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Welfare and enrichment of managed nocturnal species, supported by technology
Get PDFThis paper addresses the potential for technology to support husbandry and enrichment opportunities that enhance the welfare of zoo and sanctuary-housed nocturnal and crepuscular species. This topic was investigated through the medium of a multidisciplinary workshop (Moon Jam) that brought together species experts, zoo designers, Animal–Computer Interaction researchers and post-graduate students in collaborative discussions and design sessions. We explain the context through an examination of existing research and current practices, and report on specific challenges raised and addressed during the Moon Jam, highlighting and discussing key themes that emerged. Finally, we offer a set of guidelines to support the integration of technology into the design of animal husbandry and enrichment that support wellbeing, to advance the best practices in keeping and managing nocturnal and crepuscular animals
Euro-Mediterranean populism: navigating populist foreign policy around the Mare Nostrum
Get PDFPopulist politics in Southern Europe displays several distinctive patterns related to a shared history, geography, culture, and economy, while being subject to similar geopolitical pressures. In the last decade, moreover, the Euro-Mediterranean region has been struck by destabilizing shocks: the Eurozone crisis and the refugee crisis, which led to a realignment of party politics, with populist parties of both the left and the right enjoying high levels of popular support and taking, or have gotten close to taking, governmental power. These patterns make Southern Europe an interesting case for the study of populism and foreign policy through a (sub-)regional comparative approach. This article applies a structured, focused comparison of the populist foreign policies (PFP) of France, Italy, Spain, and Greece, seeking to explain how populist leaderships have shaped foreign policy in these countries and the conditions under which their PFP were translated into action. After putting Euro-Mediterranean populism in context, we examine four structural themes of catalysts or constraints that populists face when ‘navigating’ PFP around the European Mare Nostrum: international power distribution, ideological underpinnings, domestic political system, and policy domains. The comparative analysis reveals how, while populist performances are often aimed at executing a rupture and, as a result, gaining legitimacy, the implementation of PFP in Southern Europe has ultimately been affected by structural pressures to discard these revolutionary impulses and align with the mainstream
State and faith: the supply-side theory of religion and the case of Turkey
No full textWe draw on Turkey - a Muslim-majority country governed by the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi - AKP) for the past two decades - to examine some underexplored implications of the supply-side theory of religion. The longevity and shifting nature of AKP rule provide a unique opportunity to observe the subtleties involved in the noticeable strengthening of Sunni Islam’s religious monopoly in a Muslim society. Results from a series of public opinion surveys conducted between 2010 and 2020 show that the AKP rule has caused the religious segment of Turkish society to consolidate around AKP and secular sections to consolidate around the opposition, leading to a significant polarization within the country. We argue this is because hegemonic religious policies may create crosscutting effects which both increase and decrease religiosity. The findings also have political implications that are undertheorized in the supply-side literature
Can animal models help to explore functions of nanoparticles in health and diseases?
Get PDFCan animal models help to explore functions of nanoparticles in health and diseases? Over the decades, nanotechnology has rapidly bloomed in a variety of fields and generated a wide range of nanomaterials. Nanoparticles (NPs), approximately 1-100 nm in diameter, make up a particularly innovative symbol of this increasingly growing field. A multitude of NP formulations are still under investigation in the laboratory, such as lipid nanoparticles (LNP), dendrimers, metal-based NPs and extracellular vesicles. NPs exhibit distinct properties, attributed to their increased surface area-to-volume ratio
Seizure amelioration effect of omega-3 EPA and DHA fatty acid supplementation on patients with drug resistant epilepsy: a scoping review using the GOED clinical study database
Get PDFObjectives:
70% of patients with epilepsy are successfully treated with one or a combination of anti-seizure medications (ASMs). The latter 30%, do not respond to ASMs and continue to have uncontrollable seizures. They are known to have drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). There is an unmet need for non-pharmacological treatment options to be considered. The objective of this scoping review is to assess the seizure amelioration effect of omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs): eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids on patients with DRE from randomized human clinical trials (RCTs).
Methods:
The Global Organization for EPA & DHA Omega-3s (GOED) Clinical Study Database was used as the primary search tool to generate a list of RCTs using the following terms: seizures, seizure severity, drug resistant epilepsy, refractory epilepsy, and intractable epilepsy. Subsequently, PubMed and Google Scholar English databases were searched for publications using the additional keywords: eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid.
