Climate change turns warm summer days in England into health threat

World Weather Attribution uses weather observations and climate models to understand how climate change influences the intensity and likelihood of extreme weather events. The studies also assess the role of human vulnerability and exposure in the impacts to highlight the actions needed to prepare for changing weather extremes. WWA performed a super rapid analysis, analysing observations only on this early summer heat in the Southeast of the UK, defined (1) by the official heatwave definition of reaching 28°C in many of the so-called home counties and greater London (dark red region in figure 1, Met Office) and (2) the hottest predicted day in the same area. While this is not a full attribution study, the results are in agreement with the study undertaken in July 2022 over a similar region (Zachariah et al., 2022), thus we have high confidence in the results. calm, sunny days and gradually rising temperatures

The VEGF‐Mediated Cytoprotective Ability of MIF‐Licensed Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in House Dust Mite‐Induced Epithelial Damage

ABSTRACT Enhancing mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) therapeutic efficacy through licensing with proinflammatory cytokines is now well established. We have previously shown that macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF)‐licensed MSCs exerted significantly enhanced therapeutic efficacy in reducing inflammation in house dust mite (HDM)‐driven allergic asthma. Soluble mediators released into the MSC secretome boast cytoprotective properties equal to those associated with the cell itself. In asthma, epithelial barrier damage caused by the inhalation of allergens like HDM drives goblet cell hyperplasia. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a pivotal role in the repair and maintenance of airway epithelial integrity. Human bone marrow‐derived MSCs expressed the MIF receptors CD74, CXCR2, and CXCR4. Endogenous MIF from high MIF expressing CATT 7 bone marrow‐derived macrophages increased MSC production of VEGF through the MIF CXCR4 chemokine receptor, where preincubation with CXCR4 inhibitor mitigated this effect. CATT 7 ‐MIF licensed MSC conditioned media containing increased levels of VEGF significantly enhanced bronchial epithelial wound healing via migration and proliferation in vitro. Blocking VEGFR2 or the use of mitomycin C abrogated this effect. Furthermore, CATT 7 ‐MIF MSC CM significantly decreased goblet cell hyperplasia after the HDM challenge in vivo. This was confirmed to be VEGF‐dependent, as the use of anti‐human VEGF neutralising antibody abrogated this effect. Overall, this study highlights that MIF‐licenced MSCs show enhanced production of VEGF, which has the capacity to repair the lung epithelium

Implications of the Revised Draft EU Accession Agreement for the echr

This article explores the implications of the EU's accession to the echr from the echr perspective based on the revised Draft Accession Agreement (daa 2023). The article analyses key procedural innovations in the daa 2023, notably how the co-respondent mechanism, the prior involvement of the cjeu, and the daa's solutions for advisory opinion requests and for dealing with the EU law concept of mutual trust would work. It exposes the EU's new role as a gatekeeper in relation to certain procedural questions. The article further contrasts the position of EU member states and non-EU member states post-accession by pointing out potential inconsistencies and assesses proposed solutions in light of their effectiveness and workability. The article suggests that, despite the considerable concessions made to the EU, EU accession to the echr would nonetheless result in a strengthening of the echr system and is thus worth the effort and compromises

Linguistic Contributions to a Model for the Celticisation of the Western Archipelago

The question of the arrival of Celtic-speaking peoples in Britain and Ireland, i.e. the Celticisation of these islands in prehistory, has been a bone of contention – and a mystery – since the early days of Celtic Studies. For the longest time, the only two disciplines that could meaningfully contribute to this debate were archaeology and historical linguistics. However, during the latter part of the 20th century the realisation grew that the methodologies and the data of the two disciplines are not commensurate, and that the conclusions drawn by scholars from the involved disciplines are not compatible with each other. Since 2015, a third discipline with an entirely new type of data has joined the discussion: palaeogenetics. The analysis of ancient DNA provides a completely different perspective on the prehistory of the Western Archipelago and allows insights into it that neither archaeology nor linguistics are able to achieve with their own methods, and that can inspire the two traditional disciplines to look at their data again and reevaluate it. This talk is a modest attempt from the point of view of historical Celtic and Indo-European linguistics to respond to the new insights and challenges that palaeogenetics has to offer, and to assess how they can be integrated into a general theory of the Celticisation of the Western Archipelago

Export policy cooperation in a pandemic: the good, the bad and the hopeful

We develop a model in which vaccine‐producing firms from different developed countries supply vaccines to the developing world during a pandemic. Exporting countries experience a negative externality from incomplete global vaccination, which they try to mitigate by exporting vaccines to developing countries. A cooperative export policy is compared to the alternative regimes of non‐cooperation and non‐intervention. When the negative externality is low, cooperation among exporting countries is worse for global welfare than non‐intervention. However, at high externality levels, export policy cooperation is globally superior to non‐cooperative export subsidization. It then even has the potential to maximize global welfare

Reconhecimento em Dirty Works: A Gestão do Estigma no Trabalho Sexual Recognition in Dirty Works: Managing Stigma in Sex Work

