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In an age of uncertainty: inquisition in Castile and Aragón (1425 1504)
No full textThis thesis investigates the origins of the Spanish Inquisition in fifteenth-century Castile and Aragón in the period from 1425 to 1504. The historiography of the period commonly views the Holy Office as either the result of long-standing anti-converso attitudes or a consequence of Spain’s unificatory push under the absolutism of the Catholic Monarchs. This thesis contends that the interpretative key for the Inquisition’s origins is actually to be found in a mixture of three cumulative circumstances: the development of a particular anti-converso heresiological discourse in Castile; the increasing recourse of the Castilian Crown to papal-delegated authority to deal with heresy from 1425 onwards; and the absolutist nature of the political changes implemented by the Catholic Monarchs from 1480 onwards.
Chapter 1 explains how the converso identity, a minority group in Castilian culture, was constructed as heretical tainted with what this thesis terms ‘genealogical behaviour.’ Chapters 2 and 3 note how this peripheral discourse, initially on the edge of mainstream political rhetoric, began resonating in Castile’s requests for extraordinary apostolic delegations of inquisitors from 1425 onwards. Chapter 4 analyses the attention given by regular episcopal pastoral visits to crypto-Judaism in both Castile and Aragón before the Inquisition. Chapter 5 explores the degree to which the Holy Office aided in the expansion of the Crown’s control over the operations of local government after 1480. Chapter 6 delves into a rarely discussed type of reaction to the Inquisition: seeking papal absolution at the Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary.
Overall, this thesis draws attention to fifteenth-century understandings of crypto-Judaism as a heresy with ‘genealogical’ implications. It reveals the existence of spontaneous inquisitions in medieval Castile by examining papal letters through the lens of the discipline of Applied Diplomatics. Finally, it reconsiders collaboration with and resistance to the Holy Office, shown both in the relationship between Inquisition and urban government and in individual appeals to Rome
Isolation of arylhalodiphosphenes: periodic trends in R–P 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11111111 00000000 11111111 00000000 00000000 00000000 P–X bonding (X = Cl, Br, I)
Full text linkFor over a century, aryldiazonium halides have served as widely used building blocks within synthetic chemistry. They are vital intermediates in converting simple anilines to high-value products, including those needed to prepare pharmaceuticals, dyes, and functional materials. Despite the prevalence of these nitrogen-based organic salts in laboratories, structurally related phosphorus-based salts remain scarce. Herein, we report the isolation and structural characterization of a monomeric arylchlorodiphosphene, (MsFluInd*)PPCl·(Et2O)2 (where MsFluInd* is a sterically demanding hydrindacene substituent), for the first time. The structure and reactivity of (MsFluInd*)PPCl were explored to compare the novel arylhalodiphosphene with compositionally related aryldiazonium chlorides, [RNN][Cl], and chloroiminophosphanes, RNPCl. The P–P bond of (MsFluInd*)PPCl was cleaved via protonolysis to afford the parent phosphine, (MsFluInd*)PH2. Halogen-exchange reactions between (MsFluInd*)PPCl and TMSX (TMS = trimethylsilyl, X = Br, I) afforded the related monomeric arylhalodiphosphenes, (MsFluInd*)PPX (X = Br, I). Finally, the coordination complex, [(MsFluInd*)PPCl·Ag][CF3SO3], was isolated by treatment of (MsFluInd*)PPCl with AgCF3SO3. Periodic trends in the structure and bonding of (MsFluInd*)PPX (X = Cl, Br, I) were investigated with spectroscopic, crystallographic, and computational methods. These studies confirm that the {PPX} moeity consists of a formal P–P double bond, and polar covalent P–X (X = Cl, Br, I) single bonds. (MsFluInd*)PPX (X = Cl, Br, I) represent the first fully characterized, crystalline arylhalodiphosphenes and serve to advance the state of low-coordinate phosphorus chemistry
Rare coding variants in CHRNB3 associate with reduced daily cigarette smoking across ancestries
Full text linkRare coding variants that alter protein function and confer beneficial health effects can suggest potential drug targets. CHRNB3 encodes the β3 subunit of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors that bind nicotine and mediate its action in the brain. Here we report an exome-wide association study of number of cigarettes smoked per day (cig per day) in 37,897 current smokers from the Mexico City Prospective Study. We identify a deleterious missense variant in CHRNB3, p.Glu284Gly, that associates with a significant reduction in daily cigarette consumption. The missense variant is enriched in people of Indigenous Mexican ancestry but rare in other ancestries. We further identify a predicted loss-of-function variant in CHRNB3 that significantly associates with reduction in number of smoked cigarettes per day in participants of Japan Biobank. This variant is enriched in people of East Asian ancestry but is rare in other ancestries. Finally, we find that rare deleterious missense and predicted loss-of-function variants in aggregate associate with a reduction in the number of smoked cigarettes per day in individuals of European ancestry from the UK Biobank. Our results suggest that loss of function of CHRNB3 significantly associates with daily cigarette smoking, proposing β3 inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy for nicotine addiction
Ion migration in perovskite solar cells
