The current study aimed to investigate the effects of ageing on oral immunity using β-defensin (DEFB) 1/2 as a marker and evaluate the effects of curcumin (CUR) on these processes. The study sample included thirty male C57BL/6J mice divided into three groups based on the treatment method used. The young control (YC) and old control (OC) groups received 0·5 % methylcellulose-400 (CUR vehicle) orally for 5 days, whereas the CUR group of older mice received a CUR solution suspended in 0·5 % methylcellulose-400 (dose: 3·0 mg/kg body). DEFB1/2 and immune indicator levels were measured in the saliva and salivary glands post-treatment. The saliva volume and protein content were significantly reduced in the OC group compared with the YC group. CUR administration restored these parameters, decreased DEFB1 expression in the salivary gland and increased DEFB1/2 secretion and DEFB2 expression. These findings were supported by epigenetic gene regulation and partial cytokine activation from changes in WD40 repeat protein 5, TNF alpha and IL-1beta. CUR can partially restore age-related changes in oral immune responses and promote oral health, thereby preventing frailty in the older population through a nutritional therapeutic pathway.

Cet article propose une analyse du contexte québécois, actuellement marqué par une prolifération des titres miniers visant des minéraux critiques. Nous examinons la thèse selon laquelle nous aurions une obligation morale d'exploiter le territoire en vue de la transition énergétique. Selon cette idée mise de l'avant notamment par l'industrie minière et le gouvernement provincial québécois, l'opposition des communautés locales à l’égard des projets miniers serait un cas de « NIMBY ». Pour répondre à cette accusation, cet article propose une réflexion sur le rapport qu'entretiennent les communautés politiques avec le territoire à partir des travaux de Margaret Moore, de Cara Nine, et d'intuitions provenant de la Green Legal Theory. Cet article conclut en un droit prima facie des communautés locales de ne pas exploiter les minéraux critiques sur leur territoire.

We present algorithms and a C code to reveal quantum contextuality and evaluate the contextuality degree (a way to quantify contextuality) for a variety of point-line geometries located in binary symplectic polar spaces of small rank. With this code we were not only able to recover, in a more efficient way, all the results of a recent paper by de Boutray et al. [(2022). Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical 55 475301], but also arrived at a bunch of new noteworthy results. The paper first describes the algorithms and the C code. Then it illustrates its power on a number of subspaces of symplectic polar spaces whose rank ranges from 2 to 7. The most interesting new results include: (i) non-contextuality of configurations whose contexts are subspaces of dimension 2 and higher, (ii) non-existence of negative subspaces of dimension 3 and higher, (iii) considerably improved bounds for the contextuality degree of both elliptic and hyperbolic quadrics for rank 4, as well as for a particular subgeometry of the three-qubit space whose contexts are the lines of this space, (iv) proof for the non-contextuality of perpsets and, last but not least, (v) contextual nature of a distinguished subgeometry of a multi-qubit doily, called a two-spread, and computation of its contextuality degree. Finally, in the three-qubit polar space we correct and improve the contextuality degree of the full configuration and also describe finite geometric configurations formed by unsatisfiable/invalid constraints for both types of quadrics as well as for the geometry whose contexts are all 315 lines of the space.

Survival of CHD has significantly improved, but children with CHD remain susceptible to neurodevelopmental and psychosocial impairments. Our goal was to investigate the association between socio-demographic factors and psychosocial adaptation for future intervention. A retrospective cross-sectional study of an independent children’s hospital’s records was conducted. Psychosocial adaptation was measured by the Pediatric Cardiac Quality of Life Inventory Psychosocial Impact score (range 0–50, higher score indicates greater psychosocial adaptation). Bivariate and regression analyses were performed to estimate relationships between Psychosocial Impact score and socio-demographic variables including Child Opportunity Index, family support, financial support, academic support, and extracurricular activities. A total of 159 patients were included. Compared to patients in high opportunity neighbourhoods, patients in low opportunity neighbourhoods had a 9.27 (95% confidence interval [−17.15, −1.40], p = 0.021) point lower Psychosocial Impact score, whereas patients in moderate opportunity neighbourhoods had a 15.30 (95% confidence interval [−25.38, −5.22], p = 0.003) point lower Psychosocial Impact score. Compared to patients with adequate family support, those with limited support had a 6.23 point (95% confidence interval [−11.82, −0.643], p = 0.029) lower Psychosocial Impact score. Patients in moderate opportunity neighbourhoods had a higher Psychosocial Impact score by 11.80 (95% confidence interval [1.68, 21.91], p = 0.022) when they also had adequate family support compared to those with limited family support. Our findings indicate that among children with CHD, psychosocial adaptation is significantly impacted by neighbourhood resources and family support structures. These findings identify possible modifiable and protective factors to improve psychosocial adaptation in this vulnerable population.

