Mindful moments : using meditation for student and staff wellbeing in the classroom

This article discusses the increasing concerns for student mental health within higher education and the specific need for anthropology to consider the effects of our teaching content on student wellbeing. I reflect on using mindfulness in the classroom as a coping strategy for the challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how meditation helped to create a supportive, relaxed learning environment. Acknowledging the limits of this practice, I consider meditation to be one resource within a wider pedagogical toolkit that embraces student-centred learning. My argument does not intend to further burden teaching staff with the responsibilities for student welfare, but instead demonstrates how using pedagogies that prioritise wellbeing can increase student engagement, promote inclusivity and lead to positive transformations for students and staff.Peer reviewe

Impurity band formation as a route to thermoelectric power factor enhancement in n-type XNiSn half-Heuslers

Funding: The EPSRC is acknowledged for support under award EP/N01717X/1, EP/N01703X/1, EP/X02346X/1, EP/L017008/1, EP/R023751/1 and EP/T019298/1 and for a PhD studentship for S.A.B.Bandstructure engineering is a key route for thermoelectric performance enhancement. Here, 20–50% Seebeck (S) enhancement is reported for XNiCuySn half-Heusler samples based on X = Ti. This novel electronic effect is attributed to the emergence of impurity bands of finite extent, due to the Cu dopants. Depending on the dispersion, extent, and offset with respect to the parent material, these bands are shown to enhance S to different degrees. Experimentally, this effect is controllable by the Ti content of the samples, with the addition of Zr/Hf gradually removing the enhancement. At the same time, the mobility remains largely intact, enabling power factors ≥3 mW m−1 K−2 near room temperature, increasing to ≥5 mW m−1 K−2 at high temperature. Combined with reduced thermal conductivity due to the Cu interstitials, this enables high average zT = 0.67–0.72 between 320 and 793 K for XNiCuySn compositions with ≥70% Ti. This work reveals the existence of a new route for electronic performance enhancement in n-type XNiSn materials that are normally limited by their single carrier pocket. In principle, impurity bands can be applied to other materials and provide a new direction for further development.Peer reviewe

Meaning making in an art context affects semantic distance : the case of semantic inconsistencies in written language

Funding: This work was supported by the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT-2021-10512).When people know they are encountering art, that awareness may change how they interpret what they experience. However, it is not clear how engaging with art affects cognition in everyday life. This collection of studies investigates how meaning-making in an art context influences semantic distance. Semantic distance involves connecting weakly-related concepts and plays an important role in cognitive processes such as memory and creativity. Across four studies, participants attributed meaning to semantically incongruent sentences («Most cats see well at court”), believing either that they were or were not created by artists. We then measured the effects on semantic distance using a network-based approach (Studies 1 and 2) and a sensorimotor distance-based approach (Studies 3 and 4). In Studies 1 and 2, participants decided whether two words were related or unrelated in word pairs with varying path lengths (e.g., ashtray-smoking, sea-survey). In Studies 3 and 4, participants made similar decisions for word pairs that were either closely associated ('to see' – 'colour') or distantly associated ('to see' – 'song') with different sensory modalities. In Studies 1 and 3, both prime and target words were presented without time limitations, and participants in the art condition evaluated distant word pairs as more strongly associated compared to those in the baseline condition. In Studies 2 and 4, participants performed similar tasks, but prime and target words appeared only briefly, reducing the influence of top-down deliberation processes and decreasing the observed effects. These findings suggest that meaning-making in an art context facilitates connecting distant concepts, offering insights into how art impacts cognition in everyday life.Peer reviewe