Full text linkMetal halide perovskite solar cells have considerable potential for next-generation solar power production. However, if not controlled, the migration of mobile ions can hamper the stability of perovskite solar cells. Intensive research efforts have devised methods of suppressing ion migration and degradation in perovskite materials, resulting in solar cells that are stable over thousands of hours during accelerated ageing testing. Here, we review the chemical origins of ion migration, its effect on material and device performance and stability, and strategies to mitigate its impact. Ion migration originates in the soft lattice of the halide perovskite framework and its low defect-formation energy, but there are many different strategies to reduce its effects, from compositional engineering of materials and device architecture changes to additives and strain engineering. The field has made great progress in understanding the origin and properties of mobile ions in halide perovskites and has improved operational stability beyond expectations. Nonetheless, there are still ample opportunities to further improve the long-term durability of perovskite solar cells, either by reducing ion migration or its effect on solar cell efficiency
Motherhood in the medieval worlds: mothers in literary and textual sources, c. 300–1400
No full textFrom Eve to Mary to Eleanor of Aquitaine, and many others, medieval depictions of mothers in literature and historical record reveal the significance of conceptions and performances of motherhood during the Middle Ages. Discourses surrounding mothers, maternity, and motherhood during the medieval period were complicated and had far-reaching implications in all areas of medieval life. Drawing upon medieval literature, politics, medicine, and religion, this book explores the importance of mothers and motherhood to every facet of medieval society. Throughout the volume, each chapter illuminates a particular mother or act of maternity, coming together to show how literature elucidates mothers and motherhood as integral to the construction of societies and cultures spanning across the length of the medieval period in the West. Together, the diversity of the topics addressed in each of the essays contributes a rich and intricate portrait of the theme which unites them: motherhood in the medieval world
Hybrid particulate matter generated by lava-ignited wildfires at the Litli-Hrútur 2023 eruption, Iceland
Full text linkLava flows from the Litli-Hrútur 2023 eruption ignited the largest moss wildfires since modern record keeping in Iceland began. Volcanically ignited wildfires present a cascading and more complex hazard than standalone volcanic eruptions and are likely to become more frequent globally due to climate change. Both volcanic eruptions and wildfire events generate well-characterized air pollution hazards through the emission of gas and particulate matter, but the physicochemical consequences of mixing between end-member emission types during compound events remain poorly understood. In this study, we collected samples of end-member volcanic, wildfire, and mixed plume particulate matter during the Litli-Hrútur 2023 eruption and wildfires. Geochemical and morphological analysis showed that wildfire smoke and lava flow outgassing have distinctive chemical signatures and particulate matter (PM) size distributions, but that when mixing occurs between them, either directly at the lava-moss burning interface or during downwind transport, it can result in the formation of hybrid PM. This hybrid PM may be formed through mechanical interactions via well-established processes such as agglomeration and particle scavenging, although these interactions are unique in the context of a compound volcanic-wildfire event as they occur between emissions from two different sources. We demonstrate that the formation of hybrid PM via these mechanisms may result in altered physicochemical characteristics, and suggest that this may have consequences for depositional processes and atmospheric and environmental transport pathways of key species when compared to stand-alone volcanic eruptions
Flexible neural representations of abstract structural knowledge in the human entorhinal cortex
Full text linkHumans’ ability for generalization is outstanding. It is flexible enough to identify cases where knowledge from prior tasks is relevant, even when many features of the current task are different, such as the sensory stimuli or the size of the task state space. We have previously shown that in abstract tasks, humans can generalize knowledge in cases where the only cross-task shared feature is the statistical rules that govern the task’s state–state relationships. Here, we hypothesized that this capacity is associated with generalizable representations in the entorhinal cortex (EC). This hypothesis was based on the EC’s generalizable representations in spatial tasks and recent discoveries about its role in the representation of abstract tasks. We first develop an analysis method capable of testing for such representations in fMRI data, explain why other common methods would have failed for our task, and validate our method through a combination of electrophysiological data analysis, simulations, and fMRI sanity checks. We then show with fMRI that EC representations generalize across complex non-spatial tasks that share a hexagonal grid structural form but differ in their size and sensory stimuli, that is their only shared feature is the rules governing their statistical structure. There was no clear evidence for such generalization in EC for non-spatial tasks with clustered, as opposed to planar, structure
The PRAGMATIC pathway ‐ PRostate cancer diAGnosis and MAnagement Triage In Clinical care
