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National genebanks offer diverse collections of locally adapted crops which can support farmers’ climate resilience, nutritional security and economic innovations, yet are often overlooked in climate adaptation strategies. Across much of the world, national genebanks are unknown to farmers, or poorly connected for varietal exchange. This paper examines the impacts of establishing ‘Germplasm User Groups’ (GUGs) across five African countries to connect farmers with genebanks as rapid responders to local agricultural challenges. GUGs conducted farmer participatory research to evaluate genebank materials and establish pathways for the exchange of knowledge and crop diversity in farming communities. Drawing on surveys and interviews from over 1,600 smallholders, we found GUGs increase farmer understanding of genebanks, improve access to crop diversity and increase farmer exchanges with national genebanks. As well as material exchange, smallholders welcome the learning opportunities from GUGs to address local farming challenges. On average, GUG members share genebank seed with four other farmers, demonstrating the potential spillover effects of this model for sharing crop diversity. We close with recommendations to improve the working of GUGs and offer guidance for other countries looking to adopt the system as a rapid approach strategy to build local resilience in the face of climate change.
Given two rational maps $f,g: \mathbb {P}^1 \to \mathbb {P}^1$ of degree d over $\mathbb {C}$, DeMarco, Krieger, and Ye [Common preperiodic points for quadratic polynomials. J. Mod. Dyn.18 (2022), 363–413] have conjectured that there should be a uniform bound $B = B(d)> 0$ such that either they have at most B common preperiodic points or they have the same set of preperiodic points. We study their conjecture from a statistical perspective and prove that the average number of shared preperiodic points is zero for monic polynomials of degree $d \geq 6$ with rational coefficients. We also investigate the quantity $\liminf _{x \in \overline {\mathbb {Q}}} (\widehat {h}_f(x) + \widehat {h}_g(x) )$ for a generic pair of polynomials and prove both lower and upper bounds for it.
The crystallisation that occurs when a drop is in contact with a cold surface is a particularly challenging phenomenon to capture experimentally and describe theoretically. The situation of a liquid–liquid interface, where crystals appear on a mobile interface is scarcely studied although it provides a defect-free interface. In this paper, we quantify the dynamics of crystals appearing upon the impact of a drop on a cool liquid bath. We rationalise our observations with a model considering that crystals appear at a constant rate depending on the thermal shock on the expanding interface. This model provides dimensionless curves on the number and the surface area of crystals that we compare with our experimental measurements.
Describe the hemodynamic implications of anaesthetic choice among children with heart disease undergoing cardiac catheterisation.
Methods:
Study 1 was a secondary analysis of data obtained during catheterisation-based hemodynamic assessment of infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome following Stage 1 palliation, randomised in the Single Ventricle Reconstruction trial. Measured and calculated hemodynamics including pulmonary and systemic vascular resistance indexed to body surface area (PVRi and SVRi respectively) and pulmonary/systemic blood flow (Qp/Qs) were analysed with respect to anaesthetic employed during catheterisation, classified as moderate sedation or general anaesthesia. Study 2 consisted of a single centre, prospective analysis of patients requiring percutaneous closure of a patent ductus arteriosus or endomyocardial biopsy after orthotopic heart transplant. Participants underwent hemodynamic assessment first using inhaled volatile anaesthesia (IA), and then transitioned to total intravenous anaesthesia, comparing hemodynamic measures with respect to anaesthetic approach.
Results:
In Study 1, independent of shunt type, PVRi, and patient size, moderate sedation was associated with a greater than two-fold odds of a Qp/Qs >1 (OR 2.12, 95%CI 1.18–3.87, p = 0.013). In Study 2, while PVRi was similar, SVRi was significantly higher using total intravenous anaesthesia. Among the patent ductus arteriosus subgroup, Qp/Qs increased significantly with a total intravenous anaesthesia relative to IA (p = 0.003); additionally, among the orthotopic heart transplant subgroup, left ventricular end diastolic pressure increased following a transition to total intravenous anaesthesia (p = 0.002).
Conclusions:
Analyses of hemodynamics during catheterisation support a significant impact of anaesthetic type on hemodynamic values including SVRi, left ventricular end diastolic pressure, and Qp/Qs. Anaesthesia choice and intraprocedural management of SVRi are important considerations when making clinical decisions based on hemodynamic data.
