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The prosecution of the crimes of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Unit 731 are often compared to the prosecution of the crimes of the Nazi doctors. These comparisons emphasize immunity for the Japanese, whereas the Nazis were prosecuted for their actions. However, this comparison is an inaccurate one. While both trials look similar on the surface, their composition, scope, and framework were different. Conscious of the fact they were establishing international criminal precedent, the United States’ case against the Nazi doctors relied on military chain of command to prove strong legal responsibility for human experimentation crimes. In contrast, the United States avoided prosecuting Unit 731 because they could not replicate the same clear legal framework used to successfully prosecute the Nazis. The Soviet Union recognized the strategic implications of the United States’ decision not to try Unit 731 and saw an opportunity to strike a moral blow, not only by convicting Japanese military members at the Khabarovsk Trial, but also by immediately publishing the court’s proceedings internationally. Rather than focusing on the morality of who was punished by whom, understanding the military structures as identified through these different court proceedings could enable prevention of crimes against humanity.

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In this article the scholar, preacher and bishop Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) is taken as a vantage point to look at the religious life of his time. He had personal involvement with the nascent university of Paris, the earliest beguines of the Low Countries, the crusades against heretics and Muslims, and the first friars. He left varied and vivid descriptions of these movements. His writings also constantly reveal a counter-current of scepticism and derision on the part of those who dismissed these religious movements as sanctimonious or hypocritical. Publisher PDF

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process for changing the magnetic topology and converting magnetic energy into other forms on the Sun, such as heat, flow energy and fast particle energy. In two dimensions it is fairly well understood, although some aspects still need to be developed. In three dimensions, it behaves very differently and a substantial body of theory and numerical experiment has now been built up, including reconnection at null points, separators and quasi-separators. Some aspects of solar flares can be understood with 2D reconnection models, but other aspects such as the shapes of flare ribbons, the acceleration of particles and the creation of twist in erupting flux ropes need a 3D understanding. A paradigm shift in our understanding of coronal heating by reconnection has been stimulated by dramatic new observations of photospheric flux cancellation from SUNRISE and from SST together with the realisation that it may well be driving nanoflare heating events and possibly campfires. Publisher PDF

This article will compare two works by two Black Surinamese authors from the last century: Anton de Kom (1898–1945) and Edgar Cairo (1948–2000). While keenly aware that the Netherlands/the Dutch Empire has shaped their world by forceful and violent means, in their writing both Cairo and de Kom effectively push the Netherlands to the margins. In these texts it is present as the evil force to be fought, or as the invisible past evils that have created the present, but these stories are not about the Dutch or The Netherlands. De Kom counters the Dutch narratives and heroes with those of the enslaved people who escape to the hinterlands (het binnenland), while Cairo flaunts white colonial norms with his story of what he calls ‘the backyard’ (het erf). De Kom’s hinterland and Cairo’s backyard echo chronotopes such as Paul Gilroy’s slave ship and Édouard Glissant’s metaphors of the plantation, the hinterland and the creole language. These are conceptions of the Caribbean and Black diasporic history, voicing some of the ways in which ‘culture happened’ in spite of the efforts of colonization and the plantation system, offering an alternative that is native to a transplanted people/diasporic people. Publisher PDF

There is an ancient Christian tradition of a ‘good and holy death’. That tradition has largely been forgotten in the medicalization of death, which regards death solely as an enemy to be defeated at all costs. This paper examines the tradition of a holy death through the lens of Margaret Edson's play W;t, with particular attention paid to the use of John Donne's poetry in the play. The paper then uses theologian Allen Verhey's writings on the Christian art of dying as a means to understand the play in a Christian context, with special attention paid to the way in which it portrays Vivian Bearing, the play's protagonist, as a victim as much as a beneficiary of modern medicine. Publisher PDF

Three new 4-styrylquinoline–benzimidazole hybrids have been synthesized using a reaction sequence in which 2-methylquinoline precursors first undergo selective oxidation by selenium dioxide to form the corresponding 2-formylquinoline intermediates, followed by oxidative cyclocondensation reactions with benzene-1,2-diamine to yield the hybrid products. The formyl intermediates and the hybrid products have all been fully characterized using a combination of IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, and high-resolution mass spectrometry, and the structures of the three hybrid products have been determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Ethyl (E)-2-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-4-(4-chlorostyryl)quinoline-3-carboxylate, C27H20ClN3O2, (IIIa), and ethyl (E)-2-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-4-(2-methoxystyryl)quinoline-3-carboxylate, C28H23N3O3, (IIIb), both crystallize in the solvent-free form with Z′ = 1, but ethyl (E)-2-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-4-(4-methylstyryl)quinoline-3-carboxylate, C28H23N3O2, (IIIc), crystallizes as a partial hexane solvate with Z′ = 3, and the ester group in one of the independent molecules is disordered over two sets of atomic sites having occupancies of 0.765 (7) and 0.235 (7). The molecules of (IIIc) enclose continuous channels which are occupied by disordered solvent molecules having partial occupancy. In all of the molecules of (IIIa)–(IIIc), the styrylquinoline fragment is markedly nonplanar. Different combinations of N—H...O and C—H...π hydrogen bonds generate supramolecular assemblies which are two-dimensional in (IIIb) and (IIIc), but three-dimensional in (IIIa). Comparisons are made with the structures of some related compounds.

Early Quakers have not typically been noted for their espousal of political counsel. This article proposes that its cohort powerfully made the case for the ‘counsel of God’ in politics. This counsel was, perhaps paradoxically, both intensively inward, deriving from the light of God within, and universalistic and external, given that counsel could emanate from any individual. This was distinct from most contemporary applications of conciliar rhetoric, although some conceptual and practical similarities are considered. This article explores, finally, the diversity of seventeenth-century conceptions of theological and political counsel alongside that of the Quakers, suggesting further directions for research. Postprint

In this paper, I examine how the British Empire in the Arab Gulf created colonial classifications between Gulf Arabs and South Asians. The British racialised the Gulf Arabs in a way which presented them as an eternal, homogeneous, and ‘pure’ group. This racialisation contributed to the exclusion of others within the Gulf, most notably South Asian migrants. Firstly, I discuss some of the gaps within the literature which include the erasure of race and colonialism. Then, I identify how these gaps can be remedied using a Decolonial framework. Based on these theoretical foundations, I interrogate the racialisations of Gulf Arabs and how these racialisations influenced the migration regime in the Gulf. Lastly, I examine how South Asians were racialised in the Gulf. I conclude that the exclusionary migration regime in the Arab Gulf is built on the foundations of the racialised colonial classifications of the British Empire. Publisher PDF

