6974 research outputs found
Sort by
Environmental and impact testing of post-consumer fused recycled glass tiles for architectural applications
Get PDFWe present the findings of environmental exposure and impact testing on the commercialised output from a spin-out company producing fused recycled glass material, evaluating its suitability for architectural use in both commercial and domestic settings. Recycled glass from various post-consumer sources has been processed and reshaped into a new crystalline material. The raw glass, sourced from consumer discarded bottles and plate-glass from demolition sites, has been crafted by hand and fused in a kiln to form large sheets of fused recycled glass. As part of its circular economy efforts, the fused recycled glass material is free of any additives, resins, or inorganic binders. To determine suitability for architectural use installed externally or in kitchens and bathrooms, the fused recycled glass material was cut into tile shapes and subjected to accredited standard testing methods. Five samples from seven different glass types were evaluated in an accredited setting of dry heat, damp heat, and freeze–thaw cycles. The samples underwent five cycles of exposure to the aforementioned conditions. Close visual inspection of the tiles from all glass material types showed no effects from the extreme conditions and remained in the same state as they were prior to testing. Impact resistance testing of the glass samples produced varied results for each type of glass material and its origin. Two tile sets were found to have the same impact energy resistance as commercially available ceramic and porcelain tiles of similar dimensions. This affirmed the validity of using fused recycled glass material in architectural applications
Machine learning models highlight environmental and genetic factors associated with the Arabidopsis circadian clock
Get PDFThe circadian clock of plants contributes to their survival and fitness. However, understanding clock function at the transcriptome level and its response to the environment requires assaying across high resolution time-course experiments. Generating these datasets is labour-intensive, costly and, in most cases, performed under tightly controlled laboratory conditions. To overcome these barriers, we have developed ChronoGauge: an ensemble model that can reliably estimate the endogenous circadian time of Arabidopsis plants using the expression of a handful of time-indicating genes within a single time-pointed transcriptomic sample. ChronoGauge can predict a plant’s circadian time with high accuracy across unseen Arabidopsis bulk RNA-seq and microarray samples, and can be further applied to make non-random predictions across samples in non-model species, including field samples. Finally, we demonstrate how ChronoGauge can be applied to generate hypotheses regarding the response of the circadian transcriptome to specific genotypes or environmental conditions.</p
Defending developmentalism:Indonesia and the politics of the New International Economic Order, 1974–2024
Get PDFFifty years after its adoption in 1974, there has been a surge in scholarly and political interest in reviving the New International Economic Order (NIEO) in the contemporary global political economy. This article assesses the legacies of the NIEO by looking at Indonesia’s responses to the NIEO during and after its adoption. We argue that Indonesia’s position towards the NIEO has been characterised by ambivalence, which reflects an intention to defend developmentalism, which has become the main feature of Indonesia’s conception of international economic order since the New Order, and an aspiration to bridge the Global South and the Global North. Indonesia supported the NIEO primarily to defend its extractive developmentalism at home. Nevertheless, Indonesia has re-articulated elements of NIEO in its proposal for “a new world order” to defend its industrial downstreaming policies. This assessment brings lessons to understand the legacies of NIEO for the contemporary international economic order.</p
Middle to Late Pleistocene valley-slope cambering:The interglacial basin at Wing, Rutland, England
Get PDFA depression in the Jurassic bedrock at Wing, Rutland (eastern England), is infilled by deposits spanning the Late Wolstonian (=Late Saalian) to Early Devensian (=Early Weichselian) substages, including the most complete Ipswichian Stage (=Eemian Stage; ~Marine Isotope Stage 5e) sequence known in Britain. This sequence forms an enclosed pocket, the origin of which remains imprecisely determined. Re-examination of its morphometry, infill and setting of the basin, implies it originated as a feature or gull formed by valley-side cambering or associated landslide mass movement process of the Northampton Sand over clay bedrock. The surface glacial diamicton surrounding the hollow, collapsed into the void created, followed 880 years later by a water ponding related to rising groundwater level. By comparison to the annually laminated lake sequence at Bispingen, north Germany, the total time represented over 10 000 years. Through the temperate period, the depression developed into a raised bog and latterly a second ponded-water phase, the hollow finally being filled by inwashed soil and slope material with passage into the subsequent cold stage. The Wing sequence is proposed as the basal boundary stratotype of the British Devensian Stage at 5.67 m below the ground surface.</p
A Silurian asymmetric compound delta system in south central Wales, UK