The tidal deformation and atmosphere of WASP-12b from its phase curve

Funding: LCa and CHe acknowledge support from the European Union H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 under Grant Agreement no. 860470 (CHAMELEON). ACCa and TWi acknowledge support from STFC consolidated grant numbers ST/R000824/1 and ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/R003203/1. PM acknowledges support from STFC research grant number ST/M001040/1. NAW acknowledges UKSA grant ST/R004838/1.Context. Ultra-hot Jupiters present a unique opportunity to understand the physics and chemistry of planets, their atmospheres, and interiors at extreme conditions. WASP-12 b stands out as an archetype of this class of exoplanets, with a close-in orbit around its star that results in intense stellar irradiation and tidal effects. Aims. The goals are to measure the planet’s tidal deformation, atmospheric properties, and also to refine its orbital decay rate. Methods. We performed comprehensive analyses of the transits, occultations, and phase curves of WASP-12b by combining new CHEOPS observations with previous TESS and Spitzer data. The planet was modeled as a triaxial ellipsoid parameterized by the second-order fluid Love number of the planet, h2, which quantifies its radial deformation and provides insight into the interior structure. Results. We measured the tidal deformation of WASP-12b and estimated a Love number of h2 = 1.55−0.49+0.45 (at 3.2σ) from its phase curve. We measured occultation depths of 333 ± 24 ppm and 493 ± 29 ppm in the CHEOPS and TESS bands, respectively, while the nightside fluxes are consistent with zero, and also marginal eastward phase offsets. Our modeling of the dayside emission spectrum indicates that CHEOPS and TESS probe similar pressure levels in the atmosphere at a temperature of ~2900 K. We also estimated low geometric albedos of Ag = 0.086 ± 0.017 and Ag = 0.01 ± 0.023 in the CHEOPS and TESS passbands, respectively, suggesting the absence of reflective clouds in the high-temperature dayside of the planet. The CHEOPS occultations do not show strong evidence for variability in the dayside atmosphere of the planet at the median occultation depth precision of 120 ppm attained. Finally, combining the new CHEOPS timings with previous measurements refines the precision of the orbital decay rate by 12% to a value of −30.23 ± 0.82 ms yr−1, resulting in a modified stellar tidal quality factor of Q′★ = 1.70 ± 0.14 × 105. Conclusions. WASP-12 b becomes the second exoplanet, after WASP-103b, for which the Love number has been measured from the effect of tidal deformation in the light curve. However, constraining the core mass fraction of the planet requires measuring h2 with a higher precision. This can be achieved with high signal-to-noise observations with JWST since the phase curve amplitude, and consequently the induced tidal deformation effect, is higher in the infrared.Peer reviewe

Modality, truth and mere picture thinking

Many draw the distinction between truth in, and truth at, a possible world. The latter notion purportedly allows for propositions to be true relative to worlds even if they do not exist relative to those same worlds. Despite its wide application, the distinction is controversial. Some think that the notion of truth at a world is unintelligible. Here, I outline and discuss the most influential argument for the unintelligibility of truth at a world, The Picture Thinking Argument. I outline and defend a neglected strategy to respond to this, arguing that if we take seriously the idea that possible worlds represent total ways the world could be, the distinction can be drawn intelligibly.Peer reviewe

Evaluating Diuretics in Normal Care (EVIDENCE) : protocol of a cluster randomised controlled equivalence trial of prescribing policy to compare the effectiveness of thiazide-type diuretics in hypertension

Introduction Healthcare systems must use treatments that are effective and safe. Regulators licensed many currently used older medications before introducing the stringent evidential requirements imposed on modern treatments. Also, there has been little encouragement to carry out within-class, head-to-head comparisons of licensed medicines. For commonly prescribed drugs, even small differences in effectiveness or safety could have significant public health implications. However, conventional clinical trials that randomise individual subjects are costly and unwieldy. Such trials are also often criticised as having low external validity. We describe an approach to rapidly generate externally valid evidence of comparative safety and effectiveness using the example of two widely used diuretics for the management of hypertension. Methods and analysis The EVIDENCE (Evaluating Diuretics in Normal Care) study has a prospective, cluster-randomised, open-label, blinded end-point design. By randomising prescribing policy in primary care practices, the study compares the safety and effectiveness of commonly used diuretics in treating hypertension. Participating practices are randomised 1:1 to a policy of prescribing either indapamide or bendroflumethiazide when clinically indicated. Suitable patients who are not already taking the policy diuretic are switched accordingly. All patients taking the study medications are written to explaining the rationale for changing the prescribing policy and notifying them they can opt-out of any switch. The prescribing policies’ effectiveness and safety will be compared using rates of major adverse cardiovascular events (hospitalisation with myocardial infarction, heart failure or stroke or cardiovascular death), routinely collected in national healthcare administrative datasets. The study will seek to recruit 250 practices to provide a study population of approximately 50,000 individuals with a mean follow-up time of two years. A primary intention-to-treat time-to-event analysis will be used to estimate the relative effect of the two policies.Peer reviewe

The academic staff community of St Andrews, 1700-1900 : methods and definitions

Funding: St Andrews and the Legacies of Empire fellowship.This working paper explains the ‘Methods’ and ‘Definitions’ of the research underpinning ‘Section 4: the Academic Community’ and ‘Section 5: Ideas & Inquiry’ of the final report on St Andrews and the Legacies of Empire (2024). The text below was composed as the opening sections of a report on ‘The Academic Staff Community of St Andrews, 1700-1900’ presented to the Legacies of Empire steering group in March 2023 (which was itself an update on an internal report from August 2022). See also Working Paper C, on ‘Chancellors and the Legacies of Empire’ (March 2023)