Funding: The study obtained funding from European Union, Horizon 2020—IMPACT TB project (grant number: 733174). This study compares the yield and additionality of community-based active tuberculosis (TB) active case-finding strategies using either smear microscopy or GeneXpert as the TB diagnostic test. Active case-finding strategies screened social contacts of index cases and high-risk groups in four districts of Nepal in July 2017–2019. Two districts (Chitwan and Dhanusha) applied GeneXpert testing and two districts (Makwanpur and Mahotarri) used smear microscopy. Two control districts implemented standard national TB program activities. Districts implementing GeneXpert testing screened 23,657 people for TB, tested 17,114 and diagnosed 764 TB cases, producing a yield of 4.5%. Districts implementing smear microscopy screened 19,961 people for TB, tested 13,285 and diagnosed 437 cases, producing a yield of 3.3%. The screening numbers required were 31 for GeneXpert and 45.7 for smear districts. The test numbers required were 22.4 and 30.4 for GeneXpert and smear. Using the TB REACH additionality method, social contact tracing for TB through GeneXpert testing contributed to a 20% (3958/3322) increase in district-level TB notifications, smear microscopy 12.4% (3146/2798), and −0.5% (2553/2566) for control districts. Therefore, social contact tracing of TB index cases using GeneXpert testing should be implemented throughout Nepal within the TB FREE initiative to close the notification gap and accelerate progress toward END TB strategy targets. Publisher PDF

In one of his meetings with members of the Vienna Circle, Wittgenstein discusses Hermann Weyl’s brief conversion to intuitionism and criticizes his arguments against applying the law of the excluded middle to generalizations over the natural numbers. Like Weyl, however, Wittgenstein rejects the classical model theoretic conception of generality when it comes to infinite domains. Nonetheless, he disagrees with him about the reasons for doing so. This paper provides an account of Wittgenstein’s criticism of Weyl that is based on his differing understanding of what a general statement over infinite domains consists in. This difference in their conception of generality is argued to be central to the middle Wittgenstein’s overall stance on intuitionism as well. While Weyl (and other intuitionists) reject the law of the excluded middle on grounds of constructivity, Wittgenstein argues that general statements over infinite domains do not express propositions in the first place. The origin of this position as well as its consequences for contemporary debates on generality are further assessed. Publisher PDF

Funding: MFB’s participation at the meeting of the ACCOBAMS-ASCOBANS Joint Bycatch Working Group was in the framework of the Life DELFI project, co-financed by the European Community under the LIFE programme. Information on movements and connectivity among populations of animals is important for the delineation of units to conserve, so that demographic parameters, such as abundance, fecundity and mortality, can be placed in an appropriate population and conservation context. Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are often considered relatively ‘resident’ and demonstrating strong site fidelity to specific areas. However, this perception may partly be an artefact of the distribution and ‘habitat use’ of cetacean researchers, rather than animals themselves, and bottlenose dolphins have been shown to be capable of substantial movements, often in relatively short periods of time. Here, we report on two long-distance movements of a common bottlenose dolphin within the Mediterranean Sea, across the Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Adriatic Seas, and subsequently back across all three seas to Ligurian Sea, making these the two longest recorded movement for this species in the Mediterranean Sea to date and some of the longest in the world. We also review published records of long-distance movements in this species worldwide. This study highlights the utility of photo-identification and the importance of regional data sharing. We argue that photo-identification comparisons are always worthwhile and the results are informative regardless of the presence or absence of matches, especially with the ongoing advances in automated matching software. Publisher PDF

This article explores the nexus of healing between clergy and physicians in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century medicine by focusing on the disease of melancholia, and in particular on the earliest extant English monograph on that subject, A Treatise of Melancholie (1586), by Timothy Bright. Melancholia was a disease especially apt to be treated by both medical practitioners and the clergy as it was widely defined as both corporal and spiritual in origin. What makes Bright's treatise particularly noteworthy is the vocation of the author: Bright was both doctor and cleric, and his work straddled both occupations as he defined, diagnosed and attempted to cure melancholy in his reader. By examining what Bright wrote about the various aspects of the disease, this article provides further insight into the clashes, conciliations and cooperation between early modern medical practitioners.

Funding: This article was made possible by funding from the Carlsberg Foundation. Intense recruitment for the Roman army among the Batavians of the Lower Rhi­ne exposed their community more profoundly to Latin literacy and the universal cul­ture of the empire than many oth­er provinces. How­ever, through an anthro­polo­gi­cal examination of their commu­ni­ty, the present paper demonstrates that even under the­se con­di­tions, the cultural amalgamation of the impe­rial and the lo­cal was li­mi­ted, and Batavian society retained a markedly distinct cul­ture through­out centuries of Ro­man rule. Publisher PDF

In both science and theology, there has been a revolution in our understanding of the nature of human uniqueness. As a background to this Symposium on the subject, a summary is here given of the history of Homo sapiens that is being revealed by fossil, archaeological, and genetic evidence. This is followed by a description of some of the distinctive characteristics of humans that have been proposed in the past, such as language, tool use, self-consciousness, art, and culture. Ideas from theology and philosophy that are salient for the dialogue with science are then mentioned, together with a summary of the scientific and theological insights on uniqueness from contributors to this Symposium in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. Publisher PDF

Funding: M.R.G. was funded in part by a graduate research assistantship and the Robert E. Dickenson scholarship through the University of Nevada Reno. Funding for this project was provided by National Park Service Upper Columbia Basin Network Inventory and Monitoring Program through a Cooperative Agreement (Task Agreement P18AC01062). Standard occupancy models enable unbiased estimation of occupancy by accounting for observation errors such as missed detections (false negatives) and, less commonly, incorrect detections (false positives). Occupancy models are fitted to data from repeated site visits in which surveyors record evidence of species presence. Use of indirect sign (e.g., scat, tracks) as evidence of presence can vastly improve survey efficiency for inconspicuous species but can also introduce additional sources of error. We developed a “multi-sign” occupancy approach to model the detection process separately for unique sign types and used this method to improve estimates of occupancy dynamics for an inconspicuous species, the American pika (Ochotona princeps). We investigated how estimates of pika occupancy and environmental drivers differed under four increasingly realistic representations of the observation process: (1) perfect detection (commonly assumed for modeling pika occupancy), (2) standard occupancy model (single observation process without possibility of false detection), (3) multi-sign with no false detections (non-false positive model), and (4) multi-sign with false detections (full model). For the multi-sign occupancy models, we modeled the detection of each sign type (fresh scat, fresh haypiles, pika calls, and pika sightings) separately as a function of climatic and environmental covariates. Estimates of occupancy processes and inferences about environmental drivers were sensitive to different detection models. Simplified representations of the detection processes generally resulted in higher occupancy estimates and higher turnover rates than the full multi-sign model. Environmental drivers also varied in their influence on occupancy models, where (e.g.) forb cover was estimated to more strongly influence occupancy in the full multi-sign model than the simpler models. As has been reported previously in other contexts, unmodeled heterogeneity in the observation process can lead to biases in occupancy processes and uncertainty in the relationships between occupancy and environmental covariates. Overall, our multi-sign approach to dynamic occupancy modeling, which accounts for spatio-temporal variation in reliability among sign types, has strong potential to generate more realistic estimates of occupancy dynamics for inconspicuous species. Publisher PDF

