Foetal Exposure to Air Pollution and Students' Cognitive Performance: Evidence from Agricultural Fires in Brazil

This paper examines the impact of foetal exposure to air pollution from agricultural fires on Brazilian students' cognitive performance later in life. We rely on comparisons across children who were upwind and downwind of the fires while in utero to address concerns around sorting and temporary income shocks. Our findings show that agricultural fires increase PM 2 . 5 $${\mathrm{PM}}_{2.5}$$ , resulting in significant negative effects on pupils' scores in Portuguese and Maths in the 5 th $$5\mathrm{th}$$ grade through prenatal exposure. Back‐of‐the‐envelope calculations suggest that a 1% reduction in PM 2 . 5 $${\mathrm{PM}}_{2.5}$$ from agricultural burning has the potential to increase later life wages by 2.6%

Research data supporting the publication "A Groovy Laser Processing Route to Achieving High Power and Energy Lithium-ion Batteries"

Origin files containing experimenta data shown in the publication "A Groovy Laser Processing Route to Achieving High Power and Energy Lithium-ion Batteries

Research data supporting the publication “Azophosphines: Synthesis, Structure and Coordination Chemistry”

Data for paper on azophosphines that is being submitted at the same time as this datase

Role of transpiration in modulating ecosystem services in secondary tropical montane forests of Eastern Himalaya in India

Secondary tropical forests provide critical hydrological services through modulating transpiration and soil infiltration of precipitation. However, vegetation studies establishing direct mechanistic linkages between stand transpiration, soil moisture and streamflow are significantly lacking in tropical montane forests (TMFs) in Himalaya. We quantified the impact of diel and seasonal transpiration on catchment water balance and lean season streamflow in a broad-leaved evergreen secondary TMF in Eastern Himalaya. Stand transpiration (T) and streamflow (Q) were measured concurrently at one of the wettest (4500 mm yr−1) and highest elevation (2100 m) sites worldwide to date. The observed daily transpiration rates (1.29±0.99 mm d − 1) were double the reported values from TMFs in relatively drier Central Himalaya but at the lower bound of TMFs globally. Moderate precipitation pulses (10–25 mm volume) followed by clear skies significantly increased stand transpiration. The proportional contribution of evaporative losses (50–77%) and stand transpiration (2–13%) to catchment water balance increased with the progression of the wet season. The phase lags between T, soil moisture (S) and Q were confounded by significant pre-dawn sap flux movement and the presence of secondary diel peaks. Transpiration was a significant predictor of streamflow in the dry season and, to a lesser extent, in the wet season. Thus, changes in vegetation cover and precipitation patterns will likely impact hydrological services from the regenerating secondary TMFs and the regional water security in the Eastern Himalaya

Investigating best practice for specimen preparation for biological testing of root canal sealers

INTRODUCTION: Biological characterization of root canal sealers is important as it assesses the ability of the root canal sealer to exert antimicrobial properties thus avoiding treatment failures caused by microbial challenge and also assess the cytotoxic effect on the periapical tissues. Assessment of the biological testing of root canal sealers necessitates the sterilisation of the materials prior to evaluation. This study aims to analyse the influence of various sterilisation techniques conducted prior to biological testing on the microstructure and surface properties of endodontic sealers. Assessment of the initial microbial contamination on the material was also undertaken.METHODS: Four commercial sealers were investigated. The sealers were either prepared in a laminar flow cabinet or on a laboratory bench top under ambient conditions. Each group was further divided into 5 groups (n = 3) based on the sterilization technique:1) ethanol-10 mins, 2) ultraviolet-1 h, 3) ethanol-10 mins + ultraviolet-1 h, 4) autoclave, and 5) no sterilisation (control). Microbial levels in the materials were assessed by plate streaking technique. The materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, before and after sterilisation, to assess any changes in microstructure and chemical composition.RESULTS: All the materials did not exhibit contamination when prepared in laminar flow chamber in sterile conditions compared with sealers prepared on the bench top. Three of the commercial materials showed changes in microstructure while one (TotalFill) was not affected by the sterilisation. AH Plus and BioRoot RCS exhibited alterations in water and alcohol peaks in FT-IR while the single syringe sealers (TotalFill and BioRoot Flow) showed no changes.CONCLUSIONS: Sterilisation methods cause physical and chemical alterations to sealers. Material preparation should be performed in a laminar flow cabinet and a test for sterility should be performed prior to any biological testing being undertaken. If the materials are not sterile, assessment of the effects of the sterilization methods is recommended.</p

Generation of a human iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte/fibroblast engineered heart tissue model [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]

