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Imaging the photochemistry of cyclobutanone using ultrafast electron diffraction:Experimental results
Get PDFWe investigated the ultrafast structural dynamics of cyclobutanone following photoexcitation at λ = 200 nm using gas-phase megaelectronvolt ultrafast electron diffraction. Our investigation complements the simulation studies of the same process within this special issue. It provides information about both electronic state population and structural dynamics through well-separable inelastic and elastic electron scattering signatures. We observe the depopulation of the photoexcited S2 state of cyclobutanone with n3s Rydberg character through its inelastic electron scattering signature with a time constant of (0.29 ± 0.2) ps toward the S1 state. The S1 state population undergoes ring-opening via a Norrish Type-I reaction, likely while passing through a conical intersection with S0. The corresponding structural changes can be tracked by elastic electron scattering signatures. These changes appear with a delay of (0.14 ± 0.05) ps with respect to the initial photoexcitation, which is less than the S2 depopulation time constant. This behavior provides evidence for the ballistic nature of the ring-opening once the S1 state is reached. The resulting biradical species react further within (1.2 ± 0.2) ps via two rival fragmentation channels yielding ketene and ethylene, or propene and carbon monoxide. Our study showcases the value of both gas-phase ultrafast diffraction studies as an experimental benchmark for nonadiabatic dynamics simulation methods and the limits in the interpretation of such experimental data without comparison with such simulations.</p
Picture your poisons:An intimate portrait of cancer treatment
Get PDFThe authors discuss both practice-led research through making and the role of data in making by using a dialogic autoethnographic format. Picture Your Poisons is an intimate portrait of a cancer treatment journey, grounding viewers in the real-world material origins of systemic anticancer treatments through the specific lens of one patient’s course of treatment. Viewers are able to explore data that is usually presented in an abstract, clinical context through a striking visual medium that elicits an emotional as well as a cognitive response. The artwork encourages the viewer to explore aspects of the patient experience relating to bodily autonomy, selfhood, and dis/empowerment in medical contexts by confronting them with disembodied partial body casts of an affected breast. The material choices for this piece, using mainly glass as a hard but fragile material, add layers of subtle nuance and meaning
The Translation of Experience:Cultural Artefacts in Experiential Translation
Get PDFExperience is a multilayered, cumulative affair with transformation at its core. Its study, a necessary first step for its translation, requires an exploration of embodiment, the senses, and cultural and social environments. The second of two volumes, this book explores how artefacts, as outcomes of experience brought about by the "artistranslator" perform semiotic work. This semiotic work arises through the intervention of their makers but also through their viewers/audience, often through the latter's direct participation in the artefacts' creation, which we see as an open-ended process. Drawing on diverse examples from across the world, the chapters explore visual materiality, the digital world and the multisensory nature of artefacts such as monuments, festivals, theatre performances, artworks, religious rituals, the urban environment and human bodies-the embodied perception of which may draw holistically or variously on the haptic, olfactory, auditory, kinetic or kinaesthetic senses. Throughout the book, experiential translation is framed as a political endeavour that allows experience to be shared across linguistic, cultural, generational or gendered divides in the form of artefacts that facilitate transformation and the acquisition of knowledge. This book and its companion volume The Experience of Translation: Materiality and Play in Experiential Translation include an international range of contributions from graduate students and early career researchers (ECRs) to tenured academics in translation studies, comparative literature, performance arts, fine arts, media and cultural studies, as well as educators, artists and curators. It will be of particular interest to translators and arts practitioners, scholars and researchers in the transdisciplinary field of humanities.</p
Chapters overview
Get PDFExperience, as we have argued in the opening chapter, is a multilayered, cumulative affair with transformation at its core. Its study, a necessary first step for its translation, requires an exploration of embodiment and the senses as well as of cultural and social environments. It matters who experiences what, where, how and under what circumstances, but it also matters that experience is open and entails uncertainty and hence room for growth
A comprehensive review/expert statement on environmental risk factors of cardiovascular disease
