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Evolution equations on co-evolving graphs: long-time behaviour and the graph continuity equation
Get PDFWe focus on evolution equations on co-evolving, infinite, graphs and establish a rigorous link with a class of nonlinear continuity equations, whose vector fields depend on the graphs considered. More precisely, weak solutions of the so-called graph-continuity equation are shown to be the push-forward of their initial datum through the flow map solving the associated characteristics' equation, which depends on the co-evolving graph considered. This connection can be used to prove contractions in a suitable distance, although the flow on the graphs requires a too limiting assumption on the overall flux. Therefore, we consider upwinding dynamics on graphs with pointwise and monotonic velocity and prove long-time convergence of the solutions towards the uniform mass distribution
Room-Temperature Metal-Catalyzed Hydrogen Borrowing Alkylation
Get PDFHydrogen borrowing describes a one-pot multistep sequence in which an alcohol is used as an alkylating agent. In comparison to a traditional alkylation reaction using alkyl halides, this is an attractive strategy: alcohol substrates are commercially abundant and stable, the process uses catalytic amounts of metal and base, and water is generated as the sole byproduct. Since seminal reports in the early 2000s, the field has been investigated extensively, but most hydrogen borrowing reactions operate under a high-temperature regime (76–200 °C), particularly those involving carbon–carbon bond formation. This review provides an overview of the current state of the art in room-temperature (≤30 °C) hydrogen borrowing reactions, including both carbon–carbon and carbon–nitrogen bond formation
Exploring the acceptability of wildlife tourism joint ventures in wildlife management areas, Northern Tanzania
Get PDFPurpose: This study investigates the acceptability of wildlife tourism joint ventures (JVs) among rural communities in northern Tanzania’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). These partnerships between communities and external investors aim to conserve biodiversity and deliver sustainable socioeconomic benefits. Guided by the Cognitive Hierarch Model (CHM), the research examines how values, beliefs and contextual experiences shape community judgements of JVs. Methods: We employed a mixed-methods approach, including household surveys with 548 respondents across nine villages (three from each of the Burunge, Enduimet and Randilen WMAs) and 20 Key Informant Interviews. The surveys captured respondents’ perceptions of JV benefits, conservation-related factors and demographic information, while key informant interviews provided deeper contextual perspectives on wildlife tourism partnerships. We analyzed the quantitative data using an ordinal cumulative link mixed model and applied thematic analysis to the qualitative data to determine the acceptability of JVs in WMAs. Results: We found that community acceptability of JVs is positively influenced by perceived socio-economic benefits, including financial opportunities, support for public infrastructure, access to employment in tourism facilities and support for local microenterprises. However, limited recognition or awareness of investor contributions to wildlife protection can reduce community willingness to accept and support JVs. Education and positive expectations of tourism growth further enhance acceptability, while negative experiences related to conservation foster skepticism. Observed variations across WMAs and among households highlight the need for place-based governance and locally tailored approaches to ensure that JV outcomes align with community priorities. Discussion/originality: This study offers a novel application of CHM to the context of wildlife tourism, moving beyond socioeconomic impact assessments to explore psychological and contextual drivers of community acceptability of JVs. Our findings inform policy, conservation and investment strategies aimed at fostering household-level engagement strategies that can ensure equitable access to benefits, strengthen trust and sustainable wildlife tourism JVs, with implications for enhancing rural community participation, economic growth and conservation outcomes
Historical comparative genomics to track the evolution of fungal pathogens: a proof of concept
