Recently, functional foods have been considered as an effective approach in management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. This trial aimed to evaluate the potential benefits of date seed powder on inflammation anxiety-and depression-like behaviours, sleep quality, and tryptophan-kynurenine metabolism in T2DM patients. In this trial, 43 patients with diabetes were randomised to two groups: either 5 g/d of the DSP or placebo for 8 weeks. Depression, anxiety and stress scale, sleep quality, quality of life, levels of fasting blood glucose, endotoxin, anti-inflammatory/pro-inflammatory biomarkers, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis associated biomarkers (brain derived neurotrophic factor), kynurenine, tryptophan, cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone, were assessed at baseline and after 8 weeks. An independent t-test was used for baseline comparisons, while analysis of covariance was used for post-intervention between-group comparisons.

The results showed that supplementation with date seed powder significantly improved depression, anxiety and stress scale, sleep quality, and quality of life in comparison to placebo. In terms of biochemical parameters, the intervention group exhibited reduced levels endotoxin, and cortisol, kynurenine, kynurenine/ tryptophan ratio as well as elevated levels of interleukin-10, tryptophan concentrations, and interleukin -10/ interleukin -18ratio compared to the placebo group. Changes in fasting sugar, C-reactive protein, interleukin -18, adrenocorticotropic hormone, brain derived neurotrophic factor concentrations, and cortisol/ adrenocorticotropic hormone ratio were not different between groups.

The potential of coastal regimes for supporting permanent human settlement is tempered by the vulnerability of fixed infrastructure to changes in sea levels. First-millennium AD civic-ceremonial centers on the northern Gulf coast of Florida involved the construction of permanent infrastructure in support of regional gatherings that challenged sustainable settlement in the context of regressive sea. Although rising sea was the more common challenge over millennia of coastal dwelling, marine regression from periods of cooling climate slowly diminished near-shore habitat for fish and shellfish and eventually stranded settlements from tidal water. The challenge was especially acute for a community that built a tidal fish trap for summer solstice feasts, whose utility depended on the reliability of tides to flood the trap. High-resolution lidar data from the Richards Island fish trap enable accurate modeling of the effectiveness of the trap under current and lowered sea levels. The use-life history of the Richards Island fish trap illustrates the limits to intensification of coastal economies inherent to nonportable infrastructure whose utility is tide dependent—in particular, when demands on production are out of sync with optimal tidal conditions.

Economic hardship is known to shape children’s self-regulation, yet little is understood about how fluctuations in hardship unfold over time and whether different patterns of unpredictability carry unique developmental consequences. Using a socioeconomically diverse sample, we tracked families’ subjective economic hardship across 15–36 monthly assessments and applied an environmental statistics framework to quantify four indices of unpredictability: changepoints in mean, changepoints in variance, coefficient of variation, and noise. PCA identified two distinct forms of economic unpredictability: one marked by frequent, unpredictable hardship, and another by infrequent but abrupt hardship. Economic unpredictability was disproportionately experienced by racially minoritized and lower-income families in our sample, reinforcing structural inequities in economic resources. Relations between these indices and caregiver-reported measures of family routines and day-to-day unpredictability were weak, suggesting wide heterogeneity in the ways families adapt to economic unpredictability. Leveraging propensity score methods, we isolated the effects of unpredictability from hardship severity, finding that both were associated with greater self-regulation challenges in early childhood, with the strongest effects for hardship severity. These findings underscore the importance of capturing economic hardship as a dynamic and multidimensional experience, with implications for policy efforts aimed at promoting stability in families’ access to resources over time.

The marked length spectrum (MLS) of a closed negatively curved manifold $(M, g)$ is known to determine the metric g under various circumstances. We show that, in these cases, (approximate) values of the MLS on a sufficiently large finite set approximately determine the metric. Our approach is to recover the hypotheses of our main theorems in Butt [Quantative marked length spectrum rigidity. Preprint, 2022], namely, multiplicative closeness of the MLS functions on the entire set of closed geodesics of M. We use mainly dynamical tools and arguments, but take great care to show that the constants involved depend only on concrete geometric information about the given Riemannian metrics, such as the dimension, diameter and sectional curvature bounds.

The distribution and abundance of insect pests are influenced by landscape structure and composition, particularly through modifications to biocontrol services and the proportion of suitable habitats within the landscape. In addition, pest populations are affected by agricultural practices at different landscape scales, ranging from field-by-field to area-wide. Our study focuses on one of the world’s most invasive and polyphagous pests of fruits and vegetables: the Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel, 1912) (Diptera: Tephritidae). We analysed how farmer practices, landscape composition, and mango varieties were related to B. dorsalis infestation in an insular tropical agroecosystem with disparate farming systems, where crop plots are of modest size and interconnected with various habitat types. Fruit infestations were regularly recorded during 18 months in different plots on all mango varieties of the study area. Agricultural practices were determined through semi-structured interviews and categorised according to the farm structure and practices related to B. dorsalis management. Landscape composition was determined from high-resolution satellite imagery and local surveys, and the area of landscape cover was calculated within a 500 m buffer around each sampled orchard plot. We demonstrate that both landscape and local factors influence the infestation indexes of B. dorsalis in mango orchards. At a landscape scale, B. dorsalis was favoured by habitat diversity, which probably provided complementary larval food resources and enabled populations to maintain throughout the year. On a local scale, individual farmers’ practices had a significant influence on infestation indexes. The proportion of infested fruits was lower in plots managed by farmers who practised sanitation.

Amid intensifying geopolitical competition and accelerating climate commitments, China’s rare earth elements (REE) sector has emerged as a strategic asset and a site of political contestation. While existing accounts emphasize China’s dominance through central control, this article develops the concept of “fractured extraction” to show how REE governance is mediated by uneven, multi-scalar negotiations among central authorities, provincial governments, municipal actors and firms. Drawing on historical analysis and provincial case studies from Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi and Sichuan, we argue that China’s REE governance is marked by cycles of alignment and divergence, where central mandates around environmental reform, industrial upgrading and resource consolidation are selectively implemented, reinterpreted or resisted by subnational actors pursuing local development goals. This dynamic reflects not fragmentation or coherence but fracture: a provisional, relational mode of governance that persists across China’s evolving extractive landscape. We identify four interrelated processes – innovation, upgrading, financialization and formalization – through which fractured extraction materializes to develop a framework for understanding the politics of green industrialization and strategic resource governance that foregrounds subnational actors and the contested nature of China’s low-carbon transition.

Astrotheology, the theological engagement with astrobiology and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, has primarily focused on the compatibility of scientific and religious beliefs. However, this article argues that probability and risk assessments play a larger role in the discussion than is commonly recognised, and there is need to learn from the rigour with which natural theological arguments have been evaluated. For instance, the relative urgency and style of astrotheological discourse is affected by ideas of what sort of life is likely to be out there, if any. In this article, I analyse astrotheological risk assessments from the framework of decision theory, using the discussion over Pascal’s Wager as a comparison case. Arguments over the fittingness of creating other life forms are analysed through a comparison with fine-tuning design arguments. I argue that while theological engagement with astrobiology remains important, the justification of probability and risk assessments depends on disputed philosophical and theological assumptions. Examining the compatibility of theological systems and ideas about extraterrestrial life is important. However, fostering doubt about these probabilities is also a service that theology can do for astrobiological debates.