This paper proposes a wideband four-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna operating in the millimeter-wave frequency band for 5G communications from 24.37–39.44 and 45.09–50.62 GHz. The antenna design has been realized using Rogers 5880 substrate and consists of a T-shaped strip that is attached to the top of a 50 Ω feeding line. Two microstrip lines are affixed at the terminal points of T-shaped strip and bent toward the feeding structure. These bent strip lines are then extended by joining two additional L-shaped microstrip lines. On the back, there is a partial defective ground plane featuring a rectangular slot and a thin strip line located at its center. The dimensions of the proposed single element and MIMO antenna are 0.933λ × 0.933λ × 0.024λ and 1.865λ × 1.865λ × 0.024λ, respectively (at 28 GHz), while the edge-to-edge distance between the radiation elements of the MIMO antenna is 4.0 mm. The design incorporates an efficient passive fan-shaped decoupling structure to decrease coupling between antenna elements. Simulations and experimental results show good agreement with each other. For all resonant frequencies the measured peak gain is greater than 4.85 dBi, radiation efficiency is over 90%, diversity gain is greater than 9.5, ECC is less than 0.025, TARC is less than -10 dB and CCL is below 0.4 bits/s/Hz. The proposed MIMO antenna, with its wide bandwidth, high gain, high inter-port isolation, and high efficiency characteristics, can be used for 5G wireless communication applications.

Gangs are widely considered major contributors to the high levels of violence afflicting Latin America, including in particular Central America. At the same time, however, the vast majority of individuals who join a gang will also leave it and, it is assumed, become less violent. Having said this, the mechanisms underlying this ‘desistance’ process are not well understood, and nor are the determinants of individuals’ post-gang trajectories, partly because gang desistance tends to be seen as an event rather than a process. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research carried out in barrio Luis Fanor Hernández, a poor neighbourhood in Nicaragua's capital city Managua, and more specifically a set of ‘archetypal’ gang member life histories that illustrate the occupational options open to former gang members, this article offers a longitudinal perspective on desistance and its consequences, with specific reference to the determinants of individuals’ continued engagement with violence (or not).

This paper outlines the ways in which the project is addressing the colonial legacy of Henry Wellcome as well as presenting the data from the first three field seasons at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data have substantially revised our chronological and socio-economic understanding of the site. Our excavations, initiated in 2017 and continued in 2019 and 2022, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previously recognised. The faunal and botanical remains have implications for the spread of early domesticates in the eastern Sahel and for climate changes, and raise issues of resilience. There is confirmed human burial activity from at least the third millennium BC onwards, while the pottery continues to yield information about the variety of decoration and, for the final Assemblage 3, data on its usage. Overall, the continued importance of the site for the eastern Sahel is re-emphasised.

Dance for older adults is increasingly being used to support health and well-being. While dance may be enjoyable for many, understanding its benefits for those with limited physical and cognitive abilities may provide further support for how dance may be used in these contexts. This was a study of Sharing Dance Older Adults, a dance program with remotely streamed sessions. Data were collected from 48 older adults who took part in the On Your Feet version of the program, and from 38 who took part in the In Your Seat version. Measures included interviews, physical fitness tests and surveys on mood, quality of life, and program satisfaction. Physical fitness significantly improved for both groups, unlike for mood, social well-being, or quality of life. This contrasts with qualitative findings, with participants reporting how the program enhanced their mood, social interactions, and quality of life.

The challenge that delegated legislation poses to parliamentary sovereignty and associated supremacy in the UK is purportedly addressed through what we term the ‘constitutional bargain of delegated law-making’. This has three elements: the proper limitation of delegation by Parliament through well-designed parent legislation; the exercise of self-restraint by the Executive in the use of delegated authority; and the enablement of meaningful scrutiny by Parliament. As a paradigm situation in which delegated law-making might be said to be necessary, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic is an apposite context in which to assess the robustness of that bargain. Our analysis uses a sample of Westminster-generated pandemic-related secondary instruments as a peephole into the broader dynamics of this constitutional bargain and further reveals its significant frailties; frailties that are exposed, but not created, by the pandemic.

This paper is concerned with a nonlocal reaction–diffusion system with double free boundaries and two time delays. The free boundary problem describes the evolution of faecally–orally transmitted diseases. We first show the well-posedness of global solution, and then establish the monotonicity and asymptotic property of basic reproduction number for the epidemic model without delays, which is defined by spectral radius of the next infection operator. By introducing the generalized principal eigenvalue defined in general domain, we obtain an upper bound of the limit value of basic reproduction number. We discuss the spreading and vanishing phenomena in terms of the basic production number. By employing the perturbed approximation method and monotone iteration method, we establish the existence, uniqueness and monotonicity of solution to semi-wave problem. When spreading occurs, we determine the asymptotic spreading speeds of free boundaries by constructing suitable upper and lower solutions from the semi-wave solutions. Moreover, spreading speeds for partially degenerate diffusion case are provided in a similar way.

