Power system planning under deep uncertainty: integrating tidal energy for net-zero Northern Ireland

Achieving high renewable penetration is often hindered by resource variability, renewable curtailment, and deep uncertainties in long-term decarbonization planning. In coastal and islanded power systems with significant tidal potential, predictable marine resources such as tidal power can offer a valuable solution, enhancing system flexibility, reducing curtailment, and supporting progress towards net-zero objectives. In Northern Ireland, however, tidal energy remains underutilized, and limited operational flexibility continues to pose challenges for integrating large shares of renewables. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a robust multi-period power system planning framework that integrates tidal energy and energy storage using an Information Gap Decision Theory–Flexible Revision Multi-period Two-stage Stochastic Planning (IG-FRM-TSP) model. The framework explicitly accounts for uncertainties in demand growth, technology costs, and CO2 pricing, while optimizing the coordinated deployment of tidal, offshore wind, and hydrogen-battery storage. A novel Dispatch Down Reduction Index (DDRI) is introduced to quantify and reduce renewable curtailment, improving system efficiency and flexibility. Scenario analyses show that strategic co-deployment of tidal energy with offshore wind and storage can reduce curtailment to below 2 %, while achieving up to 80 % CO2 emissions reduction compared to business-as-usual scenarios, all while maintaining grid reliability. The results highlight that tidal predictability, combined with responsive storage and supportive policy incentives, plays a critical role in enabling cost-effective decarbonization pathways for islanded and coastal power systems. The proposed methodology offers a replicable approach for similar regions worldwide, emphasizing that operational coordination and market design—beyond capacity expansion—are essential to achieving net-zero goals.<br/

Between the devil and the deep blue sea: German narratives of Europapolitik

1945 is often referred to as ‘Stunde Null’ (zero hour) in Germany. It was clear after the shaming and destructive Nazi experience that historical narratives were redundant, and a new narrative had to be found (Legro 2005). This was in marked contrast to other states such as the United Kingdom who evolved, rather than fundamentally rewrote, their national narrative. Germany’s post-1949 narrative on European policy was forged as a rejection of Germany’s recent historical experience and was designed to fit the circumstances of what was initially a divided Germany. As such, it has shown great, though not total consistency. Successive (west) German governments crafted a narrative of German membership of the European Union (EU), underpinned by a conducive political and economic context which witnessed German economic recovery and the achievement of German unity in 1990.<br/

Eruption-related ultraviolet irradiance enhancements associated with flares

Large solar flares (GOES M-class or higher) are usually associated with eruptions of material. However, when considering flare irradiance enhancements and dynamics such as chromospheric evaporation, potential contributions from erupted material have historically been neglected. We analyse nine eruptive M- and X-class flares from 2024 to early 2025, quantifying the relative contributions of erupted material to irradiance enhancements during the events. Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) images from four different channels had ribbon and eruption irradiance contributions separated using a semi-automated masking method. The sample-averaged percentages of excess radiated energy by erupted material over the impulsive phase were 10−4+4%, 24−14+14%, 21−10+14% and 13−9+6% for the 131 Å, 171 Å, 304 Å and 1600 Å channels, respectively. For three events that were studied in further detail, hard X-ray (HXR) imaging showed little to no signatures of nonthermal heating within the eruptions. Our results suggest that erupted material can be a significant contributor to UV irradiance enhancements during flares, with possible heating mechanisms including nonthermal particle heating, Ohmic heating, or dissipation of MHD waves. Future work may clarify the heating mechanism and evaluate the impact of eruptions on spectral variability, particularly in Sun-as-a-star and stellar flare observations.<br/

Portable NIR spectrometer and FTIR and soft modelling to authenticate edible cricket, mealworm and buffalo worm flour

Population growth has increased the search for new food sources. Edible insects offer an environmentally sustainable option for high-quality proteins and lipids from agricultural waste. However, their high value makes them vulnerable to adulteration, highlighting the need for reliable authentication to ensure product integrity and protect consumers from potential allergens. This study evaluated two portable NIR spectrometers (900–1700 nm and 1450–2450 nm) and a benchtop FTIR device (4000–550 cm−1) for authenticating edible insect flours (buffalo worm, cricket, and mealworm) sold in the UK. Soft modelling methods were used, including Data-Driven Soft Independent Modelling Class Analogy (DD-SIMCA) and soft Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (sPLS-DA), as they suit authentication tasks. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that spectral data of pure insect flours were clustered in the scores plot. DD-SIMCA achieved 100 % sensitivity (SNS) in the test set using FTIR for all insects. NIR Spectrometer in the range of 1450–2450 nm reached 100 % SNS and 100 % specificity (SPS) for buffalo worm and mealworm flour. sPLS-DA showed class sensitivity (CSNS) between 75 % and 100 %, for all three devices tested, with spectrometer in the range of 1450–2450 nm reaching class efficiency rate (CEFF) and total efficiency (TEFF) values ranging from 93 % to 100 %. Also, PLSR achieved RMSEP values as low as 0.44 %, demonstrating its robustness as a tool. In conclusion, this study highlights IR spectroscopy with soft modelling as a novel, non-destructive solution for authenticating insect flours, filling the current gap in rapid and reliable analytical tools for this emerging industry.</p

