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Non-invasive preservation assessment of archaeological animal bones by complementary imaging techniques
Get PDFFunding: This research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (170908). Access to the Harwell Campus (UK) facilities was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Diamond Light Source. The neutron imaging beamline grant (RB1920744) was provided by the STFC ISIS Facility, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1920744.The preservation of archaeological bone is of great importance for both archaeological and conservation science studies. Traditional methods of preservation assessment, such as attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), are minimally invasive and destructive. Neutron and X-ray tomography offer a totally non-invasive novel analysis method for the state of preservation of archaeological bones. Seven archaeological animal bones were selected for analysis based on animal maturity, species, visual factors, and ATR-FTIR analysis results. Archaeological bone is a hierarchical composite material constructed from both organic and mineral components; therefore, neutron tomography and synchrotron X-ray tomography have been combined in this novel approach to assess the state of preservation of animal archaeological bone. The neutron data demonstrated that the organic distribution along the diaphysis of archaeological bones varied significantly both within bones and between different animal bones. There is minimal consistency between the samples, emphasizing the inhomogeneity in archaeological bone collections. X-ray tomography revealed unseen physical details, including cracks and substantial damage. The collection of this information via non-invasive methods is highly valuable for cultural heritage, providing a deeper understanding of the observed inhomogeneity in ATR-FTIR analysis data and revealing obscured physical details.Peer reviewe
Substrate pre-sputtering for layer-by-layer van der Waals epitaxy of 2D materials
Get PDFFunding: The authors acknowledge support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant No. EP/X015556/1).Two-dimensional transition metal chalcogenides, with their atomically layered structure, favorable electronic and mechanical properties, and often strong spin–orbit coupling, are ideal systems for fundamental studies and for applications ranging from spintronics to optoelectronics. Their bottom–up synthesis via epitaxial techniques such as molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) has, however, proved challenging. Here, we develop a simple substrate pre-treatment process utilizing exposure to a low-energy noble gas plasma. We show how this dramatically enhances nucleation of an MBE-grown epilayer atop, and through this, realize a true layer-by-layer growth mode. We further demonstrate the possibility of tuning the resulting growth dynamics via control of the species and dose of the plasma exposure.Peer reviewe
Engaging with temporal others : memory, trauma and (in)security across time
Get PDFThis paper examines how traumatic memory traverses temporal boundaries and shapes ontological (in)security across the past, present and future. Drawing on illustrative cases from South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, it explores how political actors engage with their ‘temporal others’ – constructed manifestations of identity across different temporalities – and how these engagements reveal selective memory and reconfigure identity over time. While temporal othering has traditionally focused on the past, this paper extends the concept to include anticipated future selves, highlighting how actors manage not only historical legacies but also feared or undesirable futures. Through an analysis of South Korea’s Vietnam War compensation dispute, Japan’s resistance to renewed forced labour claims and Indonesia’s acknowledgment of past human rights abuses, the paper examines how states navigate unwanted memories to stabilise fragmented national narratives. Ultimately, it shows how traumatic histories continue to shape contemporary political landscapes and the pursuit of future ontological security.Peer reviewe
Global diversity and evolution of Salmonella enterica serovar Panama : a genomic epidemiology study
Get PDFFunding: This project was supported by both a Global Challenges Research Fund data and resources grant (grant number BBS/OS/GC/000009D) and a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Core Capability Grant to the Earlham Institute (grant number BB/CCG1720/1). JCDH received a Wellcome Trust Investigator award (grant number 222528/Z/21/Z). CVP was supported by the John Lennon Memorial Scholarship from the University of Liverpool and a Fee Bursary Award from the Institute of Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool. F-XW was supported by grants from the Institut Pasteur, Santé publique France,the Fondation Le Roch-Les Mousquetaires, and the French government’s Investissement d’Avenir programme, Laboratoire d’Excellence Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases (grant number ANR-10- LABX-62-IBEID). PMDS