Explore the vast range of titles available.

This article considers the Second World War’s effects on radio infrastructures and listening cultures in India through a detailed analysis of two radio stations: Radio SEAC and Congress Radio. Radio SEAC was a military radio station based in Ceylon targeting British soldiers stationed in Asia. It housed what was then one of the most wide-reaching transmitters. Congress Radio was a makeshift station in Bombay run by young and largely unknown anticolonial activists. While operating on vastly different scales and with rival goals, these stations’ political ambitions were surprisingly similar. Radio SEAC sought to restore confidence in the empire by invoking an old device of imperialism: what Brian Larkin calls the ‘colonial sublime’, the use of ‘technology to represent an overwhelming sense of grandeur’. Radio SEAC’s colonial sublime, however, was not aimed at colonized populations, but at disillusioned British soldiers, whose faith in the empire the station wished to revive. Congress Radio, in contrast, sought to summon what I call the ‘anticolonial sublime’ by deploying the aura of imperial technology against British rulers. Yet, whereas the colonial sublime required technologies to work smoothly, the anticolonial sublime did not. Congress radio broadcasters celebrated their station’s faulty reception, nurturing an aesthetic of rebelliousness. Analysing these two radio projects together, the article traces how the war shaped technological infrastructures while challenging conventional understandings about how radio connects with audiences. British administrators, like anticolonial activists, sought to bring about change less through programming content than through the aura of technological prowess they hoped their stations would generate.

As contamination and environmental degradation increase, there is a huge demand for new eco-friendly materials. Despite its use for thousands of years, cellulose and its derivatives have gained renewed interest as favourable alternatives to conventional plastics, due to their abundance and lower environmental impact. Here, we report the fabrication of photonic and plasmonic structures by moulding hydroxypropyl cellulose into submicrometric periodic lattices, using soft lithography. This is an alternative way to achieve structural colour in this material, which is usually obtained by exploiting its chiral nematic phase. Cellulose-based photonic crystals are biocompatible and can be dissolved in water or not depending on the derivative employed. Patterned cellulose membranes exhibit tunable colours and may be used to boost the photoluminescence of a host organic dye. Furthermore, we show how metal coating these cellulose photonic architectures leads to plasmonic crystals with excellent optical properties acting as disposable surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates.

Self-assembly of particles into long-range, three-dimensional, ordered superstructures is crucial for the design of a variety of materials, including plasmonic sensing materials, energy or gas storage systems, catalysts and photonic crystals. Here, we have combined experimental and simulation data to show that truncated rhombic dodecahedral particles of the metal-organic framework (MOF) ZIF-8 can self-assemble into millimetre-sized superstructures with an underlying three-dimensional rhombohedral lattice that behave as photonic crystals. Those superstructures feature a photonic bandgap that can be tuned by controlling the size of the ZIF-8 particles and is also responsive to the adsorption of guest substances in the micropores of the ZIF-8 particles. In addition, superstructures with different lattices can also be assembled by tuning the truncation of ZIF-8 particles, or by using octahedral UiO-66 MOF particles instead. These well-ordered, sub-micrometre-sized superstructures might ultimately facilitate the design of three-dimensional photonic materials for applications in sensing.

The exceptional optoelectronic properties of metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are presumed to arise, at least in part, from the peculiar interplay between the inorganic metal-halide sublattice and the atomic or molecular cations enclosed in the cage voids. The latter can exhibit a roto-translative dynamics, which is shown here to be at the origin of the structural behavior of MHPs as a function of temperature, pressure and composition. The application of high hydrostatic pressure allows for unraveling the nature of the interaction between both sublattices, characterized by the simultaneous action of hydrogen bonding and steric hindrance. In particular, we find that under the conditions of unleashed cation dynamics, the key factor that determines the structural stability of MHPs is the repulsive steric interaction rather than hydrogen bonding. Taking as example the results from pressure and temperature-dependent photoluminescence and Raman experiments on MAPbBr 3 but also considering the pertinent MHP literature, we provide a general picture about the relationship between the crystal structure and the presence or absence of cationic dynamic disorder. The reason for the structural sequences observed in MHPs with increasing temperature, pressure, A-site cation size or decreasing halide ionic radius is found principally in the strengthening of the dynamic steric interaction with the increase of the dynamic disorder. In this way, we have deepened our fundamental understanding of MHPs; knowledge that could be coined to improve performance in future optoelectronic devices based on this promising class of semiconductors.

According to Lim and Alvarez-Buylla (2014), NSCs have their origin in modified astrocites (activated B cells in [Figure 1]); these generate the transit-amplifying cells (C cells in [Figure 1]), which finally become migrating neuroblasts (A cells in [Figure 1]). [...]they are able to self-renew so as to maintain a constant cell population or, in some cases, to expand it; this involves a mitotic ability specific for these cells in the central nervous system. [...]the adult brain neural stem cells (NSCs originating in the radial glia) located in the SVZ and SGZ of the DG, both close to the lateral ventricle, seem to maintain contact with the ventricular cavity. [...]in the SVZ niche the existence has been shown of a single cytoplasmic prolongation for each undifferentiated precursor, which comes into contact with the ventricular cavity through the ependymal cell layer and extends single cilia inside the cavity, which is considered an aerial to recover signals from the CSF.

[...]examination was not possible because, we considered, the risk of bleeding was too high. [...]to accurately categorise the lesion, we did a CT angiogram, which showed a vascular abnormality in the wall of the sigmoid colon with vascular ectasia and phleboliths—indicative of a haemangioma-type lesion that would account for the patient's repeated, self-limiting history of bleeding (figure). Rectal bleeding may be caused by a wide range of pathologies including colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticular disease, haemorrhoids, and anal fissures. Rectal bleeding as a solitary symptom has a positive predictive value for colon cancer of 8% in patients aged over 50 years.

