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In this paper, the upper bounds of non-real eigenvalues of indefinite Sturm–Liouville (S-L) problems with boundary conditions depend on the eigenparameter are studied. The upper bounds of real parts, imaginary parts and absolute values of non-real eigenvalues are given under the condition that the coefficients are integrable.
Research finds genetic predisposition for depression is associated with increases in depression across adolescence and adulthood. In turn, depressive symptoms in adolescence are associated with substance use. However, there has been modest examination of genetic predisposition for depression, growth in depressive symptoms, and substance use from late childhood through adolescence, and mostly in White samples. Also, psychosocial interventions can attenuate associations between genetic predisposition and psychopathology, a genotype by intervention (GxI) effect. We examined associations among polygenic risk for depression, growth in depressive symptoms from age 7 to 16, and substance use at age 16, as well as moderation by a family-based preventive intervention. Participants were African-ancestry (n = 154) and European-ancestry (n = 219) youth from the Early Steps Multisite Study, half of whom participated in the Family Check-Up intervention. A small polygenic by intervention effect was found on reductions in depressive symptoms for African-ancestry youth, and growth in depressive symptoms was positively associated with substance use at age 16. In sensitivity analyses, a small GxI effect was detected in European-ancestry youth on reductions in depressive symptom slopes from age 10 to 16. These findings highlight how early intervention can buffer genetic effects on depressive symptoms over time.
We numerically investigate the hydrodynamics of an actively heaving flexible foil flapping under a wave surface. The coupled level set and volume-of-fluid method is used to capture the air–water interface, and the immersed-boundary method is used to capture the fluid–structure interaction. A sinusoidal heaving motion is imposed at the foil’s leading edge, and its posterior parts oscillate passively according to its flexible characteristics, allowing dynamic interactions with the wave-induced flow. The propulsive performance of the foil is examined for the influence of three main factors: the ratio of the heaving frequency ($f_{\!f}$) to the wave frequency ($f_w$), the phase difference between the heaving motion and the incident wave ($\mathit \varPhi$) and the submergence depth of the foil ($D$). At $\mathit \varPhi = 0$, the results reveal that the propulsion of the flexible foil benefits from flapping near the wave surface when $f_{\!f}/f_w = 0.5$, and the propulsive efficiency is optimised at $D/L = 1$, where $L$ is the foil’s length. However, when $f_{\!f}/f_w$ = 1.0 and 2.0, the propulsion of the flexible foil is hindered near the wave surface. This hydrodynamic hindrance is closely related to vortex splitting and roll-up phenomena, which induce the formation of a drag wake. By adjusting the phase difference $\mathit \varPhi$, the hindrance in the flexible foil propulsion can be mitigated to enhance propulsive performance. To further understand the relationship between the flapping kinematics and propulsive dynamics, we perform a scaling analysis based on lift force and added mass force, offering good quantification of propulsive performance.
This study outlines the investigation into an outbreak of Mycobacterium fortuitum infections involving 17 cases undergoing hip or knee surgeries at two ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) in Tennessee from January 2023 to November 2024. Notably, the outbreak could not be attributed to contaminated water sources, which are typically associated with non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) outbreaks, presenting a unique challenge.
Methods:
Outbreak investigation steps included Infection Prevention (IP) assessments, case-control study, environmental sampling, whole genome sequencing, and a healthcare personnel (HCP) exposure questionnaire.
Results:
IP assessment highlighted several concerns, including no formal facility water management program (WMP), a lack of dedicated IP personnel and certified sterile processing staff, the absence of a formalized system for tracking surgical site infections, and a notable gap in understanding the requirements for reporting diseases. The case-control findings revealed a significant association between the presence of a surgical technologist in the operating room during the procedures and the occurrence of NTM infections, indicated by an odds ratio of 55.77 (95% CI [3.16–985.44]; P = 0.0097). Thirteen clinical isolates collected at one ASC and three additional isolates collected at a second ASC were highly related by whole genome sequencing.
Conclusion:
The study further elucidates valuable insights gained from the outbreak response, including the gaps in surveillance within the ambulatory surgical setting and systematic collection of cultures from environmental sources. It emphasizes the importance of thorough vetting, onboarding, continuing education, and practice monitoring for HCP.
