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Investigating the Differences in Worst Case Scenario Across Age Group Match Play : Implications for the Transition to Senior Football
Get PDFTree diversity is changing across tropical Andean and Amazonian forests in response to global change
No full textClimate and atmospheric changes are impacting forest function and structure worldwide, but their effects on tropical forest diversity are unclear. Nowhere is the scientific challenge greater than in the Andes and the Amazon, which together include the world’s most diverse forests. Here, using 406 permanent plots spanning four decades of intact lowland and montane forest dynamics, we test for long-term change in species richness and assess the influence of climate and other variables. We show that, at a continental scale, species richness appears stable, but this masks substantial regional variation. Species richness increased in Northern Andean and Western Amazon plots, yet declined in the Central Andes, Guyana Shield and Central-Eastern Amazon. Overall, warmer, drier and more seasonal forests lost species, while those at higher elevations, in less fragmented areas and with faster rates of tree turnover experienced increases. Region-specific drivers, particularly precipitation seasonality and demographic factors, modulated these trends. The results highlight the diverse ways in which Amazon–Andes forests are changing and underscore the critical need to preserve large-scale ecosystem integrity to maintain local tree diversity. By doing so, Northern Andean forests in particular could serve as an important refuge for species increasingly displaced by climate change
Leveraging Monaural Exposures to Reveal Early Effects of Noise : Evidence from Police Radio Ear-Piece Use
Get PDFResearch into the long-term effects of noise on hearing is often confounded by health and lifestyle differences between individuals. UK police radio ear-pieces are capable of emitting high sound levels and, crucially, are worn in one ear, allowing between-ear comparisons which control for individual-level confounding factors. Low volume-control settings are recommended to reduce risk to police hearing, yet actual usage patterns and auditory effects remain unexamined. This study used a large-scale survey (N = 4,498) to assess ear-piece noise exposure and the associated hearing health. Most participants reported using high volume-control settings and 45.2% reported experiencing signs of temporary threshold shift (TTS) in the exposed ear. Estimated weekly-averaged noise exposures frequently exceeded the UK's 85 dBA Upper Exposure Action Value. Ear-piece use was associated with 73% (95% confidence interval [CI] 46–106%) increased risk of persistent tinnitus, which on mediation analysis appeared to be driven by a subset of users who experienced signs of TTS. Importantly, tinnitus location was associated with the side of exposure, suggesting tinnitus related to device use rather than to other factors. In contrast, Digits-In-Noise thresholds showed no relation with noise exposure; potential explanations include compensatory auditory training effects, but limitations of Digits-In-Noise data must also be considered. Findings highlight a need for further investigation into hearing risks in police personnel, including in-person auditory testing. Risk mitigation strategies might involve improved device design, training on safe use, and expanded hearing health surveillance. Given the potential for cumulative auditory damage, TTS may serve as an early warning sign, warranting attention in broader noise-exposed populations
Choice versus Necessity : Understanding Service Diversification and Firm Performance in Manufacturing
Get PDFThis study examines the effect of service-oriented manufacturing business models on firm performance and the drivers of the performance disparities across adopters. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we identify necessary conditions for diversification into services, and also for translating this into performance. Using data from 15,732 UK manufacturing companies in the period 2010–2021, we demonstrate that service offering increases the productivity, profits, and turnover of manufacturing firms. The increase intensifies with the extent of the offering and is contingent on firm specific resources related to implementing the business model innovation. The diversification strategy is more common in firms with large human capital resources, with financial difficulties, and those facing high levels of competition. It is less likely among firms with alternative options for diversification, such as internationalization
Measurement of the top-quark Yukawa coupling from t t ¯ production in the lepton+jets final state using pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
No full textThe top-quark Yukawa coupling is extracted from the distribution of the top-quark pair (tt¯) invariant mass in proton-proton collisions using 140 fb−1 of data at s=13 TeV collected in 2015–2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. In the region near the production threshold, the tt¯ invariant mass spectrum is sensitive to electroweak virtual corrections, including contributions from Higgs boson exchange, thereby providing sensitivity to the top-quark Yukawa coupling. This is the first measurement in ATLAS that aims to obtain this coupling exploiting this approach. The tt¯ system is reconstructed in the single-lepton final state, requiring exactly one isolated electron or muon and at least four jets with at least two identified as originating from b-quarks. The measured Yukawa coupling is found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction. An upper limit on the top-quark Yukawa coupling strength of Yt< 2.1 relative to the Standard Model prediction is observed at 95% confidence level, consistent with the expected sensitivity
Living in a Bio-Digital Material World : Anticipating Regenerative Technological Futures Via Speculative Design Praxis
No full textThis paper discusses how designers can begin to better consider the entangled ecological, technological and societal interdependencies and tensions that a socio-technical paradigm, rooted upon a bio-digital materials, may herald. In outlining these new sensibilities and capabilities for design, the paper envisions how such regenerative stewardship can nurture deeper, more appropriate and meaningful kinship between humans, their technologies (e.g., devices, the Cloud, and GenAI) and non-humans (e.g., flora, fauna, and the planet). The paper embodies this stance through the notion of Regenification, using this term to describe a transformative, future-facing design approach that challenges the hegemonic barbarity, ‘enshittification’ and systemized obsolescence that characterize today’s digital technologies as controlled by Big Tech. Regenification seeks to go beyond ineffective ‘mop-and-bucket’ environmental solutions, like recycling and carbon offsetting, which merely sustain the capitalist, extractive status quo
CLIC readiness report
