The development of arable cultivation in the south-east of England and its relationship with vegetation cover: A honeymoon period for biodiversity?

The onset of prehistoric farming brought unprecedented changes to landscapes and their biodiversity. Past biodiversity patterns are broadly understood for different parts of Europe, and demonstrate trajectories that have been linked to prehistoric and historic demographic transitions, and associated land-use practices. To our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to directly link evidence of agricultural practice from the archaeological record to biodiversity patterns. Records of fossil pollen are used to estimate plant and landscape diversity patterns, and novel approaches are employed to analyse 1194 harmonised archaeobotanical samples (plant macrofossil remains) spanning the prehistoric and Roman periods, from southern England. We demonstrate changes in the use of crops and gathered edible plants and non-linear trends in cultivation practices. Whilst, overall, cereal production is characterised by ever larger and extensive regimes, different trajectories are evident for most of early prehistory, the Middle Iron Age and the Late Roman period. Comparisons with the Shannon diversity of fossil pollen records from the same region suggest a positive relationship between developing agricultural regimes and landscape scale biodiversity during the prehistoric period. The Roman period represents a tipping point in the relationship between expanding agriculture and pollen diversity, with declining pollen diversity evident in the records from the region

RESCALE: Review and Simulate Climate and Catchment Responses at Burrishoole

The climate of the Burrishoole catchment is projected to change significantly over the present century. Previous research of the catchment identified a scientific gap in knowledge in terms of understanding the implications of present and projected future changes in stream flow, water temperature, pH levels and DO concentrations on fish productivity in the catchment. To address this, a multidisciplinary team of scientists undertook an analysis of both present and likely future climate impacts on the catchment with a view to furthering the understanding of the inter-linkages between climate, climate change, and the freshwater ecosystem. The research findings outlined in the report provide climate change information at the catchment scale to assist catchment stakeholders in integrating climate change considerations into their decision-making processes. The report presents an in-depth assessment of the climate and environmental datasets from the catchment to establish if changes have occurred over the period of record. In order to assess the likely impacts of future changes in climate on the catchment, regional climate projections were developed and subsequently employed to simulate likely responses in stream flow and temperature, DOC and DO for the present century. The projected changes in both the climate and water-quality were then used to provide a basis for assessing impacts on fish growth and survival rates of salmonid and eel species in the catchment. The report provides a useful template for future studies, not just in the Burrishoole catchment but for other ecologically important catchments. The findings from the report are relevant to policy makers at the national scale; catchment managers at the regional scale; and, specifically, to stakeholders in the Burrishoole catchment, in developing adaptive responses to climate change.Funded under the Marine Research Sub-programme of the National Development Plan (2007-’13), as part of the Sea Change Strategy.Funder: Marine Institut

AI Workflow, External Validation, and Development in Eye Disease Diagnosis

Timely disease diagnosis is challenging due to limited clinical availability and growing burdens. Although artificial intelligence (AI) has shown expert-level diagnostic accuracy, a lack of downstream accountability, including workflow integration, external validation, and further development, continues to hinder its clinical adoption. To address gaps in the downstream accountability of medical AI through a case study on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) diagnosis and severity classification. This diagnostic study developed and evaluated an AI-assisted diagnostic and classification workflow for AMD. Four rounds of diagnostic assessments (accuracy and time) were conducted with 24 clinicians from 12 institutions. Each round was randomized and alternated between manual (clinician diagnosis) and manual plus AI (clinician assisted by AI diagnosis), with a 1-month washout period. In total, 2880 AMD risk features were evaluated across 960 images from 240 Age-Related Eye Disease Study patient samples, both with and without AI assistance. For further development, the original DeepSeeNet model was enhanced into the DeepSeeNet+ model using 39 196 additional images from the US population and tested on 3 datasets, including an external set from Singapore. Age-related macular degeneration risk features. The F1 score for accuracy (Wilcoxon rank sum test) and diagnostic time (linear mixed-effects model) were measured, comparing manual vs manual plus AI. For further development, the F1 score (Wilcoxon rank sum test) was again used. Among 240 patients (mean [SD] age, 68.5 [5.0] years; 127 female [53%]), AI assistance significantly improved accuracy for 23 of 24 clinicians, increasing the mean F1 score from 37.71 (95% CI, 27.83-44.17) to 45.52 (95% CI, 39.01-51.61), with some improvements exceeding 50%. Manual diagnosis initially took an estimated 39.8 seconds (95% CI, 34.1-45.6 seconds) per patient, whereas manual plus AI saved 10.3 seconds (95% CI, -15.1 to -5.5 seconds) and remained faster by 6.9 seconds (95% CI, 0.2-13.7 seconds) to 8.6 seconds (95% CI, 1.8-15.3 seconds) in subsequent rounds. However, combining manual and AI did not always yield the highest accuracy or efficiency, underscoring challenges in explainability and trust. The DeepSeeNet+ model performed better in 3 test sets, achieving a significantly higher F1 score than the Singapore cohort (52.43 [95% CI, 44.38-61.00] vs 38.95 [95% CI, 30.50-47.45]). In this diagnostic study, AI assistance was associated with improved accuracy and time efficiency for AMD diagnosis. Further development is essential for enhancing AI generalizability across diverse populations. These findings highlight the need for downstream accountability during early-stage clinical evaluations of medical AI

