Flow synthesis and multidimensional parameter screening enables exploration and optimization of copper oxide nanoparticle synthesis.

Copper-based nanoparticles (NPs) are highly valued for their wide-ranging applications, with particular significance in CO reduction. However current synthesis methods encounter challenges in scalability, batch-to-batch variation, and high energy costs. In this work, we describe a novel continuous flow synthesis approach performed at room temperature to help address these issues, producing spherical, colloidally stable copper(ii) oxide (CuO) NPs.

Floral resource wastage: Most nectar produced by the mass-flowering crop oilseed rape () is uncollected by flower-visiting insects.

Cultivation of the mass-flowering crop oilseed rape (OSR), , can provide insects with super-abundant nectar and pollen while in bloom. Several authors have suggested breeding cultivars to produce more abundant nectar and pollen to help mitigate insect decline. However, in Britain most, 95%, OSR blooms in spring (March-May), which has been suggested to be a period of nectar surplus and reduced exploitative competition.

Reorganization of bird communities along a rainforest elevation gradient during a strong El Niño event in Papua New Guinea.

The El Niño 2015 event, most extreme since 1997, led to severe droughts in tropical wet Papua New Guinea (PNG), reducing May to October dry season rainfall by 75% in the lowlands and 25% in the highlands. Such droughts are likely to have significant effects on terrestrial ecosystems, but they have been poorly explored in Papua New Guinea. Here, we report changes in bird community composition prior to, during, and after the 2015 El Niño event along the elevational gradient ranging from 200 m to 2700 m a.

The brain-specific kinase LMTK3 regulates neuronal excitability by decreasing KCC2-dependent neuronal Cl extrusion.

LMTK3 is a brain-specific transmembrane serine/threonine protein kinase that acts as a scaffold for protein phosphatase-1 (PP1). Although LMKT3 has been identified as a risk factor for autism and epilepsy, its physiological significance is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that LMTK3 copurifies and binds to KCC2, a neuron-specific K/Cl transporter.

Parent Peer Advocacy, Mentoring, and Support in Child Protection: A Scoping Review of Programs and Services.

Parent peer advocacy, mentoring, and support programs, delivered by parents with lived child protection (CP) experience to parents receiving CP intervention, are increasingly recognized internationally as inclusive practices that promote positive outcomes, but little is known about what shared characteristics exist across these types of programs and what variations may exist in service delivery or impact. This scoping review examines 25 years (1996-2021) of empirical literature on these programs to develop a systematic mapping of existing models and practices as context for program benefits and outcome achievement. Studies were selected using a systematic search process.

Determinants of hospital readmissions in older people with dementia: a narrative review.

Introduction: Over 50% of hospitalised older people with dementia have multimorbidity, and are at an increased risk of hospital readmissions within 30 days of their discharge. Between 20-40% of these readmissions may be preventable. Current research focuses on the physical causes of hospital readmissions.

Density of wild honey bee, , colonies worldwide.

The western honey bee, , lives worldwide in approximately 102 million managed hives but also wild throughout much of its native and introduced range. Despite the global importance of as a crop pollinator, wild colonies have received comparatively little attention in the scientific literature and basic information regarding their density and abundance is scattered. Here, we review 40 studies that have quantified wild colony density directly ( = 33) or indirectly using genetic markers ( = 7) and analyse data from 41 locations worldwide to identify factors that influence wild colony density.

Livestock, methane, and climate change: The politics of global assessments.

The relationship between livestock production and climate change is the subject of hot debate, with arguments for major shifts in diets and a reduction in livestock production. This Perspective examines how global assessments of livestock-derived methane emissions are framed, identifying assumptions and data gaps that influence standard life-cycle analysis approaches. These include inadequate data due to a focus on industrial not extensive systems; errors arising due to inappropriate emission factors being applied; questions of how global warming potentials are derived for different greenhouse gases and debates about what baselines are appropriate.

Selecting for infectivity across metapopulations can increase virulence in the social microbe .

Passage experiments that sequentially infect hosts with parasites have long been used to manipulate virulence. However, for many invertebrate pathogens, passage has been applied naively without a full theoretical understanding of how best to select for increased virulence and this has led to very mixed results. Understanding the evolution of virulence is complex because selection on parasites occurs across multiple spatial scales with potentially different conflicts operating on parasites with different life histories.

Bird preferences for fruit size, but not color, vary in accordance with fruit traits along a tropical elevational gradient.

Birds constitute one of the most important seed dispersal agents globally, especially in the tropics. The feeding preferences of frugivorous birds are, therefore, potentially of great ecological importance. A number of laboratory-based and observational studies have attempted to ascertain the preferences of certain bird species for certain fruit traits.

How does the polymer architecture and position of cationic charges affect cell viability?

