In this article, we first explicitly argue that disability associated with poor eyesight was a socially constructed category dependent on the needs of the Post Office as an employer and its ability to construct workplaces which ameliorated the impact of vision impairment. The second part of the article addresses the institutional responses and technological landscapes of work which comprised the contexts within which visual impairment needs to be interpreted. This involves examining the importance of medical inspection by Post Office doctors which worked to exclude those with significant sight loss from postal employment. However, what was understood to constitute significant or irreparable sight loss varied across different government agencies, and different definitions of what constituted significant sight loss served as a point of contention between Post Office management and the Civil Service Commission. .

Shorter, warmer winters linked to climate change are inviting the northwards expansion of mosquito species (Diptera: Culicidae) and the pathogens they vector. Monitoring can play an important role in helping to mitigate the health impacts of mosquito-borne disease due to changes in regional mosquito species composition. To update the inventory of mosquito species currently residing in Nova Scotia, we sampled adult mosquitoes from 60 locations using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention light traps and collected mosquito larvae from 232 water sources across nine ecozones from May to October in 2021 and 2022. Of the 12 652 mosquitoes collected, we identified 35 species, including eight species not previously recorded in the province: Aedes aurifer (Coquillett), Aedes decticus Howard et al., Aedes pionips Dyar, Aedes hendersoni Cockerell, Aedes sticticus (Meigen), Culiseta minnesotae Barr, Culiseta melanura (Coquillett), and Culex salinarius Coquillett. We have also observed the province-wide expansion of Aedes japonicus (Theobald) since the species’ first detection in Nova Scotia in 2007. Overall, vector species are being detected more frequently in Nova Scotia, highlighting potential changes in disease dynamics as climate change progresses and furthering the need for continued monitoring.

The effects of Reynolds number across ${\textit{Re}}=1000$, $2500$, $5000$ and $10\,000$ on separated flow over a two-dimensional NACA0012 airfoil at an angle of attack of $\alpha =14^\circ$ are investigated through biglobal resolvent analysis. We identify modal structures and energy amplifications over a range of frequencies, spanwise wavenumbers, and values of the discount parameter, providing insights across various time scales. Using temporal discounting, we find that the shear-layer dynamics dominates over short time horizons, while the wake dynamics becomes the primary amplification mechanism over long time horizons. Spanwise effects also appear over long time horizons, sustained by low frequencies. The low-frequency and high-wavenumber structures are found to be dominated by elliptic mechanisms within the recirculation region. At a fixed angle of attack and across the Reynolds numbers, the response modes shift from wake-dominated structures at low frequencies to shear-layer-dominated structures at higher frequencies. The frequency at which the dominant mechanism changes is independent of the Reynolds number. Comparisons at a different angle of attack ($\alpha =9^\circ$) show that the transition from wake to shear-layer dynamics with increasing frequency only occurs if the unsteady flow is three-dimensional. We also study the dominant frequencies associated with wake and shear-layer dynamics across the angles of attack and Reynolds numbers, and confirm characteristic scaling laws from the literature.

Paleontology provides insights into the history of the planet, from the origins of life billions of years ago to the biotic changes of the Recent. The scope of paleontological research is as vast as it is varied, and the field is constantly evolving. In an effort to identify “Big Questions” in paleontology, experts from around the world came together to build a list of priority questions the field can address in the years ahead. The 89 questions presented herein (grouped within 11 themes) represent contributions from nearly 200 international scientists. These questions touch on common themes including biodiversity drivers and patterns, integrating data types across spatiotemporal scales, applying paleontological data to contemporary biodiversity and climate issues, and effectively utilizing innovative methods and technology for new paleontological insights. In addition to these theoretical questions, discussions touch upon structural concerns within the field, advocating for an increased valuation of specimen-based research, protection of natural heritage sites, and the importance of collections infrastructure, along with a stronger emphasis on human diversity, equity, and inclusion. These questions offer a starting point—an initial nucleus of consensus that paleontologists can expand on—for engaging in discussions, securing funding, advocating for museums, and fostering continued growth in shared research directions.

We present the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) survey conducted with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). EMU aims to deliver the touchstone radio atlas of the southern hemisphere. We introduce EMU and review its science drivers and key science goals, updated and tailored to the current ASKAP five-year survey plan. The development of the survey strategy and planned sky coverage is presented, along with the operational aspects of the survey and associated data analysis, together with a selection of diagnostics demonstrating the imaging quality and data characteristics. We give a general description of the value-added data pipeline and data products before concluding with a discussion of links to other surveys and projects and an outline of EMU’s legacy value.

