Bioaccumulation and genotoxic effect of heavy metal pollution in marine sponges from the Niger Delta

In this study, levels of Al, Cu, Ni, Cd, Cr and Pb were quantified in seawater, sediments, and sea sponges from six sites in the Niger Delta and one relatively clean site outside the Niger Delta area using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. The metal levels in sponge tissues in μg/mg ranged from 0.22 ± 0.03–0.70 ± 0.10 (Al), 0.002 ± 2.2 × 10–5 - 0.004 ± 5.6 × 10−5 (As), 2 × 10−5 ± 5.3 × 10−6 -1.5 × 10−3 ± 4.6 × 10−6 (Cd), 2.3 × 10–3 ± 1.4 × 10–5 -0.02 ± 2,2 × 10−4 (Cu), 2.5 × 10−4 ± 8.6 × 10−6- 2.0 × 10−3 ± 1.4 × 10−5 (Pb). In Sediment samples in mg/kg, the ranges were (0.883 ± 0.114–73.33 ± 0.10 (Al), 0.0007 ± 0.026–0.304 ± 0.009 (As),0.0086 ± 0.0045–0.198 ± 0.010 (Cr); 0.005 ± 0.001–0.063 ± 0.001 (Cu), 0.039 ± 0.004–0.0783 ± 0.0024(Ni), 0.0017 ± 0.002–0.056 ± 0.0046 (Pb). In the water sample, the metal levels in mg/L 0.06–0.92 (Al), 0.001–0.007 (Cd), 0.001–0.001 (Cr), 0.01–0.02 (Cu), 0.003–0.01 (Ni), 0.001–0.01(Pb). Metal levels in all sampling sites occurred in the order of decreasing concentration as Al > Cu > Ni > Cd > Cr > Pb (in seawater), Al > Cr > Ni > Pb > Cu > Cd (in sediment) and Al > As>Cu > Pb > Cd (in the sponge). The study further assessed DNA strand breaks in sea sponges as a biomarker of genotoxicity using the comet assay. There was a strong correlation between % DNA strand breaks in sponge cells from all sample locations and aluminium levels in sponge tissues from all sample locations. The highest metal levels were recorded in Sea sponges, followed by Sediment and then Sea water, with aluminium significantly higher than other metals in all three matrices studied. We, therefore, conclude that sea sponges are excellent sentinel species for toxic metal bioaccumulation, and DNA strand breaks are an efficient biomarker

Understanding influence and action in Learning and Action Alliances: Experience from the Newcastle Blue-Green vision

The Learning and Action Alliance (LAA) framework is increasingly valued as an approach to facilitate social learning and action by enabling collaboration within and between organisations, breaking down barriers to information sharing and facilitating co-development of innovative visions to address key environmental and societal challenges. While the social learning potential of LAAs has been documented in detail, the role of ‘action’ is relatively unexplored and there is little research into how LAAs might evolve over time to ensure longevity. Here, we explore the key achievements and limitations of the Newcastle LAA (established in 2014) through interviews with 15 LAA members. We find that interpretations of the concept of ‘action’ influences perceptions of the LAA's success. We update the structural framework of the LAA and expand the implementation phase to better reflect the agents of change that impact the LAAs' ability to apply their vision to demonstration projects. Finally, we explore the longevity of the Newcastle LAA and conclude that after running for 8 years, there may be a cyclical nature to whole-group visioning and a move towards greater intra-organisational learning. This demonstrates a shift in the primary role of the LAA over time, from learning towards greater influence and action

Development and refinement of patient care recommendations in brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer using nominal group technique workshops

Purpose: Patient experiences of brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) are widely variable, with reports of difficult and traumatic experiences and aspects of care requiring improvement. The aim of this study was to develop patient care recommendations and consult with key stakeholders to review, refine and prioritise recommendations. Methods: Phase 1: Patient care recommendations were developed from qualitative exploratory study data. Phase 2: Service users and providers with recent experience of brachytherapy for LACC were recruited to online nominal group technique (NGT) workshops. Four NGT stages were followed: (1) initial voting and silent generation; (2) round robin; (3) clarification; and (4) prioritisation. Voting data were summed across the workshops, deriving inter-group scores. Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. Results: Phase 1: Fifty-one patient care recommendations were developed. Phase 2: Thirteen participants took part in three online NGT workshops, with a combination of service users and providers. Initial recommendations were voted on; four new recommendations were added; minor changes were made and second voting was undertaken. Recommendations were positively received with 25 recommendations scoring maximum points from all participants. An importance score above 90% was given to 46 recommendations. The remaining recommendations received scores between 74 and 90%. Conclusions: NGT workshops facilitated collaboration between key stakeholders, discussing, refining and prioritising patient care recommendations, leading to verification of achievable and relevant recommendations. These provide a foundation for future development of guidelines and subsequent implementation into clinical practice, aiming to improve consistency of care and patient experiences of brachytherapy for LACC