While increasing seafood consumption may help address micronutrient deficiencies and metabolic disorders, evidence supporting this recommendation in the Indian context remains limited and inconclusive. Using the nationally representative cross-sectional 2019–2021 National Family Health Survey dataset, we investigated the association of fish consumption frequency with anaemia and metabolic disorders (overweight/obesity, hypertension and hyperglycaemia) among adult men (aged 15–54 years) and women (aged 15–49 years) in India. A control function (CF) method was employed to examine the association in individuals who consumed fish daily and those who reported consuming fish daily/weekly. The analysis was restricted to non-vegetarians (who reported ever consuming egg, fish or meat). Overall, 86·9 % of men and 74·7 % of women were non-vegetarians. CF analysis revealed that both daily and daily/weekly fish consumption were associated with a reduced risk of anaemia among both men and women. Daily fish consumers exhibited increased likelihood of overweight/obesity (men: β: 0·405, 95 % CI: 0·074, 0·735, P: 0·017; women: β: 0·248, 95 % CI 0·125, 0·370, P < 0·001). Conversely, daily/weekly fish intake was associated with a reduced risk of overweight/obesity in men (β: −0·041, 95 % CI: −0·069, −0·013; P: 0·004). Daily/weekly fish consumption was associated with a reduced risk of hypertension and increased odds of hyperglycaemia among men. Fish consumption demonstrated a potentially protective relationship against hypertension in women, regardless of how often they consumed fish, while also being associated with a higher prevalence of hyperglycaemia. Indian adults can improve their health by eating more fish, which can help fight anaemia and may also reduce overweight/obesity and high blood pressure.
Space–time correlations of velocity and high-Schmidt-number ($Sc \approx 2000$) passive scalar fields are investigated in turbulent pipe flow using particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence, respectively. Both the velocity and scalar fields exhibit characteristic elliptical patterns in their respective space–time correlations. The elliptic approximation model, originally developed for the velocity field, is applied to estimate convection and sweeping velocities for both fields. In both fields, the convection velocity decreases, while the sweeping velocity increases, along the pipe radius. The convection velocity ratio between the scalar and velocity fields shows that high-Schmidt-number scalar fluctuations are advected faster than the velocity fluctuations. Similarly, the sweeping velocity of the scalar fluctuations is found to be larger than that of the velocity fluctuations. Furthermore, the high-Schmidt-number scalar is found to decorrelate more rapidly than the corresponding velocity, with the scalar Taylor microscale distinctly smaller than the velocity Taylor microscale.
Like many newer EU Free Trade Agreements, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) includes commitments concerning labour and social standards and environment and climate policy under the title the ‘Level Playing Field’. This title includes non-regression provisions, which prohibit reducing or weakening certain standards ‘in a manner affecting trade’, and novel rebalancing provisions, which allow the parties to take unilateral measures if material impacts on trade are arising as a result of significant divergences in levels of protection in specific areas of regulation. Although terminology linking trade to labour and environmental issues is becoming reasonably common in trade agreements, there has only been limited consideration as to what trade effects or impacts actually need to be demonstrated. This paper argues that the language of ‘manner affecting trade’ and ‘material impact on trade’ in the TCA denotes a ‘conditions of competition’ test as opposed to a stricter, and relatively more difficult to satisfy, trade remedies model. It further considers the possible application of the provisions in the context of the UK’s 2022 strikes measures, highlighting that even if a conditions of competition test is used, there are serious questions as to whether the non-regression and rebalancing provisions in the TCA are efficacious in achieving values-based objectives.
We give a construction of integral local Shimura varieties which are formal schemes that generalise the well-known integral models of the Drinfeld p-adic upper half spaces. The construction applies to all classical groups, at least for odd p. These formal schemes also generalise the formal schemes defined by Rapoport-Zink via moduli of p-divisible groups, and are characterised purely in group-theoretic terms.
