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In this chapter, David’s behaviour whilst living amongst the Philistines is considered (1 Sam 27), along with the two accounts of the death of Saul (1 Sam 31 and 2 Sam 1). While some have considered David’s slaying of the men and women of various tribes (including Girgashites and Amalekites) whilst raiding in the Negev (1 Sam 27) as either pious (herem) or bloodthirsty, it is argued here that it is reported as exceptional and purely pragmatic. In the first account of the death of Saul (1 Sam 31), his armour-bearer’s reluctance to kill him is seen to reflect the sanctity of the king, while Saul’s taking of his own life reflects his ongoing disregard for illegitimate bloodshed. Finally, the peculiarly penetrative violence suffered by Saul invites comparison with the killing of Abimelech for shedding innocent blood, while the exposure of the Saulide remains is noted for future reference (2 Sam 21). In the second account of Saul’s death, David’s interrogation of the Amalekite who claims to have killed him suggests that, because he is a sojourner in Israel, David holds him responsible for raising his hand against the LORD’s anointed. As a result, David orders the Amalekite’s execution and invokes the illegitimately shed blood of Saul on the Amalekite’s own head.

In this chapter, David’s killing of Uriah and the divine response to it are explored. When David makes Uriah’s wife pregnant and cannot persuade him to sleep with her, he orders Joab to contrive Uriah’s death in battle with the Ammonites. Instead of David being angry at the collateral deaths of his servants required by Joab’s adjustment of the plan to kill Uriah, David callously and disingenuously dismisses these as the inevitable cost of warfare. When confronted by Nathan with a parable, David hears it as an indictment of Saul’s taking away of Michal from him. However, the oracle which follows makes clear that while David has successfully avoided ‘bloods’ per se by using the ‘sword’ of warfare with the Ammonites rather than his own sword to kill Uriah, his active contrivance of Uriah’s death has invited divine judgement. The LORD strikes down David’s son, promises to raise up evil from David’s own house, and also inflicts upon David’s house the curse of ‘the sword forever’ (2 Sam 12:10). To underline the message that innocent blood matters, even when ‘bloods’ have been avoided, the LORD promises David consequences strikingly similar to those David himself invoked upon Joab for killing Abner (2 Sam 3). Crucially, however, the LORD’s additional requirement that David’s child must die in his stead, suggests that because David has merely cursed Joab rather than executed him, David’s house still remains at risk from the unremedied ‘bloods’ of Abner.

In this chapter, the focus is on the killing of Saul’s general, Abner, and Saul’s son, Ishbosheth and David’s responses to these killings. It is argued that in the battle recounted in 2 Sam 2, Abner seeks to minimize loss of life, including that of Asahel, brother of Joab, who refuses to give up his pursuit of Abner and ends up killed by him. Abner’s fear that Joab will not forgive him for this is confirmed when Joab refuses to accept David’s peace-making with Abner and kills him in cold blood. David avows his own and his kingdom’s innocence of Abner’s blood for all time. He then, in the same breath, invokes Abner’s ‘bloods’ on not only Joab but his father’s house, including perpetual bloodshed. David then goes still further by explicitly invoking the LORD to repay the wicked, which must include the sons of Zeruiah. This seems to hint that such vows alone may not be sufficient to neutralize the threat of ‘bloods’ to David’s house, given his unwillingness to execute his nephew(s). Indeed, David’s worry that even execution may be inadequate to do so is suggested by his abandoning of the Beerothite brothers, Rechab and Baanah, to the birds and beasts, after executing them for assassinating Saul’s son, Ishbosheth. This episode illustrates David’s increasing agency in avenging illegitimate bloodshed. However, it also casts into high relief his failure to take similar action against his own kinsmen, the sons of Zeruiah, and the danger that this failure may pose to his own house.

