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Geographies of subsumption
Full text linkThis article draws on heterodox scholarship on capitalist subsumption to revise core approaches within Marxist and critical geography. The article argues that a heterodox account of subsumption provides us with an analytical tool with which to understand the geographies of capitalist difference without recourse to spatial determinism nor nonrelational accounts of externality. While heterodox approaches to subsumption are experiencing something of a renaissance within critical theory more broadly, the concept has been scarcely engaged by Marxist and critical geography. This is despite the tacit engagement with stagist interpretations of subsumption common among dominant Marxist and critical geographical approaches. With this in mind, the article first aims to develop a critique of Marxist and critical geographers’ engagements with the question of subsumption, and second aims to explore how a dynamic account of subsumption helps us unpack the unstable heterogeneity of capital's sociospatial totality, and draw attention to capital’s highly differential sociospatial forms and political fault-lines. In doing so the article will suggest three key ways heterodox approaches to subsumption intervene in debates within Marxist and critical geography. First the paper argues that a more dynamic conceptualisation of capitalist subsumption entails a revised understanding of capitalist landed property and dispossession. Second, that such an approach contributes to a more politically grounded understanding of capitalist uneven development. And third, by attending to the differential social forms of capital, subsumption can nuance ongoing geographical debates concerning racialised and gendered capitalism
Protocol: Is home-based self-swabbing feasible for postoperative wound culture after cardiac surgery? A multi-centre mixed-methods feasibility study in the United Kingdom
Full text linkIntroductionPoor access to surgical wound swabbing in the community often results in delayed or inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for surgical site infections. This delay can contribute to prolonged wound healing and poor antimicrobial stewardship. Patient self-swabbing at home could improve access to diagnostic testing but its feasibility and acceptability remain unexplored.Methods and analysisTREASURE is a multi-centre, mixed-methods feasibility study. A total of 40 patient participants and 10 staff stakeholders will be included. Forty adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery via median sternotomy will be recruited from Harefield Hospital (n=25) and the Royal Sussex County Hospital (n=15). Eligible participants will receive a co-produced self-swabbing set of instructions and kit at discharge and perform wound swabbing at home within 1–21 days, observed remotely by a researcher via Microsoft Teams. Swabs will be couriered to a central laboratory for bacterial culture with antimicrobial susceptibility testing for pathogens.The primary feasibility outcome is the proportion of patients successfully completing self-swabbing at home to obtain usable culture swabs. Secondary safety and acceptability outcomes include usability of the kit and instructions; patient satisfaction; viability of samples for laboratory analysis; and recruitment and retention rates. Thirty-day follow-up will capture wound complications, antibiotic prescribing and healthcare utilisation via patient questionnaires, case note review, GP confirmation, and patient interviews. Ten staff stakeholders will be interviewed to inform pathway development. Quantitative data will be analysed descriptively, with proportions reported alongside 95% confidence intervals. Qualitative data from patients will undergo thematic analysis, and stakeholder interviews will be coded using Normalisation Process Theory. An early health economic model will be developed to explore resource use, costs and proportions of appropriate and timely antibiotic use between current pathways and a proposed pathway, including self-swabbing.Ethics and disseminationWest of Scotland Research Ethics Service has reviewed and approved the study (REC reference: 25/WS/0079). Findings will be disseminated through the study website, a webinar, peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, PPI-led activities and engagement with NHS stakeholders
Policy instruments and cultural currents shaping recycling behaviours: A systematic review
Full text linkRecycling policies are now widely adopted; however, jurisdictions that implement similar instruments may report markedly different outcomes. This heterogeneity suggests that effectiveness depends not only on policy design and infrastructure, but also on the sociocultural conditions into which these instruments are introduced. Yet, most previous reviews have examined policy levers and cultural factors in isolation. This systematic literature review synthesised global evidence on how waste-policy instruments interact with sociocultural forces to shape recycling behaviours and outcomes. We followed the PRISMA guidelines, included 32 academic articles and six grey-literature from over 24 countries. We covered the period between 2006 and 2024. Our analyses show that legislation alone is insufficient; effective waste-policy instruments require clear accountability for operations