The recent ONS survey reported that 92% of students had been affected by the cost-of-living crisis with 46% revealing their overall mental health and well-being had worsened(1). London Metropolitan University has a unique diverse student population: in 2020-21, 82% of students were mature, 64% of students identified as female, 55% of students were from a minoritised background and 13% had a known disability(2). Furthermore, at least 50% of our students, many of whom have caring responsibilities, reside in the most deprived wards of Islington or other impoverished London boroughs. It has been documented that those students with families, who come from a low income and a minority background are more vulnerable(3) and are more likely to be disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis and at risk of food insecurity. We sought to ease the burden of the cost-of-living crisis with a recipe box scheme, BRITE Box (4) and evaluate its acceptance.

BRITE Box provides a complete set of pre-weighed ingredients for a healthy nutritious meal with an easy-to-follow recipe guide. Each box typically contains two servings of vegetables, meat, bread and dairy, as well as spices, dried and tinned goods to feed a family of five people. We distributed 300 boxes over a period of five months to students primarily with families who had accessed the university hardship fund. Student volunteers and the academic staff pre-weighed the ingredients, prepared and distributed the boxes. The scheme was advertised through Student Services who administer the hardship fund, the Student Union and the intranet. The recipients of the boxes were provided with a QR code linking to a 20-item online survey on demographic characteristics, number of children, acceptability of the box and perceived advantages and disadvantages of the scheme. Ethics was approved by London Metropolitan University.

Thirty-three participants completed the survey, 42% of the recipients identified as female, 55% were from a minority background and 30% had children. The responses showed that students agreed and strongly agreed that the recipe box introduced them to new flavours (52%), and new foods (42%). The majority followed the recipe and will use again (67%). Most importantly, 73% students agreed and or strongly agreed that it helped with the food budget and helped foster a sense of belonging to the university (85%).

The scheme has proved to be popular among the students: “a really cool concept”, “it helped me cook”, “the box provided food for 3 days” and created a buzz around campus on distribution days. It has enhanced the feeling of community and belonging within the university, whilst also alleviating food insecurity and tackling the cost-of-living crisis.

The Magellanic Stream (MS), a tail of diffuse gas formed from tidal and ram pressure interactions between the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC) and the Halo of the Milky Way, is primarily composed of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI). The deficiency of dust and the diffuse nature of the present gas make molecular formation rare and difficult, but if present, could lead to regions potentially suitable for star formation, thereby allowing us to probe conditions of star formation similar to those at high redshifts. We search for $\text{HCO}^{+}$, HCN, HNC, and C$_2$H using the highest sensitivity observations of molecular absorption data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to trace these regions, comparing with HI archival data from the Galactic Arecibo L-Band Feed Array (GALFA) HI Survey and the Galactic All Sky Survey (GASS) to compare these environments in the MS to the HI column density threshold for molecular formation in the Milky Way. We also compare the line of sight locations with confirmed locations of stars, molecular hydrogen, and OI detections, though at higher sensitivities than the observations presented here.

We find no detections to a 3$\sigma$ significance, despite four sightlines having column densities surpassing the threshold for molecular formation in the diffuse regions of the Milky Way. Here we present our calculations for the upper limits of the column densities of each of these molecular absorption lines, ranging from $3 \times 10^{10}$ to $1 \times 10^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$. The non-detection of $\text{HCO}^{+}$ suggests that at least one of the following is true: (i) $X_{\text{HCO}^{+}{}, \mathrm{MS}}$ is significantly lower than the Milky Way value; (ii) that the widespread diffuse molecular gas observed by Rybarczyk (2022b, ApJ, 928, 79) in the Milky Way’s diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) does not have a direct analogue in the MS; (iii) the HI-to-$\text{H}_{2}$ transition occurs in the MS at a higher surface density in the MS than in the LMC or SMC; or (iv) molecular gas exists in the MS, but only in small, dense clumps.

We present observations of the four $^2 \Pi _{3/2}\,J=3/2$ ground-rotational state transitions of the hydroxyl molecule (OH) along 107 lines of sight both in and out of the Galactic plane: 92 sets of observations from the Arecibo telescope and 15 sets of observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). Our Arecibo observations included off-source pointings, allowing us to measure excitation temperature ($T_{\rm ex}$) and optical depth, while our ATCA observations give optical depth only. We perform Gaussian decomposition using the Automated Molecular Excitation Bayesian line-fitting Algorithm ‘Amoeba’ (Petzler, Dawson, & Wardle 2021, ApJ, 923, 261) fitting all four transitions simultaneously with shared centroid velocity and width. We identify 109 features across 38 sightlines (including 58 detections along 27 sightlines with excitation temperature measurements). While the main lines at 1665 and 1667 MHz tend to have similar excitation temperatures (median $|\Delta T_{\rm ex}({\rm main})|=0.6\,$K, 84% show $|\Delta T_{\rm ex}({\rm main})|<2\,$K), large differences in the 1612 and 1720 MHz satellite line excitation temperatures show that the gas is generally not in LTE. For a selection of sightlines, we compare our OH features to associated (on-sky and in velocity) Hi cold gas components (CNM) identified by Nguyen et al. (2019, ApJ, 880, 141) and find no strong correlations. We speculate that this may indicate an effective decoupling of the molecular gas from the CNM once it accumulates.

