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In this paper we study the optimal multiple stopping problem with weak regularity for the reward, where the reward is given by a set of random variables indexed by stopping times. When the reward family is upper semicontinuous in expectation along stopping times, we construct the optimal multiple stopping strategy using the auxiliary optimal single stopping problems. We also obtain the corresponding results when the reward is given by a progressively measurable process.
World-historical analyses often view the “Asian” empires that survived into the twentieth century (the Russian, Qing, and Ottoman empires) as anomalies: sovereign “archaic” formations that remained external to the capitalist system. They posit an antagonistic relationship between state and capital and assume that modern capitalism failed to emerge in these empires because local merchants could not take over their states, as they did in Europe. Ottoman economic actors, and specifically the sarraf as state financier, have accordingly been portrayed as premodern intermediaries serving a “predatory” fiscal state, and thus, as external to capitalist development. This article challenges these narratives by uncovering the central role of Ottoman sarrafs, tax-farmers, and other merchant-financiers in the expanding credit economy of the mid-nineteenth century, focusing on their investment in the treasury bonds of Damascus. I show how fiscal change and new laws on interest facilitated the expansion of credit markets while attempting to regulate them by distinguishing between legitimate interest and usury. I also discuss Ottoman efforts to mitigate peasant indebtedness and the abuse of public debt by foreigners, amid the treasury bonds’ growing popularity. In this analysis, global capitalism was forged in the encounter between Ottoman imperial structures, geo-political concerns, and diverse, interacting traditions of credit, while the boundaries between public and private finance were being negotiated and redefined. Ultimately, Ottoman economic policies aimed to retain imperial sovereignty against European attempts to dominate regional credit markets—efforts often recast by the latter as “fanatical” Muslim resistance.
The Takeuchi procedure remains an important surgical option for treating anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery, particularly in cases where direct coronary reimplantation is not feasible. However, long-term outcome data in paediatric patients are limited.
Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed 18 paediatric patients who underwent Takeuchi repair between 2007 and 2023. Clinical characteristics, echocardiographic data, and outcomes—including survival, ventricular function, mitral regurgitation, and reintervention—were analysed. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to assess survival and freedom from reintervention, and paired comparisons were evaluated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Results:
The median age at surgery was 6 months (range: 25 days to 12 years). Preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction was significantly depressed (median 23.5%), and mitral regurgitation was present in all patients. There were two early deaths (11.1%), both in patients with severe heart failure. No late mortality was observed during a maximum follow-up of 10.9 years. All survivors achieved New York Heart Association class I status. Left ventricular ejection fraction improved significantly postoperatively (p < 0.0001), and mitral regurgitation grade also decreased significantly (p < 0.001), with 94.4% showing only mild residual mitral regurgitation. Reintervention occurred in three patients (16.7%) for pulmonary artery stenosis or baffle leak. Freedom from reintervention at 10.9 years was 66.7%.
Conclusion:
The Takeuchi procedure offers excellent survival and functional recovery in paediatric anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery patients when coronary translocation is not feasible. Although late complications such as pulmonary artery stenosis or baffle leak can occur, outcomes remain favourable with appropriate follow-up.
The cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS) scale has been developed to screen for possible cognitive and affective impairments in cerebellar patients, but previous studies stressed concerns regarding insufficient specificity of the scale. Also, direct comparisons of CCAS scale performance between cerebellar patients with and without CCAS are currently lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of the CCAS scale in cerebellar patients.
Method:
In this study, cerebellar patients with CCAS (n = 49), without CCAS (n = 30), and healthy controls (n = 32) were included. The Dutch/Flemish version of the CCAS scale was evaluated in terms of validity and reliability using an extensive neuropsychological assessment as the gold standard for CCAS. Correlations were examined between the CCAS scale and possible confounding factors. Additionally, a correction for dysarthria was applied to timed neuropsychological tests to explore the influence of dysarthria on test outcomes.
Results:
Cerebellar patients with CCAS performed significantly worse on the CCAS scale compared to cerebellar controls. Sensitivity was acceptable, but specificity was insufficient due to high false-positive rates. Correlations were found between outcomes of the scale and both education and age. Although dysarthria did not affect the validity of the CCAS scale, it may influence timed neuropsychological test outcomes.
