Empowerment in Health Promotion of Marginalised Groups:The Use of Paulo Freire’s Theoretical Approach and Community-Based Participatory Research for Health Equity

Principles of Freire’s theoretical approach have been used for diverse disciplines, beyond education worldwide, including health sciences/health promotion. The use of critical pedagogy is acknowledged as an effective method to address health inequities of vulnerable and stigmatised groups and communities. This chapter presents five core values that research programmes of health promotion using a critically informed approach based in Freire’s work and community-based participatory research can use to improve social participation. This will contribute to the empowerment of people and communities and the adoption of a critical attitude for change. The principles of producing research to (1) Produce impact; (2) Listening to people and communities; (3) Co-create new knowledge; (4) Promote critical thinking and (5) Critical dialogue for action, reinforce the commitment to achieve meaningful understanding of health issues in a critical and significant way. This critical and dialogic approach applied in health promotion research allows the formation of a critical consciousness based in the research participant’s universe, leading them to question structures of domination, and social injustice. The benefit of using critical reflective approach goes beyond research participants and reaches to both researchers and health/education professionals who are equally transformed during the process.<br/

Activation of µ receptors by SR-17018 through a distinctive mechanism

Agonists at μ opioid receptors relieve acute pain, however, their long-term use is limited by side effects, which may involve β-arrestin2. Agonists biased against β-arrestin2 recruitment may be advantageous. However, the classification of bias may be compromised by assays utilising overexpressed μ receptors which overestimate efficacy for G-protein activation. There is a need for re-evaluation with restricted receptor availability to determine accurate agonist efficacies. We depleted μ receptor availability in PathHunter CHO cells using the irreversible antagonist, β-funaltrexamine (β-FNA), and compared efficacies and apparent potencies of twelve agonists, including several previously reported as biased, in β-arrestin2 recruitment and cAMP assays. With full receptor availability all agonists had partial efficacy for stimulating β-arrestin2 recruitment relative to DAMGO, while only TRV130 and buprenorphine were partial agonists as inhibitors of cAMP accumulation. Limiting receptor availability by prior exposure to β-FNA (100 nM) revealed morphine, oxycodone, PZM21, herkinorin, U47700, tianeptine and U47931e are also partial agonists in the cAMP assay. The efficacies of all agonists, except SR-17018, correlated between β-arrestin2 recruitment and cAMP assays, with depleted receptor availability in the latter. Furthermore, naloxone and cyprodime exhibited non-competitive antagonism of SR-17018 in the β-arrestin2 recruitment assay. Limited antagonism by naloxone was also non-competitive in the cAMP assay, while cyprodime was competitive. Furthermore, SR-17018 only negligibly diminished β-arrestin2 recruitment stimulated by DAMGO (1 µM), whereas fentanyl, morphine and TRV130 all exhibited the anticipated competitive inhibition. The data suggest that SR-17018 achieves bias against β-arrestin2 recruitment through interactions with μ receptors outside the orthosteric agonist site

Cutting ties with local bureaucrats:How does the environmental vertical management reform affect firm pollution in China?

China's local environmental protection agencies are the basic government units that implement the country's environmental regulations. Initiated decades ago, the vertical environmental management reform was gradually rolled out throughout the country with the aim of enhancing the independency of local environmental enforcement by shifting the control of the agencies' resources from local governments to higher-level environmental protection authorities. This research investigates the effects and influencing channels of this reform on firm pollution behavior in China. Combining manually collected data on the timing of the reform at the county level with a unique firm-level emission dataset, we use a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the effect of the reform. Our results suggest that the reform leads to a significant reduction in firms' pollution, and this reduction is achieved mainly through a scaled-back production and a cleaner production process. A further analysis shows that the reform weakens local bureaucrats' political and economic incentives that could distort environmental enforcement. Our findings highlight the importance of minimizing political interventions in environmental governance in a large country like China to achieve environmental targets

Radiographic morphology of canines tested for sexual dimorphism via convolutional-neural-network-based artificial intelligence

The permanent left mandibular canines have been used for sexual dimorphism when human identification is necessary. Controversy remains whether the morphology of these teeth is actually useful to distinguish males and females. This study aimed to assess the sexual dimorphism of canines by means of a pioneering artificial intelligence approach to this end. A sample of 13,046 teeth radiographically registered from 5838 males and 7208 females between the ages of 6 and 22.99 years was collected. The images were annotated using Darwin V7 software. DenseNet121 was used and tested based on binary answers regarding the sex (male or female) of the individuals for 17 age categories of one year each (i.e. 6-6.99, 7.7.99… 22.22.99). Accuracy rates, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and confusion matrices were used to quantify and express the artificial intelligence's classification performance. The accuracy rates across age categories were between 57-76% (mean: 68%±5%). The area under the curve (AUC) of the ROC analysis was between 0.58 and 0.77. The best performances were observed around the age of 12 years, while the worst were around the age of 7 years. The morphological analysis of canines for sex estimation should be restricted and allowed in practice only when other sources of dimorphic anatomic features are not available.</p

