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Rethinking the words hostspot reservoir and pristine in the environmental dimensions of antimicrobial resistance
No full textWe assess three words commonly used to represent the environmental dimensions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – ‘hotspot’, ‘reservoir’ and ‘pristine’ – through two questions: how are these terms used in published research; and how do these terms shape research being conducted? We advocate for the community to reflect on and improve its use of language, and suggest four potentially more productive and precise terms for AMR hazard: presence; transmission; evolution and connectivity.</p
Barriers and facilitators to implementation of mental capacity legislation in care homes for older adults in the United Kingdom: a mixed-methods systematic review
No full textObjective Mental Capacity legislation defines when a person lacks capacity and subsequently supports individuals to make as many decisions as possible for themselves. Whilst frameworks exist, care home staff often feel unsupported with insufficient knowledge and training. This review aimed to understand barriers and facilitators of implementing mental capacity legislation in care homes for older adults in the United Kingdom. Methods A systematic review was conducted and 3041 potentially relevant studies identified, with 13 studies eligible for inclusion. 11 focused on the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and two on the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000. Barriers and/or facilitators were extracted and subsequently mapped to the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation model and Theoretical Domains Framework. Results Barriers included poor access to training, low staff confidence and a lack of understanding about using legislation in context. Conversely, staff reported in-person training using real-life examples, robust organisational policies and processes and respecting person-centred care were key facilitators. Sense-checking conversations were conducted with care home staff (n = 18) to interpret findings in the context of current practice. Conclusions This review presents complex and multi-faceted barriers preventing the implementation of mental capacity legislation in care homes for older adults. Whilst care home staff have now started to appreciate the importance of such legislation, insufficient time, resources and an inability to track staff knowledge prevents effective implementation of the law. Future research should explore how staff are trained about legislation and identify best practices.</p
DigiGREF: A Digital Analogue of the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer Ground-Reference Facility
No full textThis paper presents a new X-ray fluorescence simulation (DigiGREF), designed as a digital analogue to the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) ground-reference facility (GREF). MIXS is a novel instrument, onboard the BepiColombo spacecraft, and requires characterisation of the flight-qualification model (FQM) in a laboratory setting. DigiGREF is the first step towards simulating the emission and detection of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), which will eventually allow the elemental abundances of Mercury’s surface to be accurately determined. DigiGREF solves the standard fluorescence integral, using a Monte-Carlo integration technique. X-ray emission processes simulated include photoemission, and Compton and Rayleigh scattering. An electron random-walk simulation is also presented, used to simulate an X-ray tube (XRT) input spectrum. The detection process is simulated using response functions for the FQM detector. The simulated spectrum is tested against a well characterised geological standard (JB-3) and produces a spectrum with an R2 value of 0.9513. The XRT spectrum is also tested, using two different split-pixel processing modes, and generates spectra with R2 values of 0.9864 and 0.9900. DigiGREF is thus considered a good first-order approximation of XRF and forms a suitable basis for future development, eventually leading to analysis of data returned by MIXS during the orbital mission.</p
Unpacking Expressions of Hostility: Executive Summary 2
No full textThis Executive Summary is part of a series of publications produced as part of The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside. This report presents the core findings from the "Unpacking Expressions of Hostility" stream of The Rural Racism Project.</p
Progression of cases submitted by the police to the CPS for charging decisions
No full textThe main aim of this research project was to explore the factors that influence the progression of cases sent by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a charging decision. The research primarily focussed on case progression from crime recording up until charge or decision to no further action (NFA) by the CPS.A mixed method research design was used for the study that included analysis of a sample of 1,002 criminal case files submitted to the CPS for a charging decision and 55 semi-structured interviews with police and CPS staff involved in case progression. The case files covered victim-based crimes where the suspect was not remanded by the police. Rape and serious sexual assaults were excluded from the sample. The data collection was focussed in 4 territorial police forces in England and Wales.</p
Detection and remediation of harmful algal blooms: Opportunities for electrochemists?