Get PDFBackground: Fungal pathogens are major contributors to global losses of crop yields. Despite large-scale efforts to develop fungicides and resistant plant genotypes, disease outbreaks still pose severe risks to food security due to fungicide resistance and high adaptability of fungal pathogens. Genetic mechanisms behind the acquisition of resistance and renewed virulence have been uncovered by genome sequencing, especially of pathogens of main crops targeted by major control programs. Here, we investigate the use of comparative genomics of historical isolates to investigate how the wider community of fungal plant pathogens evolved during agricultural intensification. Results: We analysed historical cryopreserved fungal isolates from three species that were collected in the UK between 1950 and 2000. Comparative genomics of 32 genomes was used to identify variable genome regions that represent putative targets of strong selection during this period, focusing especially on targets of fungicides and putative effector genes that might underpin changes in virulence. Using methods suitable for isolate rather than population sampling, we found evidence of rapid changes in single nucleotide polymorphism frequency in a suite of genes involved in pathogenesis, which overlapped partly between two of the species. We also found turnover in effector gene content in the UK during the period, but generally conserved evolution of fungicide target genes. Sample time and host explained similar amounts of variation in both single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) changes and variation in effector gene content. Conclusions: The described approach could be scaled up in the future to reconstruct the evolution of hundreds of species and samples held in historical fungal collections worldwide throughout the course of the Green Revolution
Emerging opportunities and challenges for clinical prediction models in psychiatry
No full textClinical prediction models use individual-level patient data to inform clinical decisions across medicine. However, few are currently used in psychiatry. Here, we examine the opportunities and challenges presented by the new generation of clinical prediction models in psychiatry and consider what it would mean for a model to be ‘good enough’ for clinical use
The Kelsey Pendant: participation and lived experience of a bronze amulet in late antique society
Get PDFThis thesis is a case study of one amulet, the Kelsey Pendant, held within the collections of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Kelsey Pendant is an example of an amulet within the collections of a museum bereft of a definitive find context, which has limited its use in research outside of general visual analyses and sweeping comparisons. The thesis has approached the study of the pendant through the lens of material religion, which, unlike much of the extant scholarship on amulets, does not differentiate between, or categorise objects, within the realms of magic or religion. Instead, material religion provides a nuanced perspective of material culture focused on a societal outlook inclusive of experience and participation. I provide a holistic perspective of the Kelsey Pendant and regard the pendant to be an active, equitable participant within the society in which it was created. The thesis analyses the amulet’s iconography in combination with other material culture as a means to reveal its activated histories and gain insight into aspects of society that were pertinent in Late Antiquity. The methodological approach of the thesis incorporates theories housed under the umbrella of new materialism (object-oriented ontology, gathering, bundling, and agential realism) which underscore the agency and continuous becoming of the pendant within itself whilst taking into account the potential within an experiential inter/intra-action with a bearer. Furthermore, the analysis combines ekphrasis with hypothetical scenarios in order to provide context to what may be occurring within the gathering of the pendant and its experience with a bearer
Breathing Life Flows Through Chaos: Reconfiguring the Effectiveness of Five‐Finger Breathing in Mental Health First Aid
Get PDFThis article questions the moral and causal certainties attributed to the clinical assumptions of the breath of chaos. Instead of seeing chaos as an exceptional intruder that causes problems in health, I suggest that chaos underlines the changing conditions of health and it's an intrinsic part of breathing and everyday life. I discuss the five‐finger breathing as a therapeutic technique to cope with the shortness of breath in panic attacks. I propose that the practice makes chaos an ineluctable prompt that evokes therapeutic anchoring, which helps with the navigation of life. Moving away from the clinical assessments, I adopt the approach of participant experience to present a medical anthropological analysis of the effectiveness of five‐finger breathing as practised in a mental health recovery group in Southeast England
Consent, design, and deceit: a bottom-up proposal for regulating dark patterns
No full textPrivacy law’s overreliance on individual consent has incentivized the proliferation of deceptive design known as “dark patterns.” Dark patterns are user-interface techniques that manipulate people into making unintended decisions, often by extracting formalistic, although largely meaningless, expressions of consent. Legislative developments in Canada, the US, and the EU highlight a growing awareness of online manipulation and the alienation of individual agency. Yet dark patterns continue to pose a pervasive risk to consumer protection, privacy, and even democratic institutions. We argue that the proliferation of dark patterns is rooted in an overreliance on individual consent, and that a systemic solution is required to address online manipulation. We then propose a new approach to regulating dark patterns systemically through a grassroots reporting and rewards framework implemented by legislation that prohibits dark patterns, enforced by an authority in charge of investigating claims
