This article examines the national and international context within which Colombian immigration policy developed in the mid-twentieth century. Focussing on Republican refugees from the Spanish Civil War, it traces how and why policymakers and public opinion began to see these groups as potentially harmful to society. It argues that Colombian immigration policy emerged at the intersection of multiple, evolving discourses of race which both helped frame and were shaped by anxieties over a mass influx from Spain. By exploring the stories of several Republicans who tried to come to Colombia, the article also reveals how they helped shape immigration policy.

This study examines the interplay between welfare stigma and need in the decision to claim social welfare benefits in Hong Kong, a liberal welfare city where self-reliance and family obligations are highly valued. Our interviews with seventeen low-income parents, suggest that first, their availability and ability to work influence their self-perceived ‘deservingness’ of aid. This, in turn, affects their anticipated self-stigma and their assessment of needs. Second, having children influences parents’ decisions to claim social welfare benefits through both anticipated stigma and childcare needs. Finally, low-income parents are trapped in an impossible triangle of being a ‘good’ parent, caught between fulfilling parental responsibilities, providing for their children financially, and modeling self-reliance to protect them from welfare stigma. Claiming benefits fulfills the first two but sacrifices self-reliance, while choosing not to claim fulfills the latter two but sacrifices parental responsibilities. Both choices carry emotional consequences that can undermine parent-child relationships.

The Taiwan Incident of 1874 – a prolonged Sino-Japanese confrontation over the killing of Ryukyu castaways, whom Japan claimed as its subjects – marked the full maturation of a new mode of Qing war preparation. This mode was characterized by global coordination, domestic and international competition, and the swift mobilization of personal connections to secure foreign weapons and loans – resources that were often interconnected. Facilitated by the efforts of various actors, this internationalized approach became a standard practice during the empire’s final decades. As the empire could no longer rely on domestic self-sufficiency in arms and funding, Qing military operations came to reflect the broader influence of global military and financial resources. The Qing empire’s capacity to mobilize global resources in pursuit of national objectives helps explain its resilience in an era dominated by imperial powers.

Holocene environmental changes on the Paraty coastal plain in southeastern Brazil unfolded under dynamic sea-level fluctuations and shifting sedimentary regimes. Continental and marine palynomorph analyses, combined with calibrated radiocarbon dating from two sediment cores (JBS1 and JBS2), reveal a continuous depositional record spanning approximately 7800 to 1000 cal yr BP. Sandy mud and muddy sand sequences reflect variable coastal energy conditions through out the mid to late Holocene. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages indicate a transition from open marine to marginal marine environments, with maximum marine influence between 7000 and 5000 cal yr BP. Terrestrial palynomorphs show a concurrent shift from grassland-dominated landscapes to mixed vegetation including ombrophilous forest taxa. A marked increase in pollen concentration in the upper stratigraphic layer suggests coastal progradation, enhanced continental input, and reduced marine influence during the late Holocene regression. Bayesian age-depth models demonstrate uninterrupted but variable sedimentation rates, with no evidence for erosional surfaces or depositional hiatuses. The results align with regional sea-level reconstructions and under score the role of transgressive-regressive processes and delta infilling in shaping vegetation dynamics. This integrated micropalaeontological and chronostratigraphic approach offers a robust framework for interpreting Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution in tropical coastal settings.

Pseudoaneurysm after valve-sparing aortic root replacement is uncommon but potentially life-threatening. We report an unusual case of spontaneous resolution of an aortic root pseudoaneurysm that developed in a 14-year-old boy with Marfan syndrome following valve-sparing aortic root replacement. This case suggests that, in carefully selected situations, non-surgical management with intensive follow-up may be beneficial.

Un oficial del ejército chileno relata que en 1879 los atacameños (o Lickanantay; actuales comunidades indígenas del interior de la región de Antofagasta, norte de Chile) realizaban procesiones al volcán Licancabur todos los años. Contrastando este relato, nos propusimos investigar el camino de peregrinación que utilizaban desde el pueblo de San Pedro de Atacama hasta dicho centro ceremonial. Entregamos aquí los resultados iniciales de esta investigación y evaluamos la profundidad cronológica de las peregrinaciones a las altas montañas, las que hasta ahora se han considerado una práctica originada con el estado Inka (ca. 500 aP), como el caso del rito de la Capacocha. Si bien nuestros datos son preliminares, son concluyentes en mostrar que las prácticas peregrinas andinas a las montañas son milenarias y que se desarrollaron desde hace unos 3.300 años, continuando hasta fines del siglo diecinueve en el caso del Licancabur. En la actualidad, sin embargo, no hemos logrado dar con ningún registro ni memoria oral que dé cuenta de procesiones desde los oasis sanpedrinos al volcán, develando una notable amnesia histórica colectiva, provocada en gran parte por la reciente delimitación de las fronteras estados-nacionales después de la Guerra del Pacífico.

