The article charts the changing fortunes of the Catholics of Lisburn, County Antrim from 1914–22. It begins by exploring the establishment of a local battalion of the Irish National Volunteers and analysing Catholic recruitment to the war effort, before turning to the Easter Rising (1916), its aftermath and the bitter sectarian riots of August 1920, following the assassination of RIC District Inspector Swanzy. This murder in the centre of Lisburn led to days of violence and forced many of the town’s Catholics to flee. This paper argues that relations between nationalists and unionists in the 1914–22 period should be understood in the context of unionist beliefs regarding their communal safety and that territorial security is key to understanding the presence and form of violence in the town during the Swanzy Riots. Finally, some consideration is given to how this case study of Lisburn offers insight into understanding communal violence elsewhere in Ireland, during the wartime and revolutionary period.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether hair can be used as a non-invasive sample material that is less influenced by homeostasis than blood. Blood analysis is an invasive method of assessing trace element status, concentrations can be influenced by homeostasis, and they might not accurately reflect the true status of the animal. Thus, hair samples could play an important non-invasive role in diagnosing chronic deficiencies. The study group included 100 veal calves of a variety of different breeds and crossbreeds aged between 2 and 5 months, consisting of both sexes. Samples were taken to compare different locations and colours of hair. The concentration of trace elements Mn, Fe, Se, Co, Cu, Zn and Mo of different coloured ear and shoulder hair (black, brown and white) were measured, and concentrations were compared with those in the liver, kidney, muscle and blood plasma. All samples were measured with triple-quadrupole collision/reaction cell ICP-MS. This study showed that both hair colour and hair location have an influence on trace element concentration. In this animal series, no strong correlations could be found between trace element concentrations in hair and other tissues, suggesting that such an approach is only feasible when a heterogeneous animal series is used. Whether hair is a feasible sample material for trace element analysis cannot be conclusively answered; a larger sample size and further studies on other influencing factors would have been required. In addition, the procedure would need to be highly standardized, as both sampling localization and hair colour appear to have an influence.

Street harassment is a widespread urban experience—particularly but not exclusively for women—yet marked by isolation from bystanders and other victim-survivors. Given this isolated dimension, what might a collective response look like? This paper examines a successful case of feminist street art protest in Brussels: posters claiming “laisse les filles tranquilles,” a demand which was swiftly extended on behalf of other groups by similar posters, and copied, commented, and modified both approvingly and disapprovingly by graffiti. Developing a novel critical phenomenological approach based in Sartre’s concept of seriality, this paper argues that the posters’ ingenuity lies in appropriating the infrastructure where harassment occurs, thus exploiting the spatially and temporally dispersed character of these intrusions. This article proceeds in three parts. First, drawing on empirical research on street harassment, I contextualize feminist protest and individual coping strategies within the postcolonial metropole of Brussels. Secondly, I reconceptualize street harassment through Sartrean seriality, combined with phenomenological insights from Beauvoir and Fanon, to underscore the dynamic between material objects, object-like social routines, and anonymity. Thirdly, I show that posters and their responses enable the formation of social antagonism between strangers who are not in a direct, physical relation, thereby politicizing the broader Brussels public.

Increasing meritocracy has intensified negative perceptions of individuals in lower socioeconomic positions, especially welfare recipients, who are often viewed as incapable, lazy, or unmotivated. We conducted twenty-nine in-depth interviews with long-term social assistance recipients (SARs) in the Netherlands to explore their experiences with welfare stigmatisation. We used García-Lorenzo and colleagues’ (2022) typology to analyse SARs’ responses to stigmatisation. Surrounded by negative stereotypes, most participants internalised welfare stigma. Initially, many withdrew socially and engaged in harmful behaviours, but over time, their responses became less destructive. We identified four groups: individuals who are managing health, reorienting life, rebuilding life, or blaming the system. Overall, our findings suggest that social interventions should help SARs develop new, non-stigmatised identities to enhance their self-image and overall well-being. Given the widespread and negative consequences of welfare stigma, public, political, and media discourses should focus on addressing underlying societal issues rather than solely attributing problems to individuals.

