UCC Open Arboretum Project: Trees as a teaching and outreach tool for environmental and plant education

The University College Cork (UCC) Open Arboretum Project aims to re-imagine the original purpose of the University’s tree collection – as a teaching tool. The arboretum represents a unique on-campus learning space which has been under-utilised for teaching in recent times. The arboretum has the capacity to engage students, staff and visitors in a tangible way with important global issues (e.g. the climate emergency and biodiversity loss). It is also an opportunity to combat ‘plant blindness’, i.e. the ambivalence shown to plants in our environment compared to often charismatic animal species. Wandersee and Schussler (1999) coined the term “plant blindness” to describe the preference for animals rather than plants that they saw in their own biology students. Knapp (2019) has argued that, in fact, humans are less ‘plant blind’ and more ‘everything-but-vertebrates-blind’ with school curricula and television programming over-emphasising the role of vertebrates at the expense of other groups of organisms. Botanic gardens and arboreta have long been used for educational purposes. Sellman and Bogner (2012) have shown that learning about climate change in a botanic garden led to a significant shortterm and long-term knowledge gain for high-school students compared to students who learned in a classroom setting. There is also evidence that learning outside as part of a science curriculum results in higher levels of overall motivation in the students and a greater feeling of competency (Dettweiler et al., 2017). The trees in the UCC collection, like other urban trees also provide a range of benefits outside of the educational sphere. Large, mature trees, with well-developed crowns and large leaf surface area have the capacity to store more carbon than smaller trees. They provide shade as well as food and habitats for animal species as well providing ‘symbolic, religious and historic’ value in public common spaces. Such benefits have recently been summarised by Cavender and Donnolly (2019) and aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities by Turner-Skoff and Cavender (2019). A stakeholder survey has been conducted to evaluate how the tree collection is currently used and a tour of the most significant trees in the collection has been developed. The tour encourages participants to explore the benefits of plants through many lenses including recreation, medicine and commemoration. The open arboretum project brings learning beyond the classroom and acts as an entry point for learning in a variety of disciplines, not least plant science and environmental education generally

Proton and Li-Ion Permeation through Graphene with Eight-Atom-Ring Defects

Defect-free graphene is impermeable to gases and liquids but highly permeable to thermal protons. Atomic-scale defects such as vacancies, grain boundaries and Stone-Wales defects are predicted to enhance graphene's proton permeability and may even allow small ions through, whereas larger species such as gas molecules should remain blocked. These expectations have so far remained untested in experiment. Here we show that atomically thin carbon films with a high density of atomic-scale defects continue blocking all molecular transport, but their proton permeability becomes ~1,000 times higher than that of defect-free graphene. Lithium ions can also permeate through such disordered graphene. The enhanced proton and ion permeability is attributed to a high density of 8-carbon-atom rings. The latter pose approximately twice lower energy barriers for incoming protons compared to the 6-atom rings of graphene and a relatively low barrier of ~0.6 eV for Li ions. Our findings suggest that disordered graphene could be of interest as membranes and protective barriers in various Li-ion and hydrogen technologies

Pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of LDL cholesterol response to statins

Statins effectively lower LDL cholesterol levels in large studies and the observed interindividual response variability may be partially explained by genetic variation. Here we perform a pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in studies addressing the LDL cholesterol response to statins, including up to 18,596 statin-treated subjects. We validate the most promising signals in a further 22,318 statin recipients and identify two loci, SORT1/CELSR2/PSRC1 and SLCO1B1, not previously identified in GWAS. Moreover, we confirm the previously described associations with APOE and LPA. Our findings advance the understanding of the pharmacogenetic architecture of statin response

Post-pneumonectomy syndrome: a systematic review of the current evidence and treatment options

Objectives: Post-pneumonectomy syndrome (PPS) is rare and predominantly characterised by dynamic airway obstruction due to mediastinal rotation at any time point following pneumonectomy. The objective of this systematic review was to identify the optimal treatment strategy for PPS based on subjective symptomatic relief, objective radiological imaging, and treatment durability. Methods: A systematic review was performed up to and including February 2022 based on the "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses" guidelines. All studies that presented the management of symptomatic patients > 16 years of age with radiologically confirmed PPS were included. The primary outcome was the identification of the optimal treatment strategy and the secondary outcome was durability of the treatment. The Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine level was assigned to each study. Results: A total of 330 papers were identified and reviewed; 41 studies met the inclusion criteria. Data including patient demographics, indication for initial pneumonectomy, presenting symptoms, management approach, outcomes, and follow-up were assessed and analysed. Management approaches were divided into three categories: (a) mediastinal repositioning using implant prostheses; (b) endobronchial stenting; (c) other corrective procedures. One hundred and four patients were identified in total and of those, 87 underwent mediastinal repositioning with insertion of a prosthetic implant. Complications included over- or under-filling of the prosthesis (8.5%) and implant leakage (8.9%). Conclusion: Management of PPS using a prosthetic implant to reposition the mediastinum is the treatment of choice. Key adjuncts to optimise surgical approach and minimise complications include pre-operative CT volumetric analysis to guide implant size and intra-operative transoesophageal echocardiography to guide mediastinal repositioning.</p

Nanosecond Sampling of the Radio Sky with I-LOFAR's Transient Buffer Boards (TBB)

<p>The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is an interferometeric array that operates at 10-240 MHz, with a central hub in the Netherlands and 13 international stations across Europe [1]. LOFAR’s Transient Buffer Boards (TBBs) allow upwards of 5 s of data to be recorded at a temporal resolution of ~5.12 ns. Here, we described the development of a data acquisition system to capture TBB observations of solar variability from the Irish LOFAR station (I-LOFAR) at Birr Castle in the Irish Midlands. The system consists of a head node controlling 4 processing nodes offering 64 GB of RAM, as well as an initial 48 TB RAID6 storage node. </p> <p>We present first-light TBB time series data, along with all-sky observations data from a subset of I-LOFAR’s Low Band Antennas (LBAs). We also discuss the development of a software based beamformer for TBB data with plans to observe the sun with dynamic spectra using nanosecond time resolution. This could give a new insight into rapidly varying phenomena in the solar atmosphere. </p

Photoaccelerated Water Dissociation Across One-Atom-Thick Electrodes

Recent experiments demonstrated that interfacial water dissociation (H2O ⇆ H+ + OH–) could be accelerated exponentially by an electric field applied to graphene electrodes, a phenomenon related to the Wien effect. Here we report an order-of-magnitude acceleration of the interfacial water dissociation reaction under visible-light illumination. This process is accompanied by spatial separation of protons and hydroxide ions across one-atom-thick graphene and enhanced by strong interfacial electric fields. The found photoeffect is attributed to the combination of graphene’s perfect selectivity with respect to protons, which prevents proton–hydroxide recombination, and to proton transport acceleration by the Wien effect, which occurs in synchrony with the water dissociation reaction. Our findings provide fundamental insights into ion dynamics near atomically thin proton-selective interfaces and suggest that strong interfacial fields can enhance and tune very fast ionic processes, which is of relevance for applications in photocatalysis and designing reconfigurable materials