Of all the characters bequeathed to us by the Hebrew Bible, none is more compelling or complex than David. Divinely blessed, musically gifted, brave and eloquent, David’s famous slaying of Goliath also confirms that he is a redoubtable man of war. Yet, when his son Absalom rebels, David is dogged by the accusation than he will lose his kingdom because he is not merely a man of war, but a man of ‘bloods’— guilty of shedding innocent blood. In this book, this language of ‘innocent blood’ and ‘bloodguilt’ is traced for the first time throughout David’s story in the books of Samuel and 1 Kings. The theme emerges initially in Saul’s pursuit of David and resurfaces regularly during the rise of David and the fall of men like Nabal, Ishbosheth, Abner, and Saul. Innocent blood and bloodguilt also turn out to be central to David’s reign. This is seen in a surprising way in David’s killing of Uriah but also in the subsequent deaths of his sons, Amnon and Absalom, his general, Amasa, and even in David’s encounters with Shimei. The problem rears its head again when the innocent blood of the Gibeonites shed by Saul comes back to haunt David’s kingdom. Finally, the problem reappears when Solomon succeeds David and orchestrates the executions of Joab and Shimei, and the exile of Abiathar. Attending carefully to the text and drawing extensively on previous biblical scholarship, this book suggests that innocent blood is not only a pre-eminent concern of David, and his story in Samuel and 1 Kings, but also of those responsible for its final shape.

This chapter examines David’s efforts to persuade Solomon to eliminate existing ‘bloods’ and avoid adding to them in 1 Kgs 1–2. David emphasizes that Joab’s killing of Abner and Amasa has ‘set bloods of war in peace[-time]’ (1 Kgs 2:5). Because of this, Joab must not be allowed to die a peaceful death in old age (1 Kgs 2:6) lest this pre-empt the remedying of the ‘bloods’ Joab has incurred through his repeated misuse of war. Accordingly, after David dies, Solomon executes Joab, assuming that this will facilitate ‘peace from the LORD’ for him and his successors. It is also argued that Solomon’s exiling of Abiathar, and David’s instructions regarding Shimei and the sons of Barzillai reflect David and his son’s anxiety to avoid incurring further ‘bloods’. David’s earlier sparing of Shimei (2 Sam 19) is now attributed to his desire to avoid killing him under the guise of war. Thus, Solomon’s ‘wisdom’ is now required to eliminate Shimei in such a way that he is ‘not considered innocent’ (2:9), whilst ensuring that Solomon and David’s house remain so, by avoiding ‘bloods’. This transpires when Shimei is executed for failing to keep a vow made to Solomon. The narrator’s concluding affirmation that ‘the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon’ (1 Kgs 2:46) invites the reader to share David and Solomon’s view that Solomon’s actions here have solved for the moment, the problem of illegitmate bloodshed which has so exercised David and the narrative from the beginning.

In this chapter, the focus is on passages which return the reader to the days of David’s rise to power at Saul’s expense. First, Saul’s bloodthirstiness proves problematic for David when ‘bloods’ incurred by Saul’s illegitimate slaying of the Gibeonites causes a famine in David’s land. It is argued that the Gibeonites’ solution of impaling the seven Saulides as a means of expiating the ‘bloods’ is predictable given the penetrative violence associated with remedying ‘bloods’ in the killings of Absalom and almost certainly Rechab and Baanah. Moreover, the association of post-mortem exposure and potential predatory ravaging with remedying of ‘bloods’ in the latter two cases, seems to explain Rizpah’s protection of the slain Saulides’ remains. David responds to Rizpah’s care for her kinsmen and subversion of his efforts to expiate the ‘bloods’ by taking advantage of the memory of Saul and Jonathan’s impalement and post-mortem exposure in 1 Sam 31. His repatriation of their bones from Jabesh Gilead as a suitable expiatory substitute for the seven Saulides, allows David to both overcome Rizpah’s obstruction and underline his own allegiance to the house of Saul. Further allusions to that earlier period (2 Sam 22:21–25 and 23:14–17) also remind the reader that the future of David’s house depends not only on eliminating Saulide ‘bloods’, but also on avoiding killing more Saulides illegitimately.

