The circumstances and subsequent life events of the first twins to have been born in different countries are examined. Given that both twins were born in the United Kingdom, their common citizenship was never questioned. In contrast, twins born in Canada to a legally married gay transnational couple — composed of one American and one Israeli — were assigned as citizens of different nations and their parents were regarded as if unmarried. This essay is followed by reviews of research on the Hallermann-Streiff syndrome in monozygotic (MZ) twins, the effects of technology on conjoined twin separation, reciprocal deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) transplantation in MZ twins and new guidelines for managing multifetal pregnancies. Finally, media reports on a book by the world’s oldest Auschwitz-Birkenau twin survivor, the passing of Dr Ian Wilmut, the identical twinship of Zhores Medvedev, another case of gay fathers with twin sons, twins and siblings admitted to medical school, and the first and fourth records for major league baseball twins are presented.

Depression is a multifaceted condition with diverse underlying causes. Several contributing and inter-related factors such as genetic, nutritional, neurological, physiological, gut-brain-axis, metabolic and psychological stress factors play a role in the pathophysiology of depression. This review aims to highlight the role that nutritional factors play in the aetiology of depression. Secondly, we discuss the biomedical and functional pathology tests which measure these factors, and the current evidence supporting their use. Lastly, we make recommendations on how practitioners can incorporate the latest evidence-based research findings into clinical practice. This review highlights that diet and nutrition greatly affect the pathophysiology of depression. Nutrients influence gene expression, with folate and vitamin B12 playing vital roles in methylation reactions and homocysteine regulation. Nutrients are also involved in the tryptophan/kynurenine pathway and the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Additionally, diet influences the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response and the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome, both of which have been implicated in depression. A comprehensive dietary assessment, combined with appropriate evaluation of biochemistry and blood pathology, may help uncover contributing factors to depressive symptoms. By employing such an approach, a more targeted and personalised treatment strategy can be devised, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.

Determining the range of complex maps plays a fundamental role in the study of several complex variables and operator theory. In particular, one is often interested in determining when a given holomorphic function is a self-map of the unit ball. In this paper, we discuss a class of maps in $\mathbb {C}^N$ that generalize linear fractional maps. We then proceed to determine precisely when such a map is a self-map of the unit ball. In particular, we take a novel approach, obtaining numerous new results about this class of maps along the way.

This paper proposes the volatility of sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) as a measurement of economic uncertainty. Sovereign CDS provide protection against losses from sovereign defaults and are traded for almost all countries by the world’s largest financial institutions. The premium for protection, the so-called CDS spread, depends on a country’s economic conditions and provides an outside view from global financial institutions. Our empirical results show that the volatility of sovereign CDS spreads contains information about economic uncertainty. For a broad panel of 16 countries, we find that sovereign CDS volatility shares directional information with popular news-based economic policy uncertainty (EPU) indices. Using Bayesian panel vector autoregressions, we find similar responses of output and unemployment to shocks in CDS volatility, equity volatility, and EPU. Our results further suggest that sovereign CDS volatility primarily reflects economic and financial uncertainty rather than political uncertainty.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) possess fast-moving abilities and have been used in various tasks in the past decades. However, their performances are still restricted by insufficient endurance and confined environments. Intuitively, combining other locomotion modes with UAVs, such as diving and driving, would be an appropriate idea to improve the robot’s adaptability and solve the endurance problem. Recently, the terrestrial/aerial hybrid robots have drawn the researchers’ eyes for their outstanding performances, which can deploy flight mode to traverse insurmountable terrains and ground mode to increase endurance and realize detailed searches. Therefore, this paper developed the autonomous quadrotor tilting hybrid robot (AQT-HR) to achieve terrestrial/aerial dual-modal mobility and verified that the robot delivers high energy efficiency. The AQT-HR can achieve flying and driving through a quadrotor tilting mechanism, which can alter one single driving force into different directions. Furthermore, the dynamic models of the hybrid robot’s aerial and ground locomotion are derived and introduced into the model-feedforward PID control algorithm for improving the robot’s flying stability. Finally, we conducted some mobility tests and experiments about traversing obstacles to demonstrate that the proposed hybrid robot can realize autonomous mode switching and perform a low energy consumption in ground movement mode.

