Persistently rising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations challenge dominant Liberal hopes that science and multilateralism might deliver rational, global climate outcomes. Emerging Realist climate approaches that take geopolitics and national interests more seriously have yet to explore Morgenthau’s concern that ‘scientism’ – exaggerated faith in scientific rationality to solve political problems – would lead to disastrous underestimations of power and irrationality. Recently, Realists have mooted ‘solar geoengineering’ designs as a ‘lesser evil’ option to deliberately cool the Earth independently of emissions reductions. However, assessments of solar geoengineering prospects barely factor in Realist concerns, focusing instead on idealised scientific modelling of bio-physical effects and Liberal governance scenarios. To explore how geoengineering techno-science would be ‘translated’ into security assessments, geopolitical logics were elicited through interviews and group discussions with (mainly Arctic-oriented) national security professionals. Security experts reframe solar geoengineering in three significant ways: (a) from a climate ‘global public good’ to a source of geopolitical leverage and disruption; (b) from a risk-reduction tool to a potential source of distrust and escalation; and (c) from a knowledge-deficit problem solvable by more research, to a potential disinformation vector. This expands Realist scholarship on climate change and identifies serious risks to ongoing scientific and commercial pursuit of such technologies.

Over the past two decades there has been a rapid expansion in our understanding of how human genetic variability impacts susceptibility and severity of disease. Through applications of genome-wide association studies, genome and exome sequencing, researchers have made thousands of discoveries of genetic variants that impact risk of common and rare disorders affecting millions of people. Although these techniques have been primarily applied to highly prevalent chronic disorders such as diabetes1 and cardiovascular disease2, infectious diseases have proven to not be immune to genome-wide association, with studies of Tuberculosis3, HIV4 and SARS-CoV25, to name but a few, identifying host susceptibility loci across the genome. Unlike non-communicable diseases, infectious diseases have the unique element of impacting not only the affected the host, but those who may be most vulnerable to acquiring the infection. Thus, genetic variants that impact one individual’s susceptibility to and severity of an infection may also have broader implications to public health, as was brought into keen focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, as we begin to apply the knowledge gained from genomic studies in the clinic or into policy, there are unique ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) at the intersection of infectious diseases and human genomics. In this issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Jose et al attempt to address this need by proposing a research agenda for ELSI studies at what they term the “blurred boundaries” of infectious and genetic diseases.6

Major depressive disorder (‘depression’) is significantly more prevalent amongst young adults in Australia relative to older ages. The inefficacy of current treatment options for many individuals(1) warrants investigation of additional approaches to alleviating the burden of this illness. Incidentally, diet often becomes unhealthier during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood(2). This can result in poorer micronutrient consumption, and there is a growing body of evidence indicating that an inverse relationship exists between intake of certain micronutrients and depressive symptoms(3). Given this, diet may be an important modifiable risk factor or adjunctive means of ameliorating depression for young adults. Young adult vegetarians in particular have an increased risk of some micronutrient deficiencies which have been implicated in depression(4). In combination, their age and dietary choice suggest they may be especially vulnerable to depression and therefore benefit from clear guidance to adequately meet their micronutrient requirements. The present study aimed to elucidate the need for such guidance by comparing the proportions of vegetarian and omnivorous young adult participants in the 2011-12 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NNPAS) who had inadequate intakes of micronutrients implicated in depression. The NNPAS collected the most recent nationally-representative data pertaining to the dietary intake (via two 24-h recalls) of Australians and included 2,397 young adults (18-34 years). Participants who were pregnant, lactating, or who mis-reported intakes according to Goldberg equation-derived cut-off values were excluded (n = 791). The dietary data were used to estimate usual intakes via the Multiple Source Method. Inadequate intakes were identified according to the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) cut-point method for all micronutrients with an EAR except iron, for which the full-probability method was applied. Survey weights allocated for inference to the total Australian population were implemented throughout the analysis. The final sample was composed of 66 vegetarians (did not report any animal tissue consumption) and 1540 omnivores. The mean intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA, DPA, DHA) from both diet and supplementation was significantly lower in vegetarians compared to omnivores (96.3mg/day vs. 264.5mg/day, p<0.001). A significantly greater proportion of vegetarians compared to omnivores had inadequate total B12 (22.7% vs. 1.4%), iron (58.3% vs. 18.9%), selenium (30.8% vs. 3.5%) and zinc (58.8% vs. 33.3%) intakes (all p<0.05). These results suggest that young adult vegetarians are likely to have significantly lower consumption of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and an increased risk of inadequately consuming vitamin B12, iron, selenium and zinc compared to their omnivorous counterparts. These findings support the notion that young adult vegetarians may have an increased risk of depression from a nutritional standpoint, and therefore stand to benefit from tailored dietary advice on a public and individual level designed to support their mental health.