The ARTIC protocol uses a multiplexed PCR approach with two primer pools tiling the entire SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) genome. Primer pool updates are necessary for accurate amplicon sequencing of evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants with novel mutations. The suitability of the ARTIC V4 and updated V4.1 primer scheme was assessed using whole genome sequencing of Omicron from clinical samples using Oxford Nanopore Technology. Analysis of Omicron BA.1 genomes revealed that 93.22 % of clinical samples generated improved genome coverage at 50× read depth with V4.1 primers when compared to V4 primers. Additionally, the V4.1 primers improved coverage of BA.1 across amplicons 76 and 88, which resulted in the detection of the variant-defining mutations G22898A, A26530G and C26577G. The Omicron BA.2 sub-variant (VUI-22JAN-01) replaced BA.1 as the dominant variant by March 2022, and analysis of 168 clinical samples showed reduced coverage across amplicons 15 and 75. Upon further interrogation of primer binding sites, a mutation at C4321T [present in 163/168 (97 %) of samples] was identified as a possible cause of complete dropout of amplicon 15. Furthermore, two mutations were identified within the primer binding regions for amplicon 75: A22786C (present in 90 % of samples) and C22792T (present in 12.5 % of samples). Together, these mutations may result in reduced coverage of amplicon 75, and further primer updates would allow the identification of the two BA.2-defining mutations present in amplicon 75: A22688G and T22679C. This work highlights the need for ongoing surveillance of primer matches as circulating variants evolve and change. Publisher PDF

Funding: This work was carried out within the European Research Council funded project ‘Civil Law, Common Law, Customary Law: Consonance, Divergence and Transformation in Western Europe from the Late Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries’ (Grant agreement number: 740611 clclcl). The Libri Feudorum (the ‘books of fiefs’) are the earliest written body of feudal customs in Europe, codified in northern Italy c.1100-1250, which gave rise to feudal law as a branch of civil law. Their role in shaping modern ideas of feudalism has aroused an intense debate among medievalists, leading to deep re-thinking of the ‘feudal’ vocabulary and categories. This book offers an up-to-date English translation with a working Latin text introduced by a historical and historiographical overview of the Libri, thereby providing a valuable tool to understanding the long-standing importance of this collection over nine centuries of European history. Publisher PDF

COG-UK is supported by funding from the MRC part of UK Research & Innovation, the National Institute of Health Research (Grant code MC_PC_19027), and Genome Research Limited, operating as the Welcome Sanger Institute. Background The first epidemic wave of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Scotland resulted in high case numbers and mortality in care homes. In Lothian, over one-third of care homes reported an outbreak, while there was limited testing of hospital patients discharged to care homes. Aim To investigate patients discharged from hospitals as a source of SARS-CoV-2 introduction into care homes during the first epidemic wave. Methods A clinical review was performed for all patients discharges from hospitals to care homes from 1st March 2020 to 31st May 2020. Episodes were ruled out based on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test history, clinical assessment at discharge, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data and an infectious period of 14 days. Clinical samples were processed for WGS, and consensus genomes generated were used for analysis using Cluster Investigation and Virus Epidemiological Tool software. Patient timelines were obtained using electronic hospital records. Findings In total, 787 patients discharged from hospitals to care homes were identified. Of these, 776 (99%) were ruled out for subsequent introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into care homes. However, for 10 episodes, the results were inconclusive as there was low genomic diversity in consensus genomes or no sequencing data were available. Only one discharge episode had a genomic, time and location link to positive cases during hospital admission, leading to 10 positive cases in their care home. Conclusion The majority of patients discharged from hospitals were ruled out for introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into care homes, highlighting the importance of screening all new admissions when faced with a novel emerging virus and no available vaccine. Publisher PDF

In this paper, by means of a novel use of insights from the literature on scientific modelling, I will argue in favour of an instrumentalist approach to the models that are crucially involved in the study of adaptive systems within the Free-Energy Principle (FEP) framework. I will begin (§2) by offering a general, informal characterisation of FEP. Then (§3), I will argue that the models involved in FEP-theorising are plausibly intended to be isomorphic to their targets. This will allow (§4) to turn the criticisms moved against isomorphism-based accounts of representation towards the FEP modelling practice. Since failure to establish an isomorphism between model and target would result in the former’s failure to represent the latter, and given that it is highly unlikely that FEP-models are ever isomorphic to their targets, maintaining that FEP-models represent their targets as they are, in a realist sense, is unwarranted. Finally (§5), I will consider what implications my argument in favour of an instrumentalist reading of FEP-models has for attempts at making use of the FEP to elaborate an account of what cognition exactly is. My conclusion is that we should not dismiss FEP-based accounts of cognition, as they would still be informative and would further our understanding of the nature of cognition. Nonetheless, the prospects of settling the philosophical debates that sparked the interest in having a “mark of the cognitive” are not good.

This article offers a reanalysis of Hrabanus’ mid-ninth-century text De magicis artibus. Often read and studied as a complete work, the De magicis artibus is in fact one portion of a longer text that also discusses incest and marriage practices. Furthermore, the single surviving copy of the text is deliberately attached to another work by Hrabanus, his Poenitentiale ad Otgarium. This article argues that by examining the text in its entirety, as well as its manuscript context and edition history, Hrabanus’ whole work is better understood as one of pastoral care informed by the Old Testament. Publisher PDF

Hong Kong Christian communities often draw upon theological resources from the West. But can Western theological sources be meaningfully applied to Hong Kong? Western theological sources stem from Western epistemologies, which may not necessarily resonate with the values or cultural assumptions of Hong Kong Christians. The lived experiences of ‘Chan Tai-man,’ a placeholder name for average Hong Kong Christians, can be a source for exploring Hong Kong Christian epistemologies. ‘Chan's’ lived theology has significance for the field of practical theology in considering how majority world epistemologies can impact the Western world, especially regarding Christianity in individualistic societies. This paper analyses Hong Kong theologians’ engagement with Stanley Hauerwas's theological convictions and makes a critical comparison to ‘Chan's’ lived theology. First, the article will address (1) why Hauerwasian theology resonates with Hong Kong theologians and (2) why Hong Kong Hauerwasians think Hauerwas's ideas would be useful in the Hong Kong context. Second, after explaining the author's ethnographic research methods, the article will illustrate ‘Chan's’ lived theology, followed by a comparison between the two approaches. In conclusion, while Hong Kong theologians’ engagement with Hauerwas makes an adequate start, Hong Kong Christian communities’ understanding of political theology will eventually have to be broadened through a critical self-reflection of Hong Kong lived theology. Publisher PDF