was supported by a BBSRC grant (KSB: BB/V009184/1). RJBeng was supported by an MRC grant (KSB: MR/R020787/1). RJ Benn was supported by a BBSRC Doctoral Training Programme (BB/M011186/1). DJI was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Fellowship (GNT1195210). BPH was supported by an NHMRC Leadership Fellowship (GNT1196103).Background Non-typhoidal Salmonella is a globally important bacterial pathogen, typically associated with foodborne gastrointestinal infection. Some non-typhoidal Salmonella serovars can also colonise typically sterile sites in people to cause invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella disease. Salmonella enterica serovar Panama is responsible for a substantial number of cases of human bloodstream infection, but despite its global dissemination, numerous outbreaks, and a reported association with invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella disease, S enterica serovar Panama (S Panama) is understudied. We aimed to describe the genomic epidemiology and evolutionary history of S Panama to provide a vital baseline of understanding for this globally important serovar. Methods In this genomic epidemiology study, we analysed S Panama genomes derived from historical collections, national surveillance datasets, and publicly available epidemiological and whole-genome sequencing data which span the years 1931-2019. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylodynamic approaches were used to investigate population structure and evolutionary history and to infer geotemporal dissemination. A combination of different bioinformatic approaches with short-read and long-read data were used to characterise geographical and clade-specific trends in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and genetic markers for invasiveness. Findings We analysed 836 S Panama genomes, of which 559 (67%) were sequenced as part of this study. The collection represents all inhabited continents and includes isolates collected between 1931 and 2019. We identified the presence of four geographically linked S Panama clades (C1 [ie, the Latin America and the Caribbean clade; n=338], C2 [ie, the European clade; n=124], C3 [ie, the Martinique clade; n=131], and C4 [ie, the Asia and Oceania clade; n=104]) and regional trends in AMR profiles. Most isolates (715 [86%] of 836) were pan-susceptible to antibiotics and belonged to clades circulating in Latin America and the Caribbean (64%, n=458). Most antibiotic-resistant isolates in our collection (113 [93%] of 121) fell within clades C4 (ie, the Asia and Oceania clade) and C2 (ie, the European clade), the latter of which had the highest invasiveness index values based on the conservation of 196 extraintestinal predictor genes. Interpretation This first large-scale phylogenetic analysis of S Panama has revealed important information about the population structure, AMR, global ecology, and genetic markers of invasiveness of the identified genomic subtypes. Our findings provide an important baseline for understanding S Panama infection. The presence of multidrug-resistant clades with elevated invasiveness index values should be monitored through ongoing surveillance, as such clades could pose an increased public health risk.Peer reviewe
Solar flare ion temperatures
Get PDFFunding: A.J.B.R. acknowledges support from STFC grant ST/W001195/1. V.P., P.T., and A.J.B.R. acknowledge NASA HGI grant No. 80NSSC20K0716. B.D.P., V.P., and P.T. were supported by NASA contract 80GSFC21C0011 (MUSE). P.T. was supported by contracts 4105785828 (MUSE), 8100002705 (IRIS), and NASA contract NNM07AB07C (Hinode/XRT) to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and by NASA grant 80NSSC21K1684. S.A.B. acknowledges funding by STFC Grant ST/X000915/1.This Letter proposes that the ion temperature is several times the local electron temperature in the hot onset phase and in the above-the-loop region of solar flares. The Letter considers: the evidence of spectral line Doppler widths (“nonthermal” broadening); evidence for “universal” ion and electron temperature increase scaling relations for magnetic reconnection in the solar wind, Earth’s magnetopause, Earth’s magnetotail, and numerical simulations; and thermal equilibration times for onset and above-the-loop densities, which are much longer than previous estimates based on soft X-ray flare loops. We conclude that the ion temperature is likely to reach 60 MK or greater and that it may represent a substantial part of spectral line widths, significantly contributing to solving the long-standing issue of the excess nonthermal broadening in flare lines.Peer reviewe
Desire, sex and surveillance : queer methods and the Stasi's files on the East German military
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Lessons learnt in photocatalysis – the influence of solvent polarity and the photostability of the photocatalyst
