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Supplementary information files for "Extraction ecologies in medieval Venice: nature, speculation, painting, and the gesture"
No full textSupplementary files for article "Extraction ecologies in medieval Venice: nature, speculation, painting, and the gesture"This paper looks at the specific political economic conditions of 16th century Venice and seeks to connect these with the introduction of the gesture in painting. Arguing that the production of “nature” and its exploitation via increased accumulation, and management of resources are enacted in Titan and Tintoretto’s painting via the expanded and abstracted gesture. I outline the development of financial and quantification techniques in Venice and Italy during the 15th century and ask if these were echoed in painting, that draws from nature while codifying it. Arguing that by looking at paintings made during the emergence of capitalism we can better understand the interaction of the economic and the ideological and locate painting as one such technique. By identifying the gesture in painting as speculative, we can read it through systems of fictitious capital that seek to capture future labour and nature, which underlines the role of credit for emergent capitalism. Arguing against previous conceptualising of the gesture as labour-time, to suggest instead it mimics the abstraction of future labour time in finance capitalism. I portend that by understanding more about ecological thinking in the emergence of capitalism we can better frame our ongoing metabolic rift.CC BY-NC-ND, © The Author(s)</p
Heroines of Greek and Roman Myth: An Intermediate Latin Reader (PDF)
No full textThis volume offers students a fresh approach to reading Latin through the lens of women’s stories in classical myth. Too often, the myths encountered in Latin classrooms center on men, while women are pushed to the margins or depicted primarily as victims of violence. This reader deliberately shifts focus, presenting narratives of nine heroines without requiring students to navigate accounts of sexual assault—an important consideration when the challenge of mastering Latin syntax is already demanding.
The stories, carefully adapted from ancient sources, progress in grammatical and stylistic difficulty, beginning with accessible prose and gradually building toward the complexity of authentic classical Latin. Drawing on Dickinson College’s Latin Core Vocabulary, the book ensures that learners are practicing the most useful words, while less common terms are glossed in-line to promote fluid reading rather than constant translation.
Designed for students completing an introductory Latin sequence or beginning an intermediate course, the volume reinforces core grammar through repeated exposure while introducing more authentic word order and stylistic patterns in later chapters. Both practical and engaging, this book smooths the transition from textbook Latin to unadapted texts, making the voices of classical heroines central to the learning experience
Apple’s unrivalled commitment to excellence is fading – a designer explains why
No full textApple has long differentiated itself through an unusually disciplined commitment to design excellence: interfaces that feel calm, legible, and predictable, where visual polish serves usability rather than competing with it. The company’s new “Liquid Glass” visual language—introduced as a sweeping redesign intended to bring “joy and delight” across Apple’s platforms—signals a shift in priorities, placing spectacle and “expressive” effects at the centre of the experience. Yet early evidence suggests Liquid Glass frequently undermines core usability principles: translucency that reduces contrast, animated controls that distract, crowded or shifting navigation patterns, and declining discoverability as familiar conventions are replaced or obscured. Apple’s subsequent adjustments to reduce transparency in developer betas indicate these issues are not edge cases but systemic. This article argues that the controversy surrounding Liquid Glass is less about taste than about quality control and leadership standards. When excellence fades, the product stops “getting out of the way” and starts demanding attention. Re-centring on clarity, accessibility, and stable interaction patterns is essential if Apple wants to restore its reputation for user experience leadership</p
Banking on Europe: new indicators of European-level borrowing between 1955 and 2023
No full textThis three-year project, which was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and the Luxembourg National Research Fund, brought together a team of researchers in the UK and Luxembourg between 2022 and 2025. The project's aim was to generate new knowledge about the evolution and accountability of pan-European borrowers. Institutions with the authority to raise funds on financial markets to provide grants, loans or guarantees were part of the European Communities' early efforts in the 1950s to support the coal and steel sectors and regional development. Such institutions formed key elements of European responses to the economic crises of the 1970s, the reuniting of Europe in the 1990s and the euro crisis in the 2010s, and they were pivotal to the EU's response to COVID-19. The Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank, which has become the world's largest multilateral lender, provided EUR 25 billion in guarantees for European businesses hit by the pandemic. This is in addition to the EUR 750 billion that the European Commission was authorised to borrow to help with the economic costs of COVID-19. As a result of these and other initiatives, the EU started to borrow on the scale of a large state. This data set includes new indicators of European-level borrowing between 1955 and 2023.</p