Conclusions:
Evaluation of the CCAS scale revealed insufficient specificity. Our findings call for age- and education-dependent reference values, which may improve the validity and usability of the scale. Dysarthria might be a confounding factor in timed test items and should be considered to prevent misclassification.
As hybrid work arrangements have become more prevalent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the alignment between jobs and workers has also evolved, arguably in ways that research has yet to fully capture. We build on the theoretical foundation of person-environment fit – and person-job fit specifically – to investigate how employees’ work arrangements and their perceived fit with their work arrangements influence important personal (e.g., work-life balance, stress) and work-related (e.g., organizational commitment, engagement) outcomes. Quantitative evidence from a survey of 427 hybrid workers supports the idea that the extent to which an individual’s desires, needs, and values align with their work arrangement plays an important role in their personal and work-related well-being. We advocate for expanding the conceptualization of person-job and person-environment fit models to incorporate work arrangements and provide recommendations for research and practice.
Compensation schemes are certainly not a new phenomenon in England and Wales, and they are increasingly being used, and called for, to compensate victims in the field of occupational and public health. Despite their long existence, compensation schemes have always been thought to develop on ad hoc basis, without any real discernible logic behind them. This paper suggests that, contrary to this idea, compensation schemes emerging in the field of occupational and public health are generally following an identifiable, if covert, pattern that is deeply rooted in their relationship with the tort system. This relationship, the paper contends, is crucial not only to explain the creation and operation of compensation schemes but also to shed some light on the place and limits of the tort system in this legal system. More than that, this paper demonstrates that the relationship between these two sources of compensation could be the key to offer the beginning of a categorisation of compensation schemes that could help identify which schemes are in need of reform.
Despite prior research on political capabilities and their relationships with meaningful outcomes at work, it remains unclear why certain employees are incapable of successfully navigating workplace politics. To clarify this, our research develops and validates a measure of political self-efficacy at work (PSEW) across seven independent and varying samples. Evidence from faculty members and subject-matter experts in Study 1 provides initial support for the content validity of the new PSEW scale. Then, in Studies 2 and 3, we employ two separate samples to confirm the scale’s convergent and discriminant validity and factor structure. We repeat this process, in Study 4, on several new nomological neighbors (e.g., the Dark Triad traits, general political behavior, impression management, and political will). In Studies 5 and 6, using multi-wave and multi-source data, we assess the criterion-related and predictive validity of the PSEW scale, and in Study 7, we test our full theoretical model. Altogether, these findings verify the nomological network and validity of the new PSEW measure and provide theoretical and practical developments surrounding organizational politics.
The impact of CHD on safe driving for adolescents is currently unknown. A prospective, qualitative descriptive study was conducted among adolescents with CHD to describe perceived barriers, facilitators, and impacts of CHD on safe, independent driving among adolescents.
Study design:
Twenty-eight adolescents aged 15–19 years with CHD participated in virtual, semi-structured interviews in 2023. Adolescent interview data were analysed with conventional content analysis refined by Theoretical Domains Framework in NVivo software.
Results:
Mean participant age was 16.4 ± 0.23 years (57% male). Single ventricle physiology (25%) and septal defects (32%) were prevalent diagnoses among the study population. Most participants (92%) did not have driving restrictions.
Two themes emerged from the data:
Driving as a normal rite of passage for adolescents with CHD; and confident—but curious—about the impacts of CHD on driving. Adolescents felt confident that driving is not impacted by CHD. They were curious about the likelihood of cardiovascular emergencies and related symptoms while driving. Perceived barriers and facilitators to safe, independent driving were like what has been described in published literature among adolescents without CHD.
Conclusion:
These findings celebrate the normalcy of driving during adolescence and reveal curiosities about the impacts of stress, anxiety, fatigue, and risks of heart attack and stroke on driving. Adolescents may look to CHD healthcare providers to help them learn about driving. These findings may inform the development of tools to facilitate meaningful conversations with adolescents regarding driving safety as part of the transition to adult CHD care.