Individuals with mental health difficulties (MHD) have a substantial reduction in life expectancy compared to the general population. It is increasingly recognised that mental health services need to improve physical healthcare as a priority. Sexual health, including consideration of high-risk sexual behaviours, medication side effects, and challenges in romantic relationships, is a further important but under-recognised aspect of overall health. We discuss some of the current issues relating to physical and sexual health, with a particular focus on youth with MHD and how we might implement holistic care in Ireland. Prioritising the resourcing of these issues could facilitate the implementation of a Shared Model of Care as recommended in Ireland’s National Mental Health Policy, Sharing the Vision.

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and inactivated virus vaccination on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes in infertile couples. A retrospective case–control study was conducted at the Royan Institute from August 2020 to March 2022. The study included 90 couples in the COVID-19 infection phase and 31 in the vaccination phase. A total of 30 infected but unvaccinated couples were compared to a control group of 60 couples with no COVID-19 infection or vaccination history. Additionally, 31 couples underwent treatment before and after receiving the Sinopharm inactivated vaccine. Key variables analysed included sperm parameters (concentration, motility, progressive motility and morphology), ovarian parameters (antral follicle count, oocyte retrieval), embryological outcomes and pregnancy outcomes. SARS-CoV-2 infection significantly reduced sperm motility (P = 0.02) and progressive motility (P = 0.01) compared to controls. Sperm concentration and morphology showed non-significant declines. Post-vaccination analysis revealed similar but statistically insignificant changes in sperm parameters. Ovarian stimulation parameters and embryological outcomes remained unaffected by both infection and vaccination. Although biochemical, clinical pregnancy and live birth rates were lower among the infected group, these differences did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.16, 0.08 and 0.09). SARS-CoV-2 infection has been associated with impaired sperm progressive motility, which may negatively influence ICSI outcomes. In contrast, vaccination with an inactivated virus does not appear to impact fertility outcomes. These findings provide crucial guidance for physicians and infertile couples managing treatments during and after the pandemic, suggesting the need for extended recovery periods before ART procedures following COVID-19 infection.

Deterministic and stochastic processes are of great importance in influencing the composition of communities. Here, we tested if deterministic and stochastic processes have the same force of influence on functional traits of tiger moth communities. Specifically, we hypothesised that the functional traits of the tribe Arctiini would be more strongly influenced by stochastic processes (associated with spatial variables), given that these moths are primarily diet and habitat generalists within a highly diverse clade. They also exhibit high morphological trait dissimilarity and are capable of occupying a wide range of vegetation habitats. On the other hand, we hypothesised that the functional traits of the tribe Lithosiini would be more influenced by deterministic processes (associated with environmental variables), given that these moths are primarily diet and habitat specialist moths and tend to occur in more specific vegetation types. In agreement with our hypotheses, the functional traits of Arctiini species were better explained by variables related to stochasticity, while the functional traits of Lithosiini were explained by deterministic processes only. Thus, the processes shaping moth distributions across communities may vary according to species’ functional traits and interspecific relationships.

In a normal pregnancy, glucocorticoids (GC), such as cortisol, play an essential role in early heart development. GC concentrations surge in late gestation to facilitate the maturation of fetal systems in preparation for birth. However, pregnancy complications related to stress, lifestyle factors, disease, and commonly used antenatal care treatments (GC therapy and artificial reproductive technology) can lead to prematurely increased GC concentrations that are detrimental to the heart before it is mature enough to benefit. These findings underpin the hypothesis that GC play a double-edged role that benefits normal heart development but is potentially harmful when dysregulated. However, the mechanisms by which both physiological and pathological elevations in GC concentrations influence the fetal cardiometabolic pathways that lead to detrimental long-term cardiovascular outcomes remain unclear. This review will, firstly, describe how cortisol regulates different aspects of cardiac development and, secondly, compare findings from different animal models that have provided mechanistic insight into how excess cortisol/GC during pregnancy impacts cardiac health across the life course.