Time to care: why the humanities and the social sciences belong in the science of health

Health is more than the absence of disease. It is also more than a biological phenomenon. It is inherently social, psychological, cultural, and historical. Social and personal resources are both key components and key determinants of health, as it has been recognised by major health actors for decades [1–3]. However, open questions remain as to how to build systems that reflect the complexity of health, healthy lives, disease, and sickness, and in a context that is increasingly technologized. Although we find in the literature an increasing understanding of the complexity of health [4–7], the implementation of this knowledge lags behind. Biological approaches to health and disease, as a matter of fact, dominate the development of curative and preventive interventions. We argue that an urgent change of approach is necessary. Methods and concepts from the humanities and social science must be embedded in the concepts and methods of the health sciences and of public health, if we are to promote sustainable interventions capable of engaging with the recognized complexity of health, healthy lives, disease, and sickness. This resonates with the vision expressed by UK Health Secretary and by many policy documents [8,9] from the last decades. Yet, given the difficulties associated with interdisciplinary research, integrated strategies to understand and to intervene on the complexity of health and that engage with biological, social, psychological and behavioural factors are still needed. Our vision is one of radical interdisciplinarity, integrating aspects of biological, psychological, social, and humanities approaches across areas of urgent health need. These areas include, but is not confined to, chronic conditions such as the obesity epidemic, cancer, mental health. Radical interdisciplinarity entails the practical, methodological, and conceptual integration of approaches to health, as they are developed in the health and social sciences, and in the humanities. It is the combination of cognitive resources from individuals belonging to different disciplines, who accept and respect the division of labour and the resulting epistemic dependence to tackle phenomena that would not be adequately conceptualised within any of the involved discipline alone [10]. In what follows, we describe our current understanding of these three aspects, and describe how radical interdisciplinarity would change them.Not funde

Images of Betelgeuse with VLTI/MATISSE across the Great Dimming

From Nov. 2019 to May 2020, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse experienced an unprecedented drop of brightness in the visible domain called the Great Dimming event (GDE). Large atmospheric dust clouds and large photospheric convective features are suspected to be responsible for it. To better understand the dimming event, we used mid-infrared long-baseline spectro-interferometric measurements of Betelgeuse taken with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer/Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment (VLTI/MATISSE) instrument before (Dec. 2018), during (Feb. 2020), and after (Dec. 2020) the GDE. We present data in the 3.98-4.15 µm range to cover SiO spectral features molecules as well as adjacent continuum. We have employed geometrical models, image reconstruction, as well as radiative transfer models to monitor the spatial distribution of SiO over the stellar surface. We find a strongly inhomogeneous spatial distribution of SiO that appears to be looking very different between our observing epochs, indicative of a vigorous activity in the stellar atmosphere. The contrast of our images is small in the pseudo-continuum for all epochs, implying that our MATISSE observations support both cold spot and dust cloud model

A dynamical measure of the black hole mass in a quasar 11 billion years ago

Tight relationships exist in the local universe between the central stellar properties of galaxies and the mass of their supermassive black hole. These suggest galaxies and black holes co-evolve, with the main regulation mechanism being energetic feedback from accretion onto the black hole during its quasar phase. A crucial question is how the relationship between black holes and galaxies evolves with time; a key epoch to probe this relationship is at the peaks of star formation and black hole growth 8-12 billion years ago (redshifts 1-3). Here we report a dynamical measurement of the mass of the black hole in a luminous quasar at a redshift of 2, with a look back time of 11 billion years, by spatially resolving the broad line region. We detect a 40 micro-arcsecond (0.31 pc) spatial offset between the red and blue photocenters of the H$\alpha$ line that traces the velocity gradient of a rotating broad line region. The flux and differential phase spectra are well reproduced by a thick, moderately inclined disk of gas clouds within the sphere of influence of a central black hole with a mass of 3.2x10$^{8}$ solar masses. Molecular gas data reveal a dynamical mass for the host galaxy of 6x10$^{11}$ solar masses, which indicates an under-massive black hole accreting at a super-Eddington rate. This suggests a host galaxy that grew faster than the supermassive black hole, indicating a delay between galaxy and black hole formation for some systems.Comment: 5 pages Main text, 8 figures, 2 tables, to be published in Nature, under embargo until 29 January 2024 16:00 (London