HIV/AIDS posed a significant health threat in Denmark from the early 1980s until the end of the 1990s, claiming approximately 2,000 lives. Gay men, hemophiliacs, drug users, sex workers and migrants were overwhelmingly among the victims of the disease. They also constituted the groups most associated with it. This led to a raised level of public attention to these groups; a heightened visibility that ambiguously resulted both in improving the life conditions of some while also increasing the stigma of others. This article analyses the roles of different cross-sector actors in shaping the responses to HIV/AIDS in Denmark, with each group influencing and being influenced by the epidemic. Yet despite the clear connection between HIV/AIDS and the minoritized, often marginalized, groups, the article argues that the overarching and dominant response objective during the crisis in Denmark was to prevent a heterosexual epidemic. Throughout the crisis, other responses, aims and objectives concerning the groups most affected by HIV/AIDS could be, and did become, contingent with this dominant objective. The strengths and positions of those subresponses depended on, however, the perceptions of them as logical and tangible means to the primary end of preventing the heterosexual epidemic. Pulling together different and changing responses from different and changing actors serves to crystallize what objectives or logics are the mutual ones, and the significance of this analysis is that what appeared to be a very heterogeneous set of responses to the disease in Denmark, was in fact rooted in the same objective. Notably, the perceived pertinence of preventing the heterosexual epidemic was not rooted in actual rates of infection or spread of the disease.

Metabolic dysregulation increases the risk of cognitive and motor deficits, exacerbated by diets high in refined carbohydrates and fats. Polyphenol-rich berries, such as red raspberries (RRB; Rubus idaeus), may offer protective benefits. This randomised, single-blinded, controlled crossover study evaluated the acute metabolic and cognitive effects of RRB intake in older adults (55–70 years) with overweight/obesity. Thirty-six adults (61 (sd 5) years, BMI: 30·0 (sd 2·8) kg/m2; 19 females: 17 males) consumed a high-carbohydrate, moderate-fat meal (56 % carbohydrate, 33 % fat) containing 0 g (control) or 25 g of freeze-dried RRB powder. Plasma was collected at baseline and postprandially over 7·5 h to assess glucose, insulin, triacylglyceride (TAG) and IL-6. In vitro, fasting and postprandial serum samples were applied to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated microglial cells to assess neuroinflammatory responses (nitric oxide (NO) production, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression). Cognitive and vascular function were assessed at baseline and postprandially. The RRB meal significantly reduced peak glucose (by 8 %), insulin concentrations at 0·5 h and overall insulin response compared with control (P < 0·05). Serum from RRB consumers attenuated LPS-induced NO, iNOS and COX-2 expression in microglial cells (P < 0·001). Cognitive performance improved following the RRB meal, with fewer attempts in the CANTAB (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery) Paired Associates Learning task (P < 0·05) and fewer errors with better strategy use in the Spatial Working Memory task (P < 0·05). No significant differences were observed in vascular function. These findings suggest that acute RRB supplementation attenuated postprandial metabolic stress, reduced markers of neuroinflammation and improved cognitive performance, supporting RRB’s potential role in a dietary strategy for ageing populations.

The Middle Dnieper region, situated within a transitional glacial–periglacial zone, preserves complex loess–palaeosol archives. This study reconstructs the environmental evolution of the Velyka Andrusivka sequence using a multiproxy approach integrating sedimentological, geochemical, mineralogical, magnetic, and palynological data supported by luminescence dating. The succession rests on Dnieper glacial till and comprises loess units from the last and penultimate glacial cycles, palaeosols, and an upper chernozem formed after loess deposition had ceased. Optically stimulated luminescence ages range from ∼22 to 187 ka, revealing hiatuses and diachronous boundaries relative to Marine Isotope Stage divisions. The older loess is more heterogeneous and enriched in Zr-Hf-REE with mixed provenance, whereas the younger loess is more homogeneous and dominated by distal dust. These contrasts demonstrate how local sediment recycling and regional dust supply jointly shaped the environmental signal. Palaeosols record phases of weathering, while the upper chernozem largely retains the parent-loess texture within a sequence overprinted by postdepositional alterations in colour, geochemistry, and magnetic properties. Comparison along the 50°N transect shows that robust interpretation of the sequence requires integration with neighbouring loess–palaeosol records, as only multi-site correlation captures shared stratigraphic patterns and site-specific deviations, enabling reconstruction of environmental processes across multiple spatial scales.