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This study aimed to evaluate the influence of different intermittent fasting regimens on metabolic parameters in healthy rats and compare them with caloric restriction. A total of fifty adult male Wistar rats (±90 days old) were randomised into 5 groups: control group (CON), caloric restriction group (CR), time-restricted feeding group (TRF), alternate-day fasting (ADF) group and alternate-day modified fasting group (ADMF). ADF and ADMF stood out for improving the metabolic parameters in healthy rats by presenting improvements in glucose parameters, greatest weight loss (ADF v. CON: −16·50 (sd 6·16) g; effect size = −5·34; 95 % CI: −7·05, −3·04; P < 0·001; ADMF v. CON: –21·88 (sd 6·66) g; effect size = −5·83; 95 % CI: −7·66, −3·36; P < 0·001) and higher HDL (ADF v. CON: 141·50 (sd 10·17) mg/dl; effect size = 3·03; 95 % CI: 1·01, 4·45; P < 0·001; ADMF v. CON: 133·10 (sd 5·94) mg/dl; effect size = 3·37; 95 % CI: 1·22, 4·86; P = 0·004). Additionally, ADMF presented a smaller adipocyte area among the fasting regimens (13·92 (sd 2·06) area/µm2; effect size = −4·20; 95 % CI: −5·45, −2·66; P < 0·001 v. CON), in addition to presenting muscle fibre hypertrophy (71·20 (sd 5·16) area/µm2; effect size = 2·93; 95 % CI: 1·57, 4·05; P < 0·001 v. CON), followed by ADF (adipocyte area: 19·25 (sd 0·87) area/µm2; effect size = −2·19; 95 % CI: −3·12, −1·12; P = 0·003 v. CON; muscle fibre: 53·80 (sd 6·61) area/µm2; effect size = 2·93; 95 % CI: 1·57, 4·05; P = 0·566 v. ADMF). The ADF and ADMF groups were more effective among the intermittent fasting regimens analysed in promoting improvements in metabolic parameters in healthy rats.
While digital product innovation offers unprecedented opportunities for incumbent firms to create competitive advantages, its fluid and iterative nature presents distinctive cognitive challenges. There is limited empirical literature explaining the role of constructive cognitive characteristics of executives in differentiating the successful pursuit of digital product innovation. Drawing on upper echelons theory and the attention-based view, we examine how chief executive officer (CEO) cognitive flexibility enables incumbent firms to pursue digital product innovation. Through a mixed-methods approach combining a field survey of 178 machine-building firms and a scenario-based experiment with 134 participants, we demonstrate that CEOs with higher cognitive flexibility achieve superior digital product innovation outcomes by facilitating insightful information acquisition and processing. This relationship is strengthened when CEOs engage in more boundary spanning activities and when firms possess greater social capital. Our study contributes to strategic leadership research by demonstrating how CEO cognitive flexibility enables incumbent firms to navigate the cognitive demands of digital product innovation, while enriching our understanding of how adaptive attention patterns shape strategic adaptation in increasingly digitized environments.
This paper evaluates how a major policy shift—the suspension of the gold standard in September 1931—affected employment outcomes in interwar Britain. We use a new high-frequency industry-level dataset and difference-in-differences techniques to isolate the impact of devaluation on exporters. At the micro level, the break from gold reduced the unemployment rate by 2.7 percentage points for export-intensive industries relative to non-export industries. At the aggregate level, this effect stimulated the labor market, the fiscal outlook, and economic growth. Devaluation was therefore an important initial spark of recovery from the depths of the Great Depression.
The Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources recommend that genebanks periodically monitor the change in viability of their stored germplasm to ensure timely regeneration. The Australian Grains Genebank (AGG) has been recording germination data on orthodox seeds from tropical grain crops, stored under long-term storage (−20°C), for 40 years. Real-time viability data, collated from germination tests carried out on seedlots which had been in storage for a minimum of 20 years, from six agriculturally important grain crops (Sorghum bicolor, Phaseolus vulgaris, Glycine max, Vigna radiata, Cajanus cajan and Vigna angularis) was analysed by probit analysis. For each species independently, a common loss in viability was observed for all seedlots showing a consistent decline in viability during storage; with observed longevity estimates (σ; time for viability to fall by 1 NED/probit) of 17.4, 30.7, 33.2 49.6, 48.8, 63.5 and years for Vigna angularis, Cajanus cajan, Phaseolus vulgaris, Glycine max, Sorghum bicolor, and Vigna radiata, respectively. Common values of σ were subsequently used to determine species-specific viability monitoring intervals, based on the results of the last germination test. Dynamic monitoring intervals are a cost-efficient strategy that will avoid the over-use of seed through too frequent viability monitoring whilst still ensuring the timely regeneration of material. With funding shortfalls often reported as the main contributing factor to regeneration and viability testing backlogs, the ability for genebanks to maximise cost-efficiencies, where possible, is paramount to secure the genetic integrity of stored germplasm; particularly as collections continue to grow.