Full text linkObjectives: To investigate whether nurse navigator‐led triaging of high‐risk patients may reduce prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis and treatment times using an in‐house bespoke PRostate cancer diAGnosis and MAnagement Triage In the Clinial care pathway (PRAGMATIC) triaging system, as locally advanced/metastatic disease should be diagnosed and treated rapidly, and UK targets allow 28 days for diagnosis, and 62 days to commence treatment. Patients and Methods: We reviewed diagnosis and treatment timelines for patients undergoing 28/62‐day investigation for suspected PCa at a tertiary unit in a 3‐month period (2022). We then introduced nurse navigator‐led triaging of urgent referrals and evaluated a subsequent 3‐month period (2024), with streamlining for rapid investigation and treatment based on prostate‐specific antigen, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) staging, and histology. We hypothesised nurse navigator‐led triaging would improve investigation and treatment times for high‐risk localised, or locally advanced, or metastatic PCa. Results: A total of 165 and 327 consecutive patients were on the 28/62‐day PCa pathway in the pre‐ (2022) and post‐nurse navigator‐led (2024) triaging periods, respectively. The median time from referral to first appointment (8 vs 4 days), MRI (12 vs 6 days), MRI result (26 vs 17 days), biopsy decision (25 vs 16 days), biopsy procedure (48 vs 22 days), biopsy result communication (64 vs 44 fays), and prostate‐specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography computed tomography staging scan (87 vs 56 days) was reduced following nurse navigator triaging of high‐risk cases (all P < 0.001). The median time from referral to treatment for Gleason Grade Group ≥3, or T3, or ≥N1, or ≥M1 disease (104 vs 70 days; 49/75 [65.3%] vs 72/128 [56.3%] patients), and for M1b disease (47 vs 27 days; 15/75 [20%] vs 32/128 [25%] patients), was reduced (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Nurse navigator‐led triaging and stratification of the most clinically urgent suspected PCa cases was associated with improved imaging, biopsy diagnosis, and treatment times for the highest‐risk patients
Cavity-altered superconductivity
Full text linkIs it feasible to alter the ground-state properties of a material by engineering its electromagnetic environment? Inspired by theoretical predictions1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11–12, experimental realizations of such cavity-controlled properties without optical excitation are beginning to emerge13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18–19. Here we devised and implemented a new platform to realize cavity-altered materials. Single crystals of hyperbolic van der Waals (vdW) compounds provide a resonant electromagnetic environment with enhanced density of photonic states and prominent mode confinement20, 21, 22, 23–24. We interfaced hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with the molecular superconductor κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br (κ-ET). The frequencies of infrared hyperbolic modes (HMs) of hBN (refs. 25, 26) match the infrared-active carbon–carbon (C=C) stretching molecular resonance of κ-ET implicated in superconductivity27. Nano-optical data supported by first-principles molecular Langevin dynamics simulations confirm the presence of resonant coupling between the hBN hyperbolic cavity modes and the C=C stretching mode in κ-ET. Meissner-effect measurements using magnetic force microscopy (MFM) demonstrate a strong suppression of superfluid density near the hBN/κ-ET interface. Non-resonant control heterostructures, including RuCl3/κ-ET and hBN/Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (BSCCO), do not show the pronounced superfluid suppression. These observations suggest that hBN/κ-ET realizes a cavity-altered superconducting ground state. Our work highlights the potential of dark cavities devoid of external photons for engineering electronic ground-state properties of complex quantum materials
Teachers’ beliefs and practices about the environment and teaching about the environment: the case of Black City (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Full text linkTeachers’ beliefs about the environment and their classroom practices have significant implications for environmental and societal outcomes globally. While previous research has explored teachers’ environmental beliefs, limited attention has been given to how these beliefs influence instructional practices, particularly in Azerbaijan. This study investigates the environmental beliefs of secondary school geography teachers in Azerbaijan and examines how these beliefs are enacted in their classroom practice. The research adopts the New Ecological Paradigm as a theoretical framework to formulate interview questions, given its relevance to anthropocentric and ecocentric worldviews. Data were collected over four months through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations in three schools located in Black City, one of the most polluted areas of Baku. Using purposeful sampling, five geography teachers were selected for the study. Observations followed interviews to assess the alignment between teachers’ stated beliefs and their teaching practices. Thematic inductive analysis revealed that teachers predominantly held anthropocentric environmental beliefs, which appeared along a spectrum rather than as a binary construct. Additionally, the findings indicate that teachers primarily focused on knowledge transmission (the ‘what’ of environmental teaching) through indirect learning methods (the ‘how’). The integration of behaviour-building and skill development was observed only occasionally. Alignment was observed between teachers’ espoused and enacted beliefs about the environment. However, a disconnect emerged in their approach to teaching about the environment: while all teachers emphasised the importance of direct learning in interviews, their actual classroom practices varied. As the first study (to the best of my knowledge) exploring the intersection of teachers’ environmental beliefs and instructional practices in Azerbaijan, this research provides valuable insights for future studies and practical advancements in teacher education and environmental education