Decolonising the curriculum: US Study Abroad: London Architecture and Urbanism – Albertopolis, South Kensington

This article focuses on ways of decolonising the curriculum of a one-semester London Architecture and Urbanism course taught differently across several US Study Abroad programmes in London. These introductory courses took place in the seminar room and out in the field. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a greater focus on teaching in open spaces. The courses are principally structured around the capital’s key public developments. Many of the sites have an older historical antecedence. They were largely built between the mid-eighteenth century and the opening decades of the twentieth century during the time of the Empire and the Industrial Revolution. While the Empire has gone, London continues to transmit ideas revolving around the cultural hegemony of a politically, economically and socially superior nation through its urban histories. These histories are sometimes explicit, but are more often hidden, as they become subsumed into London’s evolving cityscape. On this basis, introductory architectural courses that outline the city’s development, by default, recapitulate the values of British cultural imperialism. This article examines how London’s architectural history and imperial visions can be re-evaluated through the lens of a culturally responsive teaching and learning study abroad platform

Cognitive impairment before and after intracerebral haemorrhage: a systematic review

Introduction: There is increasing interest in understanding cognitive dysfunction before and after Intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), given the higher prevalence of dementia reported (ranging from 5 to 44%) for this stroke type. Much of the evidence to date examining cognitive impairment associated with cerebrovascular disease has tended to focus more on ischaemic stroke. The aim of this review was to identify and quantify studies that focused on cognitive dysfunction pre and post ICH. / Methods: We conducted a systematic search using databases PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and PsycINFO to identify studies that exclusively assessed cognitive function pre and post ICH. Studies were included in the review if used a measure of global cognition and/or a neuropsychological battery to assess cognitive function. Nineteen studies were deemed relevant for inclusion, where n = 8 studies examined cognitive impairment pre ICH and n = 11 post ICH. / Results: Prevalence of cognitive impairment ranged between 9–29% for pre ICH and 14–88% for post ICH. Predictive factors identified for pre and post ICH were previous stroke, ICH volume and location and markers of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Most common cognitive domains affected post ICH were information processing speed, executive function, memory, language and visuo-spatial abilities. Most common cognitive assessments tools were the Informant Questionnaire for Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) for pre-existing cognitive impairment and the Mini-Mental State Examination for global cognition post ICH and the Trail Making Test where neuropsychological tests were used. / Conclusion: Cognitive impairment and dementia affected almost one-third of patients, whether assessed pre or post ICH

Cognitive dysfunction and associated neuroimaging biomarkers in antiphospholipid syndrome: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES: Cognitive dysfunction is common in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) (including primary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) or APS associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)). Neuroimaging biomarkers may contribute to our understanding of mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in these cohorts. This review aimed to investigate: (1) the prevalence of cognitive dysfunction in studies including neuroimaging biomarkers; and (2) associations between cognition and neuroimaging biomarkers in patients with APS/aPL. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search of electronic databases PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and PsycINFO and included studies with descriptions of neuroimaging findings, cognitive dysfunction, or both, in patients with aPL positivity (lupus anticoagulant, IgG and IgM anticardiolipin and anti-β2 glycoprotein-I antibodies). RESULTS: Of 120 search results we included 20 eligible studies (6 APS, 4 SLE with APS/aPL and 10 neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE)). We identified a medium risk of bias in 6/11 (54%) of cohort studies and 44% of case-control studies, as well as marked heterogeneity in cognitive assessment batteries, APS and aPL definitions and neuroimaging modalities and protocols. The prevalence of cognitive dysfunction ranged between 11% and 60.5%. Structural MRI was the most common imaging modality, reporting cognitive dysfunction to be associated with white matter hyperintensities, ischaemic lesions and cortical atrophy (4 with cerebral atrophy, 2 with white matter hyperintensities, and 2 with cerebral infarcts). CONCLUSION: Our findings confirm that cognitive impairment is commonly found in patients with aPL (including APS, SLE and NPSLE). The risk of bias, and heterogeneity in cognitive and neuroimaging biomarkers reported does not allow for definitive

A new blue-tailed Monitor lizard (Reptilia, Squamata, Varanus) of the Varanus indicus group from Mussau Island, Papua New Guinea

