Solving climate change requires changing our food systems

Humanity is facing an important existential threat—irreversible climate change caused by human activity. Until recently, most of the proposals to address climate change have downplayed or ignored the adverse impact of food systems, especially intensive animal agriculture. This is in spite of the fact that up to a third of global greenhouse gas production to date can be attributed to animal agriculture. Recent developments at COP28 have signaled that the tide is turning, however, and that food systems are becoming part of global discussions on climate change solutions. The pressing nature of irreversible climate change requires rethinking our food systems. To solve the climate change crisis, we propose transitioning to a predominantly plant-based diet, and phasing out intensive animal agriculture as diets shift, without increasing pastoral farming. We suggest that such transformations in global food systems can be accomplished largely through education and large-scale public information campaigns, removal of subsidies, taxation to account for externalized costs of animal agriculture, improved labelling of products, and various investment/divestment drivers. Better metrics and industry benchmarks involving food and agriculture-specific performance indicators that reflect food system sustainability will be important. Increased global awareness of these issues and a change in mindset (which will drive political will) also are needed. Our current trajectory is untenable, and we must begin to turn the ship now towards sustainable food systems and diets

Adherence to supervised falls prevention exercise in community-dwelling older adults: Secondary analysis of a systematic review

Background: Exercise reduces falls in older people, and the benefits are stronger with greater exercise adherence. This review summarised adherence and behaviour change techniques (BCTs) in fall prevention supervised exercise interventions and investigated the association between adherence, participants’ characteristics and intervention components.Methods: A secondary analysis of trials from the previous 2019 Cochrane Review and its associated updates, investigating fall prevention exercises in community-dwelling people aged 60+ years. We dichotomised the interventions based on adherence, using the threshold of ≥75% of the sessions provided, or ≥75% of the participants attended ≥75% of sessions. Logistic regression examined the associations between adherence and participant characteristics, and intervention components.Results: 102 studies investigated 136 supervised exercise interventions, of which 116 interventions (85%) reported adherence. The median proportion of exercise sessions attended was 78% (range:38% to 100%). Adherence was associated with exercise frequency with the odds of adherence increased by 167% (95% CI 12% to 536%) for interventions conducted ≥2 times/week, compared to those <2 times/week; 72% higher (95% CI 12% to 85%) for supervised programmes without home exercise component, compared to those with; 4% more for one week less in exercise intervention conducted in trials (2% to 7%); and 33% higher (95% CI 11% to 50%) for each BCT not used. Conclusion: Higher adherence was observed in interventions that: were shorter, did not have home exercise components, had more weekly sessions (≥2 times/week) and used fewer BCTs. Clinicians should consider these factors to optimise adherence to supervised programs

Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction

Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction is a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary study of the different forms of play to be found in depictions of radically better and radically worse societies across literary, filmic, and televisual texts. The book sets out to dismantle common myths about the role of play in such fiction by arguing that, far from being dull and static, utopias are primarily playful and dynamic. In contrast, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, dystopian fiction has been popularized by reader and audience expectations of spectacular and exciting action, but in this book such readings of dystopia are also challenged. Accompanying this is a discussion about labor and its role in relation to a future society that might privilege play over work. The book covers texts as diverse as Thomas More’s originary 1516 travel narrative, Utopia, and South Korean Netflix dystopian hit Squid Game (2021—2025). It consists of chapters detailing the nature of play in utopian fiction; the connection between utopia and stasis; dystopian forms of violent and deadly play; boring dystopias; the absurd in utopian and dystopian fiction; and, finally, the future of play promised by new digital utopias and made possible by videogame technologies

The geoarchaeology, chronology and environment of Lusakert-1, a Late Middle Palaeolithic rockshelter (Kotayk Province, Armenia)

