Protein backbone flexibility pattern is evolutionarily conserved in the Flaviviridae family: A case of NS3 protease in Flavivirus and Hepacivirus

Viruses belonging to the Flaviviridae family have been an important health concern for humans, animals and birds alike. No specific treatment is available yet for many of the viral infections caused by the members of this family. Lack of specific drugs against these viruses is mainly due to lack of protein structure information. It has been known that protein backbone fluctuation pattern is highly conserved in protein pairs with similar folds, in spite of the lack of sequence similarity. We hypothesized that this concept should also hold true for proteins (especially enzymes) of viruses included in different genera of the Flaviviridae family, as we know that the sequence similarity between them is low. Using available NS3 protease crystal structures of the Flaviviridae family, our preliminary results have shown that the Cα (i.e. backbone) fluctuation patterns are highly similar between Flaviviruses and a Hepacivirus (i.e. hepatitis C virus, HCV). This has to be validated further experimentally.N/

From Kenya to Kendal: Colonel Edgar Garston Harrison’s taxidermy collection, Kendal Museum

The collections at Kendal Museum date back to 1796 when the museum was first formed as a private collection. Today the collections are publicly owned by Westmorland and Furness Council, cared for by longstanding curators Carol Davies and Morag Clement, and managed through Kendal College. One of the major donors to, and benefactors of, the museum in the 20th century was a local man called Edgar Garston Harrison (1863-1947), of High Hundhowe, near Staveley. A soldier and big game hunter, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Kings African Rifles, Harrison was active in several military campaigns related to British colonialism in eastern Africa between 1895 and 1905. During this time Harrison acquired a significant number of ‘hunting trophies,' mounted taxidermy animal heads and animal skins of the characteristic fauna of the region. In 1937 Harrison proposed to donate £2,000 towards the building of an extension to the museum’s existing buildings, on condition that this be used to display his collection of hunting trophies and other artefacts to the public, the majority of which were at that time housed in his purpose-built trophy room at High Hundhowe.Unfunde

An examination of inpatient ward and secondary community care stay costs for individuals with complex mental health needs in the UK

Copyright: © 2025 Saini et al.Some people with mental health problems have such high levels of complex clinical and/or risk needs that those needs cannot be adequately met within generic mental health services. To design health and social provisions to better serve these people’s needs, it is necessary to first characterise the current provision. This study examines the cost element of this provision. This retrospective observational cohort study examined routinely collected healthcare service administrative data from a large UK-based NHS provider of community and hospital-based mental health services. Data were collected from medical records of individuals with complex mental health (CMH) needs aged ≥18 years old who had an inpatient ward stay between February 2000 until August 2021. Predictors of annual inpatient ward and secondary community care stay (residential/supported living/independent) costs were estimated using generalised linear models. Mean (median) annual total healthcare costs for 185 included adults were £106,847 (£109,651), comprising 16.4% from inpatient ward stay costs of £17,512 (£10,723) and 83.6% from secondary community care stay costs of £89,336 (£97,739). Associations varied across care context. Key predictors of inpatient stay cost included age, deprivation, and substance abuse. The primary diagnostic group of schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders (ICD10 codes: F20-F29) was found to be a predictor of greater secondary community care stay costs. Inpatient ward and secondary community care stay costs varied across patient characteristics. Additional research is warranted to further explore predictors identified in this study to prevent, promote, and monitor activities for individuals with differing CMH needs.Wirral Borough Council; Grant(s): 1582 CW

Investigating the relationship between heat-mediated cognitive impairment and antipredator response in a wild bird

© 2025 The Authors.Increasingly frequent heatwaves require animals to spend more time thermoregulating at the expense of other fitness-related behaviours. Emerging evidence also indicates that high temperatures can impair cognitive function in wild animals. However, whether such heat-mediated cognitive impairment underpins altered behavioural responses during high temperatures remains unclear. We examined the link between naturally occurring high temperatures, cognitive performance and antipredator response in wild southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor). In a paired experimental design, we performed model predator presentations using a taxidermied common genet (Genetta genetta) and a box as the control, and we quantified associative learning performance—a cognitive trait involved in associating predator cues with a threat—for the same individuals under normal and high-temperature conditions. As predicted, individuals showed a stronger antipredator response (combining time spent vigilant, flying and alarming) when presented with the predator compared to the control under normal but not high temperatures. Associative learning performance also declined with increasing air temperatures. However, associative learning performance (whether measured under normal or high temperatures) did not predict the strength of the antipredator response. Our findings provide novel evidence for a reduced antipredator response under high temperatures and suggest that physiological constraints rather than learning impairment might explain this change.This work was supported by the Australian Government through grant DP220103823 awarded to ARR, BJA, and AT. The Kuruman River Reserve was financed by Zurich University, Cambridge University, MAVA foundation and Zoo Zurich

