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Heterogeneity in seed traits: an overlooked breeding opportunity
Get PDFUniformity among seeds within a cultivar impacts seed quality and milling efficiency. Advances in hyperspectral imaging enable quantification of variability among individual seeds, facilitating treatment of seed heterogeneity as a heritable trait. We argue seed trait heterogeneity may be heritable and propose a roadmap to support breeding for uniform cultivars
Digitalisation of International Trade in Intellectual Properties: An Approach Based on the Utility Theory of Technology Value
Get PDFIn the era of globalisation and digital transformation, international trade has expanded beyond traditional goods and services to include the exchange of intellectual properties (IPs), particularly technology. As intangible assets become key drivers of global economic growth, accurately valuing them remains a complex challenge due to their inherent creativity, complexity and uncertainty. This study proposes a novel framework grounded in utility theory to assess technology value within the context of international IP trade. By integrating the utility theory of value and the literature on technology and venture investment into a cohesive model, the framework captures four key attributes of technology value: utility size, quality, delivery and risk. To operationalise this framework, we introduce a valuation method that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics. This AI-powered approach enhances the objectivity, efficiency, affordability and scalability of technology valuation, enabling more transparent, data-driven IP trade globally
Sound Shelter: Ease of Listening as a Way of Dwelling
Get PDFThis article seeks to track an “ease” of listening back from today’s comforts of playlists, headphone immersion in music, and omnipresent streaming. It reflects on the functions of comforting music such as easy listening that paved the way to today’s networked and distributed homes and subjectivities. Through considerations of how easy listening shapes the domestic interior and experience, the article then moves to join the ideas of Anahid Kassabian with the art of Jamaican artist Michael McMillan as a way of thinking a diasporic sonified space that represented a pioneering twist on the comforts of easy listening long before the apparent ubiquity of networked society and the spread of portable media
Round robin comparison of power losses performed by epstein frame and sst above 50 hz at room temperature
Get PDFEpstein frame and single sheet tester are two methods used for measurement of power losses of the electrical steel sheets or strips. Both methods and the setups are described in the IEC standards. Each national metrology institute or other metrological laboratory has different setups for power losses measurement and the validation of its accuracy and parameters can only be done by comparisons. So far, every performed comparison was carried out only at 50 Hz or 60 Hz. Within the EMPIR project “HEFMAG”, improved metrological infrastructure for the determination of power losses using Epstein frame at induction values close to saturation and at frequency ranges between 2 kHz and to 10 kHz was built. To validate the improved setups, a round robin comparison of power loss measurements was conducted by five laboratories. The results of the round robin comparison are discussed including measurement uncertainties
Rheumatoid arthritis and interstitial lung disease: the role of comorbidities. Retrospective analysis of two RA inception cohorts in the UK
Get PDFObjectivesTo assess the role of comorbidities measurements in interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).MethodsData were from two consecutive multicentre, prospective RA inception cohorts, including baseline sociodemographic, clinical, treatment, laboratory and functional features. Comorbidity burden was assessed using major comorbidity count, rheumatic disease comorbidity index (RDCI) and Charlson Comorbidity index (CCI). Associations between comorbidities and development of ILD were explored, adjusted for clinical factors using multivariable logistic regression analyses.ResultsData from 2,701 patients were included, median follow-up 6 years. In total, 101 (3.7%) were diagnosed with ILD. Twelve (0.44%) had the diagnosis at baseline, 46 were diagnosed during follow up and 43 identified from death certificates. In multivariable analyses, age at onset (aOR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.05), seropositivity (aOR 2.58, 95% CI 1.38 to 4.81), ever smoking (aOR 1.70, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.79) were associated with ILD diagnosis. Higher lung comorbidity burden measured using lung disease component of RDCI (aOR 4.59, 95% CI 2.68 to 7.88) was associated, as was using the entire index (aOR 1.32, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.63). The association did not remain when assessing comorbidity with alternative measures.ConclusionThe method chosen to assess comorbidity burden affected whether baseline comorbidity was associated with subsequent ILD development. This study demonstrates that a specific rheumatic disease comorbidity index reveals associations not detected by generic tools or simple counts. Baseline lung comorbidities should be added to the known list of risk factors for ILD and aid targeted screening in the context of RA
“Smashing through barriers”? A multimodal critical discourse analysis of media representations of hearing loss and D/deafness
Get PDFHearing loss (HL) is a prevalent condition that can substantially impact quality of life. Hearing aids can benefit people living with HL, yet many delay seeking treatment. This may be due to limited public awareness of HL and the stigma surrounding HL and hearing aids. The media can significantly shape public perceptions of HL and D/deafness, and there have been calls for improved media portrayals of HL and D/deafness. This study examined how British newspapers represent HL and D/deafness both visually and textually, and whether these representations reiterate and/or challenge stigma. This qualitative study used multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) guided by stigma theory and the Visual Discourses of Disability framework. Public contributors living with HL or D/deafness were consulted. A Nexis database search retrieved 7,173 articles about HL or D/deafness from 2022–2023. A random sample, extracted from the 200 most relevant articles, was screened. Three key themes were identified: (1) representing social progress, including technological advancements and societal roles for people with HL or D/deaf people, (2) the lack of diverse narratives and perspectives, including the absence of older adults, and (3) the stigma and social barriers associated with living in a hearing-orientated world, including tensions regarding whether HL should be (in)visible. Combined, this suggests that the overall social progress narrative is challenged by continued stigmatisation and inadequate diversity. This research was a novel application of MCDA to representations of HL and D/deafness, which focused on British newspapers. Further efforts are needed to improve these representations, particularly representations of older adults. Future research should apply MCDA to representations of HL and D/deafness in other contexts. The findings have important implications for academics in discourse and disability studies, and for all those who communicate with the public about hearing loss, including researchers, clinicians, public health officials, charities, and the media
