We study a nonlinear branching diffusion process in the sense of McKean, i.e. where particles are subjected to a mean-field interaction. We consider first a strong formulation of the problem and we provide an existence and uniqueness result by using contraction arguments. Then we consider the notion of weak solution and its equivalent martingale problem formulation. In this setting, we provide a general weak existence result, as well as a propagation of chaos property, i.e. the McKean–Vlasov branching diffusion is the limit of a large-population branching diffusion process with mean-field interaction.

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Comprehensive Emotional Eating Scale (CEES) and examined its associations with emotion regulation, cognitive control, cognitive flexibility, and perceived stress in adults. A cross-sectional design was conducted with 1,521 adults aged 18–74 (68% female). The CEES was adapted following standard cross-cultural guidelines, including translation, back-translation, and approval by the original scale developer. Participants also completed the Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16), Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire (CCFQ), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assessed construct validity, while internal consistency, convergent validity, and multiple linear regression analyses explored predictors of emotional eating. CFA supported a four-factor structure representing Undereating–Positive Emotions, Undereating–Negative Emotions, Overeating–Positive Emotions, and Overeating–Negative Emotions, with item loadings of 0.48–0.77; one item was removed due to low loading. Internal consistency was high (α = .88–.91), and convergent validity was confirmed via EMAQ correlations. Multiple regression analyses indicated that greater difficulties in emotion regulation, higher perceived stress, lower cognitive control and flexibility, smoking, higher Body Mass Index (BMI), and chronic disease significantly increased emotional eating. Women showed higher undereating-negative emotion and total emotional eating scores, while smoking, higher BMI, and chronic disease elevated scores on specific subscales. The Turkish CEES demonstrates robust psychometric properties and reliably captures multidimensional emotional eating in adults. Psychological and demographic factors increase emotional eating subscales and total scores, supporting the scale’s use in research and clinical settings in Türkiye.

Obtaining accurate estimates of children’s dietary intake is important because these estimates are used to characterize diet-disease relationships and inform nutrition interventions. This systematic review synthesized findings from validation studies of dietary assessment tools for children (aged 1-10 years), in which parents were proxy-reporters. Database searches (Ovid Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane) in January 2026 for validation studies of dietary assessment tools used for estimating daily intake of macronutrients and micronutrients yielded 4,545 citations. Articles were uploaded to Covidence for screening. Sixty-six articles met the inclusion criteria. Median sample size was 103. Eighty-six percent of studies (n=57) validated a food frequency questionnaire; the remainder validated dietary recalls (11%, n=8) or food diaries (2%, n=1). Many studies (67%, n=44) used another parent-proxy report tool as the reference method. For most nutrients, over a quarter of the 66 studies failed to find a significant correlation between the assessment tool and reference method. Among the 69% of analyses that did show a significant correlation, the median correlation for each nutrient ranged from 0.37 to 0.40 for macronutrients and 0.29 to 0.55 for micronutrients. Studies were limited by lack of generalizability, use of reference methods prone to error, and misalignment between the assessment tool and reference method. Overall, this review found no correlation or low-to-moderate correlations between dietary assessments and the reference method. The studies had significant methodological limitations. Future studies should validate parent-proxy report dietary assessments against objective measures, such as biomarkers. The development of novel assessment tools may also be warranted.

Honoring a patient’s wishes for end-of-life care can be challenging if the patient loses decision-making capacity and the identified alternate decision-maker will not respect the patient’s wishes. This article discusses how to proceed ethically and legally when the alternate decision-maker and care team disagree about respecting a patient’s end-of-life preferences.

The present study addresses the question of whether an individual who does not understand a sentence might still be able to repeat it verbatim. To answer this question, we examined paraphrasing and repetition data from two previous studies: Pavlenko et al. (2019), which analyzed L1 and L2 participants’ paraphrasing of seven Miranda warning sentences, and Akbary et al. (2023), which compared L1 and L2 participants’ paraphrasing and elicited imitation (EI) performance on 30 commonly used EI sentences. We formulated our questions into four predictions, two of which directly addressed whether rote repetition without comprehension occurs at all. Our results confirmed both predictions, identifying 36 (5.6%) of the 646 instances of verbatim sentence repetition in the data as potential cases of repetition without comprehension. However, a broader analysis showed that the evidence for a lack of comprehension was relatively weak and ambiguous. We conclude with recommendations for overcoming the limitations of the present study and resolving the ambiguity of our findings.

This paper presents a compact dual-band multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fractal antenna based on a novel butterfly-flock iterative ring structure. Each MIMO element is formed through three fractal iterations, where every added ring is half the size of the previous one and rotated by 90° in anti-phase, creating extended current paths and inherent spatial polarization diversity. The antenna achieves wide operating bands of 1.1–5.6 GHz and 7.4–9.7 GHz, covering GPS, 3G, WLAN, LTE, WiMAX, 5G, and satellite communication systems. Compared with earlier designs, the proposed structure demonstrates improved diversity performance, including a low Total Active Reflection Coefficient and a low Channel Capacity Loss. With a compact size of 30 × 40 × 0.8 mm3, the design is suitable for integration into modern portable wireless devices.

The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) began in 2002 as a longitudinal prospective adoption study of birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted children (n = 361 adoptees). It expanded in 2007 to include a second cohort of adoptees (n = 200), and a third cohort of siblings (siblings reared by the birth mother at age 7 [n = 217 siblings in 2013] and additional siblings in both birth and adoptive family homes [n = 881 siblings in 2016]). Data are available in a national repository within the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) study and have been integrated into analyses with national and international cohorts. Birth and adoptive families were originally enrolled through a systematic recruitment approach that began with efforts to partner with all domestic adoption agencies in specific regions of the United States following the birth of a child. Longitudinal assessments are ongoing and occurred in 9-month intervals until the adoptees turned 3 years of age, and in 1- to 2-year intervals thereafter to age 21. Data collection includes child temperament, cognition, behavior, and physical health; birth and adoptive parent personality, mental and physical health, context, parenting, and marital relations; the prenatal environment; genetic, hormonal, and cardiovascular data; and geocoding. A unique aspect of the adoption-sibling design is its ability to detect environmental influences on development and test complex interactions and correlations between genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental influences on a range of outcomes. The sample and procedures are described, followed by an overview of multicohort findings and opportunities for integration with other registries.