Get PDFThe Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a TeV-scale high-luminosity linear e+e− collider studied by the international CLIC and CLICdp collaborations hosted by CERN. CLIC uses a two-beam acceleration scheme, in which normal-conducting high-gradient 12 GHz accelerating structures are powered via a high-current drive beam. For an optimal exploitation of its physics potential, CLIC is foreseen to be built and operated in stages. The initial stage will have a centre-of-mass energy of 380 GeV, with a site length of 11 km. The 380 GeV stage optimally combines the exploration of Higgs and top-quark physics, including a top threshold scan near 350 GeV. A higher-energy stage, still using the initial single drive-beam complex, can be optimised for any energy up to 2 TeV. Parameters are presented in detail for a 1.5 TeV stage, with a site length of 29 km. Since the 2018 ESPPU reporting, significant effort was invested in CLIC accelerator optimisation, technology developments and system tests, including collaboration with and gaining experience from new-generation light sources and free-electron lasers. CLIC implementation aspects at CERN have covered detailed studies of civil engineering, electrical networks, cooling and ventilation, scheduling, and costing. The CLIC baseline at 380 GeV is now 100 Hz operation, with a luminosity of 4.5×1034 cm−2s−1 and a power consumption of 166 MW. Compared to the 2018 design, this gives three times higher luminosity-per-power. The new baseline has two beam-delivery systems, allowing for two detectors operating in parallel, sharing the luminosity. The cost estimate of the 380 GeV baseline is approximately 7.2 billion CHF. The construction of the first CLIC energy stage could start as early as ∼2034-2035 and beam commissioning and first beams would follow a decade later, marking the beginning of a physics programme spanning 20-30 years and providing excellent sensitivity to Beyond Standard Model physics, through direct searches and via a broad set of precision measurements of Standard Model processes, particularly in the Higgs and top-quark sectors. This report summarises the CLIC project, its implementation and running scenarios, with emphasis on new developments and recent progress. It concludes with an update on the CLIC detector studies and on the physics potential in light of the improved accelerator performance. The physics potential includes results from the 3 TeV energy stage, which was studied in detail for the CLIC CDR in 2012 and the CLIC Project Implementation Plan of 2018
Critical tipping points in dung beetle communities : Implications for conservation in the Atlantic Forest biome
Get PDFAnthropogenic land‐use changes represent a significant but poorly understood threat to global biodiversity, particularly among invertebrates. Dung beetles, a diverse and widely distributed group, play key roles in ecosystem functioning and are highly sensitive to environmental changes, making them valuable bioindicators for assessing human impacts. One approach to understanding these impacts involves identifying ecological thresholds, which indicate nonlinear shifts in biodiversity along land‐use and land‐cover gradients. Identifying ecological thresholds offers critical insights into how species and ecosystems respond to human‐induced environmental changes. The Brazilian Atlantic Forest, a global biodiversity hotspot, is well suited for studies exploring ecological thresholds as it faces ongoing ecological transformations driven by deforestation, agricultural expansion and urbanization. In this study, we aimed to (i) identify key environmental drivers of shifts in dung beetle communities, (ii) determine critical thresholds for compositional turnover in these communities and (iii) explore patterns across taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic dimensions within this taxon. We found that even minor land‐use changes trigger abrupt biodiversity shifts across all diversity dimensions, consistently benefiting generalist species while excluding sensitive specialists. The observed shifts occurred at lower levels of environmental change rates than previously recognized, with significant changes evident after just 25% of habitat loss. Our results challenge existing conservation thresholds and provide an evidence‐based framework to update environmental laws, guide protected area expansion and direct targeted restoration efforts. We recommend conducting more comprehensive studies to assess ecological thresholds across a broader range of taxa and geographic regions within the Atlantic Forest biome. Advancing conservation strategies with improved threshold knowledge will be critical to maintain the forest's ecological resilience and functional integrity
Connecting narratives and numbers to investigate the interaction of social, physical and technical determinants of rural water supply performance
Get PDFThe performance of rural water supply infrastructure in Africa remains a considerable challenge. Performance is determined by interactions between social, technical and physical factors (the socio-material interface). Here we examine how breakdown, downtime, timeliness of repair, and socio-material factors, dynamically interact and mutually shape each other. We conducted interdisciplinary fieldwork at 145 handpumped boreholes across Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda. Using regression analysis, we find that the probability of any failure occurring in the last year is dominated by physical and technical factors (handpump condition, water level, transmissivity, borehole construction and configuration), while the cumulative downtime in the previous year is dominated by social factors (demand, access to spares, finances). Cumulative failure is influenced by complex combinations of social and technical factors (finances, motivation, support, handpump condition, water level, transmissivity). Downtime duration from previous failure is influenced by skills and leadership in the community, and transmissivity and cylinder position in the borehole which in combination influence the risk of the handpump running dry. We find that ineffective finance and external support systems are worse than having no formal systems at all. In-depth narratives from nine sites showed that interactions between socio-material factors and performance and response outcomes are complex and multidimensional, shaping each other in counterintuitive ways. We find examples where external support providers are reluctant to conduct repairs, because they lack adequate equipment, creating tensions with communities. We find cases with perverse outcomes, for example well performing handpumps in locations with good hydrogeology allowing management and financial arrangements to evolve in ways that risk equitable water access. Similarly, capture of management arrangements by sections of the community resulting in poorly sited boreholes, inequitable skill development and poor performance outcomes. Recognising, understanding and working with these dynamic and multidirectional interactions can help ensure effective management and improved rural water supply performance