The majority of protests in support of racial justice are peaceful. However, since the racial reckoning of 2020, there has been debate about when and how exposure to violent or disruptive protest activities can shift public opinion towards a social movement. Using the Black Lives Matter Movement as a lens, we design a survey experiment to test the causal effects of different protest tactics on support for protesters and the movement itself among Black and white Americans. We include a control condition with no protest and manipulate the level of disruption in each treatment condition, ranging from a simple march in response to the police killing of an unarmed Black man to a protest in which participants set fire to an empty police headquarters. We use OLS regressions to estimate average treatment effects. Overall, we find that both Blacks and whites react negatively to more disruptive protests but whites tend to react more negatively than Blacks. Conversely, we also find that whites overall report more confidence in the ability of Black Lives Matter to facilitate racial equality after exposure to a protest, even when that protest employs disruptive tactics. We also test for the moderating effects of racial identity and racial resentment. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the broader literature on social movements and public opinion.

The social ecological model (SEM) is a conceptual framework that recognizes individuals function within multiple interactive systems and contextual environments that influence their health. Medical Legal Partnerships (MLPs) address the social determinants of health through partnerships between health providers and civil legal services. This paper explores how the conceptual framework of SEM can be applied to the MLP model, which also uses a multidimensional approach to address an individual’s social determinants of health.

In this article, we offer a framework for understanding the role that racial group consciousness (RGC) plays in influencing Black Americans’ engagement in costly political action. Attempting to add clarity to decades of inconsistent and at times contradictory findings, we argue that the effect of RGC at inspiring political action among Black Americans is conditional on (1) the relevance of the political activity to achieving a well-recognized racial group outcome and (2) individual capacity to assume the cost of engaging in the activity. Analyzing data from the ANES and two behavioral experiments, we find that RGC exhibits a consistently strong relationship with engagement in low-cost political behavior, regardless of whether the behavior has some explicit group-relevant outcome. When engagement becomes more costly, however, Blacks high in RGC are only willing to assume these costs if the engagement has some clear potential for racial group benefit.

Wild badgers (Meles meles) in Wytham woods, Oxfordshire, are routinely trapped, transported to a central field laboratory, studied and released as part of an on-going population study. These procedures have been carefully developed to minimise impact on the badgers' welfare; however they are potentially stressful, and, as part of our on-going welfare refinements, and our exploration to develop methods for quantifying stress in wild mammals, we studied the effects of transport stress on neutrophil activation in wild trapped badgers. Blood samples were obtained from 28 badgers. We compared three transport regimes: transported (n = 9), transported and rested for at least 30 mins (n = 11), and not transported (n = 8). Total and differential white cell counts were carried out and neutrophil activation was measured by the nitroblue tetrazolium test. Our goal was primarily to validate neutrophil activity as an indicator of stress, on the basis that the transport treatment was expected to be more stressful than the non-transport treatment. There were significant increases in % activated circulating neutrophils in response to transport. This study supports the proposition that stress affects circulating neutrophil numbers and the state of their activation, as determined by the nitroblue tetrazolium reduction assay, and therefore adds weight to the idea that neutrophil activation is a potential measure of stress in wild animals.

