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Raman Analysis of Teeth : A Pilot Study
No full textTeeth are highly mineralised structures that are one of the most commonly found human remains in archaeology. However, analysing tooth chemistry is notoriously difficult due to their complex composition. Raman spectroscopy offers a powerful and non-destructive tool for analysing the chemical composition of dental tissues. Additionally, understanding how increasingly prevalent modern lifestyle factors - such as vaping, impact the chemical composition of the tooth surface is critical to both clinical and public health research. This study aimed to apply and evaluate Raman spectroscopy within two contexts: (1) archaeological teeth exposed to either cremation or burial, and (2) modern deer teeth exposed to varying concentrations of commercially available vape solution, to investigate the effects on tooth surface chemistry. Archaeological human teeth were supplied by the Lancaster Maritime Museum and analysed via Raman spectroscopy. Resulting spectra revealed differences between cremated and buried teeth, specifically within the phosphate group of the hydroxyapatite and the loss of collagen in cremated samples. In the second experiment, deer teeth (red deer, n = 6; roe deer, n = 6) displayed a statistically significant (95% confidence intervals) change in mineral chemistry identified as early as week 1 of the experiment, with time-dependent changes in root mineral chemistry continuing for the 4-week period. These findings support the use of Raman spectroscopy in successfully differentiating between cremated and buried tooth samples within an archaeological context, as well as detecting statistically significant chemical alterations in the surfaces of teeth exposed to vape solutions. This study highlights the use Raman spectroscopy within archaeology and dental research. In addition, the effects of vape solution on tooth chemistry brings forward important clinical and public health concerns regarding the safety of the base components within commercially available e-liquid / vape solution
Climate-based Forecasting from National Culex Mosquito Surveillance to Support West Nile and Usutu Virus preparedness in England and Wales
No full textCulex mosquitoes are widespread in temperate regions and play a key role in transmitting veterinary and human vector-borne diseases. In the United Kingdom, Culex pipiens s.l. is highly prevalent and a competent vector of West Nile and Usutu viruses. Coupled with the northward expansion of West Nile virus in Europe, this raises concerns about imminent emergence in the UK. For public and animal health preparedness, and effective vector control planning, it is essential to better understand the distribution of Culex mosquitoes in this area. This study developed species distribution maps for Culex pipiens pipiens, Culex pipiens molestus, and Culex torrentium abundance using data from the first nationwide stratified active mosquito surveillance programme in England and Wales in 2023, supplemented with adaptive surveillance in 2024. Culex p. pipiens models predicted higher abundances than the other two taxa. Regions of high abundance occurred across most of England, apart from the northwest, with the highest in eastern regions and estuarine areas. In contrast, higher elevation areas, including most of Wales, the North Pennines, and Yorkshire Dales, showed markedly lower abundances. Environmental drivers differed between forms. Culex p. pipiens abundance was strongly associated with precipitation-related covariates, whereas Culex p. molestus was mostly influenced by temperature covariates. These findings highlight the importance of modelling the two forms separately in risk analyses and distribution studies. The resulting models provide timely ecological insights to guide public health planning and targeted vector management, particularly given the recent detection of West Nile virus in the UK
Euclid : An automated system to match Rubin transient alerts to Euclid observations
Full text linkThe Vera C. Rubin observatory is expected to produce 10 million transient alerts per night in ugrizy filters, whilst Euclid is a visible to near-infrared space telescope engaged in a wide field survey. We present a prototype system to automatically match the transient alerts from Rubin to Euclid observations. The system produces joint light-curves containing both visible and near-infrared photometry, and joint image cutouts. Using Zwicky Transient Facility alerts as a proxy for Rubin, we demonstrate the system in use in cases where Euclid did and did not detect the transient and highlight the value that can be added in each case. For transients detected by Euclid these benefits include identifying the supernovae (SNe) in observations taken prior to ground-based detection, thereby better constraining the explosion time, such as SN 2024pvw detected ~3 d prior to ground based detections. In cases where Euclid did not detect the transient, we demonstrate the benefit of adding Euclid observations to improve host morphology measurements and associations
The Regenerative AI Practitioner : Thinking and Designing With AI More Sustainably
No full textMany designers wrestle with an internal, creative conflict. We consider ourselves authentic practitioners who have developed discrete tacit knowledge and skills which underpin how we practice our craft. Yet, many of us continue to serve a capitalist system that undermines our creative motivation and authorship. Our work is often reduced to a transient commodity that drives superfluous mass-production and consumption. Through our designs, we create carbon emissions, waste and deplete precious natural resources. Of the creative industries, design arguably contributes most to the Earth’s growing climate crisis. Emergent AI design tools are promoted as key enablers of a sustainable transition. However, like the technologies preceding it, the recent, rampant adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by the design industry is increasing injurious environmental impacts, as well as disrupting notions of design copyright and even jeopardising designers’ livelihoods. This chapter examines the psychological threats and promises that AI is beginning to pose for designers and their practice for engendering a sustainable future. Adopting a Regenerative Design lens, the chapter rethinks how designers can manage their inner dissonance to develop a regenerative AI design mindset