Funding: This research was supported by a research grant from the Forethought Foundation and the Center for Effective Altruism. Antinatalism is the view that procreation is morally wrong. This paper introduces and validates the Short Antinatalism Scale (S-ANS) that allows researchers to measure antinatalist views. We conducted four preregistered studies with a total of 1,088 participants. First, we ran a study on Prolific (N = 296) and conducted an exploratory factor analysis of an initial scale including 22 items drawn from the philosophical literature on antinatalism. In Study 2, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of a reduced 12-item scale, also on Prolific (N = 396). Based on a Mokken scale analysis, we further reduced the scale to a 5-item version which we tested in a second confirmatory factor analysis, Study 3, on Prolific (N = 297), where we also aimed to provide evidence of validity. The results indicated excellent model fit (RMSEA = 0.012) and evidence for validity (with life satisfaction, affective empathy, and conservatism correlating negatively with antinatalism). Lastly, we conducted Study 4 with a sample of self-identified antinatalists on Reddit (N = 99) to provide additional evidence of validity. We find that the instrument is measurement invariant between self-described antinatalists and the general population and that antinatalists score significantly higher on the scale (d = 2.80). This provides evidence in favor of reliability and validity with respect to the final 5-item Short Antinatalism Scale (S-ANS). We hope that the S-ANS, which is freely available to all researchers, advances rigorous research into antinatalism and its determinants across a variety of fields that relate to the value of life and procreation. Publisher PDF

Background The UK National Health Service (NHS) is ideally placed to undertake research. The UK Government recently launched its vision of research within the NHS to improve research culture and activity amongst its staff. Currently, little is known about the research interest, capacity and culture of staff in one Health Board in South East Scotland and how their attitudes to research may have changed as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods We used the validated Research Capacity and Culture tool in an online survey of staff working in one Health Board in South East Scotland to explore attitudes to research at the organisation, team and individual level together with involvement in, barriers to and motivators to engage in research. Questions included changes in attitude to research as a result of the pandemic. Staff were identified by professional group: nurses/midwives, medical/dental, allied health professionals (AHP), other therapeutic and administrative roles. Median scores and interquartile ranges were reported and differences between groups assessed using the Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests with P Results Replies were received from 503/9145 potential respondents (5.5% response), of these 278 (3.0% response) completed all sections of the questionnaire. Differences between groups were noted in the proportions of those with research as part of their role (P = 0.012) and in being research-active (P Conclusion We found a positive change in attitude to research arising from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Research engagement may increase after addressing the barriers cited. The present results provide a baseline against which future initiatives introduced to increase research capability and capacity may be assessed.

Recent events have given rise to considerations of systemic sin and how the church should respond to it. This article looks at passages in the Hebrew Bible which demonstrate the communal character of sin and atonement. God holds the whole nation responsible despite righteous individuals, often for the sins of individuals. Paul develops this relation between individuals and groups in his ecclesiology. I argue from this development that responsibility for sins, individual or systemic, is placed on the whole community. Thus, there is for the church a corporate responsibility for reconciliation, demanding group agency in rectifying systemic sins like racism. Publisher PDF

Augustine’s privation theory of evil maintains that something is evil in virtue of a privation, a lack of something which ought to be present in a particular nature. While it is not evil for a human to lack wings, it is indeed evil for a human to lack rationality according to the end of a rational nature. Much of the literature on the privation theory focuses on whether it can successfully defend against counterexamples of positive evils, such as pain. This focus of the discussion is not surprising, given that the privation theory is a theory about the nature of evil. But it is also a theory that protects venerable theological concerns, namely, that God is the good creator of everything, and that everything is good. It is the purpose of this article to further this discussion on both fronts. I argue that the counterexample of pain still defeats the privation theory despite the most recent defense. What is more, I suggest, this is not theologically disastrous. The individual who rejects the privation theory is not obligated to reject the theological theses which motivate it. To show how a rejection of the privation theory is a live option, I offer an alternative view of evil that also maintains these theological theses and encompasses both privative and positive evils. Publisher PDF

Funding: Financial support by the Access to Research Infrastructures activity in the Horizon 2020 Programme of the EU (IPERION HS Grant Agreement n.871034) is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by The Wolfson Foundation, whose Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities is acknowledged with appreciation. This work is the first scientific study of khipu dyes and inorganic mordants and auxiliaries, paving the way for a new approach to understanding khipus’ meaningful materiality, technology, and colours. Khipus have usually been described as “Andean knotted records”, but they are much more than complex knotted cords: a great part of the information encoded resides in khipus’ incredible colours. The objects of this study are two Wari khipus, 1932.08.0001 and 1932.08.0002, now at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden. After a morphological study of the khipus, the objects were imaged with multiband imaging (MBI) as an aid for the sampling decisional process. The khipus were then analysed non-invasively by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy on selected areas of particular interest. The khipus were consequently sampled for elemental characterisation by micro-XRF, and liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC–HRMS) for characterising the organic dye composition. This paper presents a part of the results of the project “Meaningful materials in the khipu code”, with the intent to shed light on the difficulties and possibilities of investigating khipu colours and dyestuffs. MBI and XRF revealed unforeseeable structural characteristics, such as remnants from a heavily degraded thread in an area of missing thread wrapping and a dual-coloured thread that was previously deemed single-coloured. The organic dyes identified by HPLC–HRMS comprised indigoids, cochineal, and an unknown flavonoid-based dyestuff. XRF of the inorganic components revealed associations of several elements with specific colours. Publisher PDF

Funding: RB was supported by a fellowship funded by the Medical Research Council, MR/P014704/1, and also acknowledges funding from the Academy of Medical Sciences (London), the Wellcome Trust (London), the UK Government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (London), the British Heart Foundation (London), and the Global Challenges Research Fund (Swindon, UK; grant number SBF003\1052). TL gratefully acknowledges support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) through the grant Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018-2022 (Project no. E11G18000350001) and the PRIN 2020 project (No. 2020JLWP23) Integrated Mathematical Approaches to Socio-Epidemiological Dynamics (CUP: E15F21005420006). Introduction : Bladder infections are common, affecting millions each year, and are often recurrent problems. Methods : We have developed a spatial mathematical framework consisting of a hybrid individual-based model to simulate these infections in order to understand more about the bacterial mechanisms and immune dynamics. We integrate a varying bacterial replication rate and model bacterial shedding as an immune mechanism. Results : We investigate the effect that varying the initial bacterial load has on infection outcome, where we find that higher bacterial burden leads to poorer outcomes, but also find that only a single bacterium is needed to establish infection in some cases. We also simulate an immunocompromised environment, confirming the intuitive result that bacterial spread typically progresses at a higher rate. Conclusions : With future model developments, this framework is capable of providing new clinical insight into bladder infections. Publisher PDF

Funding: Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) (AHRC: AH/R012717/1); St Leonard’s College European Doctoral Stipend Scholarship. In this paper I argue that if the Identity of Indiscernibles is not necessarily true, then Haecceitism ensues—where Haecceitism is the view that there are maximal possibilities that include all the same qualitative possibilities, and yet differ with respect to the non-qualitative possibilities they include. This goes against the common intuition that Anti-Haecceitism is compatible with the Identity of Indiscernibles being only contingently true. My argument is interesting in many respects. First, it shows that in any modal framework there is a connection between the number of worldbound ordinary spatio-temporal objects, and the number of overall possibilities. Second, it has repercussions for the tenability of some philosophical positions, like Generalism, which is usually interpreted as entailing Anti-Haecceitism while at the same time being compatible with the claim that the Identity of Indiscernibles is not necessarily true. If I am correct, Generalism and similar philosophical accounts turn out to be inconsistent. Finally, it provides a strong argument for Haecceitism, given that the majority of authors today find counterexamples to the Identity of Indiscernibles extremely convincing, and many philosophical positions have been and continue being criticised on the basis of their commitment to the Identity of Indiscernibles. The paper is structured as follows: I introduce Haecceitism and the Identity of Indiscernibles in Sects. 1 and 2 respectively. Drawing on a result from the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, which I survey in Sect. 3, I give my main argument in Sect. 4. Finally, I discuss some implications in Sect. 5. Publisher PDF

