Recent changes to US research funding are having far-reaching consequences that imperil the integrity of science and the provision of care to vulnerable populations. Resisting these changes, the BJPsych Portfolio reaffirms its commitment to publishing mental science and advancing psychiatric knowledge that improves the mental health of one and all.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy, and spacetime.

A relatively lightweight and simple airborne system for surface elevation profiling of glaciers in narrow mountain valleys has been developed and tested. The aircraft position is determined by kinematic global positioning system (GPS) methods. The distance to the glacier surface is determined with a laser ranger. The accuracy is about 0.3 m, sufficient to permit future changes to be observed over short time intervals. Long-term changes can be estimated by comparison of profiles with existing maps. Elevation profiles obtained in 1993–94 from three glaciers in central and south-central Alaska are compared with maps made about 1950. The resulting area-averaged, seasonally corrected thickness changes during the interval are: Gulkana Glacier (central Alaska Range)–11 m, Worthington Glacier (central Chugach Mountains) +7 m, and Bear Lake Glacier (Kenai Mountains) −12 m. All three glaciers retreated during the interval of comparison. The estimated uncertainty in the average thickness change is ±5 m. which is mainly due to errors in the existing maps. Constraints on the accuracy of the maps are obtained by profiling in proglacial areas.

In North America, terrestrial records of biodiversity and climate change that span Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 are rare. Where found, they provide insight into how the coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system is manifested in biotic and environmental records and how the biosphere responds to climate change. In 2010–2011, construction at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) revealed a nearly continuous, lacustrine/wetland sedimentary sequence that preserved evidence of past plant communities between ~140 and 55 ka, including all of MIS 5. At an elevation of 2705 m, the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site also contained thousands of well-preserved bones of late Pleistocene megafauna, including mastodons, mammoths, ground sloths, horses, camels, deer, bison, black bear, coyotes, and bighorn sheep. In addition, the site contained more than 26,000 bones from at least 30 species of small animals including salamanders, otters, muskrats, minks, rabbits, beavers, frogs, lizards, snakes, fish, and birds. The combination of macro- and micro-vertebrates, invertebrates, terrestrial and aquatic plant macrofossils, a detailed pollen record, and a robust, directly dated stratigraphic framework shows that high-elevation ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado are climatically sensitive and varied dramatically throughout MIS 5.

In June 2014 Public Health England confirmed a case of Legionnaires' disease (LD) in a neonate following birth at home in a hired birthing pool incorporating a heater and a recirculation pump which had been filled in advance of labour. The case triggered a public health investigation and a microbiological survey of an additional ten heated birthing pools hired or recently hired to the general public across England. The birthing pool used by the parent of the confirmed case was identified as the source of the neonate's infection following detection of Legionella pneumophila ST48 in both patient and environmental samples. Legionella species were detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction but not culture in a further three pools together with other opportunistic pathogens identified by culture and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight (MALDI–ToF) mass spectrometry. A Patient Safety Alert from NHS England and Public Health England was issued stating that heated birthing pools filled in advance of labour should not be used for home births. This recommendation remains in place. This investigation in conjunction with other recent reports has highlighted a lack of awareness regarding the microbiological safety of heated birthing pools and their potential to be a source of LD and other opportunistic infections. Furthermore, the investigation raised important considerations with regards to microbiological sampling and testing in such incidents. Public health authorities and clinicians should consider LD in the differential diagnosis of severe respiratory infection in neonates within 14 days of a water birth.

A community outbreak of legionellosis occurred in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, during July and August 2002. A descriptive study and active case-finding were instigated and all known wet cooling systems and other potential sources were investigated. Genotypic and phenotypic analysis, and amplified fragment length polymorphism of clinical human and environmental isolates confirmed the air-conditioning unit of a council-owned arts and leisure centre to be the source of infection. Subsequent sequence-based typing confirmed this link. One hundred and seventy-nine cases, including seven deaths [case fatality rate (CFR) 3·9%] were attributed to the outbreak. Timely recognition and management of the incident very likely led to the low CFR compared to other outbreaks. The outbreak highlights the responsibility associated with managing an aerosol-producing system, with the potential to expose and infect a large proportion of the local population and the consequent legal ramifications and human cost.

Solar water splitting has shown promise as a source of environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel. Understanding the interactions between semiconductor surfaces and water is essential to improve conversion efficiencies of water splitting systems. TiO2 has been widely adopted as a reference material and rutile surfaces have been studied experimentally and theoretically. Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) is commonly used to study surfaces, as it probes the atomic and electronic structure of the surface layer. A systematic and transferable method to simulate constant current STM images using local atomic basis set methods is reported. This consists of adding more diffuse p and d functions to the basis sets of surface O and Ti atoms, in order to describe the long range tails of the conduction and valence bands (and, thus, the vacuum above the surface). The rutile TiO2 (110) surface is considered as a case study.

Although communicable diseases have hitherto played a small part in illness associated with Olympic Games, an outbreak of infection in a national team, Games venue or visiting spectators has the potential to disrupt a global sporting event and distract from the international celebration of athletic excellence. Preparation for hosting the Olympic Games includes implementation of early warning systems for detecting emerging infection problems. Ensuring capability for rapid microbiological diagnoses to inform situational risk assessments underpins the ability to dispel rumours. These are a prelude to control measures to minimize impact of any outbreak of infectious disease at a time of intense public scrutiny. Complex multidisciplinary teamwork combined with laboratory technical innovation and efficient information flows underlie the Health Protection Agency's preparation for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. These will deliver durable legacies for clinical and public health microbiology, outbreak investigation and control in the coming years.

Our team was awarded 108 orbits of Hubble Space Telescope time to obtain parallaxes and photometry of nine metal-poor stars with [Fe/H] < −1.5 dex. The parallaxes are obtained from observations with the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS 1r; 11 orbits per star) and photometry was obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (one orbit per star). The first data were obtained in October 2008, and the data collection is ongoing. It is anticipated that the observations will be complete in June 2013. Preliminary data reduction has been completed for five of our target stars. The parallax errors vary from 0.12 to 0.16 milli-arcseconds, and the parallaxes are at least an order of magnitude more accurate than existing Hipparcos parallaxes for these stars. The errors in the true distance modulus range from 0.02 to 0.03 mag. Ground-based high-resolution spectra have been analyzed to obtain accurate abundances for three stars. The properties of the two stars with accurate abundances and parallaxes are in excellent agreement with those predicted by stellar evolution models.