The Galactic ASKAP survey of OH (GASKAP-OH) is surveying the Milky Way Fourth Quadrant, the Galactic Centre, the Galactic Bulge and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in the 18-cm ground-state lines of the hydroxyl radical (OH), using Australia’s Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. With an expected per-channel rms sensitivity of 36 mJy/beam in its shallowest regions, and a velocity channel width of 0.1 km s-1, GASKAP-OH is expected to discover hundreds of new star-formation and evolved star OH masers, as well as extensive absorption from quasi-thermal OH throughout the Galactic Plane. We here summarise the science goals and technical specifications of the survey, and report initial detection results from test observations. GASKAP-OH is expected to run for several years and is an open collaboration. Data products will be made available to the wider community as soon as they are verified.

We present the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen ( ${\rm H\small I}$ ) emission associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), through the combination of data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Parkes (Murriyang), as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey. These GASKAP-HI pilot observations, for the first time, reveal ${\rm H\small I}$ in the SMC on similar physical scales as other important tracers of the interstellar medium, such as molecular gas and dust. The resultant image cube possesses an rms noise level of 1.1 K ( $1.6\,\mathrm{mJy\ beam}^{-1}$ ) $\mathrm{per}\ 0.98\,\mathrm{km\ s}^{-1}$ spectral channel with an angular resolution of $30^{\prime\prime}$ ( ${\sim}10\,\mathrm{pc}$ ). We discuss the calibration scheme and the custom imaging pipeline that utilises a joint deconvolution approach, efficiently distributed across a computing cluster, to accurately recover the emission extending across the entire ${\sim}25\,\mathrm{deg}^2$ field-of-view. We provide an overview of the data products and characterise several aspects including the noise properties as a function of angular resolution and the represented spatial scales by deriving the global transfer function over the full spectral range. A preliminary spatial power spectrum analysis on individual spectral channels reveals that the power law nature of the density distribution extends down to scales of 10 pc. We highlight the scientific potential of these data by comparing the properties of an outflowing high-velocity cloud with previous ASKAP+Parkes ${\rm H\small I}$ test observations.

Two introduced carnivores, the European red fox Vulpes vulpes and domestic cat Felis catus, have had extensive impacts on Australian biodiversity. In this study, we collate information on consumption of Australian birds by the fox, paralleling a recent study reporting on birds consumed by cats. We found records of consumption by foxes on 128 native bird species (18% of the non-vagrant bird fauna and 25% of those species within the fox’s range), a smaller tally than for cats (343 species, including 297 within the fox’s Australian range, a subset of that of the cat). Most (81%) bird species eaten by foxes are also eaten by cats, suggesting that predation impacts are compounded. As with consumption by cats, birds that nest or forage on the ground are most likely to be consumed by foxes. However, there is also some partitioning, with records of consumption by foxes but not cats for 25 bird species, indicating that impacts of the two predators may also be complementary. Bird species ≥3.4 kg were more likely to be eaten by foxes, and those <3.4 kg by cats. Our compilation provides an inventory and describes characteristics of Australian bird species known to be consumed by foxes, but we acknowledge that records of predation do not imply population-level impacts. Nonetheless, there is sufficient information from other studies to demonstrate that fox predation has significant impacts on the population viability of some Australian birds, especially larger birds, and those that nest or forage on the ground.

Participatory plant breeding (PPB), commonly applied in the Global South to address the needs of underserved farmers, refers to the active collaboration between researchers, farmers and other actors throughout the breeding process. In spite of significant public and private investments in crop variety improvement in the Global North, PPB is increasingly utilized as an approach to address cropping system needs. The current study conducted a state-of-the-art review, including a comprehensive inventory of projects and five case studies, to explore the emergence of PPB in the Global North and inform future PPB efforts. Case studies included maize (Zea mays), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), Brassica crops (Brassica oleracea), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and potato (Solanum tuberosum). The review identified 47 projects across the United States, Canada and Europe including 22 crop species representing diverse crop biology. Improved adaptation to organic farming systems and addressing principles and values of organic agriculture emerged as consistent themes. While projects presented evidence that PPB has expanded crop diversity and farmer's access to improved varieties, obstacles to PPB also emerged including challenges in sustained funding as well as addressing regulatory barriers to the commercial distribution of PPB varieties. Agronomic improvements were only one lens motivating PPB, with many projects identifying goals of conservation of crop genetic diversity, farmers' seed sovereignty and avoidance of certain breeding techniques. The authors conclude that a multidisciplinary approach is needed to fully understand the social, political and agroecological influences driving the emergence of projects in the Global North and factors impacting success.

