During October 2021, the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency identified five cases of shigellosis among persons experiencing homelessness (PEH). We conducted an outbreak investigation and developed interventions to respond to shigellosis outbreaks among PEH. Confirmed cases occurred among PEH with stool-cultured Shigella sonnei; probable cases were among PEH with Shigella-positive culture-independent diagnostic testing. Patients were interviewed to determine infectious sources and risk factors. Fifty-three patients were identified (47 confirmed, 6 probable); 34 (64%) were hospitalised. None died. No point source was identified. Patients reported inadequate access to clean water and sanitation facilities, including public restrooms closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After implementing interventions, including handwashing stations, more frequent public restroom cleaning, sanitation kit distribution, and isolation housing for ill persons, S. sonnei cases decreased to preoutbreak frequencies. Improving public sanitation access was associated with decreased cases and should be considered to prevent outbreaks among PEH.

The effects of enrichment and floor type on the behaviour and welfare of cubicle loose-housed dry sows were investigated in a 2x2 factorial design with four replicates. Sixty-four dry sows were housed in groups of four in pens containing a communal exercise area and four feeding stalls. Pens were either enriched (using spent mushroom compost on suspended wood and wire flat racks) or barren (containing either a solid or part-slatted floor). Enrichment reduced aggressive behaviour, injuries, nosing the ground and lying with eyes open and led to an increase in lying with eyes closed. Floor type had no overall significant effect on sow behaviour. Presentation of spent mushroom compost on suspended racks was found to be a cheap and practical form of enrichment. Incorporation of this system into the design of cubicle loose housing could reduce many of the problems associated with this type of housing and improve the welfare of the sows.

Six pairs of steers were allowed to choose between two types of floors in a paired choice test. The four floors tested were a fully slatted floor, a fully slatted floor covered with rubber mats, a solid floor with sawdust bedding, and a solid floor with straw bedding. All combinations of floor types were tested and the choices were repeated eight times, using naïve animals. The animals were allowed 17 days to habituate, and on days 18-21 their behaviour was recorded by video for 72 hours. Straw was the most preferred floor type, followed by sawdust, then mats, and finally slats. During a second test period, rubber mats were compared with rubber strips, and no significant preferences were found.

Over the last 25 years, radiowave detection of neutrino-generated signals, using cold polar ice as the neutrino target, has emerged as perhaps the most promising technique for detection of extragalactic ultra-high energy neutrinos (corresponding to neutrino energies in excess of 0.01 Joules, or 1017 electron volts). During the summer of 2021 and in tandem with the initial deployment of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G), we conducted radioglaciological measurements at Summit Station, Greenland to refine our understanding of the ice target. We report the result of one such measurement, the radio-frequency electric field attenuation length $L_\alpha$. We find an approximately linear dependence of $L_\alpha$ on frequency with the best fit of the average field attenuation for the upper 1500 m of ice: $\langle L_\alpha \rangle = ( ( 1154 \pm 121) - ( 0.81 \pm 0.14) \, ( \nu /{\rm MHz}) ) \,{\rm m}$ for frequencies ν ∈ [145 − 350] MHz.

In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked serious concern within qualitative research communities and raised fundamental questions about the meaning, value, costs, and intellectual relevance of transparency for qualitative inquiry. In this Perspectives Reflection, we crystallize the central findings of a three-year deliberative process—the Qualitative Transparency Deliberations (QTD)—involving hundreds of political scientists in a broad discussion of these issues. Following an overview of the process and the key insights that emerged, we present summaries of the QTD Working Groups’ final reports. Drawing on a series of public, online conversations that unfolded at www.qualtd.net, the reports unpack transparency’s promise, practicalities, risks, and limitations in relation to different qualitative methodologies, forms of evidence, and research contexts. Taken as a whole, these reports—the full versions of which can be found in the Supplementary Materials—offer practical guidance to scholars designing and implementing qualitative research, and to editors, reviewers, and funders seeking to develop criteria of evaluation that are appropriate—as understood by relevant research communities—to the forms of inquiry being assessed. We dedicate this Reflection to the memory of our coauthor and QTD working group leader Kendra Koivu.1

Zn plays an important role in maintaining the anti-oxidant status within the heart and helps to counter the acute redox stress that occurs during myocardial ischaemia and reperfusion. Individuals with low Zn levels are at greater risk of developing an acute myocardial infarction; however, the impact of this on the extent of myocardial injury is unknown. The present study aimed to compare the effects of dietary Zn depletion with in vitro removal of Zn (N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis(2-pyridinylmethyl)-1,2-ethanediamine (TPEN)) on the outcome of acute myocardial infarction and vascular function. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were fed either a Zn-adequate (35 mg Zn/kg diet) or Zn-deficient (<1 mg Zn/kg diet) diet for 2 weeks before heart isolation. Perfused hearts were subjected to a 30 min ischaemia/2 h reperfusion (I/R) protocol, during which time ventricular arrhythmias were recorded and after which infarct size was measured, along with markers of anti-oxidant status. In separate experiments, hearts were challenged with the Zn chelator TPEN (10 µm) before ischaemia onset. Both dietary and TPEN-induced Zn depletion significantly extended infarct size; dietary Zn depletion was associated with reduced total cardiac glutathione (GSH) levels, while TPEN decreased cardiac superoxide dismutase 1 levels. TPEN, but not dietary Zn depletion, also suppressed ventricular arrhythmias and depressed vascular responses to nitric oxide. These findings demonstrate that both modes of Zn depletion worsen the outcome from I/R but through different mechanisms. Dietary Zn deficiency, resulting in reduced cardiac GSH, is the most appropriate model for determining the role of endogenous Zn in I/R injury.