Antidepressant and anxiolytic medications and risk of mortality in people with dementia: a nested case-control study in Northern Ireland

Background Antidepressant and anxiolytic medication use in people with dementia (PwD) may contribute to potentially inappropriate prescribing and be associated with mortality.Objective To investigate trends in prescribing of these medications and their association with mortality risk among PwD.Methods A nested case-control study was conducted in Northern Ireland (NI) using linkage of five administrative population-based data sources within a cohort of dementia patients (identified if a medication indicated for dementia was prescribed). Dementia patients who died were matched to one control who lived at least as long as their matched case after dementia diagnosis (matched on age, sex and year of dementia). Exposure to antidepressant and anxiolytic medications was assessed from two years prior to study entry. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using conditional logistic regression after adjusting for demographic factors and comorbidities. Results The study included 14,420 dementia cases. Antidepressants were prescribed to 59.2% of cases and 54.7% of controls whilst 44.8% of cases and 36.0% of controls were prescribed anxiolytics. There was evidence of a weak increased risk of mortality in PwD prescribed antidepressants (fully adjusted OR=1.08; 95% CI 1.02-1.14) and a strong increased risk in those prescribed anxiolytics (fully adjusted OR=1.26; 95% CI 1.19-1.33) compared to nonusers. Conclusions In this large NI population-based cohort of PwD, elevated levels of antidepressant and anxiolytic prescribing were observed. The use of anxiolytic medications was strongly associated with mortality in PwD

Evaluating the effects of the crescendo programme on music and self-regulation with 5–6-year-old pupils: a quasi-experimental study

Crescendo is a music-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programme designed for primary/elementary school children living in disadvantaged communities. It is a community-led, orchestra-delivered, and evidence-informed initiative aimed at im-proving children’s musical and SEL outcomes through sustained engagement. Children growing up in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas often experience challenges with SEL and limited access to orchestral music education. However, emerging research suggests a relationship between music participation and SEL development. This study evaluated the initial impact of Crescendo on 559 children aged 5–6 in their first year of participation (Year 1 of 7). A quasi-experimental, rolling cohort design compared pupils in four participating Crescendo schools with pupils in four matched control schools not re-ceiving the programme. Outcome measures included music skills (beat, pitch, and re-action to music) and SEL (behavioural self-regulation). The findings indicated significant positive effects of the programme across all outcome domains, with moderate effects observed in self-regulation (Cohen’s d = 0.29) and reaction to music (Cohen’s d = 0.21) compared to control schools. These results suggest that collaboration between orchestral musicians and educators can positively influence young children’s musical and SEL development in resource-constrained settings. The findings also underscore the im-portance of clearly defined programme models to support replication and scalability

MUSE IFU observations of galaxies hosting of Tidal Disruption Events

We present an analysis of twenty tidal disruption event (TDE) host galaxies observed with the MUSE integral-field spectrograph on ESO VLT. We investigate the presence of extended emission line regions (EELRs) and study stellar populations mostly at sub-kpc scale around the host nuclei. EELRs are detected in 5/20 hosts, including two unreported systems. All EELRs are found at z &amp;lt; 0.045, suggesting a distance bias and faint EELRs may be missed at higher redshift. EELRs only appear in post-merger systems and all such hosts at z &amp;lt; 0.045 show them. Thus, we conclude that TDEs and galaxy mergers have a strong relation, and &amp;gt;45% of post-merger hosts in the sample exhibit EELRs. Furthermore, we constrained the distributions of stellar masses near the central black holes (BHs), using the spectral synthesis code Starlight and BPASS stellar evolution models. The youngest nuclear populations have typical ages of ∼1 Gyr and stellar masses below 2.5M⊙. The populations that can produce observable TDEs around non-rotating BHs are dominated by subsolar-mass stars. 3/4 TDEs requiring larger stellar masses exhibit multi-peaked light curves, possibly implying relation to repeated partial disruptions of high-mass stars. The found distributions are in tension with the masses of the stars derived using light curve models. Mass segregation of the disrupted stars can enhance the rate of TDEs from supersolar-mass stars but our study implies that low-mass TDEs should still be abundant and even dominate the distribution, unless there is a mechanism that prohibits low-mass TDEs or their detection

Committee-structured games in a cooperative framework

We introduce the notion of committee-structured games (CSG) in a cooperative framework to analyze situations where committees affect players in generating their coalitional values. We represent the sets of committees by hypergraphs and obtain values as a function of both coalitions and hypergraphs. Based on how committee structures affect value generation, we present two models within the CSG framework. In the first model, the total value is generated by the committee set as a whole, while in the second model, it is obtained by aggregating contributions from all subsets of the set of committees. Accordingly, we define the Shapley value for the first model and the Aggregated Shapley value for the second, providing axiomatic characterizations for both. Further, we propose bidding mechanisms to show that the Shapley value and the Aggregated Shapley value for the class of CSG is a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium (SPNE) of the induced strategic game. Finally, we study an alternative Exchange Economy model by incorporating committees instead of commodities