We establish large deviations for dynamical Schrödinger problems driven by perturbed Brownian motions when the noise parameter tends to zero. Our results show that Schrödinger bridges charge exponentially small masses outside the support of the limiting law that agrees with the optimal solution to the dynamical Monge–Kantorovich optimal transport problem. Our proofs build on mixture representations of Schrödinger bridges and establishing exponential continuity of Brownian bridges with respect to the initial and terminal points.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a widely used assisted reproduction technique, but in cattle it faces major challenges due to inefficient oocyte activation after sperm microinjection. This study investigated different oocyte activation strategies and assessed the potential role of reducing agents glutathione (GSH), cysteamine (Cys) and dithiobutylamine (DTBA) to improve sperm head decondensation and embryo development following Piezo-ICSI. Haploid parthenogenetic activation using different ethanol concentrations (1%, 3%, 7% and 10%) failed to yield blastocysts, while diploid activation with ethanol or ionomycin combined with inhibitors significantly improved cleavage (43–55%) and blastocyst rates (14–27%), respectively. However, applying two ethanol pulses was detrimental, reducing both cleavage and blastocysts likely due to toxic overexposure. Sperm head decondensation compounds in Piezo-ICSI showed a high percentage of inactivated oocytes (75% GSH, 55% Cys and 40% DTBA). The highest male pronuclear formation rates were observed in the control without sperm head decondensation (21%) and with DTBA treatment (10%). Despite this, the treatment with Cys resulted in higher developmental potential to the blastocyst stage (22%) comparable to the control (24%). These data suggest that the inclusion of sperm head decondensing agents could represent a promising new strategy for enhancing the early in vitro development of ICSI-generated embryos. However, for this purpose, careful optimization of the concentration and incubation time of these decondensing compounds is essential.

This article examines cases of governors who established a foundation for school choice between 1980 and 1996. Education was a strategic issue around which they sought to alleviate economic concerns and anxieties about desegregation to realize their vision of building, yet again, a New South. As part of this process, southern governors extolled the values of the free market in deracialized ways and networked to pass comprehensive education reform grounded in neoliberal ideologies including individualism and competition.

Deep-sea trawling is concentrated  on assessing fisheries, or in fishing; a combination of long hauls and a large mesh size results in a rather poor collection of soft-bodied invertebrates. In this contribution, we report upon the finding of the French-New Zealand Halipro 2 expedition, along the Norfolk and Loyalty Ridges, especially regarding the proposal of a new genus and description of a new species of polynoid polychaetes, Jimipolyeunoa richeri gen. n., sp. n. Jimipolyeunoa has over 50 body segments, with 21 pairs of elytra; it resembles Parapolyeunoa Barnich, Gambi and Fiege (2012), but they differ because in Jimipolyeunoa the prostomium lacks cephalic peaks (present in Parapolyeunoa), and its neurochaetae are unidentate or finely bidentate (clearly bidentate in Parapolyeunoa). Further, a parasitic copepod was found in one of the specimens, and it is described as Herpyllobius pleurotumoris sp. n., being unique by having the right side of ectosoma with single bulging tumour-like process on posterior third, adjacent to genital swellings.

Twelve sucking lice, Solenopotes burmeisteri (Fahrenholz) (Psocodea: Linognathidae), were collected from a piece of hide from a female elk, Cervus canadensis (Erxleben) (Artiodactyla: Cervidae), that had been road-killed on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon Territory, Canada (60.78048° N, 136.03328° W), in February 2024. This is the first Canadian record of S. burmeisteri, a species of louse native to Eurasia. One nymph of the winter tick, Dermacentor albipictus (Packard) (Ixodida: Ixodidae), was also collected from this host. No additional lice have been found on 13 subsequently examined elk hides.

Many of the most significant goods in human life are fleeting, fragile, and subject to loss. But this aspect of such goods, what I call their preciousness, is undertheorized. Here I provide an account of the nature of precious goods, and argue that this category of goods is significant. I argue that while the preciousness of goods is not a consistent contributor to their intrinsic value, preciousness nevertheless calls for a distinct attitudinal response on the part of rational agents: a focused, joyful attention I refer to as cherishing.

This study investigates the influence of workplace conditions on job satisfaction, focusing on environmental, occupational safety, and social factors, paying particular attention to gender interactions. Drawing on the European Survey on Workplace Health, Wellbeing, and Quality of Work Life, data from 514 employees in local companies and public organizations across six Southern European countries were analysed using discrete choice regression models. The empirical findings identify ventilation, ergonomics, social spaces, and safety training as the strongest positive drivers of job satisfaction, while repetitive work negatively affects it. The results show that women, highly educated employees, and those with permanent contracts report higher job satisfaction, with female workers benefiting most from ergonomic improvements and safety equipment. Managers should therefore prioritize improvements in workplace conditions – particularly ventilation, ergonomics, safety training, and job stability – while integrating gender-sensitive approaches to strengthen both employees’ well-being and organisational performance.