We report on the efficacy of body weight change as a measure of trapping and handling stress in two species of wild small mammal: bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) and wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus). We tested two hypotheses: (1) that weight change after capture and handling is related to the intensity of the trapping and handling regime, and (2) that weight change after an intensive handling regime is related to an individual's current pattern of energy expenditure. Trapped wood mice that were subjected to intensive handling (intensive stressor) lost more weight than did animals that were handled minimally (less intensive stressor), but this was not the case for bank voles. Patterns and factors related to body weight change in response to intensive handling also differed between the two species: heavier and non-breeding bank voles were more likely to lose weight, but this was not true for wood mice, and none of the factors we measured was found to affect weight loss in this species. Our results were broadly consistent with the predictions of the biological cost hypothesis. We discuss the limitations and benefits of weight loss as a measure of stress.

Small mammals are routinely live-trapped and subsequently handled for a range of ecological and behavioural studies. Despite the techniques commonly employed being potentially stressful for the individual animals involved, it has hitherto been difficult to quantify the physiological impact. Here, we report on the first instance of using the Leukocyte Coping Capacity technique (LCC) in bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) and wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) to investigate the physiological impact of routine trapping and handling techniques. Twenty microlitres of blood were obtained from 40 animals, of which 25 were handled following standard protocols and 15 were not. We found that even a short period of acute stress is sufficient to trigger an immune response which was measurable using the LCC technique. These results further validate the use of the LCC technique for measuring the physiological impact of standard trapping and handling treatments on wild mammals.

In recent years, the target of reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050 has come to the forefront of global climate politics. Net zero would see carbon emissions matched by carbon removals and should allow the planet to avoid dangerous climate change. But the recent prominence of this goal should not distract from the fact that there are many possible versions of net zero. Each of them will have different climate justice implications, and some of them could have very negative consequences for the world's poor. This article demonstrates the many ambiguities of net zero, and argues in favor of a net zero strategy in which those who can reasonably bear the burden adopt early and aggressive mitigation policies. We also argue for a net zero strategy in which countries place the lion's share of their faith in known emissions reduction approaches, rather than being heavily reliant on as-yet-unproven “negative emissions techniques.” Our overarching goal is to put net zero in its place, by providing a clear-sighted view of what net zero will achieve, and where the “net” in net zero needs to be tightened further if the world is to achieve climate justice.

Modern space communication systems often need high-power low-frequency (UHF, L-, S-, and C-band) low-pass filters (LPFs) with wide stopbands extending to Ka-band and beyond. Current design approaches frequently fail to meet these requirements completely. This paper proposes a new coaxial LPF concept and design methodology. The LPF consists of an array of cavity elements, which operate with transverse electromagnetic mode (TEM) and transverse magnetic (TM)-coupled resonances, and thus achieve a frequency response with a reflection zero at DC and transmission zeroes at targeted stopband locations. The design method is based on positioning the cavities in a quasi-periodic order, which efficiently spreads the transmission zeroes over the stopband, while keeping the characteristic impedance matched to the input/output interfaces over the passband. This design concept yields an ultra-wide, continuous and modal spurious-free stopband, while maintaining a low insertion loss, high peak power capacity, and low sensitivity to production tolerances.

This article highlights the utility of vibracore technology to sample deep shell midden deposits on the Central Pacific Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Analysis of six core samples and 21 radiocarbon dates revealed that the archaeological deposits extended to a depth of 544 cm below surface and that occupation began approximately 6,000 years ago, continuing into the sixteenth century AD. Zooarchaeological identification of fine screened (2 mm) sediments shows that fish constitute 99.8% of identified vertebrate fauna, with a focus on herring (Clupea pallasii), salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.), rockfish (Sebastes sp.), and greenling (Hexagrammos sp.), followed by a variety of other fish taxa utilized throughout the occupation of this site. Despite a much smaller examined volume relative to conventional excavation, vibracoring was effective in recovering deep, stratigraphically intact, and adequate samples of zooarchaeological fisheries data as well as a considerable number of stone, bone, and shell artifacts (an estimated 550 artifacts per cubic meter of cultural sediments). These results show a persistent and sustainable ancient fishery through six millennia until the contact period. The field and laboratory methods described are especially conducive to sampling large and deep shell midden deposits repetitively.