This article analyses a domestic litigation matter seeking to establish accountability for air pollution-related human rights violations. It examines how the judiciary applied national and international law to dismiss the case on procedural grounds. It argues that the domestic case deserves careful reading for a number of reasons that can be distilled into two premises. Firstly, the national legal framework and its respective judicial interpretation impede access to justice for victims of state and/or corporate human rights violations. Secondly, it is essential that the state develops laws and policies in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which would allow claimants to focus their argumentation on material, rather than procedural issues relevant to proving the merits of the case.

In studies that contain repeated measures of variables, longitudinal analysis accounting for time-varying covariates is one of the options. We aimed to explore longitudinal association between diet quality (DQ) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Participants from the 1973–1978 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) were included, if they; responded to survey 3 (S3, 2003, aged 25–30 years) and at least one survey between survey 4 (S4, 2006) and survey 8 (S8, 2018), were free of NCDs at or before S3, and provided dietary data at S3 or S5. Outcomes were coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension (HT), asthma, cancer (except skin cancer), diabetes mellitus (DM), depression and/or anxiety, and multimorbidity (MM). Longitudinal modelling using generalised estimation equation (GEE) approach with time-invariant (S4), time-varying (S4–S8) and lagged (S3–S7) covariates were performed. The mean (± standard deviation) of Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010) of participants (n = 8022) was 51·6 ± 11·0 (range: 19–91). Compared to women with the lowest DQ (AHEI-2010 quintile 1), those in quintile 5 had reduced odds of NCDs in time-invariant model (asthma: OR (95 % CI): 0·77 (0·62–0·96), time-varying model (HT: 0·71 (0·50–0·99); asthma: 0·62 (0·51–0·76); and MM: 0·75 (0·58–0·97) and lagged model (HT: 0·67 (0·49–0·91); and asthma: 0·70 (0·57–0·85). Temporal associations between diet and some NCDs were more prominent in lagged GEE analyses. Evidence of diet as NCD prevention in women aged 25–45 years is evolving, and more studies that consider different longitudinal analyses are needed.

This article investigates the role of foreign technical experts in developing China's aviation infrastructure from the 1980s to the present. Focusing on a series of training and technical aid programmes, it traces the influx of critical know-how from Europe, Japan and North America during the period of reform and opening up. Through fieldwork conducted at airports in Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai – and expert interviews with architects, planners and engineers – the article sheds light on the instrumental role played by foreign technical experts. By establishing a leading-edge set of airport planning practices, these aviation professionals accelerated the modernization of China's transport infrastructure and its reintegration into the world economy. Moreover, by positioning China as a global leader in infrastructure development, they laid the technical foundations for Chinese foreign policy endeavours that seek to export an infrastructure-led model of economic development to Africa, Asia and the former Soviet sphere.

Cruznema velatum isolated from soil in a chestnut orchard located at Guangdong province, China, is redescribed with morphology, molecular barcoding sequences, and transcriptome data. The morphological comparison for C. velatum and six other valid species is provided. Phylogeny analysis suggests genus Cruznema is monophyletic. The species is amphimix, can be cultured with Escherichia coli in 7–9 days from egg to egg-laying adult, and has a lifespan of 11 to 14 days at 20°C. The transcription data generated 45,366 unigenes; 29.9%, 31.3%, 24.8%, and 18.6% of unigenes were annotated in KOG, SwissProt, GO, and KEGG, respectively. Further gene function analysis demonstrated that C. velatum share the same riboflavin, lipoic acid, and vitamin B6 metabolic pathways with Caenorhabditis elegans and Pristionchus pacificus.

X-ray powder diffraction data, unit-cell parameters, and space group for the barium copper iodate, Ba2Cu(IO3)6, are reported [a = 7.48540(15) Å, b = 7.51753(19) Å, c = 7.64259(17) Å, α = 98.8823(7)°, β = 95.0749(7)°, γ = 97.6297(7)°, V = 418.528(9) Å3, Z = 1, and space group P$\bar{1}$]. All measured lines are indexed and are consistent with the corresponding space group. The single-crystal diffraction data of Ba2Cu(IO3)6 are also reported [a = 7.493(3) Å, b = 7.521(6) Å, c = 7.644(5) Å, α = 98.855(18)°, β = 95.060(16)°, γ = 97.62(2)°, V = 419.3(5) Å3, Z = 1, and space group P$\bar{1}$]. The crystal structure of Ba2Cu(IO3)6 features isolated [Cu(IO3)6]4− anionic clusters separated by Ba2+ cations. The experimental powder diffraction pattern matches well with the simulated pattern derived from the single crystal data.

Economic development of a remote, mountainous region poses a challenge anywhere. Based on field research and documentary evidence, this article examines how such a development challenge has been addressed in Daocheng county, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province. In doing so, it investigates the different forms of economic development, how such development comes about, and the role played by government in economic development. The article also probes the broader socioeconomic consequences of economic development. The fact that Daocheng is a predominantly Tibetan county adds a nationality dimension to the issue of economic development.

Global air traffic demand has shown rapid growth for the last three decades. This growth led to more delays and congestion within terminal manoeuvring areas (TMAs) around major airports. The efficient use of airport capacities through the careful planning of air traffic flows is imperative to overcome these problems. In this study, a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model with a multi-objective approach was developed to solve the aircraft sequencing and scheduling problem for mixed runway operations within the TMAs. The model contains fuel cost functions based on airspeed, altitude, bank angle, and the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. The optimisation problem was solved by using the $\varepsilon$-constraint method where total delay and total fuel functions were simultaneously optimised. We tested the model with different scenarios generated based on the real traffic data of Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport. The results revealed that the average total delay and average total fuel were reduced by 26.4% and 6.7%, respectively.