Based on the stubbed coupled line for matching a load, we design an impedance transformer matched the load of ${{\text{Z}}_{\text{L}}} = 100{\Omega }$, working at four frequencies in this paper. This proposed transformer comprises two sections of coupled line constructed from parallel-coupled transmission lines. Two different types of the proposed transformer are given and analyzed, and we derive carefully about the open-circuit form equations for impedance transformer. We fabricate an impedance transformer to certify the validity of design equations theoretically, and the frequency is measured at 0.7/2.4/3.6/5.3 GHz. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated results at each frequency.
In the context of dependent type theory, we show that coinductive predicates have an equivalent topological counterpart in terms of coinductively generated positivity relations, introduced by G. Sambin to represent closed subsets in point-free topology. Our work is complementary to a previous one with M. E. Maietti, where we showed that, in dependent type theory, the well-known concept of wellfounded trees has a topological counterpart in terms of proof-relevant inductively generated formal covers used to provide a predicative and constructive representation of complete suplattices. The proofs performed within Martin–Löf’s type theory and the Minimalist Foundation have been checked in the Agda proof assistant.
The study aimed to explore the causal effect of maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) on congenital malformations of intestine (CMI). The genome-wide association data of BMI and CMI were obtained via the Mendelian randomization (MR) base platform. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with BMI in females were identified and used as instrumental variables, and the causal relationship between BMI in females and CMI was examined using the bidirectional two-sample MR analyses research method. Three statistical methods including inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method, weighted median estimator, and MR-Egger regression were employed. A total of 36 SNPs significantly associated with BMI in females were identified in the study (P < 5 × 10−8; linkage disequilibrium r2 < 0.001). Consistent association between BMI in females and CMI was observed when evaluated by different methods (IVW: odds ratio (OR) 0.364, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.144–0.922; weighted median estimator: OR 0.395, 95% CI 0.096–1.619; MR-Egger Method: OR 0.244, 95% CI 0.020–2.974), which suggests that BMI in females is negatively associated with increased risk of CMI. The MR analysis provided the strong evidence to indicate that decreasing BMI in females might be causally associated with the risk of CMI.
The burgeoning critical scholarship on space in International Relations (IR) overwhelmingly recognises space as a socially produced set of performances, practices, and discourses, converging into meaningful organisations of located experience. Drawing on the writings of Deleuze and Guattari on the related concepts of nomadism and the war machine, I argue that this productive emphasis betrays a continued statist methodology that proceeds by binding, or partitioning, space into finished outcomes. I present a conceptual challenge to the normative emphasis on socially produced space by following nomadism, the immanent tendency to variation in the process of spatial becoming. Working with nomadic potentials brings to the fore smooth space, which includes the continuous possibilities and intensities existing unencumbered beneath concretised productions of organised space. I follow the spatial movement of violence in Punjab during the Indian Partition of 1947 as the emergence of a war machine which deployed the nomadism of smooth space to decompose and upend striations. My objectives are first, to argue for spatial possibilities beyond the normative positivity of produced space, and secondly, to register the fundamental methodological and analytical shifts that these possibilities demand. These shifts can in turn deepen ongoing disciplinary inquiries into indeterminacy.
Developmental Gerstmann’s Syndrome (DGS) is a proposed neurological disorder characterized by finger agnosia, acalculia, right-left disorientation, agraphia, and in some cases, constructional dyspraxia. Case studies of DGS are limited, particularly those reporting on assessments in adults. The present case study demonstrates the presence of DGS symptoms in a young female adult with an autoimmune disorder but no clear history of neurological damage.
Method:
This client sought academic accommodations for her undergraduate math classes. She was administered a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, during which she demonstrated difficulties with mathematical concepts, right-left disorientation, inverted writing, mild finger agnosia, andimpairments in fine motor abilities and visual motor coordination.
Results:
The client’s symptoms were consistent with DGS, though variability in her performance on assessments suggests compensatory strategies she may have developed throughout her life.
Conclusion:
Our client demonstrated similarities with previously reported accounts of DGS as assessed in adults. This case proposes further evidence for DGS as a syndrome and presents challenges to assessing DGS in high-functioning adults. The case highlights a need for a standardized testing battery to assess DGS.