A Retreat from Global Solidarity:The Consequences of International Aid Cuts

As the US, UK and other countries slash development aid, Melita Lazell and Ivica Petrikova warn of the devastating consequences for global health, security, and diplomacy – and argue that the retreat from solidarity is a perilous gamble for us all

‘Doing adoptive family’ in contemporary India – A qualitative exploration of adoptive parents’ narratives

This article discusses adoptive family practices in India, where biological connections are often seen as more important than social ties and legal recognition in building family relationships. It shares insights from a unique, in-depth study of 11 adoptive parents, connecting their experiences to the concept of ‘family practices’. The article highlights two main points. First, it shows thatadoptive families vary in how they create their family lives, especially in response to everyday challenges. These families seek to socially legitimise their understanding of kinship. Second, a continuous process of negotiation and renegotiation is required to create and redefine relationships to demonstrate their familial relationships. While the small group of families studied does notrepresent all adoptive families in India, the findings reveal the complexities of adoptive family life in a contemporary context. This study provides a strong springboard for further research and can improve social work policy and practice

Optimal Threshold Singular Spectrum Analysis for Efficient Electrocardiogram Interference Removal

Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) has become well known for its ability to effectively separate mixtures of signals with overlapping spectral content but with different statistical natures. In this paper, we show how a new approach to grouping the singular values that efficiently denoise biomedical signals, specifically, mixtures of Electrocardiogram and Electromyogram signals. It is based on optimal Singular Value Hard Thresholding (SVHT) but for signals that are periodic or quasi-periodic in nature. An optimal thresholding technique can provide similar results with much smaller trajectory matrices and thus significantly reduced computational burden. The resultant Singular Value Decomposition process is significantly faster and shows similar performance to kurtosis based sliding SSA with a reduction in computational complexity of the order of 12,500 times. This technique is well suited to real-time implementation for de-noising biomedical signals on the fly

Written evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Inquiry on Policing and Security in Northern Ireland.

This submission provides responses to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s ‘Policing and security in Northern Ireland’ inquiry evidence call. It focuses on two questions:a. What are the risks and opportunities associated with a process for the disbandment of paramilitary groups which the forthcoming independent scoping exercise should consider?b. What lessons should be learnt from previous attempts at paramilitary disbandment?<br/

A cold but stable 4,200 yr event in Britain and the northeastern Atlantic region

The existence of an abrupt cold event in the British Isles at ca 4200 years before AD1950 (cal. yr BP) is investigated through analysis of the oxygen and carbon isotope value (δ18O and δ13C) of annually laminated, seasonally precipitated lake carbonates from the lake of Diss Mere in eastern England. Modern rainfall and lake water isotope data indicate that evaporation is a major control on the isotope value of modern lake waters, consistent with Diss Mere's current status as a small (0.0034 km2) and shallow (&lt;6m), closed lake system. However, both the characteristics of isotope data from the interval 4700 to 3700 cal yr BP and the greater depth of the lake basin at that time (&gt;15m water) indicates that whilst evaporation still operated, major shifts in δ18O values most likely reflect shifts in patterns of atmospheric circulation (primarily through air mass trajectory, air temperature and precipitation amount). A centennial-scale interval of persistently low δ18O values occurred between ca 4320 and 4210 cal yr BP and is interpreted as a cold event with changes in the elemental composition of the sediments supporting this interpretation. Correlation of this record with other sequences from the North Atlantic and western Europe, either through comparison of independent chronologies or age markers such as the Hekla 4 tephra, indicates that this event was well expressed across this region and was characterised by changes in temperature, storminess and ocean/atmospheric circulation. It is argued that increasing evidence exists for an abrupt event in this region at ca 4200 cal yr BP, but it is the high-resolution nature of the Diss Mere sequence and the regionally extensive tephras that this record contains that allows the timing and character of this event to be understood