This study aimed to identify linear growth trajectories from 0 to 5 years and assess their associations with cognitive function and school achievement in Ethiopian children aged 10 years. Latent class trajectory modelling was used to identify distinct height-for-age (HAZ) trajectories. Cognitive function was assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, while school achievement was measured by math, English and science (MES) combined scores and grade-for-age. Associations were assessed using multiple linear or logistic regressions. We identified four distinct HAZ trajectories. Decreasing trajectory (n 145, 31·9 %) started high at birth but dropped sharply. The increasing-decreasing trajectory (n 196, 43·2 %) increased up to 3 months, followed by a decrease. The stable low (n 74, 16·3 %) had low HAZ at birth, followed by a slight decrease. The rising trajectory (n 39, 8·6 %) started low but then increased to HAZ above, yet close to zero. At 10 years, children in the rising trajectory had 4·54 (95 % CI: −0·45, 9·55, P = 0·075) higher MES combined score and 2·4 times (95 % CI: 1·12, 5·15, P = 0·025) higher odds of being in the appropriate grade-for-age compared to those in the increasing-decreasing trajectory. The association between stable low and decreasing trajectory with appropriate grade-for-age had odds ratio close to null. In conclusion, we found that three of the four linear growth trajectory classes showed a declining pattern. Data suggest that greater linear growth in early childhood may be associated with higher school achievement and better cognitive function.

The condition of planetary crisis widely referred to as the Anthropocene is ubiquitous, but it is often unmarked or unseen. This article examines why through a study of Oman’s ‘Grand Canyon of Arabia’, where the absence of birds provides a lens for two sociolinguistic approaches to planetary crisis: (i) a planetary perspective on semiotic landscapes indicates that allegedly ‘natural’ landscapes are produced by human and more-than-human semiotic interventions, and (ii) the perception of space is shaped by attention, as the power of orientation around a discourse structures semiotic ideologies. An analysis of ethnographic fieldwork and digital data subsequently describes how orientation around Nature/culture dualism produces the Grand Canyon of Arabia as a ‘natural’ landscape, which is disturbed by disorienting Anthropocenic signs. Rather than resisting such disturbances, it is suggested that disorientation presents a way forward into planetary crisis, as attunement to more-than-human signs and entanglements yields relational landscapes. (Nature, tourism, posthumanism, semiotic landscapes, attunement, environment, Oman, Gulf, Anthropocene)

This article explores how the Anthropocene is semioticized in people’s everyday consciousness in conflict over urban redevelopment. Focusing on the multi-billion-dollar Atlantic Yards project, in Brooklyn, NY, we examine how political economy is discursively mobilized with urban Anthropocenic landscapes. Using ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods, we present three case studies (blight studies, architectural renderings, and activists’ manipulations of architectural renderings) to show how semiotics and discourse are utilized to depict the project as either a utopia, on the part of the developer, or as a dystopia, on the part of opponents. We examine the opposition’s critiques within a political context of discursive and physical extraction of people, resources, and value. At the same time, we consider how both utopian and dystopian assessments through semiotization continue to inhabit a neoliberal, my-topian, Anthropocenic framework in which not only are humans centered, but they are the only species that matter. (Anthropocene, blight, renderings, Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, Brooklyn, urban redevelopment)

National genebanks hold vast crop diversity that could support more resilient agri-food systems, yet their collections remain underutilized due to weak linkages with users. To address this, Kenya’s national genebank piloted the Germplasm User Group (GUG) model to facilitate structured engagement with farmers, researchers and other stakeholders. The objective of this study is to gain understanding on the feasibility and utility of this approach in supporting farmers in accessing and uncovering new and promising crop diversity. In this activity, 5 participatory variety selection (PVS) field days were held where farmers evaluated 2,041 sorghum accessions, out of which 393 accessions were selected as having farmer-preferred traits. Results demonstrate that farmer selection was non-random, as it resulted in accessions with significantly different trait profiles. Useful traits such as tolerance to striga and early maturity were identified. Seeds of 51 accessions were shared with 514 households belonging to 26 GUGs for on-farm evaluation. Out of these, farmers selected 46 accessions for seed saving and showed significantly greater preference for genebank accessions compared to the check variety. Partnerships were developed with sorghum breeding and research teams, farmer groups, extension service and marketers. This study has highlighted the value of agro-morphological characterization and passport data in assembling germplasm subsets with useful traits. The study has further shown that PVS and farmer-managed evaluation provide a powerful pathway through which farmers can discover and access the otherwise ‘hidden’ diversity conserved in genebank seed collections.

This study explored the effects of repeating a video-lecture-based task on second language (L2) learners’ input processing and the relationship between online processing patterns and lecture comprehension. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The comparison group (n = 30) performed the task once, whereas the repetition group (n = 30) repeated the same task three times, with each group completing a free-recall test after their last performance. The stimulated-recall participants (n = 15) completed the task once, twice, or three times and described their thought processes during their last task performance. The lecture featured an instructor introducing fundamental concepts of neurobiology with labeled diagrams. Participants’ visual attention to the instructor and diagrams was captured using an eye-tracker. Results revealed an increase in learners’ visual attention to the instructor and a decline in their visual attention to the diagrams across repetitions. Additionally, more visual attention to the instructor was related to lower comprehension.

We obtain $\Omega$-results for linear exponential sums with rational additive twists of small prime denominators weighted by Hecke eigenvalues of Maass cusp forms for the group $\mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb Z)$. In particular, our $\Omega$-results match the expected conjectural upper bounds when the denominator of the twist is sufficiently small compared to the length of the sum. Non-trivial $\Omega$-results for sums over short segments are also obtained. Along the way we produce lower bounds for mean squares of the exponential sums in question and also improve the best known upper bound for these sums in some ranges of parameters.