The emergence of a cohort of Malaysia-born writers producing works in English from metropolitan centres in the West alongside a growing body of Mahua (or Malaysian Chinese) literature, whose practitioners are ethnic Chinese based primarily in Taiwan and writing in Chinese, constitutes two principal trajectories in contemporary Malaysian literature. Yet, comparative discussions between Anglophone and Sinophone Malaysian literatures remain scarce. This paper seeks to address this gap by proposing the Nanyang (literally, the “South Seas”) as a decolonial framework that reveals how these literatures delink from colonial legacies and state-centric imaginaries while enacting epistemic disobedience through pluriversal engagement. The Nanyang as a pluriverse does not merely entail the coexistence of these distinct literary traditions but emerges as a non-hierarchical space of convergence for Anglophone and Sinophone Malaysia, both in the literary worlds constructed by their authors and the cultural spaces they inhabit. By examining Tash Aw and Ng Kim Chew as exemplars of Anglophone and Sinophone Malaysian literary trajectories, respectively, this paper illustrates how these marginalised literary traditions converge through complex negotiations of nationalist, global, and diasporic hegemonies, reimagining the Nanyang as a pluriverse of routes and relationality. This reframing also positions the Nanyang as a site of “stateless poetics” and the “diasporic local,” concepts that challenge institutionalised paradigms of Malaysian literary and cultural production, which continue to marginalise non-Malay linguistic traditions. The paper concludes by gesturing to other Southeast Asian littoral imaginaries to support ongoing Global South dialogues on relationality, plurilingualism, and decolonial aesthetics.
We report the case of a 15-year-old male patient with severe pulmonary regurgitation who successfully underwent Alterra Adaptive Prestent implantation through the right jugular vein because of bilateral femoral vein occlusion.
Brain development and face morphology are related through underlying biological mechanisms, namely embryonic neuroectodermal processes. This study examined whether the facial parameters identified in children can help understand the neurodevelopmental impact of prenatal exposures on child behavior. We studied 9- to 10-year-old children of European descent from Generation R Study (N = 2,779) with three-dimensional face photographs. With an AI model of a 3D graph autoencoder, each facial shape was compressed into 200 traits representing facial morphology. We examined associations of traits with internalizing and externalizing behaviors and attention problems. Next, select prenatal substance and micronutrient exposures were related to facial traits using adjusted linear regression analyses. We identified a robust association between one specific facial trait and attention problem scores (β = −1.47, p = 0.038). This trait features chin retrusion, mild nasal contour variation, nose tip protrusion, and overall facial asymmetry. Higher prenatal vitamin D and folic acid concentrations were associated with more facial curvature (β = 0.0001, 95%CI: 0.00001 to 0.0002, p = 0.002; and β = 0.0003, 95%CI: 0.00002 to 0.0005, p = 0.03 accordingly), while prenatal tobacco smoking showed a negative association both until the mother became aware of pregnancy (β = −0.008, 95%CI: −0.0135 to −0.0014, p = 0.02) and throughout pregnancy (β = −0.006, 95%CI: −0.0113 to −0.0005, p = 0.03). Findings suggest that facial morphology may serve as a marker of impaired neuroectodermal development. Leveraging its association with attention problems enabled a robust examination of prenatal exposures’ impact. The associations of maternal smoking, vitamin D, and folic acid concentrations with facial morphology provide insights into the origins of neurodevelopment.
This study evaluated the efficacy and acceptability of Ireland’s National Clinical Programme for ADHD in Adults (NCPAA), providing public assessment and supports for adults with ADHD.