Designing Value-Aligned Traffic Agents through Conflict Sensitivity

Autonomous traffic agents (ATAs) are expected to act in ways tat are not only safe, but also aligned with stakeholder values across legal, social, and moral dimensions. In this paper, we adopt an established formal model of conflict from epistemic game theory to support the development of such agents. We focus on value conflicts-situations in which agents face competing goals rooted in value-laden situations and show how conflict analysis can inform key phases of the design process. This includes value elicitation, capability specification, explanation, and adaptive system refinement. We elaborate and apply the concept of Value-Aligned Operational Design Domains (VODDs) to structure autonomy in accordance with contextual value priorities. Our approach shifts the emphasis from solving moral dilemmas at runtime to anticipating and structuring value-sensitive behaviour during development.N/

Too Good To Hide: Tony Hayes

The article provides a brief profile of Tony Hayes. The text focuses on Hayes’ project ‘Window Dressing’ (2019) that documents shop window displays in Chester, Liverpool and Manchester. All of the photographs for this project include the reflection of the photographer – consequently the images combine the window display and the photographer’s self-portrait. Two of Hayes’ photographs are reproduced in the article and written about in the article text. The article complemented the exhibition ‘Too Good To Hide: Tony Hayes’ shown at the Rainbow Tea Rooms, Chester (28 Bridge Street, CH1 1NQ).The article ‘Too Good To Hide: Tony Hayes’ was written in relation to the exhibition of the same name at the Rainbow Tea Rooms in Chester (July - October 2024). The exhibition was curated by Stephen Clarke, and was the fourth curatorial project for Clarke at the café’s exhibition space in Chester city centre. Tony Hayes is a photographer based in Widnes who has undertaken an AA2A (Artist Access to Art Colleges) residency at the University of Chester. In the article Clarke considers how the camera operates as a series of lenses and mirrors to view a subject. Clarke refers to the catalogue essay by John Szarkowski for the exhibition ‘Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960’ at the Museum of Modern Art New York in 1978. Szarkowski describes how a photographer uses a camera either as an objective ‘window’ to view the world or a subjective ‘mirror’ that reflects the photographer’s own sensibility. Clarke applies this discussion to the work of Tony Hayes who has made a series of photographs looking into shop windows that record both the view through the glass pane and the reflection of the photographer. Stephen Clarke and Tony Hayes were interviewed by Sean Styles on BBC Merseyside in Liverpool at 1.30pm on Sunday 6th October 2024.unfunde

Adapting scenario planning to create an expectation for surprises: Going beyond probability and plausibility in risk assessment

© 2025 The Author(s). Risk Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Risk Analysis.The need for risk assessments to take full account of uncertainty by going beyond probability and creating an expectation for surprises has recently been highlighted in this journal. This paper sets out an adaptation to the Intuitive Logics (IL) scenario-planning method that assists risk assessors to achieve this aim. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this adaptation through a controlled experiment. The controlled experiment took the form of a simulated IL scenario-planning exercise in which individuals assigned values representative of extreme outcomes to sets of simple and more complex clusters of driving forces under three experimental conditions representing alternative uncertainty expressions (‘probable’, ‘plausible’, and ‘surprising’). The values assigned in the ‘probable’ and ‘plausible’ conditions were not significantly different from each other. However, the ‘surprising’ condition resulted in the assignment of more extreme values than either of the other two conditions. The complexity of a set of clustered driving had no effect. A follow-up analysis showed that participants interpreted the words ‘probable’ and ‘plausible’ similarly. This is problematic for scenario methods like IL, which are claimed to stretch consideration of the future’s potential extremity beyond what it would be using probability by instead employing plausibility. Yet, if participants interpret ‘probable’ and ‘plausible’ similarly, then using plausibility instead of probability will not stretch their thinking as desired. By adapting IL in the simple way this paper outlines, scenario planning can assist risk assessors to go beyond both probability and plausibility, thereby taking fuller account of uncertainty and improving anticipation of surprises.The project was jointly funded by the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies’ (SAMS) and the British Academy of Management's (BAM) Research and Capacity Building Grant Scheme.Article published Gold OA. AAM removed and archived and VoR uploaded to CR 19/09/202