Introduction Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. We qualitatively evaluated the implementation of an Evidence-Based Multiple Focus Integrated Intensified TB Screening package (EXIT-TB) in the East African region, aimed at increasing TB case detection and number of patients receiving care. Objective We present the accounts of participants from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia regarding the implementation of EXIT-TB, and suggestions for scaling up. Methods A qualitative descriptive design was used to gather insights from purposefully selected healthcare workers, community health workers, and other stakeholders. A total of 27, 13, 14, and 19 in-depth interviews were conducted in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia respectively. Data were transcribed and translated simultaneously and then thematically analysed. Results The EXIT-TB project was described to contribute to increased TB case detection, improved detection of Multidrug-resistant TB patients, reduced delays and waiting time for diagnosis, raised the index of TB suspicion, and improved decision-making among HCWs. The attributes of TB case detection were: (i) free X-ray screening services; (ii) integrating TB case-finding activities in other clinics such as Reproductive and Child Health clinics (RCH), and diabetic clinics; (iii), engagement of CHWs, policymakers, and ministry level program managers; (iv) enhanced community awareness and linkage of clients; (v) cooperation between HCWs and CHWs, (vi) improved screening infrastructure, (vii) the adoption of the new simplified screening criteria and (viii) training of implementers. The supply-side challenges encountered ranged from disorganized care, limited space, the COVID-19 pandemic, inadequate human resources, inadequate knowledge and expertise, stock out of supplies, delayed maintenance of equipment, to absence of X-ray and GeneXpert machines in some facilities. The demand side challenges ranged from delayed care seeking, inadequate awareness, negative beliefs, fears towards screening, to financial challenges. Suggestions for scaling up ranged from improving service delivery, access to diagnostic equipment and supplies, and infrastructure, to addressing client fears and stigma. Conclusion The EXIT-TB package appears to have contributed towards increasing TB case detection and reducing delays in TB treatment in the study settings. Addressing the challenges identified is needed to maximize the impact of the EXIT-TB intervention.

Magnetic reconnection is a key mechanism involved in solar eruptions and is also a prime possibility to heat the low corona to millions of degrees. Here, we present ultra-high-resolution extreme ultraviolet observations of persistent null-point reconnection in the corona at a scale of about 390 km over one hour observations of the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imager on board Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The observations show formation of a null-point configuration above a minor positive polarity embedded within a region of dominant negative polarity near a sunspot. The gentle phase of the persistent null-point reconnection is evidenced by sustained point-like high-temperature plasma (about 10 MK) near the null-point and constant outflow blobs not only along the outer spine but also along the fan surface. The blobs appear at a higher frequency than previously observed with an average velocity of about 80 km s-1 and life-times of about 40 s. The null-point reconnection also occurs explosively but only for 4 minutes, its coupling with a mini-filament eruption generates a spiral jet. These results suggest that magnetic reconnection, at previously unresolved scales, proceeds continually in a gentle and/or explosive way to persistently transfer mass and energy to the overlying corona., Nature Communications, 14 (1), ISSN:2041-1723

Funding: This research was funded by the Shanghai Social Science Innovation Research Base, for “Research on Transitional Sociology with Chinese Characteristics”. This paper foregrounds the Turnerian experiences of pilgrims themselves, for whom pilgrimage is perhaps first and foremost the process of experiencing faith with their whole body and mind. At the Chinese Catholic pilgrimage site of Sheshan, located in western Shanghai, multiple meanings and possibilities are written onto the body of the pilgrim as it interacts with sacred materialities. In the process, the pilgrim materially orients themselves towards the transcendent other and to people and events throughout time. The boundary between subject and object is increasingly blurred in the pilgrim’s imagination, and pilgrimage becomes a ‘porous’ mind-body experience for them. In the process, as pilgrims repeatedly physically enact doctrine and doctrinal texts in the course of pilgrimage—while simultaneously rooting them in their own personal lives—Sheshan is, through the concrete actions of worshippers layered up over time, continually being re-made as sacred. Publisher PDF

Background Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have teaching potential for health professionals in training clinical reasoning and decision-making, although their use is limited. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of a game-based educational strategy e-EDUCAGUIA using simulated clinical scenarios to implement an antimicrobial therapy GPC compared to the usual dissemination strategies to improve the knowledge and skills on decision-making of family medicine residents. Additionally, adherence to e-EDUCAGUIA strategy was assessed. Methods A multicentre pragmatic cluster-randomized clinical trial was conducted involving seven Teaching Units (TUs) of family medicine in Spain. TUs were randomly allocated to implement an antimicrobial therapy guideline with e-EDUCAGUIA strategy ( intervention) or passive dissemination of the guideline (control). The primary outcome was the differences in means between groups in the score test evaluated knowledge and skills on decision-making at 1 month post intervention. Analysis was made by intention-to-treat and per-protocol analysis. Secondary outcomes were the differences in mean change intrasubject (from the baseline to the 1-month) in the test score, and educational game adherence and usability. Factors associated were analysed using general linear models. Standard errors were constructed using robust methods. Results Two hundred two family medicine residents participated (104 intervention group vs 98 control group). 100 medicine residents performed the post-test at 1 month (45 intervention group vs 55 control group), The between-group difference for the mean test score at 1 month was 11 ( 8.67 to 13.32) and between change intrasubject was 11,9 ( 95% CI 5,9 to 17,9). The effect sizes were 0.88 and 0.75 respectively. In multivariate analysis, for each additional evidence-based medicine training hour there was an increase of 0.28 points (95% CI 0.15–0.42) in primary outcome and in the change intrasubject each year of increase in age was associated with an improvement of 0.37 points and being a woman was associated with a 6.10-point reduction. 48 of the 104 subjects in the intervention group (46.2%, 95% CI: 36.5–55.8%) used the games during the month of the study. Only a greater number of evidence-based medicine training hours was associated with greater adherence to the educational game ( OR 1.11; CI 95% 1.02–1.21). Conclusions The game-based educational strategy e-EDUCAGUIA shows positive effects on the knowledge and skills on decision making about antimicrobial therapy for clinical decision-making in family medicin residents in the short term, but the dropout was high and results should be interpreted with caution. Adherence to educational games in the absence of specific incentives is moderate. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02210442. Registered 6 August 2014.