In this concluding chapter, the problem of innocent blood in David’s rise, reign, and succession is summarized before some final reflections are offered on the nature and pervasiveness of the theme. To these are added some tentative suggestions regarding how it relates to the wider history and who might be responsible for its presence in the David story. It is argued that ‘innocent blood’ is not to be understood categorically but is better interpreted as blood shed without sufficient cause and hence illegitimate or unauthorized bloodshed. It is suggested that various unwelcome consequences are understood to arise from this kind of behaviour, including but not limited to the incurring of guilt. Whether construed in terms of vengeance, redemption, or expiation, the remedying of unwarranted bloodshed in David’s story invariably involves the shedding of further blood. It is argued that the narrator sees the Davidic problem of ‘bloods’ as solved by Solomon’s actions in 1 Kings 2. However, his failure to endorse Solomon’s view that this will ensure ‘peace forever’ for David’s dynasty reflects both the curse of the sword forever, and a likely awareness that the problem of innocent blood recurs at the end of the history (2 Kgs 21, 24) and leads to the exile. This might suggest the hypothesis that those who attributed the violent fall of David’s dynasty to the problem of ‘innocent blood’ may have found and traced the beginning of this problem in David’s own story.

In this chapter, it is argued that Saul’s offer of his daughters to David suggests that if he can tempt David to fall in battle against his Philistine enemies, the problem of ‘bloods’ will be avoided for Saul. Jonathan’s own anxieties that Saul will succeed in killing David (1 Sam 19) confirm that Saul will not be protected from guilt by commissioning his own son or his servants to do what the Philistines fail to do. In warning his father, Jonathan suggests that blood (in this case, David’s) is deemed ‘innocent’ if it is shed without sufficient cause. While Saul appears to be persuaded of this, the immediate resumption of his efforts to eliminate David suggest otherwise and lead to the episode in which Ahimelech and the priests and people of Nob are slaughtered at Saul’s command. The Israelite servants’ refusal to do so themselves suggests that Saul has shed the Nobites’ blood without sufficient cause, whether because as priests they are somehow sacrosanct or because any wrong they have done has not been sufficient to warrant their deaths. That David, rather than Saul, admits indirect responsibility for these deaths offers further evidence of Saul’s increasing disinterest in the problem of innocent blood, and the first evidence of David’s anxiety regarding this problem.

In this chapter, 2 Sam 15–20 is examined with particular attention being paid to Absalom’s war against David, his death at the hands of Joab, as well as David’s encounters with Shimei and Joab’s killing of Amasa. Shimei’s cursing of David as he flees Absalom’s coup (2 Sam 16) is a reminder that innocent Saulide blood has not been forgotten. While David accepts his guilt, when he rejects Abishai’s offer to kill Shimei, it likely reflects David’s mounting fear that if another Saulide is killed under the illegitimate guise of war, further Saulide ‘bloods’ will fall upon David’s house. In taking up the fate of Absalom and his war, the narrative confirms the fulfilment of the curse of the devouring sword (18:6–8). At the same time, the peculiarities of Absalom’s killing and Joab’s desire for it to be reported to David suggest that David’s failure to kill or curse Joab reflects his recognition that Joab’s killing of Absalom has redeemed Amnon’s blood. When Abishai offers again to kill Shimei on David’s return, David insists that Shimei be spared, lest his killing now add to the Saulide ‘bloods’ incurred by David’s refusal to execute Joab for killing Abner. David’s replacement of Joab with Amasa seems intended to check the threat of further ‘bloods’. However, when David fails to take action after Joab kills Amasa, it confirms how little Joab has to fear from his rival or David himself and that David’s fears of further bloodguilt are fully justified.

In this chapter, the reader is introduced to the topic and to the book. After noting the peculiarity of the language of ‘bloods’, a brief review of scholarship suggests the increasing tendency to read the stories of David as a whole. It is further suggested that it is reasonable to ask what the David story is about, that it might be about some things more than others, and that this ‘aboutness’ is reflected in the notion of its theme(s). After outlining the relevance of previous scholarly discussions of the David story in relation to bloodguilt, retribution, homicide, and ritual violence, this chapter concludes by summarizing the approach of the book. This summary touches on the methodological considerations and the key research questions, and offers an outline of the chapters of the book to come.