Marine sedimentary rocks of the late Eocene Pagat Member of the Tanjung Formation in the Asem Asem Basin near Satui, Kalimantan, provide an important geological archive for understanding the paleontological evolution of southern Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) in the interval leading up the development of the Central Indo-Pacific marine biodiversity hotspot. In this paper, we describe a moderately diverse assemblage of marine invertebrates within a sedimentological and stratigraphical context. In the studied section, the Pagat Member of the Tanjung Formation records an interval of overall marine transgression and chronicles a transition from the marginal marine and continental siliciclastic succession in the underlying Tambak Member to the carbonate platform succession in the overlying Berai Formation.

The lower part of the Pagat Member contains heterolithic interbedded siliciclastic sandstone and glauconitic shale, with thin bioclastic floatstone and bioclastic rudstone beds. This segues into a calcareous shale succession with common foraminiferal packstone/rudstone lenses interpreted as low-relief biostromes. A diverse trace fossil assemblage occurs primarily in a muddy/glauconitic sandstone, sandy mudstone, and bioclastic packstone/rudstone succession, constraining the depositional setting to a mid-ramp/mid to distal continental shelf setting below fair-weather wave base but above storm wave base.

Each biostrome rests upon a storm-generated ravinement surface characterized by a low-diversity Glossifungites or Trypanites trace fossil assemblage. The erosional surfaces were colonized by organisms that preferred stable substrates, including larger benthic foraminifera, solitary corals, oysters, and serpulid annelid worms.

The biostromes comprised islands of high marine biodiversity on the mud-dominated Pagat coastline. Together, the biostromes analyzed in this study contained 13 genera of symbiont-bearing larger benthic foraminifera, ~40 mollusk taxa, at least 5 brachyuran decapod genera, and 6 coral genera (Anthemiphyllia, Balanophyllia, Caryophyllia, Cycloseris, Trachyphyllia, and Trochocyathus), as well as a variety of bryozoans, serpulids, echinoids, and asterozoans. High foraminiferal and molluscan diversity, coupled with modest coral diversity, supports the hypothesis that the origin of the diverse tropical invertebrate faunas that characterize the modern Indo-Australian region may have occurred in the latest Eocene/earliest Oligocene.

Objectives/Goals: The Competency-Based All-Level Training (COBALT) curriculum standardizes learning for clinical research coordinators (CRCs) across multiple institutions within Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI), with flexible, topic-specific training at all experience levels, in both academic and industry-sponsored research. Methods/Study Population: The COBALT curriculum was developed in collaboration with subject matter experts, managers of CRCs, and other clinical research professionals from institutions across the WWAMI region. A thorough assessment of existing training programs within the region helped identify gaps and unmet needs. The curriculum was designed within a user-friendly learning management system that can be accessed across institutions. It has been piloted with diverse groups and committees of CRCs, professionals, and institutional leaders in clinical and translational science. Ongoing evaluation is being conducted qualitatively using built-in assessment surveys, demonstrations, and interviews. Results/Anticipated Results: The anticipated outcome is the creation of a highly standardized and efficient training program for clinical research professionals across multiple institutions in the WWAMI region. This program will be carefully tailored to each professional’s level of experience, ensuring personalized skill development. By aligning training with diverse expertise levels, the initiative aims to significantly elevate the quality, consistency, and overall performance of clinical research efforts across the regional research community. Discussion/Significance of Impact: The COBALT curriculum provides a vetted learning curriculum for CRCs, with a tailorable training plan that helps them collaborate with their supervisors to tailor training to their career goals. This ensures that the curriculum is not only comprehensive but also adaptable to individual needs.

There is mounting interest in the dual health and environmental benefits of plant-based diets. Such diets prioritise whole foods of plant origin and moderate (though occasionally exclude) animal-sourced foods. However, the evidence base on plant-based diets and health outcomes in Australasia is limited and diverse, making it unsuitable for systematic review. This review aimed to assess the current state of play, identify research gaps and suggest good practice recommendations. The consulted evidence base included key studies on plant-based diets and cardiometabolic health or mortality outcomes in Australian and New Zealand adults. Most studies were observational, conducted in Australia, published within the last decade, and relied on a single dietary assessment about 10–30 years ago. Plant-based diets were often examined using categories of vegetarianism, intake of plant or animal protein, or dietary indices. Health outcomes included mortality, type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, obesity, CVD and metabolic syndrome. While Australia has an emerging and generally favourable evidence base on plant-based diets and health outcomes, New Zealand’s evidence base is still nascent. The lack of similar studies hinders the ability to judge the overall certainty of evidence, which could otherwise inform public health policies and strategies without relying on international studies with unconfirmed applicability. The proportional role of plant- and animal-sourced foods in healthy, sustainable diets in Australasia is an underexplored research area with potentially far-reaching implications, especially concerning nutrient adequacy and the combined health and environmental impacts.

Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, are psychiatric conditions associated with high mortality rates, particularly due to suicide. Although eating disorders are strongly associated with suicidal ideation, attempts, and fatalities, the precise relationship between these conditions remains poorly understood. While substantial genetic influences have been identified for both eating disorders and suicidality, the shared genetics contributing to their co-occurrence remain unclear. In this study, we utilized a multivariate approach to examine the shared genetic architecture of eating disorder symptoms, suicidal thoughts and behaviors in ~20,000 participants from the COVID-19 Psychiatry and Neurological Genetics (COPING) study. We applied individual-level structural equation modeling to explore the factor structure underlying eating disorder symptoms and suicidal ideation, followed by genetic correlation analyses. We modeled the general factor of susceptibility to eating disorders and suicidal ideation that was as strongly genetically influenced as both conditions, with mean SNP heritability of 9%. Importantly, despite the frequent co-occurrence of eating disorders with other psychiatric conditions, our findings highlight the specificity of the relationship between eating disorders and suicidality, independent of other co-occurring psychopathology, such as depression and anxiety. This specificity highlights the need for targeted approaches in understanding the shared susceptibility factors.

Young people with childhood adversity (CA) were at increased risk to experience mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic research identified high-quality friendship support as a protective factor that can buffer against the emergence of mental health problems in young people with CA. This longitudinal study investigated friendship buffering effects on mental health symptoms before and at three timepoints during the pandemic in 102 young people (aged 16–26) with low to moderate CA. Multilevel analyses revealed a continuous increase in depression symptoms following the outbreak. Friendship quality was perceived as elevated during lockdowns and returned to pre-pandemic baseline levels during reopening. A stress-sensitizing effect of CA on social functioning was evident, as social thinning occurred following the outbreak. Bivariate latent change score modeling revealed that before and during the pandemic, young people with greater friendship quality self-reported lower depression symptoms and vice versa. Furthermore, sequential mediation analysis showed that high-quality friendships before the pandemic buffered depression symptoms during the pandemic through reducing perceived stress. These findings highlight the importance of fostering stable and supportive friendships in young people with CA and suggest that through reducing stress perceptions high-quality friendships can mitigate mental health problems during times of multidimensional stress.

Salmonella enterica is a Gram-negative bacterium responsible approximately for 155,000 deaths annually. S. enterica is one of the most important foodborne pathogens, affecting mainly people in developed countries. The human immune system produces antibacterial peptides and proteins like lactoferrin (LF). This work addresses the hypothesis that bovine lactoferrin (bLF) and its derivative peptides bLactoferricin17-30, bD-Lactoferricin17-30, bLactoferrampin265-284, bD-Lactoferrampin265-284 and bLF-chimera have antimicrobial activity on planktonic cells and pre-formed biofilms of S. enterica. Planktonic Salmonella enterica ATCC 14028 were treated with bLF and bLF-peptides for two hours, and bacterial viability was determined by counting colony-forming units/ml. In addition, S. enterica biofilms were pre-formed or established on an abiotic surface, and viability or disruption was assessed in the presence of bLF and bLF-peptides by counting colony-forming units/ml or using the live/dead viability kit. We observed that bLF and bLF-peptides were bactericidal against planktonic S. enterica, killing more than 80% of cultures after two hours of treatment. The bactericidal effect was concentration and time-dependent. In addition, bLF, bLFampin165-284, and bLF-chimera showed an anti-biofilm effect against Salmonella biofilms pre-formed during 8 and 12 hours on the abiotic surface, disorganizing more than 50% of the biofilms after 4 or 6 hours of treatment. We conclude that bLF and its peptides show antimicrobial activity against planktonic cells and pre-formed biofilms of S. enterica on abiotic surfaces and could potentially be a therapeutic solution to combat Salmonella infections.

Tape rolls are often used for multiple patients despite recommendations by manufacturers for single-patient use. We developed a survey to query Health Care Personnel about their tape use practices and beliefs and uncovered behaviors that put patients at risk for hospital-acquired infections due to tape use.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have great potential to help address societal challenges that are both collective in nature and present at national or transnational scale. Pressing challenges in healthcare, finance, infrastructure and sustainability, for instance, might all be productively addressed by leveraging and amplifying AI for national-scale collective intelligence. The development and deployment of this kind of AI faces distinctive challenges, both technical and socio-technical. Here, a research strategy for mobilising inter-disciplinary research to address these challenges is detailed and some of the key issues that must be faced are outlined.