Bonobo gestures, meanings, and context

Funding: The author is currently funded by the European Union’s 8th Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, under grant agreement no 802719.Although you might not know what a “gesture” is (yet), most people reading this book probably have some experience with gestures. Waving, bowing, clapping, nodding, pantomiming, and pointing, are just some of the many gestures that you may have encountered. As humans, we use many conventionalized gestures that we learn throughout our lives and regularly produce gestures alongside language (Goldin-Meadow 2005). One way of examining the evolution of human gesture, and potentially human language, is to study gestural communication in other species. Researchers in great ape gestural communication tend to define a gesture as an intentional, mechanically ineffective movement of the limbs, head, or body that is used to communicate (Townsend et al. 2016). All great apes use gestures to communicate (Call and Tomasello 2007), and there is growing evidence of gestural communication across the primate taxa (Macaca mulatta, M. nemestrina, M. arctoides, Maestripieri 2005; Macaca radiata, Gupta and Sinha 2016; Macaca Sylvanus, Hesler and Fischer 2007; Papio anubis, Bourjade et al. 2014)

Kinetic and thermodynamic characterization of human 4-oxo-L-proline reductase catalysis

Funding: This work was supported by a Cunningham Trust Ph.D. Award (Grant PhD-CT-21-04) to R.G.d.S., which supports a Ph.D. studentship to E.P.The enzyme 4-oxo-l-proline reductase (BDH2) has recently been identified in humans. BDH2, previously thought to be a cytosolic (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase, actually catalyzes the NADH-dependent reduction of 4-oxo-L-proline to cis-4-hydroxy-L-proline, a compound with known anticancer activity. Here we provide an initial mechanistic characterization of the BDH2-catalyzed reaction. Haldane relationships show the reaction equilibrium strongly favors the formation of cis-4-hydroxy-L-proline. Stereospecific deuteration of NADH C4 coupled with mass spectrometry analysis of the reaction established that the pro-S hydrogen is transferred. NADH is co-purified with the enzyme, and a binding kinetics competition assays with NAD+ defined dissociation rate constants for NADH of 0.13 s–1 at 5 °C and 7.2 s–1 at 25 °C. Isothermal titration calorimetry at 25 °C defined equilibrium dissociation constants of 0.48 and 29 μM for the BDH2:NADH and BDH2:NAD+ complexes, respectively. Differential scanning fluorimetry showed BDH2 is highly thermostabilized by NADH and NAD+. The kcat/KM pH–rate profile indicates that a group with a pKa of 7.3 and possibly another with a pKa of 8.7 must be deprotonated and protonated, respectively, for maximum binding of 4-oxo-L-proline and/or catalysis, while the kcat profile is largely insensitive to pH in the pH range used. The single-turnover rate constant is only 2-fold higher than kcat. This agrees with a pre-steady-state burst of substrate consumption, suggesting that a step after chemistry, possibly product release, contributes to limit kcat. A modest solvent viscosity effect on kcat indicates that this step is only partially diffusional. Taken together, these data suggest chemistry does not limit the reaction rate but may contribute to it.Peer reviewe

Insights to the formation of Zr-based metal–organic frameworks from in situ powder x-ray diffraction

Funding: We gratefully acknowledge Dr Aamod V Desai for fruitful discussions. RE and EEP thank the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie for a Liebig Fellowship. This work was supported by the European Research Council grant ADOR (Advanced Grant 787073). The authors acknowledge the EPSRC Light Element Analysis Facility Grant (EP/T019298/1), the EPSRC Strategic Equipment Resource Grant (EP/R023751/1), the EPSRC Core Equipment Grant (EP/V034138/1) and EP/W034824/1. EALB acknowledges the Allan Handsel Postgraduate Research Scholarship for Chemistry for studentship funding.This study sheds light on the kinetics of crystallisation of two Zr-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), namely Zr6-MOF-808 and Zr6-MOF-801, using in situ powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD). Once a room temperature synthesis for the two MOFs was designed for the very small scale, a successful series of in situ PXRD experiments over the range of 10 °C–40 °C yielded high quality quantitative information on the kinetics of crystallisation for both MOFs. These findings indicate the importance of the solubility of the linker and its connectivity: while the rate of nucleation and the resulting particle size of the MOF (Zr6-MOF-801), with the less soluble and lower connected linker, was strongly temperature dependent, the growth and particle size of Zr6-MOF-808 was hardly impacted by an increase in temperature. This work highlights the importance of careful preliminary research and helps to improve future MOF synthesis design to efficiently achieve the desired particle size distribution.Peer reviewe