More precisely, for a local p-adic Shimura datum $(G, b, \mu)$ and a quasi-parahoric group scheme ${\mathcal {G}} $ for G, Scholze has defined a functor on perfectoid spaces which parametrises p-adic shtukas. He conjectured that this functor is representable by a normal formal scheme which is locally formally of finite type and flat over $O_{\breve E}$. Scholze-Weinstein proved this conjecture when $(G, b, \mu)$ is of (P)EL type by using Rapoport-Zink formal schemes. We prove this conjecture for any $(G, \mu)$ of abelian type when $p\neq 2$, and when $p=2$ and G is of type A or C. We also relate the generic fibre of this formal scheme to the local Shimura variety, a rigid-analytic space attached by Scholze to $(G, b, \mu , {\mathcal {G}})$.
This article offers an intersectional and temporospatial analysis of female visibility during religious activity in urban spaces in Republican Rome. The focus is on the regular religious activity of prominent female religious officials – Vestals, flaminica Dialis, and regina sacrorum – and collectives of women – married and enslaved women – as religious activity and roles could empower some women, and provide regular opportunities for visibility in the city. I argue that such an approach and focus reshape our understanding of the visibility of women in urban spaces, challenging traditional scholarly views of female domesticity and invisibility. A temporospatial lens reveals that women of various roles and statuses were regularly visible in a wide array of urban spaces, seemingly irrespective of their public, private, or sacred nature. There appears to have been limited spatial segregation by gender. Instead, a woman’s intersectional statuses and temporality were key dimensions differentiating female visibility. There was no singular gendered rhythm, but plural rhythms in interaction and conflict, and female religious officials played key roles in directing these rhythms and bringing harmony to the religious calendar. Futurity and the preservation of the community lay at the core of this female religious activity. Ultimately, time’s place was pivotal.
Sheath-ends are poorly represented in works regarding weaponry of the Cimmerian period (10th–7th century BC), despite forming an important component, particularly among the melee weapons of the time. There are several reasons for this neglect: until recently, the number of known sheath-ends was quite small, thus making it impossible to speak of types, variants or cultural affiliations; also, most of the previously published sheath-ends are spread over a large territory and were published many decades ago. Therefore, some of them may be unknown to researchers due to the age of publications, as well as linguistic and cultural barriers. Over the past few years, a larger number of new sheath-ends has emerged. Some of them belong to previously known types, others are completely new. Their analysis is here conducted using the comparative method. The total number of sheath-ends now known makes it possible to begin a discussion about their types, chronology and origins, which will undoubtedly develop as new finds appear.
The essence of the Metaverse lies in the inter-subjectivity revealed by phenomenology. The many-worlds model reveals the significance of interaction and communication for digital human existence. The Metaverse exhibits a rhizomatic structure of narrative from multiple small universe interpretations, particularly the cross-embedding and close coupling between digital relational orders and analog legal orders formed through interface revolution. Virtuality-reality interfacing permits rational design based on exchange concepts, yielding twelve fundamental digital-age juridical propositions from subject interaction ordering mechanisms. These propositions indicate that with consumer sovereignty and distributed autonomous organizations, the Metaverse will transform order principles. A corridor system connecting cyberspace to off-chain society will be built using code and smart contracts as dual interfaces, producing varied relationship-law combinations.
Recently, autonomous aerial systems have received unparalleled popularity and applications as varied as they are innovative in the civil domain. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is now the subject of intensive research in both aeronautical and automotive engineering.
This paper presents a new, robust gain-scheduled adaptive control strategy for a class of UAV with linear parameter varying (LPV) models. The proposed controller synthesis involves a set of pre-tuned linear quadratic regulator (LQR) combined with fractional-order PID controllers supervised with an adaptive switching law. The main innovation in this work is the enhancement of the classical gain-scheduling adaptive control robustness for systems with LPV models by combining a set of robust LQR + fractional-order PID compensators. The stability of the resulting controller is demonstrated and its efficiency is validated using a numerical simulation example on a civilian UAV system airspeed and altitude control to illustrate its practical efficiency and achieved robustness.