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a common but poorly understood phenomenon in adolescents. This study examined the Sustained Threat domain in female adolescents with a continuum of NSSI severity (N = 142). Across NSSI lifetime frequency and NSSI severity groups (No + Mild NSSI, Moderate NSSI, Severe NSSI), we examined physiological, self-reported and observed stress during the Trier Social Stress Test; amygdala volume; amygdala responses to threat stimuli; and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Severe NSSI showed a blunted pattern of cortisol response, despite elevated reported and observed stress during TSST. Severe NSSI showed lower amygdala–mPFC RSFC; follow-up analyses suggested that this was more pronounced in those with a history of suicide attempt for both moderate and severe NSSI. Moderate NSSI showed elevated right amygdala activation to threat; multiple regressions showed that, when considered together with low amygdala–mPFC RSFC, higher right but lower left amygdala activation predicted NSSI severity. Patterns of interrelationships among Sustained Threat measures varied substantially across NSSI severity groups, and further by suicide attempt history. Study limitations include the cross-sectional design, missing data, and sampling biases. Our findings highlight the value of multilevel approaches in understanding the complexity of neurobiological mechanisms in adolescent NSSI.

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${\sim}60\%$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

Reconstructions of prehistoric vegetation composition help establish natural baselines, variability, and trajectories of forest dynamics before and during the emergence of intensive anthropogenic land use. Pollen–vegetation models (PVMs) enable such reconstructions from fossil pollen assemblages using process-based representations of taxon-specific pollen production and dispersal. However, several PVMs and variants now exist, and the sensitivity of vegetation inferences to PVM selection, variant, and calibration domain is poorly understood. Here, we compare the reconstructions, parameter estimates, and structure of a Bayesian hierarchical PVM, STEPPS, both to observations and to REVEALS, a widely used PVM, for the pre–Euro-American settlement-era vegetation in the northeastern United States (NEUS). We also compare NEUS-based STEPPS parameter estimates to those for the upper midwestern United States (UMW). Both PVMs predict the observed macroscale patterns of vegetation composition in the NEUS; however, reconstructions of minor taxa are less accurate and predictions for some taxa differ between PVMs. These differences can be attributed to intermodel differences in structure and parameter estimates. Estimates of pollen productivity from STEPPS broadly agree with estimates produced for use in REVEALS, while comparison between pollen dispersal parameter estimates shows no significant relationship. STEPPS parameter estimates are similar between the UMW and NEUS, suggesting that STEPPS parameter estimates are transferable between floristically similar regions and scales.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for depressed adults. CBT interventions are complex, as they include multiple content components and can be delivered in different ways. We compared the effectiveness of different types of therapy, different components and combinations of components and aspects of delivery used in CBT interventions for adult depression. We conducted a systematic review of randomised controlled trials in adults with a primary diagnosis of depression, which included a CBT intervention. Outcomes were pooled using a component-level network meta-analysis. Our primary analysis classified interventions according to the type of therapy and delivery mode. We also fitted more advanced models to examine the effectiveness of each content component or combination of components. We included 91 studies and found strong evidence that CBT interventions yielded a larger short-term decrease in depression scores compared to treatment-as-usual, with a standardised difference in mean change of −1.11 (95% credible interval −1.62 to −0.60) for face-to-face CBT, −1.06 (−2.05 to −0.08) for hybrid CBT, and −0.59 (−1.20 to 0.02) for multimedia CBT, whereas wait list control showed a detrimental effect of 0.72 (0.09 to 1.35). We found no evidence of specific effects of any content components or combinations of components. Technology is increasingly used in the context of CBT interventions for depression. Multimedia and hybrid CBT might be as effective as face-to-face CBT, although results need to be interpreted cautiously. The effectiveness of specific combinations of content components and delivery formats remain unclear. Wait list controls should be avoided if possible.

An experiment was carried out to examine the effects of offering beef steers grass silage (GS) as the sole forage, lupins/triticale silage (LTS) as the sole forage, a mixture of LTS and GS at a ratio of 70:30 on a dry matter (DM) basis, vetch/barley silage (VBS) as the sole forage, a mixture of VBS and GS at a ratio of 70:30 on a DM basis, giving a total of five silage diets. Each of the five silage diets was supplemented with 2 and 5 kg of concentrates/head/day in a 5 × 2 factorial design to evaluate the five silages at two levels of concentrate intake and to examine possible interactions between silage type and concentrate intake. A total of 80 beef steers were used in the 122-day experiment. The GS was well preserved while the whole crop cereal/legume silages had high ammonia-nitrogen (N) concentrations, low lactic acid concentrations and low butyric acid concentrations For GS, LTS, LTS/GS, VBS and VBS/GS, respectively, silage DM intakes were 6.5, 7.0, 7.2, 6.1 and 6.6 (s.e.d. 0.55) kg/day and live weight gains were 0.94, 0.72, 0.63, 0.65 and 0.73 (s.e.d. 0.076) kg/day. Silage type did not affect carcass fatness, the colour or tenderness of meat or the fatty acid composition of the intramuscular fat in the longissimus dorsi muscle.