Individuals have long manipulated the dimensions of architecture, vessels, and monuments. Although scaled-up objects are often conspicuous parts of communities, this article instead considers scaled-down objects, specifically Postclassic Maya small, uncarved stelae. After presenting previously documented examples of these monuments from the Maya lowlands, the article introduces two recently recorded examples from Punta Laguna in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula: each is associated with the final deposition of hundreds of fragments of broken and unreconstructable anthropomorphic incense burners. Although the exact functions and meanings of these stelae remain elusive, understanding them as miniatures—as abstracted and compressed scaled-down versions of referents—aids in efforts to reenvision the Postclassic period and to uncouple notions of scale and complexity. More specifically, understanding small, uncarved Postclassic stelae as miniatures reframes their creation as a purposeful choice, rather than as an act of necessity; suggests they are a legitimate rather than anomalous type of monument; and encourages scholars to eschew conventional considerations of what these stelae lack—size, writing, and carved figural representations—and focus instead on what they retain: the medium of stone, their basic shape and upright nature, and their placement in nondomestic contexts and association with nondomestic artifacts.

In this article, I show that in contexts where the state fails to deliver order and security, criminal organizations can paradoxically facilitate economic development. I consider the case of the Primeiro Comando da Capital [“First Capital Command”] (PCC)—a Brazilian prison gang that has achieved hegemony over the criminal market of a large region and become the de facto regulator of violence and organized crime in São Paulo. Employing a robust difference-in-differences approach on granular administrative employment data, firm creation registries, and satellite-based nighttime luminosity (as a proxy for informal economic activity), I provide causal evidence that the PCC’s stable, rule-based criminal governance significantly increased local economic opportunities. My findings challenge conventional wisdom on the negative economic externalities of crime, demonstrating that hegemonic, institutionalized, and non-extractive criminal governance can generate positive economic externalities by reducing violence and uncertainty.

As electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft technology advances, the focus has shifted towards hybrid electric power systems to overcome battery-specific energy limitations. This study introduces a deterministic hybrid power ratio to develop a series gas turbine hybrid electric propulsion system for a generic quad tiltrotor aircraft. First, the failure modes were categorised into two groups based on the primary power component arrangement, and the risks associated with each other were assessed. Three failure modes were identified in typical eVTOL layouts, i.e. one engine inoperative (OEI), one battery pack inoperative (OBI) and one proprotor inoperative (OPI). In addition, for configurations where a single nacelle contained both the battery and motor, a combined OPI+OBI case was considered, thereby acknowledging interconnected risks and extending the scope to four potential failure modes. The study determined the minimum weight of hybrid power systems using tailored deterministic hybrid power ratios based on five proposed sizing rules. In conclusion, the paper proposes an efficient battery layout for lightweight hybrid power systems and an optimal hybrid power system for the eVTOL aircraft, aligned with current battery technology levels.

We study generalised automata (in the sense of Adámek and Trnková) in Joyal’s category of (set-valued) combinatorial species, and as an important preliminary step, we study coalgebras for its derivative endofunctor $\partial$ and for the ‘Euler homogeneity operator’ $L\circ \partial$ arising from the adjunction $L\dashv \partial \dashv R$. The theory is connected with, and in fact provides relatively nontrivial examples of, differential 2-rigs, a notion recently introduced by the author putting combinatorial species on the same relation a generic (differential) semiring $(R,d)$ has with the (differential) semiring $\mathbb{N}[\![ X]\!]$ of power series with natural coefficients. The desire to study categories of ‘state machines’ valued in an ambient monoidal category $(\mathcal{K},\otimes )$ gives a pretext to further develop the abstract theory of differential 2-rigs, proving lifting theorems of a differential 2-rig structure from $(\mathcal{R},\partial )$ to the category of $\partial$-algebras on objects of $\mathcal{R}$ and to categories of Mealy automata valued in $(\mathcal{R},\otimes )$, as well as various constructions inspired by differential algebra such as jet spaces and modules of differential operators. These theorems adapt to various ‘species-like’ categories such as coloured species, $k$-vector species (both used in operad theory), linear species (introduced by Leroux to study combinatorial differential equations), Möbius species and others.