This work investigated the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles functionalized with curcumin (ZnO(np)+CUR) supplementation during the in vitro maturation (IVM) of bovine oocytes on the in vitro embryo production and the cellular antioxidant response. A total of 1,625 cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured in the maturation medium in the absence (0 µM - control) or presence of different concentrations of ZnO(np)+CUR (3 µM, 6 µM or 12 µM). After IVM, COCs were destined either to 1) in vitro embryo production or 2) analysis of reactive oxygen species production, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity and total antioxidant capacity (FRAP). The results demonstrated that the addition of 6 and 12 µM ZnO(np)+CUR during in vitro maturation showed a higher rate of blastocyst production when compared to the control (p < 0.05). However, only 12 µM ZnO(np)+CUR treatment showed higher rates of embryo production when compared to 3µM ZnO(np)+CUR treatment. Supplementation of IVM medium with 6 µM ZnO(np)+CUR reduced ROS production (p < 0.05) compared to control and 12 µM ZnO(np)+CUR treatments. Also, the treatment containing ZnO(np)+CUR at 12 µM had lower SOD activity after IVM than control treatment. In conclusion, the best outcome for in vitro embryo production was obtained when 6 and 12 µM ZnO(np)+CUR was added during IVM of bovine oocytes. However, this improvement in in vitro embryo production was not associated with either the reduction of ROS production or SOD and CAT activities.

Larinus minutus Gyllenhal (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) has been credited with the successful biological control of Centaurea diffusa Lamarck (Asteraceae) in British Columbia, Canada. However, another seed head-feeding weevil agent, Bangasternus fausti Reitter (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), has recently been detected on C. diffusa in British Columbia, and it is unclear how it is interacting with L. minutus. If phenological differences between the two species allow B. fausti to exclude L. minutus from seedheads, and if B. fausti continues to have a low survival rate, populations of C. diffusa may begin to resurge. As a first step in studying the interactions of L. minutus and B. fausti, we compared their phenology and life histories across their known Canadian range and explored the relationship between their abundance and environmental predictors. We quantified adult abundance in the field and collected seed heads from which we reared each species. We found that B. fausti is active earlier than L. minutus, but it is generally found in lower abundance. The abundance of B. fausti had a positive relationship with mean annual precipitation, whereas L. minutus did not have any significant relationship with environmental predictors. Taken together, our study clarifies the life history of B. fausti in Canada in relation to L. minutus. If B. fausti precludes colonisation of seedheads by L. minutus but remains a less effective agent, continued range expansion of B. fausti may reduce the efficacy of C. diffusa biological control.

This article studies the optimal boundary regularity of harmonic maps between a class of asymptotically hyperbolic spaces. To be precise, given any smooth boundary map with nowhere vanishing energy density, this article provides an asymptotic expansion formula for harmonic maps under the assumption of $C^1$ up to the boundary.

Christianity is a religion of the book, and in particular of one book, the Bible. More precisely, it is a religion of a library of plural books (biblia) that eventually became one single book. It is possible to view the history of all Christian traditions, and not Protestantism alone, as a history of the canonical formation, liturgical and devotional use, cultural influence, contested theological interpretation and geographical diffusion of the Bible. In view of the magnitude of the subject, it is not surprising that very few historians have set out to encapsulate this grand narrative in a single volume. Bruce Gordon, the distinguished historian of early modern European Protestantism, has now made the attempt, and it is a valiant effort of stupendous chronological and geographical range, extending across the entire span of Christian history and covering all continents, though Australasia receives only a paragraph, oddly devoted to the New Hebrides. Not quite so rare are historians who have set out to chart the impact of one translation of the Bible on a single nation or family of nations – notably the role of the King James Bible of 1611 (the Authorised Version) in shaping the language and religious culture of English-speaking peoples, including those in the New World of North America.1

To study the potential of generative AI for generating high-quality input texts for a reading comprehension task on specific CEFR levels in German, we investigated the comparability of reading texts from a high-stakes German exam used as benchmarks for the purpose of this study and those generated by ChatGPT (3.5 and 4). These three types of texts were analyzed according to a variety of linguistic features and evaluated by three assessment experts. Our findings indicate that AI-generated texts provide a valuable starting point for the production of test materials, but they require adjustments to align with benchmark texts. Computational analysis and expert evaluations identified key discrepancies that necessitate careful control of certain textual features. Specifically, modifications are needed to address the frequency of nominalizations, lexical density, the use of technical vocabulary, and non-idiomatic expressions that are direct translations from English. To enhance comparability with benchmark texts, it is essential to incorporate features such as examples illustrating the discussed phenomena and the use of passive constructions in the AI-generated content. We discuss the consequences of the usage of ChatGPT for input text generation and point out important aspects to consider when using generated texts as input materials in assessment tasks.