The relationship between the study of Greek and Roman classics and European communism, particularly in the USSR and the Soviet bloc, has attracted increasing critical attention over the past decade. The international workshop in which the following articles were initially presented as papers was held online in October 2021. Hosted by the School of Classics, University of St. Andrews, and sponsored by the Classical Reception Studies Network, it aimed to explore further the conflicted and complex relationship between classics and communism, using the prism of the ambiguous or polysemic concept of proletarianism. What, after all, is “a proletarian classics”? Publisher PDF

Dynamic Binary Translation (DBT) is a powerful approach to support cross-architecture emulation of unmodified binaries. However, DBT systems face correctness and performance challenges, when emulating concurrent binaries from strong to weak memory consistency architectures. As a matter of fact, we report several translation errors in QEMU, when emulating x86 binaries on Arm hosts. To address these challenges, we propose an end-to-end approach that provides correct and efficient emulation for weak memory model architectures. Our contributions are twofold: First, we formalize QEMU’s intermediate representation’s memory model, and use it to propose formally verified mapping schemes to bridge the strong-on-weak memory consistency mismatch. Second, we implement these verified mappings in Risotto, a QEMU-based DBT system that optimizes memory fence placement while ensuring correctness. Risotto further improves performance via cross-architecture dynamic linking of native shared libraries and faster yet correct translation of compare-and-swap operations. We evaluate Risotto using multi-threaded benchmark suites and real-world applications, and show that Risotto improves the emulation performance by 6.7% on average over “erroneous” QEMU, while ensuring correctness. Postprint

WebAssembly is gaining more and more popularity, finding applications beyond the Web browser -- for which it was initially designed for.However, its performance, which developers aimed at being comparable to native, requires further tuning, and has not been extensively studied to pinpoint the cause of various overheads.This paper identifies that WebAssembly's unique safety mechanisms, the major one being bounds-checked memory accesses, may introduce up to a 650% overhead.Therefore, we evaluate four popular WebAssembly runtimes against native compiled code.These runtimes have been enriched with modern bounds checking mechanisms and run on three different ISAs, including x86-64, Armv8 and RISC-V RV64GC.We show that performance-oriented runtimes are able to achieve performance within 20% of native on x86_64 platforms, and 35% for Armv8. On RISC-V the V8 runtime can achieve a 17% overhead over native code for simple numeric kernels.For simple numerical kernels, we have shown that there is no significant difference in the WebAssembly performance compared to native code across different ISAs.We also show that in the case of multithreaded scaling of the tested runtimes, which might for example be used to quickly scale up serverless instances for a single function without the overhead of spawning new processes, the default approach taken by WAVM, Wasmtime, and V8 of using the mprotect syscall to resize memory can cause excessive locking in the Linux kernel and so present an alternative userfaultfd-based solution to mitigate this issue.We share our results, and the tools and scripts under an open source license for other researchers to replicate our results, and monitor the progress that WebAssembly runtimes make as this technology evolves.

Funding: This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No 715146. Drawing on ethnographic research at an anti-fracking encampment at Preston New Road (PNR) in Lancashire, England, this article explores activists' perceptions of work and responsibility. I examine their protest activities and explore how work is understood, disrupted, and contested; what this means for my interlocutors' engagement with monetary compensation; and how this is reinforced by the extractive nature of the activity they are contesting. I show how through protesting, monitoring, and maintaining a presence on site, interlocutors worked to ethically and materially disentangle themselves from the reality fueled by hydrocarbon extraction. While paid work was deemed ethically problematic in this context, at stake for my interlocutors was the web of relationships in which financial and practical support was received and shared. By drawing on research on activism and dynamics of prefiguration, I show how the work of activism at PNR was predicated on balancing agency with responsibility in a complex and powerful web of responsible relationships. Reconciling agency and responsibility was integral to the ethical orientations on which the anti-fracking community was built and the realities it aspired to create. Publisher PDF

Funder: Trinidad and Tobago - UWI Research Development Impact Fund, The scale of data produced during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been unprecedented, with more than 13 million sequences shared publicly at the time of writing. This wealth of sequence data provides important context for interpreting local outbreaks. However, placing sequences of interest into national and international context is difficult given the size of the global dataset. Often outbreak investigations and genomic surveillance efforts require running similar analyses again and again on the latest dataset and producing reports. We developed civet (cluster investigation and virus epidemiology tool) to aid these routine analyses and facilitate virus outbreak investigation and surveillance. Civet can place sequences of interest in the local context of background diversity, resolving the query into different 'catchments' and presenting the phylogenetic results alongside metadata in an interactive, distributable report. Civet can be used on a fine scale for clinical outbreak investigation, for local surveillance and cluster discovery, and to routinely summarise the virus diversity circulating on a national level. Civet reports have helped researchers and public health bodies feedback genomic information in the appropriate context within a timeframe that is useful for public health.

In this article, I offer a concise historical overview of the context in which Catholic Social Teaching developed. A necessarily brief account of nineteenth-century Social Catholics in France, Belgium, and the Rhineland demonstrates how three of the four principles of Catholic Social Teaching – solidarity, the common good, and human dignity – were already present in this endeavour. I then turn to the ideas of Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, Bishop of Mainz, and his development of the concept of subsidiarity, which provides the fourth pillar of Catholic Social Teaching, differentiating it from broader Christian teachings to ‘do good’. Subsidiarity enables people and communities to pursue actions and policies which are best for them, thus providing a trickle-up response to poverty, environmental crises, and other socio-economic emergencies. Publisher PDF

This study focused on the potential of aluminum nitride (Al12N12) and aluminum phosphide (Al12P12) nanomaterials as anode electrodes of lithium-ion (Li-ion), sodium-ion (Na-ion), and potassium-ion (K-ion) batteries as investigated via density functional theory (DFT) calculations at PBE0-D3, M062X-D3, and DSDPBEP86 as the reference method. The results show that the Li-ion battery has a higher cell voltage with a binding energy of −1.210 eV and higher reduction potential of −6.791 kcal/mol compared to the sodium and potassium ion batteries with binding energies of −0.749 and −0.935 eV and reduction potentials of −6.414 and −6.513 kcal/mol, respectively, using Al12N12 material. However, in Al12P12, increases in the binding energy and reduction potential were observed in the K-ion battery with values −1.485 eV and −7.535 kcal/mol higher than the Li and Na ion batteries with binding energy and reduction potential −1.483, −1.311 eV and −7.071, −7.184 eV, respectively. Finally, Al12N12 and Al12P12 were both proposed as novel anode electrodes in Li-ion and K-ion batteries with the highest performances. Publisher PDF

Traditional treatment of tibial plateau fractures is with open reduction and internal fixation, or external fixation in severely displaced and comminuted fractures. Total joint arthroplasty for unreconstructable hip fractures is a successful and widely accepted treatment; however, such surgery for tibial plateau fractures is not a common practice. We present two cases of highly comminuted schaztker VI tibial plateau fractures in patients over the age of 65. Both patients had a metaphyseal sleeve revision knee arthroplasty as delayed primary treatment. Both patients have had excellent clinical and radiographical results at 6 months and 5 years follow-up, respectively. We present the first description in the literature of this implants use for bone loss as a result of trauma. There is growing evidence that total joint arthroplasty is an effective treatment in tibial plateau fractures, in particular for elderly patients who may be at high risk of failure from internal fixation.