An experiment was carried out to examine the effects of offering beef cattle five silage diets. These were perennial ryegrass silage (PRGS) as the sole forage, tall fescue/perennial ryegrass silage (FGS) as the sole forage, PRGS in a 50:50 ratio on a dry matter (DM) basis with lupin/triticale silage (LTS), lupin/wheat silage (LWS) and pea/oat silage (POS). Each of the five silage diets was supplemented with 4 and 7 kg of concentrates/head/day in a five silages × two concentrate intakes factorial design. A total of 90 cattle were used in the 121-day experiment. The grass silages were of medium digestibility and were well preserved. The legume/cereal silages had high ammonia N, high acetic acid, low lactic acid, low butyric acid and low digestible organic matter concentrations (542, 562 and 502 g/kg DM for LTS, LWS and POS, respectively). Silage treatment did not significantly affect liveweight gain, carcass gain, carcass characteristics, the instrumental assessment of meat quality or fatty acid composition of the M. longissimus dorsi muscle. In view of the low yields of the legume/cereal crops, it is concluded that the inclusion of spring-sown legume/cereal silages in the diets of beef cattle is unlikely to be advantageous.

Emission lines from CO and Hi are the standard tracers of molecular and atomic interstellar medium, respectively. In the past two decades, a consensus has formed that a substantial fraction of Galactic molecular gas evades detection by these two tracers, thus giving rise to the empirical concept of dark molecular gas (DMG). Largely based on the experience and evidence garnered from the Arecibo Millennium survey, we have formed an international consortium, the Pacific Rim Interstellar Matter Observers (PRIMO), to pursue alternative tracers of DMG, particularly absorption against background radio sources (quasars). PRIMO have carried out observing programs at Arecibo, JVLA, Delingha 13.7m, ATCA and ALMA, among others. Our observations reveal abundant hydrides, namely OH and CH, in DMG clouds. The historical difficulty of mapping OH can be explained by the measured OH excitation temperature $f(T_{{\rm{ex}}}^{{\rm{OH}}}) \propto \frac{1}{{\sqrt {2\pi } \sigma }}{\rm{exp}}[ - {(ln(T_{ex}^{OH}) - ln(3.4\;K))^2}/(2{\sigma ^2})],$

which is a modified log-normal function peaking close to the numerical value of the L-band Galactic continuum background (synchrotron + CMB). Both OH and CH are shown to be better tracers of molecular hydrogen than CO, particularly in the intermediate extinction regions (Av ~ 0.05-2 magnitude), where DMG dominates. http://ism.bao.ac.cn/primo

A carbonatite sample from Phalaborwa, South Africa, consists of apatite, magnetite and a calcitedolomite ‘perthite’ which is interpreted as being due to exsolution of dolomite from a high-Mg calcite precursor. Carbon and oxygen isotope data indicate that the carbonates are equilibrated. In situ ionmicroprobe analyses for Fe, Mn, Na, Si, Y, the REEs, Pb, Th and U give the following average concentrations (in ppm) in the sequence apatite, calcite, dolomite: Fe 98, 1680, 8190; Mn 61, 510, 615; Na 1171, 627, 125; Si 368; 1.6, 0.2; Sr 4447, 5418, 2393; Ba 37, 2189, 75; La 1245, 300, 67; Y 121, 50, 5.8; Pb 16, 5.4, 1.4; Th 20, 0.02, 0; U 2.4, 0, 0.01. The concentrations are reasonably uniform in both apatite and dolomite, but in calcite are more variable. Na, Si, Y, the REEs, Pb, Th and U partition into apatite relative to both carbonates (and, hence, the precursor carbonate); KD ap/cc for REE decreases from ∽4 for La to ∽2 for Tm. There is almost equal partitioning of Sr between apatite and calcite. During separation of dolomite from calcite, Sr and Ba partition strongly into calcite and all the other analysed elements, except Fe and Mn, also preferentially enter calcite. The REEs prefer calcite relative to dolomite, and the KD dol/cc is reasonably constant, only varying from 0.23 to 0.17. Sr, Ba and Pb in the carbonates, and their partitioning between the calcite and dolomite, differ from other carbonatite carbonates reported in the literature.