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Macroevolutionary brain scaling is a microevolutionary metaphenomenon
Get PDFFrom bees to blue whales, it has long been assumed that brain size scales with body size according to a simple log-linear relationship - with differences in the slope and intercept observed amongst different groups of animals. However, recent analyses in mammals contradict this view, revealing size dependency in the form of curvature in the brain and body mass relationship. Here, we use data from 4679 species across seven animal classes and spanning nearly 12 orders of magnitude to uncover near universal curvilinearity. We demonstrate that this body size dependence is a metaphenomenon emerging from a pattern of diminishing allometry within species with increasing body mass. This has fundamental implications for how we interpret macroevolutionary patterns - which can arise as a consequence of within-lineage dynamics. Our integration of inter- and intra-specific allometries reshapes perspectives on morphological evolution by providing a broader framework for understanding how microevolutionary within-species dynamics shape macroevolutionary phenomena. [Abstract copyright: © 2025. The Author(s).
The impact of painful sexual and reproductive health procedures: Lived experiences and priorities for change
Get PDFIntroduction
Physical pain is known to be a common feature of sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH) encounters for women and other people with a uterus. Our aim was to understand experiences of painful procedures in SRH care and to identify priorities for change.
Methods
In January 2025, we conducted an online qualitative survey of people with lived experience of painful SRH procedures. Focused coding and thematic data analysis was supported by Nvivo 14.
Results
Analysis of the 149 qualitative responses highlighted four key thematic areas: how painful procedures felt at the time; how they made participants feel in the longer term; the impact on decisions around future procedures; and what, from participants’ perspectives, could be done differently. Our results illustrate the impacts of pain in the short and longer term, as well as ways in which painful experiences can shape future engagement with SRH care. Specifically, they highlight the distress, fear and distrust of health professionals and services which these experiences can generate.
Conclusions
While best practice guidance exists for some potentially painful SRH procedures, women and other people with a uterus in the UK continue to report highly negative experiences. Trauma-informed approaches – recognising the role of past experiences and supporting compassionate, respectful patient interactions – could improve training and awareness among health professionals, and broader shifts in attitudes and practice.
Keywords
Procedure pain, hysteroscopy, abortion, cervical screening, intra-uterine device (IUD), assisted conception, trauma-informed care
Key messages:
What is already known on this topic: Pain in SRH procedures is a known issue and, despite existing guidelines, highly negative experiences persist.
What this study adds: Our findings highlight short- and long-term impacts of painful procedures, including enduring fear of mistrust of SRH services which deterred future care; and that patients would value improved expectation-setting, pain-affirming communication, and better analgesia options.
How this study might affect research, practice or policy: Our analysis suggests that broader embedding of trauma-informed approaches could enhance training, attitudes, service organisation and practice
Evidence for the Keplerian orbit of a close companion around a giant star
No full textClose companions influence stellar evolution through tidal interactions, mass transfer and mass-loss effects. While such companions are detected around young stellar objects, main-sequence stars, red giants and compact objects, direct observational evidence of close-in companions around asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars has remained elusive. Here we present (sub)millimetre time-domain imaging spectroscopy revealing the Keplerian motion of a close-in companion around the AGB star π1 Gruis. The companion, slightly more massive than the AGB star, is likely a main-sequence star. Unlike more evolved stars with companions at comparable distances, the companion of π1 Gruis follows a circular orbit, suggesting an eccentricity-generating mechanism during the late- or post-AGB phase. Our analysis suggests that model-predicted circularization rates may be underestimated. Our results highlight the potential of multi-epoch (sub)millimetre interferometry in detecting the Keplerian motion of close companions to giant stars and open avenues for our understanding of tidal interaction physics and binary evolution
Photovoice Handbook
No full textThis handbook was developed to share our Photovoice research experience with communities, particularly children and young people living in protracted armed conflict and crisis contexts in the Lake Chad country region. The research was carried out in four nations-Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon and was supported by the Academies and the Global Challenges Research Fund.