Climate change presents challenges for the management of geoheritage at all scales from individual geosites to whole landscapes, and affecting all areas of the planet. Direct impacts will arise principally through the effects of climate changes on geomorphological processes and vegetation cover, while indirect impacts will result from hard engineering interventions to mitigate risks from natural hazards. We present an indicative framework that sets out key steps to help geoconservation practitioners and managers of all protected and conserved areas (PCAs) with geoheritage interests to assess and manage the impacts of climate change on geoheritage. Strategies for mitigation and adaptation to assist contingency planning and implementation should be supported by site condition monitoring and as far as possible work with nature, but will require to be adaptive in the face of many uncertainties. Our approach is based on assessment of the risk of degradation of geosites and their features and processes arising from the likelihood of climate change affecting them and the predicted severity of impacts. The risk of degradation of a site, feature or process will depend on (i) its geographic location and proximity to geomorphological systems that are likely to respond dynamically to climate changes; (ii) the magnitude, rate and duration of these changes; and (iii) intrinsic factors that include the geological and physical characteristics of the site and its features and processes. Management options range from non-intervention to planned interventions informed by the risk of degradation assessment. However, documentation for posterity may be the only practical option for geoheritage interests close to existential thresholds, such as small mountain glaciers, and sites at risk from sea-level rise and coastal or river erosion. Adaptation strategies for geoheritage in protected and conserved areas should, as far as practicable, align with those for biodiversity and aim to deliver multiple co-benefits for nature and people, although economic, social and political constraints may hinder implementation where wider stakeholder interests are involved. Managers of PCAs will need substantial input from geoconservation experts to carry out the assessments recommended and determine the action required.

Funding: This study is part of the EAVE II project. EAVE II is funded by the MRC (MC_PC_19075) with the support of BREATHE—The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health (MC_PC_19004), which is funded through the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and delivered through the Health Data Research UK. This research is part of the Data and Connectivity National Core Study, led by Health Data Research UK in partnership with the Office for National Statistics and funded by UK Research and Innovation (grant ref MC_PC_20058). This work was also supported by The Alan Turing Institute via ‘Towards Turing 2.0’ EPSRC Grant Funding. Additional support has been provided through Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Government Director-General Health and Social Care and the University of Edinburgh. The original EAVE project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme (11/46/23). Background The two-dose BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine has demonstrated high efficacy against COVID-19 disease in clinical trials of children and young people (CYP). Consequently, we investigated the uptake, safety, effectiveness and waning of the protective effect of the BNT162b2 against symptomatic COVID-19 in CYP aged 12–17 years in Scotland. Methods The analysis of the vaccine uptake was based on information from the Turas Vaccination Management Tool, inclusive of Mar 1, 2022. Vaccine safety was evaluated using national data on hospital admissions and General Practice (GP) consultations, through a self-controlled case series (SCCS) design, investigating 17 health outcomes of interest. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic COVID-19 disease for Delta and Omicron variants was estimated using a test-negative design (TND) and S-gene status in a prospective cohort study using the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) surveillance platform. The waning of the VE following each dose of BNT162b2 was assessed using a matching process followed by conditional logistic regression. Findings Between Aug 6, 2021 and Mar 1, 2022, 75.9% of the 112,609 CYP aged 16–17 years received the first and 49.0% the second COVID-19 vaccine dose. Among 237,681 CYP aged 12–15 years, the uptake was 64.5% and 37.2%, respectively. For 12–17-year-olds, BNT162b2 showed an excellent safety record, with no increase in hospital stays following vaccination for any of the 17 investigated health outcomes. In the 16–17-year-old group, VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Delta period was 64.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 59.2–68.5) at 2–5 weeks after the first dose and 95.6% (77.0–99.1) at 2–5 weeks after the second dose. The respective VEs against symptomatic COVID-19 in the Omicron period were 22.8% (95% CI -6.4–44.0) and 65.5% (95% CI 56.0–73.0). In children aged 12–15 years, VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Delta period was 65.4% (95% CI 61.5–68.8) at 2–5 weeks after the first dose, with no observed cases at 2–5 weeks after the second dose. The corresponding VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Omicron period were 30.2% (95% CI 18.4–40.3) and 81.2% (95% CI 77.7–84.2). The waning of the protective effect against the symptomatic disease began after five weeks post-first and post-second dose. Interpretation During the study period, uptake of BNT162b2 in Scotland has covered more than two-thirds of CYP aged 12–17 years with the first dose and about 40% with the second dose. We found no increased likelihood of admission to hospital with a range of health outcomes in the period after vaccination. Vaccination with both doses was associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of COVID-19 symptomatic disease during both the Delta and Omicron periods, but this protection began to wane after five weeks. Funding UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council); Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; Chief Scientist's Office of the Scottish Government; Health Data Research UK; National Core Studies – Data and Connectivity. Publisher PDF

Funding: This research was funded in part by the award of a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) CASE research studentship to J.J.M. Background: Parapatric (or ‘budding’) speciation is increasingly recognised as an important phenomenon in plant evolution but its role in extreme (e.g. desert) environments is poorly documented. Aims: To test this speciation model in a hypothesised sister pair, the Southwest – North African disjunct Senecio flavus and its putative progenitor, the Namibian Desert endemic S. englerianus. Methods: Phylogenetic inferences were combined with niche divergence tests, morphometrics, and experimental-genetic approaches. We also evaluated the potential role of an African Dry Corridor (ADC) in promoting the hypothesised northward expansion of S. flavus (from Namibia), using palaeodistribution models. Results: Belonging to an isolated (potential ‘relict’) clade, the two morphologically distinct species showed pronounced niche divergence in Namibia and signs of digenic-epistatic hybrid incompatibility (based on F2 pollen fertility). The presence of ‘connate-fluked’ pappus hairs in S. flavus, likely increasing dispersal ability, is controlled by a single gene locus. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence for a possible (and rare) example of ‘budding’ speciation in which a wider-ranged derivative (S. flavus) originated at the periphery of a smaller-ranged progenitor (S. englerianus) in the Namib Desert region. The Southwest – North African disjunction of S. flavus could have been established by dispersal across intermediate ADC areas during periods of (Late) Pleistocene aridification. Publisher PDF

Through a survey of archival and primary source material, this article discusses the existence of St. Thomas Becket’s relics in Siena cathedral. The institution’s inventories indicate that, from 1482 until ca. 1529, the relics were housed in an ostensory kept in the sacristy. Today, this object is displayed in the Sala del Tesoro, in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo in Siena. Although the ostensory has been examined in previous scholarship concerned with mapping the cathedral’s heritage, its function as a vessel for the relics of Thomas Becket, and indeed the very presence of these relics in Siena, remain unexplored. Thus, seeking to understand the nature of Becket’s reception in Siena, I examine the whereabouts of his relics within the cathedral, to then widen the investigation to the city at large. The evidence shows that although there were no chapels, altars or churches dedicated to Thomas Becket within the city walls, Siena still engaged with Becket’s sainthood and legacy on multiple levels.