In an early conversation on the relevance of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the resolution is described by Carol Cohn as presenting “an important tool to all of us who seek the empowerment of women and sustainable peace, and who believe that the two are interconnected,” and by Sheri Gibbings as a “tool to justify military occupation on behalf of ‘liberating’ women” (Cohn, Kinsella, and Gibbings 2004, 138–9). Both prospects have been borne out in the 25 years of the implementation of, and rhetoric relating to, UNSCR 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda that emerged from the landmark resolution. There is substantive documentation of, and scholarship on, the implementation of the agenda (see, for example, Coomaraswamy 2015; Davies and True 2019). It is evident from this literature that the realization of feminist peace, which propelled civil society advocacy for the passage of UNSCR 1325, has not been the only driving factor behind this implementation. In practice, the WPS resolutions have been employed by a range of actors for varying purposes.

Let $[a_1(x),a_2(x),a_3(x),\dots ]$ be the continued fraction expansion of an irrational number $x\in (0,1)$. Denote by $S_{n}(x):=\sum _{k=1}^{n} a_{k}(x)$ the sum of partial quotients of x. From the results of Khintchine (1935), Diamond and Vaaler (1986), and Philipp (1988), it follows that for Lebesgue almost every $x \in (0,1)$,

$$\begin{align*}\liminf _{n \rightarrow \infty} \frac{S_{n}(x)}{n \log n}=\frac{1}{\log 2} \quad \text {and} \quad \limsup _{n \rightarrow \infty} \frac{S_{n}(x)}{n \log n}=\infty. \end{align*}$$

In this paper, we consider a class of affine Anosov mappings with a quasi-periodic forcing and show that there is a unique positive integer m, which only depends on the system, such that the exponential growth rate of the number of invariant tori of degree m is equal to the topological entropy.

The Testament of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste is a document whose authenticity has been debated for decades, but has remained unresolved. Here the Testament is analysed in detail and it is shown that its central issue is the martyrs’ request not to disseminate their relics. In addition, the earliest sources relating to the cult of the Forty Martyrs are presented and recent studies on the beginnings of the cult of relics are cited. On this basis it is shown that the Testament is spurious.

A reassessment of radiocarbon counting statistics in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) at the Andre E. Lalonde National Facility revealed that the traditionally assumed Poisson distribution may not always apply. An extensive analysis of 2.5 years of 14C and 12C data was conducted on a MICADAS™ AMS. This study found that only 63% of results adhered to Poisson statistics, while 34.2% showed slight deviations, and 2.8% exhibited strong non-Poisson behavior. This finding challenges the classic assumption that radiocarbon AMS is inherently a Poisson process. This study recommends considering non-Poisson models, specifically quasi-Poisson and negative binomial models, to better account for internal error and improve the accuracy of the reported error. Integrating 12C current noise into error calculations is also suggested as it plays a significant role in measurement variability. We would like to ignite curiosity on other AMS laboratories to test the non-Poisson error framework with the broader aim of assessing its applicability in improving conventional statistical models, error expansion methods, and in ensuring more accurate and reliable 14C results.

This essay seeks to explain Aquinas’s account of natural law, natural inclinations, and absolute moral norms. According to Aquinas, everything bears the impress of divine wisdom (the divine Word); the cosmos is intelligible and has a teleological order. Aquinas describes this order as expressive of God’s “eternal law,” by which creatures are moved to their perfective ends. Human natural inclinations pertain to how God moves us by our rational nature, as we incline rationally toward the goods that perfect our powers. Since the rational soul is the “form” of the body, everything about the body pertains to the flourishing of the rational creature in interpersonal wisdom and love, rather than being merely a biological substratum. We come to know the human good in the process of seeking particular goods perfective of our modes of existence or powers. The above points ground Aquinas’s account of synderesis, the core precepts of the natural law, and absolute moral norms. These norms, whose intelligibility is darkened by the effects of sin, are reflected in the Decalogue, the teaching of Jesus and Paul, and the Catholic Church’s teaching.

Over the past decade, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has spurred a wave of ambitious initiatives from leading technology giants, as well as significant policy responses from governments worldwide (Taeihagh, 2021). Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI have invested heavily in AI research and development, aiming to push the boundaries of machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and other AI-driven innovations (Odhabi & Abi-Raad, 2024; van der Vlist et al., 2024). These advancements are not only transforming industries but are also reshaping workplace dynamics such as talent management (Vaiman et al., 2021) and organizational behavior (Mudunuri et al., 2025), creating new challenges and opportunities for industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology (see Asfahani, 2022 for a review). As AI technologies become increasingly integrated into various human resource (HR) practices and decision-making processes (Vrontis et al., 2022), I-O psychologists are uniquely positioned to address the implications of these changes for workforce development and organizational effectiveness.