and financing, enforceable regulations, and adaptation to local political and sociocultural contexts. This is illustrated by the contrasting experiences of Canada and Malaysia's EPR models. We also found that EPR can galvanise community identity when local actors are meaningfully involved; that DRS effectiveness depends on reducing logistical and social frictions; that PAYT encourages sorting at source (as in Belgium) but performs best when recycling is convenient, profitable, and supported by investment in basic waste-management infrastructure; and that landfill bans, while signalling strong societal commitment to circularity, deliver highly variable results depending on cultural legitimacy, social cohesion, and the surrounding policy ecosystem. Together, these findings show the need to move beyond generic legislation-only interventions toward context-sensitive policies calibrated to local sociocultural and infrastructural realities
When wuthering winds create fluttering fields: structural and biomechanical properties determine canopy light fluctuation properties of 10 wheat cultivars
Full text linkWind-driven plant movement generates rapid light fluctuations (windflecks), which can impact canopy photosynthesis. Targeting crop photosynthesis in dynamic light provides a potential path towards boosting yield. Here, we quantified how plant architecture and biomechanics modulate such windflecks across 10 high-yielding cultivars of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum). Using synchronized high-frequency measurements of irradiance, wind speed, and canopy motion (quantified by frame differencing from video), we assessed the propensity of wheat cultivars to move (motion sensitivity), and the ability for movement to produce windflecks (light modulation efficiency) in the field. There was up to 10-fold variation in the quantity of motion between cultivars under identical wind speeds. Cultivars also exhibited structural trade-offs and specific in canopy windfleck properties. Some had low motion under wind but produced frequent windflecks when moving, whereas others exhibited high motion under similar wind but varied in windfleck frequency. Overall, windfleck properties were best explained by aerodynamic traits: cultivars with narrower leaves and lower leaf-to-stem mass ratios were associated with more intense windflecks.These findings establish that wheat cultivars actively modulate their light environment through biomechanical traits. By integrating plant motion into crop models, favouring motion–light relationships, which could provide a critical route to yield improvements in turbulent environments
On the Origin of Intracluster Light Based on the High-resolution Simulation, NewCluster
Full text linkIntracluster light (ICL) is a key component of galaxy clusters, with the potential to trace their dynamical assembly histories and the underlying dark matter distribution. Despite these prospects, its faint nature makes a consensus on its origin or population properties difficult to achieve, both in observations and simulations. In the hope of finding a breakthrough, we utilize the ongoing high-resolution cluster simulation, NewCluster. By classifying billions of particles in and around the cluster with a rigorous tracking procedure, we find that the majority of the ICL originates from satellites, including surviving and disrupted galaxies. Another notable finding is that the preprocessed component follows the density profile of dark matter better than the other components and has distinctive properties: old age, low metallicity, and enhanced α-element abundance. We further investigate the orbital dynamics, and our results demonstrate that the stripped fraction of satellites is primarily determined by the time since infall and the pericenter distance. By linking the demographic, chemical, and orbital properties of ICL stars to their origins, this work proposes a quantitative approach for tracing the assembly history of galaxy clusters from the ICL
On the Voltage Stress Reduction in Hairpin Windings: Guidelines and Critical Aspects
Full text linkTransportation electrification roadmaps are pushing for step-change increase in power densities of electric drives, leading to rapidly growing developments of high-switching frequency wide-bandgap semiconductor based inverters. Meanwhile, induced high dV/dt can challenge the reliability of the stator winding insulation system. This study provides guidelines to mitigate the winding voltage stress through implementation of an improved modular hairpin winding layout featuring a multi-branch design, reconfigurable by simply reconnecting phase terminals and neutral points. This enables comparison of voltage distributions across different winding layout patterns. A high frequency electrical lumped parameter network for prediction of voltage stress distribution is further adopted, and validated through experimental tests carried out on different configurations. The downselected configuration reduces by 35% the maximum interturn voltage. Further sensitivity analyses at different rise times revealed that improvement could be limited to only 10-15% when rise times are in the range of tens of nanoseconds. Under these conditions, the first series turns connected to the inverter side are very sensitive to sudden voltage spikes and experience the highest voltage stress, even though they have fewer connecting conductors between them and adjacent layers. In general, the paper provides reliability-oriented hairpin winding design guidelines that address the integrity of the insulation system