We describe a new species of Varanus from Mussau Island, north-east of New Guinea. The new species is a member of the Varanus indicus species group and is distinguished from all other members by both morphological and molecular genetic characters. It is the third species of Varanus reported from the Bismarck Archipelago and the first record of a yellow tongued member of the Varanus indicus species group from a remote oceanic island. The herpetofauna of Mussau Island has not been well studied but the discovery of this new species is in accordance with recent findings indicating that the island may harbor several unknown endemic vertebrates. The distribution of the closely related Varanus finschi is also discussed in the light of recent fieldwork and a review of old records.Valter Weijola, Stephen C. Donnellan, Christer Lindqvis

Matching factors for Delta S=1 four-quark operators in RI/SMOM schemes

The non-perturbative renormalization of four-quark operators plays a significant role in lattice studies of flavor physics. For this purpose, we define regularization-independent symmetric momentum-subtraction (RI/SMOM) schemes for Delta S=1 flavor-changing four-quark operators and provide one-loop matching factors to the MS-bar scheme in naive dimensional regularization. The mixing of two-quark operators is discussed in terms of two different classes of schemes. We provide a compact expression for the finite one-loop amplitudes which allows for a straightforward definition of further RI/SMOM schemes.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Supply Chain Transformation in Apc Ireland: Lean Thinking, Opposing Logics and Bricolage

This paper presents a number of observations and\ud findings from an ongoing study of supply chain\ud transformation in a subsidiary of American Power Conversion (APC) located in the West of Ireland.\ud The study is being carried out in a period of significant change within both the Irish economy and the\ud APC Corporation. The research addresses the question of how innovation can contribute to the sustainability and development of the Operations function in a time of transition. To begin with, a review is presented of\ud relevant research and theory in the areas\ud of lean supply, innovative culture and information systems bricolage. Then the context and composition of the lean transformation team involved in the case study are described together with the research design.\ud The work proposes to make a contribution in two areas.\ud Firstly by providing empirical evidence of the role of innovation in an organizational transformation and the challenge of incorporating bricolage in the course of\ud information systems design. Secondly to the building of theory by proposing that organizational innovation\ud can be viewed as a dynamic process of tuning\ud “opposing logics”. The paper concludes by suggesting\ud that the study has significance in the context of Ireland’s objectives of moving to an innovation economy and of strengthening academic-industrial collaboration

O(a^2) cutoff effects in lattice Wilson fermion simulations

In this paper we propose to interpret the large discretization artifacts affecting the neutral pion mass in maximally twisted lattice QCD simulations as O(a^2) effects whose magnitude is roughly proportional to the modulus square of the (continuum) matrix element of the pseudoscalar density operator between vacuum and one-pion state. The numerical size of this quantity is determined by the dynamical mechanism of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and turns out to be substantially larger than its natural magnitude set by the value of Lambda_QCD.Comment: 38 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

Polyploidy breaks speciation barriers in Australian burrowing frogs Neobatrachus

Polyploidy has played an important role in evolution across the tree of life but it is still unclear how polyploid lineages may persist after their initial formation. While both common and well-studied in plants, polyploidy is rare in animals and generally less understood. The Australian burrowing frog genus Neobatrachus is comprised of six diploid and three polyploid species and offers a powerful animal polyploid model system. We generated exome-capture sequence data from 87 individuals representing all nine species of Neobatrachus to investigate species-level relationships, the origin and inheritance mode of polyploid species, and the population genomic effects of polyploidy on genus-wide demography. We describe rapid speciation of diploid Neobatrachus species and show that the three independently originated polyploid species have tetrasomic or mixed inheritance. We document higher genetic diversity in tetraploids, resulting from widespread gene flow between the tetraploids, asymmetric inter-ploidy gene flow directed from sympatric diploids to tetraploids, and isolation of diploid species from each other. We also constructed models of ecologically suitable areas for each species to investigate the impact of climate on differing ploidy levels. These models suggest substantial change in suitable areas compared to past climate, which correspond to population genomic estimates of demographic histories. We propose that Neobatrachus diploids may be suffering the early genomic impacts of climate-induced habitat loss, while tetraploids appear to be avoiding this fate, possibly due to widespread gene flow. Finally, we demonstrate that Neobatrachus is an attractive model to study the effects of ploidy on the evolution of adaptation in animals