Lusakert-1 (LKT-1) is a key site in any discussion of the Palaeolithic of the Armenian Highlands. This is in large part because of a long-running campaign of excavation in the 1970–1980s which recovered an obsidian artefact assemblage that was then interpreted as spanning the Lower–Upper Palaeolithic. Our reinvestigation in 2008–2012 revealed evidence of occupation in the interior of the LKT-1 rockshelter comprising spreads of ash, obsidian artefacts and human-modified bone. Deposits inside the rockshelter interdigitate with alluvial sediments deposited in a now-abandoned meander of the river Hrazdan demonstrating that occupation took place at the floodplain edge. Artefacts are typologically Middle Palaeolithic, and based on refits and inferences made from micromorphological and lithostratigraphical observation, are preserved in a near in situ state in the rockshelter interior. Artefacts recovered from alluvial strata on the rockshelter exterior are, however, in a secondary context. In addition to stone tool production and use, and the laying of fires, the butchery of wild goat and wild ass is also documented. These activities likely took place seasonally given that evidence of the use of the site by owls - raptors that avoid humans - is found through much of the rockshelter stratigraphy. Radiocarbon and luminescence dating indicate that the rockshelter sequence accumulated in the 65–34 ka interval, i.e. during Marine Isotope Stage 3. Indeed, micromorphological and stable isotopes of n-alkanes demonstrate changes between the warm-humid and cool-dry climates that characterise MIS 3 in the region. Nevertheless, stable isotope data, vertebrate remains, and wood charcoal suggest that grassland vegetation dominated throughout, albeit that arboreal vegetation is associated with deposits accumulating during humid phases. LKT-1 offers a unique and detailed perspective on hominin behaviour and palaeoenvironments in the Armenian Highlands prior to the Upper Palaeolithic and serves as a valuable comparison to the growing Middle Palaeolithic record of the broader region

Arterial stiffness and wave reflection responses following heavy and moderate load resistance training protocols

This study compared the acute effects of resistance training (RT) between a moderate (ML) and a high loading (HL) intensity (12RM vs. 4RM, respectively), with the same intensity of effort on arterial stiffness and wave reflection in young healthy adults. Eleven healthy adults (age 36.4 ± 6.8 years) performed two RT protocols, ML and HL, in a randomized order. Both RT sessions consisted of three sets of deadlifts and three sets of bench presses, with 2 min rest between sets and exercises. Loading intensity was 12RM and 4RM for the ML and HL conditions, respectively. Measurements of pulse wave velocity (PWV) and pulse wave analysis (PWA; e.g., augmentation index) were collected at baseline, immediately post, and 15 min post‐training. ML elicited significantly greater increases in carotid‐femoral PWV (from 6.4 ± 0.3 to 7.3 ± 0.5), and augmentation index normalized to 75 bpm (from −5.1 ± 1.1) than HL (all p < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that an acute bout of RT performed to volitional failure using lower loads and higher repetitions impose a greater workload on the arterial and cardiovascular system in comparison to a RT scheme with heavier loads and lower repetitions

An Alternative Route of the Silk Road Through Svaneti (West Georgia) to the Black Sea in the 6th Century AD

Tsetskhladze, G., Hargrave, J. and Manoledakis, M. (ed.

Development and testing of a Time-Critical Questioning protocol for eliciting information in time-sensitive contexts

Getting information quickly is crucial in time-sensitive operational contexts to (i) assess immediate threats, (ii) inform decision-making, and (iii) expedite transmission of intelligence. Research to date has neglected this interviewing context and current practices are not informed by psychological science or empirical data. To address this gap, we developed a Time-Critical Questioning (TCQ) protocol to (i) quickly establish rapport; (ii) align the interviewer-interviewee roles and goals b; (iii) promote reporting of priority information; and (iv) implement effective questioning practices to support memory retrieval. Following a developmental pilot study (N = 111), we used a novel immersive methodology to assess the TCQ protocol, a two-part interviewing approach comprising framing instructions (I-RELATE instructions) and structured follow-up questioning. Participants (N = 142) completed an Escape Room activity in teams for 60 min and were interviewed individually for 10 min using the TCQ protocol or a control interview. Participants interviewed using the TCQ protocol reported more correct priority information (i.e., how to escape) than participants interviewed with the control interview. Notably, participants interviewed using the TCQ protocol provided more information earlier (i.e., during free recall) than those in the control condition. This expedient information gain may be useful in time-sensitive interviewing contexts