The Environmental Context and Function of Burnt-Mounds : New Studies of Irish Fulachtaí Fiadh

The authors acknowledge funding from The Leverhulme Trust (F/00144/AI) and assistance from a large number of individuals including; Margaret Gowen (access to sites and assistance throughout),A. Ames, H, Essex (pollen processing), S. Rouillard & R. Smith (illustrations), C. McDermott, S. Bergerbrandt, all the staff of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, TVAS Ireland and CRDS. Excavation works and some post-excavation analysis was paid for my Bord Gáis and the National Roads Authority (now Transport Infrastructure Ireland). Thanks also to David Smith for access to the Maureen Girling collection and assistance with identifications.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprin

Changes in the trajectory of Long Covid symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination: community-based cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To estimate associations between COVID-19 vaccination and Long Covid symptoms in adults who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 prior to vaccination. DESIGN: Observational cohort study using individual-level interrupted time series analysis. SETTING: Random sample from the community population of the UK. PARTICIPANTS: 28,356 COVID-19 Infection Survey participants (mean age 46 years, 56% female, 89% white) aged 18 to 69 years who received at least their first vaccination after test-confirmed infection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Presence of Long Covid symptoms at least 12 weeks after infection over the follow-up period 3 February to 5 September 2021. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 141 days from first vaccination (among all participants) and 67 days from second vaccination (84% of participants). First vaccination was associated with an initial 12.8% decrease (95% confidence interval: -18.6% to -6.6%, p<0.001) in the odds of Long Covid, with the data being compatible with both increases and decreases in the trajectory (+0.3% per week, 95% CI: -0.6% to +1.2% per week, p=0.51) after this. Second vaccination was associated with an 8.8% decrease (95% CI: -14.1% to -3.1%, p=0.003) in the odds of Long Covid, with the odds subsequently decreasing by 0.8% (-1.2% to -0.4%, p<0.001) per week. There was no statistical evidence of heterogeneity in associations between vaccination and Long Covid by socio-demographic characteristics, health status, whether hospitalised with acute COVID-19, vaccine type (adenovirus vector or mRNA), or duration from infection to vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: : The likelihood of Long Covid symptoms reduced after COVID-19 vaccination, and there was evidence of a sustained improvement after the second dose, at least over the median follow-up time of 67 days. Vaccination may contribute to a reduction in the population health burden of Long Covid, though longer follow-up time is needed

Direct measurements of the extraordinary optical momentum and transverse spin-dependent force using a nano-cantilever

Known since Kepler's observation that a comet's tail is oriented away from the sun, radiation pressure stimulated remarkable discoveries in electromagnetism, quantum physics and relativity [1,2]. This phenomenon plays a crucial role in a variety of systems, from atomic [3-5] to astronomical [6] scales. The pressure of light is associated with the momentum of photons, and it is usually assumed that both the optical momentum and the radiation-pressure force are naturally aligned with the propagation of light, i.e., its wavevector. Here we report the direct observation of an extraordinary optical momentum and force directed perpendicular to the wavevector, and proportional to the optical spin (i.e., degree of circular polarization). Such optical force was recently predicted for evanescent waves [7] and other structured fields [8]. It can be associated with the enigmatic "spin-momentum" part of the Poynting vector, which was introduced by Belinfante in field theory 75 years ago [9-11]. We measure this unusual transverse momentum using a nano-cantilever capable of femto-Newton resolution, which is immersed in an evanescent optical field above the total-internal-reflecting glass surface. Furthermore, the transverse force we measure exhibits another polarization-dependent contribution determined by the imaginary part of the complex Poynting vector. By revealing new types of optical forces in structured fields, our experimental findings revisit fundamental momentum properties of light and bring a new twist to optomechanics.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, Supplementary Informatio

The environmental context and function of Burnt-Mounds: new studies of Irish Fulachtaí Fiadh