This article investigates how early modern migrants articulated identification with their host society in the context of the late eighteenth-century Dutch Republic, a period preceding modern nationalism. Drawing on a unique dataset derived from the Prize Papers – a collection of testimonies from captured sailors interrogated by British Admiralty courts – we analyze migrants’ declarations of sovereign allegiance. We assess how factors such as duration of residence, local citizenship (poorterschap), occupational rank, and marital status influenced migrants’ identification with their adopted polity. Using logistic regression, we find that civic institutional embeddedness, reflected in city citizenship, and occupational rank, especially among ship captains, significantly predicted identification with the Dutch Republic. In contrast, duration of residence and marital status had weak and statistically insignificant effects. Our findings highlight that pre-national forms of identification were deeply embedded in civic and institutional contexts rather than simply reflecting modern nationalist sentiments. By combining quantitative analysis with targeted archival research into individual biographies, this study demonstrates the complex interplay between institutional opportunities and personal networks in shaping migrants’ allegiances, thereby offering a nuanced historical perspective relevant to contemporary debates on civic integration.
Cultural transfers between metropolitan cores and colonial peripheries, have been a constant feature of the history of modern nationalism. Anti-colonial movements also influenced to some extent the development and strategies of European national movements before 1939. After 1945, and with particular intensity following the Algerian War of Independence, claims for national self-determination from the colonial possessions of the European empires also influenced the development of regional and national movements within Western Europe. This was flanked by the adoption of Marxist-Leninist and New Left doctrines by the post-war generation leading Western European minority nationalisms. The article deals with the reformulation of national self-determination in Europe under the influence of anti-colonial thought, particularly since the adoption of the theories of “internal colonialism”, and the new dimension given to the theory of national liberation by authors such as Frantz Fanon. It also looks at the emergence of radical ethno-nationalist parties in the 1960s and their commitment to this new wave of anti-colonial self-determination. Finally, the attempts of some of these movements to articulate a transnational programme will be analysed.
Kawasaki disease is a self-limiting vasculitis of unknown aetiology, and coronary artery lesions are its most common and serious complication. The Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index is a new biomarker of inflammation that may have prognostic value in Kawasaki disease. This study evaluated patients with Kawasaki disease and the prognostic role of Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index in coronary involvement. A total of 62 children with Kawasaki disease and 49 healthy controls were included. Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index was calculated as: neutrophils × platelets/lymphocytes). Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index was also significantly higher in Kawasaki disease patients than controls (2373 ± 2040 vs. 300 ± 218, p < 0.001). Subgroup analysis of the Kawasaki disease patients showed that Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index was significantly higher in patients with coronary artery lesions than in those without (p < 0.05). In conclusion, Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index is a composite inflammatory biomarker easily obtained from routine blood parameters and may be an independent predictor of coronary artery involvement in Kawasaki disease.
Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) enjoys cult status in the history of avant-garde music in the second half of the twentieth century. Founded in Rome at the turn of 1966 and 1967 on the initiative of the American composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski, MEV, together with the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (GINC), introduced free improvisation to the European continent. However, many aspects of the group’s early years remain obscure, particularly with regard to their first performances and their transition to improvisation. Drawing on previously unpublished archives, in particular those of Frederic Rzewski preserved in Brussels, this article clarifies these aspects by establishing a precise chronology from 1966 to 1968. Far from following the aesthetics of GINC, MEV seems to have been more influenced by the Living Theatre, whose Artaudian and political approach encouraged its shift towards musical spontaneity and audience participation. This study thus offers a new perspective on the origins of MEV and its place within the Italo-American avant-garde of the period.
Kongolandsbyen was an ‘ethnographic village’ staged in Oslo as part of Norway’s Jubilee Exhibition of 1914. The ‘village’ housed and displayed a troupe of eighty Senegalese performers including musicians playing kora, balafon, and other instruments. Examining music’s performance and reception in Kongolandsbyen demonstrates how colonialist practices and beliefs influenced even European nations, such as Norway, that were nominally non-imperialist. Kongolandsbyen’s promoters mimicked exhibitions common in France and Germany at which audiences sought both to learn about unfamiliar societies and to be entertained by sensationalized, ostensibly ‘primitive’, performances. By demonstrating fluency in the tired but familiar genre of the ‘ethnographic village’, Norwegians emulated the prestige of European imperial powers to challenge Norway’s marginal status as a newly independent, small country with limited geopolitical influence. Kongolandsbyen’s Senegalese performers pushed back against colonialist, racist representations through both thoughtful presentations of their musical traditions and an insistence on their own modernity.