Methods:
Overall, 249 adults (51% women, 42% men, 4% non-binary, 1% other gender) were recruited from three NCPAA services using consecutive sampling. Participants completed the Adult Self-Report Scale (ASRS) and the Weiss Functional Impairment Rating Scale (WFIRS-S) at baseline, 6, and 12 months; service satisfaction was measured with the Service Satisfaction Scale (SSS). Reflexive thematic analysis explored responses to two open-ended questions.
Results:
Service users presented with high baseline symptomatology and life challenges. Significant improvements were observed in ASRS and WFIRS-S (except education) in the first six months. Improvements were retained at 12 months in ASRS and WFIRS-S domains of work, life skills, self-concept and social. but not family, risk or education. Service satisfaction was high, particularly among those diagnosed with ADHD. Thematic analysis identified three positive themes: feeling affirmed, benefits of supports, and person-centred care; and three improvement areas: access barriers, resource gaps, and need for ongoing support.
Conclusions:
Engagement with NCPAA services is associated with improvements in ADHD symptoms and life challenges and is acceptable to adults with ADHD in the short term. Service limitations, particularly staffing constraints, warrant attention. Recommendations include strengthening resources, improving communication and appointment systems, and enhancing links to external supports. Given the absence of a control group, findings should be considered preliminary.
Estimates of marine reservoir corrections (ΔR) in the southeastern Arabian Sea region are limited. To better constrain the region’s marine reservoir corrections, additional pre-bomb radiocarbon records are needed. In this context, a coral core from the Lakshadweep archipelago in the southeastern Arabian Sea has been analyzed to measure its radiocarbon content. Pre-bomb radiocarbon values from the coral record are used to estimate the marine reservoir correction value of the region. The mean ΔR value of the Lakshadweep region is calculated to be –128 ± 130 yr. The comparison of available ΔR values from the Arabian Sea region shows that the mean ΔR value of the eastern Arabian Sea is significantly lower than that of the northern and western Arabian Sea. The low ΔR values from the eastern Arabian Sea likely indicate the influence of relatively 14C-enriched Bay of Bengal water in the region.
This article examines Group G, a commoner household at the Classic-period Maya site of Chinikihá (a.d. 200–900), to explore how daily practices, household rituals, and architectural histories intersected within domestic space. Excavations revealed well-preserved architecture, including a patio, kitchen, and dwelling, with evidence of construction events, ritual offerings, and long-term maintenance. Soil chemical analyses identified signatures of food preparation, consumption, and maintenance activities through residues of phosphates, proteins, fatty acids, and carbohydrates, alongside charcoal and paleoethnobotanical remains. Combined with botanical evidence such as Guadua (bamboo) and pine (Pinus sp.), these results underscore the importance of kitchens, patios, and altars as spaces of production, memory, and ritual practice. Residues preserved in floors and surfaces provide intimate insights into daily activities while situating households within broader cultural and cosmological frameworks. By focusing on a non-ruling-elite domestic group, this research highlights the resilience of Indigenous technologies and practices and their enduring continuity into modern Maya communities, contributing to broader discussions on social organization, identity, and tradition in ancient Mesoamerica.
Strategy research has long linked sustained competitive advantage to barriers to imitation. We highlight network effects as an alternative mechanism and adopt a geotemporal perspective to theorize how firms sustain advantage as it unfolds over time in international markets. Our study examines this question through the performance persistence of social platforms, focusing on how institutional and demand-side conditions shape the sustainability of platforms’ competitive advantages. We propose that intellectual property rights protection may restrict the degree of freedom in information dissemination, dampening the role of network effects in sustaining superior performance, whilst demand heterogeneity may enhance the value of sizable network membership for information consumption. Evidence from a cross-country dataset of platforms supports these predictions. These findings enrich our understanding of how geographic variations shape the endurance of a platform’s competitive advantage over time, offering implications for both global strategy and platform governance.
