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The latest issue of Philosophia: International Journal of Philosophy focuses on various themes such as ecological citizenship, animal ethics, postmortem organ donation, health concepts, affectual relations, self-formation, and philosophical interpretations of religious texts. Authors explore topics like the role of social media in ecological citizenship, mature care in vegetarianism, and the Dead Donor Rule. The journal also includes book reviews discussing freedom and self-realization in Neo-Daoist philosophy and human emotions in Zen Buddhism. The articles offer diverse perspectives on improving society, the environment, and individual well-being through philosophical discourse. [Extracted from the article]

Acute Q fever is classically described as a mild illness. We report 9 patients with acute Q fever in Queensland, Australia, who required intensive care unit support to survive. Clinicians should consider an acute Q fever diagnosis and its empirical treatment in critically ill persons in the appropriate clinical context.

Abstract The stability design of soil structures, such as retaining walls, has traditionally relied on deterministic analyses that use averaged soil parameters. However, modern computational advances, particularly Monte Carlo simulations (MCs), have highlighted the limitations of this approach. Engineers are now increasingly focused on understanding the probability of failure (PF) associated with specific safety factors. This study explores the impact of spatial variability in soil properties, specifically the friction angle and unit weight, on PF. By applying log-normal distributions and spatial correlation lengths, extensive MC simulations were combined with finite element limit analysis to establish relationships between safety factors and PF. This research makes several contributions to geotechnical engineering. It integrates MC simulations with finite element limit analysis to provide a statistically robust framework for evaluating PF in soil structures. The use of adaptive finite element meshes introduces new insights into failure mechanisms, addressing gaps in existing studies. Additionally, the study presents a set of parametric design charts that enable practitioners to estimate PF for specific safety factors effectively. These findings provide practical tools for design engineers, supporting better decision-making and increasing confidence in design outcomes.

Geochemical tracers such as stable isotopes are widely used in groundwater studies for determining aquifer connectivity and groundwater-surface water interactions. An analysis of dissolved radon (222Rn), major ions and trace element chemistry in groundwater was conducted in the fractured-rock aquifer system of Springbrook plateau, southeast Queensland, Australia. Chemical tracers were used to explore hydrological connectivity between the basalt formation and the underlying rhyolite formation. Water samples were collected from groundwater bores installed in both rock formations, from August 2021 to November 2023. Analysis revealed higher than expected concentrations of radon present in groundwater extracted from the basaltic aquifers (>20 Bq/L). A geochemical analysis of rock samples collected from the plateau, combined with a statistical analysis of water sample chemistry, confirmed the rhyolite formation as the primary source of radon. This indicates a strong hydrological connectivity between the rhyolite and basalt formations, such that the dissolved radon gas in groundwater is easily able to migrate through the network of fractures from the rhyolite formation into the overlying basalt formation. There are indications that seasonal rainfall events may be an important factor controlling the extent of vertical groundwater movement, as shown by temporal changes in radon concentrations. Hence, the groundwater aquifers in both formations should not be considered as discrete, disconnected systems. The geochemical tracers in both water and rock samples used in this investigation, combined with a chemometric statistical analysis, proved to be useful for identifying inter-aquifer connectivity in an area with no previous groundwater investigations.

The Betz constant is the well-known aerodynamic limit of the maximum power which can be extracted from wind using wind turbine technologies, under the assumption that the wind speed is uniform across a blade disk. However, this condition may not hold for large wind turbines, since the wind speed may not be constant along their height; rather, it may vary with the location due to surface friction from tall buildings and trees, the topography of the Earth’s surface, and radiative heating and cooling in a 24 h cycle. This paper derives a new power coefficient for large wind turbines based on the power law exponent model of the wind gradient and height. The proposed power coefficient is a function of the size of the rotor disk and the Hellmann exponent, which describes the wind gradient based on wind stability at various locations, and it approaches the same value as the Betz limit for wind turbines with small rotor disks. It is shown that for large offshore wind turbines, the power coefficient was about 1.27% smaller than that predicted by the Betz limit, whereas for onshore turbines in human-inhabited areas with stable air, the power coefficient was about 8.7% larger. Our results are significant in two ways. First, we achieve generalization of the well-known Betz limit through elimination of the assumption of a constant wind speed across the blade disk, which does not hold for large wind turbines. Second, since the power coefficient depends on the location and air stability, this study offers guidelines for wind power companies regarding site selection for the installation of new wind turbines, potentially achieving greater energy efficiency than that predicted by the Betz limit.

Recent advances in silicon photonics promise to revolutionize modern technology by improving the performance of everyday devices in multiple fields (Thomson et al 2016 J. Opt. 18 073003). However, as the industry moves into a mass fabrication phase, the problem of adequate testing of integrated silicon photonics devices remains to be solved. A cost-efficient manner that reduces schedule risk needs to involve automated testing of multiple devices that share common characteristics such as input–output coupling mechanisms, but at the same time needs to be generalizable to various types of devices and scenarios. This paper presents a neural network-based automated system designed for in-plane fiber-chip-fiber testing, characterization, and active alignment of silicon photonic devices that use process-design-kit library edge couplers. The presented approach combines state-of-the-art computer vision techniques with time-series analysis, to control a testing setup that can process multiple devices and be quickly tuned to incorporate additional hardware. The system can operate at vacuum or atmospheric pressures and maintains stability for fairly long time periods in excess of a month.