Healing-oriented patient-centered care in the healthcare environment
No full textContemporary medical practitioners increasingly recognize the critical impact of healing-environment design on patients’ recovery, positioning it as a pivotal consideration in healthcare facility planning. While existing research has predominantly focused on enhancing the functionality and efficiency of healthcare environments, it has often overlooked the significance of individual patient needs and their distinct experiences. This paper aims to utilize the principles of epidemiology and empirical analysis to explore the application and research trends of the patient-centered care (PCC) concept in healthcare facility design, to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and achieve customized healthcare environments. Based on bibliometric analysis and key literature review methods, this paper systematically examines and interprets the research development trends of PCC in healing environment design, integrating both macro and micro perspectives, and reveals how design factors in therapeutic environments support the realization of PCC principles, thereby improving patients’ rehabilitation experiences and health outcomes. The results indicate that current research on PCC is trending towards increasingly diversified integration via high-frequency keywords such as recovery, healing environment, and evidence-based design, highlighting the shift from functional optimization to emotional care, technological integration, and nature-based interactions in design. Notably, patient-centered care has become a consensus and core integrating concept in this field. This paper not only reveals the key role of healing environments in constructing PCC practice pathways but also provides theoretical support and strategic reference for the planning of healthcare spaces and the collaborative design of nursing processes, and demonstrates that healing environments have evolved from passive spaces into active rehabilitation mediums through interdisciplinary collaboration, thereby facilitating the implementation of the patient-centered healthcare philosophy.</p
Pacifist rejoinders to the ‘Hitler Question’
No full textThis article tackles head-on a question that is often thought to defeat pacifism: ‘How then would you react against a Nazi invasion?’ That multiple wars are still recurrently justified as necessary to confront yet another ‘Hitler’ makes tackling this question critically relevant far beyond pacifist circles. On the Nazi context specifically: the question comes too late if pitched in 1939; militarism did not deter Hitler; there were actually many examples of nonviolent resistance against Nazis; even Hitler was mindful of public opinion; and the fight ‘against Nazis’ claimed many non-Nazi Germans victims too. More generally, and adding theoretical depth: pacifism need not entail a single absolute rejection of violence in all scenarios; nonviolent resistance has been proved to be effective; war-readiness has a corrosive constitutive impact; the Nazi question tends to assume that the application of retaliatory violence is controllable; and to presume that violence is the only option is absolutist and idealistic. Far from delivering a conclusive victory, the Nazi question, carefully considered and discussed, exposes cracks in conventional thinking about violence and war and provides opportunities to unpack and clarify multiple arguments advanced by pacifism.</p
AHAI: Adaptive hybrid-attention inference for diffusion-based Arbitrary Style Transfer
No full textArbitrary Style Transfer (AST) aims to produce high-fidelity stylized images by preserving content of one image and injecting style of another image. Recently, diffusion models have been applied to AST due to their strong generative capacity and flexible conditional control. However, these models still struggle to deliver satisfactory results across various artistic styles when balancing diverse style injection. To address this, we propose AHAI, an attention-guided training-free diffusion-based AST method to enhance style generalization. Our method integrates two complementary stylization mechanisms, attention injection and attention guidance, to ensure more comprehensive style transfer, enabling robust performance across various artistic styles. Furthermore, we introduce a vision–language model-based style perception module to adaptively adjust inference hyper-parameters for different artistic styles. Comprehensive evaluations confirm that AHAI outperforms many other state-of-the-art methods across diverse styles, both quantitatively and qualitatively.</p
SHIFTing from concept to practice: the co-adaptation of tailored health education training for truck drivers
No full textObjective: To co-adapt the SHIFT-UK program into a scalable, accredited, health-focused training module for truck drivers.Methods: Using a participatory co-creation framework, workshops were held with truck drivers, trainers, and managers. Discussions were transcribed verbatim, pseudo-anonymised, and analysed using content analysis. Following accreditation and implementation of the co-adapted training, post-session driver feedback was obtained via online questionnaire.Results: The SHIFT-UK program was adapted into an accredited 7-hour driver training module and 1-hour ‘Short-SHIFT’ module component, in partnership with 18 co-adaptors. Short-SHIFT was subsequently delivered to 5,500 truck drivers (2023-2024) within their mandatory training. Feedback from 283 drivers revealed that 77% intended to make healthier lifestyle changes, after experiencing Short-SHIFT.Conclusions: This study demonstrates how participatory co-adaptation can effectively adapt and scale evidence-informed health promotion programs within commercial driver training systems, positively impacting drivers’ health literacy.</p
