The Changing Narratives of Death, Dying, and HIV in the United Kingdom

Death and infection were closely linked from the start of the HIV epidemic, until successful treatments became available. The initial impact of mostly young, gay men dying from HIV was powerful in shaping UK responses. Neoliberal discourses developed at the same time, particularly focusing on how citizens (rather than the state) should take responsibility to improve health. Subsequently “successful ageing” became an allied discourse, further marginalising death discussions. Our study reflected on a broad range of meanings around death within the historical UK epidemic, to examine how dying narratives shape contemporary HIV experiences. Fifty-one participants including people living with HIV, professionals, and activists were recruited for semistructured interviews. Assuming a symbolic interactionist framework, analysis highlighted how HIV deaths were initially experienced as not only traumatic but also energizing, leading to creativity. With effective antiretrovirals, dying changed shape (e.g., loss of death literacy), and better integration of palliative care was recommended

Overcoming device unreliability with continuous learning in a population coding based computing system

The brain, which uses redundancy and continuous learning to overcome the unreliability of its components, provides a promising path to building computing systems that are robust to the unreliability of their constituent nanodevices. In this work, we illustrate this path by a computing system based on population coding with magnetic tunnel junctions that implement both neurons and synaptic weights. We show that equipping such a system with continuous learning enables it to recover from the loss of neurons and makes it possible to use unreliable synaptic weights (i.e. low energy barrier magnetic memories). There is a tradeoff between power consumption and precision because low energy barrier memories consume less energy than high barrier ones. For a given precision, there is an optimal number of neurons and an optimal energy barrier for the weights that leads to minimum power consumption

Ultra-high-frequency piecewise-linear chaos using delayed feedback loops

We report on an ultra-high-frequency (> 1 GHz), piecewise-linear chaotic system designed from low-cost, commercially available electronic components. The system is composed of two electronic time-delayed feedback loops: A primary analog loop with a variable gain that produces multi-mode oscillations centered around 2 GHz and a secondary loop that switches the variable gain between two different values by means of a digital-like signal. We demonstrate experimentally and numerically that such an approach allows for the simultaneous generation of analog and digital chaos, where the digital chaos can be used to partition the system's attractor, forming the foundation for a symbolic dynamics with potential applications in noise-resilient communications and radar

Violence brief interventions: a rapid review

Provision of a Violence Brief Intervention (VBI) to young men undergoing treatment for a violent injury may represent a teachable moment for the prevention of future interpersonal violence in Scotland. Prior to intervention design, a rapid review of the research literature was necessary to examine existing programmes. After title and abstract screening, eight distinct VBIs were identified from full texts. Whilst none of the programmes were a perfect match for our intervention goals, they did demonstrate the potential effectiveness of brief interventions for violence prevention at both cognitive and behavioural levels. Key themes of successful interventions included brief motivational interviewing as an effective method of engaging with at-risk participants and encouraging change, the utility of social norms approaches for correcting peer norm misperceptions, the usefulness of working with victims of violence in medical settings (particularly oral and maxillofacial surgeries), the importance of addressing the role of alcohol after violent injury, the advantages of a computer-therapist hybrid model of delivery, and the need for adequate follow-up evaluation as part of a randomised control trial. This information has been used to design a VBI which is currently under evaluation

The Phosphatic chalk of the Mons Basin, Belgium:petrography and geochemistry of the Ciply Phosphatic Chalk and implications on its genesis

Abstract. The Ciply Phosphatic Chalk (CPC) has been exploited for its enrichment in phosphorus in the early part of the twentieth century to produce fertilisers. Regained interests stimulated new research to characterise the potential for rare earth elements endowment and propose a genetic model for the formation of this phosphate deposit. This work studied the CPC using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, cathodoluminescence and geochemical analyses. New insights into the formation of the deposits have been obtained regarding the mode of formation of the deposit. First, the deposit clearly shows evidence of alternating phase of phosphatisation and reworking giving rise to the formation of phosintraclasts which are the dominant phosphatic grains of the deposit. Weak or moderate upwellings brought nutrients to the Mons Basin during a period of sea-level highstand. Negative Ce-anomaly and the presence of bioturbation strongly argue against the development of an important oxygen-minimum zone indicating a low-productivity system. In these conditions, Fe-oxyhydroxides might have played an important role in scavenging phosphorus from the water column to the sediment. Phosphatisation seems to have occurred in the sediment when supersaturation relative to francolite was reached in the sediment pore water. Reworking processes probably consisted of wave action during storms. The REE are hosted in francolite and possess an average ΣREE of 350 ppm for the Hyon borehole. Their shale-normalised patterns are similar to other Cretaceous phosphate deposits but also to Cambrian deposits of China which typically display negative Ce-anomaly and HREE depletion. Post-depositional processes are only evident for the “phosphatic sands” which are strongly enriched in both phosphorus and REE. Further studies should aim to better constrain the paleoenvironmental conditions of deposition using stable isotopic studies. LA-ICP-MS studies should be able to give interesting insights into the compositional variations of the phosintraclasts thus giving elements to better characterise the genetic model of the CPC

Ageing with HIV

Applying Fraser’s inequalities framework to our UK-based HIV and Later Life (HALL) study, we show that, for the growing population of older people living with HIV (PLWH), HIV intersects with ethnicity, sex, sexuality, stigma, and ageism to produce bivalent identities. These shape their experience of ageing with HIV and intersect with economic factors, the social status order, and statutory policy to subject them to socioeconomic and cultural injustices only roughly captured by Fraser’s three domains of inequality. Under recognition, the stigmatization of HIV and its exacerbation by normative ageist expectations threaten social relationships. Under resources, older PLWH’s disproportionate financial disadvantage, linked to interrupted work histories, uncertain migration status, and recent changes to benefits on which PLWH are disproportionately reliant and whose new criteria disadvantage them, make access to support from others living with HIV and from HIV organizations even more essential for mental health and wellbeing. Finally, under representation, stigma and homophobia in care settings may undermine the quality of long-term care, and defunding of HIV organizations and welfare benefit changes via neo-liberal policies and austerity measures create political disenfranchisement and barriers to social participation. Thus, Fraser’s clear-cut domains imperfectly capture factors undermining underlying causes of older PLWH’s disadvantage: HIV-specific supports (resources) established to compensate for difficulties emanating from Fraser’s recognition and resources domains are increasingly threatened by agents operating within Fraser’s representation domain. Our conclusion considers other sources of older PLWH’s underrepresentation: their waning participation in activism and advocacy on their own behalf, and inadequate attention by non-HIV organizations

Cosmological constraints from CMB distortion

We examine bounds on adiabatic and isocurvature density fluctuations from $\mu$-type spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Studies of such distortion are complementary to CMB measurements of the spectral index and its running, and will help to constrain these parameters on significantly smaller scales. We show that a detection on the order of $\mu \sim 10^{-7}$ would strongly be at odds with the standard cosmological model of a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic perturbations. Further, we find that given the current CMB constraints on the isocurvature mode amplitude, a nearly scale-invariant isocurvature mode (common in many curvaton models) cannot produce significant $\mu$-distortion. Finally, we show that future experiments will strongly constrain the amplitude of the isocurvature modes with a highly blue spectrum as predicted by certain axion models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, version 3 contains a new figure showing the contribution to \mu_k as a function of k, and a clarification regarding the acoustic wave energy, accompanied by a related acknowledgement and referenc