Animal models have proven integral to broadening our understanding of complex cardiac diseases but have been hampered by significant species-dependent differences in cellular physiology. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) have shown great promise in the modelling of cardiac diseases despite limitations in functional and structural maturity. 3D stem cell-derived cardiac models represent a step towards mimicking the intricate microenvironment present in the heart as an in vitro model. Incorporation of non-myocyte cell types, such as cardiac fibroblasts, into engineered heart tissue models (EHTs) can help better recapitulate the cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix interactions present in the human myocardium. Integration of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac fibroblasts (hiPSC-CFs) and hiPSC-CM into EHT models enables the generation of a genetically homogeneous modelling system capable of exploring the abstruse structural and electrophysiological interplay present in cardiac pathophysiology. Furthermore, the construction of more physiologically relevant 3D cardiac models offers great potential in the replacement of animals in heart disease research. Here we describe efficient and reproducible protocols for the differentiation of hiPSC-CMs and hiPSC-CFs and their subsequent assimilation into EHTs. The resultant EHT consists of longitudinally arranged iPSC-CMs, incorporated alongside hiPSC-CFs. EHTs with both hiPSC-CMs and hiPSC-CFs exhibit slower beating frequencies and enhanced contractile force compared to those composed of hiPSC-CMs alone. The modified protocol may help better characterise the interplay between different cell types in the myocardium and their contribution to structural remodelling and cardiac fibrosis

Scotland's Royal Women and European Literary Culture, 1424-1587

Scotland’s Royal Women and European Literary Culture, 1424–1587 seeks to fill a significant gap in the rich and ever-growing body of scholarly work on royal and aristocratic women’s literary culture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There has, to date, been no book-length study of the literary activities of the female members of any one family across time and little study of Scotland’s royal women in comparison to their European and English counterparts. This book adopts the missing diachronic perspective and examines the wives and daughters of Scotland’s Stewart dynasty and their many and various associations with contemporary Scottish, English, and European literary culture over a period of just over 150 years. It also adopts a timely cross-border and cross-period perspective by taking a trans-national approach to the study of literary history and examining a range of texts and individuals from across the traditional medieval/early modern divide. In exploring the inter-related lives and letters of the women who married into the Scottish royal family from England and Europe — and those daughters who married out with Scotland into Europe’s royal families — the resultant study consistently looks beyond Scotland’s land and sea borders. In so doing, it moves Scottish literary culture from the periphery to the centre of Europe and demonstrates the constitutive role that Scotland’s royal women played in an essentially shared literary and artistic culture

Prayer for family and friends:the body and religion in eighteenth-century Britain

This article explores how writers, predominantly adhering to a variety of different Christian denominations but also including Jewish writers, discussed religion and body in letters throughout the long eighteenth century. It draws on a corpus of over 2500 familiar letters written by men and women of different denominations between 1675 and 1820. These letters were not chosen because of their religious content. This, and also that letters are not a genre specifically rooted in devotional practice, makes them a good ‘test’ of the role of faith in everyday understandings of the body. By exploring how lay people used letters to construct understandings of health and bodily experience as directed by God, this article underscores the continued centrality of religious discourse and devotional practice in eighteenth-century everyday life. This article finds that religion was a commonplace register deployed when discussing bodily matters throughout the long eighteenth century. Significantly, this was the case for individuals who otherwise made scant reference to their faith. The physical body encouraged recourse to providence, a public discussion of doctrine and the shared expression of devotion. The ongoing force of religion in people’s lives was thus intimately tied to their embodied experiences. Letters not only expressed but actively maintained this widely shared religious framework for understanding the body. Through letters, men and women created connections between their physically separated bodies, connections which were reinforced by their religious dimension, and which enabled them to provide one another with care and consolation for both body and soul

Assemblies and the courts

To what extent is the protest trial a threat or an opportunity to protesters? This chapter argues that it is both. Trials potentially provide a site of resistance and the means for ongoing struggle and contestation, while simultaneously threatening to repress and restrict protesters’ voices. While protesters may wish to accept prosecution and conviction as the necessary consequence of direct action, their trial may nonetheless enable them to raise their political claims, to foreground motives, ideals, and politics, to speak truth to power, and to address a wider audience beyond the courtroom. Recognizing that the court is a social space, not merely a site of adjudication, reveals the normative function of a trial as a social and communicative activity where the defendant is called to account. Yet there is significant variation in how trials serve this purpose and the degree to which they provide opportunities or constraints for activists. By contrasting two significant protest cases in the UK (the ‘Stansted 15’ and the ‘Colston 4’), the chapter not only reveals the extent to which some protest trials are more ‘political’ than others, but suggests that one explanation lies in availability and interpretation of legal defences which can serve to open up the courtroom as a political site. In this regard, the Stansted 15 were constrained by the process while the Colston 4 were effectively able to place Colston and Bristol City Council on trial