The near field, together with the containment and isolation provided by the geosphere, contributes to the long-term safety provided by a geological disposal facility (GDF) after closure. The different engineered barriers can prevent or limit the release of radionuclides and their migration to the undisturbed host rock or geosphere and are expected to fulfil their post-closure safety functions for many thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. They will continue to contribute to containment after their eventual degradation when there would no longer be confidence that they would continue to fulfil all of their safety functions in their totality. By that time, significant radioactive decay will have occurred, substantially reducing the hazard associated with the wastes. Therefore, demonstration of long-term safety requires an understanding of the evolution of the engineered barriers and the consequences for the generic safety functions that the different barriers provide. This paper provides an overview of the research of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Radioactive Waste Management Directorate into the evolution of the near field of a GDF.

Olivines from igneous rocks generally have low calcium contents. However, olivines crystallized from strongly silica-undersaturated magmas occasionally contain large amounts of kirschsteinite (Ki" CaFeSiO4) and monticellite (Mo: CaMgSiO4) components. The purpose of this note is to report the first natural occurrence of kirschsteinite crystals that have lamite (La: CazSiO4) in the mineralogical norm.

The Implementing Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste Technology Platform (IGD-TP) was launched in November 2009 to facilitate international cooperation in common areas of research, development and demonstration (RD&D) with a view to advancing the implementation of geological disposal facilities for spent fuel, high-level and other long-lived waste in Europe.

The IGD-TP's Vision is that “by 2025, the first geological disposal facilities for spent fuel, high-level waste and other long-lived radioactive waste will be operating safely in Europe”. Aside from most European waste management organisations, the IGD-TP currently has 124 members covering most of the RD&D actors in the field of implementing geological disposal of radioactive waste in Europe.

Five years after its inception, the IGD-TP has been shown to play a leading role in coordinating joint actions for RD&D in radioactive waste geological disposal programmes. The work of the platform takes into account differences between the timing and challenges for the respective waste management programmes. Following implementation of Posiva's geological disposal facility in Finland it is expected that within the next 5 years the construction of the Swedish and French geological disposal facilities will commence. Within IGD-TP, the SecIGD2 project whose remit is “Coordination and Support Action under the 7th Framework programme” aims at supporting, at the European level, the networking and structuring of RD&D programmes and competences in countries with less advanced geological disposal programmes, including those in the new European Union Member States. Furthermore, the SecIGD2 supports the development and coordination of the necessary competences to meet the Vision 2025 as a part of the platform's Competence Maintenance, Education and Training (CMET) working group.

The effectiveness of individually administered cognitive processing therapy (CPT) when compared with treatment as usual (TAU) in a community sexual assault centre was tested. Trauma survivors with acute stress disorder (ASD) following sexual assault were randomised to either CPT (n = 25) or TAU (n = 22), and assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up. Both groups demonstrated large reductions in PTSD and depression symptoms following treatment, and these gains were maintained over the course of follow-ups (Cohen's ds for PTSD symptom reductions ranging between 0.76 to 1.45). Although smaller and not always consistent, between-group effect sizes typically favoured CPT. Effect sizes (d) ranged between 0.13–0.50 for posttraumatic stress and 0.13–0.41 for depression over the course of follow-ups. Independent assessment of PTSD severity indicated more CPT participants reached good end-state functioning at 12-month follow-up (50%) than TAU (31%). Although both treatments were effective, there were some indications that CPT led to better outcomes relative to therapists delivering their usual therapy. The present study demonstrates that evidence-based, trauma-focused therapy such as CPT can be effective when delivered as an early intervention in a routine mental health setting.

This Memorandum describes the development of a laboratory prototype true air speed sensor for use on unmanned aircraft. The sensor works on vortex shedding principles and has a digital output. The vortices are sensed by thick film thermistor elements that are non-critical in the signal circuitry.

Harvesting solar energy, is only one of the incentives of incorporating photosynthetic proteins in electrochemical devices. Understanding the interface of photosynthetic protein complexes and organic\inorganic underlying electrodes can give rise to development of new generation of nano-bioelectronics for other applications such as sensing, as well. Previous approaches in fabricating photosynthetic bio-hybrid electrochemical solar cells were mainly based on metallic electrodes with protein complexes attached, either directly or through linker molecules. Due to the energy band structure in semiconductors, they potentially can be useful for selective charge transfer in an electrochemical device. In the current study, a two terminal sealed bio-hybrid solar cell device was fabricated comprising of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanowires on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass working electrode, a Pt counter electrode, and methyl viologen (MV) as a single diffusible redox mediator. The ZnO working electrode was initially characterized using scanning electron microscopy (XRD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). A solution of dimeric Rhodobacter sphaeroides – light harvesting 1 (RC-LH1) core complexes and redox electrolyte was injected into the cavity between working and counter electrodes. Such structure resulted in ∼0.64 µA.cm-2 photocurrent density and ∼0.24 V open circuit potential difference in the dark and under illumination. Additionally, the device stability tests demonstrated that the current response of such devices remained unchanged after 33 hours storage in the dark.