Experimental deep reinforcement learning (DRL) control of a turbulent boundary layer is conducted for the first time at $Re_\tau$ = 1196, with the aim of friction-drag reduction. Two hot films, an impinging plasma jet actuator array and two wall hot wires act as the state detector, flow disturber and reward evaluator, respectively. The control law parametrised by a radial basis function network is executed in real time on a field programmable gate array and optimised using a classical value-based algorithm (deep Q-network). Results show that DRL control requires only 30 s to train a closed-loop control law with satisfactory drag-reduction performance. Compared with open-loop control where only fine-tuned periodical forcing can reduce the friction drag, the experimental efficiency is improved significantly. Proper setting of the hyper-parameters is crucial in DRL. Particularly, the reward time delay and control frequency need to match the convection time scale and the characteristic frequency of the turbulent boundary layer. The optimal DRL control setting achieves 6.7 % relative drag reduction, almost three times that of the best open-loop control (2.3 %). Physically, plasma actuation induces alternating low-speed and high-speed zones that confine the sidewise motion of turbulent streaks. The final control law optimised by DRL can be simplified as a threshold control, firing the plasma actuator after perceiving a streak burst event and a long-lasting high-speed zone. Control benefits are attributed to the increase in the occurrence probability of high-reward states and the elevation of mean reward at different clusters.
In this work, we propose a lattice Boltzmann model (LBM) to simulate diverse particle deposition patterns induced by isothermal droplet evaporation. The model is composed of two distributions, for the multiphase flow with phase change, and the particle transport with deposition, coupled with a contact angle hysteresis model for the contact line stick-slip dynamics. The model is validated by two benchmarks, and our simulations agree well with the theoretical solutions or experimental results. With the validated LBM, we first reproduced diverse deposition patterns, ranging from the coffee ring, uniform, to mountain-type patterns in single and multiple symmetrical/unsymmetrical forms. Then a parametric study is conducted to investigate how the solvent/particle/substrate properties affect the evaporation dynamics and resultant deposition patterns. Afterwards, we apply the average ratio ($r_{\phi ,a}$) of particles deposited at the droplet periphery and the centre to quantitatively classify the diverse emerging patterns. We show that $r_{\phi ,a}$ is controlled by the competition between the capillary transport and particle diffusion, leading to a linear dependence on the average Péclet number $\textit{Pe}_{a}$. Finally, we validated the scaling by lattice Boltzmann simulations with the proposed $\textit{Pe}_{a}$ spanning over three orders of magnitude, supplemented by discussions from the aspect of the particle transport equation.
This article presents experimental measurements of breaking wave impact loads on a vertical cylinder. The focus is on the influence of some of the breaking wave properties on the measured force. These properties are the distance to breaking, $\delta$, defined as the distance between the breaking location and the front face of the cylinder, and the breaking strength, characterised here by the $\varGamma$ parameter proposed by Derakhti et al. (J. Fluid Mech., 2018, vol. 848, p. R2). The wave characteristics are obtained through numerical simulations of the breaking waves using a fully nonlinear potential flow solver. Seven breaking waves with different breaking strengths have been considered. For each wave, the distance to breaking has been systematically varied and the resulting impact force time-history was measured. It is found that except for the two less intense breaking cases, corresponding to values of $\varGamma$ lower than one, there is a value of $\delta$ for which the magnitude of the impact force is maximum. Small variations of the distance to breaking $\delta$ strongly influence the impact force time-history and its maximum. A linear relationship is observed between the maximum force and the breaking strength $\varGamma$. For the wave cases with values of $\varGamma$ higher than one, the maximum impact force is observed when the distance to breaking $\delta$ is close to 5 % of the wavelength.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether hair can be used as a non-invasive sample material that is less influenced by homeostasis than blood. Blood analysis is an invasive method of assessing trace element status, concentrations can be influenced by homeostasis, and they might not accurately reflect the true status of the animal. Thus, hair samples could play an important non-invasive role in diagnosing chronic deficiencies. The study group included 100 veal calves of a variety of different breeds and crossbreeds aged between 2 and 5 months, consisting of both sexes. Samples were taken to compare different locations and colours of hair. The concentration of trace elements Mn, Fe, Se, Co, Cu, Zn and Mo of different coloured ear and shoulder hair (black, brown and white) were measured, and concentrations were compared with those in the liver, kidney, muscle and blood plasma. All samples were measured with triple-quadrupole collision/reaction cell ICP-MS. This study showed that both hair colour and hair location have an influence on trace element concentration. In this animal series, no strong correlations could be found between trace element concentrations in hair and other tissues, suggesting that such an approach is only feasible when a heterogeneous animal series is used. Whether hair is a feasible sample material for trace element analysis cannot be conclusively answered; a larger sample size and further studies on other influencing factors would have been required. In addition, the procedure would need to be highly standardized, as both sampling localization and hair colour appear to have an influence.