Functional biomaterials through biocooperation
Get PDFThere is a growing need to develop materials that can recreate the inherent structural and functional complexity of living systems. These environments are increasingly needed both in vitro to better screen drugs and therapies, and in vivo to overcome key challenges of regenerative medicine that continue to limit broad impact in the clinic. In this perspective, we argue that it is time to go beyond bioinspiration and design materials by working with biological and regenerative mechanisms that Nature has evolved and established. In this biocooperative approach, biology is not seen as a template to copy, but rather as a partner to engage with, by harnessing biomolecules and biological mechanisms as building-blocks and fabrication processes of materials. The manuscript also summarizes studies describing the use of recombinant technologies to produce biomolecules as material building-blocks, incorporating living systems within synthetic matrices to create engineered living biomaterials, and integrating synthetic building blocks with cellular processes to produce regenerative materials. These examples illustrate the potential for a new biocooperative material paradigm, opening the door for more accessible and functional personalized biomaterials
Effect of water pressure on bitumen and expelled oil biomarker evolution: Insights from laboratory simulation experiments
Get PDFBiomarkers are powerful tools to assess thermal maturity of oil and rock extracts and for oil-source rock correlation. While temperature effects on biomarker evolution have been widely studied, the impact of pressure remains largely underexplored. This study examines the effect of high water pressure (up to 900 bar) on biomarker maturation in expelled oil and extracted bitumen from pyrolysis experiments on a rock sample from the Campanian–Maastrichtian Duwi Formation, Red Sea Basin, Egypt. Extracted bitumens exhibited higher maturity under anhydrous conditions compared to low-pressure hydrous samples, and this was more pronounced at 350°C. The extracted bitumen displayed higher biomarker maturity ratios than the corresponding expelled oil at 350°C, likely due to prolonged interactions of the bitumen with the rock mineral matrix. In contrast, δ13C values were similar for extracted bitumen and the corresponding expelled oil. At 320°C, high pressure reduced values of biomarker maturity ratios, particularly C31–C35 homohopane isomerisation, Ts/Tm, Ts/H30, and C29Ts/H29 ratios, whereas sterane ratios remained unaffected. At 350°C, pressure effects were less significant, with some anomalous variations, suggesting a non-systematic influence on biomarker maturation at higher temperatures. These findings demonstrate the complex role of pressure in biomarker evolution, emphasising the need to consider pressure in biomarker-based maturity assessment, particularly in overpressured basins and deep petroleum systems, where high pressure may be a dominant factor. Based on 12 source-related biomarker and isotopic ratios, chemometric analysis reveals that artificially generated oils and South Malak-1 oils from southwestern onshore Gulf of Suez are quite different, and both groups differ significantly from other natural oils from the central and northern parts of the basin. This may be due to facies variations and the effects of mixing from multiple source horizons under natural subsurface conditions
Early spatiotemporal dynamics of navigational affordance coding in the dorsal visual cortex
Get PDFSuccessful navigation requires extracting navigationally relevant signals from a dynamically changing visual environment. The process by which we identify navigable routes through the environment is termed navigational affordances. Here, using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography and behavioural testing we report that the extraction of such navigational affordance information likely takes place rapidly within dorsal early visual cortex before higher-level scene selective regions. Whilst we replicate prior work showing the involvement of the occipital place area in navigational affordance coding, whole-brain analyses indicate the most likely cortical locus to be dorsal early visual cortex. Analyses comparing the spatiotemporal pattern of navigational affordances suggest such information is detectable within ~110 milliseconds post stimulus onset. Finally, through varying the presentation durations of scenes, we demonstrate that navigational affordance representations are emergent, but not strong with stimulus durations as short as 33-66 milliseconds but become robust with stimulus durations >132 milliseconds. Taken together these data challenge previous views regarding the critical cortical locus for navigational affordance coding and suggest that such affordances can be extracted from very briefly presented stimuli
A protocol for a nested case-control study assessing cardiovascular disease risk associated with menopausal hormone therapy use
Get PDFMenopausal hormone therapy (MHT) is prescribed to women with moderate to severe menopausal symptoms. The relationship between MHT and cardiovascular disease remains controversial. Evidence from randomised controlled trials and observational studies has been inconsistent, partly due to differences in treatment formulations, routes of administration, and timing of initiation. This nested case-control study aims to provide detailed and comparable estimates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks associated with MHT use in the UK (both overall and for myocardial infarction, ischaemic stroke and transient ischaemic attack). We will use data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Women aged 40 years or over with a first diagnosis of CVD between 1998 and 2024 (cases) will be matched by age and general practice to up to five female controls with no prior record of CVD at the case’s index date. MHT exposure will be defined using primary care prescriptions for the full range of oestrogen-only and oestrogen–progestogen treatments historically available through the NHS. Use will be classified by type of hormone, route of administration, dosage and age of initiation (before or after 51 years). Conditional logistic regression will estimate odds ratios for CVD outcomes associated with current and past MHT use, treatment duration, and time since discontinuation. Models will be adjusted for lifestyle factors, deprivation, ethnicity, comorbidities, and concurrent medications. Subgroup analyses will explore potential effect modification by age, body mass index and health status. Analyses will also be carried out for women from Black and Asian ethnic population groups
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