Retrofit information challenges and potential solutions: Perspectives of households, retrofit professionals and local policy makers in the United Kingdom

Rapidly scaling up energy retrofit for existing buildings is critical to help meet climate targets. Information is frequently identified as a key barrier to residential retrofit. This paper explores the role of information sharing in accelerating retrofit market transformation, through interviews and photo elicitation with homeowners (N = 9) and two workshops with stakeholders (N = 33) in a local authority retrofit project in Gloucestershire (UK). Findings are thematically analysed and suggestions for future local and national policy action are identified. The research finds that even for engaged, knowledgeable homeowners, accessing appropriate information is still a significant retrofit barrier. Two themes around the nature of information and information delivery are identified and key issues include information overload, a lack of context-specific information and in-person engagement, and a need for trustworthy, local information sources. Local authorities have potential to act as trusted intermediaries for structured, relevant retrofit information but require support from national governments to increase capacity and resources at local levels. National governments also have a critical role in providing clear and consistent messaging and leadership on the importance and benefits of retrofit. Policies around financial incentives are not sufficient alone and must be accompanied by strategies to overcome informational and other barriers if retrofit is to be accelerated in this decisive decade for climate action

Using polarization to estimate surface normals at air-water interfaces for correction of refraction in seafloor imaging

The retrieval of sea surface normal vectors using shape-from-polarization is investigated for the purpose of correcting for refraction at the water–air interface when imaging from above the water. In shallow clear water and overcast conditions, spectral longpass filtering (using a hard-coated 850 nm cut-on wavelength filter) is demonstrated to 1) avoid artifacts from the ground in the measured polarization state, and 2) reduce polarization from water-leaving radiance sufficiently to derive shape information exclusively from the polarization produced by specular reflection. The dependence of the method on meteorological conditions is studied. Measurements are performed with a commercial polarization filter array (PFA) camera. Due to the decreasing PFA efficiency towards the near-infrared, rigorous characterization and calibration measurements were performed and recommendations (e.g., on the f-number) elaborated. Overcoming the paraxial approximation, normal vectors are then retrieved with systematic errors of 0.1∘ (image center) to 0.5∘−0.8∘ (edges/corners) for a flat water surface. An image of the sea floor corrected for surface refraction shows maximum displacements of 10–20 pixels only (corresponding to 0.25∘) with respect to a validation image without water

Ink for Printmaking

The ultimate guide to printing inks and processes, from the pigment to the printmaker.Since printing's invention in the sixth century, inks have remained a fundamental aspect of the printing process. In this comprehensive and accessible guide, Stephen Hoskins and Michael Craine trace the development of ink from ancient China through the Middle Ages and from the industrial revolution to the digital age. As well as its history, they explore inks for different forms of printmaking, specialist inks, environmental issues and recent developments in health and safety for the printmaker.Offering detailed guidance to the inks used for processes from etching and relief printing to lithography and screen printing, as well as how to make your own from dry pigment, the book is beautifully illustrated with examples and offers practical information for all levels of printmakers, from the specialist to the amateur

“Change needs to start at home”: A reflexive thematic analysis of girl athletes’ and coaches’ experiences of body image in New Delhi, India

Despite the physical, psychological, and social health benefits of sport participation, multiple barriers keep girls and women on the margins of sport in India. Further, body image concerns are implicated globally as a hindrance to sports engagement among adolescents but are rarely acknowledged in India. Due to a lack of research, the unique restrictions to sport participation faced by girls in India are yet to be understood. Drawing on the Sociocultural Theory of Body Image, this study explored the intersection of body image and sports from the perspectives of Indian athletes and coaches. Twelve athletes (girls aged 11–17 years; football n = 6, netball n = 6) and six coaches (football n = 3, netball n = 3) from New Delhi, India, participated in semi-structured focus groups. Reflexive thematic analysis was used and we formulated three themes: 1) “To Do What We Love, We Must Struggle”; 2) “What Will People Say?”; and 3) “Hold On To Your Power, Be You”. The themes provide a nuanced understanding of the experiences of athletes and coaches on and off the playing field. The findings shed light on several individual and systemic factors, such as harassment, societal norms, feelings of empowerment, and internalising appearance ideals, that impact girls’ engagement with sport in New Delhi, India. Methods to improve sports engagement, discrepancies between athlete and coach perspectives, and recommendations for sports organisations to combat body image concerns and improve sports uptake among girls in an Indian setting are discussed

