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Additionality in blue carbon ecosystems : recommendations for a universally applicable accounting methodology
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R010846/1, NE/S007342/1); HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council (HORIZON-CL5-2023-D1-02).Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store significant amounts of organic carbon(OC) in their soils. Consequently, the protection and restoration of BCEs may contribute to net greenhouse gas emissions abate-ment and help address the global challenges of both mitigating and adapting to climate change. An ongoing debate is whetherOC sequestered out with the blue carbon (BC) project and transported to its present location (allochthonous) should be countedas ‘additional’. There are inconsistencies in the treatment of allochthonous carbon between BCE methodologies, potentiallyundermining the credibility of global BC accounting initiatives. To explore these inconsistences, we compare the methodologieswhich we were able to find online, with particular focus on the VERRA, IPCC and BlueCAM methodologies, and review thescience underlying any approach to account for allochthonous OC. Our findings indicate that there are currently no robust sci-entific approaches to define an appropriate apportioning of allochthonous OC for discounting in the calculation of additionality.We therefore advocate for the inclusion of allochthonous OC in BC crediting projects when an observational and experimentalapproach does not support the calculation (and discounting) of the refractory allochthonous carbon contribution.Peer reviewe
Decolonising the 'red' reflex test : transitioning from terminology based on colour to anatomy
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Be proactive : delivering proactive care for older people with frailty
Get PDFProactive care plays a vital role in delaying the onset of frailty, maintaining older people’s independence, and reducing avoidable periods of ill health. Last year, the BGS highlighted the importance of proactive care in Joining the Dots: A blueprint for preventing and managing frailty in older people by highlighting it as one of seven key touchpoints to support older people to age well. We were pleased that the long-awaited NHS England Guidance on proactive care was published last year. Previously known as anticipatory care, proactive care is one of the three original streams of the Ageing Well programme, as detailed in the NHS Long Term Plan. While we remain disappointed that the initial promised funding for the programme was cut, the guidance provides a crucial framework. In October 2024, the BGS published Be proactive: Evidence supporting proactive care for older people with frailty. This first publication provides evidence to help colleagues build business cases for proactive care in their locality. Our second publication, Be proactive: Delivering care for older people with frailty, acts as a roadmap to support the delivery of proactive care services for older people with moderate to severe frailty. With the NHS England guidance as an overarching framework, we propose colleagues use both BGS documents to deliver evidence-based proactive care. To deliver proactive care, we recognise colleagues require both appropriate infrastructure and policy locally and nationally. As such, our second report provides eight recommendations requiring action from commissioners, policymakers, providers and healthcare professionals at local, regional and national levels. We urge anyone involved in commissioning proactive care services to seek the expertise and resources available from the BGS. We know that the provision of proactive care services varies greatly across the UK, creating unequal health outcomes for older people. However, we also know there are many exemplary proactive care services across the four nations, and we believe the same principles apply to the organisation and delivery of proactive care across the UK. As with all our work at the BGS, we have been pleased to work with our multidisciplinary members who provided invaluable insights and content to inform the report. I would like to thank all those involved. Now, it is crucial that proactive care is prioritised and embedded across all primary and community settings to ensure older people live well and stay independent for longer
A temperature sensor with a wide spectral range based on a dual-emissive TADF dendrimer system
Get PDFFunding: from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie C.S. thanks the China Scholarship Council (201806890001). T.W. acknowledges the support Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 897098 (AIE-RTP-PLED). D.S. acknowledges support from the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship (EF2122-13106). We thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for support (EP/R035164/1 and EP/W007517/1 to E.Z-C).Dual emission from thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters is often difficult to observe, especially in solution, limited by Kasha’s rule. Two TADF dendrimers containing N-doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as acceptors are designed and synthesized. Compound 2GCzBPN, having a strongly twisted geometry, exhibits TADF, while 2GCzBPPZ, possessing a less twisted geometry, shows dual emission associated with the monomer and aggregate that is TADF. The demonstration reveals that 2GCzBPPZ can serve as a temperature sensor with excellent temperature sensitivity and remarkably wide emission color response in solution. By embedding 2GCzBPPZ in paraffin we demonstrate a spatial-temperature sensor that shows a noticeable emission shift from yellow to green and ultimately to blue as the temperature increases from 20 to 200 °C. We finally demonstrate the utility of these TADF dendrimers in solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes.Peer reviewe
God's presence within his absence : the theological aesthetics of Eberhard Jüngel
No full textThis thesis is the first concentrated work on the theological aesthetics of Eberhard Jüngel. The project is driven by Jüngel’s claim that “revelation is by definition an aesthetic event.” The particular aim of the work is to discern the meaning of “aesthetic” in this claim. It argues that “aesthetic” has three primary meanings: it designates a theory of perception; it characterizes a category of freedom; and it marks a distinction between aesthetic categories of worldly beauty and God’s glory. This work explains that the primary significance of aesthetics is to serve Jüngel’s radical claim that “humans can be human without God” by offering a non-theological source for existential meaning. This significance parallels a theological use relating to the aesthetic nature of God’s self-revelation. The two realms—anthropology and theology—are represented by the aesthetic distinction between beauty and glory. Beauty pertains to aesthetic events of the world; glory, to aesthetics events of God’s presence.
