Ocean-rafted pumice constrains postglacial relative sea-level and supports Holocene ice cap survival

Distally deposited tephra from explosive volcanic eruptions can be a powerful tool for precise dating and correlation of sedimentary archives and landforms. However, the morphostratigraphic and chronological potential of ocean-rafted pumice has been under-utilized considering its long observational history and widespread distribution on modern and palaeo-shorelines around the world. Here we analyze the geochemical composition and elevation data of 60 samples of ocean-rafted pumice collected since 1958 from raised beaches on Svalbard. Comparison of pumice data with postglacial relative sea-level history suggests eight distinct pumice rafting events throughout the North Atlantic during the Middle and Late Holocene. Analyzed ocean-rafted pumice exhibit consistent silicic composition characteristic of deposits from Iceland’s volcanic system, Katla. Eruption-triggered jökulhlaups are key drivers of the transport of pumice from the Katla caldera to beyond the coast of Iceland and into the surface currents of the North Atlantic Ocean. Thus, the correlation of distinct, high-concentration pumice horizons from Katla deposited along raised Middle Holocene beach ridges in Svalbard further advocates for the persistence of the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap through the Holocene thermal maximum

A Web-Based Cognitive Bias Modification Intervention (Re-train Your Brain) for Emerging Adults With Co-occurring Social Anxiety and Hazardous Alcohol Use: Protocol for a Multiarm Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use and anxiety disorders commonly co-occur, resulting in a more severe clinical presentation and poorer response to treatment. Research has shown that approach bias modification (ApBM) and interpretation bias modification (IBM) cognitive retraining interventions can be efficacious adjunctive treatments that improve outcomes for alcohol use and social anxiety, respectively. However, the acceptability, feasibility, and clinical utility of combining ApBM and IBM programs to optimize treatments among comorbid samples are unknown. It is also unclear whether integrating ApBM and IBM within each training session or alternating them between each session is more acceptable and efficacious. OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the protocol for a randomized controlled pilot trial investigating the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the Re-train Your Brain intervention-an adjunct web-based ApBM+IBM program-among a clinical sample of emerging adults with hazardous alcohol use and social anxiety. METHODS: The study involves a three-arm randomized controlled pilot trial in which treatment-seeking emerging adults (18-30 years) with co-occurring hazardous alcohol use and social anxiety will be individually randomized to receive the Re-train Your Brain integrated program, delivered with 10 biweekly sessions focusing on both social anxiety and alcohol each week, plus treatment as usual (TAU; ie, the model of care provided in accordance with standard practice at their service; n=30); the Re-train Your Brain alternating program, delivered with 10 biweekly sessions focusing on social anxiety one week and alcohol the next week, plus TAU (n=30); or TAU only (n=30). Primary outcomes include feasibility (uptake, follow-up rates, treatment adherence, attrition, and adverse events) and acceptability (system usability, client satisfaction, user experience, and training format preference). Secondary efficacy outcomes include changes in alcohol approach and interpretation biases, social anxiety, and alcohol use (eg, drinks per day, binge drinking, drinking motives, severity of dependence, and cravings). The primary end point will be posttreatment (6 weeks postbaseline), with a secondary end point at 3 months postbaseline. Descriptive statistics will be conducted for primary outcomes, whereas intention-to-treat, multilevel mixed effects analysis for repeated measures will be performed for secondary outcomes. RESULTS: This study is funded from 2019 to 2023 by Australian Rotary Health. Recruitment is expected to be completed by mid-2022 to late 2022, with follow-ups completed by early 2023. CONCLUSIONS: This study will be the first to evaluate whether an ApBM+IBM program is acceptable to treatment-seeking, emerging adults and whether it can be feasibly delivered via the web, in settings where it will ultimately be used (eg, at home). The findings will broaden our understanding of the types of programs that emerging adults will engage with and whether the program may be an efficacious treatment option for this comorbidity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12620001273976; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=364131. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/28667

Scaling of the B and D meson spectrum in lattice QCD

We give results for the $B$ and the $D$ meson spectrum using NRQCD on the lattice in the quenched approximation. The masses of radially and orbitally excited states are calculated as well as $S$-wave hyperfine and $P$-wave fine structure. Radially excited $P$-states are observed for the first time. Radial and orbital excitation energies match well to experiment, as does the strange-non-strange $S$-wave splitting. We compare the light and heavy quark mass dependence of various splittings to experiment. Our $B$-results cover a range in lattice spacings of more than a factor of two. Our $D$-results are from a single lattice spacing and we compare them to numbers in the literature from finer lattices using other methods. We see no significant dependence of physical results on the lattice spacing. PACS: 11.15.Ha 12.38.Gc 14.40.Lb 14.40.NdComment: 78 pages, 29 tables, 30 figures Revised version. Minor corrections to spelling and wordin

"Author! Author!" : Shakespeare and biography

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t714579626~db=all Copyright Informa / Taylor & Francis Group. DOI: 10.1080/17450910902764454Since 1996, not a year has passed without the publication of at least one Shakespeare biography. Yet for many years the place of the author in the practice of understanding literary works has been problematized, and even on occasions eliminated. Criticism reads the “works”, and may or may not refer to an author whose “life” contributed to their meaning. Biography seeks the author in the works, the personality that precedes the works and gives them their characteristic shape and meaning. But the form of literary biography addresses the unusual kind of “life” that puts itself into “works”, and this is particularly challenging where the “works” predominate massively over the salient facts of the “life”. This essay surveys the current terrain of Shakespeare biography, and considers the key questions raised by the medium: can we know anything of Shakespeare's “personality” from the facts of his life and the survival of his works? What is the status of the kind of speculation that inevitably plays a part in biographical reconstruction? Are biographers in the end telling us as much about themselves as they tell us about Shakespeare?Peer reviewe

Meta-analysis of type 2 Diabetes in African Americans Consortium

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 × 10(-94)<P<5 × 10(-8), odds ratio (OR)  = 1.09 to 1.36). Fine-mapping revealed that 88 of 158 previously identified T2D or glucose homeostasis loci demonstrated nominal to highly significant association (2.2 × 10(-23) < locus-wide P<0.05). These novel and previously identified loci yielded a sibling relative risk of 1.19, explaining 17.5% of the phenotypic variance of T2D on the liability scale in African Americans. Overall, this study identified two novel susceptibility loci for T2D in African Americans. A substantial number of previously reported loci are transferable to African Americans after accounting for linkage disequilibrium, enabling fine mapping of causal variants in trans-ethnic meta-analysis studies.Peer reviewe

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Background: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods: We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors—the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings: Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57·8% (95% CI 56·6–58·8) of global deaths and 41·2% (39·8–42·8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211·8 million [192·7 million to 231·1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148·6 million [134·2 million to 163·1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143·1 million [125·1 million to 163·5 million]), high BMI (120·1 million [83·8 million to 158·4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113·3 million [103·9 million to 123·4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103·1 million [90·8 million to 115·1 million]), high total cholesterol (88·7 million [74·6 million to 105·7 million]), household air pollution (85·6 million [66·7 million to 106·1 million]), alcohol use (85·0 million [77·2 million to 93·0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83·0 million [49·3 million to 127·5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation: Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation