The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Task Group 120 (TG120) is developing ICRP recommendations for radiological protection for a wide range of radiation accidents and malicious events, complementing those given in ICRP Publication 146 (2020) for large nuclear accidents. The scope includes accidents involving criticalities, operating faults, and fires and explosions in nuclear facilities, inadvertent damage to sealed radiation sources, as well as malicious events, such as sabotage of nuclear facilities or materials, use of radiological dispersal devices, the contamination of food and drinking water supplies, and the deployment of nuclear weapons. A template has been designed to collate relevant information on a wide range of case studies and hypothetical malicious scenarios to ensure that the recommendations developed are broadly applicable and comprehensive. For all scenarios, a graded approach to protection is being taken, accepting that specific guidance may be required for some distinctive aspects, for example, protection during times of armed conflict. This paper provides an overview of the scenarios and scope of the work of TG120, including some of the radiological and non-radiological impacts of radiation emergencies, along the response and recovery timeline.

We consider the two-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation with point interaction and we establish a local well-posedness theory, including blow-up alternative and continuous dependence on the initial data in the energy space. We provide proof by employing Kato’s method along with Hardy inequalities with logarithmic correction. Moreover, we establish finite time blow-up for solutions with positive energy and infinite variance.

We give a complete classification of links up to clasp-pass moves, which coincides with Habiro’s $C_3$-equivalence. We also classify links up to band-pass and band-$\#$ moves, which are versions of the usual pass- and $\#$-move, respectively, where each pair of parallel strands belong to the same component. This recovers and generalizes widely a number of partial results in the study of these local moves. The proofs make use of clasper theory.

We explore an overlooked phenomenon in mortgage markets: repayment of underwater mortgages. Using a sample of mortgages terminated between 2007 and 2016, we show that such repayment indeed occurs, and that it is affected by the same factors commonly used in studies of default: the magnitude of home equity and the borrower’s credit score, which captures default cost as well as liquidity. A novel insight is that underwater repayers, unlike most defaulters, are not liquidity constrained, providing a much cleaner environment to study default costs. We estimate lower bounds on these costs. Our results indicate that default costs are substantial.

Perinatal women were particularly impacted during the pandemic, with documented consequences for both mothers’ and infants’ well-being. This study investigated the longitudinal relationships between COVID-19-related experiences during the peripartum and women’s depression and anxiety symptoms at long-term follow-up. We explored the moderating role of long COVID for the first time, along with perceived partner support and maternal self-efficacy. A sample of 190 US perinatal women completed a survey from May 21, 2020, to September 15, 2021 (T1), and again between December 14, 2022, and February 14, 2024 (T2). The survey assessed COVID-19-related experiences, mental health, long COVID, maternal self-efficacy, partner support, and life events. Anxiety was associated with both long COVID and decreased partner support, and both depression and anxiety were linked to lower self-efficacy. A larger number of COVID-19-related experiences during the peripartum period was associated with higher levels of later depression and anxiety symptoms. Long COVID exacerbated these links, while partner support buffered them. Maternal self-efficacy dampened the association between COVID-19-related experiences and subsequent depression, but not anxiety. Findings suggest that COVID-19 has lasting effects on perinatal women’s mental health, with partner support and maternal self-efficacy acting as resilience factors, highlighting the potential benefit of targeted interventions to enhance these modifiable factors.

Although many contemporary theologians and philosophers of religion distinguish between ‘idolatry’ in a general sense and ‘conceptual idolatry’ as a distinct error, close attention to theorists of idolatry shows that ‘conceptual idolatry’ should not be considered distinct from idolatry proper. After discussing the relation between concepts and idolatry in key thinkers from the phenomenological and grammatical traditions, this article discusses analytic attempts to understand idolatry, showing how each falls short.

Ultimately, attention to the category of ‘conceptual idolatry’ shows the deficiencies present in contemporary framings of idolatry simpliciter. This article concludes with a proposal for a new framework by which to understand the dispute about idolatry: turning away from the question of whether we are worshipping the right God, towards the question of how God might (and might not) become apt to human thought and speech.

We propose a novel micro-level Cox model for incurred but not reported (IBNR) claims count based on hidden Markov models. Initially formulated as a continuous-time model, it addresses the complexity of incorporating temporal dependencies and policyholder risk attributes. However, the continuous-time model faces significant challenges in maximizing the likelihood and fitting right-truncated reporting delays. To overcome these issues, we introduce two discrete-time versions: one incorporating unsystematic randomness in reporting delays through a Dirichlet distribution and one without. We provide the EM algorithm for parameter estimation for all three models and apply them to an auto-insurance dataset to estimate IBNR claim counts. Our results show that while all models perform well, the discrete-time versions demonstrate superior performance by jointly modeling delay and frequency, with the Dirichlet-based model capturing additional variability in reporting delays. This approach enhances the accuracy and reliability of IBNR reserving, offering a flexible framework adaptable to different levels of granularity within an insurance portfolio.

This paper studies public opinion towards the introduction of a universal basic income in the case of Germany. Using novel data from a vignette survey experiment conducted in the summer of 2022, we analyse to what extent variations in the policy design characteristics of a hypothetical basic income scheme affect levels of support. We find that support for basic income strongly depends on these characteristics, with support being highest for schemes that are relatively generous, paid to citizens and long-term residents, paid to individuals rather than households, unconditional and financed with taxing the rich. In a further step, we explore interaction effects between vignette dimensions and respondent characteristics, finding significant heterogenous treatment effects in the cases of income, age and ideology.

In response to the prevailing trend of an aging society and the increasing requirements of rehabilitation, this paper presents an approach involving brain-machine interaction (BMI) for a single-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) sit-to-stand transfer robot. Based on a 1-DOF rehabilitation robot, three experiment paradigms involving motor imagery (MI), action observation of motor imagery (AO-MI) and motor execution are designed using both electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG). To enhance motion intention recognition accuracy, a Gumbel-ResNet-KANs decoding model is established. The Gumbel-ResNet-KANs model integrates the Gumbel-Softmax method with the ResNet-KANs network module and demonstrates strong decoding capability, as demonstrated by comparative tests in this paper. To validate the effect of robotic assistance, EEG and EMG coherence are analyzed to assess the impact of robotic assistance on rehabilitation from a neuromuscular perspective in both assisted and unassisted conditions. We assessed the effect of robotics on rehabilitation from an emotional perspective by analyzing the difference between the differential entropy of the right and left brain. The proposed study also reveals that the movement-related cortical potentials in AO-MI are beneficial for promoting the performance of BMI in sit-to-stand training, which provides a possible approach for the development of new types of robots for lower limb rehabilitation.

There are multiple equilibrium points in the launching and unfolding process of the multi-body aircraft. Different equilibrium points exhibit different stability characteristics and change with parameters such as connection method. The changes in stability characteristics can also lead to the inability of multi-body aircraft to achieve stable deployment. To solve these problems, the dynamic stability of multi-body aircraft during falling is analysed based on bifurcation theory in this paper. In this paper, Lagrange multiplier method is used to establish the multi-body dynamics model of the multi-body aircraft, and the curly spring torque model is added. In order to consider the coupling effect between the wings and the influence of the relative motion between the flight units on the aerodynamic force, the reference angle-of-attack, the reference sideslip angle, the relative attitude angle and the relative attitude angular velocity between the flight units were introduced as new variables to establish the aerodynamic model of the multi-body aircraft. Based on the equilibrium equations, the equilibrium curve of the two-body aircraft is obtained by using the joint stiffness coefficient as the continuous variable parameter. The stability of the equilibrium point domain on each equilibrium curve was analysed by using linearised theory. The dynamic characteristics of the launching and unfolding process of the two-body aircraft were analysed using bifurcation theory, and the stable domain was obtained regarding the initial folding angle and connection stiffness coefficient. The influence of initial folding angle and connection stiffness coefficient on the dynamic characteristics of the launching and unfolding process and the meaning of the stability domain were analysed through numerical simulation calculations. Finally, the correctness of the analysis conclusion was verified through experiments on the two-body aircraft, accumulating the technical foundation for subsequent research on high-altitude deployment.

Coarctation of the aorta is characterised by narrowing of the descending aorta and is a rare cause of secondary hypertension in children and young adults. The aortic stenosis lesion is in a special location with severe consequences, and long-term survival is very low, with high rates of disability and mortality, and can be challenging to detect due to its few clinical manifestations. We report a case of a young patient with atrial fibrillation, renal infarction, and acute cerebral infarction, which are consequences of untreated hypertension due to coarctation of the aorta. The purpose of this report is to emphasize the importance of early diagnosis and management of coarctation of the aorta as a cause of secondary hypertension in children and young adults.

A museum should be a place where cultures, dialogue, and social relations are enhanced. Given the renewed public interest in the topic, the author poses the question: Is there a need and a possibility to decolonize ethnographic museums? Should we have common and shared practices? In an attempt to eliminate colonial vestiges in museums, an analysis of literature and practices leads the author to analyze five European ethnographic museums in order to understand their merits and shortcomings. The subjectivity of these institutions and the diversity with which colonization can be presented makes the proposal of a single generalized solution not preferable. An objective analysis, based on actions and variables, drives the author to determine, however, that in order to revitalize museum practices, there is a need to create a sharable framework. The design of minimum standards can help museums set clear and measurable goals to achieve a higher level of decolonization.