Get PDFCardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality globally, with over 20 million deaths each year. While traditional risk factors—such as hypertension, diabetes, smoking, and poor diet—are well-established, emerging evidence underscores the profound impact of environmental exposures on cardiovascular health. Air pollution, particularly fine particulate matter, contributes to approximately 8.3 million deaths annually, with over half attributed to CVD. Similarly, noise pollution, heat extremes, toxic chemicals, and light pollution significantly increase the risk of CVD through mechanisms involving oxidative stress, inflammation, and circadian disruption. Recent translational and epidemiological studies show that chronic exposure to transport noise increases the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure. Air pollution, even below regulatory thresholds, promotes atherosclerosis, vascular dysfunction, and cardiac events. Novel threats such as micro- and nano-plastics are emerging as contributors to vascular injury and systemic inflammation. Climate change exacerbates these risks, with heatwaves and wildfires further compounding the cardiovascular burden, especially among vulnerable populations. The cumulative effects of these exposures—often interacting with behavioral and socioeconomic risk factors—are inadequately addressed in current prevention strategies. The exposome framework offers a comprehensive approach to integrating lifelong environmental exposures into cardiovascular risk assessment and prevention. Mitigation requires systemic interventions including stricter pollution standards, noise regulations, sustainable urban design, and green infrastructure. Addressing environmental determinants of CVD is essential for reducing the global disease burden. This review calls for urgent policy action and for integrating environmental health into clinical practice to safeguard cardiovascular health in the Anthropocene
Innate [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose PET bone networks of lung cancer patients predict survival
Get PDFPURPOSE: Prognostication of lung cancer patients remains challenging clinically. This study aims to address this problem by investigating the utility of bone glucose metabolism networks as a prognostic biomarker of lung cancer patients. The rationale for targeting bone metabolic networks specifically comes from the long-recognised role of bone in innate immunity and the recent appreciation of the key role bones play in regulating whole-body glucose metabolism.METHODS: This study is a retrospective analysis of data from the multi-centre trial ACRIN 6668 on non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Conventional [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) standardised uptake value (SUV) analysis of lung lesions and bones as well as network analysis of bones were carried out in 34 stage IIIB non-operable NSCLC patients before and after chemoradiation.RESULTS: Conventional lung tumour SUV peak analysis of PET data cannot predict NSCLC patient survival (p = 0.23-0.35), while network analysis of bone glucose metabolism pre-chemoradiation can significantly predict patient survival (p = 0.0003) and identify three distinct clusters of survivors (short-term, long-term and mix-term). Chemoradiation treatment results in homogenisation of the innate survivors' clusters into adapted mix-term clusters and loss of predictive value of bone glucose metabolism networks (p = 0.77).CONCLUSIONS: Innate pre-treatment skeletal glucose metabolism networks of NSCLC patients can predict patient survival in contrast with adapted post-treatment networks, supporting the role of bones in both innate immunity and regulation of systemic glucose metabolism. Newly proposed network analysis performs better than conventional SUV PET analysis, and should be considered as a prognostication tool in the management of NSCLC patients.</p
Better statistical reporting does not lead to statistical rigour: lessons from two decades of pseudoreplication in mouse-model studies of neurological disorders
Get PDFBackgroundAccurately determining the sample size (“N”) of a dataset is a key consideration for experimental design. Misidentification of sample size can lead to pseudoreplication, a process of artificially inflating the number of experimental replicates which systematically underestimates variability, overestimates effect sizes and invalidates statistical tests performed on the data. While many journals have adopted stringent requirements with regard to statistical reporting over the last decade, it remains unknown whether such efforts have had a meaningful impact on statistical rigour.MethodsHere, we evaluated the prevalence of this type of statistical error among neuroscience studies involving animal models of Fragile-X Syndrome (FXS) and those using animal models of neurological disorders at large published between 2001 and 2024.ResultsWe found that pseudoreplication was present in the majority of publication, increasing over time despite marked improvements in statistical reporting over the last decade. This trend generalised beyond the FXS literature to rodent studies of neurological disorders at large between 2012 and 2024, suggesting that pseudoreplication remains a widespread issue in the literature.LimitationsThe scope of this study was limited to rodent-model studies of neurological disorders which had the potential for being pseudoreplicated, by allowing repeat observations from individual animals. We did not consider reviews or articles whose experimental design could not allow for pseudoreplication, for example studies which reported only behavioural results, or studies which did not use inferential statistics.ConclusionsThese observations identify an urgent need for better standards in experimental design and increased vigilance for this type of error during peer review. While reporting standards have significantly improved over the past two decades, this alone has not been enough to curb the prevalence of pseudoreplication. We offer suggestions for how this can be remedied as well as quantifying the severity of this particular type of statistical error. Although the examined literature concerns a specific neuroscience-related area of research, the implications of pseudoreplication apply to all fields of empirical research