Results:
Eleven RCTs published before October 2023 were included in this review. EPA and DHA formulations administered to patients ranged between 0.3-2.9g/day, with 90.9% of RCTs investigating the fatty acids at a comparable ratio. A supplementation period of 3 months or less was employed by 72.7% of RCTs. 54.5% of RCTs reported a positive outcome of at least 50% or more significant reduction in seizure frequency compared to placebo or baseline. 27.2% of RCTs reported significant seizure freedom in patients during or at the end of the supplementation period, compared to placebo. Positive outcomes regarding seizure severity remain inconsistent with only 18.1% of RCTs reporting a significant reduction compared to placebo or baseline.
Conclusions:
N-3 EPA and DHA have the potential to be a simple add-on treatment intervention for the management of uncontrollable seizures in DRE. Additional RCTs are required to determine the optimal dosage for patients, the effect of long-term treatment duration and separately enriched preparations of EPA/DHA on seizure frequency and severity
Post-truth blame games in public diplomacy and media
No full textThis chapter examines blame attribution mechanisms and themes in Russian public diplomacy through media by looking at the coverage by the Russian state-funded international broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) of the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma in 2018. By focusing on these events, this chapter takes a new look at the role of crises in blame attribution and avoidance, looking at the international rather than the domestic level. Finally, the chapter also looks at how RT’s status as a media outlet and a public diplomacy actor can be understood within the context of its blame avoidance and attribution narratives, and at how the channel uses media and journalistic tools to assign and avoid blame
Filter design for cyber‐physical systems against DoS attacks and unreliable networks: a Markovian approach
Get PDFThis article proposes a novel approach for designing a mode‐dependent H ∞ full‐order dynamic filter for a cyber‐physical system (CPS) that is subject to polytopic uncertainties. The CPS operates on an unreliable network that is susceptible to transmission failures and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. The attackers have limited energy resources, and the duration of the DoS attack is limited to a maximum number of consecutive time instants. The network is modeled after a proposed non‐homogeneous Markov chain whose transition probability matrix may feature uncertain and unknown probabilities, which are dependent on time‐varying parameters. The design conditions for the filter are obtained using parameter‐dependent linear matrix inequalities. The proposed filter is shown to be effective in reducing the impact of DoS attacks and transmission failures on the CPS. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed filter design method, demonstrating its ability to mitigate the effects of uncertainties and attacks on the CPS
Sex differences in social brain neural responses in autism: temporal profiles of configural face-processing within data-driven time windows
Get PDFFace-processing timing differences may underlie visual social attention differences between autistic and non-autistic people, and males and females. This study investigates the timing of the effects of neurotype and sex on face-processing, and their dependence on age. We analysed EEG data during upright and inverted photographs of faces from 492 participants from the Longitudinal European Autism Project (141 neurotypical males, 76 neurotypical females, 202 autistic males, 73 autistic females; age 6–30 years). We detected timings of sex/diagnosis effects on event-related potential amplitudes at the posterior–temporal channel P8 with Bootstrapped Cluster-based Permutation Analysis and conducted Growth Curve Analysis (GCA) to investigate the timecourse and dependence on age of neural signals. The periods of influence of neurotype and sex overlapped but differed in onset (respectively, 260 and 310 ms post-stimulus), with sex effects lasting longer. GCA revealed a smaller and later amplitude peak in autistic female children compared to non-autistic female children; this difference decreased in adolescence and was not significant in adulthood. No age-dependent neurotype difference was significant in males. These findings indicate that sex and neurotype influence longer latency face processing and implicates cognitive rather than perceptual processing. Sex may have more overarching effects than neurotype on configural face processing
Issues to consider relating to information governance and artificial intelligence
No full textInformation governance and policy guidance will be essential for effectively deploying artificial intelligence (AI) in the business world. This paper considers some of the aspects relating to AI which need to be considered. The paper highlights some of the current work being conducted in UK local government. It will look at the UK government strategy for AI and consider some of the issues relating to AI policy and governance. The paper offers an approach for organisations and other researchers to develop their own AI assurance and governance framework. The future work section explores some of the areas in which there is a need for future work and research
Book review : Assignment Moscow: reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin (James Rodgers, 2023)
Get PDFAssignment Moscow: reporting on Russia from Putin to Lenin (2023) by James Rodgers provides a highly readable, chronological history of western journalistic reporting on Russia, beginning with the 1917 October Revolution and recently updated – in the newest edition – to the present day. Interspersed with personal anecdotes, interviews with journalists, archival material, and a smattering of photographs (some of which are the author’s own), it documents not only the working conditions of the largely intrepid but sometimes incredibly naive journalists who have reported from Moscow and beyond but also their motivations for doing so – and the political intrigue that surrounded them