In contexts shaped by insecurity, displacement, poverty, and trauma, traditional research methodologies often fail to capture the lived experiences, knowledge, and agency that exists in these communities. Photovoice, by contrast, provides a powerful participatory tool that places participants’ voices at the centre of research about them. This enables them to express their experiences, shape knowledge production, and inform the co-creation of locally relevant, resilient, and inclusive responses
The Dispersed Matter Planet Project Sample - Detection limits, Occurrence Rates and New Planets
Get PDFDMPP is a radial-velocity survey that aims to detect planets around stars exhibiting anomalous activity signatures, consistent with the presence of close-in evaporating planets. Here, we report the discovery of 7 new planetary signals in 5 different systems: DMPP-2 c & d, HD 67200/DMPP-6 b & c, HD 118006/DMPP-7 b, HD 191122/DMPP-8 b, and HD 200133/DMPP-9 b. We update the orbital parameters of the DMPP-1, DMPP-2, and DMPP-3 systems, along with those of the planetary systems orbiting HD 181433, HD 39194, and HD 89839. We derive detection limits for all 24 targets in our sample with adequate observational coverage, and test the DMPP hypothesis by calculating the occurrence rates for planets in this configuration. We find that the occurrence rates of planets in our sample with orbital periods shorter than 50 d and masses in the range 3–10 M_\hbox{\oplus } are , for 10–30 M_\hbox{\oplus } are , and for 30–100 M_\hbox{\oplus } are . This is significantly higher than the occurrence rates reported by other radial velocity surveys, providing strong support for the DMPP hypothesis
First record of early Aptian (Early Cretaceous) radiolitid <i>Agriopleura libanica</i> (Astre) from the Langshan Formation, northern Lhasa Terrane: Oldest rudist bivalves in China
No full textAlthough the Langshan Formation has been widely regarded as spanning the Aptian to the lower Cenomanian (upper Lower to lower Upper Cretaceous), previous records of rudist bivalves from this formation were limited to the Auroradiolites biconvexus–Magallanesia rutogensis assemblage, which is restricted to upper Aptian to Albian (upper Lower Cretaceous). The discovery of Agriopleura libanica (Astre), along with Offneria murgensis, in the Langshan Formation of the northern Lhasa Terrane represents the first documented occurrence of early Aptian rudist bivalves in China, significantly extending the known stratigraphic range of rudists within this unit. The comparison between A. libanica and Auroradiolites supports the hypothesis that Auroradiolites descended directly from A. libanica, as evidenced by shared ligamentary and myophoral structures, despite differences in left valve convexity and interband morphology. The A. libanica–O. murgensis assemblage confirms the presence of a carbonate seaway in the Nyima region during the early Aptian (late Early Cretaceous), highlighting the significance of the Langshan Formation for reconstructing the paleogeography of northern Lhasa Terrane and the evolution of the Bangong-Nujiang Ocean. The occurrence of A. libanica in the Lhasa Terrane fills a critical geographic gap, bridging its known distribution from Arabia to East Asia during the early Aptian. It represents the first record of this species on the northern margin of the Tethys, as well as the first documentation of early Aptian rudists along the northern margin of the eastern Tethyan Ocean. These discoveries challenge the traditional division between northern and southern Tethyan rudist provinces, demonstrating cross-Tethyan faunal connectivity during the early Aptian
Trauma-informed narrative inquiry: A dual-role method for reflexive, relational research
Get PDFThis article introduces and evaluates Trauma-Informed Narrative Inquiry ( TINI ), developed as a dual-role methodology combining narrative inquiry and trauma-informed psychotherapy. It examines how this approach supports identity reconstruction, transformation, and meaning-making in trauma-saturated contexts, that is settings where experiences of violence, loss or chronic threat are pervasive and ongoing, while maintaining ethical care and researcher reflexivity. The paper outlines the theoretical foundations and practical processes of TINI , illustrates its development through a case study and evaluates its methodological and ethical contributions to qualitative research. Developed through doctoral research with individuals disengaging from violent extremism, TINI addresses limitations in qualitative approaches that separate therapeutic care from analytic rigour and overlook the emotional and embodied dimensions of fieldwork. Building on recent reflexive and trauma-informed qualitative research, TINI reframes emotional attunement and relational safety as foundations for analytic insight. Rather than conflating research and therapy, it combines psychotherapy, reflexive ethics and narrative pacing within longitudinal inquiry. As a therapist–researcher, the author employed clinical and research supervision, staged consent and institutional oversight to safeguard participant and researcher wellbeing. By positioning narrative transformation as both an ethical and epistemic outcome, TINI advances trauma-informed and psychosocial research. It offers transferable tools such as co-constructed timelines, narrative revision and structured methods of emotional stabilisation, enabling participants to engage safely and meaningfully in emotionally attuned, relational and rigorous inquiry across trauma-affected contexts
Foundation Years: student and tutor perceptions of identity, belonging and writing in a post-92 University
Get PDFThis research explored identities and belonging of students and tutors in a post-92 Foundation Year (FY) programme, examining how perceptions of the programme and participants’ writing practices within the programme relate to identity and belonging. FYs are one-year, integrated programmes designed to prepare students, often from under-represented backgrounds, for undergraduate studies. Combining subject-specific and academic skills content, FYs are framed as transitional pathways. While widely advocated for amongst practitioners, they face increasing scrutiny from policy makers over their cost and effectiveness.
