Soybean aphids (Aphis glycines) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) pose a serious threat to global soybean production, necessitating sustainable control strategies. This study investigated silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) as an eco-friendly alternative, hypothesising they would suppress aphid populations while enhancing plant growth. Soybean plants were foliar-sprayed with SiNPs (0–1 mmol/L), and aphids were assessed across six assays: fecundity, survival, feeding preference, weight gain, olfactory response, and plant morphometrics. SiNPs significantly reduced aphid nymphal production and population growth at all concentrations but did not affect survival, weight gain, or host-seeking behaviour. Plant responses were mixed: leaf width increased at higher SiNPs doses, but plant height decreased, with no effects on leaf length, root/shoot biomass, or root length. These findings suggest that SiNPs could disrupt aphid reproduction without triggering behavioural avoidance. The absence of biomass reduction indicates potential for crop compatibility. This laboratory study reveals a novel, reproduction-targeted mode of action for SiNPs, highlighting its potential as a candidate for future development in sustainable IPM strategies. Further field-scale validation is required to confirm these effects under real-world conditions.

Statistical regularities can be acquired from usage. To examine language speakers’ statistical metacognition about multiword expressions (MWEs), we collected ratings for frequency, dispersion, and directional association strength of English binomials from L1, advanced and intermediate L2 speakers. Mixed-effects modeling showed all speakers had limited speaker-to-corpus consistency but significant sensitivity to statistical regularities of language, supporting usage-based (Gries & Ellis, 2015) and statistical learning theories (Christiansen, 2019). Their statistical metacognition was also shaped by word-level cues, consistent with dual-route model (Carrol & Conklin, 2014). Despite similarities, frequency metacognition showed the strongest speaker-to-corpus consistency, while dispersion metacognition was the hardest to develop. Advanced L2 speakers showed the greatest speaker-to-corpus consistency and sensitivity, while lower-proficiency speakers relied more on word-level cues in metacognitive judgments, supporting the shallow-structure hypothesis (Clahsen & Felser, 2006). Overall, L1 and L2 speakers develop diverse statistical metacognition, with L2 speakers not necessarily inferior, suggesting that statistical metacognition is not solely shaped by usage-based experience.

We extend the notion of the J-invariant to arbitrary semisimple linear algebraic groups and provide complete decompositions for the normed Chow motives of all generically quasi-split twisted flag varieties. Besides, we establish some combinatorial patterns for normed Chow groups and motives and provide some explicit formulae for values of the J-invariant.

This article sheds light on the understudied significance of Islam, Communism, and global politics in defining what constituted an acceptable “religion” (shūkyō 宗教) in wartime Japan. An analysis of the Japanese Imperial Diet’s debates on the place of Islam in the Religious Organizations Law of 1939, which defined state-sanctioned religious organizations, reveals that Muslim attention from around the world, international politics, the global spread of Communism, and the relatively short history of Islam in Japan, affected politicians’ decision not to mention Islam as a religious organization in the law. While previous literature on the Religious Organizations Law has not adequately addressed the significance of international and non-Euro-American transnational influences, this article argues that lawmakers viewed the power of transnational Muslim and Communist networks as crucial when defining both officially acceptable “religion” and the Shrine (jinja 神社), or Shrine Shinto, as the national core to be protected under this law. The debates surrounding Islam offer fertile ground for examining the significance of global affairs in determining acceptable forms of “religion” in Japan, as well as the broader implications of what Japanese state officials called “religion” and “thought” (shisō 思想) in wartime Japanese and world politics.

The paper explores the accuracy of WiFi-Round Trip Timing (RTT) positioning in indoor environments. Filtering techniques are applied to WiFi-RTT positioning in indoor environments, enhanced by Residual Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)-based outlier detection. A Genetic and Grid filter are compared with a Particle filter and single-epoch least-squares across a range of test scenarios. In static scenarios, 67% of trials had sub-metre accuracy and 90.5% had a root mean square error (RMSE) below 2 m. In Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) conditions, 38% of trials had sub-metre accuracy, whereas for environments with full Line-of-Sight (LOS) conditions, 95.2% of trials had sub-metre accuracy. In scenarios with motion, 22.2% of trials had sub-metre accuracy. RSSI-based outlier detection in NLOS conditions, provided an average improvement of 41.3% over no outlier detection across all algorithms in the static and 14% in the dynamic tests. The Genetic filter achieved a mean improvement of 49.2% in the static and 47% in the dynamic tests compared with least squares.

Negative dependence in tournaments has received attention in the literature. The property of negative orthant dependence (NOD) was proved for different tournament models with a special proof for each model. For general round-robin tournaments and knockout tournaments with random draws, Malinovsky and Rinott (2023) unified and simplified many existing results in the literature by proving a stronger property, negative association (NA). For a knockout tournament with a non-random draw, they presented an example to illustrate that ${\boldsymbol{S}}$ is NOD but not NA. However, their proof is not correct. In this paper, we establish the properties of negative regression dependence (NRD), negative left-tail dependence (NLTD), and negative right-tail dependence (NRTD) for a knockout tournament with a random draw and with players being of equal strength. For a knockout tournament with a non-random draw and with equal strength, we prove that ${\boldsymbol{S}}$ is NA and NRTD, while ${\boldsymbol{S}}$ is, in general, not NRD or NLTD.

