Low-density polymer foams pre-ionized by a well-controlled nanosecond pulse are excellent plasma targets to trigger direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons by sub-picosecond relativistic laser pulses. In this work, the influence of the nanosecond pulse on the DLA process is investigated. The density profile of plasma generated after irradiating foam with a nanosecond pulse was simulated with a two-dimensional hydrodynamic code, which takes into account the high aspect ratio of interaction and the microstructure of polymer foams. The obtained plasma density profile was used as input to the three-dimensional particle-in-cell code to simulate energy, angular distributions and charge carried by the directional fraction of DLA electrons. The modelling shows good agreement with the experiment and in general a weak dependence of the electron spectra on the plasma profiles, which contain a density up-ramp and a region of near-critical electron density. This explains the high DLA stability in pre-ionized foams, which is important for applications.

The challenge of American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) continues in Brazil, presenting a persistent public health issue despite initiatives aimed at public outreach, vector control and health education. To gain a deeper understanding of this disease, a study was conducted in an endemic region located in the northern region of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The study monitored 30 resident patients diagnosed with ATL, using serum samples from 6 healthy individuals as controls. The localized cutaneous form of the disease was found to be predominant, with lesions appearing on various parts of the body and the majority of the affected individuals being male. The study found significantly higher levels of IgG anti-α-Gal antibodies in ATL-infected patients compared to healthy individuals. Treatment of 19 patients with meglumine antimoniate resulted in limited improvement in symptoms for most. Nonetheless, the study found that 12 patients who completed treatment with epithelialization of the lesions showed a significant decrease in IgG anti-α-Gal antibodies, indicating potential applications of this antibody in the diagnosis and monitoring of the disease. The study also identified Leishmania species in 7 analysed patients, revealing 6 cases infected by Leishmania braziliensis and 1 by L. infantum, with a significant difference in the anti-α-Gal responses. The findings of the study emphasize the urgent need for the development of human vaccines and innovative treatment strategies adapted to the diversity of Leishmania species causing cutaneous leishmaniasis and individual patient responses to improve the clinical management of ATL in Brazil and similar endemic regions.

The Pliensbachian–Toarcian succession of North Yorkshire provides a global reference for the interval incorporating the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE, ∼183 Ma). Major and trace element, carbon stable-isotope (δ13Corg) and total organic carbon (TOC) data for the Dove’s Nest core, drilled close to the classic outcrop sections of the Yorkshire coast, demonstrate geochemical, mineralogical and grain-size trends linked to sea level and climate change in the Cleveland Basin. High-resolution correlation between the core and outcrop enables the integration of data to generate a comprehensive chemostratigraphic record. Palaeoredox proxies (Mo, U, V, TOC/P, DOP and Fe speciation) show a progressive shift from oxic bottom waters in the late Pliensbachian through dysoxic–anoxic conditions in the earliest Toarcian to euxinia during the T-OAE. Anoxia–dysoxia persisted into the middle Toarcian. Elemental and isotope data (Re, Re/Mo, δ34SCAS, δ98Mo and ε205Tl) from the coastal sections evidence global expansion of anoxic and euxinic seafloor area driving drawdown of redox-sensitive metals and sulfate from seawater leading to severe depletion in early Toarcian ocean water. The record of anoxia–euxinia in the Cleveland Basin largely reflects global-scale changes in ocean oxygenation, although metal depletion was temporarily enhanced by periods of local basin restriction. Osmium and Sr isotopes demonstrate a pulse of accelerated weathering accompanying the early Toarcian hyperthermal, coincident with the T-OAE. The combined core and outcrop records evidence local and global environmental change accompanying one of the largest perturbations in the global carbon cycle during the last 200 Ma and a period of major biotic turnover.

In 2022, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus clade 2.3.4.4b became enzootic and caused mass mortality in Sandwich Tern Thalasseus sandvicensis and other seabird species across north-western Europe. We present data on the characteristics of the spread of the virus between and within breeding colonies and the number of dead adult Sandwich Terns recorded at breeding sites throughout north-western Europe. Within two months of the first reported mortalities, 20,531 adult Sandwich Terns were found dead, which is >17% of the total north-western European breeding population. This is probably an under-representation of total mortality, as many carcasses are likely to have gone unnoticed and unreported. Within affected colonies, almost all chicks died. After the peak of the outbreak, in a colony established by late breeders, 25.7% of tested adults showed immunity to HPAI subtype H5. Removal of carcasses was associated with lower levels of mortality at affected colonies. More research on the sources and modes of transmission, incubation times, effective containment, and immunity is urgently needed to combat this major threat for colonial seabirds.

Orthoamphibole, clinoamphibole and magnetite are common minerals in altered rocks associated spatially with Palaeoproterozoic volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits in Colorado, USA and metamorphosed to the amphibolite facies. These altered rocks are dominated by the assemblage orthoamphibole (anthophyllite/gedrite)–cordierite–magnetite±gahnite±sulfides. Magnetite also occurs in granitoids, banded iron formations, quartz garnetite, and in metallic mineralisation consisting of semi-massive pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite with subordinate galena, gahnite and magnetite; amphibole also occurs in amphibolite. The precursor to the anthophyllite/gedrite–cordierite assemblages was probably the assemblage quartz–chlorite formed from hydrothermal ore-bearing fluids (~250° to 400°C) associated with the formation of metallic minerals in the massive sulfide deposits.