The hypersonic vehicle surfaces are subjected to intense thermal loads during atmospheric re-entry. Such conditions induce material ablation and structural deformation, potentially causing changes to aerodynamic configuration that critically endanger mission integrity. In this paper, a mathematical model of thermochemical non-equilibrium magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) at low magnetic Reynolds number is introduced to investigate the effects of MHD on the flow field. Variation of the magnetic pole angle (θ), the flow field profiles are quantitatively analysed, including gas component distributions and aerodynamic heating characteristics. Results indicate that the heat flux at the stagnation point initially decreases and then increases with θ increasing, reaching a minimum at θ = 60°. A portion of the heat flux from the blunt position is transferred to the shoulder (α between 30° and 60°). Notably, the shock standoff distance also shows a non-monotonic trend with θ increasing, peaking at θ = 30°, mirroring the effect of θ on the stagnation point heat flux. As θ increases, the component of the Lorentz force along the X-direction gradually increases, with its peak position corresponding to the shock standoff distance. The electrons and nitrogen atoms are primarily concentrated at the blunt nose, while nitric oxide and oxygen atoms are predominantly distributed along the vehicle wall. The dissociation region of the gas is influenced by the shock standoff distance, which increases as the shock standoff distance increases. At θ = 30°, the concentration of oxygen atoms, nitrogen atoms, nitric oxide molecules and electrons on the stagnation point line reaches its maximum. The present study provides a theoretical foundation for the application of MHD thermal protection methods on hypersonic vehicles.
Sponge-Sticks (SS) and ESwabs are frequently utilized for detection of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in the environment. Head-to-head comparisons of SS and ESwabs across recovery endpoints are limited.
Design:
We compared MDRO culture and non-culture-based recovery from (1) ESwabs, (2) cellulose-containing SS (CS), and (3) polyurethane-containing SS (PCS).
Methods:
Known quantities of each MDRO were pipetted on a stainless-steel surface and swabbed by each method. Samples were processed, cultured, and underwent colony counting. DNA was extracted from sample eluates, quantified, and underwent metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). MDROs underwent whole genome sequencing (WGS). MDRO recovery from paired patient perirectal and PCS-collected environmental samples from clinical studies was determined.
Setting:
Laboratory experiment, tertiary medical center, and long-term acute care facility.
Results:
Culture-based recovery varied across MDRO taxa, it was highest for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and lowest for carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA). Culture-based recovery was significantly higher for SS compared to ESwabs except for CRPA, where all methods performed poorly. Nucleic acid recovery varied across methods and MDRO taxa. Integrated WGS and mNGS analysis resulted in successful detection of antimicrobial resistance genes, construction of high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes, and detection of MDRO genomes in environmental metagenomes across methods. In paired patient and environmental samples, multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP) environmental recovery was notably poor (0/123), despite detection of MDRP in patient samples (20/123).
Conclusions:
Our findings support the use of SS for the recovery of MDROs. Pitfalls of each method should be noted. Method selection should be driven by MDRO target and desired endpoint.
Direct numerical simulations are performed to explore the impact of surface roughness on inter-scale energy transfer and interaction in a turbulent open-channel flow over differently arranged rough walls. With friction Reynolds number approximately 540, six distinct configurations of roughness arrangements are examined. The results show that the clustered roughness arrangements yield notable changes in large-scale secondary-flow structures, which manifest in the profiles of dispersive stresses, predominantly near the roughness elements. They are marked by the presence of spanwise alternating high-momentum pathways and low-momentum pathways. From the outer peak in the spanwise energy spectra, the size and intensity of turbulent secondary flows are shown to be related to the spanwise spacing of the roughness heterogeneity. The emergence of turbulent secondary flows serves to suppress the original large-scale structures in the outer region of smooth-wall turbulence, paving the way for the development of new turbulent structures at the second harmonic scale. Furthermore, the spanwise triadic interaction analysis reveals the mutual energy exchange between the secondary harmonic scale and the secondary-flow scale. These findings elucidate the underlying mechanisms behind the attenuation of large-scale structures in the outer region influenced by roughness, offering new insights into the dynamic interplay of scale interactions in rough-wall turbulence.