Ethylene modulates cell wall mechanics for root responses to compaction
No full textSoil stresses affect crop yields and present global agricultural challenges1. Soil compaction triggers reduction in root length and radial expansion driven by the plant hormone ethylene2. Here we report how ethylene controls cell wall biosynthesis to promote root radial expansion. We demonstrate how soil compaction stress, via ethylene, upregulates Auxin Response Factor1 in the root cortex, which represses cellulose synthase (CESA) genes. CESA repression drives radial expansion of root cortical cells by modifying the thickness of their cell walls, which results in a thicker epidermis and thinner cortex. Our research links ethylene signalling with root cell wall remodelling, and reveals how dynamic regulation of cellulose synthesis controls root growth in compacted soil
Enhancing financial crisis prediction: integrating change point detection for exogenous event identification
No full textThis paper explores the integration of change point detection (CPD) techniques to improve the adaptability of financial contagion models to major market events. Exogenous shocks, such as geopolitical tensions and natural disasters, can lead to substantial changes in stock prices and market dynamics. By implementing a real-time CPD algorithm, we enable our model to respond effectively to these disruptions, resulting in more robust and accurate predictions. We analyze stock price, geographical location, and economic sector data for a dataset of 398 companies to construct multiplex networks with four layers. On these networks, we implement a Susceptible–Infected–Recovered (SIR) transmission model to simulate the spread of financial shocks among companies, accounting for their interconnectedness. Using stock price data from the 2008 to 2020 financial crises, we evaluate the model’s ability to predict the propagation of financial shocks through the network, where shocks are identified based on stock price volatility. We continuously monitor the data for anomalies and when a change point is identified, the model discards the older data before the change point and focuses on the more recent data. We demonstrate the effectiveness in incorporating change points for improving the model’s predictive accuracy
Improved 2PP additive manufacturing build/process quality via the use of hyperbranched pre-polymer
Full text linkThis study reports the first systematic study investigating the potential of using hyperbranched (HB) polymers as novel materials for improving two photon polymerisation (2PP) processing. It demonstrated that HB polymer containing additive manufacturing resins can be successfully formulated and used to print: (a) mono-/multi-material structures, the latter containing monomers of different functionality (i.e., hydrophilic/hydrophobic mixes), (b) with a broader range of printing conditions, (c) to high levels of cure and (d) at faster processing speeds than monomeric resins. A printed multi-material structure was confirmed to contain both feed materials and exhibit high cure by ToF-SIMS and Raman analysis, respectively. Thus, HB polymers were shown to improve mixing in multi-functional resins and overcome 2PP chemistry restrictions. When processing with selected HB polymers, both the polymerisation “onset” and “burning” thresholds were improved compared to monomeric resins. Processing more reactive HB polymers still increased the overall processing window compared to the 2PP processing of the equivalent monomer, but the “burning” threshold was in fact lowered, which was linked to depolymerisation events. Thus, a HB polymer was subject to degradation studies and shown to produced more residual material (i.e. “char”) than linear materials, which delivers the decolourisation in 2PP “burning”. This study confirms that using HB polymers can extend the viability and utility of 2PP processing, improvements that were delivered by understanding the reactivity of these pre-polymers toward both polymerisation and depolymerisation
Animals and multi-species considerations of well-being 500–1100
No full textMuch of the scholarship on early medieval English medicinal ingredients has focussed on herbal remedies and the role of plants in healing activities. This approach detracts from the significance of animals, their parts, and their products, and also obscures the fact that many healing activities are in fact multi-species. In this paper, we combine ideas from object-oriented methodologies commonly used in archaeology, such as chaîne opératoire and object biography, with analysis of case studies of early medieval well-being texts, using the pig as an exemplar species. These examples show that knowledge of an animal's phenotype, behaviour, management, and history was important to procure the right medical ingredients and that knowledge of the animals as individuals was necessary for the expected efficacy of the medical treatment. This article represents an initial step and proof of concept for using these methods to illustrate the role of animals in well-being practices, thereby highlighting the multi-species nature of early medieval materia medica
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