Full text linkThis article focuses on predicting trends in Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs), also known as trend-following hedge funds. The article applies a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for classifying trends. By incorporating additional features, a regularized logistic regression model is used to enhance prediction capability. The model demonstrates success in identifying positive trends in CTA funds, with particular emphasis on precision and risk-adjusted return metrics. In the context of regularized regression models, techniques for statistical inference such as bootstrap resampling and Markov Chain Monte Carlo are applied to estimate the distribution of parameters. The findings suggest the model’s effectiveness in predicting favorable CTA performance and mitigating equity market drawdowns
Education in Scotland
No full textThis chapter serves as a very short introduction to Scottish education and focuses primarily on formal education. The intention of the chapter is to provide an overview of some of the key historical and contemporary themes and issues in Scottish education. Given the brevity of this chapter, this cannot be considered a systematic treatment of the topic and there will be omissions, oversights and, at times, lack of nuance. Readers are invited to use the key texts in the bibliography for more comprehensive and detailed information and insights
Biodegradable and bio-inspired UV light recognition via sustainable synaptic transistors for artificial intelligence vision systems
No full textPresented here is a biodegradable, bioinspired synaptic phototransistor (SPT) based on an electrolyte-gated field-effect transistor (EGFET) architecture for sustainable artificial intelligence vision systems (AIVSs). The EGFET is designed to be zero waste and degrades to benign end products at the end-of-life. The device is fabricated onto a poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/poly(lactic acid) (PBAT/PLA) bioderived substrate, which uses reduced graphene oxide (rGO) electrodes, a ZnO active layer, and honey as a natural gate electrolyte, enabling simultaneous sensing and memory of UV light stimuli. Through charge trapping/detrapping and field-effect modulation, the device exhibits key neuromorphic behaviors including short- and long-term plasticity, spike-time-dependent plasticity (STDP), and light-response plasticity at low operating voltages and energy consumption. The EGFET demonstrates tunable memory via scan rate and sweep range modulation and maintains stable synaptic responses under varying UV intensities and exposure durations. A learning model simulating UV-induced skin and ocular damage is proposed, highlighting the device's potential for wearables and health-monitoring applications. Overall, the work demonstrates the feasibility of manufacturing SPT devices based on EGFETS using eco-friendly materials for neuromorphic electronics while minimizing the growing e-waste problem in electronics
Links between mitochondrial function, whole-animal metabolic rate, telomere dynamics and swimming performance in minnows
No full textThe majority of fish swim by aerobic muscular force, and so there has been considerable interest in the metabolic basis for swimming. Most of this work has measured whole-body oxygen consumption as a metabolic proxy, without any quantification of the actual energy that is produced at the cellular level. In this study we explored links between organism level metabolic rate (both standard (SMR) and maximal (MMR)), mitochondrial function - the rates of oxygen consumption associated with oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and offsetting proton leak (i.e., OXPHOS coupling efficiency; OxCE) - and swim performance (Ucrit), using the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus). We also measured the relative proportion of aerobic (slow twitch) and anaerobic (fast twitch) muscle fibres within the muscle tissue. Lastly, we measured mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production rates and also the telomere lengths of the minnows (since rates of telomere shortening are known to be influenced by ROS). We found that the critical swimming speed of a fish was unrelated to measures of mitochondrial efficiency (OxCE), MMR or to the proportion of aerobic fibres within the muscle mass. However, Ucrit was positively related to an individual's SMR and its OXPHOS capacity, indicating that better swimmers are supported by a higher baseline metabolism and a greater cellular capacity for producing ATP. There was also a significant link between OxCE and rates of mitochondrial ROS production, but this was unrelated to telomere length. This study exemplifies how cellular energy production can influence overall performance
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