Crabgrass (Digitaria spp.) is an annual summer grass capable of self-reseeding and can provide forage with high nutritive value. However, knowledge is still limited about crabgrass management. Our objective was to compare the forage accumulation (FA) and nutritive value of two crabgrass varieties (Mojo and Quick-N-Big) for 2 years under combinations of nitrogen rates and harvesting management. The experimental design was in randomized complete blocks with five treatments and three replications for each crabgrass variety, totalling 15 experimental units for Mojo and 15 for Quick-N-Big, in adjacent fields. Treatments were combinations of nitrogen rates (0, 112, and 224 kg N/ha) and harvest management (harvesting once or twice during the growing season). Nitrogen fertilization increased FA in Mojo and Quick-N-Big. The combination of two harvests and 224 kg N/ha (H2N224) resulted in a total forage accumulation (TFA) of 7840 kg DM/ha/yr for Mojo in 2020 and 8550 kg DM/ha/yr for Quick-N-Big in 2021. The H2N224 management also resulted in the highest crude protein (CP) accumulation. Nitrogen fertilization accelerates plant maturity, which can increase neutral detergent fibre (NDF). In this case, harvesting twice stimulates new tissue production, limits NDF and increases CP and total digestible nutrients (TDN). Therefore, increasing harvesting frequency (twice during the growing season) as N is input increases TFA, CP and TDN, and also enhances N recovery, which may contribute to reducing animal supplementation costs and improve the economic return of forage-based livestock systems.

The offspring of women in the poorest socio-economic groups in Western societies have an increased risk of developing non-communicable disease in adult life. Deprivation is closely related to the consumption of a diet with an excess of energy (sugar and fat), salt and a shortage of key vitamins. To test the hypothesis that this diet adversely affects the development and long-term health of the offspring, we have formulated two rodent diets, one with a nutrient profile corresponding to the diet of pregnant women in the poorest socio-economic group (DEP) and a second that incorporated current UK recommendations for the diet in pregnancy (REC). Female rats were fed the experimental diets for the duration of gestation and lactation and the offspring compared with those from a reference group fed the AIN-93G diet. The growth trajectory of DEP and REC offspring was reduced compared with the AIN-93G. The REC offspring diet had a transient increase in adipose reserves at weaning, but by 30 weeks of age the body composition of all three groups was similar. The maternal diet had no effect on the homoeostatic model assessment index or the insulin tolerance of the offspring. Changes in hepatic gene expression in the adult REC offspring were consistent with an increased hepatic utilisation of fatty acids and a reduction in de novo lipogenesis. These results show that despite changes in growth and adiposity maternal metabolic adaptation minimises the adverse consequences of the imbalanced maternal diet on the metabolism of the offspring.

Seed coat colour in adzuki bean is an important quality trait and closely associated with anthocyanin metabolism pathways. To further understand the inheritance of seed coat colour pattern, the inheritance between multiple seed coat colours and ivory seed were analysed using F1:2, F2:3 and F3:4 populations derived from five bi-parental crosses. The differences between ivory and red mottle on ivory are controlled by a single recessive R locus and RI locus, respectively. Green, light brown and golden are all dominant to red and governed by two loci. The B (brown) locus shows dominant epistasis over T locus. The R (red) locus was recessive epistasis to B (black), T (light brown), G (golden), GR (green) and RI (red mottle on ivory) loci. The new insight into the strong recessive epistasis of the R locus will be important for gene mapping and cloning, candidate gene functional validation and quality improvement in adzuki bean.

In this note, we revisit Ramanujan-type series for $\frac {1}{\pi }$ and show how they arise from genus zero subgroups of $\mathrm {SL}_{2}(\mathbb {R})$ that are commensurable with $\mathrm {SL}_{2}(\mathbb {Z})$. As illustrations, we reproduce a striking formula of Ramanujan for $\frac {1}{\pi }$ and a recent result of Cooper et al., as well as derive a new rational Ramanujan-type series for $\frac {1}{\pi }$. As a byproduct, we obtain a Clausen-type formula in some general sense and reproduce a Clausen-type quadratic transformation formula closely related to the aforementioned formula of Ramanujan.

Momentum profits depend mainly on the short leg and therefore on barriers to short sales. Our research indicates that the decline in momentum profitability in the past 2 decades is driven partly by a contemporaneous growth in stock options trading. Stock options offer an alternative to short selling, augmenting the stock lending market, and thereby contributing to improved pricing efficiency. The resulting reduction in barriers to short sales contributes to lower returns to momentum trading from the short leg. Our results persist after matching stocks with and without options based on different firm-level characteristics.

So far, the twenty-first century has been a boom time for studies of health, illness, healing, and care work in Africa, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased attention to these issues. Yet again, current events remind us that history, politics, social relationships, and public health are inextricably linked. These five books encompass a range of approaches to the questions and sources that animate these studies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, public health, gender studies, medicine, political science, and history. Each of these authors and editors is explicit about their commitment to reaching an interdisciplinary audience and, for most of them, interdisciplinary work is core to their professional identities. Paul Farmer, Luke Messac, and Simukai Chigudu all earned medical degrees as well as doctoral degrees in medical anthropology, history and sociology of science and medicine, and international development respectively; Nolwazi Mkhwanazi and Lenore Manderson describe themselves as working “at the intersections of medical anthropology, public health and gender studies” (vii). These five books reflect the wide range of authors and audiences engaging in questions about what constitutes health, how it is achieved or undermined, and how the past has contributed to present conditions on the continent.