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Hope
Get PDFThis chapter re-evaluates the sources and directions of twentieth-century eschatological thought, that is, of reflections on the Christian hope for ‘the last things’. The chapter opens with a sketch of the sources of 20th-century developments in the 19th century. Although 19th-century eschatology was dominated by assimilation to the age’s general meliorism, the roots of early 20th-century eschatologies of crisis are found here, for example in the work of Franz Overbeck. A second section examines in depth the eschatological responses of theologians to the crisis of the First World War, both existential (Barth, Bultmann, Gogarten) and political (Peterson). A third section details the dominant eschatologies of the post-war years, particularly Moltmann’s and Pannenberg’s, which rethink the eschatological future as retroactive. A fourth and final section examines the shift of eschatological discourse from a speculative to a pragmatic register in confrontation with the ‘eschatological’ ambitions of biological and digital technology.Peer reviewe
Evaluation of Cu- and Mn-doped Co3O4/NiO composites as cathodes for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells
No full textFunding: The authors acknowledge support for the centre from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK (EP/L017008/1, EP/R023751/1 and EP/ T019298/1). This work was also supported by the research project within the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” programme for the AGH University of Kraków. We thank the Higher Education Commission HEC of the Government of Pakistan, the University of St Andrews and London South Bank University for the PhD scholarship of SAAS.This work advances Co3O4–NiO-based composite cathodes for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs). In this study, we investigate the potential benefits of combining two electronically conducting phases in a composite system (Co3O4/NiO) and of doping this with Mn and Cu. The undoped, Mn-doped, and Mn/Cu-doped composites were synthesised and subjected to comprehensive structural, morphological, and electrochemical characterisation. X-ray diffraction confirmed phase purity, with Mn preferentially incorporating into the Co3O4 lattice, reducing crystallite size and enhancing surface area. Electron microscopy revealed that Mn doping suppressed particle agglomeration, promoting uniform porosity, while dynamic light scattering confirmed the presence of nanoparticles in this composition. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy demonstrated superior catalytic performance for the Mn-doped composite, with distribution of relaxation time (DRT) analysis indicating accelerated oxygen reduction kinetics. Humidification of the cathode gas slightly increased polarization resistance, which is consistent with electronic conduction being dominant. Thermal stability tests confirmed chemical compatibility with GDC and YSZ electrolytes during annealing at 800 °C for 100 h. The Mn-doped composite emerged as the best candidate, balancing microstructural properties, rapid charge-transfer dynamics, and thermal stability, positioning it as a competitive cathode material for energy-efficient SOFCs.Peer reviewe
Sensing space in horror cinema : textures, orientations and transgressions
No full textHow might we understand or experience the horror film if we stripped the genre of its seemingly central figure of the monster? This thesis considers the often-neglected role of cinematic space in horror cinema as one especially productive answer to this question, proposing that the sensory experience of space constitutes a distinct and highly affective means of producing fear. Bridging sensory and phenomenological theories of film and spatial studies as applied to horror cinema, this thesis follows a progressively expanding trajectory, from textured spaces on-screen to the spectatorial space beyond it. Its main chapters examine, across three levels of spatial engagement, the significance of space in horror cinema and the ways in which it is experienced both sensorially and affectively. Chapter One focuses on the most immediate and material aspect of space: its texture. It identifies five types of textured spaces in horror cinema and further develops this framework through a close analysis of Silent Hill (2006). Chapter Two shifts away from this fine-grained attention to texture to examine the metamorphosis of space in a series of haunted house films, including 1408 (2007) and The Haunting (1963), alongside the uncanny sensations that emerge as audiences attempt to bodily orient themselves within these misaligned spaces. Drawing variously on William Castle’s gimmick horror, Incantation (2022) and other horror films that directly implicate their audience, Chapter Three moves beyond the space presented on screen to consider how spectatorial space can be actively transgressed, manipulated or absorbed into the horror experience. By foregrounding space in horror cinema, I explore a new sensory pathway for the production of horror, one in which space itself becomes a new kind of monster
Harmonizing genotype array data to understand genetic risk for brain amyloid burden in the AMYPAD PNHS Consortium
Get PDFFunding: Innovative Medicines Initiative, Grant/Award Number: No 115952; European Union’s Horizon 2020 research; innovation programme; GE Healthcare; Springer Healthcare; MSCA, Grant/Award Number: #101108819; Alzheimer Association Research Fellowship, Grant/Award Number: #23AARF-1029663; Spanish Research Agency, Grant/Award Numbers: MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, RYC2022-038136-I; European Union FSE+, Grant/Award Number: PID2022-143106OA-I00; European Union FEDER; Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative; 23S06083-001; Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek; Internal Funds KU Leuven; Flemish Research Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: G0G1519N, G094418N; VLAIO, Grant/Award Number: HBC.2019.2523; NIHR biomedical research centre.INTRODUCTION: We sought to harmonize genotype data from the predementia AMYPAD (Amyloid Imaging to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease) Consortium, compute polygenic risk scores (PRS), and determine their association with global amyloid deposition. METHODS: Genetic data from five AMYPAD parent cohorts were harmonized, and PRS were computed for Alzheimer's disease (AD) susceptibility, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid beta (Aβ)42, and CSF phosphorylated tau181. Cross-sectional amyloid (Centiloid [CL]) burden was available for all participants, and regression models determined if PRS were associated with CL burden. RESULTS: After harmonization, data for 867 participants showed that high CL burden was most strongly predicted by CSF Aβ42 PRS compared to traditional AD susceptibility PRS. DISCUSSION: This work emphasizes the importance of data harmonization and pooling of cohorts for large-powered studies. Findings suggest a genetic predisposition to amyloid pathology that may predispose individuals early in the AD continuum. This validates the potential use of PRS in clinical (trial) settings as a non-invasive tool to assess AD risk.Peer reviewe
Solar coronal loops
No full textIn the past few years it has been realised that loop structures are an important feature of the solar corona, Presumably, these structures outline the local magnetic field and in this thesis some theoretical aspects of solar coronal loops are considered.
