A first report of Biomphalaria pfeifferi in the Lower Shire Valley, Southern Malawi, a major intermediate snail host species for intestinal schistosomiasis

The distribution of certain permissive intermediate snail host species in freshwater is a crucial factor shaping transmission of intestinal schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that causes much human suffering in Africa. To shed new light on southern Malawi, where cases of intestinal schistosomiasis have been found, repeated malacological surveys were conducted in Chikwawa and Nsanje Districts in the Lower Shire Valley, to detect and to characterize populations of Biomphalaria, the intermediate host for intestinal schistosomiasis. Sampling took place across a total of 45 freshwater sites, noting water conductivity, pH, temperature, total dissolved salts (TDS) and geographical elevation. The presence or absence of snails was predicted upon physiochemical and environmental conditions in Random Forest modelling. Water conductivity, TDS and geographical elevation were most important in predicting abundance of snails with water temperature and pH of slightly less important roles. This first report of B. pfeifferi in the Lower Shire Valley enhances understanding of the environmental factors that strongly associate and allow prediction of its local distribution. This represents a useful step towards developing appropriate intervention strategies to mitigate intestinal schistosomiasis transmission.Additional authors: Lucas J. Cunningham, Julie-Anne Akiko Tangena & J. Russell Stothar

[Perspective Paper]

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 requires innovative and often disruptive approaches to address critical gaps in global water quality monitoring. The most recent SDG Indicator 6.3.2 (Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality) progress report highlights a critical water quality data gap, with an urgent need for countries to strengthen their monitoring capacity and commence state water quality assessments and trends analysis. Earth Observation (EO) technologies hold immense potential to close that gap for SDG Indicator 6.3.2. However, limited awareness, lack of skill, and resource inequalities are some of the barriers which hinder EO’s widespread adoption. We present insights from a unique 2024 workshop held at the University of Stirling, which convened diverse participants from academia, industry, NGOs, and international agencies and across disciplines, geographies, and sectors. Through creative and collective thinking approaches, they developed four actionable concepts: (1) Space Buzz: a media campaign to raise awareness of EO’s value; (2) centralised EO access hubs to empower users and improve equality; (3) scalable education strategies for capacity building; and (4) an Intergovernmental Panel for Water Quality to enhance global coordination. Each concept derived from a synoptic creative process, demonstrating the uniqueness of thinking within the teams. To unlock the potential of EO for global water quality monitoring, we invite EO networks, funders, water resource managers and individuals to champion these concepts, and incorporate them into funding calls and proposals. Our findings underscore the importance of broader stakeholder engagement to reveal innovative solutions

Mobilising Care for Cultural Heritage in Russia’s War Against Ukraine.

This report provides an overview of key transnational networks, trends and challenges in the provision of care for cultural heritage in Ukraine between the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion and February 2025. Approaches to heritage protection in war have developed considerably over the last 20 years, as have the range of actors involved, extending beyond state administration and public bodies to diverse INGOs and NGOs. However, the complex networks and political economies involved in this crowded landscape are not well understood. It is increasingly recognised that cultural emergency responses intersect with humanitarian ones, but how this happens in practice is rarely explored. Without this understanding, calls for greater coordination and coherence, as well integration of heritage interventions with humanitarian ones, will be difficult to implement. Our research therefore aims to advance knowledge of how care for cultural heritage in war is mobilised through aid and capacity-building, alongside legal and regulatory frameworks, including civilian support and emergency responses. Based on extensive qualitative social research across Europe, the report identifies the actors, resources and reasoning involved, as well as the financial, political and practical contexts of their operation. We unpick the networks, supply chains and organisational alliances entailed, both inside Ukraine and among Ukraine’s allies, showing what actions are taken, by whom, and with what consequences. We also identify factors that facilitate or hinder how care is delivered in practice, particularly constraints that local professionals might face in their effort to shape the agenda of international support. Our results provide new knowledge about cooperation and collaboration in various phases of the war, and show how cultural heritage emergency response, humanitarian aid, and support for social cohesion and resilience, intersect in practice. Analysing care for cultural heritage in this broader, cross-cutting framework transforms understanding of both the social role of cultural heritage in wartime, and the true extent of the networks and resources involved. The Ukrainian example also powerfully illustrates the relevance of ongoing heritage and memory work in the pre-recovery phase with important wider implications for policy and practice. The overarching objective is to produce more effective and better coordinated support for projects and activities involved in caring for Ukraine’s heritage, and the professionals, activists and lay communities involved in them.Please cite as: Vonnák, Diána and Siân Jones, (with contributions by Josephine Munch Rasmussen and Samuel Andrew Hardy). 2025. Mobilising Care for Cultural Heritage in Russia’s War Against Ukraine. University of Stirling, DOI: 10.34722/n9m2-tv8