Universal bovine identification via depth data and deep metric learning

This paper proposes and evaluates, for the first time, a top-down (dorsal view), depth-only deep learning system for accurately identifying individual cattle and provides associated code, datasets, and training weights for immediate reproducibility. An increase in herd size skews the cow-to-human ratio at the farm and makes the manual monitoring of individuals more challenging. Therefore, real-time cattle identification is essential for the farms and a crucial step towards precision livestock farming. Underpinned by our previous work, this paper introduces a deep-metric learning method for cattle identification using depth data as a novel biometric measure acquired with an off-the-shelf 3D camera. In contrast to our previous work, which was limited to breeds with distinct coat patterns, this study introduces a breed-agnostic pipeline for universal cattle identification. The results show that depth, as a biometric, can potentially broaden the real-world applicability of our method to the rest 68% of UK cattle breeds that lack distinctive coat patterns. The method relies on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Multi-Layered Perceptron (MLP) backbones that learn well-generalised embedding spaces from the body shape to differentiate individuals — requiring neither species-specific coat patterns nor close-up muzzle prints for operation. The network embeddings are clustered using a simple algorithm such as -Nearest Neighbours (-NN) for highly accurate identification, thus eliminating the need to retrain the network for enrolling new individuals. We evaluate two backbone architectures, Residual Neural Network (ResNet), as previously used to identify Holstein Friesians using RGB images, and PointNet, which is specialised to operate on 3D point clouds. We also present CowDepth2023, a new dataset containing 21,490 synchronised colour-depth image pairs of 99 cows, to evaluate the backbones. Both ResNet and PointNet architectures, which consume depth maps and point clouds, respectively, led to high accuracy that is on par with the coat pattern-based backbone. This new universal methodology also addresses the case of all-black and all-white breeds, where the previous coat pattern-based approach fell short. The ResNet colour backbone resulted in 99.97% -NN identification accuracy, while the PointNet accuracy was 99.36%. Furthermore, we also show that the PointNet architecture is robust to noise and missing data by significantly reducing the number of 3D points and observing the drop in accuracy. Our research indicates that these techniques can identify animals using dorsal-view depth maps alone. Regardless of the substantial inter-class variety in the body shape, we show that the models spatially rely on similar body surfaces using Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) and Point Cloud Saliency Mapping (PC-SM)

On emergence of spontaneous oscillations in kombucha and proteinoids

An important part of studying living systems is figuring out the complicated steps that lead to order from chaos. Spontaneous oscillations are a key part of self-organisation in many biological and chemical networks, including kombucha and proteinoids. This study examines the spontaneous oscillations in kombucha and proteinoids, specifically exploring their potential connection to the origin of life. As a community of bacteria and yeast work together, kombucha shows remarkable spontaneous oscillations in its biochemical parts. This system can keep a dynamic balance and organise itself thanks to metabolic processes and complex chemical reactions. Similarly, proteinoids, which may have been primitive forms of proteins, undergo spontaneous fluctuations in their structure and function periodically. Because these oscillations happen on their own, they may play a very important part in the development of early life forms. This paper highlights the fundamental principles governing the transition from chaos to order in living systems by examining the key factors that influence the frequency and characteristics of spontaneous oscillations in kombucha and proteinoids. Looking into these rhythms not only helps us understand where life came from but also shows us ways to make self-organising networks in synthetic biology and biotechnology. There is significant discussion over the emergence of biological order from chemical disorder. This article contributes to the ongoing discussion by examining at the theoretical basis, experimental proof, and implications of spontaneous oscillations. The results make it clear that random oscillations are an important part of the change from nonliving to living matter. They also give us important information about what life is all about

Ink For Printmakers

Inks have remained a fundamental aspect of the printing process for thousands of years. In this comprehensive and accessible guide, Stephen Hoskins and Michael Craine trace the development of inks from ancient China, through the Middle Ages and the industrial revolution, to the digital age. This books offers detailed guidance to the inks used for various processes from etching and relief-printing to lithography and screenprinting, and also includes a list of suppliers and full biography.By exploring the technical make-up and manufacturing process of many different types of ink, this book offers practical information to all levels of printmaking from specialist to amateur