The role of regional demand in pathways of agro-industrialization:Evidence from small maize milling firms in Tanzania
Get PDFThe growth of regional demand in food chains is often assumed to offer particular opportunities to small scale agro-processing firms in Africa, promising a route to a more inclusive pathway of industrialization for the continent. The aim of the article is to interrogate this assumption by providing a critical assessment of the impacts of Kenya’s growing demand for maize flour on small maize milling firms in Tanzania. It uses an in-depth survey with small millers, interviews with actors in the value chain, combined with secondary manufacturing and trade data, to make a theoretical and empirical contribution to these debates. It offers an expanded conceptual framework to examine the direct and indirect temporal, spatial and political impacts of regional demand on market structure and competition. To conclude it draws out the implications of focussing on regional demand for industrial policy, resilience and economic inclusion
A consensus statement on child and family health during the COVID-19 pandemic and recommendations for post-pandemic recovery and re-build
Get PDFIntroduction: As health systems struggled to respond to the catastrophic effects of SARS-CoV-2, infection prevention and control measures significantly impacted on the delivery of non-COVID children's and family health services. The prioritisation of public health measures significantly impacted supportive relationships, revealed their importance for both mental and physical health and well-being. Drawing on findings from an expansive national collaboration, and with the well-being of children and young people in mind, we make recommendations here for post-pandemic recovery and re-build. Methods: This consensus statement is derived from a cross-disciplinary collaboration of experts. Working together discursively, we have synthesised evidence from collaborative research in child and family health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have identified and agreed priorities areas for both action and learning, which we present as recommendations for research, healthcare practice, and policy. Results: The synthesis led to immediate recommendations grouped around what to retain and what to remove from “pandemic” provision and what to reinstate from pre-pandemic, healthcare provision in these services. Longer-term recommendations for action were also made. Those relevant to children's well-being concern equity and relational healthcare. Discussion: The documented evidence-base of the effects of the pandemic on children's and family services is growing, providing foundations for the post-pandemic recovery and re-setting of child and family health services and care provision. Recommendations contribute to services better aligning with the values of equity and relational healthcare, whilst providing wider consideration of care and support for children and families in usual vs. extra-ordinary health system shock circumstances.</p
A male-essential miRNA is key for avian sex chromosome dosage compensation
Get PDFBirds have a sex chromosome system in which females are heterogametic (ZW) and males are homogametic (ZZ) 1. The differentiation of avian sex chromosomes from ancestral autosomes entails the loss of most genes from the W chromosome during evolution 1,2. However, the extent to which mechanisms evolved that counterbalance this substantial reduction in female gene dosage remains unclear. Here we report functional in vivo and evolutionary analyses of a Z-linked microRNA (miR-2954) with strong male-biased expression, previously proposed to mediate avian sex chromosome dosage compensation 3. We knocked out miR-2954 in chicken, which resulted in early embryonic lethality in homozygous knockout males, probably driven by specific upregulation of dosage-sensitive Z-linked target genes. Evolutionary gene expression analyses further revealed that these dosage-sensitive target genes underwent both transcriptional and translational upregulation on the single Z in female birds. Altogether, this work unveils a scenario in which evolutionary pressures following W gene loss drove transcriptional and translational upregulation of dosage-sensitive Z-linked genes in females but also their transcriptional upregulation in males. The resulting excess of transcripts in males, resulting from the combined activity of two upregulated dosage-sensitive Z gene copies, was in turn offset by the emergence of a highly targeted miR-2954-mediated transcript degradation mechanism during avian evolution. This study uncovered a unique sex chromosome dosage compensation system in birds, in which a microRNA has become essential for male survival. </p
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