Development and evaluation of an intervention designed to increase the prioritisation of health by professionals working in the private sector of urban development: study protocol

The built environment is known to have a significant influence on population and planetary health, including the incidence of non-communicable disease, but evidence suggests that professionals in the land and development industries struggle to prioritise health and health equity when making urban development decisions amidst challenging structures and competing priorities. The aim of this study is to use a mixed-methods approach to develop, deliver, optimise, and evaluate an intervention for professionals working in the private sector of urban development to increase their intention to act on health and health equity where possible. This protocol describes four planned research activities that constitute this intervention’s development, delivery, and evaluation: 1) Intervention development using an iterative co-production process with non-academic industry partners using the Person-Based Approach and following Medical Research Council guidelines on the development of complex interventions; 2) Development of survey questions to assess intervention effectiveness; 3) Delivery and mixed-methods longitudinal evaluation of the intervention; and 4) Evaluation of the impact of co-production and delivery of the intervention with the project’s industry partners.Good Health and Well-BeingReduced InequalitiesSustainable Cities and Communitie

'You Know, Coaching, It Feels Like a Bit of a Magpie Game': A Qualitative Investigation into Sources of Teacher-Coach Knowledge and the Subsequent Impact on Espoused Teacher-Coach Pedagogy

The sources of knowledge that sport coaches use have been widely researched however, their impact on espoused pedagogy in the teacher-coach context is compara- tively underexplored The purpose of this study was to explore how teacher-coaches view knowledge, develop their knowledge, and espouse pedagogical practice. Semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis were used to explore this area with eleven teacher-coaches. Results were consistent with previous work on coaches’ and the perceived impact of for- mal coach education; however, certain aspects conflicted in the teacher-coach context. Teacher-coaches reported certain elements of their knowledge as fixed (such as technical models of skills) while acknowledging others such as pedagogical content as tentative. Similarly, although formal coach education was consistently regarded as low-impact due to prior teacher education, those teacher-coaches who had progressed furthest in this field displayed greater declarative nuance and adaptability. This suggests tacit benefits of formal coach education in the role of the theoretical underpinning of coaches’ practice

The biogeochemical response of the north-western Black Sea to the Kakhovka Dam breach

The Kakhovka Dam explosion is an example of the far-reaching environmental consequences of warfare. The resulting dam collapse released some 14.4 billion cubic meters of water, flooding downstream environments and flushing unknown quantities of debris, pollutants and sediments into the north-western Black Sea. With a combined satellite and hydrological modelling approach, supported with in situ data, we assessed the short-term impact on the north-western Black Sea. The dam breach impacted more than 50% of the area of the north-western Black Sea, experiencing over 50 times the ambient Chlorophyll-a and suspended sediment concentrations. Significant increases of nitrate and phosphate were also observed in the Odesa coastal environment. This environmental shock triggered severe algal blooms within one week, that persisted for a further 20 days. This event may have impacted the biodiversity of the north-western Black Sea and its ecosystem response. Continued monitoring is required to assess the longer-term impacts

Modeling the Potential Health, Health Economic, and Health Inequality Impact of a Large-Scale Rollout of the Drink Less App in England

