Three-dimensional coherent X-ray diffraction imaging of a ceramic nanofoam: determination of structural deformation mechanisms

Ultra-low density polymers, metals, and ceramic nanofoams are valued for their high strength-to-weight ratio, high surface area and insulating properties ascribed to their structural geometry. We obtain the labrynthine internal structure of a tantalum oxide nanofoam by X-ray diffractive imaging. Finite element analysis from the structure reveals mechanical properties consistent with bulk samples and with a diffusion limited cluster aggregation model, while excess mass on the nodes discounts the dangling fragments hypothesis of percolation theory.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 30 reference

Progress in Three-Dimensional Coherent X-Ray Diffraction Imaging

The Fourier inversion of phased coherent diffraction patterns offers images without the resolution and depth-of-focus limitations of lens-based tomographic systems. We report on our recent experimental images inverted using recent developments in phase retrieval algorithms, and summarize efforts that led to these accomplishments. These include ab-initio reconstruction of a two-dimensional test pattern, infinite depth of focus image of a thick object, and its high-resolution (~10 nm resolution) three-dimensional image. Developments on the structural imaging of low density aerogel samples are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, X-Ray Microscopy 2005, Himeji, Japa

Engineering molecular chains in carbon nanotubes

A range of mono- and bis-functionalised fullerenes have been synthesised and inserted into single-walled carbon nanotubes. The effect of the size and shape of the functional groups of the fullerenes on the resultant 1D arrays formed within the nanotubes was investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The addition of non-planar, sterically bulky chains to the fullerene cage results in highly ordered 1D structures in which the fullerenes are evenly spaced along the internal nanotube cavity. Theoretical calculations reveal that the functional groups interact with neighbouring fullerene cages to space the fullerenes evenly within the confines of the nanotube. The addition of two functional groups to opposite sides of the fullerene cages results in a further increase in the separation of the fullerene cages within the nanotubes at the cost of lower nanotube filling rates.This work was financially supported by FWF project I83-N20 (ESF IMPrESS), the Royal Society, the European Research Council (ERC), "Fundacao para a Ciencia ea Tecnologia" through the program Ciencia 2008, the project SeARCH (Services and Advanced Research Computing with HTC/HPC clusters) and Nottingham Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Centre (NNNC)

Emerging dietary patterns: impact on child health

What we eat today and how we decide to produce sufficient food to meet both demand and nutritional requirements will determine the availability, diversity and quality of diets for future generations. Acceptability and normalisation of new dietary patterns must be prioritised to the same extent as education on environmental sustainability and health, because these are important social levers. They can help to reduce the psychosocial barriers and anxieties often connected to the behaviour changes that are needed to transition away from the traditional Western eating habits that are now increasingly subject to critical scrutiny. Without understanding the motivations and facilitators to change eating habits (and then designing and amplifying solutions which make those changes attractive and compelling in the modern world) positive changes to young people’s health and their environment through better food will not come quickly enough to halt potentially catastrophic consequences for people and planet. Changing consumption is seen by experts as the most powerful lever compared to food waste reduction or more efficient food production methods and technological solutions. There is simply not enough on Earth to sustain the increase of intensification required to continue feeding a global population on its current trajectory with a diet so rich in animal produce. However, radical behaviour modification is challenging and therefore cross-sector, bold and perhaps unorthodox leadership is necessary to inspire alteration in the food system, which will have a knock-on effect in terms of changing food environments and therefore food perceptions, narratives and behaviours. There are no ‘quick fix’ solutions, but what is undeniable is that populations can only make effective shifts in dietary patterns if government and the food industry help them to make those changes. This requires budgetary investment in public health information and the implementation of policies that promote ways to eat healthily that are also affordable and environmentally sustainable. The aim is to offer food that tastes as good as it can be made to look so that uptake is maximised and the benefits are cumulative. The inevitable upheaval incurred by making any alteration to entrenched patterns of consumption that have been centuries in the making should not be underestimated, but carrying on as before is no longer credible nor desirable. The aim is to offer ‘nutritious’ food. ‘If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon’ Sir David Attenborough. This Report is our initial contribution to a conversation that has only just begun.It is unlikely to be the last