Subsequently, this work is divided into two sections. The first focuses on the meaning to be had in the space of Jüngel’s anthropology. This topic is presented by analyzing in perceptions of beauty (Chapter 2), the freedom of play (Chapter 3), and the unique phenomenon of art (Chapter 4). The second section focuses on glory as the theological correspondence to beauty. Here, it is argued that God’s glory is the presence of his ontological unity (Chapter 5), that this unity is perceived in events of revelation (6), and that this unity is shared among believers in the activity of worship (Chapter 7). The conclusion (Chapter 8) shows that beauty confronts glory eschatologically, and that beauty disintegrates in the light of glory. It also highlights areas where an aesthetic interpretation of Jüngel resolves criticisms within the secondary literature, and highlights possible ways to develop Jüngel’s aesthetics
A reinvestigation of cognitive styles in sticklebacks : decision success varies with behavioral type
Get PDFFunding: The authors are grateful to the University of St Andrews internship program which provided funding for GG.The “cognitive styles” hypothesis suggests that individual differences in behavior are associated with variation in cognitive performance via underlying speed-accuracy trade-offs. While this is supported, in part, by a growing body of evidence, some studies did not find the expected relationships between behavioral type and cognitive performance. In some cases, this may reflect methodological limitations rather than the absence of a true relationship. The physical design of the testing arena and the number of choices offered in an assay can hinder our ability to detect inter-individual differences in cognitive performance. Here, we re-investigated the cognitive styles hypothesis in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), adapting the maze design of a previous study which found no cost to decision success by faster (bolder) individuals. We used a similar design but increased the size of the maze and incorporated an additional choice in the form of a third maze arm. We found, in accordance with cognitive style expectations, that individuals who were consistently slower to emerge from the start chamber made fewer errors than fish that emerged faster. Activity in an open field test, however, did not show evidence of a relationship with decision success, possibly due to the low number of repeated observations per fish in this separate assay. Our results provide further empirical support for the cognitive styles hypothesis and highlight important methodological aspects to consider in studies of inter-individual differences in cognition.Peer reviewe
Two major sudden stratospheric warmings during winter 2023/2024
Get PDFFunding: G. L. Manney was supported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Microwave Limb Sounder team under JPL subcontract #521127 to NWRA.Major sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) occur in the Arctic around six times per decade. During winter 2023/2024, two major SSWs occurred – a relatively rare event, having occurred on average only once per decade. Here, we summarise the evolution of the two SSWs, their dynamics and impacts on stratospheric chemical processing and tropospheric weather patterns. While both SSWs were displacement events, they evolved remarkably differently. The 16 January SSW was short-lived and did not exert a canonical influence on surface weather. In contrast, the 4 March SSW followed a more typical evolution, albeit with only weak coupling to the troposphere.Peer reviewe
'Home is not what it was' : making, unmaking, and remaking precarious homes among housing activists in Spain
Get PDFFunding: This research was funded by Grant ES/M003825/1 from the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom for the project ‘An Ethnography of Advice: Between Market, Society and the Declining Welfare State’, which the author gratefully acknowledges.Activists fighting evictions in Madrid develop various social, affective, and material connections with and disconnections from their homes. This is especially important for people who are immersed in a regime of economic austerity and neoliberal housing policies that have provoked the social and material unmaking and remaking of homes. These processes take place and are performed through the making and unmaking of material and affective links that people have with objects, materials, and infrastructures. I show how making, unmaking, and remaking precarious homes are multifaceted processes that involve material destruction and reconstruction. They are also affective and political responses to austerity and material loss. More importantly, they bring the intimacy and care for the home to the realm of political activism within the PAH (Platform for People Affected by Mortgages).Peer reviewe