No full textLarger and more frequent recurrences of harmful algal blooms (HABs) are becoming an urgent challenge globally with potentially deadly and economically devastating consequences. HAB monitoring and remediation is a multidisciplinary field which would benefit from inputs from electrochemists. Phytoplankton cells naturally contain various biomarkers such as species-specific DNAs, toxins, and chlorophyll pigments which can be strategically targeted via electrochemistry, either directly or indirectly, for sensing purposes. In this review, we discuss recent electrochemical advances that enable early HAB warning systems with the inclusion of AI to be developed as well as the separation of algae from water via electrocoagulation methods.</p
Temporal variation of the oldest Emperor-Hawaiian plume signature influenced by interaction with shallow mantle features
No full textHawaiian volcanoes 81 Ma (Meiji and Detroit Seamounts) to ∼50 Ma (Kōko Seamount). We show that Emperor seamounts differ from younger Hawaiian Islands in the abundance of isotopically depleted components. In εHf‐εNd isotope space, Detroit lavas trend toward a high εHf component similar to that observed in other mantle plumes (e.g., Iceland, Galápagos). This component originated deep within the mantle, possibly as a sheath surrounding the plume stem. Sampling of this component was facilitated by Detroit being ridge‐proximal when it formed (∼81–76 Ma). Emperor seamounts younger than Suiko (∼68 Ma) were intraplate and located beneath progressively older, thicker lithospheres. Backtracked locations of Emperor seamounts lie up to 15° latitude north of the Pacific LLSVP. This suggests that the ancestral Emperor‐Hawaiian plume was either (a) not initially associated with the Pacific LLSVP, (b) was deflected northward by shallow mantle features such that plume‐ridge interactions dominated in the upper mantle or convective flow patterns modified the plume structure in the mid mantle, or (c) the edge of the Pacific LLSVP receded southward by more than 15° over the past ∼100 m.y.</p
Ensemble design for seasonal climate predictions: studying extreme Arctic sea ice lows with a rare event algorithm
No full textInitialized ensemble simulations can help identify the physical drivers and assess the probabilities of weather and climate extremes based on a given initial state. However, the significant computational burden of complex climate models makes it challenging to quantitatively investigate extreme events with probabilities below a few percent. A possible solution to overcome this problem is to use rare event algorithms, i.e. computational techniques originally developed in statistical physics that increase the sampling efficiency of rare events in numerical simulations. Here, we apply a rare event algorithm to ensemble simulations with the intermediate-complexity coupled climate model PlaSim-LSG to study extremes of pan-Arctic sea ice area reduction under pre-industrial greenhouse gas conditions. We construct four pairs of control and rare event algorithm ensemble simulations, each starting from four different initial winter sea ice states. The rare event simulations produce sea ice lows with probabilities of 2 orders of magnitude smaller than feasible with the control ensembles and drastically increase the number of extremes compared to direct sampling. We find that for a given probability level, the amplitude of negative late-summer sea ice area anomalies strongly depends on the baseline winter sea ice thickness but hardly on the baseline winter sea ice area. Finally, we investigate the physical processes in two trajectories leading to sea ice lows with conditional probabilities of less than 0.001 %. In both cases, negative late-summer pan-Arctic sea ice area anomalies are preceded by negative spring sea ice thickness anomalies. These are related to enhanced surface downward longwave radiative and sensible heat fluxes in an anomalously moist, cloudy and warm atmosphere. During summer, extreme sea ice area reduction is favoured by enhanced open-water-formation efficiency, anomalously strong downward solar radiation and the sea ice–albedo feedback. This work highlights that the most extreme summer sea ice conditions result from the combined effects of preconditioning and weather variability, emphasizing the need for thoughtful ensemble design when turning to real applications.</p
The JUICE Radiation Environment Monitor, RADEM
No full textThe RADiation–hard Electron Monitor (RADEM) is an instrument on board the ESA JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) deep-space mission launched on April 14th, 2023. As a part of the Cosmic Vision program, RADEM on JUICE will spend over three years exploring the radiation environment of the Jovian system, including its icy moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. The instrument serves as an on-board radiation monitor, providing nonstop information on particle fluxes and their energy spectra. In addition to being a platform subsystem relevant to spacecraft safety and health, RADEM obtains scientifically valuable data on the radiation environment and extends the particle detection range covered by the JUICE Particle Environment Package (PEP) instrument suite to much higher energies, and broadens the energy coverage in the tens to hundreds of MeV range for electrons and protons, compared to past missions. RADEM consists of three detector subunits: the Electron Detector Head, the Proton & Heavy Ion Detector Head, and the Directional Detector Head. Each of them is connected to a separate readout electronics with a dedicated front-end Application–Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) designed especially for the JUICE mission. RADEM measures electrons in the 0.3–40 MeV energy range, protons in the 5–250 MeV energy range, and heavy ions within the Linear Energy Transfer range from 0.1 to 10 MeV cm mg−1. The Directional Detector provides an angular coverage of incoming radiation up to about 35% of the sky. Being a platform device, the monitor operates and delivers data permanently. Therefore, RADEM measurements also cover the radiation environment of the interplanetary space during the mission cruise phase, including long-term studies of the environment between Venus and Mars as well as the detection of the Solar Energetic Particle events that propagate across different locations in the Solar System.</p
Genomic and experimental analysis of motility genes of Campylobacter jejuni
No full textGenomic and experimental analysis of motility genes of Campylobacter jejuniThis data set contains the files relating to a proposed publication entitled “Identification of a core set of Campylobacter jejuni flagella modification genes and a reversible non-motile maf3 phenotype” by Lickson Munjoma and Christopher David Bayliss. This work describes detection of the flagella glycosylation genes in the genome sequences of 16130 C. jejuni isolates by BLAST analyses. The genes examined include the motility accessory factors (maf genes), genes involved in biosynthesis of pseudaminic and legionaminic acid and other genes located with the flagella locus of C. jejuni strain NCTC11168. The data set also includes motility data for a maf3 deletion mutant and whole genome sequence comparisons for one motile revertant of this mutant.This dataset consists of three different types of data as follows:- genomic analysis (a bioinformatic analysis for the presence or absence of multiple genes associated with motility in 16130 C. jejuni isolates), motility runs (raw data for the motility experiments) and SNP-WGS analysis (raw data on the analysis of whole genome sequence data for one of the strains).</p