The starting point is to model the static equilibrium, in a 1-D structure, and determine the temperature and density by solving the energy balance equation. The basic state is determined by two dimensionless parameters, namely the ratio of optically thin radiation to thermal conduction, and the ratio of mechanical heating to radiation. An important result is that when critical values of the parameters are exceeded thermal nonequilibrium ensues and the loop rapidly cools from coronal temperatures ~ 10⁶K to below 10⁵K. A simple 2-D model extends this work and results provide a possible explanation for several loop features.
The thermal stability of coronal loops is investigated by developing two simple methods which apply to a wide class of equilibria. Stability is found to depend on the boundary conditions adopted but not critically on the form of the heating. A loop is shown to be stable if its conductive flux is large enough that it lies on the upper of two equilibrium branches.
Solar coronal loops are observed to be remarkably stable structures. A magnetohydrodynamic stability analysis of a model loop by the energy method suggests that the main reason for stability is the fact that the ends of the loop are anchored in the dense photosphere. Two-ribbon flares follow the eruption of an active region filament, which may lie along a magnetic flux tube. It is suggested that the eruption is caused by the kink instability, which sets in when the amount of magnetic twist in the flux tube exceeds a critical value, Occasionally active region loops may become unstable and give rise to small loop flares, which may also be a result of' the kink instability.
A more realistic model of an active region filament, that takes account of the overlying magnetic field, shows that instability may occur, if either the twist or the height of the filament exceed critical values.
Finally, the possibility that a solar flare is triggered by thermal nonequilibrium, instead of by magnetic instability, is investigated. This is demonstrated by solving approximately the energy equation for a loop under a balance between thermal conduction, optically thin radiation and a heating source. It is found that, if one starts with a cool equilibrium at a temperature about 10⁴K and gradually increases the heating or decreases the loop pressure (or decreases the loop length), ultimately critical conditions are reached beyond which no cool equilibrium exists. The plasma rapidly heats up to a new quasi-equilibrium at typically 10⁷K. During such a thermal flaring, any magnetic disruption or particle acceleration is of secondary importance
Between conflict, marginalisation, and peace : Gypsies and Roma in Iraq and Kosovo
No full textThis research employs a comparative case study approach to the interrogation of liberal peace in Iraq and Kosovo. Though much scholarship has been produced on conflict and liberal peace in both case studies, existing scholarship tends towards the homogenisation of the ‘minority’ label, resulting in the erasure of particularly marginalised groups. By employing a bottom-up approach to the study of peacebuilding which centres Iraqi Gypsies and Hosta alongside Kosovan Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians, this thesis seeks to elucidate the ways in which neoliberal peacebuilding has perpetuated violence against those communities by reinforcing anti-Gypsyism and promoting necropolitical governance.
Countering the peripheral, excluded status of Iraqi Gypsies and Hosta, and Kosovan Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians from elite-centric liberal peacebuilding processes, this thesis is located firmly in the everyday. Through employing a qualitative, semi-ethnographic methodology, it foregrounds community knowledge and agency by utilising an adapted version of the Everyday Peace Indicator Framework to elicit community-specific conceptualisations of everyday peace. These everyday indicators of peace are contextualised and compared against community experiences of liberal peacebuilding in both Iraq and Kosovo, subsequently highlighting the ways in which layers of structural violence continue to permeate everyday life and reinforce discriminatory socio-political narratives.