Red multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters as bioimaging agents
Get PDFFunding: C.S. thanks the China Scholarship Council (201806890001). The authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Royal Society (IES\R3\2131), and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for support (EP/R035164/1 and EP/W007517/1) for funding. W.L.P. was grateful for a Cordula and Gunter Paetzold Fellowship. Z.M.H. was grateful for a Canada Research Chair and a Killam Research Accelerator Fellowship.Multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) emitters have attracted strong interest for organic electroluminescent devices due to their high photoluminescence quantum yield (ΦPL) and narrowband emission. These properties are also crucial for high-performance biological probes, especially red emitters. Orange and red MR-TADF emitters, PhDPA-DiKTa and MeODPA-DiKTa, are designed by decorating the DiKTa core with di([1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)amine and bis(4-methoxyphenyl)amine, respectively. As 5 wt.% doped films in 1,3-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)benzene (mCP), PhDPA-DiKTa emits at λPL of 617 nm, while MeODPA-DiKTa emits at λPL of 655 nm. Both show delayed fluorescence, with delayed lifetimes, τd, of 658.4 and 249.2 µs, respectively. Water-dispersible glassy organic dots (g-Odots) based on these materials are prepared by encapsulating them and mCP host into an amphiphilic DSPE-PEG2k polymer. Both families of g-Odots showed a deeper red emission and enhanced ΦPL compared to the corresponding 5 wt.% doped films in mCP (λPL = 618 nm, ΦPL = 77% for PhDPA-DiKTa g-Odots, λPL = 663 nm, ΦPL = 38% for MeODPA-DiKTa g-Odots). The TADF character of the emitters is conserved in the g-ODots, with τd of 203.9 µs for PhDPA-DiKTa g-Odots and 131.6 µs for MeODPA-DiKTa g-Odots. These MR-TADF g-Odots are successfully demonstrated as biological imaging probes of HeLa cells.Peer reviewe
Resolving the energy trilemma across the Scottish islands : policy report
Get PDFThe purpose of this report is to bring attention to the energy issues specifically faced in the Scottish Islands, with broader implications for grid-remote spaces. Additionally, this report seeks to provide implementable recommendations that can alleviate such issues while working towards the UK and Scottish Governments’ broader net-zero goals. Due to their remoteness on the central grid and low population density, the Scottish Islands face a considerable number of energy challenges, including but not limited to high fuel bills, grid capacity constraints, and import dependency, despite the rapidly growing pool of renewable generation in these regions. These structural disadvantages shed light on the limitation of the national grid (the physical infrastructure, as well as the market and its regulation) in addressing the energy trilemma and in opening pathways for the just transition. At the same time, the islands have proven themselves as ‘can-do’ places, capable of driving innovation and creative adaptability in physically challenging geographies. Such ambitions have, however, encountered substantial institutional constraints. Unlocking opportunities would allow organisations to pilot varied initiatives and to develop skills and learnings of relevance beyond the region. Through an analysis of workshops held with stakeholders in 2024 on multiple islands, interviews with professionals from within the energy sector, and an energy policy review, we provide seven recommendations: 1.Building island skills 2.Strengthening local decision-making 3.Decentralising the grid 4.Securing funding 5.Enabling regulatory environment 6.Ensuring community benefits 7.Establishing greater transparenc
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