In this chapter, the problem of innocent blood is traced in Absalom’s killing of Amnon (2 Sam 13) and David’s grudging restoration of him (2 Sam 14). Given Tamar’s understanding of Amnon’s rape of her as a humiliation and an egregious violation of a customary norm (Nebalah) akin to what may be seen in Judg 19, it is not surprising that Absalom views his killing of Amnon as fully justified. However, while David evidently views the rape as reprehensible, the unmistakeable resonances of Amnon’s killing with the account of Nabal (1 Sam 25) suggests that David spares Amnon for the same reason he was persuaded by Abigail to spare Nabal. It is argued that David does so because ‘violations’ however egregious should be left to divine justice, lest ‘bloods’ be invited upon one’s house and kingdom for killing without sufficient cause. It is small wonder that Absalom flees immediately to Geshur given David’s tendency to execute those whom he sees as guilty of illegitimate bloodshed. Joab seeks to restore Absalom by enlisting a Tekoite woman, who appeals to David to spare her fictional fratricidal son in order to persuade him to spare his own son by leaving Amnon’s blood unredeemed. When David allows Absalom’s return and eventual restoration, it is argued that David’s kissing of him signals not his forgiveness, but merely his willingness to leave Amnon’s blood unredeemed, in the hope that these further ‘bloods’ will not come back to haunt David and his house in the meantime.

SummaryACE inhibitors (ACEIs) are commonly prescribed for hypertension, a global risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Their primary side effect is a dry cough which affects 5-35% of users. As clinical guidelines recommend switching those experiencing cough to an angiotensin-II receptor blocker, we have used this switch as a proxy for ACEI-induced cough. Through a two-stage multi-ancestry genome-wide association study, including up to 7,030 cases and 39,921 controls, we identify five independent genome-wide significant associations implicating six protein-coding genes, including INHBC, KCNIP4, NTSR1 and PREP which encode proteins involved in the nervous system. We also observe genetic overlap between ACEI-induced cough and chronic dry cough through genetic correlation and phenome-wide association studies. In line with existing hypotheses, our findings suggest a neurological basis for the pathology of ACEI-induced cough, particularly the role of proinflammatory mediators in sensory airway sensitivity and cough reflex modulation, and shared biological mechanisms with chronic dry cough.

Background: New data collection in established longitudinal population studies provides an opportunity for studying the risk factors and sequelae of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), plus the indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on wellbeing. The Extended Cohort for E-health, Environment and DNA (EXCEED) cohort is a population-based cohort (N>11,000), recruited from 2013 in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. EXCEED includes consent for electronic healthcare record (EHR) linkage, spirometry, genomic data, and questionnaire data. Methods: Between May 2020 and July 2021, a new questionnaire was deployed in EXCEED, which captured COVID-19 symptoms, general physical and mental health, plus socioeconomic and environmental factors during the pandemic. An online system was developed to invite new participants to join EXCEED, with informed consent being provided online. New and existing participants then completed the COVID-19 questionnaire online. A subset of the new questionnaire respondents were invited to participate in COVID-19 serology substudies, using home antibody testing kits. Results: In total, 3,693 participants provided COVID-19 infection status (median age 62.9 (IQR 54.7-69.2), 58.9% female). Trends of monthly incidence proportions of COVID-19 in EXCEED (self-report or symptom-predicted) approximated local and national figures. Regression analysis of 2,768 participants with linked EHR data showed no obvious monotonic relationship between number of chronic diseases (of 16 pre-specified diseases) and COVID-19 infection. There were 2,144 participants with valid results from a kit allowing differentiation between antibodies due to vaccination or infection. Of these, 8.5% had results consistent with previous COVID-19 infection, and 85.9% had evidence of COVID-19 vaccination, but without evidence of infection. Conclusions: Enriching EXCEED with a new COVID-19 questionnaire and serology data may improve understanding of the risk factors, clinical sequelae and broader impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population. Controlled access to these data for bona fide researchers is via application to the EXCEED study.