Based on the comparative analysis of the three Western media system models distinguished by Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini (2004), this article revisits their thesis of a tendency towards the convergence of the Mediterranean model and the Liberal model—in terms of the weakening of links between media institutions and the political sphere—two decades after it was first posited. By studying the degree and nature of state intervention in the media systems of Spain, France, and Portugal in the 21st century, the aim is to ascertain whether, within a context of growing political polarisation and shrinking journalistic industry income, the distinctive characteristics of the role of the state in the Mediterranean model remain the same or have changed—and in what sense. The contextualised analysis of Spanish, French, and Portuguese policies relating to public service media, independent audiovisual media regulatory bodies, media subsidies, and state advertising on the one hand allows us to question whether state intervention in Mediterranean media systems has weakened, thereby reaffirming the thesis of the importance of nation-states in media governance and the relevance of the comparative study of national media systems in the era of digital globalisation. And, on the other hand, it enables continuities, discontinuities, and differences between the three countries to be identified in relation to the logic of clientelism that Hallin and Mancini observed in their media policies in 2004, as well as some initial elements for their interpretation to be noted.

The ethics of care is a central element in the novel The Story of a Brief Marriage (2016), written by Anuk Arudpragasam in response to the slaughter which the Tamil community suffered in the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. This article discusses the novel from this theoretical perspective, positing that care is played out as a strategy to enhance the jeopardised human condition of those involved. The narrative bears witness to the intense suffering of this community at a time when the situation was deadly for civilians, who were confined in the so-called “No Fire Zone.” Paradoxically, this area was systematically shelled, its conditions responding to what Achille Mbembe has described as necropolitics. In the midst of this horror, however, Arudpragasam’s novel finds a deeply moving ethics of care in people’s attitudes to one another, which signals a desperate attempt to keep the bereaved community together or at least maintain an essential sense of humanness. Care is also identified as intentio autoris since the novel becomes a powerful reminder of the huge toll of human lives and the immense pain that occurred in this dark episode, as well as the failure—or lack of interest—of the international community to intervene in order to save thousands of innocent lives. La ética del cuidado es un elemento central en la novela The Story of a Brief Marriage (2016), escrita por Anuk Arudpragasam en respuesta a la masacre que la comunidad tamil sufrió en los últimos meses de la guerra civil de Sri Lanka en 2009. Este artículo analiza la novela desde esta perspectiva teórica, postulando que el cuidado constituye una estrategia que potencia el sentido de humanidad de los personajes, el cual se encuentra en jaque. La narrativa da testimonio del profundo sufrimiento de esta comunidad en una situación crítica para la población civil, que fue confinada en la llamada “Zona Libre de Fuego,” la cual, paradójicamente, fue bombardeada sistemáticamente. La situación respondía a lo que Achille Mbembe ha descrito como necropolítica. En este brutal contexto, la novela de Arudpragasam retrata cómo una conmovedora ética del cuidado emerge entre los confinados en un intento desesperado de mantener unida a la afligida comunidad o, como mínimo, preservar un sentido elemental de humanidad. La ética del cuidado también se identifica en la intentio autoris, pues la novela constituye un incisivo recordatorio de la pérdida de vidas humanas y del inmenso dolor que ocasionó este oscuro episodio, así como también del fracaso—o la falta de interés—de la comunidad internacional para intervenir y salvar miles de vidas inocentes.

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a global health crisis that significantly impacted healthcare systems and professionals. Healthcare workers were exposed to high levels of psychological distress, including posttraumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS). Analyse the evolution of PTSS among Spanish healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify associated factors. A multicenter prospective cohort study with a 12-month follow-up was conducted. PTSS was the primary outcome. Secondary variables included sociodemographic, occupational, psychological, and coping-related factors. Statistical analyses comprised bivariate comparisons and multivariate modelling, such as generalized linear models and linear mixed models. Of the 428 participants, 180 completed the 12-month follow-up. At baseline, changes in work posts, negative family-work relations, avoidant coping, burnout symptoms, and emotional intelligence were associated with PTSS levels. Linear mixed models showed a significant decrease in PTSS over the 12-month period, regardless of gender, age, household type, occupational role, contract type, job title, level of care or type of service (p < 0.001). The generalised linear model explained 25.5% of the variance in PTSS levels at baseline, highlighting the role of psychological and coping factors over sociodemographic or occupational characteristics. This study highlights the need for early identification and intervention focused on psychological and coping mechanisms. Promoting emotional regulation, reducing burnout, and addressing maladaptive coping may help mitigate long-term psychological effects among healthcare workers during public health crises.

Consumption of animal-sourced food is an important factor in broadening the diet of early hominins, promoting brain and body growth, and increasing behavioural complexity. However, whether early hominins obtained animal food by scavenging or hunting large mammals remains debated. Sabre-toothed felids have been proposed to facilitate the expansion of early Homo out of Africa into Europe 1.4–0.8 Ma by creating a niche for scavengers in Eurasia as the carcasses abandoned by these felids still contained abundant edible resources. In contrast, it has been argued that the niche for a large scavenger was already occupied in Eurasia by the giant hyena, preventing hominins from utilising this resource. This study shows that sabre-toothed felids generated carcasses rich in edible resources and that hominins were capable of competing with giant hyenas for this resource. The simulation experiments showed that maintaining an optimum group size is essential for the success of the hominin scavenging strategy. Early hominins could outcompete giant hyenas only if they could successfully dispute carcasses with them. Thus, in the presence of a strong competitor, passive scavenging is essentially the same as confrontational scavenging.