Background Communities of Practice (CoP) have long been discussed for their abilities to support individuals in decision making, knowledge sharing, and collegiate support. Individuals who are actively involved in CoP can also act as agents for change within an institution. The University of St Andrews Open Access team have developed strong links to School administrators and established ‘deposit hubs’ in Schools whereby researchers can get local support from the ‘hubbers' for creating new research output records in the University’s Current Research Information System (CRIS), as well as support for uploading open access versions and input based on specialist local knowledge such as linking research grants. Aims To assess the impact of COVID-19 on the CRIS activity of our ‘hubbers’, to determine whether more could be done to improve resilience in the face of time-constraining factors. We also sought to determine what measures might be taken to improve communication channel within the University and how a network might develop and grow. Methods A quantitative assessment of the impact of COVID on the CRIS activity of hubbers and administrators whom we have developed links with. Through qualitative assessment and dialogue with administrators we wanted to ascertain other issues that result in delays or non-deposit. Results There was a correlation between the uptick in CRIS record creation and manuscript deposit activity by the Open Access team, and a decrease in activity by ‘hubbers'. Feedback received also suggested there was inertia due to common queries arising, and further inactivity due to inadequacies with communication channels. It was also clear that the uptick in administrative effort from the OA team needed to be addressed. Conclusion Determining a correlative effect of a discrete set of administrative tasks based on quantitative indicators is prone to error. However, the Open Access team is confident that such Communities of Practice do add value to research culture, both in quantitative measurable results, and in terms of qualitative cultural effects. But more is needed to be done to enhance resilience, transparency, and confidence. It was decided therefore that a frictionless communication channel was required using Microsoft Teams, to bring together ‘hubbers’ and limit wasted effort by sharing best practice, a set of resources, and guides to ensure common standards and consistency, as well as an FAQ section. Publisher PDF Non

Background Tuberculosis (TB) and its risk factors are independently associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). We determined the prevalence and associations of CVD risk factors among people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB) in Uganda. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled people with microbiologically confirmed DRTB at four treatment sites in Uganda between July to December 2021. The studied CVD risk factors were any history of cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus (DM) hypertension, high body mass index (BMI), central obesity and dyslipidaemia. We used modified Poisson regression models with robust standard errors to determine factors independently associated with each of dyslipidaemia, hypertension, and central obesity. Results Among 212 participants, 118 (55.7%) had HIV. Overall, 196 (92.5%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 88.0-95.3) had ≥ 1 CVD risk factor. The prevalence; 95% CI of individual CVD risk factors was: dyslipidaemia (62.5%; 55.4–69.1), hypertension (40.6%; 33.8–47.9), central obesity (39.3%; 32.9–46.1), smoking (36.3%; 30.1–43.1), high BMI (8.0%; 5.0–12.8) and DM (6.5%; 3.7–11.1). Dyslipidaemia was associated with an increase in glycated haemoglobin (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) 1.14, 95%CI 1.06–1.22). Hypertension was associated with rural residence (aPR 1.89, 95% CI 1.14–3.14) and previous history of smoking (aPR 0.46, 95% CI 0.21–0.98). Central obesity was associated with increasing age (aPR 1.02, 95%CI 1.00–1.03), and elevated diastolic blood pressure (aPR 1.03 95%CI 1.00–1.06). Conclusion There is a high prevalence of CVD risk factors among people with DRTB in Uganda, of which dyslipidaemia is the commonest. We recommend integrated services for identification and management of CVD risk factors in DRTB.

Gaia19fct is one of the Gaia-alerted eruptive young stars that has undergone several brightening events. We conducted monitoring observations using multi-filter optical and near-infrared photometry, as well as near-infrared spectroscopy, to understand the physical properties of Gaia19fct and investigate whether it fits into the historically defined two classes. We present the analyses of light curves, color variations, spectral lines, and CO modeling. The light curves show at least five brightening events since 2015, and the multi-filter color evolutions are mostly gray. The gray evolution indicates that bursts are triggered by mechanisms other than extinction. Our near-infrared spectra exhibit both absorption and emission lines and show time-variability throughout our observations. We found lower rotational velocity and lower temperature from the near-infrared atomic absorption lines than from the optical lines, suggesting that Gaia19fct has a Keplerian rotating disk. The CO overtone features show a superposition of absorption and emission components, which is unlike other young stellar objects. We modeled the CO lines, and the result suggests that the emission and absorption components are formed in different regions. We found that although Gaia19fct exhibits characteristics of both types of eruptive young stars, FU Orionis-type objects (FUors) and EX Lupi-type objects (EXors), it shows more similarity with EXors in general., 29 pages, 14 figures, 7 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ

Funding: This work is partly funded by NSF award OAC-1839900. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, under contract number DE-AC02-06CH11357. libEnsemble was developed as part of the Exascale Computing Project (17-SC-20-SC), a collaborative effort of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration. This research used resources of the OLCF at ORNL, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Lightning talks of the Workflows in Support of Large-Scale Science (WORKS) workshop are a venue where the workflow community (researchers, developers, and users) can discuss work in progress, emerging technologies and frameworks, and training and education materials. This paper summarizes the WORKS 2022 lightning talks, which cover five broad topics: data integrity of scientific workflows; a machine learning-based recommendation system; a Python toolkit for running dynamic ensembles of simulations; a cross-platform, high-performance computing utility for processing shell commands; and a meta(data) framework for reproducing hybrid workflows. Postprint

Three new styrylquinoline–chalcone hybrids have been synthesized using a three-step pathway starting with Friedländer cyclocondensation between (2-aminophenyl)chalcones and acetone to give 2-methyl-4-styrylquinolines, followed by selective oxidation to the 2-formyl analogues, and finally Claisen–Schmidt condensation between the formyl intermediates and 1-acetylnaphthalene. All intermediates and the final products have been fully characterized by IR and 1H/13C NMR spectroscopy, and by high-resolution mass spectrometry, and the three products have been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The molecular conformations of (E)-3-{4-[(E)-2-phenylethenyl]quinolin-2-yl}-1-(naphthalen-1-yl)prop-2-en-1-one, C30H21NO, (IVa), and (E)-3-{4-[(E)-2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethenyl]quinolin-2-yl}-1-(naphthalen-1-yl)prop-2-en-1-one, C30H20FNO, (IVb), are very similar. In each compound, the molecules are linked into a three-dimensional array by hydrogen bonds, of the C—H...O and C—H...N types in (IVa), and of the C—H...O and C—H...π types in (IVb), and by two independent π–π stacking interactions. By contrast, the conformation of the chalcone unit in (E)-3-{4-[(E)-2-(2-chlorophenyl)ethenyl]quinolin-2-yl}-1-(naphthalen-1-yl)prop-2-en-1-one, C30H20ClNO, (IVc), differs from those in (IVa) and (IVb). There are only weak hydrogen bonds in the structure of (IVc), but a single rather weak π–π stacking interaction links the molecules into chains. Comparisons are made with some related structures.