The Network of Things
No full textAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary the etymology of Network lies in the 1500’s when it was used to describe structures of lines and interstices giving the resemblance of a net. These early uses related to structures appearing in nature, in the tissues of animals and plants, as well as human-made materials or decorative patterns. In the early 1800 hundreds it started to be used to describe infrastructures such as railroads and transportation systems. This association with infrastructures continued alongside technological developments of telecommunications, electrical distribution, broadcasting, computing systems and the internet. The term use evolved in the late 1800s to describe interconnected groups of people and organisations. Whilst many on the infrastructures described have been used to connect people it was emergence of the of the social networking sites in the late 1990s that brought these two perspectives together and shifted the consideration of network from a topological structure to more fluid notion of interdependent and independent relationships that are subject to continuous reconfiguration. The rise of social networks also instigated a fetishization around the potential economic value of the data being produced in social networks. Data was also a driver for emergence of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). The term ‘IoT’ is attributed to a presentation given by Kevin Ashton in the late 1990s, Ashton was a pioneer of the use of RFID technology (and its subsequent evolution into NFC) and saw it as one of the technologies that would facilitate the realisation of a future akin to Mark Weiser’s vision of ‘ubiquitous computing’. Initially the IoT was initially primarily concerned with tracking items through time and space on their earthy sojourn. Reflecting on what he originally meant, Ashton’s thoughts are resonant with contemporary discourse around the IoT. A significant factor in this is the potential for computers to autonomously collect, process, transmit, and act upon data as Aston reflected in 2009: “If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost”. However, the IoT has evolved and is now much more associated with the notion of ‘smart’ products and services sold under the promise of making our lives easier. What is frequently absent from these discussions is the tsunami of data which is generated through our interactions as we add millions of IoT products and services to our networks. This additional data is often combined with data from our online activities in social networks and shopping allowing increasingly detailed profiles of us to be generated. Our ever increasing entanglement within this Network of Things requires new ways of considering his space as well as offering potential new ways of creating and presenting media which is the primary focus of this chapter
Diffusion and physical constraints limit oxidative capacity, capillary supply and size of muscle fibres in mice and humans
No full textIt has been suggested that angiogenesis during skeletal muscle fibre hypertrophy allows escape from the ‘size constraint’, which is the inverse relationship between oxidative capacity and muscle fibre cross‐sectional area (FCSA). It is, however, not known whether there are any limitations to the combinations of FCSA, oxidative capacity and capillary supply to an individual fibre. We determined the FCSA, oxidative capacity and capillary supply to fibres from highly resistance‐trained men before and after superimposed endurance training, recreationally active men and women, and different mouse muscles. Both the oxidative capacity and the number of capillaries around a fibre (CAF) per FCSA (CAF/FCSA) showed an upper limit at each FCSA, irrespective of species, muscle origin or training status. The upper limit of fibre oxidative capacity was likely determined by diffusion constraints. The upper limit of CAF/FCSA was determined by physical constraints where (i) there is no further reduction in maximal diffusion distance to the core of a fibre beyond a CAF of 2, and (ii) the reduction in fibre area supplied by a capillary diminishes exponentially with an increase in CAF. The calculated upper limits of oxidative capacity and CAF/FCSA of a fibre of a given FCSA were linearly related. Irrespective of species, sex, muscle of origin and training status, our data indicate that diffusion limitations and physical limitations to capillary placement around a fibre place an upper limit on the oxidative capacity and capillary supply to a fibre of a given size, respectively
Operators on injective tensor products of separable Banach spaces and spaces with few operators
Full text linkWe give a characterization of the operators on the injective tensor product for any separable Banach space and any (non-separable) Banach space with few operators, in the sense that any operator takes the form for a scalar and an operator with separable range. This is used to give a classification of the complemented subspaces and closed operator ideals of spaces of the form , where is a locally compact Hausdorff space induced by an almost disjoint family such that has few operators