Black women have come to be seen as a dominant force in American politics—particularly in support of the Democratic party. However, this dominance in the political sphere has not translated to dominance in the economic sphere. Despite Black women’s outperformance of their Black male peers in higher education outcomes and overrepresentation in the labor force, there is still an economic gap between Black women and their male counterparts. In addition, regional differences in cost of living have led to diverging local conditions for Black women as well. What do Black women’s socioeconomic outcomes mean for their political ideology and political preferences? Few studies capture intra-group variation among Black women and how the context in which they live may shape their economic and sociopolitical outlook. Using the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, we examine how the relationship between Black women’s socioeconomic status and their political beliefs and the relationship between Black women’s socioeconomic status and political preferences are conditioned by region. We capture the individual factors and regional context that shape differences among Black women in their political beliefs and policy attitudes. This research furthers our understanding of differences in Black women’s politics.

Let $[a_1(x),a_2(x),a_3(x),\ldots ]$ be the continued fraction expansion of an irrational number $x\in [0,1)$. We are concerned with the asymptotic behaviour of the product of consecutive partial quotients of x. We prove that, for Lebesgue almost all $x\in [0,1)$,

$$ \begin{align*} \liminf_{n \to \infty} \frac{\log (a_n(x)a_{n+1}(x))}{\log n} = 0\quad \text{and}\quad \limsup_{n \to \infty} \frac{\log (a_n(x)a_{n+1}(x))}{\log n}=1. \end{align*} $$

We also study the Baire category and the Hausdorff dimension of the set of points for which the above liminf and limsup have other different values and similarly analyse the weighted product of consecutive partial quotients.

This study examines racial discrimination faced by Black immigrants in the US, focusing on its impacts on well-being, social integration, and intergroup relations. It highlights a gap in understanding African immigrants' discrimination experiences despite documented hate crimes. The research aims to understand how Nigerian immigrants are affected by integration into US society. Using a mixed methodology with surveys and interviews, the study reveals varied correlations between integration factors and discrimination experiences. It provides nuanced insights into how integration, national identity, and social networks influence Nigerian immigrants' relationships and encounters with discrimination in the US, contributing valuable perspectives on integration-discrimination dynamics.

Roman Catholic missions preceded Protestant missions in Burma by three hundred years. Scripture extracts is the only known extant Burmese translation of portions of the Bible by the earlier Catholic missionaries. Produced by the Italian Barnabite missionary Guiseppe d'Amato, Scripture extracts represents the Catholic missionary strategy of inculturation. It was printed by the British Baptist missionaries to Burma, Felix Carey and James Chater, in Serampore in 1811, and passed on to the American Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson. Scripture extracts was an important resource for Judson's translation of the entire Bible into Burmese, although he employed a different translation approach.

Although reasoning about equations over strings has been extensively studied for several decades, little research has been done for equational reasoning on general clauses over strings. This paper introduces a new superposition calculus with strings and present an equational theorem proving framework for clauses over strings. It provides a saturation procedure for clauses over strings and show that the proposed superposition calculus with contraction rules is refutationally complete. In particular, this paper presents a new decision procedure for solving word problems over strings and provides a new method of solving unification problems over strings w.r.t. a set of conditional equations R over strings if R can be finitely saturated under the proposed inference system with contraction rules.

Malnutrition significantly hampers wound healing processes. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) in diagnosing malnutrition and predicting wound healing in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). GLIM criteria were evaluated for sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), positive predictive value, negative predictive value and kappa (κ) against SGA as the reference. Modified Poisson regression model and the DeLong test investigated the association between malnutrition and non-healing ulcers over 6 months. This retrospective cohort study included 398 patients with DFU, with a mean age of 66·3 ± 11·9 years. According to SGA and GLIM criteria, malnutrition rates were 50·8 % and 42·7 %, respectively. GLIM criteria showed a SE of 67·3 % (95 % CI 60·4 %, 73·7 %) and SP of 82·7 % (95 % CI 76·6 %, 87·7 %) in identifying malnutrition, with a positive predictive value of 80·0 % and a negative predictive value of 71·1 % (κ = 0·50) compared with SGA. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that malnutrition, as assessed by SGA, was an independent risk factor for non-healing (relative risk (RR) 1·84, 95 % CI 1·45, 2·34), whereas GLIM criteria were associated with poorer ulcer healing in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥ 60 ml/min/1·73m2 (RR: 1·46, 95 % CI 1·10, 1·94). SGA demonstrated a superior area under the receiver’s operating characteristic curve for predicting non-healing compared with GLIM criteria (0·70 (0·65–0·75) v. 0·63 (0·58–0·65), P < 0·01). These findings suggest that both nutritional assessment tools effectively identify patients with DFU at increased risk, with SGA showing superior performance in predicting non-healing ulcers.