Published in 1744, Musicaliske Elementer, eller Anleedning til Forstand paa De første Ting udi Musiquen (Musical Elements, or A Guide to Understanding the First Things about Music) is the first music textbook to have been published in Norway (then part of Denmark–Norway) and the first of its kind in the Danish language. It is an important document in the history of music theory in Scandinavia. Its author, Johan Daniel Berlin (1714–1787), was the ‘privileged town musician’ (stadsmusikant) in Trondheim and a central figure in the musical life of eighteenth-century Norway. Berlin was remarkably well-read on contemporary German music theory, owning an impressive collection of then-current theory texts. This article explores Berlin’s textbook through the theoretical-methodological perspective of intercultural transfer and positions its music-theoretical contents in relation to both contemporaneous continental European music theory and later Norwegian and Danish sources. In addition to highlighting possible paths of transfer from German sources to Norway, the article discusses points of local Norwegian difference, such as Berlin’s surprisingly positive attitude towards quintuple metre and the way of naming pitches in Norwegian sources from the eighteenth century.

The treatment of longstanding severe eating disorders is a public concern amid rising service pressures and legal cases. These cases raise complex issues about the interface between legislative schemes, restrictive practices, best interests, treatment refusal and potential interaction with assisted dying legislation, when patients lack capacity yet clearly express wishes.

Large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude can be useful tools in psychiatric practice, helping with tasks such as searching for information, managing administrative work and supporting education. This article demystifies how these tools work by explaining their core operational principles and noting their key limitations, including the risks of confabulation (fabricating information), sycophancy and knowledge cut-offs. It provides practical guidance on mitigating these risks through structured ‘prompt engineering’ and offers a safety framework for integrating LLMs into low-risk administrative and educational workflows. The article stresses the importance of approaching these technologies with caution by independently verifying information, adhering to UK data protection laws and upholding the principles of best practice in patient care. The goal is to help clinicians use these powerful but fallible technologies wisely, ensuring that patient safety and professional responsibility remain paramount as they explore these new tools.

In this article, a circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) array with conformal characteristics and improved specific absorption rate (SAR) has been proposed for X-band applications. The proposed structure has been fed through the corporate feed network which excites a radiating mode inside DRA, i.e., $TE_{1\delta1}$. This mode has been utilized to enhance the impedance bandwidth which is below −10 dB for both the E- and H-plane so as to meet the requirements of next-generation defense communication and low-cost satellite systems. To generate the axial ratio (AR), the extended off-set feed has been employed to provide the required 90$^{\circ}$ phase shift. Further, in order to enhance the gain and reduce the SAR, an electromagnetic band gap structure has been used as a reflector. Furthermore, multiple arrays have been introduced to extend the coverage area through beam-forming. The proposed design has been fabricated for the experimental validation. The measured IBW and ARBW is 34.74% and 12.2%, respectively. The gain is 10.1 dBic throughout the band of operation along with the radiation efficiency above 85% in various bending conditions. The SAR is much below the permissible limit of 1.6 W/kg. Thus, the proposed array is compact, and it clearly achieves a smaller footprint, better IBW, ARBW and a low SAR with potential prospect for X-band purposes.

In this paper, we investigate a competitive market involving two agents who consider both their own wealth and the wealth gap with their opponent. Both agents can invest in a financial market consisting of a risk-free asset and a risky asset, under conditions where model parameters are partially or completely unknown. This setup gives rise to a nonzero-sum differential game within the framework of reinforcement learning (RL). Each agent aims to maximize his own Choquet-regularized, time-inconsistent mean-variance objective. Adopting the dynamic programming approach, we derive a time-consistent Nash equilibrium strategy in a general incomplete market setting. Under the additional assumption of a Gaussian mean return model, we obtain an explicit analytical solution, which facilitates the development of a practical RL algorithm. Notably, the proposed algorithm achieves uniform convergence, even though the conventional policy improvement theorem does not apply to the equilibrium policy. Numerical experiments demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the algorithm, underscoring its potential for practical implementation.

Cenobamate (CNB) has shown efficacy in reducing seizures in drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) in clinical trials. We conducted a retrospective study at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal epilepsy clinic to assess CNB’s real-world efficacy and safety. Among 109 patients, follow-up data were available for 68 at 3 months, 53 at 6 months and 54 at 12 months. Median seizure frequency reduction was 50.0%, 57.3% and 73.3%, respectively. Seizure freedom at 12 months was 25.9%. CNB was discontinued in 8.3% of individuals due to adverse events (non-serious) or treatment inefficacy. Our findings support CNB’s effectiveness in a DRE population.