The prospect of applying chemical elicitors and plant strengtheners to enhance the biological control of crop pests

An imminent food crisis reinforces the need for novel strategies to increase crop yields worldwide. Effective control of pest insects should be part of such strategies, preferentially with reduced negative impact on the environment and optimal protection and utilization of existing biodiversity. Enhancing the presence and efficacy of native biological control agents could be one such strategy. Plant strengthener is a generic term for several commercially available compounds or mixtures of compounds that can be applied to cultivated plants in order to 'boost their vigour, resilience and performance'. Studies into the consequences of boosting plant resistance against pests and diseases on plant volatiles have found a surprising and dramatic increase in the plants' attractiveness to parasitic wasps. Here, we summarize the results from these studies and present new results from assays that illustrate the great potential of two commercially available resistance elicitors. We argue that plant strengtheners may currently be the best option to enhance the attractiveness of cultivated plants to biological control agents. Other options, such as the genetic manipulation of the release of specific volatiles may offer future solutions, but in most systems, we still miss fundamental knowledge on which key attractants should be targeted for this approach.European Science Foundation; Swiss National Science FoundationAAM supplied by author and uploaded to ChesterRep 07/11/202

Sweet scents: Nectar specialist yeasts enhance nectar attraction of a generalist aphid parasitoid without affecting survival

Copyright © 2018 Sobhy, Baets, Goelen, Herrera-Malaver, Bosmans, Van den Ende, Verstrepen, Wäckers, Jacquemyn and Lievens.Floral nectar is commonly inhabited by microorganisms, mostly yeasts and bacteria, which can have a strong impact on nectar chemistry and scent. Yet, little is known about the effects of nectar microbes on the behavior and survival of insects belonging to the third trophic level such as parasitoids. Here, we used five nectar-inhabiting yeast species to test the hypothesis that yeast species that almost solely occur in nectar, and therefore substantially rely on floral visitors for dispersal, produce volatile compounds that enhance insect attraction without compromising insect life history parameters, such as survival. Experiments were performed using two nectar specialist yeasts (Metschnikowia gruessii and M. reukaufii) and three generalist species (Aureobasidium pullulans, Hanseniaspora uvarum, and Sporobolomyces roseus). Saccharomyces cerevisiae was included as a reference yeast. We compared olfactory responses of the generalist aphid parasitoid Aphidius ervi (Haliday) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) when exposed to these microorganisms inoculated in synthetic nectar. Nectar-inhabiting yeasts had a significant impact on nectar chemistry and produced distinct volatile blends, some of which were attractive, while others were neutral or repellent. Among the different yeast species tested, the nectar specialists M. gruessii and M. reukaufii were the only species that produced a highly attractive nectar to parasitoid females, which simultaneously had no adverse effects on longevity and survival of adults. By contrast, parasitoids that fed on nectars fermented with the reference strain, A. pullulans, H. uvarum or S. roseus showed shortest longevity and lowest survival. Additionally, nectars fermented by A. pullulans or S. roseus were consumed significantly less, suggesting a lack of important nutrients or undesirable changes in the nectar chemical profiles. Altogether our results indicate that nectar-inhabiting yeasts play an important, but so far largely overlooked, role in plant-insect interactions by modulating the chemical composition of nectar, and may have important ecological consequences for plant pollination and biological control of herbivorous insects.This work was supported by a KU Leuven Specialization Research Grant for Researchers from the South to ISS (No. 0086389) and a KU Leuven C3 project (IOF-C32/15/020)

The Working Class Poverty, Education and Alternative Voices

In The Working Class: Poverty, education and alternative voices, Ian Gilbert unites educators from across the UK and further afield to call on all those working in schools to adopt a more enlightened and empathetic approach to supporting ...N/