Under Title II of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, firms can sell private placement securities to the public via general solicitation (GS) or privately (non-GS). We find that equity offerings under GS tend to be riskier than under non-GS. After accounting for selection, GS issuers are less likely to succeed in i) raising capital, ii) getting venture capital (VC) funding, and iii) exiting via IPO or mergers and acquisitions, and incur substantial brokerage costs for advertising and verifying investor accreditation. However, GS appears to help new entrants and offerings that use registered brokers. The success of Form D financing improves future VC financing and exit outcomes.

Many logical properties are known to be undecidable for normal modal logics, with few exceptions such as the consistency and the coincidence with $\mathsf {K}$. This article shows that the property of being a union-splitting in $\mathop {\mathsf {NExt}}{\mathsf {K}}$, the lattice of normal modal logics, is decidable, thus answering Problem 2 in [F. Wolter and M. Zakharyaschev, 2007]. This is done by providing a semantic characterization of union-splittings in terms of finite modal algebras. Moreover, by clarifying the connection to union-splittings, we show that in $\mathop {\mathsf {NExt}}{\mathsf {K}}$, having a decidable axiomatization problem and being a (un)decidable formula are also decidable. The latter answers Problem 17.3 in [A. Chagrov and M. Zakharyaschev, 1997] for $\mathop {\mathsf {NExt}}{\mathsf {K}}$.1

Since the adoption of the Charter, scholars have argued that Parliament defers to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on questions of constitutional law. This is surprising given Canada’s previous history of parliamentary supremacy, Parliament’s enforcement of Court decisions and cognate findings internationally that show how elected officials can constrain high courts. Accordingly, we develop a theory of how Parliament influences the constitutional decision-making of the Supreme Court. Specifically, we argue that the Supreme Court will be less likely to grant leave to appeal in cases where it might disagree with Parliament to avoid any policy costs associated with that disagreement. Using a dataset of statutes reviewable between 1968 and 2020, we find that judicial review is less likely when the SCC faces a counterpartisan Parliament, and that judicial review increases under copartisan Parliaments when Parliament is less likely to oppose Court decisions.

Beef produced originating from the dairy herd forms an integral part of beef supply chains globally. The objective of this study was to quantify the economic and environmental performance of three dairy-beef genotypes differing in beef genetic merit and managed under three contrasting pasture-based feeding treatments, using a farm-level systems model and data from an animal systems experiment. The three steer genotypes modelled were: 1) high beef-merit Angus sires (HA); 2) low beef-merit Angus sires (LA); and 3) Holstein-Friesian (HF) sires. Each genotype was evaluated across one of three feed treatments: 1) control (CTL), grass-only during both grazing seasons; 2) low concentrate (LC), supplemented with concentrate during the first grazing season, pasture only during the second grazing season; and 3) high concentrate (HC) supplemented with concentrate during the first and second grazing season; amounting to nine scenarios. High Angus steers were most profitable (€424/animal, €1362/ha), followed by LA (€337, €1126) and HF (€188, €659). There were no interactions between genotype and feed treatment, with the CTL treatment having highest profit per head due to lower concentrate input costs. High Angus scenarios had the lowest greenhouse gas emissions between genotypes, and concentrate use reduced emissions per kg of beef, but CTL had the lowest total emissions per ha and per farm due to greater forage use. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the financial and environmental benefits of high beef genetic merit sires in dairy herd for dairy-beef systems and producers.

Flannery O’ Connor’s mom criticized her for not writing what people would want to read. While O’Connor’s novels are full of freaks and distortions, this article offers some philosophical clues as to why this is so. We explore Jacques Maritain’s influence upon her as she saw herself as ‘cutting her aesthetic teeth upon his Art and Scholasticism’. Key to understanding the grotesque world of O’Connor’s stories is the understanding of Maritain’s notion of artistic imitation and its reliance upon his notion of distortion. It is the latter notion that gives us the central insight into why she distorted her characters and plot. True storytelling for O’Connor plunges the reader deeply into reality, especially into the reality of human persons. Not wanting to stay at the physical surfaces of things, distortion plunges the reader into the depth of human character and their existential aspirations, motivations, decisions, and especially, their responses to the gift of supernatural grace.

Iron deficiency (ID) represents the most prevalent nutritional disorder and a major public health concern. As part of the HYDRIA 2013–2014 National Health and Nutrition study, a cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of adults in Greece, serum ferritin levels (SFL) were measured in participants aged ≥ 55 years, and dietary intake was assessed using two non-consecutive 24-h dietary recalls per participant. The study aimed to evaluate SFL, determine the prevalence of ID among older adults and explore associations with dietary iron intake and adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD). Among individuals over 55 years, ID prevalence was 6·5 % for SFL < 15 ng/ml and 12·7 % for SFL < 30 ng/ml. SFL were significantly associated with sex and age (P < 0·001), with men showing higher SFL than women. Advancing age, particularly among individuals over 74 years, increased the risk of ID. Dietary iron intake declined with age, and women had significantly lower intake than men (P < 0·001). Overall, 57·2 % of participants had inadequate daily iron intake. SFL were not associated with total or haem iron intake. High adherence to MD was associated with higher energy-adjusted total iron intake but lower haem iron intake. Weighted logistic regression for SFL < 15 ng/ml showed that MD adherence was significantly associated with reduced odds of ID (P = 0·007), likely due to the protective effect of intermediate adherence (OR = 0·10, P = 0·002). Conclusively, while ID prevalence among older adults in Greece is low, over half of the population presents inadequate daily iron intake, especially women. High adherence to MD may have a protective effect against ID.

This paper examines Ballard’s narrow pro-theistic argument for the claim that a world created by God would possess more bestowed worth than a world not created by God. I argue that not only could the world have just as much bestowed worth were it not created by God, but it could possibly have more.

In recent works on the theory of machine learning, it has been observed that heavy tail properties of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) can be studied in the probabilistic framework of stochastic recursions. In particular, Gürbüzbalaban et al. (2021) considered a setup corresponding to linear regression for which iterations of SGD can be modelled by a multivariate affine stochastic recursion $X_n=A_nX_{n-1}+B_n$ for independent and identically distributed pairs $(A_n,B_n)$, where $A_n$ is a random symmetric matrix and $B_n$ is a random vector. However, their approach is not completely correct and, in the present paper, the problem is put into the right framework by applying the theory of irreducible-proximal matrices.

September 2024 marked the 20th anniversary of the commencement of operations of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat. Despite the importance of this institutional milestone, it went largely unnoticed and sparked little critical reflection in Antarctic governance circles. This article seeks to fill that gap by assessing the Secretariat’s role, performance, and evolution within the Antarctic Treaty System as a whole. The article explores the Secretariat’s contributions to continuity, coordination, transparency, and institutional memory. It also examines the constraints the Secretariat faces due to its lack of international legal capacity, limited mandate and budget, and the political dynamics among the Consultative Parties. Finally, the article offers reflections on the Secretariat’s future role in a changing geopolitical and environmental landscape, arguing that strengthening its functions may be essential to ensuring the continued order and stability of the Antarctic region.

We report the first Caucasian patient with CALM2 p. Asn98Ser, a 2-year-old girl who survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest after emotional stress. The initial rhythm was broad-complex tachycardia degenerating into ventricular fibrillation. Normal QT intervals and absent structural disease suggest a CPVT-like presentation, highlighting diagnostic and management challenges in calmodulinopathy.