Alcohol places a significant burden on the National Health Service (NHS); yet, uptake of cost-effective approaches remains low. Digital interventions may overcome some barriers to delivery. The Drink Less app has evidence of being effective at supporting heavier drinkers to reduce their alcohol intake. In this study, we estimate the longer-term health impacts, cost-effectiveness, and health inequality impact of a large-scale rollout of the Drink Less app

Preferences for facial femininity/masculinity across culture and the sexual orientation spectrum

Judgments of attractiveness have many important social outcomes, highlighting the need to understand how people form these judgments. One aspect of appearance that impacts perceptions of attractiveness is facial femininity/masculinity (sexual dimorphism). However, extant research has focused primarily on White, Western, heterosexual participants’ preferences for femininity/masculinity in White faces, limiting generalizability. Indeed, recent research indicates that these preferences vary by culture, and other work finds differences between gay/lesbian and heterosexual individuals. Aspects of identity such as culture and sexual orientation do not exist in isolation from one another, but rather intersect, leaving a critical gap in understanding. Our research therefore bridged across these hitherto separate areas of inquiry to provide a more comprehensive understanding of facial femininity/masculinity preferences. We tested how White British and East Asian Japanese individuals’ culture and sexual orientation (including, crucially, bisexual individuals) predict their femininity/masculinity preferences for White and East Asian women’s and men’s faces, using two experimental tasks (forced-choice, interactive). Results show that individuals’ culture and sexual orientation consistently interact to predict their preferences for femininity/masculinity in women’s and men’s faces, and we furthermore reveal bisexual individuals’ preferences to differ from those of other sexual orientations. We also find differences between experimental tasks, with greater preferences for femininity emerging in the interactive task, compared to the forced-choice task. Altogether, our findings highlight the importance of considering intersecting identities, consequences of methods of measurement, and shortcomings of extant explanations for preferences for facial femininity/masculinity

Applying Normalisation Process Theory to a peer-delivered complex health intervention for people experiencing homelessness and problem substance use

Background: The Supporting Harm Reduction through Peer Support (SHARPS) study involved designing and implementing a peer-delivered, harm reduction intervention for people experiencing homelessness and problem substance use. Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) provided a framework for the study. Methods: Four Peer Navigators (individuals with personal experience of problem substance use and/or homelessness) were recruited and hosted in six third sector (not-for-profit)homelessness services in Scotland and England (United Kingdom). Each worked with participants to provide practical and emotional support, with the aim of reducing harms, and improving well-being, social functioning and quality of life. NPT guided the development of the intervention and, the process evaluation, which assessed the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention for this cohort who experience distinct, and often unmet, health challenges. While mixed-methods data collection was undertaken, this paper draws only onthe qualitative data. Results: The study found that, overall, the intervention is feasible, and acceptable to, the intervention participants, the Peer Navigators and staff in host settings. Some challenges were encountered but these were outweighed by benefits. NPT is particularly useful in encouraging our team to focus on the relationship between different aspects of the intervention and context(s) and identify ways of maximising ‘fit’. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first application of NPT to this cohort, and specifically by non-clinicians (peers) in non-healthcare settings (homelessness services).Our application of NPT helped us to identify ways in which the intervention could be enhanced, with the key aim of improving the health/well-being of this underserved group

Consistent Facial Cues to Social Class Across Two Different Western Contexts

Individuals form impressions of others’ social-class standing from nonverbal information, including facial appearance. Whether the facial cues relating to (perceptions of) social class generalize across different contexts and class measures (e.g., income, subjective status) remains unknown. We tested which facial cues relate to actual and perceived social class using multiple social-class measures in two contexts: Canada (using contemporary lab-based photos) and Iceland (using mid-20th-century yearbook photos). Results show that facial appearance reveals and predicts impressions of social class broadly (vs. only for specific measures). Greater facial Attractiveness (attractiveness/competence/health) and Positivity (affect/warmth) related to higher social-class standing in both contexts, suggesting that social class influences facial appearance similarly in different environments. Attractiveness also primarily explained social-class perceptions. Validity and utilization of other cues, however, differed between contexts, and we observed perception accuracy only for Canadian targets. These findings provide a more complete understanding of accuracy and bias in perceiving social class