Resumo Reconhecimento em Dirty Works: A Gestão do Estigma no Trabalho Sexual Este artigo analisa a gestão do estigma no trabalho sexual, argumentando que esse processo se baseia em anseios por reconhecimento e não somente em expectativas de validação e normalização do trabalho maculado. Ele se embasa nos debates sociológicos contemporâneos sobre dirty works, que visam compreender o impacto das máculas morais nos trabalhadores e as estratégias para gerenciamento de estigmas. A análise é realizada no universo do trabalho sexual no webcamming, um lócus central para compreender demandas por reconhecimento devido à amplitude de sua mácula. O estudo se alicerça em etnografia digital conduzida de 2016 a 2020 e 15 entrevistas em profundidade com trabalhadoras sexuais. Conclui-se que as trabalhadoras buscam desenvolver uma autorrelação positiva e conquistar estima social através do gerenciamento do estigma atribuído a seu labor e a si mesmas, demonstrando narrativamente como o trabalho sexual contribui para seu autodesenvolvimento e possui função social para além da obtenção de renda. Abstract Recognition in Dirty Works: Managing Stigma in Sex Work This paper analyzes the stigma managing in sex work, arguing that this process is based on a longing for recognition and not merely on expectations to validate and normalize the dirty work. It uses contemporary sociological debates about dirty works, which aim to understand the impact of moral taints on workers and the strategies for stigma management. The analysis is developed in webcamming sex labor, a central locus to understand demands for recognition due to the breadth of its taint. The study relies on digital ethnography conducted between 2016 and 2020 and on 15 in-depth interviews with sex workers. The paper concludes that workers aim to develop a positive self-relation and acquire social esteem by managing the stigma attributed to their work and to themselves, demonstrating narratively how sex labor contributes to their self-development and has a social role besides earning income

BioBeo Primary Education Programme

The BioBeo Primary Education Programme consisted of six interactive sessions designed to introduce primary school children to the concept of the circular bioeconomy. Through hands-on activities and real-world examples, students explored the interconnectedness of biological systems and sustainable practices. The programme aimed to foster an understanding of how natural resources can be used efficiently and responsibly, with a focus on sustainability. Emphasizing active learning and collaboration, BioBeo encouraged children to think critically about environmental challenges and solutions. By integrating the principles of the circular bioeconomy, the programme promoted environmental stewardship and community engagement

Library IT Development Department Stats, February 2024-February 2025

An infographic, created for Love Data Week 2025, showcasing some of the work done by the Library IT Development department in Maynooth University Library from February 2024 to February 2025

Relationality, recognition and reward at the margins: Teachers’ experiences of mature student access courses in Irish higher education

This is a study of higher education teachers’ experiences of teaching on mature student access courses (MSACs) in Irish higher education. This qualitative research is an exploratory case study and is based on semi-structured interviews carried out online with nine MSAC teachers in two higher education institutions in Ireland. MSACs are long-standing operational elements of Irish higher education equity of access strategy and teachers’ experiences of teaching on these courses has been largely absent from Irish research literature up to now. The aim of this study is to present these educators’ perspectives of their work in this contextualised teaching space and thus to offer insight into the personal and professional meaning and value of this teaching in higher education. These teaching roles are analysed against a backdrop of neoliberal practices and dominant academic cultures in higher education and participants’ experiences are explored through the interconnecting conceptual lenses of relational pedagogy and recognition. The study is significant from the perspective that the MSACs are located on the periphery of higher education institutions’ organisational structures and academic cultures, yet these educators are responsible for supporting non-traditional students to prepare for and successfully progress to higher education under a national equity of access remit. This is a core higher education mission which is central to institutional strategy, as well as to evaluation of institutional and higher education system performance at national level. My findings suggest that at the micro and meso levels MSAC teaching is highly rewarding, professionally developmental work for my participants when considered through a relational lens, however that my participants experience a lack of recognition of this work and of their own professional status as teachers in higher education at a more macro, institutional level. For some, this impacts on their self-esteem and on their capacity to commit on a long-term basis to critical equity of access work in higher education. A key argument of this thesis is that engaging in relation-centred education is as important for teachers’ growth and development, and for their institutional sense of belonging, as it is for students, and that an access course is a key site within higher education that offers this kind of experience and opportunity. In these teaching contexts a pedagogy of relation is also a pedagogy of recognition and thus this thesis argues for the need to create and promote opportunities to prioritise relational teaching within the dominant teaching-research dualism of higher education and to explicitly recognise the value and place of relation-centred teaching spaces, practices and teachers

Book Review: Educational research practice in Southern contexts: recentring, reframing and reimagining methodological canons: edited by Sharlene Swartz, Nidhi Singal and Madeleine Arnot, Oxon, Routledge, 2024, 359pp., £35.69 (paperback) and available Open Access, ISBN 9781003355397

Book Review: Opening with a sketch of the rather tense landscape of contemporary educational scholarship, Swartz, Singal, and Arnot, present a pressing aim to “open up the debate about ‘what works’ when researching Southern contexts” (p. 1). The editors’ deep reflection on this challenge impressively highlights their focus not just on the level of method, as so many edited volumes on research methods do; this itself revealing the effects of coloniality, which has sheared critical imaginaries from the production of knowledge fuelled by the “cognitive perspective of Eurocentrism” and a “growing techno critization” of knowledge production(Quijano, 2002). Instead, the focus goes deeper to encompass ontological and epistemological concerns, prior to “learning about first-hand experience of conducting research in such[Southern] contexts” to “recognise different cultural ways of being, knowing, and doing”(p. 1; original emphases), that lie outside the dominant Northern Anglophone systems of understanding, which have been deeply imbricated in domination and violence. Subsequently, the organisation and structure of this book is harmonious to the editors’ overarching goals and encourages the reader to engage with a diverse, robust and situationally rich volume of scholarship, taking them through themes of Centring, Reframing and Reimagining approaches to educational research, informed by postcolonial and decolonial perspectives