This study describes the embryonic and larval development of the Atabapo butterfly pleco Dekeyseria picta under captive conditions. A total of 19 wild-caught adults (male-to-female ratio of 9:10) were maintained together in a single 1000-L tank operated with a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), at approximately 26°C, under a controlled 12:12 h light–dark cycle. A total of 21 natural spawning events produced an average of 66.5 ± 2.43 spherical eggs with a mean diameter of 3.896 ± 0.022 mm, characterized by a yellow yolk and a strongly adhesive chorion. Embryonic development lasted between three and seven days, and hatched larvae were classified into five developmental phases. Early phases exhibited limited differentiation and weak pigmentation, whereas advanced phases showed visible eyes, increased pigmentation, and progressive yolk absorption. Heartbeat activity and tail movements were observed throughout all phases. The hatching rate was below 40%, likely influenced by differences in chorion rupture efficiency among embryos at distinct developmental stages. Two developmental strategies potentially contributing to embryonic plasticity were identified: (i) a diapause-like state in which embryos temporarily arrested development at early phases without yolk utilization while remaining responsive to stimuli, and (ii) delayed hatching, in which embryos remained within the chorion for up to seven days, allowing further larval development in a protected environment. These strategies may represent adaptive responses to rapidly fluctuating hydrological and environmental conditions characteristic of the natural habitat of the species and emphasize the role of aquaculture in advancing reproductive knowledge and conservation.

This article reinterprets John Milton’s Paradise Lost as a contribution to contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Milton offers a novel free-will defence, similar to Alvin Plantinga’s, grounded in original philosophical accounts of God, creation, freedom, and meta-ethics. Milton’s monist God creates worlds and creatures ex deo out of God-self. God – and everything else – is animated matter: one substance both material and spiritual. Milton rejects materialism, dualism, and idealism. Only animist monism delivers the libertarian freedom that Milton’s free-will defence demands. God has agent-causal libertarian freedom. God’s reasons don’t necessitate God’s choices. God freely chooses which worlds to create, which commands to issue, which hierarchies to institute. God radically transcends creatures – especially in relation to God’s meta-ethical power. Milton’s implicit meta-ethic, rejecting both voluntarism and intellectualism, resembles Robert Adams’s theist meta-ethic, where God’s nature determines excellence and God’s actual commands determine obligation. God also plays another meta-ethical role – instituting hierarchies where some creatures command others. Satan’s fall is epistemic and meta-ethical. He refuses to recognise God’s meta-ethical transcendence – to believe that God is God. Belief in God always requires a leap of faith beyond evidence and argument – because even perfect creatures cannot comprehend God’s transcendence. Creaturely epistemic freedom means there is no explanation why some angels fall while others stand.

Few songs of the British nineteenth century have had the staying power of ‘Home, Sweet Home’. With music by Henry Bishop and words by John Howard Payne, it first appeared in Clari; or, the Maid of Milan (1823) at London’s Covent Garden. The song remained in the repertory well into the twentieth century and is still a point of reference in the twenty-first. In the initial dramatic context, it was a solo vehicle for the titular heroine, a means of expressing Clari’s longing to return to her ‘humble’ home. Once the number became a breakout hit, the opera’s narrative details ceded significance to a vaguer international vogue for nostalgic sentiment. Like the much-discussed Swiss maladie du pays or the contemporary craze for the ranz des vaches, Bishop and Payne’s creation piqued the public interest in imagining a home out of reach. As the decades wore on, however, the song’s invocation of home acquired a distinctive national accent. By the mid-Victorian period ‘Home, Sweet Home’ had come to anchor an ideology of English exceptionalism. To perform or attend to this song in 1871 was to partake in a quasi-ritualistic affirmation of the doctrine of the hearth. This was partly bound up with the specious claim that other languages lacked an adequate word for home, but it was also connected to a shift in the geography of belonging. In lieu of the Romantic yearning for a distant homeland, this new Victorian nostalgia fixated on the heteronormative family home with its promise of shelter from the trials of urban modernity and the vices of foreign politics. Drawing on a range of musical, visual, and literary sources this article explores a key passage in the history of British ambivalence to city living via a song that emerged as a powerful amplifier of anti-urban desire.

I ask whether hedgers who speculate should be regulated differently from other speculators in a model where information acquisition is endogenous, and information has real effects. Hedging benefits and feedback effects generate strategic complementarities between market-maker, firm manager, and trader, which causes multiple equilibria. Gains from trade are lower when hedgers acquire information, while speculators may produce less information than socially desirable. A “Volcker rule” separating hedging and speculative activities may help select the higher welfare equilibrium. When too little information is produced, contracts whereby a firm subsidizes losses of designated market-makers (DMM) to make prices more informative increase welfare.