Participation in the ESRS Conferences: Challenges for Early Career Professionals
No full textTitle: Participation in the ESRS Conferences: Challenges for Early Career ProfessionalsThe European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) supported a project titled “Participation in the ESRS Conferences: Challenges for Early Career Professionals.” This project aimed to identify the barriers preventing early-career researchers and clinicians from submitting abstracts to and attending the ESRS Congress, particularly among those whose work had been accepted but were unable to participate. The overarching purpose was to inform evidence-based strategies to reduce structural and systemic barriers to conference participation for early-career professionals.Research Objectives:One of the main objectives of this project was to examine the feasibility and equity of participation in the ESRS Congress among early-career professionals. The research questions included:1. What barriers do early-career professionals experience when submitting abstracts to, or attending, the ESRS Congress?2. What are the primary and secondary barriers (e.g., financial, visa-related, institutional, or structural) that limit conference participation?3. Are particular sociodemographic groups, career stages, or institutional contexts disproportionately affected by these barriers?4. What alternative mechanisms (such as virtual participation, targeted funding schemes, or institutional support) could facilitate and promote conference attendance among affected groups?Research Design and Method:The study employed a mixed-methods, cross-sectional survey design to explore barriers to participation in the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) Congress among early-career researchers and clinicians. This approach allowed the research to quantify the prevalence and impact of different barriers while also gaining deeper insights into participants’ perspectives through qualitative analysis of open-ended responses. Data were collected using an online questionnaire administered via Qualtrics.Participants were recruited internationally through multiple ESRS communication channels, including LinkedIn, BlueSky, Sleep Science Friday, and the ESRS President’s newsletter, to reach a broad and diverse early-career community.Eligible participants were professionals (including postgraduate students, researchers, and clinicians). Quantitative items captured the prevalence of barriers to conference participation, whilst open-ended questions explored participants’ experiences, accessibility needs, and recommendations in greater depth. The sampling frame included individuals associated with ESRS congresses from 2020 onwards, encompassing both virtual and in-person meetings.The survey captured demographic and professional characteristics, conference engagement history, abstract submission and non-attendance, financial and visa-related barriers, institutional and supervisor support, accessibility and safety concerns, and the perceived impact of non-participation on career progression. Both closed-ended and open-ended items were used to allow for quantitative assessment of prevalence and qualitative exploration of individual experiences.Data AnalysisQuantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics to examine the prevalence of key barriers (e.g., financial constraints, visa issues, institutional support) and to characterise patterns of conference participation. Subgroup analyses were conducted to explore whether specific sociodemographic groups, career stages, or institutional contexts were disproportionately affected.Open-ended responses were analysed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns and themes related to barriers, lived experiences of non-attendance, and suggested strategies for improving accessibility and equity in ESRS conference participation. This combined approach allowed both the scale of the problem and the depth of individual experiences to be captured.FundingThis study was conducted under the auspices of the ESRS Early Career Network and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) initiative and received no dedicated funding.© the author</p
Building a metadata-centric archive for experimental aerodynamics
No full textHigh-quality experimental aerodynamic datasets are essential for advancing CFD validation and AI-driven flow modelling, yet much experimental data remains inaccessible or poorly structured. Existing archives often suffer from usability, standardization, and discoverability issues. To address these gaps, the UK National Wind Tunnel Facility (NWTF), is developing a centralized, metadata-rich archive for experimental aerodynamics. The framework emphasizes standardization, easy navigation, and direct data linking, while retaining academic integrity and original authorship. This initiative aims to enhance data reuse and promote sustainable data practices across the aerodynamic research community. This paper reviews current aerodynamic databases, highlights key lessons learned, and introduces NWTF initiatives. The new Aerodynamic Exchange CSV file format is documented. Finally, it showcases a best-practice approach to metadata framework that streamlines data access, enhances documentation, and ensures long-term value for experimental datasets.</p