Data analytics driving net zero tracker for renewable energy

This research aims to assess the impact of renewable energy policies, investments, and emissions reductions toward achieving net-zero targets by 2050. We analysed key metrics using the Net Zero Tracker (NZT), including renewable energy capacity, policy strength, financial investment, and carbon emissions across multiple regions and industries. Our methodology involved data collection from 2020 to 2050, utilising predictive modeling to project trends in renewable energy adoption and emissions reduction. Key findings show that renewable energy capacity is expected to surpass 1000 GW by 2050, with an exponential increase around 2045. Policy Strength Index (PSI) will grow by 20 %, from 50 in 2020 to 60 in 2050, while investments in renewable energy will rise from $10 billion to$25 billion over the same period. Emissions are projected to steadily decrease to zero by 2050, which aligns with net-zero goals. The margin of error in the projections is ±5 %, considering potential policy implementation and technology development variations. These results underscore the critical role of enhanced policies, sustained investments, and international cooperation in accelerating the global transition to renewable energy. The research offers valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders to guide future strategies for achieving a sustainable energy future.</p

Teaching Perinatal Loss Through Lived Experience

Supporting students and qualified staff to provide care during perinatal bereavement is a challenge. In UK culture, death remains a taboo, while the death of a child is considered even more difficult to come to terms with. Conversely, pregnancy loss is often minimised. Bringing the expertise of experience to bear as part of educational approaches to supporting learners ensures that perinatal loss is viewed as a human life event, not simply a theoretical or clinical practice issue.</p

Elastic Solutions of Circular Foundations Under Combined Loading

The design of shallow foundations for wind turbines is typically governed by serviceability and fatigue limit states. To estimate the deformations of shallow foundations under working loads, existing design standards generally employ analytical uncoupled isotropic elastic solutions based on idealized soil conditions. However, many natural soil deposits exhibit some degree of stiffness anisotropy due to their deposition and complex stress history. This study has investigated coupled elastic stiffness coefficients for circular shallow foundations founded on cross-anisotropic soils under combined VHMT loadings (vertical, horizontal, moment and torsional) using finite element analysis. A three-parameter anisotropic soil model was applied to the problem. The study extensively explores the effects of soil stiffness non-homogeneity (i.e. linear increase of elastic modulus with depth) and foundation embedment on the foundation stiffness coefficients. Fitted expressions of these stiffness coefficients were also derived. In addition, a practical application using the proposed stiffness coefficients was presented to demonstrate the effects of soil stiffness anisotropy on the responses of a typical large wind turbine shallow foundation

Creative industries research and innovation: Views from the United Kingdom and China regarding a future hub

This conversation piece focuses on the UK–China Creative Industries Research and Innovation Hub project. It explores the opportunities and challenges of collaboration between the two nations, and roles and functions of the future hub. The conversation took the form of a semi-structured interview with individuals from industry, academy, think tank and the government, from both the United Kingdom and China.<br/

Far-UVC:The impact of optical filters on real-world deployment

In 2015, a study showed that Krypton-Chloride (KrCl) excimer lamps could induce erythema and basal layer DNA damage in human skin. Later studies found that filtering out longer wavelength emissions from these lamps resulted in no acute skin effects. However, there is a limited understanding of how much to reduce unwanted emissions and which wavelengths are important. Accurate spectral irradiance data is therefore crucial for safety, as variance in optical filtering significantly affects the weighted irradiance of a lamp. To simplify the risk assessment process for Far-UVC lamps, we highlight the usefulness of the lamp exposure limit (HLEL) and present this in the context of spectral emission data for 14 commercially available Far-UVC lamps. Our results demonstrate that relying solely on a radiometric measurement and a single-wavelength exposure limit at 222 nm could lead to over-exposure. The HLEL is a practical metric which can be utilized to determine the exposure time before reaching the exposure limit. It can also be used in the determination of the minimum ceiling height for compliance with standards like UL 8802. Manufacturers are urged to provide HLEL for their products; installers should adhere to HLEL; and standards and regulatory bodies should insist on this information in new guidance

Sustainability implications of different carbon dioxide removal technologies in the context of Europe's climate neutrality goal

The role of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is undoubtedly crucial in achieving the climate goals and end-of-century global warming target. Given its role as a leader in global climate actions, the European Union (EU) is expected to take a leading role in CDR developments: yet there is a lack of depth in the region's CDR strategy and deployment. A comprehensive CDR approach based on integrated assessment modelling for the EU is important to give valuable insights into optimal CDR-based mitigation pathways regarding scalability, technology readiness, trade-offs with the Earth system, and deployment strategies. Here, we have used the GCAM-CDR v1.0 to model a diverse novel CDR portfolio of bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS), direct air capture and carbon storage (DACCS), terrestrial enhanced weathering (TEW), and ocean-enhanced weathering (OEW) in a mid-century carbon neutrality target. We find that CO2 removal by BECCS scales quickly to gigatonnes of CO2 removal by mid-century, and DACCS is a latter-century mitigation technology in the EU's emission mitigation pathway. TEW will play a crucial role in achieving carbon neutrality in the EU if this climate goal is advanced by a decade. Modelled results show that achieving carbon neutrality through diverse CDR relies heavily on significant emission reductions in the industrial and hard-to-abate sectors. Finally, we observed that nuclear power will be an important energy resource for the energy-consuming CDR technologies in Europe. This study recommends that the EU carbon removal structure should not be limited to DACCS, but rather allow for innovations in carbon removal technologies. Synopsis: Achieving the EU's carbon neutrality targets requires a diversified Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) strategy, with BECCS identified as a scalable solution by mid-century and nuclear energy as a key support for energy-intensive CDR technologies.</p