'In the wake of a pandemic': dietary patterns and impact on child health after COVID-19

INTRODUCTION Our companion Report: ‘Emerging Dietary Patterns: Impact on Child Health’ discussed ways in which traditional dietary patterns in both the UK and internationally were changing. In concluding we argued that: ‘The interconnected nature of food, climate and health is the biggest challenge we face, but therein also lies its strength and boundless potential should we act with the necessary urgency, creativity and commitment. It is at the local level – supported by national policy – that the largest returns from such pro-activity will accrue.’ We continued: ‘The food that we eat here and now can change the world.’ adding: ‘If we are serious about protecting and restoring natural environments, safeguarding the health and wellbeing of our children today and restoring and protecting that of future generations, then there is only one solution. We must change it.’ Then came Covid-19 and change was imposed – with the arrival and experience of a pandemic. The full outcome of Covid-19; its effects and repercussions not just for the present generations but for the many that will succeed it cannot be estimated now. In the 102 years since Spanish ‘flu devastated an older world order, we are still learning its lessons today. But what has become immediately apparent is that what we eat and how we eat has undergone a revolution in four short months. 6 ‘Coronavirus pandemic will change the food industry and eating habits forever, says CEO of Food and Drink Federation, Ian Wright.’ ([email protected] 7 April 2020) ‘To prevent the next pandemic we must take on factory farming.’ (Jonathan Safran Foer and Aaron Gross, The Guardian, 21 April 2020.) ‘Covid-19 will definitely be an accelerator on the conscious consumer patterns that we see unfolding. As the consumer gets more conscious, we also see more interest in sustainable, locally produced food systems solutions.’ (David Brandes, Food Navigator, 17 April 2020.) ‘The virus is a warning that Britain’s food system must change,’ (‘The Guardian,’ 18th April 2020). It would also be unjust to address the Covid-19 pandemic in isolation without highlighting its interactions with another global force to become manifest in the same era in response to an incident in the US; namely, the police killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Pandemics, poor health, systemic inequalities and a lack of environmental protections harm black, ethnic minority and disadvantaged communities in all countries more than any other groups, and the two events have shed a harsh light on those realities and their frightening interconnections – such as the higher death rate in BAME communities including healthcare workers on the frontline (Public Health England, June 2020, ‘Beyond the data: Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on BAME groups’): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/892376/COVID_stakeholder_engagement_synthesis_beyond_the_data.pdf Therefore, to address fall-out from the pandemic without considering these marginalised groups would be inappropriate; to address the environmental crisis without considering its impact on such groups would be pointless and the separation of civil rights from health and environmental policy is delusional. The silos in which policy-making still exists in these fields are stubborn obstacles to change. Both within and without the UK’s boundaries, the diverse spectrum of peoples requires a similar diversity and inclusion in the systems that sustain life – and the production of the food that is eaten in order to live. Sometimes change is immediate and imposed rather than incremental and the pandemic has seen an abrupt conclusion to familiar and traditional ways of living. As we offer our thoughts about the many ways in which Covid-19 has changed our dietary patterns, we must remember that the ‘brave new world’ of our future ambition ‘has such people in it’, (‘The Tempest’, William Shakespeare). Those who would construct better dietary patterns in the wake of this pandemic must ensure that people rather than systems prevail…

Climate, Land, Energy and Water systems interactions – From key concepts to model implementation with OSeMOSYS

The Climate, Land, Energy and Water systems (CLEWs) approach guides the development of integrated assessments. The approach includes an analytical component that can be performed using simple accounting methods, soft-linking tools, incorporating cross-systems considerations in sectoral models, or using one modelling tool to represent CLEW systems. This paper describes how a CLEWs quantitative analysis can be performed using one single modelling tool, the Open Source Energy Modelling System (OSeMOSYS). Although OSeMOSYS was primarily developed for energy systems analysis, the tool’s functionality and flexibility allow for its application to CLEWs. A step-by-step explanation of how climate, land, energy, and water systems can be represented with OSeMOSYS, complemented with the interpretation of sets, parameters, and variables in the OSeMOSYS code, is provided. A hypothetical case serves as the basis for developing a modelling exercise that exemplifies the building of a CLEWs model in OSeMOSYS. System-centred scenario analysis is performed with the integrated model example to illustrate its application. The analysis of results shows how integrated insights can be derived from the quantitative exercise in the form of conflicts, trade-offs, opportunities, and synergies. In addition to the modelling exercise, using the OSeMOSYS-CLEWs example in teaching, training and open science is explored to support knowledge transfer and advancement in the field