Since the mid-1980s, Botswana has relied on community based natural resources management (CBNRM) to incentivize communities to choose environmentally beneficial behaviour to advance conservation efforts. This approach has had some success, although it has not been as successful as had been hoped. Nevertheless, it is well acknowledged that CBNRM can play an important role in advancing conservation efforts. The state is therefore working to revamp the CBNRM framework so that it consistently yields beneficial results for communities and conservation. This article relies on regulatory theory and experience with CBNRM in Botswana to identify what it would take to establish an effective CBNRM regulatory framework there. It establishes that Botswana has failed to secure effective CBNRM consistently, due to the lack of a dedicated CBNRM law and inadequately resourced institutions. It recommends the promulgation of a CBNRM law with a community-centred and / or rights-based approach, and the establishment of an adequately resourced institution, charged with regulating CBNRM in Botswana.

We introduce and study a class of betweenness algebras—Boolean algebras with binary operators, closely related to ternary frames with a betweenness relation. From various axioms for betweenness, we chose those that are most common, which makes our work applicable to a wide range of betweenness structures studied in the literature. On the algebraic side, we work with two operators of possibility and of sufficiency.

Must we always pursue economic growth? Kogelmann answers yes. Not only should poor countries pursue growth, but rich countries should as well. Kogelmann aims to provide a wealth-insensitive argument – one demonstrating all countries should pursue growth regardless of their wealth. His central argument – the no halting growth (NHG) argument – says no country experiencing growth should stop it, because doing so requires undermining the conditions causing it and those conditions are independently morally desirable, so they should not be undermined. For countries not growing, he may argue that they have an obligation to implement the conditions that cause growth because they are independently morally desirable. Call this the implementation argument. I contend that neither argument is wealth-insensitive as each fails to establish an obligation to pursue growth. I attempt to diagnose how this could be and propose that it is a product of attempting to answer three questions about growth simultaneously.

Resorbable materials – or materials which diffuse into their surroundings – present a promising means of actuating mechanical systems. In current practice, such as in the realm of in vivo surgical devices, resorbable materials are intended to perform a temporary function and completely dissolve when that function is completed (e.g., resorbable sutures). In this paper, resorbable materials are proposed for use in a different way: as a means for actuation. We propose an approach and physical prototypes to demonstrate that resorbable materials, combined with stored energy, can be used to actuate mechanical systems under several loading conditions and in various applications. Rotary and linear actuation methods, as well as gradual and delayed instantaneous actuations, are demonstrated. Using the principles illustrated here, resorbable materials offer unique, customizable ways to actuate a variety of mechanisms in a wide range of domains.

We focus on a neglected aspect of scientific theory choice: how the selection of theories affects epistemic values. Building on Kuhn, we provide a general characterization of the feedback-loop dynamic between theories and values in theory choice as analogous to the relationship between organisms and the environment in niche construction. We argue that understanding theory choice as niche construction can explain how certain values acquire more weight and a specific application over time, and how resistance to scientific change can, therefore, arise. We illustrate our picture by looking at the Mendelian–biometrician controversy.

Stephen Houlgate's long-awaited two volumes on Hegel's Logic of Being offer a thorough presentation and a detailed reconstruction of the Doctrine of Being, which constitutes the first part of the first division of Hegel's Science of Logic (appeared in 1812 in the first edition; revised in the second edition of 1832 published after Hegel's death). The first volume takes on the logic of Quality and the transition to Quantity while the second volume addresses the logic of Quantity and Measure leading up to the transition to Essence. Along with the Doctrine of Essence, the Doctrine of Being occupies the first main division of Hegel's Logic or Objective Logic, which is followed by the Subjective Logic, or Doctrine of the Concept, as its second main division. Within Hegel's philosophical system, the Logic is followed by the Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Spirit, the three main parts of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences (appeared in the three editions of 1817, 1827, 1830). Chronologically, but also systematically (at least in a qualified way),1 the Logic is preceded by the 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit. This brief sketch may help us locate the object of Houlgate's volumes within Hegel's philosophy as a whole.

What is the nature of deception? What does it take for an organism to deceive another one? In this article we address these questions by appealing to the concept of mimicry. More precisely, we argue that a fruitful perspective regards deception as an instance of mimicry rather than the reverse. Conceiving of deception as an instance of mimicry has a number of interesting consequences: It draws connections between different areas of research, vindicates a functional approach to deception by providing a satisfactory answer to some recent objections, and suggests some worries for game-theoretic approaches to deception.

The speed of stock price reaction to news exhibits substantial time variation. Higher risk-bearing capacity of financial intermediaries, lower passive ownership of stocks, and more informative news increase price responses to contemporaneous news; surprisingly, these interaction variables also increase price responses to lagged news (underreaction). A simple model with limited attention and three investor types (institutional, noninstitutional, and passive) predicts the observed variation in news responses. A long–short trading strategy based on news sentiment earns high returns, which increase when conditioning on the interaction variables. The interactions we document are robust to the choice of news source.