Get PDFGorstian sediments in south-central Wales preserve an asymmetric, compound mixed-process delta system north of the Carreg Cennen Disturbance and east of the Golden Grove Axis. The 30 km SW-NE outcrop, extending from the Cennen Valley to Y Pigwn, is oblique to the NNE delta progradation direction. The Hafod Fawr Formation comprises subaqueous delta slope deposits. Sandstone bed amalgamation indicates shoaling and wave/storm influence within the overlying subaqueous delta platform deposits of the Cwar Glas Member. The succeeding Mynydd Myddfai Sandstone Formation contains shoreline delta lithofacies within three geographical tracts. An embryonic Golden Grove Axis shed shoal water shoreline fan-delta and alluvial fan lithofacies (of the Trichrug Formation) in the Cennen Valley Tract. The SW Tract (Cilmaenllwyd to Banc Celynog) was deposited on the updrift flank of the asymmetric delta, with longshore drift to the NE. Amalgamated sandstone bedsets dominate in the mouth bar and terminal distributary channel lithofacies. Pen y Bicws preserves the axial gravel bed distributary channel lithofacies, which created a headland and palaeogeographic divide between the SW and NE tracts. The latter (Sawdde Gorge to Y Pigwn) records deposition in a low-energy bay that hosted cycles of heterolithic lithofacies. Collectively, these tracts occupied part of a sediment supply route to deeper facies of the subsidence-prone Clun Forest Sub-Basin. Emergent delta plain deposits become dominant within the overlying Trichrug Formation. Thin, locally preserved deposits of the Cribyn Du Member record delta abandonment and transgression during the Ludfordian associated with basin reconfiguration and expansion of the Caer'r mynach Seaway.</p
Consensus clustering-based undersampling for improved classification of transient events in time-domain astronomy surveys
No full textAstronomical data analytics has rapidly expanded given the advancement of data handling techniques and computing system. The race to discover new events is subject to acquiring and digesting the high volume of data from sky surveys efficiently, yet accurately. The assumption is valid for many modern astronomy projects, with the issue of big data storage on the one hand, and effective data analysis on the other. This research deals with the latter by focusing on the classification of potential transient events initially detected in time-domain astronomical surveys. Most of these candidate transients represent false positives that are the results of fault in hardware, errors in data collection and/or data pre-processing. Hence, the ability to filter these out is much needed to avoid a laborious manual assessment down the line. The problem investigated here is that training data can be highly imbalanced. For the first attempt, the coupling of oversampling methods and several classifiers provides an improvement, but generally leads to overfitting. As a solution, this paper presents a novel application of consensus clustering to undersample majority-class instances instead. It not only helps to overcome the aforementioned drawback but also strengthen the recent approach that exploits a single clustering to guide the selection of representative samples
Automated classification and mapping for alluvial geomorphic units:Current approaches and future directions
No full textThis paper critically reviews existing methodologies for classifying alluvial landform units, emphasizing the semantic frameworks and historical evolution of taxonomies that currently underpin identification and mapping efforts. It highlights the inconsistencies and ambiguities inherent in existing classification schemes, underscoring the need for clearer semantic definitions. Subsequently, the paper examines automated and semi-automated approaches, including geomorphometry and Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA), for analyzing remote sensing imagery, with particular attention to their efficacy within fluvial environments. Recognizing recent advancements in remote sensing and computer vision, especially the increased adoption of taxonomies and ontologies to enable consistent, shareable, reusable, and interoperable geographic data, we advocate the systematic development of domain-specific ontologies for alluvial geomorphic units. We reference internationally accepted standards for ontology creation (ISO/IEC 21838–1:2021) and discuss methodologies for encoding these ontologies into machine-readable schemas suitable for machine learning implementations. From a multidisciplinary perspective, the paper assesses the potential of ontologies and derived knowledge graphs (KGs) to enhance the semantic segmentation of remote sensing imagery. It also explores emerging techniques integrating KGs with large language models (LLMs) and vision-language models (VLMs). Finally, we outline opportunities and considerations for applying and refining Vision Foundation and Language Models to improve object identification and segmentation in remote sensing applications.</p
Preharvest heat stress affects rocket salad leaf transcription and metabolism at harvest and after chilled postharvest storage