Theorising terminology development: Frames from language acquisition and the philosophy of science

The manner in which our conceptualisation and practice of terminology development can be informed by processes of knowledge change in child language development and a paradigm shift in disciplines, has been relatively underexplored. As a result, insights into what appears to be fundamental processes of knowledge change have not been employed to reflect on terminology development, its dynamics, requirements and relationship to related fields. In this article, frames of knowledge change in child language development and the philosophy of science are used to examine terminology development as knowledge growth that is signalled lexico-semantically through a range of transformations: addition, deletion, redefinition and reorganisation. The analysis is shown to have implications for work procedures, expertise types, critique, and for the relationships between terminology development and translating

The use of the repertory grid technique to examine staff beliefs about clients with dual diagnosis

Aim: This paper reports a study exploring how individual psychiatric staff construes clients with psychosis who misuse substances.Background: A dual diagnosis of substance misuse is common in clients with psychosis. Previous studies have suggested that psychiatric staff feel ill-equipped to work with these clients, and hold negative views of them, affecting client care and recovery. Understanding staff attitudes can inform training and practice.Method: Twelve psychiatric nursing staff working in an inpatient service for adults with enduring mental health difficulties in England were interviewed. Using a repertory grid technique, staff were asked to describe clients and acquaintances who did and did not misuse substances, themselves and colleagues.Findings: All staff made critical judgements of some clients, particularly clients with dual diagnosis, but were less judgemental towards acquaintances who misused substances. Staff who used fewer dimensions to construe people appeared to make a clear distinction between clients and non-clients. This distinction was not apparent for staff with more cognitively complex construct systems. Specific factors that could be implicated in the organization of individuals' construct systems included personal experience of services as a carer; these staff made less distinction between clients and non-clients.Conclusion: Further training is needed for staff working with clients with a dual diagnosis. Training packages need to consider the personal experiences and views of staff. Reducing the boundaries between staff and clients might enable staff to better understand the actions of clients and improve client care

Consideration of metabolite efflux in radiolabelled choline kinetics

Hypoxia is a complex microenvironmental condition known to regulate choline kinase α (CHKA) activity and choline transport through transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and, therefore may confound uptake of choline radiotracer [ 18F]fluoromethyl-[1,2- 2H4]-choline ([ 18 F]-D4-FCH). The aim of this study was to investigate how hypoxia affects choline radiotracer dynamics. Three underlying mechanisms by which hypoxia could potentially alter the uptake of the choline radiotracer, [ 18 F]-D4-FCH, were investigated: 18F-D4-FCH import, CHKA phosphorylation activity, and efflux of [18 F]-D4-FCH and its phosphorylated product [ 18F]-D4-FCHP. Effects of hypoxia on [18 F]-D4-FCH uptake were studied in CHKA-overexpressing cell lines of prostate cancer, PC-3, and breast cancer, MDA-MB-231 cells. Mechanisms of radiotracer efflux were assessed by cell uptake and immunofluorescence in vitro, and examined in vivo (N=24). Mathematical modelling methodology was further developed to verify efflux hypothesis using [18 F]-D4-FCH dynamic PET scans from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (N=17). We report a novel finding involving export of phosphorylated [18F]-D4-FCH, [18 F]-D4-FCHP, via HIF-1α-responsive efflux transporters including ABCB4 when HIF-1α level is augmented. This is supported by graphical analysis of human data with a compartmental model (M2T6k+k5) that accounts for efflux. Hypoxia/HIF-1α increases the efflux of phosphorylated radiolabelled choline species, thus supporting consideration of efflux in modelling of radiotracer dynamics