From victims to actors:the role of children and young people in flood recovery and resilience

Following a series of recent devastating storms across England with large numbers of homes and businesses evacuated, and despite widespread consensus that further severe flooding is expected, a large section of the population continues to be excluded from developments in flood risk management. We argue that the absence of children and young people from assessments of both the effects of flooding and ways in which it can be mitigated, undermines the effectiveness and legitimacy of policy making. Drawing on in-depth participative research with two groups of flood-affected children and young people we show the range of ways in which they are affected by flooding, some ways they can be better supported, and then how their valuable experience can help shape positive change in policy and practice before, during and after floods. Children developed Flood Manifestos for Change in a direct challenge to their omission from flood governance. The Manifestos and the steps children took to advocate for them can be seen as acts of citizenship, highlighting the capacities of children and young people as flood actors, rather than flood victims

“That’s where I first saw the water…”:mobilizing children’s voices in UK flood risk management

This article reports on a project, led jointly by Lancaster University and Save the Children UK, that used mobile, creative, and performance-based methods to understand children’s experiences and perceptions of the 2013–2014 UK winter floods and to promote their voices in flood risk management. We argue that our action-based methodology situated the children as “flood actors” by focusing on their sensory experience of the floods and thus their embodied knowledge and expertise. The research activities of walking, talking, and taking photographs around the flooded landscape, as well as model making and the use of theater and performance, helped to “mobilize” the children not only to recall what they did during the floods but also to identify and communicate to policy makers and practitioners how we can all do things differently before, during, and after flooding

Assessing Adherence to Healthy Dietary Habits Through the Urinary Food Metabolome:Results From a European Two-Center Study

BACKGROUND: Diet is one of the most important modifiable lifestyle factors in human health and in chronic disease prevention. Thus, accurate dietary assessment is essential for reliably evaluating adherence to healthy habits. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to identify urinary metabolites that could serve as robust biomarkers of diet quality, as assessed through the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010). DESIGN: We set up two-center samples of 160 healthy volunteers, aged between 25 and 50, living as a couple or family, with repeated urine sampling and dietary assessment at baseline, and 6 and 12 months over a year. Urine samples were subjected to large-scale metabolomics analysis for comprehensive quantitative characterization of the food-related metabolome. Then, lasso regularized regression analysis and limma univariate analysis were applied to identify those metabolites associated with the AHEI-2010, and to investigate the reproducibility of these associations over time. RESULTS: Several polyphenol microbial metabolites were found to be positively associated with the AHEI-2010 score; urinary enterolactone glucuronide showed a reproducible association at the three study time points [false discovery rate (FDR): 0.016, 0.014, 0.016]. Furthermore, other associations were found between the AHEI-2010 and various metabolites related to the intake of coffee, red meat and fish, whereas other polyphenol phase II metabolites were associated with higher AHEI-2010 scores at one of the three time points investigated (FDR < 0.05 or β ≠ 0). CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated that urinary metabolites, and particularly microbiota-derived metabolites, could serve as reliable indicators of adherence to healthy dietary habits. CLINICAL TRAIL REGISTRATION: www.ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT03169088

Occurrence and abundance of fruit bats in selected conservation areas of North Cotabato, Philippines

ABSTRACT A study on the occurrence and abundance of fruit bats (Pteropodidae) was done in two conservation areas in North Cotabato, Philippines: Portion of the Mt. Apo National Park ; Balabag, Kidapawan City and Cotabato Provincial Forest and Ecotourism Park (CPFEP), Amas, Kidapawan City. Seven species were recorded in CPFEP and six were noted in Balabag area identified from 449 individuals captured. Two species (Eonycteris spelaea and Rousettus amplexicaudatus) were unique to CPFEP while one (Ptenochirus minor) was found only in Balabag area. A total of eight species were recorded when accounting the species found in two areas in which, three are endemic to the country namely Haplonycteris fischeri, Ptenochirus jagori, and P. minor. Of these endemics, the first two were noted in CPFEP while all were found in Balabag area. More than half of the bats captured were Cynopterus brachyotis hence, considered as the most common species. Remarkable finding was the presence of Megaerops wetmorei, a threatened species, to have found in a new altitudinal record. Considering the importance of fruit bats in regenerating forest, urgent conservation measures are highly recommended

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom

Helicobacter pylori's Unconventional Role in Health and Disease

The discovery of a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, that is resident in the human stomach and causes chronic disease (peptic ulcer and gastric cancer) was radical on many levels. Whereas the mouth and the colon were both known to host a large number of microorganisms, collectively referred to as the microbiome, the stomach was thought to be a virtual Sahara desert for microbes because of its high acidity. We now know that H. pylori is one of many species of bacteria that live in the stomach, although H. pylori seems to dominate this community. H. pylori does not behave as a classical bacterial pathogen: disease is not solely mediated by production of toxins, although certain H. pylori genes, including those that encode exotoxins, increase the risk of disease development. Instead, disease seems to result from a complex interaction between the bacterium, the host, and the environment. Furthermore, H. pylori was the first bacterium observed to behave as a carcinogen. The innate and adaptive immune defenses of the host, combined with factors in the environment of the stomach, apparently drive a continuously high rate of genomic variation in H. pylori. Studies of this genetic diversity in strains isolated from various locations across the globe show that H. pylori has coevolved with humans throughout our history. This long association has given rise not only to disease, but also to possible protective effects, particularly with respect to diseases of the esophagus. Given this complex relationship with human health, eradication of H. pylori in nonsymptomatic individuals may not be the best course of action. The story of H. pylori teaches us to look more deeply at our resident microbiome and the complexity of its interactions, both in this complex population and within our own tissues, to gain a better understanding of health and disease

Pilgrimage and Visual Genre: The Architecture of Twentieth-Century Roman Catholic Pilgrimage in Scotland

As Roman Catholics gained confidence in twentieth-century Scotland, they revived pre-Reformation shrines and pilgrimages and created new shrines with transnational connections to the modern Catholic world. Three sites in this campaign were Carfin, a new pilgrimage center based on Lourdes; Whithorn, site of medieval pilgrimages to Saint Ninian; and Dunfermline, associated with the canonized Queen Margaret of Scotland. Each had different meanings for Scottish Catholicism. The landscapes of these shrines included proposed new buildings, completed buildings, including shrines and churches, and existing features, notably caves or grottoes and medieval ruins. Whether found, professionally designed, or made by the clergy and their congregations, these sites framed and ordered pilgrimage rituals and lent them meaning. Seeing common architectural, visual features across these pilgrimages, and drawing on new archival research, we suggest that the employment of recognizable visual genres was a key way of creating a consensus amongst the faithful. International symbols of saintly presence were remade for the local context, with intertwined religious and political intentions, giving tangible expression to a revived Catholicism in Scotland, and promoting a new vision of Scotland as a Catholic nation