Preserving Visual Functions During Gliomas Resection : Feasibility and Efficacy of a Novel Intraoperative Task for Awake Brain Surgery

Objective: The intraoperative identification and preservation of optic radiations (OR) during tumor resection requires the patient to be awake. Different tasks are used. However, they do not grant the maintenance of foveal vision during all testing, limiting the ability to constantly monitor the peripheral vision and to inform about the portion of the peripheral field that is encountered. Although hemianopia can be prevented, quadrantanopia cannot be properly avoided. To overcome these limitations, we developed an intra-operative Visual field Task (iVT) to monitor the foveal vision, alerting about the likelihood of injuring the OR during task administration, and to inform about the portion of the peripheral field that is explored. Data on feasibility and efficacy in preventing visual field deficits are reported, comparing the outcome with the standard available task (Double-Picture-Naming-Task, DPNT). Methods: Patients with a temporal and/or parietal lobe tumor in close morphological relationship with the OR, or where the resection can involve the OR at any extent, without pre-operative visual-field deficits (Humphrey) were enrolled. Fifty-four patients were submitted to iVT, 38 to DPNT during awake surgery with brain mapping neurophysiological techniques. Feasibility was assessed as ease of administration, training and mapping time, and ability to alert about the loss of foveal vision. Type and location of evoked interferences were registered. Functional outcome was evaluated by manual and Humphrey test; extent of resection was recorded. Tractography was performed in a sample of patients to compare patient anatomy with intraoperative stimulation site(s). Results: The test was easy to administer and detected the loss of foveal vision in all cases. Stimulation induced visual-field interferences, detected in all patients, classified as detection or discrimination errors. Detection was mostly observed in temporal tumors, discrimination in temporo-parietal ones. Immediate visual disturbances in DPNT group were registered in 84 vs. 24% of iVT group. At 1-month Humphrey evaluation, 26% of iVT vs. 63% of DPNT had quadrantanopia (32% symptomatic); 10% of DPNT had hemianopia. EOR was similar. Detection errors were induced for stimulation of OR; discrimination also for other visual processing tract (ILF). Conclusion: iVT was feasible and sensitive to preserve the functional integrity of the OR

Consumer credit information systems: A critical review of the literature. Too little attention paid by lawyers?

This paper reviews the existing literature on consumer credit reporting, the most extensively used instrument to overcome information asymmetry and adverse selection problems in credit markets. Despite the copious literature in economics and some research in regulatory policy, the legal community has paid almost no attention to the legal framework of consumer credit information systems, especially within the context of the European Union. Studies on the topic, however, seem particularly relevant in view of the establishment of a single market for consumer credit. This article ultimately calls for further legal research to address consumer protection concerns and inform future legislation

Photoelectron diffraction: from phenomenological demonstration to practical tool

The potential of photoelectron diffraction—exploiting the coherent interference of directly-emitted and elastically scattered components of the photoelectron wavefield emitted from a core level of a surface atom to obtain structural information—was first appreciated in the 1970s. The first demonstrations of the effect were published towards the end of that decade, but the method has now entered the mainstream armoury of surface structure determination. This short review has two objectives: First, to outline the way that the idea emerged and the way this evolved in my own collaboration with Neville Smith and his colleagues at Bell Labs in the early years: Second, to provide some insight into the current state-of-the art in application of (scanned-energy mode) photoelectron diffraction to address two key issue in quantitative surface structure determination, namely, complexity and precision. In this regard a particularly powerful aspect of photoelectron diffraction is its elemental and chemical-state specificity