No full textFunding: The authors are grateful to the University of St Andrews, Syngenta, and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Critical Resource Catalysis (CRITICAT and EaSI-CAT) for financial support [PhD studentship to “M. B.”; grant code: EP/L016419/1]. The authors thank the European Union H2020 research and innovation program under the Marie S. Curie Grant Agreement (PhotoReAct, No. 956324) for support to E. Z.-C.Herein, we show that there is significant variation in both the triplet energies and redox properties of photocatalysts as a function of solvent based on a study of eight PCs in four solvents of varying polarity. A range of photocatalytic electron and energy transfer reactions were investigated using a subset of the PCs. For the photoredox reactions, the yields are not correlated with solvent polarity. Instead, when the PC could promote the formation of the target product, we observed photodegradation for all PCs across all solvents, something that is rarely investigated in the literature. This, therefore, makes it difficult to ascertain whether the parent PC and/or the photodegraded product is responsible for the photochemistry, or indeed, whether photodegradation is actually detrimental to the reaction yield. Conversely, the PCs were found to be photostable for energy transfer reactions; however, yields were not correlated to the triplet energies of the PCs, highlighting that triplet energies alone are not a suitable descriptor to discriminate the performance between PCs in photoinduced energy transfer processes.Peer reviewe
Towards a compositional praxis
Get PDFIn order to answer the question of what might constitute a compositional praxis, one must consider several interrelated factors. First, the basis of a Marxist understanding of the relationship between music (or the arts in general) in relation to human society, and what that looks like today. This in turn will lead to our second consideration: the role played by music in society, and how a composer may utilise this. Then we will focus on how we use music to communicate, and how music communicates with people, namely: is it a tool to describe what is familiar? Or is it a tool to challenge them, and therefore raise their consciousness? Then finally we will explore how can music interact with political parties or movements. Is this relationship beneficial, or does it limit the potential of the composer?
With this contextual background, the commentary will then discuss works featured in a portfolio of original compositions, describing their political context and highlighting historic works which were influential in the composition process. The commentary will explore the ways in which the composer created the works and tried to connect them to the political question at hand
Indo-Muslim nostalgia : memory, modernity, and the nation in 20th century South Asian Muslim writing
No full textThis thesis examines historical memory and nostalgia in South Asian Muslim writing within the context of sectarian violence and cultural disintegration following the Partition. Focusing on nostalgia, it highlights the emergence of Indo-Muslim Modernism as a distinct literary phenomenon furthered by post-Progressive Urduphone Muslim writers. While significant attention has been given to the Marxist Progressive Writers' Association and its fraught relationship with religious identity, little scholarship exists on the Modernists—an influential but underexplored group of Muslim writers. I have provided a trajectory of Indo-Muslim modernism as a discrete literary movement that had its own intersections with and divergences from the more well-known Progressive Writers’ Movement. Drawing on postcolonial theory, memory studies, affect theory, global modernisms, and Muslim feminisms, my thesis examines key writers such as Ahmed Ali, Qurratulain Hyder, Intizar Husain, Zeenuth Futehally, Khadija Mastur, and Attia Hosain. Writing after the chaos of Partition and the redefinition of Muslim identity through emerging nationalisms, these authors sought to address questions of belonging and fragmented identities. These authors broke away from the dominant Progressive tradition, creating works that grapple with the traumatic complexities of Muslim belonging in a new postcolonial South Asian reality. Critics have noted the nostalgia that permeates these texts, often interpreted as simply bidding farewell to a lost cultural past. However, I propose that this nostalgia should be understood as critical and subversive—an avenue for forging alternative solidarities and countering Hindu nationalist and Islamic majoritarian narratives in contemporary India and Pakistan. These writers produce an eclectic, indigenized South Asian modernism that reflects a unique intellectual and aesthetic sensibility. In response to the symbolic and real marginalization of Muslims in independent India and the struggles of Mohajir assimilation in Pakistan, these authors reclaim public and private spaces as distinctly South Asian Muslim. Through this reclamation, they centre the Muslim experience of loss, life, and nationhood, offering complex, alternative visions of belonging that resist hegemonic political and cultural frameworks."I express my gratitude to the Handsel Scholarship and Money Advice Team at the University of St Andrews alongside the Gilchrist Educational Trust for funding me during my degree."--Fundin
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