High performance artificial muscles based on twisted and coiled polymer fibers have attracted considerable attention since their discovery in 2014. These artificial muscles generate tensile strokes as a result of a torsional actuation occurring within the twisted fiber. The torsion is due to a volume expansion and is related to the helical topology of the twisted polymer fiber or fiber composite. The volume expansion can be induced thermally, electrochemically, photonically or by absorption of small molecules, such as water. The magnitude of the torsional stroke and/or the torque generated has been successfully modeled using a single helix approximation. This paper presents a new type of tensile artificial muscle that exploits the properties of the double helix. Two fibers are plied to form the double helix structure and diameter expansion of the fibers generates a large lengthwise contraction in the plied structure. The process is successfully modeled using the single helix approach. The example plied double helix actuators were fabricated from cotton yarn impregnated with hydrogel. The cotton was pultruded through a solution containing the polyurethane based hydrogel. Actuators were made by air drying followed by co-twisting two lengths of the hydrogel-cotton and heat-setting at 60 degrees C. The samples were tested in isotonic mode by tensioning and fully immersing in water. The samples contracted in length when wet and the process was reversed on drying. The effect of hydrogel content and twist density have been investigated. Single hydrogel-cotton yarn samples showed negligible change in length when immersed in water, but two-ply double helix samples showed contractions of more than 10% in length. The length contraction of the double helices was attributed to the increase in fiber diameter during water absorption. The geometry changes were successfully modeled using a single helix approach.

A custom centrifugal melt-spinning technique was used to prepare randomly arranged 3D fibre networks from commercially available shellac flakes. These fibre networks were implanted into thermally actuating poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-alginate hydrogels and then removed chemically to yield an interconnected porous gel structure. Pore diameter was capable of being controlled through the fibre-spinning temperature, where it was shown that shellac fibres spun at a lower temperature yielded larger diameter pores in the resultant gels. These gels demonstrated a fast actuation, with a 77 % volume loss of a cylindrical sample in just 30 s when immersed in a 60 °C water bath. It was shown that the volume change mechanism overcame the well-known dimensional constraint, which has previously governed hydrogel swelling/de-swelling, through minimisation of the water diffusion distance from the gel to the porous network. With such rapidly actuating materials, potential applications for these hydrogels lie in thermally responsive valves and artificial muscles for soft robotics or microfluidics.

Artificial muscles have the potential to fill inherent gaps left behind by large, hard, complex traditional actuators. One such emerging category of artificial muscles which is showing potential in filling these gaps is composite yarn hydrogel actuators. Hydrogels are soft, potentially biocompatible, polymer materials which can be tuned to have varying swelling ratios to produce the desired mechanical response. Composite yarn hydrogel actuators function by an embedded hydrogel swelling within the confined fibrous structure of a twisted yarn. This hydrogel swelling exerts pressure on the yarn which, in turn, drives either torsional or linear actuation, depending on the twisted structure of the composite yarn. The focus of this research is to develop techniques to produce, test and model this new class of actuator. We will endeavor to garner a deeper understanding of the effects of hydrogel swelling ratio, applied yarn-twist, and the complex structure of the composite actuator. Composite yarn hydrogel actuators comprising of niobium nanowire/hydrogel twisted composites have been produced that can generate large and fast torsional stroke as high as 300 deg/mm over 15 seconds when stimulated by water. Simple cotton/hydrogel coiled composites have demonstrated large repeatable linear stroke lengths of 30% contraction upon hydration. A new class of composite actuator (hydrogel composite tube actuators) can show combined linear and torsional actuation within the same device.

Objectives To present a new methodological framework for the exploration of interpersonal relationships in sport. Method Analytical research—review of reversal theory including, the theoretical structure, application to relationship issues, and existing empirical studies. Results The following directions for future research were identified: (a) the role of reversal theory as an integrative framework from which interpersonal relationships can be examined from a phenomenological perspective; (b) the examination of interpersonal relationships from a dominance level; (c) the examination of dyad interaction at a state level, exploring the moment to moment effect one individual has on the metamotivational experience of another; (d) providing a framework from which an individuals reversal inhibitions or inappropriate strategies can be examined; (e) considering an alternative general framework of applied practice and intervention strategies. Conclusions There is a need to examine the efficacy of theory, which encompasses both the experience of the individual and the interaction between the dyad. Reversal theory has the potential to provide a comprehensive framework from which interpersonal relationships can be examined in sport. Specific areas for future research are identified.