This thesis argues that the neoliberal ideological prism which underpins liberal peacebuilding is fundamentally at odds with peace due its narrow definition of violence, permissiveness of necropolitical governance, and failure to recognise structural violence as political. As a result, Iraqi Gypsies and Hosta and Kosovan Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians are consistently consigned to spaces of territorial stigmatisation and a bare life within, where they encounter barriers to essential services which ultimately obstruct social cohesion and peace
Development of a minimum checklist to assess the quality of evidence produced using registry data for the evaluation of medical device safety and performance
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant number 965246) and was part of the Coordinating Research and Evidence for Medical Devices (CORE-MD) project.Objectives Medical device registries in Europe report limited information about their structure and methodological characteristics. This hinders their utility for evaluation of medical device safety and performance under the Medical Device Regulation. This study aimed to define a minimum checklist of items necessary for regulators to assess the quality of evidence produced using registry data for the evaluation of medical device safety and performance.Design A three-round Delphi panel.Setting A task within the Coordinating Research and Evidence for Medical Devices project.Participants 101 experts in the medical device community (healthcare professionals, methodologists, registry experts, regulators, and assessors from notified bodies) were invited.Interventions Based on a literature review and expert advice, 27 items relating to the quality of registry data and the analysis of medical device safety and performance were selected. In round 1, participants selected which items were required for a minimum checklist. They could also propose new items. Items selected by ≥70% of participants indicated consensus. Remaining items were discussed in round 2, resulting in a final checklist that was ranked by participants for importance (round 3).Main outcome measures Consensus of items to be included in the minimum checklist.Results 51 experts participated in round 1, achieving consensus on 18 (67%) items and suggesting 12 items. After discussion in round 2, 5 additional items were selected, resulting in a final set of 15 data quality items and 8 data analysis items. The most important items were ‘completeness of procedures’ (data quality) and ‘definition of outcome analyzed’” (quality of analysis).Conclusions Reporting all items from the minimum checklist will facilitate judgment of the utility of registry data to evaluate medical devices during post-market surveillance.Peer reviewe
Occurrence of delphinids off Egmont Atoll, Chagos Archipelago : detection, characterisation, and temporal variability of vocalisations
Get PDFFunding: This study was supported by generous funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Bertarelli Foundation, contributing to the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science.Passive acoustic monitoring techniques are useful for studying vocally active marine species, particularly in remote and difficult to access areas. In this study, three months of acoustic recordings were collected off Egmont Atoll, Chagos Archipelago in the central Indian Ocean to detect, characterise, and investigate temporal variability of delphinid whistles. A subsample (3.6% of the total dataset) was used to manually annotate whistles and test automated whistle detectors. Higher frequency whistles (6–25 kHz, n = 126) were manually classified into six categories: upsweep (56%), convex (19%), downsweep (13%), concave (5%), sine (4%), and constant frequency (3%). An automated whistle detector was evaluated under five detection thresholds (measured in dB): 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, and 7.5 above background noise. The 6.5 dB threshold demonstrated the best balance between precision (0.9) and recall (0.5). The whistles were detected on 78% of days, with a bimodal diel pattern, where whistles peaked after sunrise (0800–1000 h) and before sunset (1600–1800 h), with fewer detections in the middle of the day and at night. This study highlights the value of passive acoustic monitoring techniques to better understand the delphinid occurrence in remote and understudied areas.Peer reviewe
Exploring potential drivers of divergence in tree-ring based temperature reconstructions of NW North America
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by the ERC Advanced Grant (# 882727; Monostar), the Czech Science Foundation grant HYDRO8 (23–08049S), the co-funded EU project AdAgriF (# CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004635), and the ERC Synergy Grant (# 101118880; Synergy-Plague). Emily Reid’s PhD was funded through the Carnegie Trust of Scotland.Non-stationary growth responses have been identified in tree-ring width (TRW) and maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies of north-west North America. Here, we present MXD and latewood blue intensity (LWBI) data from two areas of the Yukon Territory (YT) to explore divergent climate-growth relationships until 2021 CE and evaluate the underlying reasons considering different detrending methods and instrumental datasets. We examine divergent long-term trends and changing inter-annual signals using well-replicated chronologies integrating a mixture of young and mature trees. Both tree-ring parameters correlate significantly (p < 0.05) with May–August temperatures, but the MXD results are stronger and show less divergence in trend. Variability among differently detrended MXD chronologies is smaller and a signal-free version of age-dependent spline detrending appears to be optimal for both YT sites. Comparison of instrumental data products reveals that the highest and most stable correlations are achieved using the Berkeley Earth dataset. Additionally, using different sub-diurnal temperatures affects both trend and correlation divergence with maximum temperature consistently showing the strongest and minimum temperature the weakest results. We conclude that regional divergence in the YT is characterized by trend rather than high-frequency issues and is larger in LWBI than MXD data. Altering detrending methods and diurnal temperatures is of greater importance than varying instrumental data products. Most stationary responses are recorded when applying signal-free age-dependent spline detrending to tree-ring data and targeting Berkeley Earth maximum temperatures. Disregarding these methodological choices may amplify divergence in YT MXD and LWBI calibration models.Peer reviewe
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