Element–element variation diagrams for amphibole, magnetite and ilmenite based on LA-ICP-MS data and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for orthoamphiboles and magnetite show a broad range of compositions which are primarily dependent upon the nature of the host rock associated spatially with the deposits. Although discrimination plots of Al/(Zn+Ca) vs Cu/(Si+Ca) and Sn/Ga vs Al/Co for magnetite do not indicate a VMS origin, the concentration of Al+Mn together with Ti+V and Sn vs Ti support a hydrothermal rather than a magmatic origin for magnetite. Principal Component Analyses also show that magnetite and orthoamphibole in metamorphosed altered rocks and sulfide zones have distinctive eigenvalues that allow them to be used as prospective pathfinders for VMS deposits in Colorado. This, in conjunction with the contents of Zn and Al in magnetite, Zn and Pb in amphibole, ilmenite and magnetite, the Cu content of orthoamphibole and ilmenite, and possibly the Ga and Sn concentrations of magnetite constitute effective exploration vectors.

Microfluidic mixers offer new possibilities for the study of fast reaction kinetics down to the microsecond time scale, and methods such as soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy are powerful analysis techniques. These systems impose challenging constraints on mixing time scales, sample volume, detection region size and component materials. The current work presents a novel micromixer and jet device which aims to address these limitations. The system uses a so-called ‘theta’ mixer consisting of two sintered and fused glass capillaries. Sample and carrier fluids are injected separately into the inlets of the adjacent capillaries. At the downstream end, the two streams exit two micron-scale adjoining nozzles and form a single free-standing jet. The flow-rate difference between the two streams results in the rapid acceleration and lamination of the sample stream. This creates a small transverse dimension and induces diffusive mixing of the sample and carrier stream solutions within a time scale of 0.9 microseconds. The reaction occurs at or very near a free surface so that reactants and products are more directly accessible to interrogation using soft X-ray. We use a simple diffusion model and quantitative measurements of fluorescence quenching (of fluorescein with potassium iodide) to characterize the mixing dynamics across flow-rate ratios.

The recent progress of deep learning techniques has produced models capable of achieving high scores on traditional Natural Language Inference (NLI) datasets. To understand the generalization limits of these powerful models, an increasing number of adversarial evaluation schemes have appeared. These works use a similar evaluation method: they construct a new NLI test set based on sentences with known logic and semantic properties (the adversarial set), train a model on a benchmark NLI dataset, and evaluate it in the new set. Poor performance on the adversarial set is identified as a model limitation. The problem with this evaluation procedure is that it may only indicate a sampling problem. A machine learning model can perform poorly on a new test set because the text patterns presented in the adversarial set are not well represented in the training sample. To address this problem, we present a new evaluation method, the Invariance under Equivalence test (IE test). The IE test trains a model with sufficient adversarial examples and checks the model’s performance on two equivalent datasets. As a case study, we apply the IE test to the state-of-the-art NLI models using synonym substitution as the form of adversarial examples. The experiment shows that, despite their high predictive power, these models usually produce different inference outputs for equivalent inputs, and, more importantly, this deficiency cannot be solved by adding adversarial observations in the training data.

We evaluated the effects of two low-energy diets with different glycaemic loads on arterial stiffness in adults with excess weight. This was a 45-day parallel-group, randomised clinical trial including seventy-five participants (20–59 years; BMI 32 kg/m2). They were assigned to two similar low-energy diets (reduction of ∼750 kcal.d−1) with macronutrient composition (55 % carbohydrates, 20 % proteins and 25 % lipids) but different glycaemic loads: high-glycaemic load (HGL 171 g.d−1; n 36) or low-glycaemic load (LGL 67 g.d−1; n 39). We evaluated: arterial stiffness (pulse wave velocity, PWV); augmentation index (AIx@75); reflection coefficient; fasting blood glucose; fasting lipid profile; blood pressure and body composition. We found no improvements in PWV (P = 0·690) and AIx@75 (P = 0·083) in both diet groups, but there was a decrease in the reflection coefficient in the LGL group (P = 0·003) compared with baseline. The LGL diet group showed reductions in body weight (Δ –4·9 kg; P = 0·001), BMI (Δ –1·6 kg/m2; P = 0·001), waist circumference (Δ –3·1 cm; P = 0·001), body fat (Δ –1·8 %; P = 0·034), as well as TAG (Δ –14·7 mg/dl; P = 0·016) and VLDL (Δ –2·8 mg/dl; P = 0·020). The HGL diet group showed a reduction in total cholesterol (Δ –14·6 mg/dl; P = 0·001), LDL (Δ –9·3 mg/dl; P = 0·029) but a reduction in HDL (Δ –3·7 mg/dl; P = 0·002). In conclusion, a 45-day intervention with low-energy HGL or LGL diets in adults with excess weight was not effective to improve arterial stiffness. However, the LGL diet intervention was associated with a reduction of reflection coefficient and improvements in body composition, TAG and VLDL levels.