Mapping of population disparities in the cholangiocarcinoma urinary metabolome

AbstractPhenotypic diversity in urinary metabolomes of different geographical populations has been recognized recently. In this study, urinary metabolic signatures from Western (United Kingdom) and South-East Asian (Thai) cholangiocarcinoma patients were characterized to understand spectral variability due to host carcinogenic processes and/or exogenous differences (nutritional, environmental and pharmaceutical). Urinary liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (LC–MS) spectral profiles from Thai (healthy = 20 and cholangiocarcinoma = 14) and UK cohorts (healthy = 22 and cholangiocarcinoma = 10) were obtained and modelled using chemometric data analysis. Healthy metabolome disparities between the two distinct populations were primarily related to differences in dietary practices and body composition. Metabolites excreted due to drug treatment were dominant in urine specimens from cholangiocarcinoma patients, particularly in Western individuals. Urine from participants with sporadic (UK) cholangiocarcinoma contained greater levels of a nucleotide metabolite (uridine/pseudouridine). Higher relative concentrations of 7-methylguanine were observed in urine specimens from Thai cholangiocarcinoma patients. The urinary excretion of hippurate and methyladenine (gut microbial-host co-metabolites) showed a similar pattern of lower levels in patients with malignant biliary tumours from both countries. Intrinsic (body weight and body composition) and extrinsic (xenobiotic metabolism) factors were the main causes of disparities between the two populations. Regardless of the underlying aetiology, biological perturbations associated with cholangiocarcinoma urine metabolome signatures appeared to be influenced by gut microbial community metabolism. Dysregulation in nucleotide metabolism was associated with sporadic cholangiocarcinoma, possibly indicating differences in mitochondrial energy production pathways between cholangiocarcinoma tumour subtypes. Mapping population-specific metabolic disparities may aid in interpretation of disease processes and identification of candidate biomarkers.</jats:p

First MATISSE L-band observations of HD 179218: is the inner 10 au region rich in carbon dust particles?

Stars and planetary system

The extended atmosphere and circumstellar environment of the cool evolved star VX Sagittarii as seen by MATISSE

Stars and planetary system

VLTI-MATISSE L- and N-band aperture-synthesis imaging of the unclassified B[e] star FS Canis Majoris

Stars and planetary system

Locating dust and molecules in the inner circumstellar environment of R Sculptoris with MATISSE

Stars and planetary system

VLTI-MATISSE L- and N-band aperture-synthesis imaging of the unclassified B[e] star FS Canis Majoris★

This is the final version. Available from EDP Sciences via the DOI in this record. Context. FS Canis Majoris (FS CMa, HD 45677) is an unclassified B[e] star surrounded by an inclined dust disk. The evolutionary stage of FS CMa is still debated. Perpendicular to the circumstellar disk, a bipolar outflow was detected. Infrared aperture-synthesis imaging provides us with a unique opportunity to study the disk structure. Aims. Our aim is to study the intensity distribution of the disk of FS CMa in the mid-infrared L and N bands. Methods. We performed aperture-synthesis imaging of FS CMa with the MATISSE instrument (Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment) in the low spectral resolution mode to obtain images in the L and N bands. We computed radiative transfer models that reproduce the L- and N-band intensity distributions of the resolved disks. Results. We present L- and N-band aperture-synthesis images of FS CMa reconstructed in the wavelength bands of 3.4-3.8 and 8.6-9.0 μm. In the L-band image, the inner rim region of an inclined circumstellar disk and the central object can be seen with a spatial resolution of 2.7 milliarcsec (mas). An inner disk cavity with an angular diameter of ~6 × 12 mas is resolved. The L-band disk consists of a bright northwestern (NW) disk region and a much fainter southeastern (SE) region. The images suggest that we are looking at the bright inner wall of the NW disk rim, which is on the far side of the disk. In the N band, only the bright NW disk region is seen. In addition to deriving the inclination and the inner disk radius, fitting the reconstructed brightness distributions via radiative transfer modelling allows one to constrain the innermost disk structure, in particular the shape of theinner disk rim.Science and Technology Facilities CouncilAgence Nationale de la Recheche (ANR)Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID)Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID)European Research CouncilEuropean Research CouncilEuropean Research CouncilHungarian NKFIH OTKAEuropean Research CouncilUNAM PAPIIT project IACONACyT projectFAPESPFAPESPNOVA, the Netherlands Research School for Astronom

MATISSE, the VLTI mid-infrared imaging spectro-interferometer

GalaxiesStars and planetary systemsInstrumentatio