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Public Works Administration loaned 50 U.S. railroads over $1.1 billion between 1932 and 1939. The government’s goal was to increase employment and decrease the likelihood of bond defaults. Bailouts appear to have had little effect on employment, but we estimate that they did increase the average wage of railroad employees. Bailouts are estimated to have reduced firm debt, but did not significantly impact bond default. We find some evidence that manufacturing firms located close to railroads benefited from bailout spillovers.

As staged palliative surgery for patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome ages to greater than 50 years in practice, providers are increasingly faced with the challenges of managing patients with “failed Fontan” physiology. In this brief case report, we discuss different ways paediatric palliative care can support this population.

Aberrant subclavian artery arising from the pulmonary artery is an extremely rare anomaly of the aortic arch and is often associated with CHD. It can remain asymptomatic or result in subclavian or pulmonary steal syndrome. We present three cases with aberrant subclavian arteries (two left-sided, one right-sided) and reviewed 44 case reports through an extensive PubMed research to contextualise our findings to the existing literature. Fifty-five per cent of patients had a left, 45% had a right aberrant subclavian artery. The majority of patients (86%) had associated CHD. Blood pressure discrepancies and imaging—particularly transthoracic echocardiography, CT, and cardiac catheterisation—were pivotal in diagnosis. Aberrant subclavian arteries are a rare vascular anomaly, understanding of the embryology and anatomy is essential for the understanding of complex congenital heart variations. Early detection and surgical intervention are crucial to prevent complications.

Undernutrition is common amongst older people and can lead to adverse health outcomes and increased dependence. This review focuses on an aspect of undernutrition that is often overlooked, namely loss of appetite, and will discuss the challenges in this under-researched field from the perspective of geriatric medicine. Appetite decline is common in later life and predicts undernutrition in older populations. As such, timely identification and intervention on poor appetite could delay onset or progression of undernutrition to optimise healthy ageing and maintain independence. In addition, management of undernutrition ultimately requires the individual to meet their nutritional requirements. However, unless attention is paid to mitigating appetite decline, strategies to improve intake are likely to be ineffective. Treatment for appetite decline is challenging due to the multiple and complex underlying mechanisms. Current evidence is limited to a few trials targeting older people including flavour enhancement and fortification or supplementation, lifestyle measures such as increasing physical activity and social interaction, and medications, all with mixed results. Progress on treatments for appetite decline has been hampered by a lack of distinction from undernutrition but also perhaps the approach to it as a concept. Categorising appetite decline in ageing as a geriatric syndrome could aid progress in the unification of approaches to mechanistic research, assessment and management strategies, which are likely to be most effective when in multi-component form and underpinned by the principles of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA).

Given any strong orbit equivalence class of minimal Cantor systems and any cardinal number that is finite, countable, or the continuum, we show that there exists a minimal subshift within the class whose number of asymptotic components is exactly the given cardinal. For finite or countable ones, we explicitly construct such examples using $\mathcal {S}$-adic subshifts. We obtain the uncountable case by showing that any topological dynamical system with at most countably many asymptotic components has zero topological entropy. We also construct systems that have arbitrarily high subexponential word complexity, but only one asymptotic component. We deduce that within any strong orbit equivalence class, there exists a minimal subshift whose automorphism group is isomorphic to $\mathbb {Z}$.

This response memo offers a critical reassessment of the claim that ideological self-placement in Chile reflects a form of social identity. While the article under discussion provides compelling evidence of ideological stability, it risks conflating political linkage with social identity formation. In contexts of partisan decline, such as Chile’s post-authoritarian landscape, ideological categories may persist not as thick communal identities but as affective rejection fields. Drawing on insights from political psychology and Latin American party system research, this memo proposes an alternative hypothesis: ideological stability is structured by negative partisan identities—emotionally charged, ideologically coherent rejections that shape voter behavior without requiring strong organizational anchors. A stylized conceptual map illustrates the geometry of rejection in Chile’s political space. These affective coordinates help explain voter alignment in the absence of coherent in-groups or traditional parties. While preliminary, this framework underscores the importance of moving beyond ideological self-placement as a proxy for social identity and calls for renewed attention to the emotional architecture of opposition. In doing so, it invites a broader research agenda on how negative partisanship operates across fragmented democracies in Latin America.

This rebuttal responds to the argument that negative partisan identities, such as opposition to past regimes or to specific political parties, provide the primary explanation for political stability in contexts of partisan decline. While rejection dynamics do shape some voting behavior, especially in second-round contests, we contend that they cannot account for the persistence of structured electoral competition over time. Our evidence shows that many voters are defined not only by whom they reject, but also by the ideological families they belong to. We provide survey evidence demonstrating that, when ideology and negative partisanship are measured on comparable terms, the apparent advantage of the latter in explaining vote choice disappears. Recent electoral cycles further illustrate that candidates with clear ideological identities consistently capture the majority of electoral support, whereas alternatives lacking a defined ideological anchor struggle to gain traction. We conclude that ideology, understood as a social identity, is the central force generating long-term stability in electoral competition, while negative partisanship intensifies conflict in short-term, high-stakes contests.

Many philosophers have recently defended the Maximize Expected Choiceworthiness (MEC) approach to moral uncertainty. Perhaps the most important problem for MEC is the problem of intertheoretic choiceworthiness unit comparisons; and one extant response to this problem is a technique called “variance normalization.” Although there has been some short, scattered commentary on variance normalization in the philosophical literature, nobody has yet offered a detailed critical discussion of this proposal. This article fills that lacuna, arguing that there are serious problems that would need to be addressed before variance normalization could be invoked to rescue MEC from skepticism about intertheoretic comparisons.