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Robin Hargreaves, BVA senior vice-president, shares his thoughts on why graduate reunions are important.

As early as 1865, survivors of the Civil War were acutely aware that people were purposefully shaping what would be remembered about the war and what would be omitted from the historical record. InRemembering the Civil War, Caroline E. Janney examines how the war generation--men and women, black and white, Unionists and Confederates--crafted and protected their memories of the nation's greatest conflict. Janney maintains that the participants never fully embraced the reconciliation so famously represented in handshakes across stone walls. Instead, both Union and Confederate veterans, and most especially their respective women's organizations, clung tenaciously to their own causes well into the twentieth century.Janney explores the subtle yet important differences between reunion and reconciliation and argues that the Unionist and Emancipationist memories of the war never completely gave way to the story Confederates told. She challenges the idea that white northerners and southerners salved their war wounds through shared ideas about race and shows that debates about slavery often proved to be among the most powerful obstacles to reconciliation.

This paper analyses data related to 62 human–shark interactions in New Caledonia and 60 in Reunion Island from 1980 to 2022. A database on human–shark interactions in New Caledonia and Reunion Island was developed using the same variables and similar time steps for both locations. The discussion focuses on human–shark interactions in New Caledonia, with some comparisons to those on Reunion Island where possible. Environmental, contextual and individual variables related to human–shark interactions were analysed to identify potential influencing factors. The data analysis for New Caledonia revealed some correlations between variables related to the human–shark interactions. The main results showed that there was a concomitant increase in human–shark interactions since 2010 in the bays of Noumea and in the prevalence of human–shark interactions among people practising boardsports since 2007. The year 2007 was a pivotal year with respect to differences in important parameters of human–shark interactions. The results of this comparison between Reunion Island and New Caledonia were as follows: fatal human–shark interactions occurred among individuals practising boardsports and in turbid environments, whereas nonfatal human–shark interactions among individuals engaged in spearfishing and in clear water in New Caledonia.

An increasing number of people are fleeing conflict and persecution in their country of nationality and seeking refuge in countries such as the UK. In fleeing from danger, refugee people often become separated from their family. The right to family unity is recognised by international human rights frameworks; once granted refugee status, refugee people can apply for close relatives from their home country to join them in the UK, through the Family Reunion process. Little is known about how young people experience this process as previous research has neglected their perspectives. This study was developed in consultation with the British Red Cross (BRC) to explore the perspectives of 12 young people, aged 16 to 21-years-old, who were reunited with a separated parent in the UK through the Family Reunion process. Participants had left Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iran and the Ivory Coast and resettled within the UK cities of Glasgow, Leeds and Birmingham. One semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant, with the support of an interpreter when necessary. Qualitative findings based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis identified three broad themes: Challenges Experienced: \"Not easy at all\", Novelty of the UK: \"You have to adapt\" and Supportive Relationships. These themes explore participants' experiences of the bittersweet feelings associated with reunion, navigating adult responsibilities, adjusting to cultural differences, welcoming new opportunities provided in the UK, readjusting to living with their parent and being supported by organisations, such as the BRC. These experiences are used to inform implications for BRC caseworkers, clinical professionals, policymakers and researchers.

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) have gained considerable attention this last decade but the paucity of knowledge on these ecosystems is pronounced, particularly in the Southwestern Indian Ocean region. We explore the spatial variation in macro-benthic and scleractinian communities along a wide depth gradient (15–95 m) and among contrasted sites around Reunion Island. Values for percent cover of macro-benthic and scleractinian communities varied significantly along depth, resulting in a vertical zonation of communities. We recorded a transition of light-dependent communities towards heterotrophic organisms between shallow and upper mesophotic zones at 30–45 m, and a community shift in the lower mesophotic zone at 75 m. Despite overlaps in scleractinian genera distribution along the depth gradient, predominant genera of shallow depths were in low abundance in MCEs (> 30 m). Our findings highlight the importance of MCEs as distinct ecosystems sheltering diverse, unique habitats and harboring abundant cnidarian-habitat forming organisms. Supporting the ‘Deep Reef Refuge Hypothesis’, 56% of scleractinian genera spanned shallow to mesophotic depths, while one-third were depth specialists, either shallow or mesophotic. This highlights the limited refuge potential of mesophotic reefs for Southwestern Indian Ocean coral communities. Our findings establish baseline data for monitoring and conserving Reunion Island’s MCEs.

Astroviruses (AstVs) are RNA viruses infecting a large diversity of avian and mammalian species, including bats, livestock, and humans. We investigated AstV infection in a free-tailed bat species, Mormopterus francoismoutoui, endemic to Reunion Island. A total of 380 guano samples were collected in a maternity colony during 38 different sampling sessions, from 21 June 2016 to 4 September 2018. Each sample was tested for the presence of the AstV RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRp) gene using a pan-AstV semi-nested polymerase chain reaction assay. In total, 27 guano samples (7.1%) tested positive, with high genetic diversity of the partial RdRp gene sequences among positive samples. Phylogenetic analysis further revealed that the detected viruses were genetically related to AstVs reported in rats, reptiles, dogs, and pigs, but did not cluster with AstVs commonly found in bats. Although more investigations need to be conducted to assess the prevalence of infected bats in the studied population, our findings show that Reunion free-tailed bats are exposed to AstVs, and suggest that cross-species transmission may occur with other hosts sharing the same habitat.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an emerging arbovirus associated with several recent large-scale epidemics. The 2005-2006 epidemic on Reunion island that resulted in approximately 266,000 human cases was associated with a strain of CHIKV with a mutation in the envelope protein gene (E1-A226V). To test the hypothesis that this mutation in the epidemic CHIKV (strain LR2006 OPY1) might influence fitness for different vector species, viral infectivity, dissemination, and transmission of CHIKV were compared in Aedes albopictus, the species implicated in the epidemic, and the recognized vector Ae. aegypti. Using viral infectious clones of the Reunion strain and a West African strain of CHIKV, into which either the E1-226 A or V mutation was engineered, we demonstrated that the E1-A226V mutation was directly responsible for a significant increase in CHIKV infectivity for Ae. albopictus, and led to more efficient viral dissemination into mosquito secondary organs and transmission to suckling mice. This mutation caused a marginal decrease in CHIKV Ae. aegypti midgut infectivity, had no effect on viral dissemination, and was associated with a slight increase in transmission by Ae. aegypti to suckling mice in competition experiments. The effect of the E1-A226V mutation on cholesterol dependence of CHIKV was also analyzed, revealing an association between cholesterol dependence and increased fitness of CHIKV in Ae. albopictus. Our observation that a single amino acid substitution can influence vector specificity provides a plausible explanation of how this mutant virus caused an epidemic in a region lacking the typical vector. This has important implications with respect to how viruses may establish a transmission cycle when introduced into a new area. Due to the widespread distribution of Ae. albopictus, this mutation increases the potential for CHIKV to permanently extend its range into Europe and the Americas.