Polymer chemistry, composition and molar mass are factors that are known to affect cytotoxicity, however the influence of polymer architecture has not been investigated systematically. In this study the influence of the position of the cationic charges along the polymer chain on cytotoxicity was investigated while keeping constant the other polymer characteristics. Specifically, copolymers of various architectures, based on a cationic pH responsive monomer, 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and a non-ionic hydrophilic monomer, oligo(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate (OEGMA) were engineered and their toxicity towards a panel of cell lines investigated.

Perceived legitimacy can moderate the effect of proscriptive versus prescriptive injunctions on intentions to comply with UK government COVID-19 guidelines and reactance.

Proscriptive injunctions (i.e., telling people what they ) have been found in research to elicit greater perceptions of a threat to freedom, and greater reactance (anger, irritation and annoyance), than prescriptive injunctions (i.

Systematic review reveals sexually antagonistic knockouts in model organisms.

Sexual antagonism is thought to be an important selective force in multiple evolutionary processes, but very few examples of the genes involved are known. Such a deficit of loci could partially be explained by the lack of overlap in terminology between scientific disciplines. Following a similar review in humans, we searched systematically for studies that described genes with sexually antagonistic or sex-opposite effects in any taxa, using terms designed to capture alternative descriptions of sexual antagonism.

Informing the UK Muslim Community on Organ Donation: Evaluating the Effect of a National Public Health Programme by Health Professionals and Faith Leaders.

There is a significant shortage of transplantable organs in the UK particularly from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, of which Muslims make a large proportion. The British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) held a nationwide series of community gatherings with the aim of describing the beliefs and attitudes to organ donation amongst British Muslims and evaluate the efficacy of a national public health programme on views and uncertainties regarding religious permissibility and willingness to register. Eight public forums were held across the UK between June 2019 and March 2020 by the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA).

Cognitive Reserve Modulates Brain Structure and Cortical Architecture in the Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Cognitive reserve (CR) explains the individual resilience to neurodegeneration.

Objective: The present study investigated the effect of CR in modulating brain cortical architecture.

Methods: 278 individuals [110 Alzheimer's disease (AD), 104 amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) due to AD, 64 healthy subjects (HS)] underwent a neuropsychological evaluation and 3T-MRI.

Children's Covid-19 writing and drawings and the existential imperative to educate for uncertainty.

The Covid-19 pandemic provokes a pedagogic crisis: education is ill-adapted to accommodate multiple uncertainties in students' lives. We examine how pandemic uncertainty is registered in a global collection of writing and drawing from 4 to 17-years-old, during the 2020 lockdowns. The study engages with Biesta's (2021) philosophical work on 'world-centred education', offering empirical examples from the collection that goes beyond the immediacy of everyday lives.

Infant color perception: Insight into perceptual development.

A remarkable amount of perceptual development occurs in the first year after birth. In this article, we spotlight the case of color perception. We outline how within just 6 months, infants go from very limited detection of color as newborns to a more sophisticated perception of color that enables them to make sense of objects and the world around them.

Extended active inference: Constructing predictive cognition beyond skulls.

Cognitive niche construction is the process whereby organisms create and maintain cause-effect models of their niche as guides for fitness influencing behavior. Extended mind theory claims that cognitive processes extend beyond the brain to include predictable states of the world. Active inference and predictive processing in cognitive science assume that organisms embody predictive (i.

Is there evidence of age bias in breast cancer health care professionals' treatment of older patients?

Objectives: Despite NICE (2009; 2018) guidelines to treat breast cancer patients 'irrespective of age', older women experience differential treatment and worse outcomes beyond that which can be explained by patient health or patient choice. Research has evidenced the prevalence of ageism and identified the role of implicit bias in reflecting and perhaps perpetuating disparities across society, including in healthcare. Yet age bias has rarely been considered as an explanatory factor in poorer outcomes for older breast cancer patients.

A structured review of quality of life in advanced and high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma shows the need for more studies and better measures.

Background: Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) accounts for nearly a quarter of non-melanoma skin cancers. Studies reporting Quality of Life (QoL) in this group focus on early stage disease. A small proportion of cSCC patients have high-risk or advanced disease, with potentially significant QoL impacts, yet are largely overlooked.

Night-to-night variation in sleep associates with day-to-day variation in vigilance, cognition, memory, and behavioral problems in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Sleep disturbances are commonly reported in people living with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it is currently unknown whether night-to-night variation in sleep predicts day-to-day variation in vigilance, cognition, mood, and behavior (daytime measures).

Methods: Subjective and objective sleep and daytime measures were collected daily for 2 weeks in 15 participants with mild AD, eight participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 22 participants with no cognitive impairment (NCI). Associations between daytime measures and four principal components of sleep (duration, quality, continuity, and latency) were quantified using mixed-model regression.

A cohort study of the impact of COVID-19 on the quality of life of people newly diagnosed with dementia and their family carers.

Introduction: COVID-19 has impacted people with dementia and their family carers, yet little is known about effects on overall quality of life.

Methods: In a UK cohort study, pre- and post-pandemic data were collected from 114 carers and 93 recently diagnosed people with dementia. Latent growth curve modeling examined change in quality of life.