Using a social constructivist lens and narrative inquiry, the study employed qualitative visual methods that included semi-structured interviews with 6 students and 11 tutors across five FY strands. Findings reveal that students and tutors bring a wide range of experiences and identities to their FY programmes, and that these experiences and aspects have implications for their sense of belonging within the FY and institution. Students associate their involvement with the FY and FY writing primarily with professional aspirations. Discomfort with writing norms contributes to uncertainty about belonging. Tutors’ professional identities and sense of belonging were influenced by disciplinary alignment and contractual status, although perceptions of marginalisation were expressed by all participants. Both students and tutors resisted deficit narratives commonly associated with FYs, instead asserting the value of their lived experiences within the FY and contributions to the University. The study positions the FY as a relational and dynamic space where identity, belonging, and writing intersect, and where both students and tutors navigate complex institutional and professional landscapes. These insights offer implications for more inclusive programme design and institutional policies
The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey
Get PDFWe present the third data release of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS-DR3). The survey images cover 88% of the northern sky and were created from 12 950 h of data (18.6 PB) accumulated over 10.5 years. Producing the images took 20 million core hours of processing through direction-independent and direction-dependent calibration pipelines that correct for instrumental effects as well as spatially and temporally varying ionospheric distortions. In our 120–168 MHz continuum mosaic images with an angular resolution of 6″ (9″ below declination 10°) we catalogue 13 667 877 sources, formed from 16 943 656 Gaussian components. The scatter in the astrometric precision approximately follows the expected noise-like behaviour but with an additional systematic component of at least 0.24″ that is likely due to calibration imperfections. The random flux density scale error is 6%, while the systematic offset was previously shown to be within 2%. The median sensitivity of our mosaics is 92 μJy beam −1 , improving to 68 μJy beam −1 at high observing elevations, but degrading to 183 μJy beam −1 at the celestial equator due to station area projection effects. Completeness simulations, accounting for realistic source models, time- and bandwidth-smearing effects, and astrometric errors, indicate that we detect more than 95% of compact sources with integrated flux densities exceeding 9 times the local root mean square (RMS) noise. However, the recovered source counts in a particular integrated flux density bin do not match the injected counts until flux densities exceed 45 times the local RMS noise. The Euclidean-normalised differential source counts derived from the survey constrain the radio source population over five orders of magnitude and are in good agreement with previous deep and wide-area surveys. All data products are publicly available, including catalogues, individual-field Stokes I , Q , U , and V images, mosaicked Stokes I images, and uv data with associated direction-dependent calibration solutions
‘Hew Locke: Passages’
No full textThis review examines Hew Locke: Passages as the most comprehensive account to date of three decades of Hew Locke’s practice across drawing, sculpture, assemblage and installation. It argues that the catalogue’s central achievement lies in reframing Locke’s much-cited “excess” not as decorative surplus or as a simple expression of diasporic biography, but as a material and historical method. Through its essays, plates and contextual apparatus, the publication shows how ornament in Locke’s work operates as a structural force tied to imperial power: seductive, accumulative and difficult to separate from the systems it animates. The review highlights the catalogue’s treatment of key works including Hemmed in two, Foreign exchange, the flotilla works, Tourists and Procession, showing how they mobilise monarchy, maritime imagery, carnival, monumentality and institutional display in order to expose the theatricality and afterlife of empire. At the same time, the review suggests that the book is most persuasive when it preserves the ambivalence of Locke’s work, its oscillation between celebration and threat, splendour and violence, and less convincing when it implies a straightforward narrative of institutional progress. Ultimately, the article proposes that Locke’s profusion is not only a semiotic or stylistic device but also a temporal one, forcing multiple histories into the same perceptual field and unsettling linear, official accounts of British and colonial pasts