Burnt mounds, or fulachtaí fiadh as they are known in Ireland, are probably the most common prehistoric site type in Ireland and Britain. Typically Middle–Late Bronze Age in age (although both earlier and later examples are known), they are artefact-poor and rarely associated with settlements. The function of these sites has been much debated with the most commonly cited uses being for cooking, as steam baths or saunas, for brewing, tanning, or textile processing. A number of major infrastructural development schemes in Ireland in the years 2002–2007 revealed remarkable numbers of these mounds often associated with wood-lined troughs, many of which were extremely well-preserved. This afforded an opportunity to investigate them as landscape features using environmental techniques – specifically plant macrofossils and charcoal, pollen, beetles, and multi-element analyses. This paper summarises the results from eight sites from Ireland and compares them with burnt mound sites in Great Britain. The fulachtaí fiadh which are generally in clusters, are all groundwater-fed by springs, along floodplains and at the bases of slopes. The sites are associated with the clearance of wet woodland for fuel; most had evidence of nearby agriculture and all revealed low levels of grazing. Multi-element analysis at two sites revealed elevated heavy metal concentrations suggesting that off-site soil, ash or urine had been used in the trough. Overall the evidence suggests that the most likely function for these sites is textile production involving both cleaning and/or dyeing of wool and/or natural plant fibres and as a functionally related activity to hide cleaning and tanning. Whilst further research is clearly needed to confirm if fulachtaí fiadh are part of the ‘textile revolution’ we should also recognise their important role in the rapid deforestation of the wetter parts of primary woodland and the expansion of agriculture into marginal areas during the Irish and British Bronze Ages

Pathogenic mtDNA mutations causing mitochondrial myopathy: The need for muscle biopsy.

Pathogenic mitochondrial tRNA (mt-tRNA) gene mutations represent a prominent cause of primary mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-related disease despite accounting for only 5%-10% of the mitochondrial genome.(1,2) Although some common mt-tRNA mutations, such as the m.3243A>G mutation, exist, the majority are rare and have been reported in only a small number of cases.(3) The MT-TP gene, encoding mt-tRNA(Pro), is one of the less polymorphic mt-tRNA genes, and only 5 MT-TP mutations have been reported as a cause of mitochondrial muscle disease to date (table e-1 at Neurology.org/ng, P6-10). We report 5 patients with myopathic phenotypes, each harboring different pathogenic mutations in the MT-TP gene, highlighting the importance of MT-TP mutations as a cause of mitochondrial muscle disease and the requirement to study clinically relevant tissue

Estimating the effectiveness of first dose of COVID-19 vaccine against mortality in England: a quasi-experimental study

Estimating real-world vaccine effectiveness is vital to assess the COVID-19 vaccination programme and to inform the ongoing policy response. However, estimating vaccine effectiveness using observational data is inherently challenging because of the non-randomised design and potential for unmeasured confounding. We used a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to estimate vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 mortality in England using. the fact that people aged 80 or over were prioritised for the vaccine roll-out. The prioritisation led to a large discrepancy in vaccination rates in people 80–84 compared to those 75–79 at the beginning of the vaccination campaign. We found a corresponding difference in COVID-19 mortality, but not in non-COVID-19 mortality, suggesting that our approach appropriately addresses the issue of unmeasured confounding factors. Our results suggest that the first vaccine dose reduced the risk of COVID-19 death by 52.6% (95% Cl 26.6–84.2) in those aged 80, supporting existing evidence that a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has a strong protective effect against COVID-19 mortality in older adults. The RDD estimate of vaccine effectiveness is only slightly lower to previously published studies using different methods, suggesting that these estimates are unlikely to be substantially affected by unmeasured confounding factors

Risk of death following COVID-19 vaccination or positive SARS-CoV-2 test in young people in England

Rare but serious cardiac disease side effects have been linked to COVID-19 vaccinations, especially in young people. Here, the authors find very little evidence of an association between vaccination and mortality, except for in females after a non mRNA vaccine, but show an increased risk of death following COVID-19 infectio