Analysing customer loyalty card data is a novel method for assessing nutritional quality and changes in a population’s food consumption. However, prior to its use, the thousands of grocery products available in stores must be reclassified from the retailer’s original hierarchical structure into a structure that is suitable for the use of nutrition and health research. We created LoCard Food Classification (LCFC) and examined how it reflects the nutritional quality of the grocery product groups. Nutritional quality was considered the main criterion guiding the reclassification of the 3574 grocery product groups. Information on the main ingredient of the product group, purpose of use and carbon footprint was also used at the more granular levels of LCFC. The main challenge in the reclassification was a lack of detailed information on the type of products included in each group, and some of the groups included products that have opposite health effects. The final LCFC has four hierarchical levels, and it is openly available online. After reclassification, the product groups were linked with the Finnish food composition database, and the nutrient profile was assessed by calculating the Nutrient-Rich Food Index (NRFI) for each product group. sd in NRFI decreased from 0·21 of the least granular level to 0·08 of the most granular level of LCFC indicating that the most granular level of LCFC has more homogeneous nutritional quality. Studies that apply LCFC to examine loyalty card data with health and environmental outcomes are needed to further demonstrate its validity.

We introduce the notion of completed $F$-crystals on the absolute prismatic site of a smooth $p$-adic formal scheme. We define a functor from the category of completed prismatic $F$-crystals to that of crystalline étale $\mathbf {Z}_p$-local systems on the generic fiber of the formal scheme and show that it gives an equivalence of categories. This generalizes the work of Bhatt and Scholze, which treats the case of a mixed characteristic complete discrete valuation ring with perfect residue field.

Our aim was to estimate associations of adolescent dietary patterns and meal habits with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and preterm birth. We used data from a prospective cohort study (Norwegian Young-HUNT1) where dietary information was collected during adolescence and pregnancy outcomes were obtained through record linkage to the Norwegian national birth registry. The outcomes were HDP, hypertension, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, and preterm birth in the first pregnancy and in any pregnancy. Diet was self-reported from validated questionnaires, and exposures were dietary indexes (healthy; unhealthy; fruit and vegetable; fibre index) and meal habits. Recruitment took place in schools. Eligible participants were females aged 13–19 years at the time of dietary assessment with a subsequent singleton pregnancy (n 3622). Women who reported a higher fibre intake in adolescence had a lower risk of pre-eclampsia in the first pregnancy (Relative Risk: 0·84; 95 % CI 0·7, 1·0), although this was weaker in sensitivity analyses. Regular meal habits in mid-adolescence (aged 13–15 years), particularly breakfast and lunch, were weakly associated with a lower risk of hypertension in pregnancy. Our results are the first to indicate an association between aspects of diet and dietary behaviour in mid-adolescence and subsequent HDP. More evidence is needed from larger studies to replicate the results and from alternative study designs to disentangle causality.

Identifying long-term care facility (LTCF)-exposed inpatients is important for infection control research and practice, but ascertaining LTCF exposure is challenging. Across a large validation study, electronic health record data fields identified 76% of LTCF-exposed patients compared to manual chart review.

How does the representation of women in international organizations affect the implementation of gender mainstreaming policies? Many international organizations have adopted policies to prevent gender discrimination in their operations, but their implementation is often lackluster. We argue that these shortcomings appear due to a combination of institutional incentives and an underrepresentation of women in their staff. We test the argument in the case of the World Bank, drawing on highly disaggregated staffing data, an instrumental variable strategy, and an elite survey experiment. Our results show that most staff incorporate at least shallow gender mainstreaming in their projects. Deeper implementation of gender mainstreaming is more likely when women staff supervise projects, hold positions of authority, and are more represented as coworkers. These results contribute to understanding the disconnects between talk and action on mainstreaming policies and inform debates on representation in global governance.