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.

Tropical forest regions in equatorial Africa are threatened with degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss as a result of land-cover change. We investigated historical land-cover dynamics in unprotected forested areas of the Littoral Region in south-western Cameroon during 1975–2017, to detect changes that may influence this important biodiversity and wildlife area. Processed Landsat imagery was used to map and monitor changes in land use and land cover. From 1975 to 2017 the area of high-value forest landscapes decreased by c. 420,000 ha, and increasing forest fragmentation caused a decline of c. 12% in the largest patch index. Conversely, disturbed vegetation, cleared areas and urban areas all expanded in extent, by 32% (c. 400,000 ha), 5.6% (c. 26,800 ha) and 6.6% (c. 78,631 ha), respectively. The greatest increase was in the area converted to oil palm plantations (c. 26,893 ha), followed by logging and land clearing (c. 34,838 ha), all of which were the major factors driving deforestation in the study area. Our findings highlight the increasing threats facing the wider Littoral Region, which includes Mount Nlonako and Ebo Forest, both of which are critical areas for regional conservation and the latter a proposed National Park and the only sizable area of intact forest in the region. Intact forest in the Littoral Region, and in particular at Ebo, merits urgent protection.

Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) and systemic inflammation (SI) are common in developing countries and may cause stunting. In Bangladesh, >40 % of preschool children are stunted, but EED and SI contributions are unknown. We aimed to determine the impact of EED and SI (assessed with multiple indicators) on growth in children (n 539) enrolled in a community-based randomised food supplementation trial in rural Bangladesh. EED was defined with faecal myeloperoxidase, α-1 antitrypsin and neopterin and serum endotoxin core antibody and glucagon-like peptide-2, consolidated into gut inflammation (GI) and permeability (GP) scores, and urinary lactulose:mannitol α-1 acid glycoprotein (AGP) characterised SI. Biomarker associations with anthropometry (15-, 18- and 24-month length-for-age (LAZ), weight-for-length (WLZ) and weight-for-age (WAZ) z scores) were examined in pairwise correlations and adjusted mixed-effects regressions. Stunting, wasting and underweight prevalence at 18 months were 45, 15 and 37 %, respectively, with elevated EED and SI markers common. EED and SI were not associated with 15–24-month length trajectory. Elevated (worse) GI and GP scores predicted reduced 18–24-month WLZ change (β −0·01 (se 0·00) z score/month for both). Elevated GP was also associated with reduced 15–18-month WLZ change (β −0·03 (se 0·01) z score/month) and greater 15-month WLZ (β 0·16 (se 0·05)). Higher AGP was associated with reduced prior and increased subsequent WLZ change (β −0·04 (se 0·01) and β 0·02 (se 0·00) z score/month for 15–18 and 18–24 months). The hypothesised link from EED to stunting was not observed in this sample of Bangladeshi 18-month-olds, but the effects of EED on constrained weight gain may have consequences for later linear growth or for other health and development outcomes.

A new protocol for the quantitative determination of zeolite-group mineral compositions by electron probe microanalysis (wavelength-dispersive spectrometry) under ambient conditions, is presented. The method overcomes the most serious challenges for this mineral group, including new confidence in the fundamentally important Si-Al ratio. Development tests were undertaken on a set of natural zeolite candidate reference samples, representing the compositional extremes of Na, K, Cs, Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba zeolites, to demonstrate and assess the extent of beam interaction effects on each oxide component for each mineral. These tests highlight the variability and impact of component mobility due to beam interaction, and show that it can be minimized with recommended operating conditions of 15 kV, 2 nA, a defocused, 20 μm spot size, and element prioritizing with the spectrometer configuration. The protocol represents a pragmatic solution that works, but provides scope for additional optimization where required. Vital to the determination of high-quality results is the attention to careful preparations and the employment of strict criteria for data reduction and quality control, including the monitoring and removal of non-zeolitic contaminants from the data (mainly Fe and clay phases). Essential quality criteria include the zeolite-specific parameters of R value (Si/(Si + Al + Fe3+), the 'E%' charge-balance calculation, and the weight percent of non-hydrous total oxides. When these criteria are applied in conjunction with the recommended analytical operating conditions, excellent inter-batch reproducibility is demonstrated. Application of the method to zeolites with complex solid-solution compositions is effective, enabling more precise geochemical discrimination for occurrence-composition studies. Phase validation for the reference set was conducted satisfactorily with the use of X-ray diffraction and laser-ablation inductively-coupled plasma mass spectroscopy.

The Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) is an 18000 m2 radio telescope located 40 km from Canberra, Australia. Its operating band (820–851 MHz) is partly allocated to telecommunications, making radio astronomy challenging. We describe how the deployment of new digital receivers, Field Programmable Gate Array-based filterbanks, and server-class computers equipped with 43 Graphics Processing Units, has transformed the telescope into a versatile new instrument (UTMOST) for studying the radio sky on millisecond timescales. UTMOST has 10 times the bandwidth and double the field of view compared to the MOST, and voltage record and playback capability has facilitated rapid implementaton of many new observing modes, most of which operate commensally. UTMOST can simultaneously excise interference, make maps, coherently dedisperse pulsars, and perform real-time searches of coherent fan-beams for dispersed single pulses. UTMOST operates as a robotic facility, deciding how to efficiently target pulsars and how long to stay on source via real-time pulsar folding, while searching for single pulse events. Regular timing of over 300 pulsars has yielded seven pulsar glitches and three Fast Radio Bursts during commissioning. UTMOST demonstrates that if sufficient signal processing is applied to voltage streams, innovative science remains possible even in hostile radio frequency environments.