No full textBackground and Aims Climate change is resulting in increasingly variable weather patterns with spikes of high temperatures adversely affecting crop production. Here the effect of elevated temperature just before harvest was investigated in wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia), a popular brassicaceous salad. The key aim was to investigate how pre-harvest stress affects postharvest responses. Methods Mature rocket plants were subjected to 3 d of elevated daytime temperature (35 °C) before harvest. Leaves were then stored at 6 °C to mimic postharvest supply chain conditions. Physiological data were collected at harvest and after 7, 14 and 21 d of storage. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were analysed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, changes in metabolite profiles were analysed through flow injection electrospray high-resolution mass spectroscopy, and gene expression was assessed by RNAseq and real-time PCR. Key Results Transcriptomic analysis showed a mild heat stress signature affecting both metabolic and regulatory genes, including those related to hormone signalling. Models for effects on circadian clock genes and regulation of cold/dark stress responses are derived based on Arabidopsis thaliana pathways. After 7 d of storage, there were also significant effects of the pre-harvest heat stress on leaf VOC profiles, with distinct patterns compared with those at harvest. The metabolome was also affected after 7 d of storage, with specific effects on several lipid classes, amino acids and sugars. However, the direction of gene expression changes did not always match effects on VOCs. After 21 d of storage, pre-harvest heat stress adversely affected chlorophyll content and photosynthetic capacity, promoted ion leakage, and resulted in increased stomatal closure. Conclusions Cold storage affects the physiology, gene expression and metabolome of rocket leaves and these effects are perturbed by exposure to heat stress before harvest
Investigating within-host population diversity of Cryptosporidium parvum using BlooMine
No full textInvestigating multiplicity-of-infection (MOI) in pathogen populations is central to understanding within-host evolutionary dynamics. In Cryptosporidium parvum, MOI may play a pivotal role in diversification due to the parasite’s sexually recombinogenic life cycle, which occurs entirely within a single host. Subtyping of C. parvum typically relies on variation at short tandem repeat (STR) loci - such as that found in the 60kDa surface glycoprotein gene, Gp60 - but accurate profiling of these regions from next-generation sequencing (NGS) data remains technically challenging. Here, we apply BlooMine, an alignment-free, Bloom filter based tool that isolates STR containing reads via a novel pseudo-alignment strategy robust to structural and sequence variation. Using this approach, we analyse the full publicly available C. parvum Illumina dataset to quantify polyclonality at the Gp60 locus. After stringent artefact suppression, we detect strong evidence of in-host diversity across multiple continents and hosts. Cattle samples exhibited a 2.3-fold higher odds of harbouring multiple Gp60 subtypes compared to human samples, a difference that remained significant after adjustment for geography, sequencing depth, and subtype family. Allele co-occurrence analysis revealed closely related pairs likely arising from replication slippage, as well as mutually exclusive combinations suggestive of within-host competition or transmission structuring. Several subtypes traditionally considered host-specific were detected in unexpected host contexts, indicating greater host plasticity than previously assumed. Our results support a model in which STR-driven microevolution, recombination, and polyclonal infection jointly shape C. parvum population structure. We propose that MOI may act as a genetic crucible, facilitating subtype diversification within individual hosts. This study represents the largest genomic survey of Gp60 polyclonality to date and provides key insights into the evolutionary and epidemiological dynamics of C. parvum.</p
Molecular Networks Underlying Wheat Resistance and Susceptibility to Pyrenophora tritici-repentis
No full textPyrenophora tritici-repentis (Ptr), the causal agent of tan spot, is a necrotrophic fungus that represents a significant threat to wheat production worldwide. The development of resistant cultivars is limited by an incomplete understanding of wheat defence responses against Ptr. Here, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was applied to RNA-seq data from resistant (Robigus) and susceptible (Hereward) wheat lines before and after Ptr infection to identify coordinated host responses. Eight co-expression modules were identified, three of which were linked to either resistance, susceptibility, or Ptr infection. The resistance-associated module was enriched with chloroplast ribosomal machinery genes (e.g., 50S ribosome-binding GTPase, L28, L6), and transcriptional regulators. This suggested that maintaining chloroplast function, coupled with large-scale transcriptional reprogramming, was important for resistance. The susceptibility-associated module indicated the high expression of post-transcriptional modifiers, including SGS3, RBX1, and SENPs. The Ptr-responsive module showed common responses in both genotypes and included several defence-related genes (nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat R-genes [NLRs], chitinases, beta-1,3-glucanases) and metabolic pathways, such as phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and nitrogen metabolism (phenylpropanoid ammonia lyase [PAL], cytochrome P450s, glutamine synthase, and ammonium transporters). These results define distinct and shared molecular networks that are linked to resistance and susceptibility, providing valuable candidate genes for functional validation that could ultimately be exploited to enhance wheat resilience against necrotrophic fungal pathogens.</p