Between the advent of motion pictures in the 1890s and the close of the 'silent' era at the end of the 1920s, many of the longest, most expensive and most watched films on both sides of the Atlantic drew upon biblical traditions. David J. Shepherd traces the evolution of the biblical film through the silent era, asking why the Bible attracted early film makers, how biblical films were indebted to other interpretive traditions, and how these films were received. Drawing upon rarely seen archival footage and early landmark films of directors such as Louis Feuillade, D. W. Griffith, Michael Curtis and Cecil B. DeMille, this history treats well-known biblical subjects including Joseph, Moses, David and Jesus, along with lesser-known biblical stars such as Jael, Judith and Jephthah's daughter. This book will be of great interest to students of Biblical studies, Jewish studies and film studies.

The habitat available for flora and fauna is limited by the morphological and hydraulic characteristics of a channel. Habitat enhancement has been based on the premise that maximisation of morphological and hydraulic diversity is required for optimum biological health. An effective means of quantifying the morphological and hydraulic diversity of a reach both prior to and after enhancement is required to assist in the design of effective enhancement schemes. Whilst the IFIM based upon the use of PHABSIM has been used successfully to quantify the habitat available for certain target species, its success has been limited when applied to the coarse fish species that dominate Lowland rivers in the UK, and it is not designed to provide an overall measure of habitat diversity. The Habitat Quality Assessment which is an integral part of the River Habitat Survey provides a general overview of the quality of a river: however it is limited by the rigid sampling scheme which does not take account of the position of morphological features. In addition, morphological and hydraulic characteristics are not directly measured and their relative abundance within the channel is not accounted for. An new method is presented for quantifying the diversity of morphological and hydraulic features occurring in a reach and quantifying the diversity of habitat available to flora and fauna. Data requirements are similar to those required for the use of IFIM and thus the two techniques may be easily combined to provide an overall measure of habitat diversity as well as an assessment of habitat suitability for particular target species. The sampling strategy is based on the morphological and hydraulic features observed in the reach.

I felt I could not let the diatribe1 posing as a scientific article by Professor Malcolm Potts and his wife, Dr Martha Campbell, go without comment. When one reads an article that contains gross inaccuracy, even in part, the credibility of the rest and of the journal running it is thrown into question. The couple has an understandable modern problem with St Augustine but that is no excuse for their absurdly inaccurate summary of over a hundred theological works,2 that he “saw God as an arbitrary judge who could be placated by bribes”. Nor does it justify ridiculing him from a 21st century perspective with no attempt to understand his historical or personal context, or indeed any of their other (highly selected) examples. To then link patron saints in a non sequitur to bribery and the etymology of ‘grace’ (wrongly)3 to the same is as ridiculous as it is irrelevant. (I note they are only able to quote Potts’ own authority for this.) To limit the development of Christian sexual ethics only to the context of sexual exploitation tolerated in the Roman Empire is profoundly misleading. They show no awareness of the contributing influences of Judaism, Hellenism, Stoicism or Gnosticism.4 Just how blinkered the authors’ historical viewpoint is can be seen from the fact that the discussion is limited to one theologian among many, to only the Western tradition, ignoring Eastern and Celtic perspectives completely, and subsequently narrowing within that to Roman Catholicism. Islam fares worse, seeming only to be represented by the Taliban in the authors’ minds. If the two faiths both have “liberal and conservative interpretations”, why is discussion limited to the negative ones? The most one can learn from this article is something of the prejudices of its authors. This is not the first time Malcolm Potts has been accused of a lack of objectivity.5 Space precludes a more detailed response but I wonder how this got through the Journal’s peer review process. It would have been sensible to mention Martha Campbell’s membership of the Editorial Advisory Board as a competing interest. In a journal aspiring to international scientific respectability, authors should be obliged to give balanced and informed discussion. If polemic is to be part of the offering, it should be flagged as such. I am certainly no friend of patriarchy, but a scientific article is not the place to abandon balance in favour of rhetoric.