In 2019, Andrews and Newman [‘Partitions and the minimal excludant’, Ann. Comb. 23(2) (2019), 249–254] introduced the arithmetic function $\sigma \textrm {mex}(n)$, which denotes the sum of minimal excludants over all the partitions of n. Baruah et al. [‘A refinement of a result of Andrews and Newman on the sum of minimal excludants’, Ramanujan J., to appear] showed that the sum of minimal excludants over all the partitions of n is the same as the number of partition pairs of n into distinct parts. They proved three congruences modulo $4$ and $8$ for two functions appearing in this refinement and conjectured two further congruences modulo $8$ and $16$. We confirm these two conjectures by using q-series manipulations and modular forms.

In China's one-party bureaucracy, central directives issued by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council are the most important instrument of formal policy communication, yet their language has rarely been studied. This study highlights three politically salient varieties of directives: grey (ambiguous about what can or cannot be done), black (clearly states what can be done) and red (clearly states what cannot be done). Grey directives encourage flexible policy implementation and experimentation, black ones strongly endorse and thereby scale up selected initiatives, while red ones forbid certain actions. Together, this mixture of ambiguous and clear directives forms a system of adaptive policy communication. Using automated text analysis, I classify nearly 5,000 central directives issued from 1978 through 2017 into the categories of grey, black and red. This first-of-its-kind measurement effort yields new insights into the patterns and evolution of central commands from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping.

In this paper we study a variation of the random $k$-SAT problem, called polarised random $k$-SAT, which contains both the classical random $k$-SAT model and the random version of monotone $k$-SAT another well-known NP-complete version of SAT. In this model there is a polarisation parameter $p$, and in half of the clauses each variable occurs negated with probability $p$ and pure otherwise, while in the other half the probabilities are interchanged. For $p=1/2$ we get the classical random $k$-SAT model, and at the other extreme we have the fully polarised model where $p=0$, or 1. Here there are only two types of clauses: clauses where all $k$ variables occur pure, and clauses where all $k$ variables occur negated. That is, for $p=0$, and $p=1$, we get an instance of random monotone $k$-SAT.

We show that the threshold of satisfiability does not decrease as $p$ moves away from $\frac{1}{2}$ and thus that the satisfiability threshold for polarised random $k$-SAT with $p\neq \frac{1}{2}$ is an upper bound on the threshold for random $k$-SAT. Hence the satisfiability threshold for random monotone $k$-SAT is at least as large as for random $k$-SAT, and we conjecture that asymptotically, for a fixed $k$, the two thresholds coincide.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) mobilizes Chinese construction and investment in developing countries. Ethiopia is Africa's “model” BRI country, due to China's elaborate infrastructure financing and building and its many manufacturing enterprises. Based on field and documentary research, we examine the BRI's meaning, as understood from the perspective of Ethiopia, in comparison to many China-oriented studies. We find that it is an informal Chinese state promise that even when capital flows from China to non-BRI states are curbed, flows to BRI states will be encouraged, and that Ethiopia exercises agency in leveraging the BRI for its development agenda. Using a comprehensive data set, we show that Chinese investment has become even more important in Ethiopia with the BRI and that neither COVID-19 nor Ethiopia's civil war has reversed that trend. We also discuss local criticisms of Chinese activities, which challenge the wholly positive view of the BRI, but do not affirm the US-generated negative narrative.

Age is a risk factor for numerous diseases. Although the development of modern medicine has greatly extended the human lifespan, the duration of relatively healthy old age, or ‘healthspan’, has not increased. Targeting the detrimental processes that can occur before the onset of age-related diseases can greatly improve health and lifespan. Healthspan is significantly affected by what, when and how much one eats. Dietary restriction, including calorie restriction, fasting or fasting-mimicking diets, to extend both lifespan and healthspan has recently attracted much attention. However, direct scientific evidence that consuming specific foods extends the lifespan and healthspan seems lacking. Here, we synthesized the results of recent studies on the lifespan and healthspan extension properties of foods and their phytochemicals in various organisms to confirm how far the scientific research on the effect of food on the lifespan has reached.

This study explored the effect of speaking task on midclause pausing characteristics in the L1 and L2 speech of the same speakers to gain further insights into the potential relationship between pause location and stages of speech production. Participants included English L1 learners of L2 French (n = 29) or Spanish (n = 27) from the publicly available, longitudinal LANGSNAP corpus. Participants completed two oral tasks in their L1 and L2: a picture-based narrative and a semistructured interview. The rate, duration, and proportion of midclause pauses were compared between tasks in the L1 as well as in the L2 before and during residence abroad. In the L1, results indicated more fluent performance in the narrative task except for rate. When speaking in their L2, participants showed improvement on each measure in the narrative task but ultimately remained less fluent in their L2 in comparison to their L1. In the interview task, the only measure of midclause pausing that consistently differentiated L1 from L2 speech was midclause pause rate. The findings call for a nuanced interpretation of connections between midclause pausing and formulation and suggest that midclause pause rate is least influenced by speaking task.