Changing sea-ice conditions have significant societal impacts and implications across Alaska and the Arctic. This research examined the relationship between sea ice and extreme weather events with socio-economic impacts in Nome, Alaska (1990–2020), a community that has experienced notable changes in sea ice and impacts from extreme weather events. The research is based on the analysis of sea-ice concentrations from passive microwave data, socio-economic impacts of extreme weather events from an archival analysis of newspaper coverage, and an examination of the relationship between sea-ice concentrations and impacts. We found that sea-ice concentrations at the time of the reported socio-economic impacts were all characterised by ice-free conditions. Additionally, extreme events linked to socio-economic impacts occurred when sea-ice concentrations were at or below their historical (1979–2000) median for the day. Key implications for the observed increased probability of ice-free conditions in the autumn include a greater likelihood that a given coastal storm from November to mid-December may contribute to socio-economic impacts, which may have been mitigated by sea ice in the past, as well as an increased potential for impacts to occur when they have previously not been experienced.

This contribution departs from an existing model, the Design Framework for Systems-of-Systems Resilience, to explore systems resilience issues across the health, environmental, and economic domains. The reported research activities include 1) a rapid review to collect a set of systems indicators and 2) a design workshop employing causal loop diagramming to map expected causal influences between indicators. Through this exercise, we examine key themes in this research domain and outline directions for further enquiry, while involving members of the design research community in an open dialogue.

A core feature of Kant’s Critical account of moral motivation is that pure reason can be practical by itself. I argue that Kant developed this view in the 1770s concerning the principium diiudicationis and principium executionis. These principles indicate the normative and performative aspects of moral motivation. I demonstrate that cognition of the normative principle effects the moral incentive. So, the hallmark of Kant’s Critical account of motivation was contained in his pre-Critical view. This interpretation resolves a controversy about Kant’s apparent eudaimonism in the first Critique and shows that he developed his account of moral autonomy in the 1770s.

Chlorite minerals, found in a great variety of rocks and geological environments, display a wide range of chemical compositions and a variety of polytypes, which reflect the physicochemical conditions under which they formed. Of particular importance for studies dealing with ore deposit genesis, metamorphism, hydrothermal alteration or diagenesis is the paleotemperature of chlorite crystallization. However, in order to understand the relationship between chlorite composition and formation temperature and hence use chlorite as a geothermometer, one must determine how other parameters influence chlorite composition. These parameters may include fO2 and pH of the solution and Fe/(Fe + Mg) and bulk mineral composition of the host rock.

Four approaches to chlorite geothermometry, one structural and three compositional, have been proposed in the past: 1) a polytype method based on the (largely qualitative) observation that structural changes in chlorite may be partly temperature-dependent (Hayes, 1970); 2) an empirical calibration between the tetrahedral aluminum occupancy in chlorites and measured temperature in geothermal systems (Cathelineau, 1988), which has subsequently been modified by several workers; 3) a six-component chlorite solid solution model based upon equilibrium between chlorite and an aqueous solution, which uses thermodynamic properties calibrated with data from geothermal and hydrothermal systems (Walshe, 1986); and 4) a theoretical method based on the intersection of chlorite-carbonate reactions and the CO2-H2O miscibility surface in temperature-XCO2 space, which requires that the composition of a coexisting carbonate phase (dolomite, ankerite, Fe-calcite or siderite) be known or estimated (Hutcheon, 1990). These four approaches are reviewed and the different calculation methods for the compositional geothermometers are applied to a selection of chlorite analyses from the literature. Results of this comparative exercise indicate that no single chlorite geothermometer performs satisfactorily over the whole range of natural conditions (different temperatures, coexisting assemblages, Fe/(Fe + Mg), fO2, etc.). Therefore, chlorite geothermometry should be used with caution and only in combination with alternative methods of estimating paleotemperatures.

There is a dearth of data on Se status in very old adults. The aims of this study were to assess Se status and its determinants in 85-year-olds living in the Northeast of England by measuring serum Se and selenoprotein P (SELENOP) concentrations and glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) activity. A secondary aim was to examine the interrelationships between each of the biomarkers. In total, 757 participants (463 women, 293 men) from the Newcastle 85+ Study were included. Biomarker concentrations were compared with selected cut-offs (serum Se: suboptimal 70 µg/l and deficient 45 µg/l; SELENOP: suboptimal 4·5 mg/l and deficient 2·6 mg/l). Determinants were assessed using linear regressions, and interrelationships were assessed using restricted cubic splines. Median (inter-quartile range) concentrations of serum Se, SELENOP and of GPx3 activity were 53·6 (23·6) µg/l, 2·9 (1·9) mg/l and 142·1 (50·7) U/l, respectively. Eighty-two percentage and 83 % of participants had suboptimal serum Se (< 70 µg/l) and SELENOP (< 4·5 mg/l), and 31 % and 40 % of participants had deficient serum Se (< 45 µg/l) and SELENOP (< 2·6 mg/l), respectively. Protein intake was a significant determinant of Se status. Additional determinants of serum Se were sex, waist:hip ratio, self-rated health and disease, while sex, BMI and physical activity were determinants of GPx3 activity. There was a linear association between serum Se and SELENOP, and nonlinear associations between serum Se and GPx3 activity and between SELENOP and GPx3 activity. These findings indicate that most participants had suboptimal Se status to saturate circulating SELENOP.

From the safety inside vehicles, Knowsley Safari offers visitors a close-up encounter with captive olive baboons. As exiting vehicles may be contaminated with baboon stool, a comprehensive coprological inspection was conducted to address public health concerns. Baboon stools were obtained from vehicles, and sleeping areas, inclusive of video analysis of baboon–vehicle interactions. A purposely selected 4-day sampling period enabled comparative inspections of 2662 vehicles, with a total of 669 baboon stools examined (371 from vehicles and 298 from sleeping areas). As informed by our pilot study, front-line diagnostic methods were: QUIK-CHEK rapid diagnostic test (RDT) (Giardia and Cryptosporidium), Kato–Katz coproscopy (Trichuris) and charcoal culture (Strongyloides). Some 13.9% of vehicles were contaminated with baboon stool. Prevalence of giardiasis was 37.4% while cryptosporidiosis was <0.01%, however, an absence of faecal cysts by quality control coproscopy, alongside lower than the expected levels of Giardia-specific DNA, judged RDT results as misleading, grossly overestimating prevalence. Prevalence of trichuriasis was 48.0% and strongyloidiasis was 13.7%, a first report of Strongyloides fuelleborni in UK. We advise regular blanket administration(s) of anthelminthics to the colony, exploring pour-on formulations, thereafter, smaller-scale indicator surveys would be adequate.