The class of radio transients called Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) encompasses enigmatic single pulses, each unique in its own way, hindering a consensus for their origin. The key to demystifying FRBs lies in discovering many of them in order to identity commonalities – and in real time, in order to find potential counterparts at other wavelengths. The recently upgraded UTMOST in Australia, is undergoing a backend transformation to rise as a fast transient detection machine. The first interferometric detections of FRBs with UTMOST, place their origin beyond the near-field region of the telescope thus ruling out local sources of interference as a possible origin. We have localised these bursts to much better than the ones discovered at the Parkes radio telescope and have plans to upgrade UTMOST to be capable of much better localisation still.

Phytotoxicity of glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine), applied at 0, 0.56, 1.12, 1.68, 2.24 and 4.49 kg ai/ha to uniform, naturally growing quackgrass, [Agropyron repens (L.) Beauv.] plants, was studied with the electron microscope. Visible damage (yellowing of the leaves) to the plants was observed at the 2.24 and 4.49 kg ai/ha dosage rates within 72 hr. Similar damage became evident 120 hr after treatment at the 0.56 to 1.68 dosages. Leaf discs (1 mm in diameter) were harvested at 24, 48, 96, and 192 hr and prepared for electron microscopy by standard techniques. Cellular damage could be detected at all dosage rates as early as 24 hr after treatment. The type of damage observed was partial to complete disruption of the chloroplast envelope, and swelling of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) with a subsequent formation of vesicles. With loss of integrity of the envelope, the chloroplast became completely disrupted with increased time. Other organelles within the cell were also destroyed.

The deformation of a strain triangle (≈6 km × 8 km × 11 km) located on first-year ice in the Beaufort Sea was observed over a two-week period in March 1971. Significant strain events (≈ 1.5%) were observed to occur during short (≈6 h) time periods. The long-term (one day or more) divergence rate varied between 0.04 and 0.08 × 10−3 h−1. Short-term divergence rates showed values as high as 0.29 × 10−3 h−1. The observed shearing motion indicated that the floes to the east were moving to the south relative to the floes to the west. This agrees with the shear pattern that might be expected considering the location of the station in the Pacific Gyre. Studies of fracture (lead and crack) orientations in the vicinity of the strain triangle indicate reasonable correlations with the orientation of the strain-rate ellipse. A qualitative relation is suggested between the fracture density and the long-term divergence rate. Correlations were also observed between the divergence of the wind field as computed from the surface pressure field and the ice divergence.

Side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) imagery obtained in April-May 1974 from the North Slope of Alaska between Barrow and Harrison Bay indicates that tundra lakes can be separated into two classes based on the strength of the radar returns. Correlations between the areal patterns of the returns, limited ground observations on lake depths and water compositions, and information obtained from LANDSAT imagery strongly suggest that areas of fresh-water lakes giving weak returns are frozen completely to the bottom while areas giving strong returns are not. This is a reasonable interpretation inasmuch as the reflection coefficient associated with the high-dielectric-contrast ice-water interface would be roughly twelve times that associated with the low-contrast ice-soil interface. Brackish lakes also give weak returns even when they are not completely frozen. This is the result of the brine present in the lower portion of the ice cover limiting the penetration of the X-band radiation into the ice. The ability to separate tundra lakes rapidly and easily into these two classes via SLAR should be useful in understanding a wide variety of problems.

A history of the idea of transporting large icebergs to arid regions to provide a fresh-water source is presented and the problem is considered in four main parts: (1) Location of a supply of icebergs. Only in the Antarctic are supplies of large tabular icebergs available. Data on the size distribution of these icebergs are reviewed and it is concluded that icebergs of almost any desired size can readily be located. (2) Towing. Steady-state towing velocities of different sized icebergs are calculated based on estimates of the drag of the icebergs and the bollard pull of tugs. Because drag increases with velocity squared, large icebergs can only be towed at very slow velocities (<c. 0.5 m/s). However, tugs that can be built within the capabilities of current technology are capable of towing extremely large icebergs. (3) Melting in transit. Calculations of melting indicate that, although melting losses are significant and may be excessive for small icebergs, when large icebergs are towed, large amounts of ice are left when the iceberg arrives at its destination. Towing trajectories, travel times, and ice delivery rates are calculated for optimum routes between the Amery Ice Shelf and Western Australia (A–A) and the Ross Ice Shelf and the Atacama Desert (R–A). Forces included in these calculations are towing, air, water, gradient current and Coriolis. Transit times exceed 107 d (A–A) and 145 d (R–A) with over 50% of the initial ice delivered. (4) Economic feasibility. After total towing charges are paid, it is possible to deliver ice to Western Australia for 1.3 mills/m3 of water and to the Atacama Desert region for 1.9 mills/m3. These costs are appreciably less than the expected price of water delivered at these locations (8 mills/m3). The water delivered by the operation of one super-tug alone would irrigate 16 000 km2. Problems related to both iceberg transport and processing are reviewed and although substantial problems do exist, they appear to be within the capabilities of current technology.

It is suggested that the overall idea is indeed feasible and should be explored further by specific groups of experts.