Overview of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES)
Get PDFWe present an overview of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), an ambitious program of infrared imaging and spectroscopy in the GOODS-S and GOODS-N deep fields, designed to study galaxy evolution from high redshift to cosmic noon. JADES uses about 770 hr of Cycle 1 guaranteed time largely from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument teams. In GOODS-S, in and around the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and Chandra Deep Field South, JADES produces a deep imaging region of ∼42 arcmin2 with over 100 hr of exposure time spread over nine NIRCam filters, including two medium-band filters. This is extended at medium depth in GOODS-S and GOODS-N with NIRCam imaging of ∼167 arcmin2, averaging 25 hr of exposure over 8–10 filters. In both fields, we conduct extensive NIRSpec multiobject spectroscopy, including two deep pointings of 55 hr exposure time, 14 medium pointings of ∼12 hr, and 15 shallower pointings of ∼4 hr, targeting over 5000 Hubble Space Telescope– and JWST-detected faint sources with five low-, medium-, and high-resolution dispersers covering 0.6–5.3 μm. Finally, JADES extends redward via coordinated parallels with the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument, featuring ∼10 arcmin2 with 43 hr of exposure at 7.7 μm and thrice that area with 1.4–6.8 hr of exposure at 12.8 and 15 μm. For nearly 30 yr, the GOODS-S and GOODS-N fields have been developed as the premier deep fields on the sky; JADES is now providing a compelling start on JWST's legacy in these fields
Shortened High-dose Palliative Radiotherapy for Lung Cancer (SHiP-Rt): protocol for a single-arm, multicentre, phase II study
Get PDFIntroduction: Significant advances in systemic therapy have improved survival for patients with advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the present treatment strategies and dose-fractionation for high-dose palliative radiotherapy (RT) are based on trials from the 1990s, when RT planning was simple with less precise delivery. Contemporary lung RT uses 4D-CT, volumetric modulated arc radiotherapy, aided by online verification using cone beam CT, which enables greater accuracy and better target volume coverage, while reducing doses to normal organs at risk. The Shortened High-dose Palliative Radiotherapy for Lung Cancer study aims to evaluate the safety and feasibility of reducing the number of RT fractions and RT duration, using contemporary planning, verification and delivery techniques. Methods and analysis: This single-arm, multicentre, phase-II study will test the shortened hypofractionated accelerated palliative RT regimen of 30 Gy in 6 alternate-day fractions, with strict normal tissue dose constraints. We aim to recruit 37 patients across 4 sites within the West Midlands. Quality assurance for the RT is supported by the Radiotherapy Trials Quality Assurance Group (RTTQA). Patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC, who are candidates for high-dose palliative RT, before or after first-line systemic therapy, are eligible for recruitment. The primary objective of this study is to assess the safety of the proposed dose-fractionation. Secondary objectives include evaluating toxicity profiles, patient-reported outcome measures, time to progression, feasibility and the National Health Service cost-saving. Ethics and dissemination: This study is conducted in accordance with the International Council for Harmonisation Good Clinical Practice (ICH GCP) guidelines and all applicable regulatory frameworks, including, but not limited to, the UK policy framework for health and social care research, as well as the Health Research Authority and Health and Care Research Wales regulations. Approval for the study was granted on 18 April 2024 (IRAS project ID: 332998; REC reference: 24/WM/0032). The chief investigator is responsible for obtaining informed consent from participants. Any individual delegated this responsibility is thoroughly authorised, trained and competent to conduct the informed consent process. On completion of the trial, the results will be shared with participants in a plain language summary and will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. If successful, this study will inform a phase III randomised controlled trial to assess efficacy. For updates on the study, visit the study web page (https://research.mededcoventry.org/About-Us/Meet-The-Team/TMU/Ship-Rt). Trial registration number: NCT06483308